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Violence affects a child's quality and quantity of sleep

When violence shatters a child's world, the torment can continue into their sleep, according to researchers in Cleveland. The impact is measurable and affected by the severity of the violence, and the effects can last over time.

14 Jun 2012

Save the Children releases pioneering report on newborn survival

Save the Children has released a pioneering report on newborn survival over the last decade that shows the world has greatly overlooked a key area for reducing child deaths-newborn care.

13 Jun 2012

Alcohol consumption leads to increased social stress and poor grades in teens

Rather than gaining "liquid courage" to let loose with friends, teenage drinkers are more likely to feel like social outcasts, according to a new sociological study.

13 Jun 2012

Increased risk of brain aneurysm linked to early menopause

The younger a woman is when she goes through the menopause, the greater may be her risk of having a brain (cerebral) aneurysm, suggests research published online first in the Journal of NeuroInterventional Surgery.

12 Jun 2012

Opinion pieces published in advance of 'Child Survival Call to Action' event to take place in Washington

The following are summaries of several opinion pieces published in anticipation of the Child Survival Call to Action event to be held on June 14-15 in Washington, D.C. Convened by the Governments of United States, Ethiopia and India, and organized in close collaboration with UNICEF, the event will focus on ending preventable child death through the survival of newborns, children and mothers and will convene 700 prominent leaders from government, the private sector, faith-based organizations and civil society to kick off a long-term, focused effort to save children's lives.

12 Jun 2012

Gay and lesbian couples more likely to mutually influence each other's health habits

Women bear the brunt of being the health police in heterosexual marriages, but gay and lesbian couples are more likely to mutually influence each other's health habits - for better or for worse. The findings are reported in the June issue of the journal, Social Science & Medicine.

12 Jun 2012

Learning from successful women's health initiatives in India

"With almost 200 million people living in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India, a state more populous than the entire country of Brazil, the sheer breadth of exciting, new ways to improve maternal and child health is enormous," Gary Darmstadt, head of the Family Health Division of the foundation, and Wendy Prosser, a research analyst with the division, write in this post in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog.

8 Jun 2012

Political will, health concerns, increased funding driving family planning in Africa, report says

The Nairobi-based African Institute for Development Policy on Tuesday presented a report called "Africa on the Move!" at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, VOA News reports, noting the report "says that in some African countries, political will, maternal and child health concerns as well as more and more funding are helping to develop effective family planning."

8 Jun 2012

Pneumonia and diarrhoea remain biggest killers of East Asia-Pacific children

A new report from UNICEF has highlighted the huge child survival gap between the richest and the poorest children by focusing on pneumonia and diarrhoea – the two primary killers of children under the age of five.

8 Jun 2012

Appropriate CT scans may save and extend lives of children

The American College of Radiology (ACR) urges that results of a study (Pearce et al) to be published in the Lancet regarding radiation risk from pediatric computed tomography (CT) scans should not keep parents from getting needed medical imaging care for their children, but should be discussed with their physician and factored into their shared decision making before an imaging scan is performed.

7 Jun 2012

Innovative strategy for regenerating skeletal muscle tissue

An innovative strategy for regenerating skeletal muscle tissue using cells derived from the amniotic fluid is outlined in new research published by scientists at the UCL Institute of Child Health.

2 Jun 2012

Smoke from cooking fires associated with cognitive deficits in children

Children exposed to open-fire cooking in developing countries experience difficulty with memory, problem-solving and social skills, according to researchers at the University of California, Riverside and Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif.

2 Jun 2012

Seriously ill children administered zinc in addition to antibiotics respond better, more quickly to treatment, study shows

"In a newly released clinical study, conducted in India" and published in the Lancet on Thursday, "hundreds of seriously ill infants who received zinc -- an essential micronutrient for the immune system and human growth -- as well as antibiotics, responded better and more quickly to treatment than those who did not," IRIN reports.

1 Jun 2012

Funding alone will not reduce maternal and child mortality rates

The statistics on maternal, newborn, and child mortality around the world are staggering: 265,000 maternal deaths, 880,000 stillbirths, 1.2 million neonatal deaths, and 3.2 million infant and child deaths annually, the vast majority occurring in low-income countries.

30 May 2012

Sixty-fifth World Health Assembly covers some of the biggest challenges facing public health

The Sixty-fifth World Health Assembly concluded Saturday after adopting 21 resolutions and three decisions on a broad range of health issues. The six days of discussions involved nearly 3000 delegates, including health ministers and senior health officials from amongst the 194 WHO Member States, as well as representatives from civil society and other stakeholders.

28 May 2012

CDKN1C gene mutation contributes to IMAGe syndrome

A gene previously linked to too much growth in patients has now also been linked to growth restriction. Different forms of the gene can lead to very different conditions, according to research published today in the journal Nature Genetics.

28 May 2012

PSI interviews Gates Foundation official about child health

In this post in PSI's "Healthy Lives" blog, "PSI's Nutrition Research Adviser Dr. Abel Irena talks with Saul Morris, senior program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, about progress that has been made in child health."

25 May 2012

NIH Pain Consortium selects 11 health professional schools as CoEPEs

The National Institutes of Health Pain Consortium has selected 11 health professional schools as designated Centers of Excellence in Pain Education (CoEPEs).

23 May 2012

MDG Health Alliance introduced at GBCHealth Conference

The MDG Health Alliance, an innovative new private sector organization created and led by eminent business leaders to tackle urgent global health problems, was introduced today in the United States at the GBCHealth Conference.

17 May 2012

JHSPH wins GCE grant for global health and development research project

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health announced today that it is a Grand Challenges Explorations winner, an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Alain Labrique, PhD, director of the Johns Hopkins University Global mHealth Initiative, will pursue an innovative global health and development research project, titled "mTIKKA - Harnessing a Mobile - Cloud System to Achieve Universal Vaccination."

14 May 2012