Public Health News and Research

RSS

Floundering health care campaign translates to slipping polls

Public anxiety about spending and a proposed public health insurance plan, routine distractions like Henry Lewis Gates Jr.'s arrest, and delays in rebutting Republican's attacks are triggering speculation that President Obama may be loosing his groove when it comes to his famous message discipline, the Boston Globe reports.

27 Aug 2009

FDA releases consumer health information updates

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today released its latest listing of consumer health information updates. All articles can be accessed from the agency's Web page for consumers. You can sign-up for e-mail notices of new consumer updates on an immediate, weekly, or monthly basis. A Consumer Update RSS feed is also available.

27 Aug 2009

Study reveals poor body satisfaction and increased risk of disordered weight control behaviors among 10 to 11 year old children

A study of 4254 Canadian schoolchildren has shown a direct association between BMI and satisfaction with their body shape. The research, published in the open access journal BMC Public Health, shows a linear response for girls, who were happiest when thinnest, and a U-shaped response for boys, who were unhappy when they were too skinny or too fat.

26 Aug 2009

Teenagers who work longer hours in adult environment are associated with riskier sexual behavior

Allowing teens to work too many hours in the wrong environment can be dangerous for their sexual health by fostering conditions that lead them to older sex partners, a new study shows.

26 Aug 2009

Program to help sex workers to go off the streets

Dallas prostitutes are getting a chance to change their lives, thanks to a collaboration among the Dallas Police Department, Dallas County Sheriff's Office, Dallas County Commissioner's Office, courts, Dallas County Health Department, Adult Probation Department, Parkland Hospital and Homeward Bound, which serves as the lead for more than 40 social service and faith-based organizations. The program offers prostitutes a comprehensive, multi-step, in-patient and out-patient treatment program as an alternative to further victimization and continued involvement in the criminal justice system.

26 Aug 2009

USP and FEUM agrees to collaborate on the development of standards for medicines

Demonstrating a significant commitment to advancing the quality of medicines for patients on behalf of both countries, the U.S. Pharmacopeial (USP) Convention and the Permanent Commission of the Pharmacopeia of the United Mexican States (FEUM) today agreed to collaborate on the development of standards for medicines.

26 Aug 2009

Healthy San Francisco enrollees express high levels of satisfaction with city's health access program and survey shows signs of improved access to care

As states and cities struggle with the economic recession and possible fiscal pressure on public health care programs, a new Kaiser Family Foundation survey of enrollees in Healthy San Francisco (HSF), the city's health care access program for the uninsured, reports high rates of satisfaction and signs that the program has improved access to care for those uninsured residents who have enrolled.

26 Aug 2009

FDA recommends electronic report formats to strengthen postmarket safety data collection

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is proposing to amend postmarket safety reporting regulations for three of its centers to require that manufacturers and other facilities subject to current reporting requirements submit their reports in an electronic format.

26 Aug 2009

University of Kentucky receives grant from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

The University of Kentucky College of Public Health's Center for Public Health Systems and Services Research (CPHSSR) has been awarded a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

26 Aug 2009

Public and private sector players ready to tackle North America’s upcoming flu season

An MIT Sloan School of Management expert on U.S. vaccine markets is “cautiously hopeful” that public and private sector players are far better prepared for North America’s upcoming flu season than they have been for earlier flu pandemics.

26 Aug 2009

Smokers twice as likely to get active TB, study finds

"A study in Taiwan has found that smokers are twice as likely to develop active tuberculosis compared to people who have never smoked, prompting calls for policymakers to be tougher on smoking," Reuters reports (Lyn, 8/24).

26 Aug 2009

Vertical farms could solve food production problems, opinion piece says

"If climate change and population growth progress at their current pace, in roughly 50 years farming as we know it will no longer exist," which means that the "majority of people could soon be without enough food or water," Dickson Despommier, a professor of public health at Columbia University, warns in a New York Times opinion piece

26 Aug 2009

Program to help runaway girls proves effective

A nurse intervention program that helps sexually exploited runaway girls re-connect to family, school and health care reduces trauma and restores healthy behaviors, according to a new study led by University of British Columbia researcher Elizabeth Saewyc and Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota nurse practitioner Laurel Edinburgh.

26 Aug 2009

Symptomless blood disorder MGUS not a precursor of serious diseases

A symptomless blood disorder, monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance, known as MGUS, is not linked to as many serious diseases as previously thought. This finding may save patients from undergoing unnecessary workup and treatment according to a study published in the August 2009 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

26 Aug 2009

Antimicrobial-resistant typhoid fever in U.S. patients is associated with international travel

Infection with an antimicrobial-resistant strain of typhoid fever among patients in the United States is associated with international travel, especially to the Indian subcontinent (India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh), according to a study in the August 26 issue of JAMA. The study also shows an increase in certain strains of typhoid fever that are resistant to the most commonly used medications for treatment.

26 Aug 2009

Tamoxifen drug poses increased risk of developing ER negative breast cancer

While long-term tamoxifen use among breast cancer survivors decreases their risk of developing the most common, less aggressive type of second breast cancer, such use is associated with a more than four-fold increased risk of a more aggressive, difficult-to-treat type of cancer in the breast opposite, or contralateral, to the initial tumor.

26 Aug 2009

Democrats talk of moving reform bill without republicans, plan rallies

Democrats are preparing to move ahead without Republicans on health care reform, a leading House Democrat said Monday, The Hill reports.

26 Aug 2009

FDA establishes TPSAC to proceed further on the tobacco law

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced an action regarding the implementation of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. The Agency has officially established the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (TPSAC).

26 Aug 2009

U.S. troops serving overseas to be tested for H1N1 infection

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced it has issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) that allows a 2009 H1N1 influenza virus test to be used to detect the virus in troops serving overseas.

26 Aug 2009

Health and Human Services Secretary to appoint Helene Gayle as the Chair of Presidential Advisory Council

Today, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius announced her intent to appoint Helene Gayle, MD, MPH to serve as the Chair of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. Secretary Sebelius made the announcement in Atlanta at the 2009 National HIV Prevention Conference.

25 Aug 2009

Public Health News and Research

Floundering health care campaign translates to slipping polls

FDA releases consumer health information updates

Study reveals poor body satisfaction and increased risk of disordered weight control behaviors among 10 to 11 year old children

Teenagers who work longer hours in adult environment are associated with riskier sexual behavior

Program to help sex workers to go off the streets

USP and FEUM agrees to collaborate on the development of standards for medicines

Healthy San Francisco enrollees express high levels of satisfaction with city's health access program and survey shows signs of improved access to care

FDA recommends electronic report formats to strengthen postmarket safety data collection

University of Kentucky receives grant from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Public and private sector players ready to tackle North America’s upcoming flu season

Smokers twice as likely to get active TB, study finds

Vertical farms could solve food production problems, opinion piece says

Program to help runaway girls proves effective

Symptomless blood disorder MGUS not a precursor of serious diseases

Antimicrobial-resistant typhoid fever in U.S. patients is associated with international travel

Tamoxifen drug poses increased risk of developing ER negative breast cancer

Democrats talk of moving reform bill without republicans, plan rallies

FDA establishes TPSAC to proceed further on the tobacco law

U.S. troops serving overseas to be tested for H1N1 infection

Health and Human Services Secretary to appoint Helene Gayle as the Chair of Presidential Advisory Council

Discover how SciY empowers scientists

Why use light scattering to analyze proteins and viral vectors?

Changing the landscape of R&D to build clinical success from the ground up

Latest News