Health

Wajir, Kenya | AFP | Swaddled in colourful hijabs the women exchange puzzled looks and suppress embarrassed giggles. “You’re sure it’s halal?” asks one, peering at a collection of birth control pills, condoms and IUDs. Such everyday forms of contraception are little known and rarely seen in Kenya’s arid and …

Miami, United States | AFP |  West Nile virus may be three times more deadly than previously thought, because many deaths associated with the mosquito-borne virus occur years after the initial infection, researchers said Monday. The findings were based on a study of 4,144 people in Texas, and were presented …

Women are catching up to men in rates of alcohol consumption and this has important implications for how we think about our community response to harmful alcohol use. Historically, men have been more likely to drink alcohol than women and to drink in quantities that damage their health. However, evidence …

VIDEO:Uganda risks shortage of blood due to a dwindling response from school going children. Nakasero blood bank says the group contributes 80% of its storage and is wary third term holidays will hugely affect the figures hence a blood crisis.       Share on: WhatsApp

When the Rwanda government, in partnership with the American company Zipline launched an emergency medical supplies system on Oct.13, nobody could have anticipated the interest it would generate, writes The Independent Correspondent. The latest information is that the American government now wants to copy the Rwanda system and use it to …

Paris, France | AFP | An antibody produced by the human body shielded unborn mice against Zika, a study said Monday, raising hopes for thwarting the virus known to cause brain damage in human foetuses. The antibody neutralised all known Zika strains in lab experiments, and “markedly reduced” virus levels …

Sofia, Bulgaria | AFP |  Five Bulgarian nurses jailed for eight years in Libya over an HIV epidemic at a children’s hospital welcomed on Saturday media reports accusing Kadhafi-era spies of deliberately infecting the infants. The five nurses, who along with a Palestinian doctor, became known as the “Benghazi six” …

Paris, France | AFP |  A construction worker who drank four to five energy drinks every day for three weeks, was hospitalised with severe liver problems “likely” caused by excessively imbibing the seemingly harmless substance, researchers said Tuesday. The man, 50, was admitted to a hospital in Florida after feeling …

Paris, France | AFP |  Cancer will kill 5.5 million women — about the population of Denmark — per year by 2030, a near 60-percent increase in less than two decades, a report said Tuesday. As the global population grows and ages, the highest toll will be among women in …

The new United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Uganda Country Representative Sande Amakobe has said she will focus on tackling infections in children, adolescent girls and boosting domestic funding during her four year tenure. Amakobe said that though Uganda is one of the countries that had initially made major strides …