Latest news with #FosterMohale
Eyewitness News
5 days ago
- Health
- Eyewitness News
Health Dept says no decline in patients at facilities amid Operation Dudula demonstrations
JOHANNESBURG - The Health Department says it has not recorded a decline in patient numbers at health facilities, as Operation Dudula continues with various demonstrations. In recent weeks, clinics in Johannesburg and parts of Durban have been targeted, with the group denying access to undocumented foreign nationals. Patients queuing outside facilities have been illegally asked to produce identification before being allowed in. Operation Dudula insists this has resulted in a reduction in congestion at clinics and hospitals. Dozens of clinics have been the scene of demonstrations by Operation Dudula, backed by some political parties and frustrated residents. Since the start of the action, videos have been shared on social media, with claims of a significant drop in patient numbers. Some individuals, claiming to be healthcare workers, have commented on the videos, saying they've felt some relief in workload. But the health department insists no such trend has been officially recorded, describing the acts as unconstitutional. Spokesperson Foster Mohale said 'We don't have that data because our responsibility, our focus is to provide healthcare services. Whether the numbers go up or down, we are not aware, and even if we were aware, we would not worry.' The department said the South African constitution guarantees everyone, regardless of nationality, the right to access emergency and basic healthcare. ALSO READ: SERI says Operation Dudula's anger is misdirected
IOL News
6 days ago
- Health
- IOL News
South Africa's targeted mpox vaccination drive to combat rising cases
Mpox vaccination forms part of the Department of Health's response in Gauteng, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, where cases are gradually rising. Image: Pixabay The Department of Health has launched a targeted vaccination campaign to curb the spread of mpox in South Africa, following a gradual increase in laboratory-confirmed cases in 2025. With ten confirmed cases recorded so far this year, including two new infections in Gauteng and the Western Cape, the government is prioritising provinces hardest hit by the outbreak. According to the Department, the latest cases involve a 32-year-old from Cape Town and a 45-year-old from Johannesburg. Notably, both patients have no travel history, raising concerns about local transmission. 'The vaccination programme will target the most affected provinces, which currently include Gauteng, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal,' said the Department of Health spokesperson Foster Mohale, noting that vaccination remains a key tool in limiting the spread of the disease. A total of 10,500 doses of the Imvanex mpox vaccine have been donated to South Africa by the Africa Centres for Disease Control through the Access and Allocation Mechanism for Mpox. The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) authorised the importation of the vaccine through a Section 21 process, allowing for its use despite it not yet being formally registered in the country. 'Imvanex samples were tested by the National Control Laboratory to establish the vaccines' safety and efficacy, prior to its release to the South African market,' Mohale confirmed. 'The vaccine was found to be safe and is well tolerated in the vast majority of people.' Vaccination sites will include selected public health facilities, travel clinics and private providers in Gauteng, Western Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ The drive will prioritise high-risk individuals, including close contacts of confirmed cases, people with multiple sexual partners, travellers to outbreak regions, pregnant women (where indicated), and children over the age of two. 'Vaccination helps to control the spread of this preventable and manageable disease, with vaccinated individuals being protected from becoming infected and from developing severe complications,' said Mohale. While the vaccine is considered safe, recipients may experience common side effects such as redness or pain at the injection site, muscle aches, headache, nausea, or mild fever. 'Most side effects disappear on their own within a few days without treatment,' said Mohale. 'These side effects can be managed by having enough rest, staying hydrated and taking medication to manage pain, if needed.' Citizens are encouraged to report any adverse reactions via the Med Safety App, available free on Android and iOS devices. The Health Department is urging the public to remain alert. 'Members of the public are urged to be extra vigilant of mpox symptoms, and those who suspect that they are at risk of mpox infection are advised to consult their nearest health facility or healthcare provider.' Due to the limited number of doses, the rollout will occur in phases and based on outbreak severity and vaccine availability. IOL News
The Citizen
