Last week doctors in Massachusetts announced that Senator Ted Kennedy has brain cancer.

Ted Kennedy

The news came after he suffered a seizure. Doctors found a glioma, a growth in the supportive tissue of the brain. The glial tissue is where the largest percentage of brain tumors begin.

More than forty percent of growths in the brain are gliomas. But they make up almost eighty percent of cancerous growths, like the malignant glioma that Senator Kennedy has.

Seizures and headaches are common first signs of a glioma.

Cancerous glial tumors generally spread in the brain the way roots spread from a plant. That makes removing the tumor more difficult. A clear border between the cancer and healthy tissue can be difficult to find.

Margaret Chan

But Director-General Margaret Chan, as she opened the World Health Assembly, noted that the delegates are meeting at a time of tragedy. She expressed sympathy to the millions of people affected by the recent cyclone in Burma, also known as Myanmar, and the earthquake in China.

Doctor Chan said three crises lie ahead that are international security threats and will all affect human health. One is food security, another is climate change and the third is the threat of a worldwide outbreak of influenza.

Doctor Santiago Horgan

The operation at the University of California San Diego Medical Center in March lasted three hours. It was done as part of a study to test new methods of minimally invasive surgery. Santiago Horgan, director of UC San Diego's Center for the Future of Surgery, led the medical team.

Doctors used a long robotic tube to pass the instrument down the patient's throat. Then they made a cut in the wall of the stomach. The cut was made to pass the instrument through to the appendix for removal.

Chest compressions on a CPR training dummy

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, is help for a stopped heart. It increases the chances of survival and reduces the danger of brain damage. With traditional CPR, you push hard on the chest thirty times, then stop to give two breaths to force air into the lungs. You repeat the steps until the victim can get medical treatment.

But people may worry about getting sick from blowing into a stranger's mouth. Also, the training is easy to forget, especially in a crisis. And those without training may be afraid to do anything for fear they will do something wrong.

Leroy Hubley of Toledo, Ohio, lost his wife and son after they received heparin. He is shown at a hearing held Tuesday by a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee.

Officials in the United States have received hundreds of reports of severe reactions, including deaths.

On April twenty-first, the Food and Drug Administration released a warning letter to a Chinese supplier for the Baxter heparin. The letter said Changzhou SPL had received material from an unacceptable supplier, and could not purify the materials used to make the drug. F.D.A. inspectors found that the company did not follow good manufacturing practice.

Chinese officials have suggested that the contaminant entered the heparin during the finishing process in the United States. Baxter disagreed. A Chinese delegation visited a Baxter factory in New Jersey last week.

Scientists have offered explanations for how the chemical could have caused the allergic reactions and low blood pressure seen in patients.

A Brazilian drug company and a nonprofit group have developed a new, simplified malaria treatment.

A laboratory worker shows reporters the new combination drug for malaria

Patients have to take only one tablet a day for three days for some ages, or two tablets a day for three days for other ages.

The medicine combines two existing malaria drugs, artesunate and mefloquine. This combination has been widely used in recent years in Latin America and Southeast Asia.

The Brazilian government will make the new treatment available throughout Latin America and Southeast Asia over this year and next. The fixed-dose drug will be offered to public agencies at a target price of two and a half dollars for the full adult treatment.

Health officials destroy birds on a farm in Muan, South Korea, to fight the spread of bird flu

South Korea this month reported new outbreaks in birds.

And the United States health secretary urged Indonesia to cooperate more with the World Health Organization to share virus samples. Mike Leavitt spoke Monday in Jakarta. He noted that many life-saving vaccines have resulted from international cooperation.

Indonesia has had the most deaths of any country from H5N1, more than one hundred people. But it wants the right to approve any drug company's use of virus samples from Indonesia. Indonesia also wants guarantees that poor countries would be able to get low-cost vaccines developed from their samples.

And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus.

Research suggests that the belly is the worst place to have fat

Being overweight can lead to high blood pressure, diabetes and heart attacks. But now there may be another reason to lose the fat, especially around the middle of the body.

A recent study suggested that people in their forties with belly fat have an increased risk of dementia later in life.

