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U.N. agencies renew commitment to REACH initiative to combat child hunger, malnutrition

"United Nations agencies on Wednesday stressed the need to tackle child hunger and undernutrition in the pursuit of sustainable development, highlighting a joint initiative that offers practical and effective approaches to combat this problem in the most affected countries," the U.N. News Centre reports.

22 Jun 2012

Moderate alcohol intake during pregnancy does not influence child's development and intelligence

Children born by mothers who have of consumed between 1 and 6 alcohol units per week are just as intelligent and well-developed as children of abstaining mothers. Mothers who have been drinking 5 or more drinks on a single occasion a limited number of times before realizing that they were pregnant may also breathe a sigh of relief; their children have not been harmed.

22 Jun 2012

Aeterna Zentaris announces perifosine Phase 1 trial on neuroblastoma

Aeterna Zentaris Inc. today announced that Phase 1 trial results for its oral PI3K/Akt inhibitor, perifosine, showed the drug's activity against chemo-resistant and radio-resistant neuroblastoma, while allowing good quality of life and sparing vital organs. Neuroblastoma is a type of childhood cancer which usually begins in nerve tissues.

22 Jun 2012

Report: Autoimmune diseases are all being diagnosed at rapid rates

There is a disturbing trend in autoimmune disease diagnosis; many are on the upswing. Recent reports show that type 1 diabetes (an autoimmune disease not related to obesity), celiac disease and lupus, among others autoimmune diseases, are all being diagnosed at rapid rates.

22 Jun 2012

Polio eradication efforts threatened by funding shortfall, vaccination resistance in some countries, experts say

Marking the 10th anniversary since Europe was declared polio-free, the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative on Wednesday released a report saying there is "a unique window of opportunity to stamp out polio for good," with the number of reported cases at historical lows, but a funding shortfall of about $1 million is threatening eradication progress, Reuters reports.

22 Jun 2012

Lead 8A analog can treat osteosarcoma in children

Jiayuh Lin, PhD, and colleagues at Nationwide Children's Hospital have developed a drug to target the most common cancerous bone tumor in children, osteosarcoma, using a version of the FDA-approved drug, Celebrex. The team will soon begin testing the drug using human and canine tumor cell lines thanks to a two-year, $200,000 grant from Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer.

22 Jun 2012

MCN Learning launches new Pain Scale app for Google Android users

MCN Learning, an internationally-recognized leader in healthcare education, announces the launch of the MCN Learning Pain Scale application for the Google Android mobile operating system.

22 Jun 2012

Renewed commitment to agenda for child survival needed

"Last week in Washington, D.C., a coalition of global leaders and international organizations launched the Child Survival Call to Action in an effort to drive down the risk of preventable child deaths to roughly equivalent levels in all countries by 2035," Victoria Fan, a research fellow at the Center for Global Development (CGD), writes in this post in the center's "Global Health Policy" blog.

21 Jun 2012

New understanding of how motor neurons die in spinal muscular atrophy patients

Cedars-Sinai's Regenerative Medicine Institute has pioneered research on how motor-neuron cell-death occurs in patients with spinal muscular atrophy, offering an important clue in identifying potential medicines to treat this leading genetic cause of death in infants and toddlers.

21 Jun 2012

Healthy timing, spacing of pregnancy essential in family planning

"USAID promotes Healthy Timing and Spacing of Pregnancy as a vital family planning intervention that helps ensure that pregnancies occur at the healthiest times in a woman's life," Maureen Norton, healthy timing and spacing technical adviser for USAID, writes in USAID's "IMPACTblog."

21 Jun 2012

AHS scientific conference to focus on impact of traumatic brain injuries

The impact of traumatic injuries to the brain - whether sustained in combat or on the playing fields of America's schools - is a major topic for international migraine specialists the week of June 18 as they gather in Los Angeles for the 54th Annual Scientific Sessions of the American Headache Society. This is among many timely issues concerning headache, migraine, and brain injuries on the four-day agenda here which runs through Sunday morning, June 24.

21 Jun 2012

UNICEF, ICA Fellow partnership can help develop quality communication for children

Dafna Lemish, a Fellow of the International Communication Association, has partnered with UNICEF to help launch and develop a free resource package available for worldwide use for the creation of quality media for children.

21 Jun 2012

Two-thirds of children think parents do almost no physical activity

Children who said their parents do almost no physical activity have a 50 per cent greater risk of being unfit than children with more physically active parents, according to new research.

21 Jun 2012

Foods fortified with folic acid can prevent neural tube defects

Wheat flour milled in Nigeria will soon be fortified with folic acid, a B vitamin known for preventing serious or fatal birth defects of the spine and brain. Women who may become pregnant are encouraged to daily choose foods fortified with this essential vitamin because it can prevent the majority of these devastating birth defects known as neural tube defects.

21 Jun 2012

Children exposed to HIV before birth may be more likely to experience hearing loss

Children exposed to HIV in the womb may be more likely to experience hearing loss by age 16 than are their unexposed peers, according to scientists in a National Institutes of Health research network.

21 Jun 2012

Celebrating the true birthday of PEPFAR

"Ten years ago today President Bush stepped into the Rose Garden to announce a $500 million program to stop the transmission of HIV passed from mothers to children during birth," an announcement that "led the way to PEPFAR," which Bush announced in his 2003 State of the Union address, John Donnelly, correspondent for GlobalPost's "Global Pulse" blog, writes in this commentary in the blog.

21 Jun 2012

New Lifescript Asthma Health Center for women and children

Lifescript.com, a women's health and wellness website headquartered in Mission Viejo, Calif., has launched a new online Asthma Health Center designed to help women and children diagnose and manage asthma symptoms.

21 Jun 2012

International Consensus on Pediatric Asthma launches in Geneva

The International Consensus (ICON) on Pediatric Asthma has been launched during the EAACI Congress 2012 in Geneva. The goal of this ICON is to highlight the key messages that are common to many of the existing guidelines, while critically reviewing and commenting on their differences, thus providing a concise reference. The Pediatric Asthma ICON provides advice for the best clinical practice in pediatric asthma management.

21 Jun 2012

First study to show that giving to others makes young children happy

If it is indeed nobler to give than to receive, it may also make you happier - even if you're a toddler, according to a new study co-authored by three psychologists at the University of British Columbia.

20 Jun 2012

Antimicrobial exposure may increase risk of allergies in children

Exposure to common antibacterial chemicals and preservatives found in soap, toothpaste, mouthwash and other personal-care products may make children more prone to a wide range of food and environmental allergies, according to new research from Johns Hopkins Children's Center.

20 Jun 2012