OUR VIEW: Many winners possible in UConn decisionNew Britain Herald, CT - 9 hours ago

Global achievement of the health related Millenium Development Goals, the MDGs, depends largely on India's success and on China accelerating progress even further, according to a new UNICEF report which examines the latest trends in child and maternal health.

Bionor Immuno announced that it has advanced its efforts to develop the first HIV therapeutic immunization with the dosing of patients in a global Phase 2b clinical trial of the company's lead candidate (Vacc-4x).

Dr Peter Carter, Chief Executive & General Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), said: "Nurses are often the first point of contact when dealing with sexual health issues, and this year's theme for Sexual Health Week, It's My Right! provides an opportunity to educate nurses on how to provide specific advice and information on sexual health for people with learning disabilities.

Young people who sleep less may be more likely to be overweight, especially if they spend less time in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, according to a report released on August 4, 2008 in Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. The obesity epidemic in the United States is well recognized, and has been occurring even in children.

Fewer office-based psychiatrists are personally offering psychotherapy to their patients according to an article released on August 4, 2008 in Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. The intervention of psychotherapy has been a strong part of the practice of psychiatry since its inception.

The Food and Drug Administration announced several improved policies and procedures strengthening its management of FDA advisory committees.

To help injured disaster survivors that may be at risk for infection from blood-borne viruses or tetanus in the environment, new vaccine recommendations were released in the latest issue of the American Medical Association (AMA) Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness journal. The recommendations are co-published with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Health and criminal justice authorities need to provide targeted services to drug users, especially those who inject drugs, to prevent and treat tuberculosis (TB) and HIV. TB is a major cause of death for people living with HIV, but drug users who are HIV-positive face stigma, discrimination and barriers to accessing life-saving treatments.

Argos Therapeutics announced the presentation of positive immune response data from a Phase 1 clinical trial of AGS-004 in HIV-infected adults in combination with antiretroviral therapy (ART). AGS-004 achieved the trial's primary endpoint of induction of T cell response to patient-specific HIV antigens.

ImmunoVaccine Technologies Inc. (IVT), a vaccine development company, announced receipt of patent approval from the Japanese Patent Office for its vaccine platform.

Leaders and experts in the fields of HIV and human resources for health have stressed that reaching universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support will not be possible unless both communities work much closer together, reject notions of 'competition' between the two responses and unless stigma within the health professions is seriously addressed.

An extra £2 million will be invested to help more women in England breastfeed, Public Health Minister Dawn Primarolo announced. The extra funding, announced during World Breastfeeding Week (1-7 August), will help improve the UK's breastfeeding rate that is among the lowest in Europe, and in particular help mums in deprived areas.

Brunel University's School of Health Sciences and Social Care today announces details of its new MSc in Urgent Care, which it is launching in response to upcoming changes to UK healthcare policy and practice. These changes will see patients that require urgent or unscheduled care being managed by a General Practitioner (GP) in Emergency Care Centres rather than by NHS Trusts.

The Critical Path Institute (C-Path) Predictive Safety Testing Consortium (PSTC), which includes Grand Rapids-based ClinXus, has identified seven new tests to assess the safety of new drugs in development, specifically to monitor the drugs' effects on the kidneys. The U.S.

Genes that control percentage of body fat are also responsible for circulating levels of testosterone in men, research published in the latest edition of Clinical Endocrinology shows. The research shows a 23% overlap between the genes that control testosterone and those that regulate body fat composition, suggesting that these two variables are partly controlled by the same set of genes.

Children and young people attending the National Eisteddfod this week will be able to enter a competition to say what they would change to make things better for children and young people.

Delegates gathering at the International AIDS 2008 conference in Mexico City this week will hear stark news from the International HIV/AIDS Alliance about the hidden HIV crisis among transgender people. New research is revealing shockingly high rates of HIV among the transgender communities of Latin America and Asia.

In response to Michael Gove's speech on strengthening family life and promoting responsible fatherhood, Margaret Dillon, NCH's Executive Director of Children's Services, says: "It is important that the issues highlighted in today's speech are brought to people's attention.

There have been many protests about the 35% rise in fuel costs recently announced by British Gas. It is not just the elderly who will suffer this coming winter. Spare a thought for the 10 million people in the UK who suffer from Raynaud's phenomenon, a condition in which blood is prevented from reaching the extremities on exposure to the cold or any slight change in temperature.