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Old drug pentylenetetrazole may improve learning and memory in Down syndrome victims

Researchers in the United States have discovered that an old drug once used to study epilepsy substantially improved learning and memory in mice with Down syndrome symptoms.

26 Feb 2007

Hormone patch could be safer than pills in relieving the symptoms of the menopause

According to new research by French scientists hormone skin patches and gels are far less likely than pills to cause dangerous blood clots.

26 Feb 2007

Chantix versus Zyban

Researchers in the United States say smokers who fail to quit smoking by using pills, should not be disheartened and should try again.

25 Feb 2007

Ohio Gov. Strickland to remove name from effort to back law that would limit use of Mifepristone

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland (D) has filed a brief with the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals requesting that his name be removed from a lawsuit defending an Ohio law (HB 126) that would restrict how Danco Laboratories' Mifeprex is used to induce a medical abortion, the AP/Coshocton Tribune reports.

25 Feb 2007

Injection drug use fueling spread of HIV in Mauritius

Injection drug users have become one of the groups most at risk of HIV transmission in Mauritius, prompting the governments to establish a needle-exchange program in an attempt to curb the spread of the virus, Inter Press Service reports.

25 Feb 2007

Gambian President claims to cure HIV/AIDS

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh since January has claimed that he can cure HIV/AIDS with an herbal remedy, prompting concern among some public health workers in Africa who already are "struggling against faith healers dispensing herbal remedies," the AP/Monterey County Herald reports.

25 Feb 2007

Herpes treatment could slow HIV progression in people living with both viruses

Treatment of genital herpes could slow the progression of HIV in people living with both viruses, according to a study published in the Feb. 22 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

25 Feb 2007

Pharmaceutical companies overcharging federal health care programs

Pharmaceutical companies have been systematically overcharging federal health care programs, costing taxpayers billions of dollars, according to federal officials, members of Congress and an advocacy group, the Newhouse News/Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.

25 Feb 2007

New understanding of how and why Taxol works in patients with breast cancer

Cancer researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center have taken a step towards understanding how and why a widely used chemotherapy drug works in patients with breast cancer.

22 Feb 2007

FDA wants clear warnings on ADHD drugs

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States has ordered drugmakers to alert patients to the possible cardiovascular and psychiatric risks attached to drugs used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

22 Feb 2007

South Africa to revise AIDS control program to address extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis

South Africa is taking steps to revise its HIV/AIDS control program in an effort to combat the spread of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, TB that is resistant to first- and second-line drugs, Nomonde Xundu, the Department of Health's chief director for HIV and TB, said on Thursday, Reuters reports.

22 Feb 2007

Lawsuit filed against federal government over medical cannabis misinformation

The patients advocacy group Americans for Safe Access (ASA) filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California demanding that the federal government cease issuing misinformation on medical cannabis and correct the information it has released.

21 Feb 2007

Imaging of disease dynamics during meningococcal sepsis

Each year 170,000 people around the world die of this type of meningitis, according to the World Health Organization, (WHO).

21 Feb 2007

Woman awarded millions in Prempro HRT breast cancer trial

A woman in the United States has been awarded damages to the tune of $3 million after taking drug manufacturer Wyeth to court over it's postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy Prempro.

21 Feb 2007

Spearmint tea - natural treatment for hirsutism

Turkish researchers say women who suffer from excessive hair growth (hirsutism) may be helped by drinking spearmint tea.

21 Feb 2007

Health care professionals should focus on women's lifetime heart disease risk

The 2007 Guidelines for Preventing Cardiovascular Disease in Women -- published today in a special women's health issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association -- also include new directions for using aspirin, hormone therapy and vitamin and mineral supplements in heart disease and stroke prevention in women.

20 Feb 2007

New test identifies suitable lymphoma patients likely to respond to new therapy

Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have discovered a genetic signature identifying cases of lymphoma that are uniquely susceptible to a newly developed molecular targeted therapy. As a result, physicians organizing clinical trials of the new therapy will be able to enroll patients who'll be most likely to benefit from it.

20 Feb 2007

Cancer cells 100 times more likely to genetically mutate

When cells become cancerous, they also become 100 times more likely to genetically mutate than regular cells, researchers have found. The findings may explain why cells in a tumor have so many genetic mutations, but could also be bad news for cancer treatments that target a particular gene controlling cancer malignancy.

20 Feb 2007

Survivors of childhood cancers have a ninefold increased risk of developing a secondary sarcoma

Treatments for childhood cancer have resulted in a current overall cure rate of over 70 percent. However, long-term survivors of childhood cancer are at a higher risk of developing a secondary cancer than the general population.

20 Feb 2007

Transmission of drug-resistant tuberculosis among treated patients in Shanghai

A newly released study suggests that the majority of cases of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) among patients undergoing treatment for the disease may be due to new infections, not acquired resistance.

20 Feb 2007