Study of energy and health in Africa focuses spotlight on charcoal and forest management
...ished in the April 1 issue of the journal Science, concludes that by 2030, smoke from wood fires used for cooking will cause about 10 million premature deaths among women and children in Africa. By 2050, according to the report, smoke from cooking fires will release about 7 billion tons of carbon in the form o...Strategy effective against drug resistant tuberculosis
...cidence of the drug resistant form of the disease, concludes a study published in this week's issue of THE LANCET. The DOTS strategy for tuberculosis includes a short-course chemotherapy with combinations of first-line drugs. There is growing concern about current and future rates of multidrug-resistant (MDR) ...Sexual lifestyles vary among ethnic groups in Britain
...s (STI) vary among ethnic groups in Great Britain, concludes a study in this week's issue of THE LANCET. Kevin Fenton (University College London, UK) and colleagues used data from the second British National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles, involving 12,110 men and women aged 16-44 years resident in ......efit from their cholesterol-lowering capabilities, concludes a review paper published in the April 2005 issue of Hepatology, the official journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD). Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., the journal is available online via Wiley InterScience at ...Vaccine against childhood pneumonia shows promise
... the survival of children in developing countries, concludes a trial published in this week's issue of THE LANCET. The authors believe the vaccine should be made available to children in Africa, where rates of severe invasive pneumococcal disease are up to ten times higher than in industrialised countries. Pne...Men with severe sleep breathing disorder have higher risk of heart problems
...risk of fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular events, concludes a study published in this week's issue of THE LANCET. Obstructive sleep apnoea-hypopnoea affects four per cent of middle-aged men and two per cent of middle-aged women. It is caused by a blockage in the pharynx that obstructs airflow during sleep. In...Medically supervised drug injection facilities safer for users
...jections could reduce syringe sharing among users, concludes a Canadian study published online by THE LANCET. Public-health officials in Vancouver opened North America's first medically supervised safer injection facility in September 2003. Injection drug users in the facility can access sterile injecting equi...Explosion of child obesity predicted to shorten us life expectancy
... University of Illinois at Chicago, and colleagues concludes that obesity now reduces average life expectancy by about 4 to 9 months, a conservative estimate. More ominously, the researchers further conclude that if the current epidemic of child and adolescent obesity continues unabated, life expectancy could ...Medicaid enrollment at late stages may partly explain poor outcomes for cancer
A new study concludes that the unavailability of health insurance prior to Medicaid enrollment may contribute to poor outcomes in the Medicaid-insured cancer population. The study, published in the April 15, 2005 issue of CANCER ( http://www.interscience.wiley.com/cancer-...Rasagiline reduces disability for patients with advanced Parkinson's disease
...iline once daily can improve their motor function, concludes a study published in this week's issue of THE LANCET. Most patients with established Parkinson's disease receiving long-term treatment with levodopa will eventually have motor fluctuations, defined as periods of the day with poor or absent motor res...Severe injuries on the rise among children and adolescents riding motorbikes
...study, published in the March issue of Pediatrics, concludes that children should not operate motorbikes until they are old enough to obtain a driver's license and that mandatory helmet use should be pursued. "Motorbikes are two-wheeled vehicles, such as motorcycles and dirt bikes, and are intended for off-roa...Study shows faces are processed like words
...letter and the characteristics of the lips. Pelli concludes that context hinders identification and crowds what is to be identified. In a second experiment, the observers were presented with a context that proved to make recognition easier. Where letter identification was involved, the letters comprising the...Studies underscore genetic involvement in nicotine addiction & aggressive hostility
...mined gene that regulates alcohol intake. Stitzel concludes that, "Common genes likely play a part in why ther...tisol. Tying together the three findings, Hennig concludes that, "We found that gene polymorphisms contribute to the variance that can be found in neuro-endocr...A shallow hip socket predicts osteoarthritis of the hip
... Based on this study's findings, Dr. Reijman concludes that acetabular dysplasia, at any measurable depth or degree, is a strong, independent indicator for the development of OA of the hip. "Furthermore," he notes, "the associations between acetabular dysplasia and incident radiographic OA of the hip ma...Sunflower seed oil can protect low birth weight babies from infection
...ntervention that can protect them from infections, concludes a study published online by THE LANCET. The skin of a preterm baby is immature and lacks vernix, a protective cutaneous film with antimicrobial properties. Infections and complications resulting from premature birth are responsible for more than half...Three out of the four million newborn babies who die each year could be saved
...d be saved by low-tech and low-cost interventions, concludes a landmark series of articles published online by THE LANCET (Thursday March 3, 2005). Every hour around 450 babies die before the age of four weeks (the neonatal period), mainly from preventable causes. Neonatal deaths worldwide are double that of H...Daily supplement may boost birthweight of babies in the developing world
...uld help increase the birthweight of their babies, concludes a study published online by THE LANCET. A third of global deaths happen in children younger than 5 years; most occur in the neonatal period the first four weeks of life. Low birthweight (less than 2500g) underlies many of these deaths. Around 25 mi...NYU'S Duster cautions against FDA approval of 'race-based' pharmaceutical
New York University Sociologist Troy Duster concludes that a pharmaceutical to combat heart disease among blacks is based on faulty research and urges the Food and Drug Administration to obtain more reliable data before approving the drug. Duster, president of the American Sociological Association, writ...Archival virus still necessitates life-long antiretroviral therapy
...ed data by the Hopkins team on blips in HIV levels concludes that this archival virus is not mutating to become drug-resistant....Influenza vaccination programmes for children in USA and Canada based on little evidence
...nfluenza without adequate proof that it will work, concludes a study published in this week's issue of THE LANCET. Most immunisation campaigns target people aged 65 years or older. The USA and Canada have recently started vaccinating children, including those aged 6 to 24 months, in the hope of reducing diseas...