Posts in category: Uncategorized

Almost one in five Danes experiences depression during their lives. A new study from Aarhus University now shows that the genetic risk of depression can be linked to an increased genetic risk of other psychiatric diagnoses. The study has just been published in Nature Medicine.

A randomized trial involving all hospitals in London, U.K., has found no difference in survival at 30 days in patients with resuscitated cardiac arrest in the community who were taken by ambulance to a cardiac arrest center compared with those delivered to the geographically closest emergency department. That’s the finding of late breaking research presented in a Hot Line session August 27 at ESC Congress 2023. The study also found no overall difference in neurological outcomes at discharge and at three months between groups.

A new study led by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has revealed key differences in gut bacteria and their metabolic byproducts in infants that may predict the development of peanut allergies by mid-childhood. The findings, published online August 22 in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, could pave the way for new strategies to prevent or treat this increasingly common food allergy.

A team of clinicians, exercise scientists, pharmaceutical scholars, ethicists, and behavioral experts at the University of California, Irvine, outlined their concerns that the use of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) to treat childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes may have unintended and adverse consequences for children’s health.

Studying the complex interactions between synaptic nerve endings as well as their development has now become much easier. Thanks to a method developed by scientists of the Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences (KL Krems) in Austria, it is now possible to study isolated pairs of neurons under controlled conditions. Also, for the first time, it now is possible to analyze pre- and postsynaptic effects of wild-type and/or genetically modified synapses in a simple neuronal network.

THE virulent attack against the person of Dr. Nevers Mumba and Zambia in general over the critical SADC report against the shambolic Zimbabwe election, is totally uncalled for.

It is even more shocking that Zambians have jumped on the bandwagon castigating and condemning Dr. Mumba on account of an official preliminary report that must have been crafted by technocrats, who observed the existential reality on the ground. He was duty bound to deliver it.

Indeed, it is common knowledge that arrangements for the poll, as organised by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission were shambolic, a fact admitted by the commission itself. It admitted many constitutional and practical shortcomings that visited the polls.

However, events outside the polls, the conduct of state agencies and the ruling ZANU-PF, constituted a major affront, impunity and high handedness offensive to civility and rule of law. By the time of elections more than 50 election observers conducting private Voter Tabulation, were arrested and their computers and equipment confiscated.

Among those arrested were members from the Zimbabwe Election Support Network and the Election Resource Centre Zimbabwe both of which are well established organisations that have observed previous elections.

Their main offence was an accusation that they were about to release unofficial results. They were hauled before magistrate courts and charged US$200 bail before being released without their equipment. This effectively put paid to any form of transparency. 

This was in addition to the fact that polling stations in opposition strongholds opened late and often without adequate ballot papers, resulting in an extension of polling by a day, which exercise has also raised fears of figure fudging.

These shortcomings were not the making of the SADC observer team which Dr. Mumba headed.

Although we did not agree with the appointment of Dr. Mumba for this onerous task, often reserved for former Presidents, an attack on his person is totally unacceptable, because it takes away from the gravity of irregularities that have disenfranchised thousands of Zimbabweans. 

It is indeed in order that the SADC secretariat has issued a statement defending Dr. Mumba whose duty was to read the official statement, which observed many irregularities which, in the past, would not have seen the light of day.

It is true that Zimbabwe is a sovereign state with every right to pass legislation, just as it was true that South Africa was a sovereign state with every right to enforce apartheid which was a law legally enacted, but of course obnoxious.

It is however the practical voter suppression strategies that must still be sorted out in court. The observer mission noted that during the voting period and at 26 percent of the polling stations observed, not all voters who turned out could vote either because although the voters were identified, because their names could not be found on the voters roll and therefore it was not possible to establish their identity.

In short Zimbabwe went to the polls without a verifiable voter’s roll- a pre-requisite for any election.

On this count alone, the vote could not be declared, free fair and credible.

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Scientists at UC San Francisco are working on a new approach to treating kidney failure that could one day free people from needing dialysis or having to take harsh drugs to suppress their immune system after a transplant.

Preeclampsia is a severe complication of pregnancy, affecting one in 40 pregnant women. Identifying high-risk patients is often difficult and complex because the exact cause of preeclampsia is still unknown.

Smoke from the massive wildfires still burning in northern Canada has cast a pall over much of North America this summer, leading to health concerns for older people and those with chronic respiratory conditions.

After a nearly three-fold drop in prescriptions for the antibiotic ciprofloxacin between 2015 and 2021, the rates of ciprofloxacin-resistant E. coli bacteria circulating in the community did not decline.