A Focus
Partial knee replacement often better and cheaper alternative
May 16th, 2018 A large University of Oxford study found that many more patients could be given a partial knee replacement instead of a total knee replacement, resulting in improved quality of life and lower healthcare costs. About half of the patients needing knee...
Violent hospital blockades continue despite Parliament's 'concern'
May 16th, 2018 While a parliamentary committee has decried the blockading of hospitals by strikers, demands by North West doctors that the SA Department of Health guarantee both patients’ and health care workers’ safety, still remain unmet, reports the Rural...
Five healthy habits may increase life expectancy by at least 12 years
May 9th, 2018 Maintaining five healthy habits – eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, keeping a healthy body weight, not drinking too much alcohol, and not smoking – during adulthood may add more than a decade to life expectancy, according to a study...
Significantly higher death rates in blood type O severe trauma patients
May 9th, 2018 Blood type O was significantly associated with high mortality in severe trauma patients and might have a great impact on outcomes., according to a study that involved 901 Japanese emergency care patients. Researchers at Tokyo Medical and Dental...
Hospital staff bear brunt of anger after death of Alfie
May 2nd, 2018 The British baby Alfie Evans has died, bringing into the spotlight a host of legal and ethical issues around the treatment of patients in a semi-vegetative state on life support. It also has placed hospitals and their staff at the epicentre of...
Certain anticholinergic drugs increase dementia risk
May 2nd, 2018 Use of certain anticholinergic drugs – that help to control involuntary muscle movements for conditions such as Parkinson’s disease – is associated with an increased risk of dementia, finds a UK study. The study is the largest of its kind to...
Chronic inflammation in middle age linked to increased frailty when older
May 2nd, 2018 A study, led by Johns Hopkins Medicine investigators, of nearly 6,000 Americans followed for 24 years from middle to late adulthood found that having chronic inflammation in middle age may be linked to an increased risk of frailty and overall poorer...
Doctors plead for resolution of North West Health crisis
April 25th, 2018 Doctors in North West Province have broken their silence over the ongoing health crisis in the province, calling for urgent intervention to resolve the impasse which is placing millions of lives at risk. Meanwhile, the army has been deployed to end...
London summit pledges $4.1bn to eradicate malaria
April 25th, 2018 The worldwide resurgence of malaria, which kills half a million people a year, has sparked philanthropists, business leaders and ministers from donor and malaria-affected countries to pledge $4.1bn to drive research and innovation and improve access...
Motsoaledi ends port testing for listeriosis, despite more deaths and infections
April 25th, 2018 The death toll from South Africa's listeriosis outbreak has reached 199, with 50 new infections reported since the recall of implicated products on 4 March. Despite this, port health officials have been ordered to stop testing imported chicken...
SA takes first step towards producing its own vaccines again
April 18th, 2018 The Biovac Institute (Biovac) has been awarded a manufacturing licence by a South African regulator, taking it one step closer to realising the government’s ambition of producing its own vaccines, reports Business Day. It is the first time the...
Research explores lifestyle effects – preconception – on future children
April 18th, 2018 Couples who are obese, as well as those who smoke and drink alcohol, could be risking the health of their future children, reports The Guardian. In a series of three papers in leading medical journal The Lancet, experts call for far more awareness...
Progressive interventions needed to stem medical litigation 'explosion'
April 18th, 2018 As Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi described soaring medical malpractice litigation claims in South Africa as an “explosion”, it was revealed that Gauteng Health paid R521m in negligence claims between January 2017 and March 2018 and faces...
Pertussis resurgence: Incomplete coverage and vaccination 'hesitancy'
April 11th, 2018 The resurgence of whooping cough in the US is a predictable consequence of incomplete coverage, especially among schoolchildren with a highly effective vaccine, research finds. Meanwhile, another study blames the failure to vaccinate not only on bad...
'Fateful Life Events' affect ageing and mortality risk
April 11th, 2018 A sudden substantial financial loss in middle-age or older people, is associated with an up to 50% higher risk of death, found a US study. The Northwestern Medicine and University of Michigan study found that when people lose 75% or more of their...