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Talking Points
Not guilty verdict ‘huge relief’ for entire profession – Peter Beale
Former paediatric surgeon Peter Beale (78) – recently found not guilty of murder, culpable homicide and fraud in the deaths of three children on...
No time to lose to address Pepfar crisis
The South African government – with civil society – has the potential to turn the Pepfar funding crisis into an opportunity to reassess urgent...
US stands to lose from funding cuts for top-notch SA research
There are severe criticisms to be made of US foreign aid. It is often wasteful and almost always very bureaucratic. It sometimes serves sinister...
Kennedy, the Manto Tshabalala-Msimang of the United States
The US Senate has confirmed as Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy, a science denialist who once said there is no vaccine that is safe...
Getting to the bottom of cancer rise among young people
The sharp increase in cancer diagnoses among young adults is alarming the medical profession, with scientists intensifying their efforts to determine what’s driving the...
SA should prepare for 'worst case scenario' after Trump cuts
South Africa’s National Department of Health is still to outline a contingency plan to deal with America’s 90-day funding freeze on foreign aid programmes....
Why I think weight loss drugs are not the answer – US obesity expert
While many of us saw the new weight loss drugs as a long-awaited medical breakthrough, obesity specialist Christopher McGowan is having second thoughts, believing...
The Lancet stands up for health in face of Trump onslaught
Withdrawal from WHO and the Paris Agreements. USAID shuttered and aid halted, ceasing health programmes globally. A freeze on $3trn worth of federal grants...
When is sex determined? Trump has no conception, say experts
Medical experts have branded President Donald Trump’s executive order claiming that a person’s sex is decided “at conception” as “strange” and “wrong”, saying that...
Time to rename some cancers?
Cancer terminology hasn't changed much over recent decades, but some experts say it's time for that to change, notes MedicalBrief.
In 2012, the US National...
Health warnings about alcohol give only half the story
Are alcohol harm warnings now becoming over-the-top? As the evidence of alcohol’s harms has piled up, the public-health messages have become starker. The WHO says flatly...
Proposed community service Bill a double-edged sword
The DA intends to propose legislation allowing healthcare professionals to do community service and internships in private hospitals. But such a legislative change risks...
Confronting ageism among healthcare professionals
With people now living longer and the number of older people projected to grow, attitudes about old people need to change, including among healthcare...
Laws should protect doctors who say sorry
An apology should never be seen as an admission of liability, writes Medical Protection’s South Africa lead Dr Graham Howarth.
In response to an article...
Lessons for SA from Sweden's path to a smoke-free society?
Sweden has become the first country in Europe to become smoke-free, writes Ivo Vegter in Daily Friend, who suggests South Africa should rather follow...
Study debunks theory of black babies' risks with white doctors
Black babies in America are more than twice as likely to die before their first birthday than white babies. This shocking statistic has barely changed...
Remembering the humanity of physicians
Physicians need to set up a system of care to support well-being, reduce burnout and help fellow physicians deal with the pressures, and create...
Medical influencers come with serious side effects
Gone are the days when most people instinctively trusted medical doctors – whom they looked up to as omniscient characters with power over life...
Troubling ethics and morals of medical schemes
In a scathing column in Politics Web, William Saunderson-Meyer slams some of the practices of private medical schemes and what he described as their...
Private sector not always better for quality healthcare
The strengths of both the private and the public sector need to be considered and a balanced approach to “care” adopted to help deliver...
Evergreen patents deny healthcare rights to South Africans
A Competition Commission probe recently resulted in a patent on an important TB medicine being dropped in South Africa. Twenty years ago, a similar...
Déjà vu global response to mpox
African countries affected by the latest mpox outbreak are racing to mobilise funds and urgently deploy medical countermeasures, including vaccines, as cases continue to...
Unequal eye health services calls for urgent state intervention
Despite South Africa producing a substantial number of trained optometrists, most of them work in the private sector and in urban areas, an imbalance...
Urgent global action needed stop Mpox pandemic
Experts have appealed to the international community for help in controlling the deadly strain of the mpox virus that is rapidly spreading across Africa’s...
SA ripe with potential for medical tourism growth
With millions of dollars being spent on medical tourism around the globe, and particularly within the favoured top destinations, there is huge potential for...
Mythical, misleading detox wellness claims are fooling millions
The misconception that we can purify our bodies – that cleanses, juice fasts, supplements and sauna sessions can detoxify us - is among the...
Another band-aid for Life Esidimeni
The inquest judgment on the deaths as a result of the Life Esidimeni tragedy was finally delivered last week, but, writes Jaundiced Eye columnist...
Eight steps to get SA's health sector right
The national healthcare system suffers from widespread problems in its governance, with a number of indicators pointing to this dysfunction. These include the large...
'Misleading' BMJ paper on Covid excess mortality must be retracted – experts
Medical experts are calling for the retraction of a paper recently published in BMJ Public Health – and reported in MedicalBrief – citing not...
Aussie Health minister's concern over chiropractic spinal manipulation of babies
New guidelines by Australia’s Chiropractic Board have been criticised by the country’s Health minister, who has demanded an urgent explanation for why practitioners are...
‘The problem with the National Academies’ long Covid report’: US expert
Overly broad criteria for long Covid won’t help patients in the long run, argues Dr Leonard Jason in Medpage Today, after the US National...
Gender-affirming healthcare matters in SA
Gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youth has sparked intense debate globally. In South Africa, we need to significantly improve accessibility countrywide, ensure services are well-resourced,...
Covid link to aggressive rare cancers, suggest scientists
Increasingly, scientists are suggesting that the proliferation of aggressive cancers – including previously very rare forms of the disease – since the Covid-19 pandemic...
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 National Academies' report underscores severity of long Covid
One of America’s premier medical advisory organisations has weighed in on long Covid with a 265-page report that recognises the seriousness and persistence of...
SA's rollout of HIV prevention jabs stymied by price
Although HIV infections in South Africa have plummeted in 20 years, from highs of more than 500 00 to around 149 000 in 2023, new...
Cass Review slammed by transgender associations
The Cass Review on transgender healthcare will leave young transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people with little opportunity to obtain transgender care, breaching their...
Harsh medical toll of ‘white’ beauty standards
After the 2022 publication of the NIH’s 10-year epidemiological study linking hair-straightening products to uterine cancer, thousands of black women filed lawsuits alleging companies had sold hair...
How systemic racism in medicine may risk black lives
Across the world, medical tests are being adjusted according to patients’ skin colour – with shocking consequences, writes Layal Liverpool, a science writer, who,...
Politics and science a bad mix, says former ombud
Universal health coverage is one of the hottest issues parties are using in their election arsenal in the run-up to voting day, but academic,...