Health

Gates makes $10 billion vaccines pledge

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will donate $10 billion over the next decade to research new vaccines and bring them to the world’s poorest countries, the Microsoft co-founder and his wife said Friday.

“We must make this the decade of vaccines,” Bill Gates said in a statement. “Vaccines already save and improve millions of lives in developing countries.

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Mammograms may be overused in women with dementia

Some elderly women with severe cognitive impairment are getting mammography breast cancer screening even though they are unlikely to ever benefit from it, a new study finds.

This was despite the fact that these women would likely fall into a group that, according to guidelines, should not routinely have mammography screening.

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Bill Gates promises $10 billion for vaccines

Bill and Melinda Gates said on Friday they would spend 10 billion over the next decade to develop and deliver vaccines, an increased commitment that reflects progress in the pipeline of products for immunizing children in the developing world.

By increasing immunization coverage in developing countries to 90 percent, it should be possible to prevent the deaths of 7.

Continue reading Bill Gates promises $10 billion for vaccines…

Gates makes $10 billion vaccines pledge

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will donate $10 billion over the next decade to research new vaccines and bring them to the world’s poorest countries, the Microsoft co-founder and his wife said Friday.

“We must make this the decade of vaccines,” Bill Gates said in a statement. “Vaccines already save and improve millions of lives in developing countries.

Continue reading Gates makes $10 billion vaccines pledge…

New target for fighting Alzheimer’s: study

French researchers said Tuesday they had found a promising new target in the fight against Alzheimers, the debilitating brain disease that causes irreversible memory loss and dementia.

The telltale symptoms of Alzheimers and other neurodegenerative diseases have been linked to an overabundance in the brain of the tau protein.

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Britain says sorry in 1960s pregnancy drug scandal

Britain issued a long-awaited expression of regret Thursday over the thalidomide drug scandal which left hundreds of babies deformed 50 years ago, and confirmed 32 million dollars in support.

A total of 466 survivors of the drug — which caused children to be born with physical deformities after their mothers took thalidomide for morning sickness during pregnancy — are eligible for support.

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U.S. Obesity Rates Leveling Off, But Still High

Some good news in the war on weight: Obesity in the United States may finally be stabilizing instead of increasing, two new studies show.

“Obesity still remains a significant problem that we need to deal with, but recent data suggests the increasing trend of obesity may be slowing down,” said the lead author of one of the studies, Cynthia Ogden, an epidemiologist at the National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Md.

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Study finds quitting smoking raises diabetes risk

Smoking is well known as a risk factor for type 2 diabetes, but scientists said on Monday that quitting the habit can raise the risk even more in the short term.

The researchers said they suspected the increased diabetes risk comes from extra weight gain common in people who quit.

A study by U.S. researchers found that people who stop smoking have a 70 percent increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes in the first six years without cigarettes as compared to people who never smoked.

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Swine flu shots for infants, toddlers recalled in US

More than three-quarters of a million doses of swine flu vaccine for infants and children were recalled Tuesday in the United States after routine tests showed they had lost potency.

The recall involves some 800,000 doses of vaccine, some of which could well have been administered to young children.

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Americans may live longer and cost more: study

Americans may live significantly longer in the future than current U.S. government projections, and that could mean sharply higher costs than anticipated for Medicare and other programs, researchers reported on Monday.

Advances in medical care will accelerate, stretching out lifespans, the MacArthur Research Network on an Aging Society wrote in the report, published in The Milbank Quarterly.

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