Today (Thursday 31 May) is World No Tobacco Day, a World Health Organisation (WHO) initiative aimed at highlighting issues around the use of tobacco products. This year, the WHO has selected "tobacco industry interference" as the theme for the day in an effort to expose and counter the tobacco industry's 'brazen and increasingly aggressive attempts' to undermine anti-tobacco efforts.
SECTION27 released a statement detailing the financial crisis in the Eastern Cape health department which is threatening to collapse. It calls on the national health department to urgently intervene, reminding it that it has a duty to do so.
The continued stock out of the antiretroviral tenofovir and the failure to advise health workers on how to deal with it is a looming disaster, HIV Clinicians and activists are warning.
Almost 5 000 women died while pregnant or within 42 days of giving birth in South Africa between 2008 and 2010, more than in any of the previous years.
There is something upsetting about the way politicians trouped to the scene and family of the young woman whose gang rape shocked our country so profoundly several weeks ago. The hyperbole, crocodile tears and feet stamping felt more like politicians who feel duty bound to be seen to respond to a tragedy than genuine grief. It is hard to feel sympathy with their sympathy because in the management of their political portfolios many councillors, MPs and Ministers overlook the circumstances that place young girls at daily risk.
A Grade Seven learner and her mother have laid a complaint with the Gauteng Department of Education after claims of discrimination of the learner by fellow learners and teachers at a Pretoria school. They are accusing them of discrimination because the girl's mother is living openly with HIV.
The national Health Department is upbeat that the country is making significant progress in dealing with the AIDS epidemic. It says it has reached over 80% of South Africans eligible for antiretroviral treatment in the last five years. But it admits that preventing new HIV infections has been a challenge.
Chest and cancer doctors are calling for lung cancer screening in older people with a history of smoking a pack or more a day. But at the same time they also highlight the potential harms of screening, including a high risk of false-positive tests.
Disco legend Donna Summer died at the age of 63, reportedly of lung cancer.
Smoking increases the risk of oral cancer (OC) up to five times and alcohol can elevate the risk by nine times, according to the South African Dental Association (SADA).
'Solidarity for Survival' is an exhibition that shows the difficult living conditions that African foreign nationals who have come to seek refuge in South Africa endure. It is currently showing at Constitution Hill, in Johannesburg. Many of the difficulties these migrants face include the lack of access to health care.
Thirty minutes of exposure to low levels of second-hand smoke can cause significant damage to the lining of blood vessels in non-smokers. This is according to recent study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Fish-lovers may have a lower risk of colon and rectal cancers, according to a meta-analysis recently published in the American Journal of Medicine.
Parents are unaware of the amount of smoke their children are exposed to.
Cancer services in Gauteng are facing an emergency with regular reports of broken equipment, drug stock outs, long waiting lists for treatment and delayed diagnosis.
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