Dementia is the name for a group of brain disorders that affect memory, behavior, learning and language. Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause. Dementia rarely appears before the age of sixty.

The new study added to growing evidence that people with large stomachs can face greater health risks than others who are overweight.

Schistosoma mansoni, one of three major kinds of worms that cause schistosomiasis

Scientists think they are a step closer to a new drug to treat schistosomiasis. More than two hundred million people suffer from this parasitic worm disease. Most live in developing nations in tropical climates. About ten percent of victims become seriously disabled from internal bleeding, iron loss, organ damage or other effects.

A team in the United States found that chemical compounds known as oxadiazoles can target an enzyme needed for the survival of Schistosoma. This is the group of flatworms that cause schistosomiasis. 

The scientists tested oxadiazoles on laboratory mice. They found that one compound killed the parasite at every level of development – from larva to adult. The study also showed that the compound was active against all three major species of Schistosoma worms that infect humans.

Children in Uganda

Uganda began widespread child vaccinations against Hib in two thousand two. Now, a study has found that in areas where cases were counted, the disease rate fell by eighty-five percent in the first four years. Then it fell to zero in two thousand six.

Scientists from the government, the World Health Organization, a French agency and others have been studying the campaign. They estimate that the program now prevents thirty thousand severe infections and five thousand deaths in children under five each year. Their report is to be published next month in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization.

A bottle of Prozac

S.S.R.I.s are designed to help keep serotonin, a brain chemical, at a continuous level. The new study suggests that they provide little help to the large majority of the millions who take them.

Scientists from Britain, Canada and the United States did the study. It was a meta-analysis, a study of studies.

The team used an American law, the Freedom of Information Act, to get unpublished reports on thirty-five clinical trials of four drugs. Drug companies gave these and published studies to the Food and Drug Administration for approval of the medicines.

In many societies, there is often greater acceptance of light skin than dark skin. Light skin may be seen as a mark of beauty, intelligence and success. These beliefs can lead to social pressures even within the same racial or ethnic group, if some members are darker skinned than others.

The result is that skin lightening has become a common activity across Africa, Asia and other areas of the world. More and more people with dark skin are using skin-lightening products, even if it means they may face health risks.

Who is happiest?

They found that people around the world seem to share an emotional design in life. That design, they say, is shaped like the letter U. Levels of happiness are highest when people are young and when they are old. In the middle, however, most people's happiness and life satisfaction levels drop.

Professor Oswald says some people suffer from midlife depression more than others. But, he says, it happens to men and women, to single and married people, to rich and poor and to those with and without children.

Generally speaking, people reach their lowest levels between the ages of about forty and fifty-five. But then, as they continue into old age, their happiness starts to climb back up.

The World Health Organization is urging countries to follow six policies to prevent millions of tobacco-related deaths. The six policies are known as MPOWER, spelled M-P-O-W-E-R.

The M is for monitoring tobacco use and prevention policies. The P is for protecting people by establishing smoke-free areas.

Every year, malaria sickens about five hundred million people. More than one million of them die, mostly young children and pregnant women in Africa. 

A Nigerian mother with an insecticide-treated bed net

For several years in sub-Saharan Africa, the Global Fund and other groups have been paying for bed nets treated with long-lasting insect poison. Malaria is spread by mosquito bites. The groups have also invested in antimalaria drugs for A.C.T., artemisinin-based combination therapy.

Recently, a team from the World Health Organization visited Ethiopia, Ghana, Rwanda and Zambia. These countries were the first to distribute the bed nets and medicine. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria requested a study to see if the interventions were helping.

Breastfeeding should begin right after a baby is born. There may be experts at a hospital or other health center who can show a new mother several different positions for breastfeeding.

A mother can get a painful back or neck if she leans over to feed her baby. Better to bring the baby to the breast instead. The baby's mouth should be open as wide as possible so that all of the nipple and area around it fit inside.

The World Health Organization says babies should receive only breast milk for the first six months. On its Web site, the W.H.O. says breast milk is the ideal food for the healthy growth and development of infants. And it notes that as part of the reproductive process, breastfeeding also has important health considerations for mothers.

