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Top 12 health issues facing Australian children

Alarming levels of poorer health within indigenous children and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds tops a new list of 12 major issues threatening the future health of Australia.

10 Oct 2005

Mental disorders were diagnosed in roughly one-half of emergency visits by young people treated for episodes of deliberate self-harm

Young people visiting an emergency department following an episode of deliberate self-harm are diagnosed with a mental disorder about half the time, according to a study in the October issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

4 Oct 2005

Tobacco industry hindered federal and international regulations on pesticide use

The tobacco industry coordinated cross-industry campaigns to delay and weaken federal and international regulations on pesticide use, according to new findings by University of California - San Francisco (UCSF) researchers.

26 Sep 2005

Botox helps explain possible causes of nerve diseases

Botox, used by Hollywood stars to smooth out facial wrinkles, is playing an important role in UQ research to understand how nerve cells communicate with each other.

22 Sep 2005

Exposure to toxin domoic acid might negatively affect unborn children

Duke University Medical Center researchers have found that the naturally occurring marine toxin domoic acid can cause subtle but lasting cognitive damage in rats exposed to the chemical before birth. Humans can become poisoned by the potentially lethal, algal toxin after eating contaminated shellfish.

6 Sep 2005

Chernobyl: The True Scale of the Accident

A total of up to four thousand people could eventually die of radiation exposure from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (NPP) accident nearly 20 years ago, an international team of more than 100 scientists has concluded.

5 Sep 2005

Deadly health crisis imminent in New Orleans

In New Orleans, as a result of hurricane Katrina, health specialists are predicting a vast and potentially deadly crisis for residents.

1 Sep 2005

5-year-old British autistic boy dies after alternative therapy in U.S.

A 5-year-old British autistic boy has died after undergoing a controversial form of alternative therapy.

29 Aug 2005

Researchers test experimental drug Neuprex on infants undergoing heart surgery

UT Southwestern Medical Center is the only institution in the nation approved by the Food and Drug Administration to test an experimental drug on infants undergoing heart surgery to see whether it can help them avoid potentially lethal infections and improve survival.

22 Aug 2005

Canary Database - animal diseases as early warning system for emerging human diseases

Yale School of Medicine has launched a state-of-the-art database funded in part by the National Library of Medicine, called the Canary Database, containing scientific evidence about how animal disease events can be an early warning system for emerging human diseases.

15 Aug 2005

Florida federal health agency worker charged with anthrax hoax

A woman who works at the National Institutes of Health in Rockville, Maryland, was arrested in Maryland on Monday, after making a threat to infect Florida property assessors with anthrax for revoking her tax exemption.

3 Aug 2005

Significant step forward in the search for a vaccine against Group B meningococcal disease

For a long time, doctors and scientists have suspected that Neisseria lactamica, a harmless germ carried mostly by children under the age of five years, is the key to the development of natural immunity to meningococcal meningitis and septicaemia (blood poisoning).

2 Aug 2005

FDA bans antibiotic use for poultry

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has banned the use of a poultry antibiotic made by Bayer.

31 Jul 2005

Students and school employees are being poisoned by pesticide use at schools and from drift off of neighboring farmlands

A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that students and school employees are being poisoned by pesticide use at schools and from drift off of neighboring farmlands. The public health advocacy organization Beyond Pesticides has called on Congress to respond by passing the School Environment Protection Act (SEPA).

27 Jul 2005

Illnesses associated with pesticide exposure at schools increased significantly in children from 1998 to 2002

"Exposure to pesticides in the school environment is a health risk facing children and school employees," background information in the article states. Pesticides continue to be used both on and around school property, with some schools at risk of pesticide exposure from neighboring farms. Currently, no specific federal requirements on limiting pesticide exposures at schools exist.

26 Jul 2005

Giving oxygen may do more harm than good

Doctors and paramedics who give their patients oxygen - the most commonly administered "drug" in the world - may be doing more harm than good, a Queen's University researcher contends.

11 Jul 2005

Showering in manganese-contaminated water could have permanent effects on the nervous system

A new analysis based on animal studies suggests that showering in manganese-contaminated water for a decade or more could have permanent effects on the nervous system. The damage may occur even at levels of manganese considered safe by the Environmental Protection Agency, according to researchers from Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

6 Jul 2005

New study shows showering in manganese contaminated water could permanently affect the nervous system

1 Jul 2005

Twenty-seven per cent of accidental deaths in Britain were due to transport accidents in 2003

For males, transport accidents were the most common form of accidental death (37 per cent). For females, transport accidents comprised 15 per cent of accidental deaths. Where the cause of the accident was known, falls were the most common cause of accidental death for females (28 per cent).

30 Jun 2005

It's fright time again! - how to poison the country's milk

Despite fierce opposition, the National Academy of Sciences has published a report which says the U.S. milk supply is vulnerable to being poisoned with botulinum toxin.

29 Jun 2005