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Twelve chickens dead from bird flu in Russia

According to a senior regional health official, another region in European Russia has confirmed an outbreak of the deadly bird flu virus H5N1.

25 Oct 2005

Identification of gene in mosquitoes that helps them to fight off infection by the Plasmodium parasite

Researchers have identified a gene in mosquitoes that helps the insects to fight off infection by the Plasmodium parasite, which causes malaria in humans. Anopheles mosquitoes transmit the malaria parasite to nearly 550 million people worldwide each year with these cases resulting in more than 2 million deaths annually.

25 Oct 2005

Depression raises disability risk

Depressed middle-aged adults are at four times greater risk for being unable to perform everyday tasks than their non-depressed peers, a Northwestern University study found.

25 Oct 2005

Hope for better return for health spending in Australia

Health leaders have called for action in reforming primary health care to tackle the 'juggernaut' of chronic disease issues about to hit the health system at a meeting in Melbourne.

25 Oct 2005

Depression alone affects approximately 1.3 million Australian women ever year

Women's health problems, depression and child abuse represented a major health crisis in Australia, a seminar focusing on women and mental health over the weekend was told.

24 Oct 2005

First study to examine chemotherapy errors in ambulatory care for cancer patients

In one of the first studies to examine chemotherapy errors in ambulatory care for cancer patients, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) and Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) have found that about three percent of chemotherapy orders in three outpatient infusion clinics studied contained mistakes.

24 Oct 2005

Mixed carbon nanotubes and standard urban particulates suggests a risk of thrombosis from airborne pollution

Carbon nanoparticles - both those unleashed in the air by engine exhaust and the engineered structures thought to have great potential in medical applications - promote blood-clotting, scientists report in an upcoming edition of the British Journal of Pharmacology.

23 Oct 2005

Defibrillators plentiful in schools but not senior centers

A greater percentage of high schools had automated external defibrillators (AEDs) - devices that can be used to treat cardiac arrest victims - than senior centers, despite the fact that cardiac arrests appear more common in senior centers, according to a study by University of Iowa researchers.

20 Oct 2005

U.S. health inequalities cause 84,000 extra deaths every year

Research estimates that health inequalities between white and black Americans cause 84,000 extra deaths every year – equating to a virtual hurricane Katrina every week, says an editorial in this week’s British Medical Journal.

20 Oct 2005

Avian flu and planning for pandemic

Influenza season is almost upon us. While it is impossible to tell whether we are going to experience a usual flu season -- with one in every five people falling ill -- or whether we are facing a more serious problem such as a dangerous new strain capable of causing a global pandemic, information is important.

20 Oct 2005

EU influenza pandemic preparedness

EU preparedness against an influenza pandemic has improved over the last six months, but Member States need to step up their efforts to strengthen their pandemic preparedness, according to Markos Kyprianou, European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection.

19 Oct 2005

How hurricanes impact public health long term

A Johns Hopkins emergency physician who spent the past five weeks working on public health issues in the Gulf Coast region following hurricane Katrina warns that the disaster's potential for wreaking havoc and damage to people's health may continue for months after the hurricane has passed.

19 Oct 2005

New publication on nutrition and an active life

Nutrition and an Active Life: From Knowledge to Action is an new anthology produced by leading public health experts from the Pan American Health Organization and the international development community.

19 Oct 2005

Court victory means breast cancer drug Herceptin will be available to more women

The court victory of British woman Barbara Clark to be treated with the breast cancer drug Herceptin, means that now more than 100 breast cancer patients in Cornwall and Devon could soon be prescribed the drug.

19 Oct 2005

Putting things in prespective - help the world's children to fight bird flu

Amid the escalating panic in Europe centered around attempts to halt the spread among the bird population of bird flu, a senior health expert has said that swift action against age-old child killers such as diarrhea and pneumonia could help the world get ready to combat a bird flu pandemic.

19 Oct 2005

There will be nearly ten times as many operations performed for weight loss in 2005 as there were in 1998

...report researchers from the University of Chicago and the University of California at Irvine in the 19 October 2005 issue of JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, but the groups that need surgery the most are not the ones driving the increase.

18 Oct 2005

Evidence is mounting to link toxoplasmosis with schizophrenia

Keep pet cats inside, stop feeding strays, cook meat sufficiently and reconsider the way the veterinary profession and public health agencies think - and teach - about the zoonotic pathogen Toxoplasma gondii.

18 Oct 2005

No credible evidence behind claims of harm from the MMR vaccination

There was no credible evidence behind claims of harm from the MMR vaccination. This is the conclusion drawn by the Cochrane Review Authors, an international team of researchers, after carefully drawing together all of the evidence found in 31 high quality studies from around the world.

18 Oct 2005

No evidence of a "safe" threshold with environmental toxins

Four of the most widespread environmental toxins - lead, trihalomethanes (found in drinking water), ionizing radiation from indoor radon gas, and tobacco smoke - can cause serious damage to health even at very low levels, say researchers in the open access journal PLoS Medicine.

18 Oct 2005

Black women with chronic pain experience more psychological distress

Black women with chronic pain experience more psychological distress, physical impairments and post-traumatic stress disorder than white women with chronic pain, a finding that researchers say should help lead to a narrowing of the gap in the treatment of chronic pain between black and white women.

17 Oct 2005