January 17th, 2018Even if Depo-Provera and other contraceptive injections raise the risk of HIV infection, withdrawing them from use in African countries would greatly increase maternal mortality, a modelling study has shown. The loss of life due to pregnancy...
BiliSpec a low-cost, battery-powered reader designed to diagnose jaundice by immediately quantifying serum bilirubin levels from a small drop of whole blood, has successfully passed its first clinical trial in Malawi.
The first clinical study of...Research Africa
South Africans 65 or older living in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg faced a “significant increase in mortality” from increased daily ambient apparent temperature – a combination of humidity and temperature. This is among the findings of a...Research Africa
University of Cape researchers have uncovered a sequence of biological processes that occur in humans infected with the bacterium, Mycobacterium tuberculosis as the infection progresses to pulmonary tuberculosis.
M. tuberculosis infects about a...Research Africa
The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine is to lead a major new clinical trial in southern and east Africa which aims to tackle the high number of deaths caused by HIV-associated cryptococcal meningitis (CM), a severe fungal infection...Research Africa
Almost 30% of adolescents in Soweto, Johannesburg, believe the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a conspiracy. More than half were unsure of the virus's origins.
This is according to the results of a health study aimed at investigating the...
October 18th, 2017The gender differences in adult life expectancy in SA's rural KwaZulu-Natal are exceptionally large, atypical for an African population, and largely driven by high male mortality from pulmonary TB and injuries, found a new study.
A 'remarkable'...
Undergraduate medical students in Cape Town are at high risk of occupationally acquired tuberculosis (TB), with an unmet need for comprehensive occupational health services and support.
These were the findings of a study conducted by experts from...
August 16th, 2017
Hepatitis E (HEV) is shifting from being a disease of the poor to one that can affect affluent people in developed world settings, with HEV re-emerging as a zoonotic virus, Dr Tongai Maponga of Stellenbosch University.
Hepatitis E gets...
A year ago there was virtually no evidence on the acceptability and feasibility of HIV self-testing in female sex workers, but a series of presentations from Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda and Kenya by researchers at RTI International, Women's Global...
July 19th, 2017Schools that provide prevention education, insecticide-treated nets and antimalarial treatment, in regions where malaria is highly seasonal, could reduce the risk of schoolchildren developing anaemia and improve their cognitive performance,...
July 12th, 2017In 2012‚ Groote Schuur Hospital spent a total of R2.7m, excluding salaries, on the 111 patients it treated for orthopaedic gunshot wounds, found a Univeristy of Cape Town and University of Texas study. Almost 55,000 gun-related injuries were...
July 12th, 2017Final-year SA medical students remember only six of at least 20 early warning signs of childhood cancer, found a University of the Witwatersrand study. Medical schools needed to reassess their methods of training, said Dr Jennifer Ann Geel, who led...
Healthcare providers in sub-Saharan Africa are struggling to provide services for HIV-positive adolescents, found a multi-country situational analysis.
Facilities in 23 countries, which collectively provide care to over 80,000 adolescents...Research Africa
SMS advice‚ a checklist and a simple home urine test are all most women need after a medical abortion, found a University of Cape Town study.
The Times reports a Cape Town study has found. A team led by Deborah Constant‚ of the Women’s...
June 21st, 2017Carrying out a point-of-care CD4 count immediately after a person was diagnosed with HIV by home-based testing doubled the rate of linkage to HIV care in a resource-limited setting, a randomised study in Kenya has shown.
In an accompanying...