Research Africa
Higher levels of natural killer cells associated with latent TB
August 29th, 2018 Higher levels of natural killer cells in blood are associated with tuberculosis (TB) latency, reports a University of Cape Town study in collaboration with Stanford University, published in Nature. The findings raise the question as to whether...Close to 50% of SA's injecting drug users living with hepatitis C
Close to half of injecting drug users surveyed in South Africa are living with the potentially deadly hepatitis C virus, a study has found. But, says a Bhekisisa report, a drug that could cure them, and that is used in several countries, remains...
Ethiopian trial finds trachoma not eliminated by mass antibiotic prophylaxis
August 15th, 2018 Continuous mass distribution of azithromycin in northern Ethiopia, where the childhood eye infection trachoma is a major cause of blindness, is effective in preventing recurrence of trachoma but does not eliminate the infection entirely, according...
Study shows extent of PTSD problem among SA's sex workers
August 1st, 2018 A University of the Witwatersrand study of sex workers in Soweto shows two-thirds of suffer depression, 6% showed symptoms for post-traumatic distress disorder (PTSD), and only 14% said they had never been a victim of violence. For a long time,...Encouraging results from South African TB vaccination trial
An innovative clinical trial conducted by the University of Cape Town-based SA Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative and the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation provides encouraging new evidence that TB vaccines could prevent sustained infections in high-risk...
Striking rise in infective endocarditis caused by nyaope use
July 11th, 2018 A study at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, Johannesburg documents the common clinical and echocardiographic characteristics of patients with infective endocarditis related to a striking increase in intravenous nyaope (a mixture of heroin, cocaine...
British colonial law linked to higher HIV rates among women in SSA
July 4th, 2018 The likelihood that a woman in sub-Saharan Africa has HIV today is linked to whether her country was once colonised by Britain or a continental European country, a study has found. Siwan Anderson, a professor at the Vancouver School of Economics,...Loss of lay counsellors leads to sharp fall in HIV testing
The withdrawal of lay counsellors from primary health clinics in KwaZulu-Natal led to a sharp fall in the number of people taking an HIV test in 2015, a study by researchers at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, the Harvard TH Chan School of...SA med students becoming more open to legalising euthanasia
More than half of medical students at Stellenbosch University feel the practices of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide (PAS) should be legalised in South Africa, and if a patient had a terminal disease with intractable suffering, 41.9% of...
Warning of birth defect risk to women receiving dolutegravir in early pregnancy
May 23rd, 2018 The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a safety alert warning patients and providers about a potential risk for neural tube birth defects in babies born to women with HIV who received dolutegravir during early pregnancy. Healio...Warnings of significant contamination of hair clippers used for 'chiskop'
Two recent studies conducted by the University of Cape Town have found significant contamination of hair clippers with blood and blood-borne viruses, especially hepatitis B. The study has warned clients of the risks of inadequately sterilised barber...
MVA85A vaccine effective in infants borne to HIV-positive parents
April 25th, 2018 The University of Cape Town (UCT) and international researchers are hopeful that infants born to HIV-positive parents could in future not be dependent on the traditional TB vaccine that puts them at risk of contracting the deadly disease – should...
Rats detect TB in children better than basic microscopy test
April 18th, 2018 Rats are able to detect whether a child has tuberculosis (TB) and are much more successful at doing this than a commonly used basic microscopy test. These are the results of research led by Georgies Mgode of the Sokoine University of Agriculture in...Cape Town Metro clinics ignoring guidelines on antibiotics
Clinics are ignoring guidelines on prescribing antibiotics more than half of the time‚ a study has found. And almost one in five people who were given the medication at eight Cape Town clinics did not need it. Others were given incorrect doses or...Stellenbosch has role in developing simple blood test to predict TB development
Stellenbosch University (SU) researchers are part of an international consortium that developed a simple blood test that can predict the development of tuberculosis (TB) up to two years before its onset in people at high risk of developing...