Three more senior Chinese scientists have been disciplined by their universities after a high-profile blogger raised red flags about their research. Nankai University in Tianjin announced on Saturday that Chen Quan had been removed as dean of its College of Life Sciences. The university said that Chen, as a corresponding author, failed to properly oversee the quality and authenticity of experimental data in a paper published in Nature Cancer in 2024. Meanwhile, Sun Yat-sen Un

Unassisted home births and vaccine refusal put mothers and newborns at life-threatening risks, a Hong Kong doctor and a children’s rights group have said, stressing that parental choice must not come at the expense of an infant’s well-being. Their warnings followed the arrest of a Hong Kong couple on suspicion of child neglect. The pair claimed to have given birth to their third child, Danny, at home and had not registered his birth, citing privacy concerns in refusing to sub

Hundreds of youths in Kenya’s central town of Nanyuki on Monday showed against the establishment at the Laikipia Air Base of an Ebola quarantine centre for American citizens exposed to the virus. The protests come two days after Kenya’s High Court suspended the establishment of the facility and the arrival of any foreign patients pending the hearing of a case filed by the Law Society of Kenya and a constitutional watchdog. The two organisations cited Kenya’s fragile health sy

Akeso, whose drug ivonescimab was hailed as biotech’s “DeepSeek moment” amid US competition last year, announced better-than-expected clinical results showing it can treat a type of lung cancer commonly found in smokers, potentially expanding its approved uses. Analysts suggest it could become a backbone therapy in the US$20 billion global non-small cell lung cancer market and have revised their target prices upwards. The drug’s phase three trial found that ivonescimab reduce

Sun Tzu wrote that “fighting and winning all your battles is not the height of skill; subduing the enemy without fighting is the height of skill”. That maxim offers perhaps the clearest lens to interpret the logic of American grand strategy under US President Donald Trump. What many dismiss as inconsistency may conceal a patient strategic deception. The aim is not direct confrontation, but the quiet reshaping of the global economy in support of long-term US power. The US want

Home-grown innovative drugs make up most of the medicines China’s drug regulator has approved for sale so far this year, underscoring the country’s biotech boom. Of the 19 innovative drugs cleared by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), 15 came from domestic companies, according to the regulator’s website as of May 21. These include sonrotoclax, developed by global biopharmaceutical firm BeOne, for treating certain adult blood cancers. The regulator overhauled

An eminent clinical scientist born in Hong Kong has returned to the city to lead its third medical school after serving as a founding dean of medicine in the United States, vowing to nurture future leaders of the “healthcare revolution”. King Li King-chuen, dean emeritus of Carle Illinois College of Medicine (CI Med), on Monday assumed the role of dean of medicine at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). “Using technology and innovation to transform and

The US decision to classify two Brazilian gangs as terrorist organisations is a political one aimed at boosting an ally of US President Donald Trump, the son of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, politicians and analysts say. The gangs join eight other Latin American organised crime groups designated by the US as foreign terrorist organisations. But unlike the rest, they do not operate in the United States. The listing of First Capital Command, known as PCC, and Red C

Nigerian politician Peter Obi will run for president in the West African nation’s January elections, ensuring that the opposition to incumbent Bola Tinubu will once again be fragmented. Obi, second runner-up in the 2023 ballot narrowly won by Tinubu, was ratified late on Saturday as the candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress party. In his acceptance speech, he pledged to tackle insecurity, double health insurance coverage, and “invest heavily in schools, teachers, techn

In the first of a six-part Health Matters wellness series on cancer in Hong Kong, Emily Hung looks into how the city takes on its leading cause of death while maintaining one of the lowest mortality rates in the developed world and what more it must do to excel as a hub for cancer research. When Hong Kong began modern cancer tracking in 1983, it recorded 15,000 new cases and a far higher death rate than today. Four decades on, the number of cases has more than doubled to 38,0

To head off a public health crisis, China is stepping up efforts to find new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. As its population ages, the country already has more cases of these neurodegenerative diseases than anywhere else in the world and their prevalence is rising faster than the global average. Cases of Parkinson’s disease in China are forecast to rise from 3.6 million in 2024 to 10.5 million in 2050, while the number of people in China with dem

Han Suzhen’s tiny alleyway store was overrun with customers after a post about her “hand-brewed coffee” went viral — and it almost cost her health.

As cancer is the leading cause of death in Hong Kong, the South China Morning Post’s Health Matters wellness series explores how well the city has tackled the disease while offering residents practical advice on prevention, detection and management.

A Kenyan court blocked on Tuesday for another three weeks a proposed US Ebola quarantine facility that has triggered protests killing two people and ordered the government to disclose its agreement with Washington. The proposed 50-bed unit on an air force base in central Kenya for Americans exposed to the virus in Democratic Republic of Congo or Uganda ‌has angered many Kenyans. They accuse the US of offloading the health risk of caring for patients. A Kenyan court last week

Hong Kong’s largest non-profit organisation, the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, will offer a HK$30,000 (US$3,827) relocation allowance to victims of the deadly Tai Po fire who agree to transfer ownership of their properties to the government, its chief executive has said, with the scheme expected to benefit about 1,000 households. Albert So Yau-on also noted on Sunday that more than 1,000 inquiries have been received regarding the legal aid scheme for Wang Fuk Court residents,

The world’s first clinical trial on congenital deafness gene therapy showed that injecting a missing gene back into ear cells can restore hearing.

Across East Asia, societies are becoming richer, healthier and more educated, yet fewer people feel able or willing to have families and raise children. Low fertility plagues high-income societies, particularly in East Asia, where the total fertility rate (TFR) has fallen below one birth per woman, well under the replacement level of 2.1 births. While many countries have dedicated considerable resources and effort to reversing this trend, the results have been somewhat disapp

Hong Kong authorities will crack down on flavoured tobacco substances in the next phase of its enhanced smoking control measures, with the health minister describing such products as a “poisoned chalice” designed to hook younger people. Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau warned on Saturday that flavoured tobacco was mostly delivered through e-cigarettes, with additives containing menthol or sugar-coated toxins used to mask the bitterness and smell of tobacco and attract young