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Prescription of antibiotics in primary care in Europe vary greatly

Resistance to antibiotics is more common in southern and eastern Europe than in northern Europe because the regions have high rates of antibiotic use, suggests a study published in this week’s issue of The Lancet.

10 Feb 2005

Not enough evidence to say gun laws reduce violence

Despite a proliferation of gun registration requirements, bans on specific firearms and “zero tolerance” policies for guns in schools over the past three decades, the jury is still out on whether these laws help prevent gun violence, according to a new review of studies in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

10 Feb 2005

Simple drug has the potential to save many lives threatened by malaria

A simple drug, given to children with severe malaria before they reach hospital, has the potential to save many lives, say researchers in this week's BMJ.

10 Feb 2005

Preventive measures are failing to stem the rising rate of HIV infection

An estimated 38 million people worldwide, including over 2 million children, are now infected with HIV, and a record 4.8 million became infected in 2003.

10 Feb 2005

Alcohol drinkers three times as lkely to die from injury

People who regularly drink alcohol are three times as likely to die from injury as are non-drinkers and former drinkers of alcohol, according to new research from the Center for Injury Research and Policy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

10 Feb 2005

What can Michael Howard learn from John Howard?

Australia is held up as a model of how to increase use of private health care in the United Kingdom. But experts in this week's BMJ warn that the effects of its reforms are not all beneficial and ask what can British and European conservatives learn from an Australian colleague who has deliberately sought to enhance the role of the private sector?

10 Feb 2005

Junior overseas doctors warned to be prepared for long periods of unemployment

So many junior overseas doctors are struggling to get jobs in the United Kingdom that they are now being warned to be prepared for long periods of unemployment, writes Peter Trewby, of the Royal College of Physicians in this week's BMJ Career Focus.

10 Feb 2005

St John's Wort helps treat depression

A specially manufactured extract from the herb St John's Wort is at least as effective in treating depression as a commonly prescribed anti-depressant, according to new research published on bmj.com today.

10 Feb 2005

Mouse allergen is everywhere in your house and triggers asthma in children

The amount of mouse allergen found in the air in many inner-city homes could be high enough to trigger asthma symptoms in the children who live there, say researchers at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center.

10 Feb 2005

Children younger than 1 year can learn words

Although most parents, educators, and researchers believe that children can't learn specific words until well into their second year, children younger than 1 year can, in fact, learn certain words for things that are not a regular part of their daily lives

10 Feb 2005

Experimental drug Revlimid showing promise as treatment for myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS)

Alan List, M.D., leader of the Hematologic Malignancies Program at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, recently conducted a phase I/II trial of the experimental drug Revlimid showing promise as an innovative way to treat patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a form of pre-leukemia.

10 Feb 2005

Protective equipment used in rugby union has only limited effectiveness

Rugby Union has much in common with U.S. football and is played in over 120 countries throughout the world. Much of its value comes from its rich history, traditions, camaraderie and community involvement with the sport.

10 Feb 2005

Researchers show how attention enhances visual perception

The researchers, from NYU's Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science, found that attending to, or selectively processing information from a given location without directing our eyes to that location, enhances performance in visual tasks as well as the neural activity underlying the processing of ensuing images. The results are published in the latest issue of the journal Neuron.

10 Feb 2005

Oak Ridge technology used to understand semiconductor defects helps people at risk of becoming blind

Millions of people at risk of becoming blind could one day be helped by an Oak Ridge National Laboratory technology originally intended to understand semiconductor defects.

10 Feb 2005

People with severe illnesses and disabilities don't wallow in misery and self-pity

The researchers made their surprising finding by having 49 pairs of dialysis patients and healthy people report their mood every few hours for a week, using a handheld personal digital assistant (PDA) such as a Palm. The patients had all been in dialysis for at least three months, visiting a hemodialysis center three or more times a week for hours at a time to have their blood cleaned because their kidneys had failed.

10 Feb 2005

Markers for premature birth risk at the molecular level

For the first time, researchers have successfully profiled the amniotic fluid metabolome (the sum of all metabolic processes occurring in the amniotic fluid), in order to identify which women who have experienced preterm labor are also at risk for delivering a premature baby.

10 Feb 2005

Sudden emotional stress can result in severe but reversible heart muscle weakness

Shocking news, such as learning of the unexpected death of a loved one, has been known to cause catastrophic events, such as a heart attack.

10 Feb 2005

Need for routine voluntary screening for HIV

A new cost-effectiveness analysis has led researchers from Duke University Medical Center and the Veterans Affairs (VA) Palo Alto Health Care System to recommend that routine voluntary screening for HIV

10 Feb 2005

First evidence of cardiac progenitor cells

The first evidence of cardiac progenitor cells – rare, specialized stem cells located in the newborn heart of rats, mice and humans – has been shown by researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine. The cells are capable of differentiation into fully mature heart tissue.

10 Feb 2005

Expanded HIV screening can increase patient life span

Expanded HIV screening can increase patient life span, prevent the spread of the disease, and is cost effective, researchers at Yale, Harvard and the Massachusetts General Hospital report in the February 10 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

10 Feb 2005