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Tobacco plant-derived vaccines safeguard against Yersinia pestis

Through an innovative feat of plant biotechnology and vaccine design, researchers in the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University have successfully turned tobacco plants into vaccine production factories to combat the deadliest form

10 Jan 2006

More nurses improves the quality of hospital care

A study in the January/February 2006 issue of the journal Health Affairsconcludes that increasing the number of registered nurses and hours of nursing care per patient would save 6,700 lives and 4 million days of patient care in hospitals each year.

10 Jan 2006

Viral 'fitness' explains different resistance patterns to AIDS drugs

Some HIV medications lead to the development of drug-resistant HIV when patients take as few as two percent of their medications. For other medications, resistance occurs only when patients take most of their pills.

10 Jan 2006

Evidence for impaired retroviral defense genes in humans

Researchers Harmit Malik and Michael Emerman and colleagues at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have found that a surprisingly large fraction of humans may be impaired in the function of a recently discovered arm of the body's defense against invading retroviruses such as HIV.

10 Jan 2006

Carbohydrates improve insulin control

It is commonly believed that carbohydrates, particularly sugar, are a cause of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. However, such thinking has been challenged following the publication of a thorough appraisal of the evidence, in the latest edition of Nutrition Research Reviews.

10 Jan 2006

Heart patients don't stick to drug programs

A new report says that although people with coronary artery disease (CAD) are now more likely to use evidence-based therapies than they were a few years ago, there is still room for improvement.

10 Jan 2006

Caring for cancer carers: Are women's needs different from men's?

A cancer diagnosis can be a devastating experience for the person concerned, but for families and loved ones, who later become the primary source of support and care, it can be a stressful, life changing experience.

10 Jan 2006

Limitless applications for nitric oxide in healthcare, bio-security, agriculture and industrial applications

Low levels of nitric oxide gas can prevent and kill disease-causing bacteria by tricking them into thinking their time is up, according to scientists from the Environmental Biotechnology Cooperative Research Centre (EBCRC) and the University of New South Wales.

10 Jan 2006

Abdominal chemotherapy boosts survival in ovarian cancer patients

Women with Stage III ovarian cancer given a combination of intravenous and intraperitoneal chemotherapy following surgical debulking of tumor had a median survival nearly 16 months longer than women who received IV chemotherapy alone

10 Jan 2006

British research says daughters turn parents to left, sons to right

New research by economists Professor Andrew Oswald at the University of Warwick, and Dr Nattavudh Powdthavee at London University's Institute of Education, reveals that the more daughters a family has the more likely the parents are to vote for left of centre parties. Sons, by contrast, make people more right-wing.

10 Jan 2006

Risk of puerperal psychosis highest after birth of first baby

The risk of bipolar affective puerperal psychosis - a severe mental illness following childbirth - is highest after the birth of a first baby, a new study has confirmed.

10 Jan 2006

Psychiatric patients who smoke

An editorial in the January 2006 issue of the Psychiatric Bulletin reviews the evidence for the effectiveness of gene-based smoking cessation packages, and asks whether they are appropriate for psychiatric patients.

10 Jan 2006

Poor job satisfaction and burnout among mental health social workers

Excessive job demands, limited scope for decision-making and unhappiness about the place of the mental health social worker (MHSW) in modern services contribute to poor job satisfaction, stress and burnout, the first national study of this professional group has found.

10 Jan 2006

Depression frequent and highly persistent in 85-plus

Amongst the oldest old (85-plus), depression is frequent and highly persistent, according to a new study from The Netherlands.

10 Jan 2006

Advances in treatment of borderline personality disorder

An editorial in the January 2006 issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry concludes that mental health professionals should be optimistic about improvements in the treatment of borderline personality disorder (BPD).

10 Jan 2006

Women live the longest, but the men are catching up

In latest figures released by NSW Health, the life expectancy for babies born in NSW is up to ten years longer than their parents born a generation ago. In NSW between 1973 and 2003, life expectancy at birth steadily increased from 68.6 to 78.6 for males, and from 75.6 to 83.4 for females.

10 Jan 2006