Health Highlights: Sept. 13, 2008

Rituxan is marketed in the United States by Genentch and Biogen Idec. Genentech sent a letter about the woman's death to doctors earlier this month and a company spokeswoman pointed out that the drug's label already mentions risks of the infection.

"The patient had a number of confounding factors that make it difficult to assess the potential role, if any, that Rituxan exposure may have played," said Tara Cooper, theAPreported.

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Children's Death Rates Remain High in Africa, South Asia

There have been major declines in young children's death rates in many parts of the world but they remain "grossly' high in much of Africa and parts of South Asia, says a UNICEF study released Friday.

Between 1990 and 2007, the number of deaths of children under age five decreased from 12.8 million to 9.2 million, including a drop of 200,000 between 2006 and 2007,Agence France Pressereported.

The 2007 death rate for young children in rich nations was six deaths for every 1,000 live births, compared with 68 deaths worldwide, and 147 deaths in sub-Saharan Africa and 78 deaths in South Asia.

Between 1990 and 2007, death rates for young children declined by 52 percent in the East Asia and Pacific region, and by 53 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean, Central and Eastern Europe, and the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, UNICEF said. But the rate declined just 21 percent in sub-Saharan Africa,AFPreported.

The study appears inThe Lancet.

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