A strain of bacteria has been discovered that can infect mosquitoes and make the insects resistant to the malaria parasite. In the study, in the journal Science, researchers showed the parasite struggled to survive in infected mosquitoes. Since malaria is spread between people by the insects, it is hoped that giving mosquitoes malaria immunity could reduce human cases and experts claim this was a first,...

Paris (dpa) - Three suspected cases of the SARS-like coronavirus have been discovered in northern France, health authorities said Friday after confirming the country's first case of the deadly respiratory infection this week. The three cases were believed to be linked to that of a 65-year-old man, who was hospitalized last month after a visit to Dubai and Saudi Arabia. The health ministry confirmed...

Paris (dpa) - France has recorded its first case of coronavirus, a deadly respiratory infection related to SARS, the French health ministry said Wednesday. The patient returned to France from a visit to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and was placed in intensive care in an isolation ward, the ministry said. The human coronavirus, or hCoV, was first discovered in 2012 in a man in Saudi Arabia....

A leading health organisation claims that there are "alarming variations" in the number of people with asthma admitted to hospital in an emergency depending on where they live. For instance, figures for 2010-11 in England show the admission rate for children in Liverpool was 19 times higher than in the London area of Tower Hamlets. Bosses at Asthma UK allege that good care and management of the condition...

Riyadh (dpa) - Five people have died from a SARS-like illness in Saudi Arabia, local media reported Thursday, quoting the country's Health Ministry. All of the deaths occurred in the eastern province of al-Ahsa. Jeddah-based newspaper Okaz said that two other people had been infected in the latest outbreak of the new form of coronavirus, which causes acute respiratory illness, and were in intensive...

Phnom Penh (dpa) - The World Health Organization on Thursday announced a 400-million-dollar program to combat a resistant strain of malaria that has emerged in Southeast Asia in recent years. The program, which has already received around one-third of the funding it requires, will seek to prevent the spread of a falciparum parasite that has become resistant to artemisinin-based combination therapy...

Taipei (dpa) - The first case of a deadly strain of bird flu recently discovered in humans has been found in Taiwan, the island's Department of Health said Wednesday. It is the first infection to be discovered outside mainland China. The patient who tested positive for the H7N9 strain of avian influenza was a 53-year-old man who went on a two-week business trip to China's eastern coastal province of...

Beijing (dpa) - The World Health Organization said Wednesday they needed more evidence to determine if human transmission of a new strain of bird flu had occurred in China. "The evidence so far is not enough to conclude that there is person-to-person transmission," said Keiji Fukuda, WHO assistant director general for health security. But future proof of human transmission "would not be surprising,"...

Beijing (dpa) - World Health Organization experts have arrived in China to study the spread of H7N9 avian influenza and possible human transmission of the virus, a WHO official said on Friday. Chinese and international experts suspected human transmission of H7N9 "in very rare caes," Michael O'Leary, WHO's China representative, told reporters. The WHO team would spend a week in China, travelling to...

Beijing (dpa) - An eerie silence descended on the streets of China's capital on April 21, 2003 as many of the city's 15 million residents shut themselves indoors to avoid a deadly new virus. The previous day, the government admitted what a growing number of people had suspected: Severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, was spreading via human contact and had already killed dozens of people in Beijing....

A bird flu that has never before been a problem for humans has infected more than 80 people in China, killing 17 of them, and is raising concerns among infectious disease experts worldwide. The first human case was identified three weeks ago, and the rapid compilation of human cases since then has public health officials in China and scientists from around the world scrambling to identify the source...

The connection between heart disease and red meat consumption has long been established. Saturated fat and cholesterol have taken the blame for the clogged arteries found in those who regularly include red meat in their diets. A research team at the Cleveland Clinic has identified another way red meat may contribute to heart disease. According to their study published April 2013, the compound carnitine,...

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at State & Local Health Law Weekly - More than 1 in 5 seniors with Medicare Advantage plans received a prescription for a potentially harmful "high risk medication" in 2009, according to a newly published analysis by Brown University public health researchers. The questionable prescriptions were significantly more common in the Southeast region of the country, as...

