June 26 is the anniversary of the signing of the Freedom Charter. It is also International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. The Freedom Charter is an aspirational document which focuses mainly on freedoms “to” and “of”. One subclause speaks directly to freedom “from”: “The privacy of the house from police raids shall be […]
Roy Jobson
Roy Jobson is a specialist medical doctor in clinical pharmacology. He is employed as a specialist clinical pharmacologist at the Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital / Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University. He is a Council member of the Allied Health Professions Council of South Africa. In his non-medical life, he is a vicarious observer of South African society through his association with the Khulumani Support Group, where his wife is the director. He has done extensive research in the last few years on the advertising and marketing of medicines in South Africa - with an emphasis on complementary medicines.
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle, Media
Tips on malaria prevention
I’ve recently become aware of two publications about malaria. The first is about preventing malaria in travelling children. The second, about malaria treatment. I’ve also become aware of a product on the market called “Nordman Artemisia Anti-Malaria“. The article in the South African Family Practice Journal by Dr Sophie Mathijs has the title: “Malaria prevention […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle, Media
An incorrigible perversion…for men
Last month, linked to Breast Cancer Awareness month, I emphasised a local South African product called Breast Protection Formula™ and its claim that it contains nutrients and plant extracts that help prevent breast cancer. As the US surgeon and breast cancer scientist David Gorski (MD, PhD) stated in commenting on the product: “No, it does […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle, Media
An incorrigible perversion
This is a story about breast cancer. It is not about a woman who has succumbed to it, nor about a woman who has triumphed over it. It is instead a story about a cold-hearted business decision to make and market a “natural product” which it is claimed contains “nutrients and plant extracts that help […]
Posted inBusiness, Lifestyle, Media
Beware the oracle
Chris Moerdyk states in his News24 opinion column of May 7 2012 that the editor of the magazine Health Intelligence (Mr Colin Levin) agrees with him (in an editorial on page 1 of Edition 15 – May/June 2012) about the latest food labelling regulations going “too far in their noble intention to (protect) consumers from misleading […]
Posted inMedia
The Medicines Control Council and a decade of deliberate deception
The South African Association for Responsible Health Information and Advertising (ARHIA) – of which I am a founding member – has called on the Medicines Control Council (MCC) to remedy the untenable situation in which over 155 000 medicines on the market have not had quality tests verified by the MCC. This creates a serious public […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media
Simply Slim ‘defies’ the MCC
Simply Slim relaunched their new product, as spokesperson of the Department of Health (DOH) Fidel Hadebe stated on 15 April 2010, “in defiance of the MCC [Medicines Control Council] directive” — ie before it had been registered and a certificate of registration issued by the Registrar of the MCC as is required by the Medicines […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media
(Not) the product of the year
Advertisements proudly carrying the “Product of the Year 2010” logo are beginning to pop up with annoying frequency. I chanced on one such product which, according to the proud winner, was voted product of the year in the supplements category. The Product of the Year website has not listed the 2010 winners — but it […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media
Simply Slim, sibutramine and synephrine
With tens of thousands of unregistered complementary medicines on the market, it’s interesting and surprising that the Medicines Control Council (MCC) recently ordered one product, Simply Slim, to suspend all sales and marketing until the MCC had had an opportunity to assess the product in terms of its safety, quality and efficacy. The decision was […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The smell of human flesh and hair burning
Butana Almond Nofomela is about to be paroled after having served 21 years for the murder of Johannes Lourens, a Brits farmer. He had been sentenced to death for this crime, but escaped being hanged by confessing to crimes committed as part of the Vlakplaas hit squad. He was subsequently granted amnesty by the Truth […]
Posted inGeneral
An open letter to the Medicines Control Council
According to the meetings schedule published on the Medicines Control Council’s (MCC) website, the council’s next meeting is to be held on Friday, April 17. A request was made to have the following open letter placed on the meeting’s agenda for its consideration. Although some aspects are technical, the gist of the letter should be […]
Posted inGeneral
Easter, Fujimori, Vlok and Van der Merwe
A bench of three Peruvian judges has convicted former president of Peru, Alberto Fujimori, of gross human rights violations. These were torture, kidnapping and enforced disappearances committed during the early 1990s. The Special Criminal Division of Peru’s Supreme Court concluded that Fujimori as president bore individual criminal responsibility in all three cases because he had […]