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Talking Points
Risky and costly business of breaking patients' legs to make them taller
The procedure can cost £80 000 – but increasing numbers of people are putting themselves through painful leg lengthening surgery, with the demand for...
Large mental health study finds 21% of SA students have symptoms of PTSD
In one of the largest national student mental health surveys in the world and the first study of its kind in South Africa, researchers...
Selfless doctors should be rewarded, not punished, for doing their jobs
Administrators at public hospitals need to be taken to task for being the biggest obstacle to people accessing healthcare, but instead, it’s the healthcare...
After COVID: amnesty or accountability for pandemic policies?
God help us when, not if, there is another infectious disease outbreak on the scale of COVID-19, writes Jaundiced Eye columnist William Saunderson-Meyer in...
Cellphones and brain cancer – do we still need to worry?
While the flurry of anxiety and research related to cellphones and possible links to brain cancer, appears to have largely dissipated, with the COVID-19...
New Health MEC's plan to reclaim Gauteng public healthcare
The position of MEC for Health in Gauteng is one of the most important, and probably one of the toughest public sector health jobs...
Pre-authorisation ‘hassle factor’ throttles medical aid members
The laborious, time-consuming red-tape and bureaucracy that’s often involved in obtaining medical scheme permission to admit a patient to hospital can be frustrating and...
Obstetric violence must be recognised as endemic in SA
South African women are finally speaking out about abuse suffered at the hands of healthcare workers while giving birth, recounting horrific stories of appalling...
SA men’s mental health increasingly fragile
Some headlines stay etched into my mind long after reading them. Lately, two have been swimming around in my subconscious and, although they seem...
New MEC to tackle multiple crises, but lacks health credentials
Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko has been appointed as the new MEC for Health and Wellness in Gauteng as the department faces multiple crises, despite having no...
Add human rights to your resume – UN Special Rapporteur on right to health
When doctors treat women as people, rather than a collection of organs and ailments, the practice of medicine can be a powerful tool to...
Polio may never be eradicated, say experts
The global endgame for polio has long been eradication, but recent events worldwide have raised questions about whether that goal can be achieved, experts...
Do we need another COVID-19 booster vaccine?
Many countries are starting to roll out another booster of the COVID-19 vaccine but, with public interest waning and a sense of normalcy firmly...
Cost and uncertainty over uptake bedevil Africa’s uptake of injectable PrEp
PrEp – pre-exposure prophylaxis – is the most promising HIV prevention yet in the history of the Aids epidemic, writes Stephanie Nolan of The...
Battling insomnia? Stop trying so hard, says sleep expert
There are millions of people worldwide who have “tried everything” to get more sleep, but as sleep coach Camilla Stoddart advises in The Guardian,...
Multiple chemical sensitivity – a diagnosis of exclusion?
When I started medical school, the formaldehyde-based solutions used to embalm the cadavers in the human anatomy labs would cause my nose to burn...
Africa bears the brunt of antimicrobial-resistant bacterial infections
Nearly 1.3m people die annually because of antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) bacterial infections, with Africa bearing the greatest burden of deaths. Collectively, these numbers suggest that...
Time toxicity and its negative effect on cancer patients
Cancer care devours hours on the clock: travelling to the cancer centre, sitting in waiting rooms and dealing with adverse events and other problems,...
Destroying millions of COVID jabs proof of mistakes and mismanagement
The government’s plans to destroy 8.5m COVID-19 Pfizer vaccine doses at the end of October cast a damning spotlight on how the country’s vaccination...
Scientists warn of hidden crisis as suicides potentially linked to long COVID
Several scientists from organisations, including the US National Institutes of Health and Britain’s data-collection agency, are beginning to study a potential link following evidence...
Stone Age surgical find shows limb amputation from 31 000 years ago
In an extraordinary find, the earliest known evidence of a successful surgery was discovered in the skeletal remains of a young adult who lived...
‘Junk’ plant-based diets pose health risks
Plant-based diets are growing in popularity for their many health benefits, including lower risks of heart disease and type 2 diabetes – but some...
‘Doctors should tell people with terminal cancer that they are dying’ – US medic
I have worn many hats professionally, the most uncomfortable being “doctor friend”. At best, it’s a request for a recommendation for a gynaecologist or...
Cheap, over-the-counter codeine fuels SA schoolchildren’s addiction
South Africans youngsters have found a new high: it’s cheap and easily accessible over the counter, but is costing them dearly, write Zano Kunene,...
Cut link between political leaders and managers to save health service
The way South Africa’s health sector is governed leaves hospitals exposed to corruption. Hospital chief executive officers (CEOs) are political appointments, and so are...
Time to take the reins from politicians to fix SA’s health crisis
South Africa’s public health system is imploding, with stories of hospital failure so common they no longer evoke a public response. But that’s cold...
Growing pains: is there evidence that the medical condition exists, or is it folk medicine?
The catch-all phrase for random pains that children and teens have is so common that it even inspired the name of a 1980s sitcom....
What SA should use as a bargaining chip for drugs trialled in this country
If you test it here, it must be made available here at a reasonable price, write Claire Waterhouse and Lebohang Kobola for Bhekisisa Centre...
Medical gaslighting – it’s real, and affects mainly women, say physicians
Research published in the Medical Journal of Australia 2020 says that between 8% and 15% of all hospital admissions in the US are the...
Unproven Ivermectin resurfaces as treatment for long COVID patients
Michigan’s Dean Fritzemeier (52) got COVID in October 2020, and his life since then has been weighed down by the virus. He’s permanently tired,...
Cervical cancer self-screening the answer to reduce fatalities
Cervical cancer is preventable, but in South Africa, many people are diagnosed when it’s too late to stop the disease from becoming fatal. However,...
WHO declares monkeypox a global health emergency
Children are the latest victims to have been affected by the monkeypox outbreak, with one California toddler and another infant who is not an...
White children likely to be over-diagnosed, over-treated for ADHD – US study
White children are especially likely to be over-diagnosed and over-treated for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) during elementary school, according to a key finding from our...
Impact of obstetric violence on young doctors learning to deliver babies
South Africa doesn’t yet have any laws that would make obstetric violence a criminal offence, but calls for it to be considered are starting...
‘Dry needling’ and acupuncture: what’s the difference, what’s the evidence?
Physiotherapists are increasingly offering needling therapies in addition to their standard care. Many in private practice now offer dry needling or Western medical acupuncture...
Separating the benefits of nicotine from the harms of smoking
Smoking causes cancer and nicotine improves mood. So guess which the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will seek to ban under a sweeping...
Time for drug law reform in SA
South Africa’s system of prohibitory drug laws is a hypocrite, writes Paul-Michael Keichel in Mail & Guardian, and here's the smoking gun.
We’re all aware...
Polio virus discovery shows we can't let guard down
British health authorities are urgently investigating a rare polio virus discovery in sewage samples in London, potentially putting the UK's polio-free status at risk...
NHI a case of 'multiple impossibilities'
With no proposed funding model for the multi-billion rand National Health Insurance (NHI) yet on the table, and an endless list of financial burdens...
Re-imagining medicine’s future with the help of digital technology
Will artificial intelligence (AI) mean the end of some health professionals? Professor Tshilidzi Marwala, vice-chancellor and principal of the University of Johannesburg (UJ), writes...