The Food and Nutrition Research Institute of the Department of Science and Technology (FNRI-DOST), Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) and Adarna House, Inc. launched the nutrition big book, “Go!”. The launch was held on March 5, 2014 at McDonald's Greenbelt, Makati City. 

“Go!” is the 34th book in the Bright Minds Read (BMR) kit of RMHC. The BMR Program is RMHC's partnership with the Department of Education (DepEd) in support of the “Every-Child-a-Reader” Program. 

The big book teaches children about the importance of good nutrition particularly in developing good eating habits. This includes eating the right kind and amount of food at the right time. As children develop skills in reading, creative and critical thinking, they will learn that there are a lot of sources of good quality energy-giving foods such as potatoes. They will also learn the importance of being physically active by engaging in sports.

To shoo away dengue-causing mosquitoes especially when the rains come falling, destroy the breeding sites now while the sun is at its hottest.

This is according to Dr. Frances Edillo of the University of San Carlos, based on a 2012 study showing that the month of April registered the highest minimum infection rate of Aedes aegypti, the more common carrier of the dengue virus in the country.

This came after a major finding that mother Aedes mosquitoes transmit the dengue virus to their offsprings. Thus if the larvae and pupae infected with dengue virus survive summer and become mosquitoes in the following rainy season, these mosquitoes could set off an epidemic among humans, Edillo explained.

In September 2012, a virus resembling Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) was discovered in Jeddah Saudi Arabia. It was initially named as novel coronavirus (nCoV), but now officially called as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV).

Like SARS, patients diagnosed with MERS-CoV showed acute, serious respiratory illness with fever, cough, shortness of breath, and breathing difficulties. Most MERS-CoV confirmed patients have had pneumonia and gastrointestinal symptoms, including diarrhea.

Though symptoms were based only on mere confirmed cases, several studies are now being done in Saudi Arabia and other affected areas to analyze the disease. At present, there is no concrete evidence on how people become infected with the virus. Investigations are underway to determine its source, types of exposure that lead to infection, mode of transmission, clinical patterns and the course of the disease.

The Philippine National Health System (PNHRS) will be celebrating its 8th PNHRS week on 12-14 August, 2014 at Radisson Blu Hotel, Cebu City with the theme: “Research and Innovation  in Health  for Disaster and Emergency Health Management”.

Hosted by Central Visayas Consortium for Health and Research Development (CVCHRD), the PNHRS week will focus on the role of health research in disaster and emergency health management. This event will enable health research stakeholders to interact, learn from each other and share evidenced-based information to contribute in establishing the country’s responsive disaster and emergency health management systems.

More than 500 participants nationwide coming from the 17 regional health research consortia are expected to participate in the event. For more information, please contact PNHRS Secretariat at telephone numbers: (02) 837-7534 or (02) 837-7537 or visit PNHRS website at http://www.healthresearch.ph/.

PNHRS Week is held annually on the second week of August by virtue of Presidential Proclamation No. 1309 signed in 2007.