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WHO report urges more R&D for fungal diseases
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has published its first-ever report addressing the critical lack of medicines and diagnostic tools for invasive fungal diseases, showing...
Trump formally ends SA’s HIV and TB research grants
Cancellation letters, ending billions of rands of South African universities’ US Government-funded HIV and TB research grants with immediate effect, started to roll in...
Ovarian cancer screening test less effective for black women, review finds
A common test for ovarian cancer may be less effective on black and Native American patients, a review of more than 200 000 patients...
Hopes pinned on major TB vaccine study launched in Paarl
The world desperately needs an effective TB vaccine to reduce the illness and death still being caused by the centuries’ old bacterium, writes Chris...
Male breast cancer predicted to rise in Africa – large Chinese analysis
Cases of male breast cancer (MBC) are likely to rise over the next quarter century in certain regions – including southern sub-Saharan Africa –...
NSAIDs may lower dementia risk, large study finds
A study examining the relationship between the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) medication over certain time frames and the risk for dementia found that...
Trump’s aid cuts halt crucial SA-led HIV vaccine trials
Critical South African-led HIV research, the outcome of which could affect millions of people worldwide, has been stopped in its tracks at a vital...
Medical journal editors should not bow to 'anti-gender ideology’
The news that on 31 January the Trump administration instructed scientists at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to withdraw or...
Scientists study man who defied predicted genetic Alzheimer’s
People who inherit one very rare gene mutation are virtually guaranteed to develop Alzheimer’s before they turn 50, but an American man has confused...
Genetic link flagged in West Africans’ high kidney disease risk
Kidney disease, leading to kidney failure, afflicts disproportionately more black people than white people, resulting in a huge burden of kidney healthcare costs among...
The dire consequences of silencing the ‘voice of CDC’
Donald Trump’s gagging of the publication of all health-related communication and documents, including the CDC’s critically important Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), poses...
Major study of 100 000 black women to probe cancer risks
When the VOICES of Black Women pilot study launched in 2023, its co-principal investigator Lauren McCullough, PhD, MSPH, was the first participant to sign...
UK group to be given malaria for research purposes
To find out more about the long-term effects of malaria, Oxford University scientists are sending perfectly healthy people to the Netherlands to be deliberately...
Global quest to find out how some survivors beat cancer
Doctors from more than 40 countries have begun the first global study of why some people with cancer beat the odds and survive so...
World’s largest protein study to revolutionise cancer, dementia tests
The world’s largest study of proteins circulating the human body will launch in the UK this month, with tens of millions of pounds in...
Global research breakthroughs in 2024
Last year stands out for a slew of important medical advances and research, from groundbreaking new benefits of weight-loss drugs to the impact of...
Milestone as pregnant women included in SA TB drug trial
Pregnant women are typically excluded from clinical trials of new tuberculosis medicines, leading to a lack of solid scientific evidence on how best to...
The power of repurposing old drugs
As Covid-19 evolved from an outbreak to a pandemic, researchers, clinicians, governments, and the public were all desperately seeking solutions – and from this,...
Doctor blames US politics for unpublished puberty blocker study
An influential doctor and advocate of adolescent gender treatments said she had not published a long-awaited study of puberty-blocking drugs because of the charged...
Lupus drug meets main goal of late-stage trial
An experimental lupus treatment has met the main goal of a late-stage trial in patients with the chronic disease, a surprise result after the...
Collaborative study on a quest to find Parkinson’s cure
A three-year research programme will investigate Parkinson’s disease in unprecedented detail, with the aim of discovering a cure for the condition.
The Landmark programme will...
Musk’s second patient gets brain implant chip
Just six months after the first implant, Elon Musk’s Neuralink has successfully implanted a chip into a second paralysed patient’s brain, the procedure having...
Wits professor gets £2m grant for Aids research
A Wits University medical microbiologist/epidemiologist in the School of Pathology was recently awarded one of seven five-year UK National Institute for Health and Care...
Lancet adds to dementia risk factors list
The Lancet Commission on dementia prevention, intervention, and care has increased to 14 the number of modifiable risk factors definitively linked to cognitive loss,...
Gene may be key to treating pancreatic cancer – UK study
Scientists may have pinpointed a gene they suggest could could be key to taming one of the world’s deadliest cancers – giving fresh hope...
NDoH looks to artificial intelligence in quest to combat TB
The National Department of Health is considering the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) to expedite the screening and diagnosis of TB and silicosis, after...
DNA technology may impede MDR-TB progress – SA Health Department
The National Department of Health plans to use DNA technology to test whether the genetic make-up of TB germs has changed in such a...
US launches 30-year study on black women and cancer
A long-term population study – which will track 100 000 women for three decades – has been started by the American Cancer Society (ACS),...
Scientists uncover cause of severe Covid lung disease
A recent study has shed light on the mystery of why, in some severe Covid-19 cases, the lungs undergo extreme damage, resulting in various...
Professor cancer-free after applying own research
An Australian pathologist who was diagnosed with brain cancer a year ago says his latest scans show no sign of his glioblastoma, which he...
Pfizer pauses study after boy’s death in Duchenne trial
A child has died in Pfizer’s phase 2 study of its gene therapy candidate for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, the rare genetic disorder that primarily...
New SAMRC chief aims to ‘restore trust in science’
Professor Ntobeko Ntusi, who takes over the hot seat at the South African Medical Research Council in July, may be soft-spoken but he is unafraid...
Personalised mRNA jab a 'game-changer' for cancer patients
The launch of patient trials involving the world’s first personalised mRNA cancer vaccine for melanoma has been welcomed by experts for its “game-changing” potential...
Blood test could ID unwitting TB carriers – global study
Scientists say they are close to developing a blood test that could identify millions of people who spread tuberculosis unknowingly, after discovering a group...
Afro-European partnership in quest to tackle AMR
Two major research partnerships convened in Johannesburg this week to present findings of antibiotic research and strengthen the global response to antimicrobial resistance, which...
Clinical trial reveals 'breakthrough' treatment options for MDR-TB
Clinical trial results presented at the Union World Conference on Lung Health in Paris last week provided evidence to support the use of four...
Common drug slashes risk of MDR-TB – SA-led study
A cheap, commonly available antibiotic pill halves the risk of people exposed to drug-resistant TB from contracting the particularly deadly strain of the disease,...
Scientists grow human embryo model without sperm or egg
Scientists have grown an entity that closely resembles an early human embryo, without using sperm, eggs or a womb, describing it as the first...
Even mild Covid reduces sperm counts – Spanish study
Men recently infected with Covid-19 have decreased sperm counts for more than three months after even mild infections, and the sperm they that do produce is...
Race versus skin tone debate in resolving pulse oximeters' false readings
Physicians and government regulators are increasingly aware that pulse oximeters measure oxygen levels less accurately in patients with darker skin. But the issue with...