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Counterfeit drugs for malaria, other diseases threaten public health, WHO Director-General Chan says

The increasing availability of counterfeit drugs for malaria and other diseases poses a threat to public health, and governments must take action to supply affordable and effective treatments, World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan said Monday at the 26th Southeast Asia Region Health Ministers Meeting in New Delhi, Bernama/Daily Malaysian News reports.

10 Sep 2008

Vitamin may protect the ageing brain from memory loss

Scientists in Britain are suggesting that a vitamin found in meat, fish and milk, may offer protection against memory loss in older people.

9 Sep 2008

Parents vastly overestimate how much their children exercise

New research from the UK is suggesting that parents vastly overestimate the amount of time their children spend exercising and the true levels are around six times lower than national data suggests.

9 Sep 2008

Healthy individuals may be at risk for heart disease

In the face of a growing obesity epidemic in the United States, researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center have new study results that indicate that how much fat a person has is not as important as where that fat is located when assessing risk for cardiovascular events and metabolic disease.

8 Sep 2008

Johns Hopkins to assist practices in Medicare medical home demonstration

The Roger C. Lipitz Center for Integrated Health Care at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has received a $1.7 million grant from the John A. Hartford Foundation to help primary care practices improve the quality and outcomes of health care for older adults with chronic illnesses.

8 Sep 2008

Seattle department finds OraSure HIV test to be less accurate than label claims

A report by Public Health -- Seattle and King County in Washington state has found that testing with OraSure Technologies' OraQuick test provides less accurate results than the label claims, Bloomberg reports.

7 Sep 2008

U.N. report finds donors providing less aid to developing nations

Despite rising food and energy prices and slowing economic growth worldwide, aid to developing nations has been on the decline, according to a United Nations report released on Thursday by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the New York Times reports.

7 Sep 2008

Milk may help bacteria survive against low levels of antibiotics

Milk may help prevent potentially dangerous bacteria like Staphylococcus from being killed by antibiotics used to treat animals, scientists heard today (Monday 8 September 2008) at the Society for General Microbiology's Autumn meeting being held this week at Trinity College, Dublin.

7 Sep 2008

Early weight gain linked to higher blood pressure in adulthood

The pace of weight gain in early childhood may be associated with increased blood pressure in adulthood, according to a report by researchers at Bristol University. The findings were published in October's edition of Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association.

7 Sep 2008

Thousands of African refugees in Israel not receiving tuberculosis tests, Haaretz.com reports

Thousands of African refugees have been released from the Ketziot detention center in the Negev region of Israel without being tested for tuberculosis or receiving preventive treatment despite a rise in TB cases among detainees, Haaretz.com reports.

5 Sep 2008

Heavy snorers at increased risk of stroke

University of Sydney researchers have found that heavy snorers have a higher risk of cholesterol plaque in the neck arteries, leading to an increased risk of stroke.

4 Sep 2008

African countries commit to new meningitis vaccine

Health ministers from countries of the African meningitis belt today committed themselves to introduce a highly promising candidate meningitis vaccine. The vaccine is designed to prevent periodic epidemics of the deadly disease in these countries.

4 Sep 2008

New research settles measles vaccine/autism controversy

New research from the United States will hopefully settle once and for all the controversial debate about a link between the measles vaccine and autism.

4 Sep 2008

U.S. residents increasingly adopting HIV-positive children from abroad

U.S. residents increasingly are adopting HIV-positive children from abroad, according to figures from the U.S.-based Adoption Advocates International, the AP/Google.com reports.

4 Sep 2008

Women who give birth at California hospitals serving mostly minority, low-income patients less likely than others to breastfeed

Women who give birth at California hospitals serving mostly non-white, low-income women and children are less likely to breastfeed than women who give birth at other hospitals around the state, according to a report released from the University of California-Davis Human Lactation Center and the California WIC Association, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reports (Dean, Riverside Press-Enterprise, 9/2).

4 Sep 2008

Public health expenditure in Northern Territory four times the national average per capita

According to a newly released report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), spending on public health in Australia grew by 12.5% in 2006-07, and money spent on immunisation programs accounted for most of the increase.

3 Sep 2008

Doctors in Northern Ireland welcome HPV vaccination programme

Doctors in Northern Ireland have welcomed the Chief Medical Officer's announcement today, Wednesday 3 September 2008, to offer vaccination against the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) to all 12-13 year old girls in Northern Ireland. HPV is the virus which can lead to the development of cancer, in particular cervical cancer.

3 Sep 2008

Further analysis from ATHENA study showed Multaq (Dronedarone) reduced risk of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation

The results of a post-hoc analysis of the data from the ATHENA study were presented today at the clinical trial update session of the European Society of Cardiology congress 2008, in Munich, Germany.

3 Sep 2008

Men who have too much calcium in their bloodstreams may increase risk of fatal prostate cancer

Men who have too much calcium in their bloodstreams may have an increased risk of fatal prostate cancer, according to a new analysis from Wake Forest University School of Medicine and the University of Wisconsin.

3 Sep 2008

Ghanaian NGO calls on development groups to help eradicate malaria in Ghana by 2015

Development agencies in Ghana must join efforts to eradicate malaria in the country by 2015, Kwabena Osei Bonsu, leader of the nongovernmental organization Add Your Voice Now, said Sunday, GNA/Modern Ghana News reports.

2 Sep 2008