2022 Newsletters - 2022-09-15

High blood pressure

Blood pressure is the force of blood pushing against the walls of your arteries as your heart pumps blood through them. The narrower an artery, the greater the force needed to push the blood through it. Blood pressure is measured with a cuff your health care worker places around your arm.

2022 Newsletters - 2022-08-30

HIV Testing

HIV-1/2 is diagnosed either by detecting HIV- specific antibodies or the virus itself. In individuals >18 months old the detection of HIV-specific antibodies remains the recommended method for routine diagnosis.

2022 Newsletters - 2022-08-10

Understand Allergies Better

Allergy is related to the development of an inappropriate reaction of the body to contact with an allergen. This reaction develops in a context that brings together a set of family and environmental factors. It results in the appearance of a wide variety of symptoms that evolve over the course of a lifetime and can affect several organs.

2022 Newsletters - 2022-08-10

Pollen allergy: causes and symptoms

Respiratory allergies affect many people, especially allergic rhinitis which alone affects about 25% of adults. The symptoms vary and are most often non-specific to the allergy.

2022 Newsletters - 2022-07-19

Drug Testing

This guide serves to inform you of the different types of Drug tests available, what type of test to choose, and under which circumstances. Drugs can be divided into legally prescribed drugs like:

2022 Newsletters - 2022-07-18

Interpretation of COVID-19 RT PCR Positive & Negative Results on Sequential Samples

RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 is a diagnostic test designed for detecting the virus in respiratory samples of symptomatic individuals.

• It is therefore very specifc, so positive results are real sensitivity however is lower and false negative results may occur in up to 20% of swabs done, especially in mild or asymptomatically infected individuals.

2022 Newsletters - 2022-07-01

Monkeypox

Monkeypox virus is an enveloped double-strain DNA virus of the Poxviridae family. Orthopoxvirus genus. There are 2 distinct genetic clades, called the Central Africa and West African clades, depending on where they are originally described.

2022 Newsletters - 2022-06-07

Preventative medicine for men and women

Preventive medicine is a medical investigation, such as a yearly physical checkup, which is aimed at preventing health problems in an apparently healthy person. It is in contrast to the type of medical tests you get when you have specific symptoms that need to be diagnosed.

2022 Newsletters - 2022-04-04

Non-invasive prenatal screening (NIPS)

Non-invasive prenatal screening (NIPS) is the most sensitive and specific screening test for the common foetal aneuploidies. Due to advances in genomic technologies, we can detect the presence of foetal cell-free DNA, derived from the placenta, circulating in the maternal blood to screen for common foetal aneuploidies. The preferred nomenclature changed from NIPT to NIPS ('S' for screening) to emphasise that utilising a cell-free DNA approach is a screening test and not diagnostic.

2022 Newsletters - 2022-04-04

Update on Malaria

Malaria is a CATEGORY 1 NOTIFIABLE CONDITION according to the National Department of Health's (NDOH)Notifiable Medical Conditions (NMC) list.