Health e News

Strategic Plan for the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases 2013-17

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading causes of mortality globally, causing more deaths than all other causes combined, and they strike hardest at the world’s low and middle-income populations.

Palliative care for women living with HIV

This report by the African Palliative Care Association discusses the benefits of palliative care for women living with HIV and provides some case studies of real women who have had experience of palliative care.

Palliative care for women living with HIV and cervical cancer

Published by the African Palliative Care Association, this booklet is intended to help women living with HIV as well as cancer of the cervix, their families and others in the community who support them.

Using opioids to manage pain – A pocket guide for health professionals

Produced by the African Palliative Care Association, the guide includes evidence‐based information on the use of opioids in the management of pain in patients with cancer and other illnesses.

Death and Dying in the Eastern Cape

Released by public interest organization Section27 and the Treatment Action Campaign, the report details the state of Eastern Cape public health services.

Eastern Cape clinics face widespread shortages

Pilani Clinic is often the first point of care for patients from the Eastern Cape’s Coffee Bay area but it is often not their last as systemic shortages fuel a referral system that is costing patient lives and money.

Mthatha hospital maternity ward horror

When Lindeka arrived at Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital in Mthatha she had already miscarried her baby but the horror of what happened next only added to her trauma.

1 in 4 coloured men die of smoking

Coloured South Africans are more likely to die due to smoking than black or white South Africans, according to an article published today [Friday] that shows one in four coloured men die of smoking.

Teens more likely to light up if parents smoked

Teens are more likely to light up if their parents ever smoked – even before they were born – compared to children whose parents have always been non-smokers, according to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics. The research further revealed that having an older brother or sister who smoke also raises the odds that a teen will pick up the habit. “These findings imply that any amount of smoking could have important influences on the next generation,” said lead researcher Mike Vuolo from Purdue University in the United States. “Given the influence on the oldest siblings, this is especially the case in heavy-smoking households.” Vuolo and co-author, Jeremy Staff from Pennsylvania State University, analysed data from a multigenerational study that followed participants from 1988, when they just went to high school, through to 2011. The study looked at 214 participants who are now-parents, and 314 of their children

Emergency Medical Services a problem in Mgungundlovu, Public Protector told

MEDIA STATEMENT: Transportation and emergency care for the ill have emerged as key problems in KwaZulu-Natal’s Mgungundlovu District, with the area’s Emergency Medical Service coming under heavy criticism during Public Protector Adv. Thuli Madonsela’s visit to Pietermaritzburg on Tuesday.

No-smoking law leads to fewer ambulance calls

When smoking was banned from casinos in Colorado in the United States, ambulance calls to casinos in the area dropped about 20 percent, according to research reported in the American Heart Association journal Circulation. The drop in calls from casinos was similar to drops in ambulance calls from elsewhere two years earlier when Colorado banned smoking everywhere but casinos. How did the smoking ban lead to a reduction in ambulance calls? Partially by eliminating exposure to secondhand smoke, said Stanton Glantz, PhD, the study’s lead author. “Inhaling secondhand smoke increases the chances of blood clots than can block arteries and makes it more difficult for arteries to expand properly, changes that can trigger heart attacks,” said Glantz, director of the Centre for Tobacco Control Research and Education and professor of medicine in the division of cardiology at the University of California, San Francisco. “The calls may also have decreased due

Great-grandmother’s smoking can give you asthma

Maternal smoking can cause the third generation of offspring to suffer from asthma, a new study by Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Centre found. The study, published online by the American Journal of Physiology – Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology, reported that maternal nicotine exposure during pregnancy is linked to asthma in the third generation in disease models. This is known as a “transgenerational” linkage because the third generation was never directly exposed to nicotine or smoking. Previous research had found nicotine exposure was linked to asthma in the second generation, or was a “multigenerational” cause of asthma. “Even though there are multiple causes for childhood asthma, research linking this serious chronic condition to maternal nicotine exposure during pregnancy for up to three generations should give mothers-to-be even more reasons to reconsider smoking,” said Virender K. Rehan, lead researcher of the study. “Eliminating the use of tobacco

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