MCC says no to TB drug access
Compassionate use allows for the dispensing of investigational drugs (with good efficacy and safety in trials) before they are registered and enter the market. Bedaquiline (TMC207) is being made...
View ArticleTAC tackle Cancer Alliance on patents
OPINION: Catherine Tomlinson of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has published an article on Quackdown that gives a detailed response to criticisms of the TAC and MSF by the Cancer Alliance.
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Hope for stroke prevention
Sufffering a stroke is becoming more common in South Africa, affecting about 130 people a day. About half the people who suffer a stroke are likely to die within the first year of having it. Adults...
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Vhembe clinic drug supplies run dry
Sister Ntakuseni Nethisaula is a nurse at Shakadza Clinic where they have had drugs shortages and stock outs for several months. ‘Ever since the winter there has been a huge shortage of medicines...
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Qaukeni district clinics and hospitals in distress
The drugs include antiretrovirals (ARVs), antibiotics, diabetes medication as well as treatment for high blood pressure. A wildcat strike by workers at the Mthatha depot, coupled with a shortage of...
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Helping CML patients access effective treatment
Patients in both the public and the private health care sectors will benefit from the move by Novartis South Africa to expand access to Tasigna, a drug registered for second line treatment in patients...
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MCC continues to deny critical DR-TB drug
If the MCC would agree, bedaquiline (TMC207) could be made available with reasonable conditions, to patients with extensively drug-resistant TB, who have limited further treatment options, before the...
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One disease, two lives
Two young women ‘ one a former hospitality student and now unemployed, the other a qualified medical doctor.One from a middle-class family in Cape Town, the other from a poor family in Khayelitsha....
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SA must follow BRICS lead on patents
Other BRICS countries have fulfilled the commitments they made in July 2011 to enact public health safeguards spelled out in World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreements. Decisive moves by Brazil, India...
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India court ruling significant for SA
The ruling, announced on Monday in Delhi, has great significance for South Africa and other countries with high prevalence of HIV and TB, where access to newer and affordable drugs is crucial. In...
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Private pharmacies to help end stock-outs?
Director General of Health Precious Matsoso confirmed on Friday that health officials had recently met with retailers including Pick n Pay, Checkers, Clicks and Dis-chem to explore this possibility....
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Draft intellectual property policy to be released
South Africa currently lacksa patent review system © MSF A patent allows a company exclusive rights to produce and sell a product for a 20-year period. A type of intellectual property protection,...
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Report: Abandoned in Agony – Cancer & the struggle for pain treatment in Senegal
This Human Rights Watch report highlights the plight of Senegalese patients in need of palliative care. Morphine is an essential and inexpensive medication for treatment of severe pain, but Senegal...
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Research: The Economic and Social Case for Patent Law Reform in South Africa
The 14-page paper discusses the impact of patents on the economy, the true cost of medical innovation and the problems with South Africa’s current patent system. The authors then argue that that...
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Pneumonia ‘super-bug’ causes shivers in SA
The 86-year-old man was in hospital for heart surgery when doctors discovered that his klebsiella pneumonia bacteria was resistant to all available antibiotics. Reporting on his case, Health...
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Govt to protect antibiotics from overuse
Methicillin-resistant staphyloccus aureus is rampant in hospitals. Three-quarters of staphyloccus aureus infections in the Red Cross Children’s hospital last year were methicillin-resistant. Instead, a...
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Free State health “collapses” amid alleged financial crisis
HIV testing kits, at least six different antiretrovirals, as well as supplies needed to diagnose heart attacks are just some of the more than 200 medicines and medical supplies activists allege are...
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Boost for XDR-TB patients as cheaper pills allowed
Phumeza Tisile was cured of XDR-TB with the help os MSF-sponsored linezolid. She recently delivered a DR-TB manifesto she co-wrote with her doctor to the World Health Assembly. Signed by DR-TB patients...
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Draft Regulations: Dispensing fee for pharmacists
The four-page draft regulations propose that pharmacists calculate their dispensing fees in the following ways: where the single exit price of a medicine or scheduled substance is less than R85.70, the...
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Civil society groups threaten to sue Eastern Cape Dept of Health
Section27 and others have not set a public deadline by which the department could take action to avoid possible litigation The organisations – which are part of the Eastern Cape Health Crisis Action...
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