Kampala, Uganda | DAVID IRVING | Ben Franklin famously wrote: “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”. What he didn’t mention, despite being 83 years old, was a third, almost inevitable eventuality: ageing. Depending on when in history and where on the planet you …
Read More »Antibiotics consumption soars, fueling fears over superbugs
Washington, United States | AFP | Global consumption of antibiotics has soared since the year 2000, stoking calls for new policies to rein in usage — and fueling fears that the worldwide threat posed by drug-resistant superbugs will spiral out of control, researchers say. A study in the Proceedings of …
Read More »UN warns of drug-resistant germ risk brewing in nature
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | The UN warned Tuesday of a ticking time bomb of drug-resistant germs brewing in the natural environment, aided by humans dumping antibiotics and chemicals into the water and soil. If this continues, people will be at an even higher risk of contracting diseases, incurable by …
Read More »EU to vote on relocation of agencies after Brexit
Brussels, Belgium | AFP | The fight for some of the most prized spoils of Brexit comes to a climax on Monday when 27 EU states pick the new host cities for two London-based regulatory agencies. In a process only half-jokingly compared to the Eurovision Song Contest, ministers will vote …
Read More »Time out: Dangers of disrupting your body clock
Paris, France | AFP | Messing with your body’s clock is dangerous business, in fact it could make you sick — or worse. The inner timekeeper dubbed the “circadian clock”, governs the day-night cycle that guides sleep and eating patterns, hormones and even body temperature. It is important enough that the …
Read More »US body clock geneticists take 2017 Nobel Medicine Prize
Stockholm, Sweden | AFP | US geneticists Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young were awarded the Nobel Medicine Prize on Monday for shedding light on the biological clock that governs the sleep-wake cycles of most living things. The team’s work revealed the role of genes in setting …
Read More »‘We have fish & chips’: EU cities bid for Brexit agencies
Brussels, Belgium | AFP | The battle for the spoils of Brexit began Tuesday as 23 European cities launched their bids to host two London-based EU regulatory agencies that will be forced to leave the British capital. Slick videos and glossy brochures abounded as the EU announced that 19 cities were …
Read More »HEALTH: Modern medicine’s loss
Every day, doctors, nurses and other health professionals are presented with situations that demand empathy and compassion. Whether telling a 40-year-old man with cancer he doesn’t have long to live, or comforting an elderly woman who is feeling anxious, the health professional needs to be skilled in understanding what the …
Read More »When natural cures disappear
Traditions clash with modern science over lost plants, animals, fish 64-year old Milly Namwanje knows something about the diseases of infants. She had six children of her own and she is now a grandmother of one-month old Sheebah. Unfortunately, Sheebah has a problem that Namwanje has diagnosed – but she …
Read More »Doctors killing pain wrongly
Pain, the unpleasant physical and sometimes emotional experience, is almost analogous to being alive. Doctors divide pain into two types; acute and chronic. Chronic pain is that which lasts longer than a month whereas acute is that which goes away when it’s cause ceases. Chronic pain, doctors say, often begins …
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