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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

Nigerian President, Norwegian Prime Minister release report on saving lives of women, children

Nigerian "President Goodluck Jonathan and the Prime Minister of Norway, Jens Stoltenberg, have said this year will be 'a tipping point for change' and global awareness for saving more lives, especially those of women and children."

25 Jan 2013

Bloodstream infections in newborns reduce significantly

Central line associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) in newborns were reduced by 58 percent in less than a year in hospital neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) participating in an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality patient safety program.

25 Jan 2013

Ibuprofen and naproxen can cause kidney damage in children

Sick children, especially those with some dehydration from flu or other illnesses, risk significant kidney injury if given drugs such as ibuprofen and naproxen, Indiana University School of Medicine researchers said Friday.

25 Jan 2013

NSAIDs cause acute kidney injury in some children

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen and naproxen, are commonly used to treat pain and reduce fever in children. However, the use of NSAIDs has been shown to cause acute kidney injury (AKI) in some children

25 Jan 2013

Women taking tacrolimus drug can breast feed their babies

Women taking the immunosuppressant tacrolimus can rest assured that breast feeding will not elevate their babies' exposure to the drug, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN).

24 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

Sacral nerve stimulation helps manage children with chronic incontinence

Incontinence is typically a condition associated with adults; however, many children also struggle with incontinence - bladder, bowel or both. In order to help these children, doctors at Nationwide Children's Hospital have turned to a device, typically used in adult patients, to help manage children with chronic incontinence.

24 Jan 2013

Madagascar faces challenges in vaccinating children

"In Madagascar, pneumonia is responsible for 21 percent of deaths among children under five years old -- making it the leading cause of death for this age group," but "[t]he recent introduction of a vaccine to protect against pneumococcal disease, the leading cause of severe childhood pneumonia, is attempting to reduce the thousands of child deaths that occur every year in" the country, IRIN reports.

24 Jan 2013

NSPCC, Queen's launch first ever review on child death or serious injury in Northern Ireland

The first ever review of abuse cases related to child death or serious injury in Northern Ireland will be launched at Queen's University today (24 January 2013). The review, Translating Learning into Action, was commissioned by the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety (DHSSPS) and was carried out by researchers at Queen's University and the NSPCC.

24 Jan 2013

Indian company plans to make lower-cost injectable polio vaccine

Serum Institute of India Ltd., the world's largest vaccine manufacturer, plans to "slash the price of polio immunization and introduce shots for diarrhea and pneumonia, undercutting Pfizer Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline Plc.," Bloomberg Businessweek reports.

24 Jan 2013

Research team describes how the brain controls whisker movements in mice

All parents know the infant milestones: turning over, learning to crawl, standing, and taking that first unassisted step. Achieving each accomplishment presumably requires the formation of new connections among subsets of the billions of nerve cells in the infant's brain. But how, when and where those connections form has been a mystery.

24 Jan 2013

'Helping Babies Breathe' program may help save newborns' lives, studies show

"Training midwives and other birth attendants to help babies start breathing immediately after birth may prevent stillbirths and newborn deaths in the developing world, two new studies suggest," Reuters reports, noting, "So-called birth asphyxia -- when babies are born not breathing -- is one of the major causes of newborn death in regions with limited resources, researchers said."

24 Jan 2013

Parents not very concerned about misuse of narcotic pain medicines by children and teens

Despite data on rising rates of abuse and overdoses of narcotic pain medicines across all age groups, in a new poll from the University of Michigan, most parents said they are not very concerned about misuse of these medicines by children and teens.

24 Jan 2013

Increased resources needed to continue progress lowering child mortality rates

"The last decade has seen extraordinary progress with child mortality rates coming down significantly all over the world. Yet 6.9 million children still die each year, most from preventable causes," Raymond Chambers, founder and co-chair of Malaria No More and the U.N. secretary-general's special envoy for malaria, writes in a Forbes opinion piece, published in conjunction with the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship.

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

Researchers pinpoint several inherited mutations in autism

While autism clearly runs in some families, few inherited genetic causes have been found. A major reason is that these causes are so varied that it's hard to find enough people with a given mutation to establish a clear pattern. Researchers at Boston Children's Hospital have pinpointed several inherited mutations—among the first to be identified—through an unusual approach: using whole-exome sequencing to study large Middle Eastern families with autism.

23 Jan 2013

Taking antiepileptic drug valproate during pregnancy affects the IQ of children

Research published in The Lancet Neurology shows that taking the antiepileptic drug valproate during pregnancy affects the IQ of children up to the age of six.

23 Jan 2013

Strong link between mortality and reduced innate immune responsiveness in critically ill patients

Investigators from 15 children's medical centers, including Nationwide Children's Hospital, observed and evaluated critically ill children with influenza to evaluate the relationships between levels of systemic inflammation, immune function and likelihood to die from the illness. The study appears in the January issue of Critical Care Medicine.

23 Jan 2013

New targeted enzyme replacement therapy can treat X-linked myotubular myopathy

A collaborative research team including a Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) pediatric neuropathologist successfully mitigated some of the effects of a muscular disease by using a new targeted enzyme replacement therapy strategy from 4s3 Bioscience.

23 Jan 2013