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People travelling to countries where meningococcal diseases are endemic should consider getting jabs against the infections, a doctor says. Photo: Yik Yeung-man
Hong Kong healthcare and hospitals

Rise in life-threatening meningococcal infections in Hong Kong sparks jabs call

Expert says the disease is still rare in Hong Kong but travellers heading overseas should consider vaccination.

Artificial intelligence

Alibaba’s AI cancer detection tool clears FDA hurdle for faster approval process

Donald Trump

Trump turns White House Covid website into page pushing China lab leak theory

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Hong Kong healthcare and hospitals

Hong Kong lawmakers urge clarity on fee waivers under new healthcare charges

Many elderly residents are unclear about their inclusion under the new policy’s safety net, Kitson Yang says.

Accident and emergency departments’ fee for people with less urgent needs will increase from the current HK$180 to HK$400, under the reform. Photo: Jelly Tse
Wellness

How to lower your risk of Parkinson’s disease and slow its advance

Study estimates 25 million people could have Parkinson’s by 2050. Healthy habits can prevent it or slow its progression.

New medical drugs

Trump’s tariffs: will Chinese pharmaceutical industry feel the pain?

With biotech firms caught in the crosshairs of Trump’s tariffs, the levy could prove to be a boon for domestic producers but a bane for exporters.

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Wellness

Told she had stage 4 cancer at 41, designer finds strength in art therapy

Ivy Ip says art therapy classes at the Hong Kong Cancer Fund have been a source of inspiration. Now she’s exhibiting her work in Wan Chai.

Ivy Ip (left) and husband Kenneth Kwan, together with Hong Kong Cancer Fund art therapist Tang Hoi-lam, display a wool-felt scarf they made together at a couples’ art therapy session. Photo: Courtesy of Ivy Ip
United States

Pig kidney removed from US woman after record-setting 4 months

Towana Looney’s body eventually rejected the animal organ, but previous recipients of such transplants did not survive past two months.

Australia

‘Human error’: Australia woman has stranger’s baby after IVF clinic mistake

Staff at Brisbane’s Monash IVF discovered an embryo from another patient had been mistakenly thawed and transferred to the birth mother.

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United States

Trump health chief RFK Jnr says US will know cause of autism ‘epidemic’ soon

Kennedy has long promoted a debunked link between vaccines and autism despite scientific evidence to the contrary.

US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jnr attends a press conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Monday. Photo: Reuters
Wellness

At 23, she had a stroke. It left her feeling like ‘a ticking time bomb’

Before her stroke, Emma Rand had been told her blood pressure was high. After a series of tests, doctors revealed what probably caused it.

Emma Rand had a stroke at age 23, but it took doctors five days and multiple medical appointments to figure that out. Photo: courtesy of the Rand family
Hong Kong healthcare and hospitals

Are community pharmacies the magic bullet for Hong Kong’s patients?

How will patients benefit and how much will proposed community pharmacies help Hong Kong’s chronically overstretched public healthcare system?

Wellness

That little voice in our heads? This woman doesn’t have one

Most of us have an inner voice, some more than one. But to the surprise of some scientists, a few people do not – like Australian Mel May.

Wellness

From robot nurses to diagnoses, 5 ways AI is changing healthcare

Doctors say using artificial intelligence will make future healthcare more effective, such as by rapid diagnosis and tailored treatments.

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Missi, the AI-powered robot nurse helping to minimise healthcare worker burnout. Photo: NUHS
Wellness

More evidence links diabetes in pregnancy to higher autism risk in children

Women with diabetes who become pregnant are shown to be at particular risk of giving birth to a child with ADHD, autism or other disorders.

Mothers with diabetes are more likely to give birth to children with disorders including autism, research shows. Photo: Shutterstock
Wellness

Rise in fungal diseases, hard to treat and deadly, worries experts

Dangerous fungal infections that kill millions are becoming more common as the planet warms, and treatment options are few and far between.

United States

Second US child dies of measles, almost 650 ill in southern states: officials

Texas reported its first measles death, also of a child, in February – marking the first US fatality from the disease in nearly a decade.

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Wellness

Can alternative cancer treatment like in Netflix’s Apple Cider Vinegar work?

Integrative cancer treatment fusing conventional medicine and holistic therapy from meditation to yoga is getting eyeballs. Experts weigh in.

Alycia Debnam-Carey as Milla Blake in Netflix’s Apple Cider Vinegar. Photo: Netflix
Wellness

What you should do after dementia finding about shingles vaccine

Research showing older adults’ risk of getting dementia fell if they had shingles vaccination another reason to consider getting the shot.

Hong Kong society

Opinion | Hong Kong healthcare reforms must go to the heart of systemic failures

Cutting healthcare subsidies without a big expansion of primary care investment risks deepening disparities.

Japan

Japan’s second ‘baby hatch’ for abandoned infants opens amid economic strain

With thousands of product prices rising, the cost of raising a child is becoming an impossible burden for some young Japanese women.

A member of staff demonstrates Japan’s first baby hatch at Jikei Hospital in Kumamoto city. Photo: AFP
Hong Kong society

Opinion | Hong Kong’s hard-hit middle class will bear brunt of rise in healthcare fees

The government sees the increases as an unavoidable course correction but, for many Hongkongers, it feels like yet another financial squeeze.

Hong Kong Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau (centre) speaks about the changes to public hospital fees and charges, at the government headquarters in Tamar, on March 25. Photo: May Tse
Wellness

For those struggling with severe or chronic pain, stem cell therapy may offer relief

When Tim Noonan’s shoulder tore in 2014, stem cell therapy eased his extreme pain – 10 years later, he returns for more of the novel therapy.

United States

Trump health cuts to axe 10,000 jobs, strip union rights, amid measles outbreak

The US Department of Health and Human Services aims to lay off up to 10,000 employees through agency consolidation, raising public health concerns.

5G

China makes advances in commercialisation of brain-computer interface technology

The semi-invasive system developed by CIBR and its affiliated start-up NeuCyber NeuroTech have completed their first three human implants.

A staff member demonstrates a brain-computer interface for post-stroke rehabilitation at the World Robot Conference in Beijing, August 16, 2023. Photo: Xinhua
United States

Stroke survivor speaks again with help of experimental brain implant

Brain implant using artificial intelligence turns thoughts into speech in near real-time.

A researcher in California connects a neural data port into the head of a participant in a study on speech neuroprostheses. Photo: AP
Wellness

Dementia’s links to diabetes, herpes explored as research widens

Protein clumps in the brain have long been associated with Alzheimer’s, but other potential causes of the condition are now in the spotlight.

United States

Top US vaccine official quits, slams Trump health chief for ‘misinformation’

The Food and Drug Administration’s Peter Marks oversaw the agency’s rapid review and approval of Covid-19 jabs during the pandemic.

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