Health

London, March 20: Japanese scientists have developed a genetically modified mosquito that vaccinates as it bites and could help prevent the spread of malaria.

The research team has created an insect producing a natural vaccine protein in its saliva, which is injected into the bloodstream when it bites.

The “prototype” mosquito carries a vaccine against Leishmania, another potentially fatal parasite disease spread by sand flies, reports.

Leishmania infection can cause painful sores, fever and weight loss and if untreated may destroy the liver and spleen.

Washington, March 19: Babies born to mothers with obesity and exposed to passive smoking are at a greater health risk because they reduce oxygen supply to the unborn child, doctors have said.

A team led by pediatricians from the National Research Centre in Cairo have found that obesity and passive smoking are risk factors for the unborn child, Science Daily reported.

“Foetal development during the last half of pregnancy depends on maternal metabolic adjustments detected by placental hormones and the subsequent oxygen and nutrient supply,” lead author Abd ElBaky said.

London, March 19: It’s important to take care of the teeth and if you are pregnant, you should be doubly careful. A new study says pregnant women with gum disease are more likely to have premature babies.

The research found women with gum disease were over three times more likely to give birth prematurely than mothers-to-be with good oral health. They also had a one in four chance of giving birth before 35 weeks, reported a website.

Paris, march 19: Pregnant women may be far more at risk from swine flu than thought, according to a survey published today that was carried out in Australia and New Zealand.

An investigation carried out among American women between April and May last year, in the first month of the H1N1 virus’ outbreak, suggested pregnant women were four times likelier to develop severe illness requiring hospitalisation compared with non-pregnant counterparts.

London, March 19: The common excuse that there is not enough time to exercise effectively is now wearing thin as scientists have claimed that short but intensive bursts of workout are as effective as hours of moderate training.

The study into the benefits of “high intensity interval training”, known as HIT, by McMaster University, Canada, suggested that staying in shape is not at all a time-consuming affair.

The researchers found that HIT is “a time-efficient but safe alternative to traditional types of moderate long term exercise”.

London, March 19: The humble Banana may hold the key to powerful new treatments that can protect against the deadly Aids virus, a new study has claimed.

BanLec, a naturally occurring chemical in Banana, is as effective against AIDS virus as two anti-HIV drugs now in use, T-20 and maraviroc,reported.

In laboratory tests, American researchers observed that the lectin inhibits HIV infection by blocking the virus’s entry into the body.

Chennai, March 18: Kidneys of a five-year-old girl, who died in a road accident, was successfully transplanted to her father, a kidney patient, in the Government General Hospital here today.

“The transplant surgery, which began in the morning and continued for five hours, was successful and the patient is normal,” the Hospital Dean J Mohanasundram told. An employee of sugar factory in Nellore district, Chandrasekaran, was a chronic kidney patient and was under haemodialyis.

London, March 18: An experimental type of highly focused radiation therapy has shown promising results in treating inoperable but life-threatening lung cancer tumors.

While surgical removal of tumors is the standard treatment for early-stage lung cancer, some patients can not undergo such operations due to other underlying diseases such as emphysema and heart disease.

Such patients therefore undergo conventional radiation treatment or are left untreated until the cancer progresses all through the body and leads to their death within two years.

London, March 18: Men who are facing a future with less hair should stop fretting at the retreating hairline, as a recent study suggests hair loss “almost halves the risk of prostate cancer”.

Men who start going bald at a young age are up to 45 percent less likely to fall victim to prostate cancer later in life, scientists have found, reports dailymail.co.uk.

Although half of all men suffer significant hair loss by the age of 50, an American team has linked the high levels of testosterone in those who go bald earlier to a lower risk of tumours.

London, March 18: A technique for destroying breast tumours by freezing them with ice could offer hope of a safe non-surgical cure for the disease, a study suggests.

The technique called cryotherapy is already used to treat prostate cancer and involves inserting several needle-like ‘cryoprobes’ into the tumour and passing super-cold gas through them,” reports dailymail.co.uk.

Chennai, March 17: The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) Wednesday warned the public not to subscribe to any healthcare plans sold by the Bangalore-based Aetna Healthcare Networks (India) as it is not licensed to sell insurance plans.

The insurance regulator has said Aetna Healthcare operating from Vittal Malya Road in Bangalore is selling health insurance and collecting money from the applicants subscribing to the same.

Washington, March 17: Children who have asthma are at high risk for separation anxiety, but a new study has found a home remedy that parents can use — regular family mealtimes.

“It makes sense that children who have difficulty breathing might be anxious and prefer to keep their parents, who can help them in an emergency, close by,” said Barbara H. Fiese, a professor at the University of Illinois.

Washington, March 17: Despite huge advances in prevention and treatment, cancer is poised to become the leading cause of death worldwide as people refuse to ditch bad habits and the population ages, experts have said.

