Sexual abuse in childhood increases the chances of high-risk pregnancy, shows a new study conducted by Prof. Rachel Lev-Wiesel, Head of the Graduate School of Creative Arts Therapies at the University of Haifa, Lee Yampolsky and Dr. Tzachi Ben Zion, Deputy Director of Soroka Hospital...
UCSF researchers have shown that delivering HIV prevention services to people living with HIV in clinical settings can sharply reduce their sexual risk behaviors. The findings are available now in the online edition of the journal AIDS and Behavior and are scheduled for publication in an upcoming print issue...
About 75% of women preferred to complete a chlamydia or gonorrhea test at home and mail the sample for analysis, compared with 16% who preferred testing at a no-cost clinic and 8% who wanted to visit their own health care provider, according to a study published in the April issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology, MedPage Today reports...
Risk-taking peaks in adolescence, according to scientists at UCL (University College London). In research published in the journal Cognitive Development, children, adolescents and adults aged 9-35 years chose between risky and safe options in a computer gambling game...
At the same time as health experts and advocates marked the annual Back Up Your Birth Control Campaign Day of Action on Wednesday - dedicated to increasing awareness about emergency contraception - some also are calling for a greater focus on pregnancy prevention methods other than EC, Washington Times columnist and reporter Cheryl Wetzstein writes...
The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) will hold its 110th General Meeting May 23-27, 2010 in San Diego, California. The meeting will feature approximately 3,000 individual scientific presentations spanning the breadth of microbiology and has an expected attendance of 10,000...
Americans consume innumerable amounts of medicine, but only one pill is known precisely as "the pill." This year marks the 50th anniversary of oral contraception, an innovative collaboration between Gregory Pincus and John Rock that some have called the development of the 20th century...
AU Summit To Examine Progress Toward Child, Maternal Mortality MDGs When leaders of African states gather for the African Union summit in Kampala, Uganda, in July, they will assess the continent's progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals relating to child and maternal mortality, Isaac Musumba, Uganda's state minister for foreign affairs said M...
Fewer than half of all substance abuse treatment facilities surveyed nationwide reported that they conduct on-site infectious disease screening, according to a new study sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Rates of HIV, tuberculosis, sexually transmitted diseases, hepatitis, and hepatitis C are high among drug users...
The Senate has begun debate, which Democrats hope to bring to a quick close, on a health care reform reconciliation bill that "fixes" parts of the law President Obama signed Tuesday. The Wall Street Journal: Some of the changes being debated "are significant. The implementation of an excise tax on high-cost insurance plans to help pay for the wider health-care overhaul would be delayed until 2018...
Amidst continuing confusion over priorities and funding for a new G8 maternal and child health initiative, and specifically whether it will include family planning, the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) is calling for the G8 to show their unequivocal support for family planning as part of a comprehensive approach saving the lives of women and their families. Dr...
According to new figures released by the sexual health team at Lloydspharmacy*, today's women have three times more sexual partners by the time they reach 24 than women of their grandmothers' generation had by the same age. The sexual health team's results show that young women today have an average of 5.65 different sexual partners by the time they are 24...
In Philadelphia, a 45% increase in syphilis cases last year and steep cuts in state funding for HIV/AIDS are creating challenges for public health workers in the city, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Since 2008, the most recent year for which data are available, Philadelphia's syphilis rates have increased across all groups, according to the Inquirer...
Seen through western eyes, beliefs in supernatural forces are common in Ghana and other African countries. Death, suffering and diseases are often attributed to witchcraft. Over thirty per cent of its inhabitants believe such evil forces could be responsible for the spread of HIV/AIDS...
Abortion-rights opponents in Colorado on Thursday said they have enough voter signatures to a put an "abortion-ending" proposal on the ballot this fall asking whether the state constitution should be amended to grant human rights to fetuses, the AP/Boston Globe reports. Colorado voters "soundly rejected" a similar ballot measure in 2008, according to the AP/Globe...
"Facing a squall of condemnation from aid groups and opposition politicians," following statements by Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon that Canada's G8 maternal and child health initiative would not include family planning, Prime Minister Stephen Harper "disavowed his foreign minister Thursday, promising that the federal government would include contraception programs ...
Access to the human papillomavirus vaccine is lowest in states with the lowest income levels, where cervical cancer death rates are highest and girls and women stand to benefit most from vaccination, according to a study in the Lancet, USA Today reports (Szabo, USA Today, 3/18). The study focused on Gardasil, which was the only HPV vaccine on the market at the time of the study...
Young people are inadvertently putting themselves at risk of getting an STI by avoiding discussing the subject of their partner's sexual history prior to sleeping together, according to a new report launched today in Dublin...
