Content about Disaster

03.19.10

Over 20M In S. China Face Water Shortages Due To Drought Chinese state media on Thursday reported regions of southern China "are suffering from the worst drought in decades, leaving millions of people with inadequate water and huge areas of farmland too dry to plant," the Associated Press reports...

03.19.10

The FDA is drafting new guidelines for testing and approving multidrug cocktails for life-threatening diseases, the Wall Street Journal reports. "Many diseases, such as AIDS, tuberculosis and cancer, require multidrug combinations...

03.17.10

Certain ethnic minorities, including African Americans and Hispanics, are at a higher risk than the general population for developing potentially life-threatening chronic kidney disease (CKD) , which has been linked to higher rates of diabetes and high blood pressure, according to the National Kidney Foundation (NKF)...

03.15.10

Australian politicians must act quickly to combat the rise of obesity and its life-threatening disease consequences, and the great threats to health from global climate change, according to a letter published in the Medical Journal of Australia. The letter has been endorsed by 300 medical and health practitioners, including 40 professors of medicine and health sciences...

03.11.10

Many Americans will lose an hour of sleep on March 14, the first day of daylight-saving time, when clocks are set ahead one hour at 2 a.m. local standard time-making it harder to wake up, causing difficulty in staying alert and increasing the chance of sleepy-driving car crashes. Ronald D. Chervin, M.D., says Americans can prepare for the daylight-saving time switch...

03.11.10

Daylight Saving Time can be hazardous for your health. On average, people go to work or school on the first Monday of Daylight Saving after sleeping 40 fewer minutes than normal. And recent studies have found there's a higher risk of heart attacks, traffic accidents and workplace injuries on the first Monday of Daylight Saving...

03.09.10

Families with food-allergic children face a life of constant vigilance and the looming fear of life-threatening allergic reactions. This fear can have a huge impact on an entire family's life, from heightened anxiety to severe limits on their daily activities. Some families cope well with this situation, while others find it extremely stressful and difficult to manage.

03.01.10

For people who carry common gene variants, cigarette smoking greatly increases the risk that a blood vessel in the brain will weaken and balloon out - called an aneurysm - which could be life-threatening if it ruptures, according to research presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2010...

02.12.10

Pelvic health concerns in women are common -- yet how the issues impact sexuality and childbearing is not often discussed, according to Mayo Clinic Women's HealthSource. The February issue features an overview of pelvic health problems, risk factors, causes and treatment options...

02.09.10

The Plastic Surgery Center today announced that an innovative nerve graft transplant performed by Dr. Andrew Elkwood has proven to be successful in treating and preventing posterior pressure ulcers - one of the leading causes of mortality among paraplegics...

02.05.10

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have become the first in the world to synthesize the entire protein that is responsible for life-threatening malaria in pregnant women and their unborn children.

02.02.10

Severe muscle injuries - such as crush injuries suffered in earthquakes, car accidents and explosions, and muscle damage from excessive exercise or statin drug interactions - can cause life-threatening kidney damage. Treatment has been limited to intravenous fluids and dialysis, but a new study suggests that the commonly used pain reliever acetaminophen may protect the kidneys from damage...

12.03.09

A new study on the smokeless tobacco product called moist snuff placed between lip and gum - has led scientists in Minnesota to urge the tobacco industry to change manufacturing practices to reduce snuff's content of carcinogens. Their study is published online in ACS' monthly journal Chemical Research in Toxicology...

11.21.09

Cigarettes are "widely contaminated" with bacteria, including some known to cause disease in people, concludes a new international study conducted by a University of Maryland environmental health researcher and microbial ecologists at the Ecole Centrale de Lyon in France...

11.17.09

Pulmonary embolism is a life-threatening condition most often caused by a blood clot breaking off from a vein and entering the circulatory system. While evidence-based guidelines exist to help physicians safely and efficiently evaluate patients with suspected pulmonary embolism, testing often differs from what is suggested. Researchers sought to determine if a computer program for use on a mobile, handheld device could improve diagnostic decision-making.

11.17.09

To best detect early signs of life-threatening heart defects in young athletes, screening programs should include both popular diagnostic tests, not just one of them, according to new research from heart experts at Johns Hopkins. Sudden cardiac death due to heart rhythm disturbances is blamed for more than 3,000 deaths a year in young people, especially athletes who have inherited tendencies to develop overly enlarged and thickened hearts, says Theodore Abraham, M.D.

11.12.09

Drug companies and nonprofit organizations are joining forces to develop new drugs and vaccines to target so-called "neglected" diseases that claim millions of lives in the developing world each year. Those hard-to-treat diseases include malaria, tuberculosis, dengue fever, and other conditions. That's the topic of the cover story scheduled for the current issue of Chemical & Engineering News, ACS' weekly newsmagazine.

10.12.09

Sequella, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on commercializing novel antibiotics to treat life-threatening infectious diseases, today announced that it received a $594,661 two-year Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for the development of SQ641, Sequella's lead compound in its capuramycin series, a new class of antibiotic.

10.12.09

The University of California, San Francisco has been designated to lead a new consortium that will study a group of severe immune disorders known as primary immunodeficiencies and aims to improve treatment for these often life-threatening diseases. The Primary Immune Deficiency Treatment Consortium comprises 13 centers throughout the United States and has a $6.25 million funding commitment over five years from the National Institutes of Health.