Indian state to pay cash to girls to fix sex ratio
• Public Health • Mar 10 05
An Indian state government has offered to pay 100,000 rupees ($2,300) cash to families who have just one daughter in a bid to counteract…
Singapore govt AIDS comment outrages gay activists
• Public Health • Mar 10 05
Gay activists responded with outrage and disbelief on Thursday to statements by a Singapore official who said a gay and lesbian festival - dubbed…
Australia struggles to win support for GMO crops
• Public Health • Mar 10 05
Consumer opposition in Australia last month forced its three biggest poultry producers to stop using imported, genetically modified feed to fatten the 450 million…
Symptom-free bird flu cases pose low risk
• Flu • Mar 10 05
Two elderly Vietnamese who tested positive for the bird flu virus yet remained healthy pose no significant risk to other people, a World Health…
Former President Clinton set for low-risk surgery
• Surgery • Mar 10 05
Bill Clinton faces surgery on Thursday to remove scar tissue and a build-up of fluid in his chest in a low-risk procedure doctors say…
Utility Pollution bill stalls in Senate committee
• Public Health • Mar 10 05
A Bush administration plan to cut air pollution from coal-fired power plants failed to pass the Senate Environment Committee on Wednesday, a setback for…
Powerful pain medicine a growing U.S. crime problem
• Drug News • Mar 10 05
Powerful painkillers like OxyContinn, widely known as “hillbilly heroin,” have emerged as a major crime problem in the United States, with many dealers and…
Computer alert stops clots in hospital patients
• Public Health • Mar 10 05
An alert that pops up when doctors place orders on the hospital’s computer system may help prevent blood clots in high-risk patients, according to…
Egyptian ‘two-head’ baby out of intensive care
• Surgery • Mar 10 05
An Egyptian baby who had surgery last month to remove the attached head of an underdeveloped twin came out of intensive care on Wednesday,…
AstraZeneca drug risk higher than others
• Drug News • Mar 10 05
The rate of serious muscle damage reported in patients who took AstraZeneca Plc’s cholesterol-lowering statin drug Crestor was six times higher than with similar…
U.S. warns of dengue fever outbreak in West Yemen
• Infections • Mar 10 05
The U.S. embassy in Yemen has advised against travel to the western coast of the Arab state due to an outbreak of dengue…
TV, computers a ‘full-time’ activity for U.S. youth
• Children's Health • Mar 10 05
Using computers, watching television and listening to music are nearly a full-time activity for most U.S. children, with the average 8- to 18-year-old…
Health gap ups deaths for African Americans
• Public Health • Mar 09 05
Eliminating the mortality gap between whites and African Americans could save more than 83,000 lives annually, according to a just-released study.
Survival has…
Kids’ asthma often returns in early adulthood
• Asthma • Mar 09 05
Children with asthma that goes into remission commonly experience a relapse before age 26 years, according to a new report.
Potential employers of…
High and low blood pressure bad for brain function
• Brain • Mar 09 05
New research indicates that high and abnormally low blood pressures can have a detrimental effect on one’s thinking ability or cognitive function.
However, the…
Use Afghan opium crops to make morphine, NGO says
• Tobacco & Marijuana • Mar 09 05
Opium from Afghanistan, the world’s biggest source of heroin, should instead be used to legally produce morphine and codeine, a drugs think tank…
Dutch insurers to offer HIV patients life policies
• AIDS/HIV • Mar 09 05
Several Dutch insurers will start offering life insurance policies to certain people suffering from HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, the Dutch Association…
Sperm protein needed for fertilization is found
• Fertility and pregnancy • Mar 09 05
Japanese scientists said on Wednesday they have discovered a protein on sperm that is essential to fertilize eggs.
The protein, which they named Izumo…
Malaria estimated at 515 million cases worldwide
• Infections • Mar 09 05
More than half a billion people, nearly double previous estimates, were affected by the deadliest form of Malaria in 2002, scientists said on…
Possibility of growing new teeth envisioned
• Dental Health • Mar 09 05
We may not be very far away from a time when dentists offer to help people with damaged or missing teeth grow new ones,…
Computers no cure-all for medical errors - study
• Drug Abuse • Mar 09 05
Using computers to prescribe drugs has helped doctors curb dangerous errors caused by messy handwriting and bureaucratic mishaps, but the technology can create its…
US senators encouraged by Specter asbestos talks
• Public Health • Mar 09 05
U.S. senators from both parties reported some progress on Tuesday on a struggling proposal to create a $140 billion asbestos compensation fund, after some…
Folk remedies common in black community
• Alternative Medicine • Mar 09 05
Placing sliced potatoes in a child’s socks to treat fever, catnip tea for colicky infants - these are just a couple of the folk…
Bulgarian police bust kidney-trafficking ring
• Public Health • Mar 09 05
Bulgarian police have arrested three people for illegally trafficking human kidneys to transplant patients in neighboring Turkey, the interior ministry said Wednesday.
Police detained…
Yearly eye exams not needed for all diabetic kids
• Diabetes • Mar 09 05
Diabetes can lead to retina damage, and an annual eye exam is currently recommended for children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes. However,…