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Italy shows that draconian quarantine measures don't work in the West
Quarantine in China is a world away from the less-absolute and rather haphazard measures of Italy, writes The Telegraph columnist Ross Clark.
Clark writes...
Health Department outlines SA's preparedness for COVID-19
On Wednesday, 26 February Spotlight and Daily Maverick report that they sent a combined list of 22 questions about South Africa’s state of preparedness...
Budget 'protects' NHI from cuts but Treasury hints at implementation delay
The National Health Insurance (NHI) is protected from government-wide budget cuts, according to the National Treasury. But there is also a hint in the...
The word from within the Wuhan lockdown
Wang Xiuying, a self-proclaimed pessimist who’s trying to self-quarantine in Wuhan, describes in London Review of Books how misinformation and disinformation dominates lives in...
Soft drink taxation, advertising and labelling laws significantly impact behaviour
Laws affecting the labelling, marketing and taxation of sugary soft drinks impact the behaviour of both consumers and manufacturers, according to separate studies from...
Misinformation making coronavirus fight 'even harder’ — WHO head
World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says that misinformation is "making the work of our heroic workers even harder". "I would also...
Surgical masks, airport screenings and 'involuntary quarantine' – what works and what doesn't
Public use of surgical masks, airport screenings, and so-called "involuntary quarantine” — forced isolation — are all being used to try to contain the...
Africa becomes WHO priority in fight against fast-spreading coronavirus
The likelihood of a coronavirus outbreak in Africa was “very, very high”, the World Health Organisation warns, as cases of the respiratory illness...
Anti-FGM movement gains ground in Sierra Leone, where 9/10 women are 'cut'
About 700 traditional ‘cutters’ in Sierra Leone have pledged to abandon and advocate against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) which is still not illegal in...
WHO 'between a rock and a hard place' over coronavirus
Before the World Health Organisation dares declare a the coronavirus a global emergency, it must weigh scientific imperatives against China's political sensitivities, writes MedicalBrief.
Most...
Warning on sustained transmission of 2019-nCoV outbreak – WHO
The World Health Organisation warns of 'possible evidence' of the novel coronavirus outbreak in China spreading, writes MedicalBrief. UK scientists say that official totals...
The 8 issues that will define SA healthcare in 2020
2020 will be a critically important year for healthcare in South Africa, writes Spotlight. It has formulated eight questions to set out what is...
Vaping may increase risk of chronic respiratory disease
A recent outbreak of deadly lung illnesses linked to vaping has put the practice in health professionals’ and regulators’ crosshairs, says a Scientific American...
Vitamin E acetate closely associated with product use-associated lung injury (EVALI)
The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), state and local health departments, and other clinical...
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...