A landmark decision by the Indian Supreme Court to uphold India’s Patents Act in the face of the seven-year challenge by pharmaceutical company Novartis has been hailed across the world as a major victory for access to affordable medicines in…

A historic breakthrough. That’s how key stakeholders in breast health in South Africa described a meeting with the Health ministry on March 21, Human Rights Day. By Sue Segar The significant outcome of the meeting – attended by deputy health…

South African scientists have dismissed predictions of a possible public health emergency following reports from Australia that a small number of swine flu patients were resistant to the first-line treatment, Tamiflu. Resistance is carefully monitored in South Africa and globally…

VHEMBE. – The health services here has been unable to help a pensioner who is suffering from strange illness. George Mmbanguseni Munzhelele of Matshavhawe village in Dzimauli, Limpopo, is suffering from a strange illness that has been “eating” his fingers…

JOHANNESBURG – A cheap antiseptic ointment, used to cleanse a newborn’s umbilical cord, can reduce the risk of infection and death in the first few weeks of life by as much as 20 percent. Chlorhexidine has been around for ages…

JOHANNESBURG – Each year, about three million of the 7.7-million children who die before reaching their fifth birthday are newborns who do not survive their first four weeks of life. This situation has led to the top health agencies and…

JOHANNESBURG – Experts from around the globe are gathering this week to address the preventable and unnecessary deaths of newborns, which accounts for almost half of all deaths among children under five. “No child is born to die.  And no mother…

VHEMBE. – Requests to the Department of Education to upgrade facilities at the Mafukani pre-school have fallen on deaf ears, and have eventually resulted in a four-year-old nearly losing her life after being bitten by a snake in the sub-standard…

Researchers in the United States today said that they have identified a case of a ‘functional’ HIV cure in a child infected with HIV who began antiretroviral treatment within days of birth. The child has now been off treatment for…

South Africa has received global recognition for achieving a significant reduction in the number of children newly infected with HIV. The United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) launched the 2012 Global Epidemic Report yesterday (SUBS: TUES) and praised South…

Electronic, or e-cigarettes are sold illegally from many shopping centres across South Africa despite a change in legislation last year. The change to the Medicines and Related Substances Act classified nicotine, an ingredient in the e-cigarette, as a schedule 3…

People who struggle to quit smoking may be genetically predisposed to the habit, according to new research published in the American Medical Association journal JAMA-Psychiatry. The international team of researchers reviewed studies that looked at genetic links to smoking and pulled…

PRESS RELEASE: Exposure to tobacco smoke could negatively impact adolescent kidney function, this is according to a new study led by a team of researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins Children’s Centre.…

Smokers who light up as soon as they wake up in the morning are more likely to develop lung and oral cancer than other smokers, a new study, published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention reveals. According to the research,…

Smokers’ broken bones take longer to heal than that of non-smokers, according to new research. “We showed that smokers are at a higher risk of long bone fracture nonunion [not joining], and that there is a trend towards longer fracture…