Jaundice

Researchers may have discovered a possible link between jaundice in newborns and an increased risk of psychological development difficulties, including autism. Danish scientists looked at data on the 733,826 live births in Denmark between 1994 and 2004. In that group, 35,766 were diagnosed with neonatal jaundice, a fairly common illness in babies that usually goes away within a week of birth. During the study period, 1,721 children were diagnosed with a psychological development disorder, and 4,257 children died.

Fobbit A Novel David Abrams Black Cat: 372 pp., $15 paper In "Going After Cacciato," Tim O'Brien's brilliantly inventive 1978 novel, the title character seeks to escape the madness of 20th-century warfare by simply walking away from the rice paddies of Vietnam and heading for Paris, some 6,800 miles away. Whether real or imagined, the point of the surreal exercise is to get out of the line of fire - the farther away, the better. The soldiers deployed to Iraq in "Fobbit," a first novel by David Abrams, a former Army public affairs specialist who served there in 2005, are far less adventurous in their approach to staying alive, especially if they work in the type of administrative, support, logistics or supply job that does not require them to be in close contact with an enemy all too eager to obliterate them.

As hospital maternity stays have grown shorter in recent years, the majority of babies have suffered no ill consequences from being released with their mothers 24 to 48 hours after delivery. However, about 5% of infants develop jaundice -- a condition that usually doesn't show up until several days after birth -- which requires hospital readmission. Now some pediatricians are urging changes in the diagnosis and treatment of jaundice in infants.

Researchers may have discovered a possible link between jaundice in newborns and an increased risk of psychological development difficulties, including autism. Danish scientists looked at data on the 733,826 live births in Denmark between 1994 and 2004. In that group, 35,766 were diagnosed with neonatal jaundice, a fairly common illness in babies that usually goes away within a week of birth. During the study period, 1,721 children were diagnosed with a psychological development disorder, and 4,257 children died.

A Glendale Superior Court civil jury has awarded an estimated $96 million in future damages in the case of a child who developed a rare but serious neurological disorder caused by untreated jaundice shortly after his birth four years ago at Verdugo Hills Hospital. The jury's 9-3 verdict, which came late Monday, is calculated in two ways.

Aequitron Medical said it received Food & Drug Administration clearance to market its Model 7100 phototherapy light, which is designed to speed recovery from newborn jaundice. The company said an estimated 10% of newborn infants have abnormaly high bilirubin levels and require light therapy, necessitating exended hospital stays until the danger of central nervous system toxicity has passed. The company said the product is portable.

A Polish doctor was charged with unintentional manslaughter and her superior with negligence after the deaths of six babies given injections for jaundice, the official PAP news agency reported Wednesday. Last August, eleven newly born infants in Wloclawek were injected with a solution of glucose and albumin that had been kept in the open for more than 12 hours instead of the prescribed four. Six infants later died.

Pungent steam rises from a boiling pot of a mugwort tea blended with wormwood and a variety of other herbs. Above it sits a nude woman on an open-seated stool, partaking in a centuries-old Korean remedy that is gaining a toehold in the West. Vaginal steam baths, called chai-yok, are said to reduce stress, fight infections, clear hemorrhoids, regulate menstrual cycles and aid infertility, among many other health benefits. In Korea, many women steam regularly after their monthly periods.

There are more than 25 diseases that are transmitted sexually. Many have serious and costly consequences. Some of the most common and serious STDs include: Chlamydia * Used to Be Called: Non-gonoccocal urethritis. * Cause: Bacteria. * Number Affected: About 4 million new cases each year in the United States. * Infection Rate: Highest among 15- to 19-year-olds, followed by 20- to 24-year-olds. * At Risk: Everyone, but female teens are more likely to be infected because of immature cervix.

Blaming "a pro-Roosevelt media more vindictive than Kaiser Bill" for putting his remarks in context, GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole refused again today to modify his recent controversial statements on key issues.

Not every movie produced by the Hollywood studios during the Golden Age was tied up in neat little bows; it wasn't all boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl. "Films were more edgy and involved characters that were less than perfect," says UCLA film professor Jonathan Kuntz. "Certainly in the 1930s with the Great Depression, there was a lot of disillusionment with the establishment and society. World War II shook everything up and all kinds of crazy things happen."

A Glendale Superior Court civil jury has awarded an estimated $96 million in future damages in the case of a child who developed a rare but serious neurological disorder caused by untreated jaundice shortly after his birth four years ago at Verdugo Hills Hospital. The jury's 9-3 verdict, which came late Monday, is calculated in two ways.

As hospital maternity stays have grown shorter in recent years, the majority of babies have suffered no ill consequences from being released with their mothers 24 to 48 hours after delivery. However, about 5% of infants develop jaundice -- a condition that usually doesn't show up until several days after birth -- which requires hospital readmission. Now some pediatricians are urging changes in the diagnosis and treatment of jaundice in infants.

A prominent health care organization warned U.S. hospitals Wednesday to watch out for the return of a rare but preventable type of brain damage in newborns that has been on the rise with shorter hospital stays and increased breast-feeding. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, a health care accrediting group, issued an alert to 5,000 U.S. hospitals about kernicterus, a highly unusual condition that stems from severe jaundice.

If you want to see a questionable double standard at work, look at the widely disparate American attitudes toward Russia's new president, Vladimir V. Putin, and Chinese President Jiang Zemin. In the United States these days, and particularly among foreign policy elites, Putin is darkly portrayed as the vintage apparatchik, the mysterious ex-KGB man who threatens Russian liberties. Meanwhile, Jiang is often depicted as a closet reformer who may some day slowly move China in the right direction.

Nonny de la Pen~a's "The Jaundiced Eye," a documentary chronicling a terrible miscarriage of justice strung out over a decade, is a real-life family horror story. A father and son in a quaint, Norman Rockwell-like Michigan town are caught between a collision of two emotionally charged forces in American society: a lingering homophobia and a growing concern about child abuse.

What's in store for the New Year? From think-tank gurus and elder statesmen alike, from seasoned forecasters to the man in the street, the predictions are in. And if there's any definite early word on Anno Domini 1995, it's that time alone will tell. Will interest rates continue their upward climb? "I wish I had a crystal ball," says one prominent economist.

President Bill Clinton today issued a call for Elvis Presley and James Dean to "quit torturing their millions of fans, come out of seclusion, get plastic surgery and physical therapy and resume their public lives." In so doing, the president appeared to be lifting a chapter from the political handbook of one of his fiercest opponents. Rep.

It's become clear to me that I have no choice but to declare my candidacy for president of the United States. I think this country needs and deserves someone who will proudly stand up to her sinful past, not apologize for it, hide from it or weasel out of it. For anyone whose memory of the '80s is fuzzy, during my father's presidency, it was firmly established that I am, in fact, a sinner. Drugs, debauchery, overly confessional books--the whole bit. I have nothing to hide.

One of the more startling outcomes of birth is jaundice in the newborn, which often is of no consequence. Sometimes, however, jaundice can be serious, even fatal, and, as scientists now are finding, can have deep roots in the genes. Reporting in a recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers in Israel have homed in on the genes that lead to a condition called kernicterus.