The World Bank Group has approved a US$6 million grant to help Cambodia carry out its national plan to counter threats from avian and human influenza, and to strengthen its health system to respond to any possible outbreak in the future.

The grant, provided by the International Development Association (IDA), will be used to finance the Avian and Human Influenza Control and Preparedness Emergency Project (AHICPEP), a World Bank (WB) press statement said

Transfusions of blood stored for more than two weeks cut survival rates and could pose complications for heart-surgery patients, a study found. The new study about the shelf life of blood says that blood deteriorates with age and that rules allowing blood to be stored for six weeks may pose a safety risk in some patients.

According to the latest research published in the latest New England Journal of Medicine, eighty-eight patients given blood that had been kept for an average of 20 days died in the hospital after surgery compared with 49 people who got transfusions of blood stored an average of 11 days. Patients receiving older blood also increase their chances of suffering from kidney failure and blood infections

More Americans, primarily senior citizens or those about to retire, will likely develop Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia during their twilight years.

Stephen McConnell, vice president of public policy for the Alzheimer's Association, estimates 18 percent or 14 million of the U.S.'s 79 million baby boomers will likely have Alzheimer's, a degenerative brain disease characterized by severe memory loss and confusion

A study by the Harvard School of Medicine has shown people with a better education live longer. Those with more than 12 years of education, which includes more than a high school diploma, can expect to live to 82. However for those with 12 or fewer years of education, life expectancy is pegged at 75.

Lead researcher Ellen R. Meara, an assistant professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School said, "The life expectancy gained is really occurring much more so in the better-educated groups." The better-educated gained more than 1.5 years over the same period, the study showed

The pre-school motto "early to bed, early to rise" could help adults cope with the extra stress brought about by switching to daylight time, sleep experts say. Canada and the United States made the switch in the early morning hours on Sunday.

Dr. Ralph Downey, chief of sleep medicine at the Loma Linda University Medical Center in California warns that while adults look forward to the extra hour of daylight, they often overlook that daylight time could also cause sleep deprivation