Latest Blogs
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How Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Outsmarts the Immune System
By Lusanda Kunene Imagine a world without tuberculosis (TB). While that vision remains out of reach, scientists around the world are working towards making it a reality. Currently, TB is one of the leading infectious causes of death worldwide. In 2023 alone, 10.8 million people were infected, and 1.25 million people died from the disease.…
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AGE AT MENOPAUSE MAY BE RELATED TO THE PREVALENCE OF CERVICAL CANCER
Written by Trinity King Menopause is a natural part of ageing that usually marks the end of a woman’s reproductive years. Often characterised by hot flashes, brain fog, sleep problems, emotional changes, and irregular periods, it is the point at which a woman’s ovaries stop releasing eggs, and your body produces less estrogen. Most view…
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Teaching computers to read coroner’s reports
By Kae Jansen van Vuuren There is nothing more arduous than manual data entry, but it is unfortunately a key process in death classifications and recording overdose deaths. Across the world, there is a rising rate of drug-related deaths, which need swift and accurate surveillance to inform public health decisions, but overdose data is buried…
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The Rise of a Rare Killer Fungus: Emergomyces africanus
By Bailey Kelly In 2013, researchers set out to identify and characterise the cause of the systemic infections found in HIV-infected people in South Africa. They discovered that the infections were caused by a novel fungal species, later named Emergomyces africanus (E. africanus). Its DNA was found in 30% of soil samples tested in the…
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Can artificial Intelligence help forensic scientists estimate age?
By Asakanya Pato Imagine investigators find unidentified human remains, but there is no identification card, no usable fingerprints and no obvious way to determine who the person was. One important clue could be their age. Estimating age at death can help forensic scientists narrow the search and contribute to the identification process. However, estimating age…