TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A project to speed development of cancer-fighting drugs that harness the immune system has academic and drug industry researchers collaborating and sharing their findings like never before.
Women’s rights are being violated in Italy by the serious difficulties they face in trying to obtain safe abortions due to many doctors refusing to carry out the procedure, the Council of Europe said on Monday. Terminating pregnancies has been legal in Italy since 1978, but the council’s social rights committee found that the situation in Italy violated both the women’s right to protection of health and the doctors’ right to dignity at work. Women seeking an abortion are sometimes forced to go elsewhere in Italy or abroad, or bypass the authorities to get a termination.
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Washington officials promised Saturday they were working quickly to increase security at the state's psychiatric hospitals after a week in which two patients escaped and another two went missing.
By Katy Migiro NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Thousands of lives are at risk across South Sudan as massive drug shortages have forced many medical centres to close, a charity said, calling on donors to restore supplies before the deadly malaria season resumes. A quarter of 42 clinics visited by teams from Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Aweil, in Northern Bahr el Ghazal, had closed because they did not have essential medicines. “(A) preventable medical emergency is unfolding,” MSF's international president Joanne Liu said in an open letter on Thursday.
By Sharon Bernstein SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) – A California bill aimed at reducing eating disorders among models cleared its first legislative hurdle on Wednesday, following efforts in several countries to fight extreme thinness in an industry that pressures models to lose weight. The measure would require the state to develop health standards for models and regard them as employees of the brands they represent. “The goal of the bill is not only to protect the health of the workers themselves, but also to help young people who emulate models,” said the bill’s author, state Assemblyman Marc Levine, a Democrat who represents the Marin County suburbs of San Francisco.
European Union citizens spend some 24 billion euros ($27.28 billion) on illicit drugs every year, a report said on Tuesday, making it one of the continent’s most profitable activities for organized crime groups. The report, drawn up by Europol and European Union drugs monitoring center EMCDDA, said the advent of new technology such as encrypted networks and digital currencies had opened a new market for the online supply of drugs. “Illicit drug production and trafficking remains one of the largest and most innovative criminal markets in Europe,” Europol director Rob Wainwright said in a statement.
Officials wound back an initial tsunami threat issued after a large earthquake struck off the coast of the South Pacific islands of Vanuatu on Sunday. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the danger had largely passed and canceled an earlier warning of a possible tsunami as a result of the quake, which was initially measured at a magnitude of 7.2 but later revised down to 6.9. The quake was also deemed to be deeper that first thought – 33 kilometers (21 miles) as opposed to 10 kms, Kanoa Koyanagi, a geophysicist at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii told Reuters.
Patients with high blood pressure and moderate risk of heart disease slashed their long-term risk of heart attack and stroke 40 percent by taking a blood pressure medication as well as a statin cholesterol fighter, according to a large global study that could change medical practice. Results from the trial, called HOPE-3, could prod far more doctors to add a statin to blood pressure therapy for such patients who have no prior history of heart attack or stroke, researchers said. The data was presented on Saturday at the annual scientific sessions of the American College of Cardiology in Chicago.
The United States and Canada on Thursday issued a rare joint cyber alert, warning against a recent surge in extortion attacks that infect computers with viruses known as “ransomware,” which encrypt data and demand payments for it to be unlocked. The warning follows reports from several private security firms that they expect the crisis to worsen, because hackers are getting more sophisticated and few businesses have adopted proper security measures to thwart such attacks. “Infections can be devastating to an individual or organization, and recovery can be a difficult process that may require the services of a reputable data recovery specialist,” the two governments said in the alert, distributed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Canadian Cyber Incident Response Centre.
Hong Kong is to limit the number of non-resident children getting vaccinations at government clinics, after an illegal vaccine scandal in mainland China raised fears some families would come to the city for inoculations and put pressure on supplies. From April 1, Hong Kong’s Maternal and Child Health Centres will only accept 120 new non-resident children a month.