It’s hard to imagine a time when “coronavirus” wasn’t a household word. But for a long time, this family of viruses had merited very little attention. Believed to be ubiquitous among animals and avian species, the first coronavirus to infect and cause disease in humans was only isolated and identified in the 1960s. Seven human […]

South Africa has recorded its second fatal case of Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) following vaccination with the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) COVID-19 jab, the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) announced on Monday. “Causality assessment of the reported case was conducted by the National Immunisation Safety Expert Committee (NISEC) using the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) […]

An Alberton mom has won a significant court battle against her medical aid scheme forcing it to pay for an expensive drug that her three-year-old son needs to treat a rare inherited genetic disorder. A mother desperate to save her son has secured an interim order forcing Medihelp Medical Scheme to pay for an expensive […]

This week Carte Blanche explores the psychological impact of pandemic rules – was the crisis management worth it in the end? South Africa’s top current affairs show meets parents who paid a high price at the peak of the pandemic. (Here’s the most up-to-date Carte Blanche this Sunday line-up.) « Our NICU story is sure to […]

South Africa has detected its fourth case of monkeypox through laboratory testing in a 28-year-old male from the Western Cape. According to the Department of Health, the patient has a travel history to Spain and returned to South Africa in the second week of August 2022. “A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test was performed in […]

South Africa’s Department of Health and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) will no longer issue the daily numbers of COVID-19 cases, hospital admissions and deaths due to a decrease in SARS-CoV-2 levels. It will instead be issued on a weekly basis. The department and the NICD had been reporting COVID-19 surveillance data on […]

It’s the great South African love story: the nation and their sport. At school, making the first team in any sport is a rite of passage and parents and teachers sacrifice everything for a win and prestige. But now, a new movement is taking root… Don’t miss this week’s episode of Carte Blanche – you […]

A family in Alexandra township is mourning the death of their 4-year-old child who died after being turned away from a clinic in Johannesburg. The child was injured on Wednesday in a car accident, but was unable to get admitted to the Alexandra Health Centre at 5 pm after security guards told the family the […]

Plants have directly contributed to the development of important drugs. The antimalarial treatment artemisinin, pain medication morphine, and cancer chemotherapy taxol are just three examples of drugs derived from plants. Africa is endowed with up to 45,000 plant species – about 25% of the world’s plant genetic resources. More than 5,000 plant species from this […]

The World Health Organisation (WHO) announced its plan to reconvene the Emergency Committee on monkeypox under the International Health Regulations as infections continue to soar globally… although at the time of publishing there have only been two confirmed cases in South Africa. In June, the WHO’s Emergency Committee resolved by consensus the outbreak does not […]

The first case of Monkeypox in South Africa has been confirmed, Health Minister, Dr Joe Phaahla, said during a media briefing in Pretoria on Thursday. The patient is a 30-year-old male from Johannesburg, Gauteng, who has no travel history, meaning that this cannot be attributed to having been acquired outside South Africa. Phaahla said: “Late […]

Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla is being called on to issue an immediate public apology to South Africans for his Department’s insults to those who opposed the draft health regulations relating to Covid-19. ‘Anti-progressive’, ‘instigating terrorism’ and ‘sabotage’ is how the Health Department officials called about 300 000 law-abiding SA citizens who exercised their democratic […]

Health Minister, Dr Joe Phaahla, has called for calm and vigilance after four cases of measles were detected in Gauteng, South Africa. These cases were found during routine surveillance activities aimed at responding to every suspected case of this vaccine-preventable disease. Four suspected cases of measles in Gauteng were detected in the last couple of […]

The use of ivermectin to treat Covid has been terminated by the South African medicines regulator. The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) announced on Monday that the special dispensation granted for the use of ivermectin has been terminated, after a review of evidence. SAHPRA states that “there is currently no credible evidence to support a […]

A total of 56 769 COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in the last 24 hours in South Africa, including 14 409 Johnson & Johnson vaccines and 42 360 Pfizer vaccines. According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) report on Tuesday, the vaccines administered in the last 24 hours included 20 063 first doses, […]

South Africa has in the past 24 hours recorded 1 954 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 764 865. The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said this increase represents a 19.3% positivity rate. “The majority of new cases today [Monday] are from Gauteng (55%), followed by KwaZulu-Natal (23%). Western Cape accounted […]

World renowned healthcare technology scientist, Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong, says South Africa can be the continent’s hub for innovation in health technology. Addressing the South African Investment Conference held in Johannesburg, the famous South African expat and businessman, who is based in the USA, said: « It is a very interesting time in humanity. For the first […]

President Cyril Ramaphosa has encouraged South Africans to go out in their numbers and get their booster COVID-19 shots as the country has not yet defeated the pandemic. He said the COVID-19 virus is still very much with us and therefore everyone should get vaccinated as well as have their booster shots. “If you have already […]

Tygerberg Hospital has become the first public hospital in South Africa to perform robotic surgery, as part of its newly launched da Vinci surgical robotic programme… which magnifies images up to ten times and enables more precise surgery with 3D, instead of 2D, images. The first robotic-assisted operation was on a 62-year-old female patient, Lorraine […]

The Western Cape Department of Agriculture’s State Veterinary Services has issued a quarantine notice to pig farmers in Thembalethu, Southern Cape, following laboratory results confirming African Swine Fever (ASF) in the area. African Swine Fever was also detected in KwaNonqaba outside Mossel Bay earlier this month. Western Cape Agriculture MEC, Ivan Meyer, said the quarantine […]

South Africa recorded 2 597 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, pushing the total number of laboratory-confirmed infections to 3 559 230 since the outbreak. The majority of new cases today are from Western Cape after 721 people tested positive, followed by 602 in Gauteng, 547 in KwaZulu-Natal, 167 in the Eastern Cape, 129 in the […]

A new study has shown that the Omicron wave in the Western Cape was much less deadly than previous waves, owing to vaccination, high rates of past infection in the community, and reduced risk of severe disease and death owing to the variant itself. Over 5,000 adult Covid patients were surveyed during one month of the fourth […]

The Gauteng province has officially exited the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic with the rest of South Africa’s provinces already having reached their peak and on a steady decline. Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla announced the good news during the department’s first COVID-19 briefing of the year. “Of note is that the decline in […]

South Africa has recorded 6 762 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24-hour reporting cycle, bringing the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 540 891. According to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), this increase represents a 15.5% positivity rate. A further 181 COVID-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 92 830 to date. “The […]

The Department of Health has called on all South Africans who experience any adverse events following immunisation to immediately report to their nearest health facility or vaccination site. The call follows a viral video in which a male patient, suffering from what appears to be throat cancer, instead claiming it’s a result of a Covid-19 […]