Medical Brief News Updates

Breakthrough research, and the largest study of its kind, has identified the genetic risk factors contributing to increased prostate cancer in African men. The study, which recruited 7 500 men from eastern, southern and west Africa, is especially important because African men have a high risk of prostate cancer, writes… Read more »

The recently updated South African Ethics in Health Research Guidelines have caused ripples of concern, with some researchers and bioethicists interpreting them as allowing what’s known as heritable human genome editing. However, writes Bonginkosi Shozi in The Conversation, the guidance should not be interpreted as a green light for heritable human genome editing.… Read more »

While the legal framework governing claims of medical negligence is extensively documented within South African jurisprudence, with a predominant focus on the liability of medical practitioners, the liability of pharmacists, on the other hand, has received comparatively scant attention. This issue was recently highlighted by a case in which a… Read more »

Hundreds of British doctors, nurses and other health workers with long Covid – many of them now housebound or unable to work – are suing the health service for compensation, saying they were not given proper protection during the pandemic. They say their lives have been devastated by a host… Read more »

In the first head-to-head comparison test, people using Eli Lilly’s obesity medicine Zepbound shed nearly 23kg while those using competitor Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy dropped just under 15kg. After 72 weeks, those who received weekly injections of Zepbound, which contains the anti-diabetic medication tirzepatide, lost 20.2% of their body weight, or… Read more »

A recent study has suggested that a history of lead in petrol – going back to as early as the 1920s – could be responsible for tens of millions of mental health conditions in the United States. The study, published in The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, estimates that about 151m mental… Read more »

Eating at least five tiny servings of dark chocolate each week may lower the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 21%, according to a recent observational study, which found that in fact, as dark chocolate consumption increased from none to five servings, so did the benefits. The researchers emphasised… Read more »

Disgraced attorney Zuko Nonxuba – under whose watch R188m in medical negligence payouts to severely disabled children disappeared – has been declared unfit to practise and been disbarred, in what the provincial Health Department called a victory against 'shameless robbery'. The lawyer, said a Western Cape High Court judge, was… Read more »

The experimental cancer drug Blenrep, in combination with other treatments, reduced the risk of death by 42% in multiple myeloma, a common type of blood cancer, at or after first relapse, compared with an existing treatment. An interim analysis of data from a trial dubbed “DREAMM-7” showed the drug –… Read more »

Results from a phase 3 randomised controlled trial of the non-hormonal drug Fezolinetant (45mg once daily) found the treatment to be efficacious and well tolerated for moderate-severe vasomotor symptoms in women considered unsuitable candidates for hormone therapy, said the researchers. Improvements in moderate-severe vasomotor symptoms were observed as early as… Read more »