A researcher in Nigeria says that simple hand washing can save lives in Africa and could reduce the incidence of diarrhea by up to 30 percent. That would place the value of hand washing as about equal to access to clean water in cutting diarrhea infections, the researcher said.

Researchers, led by Regina Ejemot of the University of Caliber, in Nigeria reviewed the results of 14 studies of hygiene promotion practices in institutions, community organizations and homes involving more than 8,000 people

After 19 years, the Scottish government is bent on asking the United States to overturn its ban on Scotland's traditional and national dish called 'haggis' as it cited a lucrative market for the product out there.

"The market is massive because there are so many expat Scots there and once Americans try a good quality haggis, they can't get enough of it," a Scottish government spokesperson said in a report of BBC News

While other countries are reducing deaths preventable through timely medical intervention, the United States placed last in a ranking of 19 industrialized countries, according to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

If the U.S. had performed as well as the top three countries identified in the study, there would have been 101,000 fewer deaths in the U.S. per year by the end of the study period, according to a the new study published in the January/February issue of the journal Health Affairs

While other countries are reducing deaths preventable through timely medical intervention, the United States placed last in a ranking of 19 industrialized countries, according to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

If the U.S. had performed as well as the top three countries identified in the study, there would have been 101,000 fewer deaths in the U.S. per year by the end of the study period, according to a the new study published in the January/February issue of the journal Health Affairs

As part of a project, certain intensive-care units in New York and South Carolina hospitals are having copper fittings tested to determine if drug-resistant bacteria survive better on hospitals' ubiquitous stainless steel than on copper.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 1.7 million Americans are infected each year when hospitalized and about 100, 000 of them lose their lives. For long, scientists have urged better hygiene in an attempt to control hospital spread of germs, however increasingly medical firms are leaning on anti-germ coatings to help