Health | WPN World People News

A team of NIH intramural scientists and grantees traced ketamine’s rapid antidepressant effects to activation of AMPA receptors by a byproduct of its chemical breakdown called (2R,6R)-HNK (above) – a different mechanism than had been previously assumed.

The World Bank Board of Executive Directors approved on Tuesday a total of US$127 million to increase the use of and improve the quality of health services in Cameroon, with a focus on reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH) and nutrition services. The funding includes a US$100 million International Development Association (IDA) credit, and a US$27 million grant from the Global Financing Facility (GFF) Trust Fund.

In a study of nearly 650 people with the eye disease age-related macular degeneration (AMD), half still had vision 20/40 or better, typically good enough to drive or to read standard print, after five years of treatment with anti-VEGF drugs that are injected into the eye. The authors of the study, funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI) at the National Institutes of Health, say those outcomes would have been unimaginable about 10 years ago, prior to the drugs' availability.

The World Bank Board of Executive Directors has approved a new financing agreement of US$10 million International Development Association (IDA) credit to provide income support to extremely poor and food insecure households in Liberia. This agreement will also establish key building blocks of a basic national safety net delivery system of Liberia.

On World Asthma Day 2016, the National Institutes of Health reaffirms its commitment to support research to improve the lives of all people with asthma. NIH-funded research has advanced our understanding of asthma as a disease as well as the impact asthma has on the lives of those affected. We have made great strides in learning how to treat and prevent asthma, and we are committed to ensuring that scientific discoveries move quickly into clinical practice to provide the best possible care for all people with asthma.

A new study has found that drinking water from private wells, particularly dug wells established during the first half of the 20th century, may have contributed to the elevated risk of bladder cancer that has been observed in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont for over 50 years. Other risk factors for bladder cancer, such as smoking and occupational exposures, did not explain the excess risk in this region.

(From left) Adebowale Adeyemo, M.D., Max Muenke, M.D., and Paul Kruszka, M.D., co-created the Atlas of Human Malformation Syndromes in Diverse Populations with collaborators around the world.