Juta MedicalBrief

An Umhlanga woman (53) is battling cancer and bureaucracy in attempts to acquire medication that might save her life. Ina Requilet has an aggressive mutation of colorectal cancer and despite having already undergone radiation and 12 sessions of 48-hour chemotherapy, reports News24, the disease is spreading to her uterus, pelvic area, bones, spine and liver. And while she has faith that access to one pill will allow her to see her four grandchildren grow up, red tape means she is unable to access the drug she believes might treat her cancer, which doctors say is likely to kill her in the...

A teenage girl died after waiting six hours for an ambulance, with her desperate parents being unable to call for help because the Eastern Cape Department of Health’s phone lines had been cut for non-payment. Janine and Errol Seafield said the ambulance had arrived six hours after their daughter fell ill, but it was too late. Janay van Niekerk (18) who had cerebral palsy, died in her bed in her Gqeberha home. News24 reports that the Department’s telephone lines had been cut after it failed to pay its Telkom bill, affecting emergency services lines in Nelson Mandela Bay and East London....

The National Department of Health has denied dragging its heels over plans to make the cost of healthcare more affordable, after the Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF) accused it of failing to act on several recommendations from the 2019 Health Market Inquiry aimed at reducing private healthcare costs. “The Minister and the department have consistently cited the high cost … as one of the reasons why National Health Insurance (NHI) is necessary. Yet presented with an opportunity to make a tangible difference they’ve not even attempted to get out of the starting blocks,” said BHF MD Katlego Mothudi. Five years ago...

Pfizer is withdrawing its sickle cell disease treatment Oxbryta from all markets where it has been approved, citing risks of a painful complication and deaths. Pfizer bought Oxbryta, also known as voxelotor, as part of its $5.4 bn buyout of Global Blood Therapeutics in 2022. Reuters reports that the company is also discontinuing all studies and access programmes related to the treatment based on the available clinical data, which show that the benefit of the drug no longer outweighs the risks associated with its use. The company said the data showed an imbalance in vaso-occlusive crises, a complication of the disease and “fatal events” that...

A UN High Level Meeting on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) last week has pledged to reduce – by 10% – deaths from drug-resistant bacteria over the next six years. The new declaration on the “silent, slow-motion pandemic” that could kill another 39m people by 2040 – the first statement on the topic since 2016 – also pledges to raise $100m to fund the updating of countries’ AMR action plans and their implementation. Health Policy Watch reports that it formalises the standing of the Quadripartite secretariat, comprising the WHO, UN Environment (UNEP), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), and the World Organisation of Animal...

Two years after launching a plan to make its medicines available to 45 low-income countries at not-for-profit prices, Pfizer has only signed up 10 of the countries on its list. The programme, which Pfizer called “An Accord for a Healthier World”, launched in 2022 and was expanded to cover more products in 2023, reports Reuters. The goal was to offer poorer nations affordable access to its entire portfolio of drugs and vaccines, including bestsellers like blood thinner Eliquis and cancer drug Ibrance, as well as new products. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said the progress was slower than he had hoped because “few countries are...

Eight people have died from an outbreak of Marburg virus in Rwanda, most of the victims being healthcare workers, the country’s Health Minister has said. Sabin Nsanzimana told the BBC that 26 cases have been identified since the first cases were confirmed on Friday. Rwanda says it is intensifying contact tracing, surveillance and testing to help contain the spread, which is mostly being reported in the capital, Kigali. Authorities have urged the public to avoid physical contact to help curb the spread, but some 300 people who came into contact with those confirmed to have the virus have also been identified, reports...

Findings of an extensive survey released by the Human Sciences Research Council last week include that sexual debut before the age of 15 – higher among adolescent males than females – is one of the key drivers of the Western Cape’s HIV epidemic. The Sixth South African HIV Prevalence, Incidence and Behaviour Survey (SABSSM VI) for the province showed an increase in the proportion of adolescents and youth aged 15-24 who reported sex before 15 in 2022 (16.3%) compared with 2017 (14%). The figures were also higher among males (21.5%) than females (11.3%), reports IOL. Despite this, the survey found that compared...

African countries and partners have pledged more than $800m towards the continent’s mpox response amid surging infection, said the director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) last week. Jean Kaseya said $314m was pledged to a new mpox fund created at a meeting of African heads of state, of which $129m is from the pandemic fund to support 10 countries affected by mpox, while about $145m was coming from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). “Today we have around $814m,” he said. News.AZ reports that money from the pandemic fund will support 10 countries that have...

