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Ghana health official urges media to help change negative perceptions about pregnancy

Speaking at a workshop on maternal morbidity and mortality in Korofidua, Ghana, on Thursday that was organized for journalists in the region, acting Eastern Regional Director of Health Services Larbi Addo challenged the media to help change negative perceptions about pregnancy and child-bearing in an effort to reduce maternal and infant mortality in the country, GhanaWeb reports.

14 Sep 2011

Lignans lower risk of death in women with breast cancer

Phytoestrogens are plant compounds which, in the human body, can attach to the receptors for the female sexual hormone estrogen and which are taken in with our daily diet. A number of findings have attributed a cancer protective effect to these plant hormones. At DKFZ, a team headed by Prof. Dr. Jenny Chang-Claude summarized the results of several studies in a meta-analysis last year and showed that a diet rich in phytoestrogens lowers the risk of developing breast cancer after menopause.

14 Sep 2011

Genetic variant associated with increased long-term mortality risk after coronary artery bypass graft procedure

Duke University Medical Center researchers have found a genetic variant that seems to be associated with lower five-year survival after a coronary artery bypass.

14 Sep 2011

Researchers use MRI and PET/CT to assess safety, efficacy of heart drug dalcetrapib

Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have for the first time used several imaging techniques to prove the efficacy of a promising new treatment for atherosclerosis—the build-up of plaque in artery walls that can lead to a heart attack.

13 Sep 2011

Largest cardiology conference in Latin America

Against a background of high mortality rates from cardiovascular disease (CVD) in Brazil, the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) is to deliver an educational programme at the 66th Annual Congress of the Brazilian Society of Cardiology.

13 Sep 2011

Study indicates need for antivenoms and better health-care services in Africa

One and a half million people per year are poisoned by snake venom in Sub-Saharan Africa. An IRD researcher recently analysed around 100 surveys and medical reports published over the past 40 years. No large-scale study of the situation had hitherto been conducted and public health authorities had underestimated the size of the problem.

12 Sep 2011

Decision Innovations to improve quality, patient satisfaction and financial outcomes of hospitals

Decisions, decisions, decisions. Wouldn't it be nice to have a computer program that could help you make work-related decisions? That's exactly what Drs. Faye Anderson, Karen Frith, Fan Tseng, Mikel Petty and Gregory Reed have done.

12 Sep 2011

Gates Foundation's Ananya Alliance aims to improve newborn health in India

Usha Kiran Tarigopula, deputy director in global health at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, writes about the Foundation's partnership with the state of Bihar, India through the Ananya Alliance "aimed at reducing maternal, newborn, and child mortality by 40 percent by 2015," in this "Inpatient Optimists" blog post, which is part of a series called "Global Conversations on Newborn Health in India."

12 Sep 2011

Specialists propose changes to allocation and distribution of organs for liver transplants

Transplantation specialists have proposed changes to the allocation and distribution of organs used for liver transplants. The recommended policy modifications take into account the scarcity of available organs, ensuring rapid allocation and delivery of the organ to those most in need in order to reduce mortality for waitlisted patients.

12 Sep 2011

Non-communicable disease epidemic a global problem

Later this month the United Nations will convene a high-level meeting on non-communicable diseases. The world's global health news has been so dominated by infectious culprits - HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, influenza - that it's easy to forget just how big a toll conditions like diabetes, cancer and heart and lung disease take say experts.

9 Sep 2011

U.N. member states must face health, economic impacts of NCDs

In this Huffington Post opinion piece outlining many facts and statistics surrounding non-communicable diseases (NCDs) worldwide, Susan Blumenthal, public health editor of the Huffington Post and former assistant surgeon general, along with Katherine Warren and Lauren Macherelli, who previously worked at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, where Blumenthal is director of the health and medicine program, write, "The world is at a crossroads when it comes to the chronic disease epidemic and its enormous health and economic impacts."

