More Cadbury chocs may be tainted
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The scare over salmonella infected chocolate has gathered momentum with another thirty of Cadbury’s products now being tested for the nasty bug.
Officials from Birmingham City Council, UK, say there is a possibility that the initial list of salmonella infected brands did not include several other suspect items.
Last week the company withdrew over one million chocolate bars from the market after salmonella had been identified in some of them.
Docs seem to know when speedy C-section is needed
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Obstetricians in the U.S. appear to exercise good judgment in deciding when an emergency cesarean section is needed, and when the procedure should be started within 30 minutes of the decision to perform a C-section, new research suggests.
In 1989, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) set a guideline that a hospital offering obstetric care should have the capability of beginning an emergency cesarean section within 30 minutes.
“The important word is capability,” Dr. Steven Bloom, from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas noted in comments to Reuters Health. “Having this potential should not be misconstrued to mean that it is required that all cesareans commence within 30 minutes,” he explained.
Early diagnosis key for femoral stress fractures
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Croatian researchers have come up with new guidelines for treating stress fractures of the femur, or thighbone, that prevent complications and difficulties that often occur with the condition, they say.
Stress fractures arise when bones are subjected to repetitive loading but the forces are not strong enough to causes an immediate break. Femoral stress fractures are rare, occurring chiefly in athletes and military recruits, Dr. A. Ivkovic and colleagues from the University of Zagreb Medical School write in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
“Nevertheless, they do pose a great challenge for both diagnosis and treatment,” Ivkovic and his team write. Such fractures have few symptoms, so diagnosis is frequently delayed, and complications can occur. These may include delays in healing and recurrence of symptoms, they explain.
UK government considers raising smoking age limit
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The Department of Health (DoH) announced on Monday it was considering whether to raise the age limit for buying cigarettes or tobacco from 16 in a bid to cut the level of smoking among teenagers.
A consultation exercise has been launched to look at whether the age limit should be increased to 17 or 18, which would bring it into line with the sale of alcohol.
The government is also looking at whether there should be tougher measures introduced at shops that sell cigarettes to under-age children.
Health alert issued as heatwave set to continue
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The heatwave across much of southern Britain poses “significant health risks” for the elderly and very young, officials warned on Monday.
The warning came after the Meteorological Office said it was raising its Heat-Health alert to the highest level since it started issuing heatwave warnings in 2004.
London and much of southern England and Wales are forecast to bake again on Monday and Tuesday with temperatures rising up to 32 degrees centigrade (90F).
Antihistamine could fight malaria, U.S. study shows
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An allergy drug pulled off the market in 1999 could work to treat malaria, U.S. researchers reported on Sunday.
The drug is called astemizole and marketed under the brand name Hismanal by Janssen Pharmaceutica, a unit of Johnson & Johnson, and can kill the Plasmodium falciparum parasite that causes malaria.
Researchers from the Johns Hopkins University Schools of Medicine and Public Health tested astemizole in test tubes and in mice. Moderate doses reduced the numbers of Plasmodium parasites by 80 percent in mice whose infection also could be affected by the malaria drug chloroquine.
Pomegranate Juice Keeps PSA Levels Stable in Men with Prostate Cancer
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Drinking an eight ounce glass of pomegranate juice daily increased by nearly four times the period during which PSA levels in men treated for prostate cancer remained stable, a three-year UCLA study has found.
The study involved 50 men who had undergone surgery or radiation but quickly experienced increases in prostate-specific antigen or PSA, a biomarker that indicates the presence of cancer. UCLA researchers measured “doubling time,” how long it takes for PSA levels to double, a signal that the cancer is progressing, said Dr. Allan Pantuck, an associate professor of urology, a Jonsson Cancer Center researcher and lead author of the study.
Doubling time is crucial in prostate cancer, Pantuck said, because patients who have short doubling times are more likely to die from their cancer. The average doubling time is about 15 months. In the UCLA study, Pantuck and his team observed increases in doubling times from 15 months to 54 months, an almost four-fold increase.
