DDT returns to battle malaria in Africa
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Controlled indoor spraying of the infamous pesticide DDT is poised to make a comeback in countries that have tried and failed to do without it in the battle against malaria, according to a special news feature in the journal Nature Medicine.
Malaria is caused by a parasite known as Plasmodium, which is usually transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected mosquito.
Apoorva Mandavilli, senior news editor of the science journal, notes in the article that DDT—short for dichlorodiphenyl-trichloro ethane—is known to be very effective against malaria and helped rid the United States of the disease in the late 1940s.
Blair threatens food and drinks industry with legislation
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British Prime Minister Tony Blair has virtually given the food and drinks industry in the UK an ultimatum saying unless the “junk food” industry can sort itself out it will be forced to restrict advertising to children next year.
Mr Blair delivered his strongest threat yet to manufacturers and warned that it would be much better if the industry comes together voluntarily regarding public health but says the government is prepared to act if the voluntary system does not work.
The Government it seems is prepared to use legislation to enforce clear labelling of content such as fat and salt, and wants tougher measures to curb under-age drinking.
Asthma inhaler running out? Hard to tell
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Because asthma inhalers do not include dose counters, asthma sufferers may unknowingly run out of their rescue medication, experts warn in a new report. They call for manufacturers of pressurized metered-dose inhalers, or pMDIs, to include dose counters as a standard feature.
These devices are the cornerstone of asthma treatment. They contain a specified number of doses of medication. But after an asthma sufferer has used up the potentially lifesaving medication, pMDI canisters may continue to deliver 20 to 80 percent more puffs containing little more than inactive propellant.
How do patients know when their pMDI is empty or when it’s time to refill their inhaler prescription? Nancy Sander, founder and president of the Allergy and Asthma Network Mothers of Asthmatics in Fairfax, Virginia and colleagues surveyed 500 US families with asthma to find out.
Cheaper IVF deal on offer when women donate eggs for stem cell research
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British women undergoing IVF procedures will soon be able to subsidise their treatment by donating some of their eggs to research.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has granted a licence to the North East England Stem Cell Institute to allow them to approach women undergoing IVF to donate eggs for therapeutic cloning research in exchange for cheaper treatment.
Therapeutic cloning involves creating early embryos to obtain stem cells, the master cells in the body that can develop into any other cell type in order to treat diseases.
Version of Scorpion Venom Delivers Radioactive Iodine to Brain Tumors
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A new method of delivering a dose of radioactive iodine - using a man-made version of scorpion venom as a carrier - targets deadly brain tumors called gliomas without affecting neighboring tissue or body organs. After a Phase I clinical trial conducted in 18 patients showed the approach to be safe, a larger Phase II trial is underway to assess the effectiveness of multiple doses.
Adam N. Mamelak, M.D., a neurosurgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute, led the Phase I trial and is first author of an article in the August issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
The key ingredient is TM-601, a synthetic version of a peptide, or protein particle, that naturally occurs in the venom of the Giant Yellow Israeli scorpion. TM-601 binds to glioma cells and has an unusual ability to pass through the blood-brain barrier that blocks most substances from reaching brain tissue from the bloodstream.
“Domino” Transplant Program Makes Best Use of Altruistic Donated Kidneys
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A team of Johns Hopkins researchers reporting their early experiences with “domino” kidney donation suggest that wider use of this strategy could effectively double the benefit of the organs from these non-directed, altruistic living donors.
In a paper published in the August issue of the British journal Lancet, the team, led by Robert A. Montgomery, M.D., chief of transplantation at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, show that by serving the needs of multiple recipients, such domino transplants can maximize the benefits of these donors’ altruistic acts.
Under the terms of the domino-paired donation program, a kidney transplant patient who has a willing but incompatible living organ donor is matched with an altruistic, compatible donor. The incompatible kidney from the recipient’s intended donor is then domino-matched with the next compatible patient on the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS) waiting list. This strategy can be further used to enable a triple transplant by simply adding an additional incompatible donor-recipient pair to the chain.
Surgical Instruments May Not be Fair Trade
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The NHS may be buying medical equipment unethically and exploiting developing countries, it has been claimed in an article published on bmj.com today.
Unlike the campaigns for fair trade of goods like bananas and coffee, there have been no such campaigns for medical commodities, says Dr Mahmood Bhutta, a specialist registrar in otolaryngology (head and neck surgery) at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital in London.
