Health News

Targeting The Mosquito's Life Cycle In The Fight Against Malaria

Date: May-10-2012
Over 200 million people contract malaria each year, and according to the World Health Organization, an estimated 655,000 people died from malaria in 2010. Malaria is caused by the parasite Plasmodium, which is transmitted to humans through mosquito bites. More effective control of malaria will require the development of new tools to prevent new infections. Wesley Van Voorhis at the University of Washington in Seattle and Oliver Billker at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, England assembled an international research team to tackle the challenge of finding new ways to combat...

Reduction In Deaths After The Painkiller Co-Proxamol Withdrawn In The UK

Date: May-10-2012
During the six years following the withdrawal of the analgesic co-proxamol in the UK in 2005, there was a major reduction in poisoning deaths involving this drug, without apparent significant increase in deaths involving other analgesics. These are the findings of a study by Keith Hawton of the University of Oxford, UK and colleagues and published in this week's PLoS Medicine. Co-proxamol, a prescription analgesic (or pain killer) containing paracetamol and the opioid dextropropoxyphene, was implicated in a fifth of drug-poisoning suicides in England and Wales between 1997 and 1999. Mainly in...

Flawed Analysis Leads To Negative View Of Foreign Aid For Health

Date: May-10-2012
The evidence underlying the current widely-held view that foreign aid for health in a recipient country leads to a displacement or diversion of government funds from that country's health sector is unreliable and should not be used to guide policy, according to experts writing in this week's PLoS Medicine. Rajaie Batniji and Eran Bendavid from Stanford University, USA question the robustness and validity of a previous analysis (by Lu and colleagues, which was published in The Lancet in 2010) on which the current scepticism towards health aid is based and which, according to the authors, is...

Preventing Spread Of HIV And TB In African Prisons

Date: May-10-2012
In order to reduce HIV and TB in African prisons, African governments and international health donors should fund criminal justice reforms, experts from Human Rights Watch say in this week's PLoS Medicine. "Overcrowding is driving HIV and TB transmission in African prisons, and alleviating overcrowding by increasing the availability of non-custodial alternatives including community service and bail and improving access to legal representation should be understood as essential public health measures for HIV and TB prevention and control," say Joseph Amon and Katherine Todrys from the...

Topical Aganirsen Found To Be Active In Retinal Disease

Date: May-10-2012
Gene Signal, a company focused on developing innovative drugs to manage angiogenesis based conditions, has announced that positive data from a study of aganirsen (GS-101, eye drops) in a nonhuman primate model of choroidal neovascularization has been presented at the 2012 ARVO Annual Meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Topical administration of aganirsen was found to inhibit neovascular growth and leakage in this model and strongly suggests a role for the drug candidate in human retinal neovascular diseases such as wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and ischemic retinopathy. Gene...

Blood Clot Prevention In A Dietary Supplement

Date: May-10-2012
A compound called rutin, commonly found in fruits and vegetables and sold over the counter as a dietary supplement, has been shown to inhibit the formation of blood clots in an animal model of thrombosis. These new findings, led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and published in the on-line issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI), identify a novel strategy for preventing thrombosis, and help pave the way for clinical testing of this popular flavonoid as a therapy for the prevention and treatment of stroke and heart attack, as well as deep venous...

Changes In Technology, Clinical Practice Prompt Updated Recommendations For Modern Cardiac Cath Labs

Date: May-10-2012
Modern Cardiac Cath Labs Main Category: Heart Disease Also Included In: Cardiovascular / Cardiology;  Radiology / Nuclear Medicine Article Date: 10 May 2012 - 0:00 PDT  email to a friend   printer friendly   opinions    rate article  Current ratings for: 'Changes In Technology, Clinical Practice Prompt Updated Recommendations For Modern Cardiac Cath Labs' Patient / Public: Healthcare Prof: Modern cardiac catheterization laboratories bear scant resemblance to the cath labs of a decade ago. An updated consensus statement offers physicians guidance on how to excel in...

Bilingual Study Reveals How Emotion Can Shut Down High-Level Mental Processes Without Our Knowledge

Date: May-10-2012
Psychologists at Bangor University believe that they have glimpsed for the first time, a process that takes place deep within our unconscious brain, where primal reactions interact with higher mental processes. Writing in the Journal of Neuroscience (May 9, 2012 - 32(19):6485 - 6489 - 6485), they identify a reaction to negative language inputs which shuts down unconscious processing. For the last quarter of a century, psychologists have been aware of, and fascinated by the fact that our brain can process high-level information such as meaning outside consciousness. What the psychologists at...

Breast And Colon Cancer Survivors Live Longer When Physically Active

Date: May-10-2012
Physical activity is associated with reduced breast and colon cancer mortality, but there is insufficient evidence on the association for other cancer types, according to a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Improvements in cancer treatment and screening have allowed cancer survivors to live longer and as a result, cancer survivors frequently look at information about how lifestyle factors like exercise can affect their prognosis. Multiple observational studies and randomized control trials (RCTs) have looked at the effects that physical activity can have on...

Commuters May Be Risking Their Health

Date: May-10-2012
As populations move even further away from urban centers, more people spend longer hours behind the wheel on their way to and from work. While sedentary behavior is known to have adverse effects on cardiovascular and metabolic health, the impact of long commutes by automobile are less understood. A new study has found that greater commuting distances are associated with decreased cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), increased weight, and other indicators of metabolic risk. The results are published in the June issue of American Journal of Preventive Medicine. "This study yields new information...