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Public health, social policies can positively affect children's lives

"Specific calls for global action on health and other social issues can have a major effect on children's life chances, concludes a report that compared data on laws and public policies affecting children in 191 countries," BMJ reports.

15 Feb 2013

Improving tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis: an interview with Professor Madhukar Pai, MD, PhD

TB is an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Nearly 9 million people develop TB every year, and TB kills nearly 1.4 million individuals each year. While the incidence of TB has steadily declined in the west, it remains a huge public health problem in many developing countries, with India having the highest burden.

15 Feb 2013

India announces plans to improve adolescent health, evaluate progress on child survival

"India's health ministry has announced plans to improve the health of adolescents and also to evaluate progress of states and districts on child survival under a fresh package of initiatives to reduce mortality among children under five years old," BMJ reports.

15 Feb 2013

Effective approaches to prevent and control obesity among Latino children

Guided grocery store trips, menu labeling at restaurants, community gardens, and video-game-based exercise programs are among several promising, culturally appropriate ways to prevent obesity among Latino children, according to a new collection of studies from Salud America! The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Research Network to Prevent Obesity Among Latino Children published in a supplement to the March issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

15 Feb 2013

Pivotal Response Treatment improves brain activity in children with autism

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) for before-and-after analysis, a team of researchers including a UC Santa Barbara graduate student discovered positive changes in brain activity in children with autism who received a particular type of behavioral therapy.

15 Feb 2013

Magazine examines maternal mortality in Africa; Ghanaian TV series aims to improve maternal health

The U.N.'s Africa Renewal reports on maternal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa, citing a U.N. report released in May 2012, "Trends in Maternal Mortality: 1990 to 2010," which "shows that maternal mortality has declined by 41 percent in the past 10 years in" the region.

15 Feb 2013

FDA committee recommends approval of Guerbet’s Dotarem NDA for adults and children

Guerbet, the contrast agent specialist for medical imaging, today announced that the Medical Imaging Drugs Advisory Committee to US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has voted unanimously by votes of 17 to 0 to recommend that FDA approve the New Drug Application (NDA) for Dotarem (gadoterate meglumine) for adults, and for pediatric use for children two years of age and older.

15 Feb 2013

Study finds strong preference among families and older pediatric patients for IV feeding

About 60 percent of pediatric cancer patients experience malnourishment during treatment. At that point, patients and families have a choice: tube feeding or IV nutrition supplement. Which would you choose? A study published this week in the Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing shows that families' perceptions, especially of the discomfort of tube feeding, leads to choosing IV over tube - despite the fact that tube feeding is usually the better choice, associated with better gut function and lower rates of infection.

14 Feb 2013

Blocking C5a protein prevents low birth weight in babies born to pregnant women with malaria

An international team of tropical medicine researchers have discovered a potential method for preventing low birth weight in babies born to pregnant women who are exposed to malaria. Low birth weight is the leading cause of infant death globally.

14 Feb 2013

Research determines causes of boys' underachievement at school

Negative stereotypes about boys may hinder their achievement, while assuring them that girls and boys are equally academic may help them achieve. From a very young age, children think boys are academically inferior to girls, and they believe adults think so, too. Even at these very young ages, boys' performance on an academic task is affected by messages that suggest that girls will do better than they will.

14 Feb 2013

Stress and mental illness: an interview with Professor Akira Sawa

As a psychiatrist I am interested in how stress may play a role in the pathology of adult mental disorders. You may know that most of the major mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, mood-disorder, substance abuse or even anxiety disorder, become prominent in early adulthood.

14 Feb 2013

Probiotics shows promise in reducing both incidence and severity of necrotizing enterocolitis

"Good" bacteria that live in our intestines have been linked with a variety of health benefits, from fighting disease to preventing obesity. In a new study, Kriston Ganguli of Massachusetts General Hospital for Children and Harvard Medical School and her colleagues have discovered another advantage to these friendly microscopic tenants: Chemicals secreted by good bacteria that typically live in the intestines of babies could reduce the frequency and severity of a common and often-lethal disease of premature infants.

