Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | A Zimbabwean doctors’ union leader whose suspected kidnapping sparked protests by medics in the capital Harare has been found alive, Human Rights Watch said Thursday. Peter Magombeyi had been missing since Saturday night, with his Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA) saying he was taken because …
Read More »Left-handedness is genetic
Scientists finally identify its genetic components | THE INDEPENDENT | For the first time, scientists have pinpointed regions of human DNA that closely relate to whether people are right- or left-handed. They also linked these regions to language-related features in the brain. Previously, scientists knew that genes were responsible for …
Read More »DR Congo ex-minister in charge of Ebola accused of embezzling $4.3 million
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Detained former DR Congo health minister Oly Ilunga has been accused of embezzling $4.3 million of public funds raised to tackle the Ebola epidemic, his defence counsel said Sunday while insisting on his innocence. “Police accuse him of having siphoned off a total of …
Read More »Kenya rolls out world’s first malaria vaccine
Kenya becomes third country to adopt world’s first malaria vaccine Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Kenya on Friday became the third country to start routinely innoculating infants against malaria, using the world’s first vaccine to combat a disease that kills 800 children globally every day. The vaccine — RTS,S — …
Read More »IAA: Service providers are the backbone of the health insurance industry
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | International Air Ambulance has today concluded a highly successful annual Health Service Providers (HSP) workshop, where strategies to strengthen their insurance practices in the next one year were laid out. Over 400 Health Service Providers (HSP) gathered at hotel Africana on Friday to discuss …
Read More »Medical insurance not a silver bullet for Uganda’s health challenges
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Experts and players in the health sector are asking the government to do away with its free healthcare for all policy as the as Uganda moves to come up with the National Health Insurance scheme. Grace Kiwanuka, the Executive Director of Uganda Healthcare Federation …
Read More »Growing number of Ugandan men opting out of circumcision
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | There has been a drop in the number of men opting for safe male circumcision- SMC over the past three years. Information from Uganda AIDS Commission shows that 703,997 men were circumcised in the last 2018/2019 financial year compared to 747,244 in 2017/2018. In …
Read More »THE LAST WORD: Missing insights in our healthcare
THE LAST WORD: The lesson from pictures of many newly born babies packed on beds and chairs at Kawempe Hospital THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | Last week, someone took pictures of Kawempe Hospital with a multitude of newly born babies laying on congested hospital beds and …
Read More »UN chief Guterres arrives in Ebola-hit DR Congo
Goma, DR Congo | AFP | UN chief Antonio Guterres started a three-day tour of the Democratic Republic of Congo Saturday, expressing “solidarity” with a region ravaged by violence and an Ebola epidemic. The secretary general first visited Goma, the capital of North Kivu province which is trying to …
Read More »Prof. Omaswa wins Global Health Award in Tokyo
Kampala, Uganda | FLAVIA NASSAKA | Uganda’s Prof. Francis Gervase Omaswa has won the third Noguchi Africa Prize Award in the category of medical services to Africa and the world. He has today received the Third Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize from Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of …
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