Page 5 - View Large News Today

“Racism is a public health emergency of global concern.” Since we wrote these words in June, 2020, a monumental worldwide reckoning with racism, xenophobia, and discrimination in society—its roots, its consequences, and its redress—has gathered pace. Marches have taken place and statues have been toppled, activists galvanised and institutions investigated, reforms proposed and elections contested. Progress has been uneven, but interrogation of the power structures that prejudice and mist...

Before our interview, Ntobeko Ntusi, Chair and Head of the Department of Medicine at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and Groote Schuur Hospital, South Africa, had been doing a bedside tutorial with students. He highlighted the different way they had presented the Black and White patients. “I asked the students why it is important to clarify the HIV status of Black patients when you present them when it has no bearing on their clinical presentation. And you can see the dumbfounded faces becau...

Revered cardiovascular epidemiologist. He was born in New York, NY, USA, on Jan 9, 1934 and died of pneumonia in Pittsburgh, PA, USA, on Oct 25, 2022 aged 88 years.

Involving patients in all stages of health data research is a noble aim; however, there are not too many examples of it being successfully put into practice—particularly not in real-time pandemic surveillance. In November, 2020, the Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II) team created a unique collaboration, inviting a Public Advisory Group (PAG) of 15 patient and public contributors to work alongside university and Public Health Scotland staff to provide vita...

The Alzheimers disease community has become accustomed to false hope, disappointment, and controversy. With an estimated 55 million people worldwide affected by dementia, the need for an effective treatment is undeniable. But efforts to develop a drug that can modify the course of Alzheimers disease, by using antibodies to clear amyloid-beta (Aβ) from the brain, have endured numerous setbacks over the past 20 years. Almost a decade ago, the first anti-Aβ antibodies tested in phase 3 trials, ba...

Opioid prescriptions in the USA have fallen over the past decade or so. But the numbers are still enormous. In 2020, US pharmacies filled more than 140 million prescriptions for opioids, enough to medicate 43% of the population. Some 10 million Americans are thought to misuse opioids, a category of drug that includes heroin, methadone, and morphine.

It takes less than a quarter of an hour for Silent Pandemic to give up on the pharmaceutical industry. First we hear from Ella Balasa, a 29-year-old American who is finding it increasingly difficult to overcome the bacterial infections related to her cystic fibrosis. She faces the frightening prospect that what is now difficult will soon become impossible. We then cross the Atlantic for an interview with Sally Davies, UK Special Envoy on Antimicrobial Resistance, who notes that there is a lag of...

Paediatrician who pioneered the use of oral rehydration therapy. Born on Nov 12, 1934 in what is now Kishoreganj, Bangladesh, he died on Oct 16, 2022 in Kolkata, India, aged 87 years.

Hans appears to have a positive mindset. In fact, he tells me, positivity runs in the family. Now 50 years old, he lives with his wife and 17-year-old daughter in a small town in Zeeland, the westernmost coastal province of the Netherlands. In 2005, Hans found out he had a granulomatous disease of unknown cause. Out of nowhere, one day, everything changed: “In the morning, I was fine. In the evening, I had a fever of 41 degrees so we called the doctor. The next day I was in the hospital and a ...

A leading authority on Wilsons disease. He was born in London, UK, on April 24, 1920 and died of bronchopneumonia in Hemingford Grey, UK, on Oct 14, 2022 aged 102 years.