Le Cap, South Africa | AFP | South African retired Anglican archbishop and anti-apartheid icon Desmond Tutu celebrated his 85th birthday on Friday saying he would like to be allowed the option of dignified assisted death. “Today, I myself am even closer to the departures hall than arrivals, so to …
Read More »Charity scores small win in Hepatitis C drug battle
Berlin, Germany | AFP | A medical charity scored a small victory Wednesday in its bid to break a US pharma giant’s hold on an eye-wateringly expensive Hepatitis C drug when a European body partially revoked the firm’s patent. Patient groups around the world have accused Gilead Sciences of charging …
Read More »Cancer Institute row with NMS leaves patients stranded
A visit to the Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI) is for the hard-hearted since a row broke out between its management and those of the National Medical Stores (NMS) and drugs stopped being delivered. Patients who are in need of drugs now lie around without help. One of such patients is …
Read More »From America to Viagra: the art of finding what you’re not looking for
Stockholm, Sweden | AFP | It’s serendipity: from America to Viagra, history is full of great discoveries helped along by chance, as more than a century of Nobel prizes can attest. Among the chance discoveries that have been honoured with the prestigious prize are X-rays (physics, 1901), penicillin (medicine, 1945), …
Read More »Court halts new medics internship guidelines
The High Court in Kampala has issued an interim order staying the implementation of new Health Ministry policy guidelines regarding internship centres and remuneration of medical interns across the country. This means that the current group of prospective medical doctors, dental surgeons, pharmacists and nurses should immediately be posted to their respective training …
Read More »Now, outbreak of deadly monkeypox in Central Africa Republic
Bangui, Central African Republic | AFP | At least 10 people have died in an outbreak of monkeypox in western Central African Republic, a country already hit by cholera, the health ministry announced Wednesday. “We have logged 10 deaths out of 19 patients,” in the southern province of Basse-Kotto, said …
Read More »Chinese giant turns to France to meet soaring demand for baby formula
Carhaix-Plouguer, France | AFP | China’s third largest baby formula producer on Wednesday opened a vast plant in France’s Brittany region, whose prized dairy cows are set to contribute 100,000 tons of powdered milk a year to a growing Chinese market that mistrusts domestic production. Synutra’s 170 million euro ($190 …
Read More »Muwanga’s penchant for naivety
Some children as young as kindergarten-age may have an inkling of what they wish to become when they grow up, or at least they might think they do. A lot of what they say they want to become is nothing more than simplistic wishful thinking that is perhaps informed by …
Read More »Strange interpretations as artists tackle wireless’s impact on modern living
Wireless as a concept is often presented as a round dot with waves rippling from it in ever expanding arches. That is possibly what multimedia artist Ronex Ahimbisibwe sets out to capture in sculpture at an exhibition at Makerere Art Gallery in Kampala, writes Dominic Muwanguzi. He presents four …
Read More »Government to procure new cancer equipment
Varian vice President Whitman (centre) introduces a comany official when he met President Museveni. PHOTO PPU President Yoweri Museveni has said that Uganda will pay for new cancer radiotherapy equipment and also provide a grant to Varian Medical Systems Global Government to train young Ugandan professionals in cancer and oncology …
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