British surgeons condemn cheap 'holiday cosmetic surgery'
Brits who travel overseas for cheap "holiday surgery" are turning to surgeons at home to fix things up when it all goes wrong.

Nigeria: Gas flaring wrecking Delta communities
Civil society groups in the Niger Delta region have warned that the government is destroying communities' health and Nigeria's environment by flouting laws against gas flaring, a technique used in oil production.

Congo urged to improve “disastrous” healthcare system
Under-funding and lack of political will have left Congo's healthcare system in a “disastrous” state, according to a human rights group, which has called on the government to match its public declarations with action.


Dr Jon Kabat-Zinn to tour South Africa in 2008
Dr Jon Kabat-Zinn, internationally renowned for his work as a scientist, writer and meditation teacher engaged in bringing mindfulness into the mainstream of medicine and society, will tour South Africa for the first time in May 2008.


Liberia: Health user fees - helpful or harmful?
Representatives of government, NGOs, the UN and donors in Liberia are probing the merits and drawbacks of health care fees, as the government weighs whether to maintain free services in public facilities.

CANSA launches multilingual coping kit - CANSA
The Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA) launched a multilingual Cancer Coping Kit on 5 December to help cancer patients cope with their journey to recovery, thanks to a grant from the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (NLDTF).

The World Health Organisation is overlooking lack of access to healthcare in developing countries - Magna Carta
While the WHO Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) met in Geneva in November to finalise their global strategy regarding access to new drug therapies, the International Alliance of Patients' Organizations (IAPO) concluded, in a separate meeting, that the top global priority is currently access to healthcare.

Industry news: Pfizer tops global list as largest corporate donor - Magna Carta
For the third year in a row, Pfizer, the leading global pharmaceutical company, has been listed as the largest corporate donor in a survey conducted by The Chronicle of Philanthropy, a publication for non-profit organisations.

Burundi: HIV/AIDS programmes dealt a severe blow
Burundi's AIDS program has been dealt a severe blow after its request for funding from the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria was rejected.

Sudan: Angelina Lino: "I tell people I have HIV so they can know it's real"
Angelina Lino, 23, works as a volunteer at People Living with AIDS in Southern Sudan (PLASS), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in Juba, the provincial capital.

Imams wake up to HIV/AIDS
South African Riana Jacobs, 31, has been HIV-positive for the last 10 years.

Fatwas - using religious rulings in the AIDS struggle
Fatwas are issued by respected Islamic scholars known as ulama, and are guidelines for the ummah, the worldwide Muslim community, which numbers between 1.3 and 1.5 billion people, according to the CIA Factbook.

New travel clinic opens at Netcare Blaauwberg Hospital - Martina Nicholson Associated (MNA)
A brand new Netcare Travel Clinic has opened its doors in the Cape last week.

Uganda: Ebola death toll up to 28
The death toll in the Ebola outbreak in western Uganda has risen to 28 out of 112 people infected with the deadly virus, with a sense of fear spreading among the population, officials said.

Medical scheme gets a clean bill of health
Gen-health Medical Scheme has received an initial claims paying ability rating of A from independent rating company, Global Credit Rating (GCR).

More regulatory DNA than previously thought
Surrounding the small islands of genes within the human genome is a vast sea of mysterious DNA. While most of this non-coding DNA is junk, some of it is used to help genes turn on and off.

Ghana probes effects of cooking over fires
Ghana's Kintampo Health Research Centre (KHRC) has started a study into harmful cooking practices, such as cooking over open fires, which may cause adverse respiratory tract infections.

New minimally invasive method to repair tears in the aorta
Tears in the aorta which affect thousands of people each year coast to coast, may soon be treated with a much less invasive technique that could dramatically improve patients' chances of survival.

Yemen: Some 30 percent of children aged 2-5 severely stunted
An international report has said child malnutrition remains a concern in Yemen as nearly one-third of children aged 2-5 are severely stunted.


Do parents care if kids are fat?
[Krista Hopson] Christmas is coming and that means food and yet more food, but even before and after the festive season, many children continue to feast - there's no famine… no let-up in the consumption, and that presents a problem - particularly when parents apparently do not seem to be aware of the potential a bad diet can have to harm a child's health.

AIDS at 26, are we there yet?
Coinciding with World AIDS Day today, the Editor-in-Chief of Retrovirology, Kuan-Teh Jeang has published an editorial commenting on the progress made and challenges that still remain, 26 years after AIDS was first recognised.