Health & Science

• Tuesday, November 6th 2018 - 08:41 UTC

  Mercosur members adhere to WTO Precision Biotechnology applied to agriculture

  

  U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced that the United States has joined with 12 other nations, (including Mercosur founding members) to support policies that enable agricultural innovation, including genome editing. The International Statement on Agricultural Applications of Precision Biotechnology was released in Geneva at the World Trade Organization Committee on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures.

• Monday, November 5th 2018 - 18:25 UTC

  Microscopic parasite could be affecting food chain near Antarctica

  

  A tiny parasite is leading Australian scientists to rethink how they view Antarctic food chains, after a research showed these microscopic organisms were present in quantities far larger than previously thought, it was reported Monday.

• Saturday, November 3rd 2018 - 22:33 UTC

  Llama antibodies good for influenza treatment, research shows

  

  Researchers seem to be on the right path to finding a vaccine for all types of influenza by benefitting from the llama's immune system, a study published in the latest edition of the journal Science reported.

• Tuesday, October 30th 2018 - 08:51 UTC

  More than 90% of the world’s children breathe toxic air every day

  

  Every day around 93% of the world’s children under the age of 15 years (1.8 billion children) breathe air that is so polluted it puts their health and development at serious risk. Tragically, many of them die: WHO estimates that in 2016, 600,000 children died from acute lower respiratory infections caused by polluted air.

• Tuesday, October 30th 2018 - 08:39 UTC

  UK top surgeon proposes dexterity courses for medical students: top grades are insufficient

  

  A professor of surgery says students have spent so much time in front of screens and so little time using their hands that they have lost the dexterity for stitching or sewing up patients. Roger Kneebone, professor of surgical education at Imperial College, London, says young people have so little experience of craft skills that they struggle with anything practical.

• Saturday, October 27th 2018 - 08:46 UTC

  Abbot Laboratories will pay US$ 25 million for bribing doctors to prescribe TriCor

  

  Abbot Laboratiories AbbVie Inc will pay a total of US$25 million to resolve allegations that Abbott paid kickbacks to doctors in exchange for prescribing the cholesterol drug TriCor and promoted the medication for unapproved purposes.

• Thursday, October 25th 2018 - 06:35 UTC

  Microplastics found in the human track and stools, says medical forum in Vienna

  

  Microplastics have been found in human stools for the first time, suggesting the tiny particles may be widespread in food. The study by researchers in Austria examined eight participants (from the UK, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Austria, Japan and Russia). All of their stool samples were found to contain microplastic particles.

• Tuesday, October 23rd 2018 - 08:28 UTC

  Scottish government confirms case of “mad cow” in a Aberdeenshire farm

  

  The Scottish government has confirmed a case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) on a farm in Aberdeenshire. Movement restrictions have been put in place at the farm, while further investigations are carried out, the government said in a statement.

• Thursday, October 18th 2018 - 08:46 UTC

  Global health organizations commit to new ways of working together for greater impact

  

  Eleven heads of the world’s leading health and development organizations signed in Berlin a landmark commitment to find new ways of working together to accelerate progress towards achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
  Coordinated by the World Health Organization, the initiative unites the work of 11 organizations, with others set to join in the next phase.

• Thursday, October 18th 2018 - 08:31 UTC

  Beware of Chinese manufactured vaccines: this time human rabies

  

  A Chinese vaccination firm has been fined US$ 1.3bn after it was found to have illegally produced the human rabies vaccine. Changchun Changsheng had blended different batches of vaccine fluid and used expired fluid to produce some of the batches, according to state news agency Xinhua.