Health & WellnessS


Attention

Congo Officials Confirm Ebola Outbreak


Associated Press
Mon, 10 Sep 2007 18:23 UTC
Lab results have confirmed a deadly illness outbreak in southeastern Congo as Ebola fever, officials said Monday.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and another lab in Gabon confirmed the disease as a hemorrhagic fever, and specifically as Ebola, Health Minister Makwenge Kaput said on national television. More than 100 people have died of illness in the affected region since late August.
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Black Cat

Madness! Antidepressants given to babies in New Zealand

Martin Johnston
The New Zealand Herald
Mon, 10 Sep 2007 17:11 UTC
Medical authorities are mystified and concerned at figures suggesting antidepressant drugs are being prescribed for children, some less than a year old.

Records of the national drug buying agency Pharmac suggest thousands of prescriptions a year are being written for children under 10.

Antidepressants are powerful psychiatric drugs with potentially severe side-effects.
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X

Swan dies of bird flu in southern Russia


RIA Novosti
Mon, 10 Sep 2007 14:21 UTC
Laboratory tests have confirmed that a dead swan found in the Krasnodar Territory was infected with H5 bird flu virus, but not with the N1 strain, a source in the local administration said Monday.

This is the only case of bird flu detected in the territory since 410 chickens died from the virus and 22,000 birds were culled at a local poultry farm in southern Russia.
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Magic Wand

3D face scans spot gene syndromes

Rebecca Morelle
BBC
Sun, 09 Sep 2007 21:50 UTC
3D face scans are set to speed up the diagnosis of rare genetic conditions in children, UK scientists say.

More than 700 genetic syndromes affect facial traits, but some are difficult to spot because few cases exist.
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Health

Swimming in chlorine byproducts

Naomi Lubick
ES&T Online News
Wed, 05 Sep 2007 21:26 UTC
When athletes at this year's U.S. national swimming championships found themselves gasping for breath while competing at the indoor pool at Indianapolis University, event organizers said the culprit most likely was the disinfection byproducts (DBPs) from the chlorine meant to keep the pool clean. Swimmers' lung troubles - and other possible long-term health effects - generally have been attributed to breathing chloroform, trihalomethanes, and trichloramines, which form in such settings and volatilize at the water's surface. But new research published in ES&T (DOI: 10.1021/es070871+) indicates that other byproducts hidden in the watery mix also might be to blame.

©Courtesy of Water Technology, Inc.
At the water's surface, swimmers breathe in a mix of volatilized disinfection byproducts, including some recently discovered to form in chlorinated swimming pools.
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Attention

Flashback Hidden Danger of Swimming Pools for Children

Dr. Mercola
Mercola.com
Fri, 15 Jun 2007 16:05 UTC
A new study published in the journal Pediatrics found that children who spend a lot of time at indoor swimming pools during their early years are more prone to developing asthma, recurrent bronchitis, and other breathing problems as they grow older, compared to others who do not frequent indoor pools.

©Mercola.com
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Arrow Down

Some Companies Penalize for Health Risks

Lisa Cornwell
Associated Press
Sun, 09 Sep 2007 21:27 UTC
CINCINNATI - First they tried nudging. Now companies are penalizing workers who have high health risks such as obesity and high blood pressure or cholesterol as insurance costs climb.
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Ambulance

Bird cull begins in Germany over bird flu fears


Reuters
Sat, 08 Sep 2007 09:28 UTC
German authorities started culling tens of thousands of birds at two farms in the Bavarian towns of Trumling and Hofing as a protective measure over fears of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.

An outbreak of bird flu was identified in the nearby Bavarian town of Wachenroth on Aug. 25 after dead ducks found in a poultry farm tested positive for the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of the virus.
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Ambulance

Flesh-eating disease was just the beginning

Lisa Priest
The Globe and Mail
Sat, 08 Sep 2007 09:25 UTC
Marie-Marthe Becigneul couldn't believe her bad luck when flesh-eating disease ravaged her legs in June 19, 2006. She endured six operations, with surgeons slicing away dead and infected tissue. After a stint at a rehabilitation hospital, she was relieved to finally walk again.

Months later, in the fall, she went to the Hôtel-Dieu Hospital in Sherbrooke, where she underwent skin grafts to repair the surgical scars left from flesh-eating disease.

That's when her health took a dramatic turn for the worse.
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Bomb

Germany warns citizens to avoid using Wi-Fi

Geoffrey Lean
The Indipendent
Sun, 09 Sep 2007 15:08 UTC
Environment Ministry's verdict on the health risks from wireless technology puts the British government to shame.

Comment: Electro-sensitivity, EMF and WIFI - one woman's saga

[...]Doctors say there is little scientific evidence to back up a link between EMF and poor health. They claim the symptoms, often attributed to flu or viruses, are psychosomatic.

But campaigners disagree. They reckon around 500 people are already being treated for ES [Electro Sensitivity] and as many as five per cent of the population could be affected.

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