Tag - medicine

 
 

MEDICINE

A colorized scanning electron micrograph of group A streptococcus bacteria
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 24, 2024
Tokyo issues warning as rare but deadly STSS bacterial infections rise
Concerns are growing over the spread of streptococcal toxic shock syndrome (STSS), often dubbed the “flesh-eating disease.”
A Filipino care worker talks to an elderly resident at a hospital in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 23, 2024
Japan to allow foreign nationals to engage in home care services
Currently, foreign technical intern trainees and foreign workers with so-called specified skills are banned from engaging in the services.
While cases of human-to-human transmission of SFTS, which is transmitted by ticks, have been previously documented in China and South Korea, this marks the first such instance in Japan.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 20, 2024
Japan confirms first human-to-human transmission of tick-borne SFTS virus
A doctor became infected with severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) after attending to a patient who had been diagnosed with it.
A recent $1 billion donation to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine will make the school tuition-free indefinitely, but greater systemic changes would better serve students and society.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2024
Free tuition is no panacea for medical schools
An historic $1 billion donation paves the way for debt-free medical education.
Mary Ann Eduarte at her home in Montalban, Rizal, the Philippines.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Mar 15, 2024
Cancer patients in the Philippines falling for alternative 'cures'
The trend was fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic, when health care systems were overwhelmed and many were too scared to visit a hospital.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 15, 2024
Japan starts clinical trial of familial Alzheimer's treatment
The clinical trial is under way in 16 countries, with four people in their 30s to 50s participating in Japan.
Wegovy maker Novo Nordisk says the Japanese public needs to know more about obesity rates before the weight-loss drug can take off in the country.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 9, 2024
Is Japan as thin as it thinks? Weight-loss drug maker says no.
In Japan, some 33% of men and 22% of women have a BMI of 25 — the crucial threshold — or more.
It turns out that the mutations that make some people vulnerable to the neurological condition once had a useful function, protecting their ancestors from pathogens.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2024
Ancient DNA could be hiding all kinds of health secrets
Ancient genomes are unlocking the past and may provide blueprint for the origin of diseases.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 6, 2024
Japanese doctor given 18 years for consensual killing of ALS patient
Admitting to charges of commissioned murder, Yoshikazu Okubo had said that he "did it to fulfill (the patient's) wish."
 Alli, which will be available from April 8, is expected to reduce fat stored around internal organs and prevent obesity-related diseases.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 5, 2024
Japan’s first over-the-counter anti-obesity drug to hit stores in April
The drug is expected to reduce fat stored around internal organs and prevent obesity-related diseases.
There have been cases of simultaneous lung and liver transplants from brain-dead donors overseas, but no such cases in Japan due to a lack of such donors, according to Kyoto University Hospital.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 4, 2024
World's first live lung and liver transplant performed in Kyoto
A boy with a genetic disorder received part of his parents' lungs and part of his grandfather's liver in the operation at Kyoto University Hospital.
Doctors on Sunday lead thousands of protesters in a rally in Seoul demanding the government to scrap its plan to increase medical school enrollment.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Mar 4, 2024
South Korea to start legal steps to punish doctors in walkout
The health ministry said on its website that some of the doctors in the collective action have been ordered back to work — a procedural first step.
Demonstrators gather during a protest in Seoul on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Feb 29, 2024
South Korea seeks first talks with doctors as deadline looms
The Health and Welfare Ministry said it has proposed having talks to address the 10-day walkout by about 9,000 trainee doctors.
South Korean doctors and other demonstrators march during a protest in Seoul on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Feb 27, 2024
South Korea probing if woman’s death linked to doctor walkout
More than 9,000 of the country’s roughly 13,000 trainee doctors, who play a key role in emergency care, have walked off their jobs in labor action.
Electron micrograph of Treponema pallidum, the causative agent of syphilis
JAPAN / Science & Health
Feb 26, 2024
Syphilis cases hit record high for third straight year in Japan
While the precise reasons for the surge in reported cases remain unclear, experts have identified several potential contributing factors.
South Korean doctors take part in a protest against the government medical policy in front of the Presidential office in Seoul on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Feb 26, 2024
Overworked and unheard, South Korean doctors on mass walkout say
"The current medical system in South Korea, which is a great one, is run by making cheap trainee doctors keep grinding."
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol (center) speaks during a cabinet meeting at the presidential office in Seoul on Tuesday. South Korean hospitals turned away some patients and delayed surgeries on the day, as hundreds of trainee doctors stopped working in a protest against medical training reforms.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Feb 21, 2024
Nearly 8,000 South Korean doctors walk out over plan to boost numbers
While the labor action has caused only minor disruptions so far, the junior medics play a key role in providing emergency care.
Machine learning could assist in cancer research by flagging papers likely to fail replication attempts, potentially improving the quality control process.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2024
The scandals rocking cancer science matter to your health
Trouble emerged years before the most recent scandal in which investigators found data manipulation in a slew of high-profile cancer research papers.
South Korea plans to increase the number of slots in university medical school programs by 2,000 from the current 3,058 next year to alleviate a shortage of doctors.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 19, 2024
For South Korea’s top students, medical school beats chips
Students are enticed by what many see as better job security and higher pay in the medical field.
South Korea has one of the lowest ratios of doctors to population in the developed world, according to data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which shows 2.6 doctors per 1,000 people.
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 18, 2024
South Korean doctors warn of ‘catastrophe’ if punished for strike
About 2,700 interns and residents at five major general hospital groups plan to walk off the job.

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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