Govt on track to reach ARV roll-out target

South Africa is on track to reach its target of supplying antiretroviral treatment (ARVs) to 2.5 million people by the year 2014, says the Minister of Social Development Bathabile Dlamini. Read more >>

Healthy lifestyle the way to go to prevent diabetes

As the country celebrates World Diabetes Day today, the Gauteng Health Department has reiterated calls for South Africans to lead healthy lifestyles and do regular check-ups to prevent diabetes. Read more >>

Tshwane clinic receives diabetes mobile clinic

The Bongi Ngema-Zuma Foundation, an NGO working to create awareness about diabetes, has handed over a fully-equipped Changing Diabetes Bus to the Winterveldt Mercy Clinic north of Tshwane. The event was held to mark World Diabetes Day, which is held annually on 14 November to promote understanding of this chronic condition. The multi-million rand mobile facility was donated to the foundation by Novo Nordisk, and the foundation has, in turn, donated it to Mercy Clinic in order to cement the relationship between the two organisations. Read more >>

Yale researchers discover why typhoid fever pathogen targets only humans

[Bill Hathaway] Salmonella typhi is a particularly nasty bacterium that targets only humans and causes typhoid fever, which kills hundreds of thousands of people annually. In a new study appearing in the 16 November 2012 issue of the journal Science, Yale scientists explain how evolution shaped the pathogen to be so selective. Read more >>

Skin cells reveal DNA's genetic mosaic

[Karen N. Peart] The prevailing wisdom has been that every cell in the body contains identical DNA. However, a new study of stem cells derived from the skin has found that genetic variations are widespread in the body's tissues, a finding with profound implications for genetic screening, according to Yale School of Medicine researchers. Read more >>

Could poor sleep contribute to symptoms of schizophrenia?

Neuroscientists studying the link between poor sleep and schizophrenia have found that irregular sleep patterns and desynchronised brain activity during sleep could trigger some of the disease's symptoms. The findings, published in the journal Neuron, suggest that these prolonged disturbances might be a cause and not just a consequence of the disorder's debilitating effects. Read more >>

Even moderate drinking in pregnancy can affect a child's IQ

Relatively small levels of exposure to alcohol while in the womb can influence a child's IQ, according to a new study, published today in PLOS ONE, by researchers from the Universities of Bristol and Oxford using Children of the 90s study (ALSPAC) data from over 4,000 mothers and their offspring. Read more >>

Potential new treatment option for triple-negative breast cancers

PHILADELPHIA, USA: The simultaneous inhibition of two separate and seemingly unrelated pathways could potentially provide an effective treatment for women with triple-negative breast cancer, according to results of two studies published in the November issue of Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. Read more >>

New technique for radiotherapy could provide alternative to brachytherapy

PHILADELPHIA, USA: A promising new approach to treating solid tumors with radiation was highly efficacious and minimally toxic to healthy tissue in a mouse model of cancer, according to data published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. Read more >>

Smoking in pregnancy tied to lower reading scores

[Karen N. Peart] Yale School of Medicine researchers have found that children born to mothers who smoked more than one pack per day during pregnancy struggled on tests designed to measure how accurately a child reads aloud and comprehends what they read. Read more >>

Medicinal marijuana: Puff, puff, take a pass?

[Chamendran Naidoo] No sooner had Uncle Sam thrown a triumphant Democratic fist in the air, than Massachusetts invited good 'ol Aunt Mary Jane for tea and... um, cookies. The referendum would make this the 18th state in the US to have legalized the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes, amidst debate surrounding its recreational abuse. This got me thinking about our own struggle with the weed and the feasibility of passing such a law in SA. Read more >>

Unilever campaign calls on public to donate toilet paper

The Unilever 'Cleaner Toilets. Brighter Future' project has embarked on a campaign that will raise awareness of the importance of functioning and hygienic toilet facilities at school and invite members of the public to donate toilet rolls to schools in need. Read more >>

'More nurses' claim challenged

Nursing union Denosa has cast doubt over claims by Gauteng health authorities that more doctors and nurses were being recruited in the province. Read more >>

Flu, fever in pregnancy tied to autism risk

WASHINGTON, USA: Women who had the flu or ran a fever for more than a week during their pregnancy face a greater risk of having a child with an autism spectrum disorder, Danish researchers said last week. Read more >>

Greek hospitals, university hit in student server shutdown

ATHENS, GREECE: Several Greek hospitals and one of the country's main universities have suffered an Internet blackout after students shut down a central server to thwart board elections, an official said on Tuesday. Read more >>