Public Health News and Research

RSS

Some moms quit cigarettes, marijuana, alcohol during pregnancy, but dads don't

Despite public health campaigns, a surprising number of women continue to use substances such as tobacco, marijuana and alcohol during pregnancy and their usage rebounds to pre-pregnancy levels within two years of having a baby, according to a new University of Washington study.

24 Mar 2008

Sixty-two per cent of Africans do not have access to a proper toilet

Sixty-two per cent of Africans do not have access to an improved sanitation facility -- a proper toilet -- which separates human waste from human contact, according to the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation.

24 Mar 2008

New poll debates quality U.S. health care system

A recent survey by the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Harris Interactive, as part of their ongoing series, Debating Health: Election 2008, finds that Americans are generally split on the issue of whether the United States has the best health care system in the world (45% believe the U.S. has the best system; 39% believe other countries have better systems; 15% don't know or refused to answer) and that there is a significant divide along party lines.

24 Mar 2008

EpiCept announces opinion by European Regulatory Authority on Ceplene

EpiCept Corporation has announced that the European Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP), the scientific committee of the European Medicines Agency (EMEA), has issued, as expected following the trend vote announced last month, a negative opinion regarding the marketing authorization application (MAA) for Ceplene (histamine dihydrochloride) for the remission maintenance and prevention of relapse of patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) in first remission.

24 Mar 2008

Chronic insomnia and its negative consequences for adolescents

Documenting a "twofold to fivefold" increase in personal problems among adolescents with persistent sleeplessness, public health researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston say they have completed the first prospective study demonstrating the negative impact of chronic insomnia on 11 to 17 year olds.

24 Mar 2008

New Hopkins report on successful health communication

Communication plays a crucial role in successful family planning, HIV prevention, and other health and development programs. Communication often is thought of as the production of messages and materials, such as postures or brochures. But effective communication programs that motivate people to adopt healthy behaviors and lifestyles use a systematic process and require long-term commitment.

21 Mar 2008

When it comes to what we eat, men and women really are different

...according to scientific research presented (March 19) at the 2008 International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases in Atlanta, Georgia. In general, men are more likely to report eating meat and poultry items and women are more likely to report eating fruits and vegetables.

20 Mar 2008

Low levels of dietary folate linked to sperm abnormalities

Healthy men who report lower levels of the nutrient folate in their diets have higher rates of chromosomal abnormalities in their sperm, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

20 Mar 2008

Levels of folate in men's diets is linked to chromosomal abnormalities in their sperm

Researchers have found an association between a vitamin found in leafy green vegetables, fruit and pulses [1] and levels of chromosomal abnormalities in men's sperm.

20 Mar 2008

Russell Berrie Foundation donates $28 million for diabetes research

The Russell Berrie Foundation has donated $28 million to Columbia University Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, as part of a focused effort to provide comprehensive care to diabetes patients while working, through concentrated research initiatives, toward a cure, the Medical Center gratefully announced today.

20 Mar 2008

Women on mixed psychiatric wards suffer abuse from male patients

A survey presented at an international mental health conference in Melbourne has indicated that women admitted to mixed sex psychiatric wards commonly suffer sexual and physical abuse at the hands of male patients.

19 Mar 2008

Illicit drug use and risky sex fueling rise in syphilis

According to researchers in the U.S. syphilis which was almost eradicated a decade ago in the developed world, is making a comeback.

19 Mar 2008

Uterine fibroid embolization effective in cases where focused ultrasound failed

Uterine fibroid embolization (UFE), a minimally invasive interventional radiology treatment for uterine fibroids, provides significant relief of symptoms for women whose focused ultrasound (FUS) treatment failed, according to a study released during the Society of Interventional Radiology's 33rd Annual Scientific Meeting in Washington, D.C. Primary care physicians and gynecologists can feel confident in informing patients that a failed FUS treatment does not require subsequent gynecological surgery.

19 Mar 2008

1 in 6 women and 1 in 10 men at risk for Alzheimer's disease in their lifetime

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have estimated that one in six women are at risk for developing Alzheimer's disease (AD) in their lifetime, while the risk for men is one in ten.

19 Mar 2008

Poison prevention starts with respecting, inspecting medicines

Between tots' cough and cold medicines being pulled from store shelves, and a New York teenager dying from a muscle-cream overdose, the past year's scares are grounds for renewing a healthy fear for the products stowed in your medicine cabinet.

19 Mar 2008

Pneumococcal disease rates down since approval of a vaccine in 2000

Since the approval of a vaccine against pneumococcal bacteria for young children in 2000, rates of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) are down significantly in all age groups, while rates of IPD caused by non-vaccine strains are modestly on the rise.

19 Mar 2008

Do bacterial combinations result in enhanced cytokine production? No!

Probiotic bacteria, defined as living microorganisms that have beneficial effects on human health, have been used for the prevention and treatment of a diverse range of disorders.

19 Mar 2008

Scientists identify potential therapy targets for schistosomiasis

A research team supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Roadmap and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has identified chemical compounds that hold promise as potential therapies for schistosomiasis, a parasitic disease that afflicts more than 200 million people worldwide.

18 Mar 2008

Obese ICU patients have lower mortality but longer ICU stays

Obese intensive care patients do not have a higher ICU death rate than non-obese ICU patients, but they remain in the ICU significantly longer and are intubated significantly longer than non-obese patients, a new study has found.

18 Mar 2008

National Institutes of Health launches center to study genomics and health disparities

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced the establishment of the NIH Intramural Center for Genomics and Health Disparities (NICGHD), a new venue for research about the way populations are impacted by diseases, including obesity, diabetes and hypertension.

18 Mar 2008