Andrew Gámez-Heath didn’t hesitate to get tested for HIV. Little did he know that an unexpected outcome would lead him down the path to patient advocacy. “I ...
Getting Checked
28th November 2018
Andrew Gámez-Heath didn’t hesitate to get tested for HIV. Little did he know that an unexpected outcome would lead him down the path to patient advocacy. “I had just started a new relationship and thought I would go ...
20th November 2018
You don’t usually come across a triathlete with severe lung disease, but Russell Winwood is great at busting stereotypes. The Australian blogger has come a long way since being diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in 2011, which left ...
28th July 2018
Until a few years ago, Michelle Tolley was one of the approximately 300 million people who are unaware that they carry viral hepatitis. Now she’s on a quest to help find the rest of the ‘missing millions’. Despite having contracted ...
17th May 2018
I have been obese since my childhood. For family reasons, I could not benefit from an appropriate care. I suffered from stigmatization, I wore clothes that fit me but which I did not like and, to hide my face, I ...
2nd May 2018
Linda Proce’s career in disinfection started right on time. It was 2009 and Mexican Bird Flu was in full swing. Her story, however, began eight years earlier. The year 2001 marked the second time my life was plagued by a hospital ...
25th April 2018
I’d never seen it this bad. Jessie was covered in rash and scratching nonstop. My 12-year-old daughter was having her worst ever flare-up of eczema (or atopic dermatitis), an inherited skin condition that disrupts the skin’s barrier and ...
3rd March 2018
This blog is part of the Early Diagnosis campaign #BeFirst Early diagnosis and care can prevent illness from developing and slow disease progression. Lab tests, genetic tests, tests for chronic diseases and modern lab diagnostics can help facilitate earlier intervention ...
1st December 2017
December 1st isn’t just a reminder that the winter holidays are nearly here. It’s an opportunity to show solidarity with over 36 million people who are living with HIV worldwide, and to remind the public and governments that it ...
24th November 2017
When he was born, Marc’s mother thought his vision problem was the result of medication she had taken while pregnant. Now, 60 years later, he knows his condition is genetic – and an innovative ‘bionic eye’ has given him the chance ...
11th October 2017
Gary Finnegan asks consultant ophthalmologist Keith Barton how glaucoma care has changed over the past 20 years and what the future holds Outcomes for glaucoma patients are better than ever thanks to specialisation in ophthalmology and advances in diagnostics, medication and ...
21st September 2017
Giacomina was a little anxious about her first ever operation, until her doctor explained that it was the most common procedure in Europe Giacomina Bruno had lived for almost 70 years without ever encountering a surgeon’s scalpel. But two years ...
14th September 2017
Sexually-transmitted infections (STIs) can cause pain, infertility and death. Can education and new technologies help turn the tide? More than 1 million sexually-transmitted infections (STIs) are acquired every day worldwide. From chlamydia, syphilis and herpes to gonorrhoea, hepatitis, HPV and HIV, ...
27th July 2017
These days, the best way to rally support for an important cause is via social media…and selfies. That’s why the World Hepatitis Alliance has launched #ShowYourFace to stamp out the silent killer that is hepatitis. The campaign marks ...
20th July 2017
New invention promises faster and more accurate diagnosis Malaria kills one person every 12 seconds. Think about that for a moment. That’s five per minute. Almost half the world’s population lives in areas at risk of malaria. Hardly surprising ...
29th June 2017
Carina had been wearing glasses or contacts since she was a kid. Now, artificial lenses implanted in her eye give her the freedom to enjoy life – and her work (as an optician!) [caption id="attachment_1942" align="alignright" width="300"] Photo credits: ...
16th June 2017
MedTech’s next generation of innovators want to reduce ‘false positives’ in cancer diagnostics Imagine you’ve been tested for cancer. The results come back – it’s bad news: the test is positive and you’re given a follow-up appointment ...
6th June 2017
Talk about mobile health! Doctors and medical students have put Romania’s healthcare divide in the spotlight Every month, one of Romania’s many rural villages welcomes up to 40 young doctors and students on a mission: to deliver health services ...
16th February 2017
Getting sick is no fun anywhere, but relief is close at hand in the industrialized world. Lab results come within hours, diagnosis is quick, treatment is prescribed. For sick people in remote villages around the globe, though, the story is ...
14th December 2016
In the depths of America’s Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” His words ring true in today’s fight against HIV/AIDS, as social stigma still deters people from seeking ...
