Diseases/Conditions News

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women who stay active after being diagnosed with breast cancer -- and even those who take up exercise for the first time after diagnosis -- have a better chance of surviving the disease, a new study shows.

THURSDAY, Aug. 28 (HealthDay News) -- All antipsychotic drugs can increase the risk of stroke, but the risk is greatest among older patients with dementia, British researchers report.

LONDON (Reuters) - People taking antipsychotic drugs are nearly twice as likely to have a stroke compared to those not on the treatment, British researchers reported on Friday.

ABIDJAN (AFP) - Ivorians with HIV/AIDS can now get free anti-retroviral treatment in public health centers with foreign funders picking up much of the tab, according to a decree of which AFP obtained a copy Friday.

MBABANE (AFP) - Traditional sexual practices including polygamy and promiscuity are driving rampant HIV-AIDS in Swaziland where nearly 40 percent of adults are infected, a UN study released Friday has found.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - For people who are strongly allergic to bee venom, desensitization using sublingual (i.e., under-the-tongue) immunotherapy may be a safer than injection immunotherapy, according to a proof-of-concept clinical trial conducted in Italy.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Treatment with a combination of anti-HIV drugs, known as highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), can improve the immune systems of infected patients, but new research indicates that in young children this effect may increase the risk of asthma.

MONDAY, Aug. 25 (HealthDay News) -- Add increased suffering for people with ragweed allergies to the list of problems caused by climate change, a new study suggests.

MONDAY, Aug. 25 (HealthDay News) -- Parents, teachers and school staff need to take measures to ensure the safety of the more than 2.2 million American students with food allergies, says the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A high intake of trans fats could increase colon cancer risk, according to new research published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

TUESDAY, Aug. 26 (HealthDay News) -- New findings that antipsychotic drugs may not work as scientists have assumed could lead to changes in how the drugs are developed and prescribed, say Duke University Medical Center researchers.

MANILA (AFP) - The Philippine Health Department will promote the use of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS despite disapproval from the influential Roman Catholic church, an official said Thursday.

BOSTON (Reuters) - ImClone Systems Inc said on Friday that a trial of its cancer drug Erbitux did not significantly improve overall survival in a trial of patients with the most common form of lung cancer.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. health regulators have called for more data before deciding whether a Johnson & Johnson experimental schizophrenia drug could be sold on the U.S. market, the company said on Tuesday.

MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines has a lower incidence of HIV than most of its neighbors despite sharing many of the risks, but health officials warned on Thursday that many new cases were now coming to light.

WASHINGTON - It's one of the biggest frustrations of life with food allergies: That hodgepodge of warnings that a food might accidentally contain the wrong ingredient.

PARIS (AFP) - In a ground-breaking advance, French neurosurgeons on Friday said they had successfully treated brain tumours through ultra-keyhole surgery, using a tiny fibre-optic laser to destroy cancerous cells.

MONDAY, Aug. 25 (HealthDay News) -- Safety warnings slowed the use of antipsychotic drugs in seniors with dementia. But the overall use of the drugs in the elderly increased, a finding which suggests that warnings may not be sufficient to protect patients, Canadian researchers say.

NEW YORK - New data show New York City residents are contracting the virus that causes AIDS at three times the national rate.

SATURDAY, Aug. 23 (HealthDay News) -- With the start of school here, the American Lung Association is advising parents of children with asthma to follow a simple checklist to ensure this sometimes debilitating disease doesn't hinder their child's academic year.

THURSDAY, Aug. 28 (HealthDay News) -- Characteristics of normal cells which are present long before any tumor appears may determine how virulent a particular cancer is going to be, new research suggests.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Eli Lilly and Co's Cymbalta depression treatment significantly reduced chronic low back pain in a relatively small clinical trial, the company said on Monday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New Yorkers are contracting HIV at three times the national rate, the city health department said on Wednesday, attributing the difference to New York's large population of high-risk groups such as gay men and blacks.

FRIDAY, Aug. 15 (HealthDay News) -- Boys may be more likely to have childhood asthma than girls, but they are also more likely to grow out of it, a new study says.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Young women who experience more than one stressful life event are at greater risk of developing breast cancer, but a general feeling of happiness and optimism may help guard against the disease, Israeli researchers report.

University of Edinburgh researchers are seeing positive results from a new approach for treating depression in cancer patients. The program, which is given by specially-trained cancer nurses, is designed to work alongside a patient's usual cancer care. It emphasizes screening for depression, antidepressant medication, and teaching patients problem-solving skills. The results of the trial were published recently in The Lancet.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Children with the allergic skin condition eczema are at increased risk of developing asthma well into adulthood, according to a decades-long study.

LONDON (Reuters) - New screening tests and effective vaccines from Merck & Co and GlaxoSmithKline make tackling cervical cancer in poor countries a real possibility for the first time, researchers said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pregnant women who live through wars are more likely to give birth to a child who develops schizophrenia, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday in a study linking prenatal stress with the mental illness.