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Most vaccine-allergic children can still be safely vaccinated

With close monitoring and a few standard precautions, nearly all children with known or suspected vaccine allergies can be safely immunized, according to a team of vaccine safety experts led by the Johns Hopkins Children's Center. Writing in the September issue of Pediatrics, the multicenter research team offers pediatricians a step-by-step tool for quickly identifying children with allergic reactions to vaccines, and a much-needed guide, they say, to safely immunize those who are allergic.

2 Sep 2008

Earwax removal - new guidelines

The American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF) will issue the first comprehensive clinical guidelines to help health care practitioners identify patients with cerumen (commonly referred to as earwax) impaction. The guidelines emphasize evidence-based management of cerumen impaction by clinicians, and inform patients of the purpose of ear wax in hearing health.

1 Sep 2008

Atomic bomb's effect results in adult-onset thyroid cancer

Radiation from the atomic bomb blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945, likely rearranged chromosomes in some survivors who later developed papillary thyroid cancer as adults, according to Japanese researchers.

1 Sep 2008

Children of older fathers more likely to have bipolar disorder

Older age among fathers may be associated with an increased risk for bipolar disorder in their offspring, according to a report in the September issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.

1 Sep 2008

Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report highlights recent Medicaid news in six states

Three insurance companies that cover 60% of people enrolled in Florida "Medicaid Reform" plans have said they will leave the project and have asked to be assigned no new members, a move suspected to be a result of reductions in Medicaid payments to the plans, Florida Health News reports.

1 Sep 2008

Bryostatin extends stroke treatment time to 24 hours, repairs brain tissue

Scientists at the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute (BRNI) have discovered that Bryostatin -- and a related class of drugs discovered at BRNI -- administered 24 hours after stroke can rescue and repair brain tissue. These findings are markedly advanced compared to current stroke treatments that must be administered within three hours and are unable to repair damaged brain tissue.

1 Sep 2008

World Cancer Declaration sets ambitious targets for 2020

A summit of more than 60 high-level policymakers, leaders and health experts have adopted a global plan aimed at tackling the growing cancer crisis in developing countries.

1 Sep 2008

Impact of school based programs for childhood overweight

Childhood overweight and obesity are serious, large-scale, global, public health concerns and the number of children affected is still increasing every year. As the treatment of overweight and obesity is rarely effective, its prevention has priority today.

1 Sep 2008

New genetic link to inflammatory bowel diseases discovered

A study which entailed scientists trawling through the genetic code of thousands of people, has revealed two new genes involved in childhood inflammatory bowel disease, a painful condition that includes Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis (UC).

1 Sep 2008

Poorer women less likely to breastfeed babes

According to a new study by Australian researchers, poorer women are less likely to breastfeed than they were a decade ago.

1 Sep 2008

Discovery of new genes for inflammatory bowel disease in children

Researchers have discovered two new genes that increase the risk of developing inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in childhood.

31 Aug 2008

Highly active antiretroviral therapy might increase risk of asthma in young children

Highly active antiretroviral therapy might increase the risk of asthma among children because of the therapy's effect on the immune system and CD4+ T cell levels, according to a study recently published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Reuters reports.

29 Aug 2008

Uganda facing challenges with its efforts to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission

Mother-to-child HIV transmission rates remain high in Uganda, despite services made available by the government to prevent MTCT, IRIN/PlusNews reports. Government figures estimate 20,000 children contract the virus annually, accounting for 42% of all new cases in the country, according to IRIN/PlusNews.

29 Aug 2008

Low levels of 'brain derived neurotrophic factor' may lead to obesity

A brain chemical that plays a role in long term memory also appears to be involved in regulating how much people eat and their likelihood of becoming obese, according to a National Institutes of Health study of a rare genetic condition.

28 Aug 2008

Magnesium sulfate decreases preterm infants' risk for cerebral palsy

Preterm infants born to mothers receiving intravenous magnesium sulfate - a common treatment to delay labor - are less likely to develop cerebral palsy than are preterm infants whose mothers do not receive it, report researchers in a large National Institutes of Health research network.

28 Aug 2008

Shots are nothing to shy away from with the right approach

"Getting shots may seem burdensome and even downright scary to some children, but they protect children against dangerous and deadly diseases."

28 Aug 2008

Social injustice is killing people on a grand scale reports WHO's Commission

A child born in a Glasgow, Scotland suburb can expect a life 28 years shorter than another living only 13 kilometres away. A girl in Lesotho is likely to live 42 years less than another in Japan. In Sweden, the risk of a woman dying during pregnancy and childbirth is 1 in 17 400; in Afghanistan, the odds are 1 in 8. Biology does not explain any of this. Instead, the differences between - and within - countries result from the social environment where people are born, live, grow, work and age.

28 Aug 2008