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Chinese pencils now on the health agenda

The latest recall of products made in China involves thousands of sets of pencils for children.

3 Sep 2007

New phages to treat bacterial diseases

Viruses found in the River Cam in Cambridge, famous as a haunt of students in their punts on long, lazy summer days, could become the next generation of antibiotics, according to scientists speaking today (Monday 3 September 2007) at the Society for General Microbiology's 161st Meeting at the University of Edinburgh, UK, which runs from 3-6 September 2007.

3 Sep 2007

Women soon able to choose when to have children

Women in Britain may soon be able to choose just when they want to have a baby.

3 Sep 2007

New technique detects specific chromosomal damage - helps identify precancerous changes

A new technique could pave the way toward screening people at risk for lung cancer for the genetic changes that may foreshadow malignancies, researchers from the University of Colorado say.

3 Sep 2007

Women warned about cosmetic vaginal surgery

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has warned women against cosmetic procedures advertised as "vaginal rejuvenation," "designer vaginoplasty", "revirgination" and "G-spot amplification".

3 Sep 2007

New and very different schizophrenia drug shows promise

Scientists at Eli Lilly say the first human trial of a new schizophrenia drug shows promise for sufferers of the debilitating mental illness.

3 Sep 2007

African-Americans and other racial minorities more likely to have sleep durations associated with increased mortality

African-Americans and other racial minorities have sleep durations associated with increased mortality. This is consistent with the belief that unhealthy sleep patterns among minorities - long sleep or short sleep - may contribute to health differentials, according to a study published in the September 1 issue of the journal SLEEP.

3 Sep 2007

Even kindies stress out before school

British researchers have found that even children at kinder garden can find school a stressful place.

3 Sep 2007

Interferon alpha revs immune cells but cancer cells ignore it

A new study shows that an important drug used in the treatment of malignant melanoma has little effect on the melanoma cells themselves. Instead, it activates immune-system cells to fight the disease.

3 Sep 2007

Spinach contaminated with salmonella bacteria recalled

Bags of spinach contaminated with traces of salmonella bacteria have been recalled by a Californian company.

3 Sep 2007

A mysterious illness in the Congo has experts scratching their heads

A mysterious illness in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has experts scratching their heads.

3 Sep 2007

Leafy greens and E. coli

The rise in year-round consumption of fresh leafy greens such as lettuce and baby spinach is increasing the difficulty of keeping produce free from contamination by food poisoning bacteria, according to US scientists speaking at the Society for General Microbiology's 161st Meeting at the University of Edinburgh, UK, which runs from 3-6 September 2007.

3 Sep 2007

Another U.S. food scare for ground beef and E.coli

Consumers in the United States have been issued yet another warning about contaminated food.

3 Sep 2007

Children just beginning school need their sleep

The first investigation of developmental sleep duration patterns throughout childhood shows that children just beginning school and who get little sleep are more likely to have behavioral and cognitive problems in the classroom, according to a study published in the September 1 issue of the journal SLEEP.

3 Sep 2007

Lowering homocysteine with B-vitamins does not reduce cardiovascular risk

Secondary prevention with homocysteine-lowering B-vitamins does not reduce risk of death or major cardiovascular events, according to the WENBIT study.

3 Sep 2007

OPTIMIST: The Outcome of PCI for stent-ThrombosIs MultIcentre STudy

Stent thrombosis is a recognized complication occurring in 1-2% of patients with coronary artery disease treated by percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with stent implantation. Its occurrence is expected to increase with the number of stent implantation procedures done worldwide. Moreover, stent thrombosis is a hot topic in the cardiology community.

3 Sep 2007

getABI study finds that even mild atherosclerosis in the legs increases mortality substantially

Patients with atherosclerosis in the leg arteries face a substantially increased all-cause and cardiovascular mortality risk, according to a large study presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Vienna.

3 Sep 2007

New ESC-ESH guidelines on arterial hypertension

In 2000, 26% (972million) of the adult population worldwide had hypertension and this figure is estimated to rise by 2025 to 1.56billion.

3 Sep 2007

Symposium on children born with clubfoot

We often think that high-tech, surgical methods are the best approach when it comes to medical care. But for children born with clubfoot, there is growing, worldwide interest in a low-tech, non-surgical method of treatment that is more effective, less expensive and easier to provide than surgery.

3 Sep 2007

How to influence the risk profile of a nation

Professor Geoffrey Rose was a pioneer in the field of prevention of coronary heart disease (CHD). He emphasized in his works how CHD prevention calls for general reduction in risk factor levels in the population, i.e. population based approach. Geoffrey Rose wrote: "It makes little sense to expect individuals to behave differently form their peers, it is more appropriate to seek a general change in behavioural norms and in the circumstances which facilitate their adoption."

3 Sep 2007