Health Highlights: Dec. 4, 2006

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors ofHealthDay:

Groups Update Guidelines for Sedating Children

Updated guidelines designed to prevent injuries and deaths when doctors and dentists sedate children during procedures outside of hospitals were released Monday by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD).

The guidelines advise doctors and dentists to closely monitor young patients for problems while they're under sedation. Health workers must also have the proper training and equipment needed to take quick action in case of an emergency, the guidelines added.

As reported by theAssociated Press, the guidelines stress that children also need to be assessed for sedation risk factors. The new recommendations were published in the December issue of the journalPediatrics.

The guidelines were under review for several years and weren't issued in response to the death of a 5-year-old Chicago girl on Sept. 23, said the presidents of the AAP and AAPD.

Diamond Brownridge did not awake from sedation after treatment at a storefront dental clinic. The Cook County medical examiner's office concluded that she died from lack of oxygen caused by anesthesia, theAssociated Pressreported.

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World Facing Diabetes Epidemic

The world is facing a diabetes epidemic, according to a report that predicts that about 380 million people (7 percent of the world's adult population) will have the disease by 2025 if action is not taken to counter it,CBC Newsreported.

"Diabetes is fast becoming the epidemic of the 21st century," said the International Diabetes Federation report, which was released Monday at the start of a four-day conference in Cape Town, South Africa.

Currently, about 246 million people worldwide have diabetes, up from 30 million two decades ago. The report found that diabetes kills 3.8 million people a year -- the same toll taken by HIV/AIDS,CBC Newsreported.