Women want more access to female condoms

[Gabi Khumalo] More access to female condoms, protection of commercial sex workers and access to HIV information for rural women were some of the requests given to Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe as the country marks World Aids Day. Read more >>

Youth urged to test for HIV

Higher Education and Training Minister Dr Blade Nzimande has called on young people leaving school and those in institutions of higher learning to get tested for HIV. Read more >>

New HIV/Aids plan unveiled

[Gabi Khumalo] President Jacob Zuma has launched the new National Strategic Plan (NSP) for HIV and Aids 2012 - 2016, which promises to do much more to tackle TB and issues of violence against women. Read more >>

Get tested on World AIDS Day

Don't assume, be sure and test for HIV. This is the message being communicated through Lancet Laboratories World AIDS Day campaign which aims to provide consumers with the opportunity to know their status and, at no extra cost, help someone else know their HIV status too. Read more >>

Community pharmacies support those living with HIV/Aids

Community pharmacies play an important role in lifting the burden that life threatening diseases such as HIV has on state healthcare, particularly with the renewed emphasis on wellness practises announced recently by provincial and national government. Read more >>

Most hospitals miss critical window for heart attack transfer patients

[Karen N. Peart] USA: Most heart attack patients transferred between hospitals for the emergency artery-opening procedure called angioplasty are not transported as quickly as they should be, Yale School of Medicine researchers report in the first national study of "door-in door-out" time for transfer patients. Read more >>

Kauai donates to CANSA with new smoothies

R2 from each sale of Kauai's new Upbeet Berry Smoothie, which promotes healthy skin from the inside out, will go to Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA), as part of both organisations' bid to make more South Africans be good to their skin this summer. Read more >>

Cracking good Christmas for V&A

click to enlarge

A large Christmas cracker, measuring 1.5 by 6 metres, has been positioned at the Wheel of Excellence at the V&A Waterfront to encourage visitors to bring along toys, which they can donate by placing them through a shoebox-sized slot in the cracker. All the toys collected will be donated to the Tehillah Community Centre in Elsies River. Read more >>

Life insurance comes at a price for South Africans with HIV

As people with HIV live longer, South African life insurance providers are offering more policies to tap into a growing market, but for many people the premiums remain prohibitively expensive. Read more >>

Vomiting virus found in majority of British oysters: study

LONDON, UK: Three-quarters of British-grown oysters contain norovirus, a bug which causes diarrhoea and vomiting, according to new research published on Tuesday by the Food Standards Agency (FSA). Read more >>

SA's mortality rate declines

South Africa's mortality rate continued to decline in 2009, with tuberculosis being the most commonly mentioned cause of death on certificates, says Statistics South Africa (Stats SA). Read more >>

Antenatal HIV prevalence up

[Gabi Khumalo] A Department of Health survey has shown an increase of 0.8% in the HIV prevalence of antenatal women between 2009 and 2010. Read more >>

Watching the nervous system being wired in real time

[Bill Hathaway] Thanks to a new imaging technology developed at Yale, the National Institutes of Health and Sloan-Kettering, scientists can now see for the first time the development of a living organism at the level of a single cell. Read more >>

Scientists expose important new weak spot in cancer cells

Cancer Research UK scientists have discovered that cancer cells can 'bag up and bin' a toxic protein to cheat death - revealing a new Achilles heel in cancer cells that could be targeted for treatment, reveals research in Nature Cell Biology yesterday, 4 December. Read more >>

Paying more than lip service to lung cancer

[Marika Sboros] If ever you even vaguely think life is fair, spare a thought for nonsmokers around the globe who get lung cancer. I've known a few, and have railed against their fate as vociferously as they must have done at times. Read more >>

New face of drug dependence: spotting and dealing with opioid addiction

Despite public perceptions that prescription drugs are in some way different to and less dangerous to use than illicit narcotics, the fact is that during 2007, overdoses of opioids (synthetic versions of opium i.e. codeine-like medication) caused more deaths in the USA* than heroin and cocaine combined. Costs of prescription opioid abuse represent a substantial and growing economic burden for society and the workplace. So what are the signs of opioid dependence - and how can it be tackled in order to treat the condition and transform the life of the person concerned, to the benefit of both employer and employee? Read more >>

Infected bananas email a hoax

[Nthambeleni Gabara] An email claiming that certain bananas from KwaZulu-Natal have been poisoned with a flesh-eating bacterium has been clarified as a hoax email by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Read more >>

Poultry cull follows Kathmandu bird flu outbreak

KATHMANDU, NEPAL: Nepalese health workers have culled hundreds of chickens and ducks following the first reported outbreak of bird flu in the capital Kathmandu, a government official said on Thursday, 1 December. Read more >>

Durban's drinking water safe: official

The eThekwini municipality has allayed fears that its drinking water may have been contaminated during the recent floods which left a trail of destruction and claimed lives. Read more >>

Brands to change marketing to under-12s on websites

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM: A group of major food brands[1] have committed to changing how they communicate to children under 12 on their company websites. The EU pledge group (www.eu-pledge.eu) committed in 2007 to only advertise "better for you" products or to move out of children's airtime altogether on TV, print and third party Internet advertising. Read more >>

Challenges facing SA higher education

Universities in SA have a lot to be proud of, says the vice-chancellor and principal of the University of Pretoria (UP), Professor Cheryl de la Rey. Read more >>

Arrive alive in 2012... Road safety tips for the festive season

The roads are crowded, it's the end of the year, it's the festive season and the thought on the minds of many of us are happy thoughts... of spending time with family and friends, exchanging gifts, and ending 2011 on a happy and positive note. Some of us will not make it, however... Read more >>