Gabi Khumalo

Pretoria – Children who start drinking at an early age are more likely have academic problems and display delinquent behaviour in both middle school and high school, according to the Central Drug Authority.

As expected, urine differs in composition depending on what you eat or drink (that without even mentioning the way in which alcohol and coffee impact on it). Moreover, a new research carried out by a team...

Gabi Khumalo

Geneva – Worldwide efforts to confront tuberculosis (TB) are making progress, but too slowly, according to a report by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Bathandwa Mbola

Nelspruit - Over 300 student doctors are to address the shortage of health professionals in Mpumalanga’s hospitals and clinics, announced the provincial Health Department.

Kagiso Metswamere

Potchefstroom – Government will this year increase the number of support staff at hospitals and clinics, says Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.

Gabi Khumalo

Johannesburg – The escalating cost of healthcare, under funding, the increase in the number of people visiting healthcare facilities and limited resources are some of the challenges faced by the Gauteng Health Department says Health MEC Brian Hlongwa.

IRIN

HARARE, 7 January 2008 (IRIN) - A diarrhoea outbreak that has hit hundreds of people in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, is being attributed to a combination of factors, including a failure by the local city authority to provide clean water and collect refuse in residential areas.

Sciedevnet

The Southern African Development Community has resolved to develop regional safety standards and carry out research into traditional medicines and medicinal plants to cure communicable diseases.

Sciedevnet

In the shadow of Mount Kenya, traditional healer Jack Githae enters what he describes as his 'natural pharmacy'. It's a dense area of bush where elephants occasionally wander packed with a range of plants and trees from the African olive to the prickly euphorbia.

Githae quickly identifies a plant that he uses to treat patients with malaria. With a well-worn machete, a hoe and a pair of hand shears, he cuts off some of the tree's roots, prunes the branches and chisels off a few wafer-thin shavings of bark.

But rather than create a traditional remedy to treat a patient, he wraps up his harvest and sends it to the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) in the country's capital Nairobi.

IRIN

JOHANNESBURG, 2 January 2008 (IRIN) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) is warning of the possibility of above average malaria transmission levels in the region this season prompted by unusually high wet conditions because of the climate phenomenon called La Niña.

IRIN

BULAWAYO, 21 November 2007 (IRIN) - Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city, already reeling from a diarrhoea outbreak as a result of water shortages, has been told by its fuel-strapped city council that it can only collect refuse once a month.

Paul Driessen/Spiked

Bed-nets are not going to be enough if we're serious about eradicating a disease that kills a million Africans a year.

All-centre

This may be carrying coal to Newcastle, but .......

There are over 200 million drug consumers worldwide. From "natural" to synthetic ("designer") drugs, they are aimed to induce an excitation and euphoria state; when we talk about stars, actors, famous singers, they usually go on with their addiction being pressured by the entourage (many singers and actors are famous for their drug consume). The media builds a magical aura around the drugs, and famous designers prefer skinny models, with an expression devoid of punch, reflecting the image of the junkie.

IRIN

JOHANNESBURG, 7 November 2007 (IRIN) - More than 3,000 cases of diarrhoea have been reported in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city, in the last two months, as residents struggle with water shortages.

IRIN

JOHANNESBURG, 9 November 2007 (IRIN) - The number of people affected by a mystery illness that has already claimed the lives of 4 children on the outskirts of the Angolan capital, Luanda, has climbed to 284. Contaminated food is a suspect but authorities are still in the dark as to the exact cause.

IRIN

JOHANNESBURG, 19 October 2007 (IRIN) - An anti-malaria vaccine offering improved protection to children could be registered for use in four years, potentially saving millions of young lives, new research conducted in Mozambique has shown.

David Masango

Pretoria – Government has halted the distribution of condoms and recalled those that were already distributed by another company not meeting required quality standards.

IRIN

HARARE, 15 October 2007 (IRIN) - Theresa Machirori, a thirteen-year-old student in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, has become used to the morning routine of washing her face and legs, putting on a tattered uniform and going to school without breakfast.

IRIN

BULAWAYO, 1 October 2007 (IRIN) - Thousands of lives have been put at risk since the only two functioning dialysis machines in Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, broke down three weeks ago.

IRIN

HARARE, 11 September 2007 (IRIN) - James Kurai, 40, resigned from his clerical job in the capital, Harare, three years ago because inflation was eroding his income and he needed to boost his earnings to support his family.