Tag: health

Half of women at risk of dementia, Parkinson’s, stroke: study

by Daniel LAWLER Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Nearly half of women and one in three men are at risk of developing stroke or degenerative neurological diseases such as dementia and Parkinson’s during their lifetime, according to a study published Monday. Dutch researchers considered all three conditions “in order to grasp how big the problem of incurable brain diseases in late life really is,” said the study’s senior author Arfan Ikram. “We grouped […]

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen battles cancer anew

SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Billionaire Paul Allen, who founded US software giant Microsoft with Bill Gates in 1975, revealed on Monday he is in a new battle with cancer. Allen said in a tweet and at his website that non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma he fought into remission nine years ago has returned. Incurable cancer affects white blood cells. “My team of doctors has begun treatment of the disease and I plan on fighting this aggressively,” […]

US, Japan duo win Nobel Medicine Prize for cancer therapy

by Pia OHLIN Agence France Presse STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AFP) — Two immunologists, James Allison of the US and Tasuku Honjo of Japan, won the 2018 Nobel Medicine Prize for research into how the body’s natural defenses can fight cancer, the jury said on Monday. Unlike more traditional forms of cancer treatment that directly target cancer cells — often with severe side-effects — Allison and Honjo figured out how to help the patient’s own immune system […]

Things you should know about Tuberculosis

GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — Videographic on tuberculosis. A global plan to tackle the killer disease will be formally adopted at the first-ever TB summit on Wednesday, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York. Meanwhile, The struggle to contain the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is facing a “perfect storm” of challenges, including rebel violence and pre-election manipulation, the UN said. https://youtu.be/BmS3j6Qmi_c

Many doctors in India miss TB signs: study

by Ivan Couronne Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Many private sector doctors in India miss the signs of tuberculosis and therefore provide patients inadequate treatment, according to a new study published Tuesday involving people hired to act out the symptoms. Tuberculosis or TB, an airborne infection, remains a major public health issue in India, China and Indonesia, among other countries. It killed 1.7 million people in 2017, according to the World Health […]

Implant helps paralyzed man walk again

  by Patrick Galey Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Five years after he was paralyzed in a snowmobile accident, a man in the US has learned to walk again aided by an electrical implant, in a potential breakthrough for spinal injury sufferers. A team of doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota say the man, using a front-wheeled walker, was able to cover the equivalent of the length of a football pitch, issuing […]

Air pollution linked to higher risk of dementia: study

PARIS, France (AFP) — Urban air pollution, mostly from vehicles, is associated with an increased risk of dementia, according to research published Wednesday. The link remained even after heavy drinking, smoking and other well established risk factors for dementia were ruled out, the researchers reported in medical journal BMJ Open. Worldwide, about seven percent of people over 65 suffer from Alzheimer’s or some form of dementia, a percentage that rises to 40 percent above the […]

Canada opioid deaths hits 8,000; overdose deaths mainly from fentanyl use

OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — More than 1,000 Canadians died of an apparent opioid overdose in the first three months of this year, bringing the toll since the public health crisis erupted in 2016 to 8,000, the public health agency said Tuesday. “The latest data suggest that the crisis is not abating,” the agency said in a statement. “We want to emphasize that the current crisis does not discriminate,” it said. “It impacts people from all […]

Cholera death toll climbs to 28 in Zimbabwe

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AFP) — The death toll in Zimbabwe’s cholera outbreak has risen to 28, state media said Sunday, as the health minister announced new antibiotics were being used after the disease strain was found to be resistant to some drugs. The cholera outbreak, first detected in a township outside the capital Harare earlier this month, prompted the government to declare an emergency in the city after at least 3,000 cases were reported. “Although I cannot […]

Brazil election frontrunner leaves intensive care after surgery due to stab wound: hospital

  SAO PAULO, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil’s far-right presidential frontrunner Jair Bolsonaro was released from intensive care Sunday after undergoing surgery for complications from a stab wound he suffered while campaigning. The candidate, who had surgery to remove an intestinal blockage on Wednesday, has been moved to a “semi-intensive care unit,” doctors at Sao Paulo’s Albert Einstein hospital said. A leftwing assailant stabbed Bolsonaro, 63, on September 6 during a campaign walkabout in the town […]

Indonesia’s quake-hit Lombok battles with malaria, 137 infected

  MATARAM, Indonesia (AFP) — A malaria outbreak has infected at least 137 people in Indonesia’s West Lombok after the island was rocked by a series of earthquakes in recent months, an official said Sunday. The quakes and aftershocks since July have killed about 500 people and forced hundreds of thousands into evacuation shelters or tents. As a result the number of malaria cases is twice as high as in the same period last year, […]

Simple blood test may reveal your body’s inner clock

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Ever feel like it’s 7 am, even though the clock says 9 am? A team of researchers at Northwestern University said Monday they have designed a blood test that can measure a person’s inner body clock within 1.5 hours, an advance that may help personalize medical treatments in the future. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer-reviewed US journal. The “circadian […]