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World health officials adopt global health strategy

The World Health Organization (WHO) Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health was today endorsed by Member States at their annual Health Assembly in Geneva. The strategy addresses two of the major risk factors responsible for the heavy and growing burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), which now account for some 60% of global deaths and almost half (47%) of the global burden of disease. NCDs include cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, cancers and obesity-related conditions.

22 May 2004

Using gene therapy to fight rheumatoid arthritis

Guided by a similar principle, arthritis researchers at the University of Florida and Harvard University hope to use gene therapy to help joint cells pump out a harmless protein that parks in receptor sites, leaving a notorious inflammatory agent “circling the lot” and unable to cause pain, swelling and possible joint damage.

21 May 2004

Research reveals that children with mild head injury may be at risk of long-term complications

New research from the University of Warwick reveals that children with even mild head injury may be at risk of long-term complications, including personality changes, emotional, behavioural and learning problems.

21 May 2004

The worldwide prevalence of glaucoma is increasing

Early diagnosis of glaucoma is essential to prevent irreversible visual impairment, according to a Seminar in this week's issue of The Lancet.

20 May 2004

Facts about prevalence of arthritis in the U.S.A

Arthritis is the leading cause of physical disability in the United States. Arthritis comprises over 100 different disease and conditions. The most common are osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, and gout.

15 May 2004

CDC announces new goals and organizational structure

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Julie Gerberding announced today new goals and integrated operations that will allow the federal public health agency to have greater impact on the health of people around the world.

15 May 2004

National effort to detect life-threatening non-cardiac vascular diseases

The University of Arizona Medical Center for the first time will be part of a national effort to detect life-threatening non-cardiac vascular diseases. UMC is partnering with the American Vascular Association to offer free screenings for people at high risk: 60 years or older with a history of hypertension, diabetes, smoking, high cholesterol, or known cardiovascular disease.

14 May 2004

The Stroke Association have found that surgery can halve the risk of a stroke

Scientists funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and The Stroke Association have found that surgery can halve the risk of a stroke for people who have significant narrowing of the main artery carrying blood to the brain. Their findings, published in this week’s The Lancet, are the result of a large-scale international clinical trial.

14 May 2004

Britannia Pharmaceuticals’ partner receives FDA approval for Parkinson’s disease treatment

Britannia Pharmaceuticals Limited announced today that U.S.-based Bertek Pharmaceuticals Inc., the branded subsidiary of Mylan Laboratories Inc has received approval from the Food and Drug Administration for APOKYN (apomorphine hydrochloride injection).

13 May 2004

Cholesterol-lowering drugs could treat multiple sclerosis

Drug treatments for MS are expensive and only partially effective. Recent knowledge that statins promote an anti-inflammatory response from the immune system suggest a potential in the treatment of MS.

13 May 2004

Study to Look at effect of exercise and education on osteoarthritis

Researchers at the Arizona Arthritis Center at the University of Arizona College of Medicine are investigating the effect of early interventions in the treatment of osteoarthritis, a condition currently affecting tens of thousands of Tucsonans.

12 May 2004

New research finds that boys really do have more reading difficulties than girls

New research from the University of Warwick finds that boys really do have more reading difficulties than girls. The study into reading disabilities, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, confirms that boys are much more prone to having trouble than girls, and it's not simply because they're more disruptive.

12 May 2004

Male pedestrians account for 70 percent of cost to the community from deaths and injuries on the road

Males are involved in 60 percent of all road accidents involving pedestrians yet they account for an even greater part of the injury bill, according to UNSW behavioural psychologist Dr Julie Hatfield, who conducted the study.

11 May 2004

Botswana begins massive emergency polio campaign

The Minister of Health of Botswana today kicked off a massive emergency immunization campaign in the southern African nation of Botswana, following the re-introduction of poliovirus into the country from Nigeria in February.

10 May 2004

Low back pain - does it need costly scan?

A major study has been conducted to evaluate the role of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Computed Tomography (CT) scans in the treatment of low back pain (LBP).

10 May 2004

Research will test the effectiveness of new drug treatments for the cognitive deficits of schizophrenia

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded a four-year, $9 million contract to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and five other academic medical centers to create a network of Treatment Units for Research on Neurocognition and Schizophrenia (TURNS).

8 May 2004

Head-cooling device prevents brain damage in oxygen-deprived newborn babies

Liggins Institute Director and trial Director Professor Peter Gluckman said the CoolCap trial results were the culmination of over 20 years work and provided the first evidence in humans that brain damage at birth could be treated. The findings offered hope for a new approach to a major set of clinical conditions, he said.

6 May 2004

Brain damage at birth can be reversed

More than 1000 children die or suffer permanent brain injury every year in the UK because of shortage of oxygen around the time of birth. Tragedy can strike without warning, and often following normal healthy pregnancies. If the baby survives major problems include severe cerebral palsy, learning difficulties and epilepsy.

6 May 2004

Heart pumps better than medical therapy in keeping heart failure patients alive

Left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) – heart pumps – worked better than medical therapy in keeping seriously ill congestive heart failure patients alive, despite an increased risk of neurological complications, researchers report in today’s rapid access issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

6 May 2004

Weight loss and exercise regime helps osteoarthritis

A combination of moderate weight loss and exercise is an effective treatment for overweight adults with osteoarthritis of the knee, according to new research from Wake Forest University published in the May issue of the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism.

6 May 2004