Health

Dogs really do resemble their owners – but not in the way you’d expect Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | It turns out that dogs really do resemble their owners. Genes from the dog gut ‘microbiome’ – the community of vital bacteria that support digestion and metabolism – show many …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | A professor in the small Moroccan city of Sidi Slimane recently had his whole world turned upside down by an urologist. He was undergoing a routine health checkup when he was told that he had been sterile for most of his life. But there was …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Scientists at the University of Waterloo have developed a new tool to protect women from HIV infection. The tool, a vaginal implant, decreases the number of cells that the HIV virus can target in a woman’s genital tract. Unlike conventional methods of HIV prevention, such …

Paris, France | AFP | Since the world’s first successful organ transplant in 1954 — a kidney — the discipline has advanced to the point where a wounded soldier could have his penis and scrotum replaced in a groundbreaking operation last month. A Frenchman recently became the first person to …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Zimbabwe has legalised production of cannabis for medicinal or scientific use, according to new regulations seen by AFP Saturday. A statutory instrument entitled Production of Cannabis for Medicinal and Scientific Use Regulations, said prospective producers can apply to the health ministry for a licence to …

New Delhi, India | AFP | Indian police are hunting two men posing as doctors who killed a newborn by severing his genitals in a bid to convince the mother she had given birth to a girl, officials said Friday. The pair said the eight-month pregnant woman would have a …

Washington, United States | AFP | US President Donald Trump’s doctor Ronny Jackson withdrew his nomination to head the Department of Veterans Affairs on Thursday following allegations he improperly handed out drugs and was drunk at work. The withdrawal — just the latest staffing upset in an administration rocked by …

Kampla, Uganda |THE INDEPENDENT | The Health Ministry plans to reign in on all health facilities accused of selling vaccines that are distributed for free immunisation. The Primary Health Care Minister, Dr. Joyce Moriku Kaducu announced this on Wednesday during the 8th health sector barometer meeting organized by Uganda Medical …

Showing government how national health insurance scheme should run? Kampala, Uganda | FLAVIA NASSAKA | Hillary Ssempa has nothing good to say about government healthcare facilities. For him, their promise of free, quality medical care is hollow. He no longer goes to government health facilities but recalls that whenever he …

Washington, United States | AFP | A cheap, portable device can warn of a person’s vulnerability to infectious diseases like measles, which kills tens of thousands of people each year, mainly in developing countries, researchers said Wednesday. The test, called the Measles-Rubella Box (MR Box), uses a finger-prick volume of …