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Elective Caesarean births put babies at three times the risk of dying

Researchers in the U.S. say that babies born by Caesarean section rather than normal birth, are three times more likely to die.

7 Sep 2006

Diabetes risk down three times with newer hypertension drugs

According to researchers patients given a mix of modern blood pressure drugs are one-third less likely to develop diabetes than those on older pills.

7 Sep 2006

Blindness added to the risk list of obesity

A report from the Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) in the UK, says obese adults and children have twice the risk of losing their sight from a range of degenerative eye conditions.

7 Sep 2006

Teenagers hardly use the area of the brain that is involved in thinking about other people's emotions

Teenagers take less account than adults of people's feelings and, often, even fail to think about their own, according to a UCL neuroscientist.

7 Sep 2006

Closing in on lethal arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia in young athletes

Johns Hopkins experts on the genetics of a potentially lethal heart rhythm defect that runs in families and targets young athletes report they have greatly narrowed the hunt for the specific genetic mutations that contribute to the problem.

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

Some researchers question conclusion in Nature study that stem cells can be created without destroying embryos

Some human embryonic stem cell researchers recently have questioned whether methods used in a study published in the Aug. 24 edition of the journal Nature were sufficient to conclude that human embryonic stem cells could be created without destroying the embryo, the Wall Street Journal reports (Hamilton/Regalado, Wall Street Journal, 9/5).

6 Sep 2006

Most U.S. residents disagree with Liberals, Conservatives approaches to religion in public forum

Most people living in the U.S. disagree with the way liberals and Christian conservatives approach religious issues in the public forum -- including topics such as abortion and human embryonic stem cell research -- according to a recently released national survey on politics and religion, the Los Angeles Times reports.

6 Sep 2006

FDA releases draft guidelines regulating complex diagnostic tests

FDA on Tuesday released draft guidelines that assert the agency's authority for regulating gene- and protein-based diagnostic tests for conditions such as breast cancer and ovarian cancer, the Wall Street Journal reports.

6 Sep 2006

Iran-U.S. collaboration on HIV/AIDS treatment

Despite the "political chasm" between Iran and the U.S., "some courageous doctors and scientists on both sides have been reaching out to collaborate on important projects," including HIV/AIDS treatment programs, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius writes in a Post opinion piece.

6 Sep 2006

MAC Cosmetics launches new Viva Glam campaign to raise money for HIV/AIDS

MAC Cosmetics on Wednesday will launch an advertising campaign in support of its Viva Glam lipstick and lip gloss line, which aims to raise money for the MAC AIDS Fund, USA Today reports.

6 Sep 2006

HIV/AIDS' disproportionate impact on U.S. blacks must be addressed, but epidemic should not be labeled as 'black disease'

The appraisal made by U.S. black leaders at the XVI International AIDS Conference in Toronto last month that AIDS-related illnesses are "claiming a disproportionate number of black lives" in the U.S. is "undeniable," a Boston Globe editorial says.

6 Sep 2006

Supervised drug-injection facility in Vancouver, Canada, to remain open until December 2007

A supervised drug-injection facility in Vancouver, Canada, will remain open until December 2007 after it received a reprieve on Friday from Health Minister Tony Clement, Toronto's Globe and Mail reports (Fong, Globe and Mail, 9/2).

6 Sep 2006

Illinois Appellate Court reverses $2 miilion award to HIV-positive woman who sued fiance's parents for allegedly lying about son's HIV status

An Illinois appellate court on Friday reversed a $2 million award to an HIV-positive woman who sued the parents of her now-deceased fiance for allegedly lying about their son's HIV status, the Chicago Sun-Times reports (Patterson, Chicago Sun-Times, 9/4).

6 Sep 2006

Hospitals, local governments have more work to do to prepare for disasters

Hospitals and local governments since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have been working to improve disaster preparedness and better equip their facilities to handle large surges of patients, though for "all the progress in improving readiness, experts warn that there is still a long way to go," the Wall Street Journal reports.

6 Sep 2006

Calls for transparency in programs that rate physician quality

Transparency in the health care system "fosters trust, drives efficiency and advances quality" -- which "can be a good thing" for both patients and providers -- but programs that rate physician quality "need to be transparent too," Kenneth Peelle, president of the Massachusetts Medical Society, writes in a Boston Globe opinion piece.

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