December 21, 2022
Kenya: Female Genital Mutilation Rates Peak During School Holidays - an Alternative Option Offers a Solution
Female genital mutilation is a practice deeply rooted in cultural traditions around the world. The World Health Organisation defines it as comprising all procedures that involve… Read more »
December 20, 2022
Africa: Dormant Shingles Virus in Your Neurons Can Increase Risk of Stroke - New Research Identified a Potential Culprit
Over 90% of the world population has the virus that causes chickenpox lying dormant in their nervous system. Most people contract the varicella zoster virus, or VZV, when they get… Read more »
December 19, 2022
Africa: What Is Burnout and How to Prevent It in the Workplace - Insights From a Clinical Psychologist
People close to you, including family members, friends, and co-workers, frequently express their "stress" at this time of year. As the end of the year draws nearer people are… Read more »
December 16, 2022
Africa: 1918 Flu Pandemic Upended Long-Standing Social Inequalities - At Least for a Time, New Study Finds
The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. Read more »
Africa: Festive Bulge - Scientists Offer Advice On How to Beat Overeating
Christmas and New Year are holidays with dietary excesses that many of us cannot control. This often leads to the "festive bulge". As the holidays approach, could there be a recipe… Read more »
December 14, 2022
Africa: Mpox, Aids and Covid-19 Show the Challenges of Public Health Messaging
During infectious disease outbreaks, clinicians and public health officials are tasked with providing accurate guidance for the public on how to stay safe and protect themselves… Read more »
Africa: Nasal Vaccines Promise to Stop the Covid-19 Virus Before It Gets to the Lungs - an Immunologist Explains How They Work
The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines have played a large role in preventing deaths and severe infections from COVID-19. But researchers are still in the process of… Read more »
Africa: Masks Are Still a Tried-and-True Way to Help Keep Yourself and Others Safe
The cold and flu season of 2022 has begun with a vengeance. Viruses that have been unusually scarce over the past three years are reappearing at remarkably high levels, sparking a… Read more »
December 13, 2022
Africa: Covid - What We Know About New Omicron Variant Bf.7
Since the COVID variant omicron emerged in late 2021, it has rapidly evolved into multiple subvariants. One subvariant, BF.7, has recently been identified as the main variant… Read more »
South Africa: Child Nutrition Programmes Can Feed Inequality - Model From South Africa Shows How Context Shapes Lives
Interventions to improve nutrition, especially for children and pregnant women, can be critical for health, physical growth and cognitive development, enabling better lives and… Read more »
December 14, 2022
Nigeria: Forced Mass Abortions Are a New and Disturbing Phenomenon in Nigeria
Nigeria classifies abortion as illegal except under certain medical circumstances. A recent investigation by Reuters news agency has alleged that, since 2013, the Nigerian military… Read more »
Africa: TB Is Once Again the Deadliest Disease in Africa - What Went Wrong
Effective tuberculosis (TB) treatment has been available for the past 60 years. But TB remains the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent. It ranks above HIV and… Read more »
December 08, 2022
Africa: Toilets Spew Invisible Tiny Water Droplets With Every Flush - Study
Every time you flush a toilet, it releases plumes of tiny water droplets into the air around you. These droplets, called aerosol plumes, can spread pathogens from human waste and… Read more »
December 13, 2022
Africa: Hypertension, Diabetes, Stroke Kill More People Than Infectious Diseases and Should Get a Global Fund
Noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular conditions account for 41 million deaths each year. That's more than 70% of all deaths globally. Most of… Read more »
December 12, 2022
South Africa: Breast Cancer Patients May Find It Hard to Stick to Treatment - Here's What They Told Us
Worldwide, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer. It's also the leading cause of cancer-related death among women. The incidence of breast cancer is expected to rise,… Read more »
December 11, 2022
Africa: Is My RAT Actually Working? How to Tell If Your Covid Test Can Detect Omicron
You've tested negative for COVID using a rapid antigen test (RAT), but are a close contact of a positive family member and have symptoms. So you might be wondering if you're really… Read more »
Africa: Beyond Vaccine Hesitancy - Understanding Systemic Barriers to Getting Vaccinated
The term "vaccine hesitancy" was in wide use years before the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic. The term focuses on individual-level attitudes toward… Read more »
South Africa: Durban Coastline - Sewage-Polluted Beaches a Threat to Holiday Makers, Environment
Large numbers of businesses in eThekwini on South Africa's eastern seaboard - which includes the port city of Durban - rely heavily on tourism. It's a popular holiday destination,… Read more »
December 08, 2022
Africa: Covid Treatments and Prevention Are Still Improving - So the Longer You Can Avoid It the Better
There have been enough COVID infections in the UK since March 2020 for every person to have been infected between 1.3 and two times, according to mathematical modelling. Read more »
December 07, 2022
Africa: How Physios and Occupational Therapists Are Helping Long Covid Sufferers
Treating people for long COVID - that is, symptoms that last longer than four weeks after COVID infection - can be extremely complex due to the wide variety of problems associated… Read more »
South Africa: Breast Cancer Patients Battle to Maintain Treatment Because of High Transport Costs
South Africa has a two-tiered health system. Public health services - which are largely provided free of charge - are run and funded by the state. Private healthcare is owned and… Read more »
December 06, 2022
Africa: Measles - Why the World Health Organization Has Declared It an 'Imminent Global Threat'
One consequence of the pandemic was reduced access to routine healthcare and lower uptake of immunisations. As a result, in November 2022, the World Health Organization declared… Read more »
Africa: Feeling Forgetful After Covid? Study Shows the Virus Can Affect Short-Term Memory
Although it's well known that COVID affects the respiratory system, it's perhaps less well known that the virus can also affect cognitive function. Read more »
December 05, 2022
Africa: Why We Need Open-Source Science Innovation - Not Patents and Paywalls
As we prepare to invest money to prevent the next global pandemic and find solutions to many other problems, science funders have a large opportunity to move towards open science… Read more »
Africa: A Liver Disease Drug Could Be Repurposed to Protect Against Covid - New Research
Almost three years into the pandemic, we're still regularly seeing hundreds of thousands of new COVID cases recorded each day worldwide. In a new study, involving a combination of… Read more »