The most important factor for disease risk is exposure – you actually have to inhale asbestos fibres to be at risk of disease. But asbestos needs to be treated with caution.
Too often government policy is not designed with the long-term in mind. Instead, short-term economic outcomes and political gains are prioritised - to the detriment of public health.
On Feb. 7, 2024, the EPA strengthened the federal limit for annual levels of fine particulate air pollution, or PM2.5. Many serious health effects have been linked to PM2.5 exposure.
Agincourt, the University of the Witwatersrand’s rural research centre 500km from Johannesburg, has documented the lives of 120,000 people over decades.
The health care world has changed a lot in 40 years, but Medicare hasn’t. Here are three areas for radical forms to the system that will achieve its aims of universal health care for all Australians.
From lit-up orbs to bland office blocks, cities are full of buildings that people do or do not like. What really shapes how they live – for better or for worse – is urban planning.
As the COVID-19 pandemic fades, we may debate whether public health responses could have been better. But first we need to understand what public health errors are — and are not.
Australia is planning for a very hot summer, which will have far-reaching consequences for many people. It’s time governments took this more seriously and, importantly, took action.
Two-thirds of new HIV infections are among gay and bisexual men. Although cases have decreased among white men, they have stagnated among communities of color.
One fan died and others reported burns at the Swift concert. And we’re going to see similar incidents at future concerns if we don’t start planning for extreme weather.
The longest-running study of its kind reviewed death records in the path of pollution from coal-fired power plants. The numbers are staggering − but also falling fast as US coal plants close.
Policymakers rely on models during uncertain times to figure out how their choices could affect the future. Over the pandemic, an ensemble of many COVID-19 models outperformed any one alone.
Dean Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Vaccinology at University of the Witwatersrand; and Director of the SAMRC Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand
Principal Medical Scientist and Head of Laboratory for Antimalarial Resistance Monitoring and Malaria Operational Research, National Institute for Communicable Diseases
Professor and Programme Director, SA MRC Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science - PRICELESS SA (Priority Cost Effective Lessons in Systems Strengthening South Africa), University of the Witwatersrand