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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

Simple stem cell technique restores sight to damaged eyes

In a world-first breakthrough by Australian scientists, the eyesight in a damaged eye has been restored by using stem cells from the eye itself

27 May 2009

Is Australia’s national health reform agenda taking account of social determinants of health?

Never shy of a tough question, on April 28, the Sydney University's Menzies Centre for Health Policy (MCHP) and the Oxford Health Alliance (OxHA) Asia Pacific Centre co hosted a seminar to ask Australia's three imminent major health policy reform commissions if and how they are approaching the core issue of the role of social disadvantage in health and illness.

27 May 2009

Music played to premature babies may help to reduce their pain and improve feeding habits

Music played to premature babies may help to reduce their pain and encourage better oral feeding, suggests research published ahead of print in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.

27 May 2009

Dementia drugs Aricept, Exelon and Reminyl may put some patients at risk

Side effects associated with several commonly-prescribed dementia drugs may be putting elderly Canadians at risk, says Queen's University Geriatrics professor Sudeep Gill.

27 May 2009

Radiofrequency ablation eradicates problems in most patients with Barrett's esophagus

A procedure that uses heat generated by radio waves to treat Barrett's esophagus, a condition caused by acid reflux (severe heartburn), can eliminate signs of the potentially cancer-causing disorder and reduce the risk that the disease will progress.

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

Study finds no link between cost, quality of care

Quality of care is not linked to the cost of care, according to a study published last week on the Web site of the journal Health Affairs, CQ HealthBeat reports.

27 May 2009

Pledges to reduce health care costs, spending growth could violate antitrust laws, lawyers say

U.S. antitrust laws could affect health care industry groups' efforts to work together to rein in health care costs, the New York Times reports (Pear, New York Times, 5/27).

27 May 2009

Common migraine pain condition allodynia also prevalent in cluster headache

A pain condition common in people with migraines also has a high prevalence in patients with cluster headache, according to a study conducted by researchers at the Jefferson Headache Center at Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience.

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

Research offers insight into why some prostate cancer returns

The majority of men who receive one of the standard treatments for localized prostate cancer - surgery or radiation therapy - have an excellent outcome.

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

Stem cell breakthrough restores sight to sufferers of corneal disease

In a world-first breakthrough, University of New South Wales (UNSW) medical researchers have used stem cells cultured on a simple contact lens to restore sight to sufferers of blinding corneal disease.

27 May 2009

$Vitamin D and Calcium supplements help prevent bone fracture in the elderly$

Vitamin D and Calcium supplements help prevent bone fracture in the elderly

We all know that vitamin D and calcium are good for bones, but research teams in Europe and USA have shown that both taken daily reduces the rate of hip fracture in older people by 20%.

27 May 2009

1 in 7 Australians over 25 have chronic kidney disease

The latest report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) says between 2006 and 2007 more than a million hospital admissions in Australia were due to chronic kidney disease which was also a contributing factor in one in 10 deaths in 2006.

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

Predicting higher risk for prostate cancer diagnosis

High-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (HGPIN) carries a high predictive value for future diagnosis of prostate cancer.

26 May 2009

Drug-eluting stents more effective than bare-metal stents in heart attack patients

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University Medical Center, together with the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF), announced that its landmark study comparing the safety and efficacy of drug-eluting stents and bare-metal stents was published in the May 7 New England Journal of Medicine.

26 May 2009