Dr Bhutta says that while NHS suppliers are encouraged to act in an ethical business manner, they do not and there are currently no checks or assessments made into the origins of surgical instruments used by the NHS.
Skin discoloration common with arthritis drug
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Skin discoloration appears to be a common side effect of an antibiotic given to some people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a small study shows.
The drug, called minocycline, is more commonly used to treat acne and certain other skin conditions. But some people with RA take minocycline to help control inflammation in their joints; those with a history of the blood infection sepsis are particularly likely to receive minocycline because some other RA drugs can be dangerous for them.
Clinical trials indicate that minocycline carries fewer side effects than other drugs used to treat RA, the authors of the new study report in The Journal of Rheumatology. However, they add, the rates of side effects in the real world have been less clear.
Malaysia’s religious scholars ban Botox treatments
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Malaysia’s religious scholars have ordered devout Muslims not to use Botox injections to smooth away wrinkles because they contain prohibited substances, such as those from pigs, a newspaper said on Friday.
But the injections will be allowed to help alleviate medical conditions such as cerebral palsy, the New Straits Times said, adding that while the fatwa did not have the force of law, those who ignored it were committing a sin.
Even in medical treatment, the injections must only be provided by a specialist in dire cases, said Shukor Husin, chairman of the National Fatwa Council.
Blair threatens food and drinks industry with legislation
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British Prime Minister Tony Blair has virtually given the food and drinks industry in the UK an ultimatum saying unless the “junk food” industry can sort itself out it will be forced to restrict advertising to children next year.
Mr Blair delivered his strongest threat yet to manufacturers and warned that it would be much better if the industry comes together voluntarily regarding public health but says the government is prepared to act if the voluntary system does not work.
The Government it seems is prepared to use legislation to enforce clear labelling of content such as fat and salt, and wants tougher measures to curb under-age drinking.
Medical technology fails to cope with obese patients
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Researchers in the U.S. say that more and more Americans are missing out when it comes to receiving full medical care because they are too obese to fit into scanners or their fat is too dense for X-rays or sound waves to penetrate.
Radiologists at Massachusetts General Hospital suggest that with a growing population of overweight people, the problem is getting worse.
The researchers assessed all radiology examinations carried out at the hospital between 1989 and 2003 in order to determine the effects of obesity on imaging quality and diagnosis.
Laser useful for severe facial acne
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Laser treatment can reduce inflammatory facial acne lesions with few side effects, new research shows. Moreover, it appears to work even with the darkest skin types.
The findings, which appear in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, are based on a study of 22 patients, with light to dark skin types, who underwent three treatments with the laser—specifically a1450-nanometer diode laser—at 3 to 4 week intervals.
The subjects received treatment at high or low doses on the left or the right side of the face, the report indicates.
Getting exercise not easy for folks with arthritis
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The benefits of exercise for people with arthritis are well established. However, arthritis patients say they face a number of barriers to continued physical activity, including a dearth of specialized exercise programs, a focus-group study shows.
“The people in our groups talked a lot about lack of programs for people with arthritis,” Dr. Sara Wilcox of the University of South Carolina in Columbia told Reuters Health. “They were interested in programs where they could be active with other people that had arthritis and professionals that understood the disease. They also perceived that they didn’t get a lot of physician support to be active.”
Arthritis patients who did keep exercising were more likely to have adjusted their activities to their physical limitations, while those who did not tended to give up in the face of such barriers, Wilcox and her colleagues found.
No easy fix for emergency rooms, experts say
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A lack of staff, space and equipment hobbles the U.S. emergency medical system and almost no steps have been taken to improve things despite numerous warnings, emergency room professionals told Congress on Wednesday.
But emergency room physicians and members of Congress alike were at a loss about what to do to fix a system that almost everyone agrees is at a breaking point.
“It isn’t too clear and that is because what is required is so big,” Dr. Rick Blum, an emergency room doctor from West Virginia who is president of the American College of Emergency Physicians, said in an interview.
Drug combo works well for diabetes and high lipids
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For people with diabetes who also have abnormal levels of blood fats, or lipids, the combination of two types of cholesterol-lowering drugs seems to work better than either one alone, researchers report.
People with diabetes typically tend to have mixed lipid abnormalities, such as high cholesterol and high triglycerides. “Much of the cardiovascular risk associated with diabetes may stem from the associated abnormal ‘diabetic’ lipid profile, Dr. Joseph B. Muhlestein told Reuters Health.
This profile, which is characterized by a combination of abnormal lipid parameters, cannot often be rectified by just one drug,” he explained.
