Each year more than 25 million women around the world have unsafe abortions, according to a report launched on Wednesday by the Guttmacher-Lancet Commission in Johannesburg.

And while the report, intended to put sexual and reproductive health and rights on top of the global public health agenda, praises South Africa’s liberal abortion laws, activists have lambasted the government for failing to turn policy into a reality on the ground.

“We have roughly 8 000 health facilities, how many of them offer termination of pregnancy?” asked Justice Edwin Cameron at the launch. “Only 270, that’s just 7%.”

Extremely limited access to abortion

Referring to a recent Amnesty International report that noted that less than one in 10 of South African public health facilities offers women access to their legally-entrenched right to terminate their pregnancies, Cameron criticised Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi for public comments he has made in the past implying that women use abortion as a means of contraception.

“How do we go from this beautifully drafted Mandela-era statute to implementation?” he asked, referring to the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act signed into law by former health minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zumu over two decades ago in 1996 under the presidency of Nelson Mandela.

According to head of Section27 Mark Heywood this “extremely limited” access to abortion in the country “is a violation of women’s human rights that ultimately leads to loss of life” as many women seek out illegal abortion providers as their only accessible option.

Illegal abortions have high complication rates including death. According to the report almost 7-million women “in developing countries sought treatment for complications from an unsafe induced abortion in 2012”.

Another major hurdle

Dr Manala Makua, acting director for women, child and sexual and reproductive health at the National Department of Health told Health-e News that they are aware of the problem but that opposition from certain parties and health workers “are hurdles”.

In December 2017 the African Christian Democratic Party put forward a bill in Parliament aimed at further decreasing access to abortion in the country.

Makua said that the department’s rejection of this bill, which would require women seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound and see their foetus, should be heralded as a “success”.

“We can’t afford any more restrictions,” she admitted.

She said that the another major “hurdle” is that many health workers refused to perform abortions on moral, religious and cultural grounds.

“But termination of pregnancy has nothing to do with morality and is an extremely complex issue that can often be related to contraception failure and gender-based violence,” she said.

Women facing stigma

She added that the department was facilitating bi-annual national workshops with health workers on “values clarifications” and “debriefing” because “providers need support”.

“They need debriefing and motivation to keep going and to understand the context of women seeking these services,” she said.

But Heywood said that while these trainings “are important, they are just not enough”.

“We need a public commitment from the Minister of Health that this is a serious problem.”

He compared the stigma that women seeking abortions in South Africa face to the stigma experienced by people “in the old days of HIV”.

He said: “The Department of Health needs to conduct a proper audit of abortion access at health facilities as a matter of urgency because this is a pervasive but unrecognised disaster, a disaster predominantly affecting poor black women.” – Health-e News.

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Amy Green

It takes one to four days for flu symptoms to show once you’ve been infected with the virus.

You can be contagious from the day the symptoms begin through five to 10 days after the illness starts.

With winter fast approaching and flu season creeping up on us, it might be a good idea to refresh your memory on what you should do in order to avoid being “patient zero” in the office. 

Here are 10 simple tips on how to counter the flu like a professional and be a considerate co-worker.

1. Wash your hands correctly

Washing your hands is the most simple and effective way to prevent yourself from spreading and catching germs that cause illnesses. According to the Global Hygiene Council, washing your hands at least six times a day with soap and water is considered the basic hygiene minimum.

How long you wash your hands is also important. A quick rinse will not do, rather count slowly to 20 while vigorously rubbing your hands together – with soap, of course.

2. Dry your hands thoroughly after washing

Drying your hands on a clean paper towel will further help to remove germs. Washing your hands is not effective if you don’t dry them properly afterwards – bacteria and viruses thrive on wet surfaces. According to a study published in the US National Library of Medicine, the transmission of bacteria is more likely to occur from wet skin than from dry skin.

3. Eat healthy

Eating healthily is important, regardless of whether or not you are sick. Boosting your immunity with flu-fighting foods is highly beneficial. 

Boost your immune system with foods rich in vitamin C, like oranges, grapefruit and lemons, as well as foods rich in beta-carotene, like pumpkin, sweet potato and butternut. Fatty fish, rich in omega-3 fatty acids is a great source of zinc. Load up on meat, poultry and eggs, too, to keep your immune system strong to combat the flu.

4. Medicate, but be smart

Over-the-counter medications such as effervescent immune boosters are great as they are designed to strengthen the immune system and protect your body against colds and flu. Remember that antibiotics are useless against a cold, as colds are caused by viruses. However, if you have the flu, an antiviral might help – this works best when taken as early as possible. 

