Health News

New TB Drug Combo Clears Major Hurdle

Date: Jul-24-2012
The first new drug combination for treating tuberculosis (TB) has cleared a major hurdle: results of a phase II clinical trial published this week in The Lancet show it killed more than 99% of patients' TB bacteria within 2 weeks.  The study suggests the new drug combination could be more effective than current treatments. The achievement is a significant milestone in the search for new drugs to fight TB, and saves years of research, say the non-profit TB Alliance, who ran the trial with other researchers...

Community Health Campaign In Uganda For HIV And Other Diseases Yields Results

Date: Jul-24-2012
A clinical study in a remote region of southwest Uganda has demonstrated the feasibility of using a health campaign to rapidly test a community for HIV and simultaneously offer prevention and diagnosis for a variety of other diseases in rural and resource-poor settings of sub-Saharan Africa. At the XIX International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C...

The Different Effects From Alcoholism And HIV Infection On Visuomotor Procedural Memory Processes

Date: Jul-24-2012
The different effects on memory processes by chronic alcoholism and HIV infection likely reflect the specific neuropathology associated with each condition: frontocerebellar dysfunction in alcoholism and frontostriatal dysfunction in HIV infection. A study of the separate and combined contribution of injury related to chronic alcoholism and HIV infection has found they differently affect the processes involved in procedural learning and memory of visuomotor information...

Cutting Salt Could Reduce Stomach Cancer

Date: Jul-24-2012
If people in the UK cut the amount of salt they consumed to the recommended daily maximum, it could prevent one in seven cases of stomach cancer, said the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) on Tuesday, after examining the latest figures for diet and cancer incidence. The recommended daily maximum intake of dietary salt is 6.0 g, about the same as in a level teaspoon.  But people in the UK on average eat 43% more than this: 8.6 g of salt a day. WCRF say that although there has been a significant downward trend in levels of salt consumed in the UK, from 9...

Greatly Elevated HIV Infection Rates Among Young Black MSM In The US Revealed By HPTN Study

Date: Jul-24-2012
Study results released by the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) show disturbing rates of new HIV infections occurring among black gay and bisexual men in the U.S. (also known as men who have sex with men, or MSM), particularly young black MSM. The HPTN 061 study showed that the overall rate of new HIV infection among black MSM in this study was 2.8% per year, a rate that is nearly 50% higher than in white MSM in the U.S. Even more alarming, HPTN 061 found that young black MSM - those 30 years of age and younger - acquired HIV infection at a rate of 5...

How We Can Innovate Our Way Out Of A Double Crisis - Hunger And Obesity

Date: Jul-24-2012
With widespread hunger continuing to haunt developing nations, and obesity fast becoming a global epidemic, any number of efforts on the parts of governments, scientists, non-profit organizations and the business world have taken aim at these twin nutrition-related crises. But all of these efforts have failed to make a large dent in the problems, and now an unusual international collaboration of researchers is explaining why...

Modified Stem Cells Rejuvenate Aging Heart Cells

Date: Jul-24-2012
Damaged and aged heart tissue of older heart failure patients was rejuvenated by stem cells modified by scientists, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Basic Cardiovascular Sciences 2012 Scientific Sessions. The study is simultaneously published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. The research could one day lead to new treatments for heart failure patients, researchers said. "Since patients with heart failure are normally elderly, their cardiac stem cells aren't very healthy," said Sadia Mohsin, Ph.D...

Decreased Gray And White Matter Found In Brains Of Children In Institutional Care -- But White Matter Can 'Catch Up' If Circumstances Improve

Date: Jul-24-2012
Severe psychological and physical neglect produces measurable changes in children's brains, finds a study led by Boston Children's Hospital. But the study also suggests that positive interventions can partially reverse these changes. Researchers led by Margaret Sheridan, PhD, and Charles Nelson, PhD, of the Labs of Cognitive Neuroscience at Boston Children's Hospital, analyzed brain MRI scans from Romanian children in the ongoing Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP), which has transferred some children reared in orphanages into quality foster care homes...

'Smarter' Anaysis Of Individual Cells With New Genomic Sequencing Method

Date: Jul-24-2012
Only by viewing a Seurat painting at close range can you appreciate the hidden complexities of pointillism - small, distinct dots of pure color applied in patterns to form an image from a distance. Similarly, biologists and geneticists have long sought to analyze profiles of genes at the single cell level but technology limitations have only allowed a view from afar until now. Research published in Nature Biotechnology, shows for the first time that a novel genomic sequencing method called Smart-Seq can help scientists conduct in-depth analyses of clinically relevant single cells...

Correcting Rapid Heart Rhythms In Children With The Help Of 'Heart Maps'

Date: Jul-24-2012
The first study of a procedure to make three-dimensional "maps" of electrical signals in children's hearts could help cardiologists correct rapid heart rhythms in young patients, according to new research presented at the American Heart Association's Basic Cardiovascular Sciences 2012 Scientific Sessions. Children with the condition atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia, or AVNRT, suffer from disruptions in the heart's electrical system that cause sudden rapid heart rates...