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Bill Gates answers questions on global health, other issues in Reddit 'ask me anything' discussion

"Former chief executive and current chairman of Microsoft and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates did a Reddit AMA (ask me anything) Monday and discussed several important global health issues," the Global Dispatch reports.

13 Feb 2013

Big Pharma looks to Africa for next growth market as economies strengthen, disease burden shifts

"Not only is Africa's economic growth grabbing attention in boardrooms but the shifting nature of its disease burden is luring Big Pharma, as new opportunities open up for treating chronic diseases afflicting the middle classes, rather than just fire-fighting infection," Reuters reports.

13 Feb 2013

To overcome challenges in Africa's malaria response, focus on testing, treatment at community level

"Significant investment in malaria research has yielded effective interventions such as insecticide treated nets, indoor residual spraying and artemisinin-based combination therapies to control the disease, but its burden continues to be felt among the poorest," George Okello, a research fellow at the Kenya Medical Research Institute, and Nina Cromeyer Dieke, communications manager for the Global Atlas of Helminth Infections based at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, write in an opinion piece in the Guardian's "Global Development Professionals Network."

13 Feb 2013

SGWHC launches first digital resource dedicated solely to sex and gender evidence based care

The Food and Drug Administration recently announced a change to current dosages for sleeping medications in women to half the current prescribed level, and research suggests that flu dosages for women be reconsidered as well. Consideration of how women respond to medicine should be common practice, but we aren't there yet.

13 Feb 2013

More opioids being prescribed for pain relief in Germany

More and more opioids are being prescribed for pain relief in Germany. This is the conclusion arrived at by Ingrid Schubert, Peter Ihle, and Rainer Sabatowski, whose study of a sample of inhabitants of the state of Hesse with health insurance from a large statutory provider is published in the latest issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International.

13 Feb 2013

Racial and ethnic disparities exist for adverse obstetric outcomes

In a study to be presented on February 14 between 1:15 p.m., and 3:30 p.m. PST, at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting -, in San Francisco, California, researchers will present data showing racial and ethnic disparities exist for adverse obstetric outcomes.

13 Feb 2013

Researchers call for increased regulation of food, drink companies for improvement of global public health

"Multinational food, drink and alcohol companies are using strategies similar to those employed by the tobacco industry to undermine public health policies, health experts said on Tuesday," Reuters reports.

13 Feb 2013

Tips for safe displays of affection during Valentine's Day

Say "I love you" with flowers, chocolates or a greeting card, but be careful when you kiss this Valentine's Day.

13 Feb 2013

Viewpoints: Entitlement spending 'hurts the young;' State uncertainty on Medicaid; Dr. Carson's remedy for health care

Federal spending is the most obvious example. The federal government is a machine that takes money from future earners and spends it on health care for retirees. Entitlement spending hurts the young in two ways. It squeezes government investment programs that boost future growth. Second, the young will have to pay the money back. To cover current obligations, according to the International Monetary Fund, young people will have to pay 35 percent more taxes and receive 35 percent fewer benefits.

13 Feb 2013

Pac-fico Salud and Johns Hopkins sign landmark affiliation agreement

World-class standards for clinical outcomes and patient safety are at the core of a landmark affiliation agreement signed today between Johns Hopkins Medicine International (JHI) and Pac-fico S.A. Entidad Prestadora de Salud (Pac-fico Salud), a Lima, Peru-based subsidiary of Credicorp Ltd.

13 Feb 2013

AARDA to mark National Autoimmune Disease Awareness Month with new initiatives

March is National Autoimmune Disease Awareness Month 2013. To mark the annual event, the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association Inc. (AARDA) is encouraging the national and local media around the country to report stories on autoimmune diseases (AD) and autoimmunity as a category of disease.

13 Feb 2013

Dance-related injuries on the rise among children and adolescents

Dance is a beautiful form of expression, but it could be physically taxing and strenuous on the human body, particularly for children and adolescents. A new study by researchers at the Center for Injury Research and Policy of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital examined dance-related injuries among children and adolescents 3 to 19 years of age from 1991 to 2007.

13 Feb 2013

Auditory training with noise can work in hearing-impaired children

Children with hearing loss struggle to hear in noisy school classrooms, even with the help of hearing aids and other devices to amplify their teacher's voice. Training the brain to filter out background noise and thus understand spoken words could help the academic performance and quality of life for children who struggle to hear, but there's been little evidence that such noise training works in youngsters.

13 Feb 2013

Gates Foundation blog discusses E.U. budget deal

Writing in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog, Joe Cerrell, director of the foundation's Europe office, reports on deliberations by the E.U. on Friday on a "budget deal that would show deep cuts to life-saving aid for the world's poorest."

13 Feb 2013

WFP to feed 1.6M people in Somalia this year, agency reports

"The World Food Programme (WFP) reports it plans to feed 1.6 million people in Somalia this year, including more than one million people who are in a state of crisis" because of an ongoing insurgency by the Islamist militant group al-Shabab, VOA News writes.

13 Feb 2013

Tips for menopausal women to better enjoy their sex lives

Menopause can be a real rollercoaster—and that can impact women's sex lives. It can cause women's libidos to climb, suddenly drop, and then climb again due to the combination of estrogen and women's own levels of testosterone powering this wild cycle.

13 Feb 2013

E.U. budget effectively freezes aid budget at current levels

"A promised European Union investment budget to modernize the recession-hit economy is set to be scaled back in a bonfire of competing national demands," Bloomberg reports.

13 Feb 2013

Disease eradication efforts set sights on polio, Guinea worm

"It's not a race, exactly, but there's an intriguing uncertainty about whether a former U.S. president or a software magnate will cause the next deliberate extinction of a species in the wild. Will Jimmy Carter eradicate Guinea worm before Bill Gates eradicates polio?" Wall Street Journal commentator Matt Ridley asks in his "Mind & Matter" column.

13 Feb 2013

Chagas disease costs $7B annually worldwide, according to study

Chagas disease, transmitted by a bloodsucking insect that bites the face and lips, "costs the world about $7 billion annually, says an analysis just published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases," NPR's "Shots" blog reports.

12 Feb 2013

Moving beyond condemnation to actions that protect health workers

"Between December and January, at least 16 polio workers were killed in Pakistan, according to Reuters -- and on Friday, nine female health workers were slain in northern Nigeria, also while working on a polio eradication campaign," Laura Hoemeke, director of communications and knowledge management at IntraHealth, writes in the organization's "Global Health Blog."

12 Feb 2013