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WHO to tackle heart disease, diabetes, cancers, road safety as well as diseases

The World Health Assembly, the supreme decision-making body of the World Health Organization, has raised global public health to a new level, by resolving to take more action to prevent death and illness resulting from heart disease, diabetes, cancers, road safety, and lack of access to health services as well as from diseases spread by viruses, bacteria and other dangerous microbes.

22 May 2004

Women are not checking for colon cancer

Many women who regularly get checked for breast cancer and cervical cancer still don’t go for a test that could save them from another big killer -- colon cancer – according to new University of Michigan research. But perhaps their mammogram and Pap smear appointments could be used as “teachable moments” to help prompt them to get their colons checked, the researchers suggest.

15 May 2004

World Health Assembly set to tackle HIV/AIDS, SARS, the global strategy on diet, physical activity and health

The World Health Assembly, bringing the 192 Member States of the World Health Organization together, is set to consider several critical health issues next week.

14 May 2004

Critical moment in the history of HIV/AIDS, more money, more political will, more deaths

This is a critical moment in the history of HIV/AIDS. There is more money, more political will and more attention being paid to this killer disease than ever before. And yet, more people than ever are dying of AIDS and becoming infected with HIV.

11 May 2004

Canada kicks off National Immunization Awareness Week

Marking National Immunization Awareness Week, Canada's health ministers today encouraged parents and care givers across the country to have their children immunized.

28 Apr 2004

Britain wheezes at bottom of European lung league

Data from The European Respiratory Society’s (ERS) new European Lung White Book shows that the death rate from respiratory diseases in the UK is 105 per 100,000 people, which is twice the EU average. The only countries with a higher rate are former Soviet Union countries - Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – and Ireland.

27 Apr 2004

Public-health experts caution that the widening of the EU could have adverse effects on public health

Public-health experts writing in this week's issue of THE LANCET caution that the widening of the European Union (EU) to the east could have potentially adverse effects on public health-both for the new member countries, many of whom have poor health-care infrastructure, and for existing EU members.

23 Apr 2004

Hospitals Reclassified Under Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today announced that 121 hospitals in 25 states will begin receiving higher payments for patients who are discharged on or after April 1, 2004. The increases are due to the geographic reclassification of these hospitals under a special one-time-only provision in the recent Medicare modernization law. The new payments will be retroactive to April 1.

20 Apr 2004

Researchers find next generation of medications to help schizophrenics

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have found that a new generation of medications called "atypical antipsychotics" can significantly lower the risk of violent behavior in people with schizophrenia who are being treated in community-based centers.

13 Apr 2004

Intensive diabetes management yields positive results

Increasing diabetes awareness and integrating a multi-faceted, approach to improve patient care and education, results in significantly improved patient outcomes, according to a report in the April issue of Clinical Diabetes, a publication of the American Diabetes Association.

7 Apr 2004

Almost half of all medicines globally are used irrationally according to WHO

Almost half of all medicines globally are used irrationally. This, say medicines experts at the World Health Organization (WHO), can have severe consequences: adverse drug reactions, drug resistance, protracted illness and even death. In addition, the financial cost incurred by individuals and governments due to irrational use is unnecessary and often extremely high, particularly in developing countries where patients often pay for medicines out of pocket.

29 Mar 2004

British company to launch "super bug tester" into UK hospitals

MRSA is the first test to be developed from Acolyte’s BacLite® testing platform. BacLite reduces the time for identifying both the type of bacteria and, more importantly, the antibiotic sensitivity of the bacteria from the current 3-4 day standard to just 2-5 hours. This time advantage will mean clinicians will be able to treat, much more effectively, serious bacterial infections and prevent potentially fatal complications, such as sepsis and septic shock, from developing.

24 Mar 2004

WHO meets in New Delhi on challenge of treating an additional one million patients a year

The number of tuberculosis patients diagnosed and treated under DOTS, the internationally recommended strategy for TB control, is now rising much faster than at any time since DOTS expansion began in 1995, according to a new report by the World Health Organization (WHO). Indeed, the past two years have witnessed accelerated growth in the implementation of DOTS programmes worldwide.

24 Mar 2004