Health & WellnessS


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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.

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FDA approves FluMist vaccine for kids 2-5 years

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration yesterday expanded the use of the flu vaccine FluMist to include children as young as 2.

FluMist is the only nasal spray vaccine for influenza prevention and relies on a mixture of live, but weakened viruses. The viruses are not infectious, but the body's immune system can recognize surface proteins on the pathogens to mount a response against them.

Vader

Teen girls report abusive boyfriends try to get them pregnant

Seven years ago, Elizabeth Miller was a volunteer physician in a community-based clinic in Boston, Mass., which offered confidential services to teens. She is still haunted by the memory of a 15-year old girl who asked her for a pregnancy test. It was negative, but two weeks later the girl was treated for a severe head injury in a nearby emergency room. The girl's boyfriend had pushed her down a flight of stairs.

"I assumed all she needed was to be educated about her contraceptive options," Miller recalled. "Later, I wondered what I had missed. Could I have asked a question that would have identified that she was in an abusive relationship""

That nagging question inspired Miller, now a pediatrician with UC Davis Children's Hospital, to dedicate her career to trying to understand the unique characteristics of adolescent partner violence.

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Additive-free foods are swamping shop shelves

An unprecedented number of additive-free food and drinks are hitting shop shelves, market research shows.

One in every four products launched this year claims to be free of additives and preservatives. This compares with just 8 per cent of new food and drinks in 2004, according to figures from Mintel's global new products database.

Health

Drug resistance bacteria gene in U.S. Midwest

A drug resistance gene that allows bacteria to repel certain antibiotics has started to appear in microorganisms taken from Midwestern U.S. patients.

Less than a decade ago, scientists first noticed the BlaKPC gene in bacteria taken from East Coast patients. They found bacteria with an active copy of the gene could defeat carbapenems, a relatively young family of antibiotics that is generally reserved for use in the most critically ill patients.