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Green tea slows down plaque formation in Huntington's disease

Green tea can apparently inhibit the formation of the lethal protein aggregates that are a characteristic feature of Huntington's disease (HD).

13 Sep 2006

Thailand urges married couples to regularly test for HIV

Thailand's Ministry of Public Health is urging hospitals nationwide to encourage abstinence, faithfulness, condom use and regular HIV testing for married couples after the country recorded an increase in new HIV cases among married women, Sombat Tanprasertsuk -- director of the country's AIDS, Tuberculosis and Sexually Transmitted Diseases Bureau -- said on Friday, the Bangkok Post reports.

13 Sep 2006

Prospect for passage of final health care IT bill uncertain

Negotiations to reconcile House and Senate versions of legislation that would promote the implementation of health care information technology have not progressed, and prospects for passage of a final bill prior to the midterm elections are uncertain, according to congressional aides, CongressDaily reports (Lee, CongressDaily, 9/12).

13 Sep 2006

Sex education increasing slightly in China

Although sex education remains a taboo issue in much of China, some approaches to the subject recently have started to change and some schools have begun to teach the subject several times annually, the Washington Post reports.

13 Sep 2006

Concerns that stem cell study could influence future embryonic stem cell legislation

Technique that could derive human embryonic stem cells without destroying human embryos, recently published in the journal Nature, could impede funding for stem cell research in this week's "Health on the Hill From kaisernetwork.org and CQ."

13 Sep 2006

Md. County school system's revised condom demo video receives positive reviews

The Montgomery County, Md., Public Schools' revised condom demonstration video has received positive reviews from members of Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum -- one of the groups involved in a lawsuit against the school system regarding the original video and sex education curriculum -- the Washington Post reports (Aratani, Washington Post, 9/12).

13 Sep 2006

Childless women run the risk of earlier death

A new study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) finds that not only childless women but also mothers of five or more children, teenage mothers and mothers who have children with less than an 18 month gap between births all have higher risks of death and poor health later in life.

12 Sep 2006

Fewer young men in Canada are being diagnosed with cancer

...while the number for young women is stable, according to the Cancer in Young Adults in Canada report released today by Cancer Care Ontario in collaboration with the Public Health Agency of Canada.

12 Sep 2006

Was the "ABC" approach responsible for Uganda's decline in HIV?

The much-publicized "ABC" approach to HIV prevention continues to be mired in controversy, partly because of its focus on abstinence-only sex education programs over condom promotion, a focus that pits political and religious conservatives against their liberal counterparts.

12 Sep 2006

Father's pheromonal cues may influence daughter's first occurrence of menstruation

Chemical cues from fathers may be delaying the onset of sexual maturity in daughters, as part of an evolutionary strategy to prevent inbreeding, according to researchers at Penn State.

12 Sep 2006

Hand gel kills bird flu virus and Indonesian update

A company in the UK has come up with a hand gel which has the ability to kill the H5N1 bird flu virus in under a minute.

11 Sep 2006

Surveys show most pharmacists, doctors believe Medicare Drug Benefit helps patients, though most think it is too complicated

Most pharmacists and physicians believe that the Medicare prescription drug benefit has helped beneficiaries save money on their medications but also believe that the program is overly complex, according to two surveys released on Thursday by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

11 Sep 2006

Worldwide, an estimated three million cases of pesticide poisoning occur every year

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) marked Word Suicide Prevention Day on 10 September to focus attention and call for global action.

11 Sep 2006

What are the challenges facing medical education?

This question is discussed in this week's British Medical Journal, ahead of the annual meeting of the Association for Medical Education in Europe.

7 Sep 2006

Ageism is endemic in health services

In England, decades of health service underfunding have provided an environment in which ageism has flourished, writes Professor John Young in an editorial.

7 Sep 2006

Many adults need help understanding basic medical instructions, as most are written at above-average level

Fewer than one in six U.S. adults have proficient health literacy, according to report released on Wednesday by the National Center for Education Statistics, the AP/San Francisco Chronicle reports.

7 Sep 2006

Sex differences in general mental ability

A study published in the September 2006 issue of the journal Intelligence analyzed 145 items from the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) in 100,000 17- to 18-year-olds and found a male IQ advantage of 3.63 points.

7 Sep 2006

Fewer deaths from cancer in the U.S.

According to a new report fewer Americans are dying of cancer even though the rates of new cancers remains the same.

7 Sep 2006

Crist, Davis win Florida Gubernatorial primaries

Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist (R) -- who has said he would sign a bill into law that bans abortions with exceptions in cases of rape, incest or if the life of the woman is in danger -- on Tuesday won the Republican gubernatorial primary over state Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher, the New York Times reports.

6 Sep 2006

Long hours cause of medical errors among residents

More than 80% of first-year medical residents work more hours than allowed by national accreditation rules, according to two studies published on Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Washington Post reports (Washington Post, 9/6).

6 Sep 2006