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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,...

Popular misconceptions about 'good bacteria' and 'good hygiene'

The Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) said incorrect theories which became popular in the 1990s were fuelling confusion and unhygienic habits among subsequent...

Rotavirus vaccine also protects children against type 1 diabetes

Being fully vaccinated against rotavirus in the first months of life is also associated with a lower risk of developing type 1 diabetes. Vaccinating babies...

Vaccines and the 'complacency factor’ — Wellcome survey

Developed countries, like France, have the lowest levels of trust in vaccines, while poorer countries - where people see the human cost of not...

Measles vaccine also delivers significant long-term health, cognition, and schooling benefits

Aside from the measles vaccine preventing an estimated 21.1m child deaths between 2000-2017 and reducing all-cause childhood mortality and infectious disease morbidity outcomes, a...

Chickenpox vaccine reduces incidence of paediatric shingles

Children who receive the chickenpox (varicella) vaccine are significantly less likely to contract shingles, according to a study led by researchers at the Kaiser...

Brazil finds it difficult to replace Cuban doctors

Six months after Brazil's new president, Jair Bolsonaro, triggered Cuba's withdrawal of more than 8,000 medical doctors it had deployed to that country, Brazil...

Getting vaccines to inaccessible corners of the world

Researchers at McMaster University have invented a stable, affordable way to store fragile vaccines for weeks at a time at temperatures up to 40°C,...

NHI — a funding model masquerading as a delivery system

National Health Insurance (NHI) is one of the most misunderstood terms in healthcare in South Africa. Professor Manie de Klerk, head of the University...

Snakebite: 'The world's biggest hidden health crisis'

A crisis in the production of antivenoms is killing tens of thousands of people a year and, reports The Daily Telegraph, scientists are hoping...

Motsoaledi era: HIV/Aids success but public healthcare failures

The Motsoaledi years can broadly be judged on two fronts, the response to the HIV epidemic and the functioning of the public healthcare system...

SA's new health minister is the 'master of survival'

Dr Aaron Motsoaledi leaves the national Health Department after 10 years, with the last few years marred by major failures in public health, while...

Mapping the burden of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa

HIV/Aids remains the most common cause of death in the 47 nations of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) but with striking geographic variations in prevalence, shows...

Crowdfunding treatment — when survival is a popularity contest

It's increasingly popular to try to fund expensive medical treatments — or alternative therapies — by appealing online for donations. It can be a...

‘Profound’ growth in South Africa’s heroin market fuels drug crisis

James Mashakeni, 22, began smoking nyaope, a heroin-based narcotic, after a blowout fight with his dad nine years ago, writes Krista Mahr for the...

Opioid addiction crisis lawsuits target billionaire family and Purdue Pharma

Five states have sued super-rich members of the family that controls Purdue Pharma. Together they are accused of encouraging an opioid addiction epidemic that...

Marijuana’s decriminalisation in America and South Africa – Implications

Every year on 20 April marijuana advocates from Johannesburg to California celebrate cannabis culture, writes The Conversation. The publication ran a serious of articles...

Doctors and nurses abandon Romania for better paid EU jobs

Despite doubling salaries, Romania has lost 43,000 doctors and more than a fifth of its population since joining the European Union in 2007, reports...

May 8: Heavenly promises but the devil is in the details

Health-e News unpacks the health care promises of the major parties in the run-up to May 8's general election. The ANC’s much-contested National Health Insurance (NHI)...

Venezuela health system in a state of 'utter collapse’ — Human Rights Watch

The UN is being urged to declare a full-scale humanitarian emergency in Venezuela in the light of the “utter collapse” of its health system...

The health benefits of democracy — 170-country study

Life expectancy improved more quickly in countries that switched to democracy over the past 50 years and there were fewer deaths from cardiovascular disease,...

SA's liberal abortion laws thwarted by social stigma

The SA health service offers free, legal abortions. So why, asks Voice of America, are more than half of abortions in the country illegal,...

Mind the gap: National disparities in age-related health problems

The age-related health problems of a 76-year-old in Japan and a 46-year-olds in Papua New Guinea have the same level as an ‘average’ person...

SA's sugar tax pits jobs against lifestyle diseases

As part of the Health Department's strategy to reduce obesity,  SA in 2018 became the first country in Africa to introduce a sugar tax....

C-sections carry much higher mortality risk in Africa

The death rate among women undergoing a caesarean to deliver a baby is about 50 times higher in Africa than in most wealthy nations,...

The rights of foreign nationals in accessing SA healthcare

Directives recently issued by the national Health Department and Gauteng Health requiring foreign nationals to pay in full for healthcare at public facilities weren’t only...

Tough cannabis policies do not deter young people – Study

There is no evidence that tough policies deter young people from using cannabis, writes Mattha Busby for The Guardian. Analysing data about cannabis use...

Smokers misunderstand risks of smokeless tobacco product snus

American smokers mistakenly think that using snus – a moist snuff smokeless tobacco product popular in Scandinavia but newer to the United States – is...

Studies underestimate effects of alcohol consumption on younger people

Studies of the health effects of alcohol consumption may underestimate the risks of imbibing, particularly for younger people, according to a US study. This...

Truth telling about tobacco and nicotine in an e-cigarette era

Debate among public health professionals over approaches to tobacco and nicotine regulation has intensified with the rise of vaping. Researchers at the Pacific Institute for...