Year: 2014

By Jared Ferried YANGON (Reuters) – Myanmar has ordered Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) to halt all its work in the country, leaving tens of thousands of people without vital care, the medical aid group said on Friday. MSF did not give a reason for the suspension, but local media reported government officials had been angered by the charity's public comments on the western strife-torn state of Rakhine. The Nobel Prize-winning aid group has been giving care there to both ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, a mostly stateless minority who live in apartheid-like conditions and who otherwise have little access to healthcare. The United Nations and human rights groups say at least 40 Rohingya were killed by security forces and ethnic Rakhine Buddhist civilians in a restricted area of the state in January.

By Victoria Cavaliere WHITE PLAINS, New York (Reuters) – It took a jury less than hour to find the daughter of slain U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy not criminally liable for sideswiping a tractor-trailer while driving on a suburban New York highway, after mistakenly taking a sleeping pill. After a four-day trial, the six-member jury quickly found Kerry Kennedy not guilty of driving while impaired by drugs. On July 13, 2012, she took the sleeping pill zolpidem, known by the brand name Ambien, rather than her usual thyroid medication before getting behind the wheel of her silver Lexus. “I’m incredibly grateful to the jury for working so hard on this case, and to my lawyers, and to my family and friends and so many other people who supported me,” Kennedy, 54, told reporters after the verdict was read at Westchester County Court in White Plains, New York.

One Florida man died after he was bitten by a rare bug.

Dawson Barnett is the class comedian – an unlikely role for the boy born unable to smile. But thanks to surgery that rerouted a nerve and “borrowed” muscle from his thigh, the “happy-go-lucky” first grader finally has a fitting grin.

Dawson Barnett has Moebius syndrome, which paralyzes facial muscles.

Scientists from Belgium have found that ordinary conditioner is just as effective as special conditioners and treatments for removing lice. Those who have dealt with lice eggs, or nits, know they are incredibly challenging to remove. Following a few experiments, scientists found "no significant difference" between regular conditioner and special lice-removal products in ridding hair of the sticky eggs. However, they did find eggs easier to remove when hair was soaked in deionized water.

By Kathryn Doyle NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A small experiment to see whether uninfected ticks could “diagnose” a lingering Lyme infection in people produced modest results, researchers say. DNA from the Lyme parasite, but not live parasites themselves, were transmitted to the ticks from just two people out of two dozen who had persistent Lyme symptoms despite treatment. In animal studies, researchers have successfully used “xenodiagnosis,” or diagnosis with another animal, to detect the signs of a persistent Lyme infection in the blood. The technique has also worked in people to detect another parasitic infection, Chagas disease.