5. Invest in hand sanitiser

Hand sanitiser is so convenient – you can keep a bottle in your pocket, purse, car or at your desk at work. Using an alcohol-based sanitiser is more effective in reducing the spread of rotavirus, adenovirus and rhinovirus than medicated and non-medicated hand soaps, according to studies done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

6. Sneeze into your elbow or a tissue

Scientists have discovered that it only takes a single sneeze from a person with the flu to spread germs around an entire room. With this information, not covering your nose and mouth during a sneeze should be a punishable offence.

If you do not have tissues handy, use your elbow instead of your hands. This is because you don’t touch things with your elbow like you do with your hands. If you have to use your hands, clean them with hand sanitiser. 

7. Be careful about touching surfaces in cafeterias and common rooms 

Areas used by your co-workers such as doorknobs and cafeteria tables are a breeding ground for germs. According to a study conducted by Dr Charles Gerba, professor of microbiology at the University of Arizona, the dirtiest place in your office is the break room. So if you know you’re not feeling great or just trying to avoid getting sick during flu season, try and avoid these areas or clean your hands thoroughly before and after using them.

8. Stay hydrated

If you are suffering from a cold, staying hydrated helps you to recuperate. Drink as much liquid as possible; your urine should be a pale transparent yellow if you’re doing it properly. Try water with lemon and decaffeinated tea with honey. Stay away from alcoholic drinks as these will dehydrate you and intensify your flu symptoms. 

9. Stay home, if possible

Take time off from work to recover at home, especially if you’re coughing and sneezing constantly, as those are the fastest way to spread germs. Staying at home will not only speed up your recovery by resting, but you will also be saving your co-workers from your germs. 

10. If you cannot stay at home, isolate yourself

If you cannot afford to stay home and rest, try to isolate yourself from contact with other people as much as possible. If you can, work in an office by yourself or find a desk as far away as possible from your colleagues. If you do have to leave your quarantine, make sure you wash your hands with water and soap or hand sanitiser before and after you’ve touched anything, including your face.

Read here on why your place of work could be making you sick. 

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Jemima Lewin

Deep breathing is a great stress reliever, and the technique called “mindfulness meditation” is helpful to use breathing to get more in touch with your inner self.

People who meditate say they feel more positive, and have more energy and better concentration.

Many physiological benefits

According to a previous Health24 article, the brains of people who regularly meditate shrink less as they age, and they have stronger connections in the brain itself.

Meditation has many other physiological benefits; examples are:

• Generalised reduction in respiratory and heart rates and a decreased pulse
• Increases alpha brainwaves, linked to relaxation
• Reduces the risk of heart attack and stroke
• Restores the body’s own self-repair mechanisms
• Decreases blood pressure
• Decreases muscle tension
• Increases serotonin levels
• Reduces PMS

There’s more than one way to tap meditation’s benefits – through variations in technique. A study published in the journal Mindfulness looked at what can be gained from a few popular approaches.

With body scan meditation, you focus on each body part, one at a time, from your head to your feet. When paired with focused breathing, study participants sharply reduced their number of negative thoughts, and thoughts about the future and the past. Body scan meditation can help you feel more centred and focused on the “now”.

Loving-kindness. This type of meditation helps you deepen positive feelings for a loved one as well as for yourself, your extended social circle, and beyond. This type of meditation led to the greatest boost in participants’ feelings of warm, positive thoughts about others. It can be a good approach if you’re facing interpersonal conflicts.

Observing-thought. This type of meditation teaches you to recognise and define thoughts – as negative or positive, for instance – without becoming absorbed in them. This practice helped participants become more aware of both thoughts and judgmental attitudes they held toward others. It also can stop rumination – the habit of repetitively going over distressing situations in your mind.

While meditation, in general, can help you feel more relaxed, different types offer additional benefits. Experiment to find those that bring you closer to your personal improvement goals.

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Drugs designed to trigger a patient’s immune system may help boost survival for those battling lung cancer, two new studies found.

The first study found that when the immunotherapy drug Keytruda (pembrolizumab) was combined with standard chemotherapy, the chance that a patient would die within the next 11 months plummeted by more than 50%, compared with being treated with chemo alone.

An encouraging note

The combination treatment also drove down the risk that the cancer would spread by nearly as much, added the research team from NYU Langone Health in New York City.

In a similar vein, another team of researchers gave patients diagnosed with advanced lung cancer either a combination of the immunotherapy drugs Opdivo (nivolumab) and Yervoy (ipilimumab) or standard chemotherapy. Those on the two immunotherapy drugs were 42% less likely to see their disease progress after a year.

Taken together, the two findings offer an encouraging note in an effort to improve the odds against what is the leading cause of cancer-related death, experts said.

