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Bird flu hits poultry in two Vietnam provinces


Reuters
Fri, 24 Aug 2007 15:39 UTC
Bird flu has spread to two more provinces in Vietnam, killing hundreds of chickens and ducks, the Agriculture Ministry said on Friday.

The outbreak of H5N1 in the northern province of Thai Nguyen and Dong Thap to the south brought to four the number of provinces on the government's current bird flu watchlist.
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Health

H5N1 Bird Flu Reaches Germany

Simon Jones
newslocale.com
Sun, 26 Aug 2007 10:34 UTC
Dead ducks at a farm in Wachenroth in Germany have tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu signaling the appearance of the virus for the third time in the country. The farm in question is located in Bavaria's Erlangen-Hoechstadt area.

The infection was suspected after some 400 ducks died mysteriously within a short time. Bavaria's environment ministry said that all the 160,000 birds in the farm would be culled to prevent the spread of infection to surrounding areas. All the 44,000 ducks may have to be killed as well.
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Bomb

Experts say: US childbirth deaths on the rise.

Mike Stobbe, AP Medical Writer
Associated Press
Sat, 25 Aug 2007 21:47 UTC
U.S. women are dying from childbirth at the highest rate in decades, new government figures show. Though the risk of death is very small, experts believe increasing maternal obesity and a jump in Caesarean sections are partly to blame.
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Health

Flashback U.S. has second worst newborn death rate in modern world, report says

Jeff Green
CNN
Wed, 10 May 2006 16:55 UTC
An estimated 2 million babies die within their first 24 hours each year worldwide and the United States has the second worst newborn mortality rate in the developed world, according to a new report.

American babies are three times more likely to die in their first month as children born in Japan, and newborn mortality is 2.5 times higher in the United States than in Finland, Iceland or Norway, Save the Children researchers found.
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Health

CDC Identifies Two New Norovirus Strains

Mike Stobbe
AP
Sat, 25 Aug 2007 16:46 UTC
A 90-year-old nursing home patient died from the stomach flu last year, marking the first time U.S. health officials confirmed that the highly contagious bug is sometimes fatal.

The North Carolina woman so far is the only person for whom lab tests confirmed norovirus as the killer, but health officials believe the virus killed at least 18 others and caused thousands of illnesses late last year.
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Nuke

The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products

Vanja Petrovic
Alertnet
Sat, 25 Aug 2007 07:21 UTC
Investigative journalist Mark Schapiro discusses why companies that manufacture hazard-free products for the European Union often produce toxin-filled versions of the same items for America and developing countries.
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Magic Wand

Flashback Throw out your shampoo

Matthew Parris
The Times Online
Mon, 26 Mar 2007 13:01 UTC
If you want hair as fluffy as mine, the solution is staring you in the face
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Health

700,000 New Yorkers with jobs do not have health insurance


NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
Sat, 25 Aug 2007 06:41 UTC
Having a job is not necessarily a passport to health insurance in New York City. One million New Yorkers - some 17% of the adult population - lacked coverage in 2005, according to a new Health Department report, and 700,000 of them were employed. The complete report, Health Care Access among Adults in New York City, is available online here.

The report suggests that the lack of coverage is especially severe among young adults, Hispanics, and men:
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Attention

Free will takes flight: how our brains respond to an approaching menace


Wellcome Trust
Sat, 25 Aug 2007 06:18 UTC
Wellcome Trust scientists have identified for the first time how our brain's response changes the closer a threat gets. Using a "Pac Man"-like computer game where a volunteer is pursued by an artificial predator, the researchers showed that the fear response moves from the strategic areas of the brain towards more reactive responses as the artificial predator approaches.

When faced with a threat, such as a large bear, humans, like other animals, alter their behaviour depending on whether the threat is close or distant. This is because different defence mechanisms are needed depending on whether, for example, the bear is fifty feet away, when being aware of its presence may be enough, or five feet away, when we might need to fight or run away.
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Magic Wand

TAU Researchers Discover Correlation Between Birth Month and Short-Sightedness


TAU
Sat, 25 Aug 2007 06:04 UTC
Planning for a summer delivery for your child? You might want to choose an ophthalmologist along with an obstetrician.

If your child is born in the winter or fall, it will have better long-range eyesight throughout its lifetime and less chance of requiring thick corrective glasses, predicts a Tel Aviv University investigation led by Dr. Yossi Mandel, a senior ophthalmologist in the Israel Defense Forces Medical Corps.

Forming a large multi-center Israeli team, the scientists took data on Israeli youth aged 16-23 and retroactively correlated the incidence of myopia (short-sightedness) with their month of birth. The results were astonishing. Babies born in June and July had a 24% greater chance of becoming severely myopic than those born in December and January the group with the least number of severely myopic individuals. The investigators say that this evidence is likely applicable to babies born anywhere in the world.
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