ANALYSIS AND COMMENTS

October 2017 Standardmedia; The Kenya National Blood Transfusion Service (KNBTS) is incensed by reports that part of blood its bank is contaminated with HIV and syphilis. The report published three weeks ago in a foreign journal shows 6.2 per cent of donated blood had high levels of HIV, with as high …

October 2017 ThisAfrica; For the sexually active heterosexual woman the standard has been set: when in doubt carry your own. Protection that is, we are talking about protection. Every teenager receives some form of sexual education in school but because of reasons to do with stigma, legislation, tradition and culture …

October 2017 Theconversation; If plants could be superheroes, the Moringa (Moringa oleifera) tree would be one of them. Although native to the foothills of the Himalayas in India, moringa can thrive in most tropical and subtropical regions. It is drought tolerant, grows rapidly, has leaves that can be used as …

September 2017 cnbc;  IBM Watson might not deliver on its lofty goal to revolutionize medicine with artificial intelligence, as a recent investigation suggests. But that doesn’t mean new technology will be incapable of improving health care. IBM put a heavy dose of investment and hype into the medical potential of …

August 2017  Washingtonpost; The Food and Drug Administration is investigating the sudden deaths of five people who had undergone an obesity treatment that places an inflated silicone balloon in their stomach. All deaths happened within a month of the procedure, the FDA said in a letter earlier this week to health-care …

May 2017 BBC; US scientists have re-engineered a vital antibiotic in a bid to wipe out one of the world’s most threatening superbugs. Their new version of vancomycin is designed to be ultra-tough and appears to be a thousand times more potent than the old drug, PNAS journal reports. It …

May 2017 Dailynation; Kenya’s public health system is in a crisis with corruption as the biggest challenge. The latest suspension of $21 million (Sh2.1 billion) direct funding to the Ministry of Health by USAid adds to a series of issues pointing to a system in need of urgent governance and leadership …

April 2017 med.news; Here’s one for all of us glued to our smartphones. A 69-year-old patient in the eastern Chinese region of Hangzhou is making the news for using her phone, while undergoing a procedure on her legs. The patient, surnamed Zhu, was allowed to bring her phone into the …

April 2017 Standardnewspaper;Cancer patients bore the brunt of the stalemate pitting medics against the Government in their push for better pay and working conditions. Many were forced to turn to private hospitals for treatment – some of them seeking help after defaulting on treatment due to closure of public health …

March 2017 vox; Paul Krugman has a column Monday offering Republicans some advice for how to improve Obamacare. This paragraph is worth calling out: One important answer would be to spend a bit more money. Obamacare has turned out to be remarkably cheap; the Congressional Budget Office now projects its …