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United Arab Emirates establishes committee to develop HIV/AIDS strategy

The United Arab Emirates has established a committee to develop a national HIV/AIDS control and prevention strategy, Nada Al Marzouqi, National AIDS Program manager at the Ministry of Health, said recently, the Khaleej Times reports.

23 Apr 2008

Thailand's anti-drug efforts hindering fight against HIV/AIDS, advocates say

Thailand's efforts to fight drug use are hindering HIV/AIDS control programs in the country, some HIV/AIDS and human rights advocates said recently, Thailand's Nation reports.

23 Apr 2008

Protein HtpG signals healthier teeth and gums

Antibodies present in people with good oral health could become the first tool for dental professionals to assess a patient's probable response to periodontal disease treatments, say researchers at the University of Michigan.

23 Apr 2008

FSU research may speed new malaria treatments, vaccines for children

April 25 is World Malaria Day 2008 and despite the grim statistics out of Africa there's cause for celebration. Florida State University biologists have discovered an autoimmune-like response in blood drawn from malaria-infected African children that helps to explain why existing DNA-based anti-malaria vaccines have repeatedly failed to protect them.

23 Apr 2008

Researchers unravel heparin death mystery

An international team of researchers led by MIT has explained how contaminated batches of the blood-thinner heparin were able to slip past traditional safety screens and kill dozens of patients recently in the United States and Germany.

23 Apr 2008

New discovery on how memory is stored

Researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine are the first to show that the location of protein-destroying "machines" in nerve cells in the brain may play an important role in how memories are formed - a finding with potential implications for treating Alzheimer's and other brain diseases. The research is published in the current issue of Learning & Memory.

23 Apr 2008

Rethink needed on how communities affected with trachoma are treated

One or two rounds of high coverage mass treatment with azithromycin, rather than the annual treatment recommended by the World Health Organisation, may be enough to eliminate the eye disease trachoma in communities with moderate levels of infection.

23 Apr 2008

New insights into how the brain processes social, economic reward

Researchers have mapped the brain regions that process social standing and money rewards, yielding new insights that they said will aid understanding of the basis of social behaviors.

23 Apr 2008

Scientists determine molecular structures of bacterial AlkB protein and its corresponding human protein, ABH2

A team of University of Chicago scientists has shown how two proteins locate and repair damaged genetic material inside cells.

23 Apr 2008

FDA issues regulation on animal feeds with added safeguards against BSE

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today issued a final regulation barring certain cattle materials from all animal feed, including pet food. The final rule further protects animals and consumers against bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, also known as "mad cow disease").

23 Apr 2008

Teenage health in Europe

After three years of work, the EU funded research programme HELENA has revealed its initial results. It concludes that amongst European adolescents, approximately 27% of males and 20% of females are either overweight or obese. It also reveals for the first time at European level, food intake and physical activity patterns for adolescents.

23 Apr 2008

Simulating surgery to reduce implant complications

A computer simulation breakthrough could mean fewer medical complications and better surgical outcomes for patients undergoing hip, knee or spinal implant surgery.

23 Apr 2008

Reconstruction innovations for breast cancer patients

Lumpectomy or breast conservation surgery is the most common type of breast cancer surgery currently performed. A benefit of the surgery is that only part of the breast is removed, but a drawback can be the resulting physical appearance of the breast, which may be disfigured, dented or uneven.

23 Apr 2008

Competency in colonoscopy requires experience with 150 cases or more

Researchers from Korea have found that technically efficient screening and diagnostic colonoscopy generally requires experience with 150 cases or more.

23 Apr 2008

Discovery of gene behind clefting disorder Branchio-Oculo-Facial syndrome

In a collaborative effort, researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have discovered that deletions or mutations within the TFAP2A gene (Activating Enhancer-Binding Protein) result in the distinctive clefting disorder Branchio-Oculo-Facial syndrome (BOFS).

23 Apr 2008

Breakthrough in stem cell research

Dutch researchers at University Medical Center Utrecht and the Hubrecht Institute have succeeded in growing large numbers of stem cells from adult human hearts into new heart muscle cells.

23 Apr 2008

Discovery of new cell targets for preventing growth of breast and other tumors

Researchers at the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have discovered new targets for cancer treatment aimed at blocking a key step in tumor progression.

23 Apr 2008

An assessment of fixed-capacity models of visual working memory

A mind is a terrible thing to waste, but humans may have even less to work with than previously thought. University of Missouri researchers found that the average person can keep just three or four things in their "working memory" or conscious mind at one time. This finding may lead to better ways to assess and help people with attention-deficit and focus difficulties, improve classroom performance and enhance test scores.

23 Apr 2008

Slowing the spread of cancer in Albania

Once locked in decades of isolation, Albania is seeing new horizons in the fight against poverty. Expectations run high, driving demands for better - and healthier - lives.

23 Apr 2008

20% of adolescents smoke

As many as 20% of adolescents from 11 to 17 years of age smoke. This was the result of the nationwide German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents (KiGGS), performed by the Robert Koch Institute and presented by the sociologist Thomas Lampert in the current edition of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2008; 105[15]: 265-71).

23 Apr 2008