Health

High healthcare costs put mothers and newborns at risk: UNICEF

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 03 (APP): Pregnant women are putting their lives and babies at risk because of “catastrophic” and prohibitive healthcare costs before, during and after childbirth, UNICEF said on Monday.

In a new report highlighting how few of the world’s poorest pregnant women have a doctor, nurse or midwife at their side when they need them most, the UN Children’s Fund said that more than 800 women die every day from complications, while many more mothers live with “debilitating” outcomes.

Perk up: California says coffee cancer risk insignificant

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California officially gave its blessing to coffee Monday, declaring the beverage does not pose a “significant” cancer risk.

The rule, proposed a year ago by regulators, means coffee won’t have to carry ominous warnings that the beverage may be bad for you.

The state took the rare move after a Los Angeles judge found Starbucks Corp. and other companies failed to show that benefits from drinking coffee outweighed risks from a byproduct of the roasting process.

Trump’s dig at McCain skews facts on vet care

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is making up facts about a veterans’ health care program in his latest dig at late Sen. John McCain.

He says he’s no fan of McCain, a Vietnam War veteran and tortured prisoner of war, faulting him for failing to pass a program that gave veterans the option to see a private doctor at public expense.

WHO investigates HIV outbreak in southwest Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, June 1 (Xinhua) -- In the wake of an HIV outbreak with more than 700 cases of HIV positive patients in Pakistan's southern Sindh province, an international team of experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) has begun investigation into the sudden spread of the disease, local reports said on Saturday.

Pregnant women should avoid e-cigarettes: Aussie researchers

SYDNEY, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Pregnant women should avoid using electronic cigarettes as there is a lack of evidence about the safety of the smoking devices, Australian researchers said on Saturday.

Many people believe that "vaping" with the e-cigarettes "was either safe or at least far safer than tobacco smoking during pregnancy, however, the lack of detailed research into the subject meant this belief could not be supported," researcher from the Telethon Kids Institute Alexander Larcombe said in a statement from the institute.

Smoking laws save 15,000 lives of Brazilian children: study

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 31 (Xinhua) -- A series of restriction laws to make closed spaces smoke-free have resulted in a reduction of 15,000 in the number of child deaths in Brazil from 2000 to 2016, according to a study published on Friday.

Several Brazilian states implemented laws against smoking in public closed spaces from 2000 to 2012. In 2011, a federal law established full prohibition of closed space smoking across the country. The law took effect in 2014.

US could lose measles elimination status over outbreaks

31 May 2019; DW: The United States has recorded its highest tally of measles cases in 27 years. If the US cannot control the outbreaks, it may lose its status of having eliminated measles.

The United States recorded 971 cases of measles in the first five months of 2019, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.

The tally is the highest in the US since 1994, when the total number of cases for the year hit 963.

World's smallest baby released from San Diego hospital

30 May 2019; DW: Baby Saybie weighed little more than an apple when she was born. Doctors said she wouldn't survive long. But after five months in intensive care, she's been given the all-clear to go home with her family.

A baby thought to be the world's tiniest surviving infant has been discharged from a San Diego hospital after five months in intensive care.

India: Ganga River water unfit for direct drinking or bathing

New Delhi, May 30 (PTI) The Ganga River water is absolutely unfit for "direct drinking" and only seven spots from where it passes can be consumed after disinfection, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has said.

According to the latest data with the CPCB, most of the Ganga River water in the Uttar Pradesh-West Bengal stretch is unfit for drinking and bathing.

A map released by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) shows high level of coliform bacteria in the river.

Aussie man suffers heart attack while climbing iconic Uluru

CANBERRA, May 30 (Xinhua) -- An elderly Australian man has suffered a heart attack while climbing Uluru, just months before the iconic rock is closed to climbers on October.

The 64-year-old man was halfway through the hour-long climb of Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, with a tour group on Tuesday when he entered cardiac arrest.

Two paramedics were quick to help, and two off-duty police officers were able to get the man's heart back into "survivable rhythm" with a defibrillator while awaiting the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

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