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Community worker assisting with polio campaign in Pakistan shot, killed

In a statement on Saturday, the World Health Organization and UNICEF said "a local community worker who helped an anti-polio campaign in Pakistan has been shot and killed in Karachi -- days after two of its staff were injured in a shooting in the city," the Associated Press reports.

24 Jul 2012

Premature babies more likely to survive in high-level NICUs than previously reported

Premature babies are more likely to survive when they are born in high-level neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) than in hospitals without such facilities, and this benefit is considerably larger than previously reported.

24 Jul 2012

Two thirds of obese children have heart disease risk factors

Two out of three severely obese kids already have at least one risk factor for heart disease, suggests research published online in Archives of Disease in Childhood.

24 Jul 2012

Study reveals 50% increased risk of urothelial and colorectal cancers in adulthood

Parents are increasingly conscious of the dangers of childhood obesity. There is a growing recognition of health problems associated with extra pounds, including the risk of diabetes, heart disease, and joint and muscle pain.

24 Jul 2012

Egg allergy treatment for children: an interview with Dr Robert Wood

The tendency to get allergies is a fairly general one, which is mostly inherited – it tends to run in families. There are several foods that are most common for children to become allergic to: milk, egg and peanuts in most countries are the most common food allergies.

23 Jul 2012

Recent guidelines that recommend cholesterol tests for children fail to weigh health benefits

Recent guidelines recommending cholesterol tests for children fail to weigh health benefits against potential harms and costs, according to a new commentary authored by three physician-researchers at UCSF.

23 Jul 2012

Researchers identify several gene mutations responsible for medulloblastoma

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital have identified several gene mutations responsible for the most common childhood brain tumor, called medulloblastoma, adding evidence to the theory that the diagnosis is a group of genetically distinct cancers with different prognoses. These and accompanying findings are likely to lead to less-toxic, better-targeted treatment approaches over the next two years, the researchers said.

23 Jul 2012

Kids with T13 or 18 and their families lead a happy life

Children with trisomy 13 or 18, who are for the most part severely disabled and have a very short life expectancy, and their families lead a life that is happy and rewarding overall, contrary to the usually gloomy predictions made by the medical community at the time of diagnosis, according to a study of parents who are members of support groups published today in Pediatrics.

23 Jul 2012

Researchers identify high ARV drug exposure in hair samples of HIV uninfected infants

Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and Makerere University in Uganda have used hair and blood samples from three-month old infants born to HIV-positive mothers to measure the uninfected babies' exposure—both in the womb and from breast-feeding—to antiretroviral medications their mothers were taking. The results, they said, are surprising.

23 Jul 2012

Researchers link specific gene mutations with four recognized subtypes of medulloblastoma

Researchers at Dana-Farber/Children's Hospital Cancer Center (DF/CHCC) and several collaborating institutions have linked mutations in specific genes to each of the four recognized subtypes of medulloblastoma, the most common malignant brain tumor of children. The discovery, reported July in the journal Nature, provides doctors with potential biomarkers for guiding and individualizing treatment and reveals prospective therapeutic opportunities for countering this devastating malignancy.

23 Jul 2012

Limit children's media exposure to the Colorado shooting tragedy

In the wake of the tragic shooting at the screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colo., parents should encourage their children to express their feelings and limit their media exposure to the tragedy, say experts from Children's Hospital Los Angeles.

21 Jul 2012

'Medical travel' can be used to access advanced technologies

The search for medical technologies through 'medical travel' can change the lives of patients and their family members, according to medical anthropologists Cecilia Vindrola-Padros and Linda M. Whiteford, who examined the lives of Bolivian and Paraguayan families who traveled to Buenos Aries, Argentina, seeking pediatric oncology care for their children.

21 Jul 2012

South Africa making progress against HIV/AIDS, but still more effort needed, health minister says

Though South Africa has made progress against HIV/AIDS over the past few years, the country's "health minister says much more needs to be done," VOA News reports.