9 Sep 2011

African countries see slow progress in reducing maternal mortality to achieve MDG 5

Inter Press Service examines what some experts are calling a lack of commitment from health care workers, which they say is "among the reasons why Africa may not succeed in achieving Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5 on improving maternal health by 2015 by reducing maternal mortality by three quarters."

9 Sep 2011

Duties, role of clinical laboratory microbiologists could change significantly in the future

With the increasing availability of sophisticated technologies to rapidly diagnose and treat infectious diseases, the duties and the role of clinical laboratory microbiologists, who traditionally perform these tests, could see significant changes in the next few years. That is one of the conclusions of a series of reports published in a special supplement to the September 2011 Journal of Clinical Microbiology.

9 Sep 2011

Aura's NanoSmart platform can enable earlier detection, treatment of cancers

Aura Biosciences, Inc., a biotech company focused on the development of nano-enabled drug delivery systems, has completed several pre-clinical research programs. The resulting data suggest that Aura's NanoSmart platform can enable earlier detection of cancers and distant metastases; and then provide precisely targeted treatment of those cancers.

9 Sep 2011

HSPH receives Gates Foundation grant to improve maternal health in developing countries

A new three-year, $12 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will support a Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) effort to significantly improve maternal health in developing countries.

8 Sep 2011

Medical students may act on unconscious racial preferences

New Johns Hopkins research shows that medical students — just like the general American population — may have unconscious if not overt preferences for white people, but this innate bias does not appear to translate into different or lesser health care of other races.

8 Sep 2011

Study shows household ownership of ITNs associated with lower child mortality in sub-Saharan Africa

"Children who live in households that own at least one insecticide-treated bed net (ITN) are less likely to be infected with malaria and less likely to die from the disease, according to a new study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington," published today in PLoS Medicine, according to an IHME press release.

8 Sep 2011

International public health spending ignores neglected tropical diseases, some experts argue

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism examines what some experts are calling a serious inequity in public health spending, writing that neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) "together kill more people than maternal mortality and have a higher disease burden than malaria or tuberculosis (TB) and nearing that of HIV/AIDS. However, despite the severity of the situation, funding for NTDs is just a fraction of that spent on other diseases."

7 Sep 2011

March of Dimes urges all pregnant women to get influenza immunization

Getting a flu shot during pregnancy protects the mom-to-be from what could be a very serious – even fatal – illness and can protect her newborn who is too young to receive his or her own immunization.

7 Sep 2011

Mental health problems ail nearly half of all Americans: Report

According to a new government report about half of Americans will experience some form of mental health problem at some point in their life. The report stresses that more must be done to help the population with mental health problems.

6 Sep 2011

Mortality News and Research

Ghana health official urges media to help change negative perceptions about pregnancy

Lignans lower risk of death in women with breast cancer

Genetic variant associated with increased long-term mortality risk after coronary artery bypass graft procedure

Researchers use MRI and PET/CT to assess safety, efficacy of heart drug dalcetrapib

Largest cardiology conference in Latin America

Study indicates need for antivenoms and better health-care services in Africa

Decision Innovations to improve quality, patient satisfaction and financial outcomes of hospitals

Gates Foundation's Ananya Alliance aims to improve newborn health in India

Specialists propose changes to allocation and distribution of organs for liver transplants

Non-communicable disease epidemic a global problem

U.N. member states must face health, economic impacts of NCDs

African countries see slow progress in reducing maternal mortality to achieve MDG 5

Duties, role of clinical laboratory microbiologists could change significantly in the future

Aura's NanoSmart platform can enable earlier detection, treatment of cancers

HSPH receives Gates Foundation grant to improve maternal health in developing countries

Medical students may act on unconscious racial preferences

Study shows household ownership of ITNs associated with lower child mortality in sub-Saharan Africa

International public health spending ignores neglected tropical diseases, some experts argue

March of Dimes urges all pregnant women to get influenza immunization

Mental health problems ail nearly half of all Americans: Report

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