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EU advice for Africans - ignore Bush when it comes to AIDS

In what is seen as a major split with the United States over the AIDS pandemic, Europe, led by the UK, is tacitly urging African governments not to listen to the abstinence-focused agenda of the Bush administration.

2 Dec 2005

Marijuana damages teenage brains

Researchers say that teenagers who regularly smoke marijuana risk damaging a key brain pathway associated with language development and some predisposed to schizophrenia may contract the illness early.

2 Dec 2005

Elderly as much at risk with old mental health drugs as new ones

Researchers at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston are saying that many of the older drugs designed to treat mental problems such as delirium, agitation and psychosis may be even more hazardous to the elderly than newer medicines that now carry U.S. government warnings.

2 Dec 2005

More men pay for sex in the UK

Researchers at Imperial College London, say that the number of British men paying for sex has doubled during the last decade and the men were more likely to have had a sexually transmitted infection (STI).

2 Dec 2005

Swedish researchers knock out anthrax bacterium

Researchers at Stockholm University have found a substance that quickly knocks out the anthrax bacterium. The bacterium has been used in terrorist attacks in the U.S. and Japan, for example.

30 Nov 2005

Treatment of breast cancer in pregnancy

"The treatment of breast cancer when the patient is pregnant does not increase the risk of congenital anomalies", assures Dr. Guillermo Lopez, director of the Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics at the University Hospital of the University of Navarra.

30 Nov 2005

Young women asking for the morning-after pill at UK pharmacies will be offered fast-tracked screening for Chlamydia

It is thought that up to one in ten young people under 25 have Chlamydia, a sexually transmitted infection that often has no symptoms and can lead to infertility, although it is very easily treated with just one dose of four tablets in the majority of cases.

From The University of Manchester 30 Nov 2005

Researchers identify a gene affecting blood pressure

Research published by University of Leicester researchers in the top journal "Circulation" identifies a gene that affects blood pressure levels in the general population.

30 Nov 2005

New technique reveals brain function

Researchers have a relatively good understanding of "where" and "when" the brain edits incoming information; the question is "how" does this happen. It may be that researchers at the University of Bergen have found the answer.

30 Nov 2005

Risk of severe asthma episodes predicted from fluctuation analysis of airway function

A startling new study published in the science journal Nature this week (Nature Vol 438, issue 7068, pp 667-670) reveals that inhalers used by asthmatics for symptomatic relief of their condition might actually increase the likelihood of an acute attack.

30 Nov 2005

Bacterial DNA and IVF contamination risk on New Scientist

Some children conceived by a common method of IVF could be carrying chunks of bacterial DNA in their chromosomes, according to a study in mice. The researchers who conducted the work say that such accidental genetic modification would be very rare, but they argue that fertility doctors should take more precautions to exclude it.

30 Nov 2005

Evolution explains age of puberty

Children aged 10 and 11 are sexually mature, and neither they nor society are suitably prepared for the implications of that.

30 Nov 2005

Non-fat milk products can reduce the risk of hypertension by 50%

The research was carried out by a team of researchers from the University of Navarra and Alvaro Alonso, currently a researcher in the School of Public Health at Harvard University who is the lead author of the article.

30 Nov 2005

University of Nottingham academic awarded prestigious professorship for research into lung disease

An academic at The University of Nottingham has been awarded a unique professorship by a leading national charity in recognition of his research, which aims to improve the medical care of patients with lung disease and respiratory infections.

30 Nov 2005

Imperial public health expert to head up WHO Tuberculosis Task Force

Dr Rifat Atun, Director of Centre for Health Management at Imperial College's Tanaka Business School has been appointed to chair a new World Health Organization (WHO) Task Force on Health System Strengthening and Tuberculosis Control. The initiative is led by the WHO's Stop TB Department.

30 Nov 2005

Comprehensive analysis of DNA barcodes

With species around the world disappearing faster than biologists can identify them, many scientists pinned their hopes on DNA barcoding, a recently proposed strategy that treats a short fragment of DNA as a sort of universal product code to identify species.

30 Nov 2005