Treatment

 

Medical Implants:- Germs can grow on them, but can they make you sick?

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Contrary to belief, implants are not completely sterile. When you insert a foreign body into the human body, you create a new habitat for bacteria.

Bacteria and fungi grow on medical implants, such as hip and knee replacements, pacemakers and screws used to fix broken bones, researchers report.

In a new study, Danish investigators examined 106 implants of different types and the surrounding tissue in patients. The findings showed that 70% of the implants had been colonised by bacteria, fungi or both.

However, none of the patients with bacteria or fungi on implants showed signs of infection, according to the team at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

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Topvyf chroniese siektes waaraan mediese fondse die meeste geld bestee

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’n Nuwe siekte het in 2017 kop uitgesteek onder die topvyf chroniese siektes waaraan mediese fondse wat Mediscor se dienste gebruik, die meeste geld bestee.

Die gebruik van generiese medisyne pleks van die oorspronklike is nou 59,9%.

Bipolêre gemoedsversteuring het asma onder die topvyf vervang.

Volgens Mediscor, die bestuurder van farmaseutiese voordele, se jaarlikse verslag het mediese fondse verlede jaar 64% van die totale besteding aan chroniese siektes wat onder voorgeskrewe minimum voordele val, aan die topvyf bestee.

Die topvyf (met die persentasie van die totale besteding aan chroniese siektes in hakies):

Hoë bloeddruk (26,5%)
Diabetes tipe 2 (13,6%)
MIV/vigs (10,8%)
Hoë cholesterol (8,2%)
Bipolêre gemoedsversteuring (5%)

Bipolêre gemoedsversteuring het asma in die vyfde plek vervang.

Die siektes se plek op die ranglys het effens verander gemeet aan die voorkoms per 1 000 lewens.

Die topvyf hier (met die getal per 1 000 lewens
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Hospices close doors nationwide after funding cuts: Dying of the light

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Hospice isn’t just a place to die but funding cuts – and that perception – could be killing our chances of a kinder death as refuges close. The morning sun cuts through half-open blinds and filters into a deserted ward at HospiceWits, the Soweto branch.

Outside, the August wind chases dust around the property.

The rays illuminate a room with five single beds. Bright orange curtains — once drawn to give patients and their families privacy — are roughly knotted or draped over the rails around each bed.

Against the wall above a small porcelain basin, a frozen clock reads 12:40.

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It’s been like that for more than a year.

“We had to retrench more than 20 people,” she says
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“Fake Food is Fake News” – Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi

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Eight months after it began, South Africa’s listeriosis outbreak – the largest the world had ever seen – is officially over. But the nation’s alleged spate of “fake food”? Well, that may have been more hype than fact, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi revealed at a Pretoria press conference on Monday.

The foodborne bacteria, which can thrive in cold meats and unpasteurised dairy products, had claimed at least 218 lives as of July, according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases statistics (NICD). The NICD eventually discovered the bug at 158 factories, all but nine of which were visited by health inspectors. Ultimately, more than 12,000 tons of food were recalled and destroyed, Motsoaledi said.

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Recruitment of mental healthcare practitioners in EC – R10m

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In a bid to address mental healthcare in the Eastern Cape Health Department, the ministry has announced that a budget of R10m has been set aside to recruit health practitioners.

“The plan includes recruitment of mental healthcare practitioners and expanding scope of mental health service providers to include community-based mental healthcare programme.

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“A budget of R10m has been budgeted for recruitment of mental healthcare practitioners for this financial year. The appointments will be made before the end of the current financial year,” said the provincial Health MEC Helen Sauls-August.

For the current financial year, the department said it will focus on recruiting psychologists
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Aaron Motsoaledi – The outbreak of listeriosis is over

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Grocery stores have been given the green light to once again stock processed meat on shelves and pack them in lunch boxes. This comes almost six months after polony and other ready-to-eat processed meats were declared no-go areas by the Department of Health.

“A team of World Health Organisation (WHO) international and local experts [have] agreed that because no cases of listeriosis due to the outbreak strain have been identified since the first week of June 2018 and that over the last two months the incidence rate of laboratory-confirmed listeriosis cases has dropped to pre-outbreak levels, the outbreak of listeriosis is over,” said Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi.

While processed meats were officially given the clear at a media briefing on Monday, Motsoaledi warned the public that listeria is still a reality.

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Medical Aid Fraud:- Audiologist convicted of 259 counts

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Earlier this month, Wandile Theophilus Mashego, an audiologist and speech therapist practising in Pretoria, was found guilty of 259 counts of medical aid fraud and one count for contravening Section 66 of the Medical Schemes Act.

The case was brought against him by Bonitas Medical Fund after it was discovered he had been submitting fraudulent claims on behalf of members over a period of two years – from 2014 to 2015.

A soon to be identified ‘runner’ provided details of Bonitas Medical Fund members to Mashego, who then billed Bonitas fraudulently, for ‘services’ to these members.

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Mashego pleaded guilty under Section 105A of the Criminal Procedure Act 77 of 1951 and was sentence
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A New Healthcare Plan promises to overhaul South Africa’s massively skewed system

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Since 1994 South Africa has invested substantial resources in healthcare services. As a result, it’s has made significant health gains. For example, nearly 4-million people get HIV treatment and mother-to-child transmission has nearly been eliminated.

