Health Highlights: July 22, 2008

As part of the new program, migratory and resident wild birds will be monitored regularly and all chicken and duck farms will be inspected every other week for strains of bird flu,Agence France-Pressereported.

Until now, South Korea went on heightened bird flu alert from November to March, when migratory birds stay in the country and weather conditions can promote the spread of bird flu. But this year, an outbreak began in early April and spread through most of the country.

Even though the country has had three major bird flu outbreaks, no person in South Korea is known to have contracted the disease,AFPreported. Worldwide, the H5N1 bird flu virus has killed more than 240 people since 2003.

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Deep Brain Stimulation Eases Depression: Study

Deep brain stimulation can help many patients with tough-to-treat depression, says a Canadian study. In deep brain stimulation, electrical impulses are delivered through electrodes implanted in the brain.

The patients in the study had major depressive disorder, a severe form of depression that's unresponsive to other treatments. One month after the start of deep brain stimulation, 35 percent of patients responded well to the therapy, with 10 percent of them entering remission,CBC Newsreported. Six months after the start of treatment, 60 percent of patients showed a good response and 35 percent were in remission.

"Our research confirmed that 60 percent of patients have shown a clinically significant response to the surgery and the benefits were sustained for at least one year," Dr. Andres Lazano, a neurosurgeon at the Krembil Neurosciences Centre at Toronto Western Hospital, said in a news release.

Lozano and colleagues said there were few serious side effects and no patients suffered long-term harm from the surgery to implant the electrodes,CBC Newsreported.

The study was published in the journalBiological Psychiatry.

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Study Challenges Stereotypes About Obese Workers

Overweight workers aren't lazier, more emotionally unstable, or more difficult to get along with than other workers, say U.S. researchers who examined the relationship between body weight and personality traits among 3,500 adults.

The findings, which contradict widely held perceptions, mean that employers should not use weight as a predictor of personality traits when it comes to hiring, promoting or firing people, said study author Mark Roehling of Michigan State University,United Press Internationalreported.

"Previous research has demonstrated that many employers hold negative stereotypes about obese workers and those beliefs contribute to discrimination against overweight workers at virtually every stage of the employment process, from hiring to promotion to firing," Roehling said in news release.

The study was published in the journalGroup & Organization Management.