Health News Today

A study led by Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center researchers revealed that some Iraqi children diagnosed with leukemia paid a steep price for economic sanctions imposed by the United Nations against the Iraqi government. The U.N.-ordered sanctions were imposed in 1990 after the invasion of Kuwait and remained in effect until 2003. During the sanctions, there was a widespread shortage of medications, including antibiotics and chemotherapeutic drugs. ???We wanted to determine if the reduction in the availability of chemotherapeutic agents resulted in actual changes in health outcomes for Iraqi children diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia,??? said Haydar Frangoul, M.D., associate professor of Pediatrics and director of the Pediatric Stem Cell Transplant Program at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. Frangoul and colleagues from the Baghdad Medical College studied the medical records of 651 children diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) who were treated at the Children??™s Welfare Teaching Hospital in Baghdad. Chemotherapy shortage was immediately observed after the implementation of the U.N. sanctions in 1990 but there was an incremental decrease in chemotherapy availability during the study period.  »»»

A growing number of older U.S. children are being diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, while diagnoses among younger children have held steady, government researchers said on Wednesday. The report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found ADHD diagnoses among children aged 12 to 17 increased by an average of 4 percent a year from 1997 to 2006. The researchers found no significant change in the percentage of children aged 6 to 11 diagnosed with ADHD over the same period. The researchers used statistics from a national health survey that included data on 23,000 children aged 6 to 17 gathered in 2004, 2005 and 2006. »»»

(United Nations University) Resisting pressures to convert wetlands for agriculture, bio-fuels and hydro-electricity is vital to avoid destroying ecosystems that provide a suite of services essential to humanity, including safe, steady local water supplies, preserving biodiversity and the large-scale capture and storage of climate warming greenhouse gases, according 700 leading world experts concluding a week-long meeting in Cuiaba, Brazil. »»»

(Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center) Researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center have disproved a long-standing clinical belief that the hepatitis C virus slows or stunts the immune system's ability to restore itself after HIV patients are treated with a combination of drugs known as the "cocktail." »»»

(University of California - Los Angeles) Researchers at UCLA report that engaging in the practice of mindfulness meditation stopped the decline of CD4 T immune cells in stressed HIV-positive patients, thus slowing the progression of the disease. »»»

(Yale University) A new study by researchers at Yale School of Medicine could explain why the cold and flu virus symptoms that are often mild and transient in non-smokers can seriously sicken smokers. Published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, the study also identified the mechanism by which viruses and cigarette smoke interact to increase lung inflammation and damage. »»»

(University of California - San Diego) The chromosomal abnormality that causes a rare, but often fatal, disorder that affects infants has been identified by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, who happened to treat two young children with the disease in San Diego -- two of perhaps a dozen children in the entire country diagnosed with the disorder. »»»

(US Pharmacopeia) The U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention today announces that its new headquarters has been honored by the Maryland/DC Chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties as the Best BioTech Building in the region. USP's new headquarters was designed to help the organization build on its core mission of setting official quality standards for legally marketed medicines, dietary supplements and food ingredients in the United States and around the world. »»»

(University at Buffalo) Over the last decade, energy drinks -- such as Red Bull, Monster and Rockstar -- have become nearly ubiquitous on college campuses. Although few researchers have examined energy drink consumption, a researcher at the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions has been investigating links between energy drinks and public health concerns like substance abuse and risky behaviors. »»»

(University of Southern California) In a new twist on the Confucian ideal of filial piety, a study finds that the assistance of daughters-in-law -- but not their own children -- helps mitigate depression among older people in China. Almost two-thirds of the older population in China lives in rural areas, making it the largest concentration of older adults in the world. »»»

(Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine) Researchers at The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania have discovered that the efficacy of imiquimod, a clinically important immune response modifier with potent antiviral and anti-tumor activity, is dependent on the opioid growth factor receptor axis for its action. This discovery, reported in the Aug. 8 issue of Experimental Biology and Medicine, provides new insights into a widely used drug that may lead to development of new agents that will enhance effectiveness and attenuate side-effects. »»»

(University of California - Irvine) Adult stem cells originate in a different part of the brain than is commonly believed, and with proper stimulation they can produce new brain cells to replace those lost to disease or injury, a study by UC Irvine scientists has shown. »»»

(Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health) Researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health find that abrupt cessation of breastfeeding by HIV+ mothers after the first four months of life did not result in any statistically significant benefit to infants in terms of HIV-free survival at 24 months, compared to those infants who were weaned at an average of 16 months of age. »»»

(University of Washington) An infection due to a virus called cytomegalovirus, which most commonly affects people with compromised immune systems, can also affect hospital intensive-care patients who have no immune-system problems, University of Washington researchers have found. CMV infection is also associated with longer hospital and intensive-care unit stays independent of other causes, according to the study, published July 23 in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association. »»»

(Schepens Eye Research Institute) Glasses embedded with a telescope promise to make it easier for people with impaired vision to drive and do other activities requiring sharper distance vision. Schepens Eye Research Institute scientists describe the advantages of these innovative glasses over earlier devices in an article published in the May/June issue of Journal of Biomedical Optics, mailed in print form to subscribers this month. »»»

(Iowa State University) UI and ISU establish shared DNA sequencing instrumentation. »»»

(Temple University) Isoforms from a new family of genes called novel structure proteins could be involved in apoptosis or programmed cell death. »»»

(University of Florida) Scientists from the University of Florida, Cornell University, the California Institute of Technology and the US Department of Agriculture have discovered the first mating pheromone in one of science's most well-studied research subjects, the tiny worm Caenorhabditis elegans. But perhaps even more interesting is what the newly discovered pheromone also directs worms to do -- hibernate. »»»

(Ketchum) Studies assessed by European health authority conclude that impurity in Roche's Viracept (nelfinavir mesylate) did not increase patients' risk of cancer. »»»

(University of Cincinnati) A new approach to internal medicine residency training could improve patient care and physician-patient relationships, according to a University of Cincinnati study. »»»