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Public Health
Study finds vaccination prevents millions of deaths and saves billions
Vaccination efforts made in the world's poorest countries since 2001 will have prevented 20m deaths and saved $350bn in health-care costs by 2020, according...
NICD declares measles outbreak in KZN
An outbreak of measles has been declared in KwaZulu-Natal, many of the cases withing communities within communities hesitant to accept vaccination, the SA National Institute...
Fast, affordable new test to detect E coli in water
Canadian researchers at the have invented a fast, affordable way for developing communities to test their drinking water for potentially deadly E. coli. Unlike...
Vaping may play a role in adolescents starting to smoke
A UK study identified a 'robust association' between e-cigarette use and the increased probability of smoking a cigarette within a year.
Vaping – or the...
The Tobacco Papers: How Nicotine Replacement Therapy was hijacked
The tobacco industry first viewed nicotine patches, gum, lozenges, inhalers and nasal sprays – called Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) - as a threat, but...
SA's weak economy threatens gains made in public health sector
Our weak economy threatens to undermine the significant progress made in the public health sector over the past decade, including a 10-year increase in...
Marijuana use increases hypertension risk threefold
Marijuana use is associated with a threefold risk of death from hypertension, according to US research.
"Steps are being taken towards legalisation and decriminalisation of...
E-cigarettes users have highest smoking quit rate
Among US adults who were established smokers in the past five years, those who use e-cigarettes daily were significantly more likely to have quit...
Cases of blindness set to triple in four decades
The number of blind people across the world is set to triple within the next four decades, researchers led by Professor Rupert R A Bourne,...
Vaccination programmes successfully wipe out HBV and HAV
A universal hepatitis B vaccination programme introduced for all newborn Alaskan children in the 1980s has wiped out hepatitis B (HBV) infection and liver...
Good lifestyle choices improve healthy longevity by 7 years
People who do not smoke, are not obese, and consume alcohol moderately can expect to live seven years longer than the general US population,...
School malaria prevention programmes dramatically cut infection
Schools that provide prevention education, insecticide-treated nets and antimalarial treatment, in regions where malaria is highly seasonal, could reduce the risk of schoolchildren developing...
Trying out cannabis at a younger age in medical marijuana states
Adolescents living in America's medical marijuana states with a plethora of dispensaries are more likely to have tried new methods of cannabis use, such...
Guidelines to enable cannabis users to reduce health risks
Canada's Lower-Risk Cannabis Use Guidelines, based on a scientific review by an international team of experts and released with the endorsement of key medical...
'Light' cigarettes linked to increase in adenocarcinoma cases
A new study shows that so-called “light” cigarettes have no health benefits to smokers and have likely contributed to the rise of a certain...
Official UK guidelines on drinking during pregnancy 'too prescriptive'
Women are being unduly alarmed by official UK guidelines that warn them to avoid alcohol completely during pregnancy, experts claim. The Guardian reports that...
SA ups its game but still ranks in bottom half of global healthcare access survey
South Africa was ranked 119 out of 195 countries in the latest Healthcare Access and Quality Index, one rank below Namibia.It was, however, among...
Telemedicine offers alternative to unsafe abortion methods
Early medical abortion using online telemedicine can offer an alternative to unsafe methods to end a pregnancy for women in countries where access to...
Worms and low marks are bedfellows among kids – Eastern Cape study
Worms and low marks are bedfellows among primary school children‚ a study in the Eastern Cape by academics from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and Basel...
Over half of e-cigarette users giving up smoking tobacco
More than half of the UK's electronic-cigarette users have since given up smoking tobacco, a King’s College study suggests.
Some 1.5m vapers are ex-smokers, compared...
Plain packaging to cut number of smokers in the UK
The introduction of plain packaging for tobacco cigarettes sold in Britain from next month could cut the number of smokers in the country by...
Nut derivatives could help smokers break nicotine habit
Researchers have discovered that compounds derived from the nut could help cigarette smokers – as well as betel quid chewers – kick their habits....
Lack of funds has health departments struggling to fill posts
Financial problems are plaguing South Africa's health system, with the national Department of Health unable to hire sufficient nurses and doctors and the Gauteng...
Low validity of self-reported sexual behaviour bad news for public health
Until there is a decline in 'double standards' about sexual morality, researchers should question the accuracy of sexual behaviour data, which are paramount for effective...
Huge costs linked to hospitalisations for firearm-related injury in the US
Just the initial hospitalisations for firearm-related injuries in the US cost an average $735m per year, with the government picking up a large portion of the...
Immune suppressant is ineffective in treating leprosy inflammation
Throughout the course of a leprosy infection, patients often have episodes of painful inflammation affecting their skin and nerves. Researchers have continuously struggled to...
Income-level and knowledge can alter use of disease-risky bushmeat
Bushmeat – wild animal meat – is an essential source of protein for many people in tropical regions. But handling and eating bushmeat carries...
TB declining in Europe but some groups still vulnerable
New data released by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Office for Europe ahead...
E-cigarettes not a gateway to smoking
Public health researchers have found that e-cigarettes are not a gateway product that lead more people, especially teens, to smoke regular cigarettes. "The national...
Lack of dialysis Tx in sub-Saharan Africa raises ethical questions
Up to one-fourth of adults in sub-Saharan Africa suffer from chronic kidney disease and only a small fraction ever reach a dialysis treatment centre,...
Time to encourage safer alternatives to smoking – tobacco control expert
The regulation of tobacco and nicotine products has become less straightforward, writes David Sweanor, an adjunct professor of law at the University of Ottawa...
Same-sex marriage laws tied to fewer teen suicide attempts
US researchers found that in states where same-sex marriage became legal, there was a drop in suicide attempts by high school students, especially among...
UCT students research food insecurity
More than 80%of the attendees at a Cape community health centre were found to be food insecure to some extent, with more than half of...
E-cigarettes less toxic and safer than conventional cigarettes
E-cigarettes are less toxic and safer to use compared to conventional cigarettes, according to UK research. Cancer Research UK-funded scientists found that people who...
Teen vaping can be a conduit to future smoking
Teen vaping acts as a 'one way bridge' to future smoking among those who have never smoked before, and may not stop those who...
How Iceland engineered the cleanest-living teens in Europe
The Icelandic model, which has turned around the drug and alcohol behaviour of its troubled teens, could benefit the general psychological and physical wellbeing of...
Low vaccination rates means high HPV infection rates in US men
The overall genital human papillomavirus (HPV) infection prevalence appears to be widespread among all age groups of US men, and the HPV vaccination coverage...
No conclusive judgement on marijuana – US National Academy of Sciences
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNT8Zo_sfwo
There is not enough research to reach conclusive judgements on whether marijuana can effectively treat most of the symptoms and diseases it is advertised...
Vape pens are a powerful stimulation for young adults
Although they look less like cigarettes than first-generation e-cigarettes, a University of Chicago study found that the newer generation e-cigarette vape pens stimulate the...
EC Health dismisses study highlighting NHI vaccination failures
Immunisation rates at a National Health Insurance pilot project in the Eastern Cape are considerably below targets, mainly because of stock-outs, and indicate inadequate...