Currently browsing tag

national

Belgium reports first case of euthanasia for a minor

By Francesco Guarascio BRUSSELS (Reuters) – A 17-year-old has been euthanized in Belgium in what is the first application of rules adopted by the country in 2014 allowing doctor-assisted death for minors of all ages, the head of the national committee for euthanasia said on Saturday. Wim Distelmans, who chairs Belgium’s Federal Control and Evaluation Committee on Euthanasia, said in an emailed statement that the first case was reported to his committee by a local doctor last week. Belgium legalized euthanasia in 2002, and two years ago amended the rules to permit doctor-assisted death for minors in a hopeless medical situation and with their explicit consent.

How to get sick on the U.S. campaign trail: Little sleep, bad food, germs everywhere

By Steve Holland and Emily Stephenson WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Hillary Clinton's bout of pneumonia has shed light on a problem seldom seen by American voters: The long days, little sleep, cross-country travel, bad food and kissing babies add up to a recipe for illness for presidential candidates and aides. Brooke Buchanan, former press secretary to 2008 Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain, remembers leaving the campaign trail in Beaufort, South Carolina to visit an emergency room. “I was back on the road the next day, full of antibiotics.” Supporters of Clinton, who will face Republican Donald Trump in the Nov. 8 election, worried on Monday that the Democratic presidential nominee's medical scare would fuel conspiracy theories about her health.

UK’s Cameron warns health services, pensions could face cuts post-Brexit

Pensions and the publicly funded National Health Service could face cuts if Britons vote to leave the European Union, Prime Minister David Cameron told a Sunday newspaper, seeking to win support from some of the most pro-Brexit members of the public. Polls, which show Britons are evenly divided ahead of a June 23 referendum on EU membership, also indicate the elderly are among the most likely to turn out on polling day and are also among the most eurosceptic voters.

Verily, Vanderbilt to test enrollment in U.S. Precision Medicine pilot

The pilot program, which aims to enroll 79,000 U.S. participants by the end of this year, is the first phase of an ambitious program to mine medical data, including genetics, environmental factors and lifestyle, to develop better ways to treat or even prevent a wide range of diseases. Vanderbilt and Verily are slated to test approaches for engaging and enrolling volunteers through a web portal. The NIH plans for the “cohort program” to recruit by 2019 one million or more U.S. volunteers – including a wide spectrum of diverse participants from all age, economic and racial groups.

Brazil enlists army, cabinet in campaign against Zika

By Silvio Cascione BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil's government launched a nationwide campaign on Saturday to fight the Zika virus, with President Dilma Rousseff and cabinet ministers personally visiting homes and handing out leaflets along with 220,000 troops. Under a scorching sun in the neighborhood of Zepellin in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, which will host the Olympic Games in August, Rousseff said everyone needed to take part in the battle against the mosquito carrying Zika, suspected of causing the birth defect microcephaly. “Brazil and the world have lost the battle against dengue, but we won the war against yellow fever, which is carried by the same mosquito.

10 US charity staff to leave Sierra Leone amid Ebola scare

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — Ten clinicians with a Boston-based nonprofit organization responding to Sierra Leone's Ebola outbreak are to be evacuated to the United States after one of their colleagues was infected with the deadly disease.

New Zealand firms see slump in China demand for infant formula after poison threat

By Naomi Tajitsu and Adam Jourdan WELLINGTON/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Chinese demand for New Zealand infant formula has fallen after a threat by suspected environmental activists to contaminate the product with an agricultural poison, the head of an exporter group said on Wednesday. Orders for infant formula, prized among China’s growing middle class, have slumped after New Zealand police on Tuesday said letters were sent to the national farmers’ group and dairy giant Fonterra in November accompanied by packages of infant formula laced with poisonous pesticide 1080, formally called sodium fluoroacetate. Following the announcement, China said it would increase scrutiny of milk powder imports from New Zealand, which depends on dairy products for about a quarter of its export earnings.