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By Ted J. Kaptchuk and John M. Kelley This “placebo drift” poses significant challenges to detecting drug-placebo differences For many medical researchers and followers of science, few things are more unsettling than the placebo effect. How can an inert sugar pill have therapeutic value? The answer requires understanding the context …

By Independent Reporter Six stress management strategies everyone must learn It almost certain that we have all been there before – feeling stressed and burned out. Stress – a biological and psychological response experienced on encountering a threat that we feel we do not have the resources to deal with …

By Stephen Kafeero Promising new vaccine under trial provides hope to millions British pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline, says a malaria vaccine could be on the market by 2015. This would be the first vaccine for the disease that has claimed millions of people especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. The global NGO, Malaria …

By Ronald Musoke So why do some doctors there say the hospital is getting better? At around 11 O’clock on Oct. 7, the most vivid scene that symbolises Mulago Hospital’s current pitiable state unfolded as a high profile delegation visited one of the two maternity wards on the fifth floor …

By Agencies New research shows you could have it and not even know it A study of more than 140,000 adults finds about half of people with high blood pressure — or hypertension — don’t have a clue they have the condition. That’s worrisome, according to the study’s authors, as …

By Henry I. Miller Some regard it as necessary to reduce health disparities, but for others it is discriminatory Race can undoubtedly be a tricky subject, with any suggestion of genetic differences among racial groups – beyond superficial characteristics like skin color – potentially invoking memories of the nineteenth-century eugenics …

By Abushedde Angella Consumption of alcohol is among the four most important risk factors in the burden of disease and premature death People say they drink alcohol either to have fun, celebrate an achievement, or “down their sorrows” after a major life stress. A little drink once in a while …

The Independent Reporter The World Health Organisation recommends it as part of a comprehensive HIV prevention package When Edmund Musonera, 25, was approached by health officials from Bugesera district to persuade him to undergo circumcision using a new device, the PrePex system, he was afraid. Would it not be too …

By Ronald Musoke Will it work where most of the community thinks pregnancy room is a woman only issue? When Janet Aloyo and her newborn baby died in the corridors of Gulu Regional Referral Hospital in northern Uganda on July 31, health workers were blamed for failing to attend to …

By Amir Englund and Robin MacGregor Murray Much depends on how old you are when you start, your genes, and how much, how often, and what kind you use Is cannabis; also called marijuana, harmful to mental health? That question has provoked much debate over the years, often generating more …