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Charles Shey Wiysonge, Stellenbosch University The BCG vaccine for TB has been used for 100 years. It is largely effective for children under five, but less so in older people and can’t be used on patients who have certain medical conditions. Today we’re the closest we’ve ever been to discovering a vaccine that might replace or complement it. Charles Shey Wiysonge, the World Health Organization’s Regional Adviser for Immunisation, discusses the latest developments in the fight against one of the world’s deadliest diseases. Why has it taken so long? We do not yet have a new vaccine for TB. But, for the first time, there are several vaccine candidates that are at advanced stages of clinical development. Vaccine development usually takes decades and unfolds step by step. Experimental vaccine candidates are created in the laboratory and tested in animals before moving into progressively larger human clinical trials. Clinical trials are
Lerato Mthunzi, Health and Allied Workers Indaba Trade Union (HAITU) General Secretary October is mental health awareness month and as it draws to an end, a few key issues must be highlighted to make this month less of a ritualistic procession filled with lofty rhetoric, yet minimal action. South Africa is a nation affected by high levels of mental illness. It is important to deal meaningfully with the serious issue of mental illness. In 2022, the MRC/Wits Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit (DPHRU) released a paper titled, “The prevalence of probable depression and probable anxiety, and the associations with adverse childhood experiences and socio-demographics: A National Survey in South Africa”. The report found that more than a quarter of South Africans suffer from “probable depression”. These alarming statistics are of grave concern, and it should force us to recognise that this is a crisis which deserves our attention all
Mmamapudi Kubjane, University of the Witwatersrand and Leigh Johnson, University of Cape Town Around the world, men are more likely to get TB and to die from it than women. We recently conducted research to establish the various factors that explain higher rates of TB among men in South Africa. South Africa is ranked among the top six countries contributing to 60% of the global burden of TB. Our main finding was that men are 70% more likely to develop TB and die from the disease, compared to women. We estimated that in 2019, 801 per 100,000 adult men developed TB while among women the rate was 478 per 100,000. Current TB interventions focus on biomedical approaches emphasising preventive TB medication, diagnosing TB patients and treating them with anti-TB drugs. Our research demonstrates, however, that dealing with socioeconomic conditions and other determinants of TB is also important. Men’s access to
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Jane Battersby, University of Cape Town and Gareth Haysom, University of Cape Town DISCLAIMER: This is an old piece from 2018, but which still holds relevance. Our News Editor Ina Skosana was previously at The Conversation Africa. Owners of small shops in South Africa – in most cases foreigners – have been accused of stocking counterfeit food and food that’s past its sell-by date. The issue has been caught up in xenophobic violence, with shop owners targeted by South Africans . There is very little hard data about what’s referred to as “fake food” in both the formal and informal sectors. This means the issue is politically charged and dominated by opinions, not evidence. The Conversation Africa’s Ina Skosana asked Jane Battersby-Lennard and Gareth Haysom to unpack this issue. What is counterfeit food? There are many different kinds of counterfeiting. Not all pose a risk to consumers, though some clearly
Glenda Gray, South African Medical Research Council South African-born Professor Hoosen “Jerry” Coovadia, renowned academic and prominent anti-apartheid activist, passed away on 4 October. As a paediatrician I was privileged to know and work with him over two decades. Prior to that I knew him when we were both health activists in apartheid South Africa. In 2019 Coovadia was profiled in the leading health academic journal, The Lancet, as an icon in South African health. The profile described him as the “Nelson Mandela of health”. This was in tribute to his dedication to ameliorating the diseases that afflicted children of South Africa, like malnutrition, measles and HIV, and his role in health activism. In 2014, in my capacity as the president of the South African Medical Research Council, I was honoured to award him the SAMRC Presidential Award in recognition of his life-long work in child health, his impact in
Primrose Freestone, University of Leicester Every year, around 2.4 million people in the UK get food poisoning – mostly from viral or bacterial contamination. Most people recover within a few days without treatment, but not all are that lucky. As a microbiologist, I’m probably more acutely aware of the risk of food-borne infections than most. Here are some of the things I look out for. Eating outdoors I rarely eat alfresco – whether picnics or barbecues – as the risk of food poisoning goes up when food is taken outdoors. Keeping your hands clean when handling food is key to not getting sick, but how often do you find hot running water and soap in a park or on a beach? You can use alcohol hand gels (they’re better than nothing), but they don’t kill all germs. Also, food tends to attract an array of flying and crawling critters, such
David Martin Shaw, University of Basel; Philip Lewis, University of Cologne, and Thomas C. Erren, University of Cologne We expect medical professionals to give us reliable information about ourselves and potential treatments so that we can make informed decisions about which (if any) medicine or other intervention we need. If your doctor instead “bullshits” you (yes – this term has been used in academic publications to refer to persuasion without regard for truth, and not as a swear word) under the deception of authoritative medical advice, the decisions you make could be based on faulty evidence and may result in harm or even death. Bullshitting is distinct from lying – liars do care about the truth and actively try to conceal it. Indeed bullshitting can be more dangerous than an outright lie. Fortunately, of course, doctors don’t tend to bullshit – and if they did there would be, one hopes,
Mpho Matlakale Molete, University of the Witwatersrand, School of Oral Health Sciences & Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) Graduate. Oral health is a vital part of overall health and well-being, but it is often ignored or neglected. Neglecting oral health can have serious consequences for physical and mental health, including tooth decay and gum disease. In South Africa schoolchildren are particularly susceptible to tooth decay because of factors such as limited access to dental care, a lack of oral hygiene knowledge, and high sugar consumption. It is therefore essential to address these challenges and improve oral health among this population group. A survey done in Ehlanzeni district in Mpumalanga found that almost half of the participating children had active tooth decay in 2012. Another study in the Western Cape found levels of tooth decay among this population of over 70%. Nationally estimates of tooth decay among children are
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Yogan Pillay, Stellenbosch University and Madhukar Pai, McGill University For centuries, we have known that tuberculosis is a social disease. It thrives on poverty and social factors such as malnutrition, poor housing, overcrowding, unsafe work environments and stigma. Globally in 2021 an estimated 2.2 million cases of TB were attributable to undernourishment, 0.86 million to HIV infection, 0.74 million to alcohol use disorders, 0.69 million to smoking and 0.37 million to diabetes. But knowledge about social determinants alone does not always translate into tangible action and progress. A new trial in India, called RATIONS, aimed to determine the effect of nutritional supplementation on new cases of tuberculosis in households of adults with pulmonary TB. The research found that providing food baskets to people with TB and their households could go a long way to prevent and mitigate the disease. No easy silver bullets The TB community has typically looked for
Written by Dave Chambers for Jive Media Africa, research communications partner to GIFT A South African innovation designed to screen for inflammation associated with HIV infections and improve women’s sexual and reproductive health has been manufactured and has entered its first in-field clinical studies. Almost 700 women will be involved in the validation of the Genital Inflammation Test (GIFT) developed at the University of Cape Town (UCT). GIFT is the focus of an international collaboration of almost exclusively female scientists led by Professor Jo-Ann Passmore of UCT and Dr Lindi Masson, originally of UCT, but now of the Burnet Institute in Australia. The trial development includes a partnership with Cape Town biotechnology company Medical Diagnostech under the leadership of Ashley Uys and Lyndon Mungar. GIFT intends to be a low-cost rapid test to detect vaginal inflammation, one of the biggest drivers of HIV risk in young women. It is often