San Francisco, United States | AFP | After finding that exposure to the weedkiller Roundup was a “substantial factor” in one man’s cancer, jurors in California must now grapple with the question of just how culpable the product’s manufacturer, agriculture giant Monsanto, was in his illness. “It’s not a popularity …
Read More »Zambia bans ‘Viagra’ energy drink
Lusaka, Zambia | AFP | Authorities in Zambia have banned an energy drink after laboratory results showed that it contained the active ingredient of the anti-impotence drug Viagra. SX Energy Natural Power drink, produced by Revin Zambia, is exported around the region including to Uganda, where a consumer recently complained …
Read More »The battle to bring affordable antivenoms to Africa
Watamu, Kenya | AFP | Snake antivenoms have been around for 125 years, are effective and can be produced cheaply at scale. Yet Africa, with its abundance of deadly snakes, has an alarming shortage of the life-saving medicine. Experts and campaigners blame a combination of weak production capacity, feeble …
Read More »Fixing Uganda’s mental healthcare
Haruna Nyanzi Bujirita is an Addictionologist and consultant in Child and Adolescents Mental Health. He is also CEO of MetroHealth International that’s setting up the country’s first private mental hospital in Ttula-Kawempe in Kampala. He spoke to The Independent’s FLAVIA NASSAKA about addiction and why mental health is still an …
Read More »Why does breast cancer recur? New study finds clues
Tokyo, Japan | AFP | For breast cancer survivors, the risk of tumours returning casts a long shadow, with recurrence possible up to two decades after a diagnosis. But new research could help identify and treat those most in danger. Doctors have traditionally relied on factors such as the size …
Read More »‘Short’ drug-resistant TB regimen could cut treatment time by more than half
Washington, United States | AFP | A new drug cocktail reduces the length of treatment for multi drug-resistant tuberculosis from nearly two years to nine to 11 months with a similar effectiveness, according to a large clinical trial whose results were published in a US journal Wednesday. Nearly 600,000 people …
Read More »IMF offers free medical services to 600
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Over 600 residents of Banda a Kampala suburb received free medical treatment and services for different health challenges courtesy of the International Medical Foundation (IMF), a charity organization under the International Medical Group. The all-day fair conducted in partnership with Apar Foundation, Uganda Sickle …
Read More »Bribery in health 50% down
Health Monitoring Unit responsible but experts say it could be a problem | Heather Marquette, Caryn Peiffer and Rosita Armytage | In September 2017 Uganda’s Minister of Health, Dr Sarah Opendi, disguised herself in a hijab and travelled by boda boda (motorbike taxi) to Naguru Hospital in Kampala. The minister …
Read More »C-section 50 times more deadly for women in Africa: study
Paris, France | AFP | The death rate among women undergoing a C-section to deliver a baby is about 50 times higher in Africa than in most wealthy nations, researchers said Friday. One in 200 women perished during or soon after a caesarean in a sampling of nearly 3,700 births …
Read More »New data in eternal debate over eggs, heart health
Washington, United States | AFP | The debate over whether eggs are good for you is age-old: while a good source of protein, they also contain potentially harmful cholesterol. Now, a new study — published Friday by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) — has weighed in. After …
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