Washington, Apr 30 : Folic acid, or vitamin B9, may suppress allergic reactions and lessen the severity of allergy and asthma symptoms, according to new research from the Johns Hopkins Children''s Center.

Folic acid is essential for red blood cell health and long known to reduce the risk of spinal birth defects.

Sydney - Australia's international airports began installing thermal-imaging scanners Thursday to try to identify incoming passengers who might have contracted swine flu.

Hundreds have been tested for the deadly H1N1 strain of the virus, but there have been no confirmed cases in Australia.

The captains of aircraft arriving from the Americas are obliged to report to quarantine officers any passengers they suspect of having influenza. Passengers are also obliged to fill in a form detailing their health.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong is on standby to raise its alert level over swine flu to emergency as soon as necessary, the city's health secretary said Thursday.

York Chow said the city's alert level would be raised from "serious" to "emergency" as soon as the World Health Organisation put its own alert up from the current five to six, the highest level.

Washington, Apr 30 : A drug, called pregabalin-commonly used to treat seizures and anxiety-has now been implicated as an effective treatment for restless legs syndrome (RLS), according to a study.

The 12-week study involved 58 people with RLS, out of which, 30 received the drug pregabalin and the rest received placebo.

The researchers performed sleep studies at the beginning and end of the research.

Almost two-thirds of the people who took pregabalin were found to have no RLS symptoms while taking the drug.

Washington, Apr 30 : Humans have an inherent ability to recognize faces and other objects with just a glimpse, and now researchers have found that this ability to visually process images is much faster than it is believed.

Taking advantage of brain mapping in patients about to undergo surgery for epilepsy, researchers at Children''s Hospital Boston, have for the first time showed that the brain, at a very early processing stage, can recognize objects under a variety of conditions very rapidly.

Washington, April 30 : In a new study, researchers have found that a brief intervention program boosted the number of women correctly performing breast self- exams by tenfold.

The Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research study is one of the first to show intervention programs can be effective in increasing breast self-exams.