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Powerful new drug to treat malaria

A powerful new drug to treat malaria - the invention of a University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Pharmacy researcher -- will help take the bite out of malaria. In the United States, a mosquito bite seems harmless, but in developing countries it means more than 655,000 deaths a year - mostly in children.

7 Jul 2012

New HIV test results are 'preliminary' and need doctors' confirmation

In reports on two major public health issues, experts seek to remind people that the new HIV test offer only a preliminary result, so a confirmation from a physician is necessary, and a Kentucky health veteran works to stem the diabetes epidemic there.

7 Jul 2012

New study maps global zoonotic disease 'hotspots'

"A global study mapping human diseases that come from animals like tuberculosis, AIDS, bird flu or Rift Valley fever has found that just 13 such diseases are responsible for 2.4 billion cases of human illness and 2.2 million deaths a year," Reuters reports.

6 Jul 2012

First Edition: July 6, 2012

Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including President Barack Obama's defense of the health law on the campaign trail and an examination of how Mitt Romney viewed the Massachusetts requirement for health insurance.

6 Jul 2012

USC public health researchers try to pinpoint the ‘science’ behind social influence

Most people call it the "art" of persuasion, but public health researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) are trying to pinpoint the "science" behind social influence.

6 Jul 2012

FDA action affects companies that manufacture and distribute unapproved oxycodone drugs

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today issued a Federal Register notice instructing companies to stop manufacturing and distributing certain unapproved drugs that contain oxycodone. The notice is part of the FDA's Unapproved Drugs Initiative to remove unapproved new drugs from the market.

6 Jul 2012

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, AJPM introduce Childhood Obesity Challenge

The American Journal of Preventive Medicine (AJPM) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have announced the launch of the Childhood Obesity Challenge, a competition that aims to promote creative and innovative solutions to childhood obesity outside the standard framework of scientific research publications.

6 Jul 2012

Exercise has clear benefits for physical and mental health according to current evidence

In the first Series paper, Sport and exercise as contributors to the health of nations, an international team of researchers set out to examine whether sport and exercise contribute to the health of nations. They argue that although country-wide data on participation in sports are too scarce to draw any firm conclusions in this respect, the existing evidence suggests that regular participation in sports and / or exercise has clear benefits for physical and mental health, and that health professionals need to pay more attention to their patients’ fitness.

6 Jul 2012

OUP launches new open access journal - Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health

Oxford University Press (OUP) and the Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health Foundation are pleased to announce the launch of the open access journal Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health (EMPH).

6 Jul 2012

Diabetes on the rise among Chinese teenagers

A study led by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found Chinese teenagers have a rate of diabetes nearly four times greater than their counterparts in the United States. The rise in the incidence of diabetes parallels increases in cardiovascular risk, researchers say, and is the result of a Chinese population that is growing increasingly overweight.

6 Jul 2012

Study: 13 zoonoses responsible for 2.4B cases of human illness per year

A new global study mapping human-animal diseases like tuberculosis (TB) and Rift Valley fever finds that an "unlucky" 13 zoonoses are responsible for 2.4 billion cases of human illness and 2.2 million deaths per year. The vast majority occur in low- and middle-income countries.

5 Jul 2012

AIDS battle: stretching use of anti-HIV drugs

A Johns Hopkins expert in the drug treatment of HIV disease and AIDS is spearheading an international effort to radically shift the manufacturing and prescribing of combination therapies widely credited in the last decade for keeping the disease in check for 8 million of the 34 million infected people worldwide.

5 Jul 2012

UN food standards body agrees on new regulations to protect health of consumers across the world

The UN food standards body has agreed on new regulations - including the maximum level of melamine in liquid milk formula for babies - to protect the health of consumers across the world. Other measures adopted include new food safety standards on seafood, melons, dried figs and food labelling.

5 Jul 2012

Developing countries struggle to meet UN’s child hunger target

Insufficient progress has been made in most developing countries to meet the United Nations' target of halving the proportion of children who suffer from hunger by 2015 compared with 1990 levels, according to a systematic analysis of data on children's height and weight, published today in the Lancet.

5 Jul 2012

New research approach can help predict the 'tenability' of antibiotics

Research by Wageningen University, part of Wageningen UR, has shown that the development of bacteria with resistance against the antibiotic cefotaxime occurs more often and more predictably than was previously assumed. Bacterial populations were found to have many mutations that increase resistance and therefore have a negative effect on public health.

4 Jul 2012

Madrid, Accenture implement HORUS system

Accenture and Madrid Health Service have fully implemented the Madrid Electronic Health Record (HORUS) system that captures all patient information into a single, integrated record for 26,000 clinicians to access across all parts of the regional healthcare system.

4 Jul 2012

SET policy reduces risk of perinatal mortality in IVF and ICSI infants

A policy of single embryo transfer (SET) reduces the risk of perinatal mortality in infants born as a result of IVF and ICSI. The conclusion emerged from an analysis of more than 50,000 births recorded in the Australian and New Zealand Assisted Reproduction Technology Database between 2004 and 2008, where the introduction of an SET policy has been associated with a reduction in overall perinatal mortality for IVF and ICSI babies.

4 Jul 2012

Design and landscaping of hospital green areas can promote health

The design and landscaping of hospital green areas in accordance with the needs of patients, staff and doctors can have a health-promoting effect. These are the key findings of a study by the MedUni Vienna, led by Renata Cervinka from the Institute for Environmental Hygiene at the Centre for Public Health.

4 Jul 2012

Indonesia must work to empower women in order to improve maternal health standards

Though Indonesia is "widely seen as a development success story -- indeed, it is sometimes referred to as one of Asia's 'rising powers' ... in the area of maternal health, the successes have been modest and much remains to be done," Andrew Rosser, associate director of the Indo-Pacific Governance Research Centre at the University of Adelaide, writes in an Inside Indonesia opinion piece.

4 Jul 2012

Study finds decline in rates of community-onset MRSA infections

In analysis that included more than 9 million Department of Defense nonactive and active duty personnel, the rates of both community-onset and hospital-onset methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteremia decreased from 2005 to 2010, while the proportion of community-onset skin and soft tissue infections due to MRSA has more recently declined, according to a study in the July 4 issue of JAMA.

4 Jul 2012