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Worldwide surge in measles deaths a 'preventable outrage’ — WHO
Worldwide more than 140,000 people died from a resurgence in measles in 2018, according to new estimates from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and...
Desperate times in Zimbabwe mean home childbirth services rampant
Zimbabwe's worsening health crisis is forcing desperate women to seek out traditional birth attendants, who often deliver babies using their bare hands with no...
Taxi drivers storm hospital over baby's body held in unpaid bills dispute
The storming of an Indonesian hospital to retrieve the body of a baby claimed to have been held hostage over an unpaid bill, has...
New international approaches to drug use needed – Lancet series
A new international approaches to drug use is needed, according to a landmark series of papers led by researchers from the National Drug and...
Up in smoke – Are we wrong about the dangers of vaping?
Since vaping became a popular alternative to smoking, the big tobacco companies have been moving into the market. But do we know enough about...
Rising problematic use in US states where marijuana is legal
Problematic use of marijuana among adolescents and adults increased after legalisation of recreational marijuana use, according to a study from the New York University Grossman School...
Medical sector in SA also touched by xenophobia
With sporadic and violent xenophobic attacks in South Africa making global and local headlines, the medical sector is also experiencing this worrying phenomenon, writes...
900 children die in HIV outbreak that has sowed panic
A small Pakistani city is the epicentre of an HIV outbreak that overwhelmingly has affected children. Many cases were traced to a single doctor,...
NHS calls for blacklisting of homeopathy in UK
National Health Service (NHS) leaders in the UK have gone to war on homeopathy by attempting to have the practice blacklisted amid fears it...
Skin care campaign may have reduced melanoma in Australians
A skin cancer prevention programme called SunSmart may have contributed to a recent reduction in melanoma among younger residents of Melbourne, according to a...
Doctors' leader tells of Zimbabwe's 'silent genocide'
Zimbabwe's hospitals are the site of "a silent genocide", accepting all referrals but lacking most basics - gloves, bandages, even Paracetamol, writes Nomatter...
Big Tobacco and the controversy over research and influencing policy
News that the South African universities accepted tobacco industry sourced funding has reignited the controversy over the industry's attempts to influence public debate on...
UK takes action on ‘addictive’ computer games and technologies
A hard-hitting UK parliamentary report into immersive and addictive technologies has proposed that the games industry take responsibility for protecting players against potentials harms....
Calls for doctor action as vaping deaths, lung injuries escalate
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been preparing guidance for doctors on vaping, as an outbreak of injury linked to e-cigarettes escalates....
Confusing science, disparate international responses to e-cigarettes
While America clamps down on vaping, India bans e-cigarettes and Juul vanishes from online Chinese stores, Europehas been more positive about vaping and Britain has embraced it in the fight against cigarette smoking. The...
‘I gave up medicine to save my mental health’
Julia Patterson recalls clearly the moment she decided she had to quit two things she treasured – practising medicine and working in the UK's...
Beverage producers' evidence against SA sugar tax was ‘out of context’ and ‘unscrupulous’ — study
Sugar-sweetened beverage producers submitted evidence that was out of context and exaggerated, in their appeal against South Africa’s proposed new sugar levy, Health-e News...
Competition Commission targets private healthcare monopoly
The Competition Commission has recommended stronger regulation to overturn the monopoly of a few players in the private healthcare sector and reduce the financial...
Corruption and organised crime worsen Africa's looming drugs crisis
A looming drugs crisis in Africa is being made worse by ineffective drug policy, fuelled by corruption and organised crime, says the ENACT transnational...
Lessons from Africa on how trust can repair a broken health care system
Agnes Binagwaho, vice chancellor, University of Global Health Equity and Miriam Frisch, research associate to the vice chancellor, University of Global Health Equity write...
The rights to NHI access by migrants are not absolute — HSRC director
The rights of migrants to healthcare are not absolute, writes Prof Narnia Bohle-Muller, in Daily Maverick. There are exceptions and international human rights law...
Most of Africa's leaders seek their medical treatment abroad
Confronted with failing, under-resourced and understaffed healthcare systems at home, most African leaders seek treatment abroad, writes Dr Chipo Dendere of Wellesley College writes...
SA can rebuild its health systems from the bottom up
The bottom-up process strengthening health systems is already happening and provides valuable lessons for the reforms contemplated in the NHI Bill, writes Prof Helen...
Association between sweetened soft drinks and mortality — large European study
The consumption of sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened soft drinks was positively associated with all-cause deaths in a large European cohort over more than 16...
Could Ghana's NHI experience be a template for SA?
Ghana is one of the few countries in Africa to have implemented a form of social insurance healthcare, which is being punted as a...
Why doctors are fleeing the public service — and SA
Sometimes small events illuminate big issues. Western Cape Health's bizarre hounding of three registrars explains why doctors are leaving the public service and South...
Little of the criticism of the NHI Bill is 'constructive'
There is a lot of criticism of the NHI Bill, but little of it is constructive, writes Professor Shabir Moosa, a family physician and...
Prescription drug poses new threat to South African youths
South African learners turn to anti-anxiety medication to manage stress but punishment remains the state’s primary intervention, writes Mark Hunter for the social justice...
The African opioid epidemic you haven’t heard about
Weakly regulated painkillers are causing untold damage in West Africa, but stricter controls could have dire consequences for patients with chronic pain. Laura Salm-Reifferscheidt unpicks an...
Daily e-cigarette use may help smokers quit regular cigarettes
A study from Massachusetts General Hospital's Tobacco Research and Treatment Center provides critical population-level evidence demonstrating that using e-cigarettes daily helps US smokers to...
Controversy over NHI must be seen against the backdrop of SA in crisis
Louis Reynolds, associate professor affiliated to the paediatric department at the University of Cape Town and David Saunders, emeritus professor at the School of...
NHI Bill continues to spark furious debate
The battle lines are drawn between the naysayers and supporters of National Health Insurance after the Bill was introduced to Parliament over a week...
Business Day blows away Mkhize's 'noble pipe dream'
Responding to last week’s report evaluating the National Health Insurance’s 10 pilot projects, Business Day writes in in a strongly worded editorial that it...
NHS patients increasingly opt to pay more for private GP visits
Complaints about UK National Health Service primary care are on the rise, with many patients opting for private GP consultations, reports The Daily Telegraph....
Patients are bearing the brunt of SA's inadequate health services
Patients continue to bear the brunt of inadequate health services, as some provinces reveal their health plans over the next financial year, says a...
Revised NHI Bill raises more questions than gives answers
Government is pushing through a revised National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill, which is leaving analysts and medical professionals with more questions than answers –...
Legality of using social media influencers to promote e-cigarettes
To evade tough laws on tobacco advertising, firms like Philip Morris have turned to social media influencers to promote their smoke-free products, reports Bhekisisa. A...
DRC Ebola outbreak is 'nothing short of a perfect storm’ — Brookings
The latest Ebola outbreak – which began in August 2018 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – is nothing short of a perfect...
Sugar tax has cut consumption of sugary drinks — meta-analysis
A 10% tax on sugary drinks has cut the purchase and consumption of sugary drinks by an average of 10% in places it has...
SA's big public hospitals should be freed of provincial health depts
SA's public hospitals should be independent entities, removed from the control of under-skilled, understaffed and under-resourced provincial health departments, writes William Gumede of Wits University,...