Five towers test positive for legionella in Sydney CBD as two new patients struck down and other top stories.

• Five towers test positive for legionella in Sydney CBD as two new patients struck down

  

  Video will begin in 5 seconds. Five towers test positive for legionella Five water cooling towers in the Sydney CBD have tested positive for legionella as health authorities announce two more people have contracted legionnaires' disease. PT2M9S 620 349 Five water cooling towers in the Sydney CBD have tested positive for legionella as health authorities announce two more people have contracted legionnaires' disease.The two new cases of the pneumonia-like infection brings to fiv..

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• Probiotics not shown to benefit healthy adults, researchers say

  

  Healthy people should not eat yoghurt for probiotics, researchers say, but for other benefits such as calcium. There is little evidence to suggest the "friendly bacteria" contained in popular probiotic drinks, yoghurts and supplements has any effect on healthy people, a review of current research by a Danish team of academics has found.The researchers found "no convincing evidence exists for consistent effect of examined probiotics on faecal microbiota composi..

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• 'Virtual heart' can predict cardiac risk

  

  A computer-generated "virtual heart" can accurately predict the risk of sudden cardiac death, say scientists.The 3D simulation was developed to help doctors identify patients with life-threatening irregular heart beats, or arrhythmias.The model is based on distinctive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) heart scans of patients left with damaged cardiac tissue after surviving heart attacks.Spotting those at high risk of sudden death could allow doctors to determine which patients might benefit most ..

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• Breath markers for malaria

  

  A CSIRO research team will spend the next 18 months field-testing its newly developed breath markers for malaria in locations such as Malawi, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Sudan. The validation trials follow on from last year’s discovery by scientists at CSIRO, the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute and the Australian National University of distinctive chemicals that can be detected in the breath of patients infected with malaria. “Our initial research really opened our eyes to the potentia..

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• Yoga, meditation better than memory games

  

  Yoga and meditation are more effective than memory exercises for combating the mental decline that often precedes Alzheimer's, research has shown.Scientists from Australia and the US compared the two approaches in a group of 25 volunteers over the age of 55 who had reported memory issues such as forgetting names and faces, missing appointments or misplacing belongings.They found that after three months both were equally good at improving verbal memory skills, which help people remember names and..

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