7 days ago
- Health
- The Citizen
Health Department warns number of mpox cases rising in SA
Cases have recently been recorded in Gauteng and the Western Cape. Two more cases of Mpox have been detected in South Africa. Picture: iStock The Health Department has warned that the number of laboratory-confirmed cases of mpox is gradually rising in the country. It comes after two cases have recently been recorded in Gauteng and the Western Cape. Confirmed cases This increases the total cumulative number of confirmed cases to ten since the beginning of the year The two new cases include a 32-year-old and a 45-year-old patient from Cape Town and Johannesburg. Health department spokesperson Foster Mohale said they are embarking on a vaccination drive against mpox amid the increase in the number of cases. 'The vaccination programme will target the most affected provinces, which currently include Gauteng, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). ALSO READ: Health department calls for calm as Mpox declared public health emergency Vaccinations Mohale said both patients have not travelled out of the country. 'Vaccination helps to control the spread of this preventable and manageable disease, with vaccinated individuals being protected from becoming infected and from developing severe complications. 'Members of the public are urged to be extra vigilant of mpox symptoms, and those who suspect that they are at risk of mpox infection are advised to consult their nearest health facility or healthcare provider for screening and testing, and to find out if they are eligible for this life-saving vaccination,' Mohale said. Priority Mohale added that priority will be given to people at a higher risk of contracting the virus. 'This includes those who came into close contact with people who tested positive, people with multiple sexual partners and travellers going to areas where there is an outbreak of mpox. Where indicated, vaccination will be offered to pregnant women and children older than 2 years. Mohale said the department received around 10 500 doses of the mpox vaccine, Imvanex as a donation from the Africa Centres for Disease Control through the Access and Allocation Mechanism for Mpox, in an effort to combat the various mpox outbreaks in the African continent. Mpox Mpox is typically a mild and self-limiting disease with a low case fatality rate. The risk of wider transmission remains low in South Africa, but anyone can contract mpox regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation and race. 'Common side effects that might be experienced following immunisation include pain, redness, swelling and itching at the injection site; muscle pain; headache; nausea; and fever,' Mohale said. 'However, most side effects disappear on their own within a few days without treatment. These side effects can be managed by having enough rest, staying hydrated and taking medication to manage pain, if needed'. The virus is generally asymptomatic and treatable, but not curable. ALSO READ: Health dept says 'ongoing local transmission of mpox' in Gauteng as more cases reported
Daily Maverick
7 days ago
- Health
- Daily Maverick
SA gets R520m to buy twice-a-year anti-HIV jab — but there's a snag
The money is not nearly enough to put two to four million people per year in South Africa on the lenacapavir jab, and even if it were, the country's health system won't be able to roll out the medicine that fast, scientists and policymakers say. South Africa has accepted an offer of just over $29-million (about R520-million) from the Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria to buy the twice-a-year anti-HIV jab, lenacapavir, that research shows could help to end Aids in the country, says Health Department spokesperson Foster Mohale. But there's a snag. The country isn't getting extra money from the fund to buy the medicine; it has to use cash from a grant that it has already been awarded and that was cut by 16% in June. Moreover, the fund, at this stage, won't tell the Health Department – or any of the other eight countries it has selected for early roll-out – how much they're paying lenacapavir's maker, Gilead Sciences, for the product. Boitumelo Semete-Makokotlela, the CEO of the country's medicine regulator, the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority, Sahpra, told Bhekisisa it is aiming to have lenacapavir registered in South Africa before the end of the year. According to the Health Department's head of procurement, Khadija Jamaloodien, the lenacapavir funds from the Global Fund will become available in October, when the roll-out period of South Africa's next grant, known as Grant Cycle 7, kicks in. But roll-out – likely to be in early 2026 – can only start once Sahpra has registered the medicine, the country's essential medicines list committee has reviewed and recommended lenacapavir, procurement processes are in place and health workers and clinics have all they need to hand the drug safely to patients. Two studies released in 2024 