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Public Health
Cancer-related lost productivity costing BRICS countries billions
Premature – and potentially avoidable – death from cancer is costing tens of billions of dollars in lost productivity in a group of key...
Social spending ‘better' than health spending
Increased social spending was associated with health improvements at the population level, while health spending increases did not have the same effect, according to...
Despite HIV risk, withdrawing Depo-Provera could increase maternal mortality
Even if Depo-Provera and other contraceptive injections raise the risk of HIV infection, withdrawing them from use in African countries would greatly increase maternal...
Medical detentions: African poor forced to have sex to pay hospital bills
Hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia are detaining hundreds of thousands of people against their will every year – many of them mothers and...
Serious health risks to energy drinks — Harvard study
A Harvard review on energy drinks finds their advertised short-term benefits can be outweighed by serious health risks – which include risk-seeking behaviour, mental...
Number of young, obese South Africans doubled in 6 years
The number of young South Africans suffering from obesity doubled in six years while this took 13 years to happen in the US, reports...
Ballooning wine glasses may drive growing alcohol consumption
Rising levels of drinking may be partly due to the growing size of wine glasses, particularly over the past two decades, acccording to University...
Magnetic field radiation puts pregnant women at risk
A Kaiser Permanente study of real-world exposure to non-ionising radiation from magnetic fields in pregnant women found a 2.5 times higher rate of miscarriage.
Non-ionising...
Young people experimenting more widely
Young people today are taking part in a wider range of sexual practices, such as oral and anal sex, with opposite-sex partners compared to...
SA plan on tobacco shows misplaced zeal – American Vaping Association
A misplaced zeal on the part of SA Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi and activists has caused them to set their sights on products...
Motorcycle accidents more costly and dangerous
Compared with car accidents, motorcycle accidents cause three times the injuries, six times the medical costs and five times the deaths, Canadian research has...
Health Department warns on deadly SA listeriosis outbreak
The SA Health Department has warned on an outbreak of listeriosis that has claimed 36 lives and infected almost 600 people. Dr Aaron Motsoaledi...
Drinking tap water: Tooth decay versus lead contamination
US children and adolescents who do not drink tap water, which is typically fluoridated, are much more likely to have tooth decay, according to...
Corrective statements from Big Tobacco
The court-ordered publication of "corrective statements" by major US tobacco companies month should serve as a reminder that tobacco addiction remains a major health...
Public doesn't understand link between weight and cancer
A study has shown that the majority of people in the UK do not understand the connection between weight issues and cancer.
Obesity is associated...
Motsoaledi wants ethical misconduct charges laid with SANC
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi says the government has subpoenaed three former Gauteng health executives, including former MEC Qedani Mahlangu, to have them testify at...
NICD malaria alert update
The South African National Institute of Communicable Diseases has warned of high numbers of malaria cases being reported in areas of Limpopo and Mpumalanga.
It has...
SA not at high risk of plague – WHO
“It’s just completely wrong.” A Daily Maverick report says this is according to World Health Organisation (WHO) spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic who said that the...
Number of SA malaria cases rising – NICD alert
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases has issued an alert warning of rising numbers of malaria cases being reported in the northern parts of...
Changing to e-cigarettes could drastically reduce premature deaths
If nearly all tobacco smokers in the US were to make the shift to vaping over a 10-year period, anywhere from 1.6m to 6.6m...
Poison shrub warning after Limpopo kids are hospitalised
Scientists have issued a warning about a shrub common in at least three of South Africa’s provinces after four children were poisoned by its...
Sounding a warning over new heat-not-burn tobacco devices
One of the newest tobacco products heats leaf tobacco to approximately 260 degrees Fahrenheit, to produce an inhalable tobacco aerosol and is poised for...
Gauteng Health's top brass pushed implementation of 'irrational' plan
While NGOs leaders will have to explain at the Life EsidImeni arbitration why more than 140 patients died under their watch, the former Gauteng...
Esidimeni hearing – horror stories of incompetence, ignorance and greed
The alternative dispute resolution process relating to the deaths of mentally ill patients in the Life Esidimeni scandal, led by retired Deputy Chief Justice...
SA's great misalignment between development and health – Global Burden of Disease study
South Africa has one of the greatest misalignments in the world between development and health progress. It is one of only a handful of...
Lay interventions effective against depression and harmful drinking
Brief psychological interventions delivered by lay counsellors in primary care were effective and cost-effective for patients with depression and harmful drinking in India, according...
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...