The United Kingdom is set to become the second European country to place graphic images on cigarette packets. 15 different images are to be placed on the packs of all brands of cigarettes. They will be introduced on October 1st. The images will be introduced onto all other forms of tobacco by 2010. »»
Almost 13,000 children in China have fallen sick in a wave of sickness caused by baby's milk contaminated with melamine, a banned chemical which can cause kidney stones, irritation, and ulcers. Most of the sickened children are infants two years or younger, and four children have died from the chemical so far. »»
A dead body was left in a ward in Stobhill Hospital, Glasgow, Scotland for seven hours before it was removed. »»
A 54-year-old German farmer who lost both arms in a farming accident six years ago has become the first patient to receive a complete double arm transplant. The patient, whose name has not been released, underwent the operation at the Klinikum Rechts des ISAR, part of the Technical University of Munich (Technische Universität München) last week; he is said to be recovering well. »»
A variation in the Duffy antigen receptor for chemokines, or simply DARC, found in two-thirds of sub-Saharan Africans may have introduced an unknown vulnerability that could lead to a 40% greater risk of catching AIDS. This particular variation on the gene — thought to be a defense mechanism against malaria — in which a single genetic letter is flipped, stops the growth of the malaria causing parasite Plasmodium vivax. Concurrently it also causes chemokines to avoid red blood cells, an opposite behavior of the typical Duffy gene. »»
The World Health Organization (WHO) has told people to stay away from Ugandan caves with bats, due to the fact that a tourist visiting Uganda was recently killed by the fatal Marburg virus. Health authorities in the Netherlands said that the forty-year-old tourist contracted the disease from fruit bats in a cave. »»
Over 1000 illnesses have now been identified in a foodborne Salmonella outbreak that began in mid-April 2008. »»
South Korean authorities are refusing to allow more protests against the government's decision to allow beef imports from the United States, after hundreds of people were injured in clashes with riot police overnight Saturday. »»
In the Midwestern United States , floodwaters contaminated with a toxic brew containing such ingredients as sewage, farm runoff, and petroleum are raising concerns over the availability of clean drinking water. »»
The Canadian Environmental Law Association and Canadian organization Environmental Defence jointly conducted a report that was released to the public on Thursday, saying that chemicals released by new vinyl curtains may pose a significant health risk. »»
McDonald's Corp. has temporarily pulled tomatoes from its sandwiches in in the United States. »»
An article published online in Environmental Geology, an international journal of earth sciences, identifies parts of eastern Australia underlain by rocks with the right geological conditions to host asbestos. According to the author, Macquarie University researcher Marc Hendrickx, there is good news and bad news. »»
Doctors performing a Caesarian delivery in a Darwin, Australia hospital were stunned to discover a rare ovarian ectopic pregnancy. According to Robin Cahill, general manager of the Darwin Private Hospital, ovarian pregnancies occur in only 1 in every 40,000 fertilizations. »»
The United Nations health agency the World Health Organization (WHO) has called for a ban on tobacco advertising and promotion in order to protect the world's children. The news release from the WHO came on Friday, one day before the annual World No Tobacco Day held each year on May 31. »»
A New Jersey state appeals court ruled Tuesday that fifteen Spanish citizens can sue over claims of health issues related to asbestos exposure while working aboard United States Navy and Coast Guard ships docked at United States-Spanish military installations. The defendant, Ohio-based company Owens Illinois, Inc., had sought a trial in a Spanish court, an opinion which was shared by the Superior Court which heard the case. The three-judge panel appellate court overturned the decision of the Superior Court in a 3-0 ruling. »»
A kindergarten teacher in Port St. Lucie, Florida, United States is being reassigned following an incident last week in which her students voted to remove a possibly autistic child from the classroom. »»
New legislation in Victoria, Australia will provide for greater compensation for victims suffering from effects of exposure to asbestos. The legislation is called "Bernie Banton law", after the late campaigner for asbestos-related issues. The law will remove a restriction which prevented asbestos victims from making another claim after being diagnosed with a terminal illness. Banton contracted mesothelioma after working for the Netherlands-based company James Hardie, and died in 2007. »»
Bangladesh reported its first human case of the H5N1 strain of Avian flu on Thursday. According to a representative of the Bangladesh health ministry, the 16-month old boy initially tested negative for the disease. His virus culture tested positive in tests performed by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The boy is from the capital city of Dhaka in the Dhaka District. »»
CNN news has reported that Senator Ted Kennedy, a Democrat from Massachusetts, who was recently hospitalized after suffering two seizures, has been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. According to CNN, Sen. Kennedy's doctors discovered the tumor as part of a battery of tests performed to diagnose the cause of the seizures. »»
The discovery of the presence of airborne asbestos in a middle school in Montclair, New Jersey Friday prompted the evacuation of over 200 students from the school and the school's closure. Renaissance Middle School, part of the Montclair Public Schools in New Jersey, was closed Monday and remains closed Tuesday while undergoing asbestos testing and cleaning. »»
Controversy has arisen over the reported presence of blue asbestos on the MV Freewinds, a cruise ship owned by the Church of Scientology. According to the Saint Martin newspaper The Daily Herald and the shipping news journal Lloyd's List, the Freewinds was sealed in April and local public health officials on the Caribbean island of Curaçao where the ship is docked began an investigation into the presence of asbestos dust on the ship. Former Scientologist Lawrence Woodcraft supervised work on the ship in 1987, and attested to the presence of blue asbestos on the Freewinds in an affidavit posted to the Internet in 2001. Woodcraft, a licensed architect by profession, gave a statement to Wikinews and commented on the recent events. »»
