Business Day 15 September 2023 - National Health Commission says 20 provinces have reported cases since the beginning of locally transmitted cases in June.
China plans to manage monkeypox in the same way it handles infectious diseases such as Covid-19 starting from September 20, after detecting about 500 cases of the viral infection last month.
Business Day 12 September 2023 - Innovations are not reaching the people who need them most, such as women in low-income countries, Foundation report notes.
The World Health Organisation warned in June that global progress in reducing deaths during pregnancy and childbirth and among newborn babies had stalled since 2015, and that over 60 countries were not on course to meet the 20230 sustainable development goal targets agreed to by UN member countries. SA is among the countries lagging behind and saw its institutional maternal mortality rate increase during the coronavirus pandemic from 93 per 100,000 live births in 2019/2020 to 119 per 100,00 live births in 2021/2022. The global target is to reduce the global maternity ratio to less than 70 per 100, 000 live births.
Business Day 12 September 2023 - Government passing cost of public sector pay increases on to the most vulnerable, Progressive Health Forum says.
An association of veteran health activists has warned any further cuts to the health budget will compromise public health services, with catastrophic consequences for millions of patients. In an open letter sent to President Cyril Ramaphosa, Finance Minister enoch Godongwana and Health Minister Joe Paahla on Tuesday, the Progressive Health Forum called on the government to protect the public health system in its next round of belt-tightening.
Business Day 12 September 2023 - Salim Abdool Karim says the 'Covid-19 pandemic showed how the world is interconnected and that no country would be spared a resurgent HIV epidemic'
One of SA's foremost HIV/Aids researchers, Salim Abdool Karim, has joined internationally renowned scientists in urging the US Congress to reauthorise the US President's Emergency Plan for Aid Relief (Pepfar) with no strings attached, saying compromising the decades-long Aids relief programme would reverse hard-won gains against the disease. This year several Republican politicians del;ayed its next five-year term by demanding re-authorisation be linked to new abortion-related restrictions.
Business Day 11 September 2023 - Adding chemotherapy cuts the risk of disease progression or death 38%, trial shows.
Data released by astraZeneca from a late-stage trial combining its blockbuster cancer drug Tagrisso with chemotherapy to treat a type of lung cancer raises the bar for Johnson& Johnson rival treatment, analysts said.
Business Day 10 September 2023 - Wegovy has helped Novo become Europe's most valuable listed company
Novo Nordisks's decision to launch its weight-loss drug Wegovy in Britain last week despite severe supply constraints may partly have been motivated by a desire to get ahead of Eli Lilly's drug, Mounjaro. Mounjaro launched in the US last year for type-2 diabetes, but is expected to be approved there for weight loss by year end, and to become available through the NHS for the treatment of type 2 diabetes later this year. Novo's type 2 diabetes drug Ozempic has been on the market in Britain since 2019.
Business day 07 September 2023 - Superdrug says it has a small fraction of what would be needed to fulfil its swelling waiting list
More than 20,000 people has registered an interest in buying Wegovy from Sperdrug even though Novo Nordisk launched the drug in Britain on Monday, and the waiting list has increased since then, a spokesperson said. The very small volume of the drug, which is delivered by monthly injection, received by the company may stoke concerns expressed by doctors and medical experts this week, that UK demand will immediately outstrip supply.
Business Day 06 September 2023 - Moderna said that clinical trial data showed its updated Covid-19 vaccine will probably be effective against the highly mutated BS.2.86 subvariant of the coronavirus that has raised fear of a resurgence of infections.