Body

Strategic investments to discover and develop new health tools, together with innovations in effectively delivering today's health tools and services, could avert 10 million deaths a year within just one generation, argue leading global health experts in a new PLOS Collection. The unique collection of papers involves 69 authors from high-, middle- and low-income countries, and includes some of the world's leading disease control experts.

Antibiotic resistance is a global public health threat and one of particular concern in India. A mix of poor public health systems, high rates of infectious disease, inexpensive antibiotics, and rising incomes are is coming together to increase prevalence of resistant pathogens and is increasing the burden of untreatable neonatal sepsis and health-care-associated infections.

WASHINGTON, D.C., Wednesday, March 2, 2016 -- Researchers at Ohio State University have pinpointed a human gene product that helps to regulate wound healing and may control scarring in people recovering from severe injuries and damage to certain internal organs.

The protein, MG53, travels throughout the bloodstream and helps the body fix injuries to the skin, heart, lungs, kidneys and other organs without causing scars. It's a discovery that could help heal open wounds, decrease recovery time after surgery and reduce the spread of infections.

Latinas who eat processed meats such as bacon and sausage may have an increased risk for breast cancer, according to a new study that did not find the same association among white women.

The study, published Feb. 22 in the journal Cancer Causes Control, suggests that race, ethnicity, genetics, culture and lifestyle choices could all affect cancer risk, said Mariana Stern, senior author and director of graduate programs in molecular epidemiology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

(PHILADELPHIA) -- Older patients, minorities, and male patients are more likely to develop substernal thyroid goiters that are difficult to remove surgically, putting them at risk for treatment complications and death, say researchers in the January 6 online in the American Journal of Surgery. A substernal goiter is so large it extends below a person's collarbones into the upper chest.

Most death and destruction inflicted by tornadoes in North America occurs during outbreaks--large-scale weather events that can last one to three days and span huge regions. The largest ever recorded happened in 2011. It spawned 363 tornadoes across the United States and Canada, killing more than 350 people and causing $11 billion in damage.

Now, a new study shows that the average number of tornadoes in these outbreaks has risen since 1954, and that the chance of extreme outbreaks --tornado factories like the one in 2011--has also increased.

Breast tumors in laboratory mice deficient in vitamin D grow faster and are more likely to metastasize than tumors in mice with adequate levels of vitamin D, according to a preliminary study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

The research highlights a direct link between circulating vitamin D levels and the expression of a gene called ID1, known to be associated with tumor growth and breast cancer metastasis.

A new, less expensive, and faster method now has been developed and used to determine the DNA sequence of the male-specific Y chromosome in the gorilla. The technique will allow better access to genetic information of the Y chromosome of any species and thus can be used to study male infertility disorders and male-specific mutations. It also can aid in conservation genetics efforts by helping to trace paternity and to track how males move within and between populations in endangered species, like gorillas.

Japanese researchers call for increased interdisciplinarity and internationalization in Japanese energy and environment research to provide effective scientific advice and invigorate Japanese energy and environmental policy five years after Fukushima.

A popular smartphone app purported to accurately measure blood pressure simply by placing a cellphone on the chest with a finger over the built-in camera lens misses high blood pressure in eight out of 10 patients, potentially putting users' health at risk, according to research from Johns Hopkins.

Although the app, called Instant Blood Pressure, is no longer available for purchase, it was downloaded more than 100,000 times and is still functional on phones, the researchers say.

LA JOLLA, CA - March 2, 2016 - When the respiratory illness SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) emerged in 2003, it killed at least 775 people before it was contained. Nine years later, MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) began circulating in the human population--and has gone on to have a 36 percent case fatality rate.

These diseases are species of coronaviruses, rapidly evolving pathogens that can "spill over" from animal populations to humans.

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Over the past decade, studies have found that obesity and eating a high-fat, high-calorie diet are significant risk factors for many types of cancer. Now, a new study from MIT reveals how a high-fat diet makes the cells of the intestinal lining more likely to become cancerous.

For a few weeks in early fall, Georges Bank -- a vast North Atlantic fishery off the coast of Cape Cod -- teems with billions of herring that take over the region to spawn. The seasonal arrival of the herring also attracts predators to the shallow banks, including many species of whales.

Over the past decade, studies have found that obesity and eating a high-fat, high-calorie diet are significant risk factors for many types of cancer. Now, a new study from Whitehead Institute and MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research reveals how a high-fat diet makes the cells of the intestinal lining more likely to become cancerous.

A blood pressure (BP) smartphone app delivered inaccurate results in a small study, which suggests more than three-quarters of individuals with hypertensive BP levels may be falsely reassured that their BP is in the nonhypertensive range, according to an article published online by JAMA Internal Medicine.