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Quick diagnoses
UK hospitals ‘fiddle' death rates
British hospitals have been accused of fiddling their death rates by recording vast numbers of patients as being terminally ill. In attempting to improve...
Geldof comments dismissed
The South African National Aids Council has dismissed comments by international activist Bob Geldof after he blasted the country’s ‘disgraceful’ level of donations to...
Thinking twice about tradition
Recent reports on deaths following traditional circumcisions have made many think twice about following the age-old custom. They are instead opting to be circumcised...
GP’s turn away tens of millions
GPs in the UK are being forced to turn away tens of millions of patients as demand for appointments far outstrips demand. More than...
UK dementia diagnoses rise
The number of people diagnosed with dementia in England has risen by more than 60% in seven years, reports. Data released by the Health...
Think twice about e-cigarettes
Doctors have been warned to think twice before recommending smokers switch to e-cigarettes. Scientists say more research is needed on the gadgets - and...
Anti-malarial in asthma trials
Asthmatic patients may soon have a more effective way to control the condition, thanks to a new pharmacological discovery by researchers from the National...
UK physicians and FGM
The UK government is to set up a unit to tackle female g enital mutilation (FGM) as part of a wide-ranging package of reforms...
Naltrexone in Parkinson’s
A team of investigators from the University of Pennsylvania have found that the opioid antagonist naltrexone may be an effective treatment for diminishing impulse...
High-fat diet ‘criminal’
Johannesburg cardiologist Anthony Dalby took on sport scientist Prof Tim Noakes at a recent Vitality Summit calling his high-fat diet ‘criminal’. Noakes maintains that...
AIDS conference back to Durban
The International AIDS Society has announced that the biennial AIDS conference will return to Durban in 2016. But this time, the circumstances in the...
Competition inquiry warning
The panel leading the inquiry into private health care in SA should not rely too heavily on profitability analyses, according to research firm Econex....
New US pharma trend – ‘inversion’
By buying a smaller overseas competitor and reincorporating abroad — a manoeuvre called inversion — health care companies are extricating themselves from the American...
New blood clot technology
Experts at the UC San Diego Sulpizio Cardiovascular Centre (SCVC) are now able to save patients from potentially fatal outcomes by using a new...
Donor life expectancy
In the first study to look closely at this issue, researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania report that...
Eye tests for Alzheimer’s
Simple regular eye tests could be used to identify Alzheimer's disease at a very early stage. Early trials of two different techniques show that...
Indian admissions disarray
Moves by the regulatory body the Medical Council of India (MCI) to scrap almost a third of medical degree places across the country in...
NCD killing more in SA
Heart disease, cancer, diabetes and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are steadily killing more and more South Africans. The World Health Organisation’s latest report details...
Imaginary weather link
The notion that lower back pain flares up during certain kinds of weather may be all in your head, a new study suggests. Researchers...
Case of female-to-female HIV infection reported
US health officials have published details of a rare case of suspected female-to-female HIV infection. BBC News reports that a 46-year-old woman ‘likely acquired’...
London is ‘TB capital of Western Europe’
Nearly half a million cases of MDR-TB now occur each year, and have been detected in every country in the world, including the UK,...
US foundation funding treatment for obstetric fistula
The Fistula Foundation in San Jose, California is funding hospitals and doctors to help treat the hundreds of thousands of women in sub-Saharan Africa,...
Gel to protect against HIV a step closer
A gel that can be used by women after sex to protect against HIV is a step closer, according to researchers in a BBC...
Skyping could reduce outpatient costs
A hospital in the UK is planning to introduce a high-tech solution to the high demand for its services – by offering consultations via...
BHF turns the heat on CMS registrar
SA’s Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF) has turned up the heat on Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) registrar Monwabisi Gantsho, calling for an investigation...
Med aid ‘death spiral’
The SA Treasury’s latest proposals for regulating health insurance are poorly drafted and threaten to send the medical schemes industry into a ‘death spiral’,...
Anti-ageing rooibos
Local scientists are investigating whether rooibos may hold some answers to the effects of ageing. Numerous local and international studies have proved that the...
Mediterranean diet and depression
The Mediterranean diet is known to help with heart health, but new evidence shows it can reduce depression, too, reports IoL. Spanish researchers followed...
Female doctors spend stalled
Researchers who studied a group of motivated physician-academics have uncovered gender differences in the amount of time spent on parenting and household tasks, suggesting...
UK may introduce sugar tax
A sugar tax may have to be introduced to curb obesity rates, the Chief Medical Officer for England has said. Dame Sally Davies said...
Antibiotic resistance
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has called antibiotic resistance one of the biggest threats to human health today – and international travel is contributing...