South Africa’s diabetes burden is moving from “silent epidemic” to loud national emergency. Amanda Mashego, diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes six years ago, describes daily management as a 24-hour job with no breaks. Every meal, mood shift, and exercise session requires constant calculation. Yet she says the mental load remains largely unseen by the healthcare system. That invisible workload is…
Tag: Patient Advocacy
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Medical Device Regulation and Its Importance Today
Millions of medical devices are used daily in South Africa. These range from simple bandages to complex pacemakers. Patients often assume these products are tested and safe. However, a significant regulatory gap exists. This oversight can pose a substantial risk to public health. The urgent need for comprehensive medical device regulation is clear. Faulty devices create dangerous situations. For example,…
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Cancer Court Battle: Patients Deserve Better Treatment
Concerns are mounting over the Gauteng Department of Health’s persistent legal challenges against court orders compelling it to address the province’s devastating cancer treatment backlog. This ongoing cancer court battle highlights significant issues within the healthcare system. Instead of complying with two separate High Court rulings, the department is channelling taxpayer money into an appeal process. This leaves thousands of…
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Unregulated Glucose Monitors Pose Risk to Diabetics
While continuous glucose monitors are increasingly popular as wellness gadgets for tracking lifestyle and diet, their lack of formal regulatory oversight means many devices may not be safe or reliable for medical use. The rise of unregulated glucose monitors makes the matter more complicated. Medical specialists and patient advocates are raising urgent concerns over the booming and unregulated market for…
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Vertex’s Trikafta: Addressing Drug Pricing Issues
Health activists are demanding that the Competition Commission reopen its investigation into pharmaceutical giant Vertex. They argue the company’s pricing and access strategies for its revolutionary cystic fibrosis drug, Trikafta, have created a deep and unjust divide. As a result, the treatment is out of reach for most South African patients. The commission dropped its initial probe into Vertex in…
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Are New Cancer Treatments Worth the Price?
A significant number of cancer drugs approved since 2000, as reviewed by Bloomberg News, have never been definitively shown to extend patient survival for their approved uses. This raises questions about the growing cost of cancer treatments. The landscape of cancer treatment has been revolutionized over the past three decades, with over 200 new cancer drugs greenlit by the US…