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Tennessee's CoverRX program stops enrollment due to high demand

Enrollment has been suspended for CoverRX, Tennessee's new prescription drug program for low-income adults, as a result of high demand, the Tennessean reports.

25 Feb 2007

Alternative, diet-based method of treating brain cancer

The biologists found that KetoCal, a commercially available high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet designed to treat epilepsy in children, can significantly decrease the growth of brain tumors in laboratory mice.

22 Feb 2007

Why are African American women more likely than White women to die from breast cancer?

Why are African American women 1.5 to 2.2 times more likely than White women to die from breast cancer, despite their lower incidence of the disease? Is it solely because they have less access to medical care? Maybe not, according to a new analysis that will appear in an upcoming issue of the International Journal of Surgery.

22 Feb 2007

FDA wants clear warnings on ADHD drugs

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States has ordered drugmakers to alert patients to the possible cardiovascular and psychiatric risks attached to drugs used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

22 Feb 2007

Progress being made in efforts to stop female genital cutting in Mali

Organizations working in Mali to stop female genital cutting -- a practice sometimes referred to as female circumcision or female genital mutilation in which there is a partial or full removal of the labia, clitoris or both -- are beginning to make progress, Afrol News/Daily Nation reports.

22 Feb 2007

Cyprus considers social welfare measures to offset declining fertility rate

Cyprus Minister of Labor and Social Insurance Antonis Vassiliou on Thursday announced the government is creating a series social welfare measures that might include paying couples who have three or more children $45,351 in an attempt to reverse the country's declining population, Agence France-Presse reports.

22 Feb 2007

Merck pledges to stop lobbying States on Gardasil

Merck has decided to suspend its campaign to lobby for state proposals that would mandate girls receive its human papillomavirus vaccine Gardasil in light of opposition from some parents, patient advocacy groups and public health officials, the Wall Street Journal reports.

22 Feb 2007

India to open orphanages for female infants to reduce sex-selective abortion

The Indian government plans to set up orphanages in each regional district for female infants in an effort to curb sex-selective abortions, Renuka Chowdhury, minister of women and child development, said, the PTI/Hindustan Times reports.

22 Feb 2007

$70 milion pledged to help Zimbabwe address growing number of AIDS orphans

Germany, New Zealand, Sweden and the United Kingdom on Thursday pledged $70 million to Zimbabwe to help the country address the growing number of children who have lost one or both parents to AIDS-related illnesses, Reuters South Africa reports.

22 Feb 2007

Lawmakers announces proposal to extend health insurance to more children

A bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Reps. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) and Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) on Friday announced a proposal that would extend health insurance to an additional nine million U.S. children, the Chicago Tribune reports

21 Feb 2007

Experimental vector vaccine reduces stillbirths from cytomegalovirus

Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have developed an experimental vaccine that reduces stillbirths among rodents born to mothers infected with cytomegalovirus (CMV) - a common virus that can also cause mental retardation and hearing loss in newborn children who were infected in early fetal life.

21 Feb 2007

Reduced brain growth in alcoholics with family drinking history

The brains of alcohol-dependent individuals are affected not only by their own heavy drinking, but also by genetic or environmental factors associated with their parents- drinking, according to a new study by researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).

21 Feb 2007

Entire genetic blueprints of more than 2,000 human and avian influenza viruses completed and made public

The Influenza Genome Sequencing Project, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), announced today that it has achieved a major milestone.

21 Feb 2007

A black and white look at breast cancer mortality

African and African American women are more likely to die of breast cancer than their white counterparts because they tend to get the disease before the menopause, suggests new research from the University of East Anglia and the Children’s Hospital Boston in collaboration with researchers in the U.S. and Italy.

21 Feb 2007

Gardasil reaction report released

The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) today released a new analysis of the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) reports of serious health problems following HPV vaccination (Merck's Gardasil) during the last six months of 2006.

21 Feb 2007

Newborns with respiratory distress should be evaluated for primary ciliary dyskinesia

Reviewing published reports, Ferkol and Margaret Leigh, M.D., professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), found that neonatal respiratory distress was a common clinical symptom of PCD, a chronic airway disease that affects about 1 in 15,000 children.

20 Feb 2007

Racial/ethnic disparities in symptom severity among children hospitalized with asthma

Children in this country suffer from asthma more than any other chronic illness, and new research finds African-American children with the condition have a greater risk than others of experiencing severe symptoms that escalate into an emergency.

20 Feb 2007

Health professionals would prioritize spending on the young over the old

In prioritizing health care spending, health professionals rank childhood immunization highest and cancer treatment for smokers lowest, according to a new international survey published in PLoS Medicine.

20 Feb 2007

Rwanda plans legislation that would limit couples to no more than three children

Rwandan lawmakers are drafting legislation that would limit couples to no more than three children to control the country's population growth and prevent poverty levels from increasing, Francois Sekamondo of Rwanda's Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning said on Wednesday, Reuters South Africa reports.

19 Feb 2007

Thimerosal to be discussed at Wednesday's CDC meeting

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will meet this week at the CDC in Atlanta. Thimerosal, a controversial mercury-based vaccine preservative, is scheduled to be discussed Wednesday morning at 10:55 am.

19 Feb 2007