Public Health
Racial disparities in patient characteristics and survival after AMI
Characteristics of black patients and white patients in the US differed significantly at the time of admission for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and were associated with an approximately threefold difference in 5-year mortality rate following...
Public Health England: Stopping smoking – What works?
November 5th, 2018 Public Health England recently published Health Matters guidance focusing on the range of smoking quitting routes that are available and the evidence for their effectiveness. Two-thirds of smokers say they want to quit, however most try to do so...
US FDA warns companies of ‘illegal’ e-cigarettes in crackdown on youth vaping
November 5th, 2018 On 12 October the US Food and Drug Administration said it had sent letters to 21 e-cigarette companies questioning the legality of 41 of their products – the latest in a series of actions to thwart e-cigarette sales to youth. Earlier, the FDA sent...
Less aggression among the young when corporal punishment banned
October 31st, 2018 An international study shows that in countries where there is a complete ban on all corporal punishment of children there is less fighting among young people. There was 31% less physical fighting in young men and 42% less physical fighting in young...
Summit: A fixit plan by December and a pledge on private healthcare
October 24th, 2018 President Cyril Ramaphosa that there would be a plan by December to tackle SA's public health crisis, speaking at a two-day health summit to 600 stakeholder delegates. Deputy President David Mabuza said the proposed National Health Insurance...How healthy will people in South Africa be in 2040?
An international projection of life expectancy and major mortality risk paints two scenarios for South Africa by the year 2040: An increase in life expectancy by as much as 12.9 years in the better scenario or decrease by as much as 8.1 years in...
Mboweni must urgently 'puncture the fantasy NHI balloon'
October 17th, 2018 One of the tasks confronting the new finance minister, Tito Mboweni, will be to puncture the balloon of fantasy surrounding the national health insurance (NHI) system envisaged by the ANC government, writes John Kane-Berman, a policy fellow at the...
Vaccination and screening set to eliminate cervical cancer in Australia
October 10th, 2018 Australia will become the first country to effectively eliminate cervical cancer if vaccination and screening rates are maintained, BBC News reports researchers say. The disease could be eradicated as a public health issue nationally within 20...Daily drinking associated with increased mortality risk
The minimum risk of low-level drinking frequency for all-cause mortality appears to be approximately three occasions weekly, according to a US analysis of two large data sets. The a study. Dr Sarah M. Hartz, from Washington University in St...
Did Big Tobacco buy Twitter? Tobacco Institute responds
October 8th, 2018 A Bhekisisa article claiming that the tobacco industry was buying ads and Twitter coverage to thwart tobacco control in South Africa, elicited an irritated response from the Tobacco Institute of Southern Africa, published in the Mail &...
Expert opinion divided over health impacts as SA legalises dagga
October 8th, 2018 Following the legalisation of cannabis for personal use in South Africa, the SA Society of Psychiatrists and the SA Medical Association warned of its addictive nature and the need for support measures to deal with dagga’s negatives effects....
Affordable vaping in developing countries is a ‘human rights issue'
October 8th, 2018 Experts in Britain and Kenyan harm reduction advocate Joseph Magero have called for the cost of e-cigarettes to be cut to tackle harmful effects of smoking in the developing world. This is an urgent human rights issue, researchers told a pro-tobacco...
Assuming e-cigarettes are equal to cigarettes could distort research – and policy
October 8th, 2018 'Cigarette' might appear in the term 'e-cigarette' but that is as far as their similarities extend, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study. Assuming e-cigarettes are equal to cigarettes could lead to misguided research and policy...
WHO launches new strategy to accelerate global tobacco control
October 8th, 2018 The Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control closed its eighth session – COP8 – on 7 October after adopting a new action plan to scale up the global tobacco control agenda over the next few years.The meeting...
‘White paper’ call to action on vapour products, harm reduction and taxation
October 8th, 2018 The International Center for Law & Economics in the US has produced a white paper it describes as a call to action for economists and health policy researchers to undertake the analysis – thus far absent from the debate – needed to...