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DOCTORS in southern China will remove six sewing needles in a baby boy's body. BEIJING -- A 1-year-old boy in southern China is about to have surgery after doctors found he had six sewing needles in his body. Newspapers report the parents took the baby to a hospital because he had been crying for several days and not eating well. The child's parents, who are migrant workers, said they had no idea how the needles ended up in their son. The Beijing Youth Daily ran a color photo of an X-ray showing five needles throughout the boy's torso. The Beijing...

February 20, 2007 VeinViewer is a vein-contrast enhancement device that uses an infra-red camera to highlight blood (the underlying vasculature) and projects the image in real time onto the skin. With this device, physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals can find veins easily and avoid multiple needle sticks to patients. Venipuncture, the collection of blood specimen from a vein, is commonly seen by nurses as one of the most painful and frequently performed invasive procedures. According to an article in the Journal of Phlebotomy, an estimated one billion venipunctures are performed annually. In one study in the Journal of Nursing,...

WASHINGTON - Airline passengers will be allowed to carry small scissors and tools onto planes, reversing a rule that led to confiscation of many thousands of sharp objects at airports since the Sept. 11 terror attacks, a Homeland Security Department official said Wednesday. Transportation Security Administration chief Kip Hawley on Friday will announce changes to the list of items prohibited in carry-on luggage and to the airport screening process, according to the official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because the plan has yet to be announced. With federal air marshals on planes, bulletproof cockpit doors, armed pilots and...

Sometimes I don't know how these things happen. I was wondering what I should post as the picture this week, and the phrase "needle's eye" occurred to me. I visualized a vague image of a formation called the Needle's Eye from my youth on a family trip. So I searched, and I found the "Needle's Eye" in the Black Hills. This is probably the one I'm remembering, since we took a trip to the Black Hills when I was a kid, and it seems to match my vague memory. (See the first comment for the challenge.) For a different perspective,...

Aide to Wisconsin Governor Delivers Hypodermic Needles to Opponent of Stem Cell ResearchBy Todd Richmond Associated Press Writer Published: Jul 27, 2005 MADISON, Wis. (AP) - The top aide to Wisconsin's governor had hundreds of used hypodermic needles delivered to the Assembly speaker's office on behalf of a woman protesting the lawmaker's stance on stem cell research. Republican Speaker John Gard's staff immediately called police, fearing the needles, delivered July 19, might be contaminated. Dan Leistikow, a spokesman for Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, said the needles were sheathed and posed no threat. He defended the delivery as a way to...

Why is HIV So Prevalent in Africa? By Michael Fumento Tech Central Station, April 15, 2005 Copyright 2005 Tech Central Station Massive airdrops of condoms won't stop African AIDS.   Ninety-nine percent of AIDS and HIV cases in Africa come from sexual transmission, and virtually all is heterosexual. So says the World Health Organization, with other agencies toeing the line. Some massive condom airdrops accompanied by a persuasive propaganda campaign would practically make the epidemic vanish overnight. Or would it? A determined renegade group of three scientists has fought for years – with little success – to get out...

The next time you go to the doctor and you need to get a shot, tell him to get with the times and give you a SonoPrep instead. After eight years of technological development, a joint project by an Israeli and an American scientist has resulted in this futuristic device which could make needles a thing of the past. The SonoPrep uses ultrasound to painlessly deliver medications, including local anesthesia, through microscopic pores in the skin - holes created by low-frequency vibrations instead of high-anxiety needles. The device - created in collaboration by Professors Joseph Kost of Ben-Gurion University and...

Doctors in China have successfully removed three sewing needles embedded in a man's brain for nearly 29 years, state media reported. The man, surnamed Guo, and his parents had no idea how the needles got into his head, but doctors who performed the unusual operation said someone likely stuck them through a membranous space in his skull when he was a baby. "It's not possible for a needle to penetrate the skull otherwise, because the skull is extremely hard," Xinhua news agency quoted Zhang Zhiqiang, one of the neurosurgeons at the 999 Hospital for Brain Diseases in southern Guangdong province,...

<p>There is new hope that slowing the spread of AIDS in Africa, where an estimated 30 million people are dying from the disease, may be as simple as ABC.</p> <p>ABC stands for "Abstinence, Be Faithful, or use Condoms," in that order of emphasis. It is also what public health experts call the program begun in Uganda in 1986, when HIV infections and AIDS began washing over Uganda's citizens like a plague. Many Western experts derided the project when it began, but today it is considered the brightest success story in the course of the pandemic.</p>

A Japanese medical company says it has built a prototype of the world's thinnest hypodermic needle, which at just 0.2 millimetres wide can slide into skin with almost no pain. A spokeswoman for Tokyo-based Terumo Co. said the company expects to have a commercially viable model ready in one or two years. Thinner needles are "less invasive, both physically and psychologically," said Joan Erickson, a nurse educator who works with diabetics in British Columbia. "The bigger the needle, the bigger the hole is what it boils down to ... smaller's better." The newly designed needle is just two-thirds as wide...

<p>Pro-syringe group says he caved in to election-year politics by siding with law enforcement.</p> <p>In vetoing a bill that would have allowed adults to purchase up to 30 syringes at a pharmacy without a prescription, Gov. Gray Davis bucked the medical establishment and sided with law enforcement.</p>

Kerb-crawlers to avoid court if they pick up used condoms Men caught picking up prostitutes in Canada can avoid going to court by clearing the streets of condoms and needles. Police in Calgary say members of the cleaning crew will have to wear orange overalls so they stand out easily. Vice squad officers came up with the idea after consultation with residents. The Calgary Sun says the job of clearing up condoms and needles usually falls to local firefighters. Officials from Corrections Canada will train the clear-up crews how to handle needles safely. Staff Sergeant Dean Young, of Calgary vice...