Health

Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Fourteen people have died of cholera in northeast Nigeria, with most of the victims living in a camp for people displaced by Boko Haram violence, the health ministry said Saturday. “Up to September 1, 14 deaths have been reported,” the health ministry said in a statement, …

Miami, United States | AFP | The United States approved the first gene therapy against cancer on Wednesday — a treatment that uses a patient’s own immune cells to fight leukemia — opening a new era in the fight against one of the world’s top killers. The treatment is made …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Concerned by the increasing numbers of refugees entering the country, Uganda’s Ministry of Health will September 9-11 roll out a House to House Polio Immunization campaign for children 0-5 years in 73 districts. “Currently, there is high cross-border movements of populations due to insecurity and cross border trade …

Seoul, South Korea | AFP |  North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has fathered another child, reports said Tuesday, after his wife dropped out of the public eye for several months. First lady Ri Sol-Ju delivered the couple’s third child in February, the Yonhap news agency reported Tuesday, citing South Korean …

  Nairobi, Kenya | AFP |  A ban on plastic bags came into force in Kenya on Monday in a bid to slow pollution, with offenders liable to jail time or hefty fines. The ban on the use, manufacture and importation of plastic carrier bags was carried through after the …

Poor funding undermining cancer research and treatment Kampala, Uganda | FLAVIA NASSAKA | Dr. Jackson Orem, the Executive Director at the Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI) was still a student in August 1967 when the facility opened at Mulago Hill North of Kampala city. Founded with an aim of researching and …

Uganda’s first public women’s hospital will soon open its doors. Kampala, Uganda | FLAVIA NASSAKA| Sitting on 24,000 square meters of land on Mulago hill North of Kampala city, the 10 storey Mulago Maternal and Neonatal Healthcare Unit epitomises everything modern in a 21st century health service.  The facility being …

A new Mulago arises: The challenge the new hospital will face and what can be done to protect it from Uganda’s politics THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda |  Last week, I visited the new specialised maternal and neonatal center being constructed at Mulago Hospital. With a built up …

  Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT  |  Professor Charles Olweny, the pioneer Ugandan director of the Uganda Cancer Institute in the 70s, has said health workers at the Mulago centre deserve more credit than they are getting. He was speaking at the official launch of a new book titled “Staying …

Paris, France | AFP | People who choose alternative cures for common cancers are up to five times more likely to die compared to those opting for standard treatments, the lead scientist of a new study told AFP Friday. The risk of death five years after diagnosis “was highest for breast …