18th November 2016
Hollywood megastar Ben Stiller has helped to raise awareness about prostate cancer and prompted a debate about the need for a better test In 2003, two friends – Travis Garone and Luke Slattery – were enjoying a beer in Melbourne, Australia, when they ...
8th November 2016
Pneumonia kills more children than and other infectious disease. Simple counting beads could speed up diagnosis – and increase survival rates 920,136 children. That is the number of kids who died of pneumonia in 2015. Nine hundred and twenty thousand, one hundred and ...
14th September 2016
This is what Julia Seugling kept on telling herself after her baby had been delivered by emergency C-section at 28 weeks. It wasn’t exactly the blissful scenario that she had envisioned for the birth of her first child, but there ...
8th September 2016
If you experienced heart failure or diabetes, fought HIV, underwent heavy surgery and survived, chances are that antibiotics have already saved your life. Since their discovery, antibiotics have been the equivalent of Superman on Earth: saving lives, giving hope, making ...
26th July 2016
The nurse already had given dozens of free flu vaccinations at a small New Jersey office one day last fall when an alert employee noticed that she was using the same syringe over and over. State health officials urged the 67 ...
25th April 2016
When a 16-year-old aid worker returned from Uganda feeling tired and ill, it took days to diagnose malaria and begin urgent treatment. The delay almost cost him his life. Feeling tired after a long-haul flight is what you can expect. ...
11th April 2016
Diagnosing sepsis within the ‘Golden Hour’ offers the best chance of surviving a potentially lethal condition In 2005, Dr. Ron Daniels was working in the intensive care unit at the hospital where he had trained. As he walked into the ward ...
15th March 2016
Genetic testing during pregnancy can reveal a rare disease before a baby is born, helping parents to prepare. But just how much information do parents want about their child? All children are unique but Olivia Farnsworth is a true one-off. ...
2nd March 2016
If you have fever, rash, joint pain, headache and fatigue, it could be flu, dengue fever or chikungunya. Or it could be Zika virus. The trouble is it can take weeks to find out for sure. For pregnant women in ...
22nd January 2016
When doctors missed her three-year-old’s brain cancer, Amanda decided she had to do whatever it takes to get a diagnosis for her child. Amanda Davies knew something was wrong. Over the course of a year, her daughter, Lil, had ...
27th November 2015
When identical twin sisters were diagnosed with different forms of cancer, they began to wonder if cancer was “in their genes.” They discovered that gene sequencing could provide answers, but it could also raise some difficult questions. Kathy Giusti was ...
4th September 2015
Measles are often thought to be a plague of the past, an ancient evil which only haunts some remote areas of the earth, caused by a virus so rare, vaccinations are superfluous. A trip to the past In ancient history, ...
10th July 2015
For mothers like Posha, Lexina, Luchrecia, Rita, Queen and Siphiwe the news that they were pregnant didn’t come with quite as much joy as it does for most expectant mothers. Each year, approximately 1.5 million women living with HIV give ...
8th July 2015
My whole body ached as I woke stiff, unrested and shiny from night sweats. The bruises on my shins throbbed. I forced myself into action, organising breakfast while snapping at my children. It was clearly going to be another non-functioning ...
8th July 2015
Alima was 15 years old when she travelled from her home to the capital of Ghana, Accra, to save up for wedding crockery. But life in the city can be risky for young girls like Alima. Working in the markets girls ...
27th May 2015
Imagine having routine surgery and ending up feeling even worse than before you had the procedure. Everything was well planned, you went to a good hospital with great staff and the operation went well. But then about a week later, ...
17th May 2015
Health experts have long advocated the need to look beyond pregnant women to reduce HIV transmission from mothers to their children. Ellon Mabaasa and her team think getting male partners involved will help, and they’ve got the numbers to ...
6th May 2015
Pink ribbons remind us to take cancer seriously and get ourselves checked out, but in places where “pink” has yet to catch on, organisations like PATH are stepping in. So at some point in spring, Europe becomes aglow with pink, ...
27th April 2015
For many women, having a pap test doesn’t even come close to the top on their list of priorities. But is should. Women often opt out of a pap test because they find it unnecessary and are generally unaware ...
22nd April 2015
New gadgets allow you to check your kids’ vital signs without rushing to hospital Have you ever been awoken in the middle of the night by your child's cry? I know I have. They wake because they are hungry. Or ...
7th April 2015
As a survivor of thyroid, cervical and breast cancer, Yuthar Al Rawahy has devoted her life to raising awareness and educating women in Oman about the importance of early detection. Yuthar was 48 years old, a healthy mother of five children ...
