From 2001 to 2006, an average of 129 Americans ages 65 and older were treated in emergency departments each day?a total of more than 47,000 each year?for injuries from falls that involved walkers and canes, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study published this month in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

read more

Healthy swimming behaviors play an important role in stopping the spread of illnesses through recreational water, according to the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH).

"Germs on and in swimmers' bodies end up in the water and can make other people sick," said Dr. Kirk Smith, waterborne disease supervisor for MDH. "Even healthy swimmers can get sick from recreational water illnesses, but the young, elderly, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems are especially at risk."

Specific actions you can take to promote healthy swimming include:

read more

A trio of genome-wide studies ? collectively the largest to date ? have pinpointed a vast array of genetic variation that cumulatively may account for at least one third of the genetic risk for schizophrenia. One of the studies traced schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, in part, to the same chromosomal neighborhoods.

read more

A new imaging technique can monitor, in living mice, the HER2 protein found in above-normal amounts in many cases of breast cancer as well as some ovarian, prostate and lung cancers. This new approach, once validated in mice and pending further experiments, could provide a real-time noninvasive method for identifying tumors in humans who express HER2 and who would be candidates for targeted therapy directed against this protein.

read more

A clinical trial is being launched in three African countries of a drug that could eliminate onchocerciasis, or river blindness, one of the leading infectious causes of blindness across Africa. The drug, moxidectin, is being investigated for its potential to kill or sterilize the adult worms of Onchocerca volvulus, which cause onchocerciasis.

read more