Revisions to the stem cell act would improve framework conditions for German researchers. International stem cell research has yielded important new findings in recent years, especially in research on human embryonic stem cells. It has extended and enhanced our knowledge of the properties of stem cells, for example in connection with regenerative cell treatment or the investigation of genetic diseases.
An international professional society has issued a patient?s bill of rights for the treatment of eating disorders, conditions that affect an estimated 30 million Americans, most of them young women. For 2 million, symptoms will progress to full-blown anorexia nervosa and approximately 10 percent will die from the disease. Treatment is often complex and typically involves not only the patient, but friends and family as well.
The Academy for Eating Disorders (AED) has drafted the Worldwide Charter for Action on Eating Disorders, an international bill of rights for people with eating disorders and their families, that seeks an end to discrimination against people with eating disorders by insurance and treatment providers.
A new study by University of Arkansas economists shows a strong relationship between economic freedom and access to water. David Gay and Charles Britton, economics professors in the Sam M. Walton College of Business, and Richard Ford, professor of economics at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, compared data from two important international indices and found that greater economic freedom leads to economic development, which in turn decreases the amount of poverty associated with a nation’s lack of access to water.
Mayo Clinic is to host Spiritual Care Research Conference – Life Near the End of Life: Spiritual Research and Evidence-Based Support Interventions.
To highlight the symptoms of lung cancer health minister Rosie Winterton today launched Lung Cancer Awareness Month at the Royal Mail’s South London Mail Centre, where she heard first hand the experiences of lung cancer patients and met representatives from Royal Mail, the voluntary sector and health professionals.
The highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza has been detected in at least 55 countries in Asia, Europe, and Africa. This often fatal disease is of pressing concern because it can be transmitted from birds to humans, although such transmissions have been rare so far. Unfortunately, according to a Roundtable article in the November 2006 BioScience, the journal of the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), critical information about incidence of the disease in wild birds–even the species of the infected bird–is often recorded inaccurately or not recorded at all. The deficiencies in data collection, the authors write, “can lead to unwarranted assumptions and conclusions that in turn affect public perceptions, practical control and management measures, and the disposition of resources.”
In August 2004, the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) began work on a programme called ‘Communication between patients and their hospital doctor’ in order to suggest ways in which greater understanding of the doctor/patient partnership can produce more effective treatment and care.
Fifty U.S. hospitals, including NYU Medical Center, have been named to the first Leapfrog Top Hospitals list, based on results from the Leapfrog Hospital Quality and Safety Survey, a national rating system that offers a broad assessment of a hospital?s quality and safety.
Feeding babies alcoholic milk may help to protect against some food allergies. Kefir, a traditional fermented drink, is consumed in Eastern Europe as a health food, and is often used to wean babies, as it is easily digested. Food allergy prevalence is especially high in children under the age of three, with around 5-8% of infants at risk. Currently the only treatment is avoidance of the problematic food.