All news from Social & Preventive Medicine / Community Medicine
The "gateway pattern" of adolescent substance use is changing, and marijuana is increasingly the first substance in the sequence of adolescent drug use, according researchers at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Traditionally, students experiment with cigarettes and alcohol before cannabis, but since 2006, less than 50% of adolescents try cigarettes and alcohol before they try cannabis for the first time. The findings are published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
The FDA requires clinical studies of new drugs in pediatric populations, since many drugs developed for use in adults are also used in children. These studies are often requested after the drug is approved in adults, as "post-marketing" trials. However, a study from Boston Children's Hospital finds that only a third of these mandatory trials were completed within an average of seven years. As a result, most new drug labels continue to lack information needed for use in children, and most FDA-approved medications remain untreated in children.
With nearly two million new infections and one million associated deaths each year, the HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) pandemic is alive and well. Thirty-seven million people are now living with HIV, more than half of whom are women.
New research has taken a step towards understanding how highly pathogenic influenza viruses such as deadly bird flu infect humans. Researchers at Griffith's Institute for Glycomics and the University of Hong Kong have shown specific sugar molecules-S-glycans-that are present in the respiratory tract are key receptors for influenza viruses, particularly the highly pathogenic influenza virus strains
Across the country, billboards are popping up suggesting that vaccines can kill children, when the science behind vaccination is crystal clear – vaccinations are extremely safe.
New research published in the International Journal of Pharmaceutics demonstrates that 'good' bacteria in the live probiotic SymproveTM can successfully reach and colonize the gut, where they go on to change the existing gut flora. They are also capable of modifying immune response.
Epigenetic therapies—targeting enzymes that alter what genes are turned on or off in a cell—are of growing interest in the cancer field as a way of making cancer less aggressive or less malignant.
Researchers at Boston Children's Hospital now report that at least one epigenetic therapy that initially looked promising for lung cancer actually has the opposite effect, boosting cancer stem cells that are believed to drive tumors. They also identify a strategy that reduces these cells, curbing lung cancer in mice. Findings were published online today in Nature Communications.