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Smoking continues to threaten US public health

Research published in The New England Journal of Medicine shows that disease and mortality due to smoking have continually increased over the past 50 years in the USA.

25 Jan 2013

Emerging tick-borne disease reaches USA

A new tick-borne infection caused by the spirochete bacteria Borrelia miyamotoi that produces similar symptoms to Lyme disease has been confirmed in a small number of patients in the USA.

25 Jan 2013

One more reason to quit smoking

Smokers who quit when they are young adults can live almost as long as people who never smoked, groundbreaking new research has found.

25 Jan 2013

African-American women who reported childhood abuse had greater risk of uterine fibroids

According to a new study from the Slone Epidemiology Center (SEC) at Boston University, African-American women who reported sexual or physical abuse before age 11 had a greater risk of uterine fibroids in adulthood compared with women who had no such abuse history.

25 Jan 2013

Voluntary moratorium on H5N1 research ends; fate of U.S.-funded research unknown

"Almost a year after they announced it, leading influenza researchers are ending a voluntary moratorium on certain types of controversial experiments involving the H5N1 avian influenza virus."

25 Jan 2013

Study into H1N1 pandemic suggests at least 1 in 5 were infected

At least one in five people in countries for which data are available were infected with influenza during the first year of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, according to a new study.

25 Jan 2013

Prenatal inflammation associated with increased risk of autism in children

Maternal inflammation during early pregnancy may be related to an increased risk of autism in children, according to new findings supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health. Researchers found this in children of mothers with elevated C-reactive protein (CRP), a well-established marker of systemic inflammation.

25 Jan 2013

New records of fraudulent food products added to USP Food Fraud Database

Nearly 800 new records of "food fraud" added to the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention's (USP) Food Fraud Database present new information about foods that are vulnerable to fraudulent manipulation in today's food supply.

25 Jan 2013

CDC recognizes Mayo Clinic as Regional TB Training and Medical Consultation Center

Mayo Clinic has been designated a Regional Tuberculosis Training and Medical Consultation Center by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). As such, it will be responsible for developing new and enhanced training and technical support for medical and public health professionals in an 11-state area.

25 Jan 2013

Subsidised antimalarial drugs: an interview with Kara Hanson

Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) are the currently recommended drugs for treating malaria. However, they are expensive, which limits their affordability. This means that people with malaria are likely to buy cheaper, less effective antimalarials such as chloroquine and sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine; or to simply buy painkillers and antipyretics.

25 Jan 2013

New handheld device performs rapid HIV tests

Samuel K. Sia, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia Engineering, has taken his innovative lab-on-a-chip and developed a way to not only check a patient's HIV status anywhere in the world with just a finger prick, but also synchronize the results automatically and instantaneously with central health-care records-10 times faster, the researchers say, than the benchtop ELISA, a broadly used diagnostic technique.

25 Jan 2013

Mice exposed to BPA exhibit spontaneous activity, have leaner body mass

Female mice exposed to Bisphenol A through their mother's diet during gestation and lactation were found to be hyperactive, exhibit spontaneous activity and had leaner body mass than those not exposed to the chemical, researchers at the University of Michigan School of Public Health have discovered.

25 Jan 2013

Longer looks: Difficult end-of-life care discussions; Mississippi's last abortion clinic; rural docs

Precious final days for many Massachusetts residents are still not spent the way they would have chosen.

25 Jan 2013

Flow cytometry can now be used for quantification of microbial cells in drinking water

Flow cytometry (FCM) can now be officially used for the quantification of microbial cells in drinking water. The new analytical method - developed at Eawag and extensively tested both in Switzerland and abroad - has been incorporated into the Swiss Food Compendium (SLMB) by the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH).

25 Jan 2013

Setting research priorities for adolescent sexual and reproductive health

Quality sexual and reproductive health care is an essential component of public health. However, there are insufficient evidence-based policies related to adolescent sexual and reproductive health in low- and middle-income countries.

24 Jan 2013

Hastings Center Report special report on ethical oversight of learning health care systems

The longstanding ethical framework for protecting human volunteers in medical research needs to be replaced because it is outdated and can impede efforts to improve health care quality, assert leaders in bioethics, medicine, and health policy in two companion articles in a Hastings Center Report special report, "Ethical Oversight of Learning Health Care Systems."

24 Jan 2013

Bioethics leader proposes bold and controversial approach to fight obesity epidemic

Arguing that obesity "may be the most difficult and elusive public health problem the United States has ever encountered" and that anti-obesity efforts having made little discernible difference, Daniel Callahan, co-founder and President Emeritus of The Hastings Center, proposes a bold and controversial approach to fighting the epidemic.

24 Jan 2013

Sen. Harkin prepares sweeping public health legislation to combat obesity

Senate HELP Committee Chairman Sen. Tom Harkin is -- for the sixth time -- introducing legislation to combat obesity in children and adults across America using a host of new programs.

24 Jan 2013

Studies in JAMA examine hospital readmissions and effects of new Medicare penalties

Research shows that poor coordination among providers can lead to patients returning to the hospital. In addition, the new payment procedures are likely to affect academic medical centers and safety net hospitals.

24 Jan 2013

Smoking could be reduced by plain packaging of tobacco products: Study

Experts believe that plain packaging of tobacco products would cut smoking, a new study has found. Tobacco control experts from around the world estimate that two years after the introduction of generic packaging the number of adult smokers would be reduced by one percentage point (in the UK - from 21 to 20%), and the percentage of children trying smoking would be reduced by three percentage points (in the UK - from 27 to 24%).

24 Jan 2013

Public Health News and Research

Smoking continues to threaten US public health

Emerging tick-borne disease reaches USA

One more reason to quit smoking

African-American women who reported childhood abuse had greater risk of uterine fibroids

Voluntary moratorium on H5N1 research ends; fate of U.S.-funded research unknown

Study into H1N1 pandemic suggests at least 1 in 5 were infected

Prenatal inflammation associated with increased risk of autism in children

New records of fraudulent food products added to USP Food Fraud Database

CDC recognizes Mayo Clinic as Regional TB Training and Medical Consultation Center

Subsidised antimalarial drugs: an interview with Kara Hanson

New handheld device performs rapid HIV tests

Mice exposed to BPA exhibit spontaneous activity, have leaner body mass

Longer looks: Difficult end-of-life care discussions; Mississippi's last abortion clinic; rural docs

Flow cytometry can now be used for quantification of microbial cells in drinking water

Setting research priorities for adolescent sexual and reproductive health

Hastings Center Report special report on ethical oversight of learning health care systems

Bioethics leader proposes bold and controversial approach to fight obesity epidemic

Sen. Harkin prepares sweeping public health legislation to combat obesity

Studies in JAMA examine hospital readmissions and effects of new Medicare penalties

Smoking could be reduced by plain packaging of tobacco products: Study

Sensing a Healthier Future

Achieving and maintaining ISO/IEC 27001 and BS 10012 certifications

Expanding research and clinical options for children with cancer

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