In the United States, medical advances and education campaigns have helped slash the death rate from cancer by nearly 16 per cent in 20 years, American Cancer Society epidemiologist Susan Gapstur told reporters at the launch of a cancer-themed edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association Tuesday.

Atlanta, March 17: Women who suffer a heart attack are twice as likely as men to die within the following month because they receive different medical treatment than men, researchers have said.

The study examined 3,000 women and men hospitalised in the French region of Franche-Comte after a cardiac event between 2006 and 2007, and examined the treatment they received.

London, March 16: A London surgeon is pioneering a new technique that can remove a patient’s kidney while making only a small incision

Rhonda Fahmy was amazed when she first saw the scar on her body. The 25-year-old had agreed to donate a kidney to her father — an operation that normally takes six or seven hours in theatre, and weeks to recover from. Yet for Rhonda the surgery lasted just 45 minutes — and left her with a scar only one inch long.

London, March 16: Human brains are shrinking, suggests a team of French scientists, who claim to have produced one of the best replicas yet of a 28,000-year-old human cranium.

According to the scientists, the replica of the skull created from the remains found in France is 20 per cent bigger than that of the present human.

The skull, named Cro Magnon 1 after the caves in the Dordogne where it was found, has been kept in the French National Museum of Natural History in Paris since it was discovered among five ancient skeletons in 1868, the reported.

London, March 16: A new study has revealed that selective hearing – the ability to filter out unwanted noise and conversation – exists and it is the brain that “zooms in” on sound acting like radio by tuning into certain noises while ignoring everything else.

And, according to the scientists, the study could help explain why people with hearing difficulties lose this ability and are swamped by background noise, thereby pave the way for combating deafness, ‘The Daily Telegraph’ reported.

London, March 16: In what could be claimed a major breakthrough against breast cancer, scientists have discovered a protein which could stop tumours from growing and spreading.

A team, led by the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam, has identified the protein, BRD7, a discovery which may pave the way for potential new treatments to combat breast cancer that affects millions of women worldwide.

According to the scientists, the protein activates an anti-cancer gene, P53, which is already known to combat breast and other tumours.

Atlanta, March 16: A year after kicking the habit, smokers’ arteries showed signs of reversing a problem that can set the stage for heart disease, according to the first big study to test this.

The improvement came even though smokers gained an average of four kilograms after they quit, researchers found.

Their levels of so-called good cholesterol improved, too.

“A lot of people are afraid to quit smoking because they’re afraid to gain weight,” said the study’s leader, James Stein, a University of Wisconsin-Madison cardiologist.

London, March 14: Compared to their normal-weight counterparts, overweight drinkers are at a greater risk of developing liver diseases, a new study finds.

Previous studies had reported liver cirrhosis as the major complications among regular drinkers. A new study, however, shows the risk to be higher among individuals with excess weight.

According to the study published in the British Medical Journal, Obese men who drank 15 or more units a week are 19 times more likely to develop the condition.

Washington, March 14: US researchers say skin transplant surgery is an effective way in treating vitiligo, a skin condition with no definite treatment.

Vitiligo, a chronic disorder characterized by depigmented skin patches, occurs when the melanocytes responsible for skin pigmentation die or become non-functional. The disease is most famously associated with the late artist Michael Jackson.

New Delhi, March 14: Patients with blocked coronary artery can now go for ‘Fractional Flow Reserve (FFR)’ test to determine if a bypass surgery or angioplasty is needed or the blockage can be treated safely with medical therapy.

At present, the general practice is that anyone who has a blockage of the coronary artery of over 50 percent is operated upon, according to doctors.

Hamburg, March 14: Compared to their normal-weight counterparts, overweight drinkers are at a greater risk of developing liver diseases, a new study finds.

Previous studies had reported liver cirrhosis as the major complications among regular drinkers. A new study, however, shows the risk to be higher among individuals with excess weight.

According to the study published in the British Medical Journal, Obese men who drank 15 or more units a week are 19 times more likely to develop the condition.

Washington, March 13: Japanese scientists have uncovered how thalidomide led to deformities in children born to mothers taking the drug in the 1950s and 1960s, according to a study released Friday.

The researchers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology have now unlocked the mechanism by which thalidomide — an anti-nausea drug given to pregnant women that turned into one of the worst pharmaceutical disasters in history — triggered the deformities in developing fetuses.

New York, March 13: Getting a bit more calcium in your diet could help you live longer, new research suggests.

Swedish researchers found that men who consumed the most calcium in food were 25 percent less likely to die over the next decade than their peers who took in the least calcium from food. None of the men took calcium supplements.

The findings are in line with previous research linking higher calcium intake with lower mortality in both men and women, the researchers point out in a report in the American Journal of Epidemiology.