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Grade 12 researcher wins top honors at 2012 Sanofi BioGENEius Challenge Canada

An Ontario girl, 16, who invented a disease-fighting, anti-aging compound using nano-particles from trees, won top national honours today in the 2012 Sanofi BioGENEius Challenge Canada.

9 May 2012

Home health and long-term care issues and trends

USA Today reports on the profitability of home health care businesses while NPR examines long-term care insurance.

9 May 2012

Sildenafil may improve cardiac function in children, young adults with single ventricle defects

Sildenafil, also known as the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra, may give a boost to underdeveloped hearts in children and young adults with congenital heart defects. Researchers from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia report that sildenafil significantly improved echocardiographic measures of heart function in children and young adult survivors of single ventricle heart disease palliation.

9 May 2012

USAID committed to improving lives of children affected by HIV/AIDS

"Despite many gains in the fight against AIDS, children still lag far behind adults in access to important medical services, including HIV prevention, care, and treatment," Jen Pollakusky, communications analyst at USAID's Bureau of Global Health Office of HIV/AIDS, writes in USAID's "IMPACTblog," noting that Monday marked the 10th anniversary of World AIDS Orphan Day.

9 May 2012

Americans spend only about two hours each week in sports and fitness activities

Americans spend, on average, only about two hours each week participating in sports and fitness activities, according to researchers at Penn State and the University of Maryland who examined U.S. government data from the American Time Use Study.

9 May 2012

Phone credits offered to teenagers in exchange for sexual health checks

The Queensland government is offering Mount Isa teenagers mobile phone credit in exchange for sexual health checks.

9 May 2012

Report notes rise in obesity slowing, but still huge health, cost problem

The obesity rate may rise to 42 percent from about a third of the U.S. population by 2030 if nothing changes, according to a report. Preventing that increase may save about $550 billion in medical costs over the next 20 years, Eric Finkelstein, the study author and an associate research professor at Duke University, said during a press briefing.

9 May 2012

Refurbishing neighborhood parks may lead to improvements in community health

A new study suggests that refurbishing neighborhood parks may lead to improvements in community health. Increased visitors and higher rates of exercise were observed for more than one year when one community park provided new and varied amenities.

9 May 2012

New York Times examines Cuba's sanitarium network for people living with HIV

The New York Times examines the Cuban network of sanitariums created to house and treat people living with HIV, "to keep the infected from having sex with anyone uninfected and to help them die comfortably."

9 May 2012

Study shows effects of psychotropic drug treatment on brain morphology

It is increasingly recognized that chronic psychotropic drug treatment may lead to structural remodeling of the brain. Indeed, clinical studies in humans present an intriguing picture: antipsychotics, used for the treatment of schizophrenia and psychosis, may contribute to cortical gray matter loss in patients, whereas lithium, used for the treatment of bipolar disorder and mania, may preserve gray matter in patients.

9 May 2012

Child death across sub-Saharan Africa declining at accelerated rate, report shows

"New statistics show that the rate of child death across sub-Saharan Africa is not just in decline -- but that decline has massively accelerated, just in the last few years," Michael Clemens, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development (CGD), writes in the center's "Global Development: Views from the Center" blog, citing a paper released last week by Gabriel Demombynes and Karina Trommlerova in the Kenya office of the World Bank.

9 May 2012

Poor women and African Americans with ovarian cancer less likely to receive care

Poor women and African Americans with ovarian cancer are less likely to receive the highest standards of care, leading to worse outcomes than among white and affluent patients, according to a study of 50,000 women presented by UC Irvine's Dr. Robert Bristow at the Society of Gynecologic Oncology's annual meeting March 27.

9 May 2012

Free whooping cough vaccine cut concerns experts

Heath experts are concerned that parents and carers of newborn babies will stop getting the whooping cough vaccine after the state government cut its free immunisation program in the midst of a fatal epidemic.

9 May 2012

House GOP bill cuts Medicaid to protect military spending

The budget plan, developed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R- Wis., targets a number of Obama administration domestic initiatives. It trims an estimated $261 billion in domestic spending over the next decade and undoes elements of the health law.

9 May 2012

Study offers new insight on known link between exposure to violence and sexual risk-taking

Women who have experienced multiple forms of violence, from witnessing neighborhood crimes to being abused themselves, are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior, according to a new report in the Psychology of Violence.

9 May 2012

Option for couples to test together, access ART for prevention can reduce HIV risk

"If we don't leverage the power of innovation to transform how health services are provided and utilized, efforts to stop new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths can reach a stalemate," UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe writes in this opinion piece in the Huffington Post's "Healthy Living" blog.

9 May 2012

Highlights of orthopaedic research studies in JBJS

Below are highlights of orthopaedic research studies appearing in the May 2, 2012 issue of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (JBJS), as well as the issue's full Table of Contents.

9 May 2012

Public-private partnership pilot program could facilitate drug development for neglected diseases

The National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced a pilot program under which "three pharmaceutical companies have agreed to make dozens of their failed compounds available to researchers, who will investigate if the compounds can be re-purposed into successful treatments for other diseases," Ashley Bennett, senior policy associate at the Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC), writes in the group's "Breakthroughs" blog.

9 May 2012

New insecticide-treated bodysuit can fight malaria

A Cornell University scientist and designer from Africa have together created a fashionable hooded bodysuit embedded at the molecular level with insecticides for warding off mosquitoes infected with malaria, a disease estimated to kill 655,000 people annually on the continent.

9 May 2012

Health budget focuses on dental and aged care

The states need to increase the number of public dental patients they treat or lose the reward payments offered by the federal government under its new $500 million dental package. A total of over $800 million of new money has come into the focal points of the health budget - dental and aged care.

9 May 2012