Infectious diseases researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center are noticing a significant increase in the number of infections due to Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) and the number of asymptomatic individuals who harbor the organism in their bodies.

In fact, in a recent analysis of children seen in 2003 at the emergency department of the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, approximately 60 percent of the skin infections due to the s

UCL public health scientist, Professor Sir Michael Marmot, writes in a paper published in the Lancet journal on 18th March 2005 that a major new thrust is needed internationally to tackle health inequalities. Professor Marmot, Director of UCL’s International

Centre for Health & Society, will chair the Commission on Social Determinants of Health launched by the World Health Organisation on Friday 18th March bringing together scientists and policy-makers to help reverse the negativ

NHS Stop-Smoking Services are insufficient to deliver national smoking targets, and Government smoking targets are themselves insufficient for the poorest communities, says a study published online by the BMJ today.

The study examined the effectiveness of NHS smoking cessation services in Northumberland and Tyne and Wear. These areas have populations dominated by manual workers and contain some of the worst health and deprivation in the country.

Research showed that smo

Acupuncture and strengthening exercises help relieve pelvic girdle pain during pregnancy and are effective complements to standard treatment, finds a study published online by the BMJ today.

Pelvic girdle pain is a common complaint among pregnant women worldwide, but no cure exists.

Researchers in Sweden identified 386 pregnant women with pelvic girdle pain. Women were randomly divided into three groups; one received standard treatment (a pelvic belt and a home exercise p

The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) today launches its new initiative Women at Heart at the Spring Meeting of its 49 National Cardiac Societies. Women at Heart is aimed at medical professionals, to highlight the growing burden and under-appreciation of women’s heart disease and promote improved handling of women at risk of cardiovascular disease in clinical practice.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the primary cause of death in European women, killing a higher percentage of

The circumference of a man’s waist is a better predictor of his risk of developing type 2 diabetes than his body mass index (BMI), which is a weight-to-height ratio, or waist-to-hip ratio alone. This finding, published in the March 2005 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, is based on data collected from 27,270 men tracked over 13 years who participated in the Harvard Health Professionals Follow-Up Study.

Men who had larger waists (assessed using waist circumference and

Scientists at Emory University and the Georgia Emerging Infections Program find powerful positive effect on both children and unvaccinated adults

The problem of increasing antibiotic resistance in cases of Streptococcus pneumoniae, a major cause of pneumonia, meningitis and sepsis, was dramatically reversed following the licensing and use of a new conjugate vaccine for young children in February 2000, according to research conducted at Emory University, the Atlanta Veterans Affairs M

A new set of priorities for the chemical industry will be revealed by the Chemical Industries Association (CIA) today during the launch of their new Policy Priorities booklet at the House of Commons, London.

On the eve of the Budget, and as we near the General Election, these issues have a particular significance for policy makers. The booklet argues that the correct public policy framework can help the chemical industry to continue to be productive and innovative and to work

Old masters never used the green pigment copper resinate supposed to be present in their paintings. Dutch art historian Margriet van Eikema Hommes reached this conclusion on the basis of old paint recipes, investigations of paintings and experiments to reproduce the green paint. The scientist recently published her results in a richly-illustrated book.

Green copper-containing glazed paint on oil paintings by artists such as Frans Hals, Raphael and Titian was not made by dissolvi

Chemical catalysts used to produce clean fuels gradually become less active. Dutch researcher Bas Vogelaar believes that the loss of sulphur atoms might be an important cause of this. He investigated hydroprocessing catalysts which remove sulphur compounds from petrol and diesel.

Crude oil contains sulphur compounds which form sulphur oxides during the combustion process. These sulphur oxides are an important source of acid rain.

Hydroprocessing catalysts are used in oi

A unique technique for neutralizing the action of the leptin protein in humans and animals – thereby providing a means for controlling and better understanding of leptin function, including its role in unwanted cell growth — has been developed by researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Leptin was discovered ten years ago and has attracted attention first because of its involvement in control of appetite and later by its effect on growth, puberty, digestion and immun

For every man who thinks women are complex, there’s new evidence they’re correct; at least when it comes to their genes.

Chromosomes contain the set of instructions to create an organism. Men have one X chromosome and one Y chromosome, the latter being responsible for the characteristics that make men male, including the male sexual organs and the ability to produce sperm. In contrast, women have two copies of the X chromosome. But, because the X chromosome carries a bigg

Plants native to the Mojave Desert may one day help provide relief to millions of people who suffer from two prominent tropical diseases.

Scientists at Ohio State University found that extracts of the dotted dalea (Psorothamnus polydenius) and the Mojave dalea (Psorothamnus arborescens) can kill the parasites, which are a kind of protozoa that cause the diseases leishmaniasis and African sleeping sickness. While both diseases are rare in North America, they are prevalent in dozen

To understand the formation of the brain-clogging deposits that cause such disorders as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, Duke University chemists have figured out how to capture and “micromanipulate” the single molecular building blocks of the deposits.

Their aim is to understand the detailed assembly process for the toxic protein called amyloid plaque. Such basic understanding, they said, could lead to approaches to preventing plaque formation.

The resear

The cells that line the arteries are able to produce C-reactive protein, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health and published in the April issue of American Journal of Pathology.

C-reactive protein is a risk marker for heart disease and is known to be produced in the liver, but UC Davis School of Medicine researchers Ishwarlal Jialal and Sridevi Devaraj found that endothelial cells also produce C-reactive protein, a key finding that helps to explain how

RNA loops and knots guide genetic modifications

University of Connecticut Health Center scientist, Robert Reenan, has uncovered new rules of RNA recoding–a genetic editing method cells use to expand the number of proteins assembled from a single DNA code. According to his work, the shape a particular RNA adopts solely determines how editing enzymes modify the information molecule inside cells. The study may help explain the remarkable adaptability and evolution of animal nervou