14 Feb 2013

More polio workers killed than reported cases of disease, NPR reports

"The global effort to eradicate polio has reached a bizarre stage: More people have been gunned down recently over the disease than actually infected with it," NPR's "Shots" blog reports.

14 Feb 2013

Study finds human MPV as second most common cause of severe bronchiolitis in young children

New Vanderbilt-led research published in the Feb. 14 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine has identified the relatively unknown human metapneumovirus (MPV) as the second most common cause of severe bronchiolitis in young children.

14 Feb 2013

Blogs examine root causes, implications of myths about polio vaccination

Citing a review by Telegraph correspondent Rob Crilly criticizing the film Zero Dark Thirty "for getting its facts wrong about the CIA vaccination campaign that sought to confirm the DNA of Osama bin Laden's children," development blogger Tom Murphy writes in the Humanosphere blog, "Crilly's larger point is to say that the film gives further ammo to polio vaccine conspiracy theorists."

14 Feb 2013

Computer-based cognitive/behavioral training program can benefit patients with fragile X

Researchers at the UC Davis MIND Institute will examine whether children and youth with fragile X syndrome can improve their working memory, cognition and behavior by using an online computer-based cognitive training program, through a new $1 million grant from The John Merck Fund.

14 Feb 2013

USAID blog reports on India's Call to Action Summit for Child Survival, Development

In a post in USAID's "IMPACTblog," Ariel Pablos-Mendez, assistant administrator for global health at USAID, provides an overview of India's "Call to Action Summit for Child Survival and Development," which took place last week, writing, "Led by India's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Summit called for an accelerated response to decrease child mortality across the country."

14 Feb 2013

CELF6 genetic mutation may underlie common behaviors seen in people with autism

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a genetic mutation that may underlie common behaviors seen in some people with autism, such as difficulty communicating and resistance to change.

14 Feb 2013

Study demonstrates how CN2097 works to restore neural functions impaired by Angelman syndrome

In a new study in mice, a scientific collaboration centered at Brown University lays out in unprecedented detail a neurological signaling breakdown in Angelman syndrome, a disorder that affects thousands of children each year, characterized by developmental delay, seizures, and other problems.

14 Feb 2013

Updated Cochrane review on vitamin C and common cold

According to an updated Cochrane review on vitamin C and the common cold, vitamin C seems to be particularly beneficial for people under heavy physical stress. In five randomized trials of participants with heavy short-term physical stress, vitamin C halved the incidence of the common cold.

14 Feb 2013

Child Health News

Public health, social policies can positively affect children's lives

Improving tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis: an interview with Professor Madhukar Pai, MD, PhD

India announces plans to improve adolescent health, evaluate progress on child survival

Effective approaches to prevent and control obesity among Latino children

Pivotal Response Treatment improves brain activity in children with autism

Magazine examines maternal mortality in Africa; Ghanaian TV series aims to improve maternal health

FDA committee recommends approval of Guerbet’s Dotarem NDA for adults and children

Study finds strong preference among families and older pediatric patients for IV feeding

Blocking C5a protein prevents low birth weight in babies born to pregnant women with malaria

Research determines causes of boys' underachievement at school

Stress and mental illness: an interview with Professor Akira Sawa

Probiotics shows promise in reducing both incidence and severity of necrotizing enterocolitis

More polio workers killed than reported cases of disease, NPR reports

Study finds human MPV as second most common cause of severe bronchiolitis in young children

Blogs examine root causes, implications of myths about polio vaccination

Computer-based cognitive/behavioral training program can benefit patients with fragile X

USAID blog reports on India's Call to Action Summit for Child Survival, Development

CELF6 genetic mutation may underlie common behaviors seen in people with autism

Study demonstrates how CN2097 works to restore neural functions impaired by Angelman syndrome

Updated Cochrane review on vitamin C and common cold

Synthetic Biology and the Pursuit of Living Diagnostics

Modular, Scalable, Intelligent: How n6 Is Rethinking NGS Library Prep

Shaping the future of lab automation through AI and robotics

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