Scientists now believe that they understand how the malaria parasite entersred blood cells.

The scientists, who work for the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in the UK, identified a red blood cell receptor that acts like a gateway into the cell. When they blocked the malaria protein from interacting with this receptor, the disease could not get in.

If you are visiting a country where malaria is endemic then it is very important you take out travel insurance over 80 to ensure you are covered for any medical issues that may arise.

“By identifying a single receptor that appears to be essential for parasites to invade human red blood cells, we have also identified an obvious and very exciting focus for vaccine development,” study co-author Dr. Julian Rayner said in statement.

The head of the UK’s leading cancer charity has said understanding of the disease is advancing “exponentially”, as potentially groundbreaking trials to genetically test tumours of 9,000 newly diagnosed patients begin.

Describing a “golden era” of research, Harpal Kumar, the chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said there has been “an explosion in our understanding of what cancer is, why it happens, why it doesn’t happen in some people and why it moves around the body”.

The trials backed by the Department of Health and Cancer Research UK are being launched next month in seven hospitals across Britain. Scientists believe the results could revolutionise cancer treatments.

They will aim to find out which existing drugs the cancers are susceptible to. They will also potentially pave the way for discoveries of new medicines that are personalised or targeted to the genetic makeup of an individual’s cancer and therefore far more effective

Good news from the world of medical research.

A ”universal” vaccine, which is part of a new generation of drugs that use the body’s own defenses to fight the disease, stopping tumours in their tracks, could be available in just two years.

The TeloVac jab could revolutionise the treatment of cancer.

But it is hoped it will be effective against many other tumours, including those of the skin, lung and liver. Breast and prostate cancers may also be within its grasp.

Rather than attacking the cancer cells, like many existing drugs, it harnesses the power of the immune system to fight the tumours.

If you are travelling abroad make sure you have medical insurance over 80 to ensure you have no expensive bills.

It works by encouraging the immune system to seek out and destroy an enzyme called telomerase. Found at high levels in many cancer cells, telomerase effectively makes them immortal, allowing them to live on when healthy cells would die – easing the growth and spread of the tumour.

Since that time, 18 studies have examined zinc in preventing or treating colds. Some found zinc supplements were modestly helpful, others failed to turn up any benefits.

One analysis of 14 studies, published in 2007, concluded that many of the studies were too flawed to draw any conclusions.

In the latest report, published by the Cochrane Library, an international network of experts who conduct systematic reviews of research, scientists in India evaluated 15 studies, including four published since 2000.

Two of the studies evaluated focused on zinc’s effectiveness in preventing colds and the rest on its ability to shorten the duration of colds. The 15 studies involved 1,360 participants ranging in age from 1 to 65 with good overall health.

Pooling the data, researchers found that people who took zinc within 24 hours of the start of symptoms were over their colds about one day sooner than people who took placebos. The analysis also found that the severity of cold symptoms was somewhat milder among people who took zin

Burn patients in the United States are being helped to escape the pain of burn injuries by immersing them in the virtual reality of a computer game during treatment.

Agony from severe burns can be one of the most intense and prolonged types of pain you can experience. And for many, the rehabilitation treatment is as painful as the initial burn.

Caleb Springer, aged 23, from Valdez in Alaska suffered second and third degree burns when he was set on fire in a motor bike accident.

Petrol spilled out of his scooter and a stray spark from a cigarette ignited it.

“I was engulfed in flames for probably two minutes. It was the worst pain I’ve ever felt, it was just excruciating. I looked down and just saw skin hanging from my legs,” he said.

His burns were so bad he was airlifted from Alaska to a specialist centre in Seattle where his rehabilitation has been helped by pioneering treatment using a virtual reality computer game.

SnowWorld, set in an icy 3D canyon, was developed by Professor Hunter Hoffman and Professor David Patterson at the University of Washington Harborview Burn Centre in Seattle.

It evolved out of the scientific advances in the last decade in understanding pain.

The aim of the game is “to make a very attention grabbing experience for the patient and basically to give them a place to escape from their pain” says Professor Hoffman.

Scientists have found many different elements can affect how we experience pain, including our emotions, environment, context and distractions.

“Because pain has such a strong psychological component to it, psychological treatments can be used to counteract the pain,” said Prof Hoffman.

“Because humans are so visually dominant wherever you’re looking typically that’s where your attention is focused.

Curcurmin is contained in turmeric, a plant used by the Chinese to make traditional medicines for thousands of years. SLU’s recent study highlights its potential in countering an increasingly common kind of fatty liver disease called non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).

Linked to obesity and weight gain, NASH affects 3 to 4 percent of U.S. adults and can lead to a type of liver damage called liver fibrosis and possibly cirrhosis, liver cancer and death.”My laboratory studies the molecular mechanism of liver fibrosis and is searching for natural ways to prevent and treat this liver damage,” said Anping Chen, Ph.D., corresponding author and director of research in the pathology department of Saint Louis University.

The first tests to be carried out on vaccines issued during the swine flu pandemic have revealed high immune response rates among young children, which could lead to an improved immunisation policy.

The data, based on findings from a trial of more than 900 children conducted during the second wave of the 2009-10 H1N1 swine flu pandemic, could prove highly influential for policy-makers and parents in future influenza prevention and pandemic planning.

The study further highlights the importance of public participation in efforts to improve medical interventions, says one of the researchers behind the study from the University of Bristol.

Fast-food burgers and other fatty foods increase lung inflammation in people with asthma and obstruct the effect of their inhalers, researchers are warning.

Rates of asthma — the most common chronic respiratory disease in Canada— have increased dramatically in westernized societies in recent decades.

In Canada, 2.2 million people age 12 and over, and more than 485,000 children ages four to 11 have been diagnosed with asthma, according to the Canadian Lung Association.

The increase in prevalence suggests environmental factors — including diet — may play a role, and “westernized diets are known to be relatively higher in fat than traditional diets,” says Lisa Wood, a research fellow of the University of Newcastle, in Australia.

If you are going on vacation then ensure you have taken out asthma travel insurance so you are covered from excessive medical costs abroad.

Brigitte, said last week it would only publish photographs of “real women” after readers complained they could not identify with the models depicted.

Magazine’s editor-in-chief Andreas Lebert said he was sick of having to retouch photos of underweight models. “For years we have had to use Photoshop to fatten the girls up,” he said. “Especially their thighs and décolletage. But this is disturbing and perverse, and what has it got to do with our real reader?”

This can only be good news and hopefully wannabe models around the world will sit up and take notice.