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Social media bots and Russian trolls promoting discord over vaccines
Social media bots and Russian trolls spread false information about vaccines on Twitter, seemingly using vaccination as a wedge issue, to promote discord, according...
How SA's 'collusive' private healthcare sector can be fixed
South Africa's private healthcare sector, dominated by a few players, allows non-competitive behaviour such as collusion and excessive pricing tends to thrive, writes Professor...
Plastic surgery on YouTube is mostly 'misleading marketing'
In the first study to evaluate YouTube videos on facial plastic surgery procedures, which draw millions of viewers, Rutgers University researchers found that most...
No safe level of alcohol consumption — 195-nation study
Giving up drinking completely is the only way to avoid the health risks associated with alcohol, according to a major study covering 195 countries over...
Almost a fifth of medicines in Africa sub-standard or falsified
A study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that sub-standard and falsified medicines, including medicines to treat malaria, are a...
Proposed Bills are not the cure for the current health sector crisis
Will the proposed provisions and processes in the National Health Insurance Bill and the Medical Schemes Amendment Bill strengthen the public health system? Professor Lucy Gilson of...
SA 'needs divestiture' to free up the private healthcare market
The preliminary findings of the inquiry into South Africa’s private health care sector shows worrying trends, writes Phumudzo S Munyai, associate professor at the...
Tobacco industry finds unlikely allies in fight against regulation
In recent weeks, health experts and journalists have spoken out against the government’s proposed Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill. It's...
An 'important contribution' to understanding global health interventions in Africa
Amy Patterson's Africa and Global Health Governance: Domestic Politics and International Structures is important because it is one of few books to show that African...
TP-PA shows excellent sensitivity for adjudicating syphilis
Treponema pallidum particle agglutination assay (TP-PA) is a better test to adjudicate syphilis results given its high specificity and superior sensitivity, according to a...
EU seeks to restrict chemicals in tattoo inks over cancer fears
The EU’s chemicals watchdog has concluded that substances found in tattooing inks may pose a cancer risk, although there is no direct evidence, and...
Fiery responses to SA’s draconian Tobacco Bill
SA’s Tobacco Bill has met with a barrage of criticism, among other things for proposing jail for smoking in public, outlawing designated smoking areas,...
‘This should change everything’ – A performance standard for cigarettes
Unlike many other consumer products, no safety standards have been set for cigarettes or other tobacco products. Now a performance standard proposal has been...
Africa Check puts together the numbers on doctor-patient ratios
The fact-checking organisation Africa Check looks at doctor-patient ratios in both public and private healthcare, following criticism by the Treatment Action Campaign that the...
Amsterdam's famous tolerance delivers health benefits
Amsterdam’s tolerance of sex work and recreational drugs has translated into better health outcomes for its citizens. But, asks an Health-e News report, can...
Gauteng's hospitals of harm
More than 20‚000 patients have been harmed at state hospitals in Gauteng in the space of two-and-a-half years, according to official statistics. Chris Hani Baragwanath is...
Tougher anti-smoking laws in the pipeline for SA
When South Africa introduced designated smoking areas in restaurants and bars there was vehement opposition from sections of the hospitality industry. But, writes Savera Kalideen,...
Study shows extent of PTSD problem among SA's sex workers
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),...
Motsoaledi: 'No caring state should leave such inequality unattended'
Critics of the National Health Insurance plan are "hardliners, driven by their desire to defend and perpetuate their own positions of huge benefit and...
Health Market Inquiry: ‘Nothing we don't already know', says Health Minister
The four-year long Competition Commission Health Market Inquiry's finding reveal what Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi says he already knew – that South Africa's private healthcare...
Not true that large chunks of healthcare spending go to futile end-of-life care
Around 25% of Medicare spending in the US occurs in the last year of people's lives. This is sometimes discussed as a questionable use...
NHI Bill 'won't be a silver bullet' in saving public healthcare in SA
There can be no dispute that SA’s health care system needs major reforms, writes Professor Laetitia Rispel of the University of the Witwatersrand in...
Older cannabis users reporting more health concerns
Researchers at the University of York have shown that there has been a 118% rise in those aged over 40 presenting to specialist drug...
Brickbats and bouquets for NHI and Medical Schemes Bills
A medical brain drain could be a consequence of the Medical Schemes Amendment Bill and the National Health Insurance Bill gazetted last week, says...
Motsoaledi says resignation calls are 'orchestrated' by medical schemes
A group of 99 doctors and academics has sharply criticised public health management and 'unresearched' plans for the introduction of National Health Insurance,reports The...
Admitting SA's health crisis the first step to fixing it
A Business Day editorial says that Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi's selective use of statistics is a classic case of a politician under fire...
SA healthcare: It's not collapsed, merely distressed — Motsoaledi
While Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi this week claimed that government health services were just 'distressed', a Office of Health Standards Compliance (OHSC) report...
E-cigarettes pose a danger to the health of children — FIRS
The Forum of International Respiratory Societies, a coalition of respiratory doctors and scientists, warns that there is mounting evidence to justify calling for a...
Motsoaledi slams 'murderers' but Nehawu is defiant
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union’s (Nehawu’s) is under fire over last week's violent protests in Gauteng hospitals, with Health Minister Dr...
Cancer services take strain as radiation oncologists leave SA state sector
SA has just 38 state-employed radiation oncologists, of which 16 are in the Western Cape, according to the annual survey conducted by the...
Funding 'still the biggest stumbling block' to NHI
The successful implementation of South Africa's National Health Insurance (NHI) programme hinges on its funding model, according to a legal expert. Partner at law...
Lancet Commission: Access to legal abortions still a problem in SA
Despite SA’s liberal abortion laws, the government has failed to turn policy into a reality, with only 270 of 8,000 health facilities offering termination,...
Violent hospital blockades continue despite Parliament's 'concern'
While a parliamentary committee has decried the blockading of hospitals by strikers, demands by North West doctors that the SA Department of Health guarantee...
Five healthy habits may increase life expectancy by at least 12 years
Maintaining five healthy habits – eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, keeping a healthy body weight, not drinking too much alcohol, and not smoking...
Most restaurant owners support SA's new stricter anti-smoking measures
South Africa's Cabinet has approved the Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill, which provides for a ban on smoking at outdoor...
SA should give the NHI a chance
Natasha Salant, a law graduate from the University of Cape Town, currently interning at the Rural Health Advocacy Project writes in a Bhekisisa report.
“About...
Misconceptions rife over the causes of cancer
Mistaken belief in mythical causes of cancer is rife, according to research from the University College London (UCL) and the University of Leeds. The...
Doctors plead for resolution of North West Health crisis
Doctors in North West Province have broken their silence over the ongoing health crisis in the province, calling for urgent intervention to resolve the...
London summit pledges $4.1bn to eradicate malaria
The worldwide resurgence of malaria, which kills half a million people a year, has sparked philanthropists, business leaders and ministers from donor and malaria-affected...
Drinking alcohol above daily recommended limit shortens life
Drinking alcohol will shorten your life. Research in the United Kingdom suggests that every glass of wine or pint of beer over the daily recommended...