More than 40 000 Americans risk dying if Novo Nordisk doesn’t lower the prices of its diabetes and weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, according to US Senator Bernie Sanders in a hearing last week. It was the latest in a series of hearings Sanders has led with pharmaceutical company CEOs about the price of medicines in the US, which are higher – often by multiple times – than in other wealthy countries. But perhaps no drugs have garnered more attention than Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic, approved for diabetes, and its sister drug, Wegovy, for weight loss and reduction of heart risk, reports CNN. The medicines,...

A combination of Merck’s experimental drug and blockbuster therapy Keytruda had failed a late-stage trial testing it in previously treated patients with a type of colorectal cancer, it announced last week. This is the latest failure in a set of trials studying a combination involving Keytruda – as the company seeks to expand its use in types of cancers not yet treated by immunotherapies while facing a loss of patent protection for the drug at the end of the decade. Reuters reports that over the past few months, Merck has discontinued trials that tested a Keytruda combination in skin or lung...

The Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP) has announced the appointment of distinguished scientist and leader in the medical research community, Professor Glenda Gray, as the new chair of its board of directors. Gray, well-known as a paediatrician and strong advocate for child health, is currently the vice-chair of GARDP’s board. She has recently completed two successful five-year terms as the President and CEO of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC). During her tenure at the SAMRC, she achieved significant milestones, including transformative grant funding initiatives that have greatly improved support for young scientists, black African scientists, and women....

A Gauteng High Court judge has ruled the Mpumalanga MEC fully liable for a baby being born with severe brain damage, despite hospital staff trying to blame the mother because she took “good luck herbs” before the birth in 2010. Judge Anthony Millar found the baby was born with cerebral palsy due to the negligence of staff at Themba Hospital in Kabokweni. Although the the mother urgently needed to undergo a Caesarean section, the procedure was delayed for hours, reports The Mercury. She was first admitted on 15 December 2010, but discharged the next day as she was deemed not to...

A woman whose miscarried twins were removed from her body 30 days apart has lost her R1.8m negligence lawsuit, with a North West High Court (Mahikeng) judge rejecting a report from the “expert witness” and concluding she did not present any evidence to demonstrate hospital staff were responsible for causing her miscarriage. The then 29-year-old woman had initially had one foetus removed at Zeerust Hospital, but a month later, sought medical attention at a local clinic for abdominal pain, where doctors discovered the second deceased twin was still in her womb. ‘Incomplete’ The patient had started having abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding...

A man who went blind in one eye after a cataract procedure and claimed millions in damages from Netcare has objected to the court accepting the forensic report submitted by a private investigator hired by the group to monitor him. In the Gauteng High Court, Nicolaas de Jager (66) objected to the evidence that Netcare introduced in a bid to prove his eye was, in fact, not hampering his ability to lead a normal life. The Star reports that his lawyer, Conrad van der Vyver, argued that the hospital group had violated the constitutional rights of De Jager, his wife, children...

The chair of the UK’s nursing regulator has announced he will step down, months after a damning review prompted by a newspaper exposé uncovered a series of allegations and cover-ups. Sir David Warren, chair of the Nursing and Midwifery Council, will leave his role after a report warned that the organisation’s “toxic” culture was putting the public and nurses in danger. The independent review by KC Nazire Afzal accused the regulator’s leadership of ignoring warnings over its extensive problems – and a dysfunctional culture at “every level” – and ignoring serious sexual, physical and racist abuse. The Afzal review was commissioned after reports by The Independent revealed...

A surgeon at a crisis-hit NHS Trust used a Swiss Army knife to open the chest of a patient in an emergency because he claimed he could not find a sterile scalpel. Although the patient survived, the action was described by University Hospitals Sussex as being “outside normal procedures and should not have been necessary”, reports the BBC. Professor Graeme Poston, an expert witness on clinical negligence and a former consultant surgeon, said the report had “surprised and appalled” him. “First, a penknife is not sterile. Second, it is not an operating instrument. And third, all of the kit must have been...

British police have arrested two people on suspicion of manslaughter after the death of a woman who had undergone a non-surgical Brazilian butt lift (BBL). The BBC reports that Alice Webb (33) died at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital in the early hours of Tuesday after falling unwell. Save Face, a national register of accredited practitioners who offer non-surgical cosmetic treatments, said this was the first case of a death caused by a non-surgical BBL in the UK. The treatment sees fat or dermal filler injected into the buttocks to change size or shape, and while this is not illegal in Britain, last year...