Month: July 2014

High-protein diets like the Paleo diet have never been more popular, … "A simple rule for healthy eating is to avoid processed foods the closer to real …

By Paul Mooney and Thin Lei Win INN DIN Myanmar (Reuters) – Visitors to the medical facility in one of Myanmar's poorest and most remote regions are greeted by a padlocked gate and a sign reading: "Clinic closed until further notice." A vehicle that used to ferry around doctors and patients parked next to the neat compound of bamboo and brick buildings in the western state of Rakhine is covered in thick dust. Since international aid groups were forced out of the area in February and March, members of the minority Muslim Rohingya community who relied on them say basic health care services have all but disappeared. Worst affected are those in Northern Rakhine State (NRS), home to most of Myanmar's 1.3 million Rohingya who are stalked by sickness and malnourishment and as yet untouched by reforms under a semi-civilian government which took power in 2011.

By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) – GlaxoSmithKline said on Thursday it is applying for regulatory approval for the world's first vaccine against malaria, designed for children in Africa. The British drugmaker said the shot, called RTS,S, is intended exclusively for use outside the European Union but will be evaluated by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO). Malaria, a mosquito-borne parasitic disease, kills more than 600,000 people a year, mainly babies in the poorest parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Yet hopes that RTS,S would be the final answer to wiping out malaria were dampened when results from a final-stage trial in babies aged six to 12 weeks showed the shot provided only modest protection, reducing episodes of the disease by 30 percent compared to immunisation with a control vaccine.

LONDON (AP) — A commonly used morning-after pill is suitable for use by heavier women, the European Medicines Agency said Thursday after a review of the evidence sparked by the French manufacturer’s declaration that the drugs didn’t work in women weighing more than 80 kilograms (176 pounds).

Emergency contraceptives, known as the “morning after pill”, remain suitable for all women who need them, regardless of a woman’s weight, European regulators said on Thursday. The European Medicines Agency had questioned whether the contraceptives worked as effectively in women weighing more than 75 kg, but its experts concluded that the benefits of using them outweighed the risks. “Women should be reassured that regardless of their body weight, emergency contraceptives can still be used to prevent unintended pregnancy,” said Sarah Branch, of Britain’s drugs watchdog the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

Militant group Islamic State has ordered all girls and women in and around Iraq's northern city of Mosul to undergo female genital mutilation, the United Nations said on Thursday. The "fatwa" issued by the Sunni Muslim fighters would potentially affect 4 million women and girls, U.N. resident and humanitarian coordinator in Iraq Jacqueline Badcock told reporters in Geneva by videolink from Arbil. "This is something very new for Iraq, particularly in this area, and is of grave concern and does need to be addressed," she said. "This is not the will of Iraqi people, or the women of Iraq in these vulnerable areas covered by the terrorists," she added.

Lithuanian authorities on Thursday ordered the slaughter of 19,400 pigs at one of the country’s largest farms as an outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) in the region spread. It was first case of ASF to be found in farm pigs in the Baltic country, Chief Veterinary Officer Jonas Milius said, amid an outbreak in which cases have appeared in neighboring countries. Poland has also reported ASF cases at farm pigs near its border with Belarus. ASF was found after pigs in the Rupinskai farm near the Belarusia and Latvia borders began dying in larger numbers than usual on Wednesday, the farm’s owner, Danish firm Idavang, said.

By Padraic Halpin DUBLIN (Reuters) – A United Nations human rights panel has told Ireland it should revise its highly restrictive abortion laws and that allegations of abuse of women and children at Catholic-run homes must be better investigated. Following months of polarizing debate in the Roman Catholic country, Ireland's parliament voted to allow limited access to abortion for the first time last year but restricted it to cases when a woman's life is in danger. The U.N. Human Rights Committee remained highly critical of the law, saying Ireland should revise it to provide for additional exceptions in cases of rape, incest, serious risks to the health of the mother, or fatal fetal abnormality. "The Committee reiterates its previous concern regarding the highly restrictive circumstances under which women can lawfully have an abortion in the state," it said following hearings last week when Committee Chairman Nigel Rodley said Irish law treated women who were raped as a "a vessel and nothing more".