News

Breastfeeding provides many benefits for both mother and baby. The NICHD and other agencies and organizations encourage mothers to breastfeed their babies to capitalize on the many benefits it provides.

Once the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves a drug, physicians can use their best judgment to prescribe it to their patients—whether or not their patients are similar to those who took part in the clinical trials. Physicians can also prescribe drugs for diseases or conditions other than those for which they were originally tested.

A clinical trial to evaluate a drug candidate called cyclodextrin as a possible treatment for Niemann-Pick disease type C1 (NPC), a rare and fatal genetic disease, will start on Wednesday, researchers announced today.

On December 5, 2012, the NICHD released the Scientific Vision: The Next Decade, the culmination of a collaborative process that began in 2011 to identify the most promising scientific opportunities for the Institute and the research community to pursue over the next decade. The Vision statement was made available during the NICHD’s 50th anniversary colloquium.

​Alan Guttmacher, M.D., Director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) announced a number of changes to streamline the institute’s organizational structure and accelerate the exchange of scientific ideas.

A document charting a research course for the many collaborators who share an interest in promoting the science concerning human development through the life span, child health, women's health, and rehabilitation research is now available online.

As the Institute marks its golden anniversary, we look back on the NICHD's early years, its scientific accomplishments, and its future.

The process of breastfeeding does more than provide important nutrition and other things to support infants' growth and development; it also benefits mothers' health and offers an important opportunity for the pair to bond.

Children's health and human development includes more than just physical and physiological changes. Mental and emotional health and well-being are as important to a child's development. Such factors as exposure to violence, parental occupation and stress, special health care needs, injuries, and exposure to illicit and prescription drugs can have long-lasting effects on children. Addressing the needs of children with or at-risk for mental or emotional health issues can help improve their quality of life through adolescence and adulthood.

During their lifetimes, many women will face a wide array of health issues. Some will seek treatment for gynecological conditions, such as endometriosis and uterine cancer. Others will experience conditions that affect both males and females, but that follow a different course in women, such as heart disease. Women's health is also affected by factors like socioeconomic status and race/ethnicity, sometimes in ways that they cannot control directly.

Dr. Richard M. Weinshilboum will initiate the 2012 NICHD Director’s Lecture Series with a lecture on Pharmacogenomics: Beyond Biomarkers.

The NICHD continues to advance understanding of the effects of HIV/AIDS on infants, children, young people, women, and families.

In June, the world marked the 30th anniversary of the first case of what is now known as AIDS. The NICHD Spotlight, 30 Years of Milestones, highlighted some of the key moments in pediatric, adolescent, and maternal AIDS research.

Sumner J. Yaffe, M.D., a former center director at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, has passed away.

Pharmacists play a unique role in providing personalized health care. In many communities, they do much more than just fill prescriptions—they also provide health care and health advice to parents, children, and families on topics ranging from prenatal vitamins to maintaining a healthy weight to infant care. Sometimes, people see and interact with the pharmacist more than they do with any other health care provider.

The global elimination of smallpox is one of the best known public health triumphs. Smallpox was a disfiguring and deadly disease caused by a very contagious virus. According to some health experts, smallpox was responsible for more deaths throughout history than all other infectious diseases combined.

Studying drugs in pediatric populations is challenging because drugs often affect children differently than they do adults. The scarcity of pediatric studies limits the ability of doctors and scientists to predict drug dosing, safety and efficacy in children. To address this gap, the National Institutes of Health announced today 18 grants to help determine outcome measures and increase the likelihood of success of future trials of treatments for children.

On April 26, 2009, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Declared a Public Health Emergency for H1N1 Flu (previously called swine flu). Communities around the world are on alert and are taking measures to protect people from illness caused by infection with this particular type of influenza virus or flu.

Status epilepticus—continuous, unrelenting seizures that continue beyond several minutes—is a serious, life-threatening condition that affects up to 60,000 children and adults in the United States every year. Such seizures may occur in anyone who has a seizure disorder, often called epilepsy, or in response to such conditions as infection around the brain, brain tumor, head injury, very high fever, or very low blood sugar levels.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Pediatric Seizure Study. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later we will conduct a question and answer session. Instructions will be given at that time. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host today, Mr. Bob Bock, Press Officer, NICHD.