1st April 2015
Angelina Jolie has emerged as an unlikely champion of informed medical decision-making. This would have been hard to predict if you were familiar with stories of Jolie turning up at her first wedding in black rubber pants or roaming around ...
30th March 2015
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in women, claiming the lives of more than three times the number of women as breast cancer. But what if there was an easy way to tell if a woman is having ...
16th March 2015
Survivors say early detection and treatment can help beat Ebola and conquer stigma The death toll from the ongoing Ebola outbreak is heading for 11,000. That's 11,000 people – 11,000 family stories of heartbreak and horror, thousands of children orphaned by a deadly disease. ...
23rd February 2015
It appears that many kids have a refined palate for cold, iron-tasting afternoon snacks known as magnets. And frankly it’s understandable – those colourful pieces of construction marvelousness look remarkably like candy. Children often lament stomach pains and tummy troubles ...
2nd February 2015
A simple blood test may be a reliable way to screen people for suicide risk. The test looks for changes in a gene that helps the brain manage stress and control impulsive behavior. “Suicide is a major preventable public health ...
8th January 2015
One of the ways medicine is reinventing itself is by making diagnostic techniques less… scary. The mention of a colonoscopy, a biopsy, or even a blood test can be quite unnerving. And not just because we fear ‘why’ the doctor ...
17th December 2014
Close to a million men from the UK through Finland to Singapore pledge to growing moustaches for 30 days in November. And it’s a lot more serious than it sounds. It's Movember. A global campaign rooted form Australia and now ...
16th December 2014
If you are a woman over the age of 30, it’s possible your doctor has recommended you get an HPV test with your pap test. Most women who have HPV don’t know it, and generally the body manages to ...
17th November 2014
There are a few things about healthcare that seem to be given. GPs have terrible handwriting and blood tests are slow and cumbersome. Then there’s always that one person who sets out to change what seems to be unchangeable. ...
15th November 2014
There are a handful of conditions you knew a blood test could easily identify, like diabetes, HIV, anaemia. Pretty obvious. But soon, simple blood tests could do a lot more. What if they could predict depression, your chances of breast ...
25th October 2014
How often do you talk to your sexual partners about sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)? In a world where even just being communicative and open about sex remains a challenge, the topic of STDs is rarely broached between people. The taboo ...
15th October 2014
Getting your eyes checked in rural Kenya isn’t easy. So many people don’t do it. Maybe this can change now. Rather than waiting for patients to show up at clinics, it is much more effective to go to ...
15th October 2014
[Spoiler Alert!] Fans of the international smash hit TV series Downton Abbey would probably rather forget the emotional episode in season 3 in which the estate-fleeing rabble rouser Sybil was set to deliver her interbellum love child and things went terribly ...
5th October 2014
The New York Times called genital herpes the “largest epidemic no one wants to talk about." So is it actually a big deal to have it? Most people have some form of herpes, and many might not even think to ...
4th October 2014
Your smartphone can show your temperature, heart rate and sleeping patterns. Soon it could even tell you if you have the flu or give you an eye exam. But what about the good old unbreakable ‘dumb’ phones? 6 out of the 7 ...
26th September 2014
A wearable vapor sensor could monitor diseases such as diabetes and hypertension by picking up airborne biomarkers exhaled or released through the skin. “Each of these diseases has its own biomarkers that the device would be able to sense,” says ...
14th September 2014
A device that uses a single drop of blood can quickly diagnose anemia and allow inexpensive at-home monitoring. The basic test produces results in about 60 seconds and requires no electrical power. A companion smartphone application can automatically correlate the visual ...
5th September 2014
A new test could dramatically improve the speed and accuracy of diagnosing tuberculosis (TB), allowing health care providers to report test results in minutes. Findings from the first human clinical trial show the test can determine if a patient has ...
4th September 2014
You wake up feeling a bit under the weather. It could be the flu, or maybe your low on Vitamin D? What if you could check right then and there with your morning coffee what exactly is happening to your ...
24th August 2014
A dollop of peanut butter and a ruler might be a way to confirm a diagnosis of early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. Jennifer Stamps, a graduate student in the McKnight Brain Institute Center for Smell and Taste and the University of ...
24th August 2014
A new take on the microscope is making waves on the global health scene, promising to speed diagnoses of conditions in areas where it can now take weeks or even months. Remember those origami books you had as a kid? ...