Health News

How Mosquito Immune System Attacks Specific Infections

Date: Oct-22-2012
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have determined a new mechanism by which the mosquitoes' immune system can respond with specificity to infections with various pathogens, including the parasite that causes malaria in humans, using one single gene. Unlike humans and other animals, insects do not make antibodies to target specific infections...

Breastfeeding Summit Highlights Ongoing Disparities In Breastfeeding

Date: Oct-22-2012
Despite efforts to reduce disparities in breastfeeding, only 44% of African-American women report that they breastfeed compared with 66 and 68% of Hispanic and white women, respectively. According to UNICEF, there is a 14-fold difference in survival rates in the first 6 months, in developing countries, between children who have been breastfed exclusively and non-breastfed children...

Ultraviolet Light Effective In Hospital Infection Control

Date: Oct-22-2012
Research being presented at IDWeek 2012™ shows that a specific spectrum of ultraviolet light killed certain drug-resistant bacteria on the door handles, bedside tables and other surfaces of hospital rooms, suggesting a possible future weapon in the battle to reduce hospital-associated infections...

Harnessing The Immune System To Prevent Lymphoma Relapse

Date: Oct-22-2012
UK scientists hope that lymphoma patients could benefit from a new drug that triggers the cancer-fighting properties of the body's own immune system, after highly promising early laboratory results. The University of Manchester researchers, who were funded by the charity Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research, have shown that, when used in conjunction with radiotherapy, the new drug is potentially four times more likely to lead to long-term survival than radiotherapy alone. Relapse is a common fate for many lymphoma patients and new treatments are desperately needed...

A Chink Discovered In The Armour Of A Wide Range Of Viruses

Date: Oct-22-2012
Researchers at the University of Leeds have identified a crucial stage in the lifecycle of simple viruses like polio and the common cold that could open a new front in the war on viral disease. The team are the first to observe at a single-molecule level how the genetic material (genome) that forms the core of a single-strand RNA virus particle packs itself into its outer shell of proteins. Lead researcher Professor Peter Stockley said their results overturn accepted thinking about the process and could open a chink in the armour of a wide range of viruses...

Important Therapeutic Option Shows Promise In Treating Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis

Date: Oct-22-2012
When tested in patients hospitalized with extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) unresponsive to previous treatment, linezolid, an antibiotic used to treat severe bacterial infections, proved largely effective when added to the patients' ongoing TB treatment regimen. Also, few patients developed resistance to the drug. These promising findings were tempered, however, by the fact that 82 percent of the patients who received linezolid experienced significant adverse events that may have been related to the drug. Findings from the study appear in the New England Journal of Medicine...

Tools For Measuring Health Care Quality From The Patient's Perspective

Date: Oct-22-2012
An ongoing program is developing new tools for assessing health care quality from the most important viewpoint - that of the patient receiving care, according to a special supplement to Medical Care. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. The special issue presents a progress report on the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS®) surveys - an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) initiative to capture patients' perspectives on healthcare...

The Antitumor Mechanisms Of Green Tea Extract In Breast Cancer Prevention

Date: Oct-22-2012
An oral green tea extract, Polyphenon E, appears to inhibit vascular endothelial growth factor and hepatocyte growth factor, both of which promote tumor cell growth, migration and invasion. Researchers made this discovery during a secondary analysis of a phase Ib randomized, placebo-controlled study of Polyphenon E in a group of 40 women with hormone receptor-negative breast cancer. Katherine D. Crew, M.D., assistant professor of medicine and epidemiology at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, N.Y...

In Vitro Fertilization Has Higher Birth Defect Risk

Date: Oct-22-2012
The risk of birth defects with IVF (in vitro fertilization) are much higher, especially defects in the heart, urinary systems, reproductive organs, and the eye, researchers from UCLA reported at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans, on October 20th, 2012. Even though IVF has become much more popular in the USA over the last few years, few people know about the birth defect risks, and even among health care professionals, the problem is poorly understood...

Prostate Cancer Death Risk Raised By Metabolic Factors

Date: Oct-22-2012
A man's chances of dying from prostate cancer are higher if he has a high BMI (body mass index), hypertension (high blood pressure), and raised blood sugar and/or blood lipids, which collectively are known as metabolic syndrome, researchers from Umeå University in Sweden reported in the journal Cancer. The authors added that obesity does not appear to raise the risk of developing prostate cancer. Currently public health recommendations regarding lifestyle and diet focus on preventing diabetes type 2 and heart disease...