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New HMO dental plans for Californian residents

The state’s largest dental plan today unveiled two updated options under its DeltaCare® USA Individual and Family Program. The revamped HMO dental plans include procedures previously not covered and define copayments for a wider range of benefits, including orthodontics for adults and children.

9 Sep 2009

Online destination resource for diabetics

Bayer Diabetes Care is continuing to simplify life for people with diabetes with the launch of simplewins.com, an online destination designed to inspire people with diabetes and help them meet the day-to-day challenges of living with and managing the disease.

9 Sep 2009

FDA approves Cochlear's Nucleus 5 System

Cochlear, the global leader in implantable hearing solutions, announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the Nucleus((R) )5 System for adults and children with severe-to-profound hearing loss.

9 Sep 2009

Philadelphia MCAN project as model for managing childhood asthma and reducing H1N1 risk

Nearly a dozen 7th graders with asthma were welcomed along with other classmates back to school today by a special guest who had a message for them about staying healthy - Kathleen Sebelius, 21st Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).

9 Sep 2009

Advocates express concern over reform proposal's changes to low-income children's coverage

Children's health advocates are concerned that a new health reform proposal by the Senate Finance Committee could jeopardize coverage of many low-income children now insured by the State Children's Health Insurance Program, which expires in 2013, Politico reports.

9 Sep 2009

Major advance in understanding Friedreich's ataxia

University of Sydney researchers have made a significant advance in understanding the debilitating hereditary disease Friedreich's ataxia, offering hope that new forms of treatment will be developed.

8 Sep 2009

MyMedicalRecords PHR offers medical reimbursement for H1N1 affected susbcribers

MMR Information Systems, Inc. (OTCBB: MMRF) (the "Company"), which through its wholly-owned operating subsidiary, MyMedicalRecords, Inc. ("MMR") provides consumer-controlled Personal Health Records ("PHRs") (www.mymedicalrecords.com) and electronic safe deposit box storage solutions (www.myesafedepositbox.com), today announced that it has launched a new subscriber Program to reimburse up to $5,000 for remaining medical insurance deductibles, or out-of-pocket medical expenses up to $5,000, for a MyMedicalRecords PHR subscriber family member who has a confirmed case of the H1N1 (Swine Flu) virus.

8 Sep 2009

Pharma manufacturer's failure to disclose endangers Swine Flu vaccination program

As autumn approaches and millions of Americans consider taking an H1N1 Swine Flu vaccination, the integrity of all vaccine developers has been called into question by the financial relationship of a leading vaccine advocate and a pharmaceutical manufacturer. Dr. Paul Offit of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), who was interviewed for a Dateline NBC television special, failed to tell millions of viewers that while he was promoting MMR as safe he had also made tens of millions of dollars from selling another vaccine patent to Merck, which is the manufacturer of MMR.

8 Sep 2009

Chronic pediatric cough linked to reflux and allergies

New research shows that chronic cough in children is most often caused by gastroesophageal reflux and allergies. Researchers from Tulane University in New Orleans, LA, evaluated 40 patients aged 5 to 12 years with chronic cough (> 8 weeks in duration) with no obvious cause. Each patient underwent extensive multispecialty testing. Results showed that reflux was the single most commonly associated factor of chronic cough by itself (27.5 percent), followed by allergy (22.5 percent).

8 Sep 2009

Brainwave opens a new facility in Birchwood

National charity Brainwave, which provides home based therapy programmes for children with cerebral palsy and other conditions such as development delay, is opening a third Centre in Birchwood, Warrington to cope with the increasing demand for its services.

8 Sep 2009

Benefits of early exposure to daycare not sustainable

New research hints that the common belief that kids who go to daycare have lower rates of asthma and allergy later in life might be nothing more than wishful thinking. While young children in daycare definitely do get more illnesses and experience more respiratory symptoms as a result, any perceived protection these exposures afford against asthma and allergy seem to disappear by the time the child hits the age of eight.

8 Sep 2009

COPD patients to have better protection against pneumonia with new vaccine

A new vaccine against pneumonia may offer better protection from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients than the currently accepted vaccine, according to recent research that will be published in the September 15 issue of the American Journal of the Respiratory and Critical Care Journal, a publication of the American Thoracic Society.

8 Sep 2009

Prevention system brings down rate of binge drinking among eighth-grade students

Rates of binge drinking were 37 percent lower among eighth-grade students in communities in seven states that used a prevention system designed to reduce drug use and delinquent behavior compared to teenagers in communities that did not use the system.

8 Sep 2009

Labour market trends may have impact on the mental health of young people

Mental health in young people worsens in line with trends in the labour market. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Public Health studied data from 1985 to 2002 and found that, across ten European countries, as the proportion of young people not in work increased, so did the proportion of 15-year-olds who reported mental health symptoms such as feeling low, difficulty sleeping or headaches.

8 Sep 2009

Specific targeting of brain tumors with an optical/magnetic resonance imaging nanoprobe across the blood-brain barrier

Earlier this year, researchers at the University of Washington reported that they had developed a toxin-nanoparticle combination that inhibits brain cancer invasion when added to tumor cells growing in culture.

7 Sep 2009

Practitioners struggle to effectively manage child obesity

New research, led by Dr Katrina Turner from the University's Department of Community Based Medicine, has assessed primary care practitioners' views and experiences of treating childhood obesity.

7 Sep 2009

Better health system needed to identify and manage childhood obesity

A new study has revealed GPs and pediatricians believe their capacity to effectively identify and manage childhood obesity is limited, due to barriers such as time constraints. 65 per cent of the doctors also perceived a shortfall in public sector dietitians to assist them in managing overweight and obese children, according to the study in Nutrition & Dietetics, published by Wiley-Blackwell.

7 Sep 2009

Harmless shard from childhood virus shell may halt biological process

A harmless shard from the shell of a common childhood virus may halt a biological process that kills a significant percentage of battlefield casualties, heart attack victims and oxygen-deprived newborns, according to research presented Sunday, September 6, 2009, at the 12th European meeting on complement in human disease in Budapest, Hungary.

7 Sep 2009

Taskforce formed to help speed licensure, vaccine distribution following RTS,S trials

GNA/Peace FM examines the recent creation of a local and international taskforce to help shorten the window of time between the completion of the clinical trial of the RTS,S malaria vaccine - currently being tested across Africa - and licensure and vaccine distribution. According to the news service, scientists recently launched a Phase III trial of the RTS,S vaccine in Kintampo, Ghana, which will include 1,200 children, between the ages of 6-12 weeks and 5-17 months.

5 Sep 2009

Recent releases: PEPFAR in Zimbabwe; dengue in Thailand; blogs on improving U.S. foreign aid; examining allocations of health aid

The U.S. plans to support efforts to develop a sustainable health system in Zimbabwe and increase its capacity to treat people, Eric Goosby, U.S. global AIDS Coordinator for PEPFAR, said on Wednesday after a visit to the country with USAID and CDC officials, according to a press release from the U.S. Embassy in Harare, Zimbabwe. Goosby said he is "optimistic" that the Zimbabwe PEPFAR team's experience will be used "to develop a response that fits the existing health infrastructure, supports it and reinforces it in a way that creates a durable and lasting response" (9/2).

5 Sep 2009