January 6th, 2021South African medical scientists, joined by activist groups, health workers and opposition parties, have slammed the government and its Medical Advisory Committee (MAC) over the “perilous fiasco” of the vaccine roll-out, reports MedicalBrief....
January 6th, 2021Medical xenophobia is widespread among South African health workers — especially nurses — in Gauteng health facilities, reports MedicalBrief. A University of the Witwatersrand study found that a majority of health workers believe that migrants...
December 9th, 2020World AIDS Day this year found us deep amid another pandemic – COVID-19 – writes Prof Linda-Gail Bekker of the University of Cape Town in The Conversation. The lessons learned from HIV and AIDS can be used to inform the COVID-19 response since...
Preterm birth is a strong predictor of ill health throughout childhood, up to age 10, even among children born at 38 and 39 weeks of gestation, finds a study in The BMJ.
Being born early (before 37 weeks’ gestation) is associated with a higher...
October 28th, 2020Top global infectious diseases scientist and US presidential adviser Dr Anthony Fauci told doctors in South Africa during a PPS-sponsored webinar that it should be known “within weeks” if there is a safe and effective vaccine, writes Karen...
October 21st, 2020Airlines suffered a COVID-19 setback this week when an expert rejected safety conclusions they drew from his research, writes MedicalBrief. But while numerous studies suggest that SARS-CoV-2 can be transmitted during flights, there appears to be...
October 21st, 2020In multiple sub-Saharan countries more than half of women reported having lost at least one sibling before the age of 25, found a large study. Across all 43 studied lower-and-middle income countries internationally, roughly one third of the young...
September 30th, 2020All the most outspoken medical scientists serving on the South African government's Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC) on COVID-19 who found themselves at public odds with government actions have been peremptorily axed in what Health Minister...
A large United Kingdom analysis covering a 10-year period found that regardless of multi-morbidities, engaging in a healthier lifestyle was associated with up to 6.3 years longer life for men and 7.6 years for women. Not currently smoking was...
September 16th, 2020While South Africa’s COVID-19 lockdown may have saved 16,000 lives by end December, its profound impairment of general healthcare meant slashed access to drugs and treatment and care for TB/HIV, disability, mental health, immunisation, and...
September 9th, 2020Expert estimates of South African COVID-19 mortality continue to plummet, with the Actuarial Society of SA (Assa) this week slashing by almost in half an earlier estimate of 48-88,000 deaths by end August, writes MedicalBrief. Mortality modelling...
August 26th, 2020US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn has apologised for overstating the life-saving benefits of treating COVID-19 patients with convalescent plasma. Earlier, in what was seen by some as succumbing to political pressure from...
Malaria resurgence in Papua New Guinea has been tied to apparent problems in the manufacture of long-lasting insecticidal nets.
Research shows that insecticide-treated mosquito nets, the mainstay in the global battle against malaria, are not...
August 5th, 2020President Cyril Ramaphosa's administration is scrambling to deal with a wave of national outrage over evidence of billions of rands of corruption and looting of COVID-19 emergency medical relief funds, writes MedicalBrief. With continuing...
July 29th, 2020More than R2.2bn of emergency COVID-19 funds have been stolen in a corruption feeding frenzy, the news embarrassingly emerging just as the International Monetary Fund has agreed to a further R70bn in relief, writes MedicalBrief. More than 90...
July 22nd, 2020Professor Robin Wood is conducting internationally ground-breaking research into infectious disease transmission at the Aerobiology and TB Research Unit, University of Cape Town, an area in which the global response to transmission has been confused...
