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Talking Points
Women in science ask fewer conference questions than men
Stereotypes suggest that women love to talk, with some studies even finding that women say three times as much as men. But, research from...
Outrage over 'disinterested' Mugabe's WHO appointment justified — columnist
Typhoid and cholera are never far from the headlines in Zimbabwe, writes Dianna Games, CEO of Africa @ Work in a Business Day column. She...
Mugabe's brief appointment as WHO ambassador may have been quid pro quo
Kerry Cullinan, managing editor of Health-e News writes that she has been trying to understand why World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus...
UK refuses inquiry into a 'health scandal worse than thalidomide'
The UK government has refused to hold a public inquiry into the use of vaginal mesh implants which medical experts have described as a...
Sugar tax is not the only solution to SA's obesity crisis
Obesity threatens us with an alarming and bizarre statistic: within the next four years the number of obese people on the planet could outnumber...
Nerve stimulation restores some consciousness after 15 years of PVS
A 35-year-old man who had been in a persistent vegetative state (PVS) for 15 years has shown signs of consciousness after receiving a pioneering...
Be wary of medical messiahs with promises of salvation
Scientific pioneer, superstar surgeon, miracle worker – that’s how Paolo Macchiarini was known for several years. Dressed in a white lab coat or in...
‘Oversight failures and greed’ drive SA’s medical litigation explosion
SA public sector medical malpractice claims often stem from 'failures of management and oversight of clinical care, while the in the private sector, greed...
Regulation 8: An access guarantee or a blank cheque?
It is time to curb excessive costs, before it kills both the private health sector and the country’s medical schemes, writes Susan Erasmus on Fin24....
Health Department: 'Innuendo? What innuendo?'
The National Department of Health has defended a She Conquers campaign billboard next to the N1 in Johannesburg after accusations that it contained sexual...
Fury from LGBT rights groups over facial recognition study
A facial recognition experiment that claims to be able to distinguish between gay and heterosexual people has sparked a row between its creators and...
Indian doctors hurl abuse at each other in operating theatre
Two doctors have been caught on video hurling abuse at each other inside an Indian operating theatre as they conducted an emergency C-section which...
NICE guidelines on endometriosis: Diagnosis will improve, treatment won't
The UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s new guidelines on endometriosis will be transformative in enabling women to circumvent years of unnecessary suffering, writes...
SA challenged to face 'hard truths' on drug abuse prejudices – Global Commission
South Africa has taken a lead in the HIV response, but HIV won’t be overcome until the country faces some hard truths about drug...
New studies show critical impact of behaviour on dementia risk
17A wealth of new data, assembled in a Lancet Commission report, suggests that behaviour can have a significant impact on the risk of getting...
Disembowelling SA's private healthcare system
"Health tourism" by African leaders has been criticised by South Africa’s health minister. While the self-serving hypocrisy of leaders who have destroyed their countries’...
Uptake of healthcare mediation is slow, but Gauteng Health launches pilot project
Although the take up of healthcare mediation has been slow, the SA Medico-Legal Association (Samla) has announced that Gauteng Health will go ahead with a proposal...
Claims that sugar as addictive as cocaine described as 'absurd'
A review in the British Journal of Sports Medicine suggesting that sugar should be considered an addictive substance, and could even be on a...
Concerns that the NHI could be 'captured' by powerful vested interests
The shaping of SA's proposed National Health Insurance will be dominated by powerful groups with vested interests in health care: the corporate private sector, technocrats, and...
Pill fatigue, dating and mental health when HIV+
Professor Francois Venter, the deputy executive director, at the Wits Institute for Sexual & Reproductive Health HIV and Related Diseases writes in Spotlight on...
Gene-edited piglets opening door to animal organ transplants
In a striking advance that helps open the door to organ transplants from animals, researchers have created gene-edited piglets cleansed of viruses that might...
NHS ends funding of homeopathic and herbal medicines
Homeopathic and herbal remedies will no longer be funded under the British National Health Service because they are a 'misuse of scarce funds' University...
The death of Charlie Gard leaves a legacy of thorny questions
Charlie Gard, the incurably ill British infant who died recently, could not hear, see or even cry. But, reports The New York Times, his...
The ‘clean eating’ movement is 'ugly, malevolent and damaging'
At best, the "clean eating" fad is nonsense dressed up as health advice, writes a British eating disorder expert Dr Max Pemberton in an...
Controversial movement raises questions about treatment of those 'hearing voices'
A growing but controversial international movement raises fundamental questions about what it means to be mentally ill, reports StatNews. The question at the heart...
Helping doctors face the uncomfortable task of discussing death
Faced with the uncomfortable task of discussing death, the overwhelming majority of doctors avoid the topic, reports Stat News. In response, US advocates for improving...
FDA panel recommends approval for gene-altering leukaemia treatment
A US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) panel has opened a new era in medicine, unanimously recommending that the agency approve the first-ever treatment...
Pet therapy races far ahead of scientific evidence – experts
A therapy-animal trend grips the US, reports The Washington Post.Tthe trend, which has accelerated hugely since its initial stirrings a few decades ago, is...
US dentists come under scrutiny over their power to stifle competition
The American Dental Association is a political force 'so unified, so relentless and so thoroughly woven into US communities that its clout rivals that of the...
NHI White Paper proposes 'effective nationalisation without compensation' of private healthcare
The recently released National Health Insurance (NHI) White Paper ignores the fundamentals of competition and choice, writes Mike Settas, director of health insurer KaeloXelus. Among...
Trump's international health aid cuts could result in 1m deaths
At least 1m people will die in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere, The New York Times reports researchers and advocates said, if funding cuts proposed...
Depression over-diagnosis because GPs 'too reliant' on Pfizer questionnaire
Depression is being overdiagnosed because GPs are too reliant on a questionnaire designed by Pfizer, which also manufacturers psychiatric drugs, campaigners argue in The...
Medical 'voluntourism' in Tanzania: Some help does cause harm
The international medical volunteer placement industry opens the door to potentially disastrous outcomes, writes Noel Sullivan in Scientific American. Sullivan, a member of the faculty...
Facebook censors page on abortion pills
Facebook has refused to publish the page of an organisation that helps women obtain abortion pills, citing its policy against the ‘promotion or encouragement...
Is talking to yourself a sign of mental illness?
Talking out loud, when the mind is not wandering, could actually be a sign of high cognitive functioning, writes a neuro-psychologist in The Conversation. Rather...
New research is driving down unnecessary prostate biopsies
The field of prostate cancer scanning is 'on fire', says Canadian researcher Dr Laurence Klotz, as researchers worldwide compete to develop advanced imaging as a...
Social media is an ethical minefield for SA doctors
The Health Professions Council of SA should 'develop social media guidelines and train medical trainers in this specific area', writes Dr Brenda Kubheka of...
The adults who won't let go of their paediatricians
Despite the American Academy of Pediatrics recommending that the age for ending paediatric care be no later than 21, there are adults who, for...
The CEO of HIV's lonely and controversial fight
Michael Weinstein’s AIDS Healthcare Foundation treats an enormous number of patients — and makes an enormous amount of money, writes The New York Times Magazine. It has...
Why polio research still matters
In the decades since Dr Jonas Salk developed the first polio vaccine, the highly infectious childhood disease is now close to global eradication. Author...