“Chemotherapy remains the standard of care for the majority of [lung cancer] patients, and is a very poor standard,” explained Dr Leena Gandhi, lead author of the NYU Langone study. In most cases, she said, chemo prolongs life by just a year or even less.

But the combination approach “resulted in a marked improvement in response, progression-free survival and overall survival in all patients,” she said.

Dr Gandhi is director of Langone’s Thoracic Medical Oncology Program at the Perlmutter Cancer Center.

Serious side effects

The studies were also published simultaneously in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The second study was led by Dr Matthew Hellmann, assistant attending at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

Dr Gandhi’s team enlisted more than 600 lung cancer patients from over 118 treatment centres around the world.

Of these, roughly two-thirds were randomly assigned to receive Keytruda and chemotherapy. The remaining third was treated with chemotherapy alone.

Investigators found that in both groups about two-thirds of the patients experienced serious side effects, though the combination group faced a 5% higher risk for kidney trouble.

But compared with those in the chemo-only group, those in the combination group saw their chances increase for overall survival and for halting the progression of their disease.

Combination therapy more expensive

Hellmann’s group followed 299 patients with advanced lung cancer for close to a year. One group was given the immunotherapy drugs Opdivo and Yervoy, while the other received chemo.

“Patients who received the immunotherapy combination were 42% less likely to have their disease progress,” Hellmann said in a statement.

As for costs, Gandhi said combination drug therapy (approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2017) is more expensive than chemo alone. But she suggested that the added expense should be weighed against “the magnitude of the benefit”.

Dr Norman Edelman, senior medical advisor for the American Lung Association, said both findings are a step forward, given that “until very recently the treatment of lung cancer has been dismal”.

“Because most lung cancer is detected after it’s already spread, we get five-year cures in less than 20% of patients using chemotherapy alone,” Edelman noted.

Substantial breakthrough

“But recently we’ve developed drugs that are tailored to the specific genetics of a patient’s tumour,” he explained. “And that was really the first breakthrough, because it extended life for a small group of people, about 10 to 15%.

“But what’s exciting about these two immune system therapies is that the researchers didn’t limit themselves to just specific genetic variations [in patients],” Edelman said.

“The first study went for all the patients, and the second study also focused on a much larger group of patients. And both found that their approaches offered a substantial improvement – in terms of prolonging life and reducing disease progression – to a much larger percentage of people,” he explained.

“And in the case of the first study, if their findings hold up, it’s really a substantial breakthrough, because they suggest this can be a first-line treatment,” Edelman added.

“In other words, you can use this instead of chemotherapy. Which is truly a big deal, because chemo is not terribly effective and has all kinds of side effects,” he said.

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Scientists have recently uncovered more than 100 new genes linked to hair colour, a discovery which could advance knowledge of skin cancer and other diseases.

The findings, published in Nature Genetics, could also help forensic scientists use DNA samples to identify the natural hair colour of unidentified criminals.

Link between pigmentation and health

In the largest ever genetic study on pigmentation, which includes skin and hair, researchers analysed DNA data from almost 300 000 people of European descent.

By comparing self-reported hair colour with genetic make-up – stored at several million locations across the human genome – the team identified 124 genes involved in the development of hair colour.

Inherited factors account for 97% of colour variation for hair and skin, but only a dozen relevant genes had been previously identified.

“The link between pigmentation and health is very important in the evolution of the human race,” said co-author Veronique Bataille from King’s College London.

It was found that some of the genes that influence pigmentation are connected to several types of cancers (including testicular, prostate and ovarian cancers), and others are related to Crohn’s and other forms of bowel disease.

“Knowing more about these genes can be important not just for skin cancer but also for other conditions, like auto-immune diseases.”

‘Gentlemen prefer blondes’

The discovery could give police investigators a boost, the researchers said.

“If after a crime, police have a DNA sample but no idea who they are looking for, knowing with far more certainty what colour hair they have could increase the chance of finding them,” said co-author Manfred Kayser from Erasmus MC University Medical Centre in Rotterdam.

The study also confirmed that women are more likely to have lighter hair than men.

Earlier research has speculated that when early Europeans migrated north, women evolved to have lighter hair than men, most likely in response to male sexual preference.

“Our study confirms in very large sample sizes that there must have been a selection towards fair-haired females,” said Bataille. “It’s fascinating in terms of human history and sexual behaviour.”

The once popular expression “gentlemen prefer blondes”, in other words, may be grounded in an ancient evolutionary imperative.

“Maybe it is still happening now, we don’t know.”

“Our work helps us to understand what causes human diversity in appearance by showing how genes involved in pigmentation subtly adapted to external environments and even social interactions during our evolution,” added co-author Tim Spector from King’s College London.

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