Over 40 children have died in an outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) in China, and the country's capital of Beijing reported its first death due to the disease on Wednesday. According to Xinhua News Agency, Beijing Health Bureau spokeswoman Deng Xiaohong said that the 13-month-old boy died Sunday while en route to the hospital. Health authorities state that 24,934 children in mainland China are afflicted with the disease, and 42 children have died from it. The cause of the disease has been identified as Enterovirus 71 (EV-71). HFMD can also be caused by Coxsackievirus. »»
Researchers have found that, in terms of survival, assessing the status of a HIV/AIDS patient by clinical examination is almost as reliable as laboratory blood testing during their course of treatment. »»
Heart disease in Indians is often more severe and occurs in younger people than in developed countries, a study has found. »»
During the opening day of a Senate inquiry into compensation for Australia's "Stolen Generations", Aboriginal elder Kathleen Mills has claimed that children held in Darwin's Kahlin Compound in the 1920s and '30s were injected with an experimental serum. The serum, a treatment for leprosy, had severe adverse effects. According to Mills, "it made our people very, very ill ... the treatment almost killed them". »»
Cholera continues to spread in Vietnam, where, according to the Vietnamese authorities Monday, more than 130 people were infected in the north, and also in the economic capital Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon in the south. »»
State health officials in Kenya issued an alert Thursday after an outbreak of cholera killed over 60 people in the last five months. All health personnel have been advised to actively monitor patients with diarrhea, and the government issued a ban on preparing and eating food in public gatherings. »»
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park remains closed today after high levels of Sulfur Dioxide vented from Kilauea. Continuing southeastern winds will exist through most of the day, causing much of the contamination to exist elsewhere on the Big Island. »»
According to the regional authorities of Castile and Leon, two people died several months ago in Spain after having contracted the human variant of mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) »»
South Korea confirms the existence of a new outbreak of bird flu in a duck farm in the south-west of the country. »»
The Egyptian Ministry of Health said that a 19 years old Egyptian, died Saturday of bird flu, becoming the 21st victim of the H5N1 virus since its appearance in 2006 in Egypt. »»
76 businesses in Bristol, United Kingdom have been given zero stars out of a possible five, for food hygiene, by the food department of Bristol City Council. This is considerably higher than the number of 0 star ratings awarded by neighboring councils. The scores, which are collected by inspectors from the council, are displayed on a website funded by the UK government. »»
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the United States Department of Health and Human Services has issued a warning on cantaloupes from a Honduran company, after salmonella outbreaks in the United States and Canada. »»
JAKARTA, 13 mars -- Eight people from the same village in the Indonesian province of Lampung, including two babies and two teenagers, were hospitalized for having developed symptoms of avian flu, reported Thursday the Indonesian agency Antara. »»
Researchers involved in a study at the University of Wisconsin have discovered that the H5N1 Avian Flu virus has mutated into a strain that may make humans more vulnerable to the disease. »»
A quarter of American girls are suffering from at least one sexually transmitted disease (STD), said a study by the American Center for Disease Control (CDC), published Tuesday. »»
A dead bird collected on Feb. 29 near a management center in Tai Po Kau Nature Reserve in the northern district of New Territories, has tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus. »»
An eight-year old boy was infected by the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus of bird flu, announced Saturday the Egyptian Ministry of Health, quoted by the official Mena agency. »»
On February 14, a man staying at the Valley View Extended Stay America hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada was hospitalized after experiencing respitory distress. The man lapsed into unconciousness and has been at the hospital ever since. »»
The H5N1 Avian Flu Virus has been found in a dead wild Canadian Goose in Abbotsbury Swannery in Dorset, England. This is the 11th case of the virus turning up in wild birds. The goose was found on February 25, 2008. »»
Some flu viruses in the United States and Canada have shown increased levels of resistance to the antiviral drug Tamiflu (Oseltamivir), the World Health Organization said on Friday. Similar trends have been reported earlier in Europe. »»
While the involuntary harvesting of human kidneys may have been relegated to urban legend in the Western world, a raid in India has shown the practice is real and has triggered an international manhunt. »»
The Lowdown is a youth-targeted website aimed at helping young New Zealanders get through depression and other mental illnesses, and to curb New Zealand's high suicide rates. Wikinews' Gabriel Pollard spoke to Candace Bagnall who manages the Ministry of Health's National Depression Initiative which runs The Lowdown. »»
Two people, a nine year old boy and a 23-year-old woman from Jakarta in Indonesia, have died from the H5N1 Avian Flu virus marking the country's 100th death from the disease. Both died on Sunday, January 27. »»
A new study by researchers of Boston University's School of Public Health and colleagues sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO) shows children with severe pneumonia can be effectively treated at home and do not need to be hospitalized. This finding is hugely significant for developing countries where children cannot be brought to a hospital easily or where no hospitals exist. »»