May 31, 2011
Unicef, one of the world’s largest vaccine buyers, is for the first time publishing the prices it pays individual companies for immunizations, a step public health campaigners hope will boost competition and drive down prices for all vaccine buyers. (Wall … Read More
May 31, 2011
As more women postpone motherhood into their 30s, even 40s, they’re hitting that age-old constraint: the biological clock. Now, technology is dangling the possibility that women can stop that clock, at least for a while. (NPR)
May 31, 2011
Experts said the dramatic rise reflects increased sexual activity among older women, and higher numbers of single women and divorcees – who are far more likely than previous generations to have casual sex or short-term relationships. (Telegraph)
May 31, 2011
Mexican President Felipe Calderón signed into law a measure to extend anti-discrimination protections to people with disabilities. (Fox News)
May 31, 2011
Doctors at top U.S. medical centers are increasingly worried about a flourishing stem-cell underground where patients get expensive, untested and unregulated treatments that are promoted as stem-cell therapy. (USA Today)
May 27, 2011
Last month, a baby girl widely considered the most premature European baby ever to survive left a German hospital and headed home. Frieda Mangold was born more than four months early, at 21 weeks and five days. She weighed a … Read More
May 27, 2011
Though rape is a problem of deep concern to the U.S. military, its health plan doesn’t cover abortions for victims who become pregnant — a policy that indignant critics are now pushing to change. (AP)
May 27, 2011
Two years ago, Brendan King turned to a medical-tourism company to help book his trip. The Campbell River, B.C., man was on his way to Costa Rica to receive a controversial treatment for his multiple sclerosis. The “liberation” treatment isn’t … Read More
May 27, 2011
A Californian team say they have managed to convert human skin cells directly into functioning brain cells. (BBC News)
May 27, 2011
It is impossible to deny the potential and excitement that nanoscale technology offers for the future. Whether it is in aerospace materials, medical treatments or improving computer devices, nanotechnology cannot be ignored. (The Guardian)
May 26, 2011
France looked set on Thursday to maintain its curbs on human embryonic stem cell research after the conservative government fought off a parliamentary bid to liberalize the country’s bioethics law. (Reuters)
May 26, 2011
Stuck between two unruly fans at a ballgame, one drunkard spewing more spit and vitriol at the ump with every heckle and the other with a ear-blasting vuvuzela, which one is worse? (Wired)
May 26, 2011
The decision to insert a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube in a family member with advanced dementia is often made with inadequate discussion of the risks involved, said a study published May 3 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. … Read More
May 26, 2011
Pharmaceutical companies have recently paid out the largest legal settlements in U.S. history — including the largest criminal fines ever imposed on corporations — for illegally marketing antipsychotic drugs. (TIME)
May 26, 2011
So far this year, 118 cases of measles have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — the highest number for the January-to-May period since 1996 and double the median number of yearly cases reported from … Read More
May 26, 2011
More than a third of working folk check their mobile devices in the morning before touching a toothbrush, a new study says. (MSNBC)
May 26, 2011
Pharmaceutical companies developing Alzheimer’s drugs have faced one hurdle after another. The most effective treatments are difficult to get into the brain, while those that show success in animals have yet to benefit humans. (Technology Review)
May 26, 2011
My episodic memory stinks. All my birthday parties are a blur of cake and presents. I’m notorious within my family for confusing the events of my own childhood with those of my siblings. I’m like the anti-Proust. And yet, I … Read More
May 26, 2011
It’s said that no good deed goes unpunished, and so it is with the NFL trying to cut down on the traumatic brain injuries and concussions that have dominated football discussion for two years now. (Wired)
May 25, 2011
The military covenant will include a guarantee of three cycles of IVF treatment for personnel who need it, the Defence Secretary Liam Fox announced yesterday. (The Independent)
May 25, 2011
A hugely controversial doctor who has assisted the suicides of almost 300 patients across the country has spoken of the ‘beauty’ involved in helping ill people die. (Mail Online)
May 25, 2011
Not all health insurance is created equal: Dentists are far less willing to treat children with public health insurance than they are for children with private health coverage, according to a new study. (Los Angeles Times)
May 25, 2011
Courtney Montgomery’s heart was failing fast, but the 16-year-old furiously refused when her doctors, and her mother, urged a transplant. (USA Today)
May 25, 2011
The resurgence of one previously out-of-work major league pitcher has increased demand for a controversial new procedure utilizing stem cells that could usher in advances in athletic-injury treatment so effective they seem to turn back the clock. (Wired)
May 25, 2011
It may appear morose, but the director of a heart-wrenching documentary about doctor-assisted dying in Oregon hopes his film offers an uplifting lesson on how to live life. (Reuters)
