Child Health News

RSS

Drinking, drugs and cigarettes not so cool for ‘teens’ these days

According to the latest figure, teenagers are increasingly turning their back on drink, drugs and smoking. The reports reveal that the number of young people indulging in the vices dropped in 2010, continuing a downward trend over the past seven years.

29 Jul 2011

New candidate gene for human benign childhood epilepsies

A new epilepsy gene, LGI2, has been found in the Lagotto Romagnolo dogs, known from their gift for truffle hunting. The gene discovery made by Professor Hannes Lohi and his research group at the University of Helsinki and the Folkhälsan Rsearch Center offers a new candidate gene for human benign childhood epilepsies characterized by seizure remission.

28 Jul 2011

Natural recycling system, PPAR agonists can help protect children with heart defects

Children born with heart defects that pummel their lungs with up to three times the normal blood volume quickly find their lungs in jeopardy as well.

28 Jul 2011

Researchers identify gene linked to Lesch-Nyhan disease

In humans, inherited mutations in a gene called HPRT1 lead to very specific self-destructive behavior. Boys with Lesch-Nyhan disease experience uncontrollable urges to bite their fingers, slam their arms into doorways and otherwise harm themselves.

28 Jul 2011

Study finds harmful haloacetic acids in the urine of pool workers, swimmers

The first scientific measurements in humans show that potentially harmful haloacetic acids (HAAs) appear in the urine of swimmers within 30 minutes after exposure to chlorinated water where HAAs form as a byproduct of that water disinfection method.

28 Jul 2011

Conference to discuss new discoveries in cognitive neuroscience research

New discoveries in the field of cognitive neuroscience hold great promise for improving current teaching methods. Yet there is a significant gap between such scientific discoveries and the application of this knowledge in the classroom.

28 Jul 2011

Puget Sound Blood Center, Seattle Children's inaugurate new on-site lab

Today, Seattle Children's and Puget Sound Blood Center opened a new blood laboratory to serve Children's patients exclusively. Located within Seattle Children's main campus and staffed by Puget Sound Blood Center employees 24 hours every day of the year, the facility will bring the lab closer to the patient.

28 Jul 2011

Early intervention can prevent childhood anxiety: Macquarie colloquium series

Join Professor Ron Rapee, Director of the Centre for Emotional Health, who will be sharing his insights about risk factors for anxiety in one of society’s most vulnerable groups – children.

28 Jul 2011

U.S. food labelling system has a positive impact

Around a sixth of fast food customers used calorie information and, on average, bought food with lower calories since the introduction of a labelling system in the US, says a new study published on bmj.com today.

28 Jul 2011

ADHD severity impacts child's health-related quality of life

The greater the severity of a child's Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) symptoms, the more negative impacts on the child's health-related quality of life from the perspective of the child and the parent, a new study by a Baylor University psychologist has found.

28 Jul 2011

UNICEF in new African vaccine drive

UNICEF (UN Children's Fund), has launched a massive vaccination campaign across the Horn of Africa to protect 2.5 million children against diseases like measles, which can be deadly for malnourished children. This drive would include a strategy to vaccinate every child in Somalia (under the age of 15) against measles.

27 Jul 2011

A healthier ‘Happy Meal’ on the way

McDonald’s Happy Meal, under the pressure from health advocates, will now become a little more healthy. The company announced Tuesday that it would replace more than halve the amount of French fries and add fruit to its popular children’s meal in an effort to reduce the overall calorie count by 20 percent. A toy will still come with each Happy Meal despite criticism that the trinkets, often with tie-ins to movies, foster a powerful connection between children and the often calorie-laden meals.

27 Jul 2011

OR models verify cost effectiveness of hepatitis B interventions

With hepatitis B infecting as many as 10% of people of Asian descent, operations researchers collaborated with a liver transplant surgeon to develop mathematical models that verified the cost effectiveness of hepatitis B interventions.

27 Jul 2011

New series of hospital-based adventure books for children

Hospitals can be scary and overwhelming for kids, and Hospital Critterz, a new series of hospital-based adventure books, helps children see the medical world differently.

27 Jul 2011

Researchers compile first global estimates of coeliac disease and associated mortality

Researchers from Umeå University, Sweden and University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, have compiled the first global estimates of coeliac disease and associated mortality, just published in the journal PLoS ONE.

27 Jul 2011

Mayo Clinic releases recommendations from the ice hockey concussion summit

Mayo Clinic has released recommendations from the Ice Hockey Summit on Concussion: A Call to Action. The summit attracted top scientists, trainers, coaches, officials and equipment manufacturers from across the United States, Canada and Europe to discuss concussion-related issues, including the science of concussions, impact on children, and prevention.

27 Jul 2011

Positive results from phase Ib/IIa trial of novel molecular technique for Duchenne muscular dystrophy

A molecular technique originally developed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has taken one step closer to becoming a treatment for the devastating genetic disease Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

27 Jul 2011

World leaders should either scale up commitment to polio eradication significantly or abandon goal

"There are few ideas as powerful as the eradication of a human disease. But the euphoria around the world's single success to date - that of smallpox - has led to ever more costly efforts to do the same for polio. World leaders need either to radically step up their commitment or have the courage to abandon the goal explicitly," a Financial Times editorial states

27 Jul 2011

New Penn Center for Orphan Disease Research and Therapy

The Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania announces the launching of a first-of-its-kind interdisciplinary center focused on discovering novel treatments for orphan diseases.

27 Jul 2011

Cedars-Sinai's COACH for Kids and Their Families to increase oral health services for students

Dental problems are the most commonly cited unmet need among children. Cedars-Sinai's COACH for Kids and Their Families, a mobile medical program, has been selected as one of 20 school-based programs nationwide to receive a grant from the National Assembly on School-based Health Care (NASBHC) to increase oral health services to students in underserved communities.

27 Jul 2011