News

Potential Link between Artificial Sweeteners and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Paris, 8 Sep (ONA) --- A large study of French adults published by The BMJ today suggested a potential direct association between higher artificial sweetener consumption and increased cardiovascular disease risk, including heart attack and stroke. The findings indicated that these food additives, consumed daily by millions of people and present in thousands of foods and drinks, should not be considered a healthy and safe alternative to sugar, in line with the current position of several health agencies.To ...

Daily Walking Cuts Down Risk of DementiaCopenhagen, 7 Sep (ONA) --- People between the ages of 40 and 79 who took 9,826 steps per day were 50% less likely to develop dementia within seven years, the study found. Furthermore, people who walked with "purpose" at a pace over 40 steps a minute were able to cut their risk of dementia by 57% with just 6,315 steps a day."It is a brisk walking activity, like a power walk," said study co-author Borja del Pozo Cruz, an adjunct associate professor at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense, Denmark, and senior researcher in health sciences ...

Exposure to Air pollution Impacts Infant's Gut Bacteria, Increases Risk of Allergies Washington, 6 Sep (ONA) --- Exposure to air pollution in the first six months of life impacts a child's gut bacteria in ways that could increase risk of allergies, obesity and diabetes, and even influence brain development, a study has warned. The research, published recently in the journal Gut Microbes, is the first to show a link between inhaled pollutants such as those from traffic, wildfires and industry and changes in infant microbial health during this critical window of ...

Zimbabwe Says Measles Outbreak Killed 700 Children Harare, Zimbabwe, 5 Sep (ONA) --- The death toll from a measles outbreak in Zimbabwe has risen to almost 700 children, the country’s health ministry has said. The southern African country’s health ministry announced at the weekend that 698 children have died from measles since the outbreak started in April. Measles is among the most infectious diseases in the world and mostly spreads in the air by coughing, sneezing or close contact. Symptoms include coughing, fever and a skin rash, while the risk of severe measles or ...

Scientists Develop World's First Therapy for Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease Seoul, 30 Aug (ONA) --- Researchers have developed the world’s first electroceutical technology that can be used to treat the Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease, the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology said today. CMT disease is a group of inherited disorders that cause nerve damage. Its common symptoms are weakness in the legs and feet, loss of muscle bulk and curled toes. Although CMT is one of the most commonly inherited neurological disorders -- found in about one in 3,000 people -- ...

Japan to Ease COVID-19 Border Controls from 7 September Tokyo, 24 Aug (ONA) --- Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida today announced plans to ease border controls from early September by eliminating requirements for pre-departure COVID-19 tests for travelers who have received at least three vaccine doses, and he will also consider increasing daily entry caps as soon as next month. Japan, which has imposed some of the toughest border measures for the coronavirus, currently requires negative PCR test results within 72 hours of departure for all entrants. Kishida, after holding ...

Moldova Ships in One Million Iodine Pills Amid Fears of Nuclear Disaster Chisinau, 16 Aug (ONA) --- Moldova has imported one million iodine pills as fighting rages around a nuclear power station in neighboring Ukraine, Euronews reported. However, Moldova, with a population of 2.5 million people, insists locals should not panic. Shelling has intensified near Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant - the largest of its kind in Europe - with the UN warning fighting could "lead to disaster". Now Moldova, which borders Ukraine and is 480km from the power station, has ...

Berlin, 14 Aug (ONA) ---- Many Germans appear uninterested in a new, adapted Covid-19 vaccine expected to be available in the coming months, according to a survey commissioned by dpa.Asked if they planned to get the new jab, tailored to protect against the Omicron variant, 34% of respondents said "no" and 22% said "maybe," in the survey by pollsters YouGov.An overall 38% responded "yes," while 6% gave no reply or answered "don't know."On Friday, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said he expected the European approvals for vaccines against the Omicron BA.1 and BA.5 variants to be granted ...

Japan Reports Record High 250,403 Coronavirus Cases Tokyo, 10 Aug (ONA) --- Japan today reported a record high 250,403 new daily coronavirus cases. Twenty prefectures also reported nigh numbers, Japan Today reported. The Tokyo metropolitan government today reported 34,243 new coronavirus cases, up 5,128 from yesterday . The number of coronavirus-related deaths reported in Japan was 251. ---Ends/Hilal ...

Sleep Deprivation May Jeopardize Development of Young Children: Study Maryland, 9 Aug (ONA) - - - For children in elementary school, regularly getting less than nine hours of sleep per night may hinder their neurocognitive development, according to a study led by University of Maryland School of Medicine researchers and published in the journal Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, The Washington Post reported. The study involved 8,323 children, ages 9 and 10, who were enrolled in a large, long-term study of brain development and children’s health. Comparing children who got ...

Study Connects Climate Hazards to 58pc of Infectious Diseases Berlin, 8 Aug (ONA) --- Climate hazards such as flooding, heat waves and drought have worsened more than half of the hundreds of known infectious diseases in people, including malaria, hantavirus, cholera and anthrax, a study said. Researchers looked through the medical literature of established cases of illnesses and found that 218 out of the known 375 human infectious diseases, or 58%, seemed to be made worse by one of 10 types of extreme weather connected to climate change, according to a study in journal Nature ...

Hong Kong Cuts COVID Hotel Quarantine to 3 Days for Arrivals Hong Kong, 8 Aug (ONA) --- Hong Kong will reduce the mandatory hotel quarantine for overseas arrivals to three days from a week. The southern Chinese city remains one of the few places in the world, together with mainland China, to require a quarantine to guard against travelers spreading COVID-19 to the local population. The policy taking effect Friday will be Hong Kong’s shortest quarantine for arrivals since the pandemic began. --- Ends/Khalid ...

Researchers Develop Mass Production Technology for Biodegradable Microrobots Seoul, 2 Aug (ONA) --- Scientists have developed a new technology to allow mass production of biodegradable microrobots that are likely to contribute to improving the efficacy of regenerative medicine such as stem cell therapy, The Korea Herald news reported. A joint research team composed of scientists at Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST), Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital of the Catholic University of Korea and Swiss public university ETH Zurich came up with a method to produce ...

More People Catching Coronavirus Second Time, Heightening Long Covid RiskLos Angeles, 1 Aug (ONA) --- Emerging evidence suggests that catching the coronavirus a second time can heighten long-term health risks, the DPA news reported. Earlier in the pandemic, it was assumed that getting infected afforded some degree of lasting protection, for perhaps a few months.As the coronavirus mutates, though, that’s no longer a given. And each individual infection carries the risk not only for acute illness but the potential to develop long COVID.“The additive risk is really not trivial, not ...

New Zealand Fully Reopens Borders After Long Pandemic ClosureWellington, 1 Aug (ONA) --- New Zealand's borders are fully open for the first time since March 2020, when they shut in an effort to curb the spread of Covid-19.Immigration authorities will now begin accepting visitors with visas and those on student visas again.Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called it an "enormous moment", adding it was part of a "cautious process".Most visitors will still need to be fully vaccinated, but there are no quarantine requirements.The country's maritime border has also reopened, with cruise ...

France to Mobilise Extra Support for Monkeypox Vaccines as 1,700 InfectedParis, 26 Jul (ONA) --- About 1,700 people had been infected with monkeypox in France, Health Minister François Braun said, the France 24 News reported. Braun said the government so far had opened about 100 vaccination centres for monkeypox and that more than 6,000 people have received a preventive vaccination.The health minister said that France would mobilise “extra support” to ensure that enough vaccines can be given, including training medical students to administer jabs.Braun called on patients who ...

Nearly 60% of Taiwanese over 40 have Fatty Liver Disease: Study Taipei, 25 Jul (ONA) --- More than 50% of Taiwan residents aged 40 or over have fatty liver disease (FLD), according to a free large-scale abdominal ultrasonography test held yesterday (Monday), The Taiwan News reported. Conducted by the Liver Disease Prevention and Treatment Research Foundation, the mass examinations took place at 16 medical institutes in 15 cities and counties concurrently. A total of 1,833, or 57% of 3,205 participants were found to have hepatic steatosis, the excess buildup of fat in ...

Australians Advised to Wear Face Mask, Work from Home to Curb Covid-19 Surge  Canberra, 20 Jul (ONA) --- As Australia battles through a significant rise in COVID-19 cases, authorities are renewing calls for people to follow expert health advice to keep the community safe, The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) in Australia reported.   Health Minister Mark Butler said there have been 300,000 cases in the past week but warned hundreds of thousands more infections are forecast for coming weeks, with the peak of the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron wave expected in ...

Czech Begins Offering Adults Fourth Coronavirus Jab Prague, 18 Jul (ONA) ---- A second booster vaccine against the coronavirus - effectively a fourth jab - is being made available to all adults in the Czech Republic from today, the Czech Health Ministry announced in Prague. The booster can be obtained from doctors or hospitals without pre-registering, under condition only that the third jab was administered at least four months earlier. Those older than 60 and anyone seen as being at risk were being urgently advised to avail themselves of the additional jab, ...

Chinese Mainland Reports 117 New Local Confirmed COVID-19 Cases Beijing, 18 Jul (ONA) --- The Chinese mainland Sunday reported 117 locally-transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 59 in Guangxi and 28 in Gansu, the National Health Commission said today, Xinhua reported. Altogether 393 local asymptomatic carriers were newly identified in 12 provincial-level regions on Sunday. A total of 86 COVID-19 patients were discharged from hospitals after recovery on the Chinese mainland, said the commission. The total number of COVID-19 patients discharged from hospitals ...

