University of Minnesota cancer researchers found that children who received radiation treatment for cancer face an increased risk for brain and spinal column tumors later in life. The study will be published in the Nov. 1, 2006, issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Smokers will soon be confronted with a new set of graphic warnings on their cigarette packets, with seven gruesome pictures to be added to those already on display. From today, tobacco manufacturers can introduce a second set of seven images on cigarette packs, and all cigarette packs must be printed with this second set by 1 March 2007.
Last week, in one of TV ad Actor Michael J. Fox appeared with his disturbingly uncontrolled movements. And, his opponents in the stem-cell debate accused him of either acting or purposefully not taking his medications, in an effort to gain sympathy, quoted by news agencies worldwide. Nothing could be further from the truth, according to Parkinson’s experts. In fact, Fox’s disordered movement — a condition called dyskinesia — was mainly due to his taking medication to help control his Parkinson’s, they said.
The number of women being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in Canada is growing faster than the incidence among men, say researchers who suspect an environmental link. Multiple sclerosis (abbreviated MS, also known as disseminated sclerosis) is a chronic, inflammatory disease that affects the central nervous system (CNS).
New autopsy data provide the strongest evidence yet that sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is not a “mystery” disease but has a concrete biological basis. In the November 1 issue of JAMA, researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston document abnormalities in the brainstem — a part of the brain that regulates breathing, blood pressure, body heat, and arousal — in babies who died from SIDS. The term cot death is often used in the United Kingdom, and crib death in North America.
Ethnic pride can help teenagers maintain happiness when faced with stress, according to a new study by a Wake Forest University psychologist published in the October issue of Child Development. Adolescents with positive feelings toward their ethnic group say they are happier on a daily basis than those who have a more negative attitude about their ethnic identity, said Lisa Kiang, assistant professor of psychology at Wake Forest and lead author of the study.
In the case of an outbreak of pandemic flu, large majority of Americans willing to make major changes in their lives. Survey also finds many people would face critical work-related problems. The latest national survey conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) Project on the Public and Biological Security finds that when faced with a serious outbreak of pandemic flu, a large majority of Americans are willing to make major changes in their lives and cooperate with public health officials’ recommendations.
As the government takes a tough stride to ban employment of children as domestic servants and in dhabas, restaurants and resorts with the promise to rehabilitate, Kriti Attri explores the plight of Child labour, a reality which screams at the face of humanity every moment.
Transplantation continues to push the frontiers of medicine into domains that summon forth troublesome ethical questions. Looming on the frontier today is human facial transplantation. “We develop criteria that, we maintain, must be satisfied in order to ethically undertake this as-yet-untried transplant procedure. We draw on the criteria advanced by Dr. Francis Moore in the late 1980s for introducing innovative procedures in transplant surgery”, Osborne P. Wiggins et al.
The UK face transplantation team has been given permission to perform a series of full face transplant operations at the Royal Free Hospital in North London. The independent research ethics committee for the Royal Free delivered its decision to team leader, plastic and reconstruction surgeon, Mr Peter Butler, who said he was delighted with the news.