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Promising drug for Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a severely debilitating and lethal condition that affects 1 in 3,000. Females and males are affected, though females are rarely affected and are more often carriers. It is caused due to a defective gene that normally codes for the protein dystrophin, which helps provide a protective membrane around muscle fibers. Without this skin, muscle fibers become damaged and eventually die.

25 Jul 2011

Nearly 720,000 children are at risk of death across the Horn of Africa

With famine now declared in two regions of Southern Somalia and malnutrition rates at emergency levels in arid and semi-arid regions across the Horn of Africa, nearly 720,000 children are at risk of death without urgent assistance.

25 Jul 2011

Effects of refusal and delay in childhood vaccination

Alison M. Buttenheim, PhD, MBA, assistant professor at Penn Nursing answers parents' questions about childhood vaccines. Dr. Buttenheim is a public health researcher and social demographer who studies parent behavior and child health.

22 Jul 2011

Exposure to household tobacco smoke increases risk of bronchiolitis in infants

A study by the University of Liverpool has found that babies admitted to hospital with bronchiolitis from a household where a parent smokes are twice as likely to need oxygen therapy and five times as likely to need mechanical ventilation as babies whose parents do not smoke.

21 Jul 2011

Australia sees early rise in flu cases

Australia is gripped with a fourfold increase in the number of people suffering flu. This rise is even before the usual peak season in August and September. Already nearly 8,000 cases have been reported compared with about 2,000 at the same time last year. The increase has disproportionately affected Queensland, NSW and South Australia. In January and February more than 1,700 people were recorded with flu, compared with fewer than 300 the year before.

20 Jul 2011

New trends in HIV cure research presented at IAS 2011

Researchers speaking on the final day of the 6th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention (IAS 2011) have focused on the growing interest in the scientific path to an HIV Cure.

20 Jul 2011

Washington Post examines access to maternal and child health care in Sierra Leone

The Washington Post examines access to maternal and child health services in Sierra Leone after the government dropped fees for such services last year, a move that "appears to have sharply cut into mortality rates for pregnant women and deaths from malaria for small children."

18 Jul 2011

European Commission Framework 7 programme awards €3 million grant to Enigma Diagnostics

In October 2007, Enigma Diagnostics announced the award of a euro 3 Million grant by the European Commission Framework 7 programme. This EU Commission award was won in a competitive process and the grant was to support development of a rapid, fully automated molecular diagnostic system for Seasonal Influenza (circulating strains of Influenza types A & B) to be based on Enigma's concept ML instrument system.

18 Jul 2011

Oxytocin does not boost prospects for normal births

A new Cochrane review says that oxytocin, a medication often used to quicken slow-paced labor in its early stages, doesn't boost the prospects for normal births. Riskier births that required cesarean section or the use of forceps didn't become less common.

15 Jul 2011

Viewpoints: Prominent Republicans against IPAB; docs defend health law; medical marijuana research

The IPAB has created "immediate uncertainty at hand," says Scott & White Healthcare in central Texas, for their 12 hospitals and more than 800 physicians. Many more organizations and associations have expressed similar concerns and urged me to do what I can to repeal this ill-conceived bureaucratic board. That's why I have introduced the Health Care Bureaucrats Elimination Act, and why I'm testifying Wednesday on the other side of the Capitol to build support in the House.

14 Jul 2011

Closer look at the effect military deployment has on children

Children with a parent who was deployed in the U.S. military efforts Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) for longer periods were more likely than children whose parents did not deploy to receive a diagnosis of a mental health problem, according to a report published Online First today by Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

5 Jul 2011

Science should inform global AIDS policy

Thirty years have passed since the first reported case of AIDS, and "we now have an unprecedented opportunity, based on solid scientific data, to control and ultimately end the AIDS pandemic," after decades of the idea being "a distant aspiration because we lacked sufficient evidence-based tools to convert the hope to reality," Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, writes in a Science editorial.

2 Jul 2011

Health law's cost and coverage issues draw attention

In an exclusive report, the Associated Press notes an unintended consequence of that health law — some older adults could pay sharply different amounts for private health insurance. Meanwhile, CQ HealthBeat reports on some recent developments in the policy debate over the health law's maintenance-of-effort provisions.

1 Jul 2011

UAB receives $31.7M award for Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions

The University of Alabama at Birmingham has received a five-year, $31.7 million award for its Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions (ATN), formed in 2001 to respond to the HIV epidemic in youth.

1 Jul 2011

NPR examines maternal, child health in Mozambique

NPR's All Things Considered reports on efforts to improve maternal health in Mozambique. The piece, which is part of a summer series, looks at the challenges involved with getting pregnant women to hospitals and shortages of trained health worker (Block, 6/27).

29 Jun 2011

Former U.S. Surgeon General calls for intensive effort to promote child health

David Satcher, MD, PhD, former U.S. Surgeon General, describes childhood obesity as "one of the greatest threats to child and adult health that we are facing today," calling for an intensive effort to promote child health, in an editorial in the June issue of Childhood Obesity, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The editorial is available online.

27 Jun 2011

Policy leaders to identify targeted strategies for creating national breastfeeding agenda

One hundred invited health and policy leaders will meet again in Washington, D.C. on June 29-30 to identify targeted strategies for establishing a national breastfeeding agenda as part of our nation's Health Reform, building on the essential recommendations and positive outcomes of the Second Annual Summit held last June.

27 Jun 2011

New home for children's emergency care opens in upper Manhattan

The new Alexandra and Steven Cohen Pediatric Emergency Department at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center opens tomorrow, Thursday, June 23, significantly expanding access to the highest level of emergency pediatric care for families in the region.

22 Jun 2011

New home for children's emergency care opens in upper Manhattan

22 Jun 2011

Poll: Few parents fully understand their role in preventing infections at water parks

Water parks offer families a chance to have fun and be physically active. That fun may come with the risk of getting sick with infections from the water, illnesses that affect over 10,000 Americans each year. One of the best ways to reduce the risk of infection is to make sure that parents and kids shower before playing at water parks.

21 Jun 2011