Category: August 2024

South Africa’s ageing medical scheme population will provide long-term support for private healthcare companies, according to Sanlam Private Wealth (SPW). The wealth manager, which oversees more than R200 billion in assets, said that the private healthcare sector’s performance depends on economic growth and the demand for services. SPW investment analyst Christiaan Bothma noted that economic growth could boost the sector.…

The standoff between business, healthcare professionals, and the presidency over the health compact is a clear sign of the difficulties for the government of national unity (GNU). The compact is the product of 202’s second presidential health summit. It has been rejected by Business Unity SA and the SA Health Professionals Collaboration because it expresses overt support for national health…

Strengthening health systems is vital to achieving universal health coverage (UHC), a critical part of the United Nations’ third Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), which aims to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for everyone. As a member of the UN General Assembly and a signatory to the SDGs, South Africa is working to unify, integrate, and improve its health system…

Avoidable blindness and vision impairment are significant global health issues. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that at least 1 billion people worldwide suffer from preventable or treatable vision problems. Around 11 million people in South Africa live with some degree of vision loss, including 370,000 classified as blind. Optometrists are crucial in preventing avoidable blindness caused by uncorrected refractive…

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the latest mpox outbreak in Africa an international health emergency, urging global support. However, there is a severe lack of funds to combat the potentially deadly virus. To control the spread of Mpox in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and neighbouring countries, significant efforts are needed in surveillance, public health education, and…

On Friday, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) raised its risk level for Mpox after a new strain of the virus was found outside Africa for the first time, in Sweden. The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared Mpox a global public health emergency following an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that spread to nearby…

Nine healthcare professional bodies, representing over 25,000 practitioners in South Africa, have announced that they will not sign the president’s health compact. Under the banner of the South African Health Professionals Collaboration (SAHPC), these organisations argue that the compact is primarily an attempt to secure support for the National Health Insurance (NHI) Act. The SAHPC claims the compact is biased…

The Gauteng health department will have to return R570 million to the government after failing to spend R1.1 billion allocated for the 2023/24 financial year. The department had requested to roll over R780 million but received approval from the Treasury to roll over only R530 million. This information was shared by Arnold Malotana, the head of the department, during a…

Novo Nordisk, a Danish pharmaceutical company, has partnered with South African drug manufacturer Aspen to produce insulin in vials for 1.1 million people in Africa by 2026. While the deal addresses insulin shortages, it doesn’t solve a key issue: South African public hospitals are running out of insulin pens, a more user-friendly option because Novo Nordisk stopped supplying them due…

The United States has successfully negotiated lower prices for 10 of the most expensive prescription drugs covered by Medicare, with price cuts as high as 79%. This move, announced by President Joe Biden, is expected to save $6 billion in the first year and is part of an effort to address public frustration over high drug prices before the November…

The signing of the second Presidential Health Compact, which supports the National Health Insurance (NHI) plan, has been postponed to August 22. An urgent notice from the presidency’s events team cited “unforeseen circumstances” for the delay. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, explained that the postponement was due to scheduling changes that were unrelated to any opposition to the NHI.…

Africa’s top public health body, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), has declared a “public health emergency of continental security” due to a fast-spreading outbreak of Mpox. The outbreak, which started in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has now spread to neighbouring countries. Africa CDC warned last week that the virus, which spreads through close…