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Fishing industry contributing to spread of HIV around Africa's Lake Victoria

The fishing industry and some cultural practices in communities living around Africa's Lake Victoria are contributing to the spread of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections in the area, according to a panel of experts at a recent meeting in Kisumu, Kenya, The Citizen reports.

28 May 2009

Low birth weight linked to psychosis-like symptoms

Low birth weight babies are at greater risk of developing psychosis-like symptoms as they grow up, research suggests. The study, published in the June issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry, shows a link between children's size at birth and their mental health at the age of 12.

28 May 2009

Second death from mosquito-borne disease prompts calls for more spraying programs

The recent death of a second person from Murray Valley Encephalitis (MVE) in Northern Australia has prompted calls for an increase in mosquito control spraying programs.

28 May 2009

Many of the costs of gambling are hidden and crime-related

Researchers in New Zealand say many of the costs of gambling are hidden and a substantial amount of gambling is related to crime, is 'invisible' and is not reported to the authorities.

27 May 2009

Extra calories not lack of exercise causing obesity

New research from New Zealand has found that over-eating rather than lack of physical activity, is why Kiwis are pilling on the excess kilos.

27 May 2009

Exposure to interparental violence increases likelihood of mental health problems in later life

People with parents who were violent to each other are more likely to have mental health problems when they grow up, reveals research published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

27 May 2009

Few food adverts during children's TV are likely to be banned under new regulations

Advertisements shown during children's television before new restrictive regulations were introduced were not any more focused on unhealthy food than adverts shown at other times, according to research published ahead of print in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.

27 May 2009

Experimental therapy uses immune system to boost cure rate in neuroblastoma

A multicenter research team has announced encouraging results for an experimental therapy using elements of the body's immune system to improve cure rates for children with neuroblastoma, a challenging cancer of the nervous system.

27 May 2009

World Cup campaign to build centers to provide HIV/AIDS education, other services to ‘at-risk’ African youth

Authorities in South Africa have begun construction of one of the 20 planned Football for Hope centers in Africa -- part of a 2010 World Cup campaign called "20 Centers for 2010" aimed at reducing the prevalence of HIV/AIDS, poverty and crime in local communities -- the AP/Google.com reports.

27 May 2009

Financial contracts to care for sick or aging relatives adding legal twist to family health care

Financial contracts to care for sick or aging relatives - nearly unthinkable just a decade ago - are drawing new interest as everyday Americans wrestle with the time and expense of providing long-term health care, a University of Illinois legal expert says.

27 May 2009

Glucose monitoring devices benefit people with type 1 diabetes

People with type 1 diabetes who have already been successful in achieving recommended blood sugar goals can further benefit from using continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices, according to results of a major multi-center clinical trial by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Findings of the study were published online by the journal Diabetes Care.

27 May 2009

Boy born with half a heart survives and thrives

Rhonda Ellison was six months pregnant when she and her husband, James Gaines, got the kind of news all parents dread going into an ultrasound: something was wrong with their baby. They needed to go to the Children's Heart Center at Golisano Children's Hospital.

27 May 2009

Research assesses the benefits of different ways of treating tooth decay in children

New research commissioned by the National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment (NIHR HTA) programme will assess the benefits of different methods of managing tooth decay in children's teeth. Dental decay is one of the most common childhood diseases, with over 40 per cent of children in the UK already experiencing obvious decay in their primary (baby) teeth by five years of age, and this statistic has remained largely unchanged for the past 20 years.

27 May 2009

A broken trust: lessons from the vaccine–autism wars

Researchers long ago rejected the theory that vaccines cause autism, yet many parents don't believe them. Can scientists bridge the gap between evidence and doubt?

27 May 2009

Australian swine flu toll climbs but expert says threat is over-hyped

According to the World Health Organisation's latest update, # 39, as of the 26th of May the latest figures in the influenza A H1N1 (swine flu) outbreak are 12,954 confirmed cases in 46 countries, including 92 deaths.

26 May 2009

Cohesin protein disrupts gene function in Cornelia deLange syndrome

An international team of scientists studying a rare genetic disease discovered that a bundle of proteins with the long-established function of keeping chromosomes together also plays an important role in regulating genes in humans.

26 May 2009

Ancient skeletal evidence for leprosy in India

A biological anthropologist from Appalachian State University working with an undergraduate student from Appalachian, an evolutionary biologist from UNC Greensboro, and a team of archaeologists from Deccan College (Pune, India) recently reported analysis of a 4000-year-old skeleton from India bearing evidence of leprosy. This skeleton represents both the earliest archaeological evidence for human infection with Mycobacterium leprae in the world and the first evidence for the disease in prehistoric India.

26 May 2009

New therapy shows potential for treating Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School have discovered a new therapy that shows potential to treat people with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a fatal disease and the most common form of muscular dystrophy in children.

26 May 2009

Strict maternal control over eating habits not linked to child weight gain

A new study published online in the journal Obesity provides further evidence that strict maternal control over eating habits - such as determining how much a child should eat and coaxing them to eat certain foods - during early childhood may not lead to significant future weight gain in boys or girls. Instead, this behavior may be a response to concerns over a child's increasing weight.

26 May 2009

De-worming drug praziquantel could help reduce spread of HIV in Africa

Providing girls in rural Africa with a deworming drug could help reduce the spread of HIV, according to a study recently published in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, the New York Times reports.

26 May 2009