Health | WPN World People News

New evidence continues to signal that the number of hungry people in the world is growing, reaching 821 million in 2017 or one in every nine people, according to The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2018 released on September 11. Limited progress is also being made in addressing the multiple forms of malnutrition, ranging from child stunting to adult obesity, putting the health of hundreds of millions of people at risk.

Delegates at the Public Health England (PHE) conference heard that a more effective flu vaccine for those aged 65 and over this winter has the potential to prevent deaths and significantly reduce the burden on the NHS.

The World Health Organization and the World Bank Group convened the first meeting of the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB), a new body set up to monitor the world’s readiness to respond to outbreaks and other health emergencies, on September 10.

Colorized scanning electron micrograph of red blood cell infected with malaria parasites, which are colorized in blue. The infected cell is in the center of the image area. To the left are uninfected cells with a smooth red surface.

A portrait of a patient at the JFK Medical Center and E.S. Grant Mental Health Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia.

Despite being largely preventable, heart attacks, strokes, heart failure and other related conditions caused 2.2 million hospitalizations in 2016, resulting in $32.7 billion in costs and 415,000 deaths, according to the latest CDC’s Vital Signs report.

Increasing time between meals made male mice healthier overall and live longer compared to mice who ate more frequently, according to a new study of Cell Metabolism. Scientists from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) at the National Institutes of Health, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, reported that health and longevity improved with increased fasting time, regardless of what the mice ate or how many calories they consumed.

3D print of influenza virus. The virus surface (yellow) is covered with proteins called hemagglutinin (blue) and neuraminidase (red).

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on September 5, announced new state grants for the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS). A total of $3.2 million in FY 2018 funds will go to the 10 new states to become part of NVDRS: Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming. NVDRS will now receive data on violent deaths from all 50 states; Washington, DC; and Puerto Rico.

Scientists stunted the puberty of male worms by starving them before they underwent sexual maturation. In a study funded by the National Institutes of Health, the scientists suggested that stress from starvation even days before sexual maturation prevented normal changes in the wiring patterns of key neuronal circuits, which caused adult male worms to act immature.