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Advocates at Kenyan conference explore new strategies to combat HIV/AIDS in Africa

Nearly 30 years after the emergence of HIV/AIDS, the global health community must develop new strategies to curb the spread of the disease in sub-Saharan Africa, some experts said Tuesday ahead of the Global Citizens Summit for Social Mobilization to End AIDS in Nairobi, Kenya, AFP/Google.com reports.

27 May 2009

California Gov. Schwarzenegger's plan to reduce state spending includes cuts to HIV/AIDS services

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) on Tuesday sent state lawmakers a plan to reduce more than $5 billion in spending that includes cuts to HIV/AIDS services, the Los Angeles Times reports (Rothfeld/McGreevy, Los Angeles Times, 5/27).

27 May 2009

Discovery of genetic cause for primary biliary cirrhosis

Researchers have discovered a novel molecular path that predisposes patients to develop primary biliary cirrhosis, a disease that mainly affects women and slowly destroys their livers. Primary biliary cirrhosis has no known cause.

27 May 2009

Scientists study how virulence evolves in parasites

That's one conclusion from a new study that looked at how virulence evolves in parasites. The research examined whether parasites evolve to be more or less aggressive depending on whether they are closely connected to their hosts or scattered among more isolated clusters of hosts.

27 May 2009

Common migraine pain condition allodynia also prevalent in cluster headache

A pain condition common in people with migraines also has a high prevalence in patients with cluster headache, according to a study conducted by researchers at the Jefferson Headache Center at Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience.

27 May 2009

Financial contracts to care for sick or aging relatives adding legal twist to family health care

Financial contracts to care for sick or aging relatives - nearly unthinkable just a decade ago - are drawing new interest as everyday Americans wrestle with the time and expense of providing long-term health care, a University of Illinois legal expert says.

27 May 2009

Brain activation can predict strategies people use to make risky decisions

Watching people's brains in real time as they handle a set of decision-making problems can reveal how different each person's strategy can be, according to neuroscientists at the Duke University Medical Center.

27 May 2009

Research offers insight into why some prostate cancer returns

The majority of men who receive one of the standard treatments for localized prostate cancer - surgery or radiation therapy - have an excellent outcome.

27 May 2009

Glucose monitoring devices benefit people with type 1 diabetes

People with type 1 diabetes who have already been successful in achieving recommended blood sugar goals can further benefit from using continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices, according to results of a major multi-center clinical trial by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Findings of the study were published online by the journal Diabetes Care.

27 May 2009

To spread, skin cancer attacks immune dendritic cells

Dendritic cells are the sentinels of the immune system. When they're alert and on guard, they will marshal the body's immunosoldiers, T cells, to battle at the sight of harmful pathogens. But some diseases, such as cancer, are able to escape their watchful eye. By knocking out or beguiling dendritic cells, they slip the defenses of the immune system and sack the unsuspecting body.

27 May 2009

More evidence that pressure to be "attractive" provokes negative outcomes

People who feel pressure to look attractive are more fearful of being rejected because of their appearance than are their peers, according to a new study by researchers at the University at Buffalo and the University of Kent.

27 May 2009

Boy born with half a heart survives and thrives

Rhonda Ellison was six months pregnant when she and her husband, James Gaines, got the kind of news all parents dread going into an ultrasound: something was wrong with their baby. They needed to go to the Children's Heart Center at Golisano Children's Hospital.

27 May 2009

Stem cell breakthrough restores sight to sufferers of corneal disease

In a world-first breakthrough, University of New South Wales (UNSW) medical researchers have used stem cells cultured on a simple contact lens to restore sight to sufferers of blinding corneal disease.

27 May 2009

$Vitamin D and Calcium supplements help prevent bone fracture in the elderly$

Vitamin D and Calcium supplements help prevent bone fracture in the elderly

We all know that vitamin D and calcium are good for bones, but research teams in Europe and USA have shown that both taken daily reduces the rate of hip fracture in older people by 20%.

27 May 2009

Research assesses the benefits of different ways of treating tooth decay in children

New research commissioned by the National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment (NIHR HTA) programme will assess the benefits of different methods of managing tooth decay in children's teeth. Dental decay is one of the most common childhood diseases, with over 40 per cent of children in the UK already experiencing obvious decay in their primary (baby) teeth by five years of age, and this statistic has remained largely unchanged for the past 20 years.

27 May 2009

Humans may be genetically programmed to care about the long-term future, finds new study of behaviour

Dr Peter Sozou suggests that individuals may have an innate tendency to care about the long-term future of their communities, over timescales much longer than an individual's lifespan. This in turn may help to explain people's wish to take action over long-term environmental problems.

27 May 2009

New U.S. patent issued for Limbrel in osteoarthritis

Primus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has announced the issuance of a new composition of matter patent for Limbrel, the first prescription medical food product to safely meet the distinctive nutritional requirements of patients with osteoarthritis (OA). U.S. Patent #7,514,469 was recently issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

27 May 2009

FDA grants full approval for Sprycel (dasatinib) for chronic myeloid leukemia

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted full approval for Sprycel (dasatinib) for the treatment of adults in all phases of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) (chronic, accelerated, or myeloid or lymphoid blast phase) with resistance or intolerance to prior therapy including Gleevec (imatinib mesylate).

27 May 2009

Preoperative team briefings improves communication, reduce medical errors

A short, preoperative team briefing prior to cardiac surgery - where each person on the team speaks - improves communication and reduces errors and costs, according to a pilot study conducted at Mayo Clinic.

27 May 2009

A broken trust: lessons from the vaccine–autism wars

Researchers long ago rejected the theory that vaccines cause autism, yet many parents don't believe them. Can scientists bridge the gap between evidence and doubt?

27 May 2009