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Partnerships key to ending preventable child deaths

"I'm encouraged by the focus on children's health alongside other pressing global issues" at the U.N. General Assembly meeting last week, Dagfinn Hoybraten, vice president of the Norwegian Parliament and chair of the GAVI Alliance Board, writes in the Huffington Post's "Impact" blog, adding, "These discussions come in the wake of UNICEF's latest report on declines in child mortality around the world."

2 Oct 2012

Zinc deficiency mechanism associated with many health problems, aging

A new study has outlined for the first time a biological mechanism by which zinc deficiency can develop with age, leading to a decline of the immune system and increased inflammation associated with many health problems, including cancer, heart disease, autoimmune disease and diabetes.

2 Oct 2012

New SARS-like virus not spread easily, WHO reports

"A new strain of a potentially deadly virus related to SARS, which has killed one man in Saudi Arabia and left a Qatari man critically ill in London, does not appear to spread easily from person to person, the World Health Organization says," according to the New York Times.

2 Oct 2012

Five researchers receive IOF Young Investigator Awards

Five researchers were presented with 'IOF Young Investigator Awards' at the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) Regionals - 2nd Middle East & Africa Osteoporosis Meeting and the 6th Pan Arab Osteoporosis Congress PAOC'6 on September 30, 2012.

2 Oct 2012

VOA News reports on Syria's health crisis in midst of civil war

"The United Nations estimates the civil war raging in Syria has left more than 2.5 million people in dire need of food, water, drugs and medical supplies," VOA News reports.

2 Oct 2012

Mobile technologies improving health care worldwide

Mobile phones and other SMS-based platforms are being used to improve health care systems worldwide and have "opened the gateway to establishing emergency triage systems, sending medication adherence reminders, enabling home-based antenatal care, tracking community immunization and dispatching mass announcements detailing satellite clinic schedules and locations," Nadim Mahmud, co-founder of Medic Mobile, writes in a CNN opinion piece.

2 Oct 2012

CIB2 gene responsible for progression and severity of Usher syndrome

Usher syndrome is a hereditary disease in which affected individuals lose both hearing and vision. The impact of Usher syndrome can be devastating. In the United States, approximately six in every 100,000 babies born have Usher syndrome.

2 Oct 2012

World Food Programme warns of hunger threat in Yemen

"Nearly half of Yemenis go to bed hungry every night as political instability compounds a global food and fuel price surge, giving the Arabian Peninsula state the world's third-highest rate of child malnutrition, the World Food Programme [WFP] said on Sunday," Reuters reports.

2 Oct 2012

Moderate alcohol intake increases risk of AF in older people with heart disease, diabetes

Moderate alcohol consumption increases the risk of atrial fibrillation in older people with heart disease or advanced diabetes, says a study by McMaster researchers.

2 Oct 2012

Examining the intersection between nutrition and agriculture

In the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog, Leslie Elder, a senior nutrition specialist at the World Bank, and Yurie Tanimichi Hoberg, a senior economist at the World Bank, write about the intersection of policies and programs in nutrition and agriculture, saying they "are not always closely coordinated."

2 Oct 2012

Proton pump inhibitors does not lead to higher rates of pneumonia

Previous studies that have associated the use of proton pump inhibitors (PPI) - which include popular anti-heartburn medications like Prilosec and Nexium - with an increased incidence of pneumonia may not have found a true cause-and-effect relationship.

2 Oct 2012

IPS examines debate over impact of climate change on health

"More intense rainfall, rising temperatures and climate-driven migration of human and animal populations due to repeated drought all affect the spread of tropical diseases," Inter Press Service writes in an article examining the impact of climate change on health, a topic that "generated debate among the experts attending the 18th International Congress on Tropical Medicine and Malaria, held Sept. 23-27 in Rio de Janeiro."

2 Oct 2012

Memory impairments linked to object perception among people with early stage Alzheimer's

A new study from Georgia Tech and the University of Toronto suggests that memory impairments for people diagnosed with early stage Alzheimer's disease may be due, in part, to problems in determining the differences between similar objects.

2 Oct 2012

Washington Post examines Haiti's efforts to fight lymphatic filariasis

The Washington Post reports on Haiti's efforts to fight lymphatic filariasis, a parasitic mosquito-borne disease that can cause elephantiasis and is present in 80 percent of the country.

2 Oct 2012

Research report helps explain how macrophages accumulate triglycerides

A research report appearing in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology helps explain how specific immune cells, called macrophages, accumulate triglycerides to support their function.

2 Oct 2012

Omega-3 fatty acid supplements could slow key biological process linked to aging

Taking enough omega-3 fatty acid supplements to change the balance of oils in the diet could slow a key biological process linked to aging, new research suggests.

2 Oct 2012

Novel therapy shows promise in treating multiple myeloma following stem cell transplants

A novel therapy in the early stages of development at Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center shows promise in providing lasting protection against the progression of multiple myeloma following a stem cell transplant by making the cancer cells easier targets for the immune system.

2 Oct 2012