How addiction turns sugar from a `food’ into a `drug’ on which unsuspecting masses get hooked COMMENT | ROBERT H. LUSTIG | Every advertising executive knows the difference between marketing and propaganda. One uses facts to espouse a point of view, while the other relies on falsehoods and deceit. But if …
Read More »Blood test your inner body clock
Know when it’s best to eat, work, exercise, sleep Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Timing is everything, and it also has a huge impact on your health. Now there’s a blood test to better understand your internal time clock and optimize it for better well-being. The TimeSignature test was developed …
Read More »‘Just say no’ to drug legalisation: WHO chief
Manila, Philippines | AFP | With Canada on the verge of becoming the world’s second nation to legalise recreational marijuana, the head of the World Health Organization said Wednesday that countries should think twice before opening that door. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who was in the Philippines for a regional …
Read More »French health watchdog calls for ban on sunbeds
Paris, France | AFP | The French health watchdog Wednesday urged the government to outlaw sunlamps and sunbeds because of the “proven” risk of skin cancer, in line with similar bans already in place in Australia and Brazil. “We recommend banning all activities linked to artificial tanning, along with ultraviolet sunlamps …
Read More »I. Coast says nearly 400 tonnes of fake drugs seized in two years
Abidjan, Ivory Coast | AFP | Nearly 400 tonnes of fake medicines have been seized over two years in Ivory Coast, whose main city Abidjan is a West African haven for counterfeit drugs, the health ministry said Tuesday. Counterfeit medicine is the scourge of Africa and the cause of around …
Read More »MPs intervene, aid woman deliver baby at rural health centre
SCOVIA: This is my fourth baby; I am lucky this one has survived. My third born died while I was delivering at home. Hoima, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Legislators on the Committee on Health on an oversight visit came to the aid of an expectant mother and helped her …
Read More »The search for a baby just got easier
Hopeful patients get first experience at Uganda’s first public women’s hospital Kampala, Uganda | FLAVIA NASSAKA | People wander around. Some take selfies and group photos. All rave about the convenience, the décor and point at the nicely positioned potted fresh flowers and photo frames hanging over neatly painted sky …
Read More »Infections that won’t go away
Here is why your diagnosis, treatment could be wrong Kampala, Uganda | FLAVIA NASSAKA | Martin Muhangi often gets headache, fever, joint aches and sometimes stomach ache. He has been given medicine from hospital but the ailments persist. But the bank teller in Kampala is more frustrated because the doctors keep …
Read More »The coming Community Health Workers
Experts query their cost and compare them to current VHTs Kampala, Uganda | FLAVIA NASSAKA | Flue, cough, headache, or diarrhea; these simple ailments can be quite uncomfortable. But are they worth going to a health facility to get treated, especially if it is far away, crowded, and the doctor might …
Read More »Candidate AIDS vaccine passes key early test
Paris, France | AFP | The near 40-year quest for an AIDS vaccine received a hopeful boost Saturday when scientists announced that a trial drug triggered an immune response in humans and shielded monkeys from infection. Shown to be safe in humans, the candidate vaccine has now advanced to the …
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