Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | Cases of depression have ballooned almost 20 percent in a decade, making the debilitating disorder linked to suicide the leading cause of disability worldwide, the World Health Organization said Thursday. By 2015, the number of people globally living with depression, according to a revised definition, …
Read More »Vaccine created to protect Ebola-ravaged chimps
Paris, France | AFP | Scientists said Thursday they have developed a vaccine to shield endangered chimpanzees and gorillas against Ebola, which has wiped out tens of thousands of the wild apes in three decades. The vaccine is given orally, the developers said, which means it could be disguised in …
Read More »Man’s liver inflammation linked to ‘common energy drink’
Paris, France | AFP | A construction worker who drank four to five energy drinks every day for three weeks, was hospitalised with severe liver problems “likely” caused by excessively imbibing the seemingly harmless substance, researchers said Tuesday. The man, 50, was admitted to a hospital in Florida after feeling …
Read More »Study says cancer to kill 5.5 mn women a year by 2030
Paris, France | AFP | Cancer will kill 5.5 million women — about the population of Denmark — per year by 2030, a near 60-percent increase in less than two decades, a report said Tuesday. As the global population grows and ages, the highest toll will be among women in …
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 »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 »Montreal concert aims to end AIDS, malaria and TB
Montreal, Canada | AFP | US R&B star Usher and Canadian indie rock groups Metric and Half Moon Run will headline a free concert in Montreal next month aimed at ending AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. Advocacy group Global Citizen, the concert sponsor, said the September 17 show would be held …
Read More »West Africa marks end of deadly Ebola outbreak finally
Monrovia, Liberia | AFP | Liberia said Thursday it was free of Ebola, meaning there are now no known cases in west Africa of the tropical virus that has left more than 11,300 people dead in the region since late 2013. Liberia was the country worst hit with more than …
Read More »Experts call for government policy on sickle cell disease
By Abushedde Angella Health experts have called for urgent government policy on sickle cell disease in order to cut on the huge number of babies that die before their fifth birthday due to the disease. Speaking at the second annual sickle cell conference organized by the Uganda Sickle Cell Rescue …
Read More »Liver disease on the rise
By Sarah Namulondo Knowing what to put in your body and what to avoid could be the difference between life and death Doctors are sounding a warning about liver diseases, which have recorded an upward trend in Uganda and worldwide in recent years. Liver diseases occur when there is a …
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