Handwashing cuts children’s infection

Washing hands with soap can halve the number of young children suffering from pneumonia, the leading killer of kids less than five years old worldwide. It can also greatly reduce cases of diarrhoea and the skin infection impetigo, scientists report in The Lancet. Although it may seem simple and logical, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta have shown improved hygiene can save many lives, particularly in poor countries. According to Dr Stephen Luby, the lead researcher of the study, washing hands is particularly important before preparing food and eating, after using the toilet and after cleaning an infant, to reduce the amount of pathogens. The study was based on survey of 600 households in the slums of the Pakistani city Karachi..Fix heart to improve sex life

any women with heart disease continue to have sex into their 70s and most of these women experience problems with sexual function. A study involving 2,800 older women with heart disease, reported in Obstetrics & Gynecology, found that among those who were sexually active, two-thirds suffered discomfort during sex. Heart disease and other chronic conditions like diabetes and depression, as well as certain medications such as high blood pressure drugs, may also directly affect a woman’s sexual function. The findings suggest that it will be difficult to develop a pill to improve women’s sex lives. Instead, doctors should address the underlying problems.

Low-dose oral pills beat pain

ow-dose oral contraceptives (OCs) may relieve painful menstruation in adolescent girls, according to a study published in the Obstetrics and Gynecology. OCs, write the investigators in the report, “should become an important treatment option for the millions of adolescents” who experience significant discomfort from painful periods and are currently under treated. The study, by gynaecologists from the Columbia University, New York, assigned 76 girls aged 19 years or less to either an oral contraceptive or a placebo for three months. All of them had severe pain during their periods. By the third menstrual cycle on treatment, girls in the OC group reported significantly less pain compared with those in the placebo group.

Brain site for male organ

eurologists have pinned down the location of ma-le genitalia in the human brain, reports New Scientist. The location has been found to be the same for every man. This puts an end to the disputes over the orga-’s position on the brain’s map of body parts. Scientists from the University of Frankfurt have found that the area is too small and “flanked by the areas for the toes and abdomen.”