Health | WPN World People News

An intervention designed to help first-time mothers effectively respond to their infant’s cues for hunger, sleep, feeding, and other infant behaviors significantly improved the body mass index (BMI) z-scores of the child through age 3 years compared with the control group. Results of the study, call Intervention Nurses Start Infants Growing on Health Trajectories (INSIGHT)

About 1 in 7 babies now 1 year or older who were born to women with Zika virus infection during pregnancy had one or more health problems possibly caused by exposure to the virus before birth, according to the latest Vital Signs report. Some of these problems were not apparent at birth.

Obesity, which increases influenza disease severity, also extends by about 1.5 days how long influenza A virus is shed from infected adults compared to non-obese adults, according to a multi-year study of two cohorts of Nicaraguan households. The findings implicate chronic inflammation caused by obesity as well as increasing age as reasons for extended viral shedding, which puts others at risk of infection.

Sequencing the fetal DNA that circulates in a pregnant woman’s blood holds promise for modern genomic medicine, according to a review article by Diana W. Bianchi, M.D., a senior researcher and institute director at the National Institutes of Health, and her colleague. Fetal DNA sequencing improves the accuracy of prenatal screening tests for genetic conditions and at times has led to the diagnosis of maternal conditions that may have otherwise gone undetected.

An estimated 78 million babies – or three in five – are not breastfed within the first hour of life, putting them at higher risk of death and disease and making them less likely to continue breastfeeding, say UNICEF and WHO in a new report. Most of these babies are born in low- and middle-income countries.

EMA is conducting a review of the possible health effects in patients who may have taken valsartan medicines containing N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) – an impurity found in the active substance manufactured by Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceuticals.

The Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on August 1, announced that preliminary laboratory results indicate a cluster of cases of Ebola virus in North Kivu province. The announcement was issued little more than a week after the Ministry of Health declared the end of an outbreak in Equateur Province in the far western part of the country, some 2500 km from North Kivu.

Sequencing the fetal DNA that circulates in a pregnant woman’s blood holds promise for modern genomic medicine, according to a review article by Diana W. Bianchi, M.D., a senior researcher and institute director at the National Institutes of Health, and her colleague. Fetal DNA sequencing improves the accuracy of prenatal screening tests for genetic conditions and at times has led to the diagnosis of maternal conditions that may have otherwise gone undetected.

Four cases of the Ebola virus have been confirmed in the northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, officials confirmed Wednesday.

Monique (left) transitioned from being a client at UNICEF-backed EVE for Life, which supports women and children living with or affected by HIV and AIDS, to a full-time employee, Montego Bay, Jamaica.