Health | WPN World People News

Lack of choline during pregnancy may lead to reduced blood vessel growth in the brain of the developing fetus, a new study in mice suggests. The finding adds new information about the importance of choline for prenatal brain development.

Researchers have developed a method to generate antibodies that attack a diverse array of influenza viruses in mice, ferrets and monkeys. The accomplishment points the way to a universal flu vaccine.

Experts at the Harvard School of Public Health have found that excessive milk consumption can increase the risk of prostate cancer.

HIV prevention world is abuzz with excitement following news of the first clinical evidence that a vaginal gel - known as a microbicide - can help to prevent sexual transmission of HIV infection.

A study by the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) found that a vaginal gel containing the antiretroviral (ARV) drug tenofovir was 39 percent effective in reducing a woman's HIV risk when used for about three-quarters of sex acts and 54 percent effective when used more consistently. It also halved the incidence of genital herpes infections.

Hospitals in the Gaza Strip are overloaded with expired drugs and medicines, Palestinian officials said.

The officials insisted Thursday that the drugs and medicines, which were donated to the Gaza Strip by aid organisations all over the world over the last two years, had expired, Xinhua reported.

Hot summer weather can pose special health risks to older adults. The National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health, has some advice for helping older people avoid heat-related illnesses, known as hyperthermia.

In humans, throwing a ball, typing on a keyboard, or engaging in most other physical activities involves the coordination of numerous discrete movements that are organized as action sequences. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health and the Gulbenkian Institute in Portugal have identified brain activity in mice that can signal the initiation and termination of newly learned action sequences. The findings appear online today in the current issue of Nature.

You're young, fit and in pain after tearing one of the key ligaments that holds your knee together.

US researchers have discovered the risk of stroke doubles or is higher in the hour after drinking one serving of wine, beer or spirits.

The United Nations and the Stop TB Partnership have agreed to step up joint efforts to halve by 2015 the number of people living with HIV who die from tuberculosis, which accounts for a quarter of all deaths among those living with the virus.