WHO Confirms Cuba Is First Country To Eliminate Mother-to-Child HIV and Syphilis Transmission

The World Health Organization on Tuesday declared Cuba the first country in the world to eliminate the transmission of HIV and syphilis from mother to child.

Q&A: Diagnosis of Progressive Weakness

Many patients who complain of weakness are not objectively weak when muscle strength is formally tested. A careful history and physical examination will permit the distinction between lassitude, motor impairment due to pain or joint dysfunction, and true weakness.

Q&A: Oral Glucose Tolerance Test Interpretation

Tests that can be used to screen for type 2 diabetes are measurement of fasting plasma glucose, a glycated hemoglobin (A1C or HbA1C), and a two-hour plasma glucose during an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). However, because of its inconvenience, OGTT is not commonly used for screening, except in pregnant women.

Q&A: Complications Of Coronary Angioplasty

Complications seen during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) include those related to cardiac catheterization and diagnostic coronary angiography, and those that occur as a consequence of the specific equipment (eg, wires) required for the intervention or the intervention itself (eg, distal embolization leading to myocardial ischemia).

Q&A: Pathophysiology Of Parkinson's Disease

Parkinsonism is a clinical syndrome presenting with any combination of bradykinesia, rest tremor, rigidity, and postural instability. The most common form of parkinsonism is Parkinson disease (PD), a chronic, progressive disorder caused by degenerative loss of dopaminergic neurons in the brain and characterized clinically by asymmetric parkinsonism and a clear, dramatic, and sustained benefit from dopaminergic therapy.

Q&A: Evaluation of Cerebral Ischaemia

The symptoms of brain ischemia may be transient, lasting seconds to minutes, or may persist for longer periods of time. Symptoms and signs remain indefinitely if the brain becomes irreversibly damaged and infarction occurs. Unfortunately, neurologic symptoms do not accurately reflect the presence or absence of infarction, and the tempo of the symptoms does not indicate the cause of the ischemia. This is a critical issue because treatment depends upon accurately identifying the cause of symptoms.

New Guideline on Mental Health in Humanitarian Emergencies - WHO/UNHCR Press Release

Worldwide close to 80 million people are currently impacted by humanitarian emergencies arising from natural disasters and armed conflicts, such as those in the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Yemen, and more recently, Nepal. WHO estimates 5% to 10% of these people suffer from a mental health condition such as depression as a result of the emergency.

Q&A: Autonomic Receptors and Post-Receptor Mechanisms of Action

The autonomic nervous system regulates many of the internal organs through a balance of two aspects, or divisions. Along with the endocrine system, the autonomic nervous system is instrumental in homeostatic mechanisms in the body. The two divisions of the autonomic nervous system are the sympathetic division and the parasympathetic division. The sympathetic system is associated with the fight-or-flight response, and parasympathetic activity is referred to by the epithet of rest and digest. Homeostasis is the balance between the two systems. Most organs in the body are innervated by both divisions and usually they have antagonistic effects. For example, the heart receives connections from both the sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions. One causes heart rate to increase, whereas the other causes heart rate to decrease.

WHO's Rapid Health Impact Assessment of Nepal's Earthquake - Press Release

1 MAY 2015 | KATHMANDU - A rapid assessment of health-care facilities by WHO and the Ministry of Health and Population in the earthquake-stricken areas of Nepal has found that hospitals in 4 of the worst-affected districts are completely destroyed or too badly damaged to function.

Divorce Increases Risk of Having a Heart Attack in Both Men and Women

Women who have been divorced once, or men who have been divorced at least twice, are more likely to have a heart attack than people who get and stay married, according to a new study called Association Between Divorce and Risks for Acute Myocardial Infarction and recently published on Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality Outcomes.

Experimental Ebola Vaccines Appear Safe in Phase 2 Liberian Clinical Trial

Liberia–U.S. partnership planning Phase 3 trial and study of Ebola survivors
Two experimental Ebola vaccines appear to be safe based on evaluation in more than 600 people in Liberia who participated in the first stage of the Partnership for Research on Ebola Vaccines in Liberia (PREVAIL) Phase 2/3 clinical trial, according to interim findings from an independent Data and Safety Monitoring Board review.

Sun Pharma Concludes Take Over Merger Of Ranbaxy Laboratories

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Limited, the multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, few days ago on Wednesday announced the take over and closure of its merger with Ranbaxy Laboratories.

Simply Breaking Up Sitting Time Shows Demonstrable Health Benefits In Type 2 Diabetes

Even Interrupting Sitting Time Improves Health In Type 2 DM
People with Type 2 diabetes could trim down and improve their metabolic health by replacing long periods of sitting with periodic standing, taking the stairs or even just changing the television station manually, according to a new study, “The Potential Impact of Displacing Sedentary Time in Adults with Type 2 Diabetes.”

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are 8 goals that UN Member States have agreed to try to achieve by the year 2015. Update: The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) replaced the MDGs in 2016.

How to Contain An Ebola Disease Outbreak

EBOLA has been in the news for awhile now. As of April 14th the virus had infected 168 people in Guinea, West Africa, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). At least 108 had died.