Tag - medicine

 
 

MEDICINE

The Japan Institute for Health Security will be responsible for information analysis, research and crisis response related to infectious diseases.
JAPAN
Apr 1, 2025
Japanese version of U.S. CDC launched for future pandemics
The institute will be responsible for information analysis, research and crisis response related to infectious diseases.
The World Health Organization's headquarters in Geneva. The WHO is facing an income gap of nearly $600 million in 2025 and has "no choice" but to start making cutbacks, the organization's chief wrote in an internal email.
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 30, 2025
WHO must cut budget by a fifth after U.S. pullout
The WHO is facing an income gap of nearly $600 million in 2025 and has "no choice" but to start making cutbacks.
A member of a medical team takes a patient's blood pressure during an HIV clinic day in Kampala, Uganda, on Feb. 17.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 27, 2025
Trump’s foreign aid retreat guts funding for HIV treatments
The withdrawal is risking lives globally and threatening to unravel decades of progress made toward ending AIDS as a public health threat.
Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said Wednesday that the government will continue to provide assistance in addressing humanitarian needs in the Gaza Strip.
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2025
Japan takes in Palestinian woman injured in Gaza war for treatment
Tokyo plans to accept another injured Palestinian woman in the coming days, marking its first acceptance of patients from Gaza since the conflict broke out in October 2023.
Keio University in Tokyo
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 22, 2025
Keio University team says stem cell treatment helped improve spine injuries
Keio University said that the motor function score for two patients improved after an operation to implant more than 2 million iPS-derived cells into a spinal cord.
Elsie, a 45 year-old aid worker, who uses a pseudonym to protect her anonymity, used to spend her days wandering the narrow streets of Msogwaba township, near the South African city of Mbombela, to visit hundreds of children living with HIV.
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 20, 2025
U.S. aid cuts threaten South Africa's young HIV patients
Around 13% of South Africa's population live with HIV, and about 640,000 children were orphaned by the virus in 2023.
Elon Musk and President Donald Trump's assertion that U.S. aid cuts to programs including PEPFAR and USAID in Africa aren't causing harm is not true. Children and others are already dying as a result.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 19, 2025
Musk says aid cuts haven’t killed anyone. That's not true.
In South Sudan, one of the world’s poorest countries, the efforts by Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump are already leading children to die.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba instructs his government to develop a system to operate what are known as hospital ships by January 2026 at the Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 18, 2025
Japan to begin hospital ship operations by next January
The program calls for using existing private-sector ships to transport patients from disaster-affected areas and provide medical care.
A recent study shows promise for a personalized mRNA vaccine to prevent pancreatic cancer recurrence, offering hope for patients and highlighting the potential of tailored cancer treatments.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 13, 2025
Pancreatic cancer vaccine shows hope. Make the investment.
When researchers offer data suggesting a personalized vaccine might be able to keep the cancer at bay for years, it’s worth paying attention to.
Upper House Budget Committee chief Yosuke Tsuruho (right) and his Lower House counterpart, Jun Azumi, meet in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 12, 2025
Medical cap fumble paves way for unprecedented second revision of fiscal budget
While there have been cases of bills returning to the Lower House after amendments in the Upper House, it has never happened with the budget.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Friday about his decision to cancel plans to raise the ceiling on out-of-pocket expenses for high-cost medical care.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 8, 2025
Ishiba cancels planned August medical expense cap hike
It is the third time the Ishiba administration has changed its policy on the high-cost medical care system.
Obstetrician and gynecologist Song Mihyon
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 7, 2025
Doctor urges awareness of a birth control pill covered by health insurance
“I think doctors need to tell their patients that a birth control pill covered by health insurance exists,” Song Mihyon said.
Foster City, California’s Gilead is laser-focused on HIV and is seeking an actual cure.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 6, 2025
Gilead's Japan head says nation can be among first to end HIV epidemic
The pharmaceutical powerhouse has drugs that disrupt the transmission of the virus, one of which has been approved for prevention in Japan.
Kesa Hatamoto, a 102-year-old Japanese woman who is recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest pharmacist, speaks during an interview on Jan. 28 in Tokyo's Meguro Ward.
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2025
At 102, world's oldest pharmacist celebrates her calling
"There's nothing happier than having a job for a lifetime. I want to continue my career forever," says Kesa Hatamoto.
The health ministry issued a business improvement order to a medical clinic in Fukuoka, saying a range of stem cell treatments it offers violate the law on the safety of regenerative medicine.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 5, 2025
Fukuoka clinic issued business improvement order over stem cell treatments
The clinic offers various stem cell treatments without the prior submission of its plans to the authorities, the health ministry said.
Blackstone said it agreed to purchase 60% of Tokyo-based CMIC, a contract research organization, in a deal that values the company in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 3, 2025
Blackstone buys Japan drug trial firm, adding to private equity health deals
Blackstone has been increasingly active in Japan’s life science sector amid a wider buyout boom in the country.
The government will raise the out-of-pocket expense cap for expensive medical treatments this August as planned, but will reconsider plans for further increases, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba told parliament on Friday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 2, 2025
Japan to reconsider medical expense cap hike plan: Ishiba
The expense ceiling hike is slated to be conducted in three stages from this year to 2027.
Some 230 million people globally thought to be affected by long COVID. The effects range from mild to disabling, and there are no proven diagnostic tests or treatments.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Mar 1, 2025
'Going mad': Lack of data plagues Asia's long COVID patients
Some 230 million people are thought to be affected by long COVID — defined as symptoms persisting for three months or more after the initial infection.
Keio University in Tokyo's Minato Ward. The university's ethics committee has approved clinical research that would lead to the first uterine transplant procedure in Japan.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Feb 28, 2025
Keio University ethics panel OKs uterus transplant clinical trial
The university will consider whether to carry out the research, which would be the first uterine transplant procedure in Japan.
A sign directs people to a measles testing center in Gaines County, Texas, on Tuesday. A measles outbreak in West Texas and New Mexico is sparking fears of worsening public health crisis in the United States. 
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 27, 2025
Texas measles outbreak was entirely avoidable
"It’s more contagious than COVID, more contagious than the flu, more contagious than Ebola,” says Paul Offit, of Philadelphia's Vaccine Education Center.

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Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan