Rebecca Camber
Daily MailWed, 30 May 2007 10:03 UTC
Dyslexia is a social fig leaf used by middle-class parents who fear their children will be labelled as low achievers, a professor has claimed.
Julian Elliott, a leading educational psychologist at Durham University, says he has found no evidence to identify dyslexia as a medical condition after more than 30 years of research.
"There is a huge stigma attached to low intelligence," he said.
"After years of working with parents, I have seen how they don't want their child to be considered lazy, thick or stupid.
"If they get called this medically diagnosed term, dyslexic, then it is a signal to all that it's not to do with intelligence."
The U.N. health agency on Tuesday issued its strongest policy recommendations yet for controlling tobacco use, urging all countries to ban smoking at indoor workplaces and in public buildings.
"The evidence is clear. There is no safe level of exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke," said Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization.
Tobacco use is the world's leading cause of preventable death, accounting for 10 percent of adult fatalities, according to WHO. It is responsible for 5.4 million deaths each year, a figure that is expected to rise to 8.3 million by 2030, the agency says.
Increasing numbers of nonsmokers will also die unless governments take action, WHO said in its 50-page report. It said governments of both rich and poor countries should declare all public indoor places smoke-free, by passing laws and actively enforcing measures to ensure that "everyone has a right to breathe clean air, free from tobacco smoke."
AFPWed, 30 May 2007 02:14 UTC
US health officials Tuesday urged that hundreds of travelers aboard two Air France and Czech Air flights be tested for a drug-resistant tuberculosis carried by a passenger now quarantined.
Julie Gerberding, head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told reporters that the drug-resistant XDR strain of tuberculosis can cause severe illness or death.
Comment: What took them so long before urging these test, if it is considered so harmful? 17days after the first flight involved and 5 days after the second flight.
Is it to ramp up the fear of infectious diseases or is it to let the virus spread more???
Drug-resistant bacteria are infecting more people in community settings such as prisons and public housing, and not just in hospitals where such "superbugs" can run rampant, researchers said on Monday.
Over a five-year period, researchers at a Chicago hospital found a seven-fold increase in drug-resistant staph infections that had been contracted outside of any hospital.
EDMONTON – A superbug that causes infections resulting in lesions, bleeding pneumonia and, in rare cases, flesh-eating disease is poised to "emerge in force" across Canada, infectious disease experts warn.
Carla K. Johnson
APMon, 28 May 2007 22:29 UTC
Drug-resistant staph infections have spread to the urban poor, rising almost seven-fold in recent years in some Chicago neighborhoods, a new study finds.
Researchers said the crowded living conditions of public housing and jails may speed up the person-to-person spread of infection.
UPITue, 27 Feb 2007 22:25 UTC
Leaving food on eating utensils and dishes could easily cause bacteria to grow on them, especially if it's moist, according to a U.S. study.
"The best thing you can do is wash your dishes off right away, before the food dries," said Melvin Pascall of Ohio State University. "It saves washing time and gets rid of places where bacteria can survive drying and washing."
Laura MacInnis
ReutersTue, 06 Mar 2007 04:45 UTC
GENEVA - Extremely drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis could spark a "practically uncontrollable" epidemic among HIV/AIDS sufferers in areas like Africa, a World Health Organisation (WHO) official said on Tuesday.
A STRAIN of tuberculosis that resists almost all of the drugs used to fight it is appearing around the world, including the US, the World Health Organisation and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention have warned.
Mike Stobbe
APTue, 29 May 2007 20:57 UTC
A man with a rare and dangerous form of tuberculosis may have spread the disease to passengers and crew on two trans-Atlantic flights earlier this month, federal health officials said Tuesday.
CDC officials on Tuesday released information about the passenger, and called for people on the same flights to get checked for the infection.
Comment: What took them so long before urging these test, if it is considered so harmful? 17days after the first flight involved and 5 days after the second flight.
Is it to ramp up the fear of infectious diseases or is it to let the virus spread more???