Researchers believe that they have discovered why a bacterial lung infection is so lethal in the early stages, and it’s not what medical authorities had thought, according to research published in the journal Immunity. The study reveals for the first time that a toxin released by bacteria causes severe bleeding in the lungs by patients with pneumococcal pneumonia. It is the bleeding, the authors argue, not inflammation as once thought, which makes the infections deadly. [click link for full article]

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) on Monday said if CMS does not approve the state’s plan to expand SCHIP, he would consider suing federal health officials over new standards announced last week that aim to limit SCHIP enrollment to the lowest-income children, the [click link for full article]

The New York Times on Tuesday examined the “dizzying array” of low-dose hormone replacement therapy options to treat menopausal symptoms that have been released since the NIH-sponsored Women’s Health Initiative in 2002 [click link for full article]

HSP 90 inhibitors, which are finding favor in fighting cancer, may also help battle overwhelming infection in intensive care patients, researchers say.Studies in an animal model of sepsis, a major cause of ICU patient death, indicate HSP 90 inhibitors help degrade proteins perpetuating inflammation, says Dr. John D. Catravas, director of the Medical College of Georgia Vascular Biology Center. [click link for full article]

Findings released by the Health Department shed new light on the health effects of exposure to dust and debris among workers who responded to the World Trade Center disaster on September 11, 2001. The data, drawn from the World Trade Center Health Registry, show that 3.6% of the 25,000 rescue and recovery workers enrolled in the Registry report developing asthma after working at the site. [click link for full article]

There is growing concern that the National Health Service (NHS) policy changes may be making the problem of recognizing serious illness in feverish young children more difficult, according to an Editorial in this week’s issue of the British Medical Journal. According to Anthony Harndern, Lecturer in General Practice, University of Oxford, medical professionals should be offering less telephone advice and more opportunities for prompt assessment by an experienced doctor. [click link for full article]

The German cooperation agency GTZ and the Cameroonian nongovernmental organization Network of Aunties, which supports young women with children, have launched a campaign warning that the practice of “breast ironing” can stunt girls’ natural development and is dangerous and ineffective, IRIN News reports. [click link for full article]

Four Democratic presidential candidates on Monday at a cancer forum in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, discussed issues related to the disease and health care, the AP/Houston Chronicle reports. At the forum, the candidates — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), former Sen. [click link for full article]

Vioxx and related pain medications were taken off the market in 2004 because they caused dangerous heart problems in some people. A group of scientists, led by Timothy Hla at the University of Connecticut, may now have figured out how these drugs trigger these life-threatening side-effects. The new study is published online in the The Journal of Experimental Medicine. [click link for full article]

A long term, unique study by scientists in America has found that estrogen may protect the brains of premenopausal women from cognitive impairment and even dementia in later life.The study is published in the August 29th online edition of Neurology and is the work of researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. [click link for full article]