Health | WPN World People News

Catherine Bushnell, Ph.D., an internationally recognized pain and neuroscience researcher, has been appointed scientific director of a new research program focusing on the role of the brain in perceiving, modifying, and managing pain. Based in the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), part of the National Institutes of Health, this collaborative effort will complement basic science and clinical research efforts of other ongoing intramural neuroscience, imaging, and mental and behavioral health research programs.

The infant mortality rate, the preterm birth rate, and the adolescent birth rate all continued to decline, average mathematics scores increased for 4th and 8th grade students, the violent crime victimization rate among youth fell, as did the percentage of young children living in a home where someone smoked, according to the federal government’s annual statistical report on the well-being of the nation's children and youth.

Good hygiene practice such as frequent washing of hands can prevent hand foot and mouth disease.

The Codex Alimentarius Commission, the United Nations food standards body, has agreed on a set of residue limits for the veterinary drug ractopamine in animal tissues. Ractopamine is a growth promoter, it also keeps pigs lean.

The UN food standards body has agreed on new regulations – including the maximum level of melamine in liquid milk formula for babies – to protect the health of consumers across the world. Other measures adopted include new food safety standards on seafood, melons, dried figs and food labelling.

Uganda enjoyed tremendous success reducing its AIDS prevalence rate in the 1990s through a campaign based on the ABCs: Abstain, Be Faithful or Use a Condom. Now new infections are on the rise again.

People who are born deaf process the sense of touch differently than people who are born with normal hearing, according to research funding by the National Institutes of Health.

World Population Day 2012: Universal Access to Reproductive Health Services.