Tag: public
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Baltimore’s Big Soda Moment: Why Access to Sugary Drink Information is a Civil Rights Issue
Baltimore's corners are often associated with the public health threat presented by illicit drug dealing and use but there is another, more unassuming, danger lurking inside corner stores and supermarkets: sugar-sweetened beverages. The Baltimore City Council will consider a bill next week to include a warning label on sugary drinks similar to…
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Germany relaxes rules on using cannabis for medical purposes
Dried cannabis flowers and cannabis extracts will be available in pharmacies on prescription and the public health system will cover the cost, according to the draft bill that is expected to come into force from spring 2017. Other countries that allow cannabis use for medical purposes include Italy and the Czech Republic. Portugal has decriminalized…
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Medellin: The Right Place and Time for Collaborative Learning in Public Health
by Negeen Darani, Harvard Humanitarian InitiativePhoto by Kevin Dooley. Today marks Day 2 of the Post-Conflict Colombia and Public Health course — a project of the Open Hands Initiative and Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI), in collaboration with the University of Antioquia School of Medicine. Sixteen students from the Harvard T.H. Chan…
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Oral contraceptive use early in pregnancy not tied to defects
By Andrew M. Seaman (Reuters Health) – Women who accidentally keep taking oral contraceptives after becoming pregnant shouldn't worry about birth defects, a new study suggests. An analysis of nearly 900,000 births found no connection between oral contraceptive use right before or during pregnancy and birth defects in babies, researchers report in The BMJ. “For…
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UniQure shares jump on promising gene therapy data
Dutch biotech UniQure NV said its experimental gene therapy for a blood disorder benefited some patients in an early-stage study, offering a rare ray of hope in gene therapy research plagued by a series of failed trials. Janney Capital Markets analyst Debjit Chattopadhyay said UniQure’s data looked better than that of Baxalta Inc’s rival drug.…
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Rio governor declares health sector emergency ahead of Olympics
The governor of the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro has declared a health sector emergency after public hospitals began limiting services due to funding shortfalls amid wider state budget woes. The crisis comes as the metropolis of Rio readies to host the 2016 Summer Olympics in August, raising concerns about the availability of proper…
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Basketball players may be at heightened risk of lung clots
By Janice Neumann (Reuters Health) – Basketball players could be at heightened risk for dangerous blood clots that travel to the lungs, according to a small Spanish study. “We have shown there is limited evidence of higher risk, so more research is needed,” said lead author Marti Casals of the national Research Center Network for…
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The Science of Fear: What Happens to Your Body After a Good Scare
Fear can have a direct and noticeable effect on the body.