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 25.8 million adults and children, or roughly 8.3 percent of the population have diabetes. Up to 24 million people suffer from Type 2 diabetes. Despite taking various oral medications, some patients having Type 2 diabetes continue having elevated blood sugars. Increasing physical activity or altering dietary intake may help. If these measures...

New York (dpa) - The UN Children's Fund said Monday it has been able to achieve "real progress" against stunting, which affects one in five children around the world. UNICEF said accelerated progress is now possible and necessary to fight stunted growth, which it called the "hidden face of poverty" for estimated 165 million children under age of 5 worldwide. Stunting, which is irreversible, is caused...

Beijing (dpa) - The H7N9 strain of bird flu was found in a 4-year-old boy in Beijing displaying none of the flu-like symptoms previously associated with the pathogen, a news report said Monday. The child was tested late Sunday as part of a routine screening of people in contact with fowl in the capital, Xinhua news agency said. At the weekend a 7-year-old girl in Beijing became the first reported case...

Hanoi (dpa) - Nearly 5,000 swifts, whose nests are collected for sale as a luxury health food, have died in southern Vietnam after contracting the H5N1 bird flu virus, news report said Friday. The birds, half the population of a facility in Phan Rang Thap Cham City, died between March 28 and April 11, Tuoi Tre newspaper reported. The city has many so-called bird houses, where the swifts are encouraged...

Beijing (dpa) - China reported its 10th death and five more cases of H7N9 bird flu on Thursday, as state media said scientists were developing a vaccine that would be ready within seven months. The eastern commercial hub of Shanghai, the area worst-hit by the virus, reported three new infections including a 74-year-old man who died on Thursday afternoon. Health authorities in nearby Jiangsu province...

Bangkok (dpa) - A new bird flu virus that has killed nine people in China is "worrisome" because it is asymptomatic in poultry, the suspected carrier, UN experts said Thursday. "From the perspective of understanding the transmission, we have a problem because the poultry are secret carriers of the virus," said Subhash Morzaria, regional manager for the Food and Agriculture Organization's emergency...

Beijing (dpa) - Nine people have died from a new strain of bird flu in China, a news report said Wednesday. A total of 28 cases of the H7N9 virus in humans had been detected since the strain emerged, the Health Ministry was quoted as saying by state-run television. All cases, including the latest fatality late Tuesday, were reported in and around the eastern coastal city of Shanghai. The World Health...

For the first time in her 24 years, Brooke Stone is able to run. She was born with a congenital heart defect that, after surgery in her first weeks of life, was repaired well enough to keep her alive. But it meant she couldn't do anything that might make her heart work too hard. She was told not to play baseball or soccer, join her gym class or even walk too far. Her heart started to fail anyway. The...

GALVESTON - Steven Lomax is worried about his chances of finding a hospital to complete his medical training when he graduates from the Temple campus of Texas A&M's medical school. Lomax, 22, who expects to graduate in 2016, joined about 80 students from Texas medical schools who descended on the Capitol last week to urge legislators to increase funding for residencies at Texas hospitals, the last...

Beijing (dpa) - Mass testing of birds is essential for tracking the spread of H7N9 avian influenza, which has infected at least 21 people in eastern China, the World Health Organization said on Monday. The lack of obvious symptoms in birds made it difficult to determine where the virus might pose a risk to human health, Michael O'Leary, WHO's China representative, told reporters. "It requires intensive...

Potassium in out diets can stave off the risk of strokes. A new report into diet and health by the World Health Organisation claims that eating foods high in the mineral, such as bananas and other fruit and veg, was highly beneficial when it came to cutting the risk of suffering a stroke. Lowering the amount of salt consumed was also advised. The UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence...

Munich (dpa) - Small children may not yet know how to describe pain and cannot easily tell parents they have a headache. Professor Berthold Koletzko from the Child Health Foundation in Munich explains that children cannot provide even semi-reliable information about their headaches until they are 5 years of age. With smaller children, parents should watch for them putting their hands on their head...