21 Jul 2012

Cipla, DNDi to develop ARV combination therapy for children with HIV/AIDS

On the eve of the XIX International AIDS Conference in Washington, DC, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), a not-for-profit research and development (R&D) organization, announces a new collaboration with Indian drug manufacturer Cipla to develop and produce an improved first-line antiretroviral (ARV) combination therapy specifically adapted to meet the treatment needs of infants and toddlers living with HIV/AIDS.

21 Jul 2012

1M Yemeni children face severe malnutrition, contribute to 62M people worldwide in need of humanitarian aid, U.N. says

"One million Yemeni children face severe malnutrition within months as families struggle to pay for food in one of the Arab world's poorest countries, the U.N. World Food Programme has warned," Reuters reports.

21 Jul 2012

Placenta-derived endothelial colony-forming cells are more vasculogenic: Study

A study comparing whether endothelial colony-forming cells (ECFCs) derived from human placenta or those derived from human umbilical cord blood are more proliferative and better for forming new blood vessels has found that ECFCs derived from human placenta are more vasculogenic.

20 Jul 2012

Montefiore physician to develop tablet computer app for children with cochlear implants

Elena Willis, MD Resident Physician, Department of Otorhinolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, Montefiore Medical Center, has been awarded a $10,000 Resident Research Grant by The American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, sponsored by The Oticon Foundation, to develop a tablet computer app to help improve the speech of children with cochlear implants.

20 Jul 2012

Low serum albumin associated with higher risk of graft failure in pediatric kidney transplants

For children receiving kidney transplants, a potentially correctable blood condition present in about one in four recipients is associated with a moderately increased risk of the graft's later failure, suggesting that clinicians should weigh whether transplant is advisable when the condition is present, according to UC Davis research presented today at the 24th International Congress of the Transplantation Society in Berlin.

20 Jul 2012

Mother's exposure to air pollution increases risk of obesity and insulin resistance in offspring

Pregnant mice exposed to high levels of air pollution gave birth to offspring with a significantly higher rate of obesity and insulin resistance in adulthood than those that were not exposed to air pollution. This effect seemed especially prevalent in male mice, which were heavier regardless of diet. These findings, published online in the FASEB Journal, suggests a link between diesel exhaust exposure in utero and bulging waistlines in adulthood.

20 Jul 2012

House subcommittee approves spending bill that deletes health law funding

The measure, which is part of the GOP plan to defund the health overhaul, also deletes all federal funding for Planned Parenthood and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

20 Jul 2012

Child Health News

Community worker assisting with polio campaign in Pakistan shot, killed

Premature babies more likely to survive in high-level NICUs than previously reported

Two thirds of obese children have heart disease risk factors

Study reveals 50% increased risk of urothelial and colorectal cancers in adulthood

Egg allergy treatment for children: an interview with Dr Robert Wood

Recent guidelines that recommend cholesterol tests for children fail to weigh health benefits

Researchers identify several gene mutations responsible for medulloblastoma

Kids with T13 or 18 and their families lead a happy life

Researchers identify high ARV drug exposure in hair samples of HIV uninfected infants

Researchers link specific gene mutations with four recognized subtypes of medulloblastoma

Limit children's media exposure to the Colorado shooting tragedy

'Medical travel' can be used to access advanced technologies

South Africa making progress against HIV/AIDS, but still more effort needed, health minister says

Cipla, DNDi to develop ARV combination therapy for children with HIV/AIDS

1M Yemeni children face severe malnutrition, contribute to 62M people worldwide in need of humanitarian aid, U.N. says

Placenta-derived endothelial colony-forming cells are more vasculogenic: Study

Montefiore physician to develop tablet computer app for children with cochlear implants

Low serum albumin associated with higher risk of graft failure in pediatric kidney transplants

Mother's exposure to air pollution increases risk of obesity and insulin resistance in offspring

House subcommittee approves spending bill that deletes health law funding

Real-time Raman monitoring for pharmaceutical hot melt extrusion

Synthetic Psychedelics: A Growing Public Health Concern

How the Vutara VXL simplifies single-molecule imaging

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