Children News and Research

RSS

Manganese in water can harm children’s IQ: Study

A team of researchers led by Maryse Bouchard, adjunct professor at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Biology, Health, Environment and Society (CINBIOSE) of the Universit du Qu-bec Montr-al and a researcher at Sainte Justine University Hospital, and Donna Mergler, professor emerita in the Department of Biological Sciences and a member of CINBIOSE, recently completed a study showing that children exposed to high concentrations of manganese in drinking water performed worse on tests of intellectual functioning than children with lower exposures.

20 Sep 2010

H1N1 influenza increases neurological complications in children: Study

A recent study by researchers at the University of Utah determined that the 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) caused a higher rate of neurological complications in children than the seasonal flu. The most common complications observed were seizures and encephalopathy.

20 Sep 2010

Adenovirus exposure may cause obesity in children: Study

The emerging idea that obesity may have an infectious origin gets new support in a cross-sectional study by University of California, San Diego School of Medicine researchers who found that children exposed to a particular strain of adenovirus were significantly more likely to be obese.

20 Sep 2010

Twin deaths trigger calls for an inquiry into Northam Hospital, WA

After the recent deaths of two children at Western Australia's rural Northam Hospital, there are calls for an inquiry.

20 Sep 2010

New law brings changes to health insurance rules this week

A variety of consumer friendly health reform rules will go into effect this week, promising to make life easier for young adults, parents, children with preexisting conditions, people with chronic diseases, and people appealing claims that have been denied. Starting Thursday, insurance companies must allow young adults to remain on their parents' plans until age 26, with some conditions.

20 Sep 2010

Insurers say new health benefits will raise premiums

Starting next week, your insurance company can no longer put dollar limits on essential benefits such as hospital and lab services. Dependent children will be covered to age 26. You'll get preventive care with no deductible or co-pay. But there's a price some insurers are saying they will have to raise premium prices, CBS News reports.

20 Sep 2010

Researchers discover HIV-1 resists AZT drug

Rutgers researchers have discovered how HIV-1, the virus that causes AIDS, resists AZT, a drug widely used to treat AIDS. The scientists, who report their findings in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, believe their discovery helps researchers understand how important anti-AIDS treatments can fail and could help AIDS researchers develop more effective treatment for the disease.

20 Sep 2010

Whooping cough on the rise in California

Whooping cough is on the rise in California and the number infected has reached a 55-year high, including nine infant deaths, eight of them Hispanics. There have been more than 4,000 confirmed, probable or suspected cases this year, the most reported since 1955.

19 Sep 2010

Male circumcision shown to help prevent HIV transmission

According to a new study published in the Medical Journal of Australia, male circumcision can be seen as a “surgical vaccine” in the fight against heterosexual HIV transmission. The study based on spread of the virus in Africa showed that there was a reduced rate of transmission in regions where male circumcision was the norm.

19 Sep 2010

Children's Wish to receive over $100,000 cheque as donation from Team Wishful Thinking

The Children's Wish Foundation of Canada will be waiting at the finish line today for Team Wishful Thinking, one of the competing teams in the Targa Newfoundland Race. Children's Wish is there to cheer on the team and gratefully accept the over $100,000 cheque Team Wishful Thinking has raised in support of Children's Wish.

18 Sep 2010

Asthma symptoms peak 17 days after Labor Day: Study

Next week, Thursday could be the worst day of the year for people with asthma. If past experience holds, on September 23 there will be 3 times more asthma-related deaths and 4 times more asthma-related hospitalizations than on any other day of the year.

18 Sep 2010

Tips to keep students healthy, from brain to body

With kids back in school, good health starts with clean hands. Now that the new school year has begun, many moms are looking for an extra hand to help keep their kids healthy and reduce sick days. In fact, elementary school students who do not use proper hand hygiene will miss more school than those that do employ good hand-washing habits, according to an American Journal of Infection Control study.

18 Sep 2010

Study finds mothers' education levels affect child mortality

A study published in the journal Lancet on Friday found that "a mother's education level has a huge, if indirect, effect on the health of her children," the Washington Post reports.

18 Sep 2010

Walgreens pharmacists in California offer immunizations that protect against pertussis

With the state of California on pace for the worst epidemic of pertussis, or whooping cough, in nearly five decades, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as the California Department of Public Health continue to strongly encourage vaccination to help increase immunity and stop the spread of the disease for all Californians.

18 Sep 2010

Effective strategies to combat obesity epidemic among children and teenagers needed

September is National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, drawing attention to the epidemic of obesity among children and adolescents in the United States. A multidisciplinary approach to assessment and intervention is crucial for effective weight management and should draw from the latest medical evidence, best practices, and innovative educational and policy initiatives, all of which are presented and debated in the new bimonthly, print and online journal Childhood Obesity, published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The inaugural issue is available free online.

18 Sep 2010

U.N., IMF release reports on how global economic crisis 'dealt critical blow' to aid for poor countries

Ahead of next week's U.N. Millennium Development Summit, "[t]he United Nations and International Monetary Fund said Thursday that the global financial crisis has dealt a critical blow to aid for poor countries with billions of dollars needed to meet shortages," Agence France-Presse reports. "Both institutions said that the world must return to sustainable growth to hope to reach global poverty and health targets" (Donnet, 9/16).

18 Sep 2010

Global child mortality declines by one-third since 1990, U.N. report says

The number of children who die before age 5 has declined by one-third since 1990, Reuters reports.

18 Sep 2010

Lawmakers debate action on stem cell research, public health bills

Sen. Arlen Specter said at a Senate hearing Thursday that Congress should move on allowing the government to fund human embryonic stem cell research "to avoid giving a final say on the issue to a conservative Supreme Court," The Associated Press reports.

18 Sep 2010

Opinions: Bachelet appointment; Sanitation MDG; Women's education; Smallholder farms

The appointment of former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet to head U.N. Women is an "excellent choice" that "adds stature and star power to the agenda for gender equality," according to a Los Angeles Times editorial.

18 Sep 2010

Health premiums rise as states consider how they'll implement reforms

Overall health insurance premiums rose 7 percent in 2009, even as the number of people with health coverage fell. "Individual premium revenues rose 15 percent while group premiums, which involve mostly employers, rose nearly 3 percent, according to the report from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, an organization whose prominence has grown following passage of the new U.S. health reform law."

18 Sep 2010