After a patient died of bird flu H5N1 infection last week, authorities in China have confirmed that his father, 52, is also infected. Both patients lived in Nanjing, Jiangsu province. The father is said to have a fever and has been hospitalized. It is still not known how the father (or the son) became infected. The virus could either have got into him via a bird, or perhaps from his son. [click link for full article]

A new UCLA study has found that elementary schools can significantly increase the frequency of fruit and vegetable consumption among low-income students by providing a lunch salad bar.The findings, published in the December issue of the international peer-reviewed journal Public Health Nutrition, show that the frequency of students’ fruit and vegetable consumption increased significantly - from 2.97 to 4.09 times daily - after a salad bar was introduced. [click link for full article]

Dr. Yuri Lvov, a chemistry professor in Louisiana Tech’s Institute for Micromanufacturing, has been named Small Times’ 2007 Innovator of the Year, beating candidates from Princeton University and companies across the nation.The results will be printed in the journal’s January 2008 issue.Lvov received the award based on his work related to important cancer drugs. [click link for full article]

Two and a half years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the flooding of New Orleans displaced tens of thousands of families in the Gulf Coast region, between 46,000 and 64,000 children remain at-risk for long-term health and social problems, according to a new study issued today by Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and The Children’s Health Fund. [click link for full article]

Mental Health America expresses its deepest sympathies to the victims, family and friends of the Omaha, Nebraska mall shootings. As details surrounding the shootings continue to unfold, Mental Health America recognizes that this tragedy affects people across the country — especially during the holiday season when Americans more often frequent malls and other community centers. [click link for full article]

Among the 62 oral abstracts accepted for presentation at the 30th annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), six with Taxotere(R) (docetaxel) Injection Concentrate investigational regimens will be presented in plenary sessions. — Plenary Lecture 1 on the opening day of the symposium will review data for systemic adjuvant therapies being investigated for the treatment of breast cancer. [click link for full article]

The University of Surrey welcomes the Government’s announcement (3 December) that improved radiotherapy strategies are going to be at the forefront of government policy in the fight against cancer. This announcement is extremely timely, but it is extremely sad that the UK currently has no plans for the newest type of radiotherapy which uses charged particles rather than X-rays. [click link for full article]

Genmab A/S (OMX: GEN) announced it has initiated a Phase I/II safety and dose finding study of HuMax-CD38(TM) for the treatment of multiple myeloma (MM). The study will include a maximum of 122 patients with MM who are relapsed or refractory to at least two different prior treatments and are without further established treatment options.”HuMax-CD38 is the ninth Genmab antibody to enter clinical development,” said Lisa N. Drakeman, Ph.D. [click link for full article]

Genoptix, Inc. (Nasdaq: GXDX), a provider of personalized diagnostic services, announced at the ASH Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, that it will launch testing for the MPL W515 L/K mutation. This new test further expands the Genoptix service offering for patients with hematomalignancies, or cancers of the blood, to improve diagnosis and management. Genoptix believes it will be the first commercial hematology/oncology laboratory service provider to offer this test. [click link for full article]

Celldex Therapeutics announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted orphan drug designation for Celldex’s CDX-110 for the treatment of EGFRvIII expressing Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM). GBM is the most common and aggressive form of brain cancer. CDX-110 is an immunotherapy that targets the tumor-specific growth promoter EGFRvIII. Celldex Therapeutics announced a definitive merger agreement with AVANT Immunotherapeutics, Inc. [click link for full article]