showed the medicine completely protects young women from contracting the virus and works almost as well for men, transgender and gender-nonbinary people. In fact, a modelling study shows that if between two and four million HIV-negative people in South Africa use the jab every year over the next eight years, the medication could end Aids as a public health threat by 2032. Ending Aids as a public health threat means reaching a stage where fewer people are getting newly infected with HIV than the number of people with HIV who are dying (increasingly for other reasons than HIV, for example old age). According to the latest Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and Aids (UNAids) report, which was released last week, 170,000 people were newly infected with HIV in 2024, while there were 53,000 Aids-related deaths. The Global Fund money for South Africa is, however, not nearly enough to put two to four million people per year in South Africa on the lenacapavir jab (see price explanation below) – and even if it were, the country's health system won't be able to roll out the medicine that fast, scientists and policymakers say. Will the US help to pay for the jab? The fund's offer follows the body's announcement on 9 July that it has the 'ambition' to finance enough lenacapavir for two million HIV-negative people – in the low- and middle-income countries it supports – over the next three years. But fulfilling this ambition will depend on whether the governments of wealthy countries give enough money to the fund in its next replenishment round. The US government's Aids fund, Pepfar, was originally going to help to pay to roll out lenacapavir in poorer countries. And, although some activists say it's still possible for the US administration to come on board (lenacapavir is mentioned in President Donald Trump's budget proposal for the next financial year, but is understood to be only for pregnant and breastfeeding women), it's not clear at all how this might happen after the Trump administration's drastic cuts to funding for HIV projects in countries like South Africa this year. The Global Fund's offer, however, is a way to get branded, 'bridging' doses from Gilead to South Africa while the world waits for cheaper generics to become available around 2027. 'We now stand at a moment of reckoning and a moment of choice,' Mitchell Warren, the executive director of the international advocacy organisation, Avac, told Bhekisisa at the 13th conference on HIV science in Kigali this week. 'While a lot of the choices over the last six months have been made by an American politician [Donald Trump] who doesn't care about the pandemic or science generally, our choice is to make decisions based on the science that we all now know. Which is that lenacapavir is our most potent opportunity.' Countries have to budget just under R600 per dose Jamaloodien, however, cautions further discussions with the Global Fund and Gilead will be needed about the governance around the pricing of the product. 'We have a transparent pricing system, guided by the Public Finance Management Act. Even if we procure medicine with Global Fund money, we have to follow the same rules that the Treasury requires us to follow with tenders, which includes revealing the price at which the medicine is bought,' Jamaloodien says. In a Global Fund letter sent in early July to the nine early roll-out countries (South Africa, Zimbabwe, Eswatini, Lesotho, Zambia, Mozambique, Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria) the fund asked the governments to budget for $60 (about R1,076) per patient per year ($30, or R576, per six-monthly dose), to buy lenacapavir. But in the document, which Bhekisisa has seen, the fund makes it clear that the amount 'reflects the country contribution only, to be used for budgeting purposes, and should not be considered the product price'. Jamaloodien has confirmed to Bhekisisa that the Health Department did receive such a letter. The letter also says that the gap between the price that the fund pays Gilead per patient per year and the $60 that countries will pay for with their Global Fund grants, will be covered by private sector funding, which Hui Yang, the fund's head of supply operations, confirmed to Bhekisisa will be paid for by a $150-million (about R2.68-billion) donation of the UK-based Children's Investment Fund Foundation to the Global Fund. Furthermore, says Jamaloodien, South Africa's letter instructs the country to submit its first order, for planning purposes, by 30 September under an 'agreed procurement mechanism'. Why does Gilead not want to talk about LEN's price? Lenacapavir, also referred to as LEN, was registered for HIV prevention – also called PrEP – by the US medicines regulator, the Food and Drug Administration, on 18 June and is sold in that country for $28,218 (about R505,269) per person per year under the trade name Yeztugo. The US is the only country in which LEN has been registered so far as PrEP. For low- and middle-income countries such