Health
Latest stories
Organic Milk Low as Demand Up and Farmers Struggle

"Got milk?" is getting to be a difficult question when it comes to organic.

Because even as more consumers are willing to pay premium prices for organic milk, supermarkets are having trouble keeping it on the shelves as high feed and fuel prices have left some organic dairy farmers unable to keep up with demand.

W140 Full Story
New Malaria Method Could Boost Drug Production

German scientists have developed a new way to make a key malaria drug that they say could easily quadruple production and drop the price significantly, increasing the availability of treatment for a disease that kills hundreds of thousands every year.

Chemists at the Max Planck Institute take the waste product from the creation of the drug artemisinin — artemisinic acid — and convert it into the drug itself.

W140 Full Story
Counterfeit Drugs Becoming Big Business Worldwide

The discovery that a fake version of the widely used cancer medicine Avastin is circulating in the United States is raising new fears that the multibillion-dollar drug-counterfeiting trade is increasingly making inroads in the U.S.

The criminal practice has largely been relegated to poor countries with lax regulations. But with more medicines and drug ingredients for sale in the U.S. being manufactured overseas, American authorities are afraid more counterfeits will find their way into this country, putting patients' lives at risk.

W140 Full Story
10-Hour Surgery Separates Brazilian Conjoined Twins

Brazil's conjoined twins Israel and Levi were separated successfully at Maternity Hospital of Goiania in a surgery that lasted nearly 10 hours, the twins' doctor told Agence France Presse.

The 14-month-old boys were joined at the hip and abdomen. They shared intestines, a bladder and genitalia, said pediatric surgeon Zacharias Calil, a specialist in separating conjoined twins.

W140 Full Story
Malnutrition 'Puts 450 Million Children at Risk of Stunting'

About 450 million children will be physically and mentally stunted over the next 15 years unless the world takes action to tackle malnutrition, a report from Save the Children warned Wednesday.

Every hour, 300 children die due to a lack of nutrients in their diet, while those who survive are permanently damaged in a way that impacts on their lives and the economic prospects of their countries, the British charity said.

W140 Full Story
U.S. Researchers Say Antibiotics Don't Help Sinusitis

Antibiotics provide little help to people with sinus infections, according to a study released Tuesday which suggested doctors are prescribing the drugs too often.

The study appearing in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association found that using the common antibiotic amoxicillin for patients with acute uncomplicated rhinosinusitis "did not result in a significant difference in symptoms compared to patients who received placebo."

W140 Full Story
94 French Farms Struck by New 'Schmallenberg' Virus

Ninety-four farms in northern France have been hit by a novel virus, first uncovered in Germany last year, that strikes cattle, sheep and goats, a French research agency reported on Tuesday.

The Schmallenberg virus, named after the town in Germany where it first surfaced, causes diarrhea and falling milk production in cattle and fetal defects in lambs, calves and kids, the Centre for International Cooperation in Agricultural Development Research (Cirad) said.

W140 Full Story
Doctors Urge More Production of Scarce Cancer Drug

Four pharmaceutical companies that make a crucial cancer drug for children that's suddenly in short supply are being urged to try to quickly step up production to prevent unnecessary deaths.

A senator and three doctor groups late Monday sent the pleas to the companies, saying that hospitals will run out of the drug in days to weeks, increasing chances that young patients who might otherwise survive will die.

W140 Full Story
Smoke-Free Laws Lead to Less Smoking at Home

Anti-tobacco laws in several European countries prompted many smokers to ban smoking at home and to cut their cigarette consumption, according to a study reported in the journal Tobacco Control on Tuesday.

Doctors pored over a survey into smoking habits in France, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands, both before and after bans on smoking in the workplace, restaurants and bars took effect in the last decade.

W140 Full Story
Australian Study Says Aspirin Could Beat Cancer Spread

Aspirin and other household drugs may inhibit the spread of cancer because they help shut down the chemical "highways" which feed tumors, Australian researchers announced on Tuesday.

Scientists at Melbourne's Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre said they have made a biological breakthrough helping explain how lymphatic vessels -- key to the transmission of tumors throughout the body -- respond to cancer.

W140 Full Story