New SARS-like virus found, says WHO

A new virus belonging to the same family as the SARS virus that killed 800 people in 2002 has been identified in Britain in a man who had recently been in Saudi Arabia, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday.

The United Nations health body, which issued a statement through its "global alert and response" system, said tests on the patient, a 49-year-old Qatari man, confirmed the presence of a new, or novel, coronavirus.

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses which includes the common cold and SARS.

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"Given that this is a novel coronavirus, WHO is currently in the process of obtaining further information to determine the public health implications," the statement said.

Read more: GMA News

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3D Printed Beak for wounded Bald Eagle

A major breakthrough comes in the medical science when a team of researchers, engineers and dentists created the world’s first prosthetic beak, which was modeled with CAD software and 3D-printed from nylon polymers.

The prosthetic beak has been created for a wounded bald eagle who after shot in the face by a poacher seven years ago lost most of her beak.

After a two-hour-long procedure, the eagle can now eat and drink by herself, though she’s not ready to be released back into the wild. The eagle remains at Birds of Prey Northwest, the conservation facility that spearheaded the recovery project.

Read more: Mashable

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Breakthrough in Medical Science: New stem cell gel that can regenerate broken spinal cord nerves

Astonishing news for those with broken spinal cord nerves!!

A stem cell gel developed by scientists can regenerate broken spinal cord nerves, research has shown.

Breakthrough: A stem cell gel developed by scientists can regenerate broken spinal cord nerves, research has shown [photo: Corbits]

The gel is applied to the site of an injury. In rats with completely severed spinal cords, it produced an 'astonishing degree' of nerve growth, U.S. scientists said.

Treated animals which were previously paralysed experienced 'significant' functional improvement and were able to move all the joints of their affected legs.

Read more: Daily Mail

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Drawing test 'predicts strokes'

A simple drawing test may help predict the risk of older men dying after a first stroke, a study in the journal BMJ Open suggests.

Drawing lines between ascending numbers- the test needs to be done as fast as possible

Taken while healthy, the test involves drawing lines between numbers in ascending order as fast as possible.

Men who scored in the bottom third were about three times as likely to die after a stroke compared with those who were in the highest third.

The study looked at 1,000 men between the ages of 67 and 75 over 14 years.

Of the 155 men who had a stroke, 22 died within a month and more than half within an average of two- and-a-half years.

Read more: BBC Health

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'Blind' mice eyesight treated with transplanted cells

British scientists have restored the sight of blind mice by transplanting light-sensitive photoreceptor cells into their eyes.

The work is a step towards a new treatment for patients with degenerative eye diseases.

Scientists at University College London Institute of Ophthalmology injected cells from young healthy mice directly into the retinas of adult mice that had night-blindness.

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The findings are published in Nature.

Read details: BBC News

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Delay Motherhood by freezing Ovaries for later 'use'

British women are to be  given the chance of delaying motherhood by freezing parts of their ovaries.

They will be able to ‘bank’ their ovarian tissue in their twenties  and early thirties, when it is most fertile, and have it re-implanted years later.

Fertility specialists are planning to open the first clinic in the country to offer the procedure, which could cost as much as £16,000, within the next six months.

Read more: Mail Online 

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Cure for baldness 'could be on sale within five years'

In the answer to millions of men’s prayers, scientists may have got to the root of baldness. They have identified a scalp chemical that stops hair from growing.

Excitingly, drugs that block the protein have already been developed for other purposes, meaning a hair restoring lotion or potion could be on the market in under five years.

It is thought it would certainly stop balding in its tracks - and may even coax the growth of new hair. The breakthrough, from the University of Pennsylvania in the U.S, centres on a protein called PDG2.

Read details: Mail Online

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Battery-operated boy who can walk again after doctors 'rewired' his brain

[ via Mail Online ] 8 Jan

Brave Robbie Ovenstone is a walking miracle  operated by a battery after doctors 'rewired' his brain.

Robbie before (L) and after (R) the 'Rewiring' - [Photo: Worldwide Features]

For months Robbie had been unable to walk, feed or dress himself due to a terrible muscular disease that caused his body to twist.

But now after an amazing operation where doctors inserted electrodes into his brain and another to a battery in his stomach, the messages being sent to his muscles have been corrected and and he can start to walk normally again.

Read more: Mail Online
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Woman gives birth to twin… five years AFTER his sister was born

[ via Mail Online ] 5 Jan

Having twin babies can often be  a handful – unless, as with Reuben Blake and his sister Floren, they arrive five years apart.

Twins born five years apart [ Photo: PA ]

The siblings were born from the same batch of embryos created during their parents’ IVF treatment. But while Reuben was successfully implanted in 2006, seven-week-old Floren was kept on ice until last year.

Read more: Mail Online

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