Health & WellnessS

Syringe

Children more susceptible to avian flu than adults

Children are more susceptible to avian (bird) flu than adults, a new study suggests.

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Ban on leaded petrol 'has cut crime rates around the world'

Banning lead in petrol is responsible for declining crime rates in Britain, the United States and other countries, startling new research suggests.

Attention

Bird Flu May Be on 'Silent' March in Europe, UN Agency Warns

Avian influenza, the virus that has led to the deaths of millions of birds and more than 200 people since 2003, may be more prevalent than previously thought in Europe as it goes undetected in waterfowl.

Germany's discovery of the fatal H5N1 strain in healthy ducks and geese two months ago may be a sign that domestic animals are harboring bird flu without getting sick, increasing the threat to human health, the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations said in an e-mailed release.

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AIDS vaccine may raise infection risk: researchers

More than 3,000 people who volunteered to receive an experimental Merck and Co. AIDS vaccine are being told to come back and get extra tests because the jab may itself raise the risk of infection.

Researchers stress that they do not yet have enough information to say whether those who got the shot indeed are more susceptible to infection with HIV. But they said initial information from the trial, which was stopped suddenly last month, is worrisome.

Question

Canadian beef likely cause of US e.coli cases says USDA

A defunct Canadian meatpacker is "a likely source" of beef that caused an outbreak of food-borne illnesses in the United States and Canada, the U.S. meat safety agency said on Friday.

Nearly 100 illnesses have been reported due to the E. coli O157:H7 bacteria in the two nations. The U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service said a comparison of "DNA fingerprints" of beef samples pointed to Ranchers Beef Ltd, of Balzac, Alberta.

Evil Rays

Sliced Dread

Gluten causes countless Americans crippling stomach pain. Why do so few of them know about it?

Since high school, 38-year-old Oakland resident Laura Linden experienced chronic, mysterious stomach pain. It became gradually worse over the years. A couple of times, while the doe-eyed blond was an undergrad at UC Davis, the pain got so bad that she took herself to the emergency room. Once, she overheard a health worker remark that she probably had an eating disorder.

Health

Satan manifests itself in food with high fructose corn syrup

There is a secret ingredient lurking in almost everything you eat. Unless you are a self-proclaimed nutrition guru, you most likely consume a food or beverage with high fructose corn syrup everyday.

High fructose corn syrup sweetens products from soda - nutritionally dubbed "liquid satan" - to whole-wheat bread. The syrup, even saturating what seem like non-threatening items including ketchup, is one of the main contributors to the nation's struggle with obesity. And surprisingly, one of the least talked about.

People

Flashback Chemicals and Stress Cause Gene Changes That Can Be Inherited

Scientists are still deciphering what has been described as the second genetic code. They know that a number of chemicals in our bodies act like dimming switches. They suspect this chemical switching system can be affected by diet, the air pollution we inhale, whether we smoke, and the stress we endure -- and the resulting changes can be passed along to offspring.

Health

South Africa: Failure to Test Helps Spread of Deadly TB

Health authorities' failure to test tuberculosis (TB) patients for drug susceptibility appears to have inadvertently fuelled the spread of deadly drug-resistant strains of the disease in KwaZulu- Natal, scientists report in the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal.

Health

Medicine stopping any bleeding invented in Turkey

Turkish scientists have created a drug stopping any bleeding in a few minutes, which means it could be used in treating hemophilia, the Sabah newspaper reported Saturday.

"The preparation we created has overturned our knowledge of the mechanism that stops hemorrhage. It stops any bleeding in a few minutes. By using this drug, we can reduce the number of deaths from blood loss around the world," Professor Ibrahim Haznedaroglu from the Hacettepe University, where the medicine was created and tested, told the newspaper.