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Symposium on children born with clubfoot

We often think that high-tech, surgical methods are the best approach when it comes to medical care. But for children born with clubfoot, there is growing, worldwide interest in a low-tech, non-surgical method of treatment that is more effective, less expensive and easier to provide than surgery.

3 Sep 2007

How to influence the risk profile of a nation

Professor Geoffrey Rose was a pioneer in the field of prevention of coronary heart disease (CHD). He emphasized in his works how CHD prevention calls for general reduction in risk factor levels in the population, i.e. population based approach. Geoffrey Rose wrote: "It makes little sense to expect individuals to behave differently form their peers, it is more appropriate to seek a general change in behavioural norms and in the circumstances which facilitate their adoption."

3 Sep 2007

Diacetyl is a respiratory hazard

Researchers in the Netherlands have identified a chemical agent that may be a, if not the, culprit in bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS), or “popcorn worker's lung,” a severe occupational lung disease first noted in 2001 among workers at an American plant that makes microwaveable popcorn.

3 Sep 2007

Triage guidelines for emergency heart patients studied

Two new studies led by researchers at the University of Iowa and the Department of Veterans Affairs Iowa City Health Care System provide reassuring findings for patients evaluated in the emergency room for possible acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and the physicians who treat them.

30 Aug 2007

Pill box organizers increase HIV patients' adherence and improve viral suppression

Inexpensive pill box organizers are an easy, successful, and cost-effective tool to help patients take their medications as prescribed, according to a new study of low-income urban residents living with HIV infection by authors from the Berkeley School of Public Health and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

30 Aug 2007

Norwegians want to make their own diagnoses on the internet

Norwegians are ready to make their own diagnoses on the internet rather than sit in endless queues at the doctor's surgery, claim BI researchers Tor W. Andreassen and Even J. Lanseng in a recent study.

30 Aug 2007

$75 million extra for pandemic flu preparedness

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt has announced that the Department is making available another $75 million to states, territories and four metropolitan areas to help strengthen their capacity to respond to a pandemic influenza outbreak.

30 Aug 2007

The geography of obesity

Neighborhood property values predict local obesity rates better than education or incomes, according to a study from the University of Washington being published online this week by the journal Social Science and Medicine.

30 Aug 2007

Many NYC youth use condoms, but other forms of birth control lag

More than two thirds (69%) of sexually active New York City teens use condoms, compared to 63% nationwide, according to a new survey of public high school students.

30 Aug 2007

Damp, moldy homes lead to depression

A groundbreaking public health study has found a connection between damp, moldy homes and depression.

30 Aug 2007

High-risk behaviors among injection drug users in Afghanistan

In a report that is among the first to describe the prevalence of HIV and Hepatitis B and C viruses in Afghanistan, a researcher from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine voiced concerns that increasing injection drug use and accompanying high-risk behavior could lead to an HIV epidemic in Afghanistan.

29 Aug 2007

Gamma globulin effective treatment for pinkeye

Gamma globulin, a type of antibody isolated from blood samples that used to be routinely given to health care workers and international travelers to protect them from infectious diseases, is a highly effective treatment for pinkeye with little apparent toxicity, according to a study by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

29 Aug 2007

95 per cent of Australians don't meet national physical activity and nutrition guidelines

Results presented recently at the 6th Annual Conference of the International Society of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity in Oslo, Norway, and soon to be published in the International Journal of Obesity reveal that 95 per cent of Australian adults are not meeting national physical activity and nutrition guidelines for health benefits.

29 Aug 2007

Cocaine use linked to academic level achieved

The decreased use of cocaine in the United States over the last 20 years mostly occurred among the highly educated, while cocaine use among non-high school graduates remained constant, according to a study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

29 Aug 2007

Limited human-to-human spread of Avian-flu virus in Indonesia in 2006 confirmed

In the first systematic, statistical analysis of its kind, infectious-disease-modeling experts at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center confirm that the avian influenza A (H5N1) virus in 2006 spread between a small number of people within a family in Indonesia.

28 Aug 2007

Higher rates of new asthma among WTC workers

Findings released by the Health Department shed new light on the health effects of exposure to dust and debris among workers who responded to the World Trade Center disaster on September 11, 2001.

28 Aug 2007

Investigation of the cigarette smoking-head and neck cancer association by sex

Smoking significantly increases the risk for head and neck cancers for both men and women, regardless of the anatomic site.

28 Aug 2007

Womens' head and neck cancer risk up 75 percent when they smoke

According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), a new study suggests that smoking can increase a person's risk of developing head and neck cancer.

28 Aug 2007

Brits drinking themselves to obesity

According to the insurance company Standard Life, Brits are drinking themselves to obesity.

27 Aug 2007

Sildenafil increases release of key reproductive hormone oxytocin

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison report this month that sildenafil increases the amount of oxytocin released by stimulation of the posterior pituitary gland, a small structure directly underneath the brain that regulates hormone levels in response to neural signals.

24 Aug 2007