Public Health News and Research

RSS

Protecting health from climate change

As momentum for action on climate change continues to grow, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced today that it will focus its World Health Day 2008 theme on “protecting health from climate change.”

24 Oct 2007

Simple technique helps retinal patients detect vision loss quickly and cheaply

Scientists at Schepens Eye Research Institute have discovered a simple and inexpensive way for patients with retinal and other eye disease to keep track of changes in their vision loss.

24 Oct 2007

Novel strategy to inactivate Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus

A collaborative team of scientists from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) have developed a novel strategy to inactivate highly virulent Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) that can infect and kill both animals and humans.

24 Oct 2007

Neighborhood safety and physical activity among public housing residents

Exercise is strongly promoted for the maintenance of good health - particularly as regards people on lower incomes, who are generally less physically active.

24 Oct 2007

Physical therapy in ICU can reduce hospital stays

The results of the first study to show the effectiveness of early physical therapy in a medical intensive care unit (ICU) were presented by a researcher from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center at the national meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians in Chicago.

24 Oct 2007

Informed choice in mammography screening

While patient education decision aids can help older women make better-informed decisions about whether to continue mammography screening, they do not influence whether the women will actually change their minds about having the test.

24 Oct 2007

Surge in E. coli food contamination recalls prompts aggressive action

As a result of the increasing numbers of food recalls this year involving food contaminated with E. coli, the U.S. Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) says it will expand tests and recall infected meat more rapidly.

24 Oct 2007

New flu pandemic plans for U.S.

In the event of a flu pandemic in the United States new government plans detail who will be the first to get vaccinated.

24 Oct 2007

Influence of poverty upon health in PLoS Medicine

Everything published by PLoS Medicine is Open Access: freely available for anyone to read, download, redistribute and otherwise use, as long as the authorship is properly attributed.

23 Oct 2007

Weight gain in middle-age linked to breast cancer

According to new research women who gain weight throughout adulthood rather than maintaining a stable weight may have an increased risk for breast cancer

23 Oct 2007

Anti-tuberculosis program in South Africa may have inadvertently helped create new strain of XDR TB

In a new study published in the December 1 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, currently available online, researchers tracked the developing drug resistance of one particular strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis over 12 years.

22 Oct 2007

Women who gain weight throughout adulthood have a greater breast cancer risk

Women who gain weight throughout adulthood rather than maintaining a stable weight may have an increased risk for breast cancer, according to a report in the October 22 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

22 Oct 2007

Severely restricting calories leads to a longer life

New research now has shown for the first time that such a diet also can maintain physical fitness into advanced age, slowing the seemingly inevitable progression to physical disability and loss of independence.

22 Oct 2007

Study looks at physician migration

Physicians moving from developing countries to work in the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom are more likely to originate from wealthier developing countries than less developed countries.

22 Oct 2007

Interventions that improve nutrition and environmental conditions can help decrease child deaths worldwide

Interventions that improve nutrition and environmental conditions can also provide substantial gains toward the goal of reducing child mortality, especially when the interventions prioritize the poor, according to a study in the October 24/31 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on poverty and human development.

22 Oct 2007