The Thai government will urgently move a bill to ban the recreational use of cannabis, the health minister said on Tuesday, after the kingdom decriminalised the drug in 2022. Cannabis was taken off the list of banned narcotics in June 2022 under the previous government, which included the pro-legalisation Bhumjaithai party. The move prompted hundreds of cannabis dispensaries to sprout around the country, particularly in Bangkok, provoking concern from critics who urged the need for […]
Health
Child pneumonia spikes in Pakistan’s smoggy winter
LAHORE, Pakistan, Feb 2, 2024 (AFP) – In a Pakistan paediatric ward, a chorus of infant coughs and straining lungs is the toll of a frigid winter, compounded by choking smog and lagging vaccination rates. “Please pray for him,” the mother of four-month-old pneumonia patient Ibrahim begs a nurse in Lahore, delicately arranging a blanket around ventilator tubes piping air in and out of his heaving chest. The eastern megacity is blanched every winter by […]
Five key facts about cancer
By Olivier THIBAULT PARIS, Feb 1, 2024 (AFP) – With nearly 10 million deaths and nearly 20 million new cases in 2022, cancer remains one of the world’s biggest killers, according to a report on Thursday by the World Health Organization. Here are five key facts about the disease ahead of World Cancer Day on Sunday: – One in five people – Cancer — a disease that causes abnormal cells to multiply and spread — […]
New cancer cases to soar 77% by 2050: WHO
GENEVA, Feb 1, 2024 (AFP) – The number of new cancer cases will rise to more than 35 million in 2050 — 77 percent higher than the figure in 2022, the World Health Organization’s cancer agency warned Thursday. The WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) cited tobacco, alcohol, obesity and air pollution as key factors in the estimated rise. “Over 35 million new cancer cases are predicted in 2050”, a statement said, a […]
More than one billion now afflicted by obesity: Lancet
More than one billion people around the world are now suffering from obesity with the number having more than quadrupled since 1990, according to a study released by the Lancet medical journal. The “epidemic” is particularly hitting poorer countries and the rate is growing among children and adolescents faster than adults, according to the study carried out with the World Health Organization. The study, released ahead of World Obesity Day on March 4, estimated that […]
Ukraine women fear premature birth at frontline hospital
By Emmanuel PEUCHOT With a pink jumper covering her round belly, Yana Lyakh was all smiles at a Ukraine hospital even as she recounted what for most women would be a nightmare situation. The 26-year-old is eight months pregnant, her husband is away fighting on the front line and her home town is being relentlessly bombed and shelled by Russian forces. In search of a safe place, she moved into a maternity ward weeks ahead […]
Prehistoric ‘chewing gum’ sheds light on Stone Age diet
DNA from a type of “chewing gum” used by teenagers in Sweden 10,000 years ago is shedding new light on the Stone Age diet and oral health, researchers said Tuesday. The wads of gum are made of pieces of birch bark pitch, a tar-like black resin, and are combined with saliva, with teethmarks clearly visible. They were found 30 years ago next to bones at the 9,700-year-old Huseby Klev archaeological site north of Sweden’s western […]
Deaf boy can now hear after breakthrough gene treatment
His father’s voice, the sounds of passing cars and scissors clipping his hair: An 11-year-old boy is hearing for the first time in his life after receiving a breakthrough gene therapy. The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) which carried out the treatment — a first in the United States — said in a statement Tuesday the milestone represents hope for patients around the world with hearing loss caused by genetic mutations. Aissam Dam was born […]
WHO coordinator describes Gaza hospitals in ‘rapid deterioration’
A World Health Organization official on Wednesday described dire conditions in the Gaza Strip’s remaining hospitals, where patients are “waiting to die” due to extreme shortages of staff and supplies. Emergency medical team coordinator Sean Casey said that during some five weeks he spent in the war-torn Palestinian territory, he saw hospital patients “every day with severe burns, with open fractures waiting hours or days” for treatment. “They would often ask me for food or […]
Madrid wants masks worn in hospitals as viruses surge
MADRID, Jan 5, 2024 (AFP) – The Spanish government on Friday called for the wearing of masks to be obligatory in medical facilities as cases of flu and Covid-19 surge with the onset of winter. With the increase in respiratory infections, “we are calling” for the return of obligatory mask-wearing in hospitals and health centres, Health Minister Monica Garcia said on X, formerly Twitter. The minister said she would bring up the subject on Monday […]
Doctors in England start longest strike in NHS history
LONDON, Jan 3, 2024 (AFP) – Hospital doctors in England on Wednesday began their longest consecutive strike in the seven-decade history of Britain’s National Service (NHS). Junior doctors — those below consultant level — started a six-day walkout at 0700 GMT, in a major escalation of their long-running pay dispute with the UK government. The industrial action, which ends next Tuesday, comes at one of the busiest times of the year for the state-funded NHS, […]
A whiff of tears reduces male aggression, says study
By Issam AHMED Watching someone cry often evokes an emotional response — but according to a new study published Thursday, human tears themselves contain a chemical signal that reduces brain activity linked to aggression. The research was carried out by the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, and appeared in PLOS Biology, a US science journal. Though it involved female tears, because women made themselves available as donors, it probably isn’t a sex-dependent effect, the authors […]
