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What a breakthrough e-cigarette study illustrates about addiction
The first large, systematic study of whether e-cigarettes help people to quit smoking was published on 30 January in the New England Journal of Medicine,...
Delay in release of private health sector report 'bad news'
The release of a final report about the state of competition in South Africa’s private health sector has been delayed again, writes Wezile Chitha,...
Fake news and celebrity fads 'put lives at risk’ — joint editorial
The editors of more than two dozen cardiology-related scientific journals worldwide have published a joint editorial to sound the alarm that medical misinformation is...
Constant cravings – Is addiction on the rise?
Addiction was once viewed as an unsavoury fringe disease, tethered to substances with killer withdrawal symptoms, such as alcohol and opium. But now the...
Little international agreement over burning issue of vaping
Despite much debate in the United Kingdom and United States there is little agreement over how safe e-cigarettes are, write University of Edinburgh public health Professor Linda...
Nigeria isn’t doing enough to reduce tobacco use. Here’s why
Tobacco remains the biggest public health threat, killing more than seven million people globally every year. The World Health Organization has recognised progress in Nigeria,...
Speed up public health decisions on scabies by skipping full-body exams
In public health settings, limiting examination for scabies to the exposed components of both limbs had high sensitivity compared to full body examination, found...
Cosatu angered by delays and Health Dept divisions over NHI
The slow pace at which the government is moving on the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill has drawn the ire of Cosatu, which plans...
NHI plans are ‘an act of desperation’ — DA
Plans by the Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, to push ahead with the National Health Insurance are ‘an act of desperation ... doomed...
Exit of more than 8,000 Cuban doctors puts Brazil in a 'state of panic'
A rupture between Havana and Brazil's new far-right president-elect has triggered the immediate withdrawal of all the more than 8,000 doctors that were part...
When common sense and sound judgment go up in smoke
Government’s proposed anti-tobacco bill lacks any scientific assessment as an underlying principle of legislation, argues Tim Cohen, senior editor of Business Day. In a...
Mischievous responders misleading LGBQ researchers
Many research studies have reported on the elevated health risk and deviance of youth who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or questioning (LGBQ). But...
It's time for Canada's government to stop withholding the truth from smokers
Good public health policy empowers people to make better, informed personal health decisions – rather than punishing them – write David T Sweanor, chair...
Troublesome issues in e-cigarette policy in America
The Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR) and e-cigarette policy scene continues to evolve in a direction that will result in substantially more tobacco-related addiction, illness...
Investors pour money into addiction treatment, but quality questions remain
In the midst of a nationwide epidemic of drug addiction, the United States has a big shortage of high quality providers offering treatment to people...
Decrease in malaria deaths flatlining
Despite a few bright spots, the recently released World Malaria Report paints a gloomy picture of stagnating progress and increasing concentration of the burden...
Motsoaledi lashed for saying illegals are burdening health system
Amnesty International and the Public Protector’s Office have lashed Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi over his statement that illegal and undocumented immigrants are putting an...
Identifying potentially unsafe restaurants via patrons' search history
A new computer model links Google searches for terms like "stomach cramps" to smartphone location history data to determine which restaurants those people had...
Africa bears the brunt of the counterfeit medicine curse
Almost half the fake and low-quality medicines reported to the World Health Organisation between 2013 and 2017 were found to be in sub-Saharan Africa,...
As China's health system falters, the desperate smuggle drugs or make their own
Out of a desperation born of necessity, ordinary Chinese are buying drug ingredients online and making them up at home, reports The New York Times....
Containing the Ebola epidemic in the face of armed conflict
‘I have been responding to different disease outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for 18 years, yet I have never seen anything...
Big life expectancy gap between rich and poor contradicted by Danish study
Contrary to previous research, previous findings of huge differences in life expectancy between the rich and the poor have been contradicted by a Danish study...
Racial disparities in patient characteristics and survival after AMI
Characteristics of black patients and white patients in the US differed significantly at the time of admission for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and were...
Public Health England: Stopping smoking – What works?
Public Health England recently published Health Matters guidance focusing on the range of smoking quitting routes that are available and the evidence for their...
US FDA warns companies of ‘illegal’ e-cigarettes in crackdown on youth vaping
On 12 October the US Food and Drug Administration said it had sent letters to 21 e-cigarette companies questioning the legality of 41 of...
Less aggression among the young when corporal punishment banned
An international study shows that in countries where there is a complete ban on all corporal punishment of children there is less fighting among...
Summit: A fixit plan by December and a pledge on private healthcare
President Cyril Ramaphosa that there would be a plan by December to tackle SA's public health crisis, speaking at a two-day health summit to...
How healthy will people in South Africa be in 2040?
An international projection of life expectancy and major mortality risk paints two scenarios for South Africa by the year 2040: An increase in life expectancy...
Mboweni must urgently 'puncture the fantasy NHI balloon'
One of the tasks confronting the new finance minister, Tito Mboweni, will be to puncture the balloon of fantasy surrounding the national health insurance...
Vaccination and screening set to eliminate cervical cancer in Australia
Australia will become the first country to effectively eliminate cervical cancer if vaccination and screening rates are maintained, BBC News reports researchers say. The...
Daily drinking associated with increased mortality risk
The minimum risk of low-level drinking frequency for all-cause mortality appears to be approximately three occasions weekly, according to a US analysis of two...
Did Big Tobacco buy Twitter? Tobacco Institute responds
A Bhekisisa article claiming that the tobacco industry was buying ads and Twitter coverage to thwart tobacco control in South Africa, elicited an irritated response...
Expert opinion divided over health impacts as SA legalises dagga
Following the legalisation of cannabis for personal use in South Africa, the SA Society of Psychiatrists and the SA Medical Association warned of its...
Affordable vaping in developing countries is a ‘human rights issue'
Experts in Britain and Kenyan harm reduction advocate Joseph Magero have called for the cost of e-cigarettes to be cut to tackle harmful effects...
WHO launches new strategy to accelerate global tobacco control
The Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control closed its eighth session – COP8 – on 7 October after adopting...
Assuming e-cigarettes are equal to cigarettes could distort research – and policy
'Cigarette' might appear in the term 'e-cigarette' but that is as far as their similarities extend, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study. Assuming e-cigarettes...
‘White paper’ call to action on vapour products, harm reduction and taxation
The International Center for Law & Economics in the US has produced a white paper it describes as a call to action for economists and health...
New e-cigarette product puts anti-smoking campaigns in jeopardy
Adolescent use of electronic cigarettes initially took the US public health community by surprise, reports the New England Journal of Medicine. In 2011, less than 2%...
e-Cigarette explosions and burn injuries underestimated in US
The number of e-cigarette explosion and burn injuries have been underestimated by Federal Agencies in the US, according to a George Mason University study. These...
Shisha (hookah) addiction may be stronger than cigarette addiction
Smoking shishais very popular, particularly among young people. But despite what many people believe, it is highly addictive, writes Kamran Siddiqi, professor of global public health...