Health & WellnessS


Health

Horse flu: 150,000 vaccine doses on the way

The NSW Government will today consider providing financial support to the racing industry as plans are completed to vaccinate later this week an initial 9000 racing horses and breeding stallions exposed to equine influenza.

Magnify

Minnesota Law Sheds More Light on Drug Companies

A Minnesota disclosure law has revealed that drug companies are devoting large sums of money to many members of state advisory panels who make decisions on which drugs will be used in Medicaid programs.

The Minnesota Medicaid Drug Formulary Committee is considering a conflict-of-interest policy that requires panel members to disclose such financial relationships and refrain from voting on drugs that may pose a conflict of interest.

Attention

The Shocking Dangers of MSG You Don't Know

A silent killer that's worse than alcohol, nicotine, and drugs is likely lurking in your kitchen cabinets and even your child's school cafeteria. It's monosodium glutamate (MSG), a flavor enhancer that's known widely as an addition to Chinese food, but that's actually added to thousands of the foods you eat.

Health

Why Doctors Often Dismiss Drug Side Effects

Patients' concerns about drug side effects are often shrugged off by their doctors, according to a survey of 650 patients who were taking cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins.

Statins, such as Lipitor and Zocor, are common drugs with widely known side effects that include liver damage, muscle problems, memory and mood changes, and more. In the case of muscle problems, if the side effect is not recognized it can progress to a potentially fatal condition called rhabdomyolysis.

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Insight into the struggles of children with language impairments

For the first time, a new study has looked into how language impairments affect a child's ability to understand and retell a script-based story.

When we experience an event frequently, for example going to a restaurant, we remember the kinds of activities that are part of that event. This is called a 'script' and many researchers believe that we store information in our brain as scripts. So if you are listening to a story that takes place at a restaurant and you have been to a restaurant before, you would expect characters in the story to order food, eat food, and pay for their meal.

But how do you understand the story when you don't even know the scripts?

Info

US: Baby Cribs Recalled After 3 Deaths

About 1 million Simplicity and Graco cribs have been recalled after three children became entrapped and suffocated. The recall was announced by the Consumer Product Safety Commission on Friday, more than two years after a California lawyer says he alerted the federal agency about a 9-month-old who died in a faulty crib.

"Two years and two deaths is not fast enough. It's inexcusable that it took that long," said Charles Kelly, who represents the parents of the 9-month-old. Liam Johns of Citrus Heights, Calif., died in April 2005.

Health

At least 27 poisoned by fake alcohol in Pakistan

The death toll from alcoholic poisoning in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi has risen to 27, local media said Friday citing police sources.

Some 14 people died Thursday after drinking alcoholic drinks at a private party. By early Friday the death toll had risen to 27, with at least eight people in a critical condition.

An investigation is underway and police have started raiding the city's underworld to find the source of the poisonous alcohol.

Ambulance

Nine cases of Ebola confirmed in DR Congo region

Nine cases of Ebola virus have been confirmed in the West Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of Congo that is at the epicentre of an outbreak that has killed at least 174 people, a World Health Organisation (WHO) official said Friday.

"We have now nine cases of Ebola haemorrhagic fever confirmed in the laboratory, five cases of typhoid and one case of Shigella," WHO spokeswoman in DR Congo Cristiana Silvi told AFP.

©BBC

Syringe

Merck's Experimental AIDS Vaccine Fails

TRENTON, N.J. - In a disappointing setback, a promising experimental AIDS vaccine failed to work in a large international test, leading the developer to halt the study. Merck & Co. said Friday that it is ending enrollment and vaccination of volunteers in the study, which was partly funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Health

Congo Ebola death toll hits 172

KINSHASA - Two people have died from suspected cases of Ebola in central Democratic Republic of Congo, bringing to 172 the total number of victims for the past four months, say officials.

Provincial Health Minister Fortunate Ntumba said: "We have registered two deaths this week among the sick" in Kampungu, near the epicentre of the outbreak in the Western Kasai region.