Washington, United States | AFP | Americans have got fatter over the past two decades, adding girth to their bellies and even growing fractionally shorter on average, according to federal health data released Thursday. The report gave no specific reasons for the trends, which come as no surprise as the …
Read More »Could 2018 be Uganda’s healthiest year?
A look at incidence of hemorrhagic fevers, typhoid, HIV/AIDS, malaria Kampala, Uganda | FLAVIA NASSAKA | As 2018 ended, the Minister of Health Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, was on Dec.05 in Goma city in the neighboring DR Congo on invitation from her counterpart; Minister Sem Llunga. Llunga must have noticed that …
Read More »Waste sorters daring disease in the search for money
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | In a hustle to find a job, Peter Mubiru was introduced to the garbage world. Today Mubiru earns a living from collecting domestic waste across Kampala. Mubiru’s working day starts at 7 a.m., and unlike others, endures hours of standing at the back of a …
Read More »Germans turn to ‘medibus’ as doctors desert villages
Cornberg, Germany | AFP | For years after the last doctor left the small German village of Weissenborn, 79-year-old former mayor Arno Maeurer had to rely on his car to reach the nearest clinic, as a chronic shortage of practitioners gripped his rural region. But this year a clinic started …
Read More »Electricity is creating new hope in medicine
A radical new approach to treating disease Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | When your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. This saying is particularly apt in medicine where doctors treat nearly every condition–from depression to hypertension–with a pill. If your doctor prescribed you anything other …
Read More »Designer babies
Why what everyone is freaking out about is not likely to happen Kampala, Uganda | A CECILE JW JANSSENS | When Adam Nash was still an embryo, living in a dish in the lab, scientists tested his DNA to make sure it was free of Fanconi anemia, the rare inherited blood …
Read More »Eleven die after eating ‘toxic’ rice at Indian temple
New Delhi, India | AFP | Eleven people have died after eating rice that had likely been contaminated with a toxic substance at a Hindu temple ceremony, a health official said Saturday. Another 29 people were critically ill and undergoing emergency treatment across various hospitals in Mysore, a city in …
Read More »The Septrin controversy
Why those fighting to have the medication might be misguided Kampala, Uganda | FLAVIA NASSAKA | November 27 marked a twist in months’ long ping- pong between government and people living with HIV over government’s failure to provide the antibiotic drug Cotrimoxazole – septrin as part of the package of treatment …
Read More »Vaccinating against superbugs
By 2050 some 10 million people across the globe could succumb to drug-resistant diseases Kampala, Uganda | SETH BERKLEY & JEREMY FARRAR | Whether you live below the poverty line in the slums of Karachi or work as a banker on Wall Street, drug-resistant “superbugs” are among the gravest threats to …
Read More »EBOLA: South Sudan follows Uganda’s example, to vaccinate health teams
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | South Sudan will vaccinate key health workers against Ebola close to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, which faces a new epidemic, the World Health Organization said Monday. The ministry of health’s vaccination campaign, with cooperation from the WHO, will target healthcare and …
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