COVID-19 Cases Rise for 5th Week, Deaths Stable Geneva, 14 Jul (ONA) --- The number of new coronavirus cases reported worldwide rose for thefifth week in a row while the number of deaths remained relatively stable, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported today. In the UN health agency’s weekly review of the COVID-19 pandemic, WHO said there were 5.7 million new infections confirmed last week, marking a 6% increase. There were 9.800 deaths, roughly similar to the previous week’s figure. Earlier this week, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the ...

South Korea Expands Booster Shots as COVID-19 Cases Creep up Seoul, 13 Jul (ONA) --- Health officials in South Korea are expanding booster shots to adults 50 and over as COVID-19 cases creep up again across the country. The 40,226 new cases reported today marked the country’s highest daily jump in more than two months, although hospitalizations and deaths remain stable. South Korea had previously given second booster shots to people who are 60 or older and those with compromised immune systems. Korean officials are now expanding the eligibility of those shots to people in ...

No Monkeypox Deaths Recorded in Europe: Health Officials Stockholm, 7 Jul (ONA) —— No one has died in Europe after a monkeypox infection, according to the data made available to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the World Health Organization's (WHO) Regional Office for Europe.The two bodies have registered 5,949 cases of monkeypox in 33 European countries and regions, they said today after a joint analysis of the outbreak.They said 5,266 cases have been reported to the European surveillance system Tessy and all but one had been confirmed by laboratories.The ...

New Gene Discovery Could Explain Why More Women Get Alzheimer’s Boston, US, 30 Jun (ONA) --- Scientists have identified a gene that appears to increase the risk of Alzheimer's in women, providing a potential new clue as to why more women than men are diagnosed with the disease. The gene, O6-Methylguanine-DNA-methyltransferase, or MGMT, plays an important role in how the body repairs damage to DNA in both men and women, but researchers did not find an association between MGMT and Alzheimer's in men. "It's a female-specific finding -- perhaps one of the strongest associations ...

COVID Restrictions Ease in Shanghai as Case Numbers Drop Beijing, 30 Jun (ONA) --- Shanghai is moving to allow in-person dining and reopening its Disney Resort theme park as domestically transmitted cases of COVID-19 in China’s largest city remain at zero following a more than two-month lockdown. Chinese officials hail their hardline “zero-COVID” policy for stemming the growth of cases and deaths from the virus, despite the enormous cost to the Chinese economy and international supply chains reliant on China’s manufacturing and shipping abilities that have been thrown ...

Consuming Cranberries Enhances Memory, Curbs Bad Cholesterol London, 26 Jun (ONA) --- The latest research at the University of East Anglia in the UK has indicated the neuroprotective potential that cranberries possess and that adding them to one's diet can significantly enhance memory and curb unhealthy cholesterol.The research team studied the benefits of consuming the equivalent of a cup of cranberries a day among 50 to 80-year-olds. They hope that their findings could have implications for the prevention of neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia.Lead researcher Dr. David ...

Gum Disease Is Linked with Heart Attacks, DiabetesOslo, 20 Jun (ONA) --- A large study has found that people with a prior heart attack or diabetes are more likely to have gum disease than their healthy counterparts. The research is presented at EuroPerio10, the world's leading congress in periodontology and implant dentistry organized by the European Federation of Periodontology (EFP)."This was an observational study and does not imply causal relationships," said study author Dr. Ida Stødle of the University of Oslo, Norway. "However, the findings raise awareness about the ...

Teeth Reveal Where Black Death BeganLondon, 16 Jun (ONA) --- Researchers believe they have discovered the origins of the Black Death, more than 600 years after it killed tens of millions in Europe, Asia and north Africa. The mid-14th Century health catastrophe is one of the most significant disease episodes in human history. But despite years of research, scientists had been unable to pinpoint where the bubonic plague began. Now analysis suggests it was in Kyrgyzstan, central Asia, in the 1330s. A research team from the University of Stirling in Scotland and Germany's ...

Geneva, 16 Jun (ONA) --- After five weeks of declining coronavirus deaths, the number of fatalities reported globally increased by 4% last week, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). In its weekly assessment of the pandemic issued on today, the UN health agency said there were 8,700 COVID-19 deaths last week, with a 21% jump in the Americas and a 17% increase in the Western Pacific. WHO said coronavirus cases continued to fall, with about 3.2 million new cases reported last week, extending a decline in COVID-19 infections since the peak in January. Still, there were ...

Beijing, 6 Jun (ONA) --- Diners today returned to restaurants in most of Beijing for the first time in more than a month as local authorities further eased pandemic-related restrictions after largely eradicating a small COVID-19 outbreak in the capital under China’s strict “zero-COVID” approach. Museums, cinemas and gyms were allowed to operate at up to 75% of capacity and delivery drivers could once again bring packages to a customer’s door, rather than leave them to be picked up at the entrances to apartment compounds. The return to near-normal applied everywhere in ...