China contains 1st bird flu outbreak in weeks: media
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The first bird flu outbreak to hit Chinese birds in more than a month has been brought under control in Inner Mongolia but Beijing has banned imports of poultry from the area, local media said on Tuesday.
A national laboratory on Friday confirmed that about 1,000 birds at a poultry wholesaler in the Jiuyuan district of Inner Mongolia’s Baotou city had died of the H5N1 strain of bird flu.
“There have been no new deaths of birds or human infection,” the Beijing News said, quoting the local government.
Jury out on impact of sugary juice on kid’s weight
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Results of a new study do not support current thinking that a high consumption of 100 percent fruit juice and sweetened fruit drinks contributes to the rising number of overweight and obese children.
“More prospective studies are needed before any conclusive statement is made about beverage consumption and overweight,” Dr. Theresa A. Nicklas from the Children’s Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston told Reuters Health.
Nicklas and two colleagues investigated ties between the types and amounts of beverages consumed and weight status in 1160 preschool-aged children in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey of 1999-2002.
Many men in relationships also pay for sex
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Many men who pay for sex are already in relationships, the findings of a small UK study show.
The study “raises awareness of the risks taken by men who pay for sex, and the risks they are also placing on their partners,” co-author Dr. Tamsin Groom, a specialist registrar in sexual and reproductive health at The Sandyford Initiative in Glasgow, Scotland, told Reuters Health.
“Routine questions about commercial sexual contacts could allow targeted health promotion and harm minimization for this group of men, protecting their partners - both unsuspecting and commercial,” Groom and co-author R. Nandwani write in the journal Sexually Transmitted Diseases.
One third of US teens unfit: study
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Approximately one third of boys and girls between 12 and 19 years of age fail to meet recommended standards for cardiorespiratory fitness, according to a new report.
“This represents a significant public health problem,” write investigators, “because low physical fitness during adolescence tends to track into adulthood, and low-fit adults are at substantially increased risk” for chronic illness and death.
Dr. Russell R. Pate from the University of South Carolina in Columbia and colleagues determined physical fitness levels among 3,287 youth 12 to 19 years of age who took part in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Survey between 1999 and 2002.
Smoke alarm of parent’s voice more apt to wake kids
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A personalized parent voice recorded smoke alarm is significantly more effective than a conventional tone alarm for waking children who are sleeping soundly, a study shows.
Conventional residential tone smoke alarms fail to awaken the majority of children during deep, or “slow wave,” sleep, “but the personalized parent alarm used in this study did,” study chief Dr. Gary A. Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Columbus Children’s Hospital in Ohio told Reuters Health.
In the study of 24 healthy boys and girls, ages 6 to 12 years, investigators triggered a conventional tone alarm during the first cycle of deep sleep and then the experimental voice alarm during the second cycle of deep sleep. The voice alarm consisted of the child’s mother saying, for example, “Johnny! Johnny! Wake up! Get out of bed! Leave the room!”
Low-Carb Dieters Eat More Vegetables
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Are people on a low-carb diet replacing starches and sugars with unhealthy high-fat foods? A new survey suggests they may do something radically different.
A recent study of an internet-based support group (Active Low-Carber’s Forum: http://forum.lowcarber.org/) suggests that the major change in eating patterns for dieters on low-carbohydrate diets has been the addition of large amounts of vegetables and salads to replace carbohydrates removed from their diet. The report was published today in the open access journal Nutrition Journal.
Prostate Cancer: Ethnic Differences, Screening, Treatment and Research
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National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month in September is a way to help focus attention on a cancer that takes the lives of an estimated 27,000 fathers, husbands, brothers and sons in the United States each year.
UC Davis Cancer Center experts are available to discuss the following topics related to prostate cancer:
Five year old dies after dental visit
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A routine visit to the dentist has ended in death for a 5-year-old girl in Chicago.
Diamond Brownridge lapsed into a coma after a dental procedure at Little Angel Dental in the Little Village neighborhood, on Saturday.
During the procedure to fill two cavities and put caps on some lower front teeth the little girl stopped breathing; she suffered suffered organ damage and had been in a comatose state since being taken to the hospital.
Bird flu back again in Egypt
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The Egyptian Ministry of Health and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have confirmed that another case of avian flu in birds has been found in the country.
The latest case of H5N1 has been detected in Edfu a town near Aswan, in Upper Egypt.
Egypt has suffered the worst outbreak of avian flu so far this year apart from Asia, and although the disease was largely brought under control, fears remain of a renewed outbreak.
New drug gives hope to lung cancer victims
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More people die from lung cancer than any other type of cancer and the prognosis for the disease is poor.
It kills more than 26,000 people in Britain each year and an estimated 163,510 deaths from lung cancer occurred in the United States during 2005.
An estimated 1 million people worldwide die from lung cancer annually.
WHO influenza pandemic task force meets for first time
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The World Health Organization (WHO) Influenza Pandemic Task Force (IPTF) met for the first time on 25 September at WHO Headquarters in Geneva.
The Task Force, whose current full membership is 21 members, has been established to comply with the 2006 World Health Assembly Resolution It will advise WHO on potential public health issues of international concern related to avian and pandemic influenza, including issues such as the appropriate phase of pandemic alert, the declaration of an influenza pandemic, and appropriate international response measures to a pandemic.
The Task Force is a temporary body which will advise WHO until the International Health Regulations 2005 (IHR) come into force on 15 June 2007. At that time, an emergency committee will be convened if and when needed to advise WHO on disease events of international public health importance, but the creation of this temporary Task Force already allows WHO to begin implement the spirit of the IHR.
Sugar linked with mental problems in Norway study
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Oslo teens who drink the most sugary soft drinks also have more mental health problems such as hyperactivity and distress, Norwegian researchers reported on Thursday.
Their study of more than 5,000 Norwegian 15- and 16-year-olds showed a clear and direct association between soft drink intake and hyperactivity, and a more complex link with other mental and behavioral disorders.
They surveyed the students, asking them how many fizzy soft drinks with sugar they had a day, and then questions from a standard questionnaire used to assess mental health.
FDA wants another trial of Lilly diabetic eye drug
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Eli Lilly and Co. said Friday that U.S. regulators want an additional three-year clinical trial for its treatment for eye problems brought on by diabetes.
Lilly said such a trial would take up to five years to complete. It said it is weighing options for the further development of the treatment, called ruboxistaurin mesylate.
The Food and Drug Administration is calling for additional efficacy data before it will consider approving the molecule for the treatment of moderate to severe diabetic retinopathy.
Weight gain between pregnancies raises risks
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Women who gain weight between pregnancies raise their risk of suffering from complications such as high blood pressure, diabetes and stillbirth, researchers said on Friday.
Even mothers who are not overweight or obese but who increase their weight before their next pregnancy could be more likely to encounter problems.
“Weight gain increases the risk of a number of pregnancy complications and this further indicates that previously reported associations between obesity and pregnancy outcomes are causal,” said Professor Sven Cnattingius, of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.
Menthol cigarettes harder to quit?
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Menthol cigarettes don’t seem to be a greater health hazard than regular versions, but they may be tougher to quit, a study suggests.
In the U.S., black smokers are much more likely than whites to favor cigarettes with added menthol, a cool mint-flavored compound. Researchers have speculated that if menthol cigarettes are more harmful to the heart and lungs than regular cigarettes are, that might help explain the disproportionately high rates of smoking-related disease among African Americans.
The new study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, found no such evidence. It did, however, find indications that menthol cigarettes are harder to quit.
