Poland says EU should help Russia fight bird flu
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Poland called on the European Union to help Russia stop the spread of deadly bird flu, which Polish veterinary services said on Tuesday could be brought to the country by wild birds within weeks.
Fears of a global outbreak of the highly pathogenic strain of bird flu have grown after the virus spread from Asia into eastern Russia and Kazakhstan. Health experts fear it could mutate into a form that spreads from person to person.
School-based program keeps girls active after class
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A school-based program designed to increase high-school girls’ physical activity levels may have benefits that extend beyond school hours, new study findings show.
Girls who participated in the school-based intervention were more likely to report engaging in vigorous physical activity in the months after the program ended than were girls who did not participate in the intervention.
Dutchwoman, “world’s oldest person”, dies aged 115
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The world’s oldest person on record, a Dutchwoman who swore by a daily helping of herring for a healthy life, died on Tuesday aged 115.
Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper, a former needlework teacher born on June 29, 1890, died in her sleep at a nursing home in the northern Dutch town of Hoogeveen.
Firm recalls John Morrell sausages for food risk
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Lykes Meat Group voluntarily recalled 35,830 lbs (16,300 kgs) of Polish sausage sold under the John Morrell brand that may have been under-processed, a U.S. food safety agency said Tuesday.
The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) said consumers face the risk of foodborne illness when meats are not processed properly. FSIS said it had no reports of illnesses from the recall. Lykes Meat, based in Plant City, Florida, discovered the problem and began the recall on Monday.
Volkswagen uses game to fight AIDS in South Africa
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The game the school children are playing in this South African town looks like Trivial Pursuit. But the subject is anything but trivial.
The boardgame was created by Volkswagen South Africa (VWSA) - a subsidiary of German car maker Volkswagen - to teach children about HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Pregnancy.
US official defends “morning-after” pill delay
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U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt on Monday defended the Food and Drug Administration’s delayed ruling on over-the-counter access for a “morning-after” pill, saying officials never guaranteed a “yes or no” decision by this week.
On Friday, the FDA postponed a ruling on Barr Laboratories’ Plan B emergency contraception because it said officials are unsure how to enforce a prescription requirement for younger girls while easing access for women over 16.
Trafficking of women, children on rise worldwide-UN
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Human trafficking is on the rise worldwide, with millions of women and children ending up as sex slaves, beggars and mine laborers each year, U.N. officials said on Tuesday.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, speaking at an Asia-Pacific human rights conference in Beijing, called trafficking in humans horrendous.
Fast food “clusters” seen around schools
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Most Chicago kids have a wide array of fast food options waiting for them just a few minutes’ walk from school, a new study shows.
This means kids from kindergarten to high school have easy access to high-fat, low-nutrition snacks and meals before, after and even during school, Dr. S. Bryn Austin of Children’s Hospital in Boston and her colleagues report. And it isn’t just a Chicago problem, Austin told Reuters Health; she expects the situation is similar in urban centers nationwide.
California files suit on french fry health warning
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California Attorney General Bill Lockyer has filed a lawsuit to force top makers of potato chips and french fries to warn consumers about a potential cancer-causing chemical found in the popular snacks.
In a complaint filed on Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Lockyer sought an injunction to stop restaurant chains such as McDonald’s Corp. and Wendy’s International Inc. from selling french fries without some form of warning.
Peanut paste helps battle hunger in Africa
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Michel Lescanne lifts the lid of a giant mixer that stirs peanut paste, sugar and a special vitamin mix into a sticky cream at his small village factory in northern France.
The brown paste, known as Plumpy’nut, has become an elixir of life for tens of thousands of African children.
South Africans beef up at gym to battle AIDS, crime
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With bulging biceps and abs like steel, South Africa’s jobless youngsters are turning to bodybuilding to help them fight AIDS and resist a life of crime.
Makeshift gyms are springing up across the country’s poorest and toughest townships, aimed at helping members develop discipline over delinquency and stay healthy as HIV/AIDS ravages their communities.
Starving won’t make people live longer-researchers
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Starving - or caloric restriction - may make worms and mice live up to 50 percent longer but it will not help humans live super-long lives, two biologists argue.
They said Sunday their mathematical model showed that a lifetime of low-calorie dieting would only extend human life span by about 7 percent, unlike smaller animals, whose life spans are affected more by the effects of starvation.
Vets with traumatic stress can kick smoking habit
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Veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder have a high rate of smoking and a poor rate of quitting, but new research shows that adding smoking-cessation therapy to their routine mental health care may help.
This “integrated” care, researchers found, was more successful in helping vets kick the smoking habit than the traditional approach of sending them to a specialized smoking-cessation clinic.
Shock wave therapy helps some stroke sufferers
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After a Stroke, some patients develop muscle spasm in their hand and wrist. A small study now indicates that the condition can be relieved with focused shock wave therapy, and the benefits may persist for at least 12 weeks after treatment.
Shock wave therapy is commonly used to break up kidney stones, and it has also proven useful in the treatment of various bone and tendon diseases, but there’s not much known about its use for abnormal muscle tension, or “hypertonia,” Italian researchers note.
China experts say bird flu bigger threat than SARS
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Bird flu now poses a bigger and more worrying threat to people than SARS, medical experts in southern China, the region where severe acute respiratory syndrome first surfaced, said on Friday.
The main reason, they said, was that humans had learned how to effectively control the spread of SARS, but had not done the same for bird flu, which can be spread by wild birds.
