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Talking Points
SA’s Health minister and opposition MP slug it out over forensic failures
The operation of the national Health Department’s Forensic Chemistry Laboratories (FCL) has developed into a fiery exchange of public statements between Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi and the Democratic Alliance (DA) MP Wilmot James after the opposition MP was denied access to the Durban FCL.Why outlandish HIV/Aids beliefs persist
Few diseases have had a greater education effort poured into them than HIV/Aids. So why, writes Professor David Dickinson, a sociologist at Wits University, after almost 30 years of public health messages do alternative, non-scientific explanations of Aids continue to circulate?
Experimental drugs causing concern
A new wave of experimental cancer drugs that directly recruit the immune system's powerful T cells are proving to be immensely effective weapons against tumours. But top oncology researchers are concerned, citing dangers seen repeatedly in clinical trials.
Cape Town wants clarity on e-cigarettes
Cape Town says it will escalate its efforts for legislative clarity on the wide range of alternative smoking devices and habits that have become commonplace in SA, including the use of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), reports Business Day. Meanwhile, The New York Times reports that initial public enthusiasm for e-cigarettes is waning among health and quality concerns.UK debates ‘three-parent’ IVF regulation
Controversial British regulations effectively legalising so-called ‘three-parent’ IVF babies are expected to be debated and voted on by MPs before the general election, and could even be passed within weeks, despite safety concerns.
The Tests…
1. The 'alcohol abuser' test…
Answering yes to just two questions – Do you regularly have more than six drinks in one sitting? Do you...
New ‘right to end life’ debate rages in Britain
Terminally ill patients should be provided with the professional equivalent of midwives to help ease the pain and suffering and if necessary shorten the...
Controversial ‘certificate of need’ legislation on hold
The South African national Department of Health has postponed its controversial plans to regulate where doctors work, saying it needs more time to craft...
Ban on hand-shaking
Sweaty palms, vice-like grips or the insufferable limp hand may be the least of your hand-shaking worries, reports BBC News. Scientists at Aberystwyth University...
More and more Americans consuming cannabis
More Americans are consuming cannabis as their perception of the health risks declines, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (Undoc) said, suggesting liberalisation...
Antibiotics and ‘superbugs’
Intensive care spec ialist Professor Guy Richards has waded into the antibiotics controversy saying that it is a myth that you have to complete...
NHA ‘social engineering'
Using the National Health Act for social engineering was like ‘using a panga for plastic surgery … the results are likely to please neither...
CAMS rules ‘draconian'
SA’s new complementary and alternative medicines (Cams) regulations are draconian, misleading and insulting. Leon Louw, executive director of the Free Market Foundation says in...
Job losses in medicine
Last year, Associated Press attempted to figure out which jobs were being lost to new technology. The Guardian reports that after analysing employment data...
PoTS findings
A debilitating and poorly understood health condition which causes the heart rate to accelerate rapidly upon standing up, predominantly affects young, well educated women,...
Measles at no-vax high
Measles cases have hit a 20-year high in the US, a troubling increase fuelled by international travel by people who have not been vaccinated...
Alternative medicines battle
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi and the Medicines Control Council have been served papers challenging the validity of regulations seeking proof that alternative medicines are...
Tanning bed regulation
The US Food and Drug Administration is strengthening its regulation of tanning beds, which have been shown to increase the risk of skin cancer....
Laser light for stem cells
Scientists have come up with a bright idea of using laser light to entice the body’s own stem cells into action – a discovery...
Plastic surgeons can claim
Plastic surgeons who have removed Poly Implant Prosthesis (PIP) breast implants from women because of their high rupture rate, may institute their own claims...
Health and fitness wristband
Samsung Electronics has moved deeper into the wearable technology market, unveiling a wristband that it claims can give a range of real-time health and...
Experimenting on the dying
A Bill that would allow doctors to experiment on dying patients has won overwhelming support from the UK public, reports The Independent. The Medical...
Ignorance and MDR-TB
Medical science is in danger of losing the fight against multiple drug-resistant TB (MDR-TB because too many doctors are prescribing the wrong medication or...
Concern over TB
The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa is concerned about the rate of TB infection among health workers. The organisation’s TB project coordinator, Kedibone...
Medical scheme fraud
Discovery Health has sounded the alarm about fraud in the medical schemes industry, which it estimates to cost SA between R8.22bn and R43.2bn, based...
Biosecurity debate reignites
Controversial ongoing experiments on mutant viruses could put human lives in danger by unleashing an accidental pandemic. The Guardian reports that epidemiologists at Harvard...
John Marshall hits headlines
John Marshall is an eminent British eye expert and the professor of ophthalmology at the University College London Institute of Ophthalmology. He has hit...
Ethics of silence
The University of Utah is ‘testing the presumption that IVF clinics deliver babies who are the biological children of their clients’, reports BioEdge. This...
Questions of over-prescription
Following a review at European level, Motilium, also known as domperidone – prescribed to around 2m people for sickness and nausea symptoms, stomach conditions...
Reviews on Tamiflu
The British Medical Journal’s Trish Groves reviews the spec ialised media’s response to the Cochrane reviews on Tamiflu and Relenza, drawing on New Scientist,...
UK standards stump half of foreign doctors
A study by University College London (UCL) has found that half of 88,000 foreign doctors would not be able to practise in the UK...
Studies highlight NHS problems
A number of studies, meanwhile, have highlighted problems in the NHS, which has become ‘stretched to breaking point’, according to an OECD study which...
Debate over Tamiflu
See FOCUS section opposite
Listen to the PODCAST from the British Medical Journal of the press conference regarding the Cochrane Collaboration’s findings on Tamiflu's efficacy.
Mathematics of cancer
Dr Robert Gatenby at Tampa’s Moffitt Cancer Centre has assembled mathematicians and oncologists to tame the chaos of cancer. By mathematically modelling cancer, they...
Renal denervation therapy
Some leading US and European cardiologists are calling for curbs or even a moratorium on using devices meant to lower blood pressure by zapping...
Homeoppathy slated
Homeopathy is no more effective than a placebo, according to an extensive study by a peak science body, reports The Guardian. The draft paper...
Cooked breakfast – with a side order of statins
As the home of cooked breakfasts and pints of beer, it is perhaps no surprise that Britain is the European king of anti-cholesterol drugs...
A super drug — at a super price
Sovaldi, a new drug to treat hepatitis C and approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in December, is a big advance, writes...
Govt dietary advice deserves a Health Warning
Consumers have already had ‘a bitter taste of how hopelessly misleading’ nutritional orthodoxy can be, writes nutritionist and author Joanna Blythman in The Observer,...
Calls for ‘sat-fats are good’ paper to be retracted
When a paper published on 17 March questioned whether fats from fish or vegetable oils are healthier than those in meat or butter, it...