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MOSCOW, January 12 (RIA Novosti) - Russia could begin large-scale production of a vaccine to prevent bird flu by April, a senior official from the Russian Flu Research Center said Thursday. Center director Oleg Kiselyov told a news conference: "We need to complete our tests [on the vaccine] ... I hope it will be in production in April." Kiselyov said that he believed the world could potentially see a major, wide-scale outbreak of bird flu within the next couple of years. Developing a vaccine against such a pandemic strain of the virus would take about nine months, he said. The...

President of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko dedicated his second radio address on November 12 to the importance of medical reforms, according to the President?s press-office. The Head of State commissioned the Health Minister and the Finance Minister to start a project to more actively fight HIV/AIDS. Next year, we will open district centers to anonymously diagnose AIDS throughout Ukraine. In each regional center, there will be a hospital with 20 beds for AIDS patients. The President said he would personally control the implementation of programs to fight AIDS, cancer, tuberculosis, heart and blood disease. He reiterated that next year the government...

Text of report by Russia TV on 5 November A new method of medical diagnosis has come into service with Maritime Territory doctors. Using unique equipment developed at the Academy of Sciences, they can instantly pinpoint human diseases on the basis of brain impulses. The invention is already being used successfully in a Maritime Territory town. Here is a report from Andrey Kormodanov. [Kormodanov] Sensors on the fingers and a probe in the ear region - and in five minutes a judgment can be made on the state of the whole body. Pupils at a primary school in the town...

When retired Boulder pharmacist and former pharmaceutical executive John Sichel saw his daughter Pam's test results, he knew he'd witnessed a medical miracle. The pills came from a former Soviet laboratory in St. Petersburg, Russia. Pam Sichel had taken them for six months. Now, her 10-year battle with hepatitis C, a viral infection that attacks the liver, was over. Her liver was healthy, its function normal. When Sichel saw what the drug did for Pam, he decided he had to bring it to the U.S., even if he had to do it on his own. Its main ingredient: a bacteria...

Computer keyboards are havens for some nasty superbugs that can live nestled in among the keys for at least 24 hours, a new study finds. The study led by epidemologist Dr. Gary Noskin finds that keyboards get easily contaminated by germs. And that's especially bad news for hospitals. There, these germs can take the form of antibiotic-resistant germs that can contaminate the hands of nurses or doctors and then are passed on to patients. Noskin carried out his study at Chicago's Northwestern Memorial Hospital. He says hospitals are increasing their investment in technology, and there's an emerging trend to have...

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia has slashed the cost of AIDS treatment by more than two-thirds from 10,000 to 3,000 dollars after successful talks with multinational drug companies, Health Minister Mikhail Zurabov said. AFP/File Photo Yahoo! Health Have questions about your health? Find answers here. The country, which by most accounts has close to one million people infected with HIV or suffering from AIDS, hopes to cut treatment costs further, by one-half, he said at an international meeting here on the disease. "We are counting on reducing the costs to between 1,400 and 1,700 dollars (1,100-1,300 euros)," the minister, quoted by...

After its success in IT outsourcing and biotechnology fields, India plans to promote itself as a health care destination PTI February 01, 2005 After its success in IT outsourcing and biotechnology fields, India plans to promote itself as a health care destination for people from across the globe, Health and Family Welfare Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said Monday. "We are taking steps to promote India as a health care destination to attract persons from different parts of the world to utilize the cost-effective health care expertise and infrastructure available in the country," Ramadoss said while delivering a keynote address here on...

Karl Marx may have suffered a second death at the end of the last century, but look for a spirited comeback in this one. The next great battle between socialism and capitalism will be waged over human health and life expectancy. As rich countries grow richer, and as healthcare technology continues to improve, people will spend ever growing shares of their income on living longer and healthier lives. US healthcare costs have already reached 15 percent of annual national income and could exceed 30 percent by the middle of this century – and other industrialized nations are not far behind....

The FDA allowed Merck to claim that Vioxx was gentler on the stomach than naproxen, but many patients might be surprised to learn that Pfizer has never conclusively demonstrated the gastrointestinal superiority of Celebrex. For Susan Ferris, the drug Celebrex has been "a godsend." The 48-year-old South Florida woman has been taking it for her arthritis pain since 2001. She can't tolerate older remedies, such as aspirin or ibuprofen. Since Friday's announcement that Celebrex might be linked to heart attacks and strokes, though, she's not sure what to think. On top of that, she worries about her 58-year-old husband, who...

Sweeping initiative links diagnoses to treatment with specific drugs © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com President Bush plans to unveil next month a sweeping mental health initiative that recommends screening for every citizen and promotes the use of expensive antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs favored by supporters of the administration. The New Freedom Initiative, according to a progress report, seeks to integrate mentally ill patients fully into the community by providing "services in the community, rather than institutions," the British Medical Journal reported. Critics say the plan protects the profits of drug companies at the expense of the public. The initiative began with Bush's...

MOSCOW - At the first government session yesterday Russian Premier Minister Mikhail Kasyanov stated that the time had come to start reform in a most sensitive and important sphere, which is social. And one of the most important parts of the reform is creating of an effective medical insurance system. A new system of obligatory medical insurance was actually created in 1993 but it did not prove to be very effective. One of the main reasons of it was not quite appropriate financing system. “At the moment the financing from the budget goes to policlinics, to hospitals according to quantity...