Oklahoma investigates salmonella outbreak
|
|
Oklahoma health officials are investigating an outbreak of salmonella in several schoolchildren and some adults and say it may be connected to similar outbreaks in Iowa and Nebraska.
A total of 16 cases in three counties have been identified involving at least four elementary schools, according to Leslea Bennett-Webb, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Health.
No one has died, although one adult has been hospitalized due to the strain of Salmonella “Java” that can cause bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramps, fever and vomiting.
Black mothers cite lack of desire as top reasons for not breastfeeding
|
|
While more American mothers are breastfeeding today, non-Hispanic Black/African American women are less likely to initiate and continue breastfeeding, primarily due to a lack of desire and lack of self-efficacy, according to research presented Monday, Oct. 4, at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference and Exhibition in San Francisco.
Fifty-four percent of black women initiate breastfeeding, compared to the 73 percent national average. In the study, “Barriers to Breastfeeding Reported by Exclusively Formula Feeding Mothers,” urban mothers who were exclusively formula feeding were interviewed about their breastfeeding perceptions and decision not to breastfeed.
More blacks than non-blacks reported “lacking a desire to breastfeed” (55 percent versus 27 percent). Black mothers were less likely to report other obstacles that are more easy to overcome, such as misinformation about breastfeeding and whether a contraindication truly exists.
McDonald’s, US say health insurance report false
|
|
McDonald’s Corp and federal health officials denied on Thursday a newspaper report that the fast-food chain may drop health insurance for nearly 30,000 of its hourly workers.
The Wall Street Journal, citing a company memo, reported that McDonald’s might cut the insurance unless U.S. regulators waived a requirement of new U.S. healthcare laws.
McDonald’s officials called the report “completely false.”
Judge dismisses 2 charges in Anna Nicole drug trial
|
|
A judge on Wednesday dismissed two charges against Howard K. Stern, the former lawyer and boyfriend of Anna Nicole Smith, in a trial over whether he and two doctors wrongly supplied prescription drugs to the model and TV actress.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Perry threw out a charge against Stern of obtaining drugs for Smith by fraud and deceit, and he dismissed part of one conspiracy claim against Stern and Smith’s doctor, Sandeep Kapoor, saying there was not enough proof the two men had worked together to obtain drugs.
But the remainder of the 11 complaints against Stern, Kapoor and a second doctor, Khristine Eroschevich, will stand.
McDonald’s may drop health insurance
|
|
McDonald’s Corp may cut health insurance for its nearly 30,000 hourly workers unless U.S. regulators waive a requirement of new health care legislation championed by President Barack Obama, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The restaurant chain is at odds over the new law’s stipulation that so-called “mini-med” insurance plans spend at least 80 percent of premium revenue on medical care, the newspaper said on its website on Wednesday.
McDonald’s told federal regulators it would be “economically prohibitive” for its insurance carrier to continue to cover hourly workers unless it receives a waiver to the 80 percent minimum requirement, the Journal reported, citing a company memo. Federal officials say there is no guarantee a waiver will be granted, it said.
Major disease-vector mosquito reveals the secrets of its immune system
|
|
The Culex quinquefasciatus mosquito poses a significant threat to human health as a blood-sucking transmitter of elephantiasis-causing worms and encephalitis-inducing viruses. An international team of scientists, including researchers from the University of Geneva and the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics sequenced its genome and studied its responses to pathogen infections. Two articles published in today’s issue of Science, describe results from comparing the Culex mosquito with the malaria mosquito, Anopheles gambiae, and the dengue mosquito, Aedes aegypti, which offer new insights into the elimination of insect-transmitted diseases that seriously impact on global public health.
Mosquitoes are the most important disease-vectors. Species of Culex, Aedes, and Anopheles mosquitoes are responsible for the transmission of many human pathogens including parasites that cause malaria, viruses that trigger dengue and yellow fever, and West Nile encephalitis, as well as worms that cause lymphatic filariasis (also called elephantiasis). The capacity of different mosquito species to transmit these and other pathogens varies greatly, and much of this variation can be attributed to the mosquito immune system’s ability to recognise and eliminate the pathogen. Applying their expertise in comparative evolutionary genomic analyses and insect immunity, Professor Evgeny Zdobnov and Dr Robert Waterhouse, from the University of Geneva Medical School and the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, joined forces with scientists from around the world to examine the Culex genome and its encoded genes.
Sequencing of the Culex genome, directed by Peter Atkinson and Peter Arensburger from the University of California Riverside, allowed researchers to perform a thorough comparison among the three disease-vector mosquito species.
Genetically altered trees, plants could help counter global warming
|
|
Forests of genetically altered trees and other plants could sequester several billion tons of carbon from the atmosphere each year and so help ameliorate global warming, according to estimates published in the October issue of BioScience.
The study, by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, outlines a variety of strategies for augmenting the processes that plants use to sequester carbon dioxide from the air and convert it into long-lived forms of carbon, first in vegetation and ultimately in soil.
Besides increasing the efficiency of plants’ absorption of light, researchers might be able to genetically alter plants so they send more carbon into their roots—where some may be converted into soil carbon and remain out of circulation for centuries. Other possibilities include altering plants so that they can better withstand the stresses of growing on marginal land, and so that they yield improved bioenergy and food crops. Such innovations might, in combination, boost substantially the amount of carbon that vegetation naturally extracts from air, according to the authors’ estimates.