Service delivery has also been significantly expanded to more than 4000 health facilities. And there’s been a large increase in the number of healthcare professionals.

But health care needs aren’t static. For example, non-communicable diseases like diabetes and hypertension are now responsible for more deaths than HIV and TB combined. And in some instances successes have created challenges. For example, the expansion of HIV treatment has meant that there’s now a large cohort of chronic patients requiring ongoing care. In addition, the reality of a largely youthful population requires interventions so that health gains aren’t lost.

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Revolutionise US 911 services to startup local tech

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RapidDeploy, a local tech startup, is set to modernise 911 services in the US, following a recent partnership with multinational telecommunications company AT&T.

The local tech startup that has revolutionised access to emergency services in South Africa, is set to modernise 911 for law enforcement, fire and emergency medical services in the United States. This follows a recent partnership with multinational telecommunications company AT&T.

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Steven Raucher, RapidDeploy CEO and co-founder, says “As a South African born company, we could not be more thrilled that our homegrown, non-traditional approach to emergency services is taking off in such a competitive overseas market. Most important
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Outbreak of Klebsiella pneumonia in Vosloorus hospital

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The Gauteng Department of Health has confirmed the outbreak of Klebsiella pneumonia at the Thelle Mogoerane Regional Hospital, in Vosloorus.

The head of department (HOD), Professor Mkhululi Lukhele, paid a visit to the hospital to assess the situation following the outbreak and a recent protest by employees of the facility.

During the visit, Lukhele confirmed that the hospital’s neonatal unit identified seven cases of Klebsiella pneumonia outbreak in July 2018, which sadly resulted in the deaths of two babies.

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“Contrary to what has been reported in the media, there were five babies that were being treated and out of the five, one of the baby’s results was negative,” sa
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Let’s have a look at 5 things you shouldn’t do to heal a wound

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From applying wine and beer to a scratch to using ants to bite and seal a cut – humans have tried almost anything to accelerate the healing of wounds over the centuries.

We’ve come a long way since then, but we still don’t always get it right when it comes to caring for our wounds.

Most people still have a scar somewhere from a childhood fall or a soccer match gone wild, but the right treatment could have accelerated healing by up to 50% and reduced the risk of scarring, says Dr. Rainer Wolber from Beiersdorf AG’s Research & Development Centre.

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Here are 5 things not to do when taking care of a wound.

1. Don’t leave your wound to air-dry
If y
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Time to develop new malaria drugs before its too late

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It has been more than a century since Ronald Ross discovered that the female Anopheles mosquitoes transmit malaria. In the interim, the world has made unbelievable strides in the fight against malaria. But both the mosquito and the malaria parasite are wily foes with the ability to develop resistance against the tools we use against them.

A recent study, Malaria Futures for Africa (MalaFA), questioned malaria leaders in 14 African countries about their views on the fight against malaria. The report revealed that many of them are highly concerned about resistance to artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs) emerging. The early stages of resistance to ACTs, the current standard treatment recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) against malaria, have emerged in Southeast Asia and been observed in several countries there.

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Supply of medicine during strike by Sahpra will continue

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The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) says it has developed contingency plans to ensure that its essential services are not disrupted during the ongoing protest action by the employees of the Department of Health.

Sahpra, which was established in February 2018 to replace the Medicines Control Council (MCC) as South Africa’s regulatory authority, continues with its work to ensure that health products available to the public are safe, effective and of good quality.

As the authority transitions from the MCC to Sahpra, it continues to be housed with the department employees in the Civitas building in Pretoria.

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Some common skin cancer can signal increased risk of other cancers

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Frequent skin cancers due to mutations in genes responsible for repairing DNA are linked to a threefold risk of unrelated cancers, according to a Stanford study. The finding could help identify people for more vigilant screening.

A new study from Stanford University School of Medicine shows that people who develop six or more basal cell carcinomas during a 10-year period are more likely to develop other, unrelated cancers such as, including blood, breast, colon and prostate cancers.

The increased susceptibility is likely caused by mutations in a panel of proteins responsible for repairing DNA damage, the researchers found.

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Microplastics:- We are guinea pigs in a worldwide experiment

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One of the main problems with plastics is that although we may only need them fleetingly – seconds in the case of microbeads in personal care products, or minutes as in plastic grocery bags – they stick around for hundreds of years. Unfortunately, much of this plastic ends up as environmental pollution.

We’ve all seen the gruesome images of a sea turtle killed by a plastic bag, or the array of bottle caps, toothbrush fragments, and other plastic items found in the stomach of an albatross carcass. But what about the tiny microplastics that aren’t as readily visible?

Much of the hundreds of millions of tons of plastic waste in our oceans is made up of microplastics. These are defined as plastic beads, fibers or fragments with a diameter of less than five thousand micrometers (μm), equal to one-half centimeter. Nanoplastics are thousands of times tinier, with a diameter of less than 0.1 μm, and are also likely to be widely present. By comparison, a human hair ran
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