The American College of Physicians (ACP) recommends that an annual influenza vaccine should be required for every health care worker with direct patient care activities.
New research from the Howard Florey Institute in Melbourne has shown why mutation in a single gene can cause epilepsy in infants. Infants are more susceptible to seizures because their brains are developing at a rapid rate, making their brain cells ‘excitable’. Their neurons are growing and making new connections with other nerve cells, which can disrupt normal brain activity and results in epilepsy.
A discovery made 25 years ago about how the brain controls blood pressure regulation is only now being explored with the help of scientists from the Howard Florey Institute.
A test to detect the very early stages of cancer could one day result from new research by Cardiff University scientists. A team at the University’s School of Medicine has just published a study on telomeres – small structures at the end of human chromosomes which can play a crucial part in the onset of cancer.
Flu vaccine delivered through painless microneedles in patches applied to the skin could soon be an alternative to delivery through hypodermic needles, according to researchers at Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology. Using new grants from the National Institutes of Health totaling approximately $11.5 million over five years, researchers from the two institutions plan to develop a new vaccine product using the microscopic needles.
According to a study carried out at the Department of Experimental Sciences of the University of Granada immigrant teenagers eat better than Spanish teenagers. For this reason, immigrant teenagers have a lower probability of suffering from obesity, diabetes and other cardiovascular diseases caused by bad eating habits.
Estimates indicate that 1 out of 150 children will be diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, but most will not be diagnosed until they are almost ready to start kindergarten.
Immune system cells recruited by cancers to help them grow and spread could be ‘re-educated’ to attack the tumours instead of aiding them, Cancer Research UK scientists announced at the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Conference in Birmingham.
Sidney Taurel, chairman and chief executive officer, Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY), in a speech at the Cleveland Clinic, called on the health care industry, medical community and U.S. government to actively collaborate on a health information technology system that would provide more rapid and useful insights on the effectiveness of medicines while improving drug safety.
Specialised bath products to relieve the symptoms of allergic (atopic) eczema are of “questionable” value, says the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin (DTB). The NHS forks out more than £16 million a year on bath emollients, equivalent to almost 40% of the total cost of eczema treatments prescribed for pre-school children, says DTB.