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Study links maternal height to children's health outcomes

Malnutrition suffered during a woman's childhood "can adversely affect the health of her children, Harvard researchers said Tuesday," following the release of their study in developing countries, which "found that the shortest women were substantially more likely to have children who died at an early age, who were underweight or who failed to thrive, according to a report in the Journal of the American Medical [Association]", the Los Angeles Times' blog "Shots" reports.

22 Apr 2010

Socially deprived children appear to benefit from foster care

Socially deprived children removed from orphanages and placed in foster care appear to experience gains in growth and intelligence, catching up to their non-institutionalized peers on many measures, according to a report posted online today that will appear in the June print issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

6 Apr 2010

Renewed set of national policy guidelines to control diarrhoeal disease in Kenya

Today the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, together with the Department of Family Health (Division of Child and Adolescent Health), unveiled a renewed set of national policy guidelines to redouble diarrhoeal disease management and control efforts by putting proven interventions to work within the country's health system.

31 Mar 2010

Research suggests growth factor gene plays a central role in palate development

Cleft palate has been linked to dozens of genes. During their investigation of one of these genes, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis were surprised to find that cleft palate occurs both when the gene is more active and when it is less active than normal.

3 Feb 2010

Study shows nutritional deficiency, stunted growth and obesity are common among Cameroonian teenagers

There are major differences in how well nourished Cameroonian teenagers are. Differences between city/countryside, boys/girls, and among individuals with high and low socio-economic status are described by Léonie Nzefa Dapi in the dissertation she is defending at Umeå University in Sweden.

1 Feb 2010

Infants born to child brides have higher risk of malnutrition than children born to older mothers

Infants born to child brides in India (married before the age of 18) have a higher risk of malnutrition than children born to older mothers, according to research published on bmj.com today.

22 Jan 2010

Urgent aid shipment containing tents and family survival kits docked at Jacmel, Haiti

An urgent aid shipment containing 4,000 tents and more than 300 family survival kits has just docked at the Haitian coastal town of Jacmel.

19 Jan 2010

AP, IRIN examine lawsuit challenging Plumpy'nut patent

The Associated Press examines the decision by two U.S. nonprofit groups seeking to increase production of the ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), Plumpy'nut, to file a lawsuit against the French organizations that hold the product's U.S. patent.

18 Jan 2010

Obama announces $100M in aid for Haitian earthquake recovery

At the White House on Thursday, President Barack Obama "promised $100 million along with more American troops for the relief effort in Haiti, vowing that the United States would stand with the impoverished nation as it grappled with the devastation of its capital city," the New York Times reports.

18 Jan 2010

News outlets examine conditions of refugees in Yemen, malnutrition, cholera risks

Reuters reports that as a new camp capable of hosting 10,000 to 12,000 refugees in Yemen will open in a few weeks, "[m]alnutrition and the risk of a cholera outbreak are threatening lives at Yemen's main camp [Masrak] for people fleeing fighting in the north." According to Thomas Davin, regional UNICEF chief, "Hygiene is terrible, really, really terrible."

24 Nov 2009

Almost 200m undernourished children worldwide, report says

In developing countries, almost 200 million children under the age of 5 "suffer from stunted growth and health problems due to poor nutrition in their early years," according to a UNICEF report released on Wednesday, Reuters reports.

12 Nov 2009

NIH awards UNC researcher $507,000 for rotavirus vaccine study

A University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researcher has been awarded a four-year, $507,000 grant from the National Institute of Health's Fogarty International Center to study the effectiveness of rotavirus vaccines in the Central American nation of Nicaragua.

14 Oct 2009

Hillary Clinton to meet with Somali President

As part of her seven country, 11-day trip to Africa, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday in Nairobi will meet with Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed at the new U.S. embassy in Kenya, according to Associated Press (Lee, 8/6).

6 Aug 2009

U.N. program has little effect in reducing deaths among children in Bangladesh, study finds

"The U.N. unveiled a multimillion dollar strategy a dozen years ago to save children worldwide, but a new [Lancet] study has found the program had surprisingly little effect in Bangladesh, one of the world's poorest countries," the Associated Press reports.

31 Jul 2009

Groups mark day of “The African Child”, highlight improvement in children's survival, work to be done

To mark Day of the African Child on Tuesday, the U.N. Millennium Campaign is calling on African governments, civil society organizations and the private sector to address child and maternal mortality and other targets related to the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), InDepthNews reports (Mwanda, InDepthNews, 6/16), while Save the Children released a new briefing paper, indicating that more than 1,500 babies born in sub-Saharan Africa die daily, "mostly from preventable or treatable causes," (Save the Children release, 6/16).

17 Jun 2009

Study finds link between a mother's height and the health of her children

Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) have found a link between a mother's height and the health of her children in a study using national data from India.

22 Apr 2009

Significant Rett syndrome discovery

A paper published online today in Nature Neuroscience reveals the presence of methyl CpG binding protein 2 (MeCP2) in glia. MeCP2 is a protein associated with a variety of neurological disorders, including Rett Syndrome, the most physically disabling of the autism spectrum disorders.

23 Feb 2009

In developing countries young children have better survival chances if their mothers are taller

Each centimeter/inch counts for women in developing countries. This is the outcome of research by Christiaan Monden of Tilburg University and Jeroen Smits of Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands, which was recently published online in American Journal of Human Biology.

3 Feb 2009

Simple test determines whether children have oropharyngeal dysphagia swallowing disorder

A simple test to swallow three ounces of water can help determine whether a child has the swallowing disorder oropharyngeal dysphagia, establishing for the first time a way to screen for the ailment in children, according to new research published in the February 2009 issue of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery.

2 Feb 2009

Drugs to treat ADHD should be a last resort

According to new guidelines in Britain on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), drugs should be the last resort in treating the disorder and parents need to learn how to cope with their child's unruly behaviour.

24 Sep 2008