One quarter of Ontario hospitals surveyed in a Queen’s University-led study do not have an influenza pandemic plan and few plans that do exist have been tested. In addition, key players were not involved in developing the plans, and funding for pandemic preparedness was inadequate. “It’s not good enough just to have a plan, you have to test it…

Social interaction between neighbours, work colleagues and other communities and social groups makes voluntary vaccination programs for epidemics such as Swine Flu, SARS or Bird Flu a surprisingly effective method of disease control…

The Wall Street Journal: “Mental-health experts wrestling with how to fit temper tantrums, hoarding and even Internet addiction into the current understanding of mental illness are proposing changes to the field’s primary reference for diagnoses for the first time in 16 years…

The American Psychiatric Association today released the proposed draft diagnostic criteria for the fifth edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)…

New research provides insight into why fragile X syndrome, the most common known cause of autism and mental retardation, is associated with an extreme hypersensitivity to sounds, touch, smells, and visual stimuli that causes sensory overload and results in social withdrawal, hyperarousal, and anxiety…

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) and NHS Blackpool can confirm they are investigating the death of a drug injecting heroin user in Blackpool. The investigation has confirmed that the cause of death was anthrax following positive test results. This is the second case of anthrax seen in an injecting drug user in England, the first announced in London on 5 February…

The National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded a five-year contract totaling $15,254,919 to Tulane University for its ongoing efforts to treat and prevent Lassa fever, an often deadly viral disease that threatens hundreds of thousands of people annually in West Africa and is classified as a poten…

New findings suggest stuttering may an inherited metabolic disorder.

Though heart disease is the leading killer of women, nearly half of women would not call 911 during heart attack symptoms.

Migraine sufferers may have a higher risk of heart attack and other risk factors for heart disease.