FOCUS: THIS WEEK'S TOP STORIES
SA's great misalignment between development and health - Global Burden of Disease study
September 20th, 2017 South Africa has one of the greatest misalignments in the world between development and health progress. It is one of only a handful of countries where healthy life expectancy decreased since 1990, although this has reversed in the past decade. In...
No increased mortality risk from HRT — 18-year study
September 20th, 2017 Among postmenopausal women in the Women’s Health Initiative trials, use of hormone therapy (HRT) for five to seven years was not associated with risk of all-cause, cardiovascular or cancer death over 18 years of follow-up, according to a...
HPCSA ups the battle against bogus medical practitioners
September 20th, 2017 A Health Professions Council of SA unit is conducting about 400 investigations into bogus medical practitioners, with more than 40 arrests to date. Data from the unit suggests that about 7% of SA medical aid claims are fraudulent and stem...
Weekly Roundup
Outrage over no medical treatment for shot migrant worker in Taiwan
Footage apparently showing police and paramedics failing to give medical treatment to a Vietnamese... September 20th, 2017Zimbabwe's voluntary foot-soldiers against TB and HIV
Some 15,000 women health cadres across Zimbabwe have completed training in community health care... September 20th, 2017EMA recommends approval of ovarian cancer drug
A European Medicines Agency (EMA) panel has recommended the approval of Tesaro Inc’s key drug,... September 20th, 2017EMA recommendation on lung drug
GlaxoSmithKline has announced that a European Medicines Agency (EMA) panel has recommended the... September 20th, 2017SA consumers hoaxed by pseudo-generics - Pharma Dynamics CEO
The proliferation of pseudo-generics - identical in all aspects to a branded product, but carrying... September 20th, 2017SA anxious over Trump's planned health budget cuts
Potential cuts to foreign aid threaten the world’s chances of ending poverty and eradicating... September 20th, 2017UK to investigate misuse of pain and anxiety drug
A growing number of deaths in the UK have been linked to the misuse of pregabalin, a drug used to... September 20th, 2017Proper funding could save thousands of potential stroke victims
A report published by the UK’s Stroke Association reveals that over 110,000 people could be saved... September 20th, 2017CARDIOLOGY
Ibuprofen links to increased CVD risk in arthritis patients
Ibuprofen is associated with increased blood pressure and hypertension compared to celecoxib in patients with osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis and increased risk of cardiovascular disease, according to late-breaking results from the...
September 20th, 2017
Radio-frequency catheter ablation lowers mortality in AF patients
Researchers at the University of Utah Health and Klinikum Coburg, Germany co-led a clinical trial that showed radio-frequency catheter ablation lowered hospitalisation and mortality rates by 47% and 44% respectively in patients with atrial... September 20th, 2017Slow walking a good predictor of heart-related death
Middle-aged people who report that they are slow walkers could be at higher risk of heart disease compared to the general population, researchers at the NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre, UK – a partnership between Leicester's hospitals,... September 20th, 2017Two-medicine regime after stenting safer than current regime
Using just two anticlotting medicines for patients who have atrial fibrillation and have had a stent placed in a heart artery is safer than using the current standard treatment of three medications, according to a study presented by Brigham and... September 20th, 2017ENDOCRINOLOGY
Close to a third of US diabetes patients delay insulin treatment
Although delaying insulin therapy leads to a worsening progression of diabetes, research by Brigham and Women's Hospital has found 30% of type 2 diabetic patients don't begin insulin when it's initially recommended, with the average start time being... September 20th, 2017HIV/AIDS
Smokers with HIV 10x more likely to die from lung cancer
People living with HIV who adhere to antiretroviral therapy but smoke cigarettes are around 10 times more likely to die from lung cancer than from HIV itself, according to a study led by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). The...
September 20th, 2017
INFECTIOUS DISEASES
New rapid molecular test detects MDR-TB mutations
A new rapid molecular test has shown the ability to detect, with reasonable certainty, mutations associated with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), an international team of researchers have reported. In head-to-head comparisons against... September 20th, 2017Anti-TB drug should be given to children, study says
An innovative anti-tuberculosis drug that represents a reprieve for adults whose disease does not respond to other treatments should also be made available to children aged 12 or older, according to findings from a study reported in the US Centres... September 20th, 2017NUTRITION
Different meats have different diabetes risk
While a plant-based diet is generally considered healthier than a meat-based diet in preventing the risk of diabetes, not all meats affect the risk equally. As Professor Koh Woon Puay, professor of clinical sciences at Duke-NUS Medical School...
September 20th, 2017
ONCOLOGY
Aspirin cuts colon cancer risk but may make it harder to treat
Daily aspirin use – known to reduce the risk of colon cancer – could also make the disease harder to treat if it does occur, a modelling study found. If confirmed statistically and in the lab, would mean that aspirin's ability to ward off... September 20th, 2017PUBLIC HEALTH
Lay interventions effective against depression and harmful drinking
Brief psychological interventions delivered by lay counsellors in primary care were effective and cost-effective for patients with depression and harmful drinking in India, according to two studies by Vikram Patel of Harvard Medical School and... September 20th, 2017Study finds vaccination prevents millions of deaths and saves billions
Vaccination efforts made in the world's poorest countries since 2001 will have prevented 20m deaths and saved $350bn in health-care costs by 2020, according to a study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In addition, the... September 20th, 2017THORACIC SURGERY
Closure of left atrial appendage should be regular part of heart surgery
Closure of the left atrial appendage during heart surgery protects the brain, according to research presented in a Hot Line LBCT Session at the ESC365 Congress. The results suggest that closure should be routinely added to open heart surgery. "This...
September 20th, 2017