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Swine flu tally has U.S. top and Australia 6th

The latest update, # 52, from the World Health Organisation on the influenza A H1N1 pandemic (swine flu), says as of the 22nd of June the grand total of those infected is now 52,160 including 231 deaths.

23 Jun 2009

Dental health advocates want to sink teeth into health care reform

The Washington Post reports many oral health professionals worry that dental issues have "a tenuous place at best in the national debate" regarding an overhaul of the health care system. Still, they emphasize that dental health is an integral part of health care and note the special burden untreated dental issues have on poor children.

23 Jun 2009

Number of Polio cases in Nigeria decreases, some states still showing low immunizations rates

The number of polio cases in Nigeria has gone down from 799 in 2008 to 353 this year, according to the country's National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Africa Science News Service reports.

23 Jun 2009

Woman's placenta new source for harvesting stem cells

A groundbreaking study conducted by Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland is the first to reveal a new avenue for harvesting stem cells from a woman's placenta, or more specifically the discarded placentas of healthy newborns.

23 Jun 2009

Children in Afghanistan suffering from post traumatic stress

Children who live in Afghanistan are particularly affected every day by a multitude of war time stressors which increase the likelihood of developing PTSD: trauma, child labor, and family and military violence. On a daily basis they are first-hand witnesses to the bombings, abuse, and the general upheaval of their home life and society as a result of war, including the effects of long-term poverty and familial turmoil.

23 Jun 2009

Microbial and maternal influences on allergic sensitization during childhood

When infected, the body has two types of immune defence to deploy - innate immunity and acquired immunity. In her dissertation, Shanie Saghafian Hedengren studies monocytes, a type of white blood corpuscles that are part of the innate immune system.

23 Jun 2009

Migraines with aura in middle age associated with late-life brain lesions

Women who suffer from migraine headaches in middle age accompanied by neurological aura (visual disturbances, dizziness or numbness that can precede migraines) are more likely to have damage to brain tissue in the cerebellum later in life, according to a study by researchers at the National Institute on Aging (NIA) of the National Institutes of Health, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and the Icelandic Heart Association in Reykjavik.

23 Jun 2009

The emotional cost of nursing

What are the costs of caring? A new project in the School of Psychology explores nurses' experience of distress and aims to determine if empathy with patients is associated with traumatic experience in nurses.

23 Jun 2009

Jigsaw puzzle therapy for Alzheimer’s sufferers

A Kingston University design student has turned his coursework into a budding business venture, launching a jigsaw puzzle ideal for people living with dementia.

23 Jun 2009

Discovery of potent metastasis inhibitor

Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston have isolated a potent inhibitor of tumor metastasis made by tumor cells, one that could potentially be harnessed as a cancer treatment.

23 Jun 2009

Coronary artery bypass surgery provides long-term benefits for children with Kawasaki disease

Coronary artery bypass surgery provides long-term benefits for children whose hearts and blood vessels are damaged by Kawasaki disease, Japanese researchers report in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

23 Jun 2009

Breakthrough in MR-guided, non-invasive neurosurgery

The Magnetic Resonance Center of the University Children's Hospital Zurich has achieved a world first break through in MR-guided, non-invasive neurosurgery. Ten patients have been successfully treated by means of transcranial high-intensity focused ultrasound. This fully non-invasive procedure opens new horizons for neurosurgery and the treatment of different neurological brain disorders.

23 Jun 2009

Biomarker in urine for appendicitis

Appendicitis is the most common childhood surgical emergency, but the diagnosis can be challenging, especially in children, often leading to either unnecessary surgery in children without appendicitis, or a ruptured appendix and serious complications when the condition is missed.

23 Jun 2009

Parents struggle with costs of their children's autism care

The total cost for treating a child with autism can reach $5 million, but insurance companies rarely cover autism therapy and few states mandate it. CBS News reports that "an estimated one in every 150 children in America has autism and the number of reported cases is growing" while "parents are increasingly demanding that insurance companies cover the newest treatment."

22 Jun 2009

Obama signs anti-smoking measure

President Barack Obama in the Rose Garden with a number of lawmakers and other guests today "signed the strongest anti-smoking measure ever, calling it an extraordinary accomplishment that will help keep children from getting hooked on cigarettes," the Associated Press reports (6/22).

22 Jun 2009

Ban Ki-Moon calls on governments to eradicate polio

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday at the Rotary International (RI) Annual Convention in Birmingham, U.K., said that governments worldwide should continue to work towards eradicating polio, BBC reports.

22 Jun 2009

DNA template could explain evolutionary shifts

Rearrangements of all sizes in genomes, genes and exons can result from a glitch in DNA copying that occurs when the process stalls at a critical point and then shifts to a different genetic template, duplicating and even triplicating genes or just shuffling or deleting part of the code within them, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in a recent report in the journal Nature Genetics.

22 Jun 2009