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More Gene Mutations Linked To Autism Risk
More pieces in the complex autism inheritance puzzle are emerging in the latest study from a research team including geneticists from The Children"s Hospital of Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and several collaborating institutions. This study identified 27 different genetic regions where rare copy number variations missing or extra copies of DNA segments were found in the genes of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), but not in the healthy controls. The complex combination of multiple genetic duplications and deletions is thought to interfere with gene function, which can disrupt the production of proteins necessary for normal neurological development.

Debate Over Taxing Health Benefits Picks Up
"As the debate on how to fix health care picks up pace, so does discussion about one of the most lucrative ways to pay for it:" taxing employer-provided health benefits, CNN reports. The "tax-free arrangement" in which an employer"s contribution to employee health benefit "is treated as tax-free to the employee in terms of income tax and payroll tax," was "born during the days of wage control in 1943." According to Paul Fronstin, director of the health research program at the Employee Benefit Research Institute, employers were not allowed to "attract workers on the basis of better pay," so instead they offered the benefits "as a way to compete for the best talent." Over the past 66 years, employees have come to expect it. But "tax and health experts say it"s inequitable. High-income workers and those with the most expensive health insurance plans enjoy the biggest break as a result of the tax exclusion."
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Stem Cell Transplant Study Shows Promise For Multiple Sclerosis
U.S. researchers have reversed multiple sclerosis symptoms in early stage patients by using bone marrow stem cell transplants to reset the immune system.
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New UK Drive To End Malaria Deaths

An additional 30 million bed nets, the development of life-saving new treatments and new funding to increase access to anti-malarial drugs are announced today in a package of measures by International Development Secretary, Douglas Alexander, as the UK continues its fight to rid the world of malaria. Every year 247 million people are infected with malaria with nearly one million of those dying from the disease. The Department for International Development (DFID) has led the UK"s programme to tackle malaria. By 2010 we will have met the Prime Minster"s pledge to deliver 20 million bednets- preventing some 110,000 child deaths and our funding to the Global Fund has helped deliver 74 million malaria treatments. Today Douglas Alexander announced the action DFID will take over the coming years, which will prevent millions of people dying from this preventable disease. These measures include: - 30 million new long lasting insecticide treated bednets (10 million each year from 2010 to 2013), to help ensure all women and children that need to are sleeping under a bednet and to help replace existing bednets where required. This new commitment will help prevent a further 165,000 child deaths. - ÷£19 million from 2010 to the Medicines for Malaria Venture to support the development of new drugs to combat malaria, including those to treat children. - Financial support for the Affordable Medicines Facility for Malaria (AMFM) pilot which makes the newer, effective malaria combination therapies available at low prices to public and private sectors by negotiating directly with drug suppliers to secure lower prices for guaranteed orders. This means they can be passed on to patients at low prices or for free. DFID is currently providing ÷£40 million over two years and beyond 2010 we will maintain at least this level of support for the roll out and expansion of the AMFM, if it proves successful. - Exploring an Advanced Market Commitment (AMC) to create a range of vaccines by the end of 2009, including a special focus on malaria. AMC is an innovative financing scheme which works by using donor advance commitments to subsidise the purchase of effective vaccines desperately needed in the developing world- thereby creating commercial demand for the vaccines. DFID will stand ready to commit significant financial support to put in place a new AMC if the assessment study recommends we do so. - Driving and supporting action to encourage political leadership, commitment and public awareness about malaria with the goal of reaching the Global Malaria Action Plan target of reducing deaths to near zero by 2015. We will work closely with campaigns such as United Against Malaria - including Malaria No More - and use the 2010 World Cup as a way of raising awareness and support. International Development Secretary, Douglas Alexander, said: "It is shocking and wrong that one million people still die from malaria every year. Most of these lives could be saved if people slept under a bednet but all too often families cannot afford one. "That is why this Government is supplying families across Africa with bednets to protect them from this killer disease We are already committed to distributing 20 million bednets worldwide by 2010 and we are now aiming to supply a further 30 million nets by 2013. "Thanks to Britain we are saving millions of lives, which is something we can all be proud of." Department for International Development


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