as South Africa, Gilead, however, said it will have a 'not-for-profit' price such as the one they negotiated with the Global Fund, but isn't allowing the fund to make it public. Several scientists and activists at the HIV science conference have, however, told Bhekisisa the rumoured not-for-profit price that Gilead has negotiated with the fund is $100 per person per year, and Avac confirms it in its analysis of events. But neither Gilead or the Global Fund have confirmed this amount. If South Africa budgets for $60 per person per year, the $29.2-million that the Global Fund says we can use to buy lenacapavir translates to putting and keeping about 400,000 people on the medicine over three years (Global Fund grants run for three years at a time). Gilead argues that, because the not-for-profit price is based on the actual cost of making lenacapavir, and shipping it to countries, it can't declare that cost. 'Gilead doesn't publicly disclose manufacturing costs for any of our medications,' Caroline Almeida, Gilead's head of public affairs, told Bhekisisa in Kigali. But activists don't buy this argument. 'Gilead's secrecy will obstruct civil society activism for lower drug prices and keep prices high in middle-income countries [such as South Africa] where Gilead negotiates prices directly,' the Health Justice Initiative and other activist groups said last week. Avac has identified 16 top lenacapavir markets, of which South Africa is, by far, the largest because of the country's high number of new HIV infections. The country's 170,000 new infections in 2024 is 13% of the 1.3 million new HIV infections around the world in 2024. And research released by Wits RHI on Tuesday in Kigali shows South Africans are open to using the jab: 56% of just more than 1,700 participants in a survey in Tshwane, Mthatha and Gqeberha, who were already using public sector HIV prevention services, said they would take a lenacapavir shot. But for LEN to be affordable, activists argue, Gilead needs to be open about its price. 'Such secrecy undermines the power of buyers to negotiate affordable prices and violates the human rights of all people to access information and lifesaving tools,' activists said in last week's press release. Warren concludes: 'Pricing transparency has been a long-standing challenge, as companies try to balance their commercial pricing and marketing strategies with their global public health strategies. We clearly need a new model or compact for pricing that helps break the cycle of small thinking and limited impact.' DM
The South African
16-07-2025
- Health
- The South African
ARVs in our water: What's going wrong with treatment?
The Department of Health says the presence of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) in South Africa's water systems shows that people are taking their life-saving medication. However, it has also warned of serious risks linked to irresponsible wastewater treatment. This follows the release of a report by the University of the North West, which found significant levels of ARVs in rivers and tap water, particularly downstream of wastewater treatment plants. Spokesperson Foster Mohale told IOL that the discovery reflects good ARV adherence among patients, but he stressed that stakeholders responsible for cleaning water must act with greater responsibility. 'The discovery is a net positive because it shows that people are taking the life-saving medicine,' said Mohale. 'But the responsibility lies with those who deal with wastewater. They need to find a way to address this issue.' Mohale noted that poorly treated water poses serious health risks to the public. He said the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) must ensure proper treatment of household wastewater before it re-enters the environment. The research found that ARVs caused abnormal embryonic development in freshwater snails. It also showed that the drugs disrupted vital bacteria-controlling viruses. The presence of ARVs, the report warned, could interfere with metabolic systems across species. The researchers also flagged potential health risks for humans, especially in areas where ARV levels exceeded acceptable thresholds in drinking water. The study noted that humans could ingest these drugs or their breakdown products through tap water or aquatic organisms like fish. The Department of Water and Sanitation has acknowledged the findings. Spokesperson Wisane Mavasa said municipal wastewater systems likely allow ARVs to enter water sources. She added these systems were not built to remove pharmaceutical compounds. She said that the department would engage with the University of the North West, the Water Research Commission, and the Department of Health to discuss the findings and assess possible impacts. Let us know by leaving a comment below, or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1. Subscribe to The South African website's newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp, Facebook, X and Bluesky for the latest news.