Studies have shown that women who receive counseling about breastfeeding are more likely to feed their babies only breast milk for the first six months.

The research involved poor to middle-income countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Robert Black from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland was the lead author of the series. He says more than three and one-half million mothers and children under five die in poor countries each year because of undernutrition.

He says more than two million children die from underdevelopment, either before or after birth, or from severe wasting. Millions of others who survive face a lifetime of disabilities or early death.

In developed countries, most pneumonia cases are caused by viruses. But in the developing world, about sixty percent are caused by bacteria. These cases can be treated with antibiotic drugs.

The World Health Organization currently says children with severe pneumonia should be admitted to a hospital and given injectable antibiotics. But many poor families do not have the money for a hospital or live too far away.

In the United States, C.O.P.D. is the fourth leading cause of death. But even with these numbers, many people have never heard of it.

The Canadian Lung Association Web site explains that C.O.P.D. is the new name for emphysema and chronic bronchitis. These are the two most common forms of it, and many people with C.O.P.D. have both of them.

Even minor cuts can become infected if they are left untreated. Any break in the skin can let bacteria enter the body. An increasing number of bacterial skin infections are resistant to antibiotic medicines. These infections can spread throughout the body.

But taking good care of any injury that breaks the skin can help prevent an infection.

Majorities in almost every country said wealthier nations are not doing enough to help poorer ones. That includes help with economic development, reducing poverty and improving health.

But in countries that receive the most development aid, people were much more likely to say that wealthy nations are doing enough. And in wealthier nations, there was strong support to do more to help.

The Kaiser Family Foundation and the Pew Global Attitudes Project did the survey.

We talked last week about ways to avoid hypothermia and other cold-weather injuries. Today we are going to talk about emergency treatment.

Asthma is a disease of the lungs that is that is characterized by tightening of the air pathways. Common symptoms of asthma are wheezing, shortness of breath, coughing, chest pain, tightness or pressure. Many of these conditions are reversible with medication but not 100% reversible in all patients. Some common features of asthma are inflammation, airway obstruction and airway sensitivity. Some risk factors for asthma are a family history of asthma, regular lung infections, presence of allergies, exposure to tobacco smoke, low birth weight, and being male.

Type 1 Diabetes is an autoimmune disease. It is thought to be caused by an environmental trigger (possibly a virus or toxin but doctors aren't sure.) This trigger causes the immune system to attack beta cells in the pancreas. Beta cells produce insulin, and after the immune system damages enough beta cells, the body cannot produce sufficient insulin supplies.

Type 2 diabetes is the most common of the two forms of diabetes, affecting 90% or greater of the people with diabetes. In type 2 diabetes, the pancreas produces insulin but the cells of the body become resistant or the amount of insulin produced is not enough. Glucose builds up in the blood stream (hyperglycemia,) and the cells of the body are unable to function properly.

Type 2 diabetes can affect anyone at any age but is more common in overweight populations, people with a family history of type 2 diabetes, the elderly, and people with metabolic syndrome (problems with hypertension and cholesterol issues.) The origin is still unknown but it is probably a combination of factors.

Arthritis is caused by inflammation inside the joints of the body. Arthritis is very common and affects almost a third of the American population. There are many types of arthritis and in general the causes are still unknown. However, there are some risk factors for arthritis. These may include age, gender, lifestyle factors, and being overweight. With age, the cartilage in the joints wears down causing the most common type of arthritis, osteoarthritis. Arthritis also occurs more often in women than men. Work conditions that require heavy lifting and being overweight cause heavy stress on the joints of the body.

Nurses are healthcare professionals with a very wide range of duties, responsibilities, and specialties. Nurses are responsible for the treatment, care and safety of patients. They are also responsible for maintenance of health and education for the patient. Nurses provide direct care and monitor symptoms, response, and progress in patient care.

Three main types of nurses are LPNs, RNs and APNs.

An LPN (licensed practical nurse) usually has less than 2 years of training. They perform simple and some complex medical procedures. They work under other health care professionals to provide patient care.