Public Health
Two men still critically ill after UK drug trial
|
|
Two men in intensive care after taking part in a clinical trial remain critically ill and are unlikely to make any early improvement, their doctor said on Thursday.
Six men were taken ill during the trial in London to test a drug designed to treat chronic inflammatory conditions and leukemia.
Four are in serious condition but have shown signs of improvement.
Bush picks von Eschenbach as FDA chief
|
|
President George W. Bush on Wednesday picked physician and cancer survivor Andrew von Eschenbach as head of the Food and Drug Administration.
But the nomination of the current acting FDA chief quickly became embroiled in a debate over the long delays in the FDA’s decision-making on access to emergency contraception without a prescription.
Democratic Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Patty Murray of Washington announced they plan to put a hold on von Eschenbach’s nomination until the FDA makes a decision on a pending request for approval of the Plan B emergency contraceptive.
China delegate suggests euthanasia experiments
|
|
An adviser to China’s parliament has suggested that the country allow regions to “experiment” with euthanasia as a step toward legalizing mercy killing nationwide, Xinhua news agency said on Thursday.
A survey done in several areas of the country showed more than 80 percent of people supported euthanasia for those with incurable, painful illness, with approval rates especially high among the elderly, Zhao Gongmin, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said.
“Conditions are not yet ripe for national-level legislation on euthanasia,” Zhao, a member of parliament’s advisory body, was quoted as saying on the sidelines of the ongoing parliament session in Beijing.
Saudi wants to trim waists of overweight population
|
|
Saudi Arabia has launched a battle to trim waistlines in its overweight population, which has become one of the world’s foremost “obese societies,” according to an announcement at a conference this weekend.
American-style fast-food restaurants are part of the fabric of modern life in Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter with a mostly affluent population of around 24 million. Statistics released at a Health Ministry conference on Saturday showed that obesity affected 51 percent of Saudi women and 45 percent of men, as well as 29 percent of teenage girls and 36 percent of boys.
“There are specific social practices which cause certain illnesses,” television presenter Abdullah al-Fozan told the meeting, describing Saudi Arabia as an “obese society.”
France urges air ticket tax to fight AIDS, disease
|
|
President Jacques Chirac urged rich states on Tuesday to follow France’s lead and adopt a one-euro levy on plane tickets to help poor countries buy drugs they need to fight AIDS and other killer diseases.
Chirac said the surcharge would help spread the benefits of globalisation to people living on less than a euro a day, a level of poverty that prevents those hardest hit by malaria, AIDS and tuberculosis from receiving treatment.
Teatments based on behaviour could reduce prescription drug use
|
|
New psychological treatments - behavioural medicine - could significantly reduce the need for drug treatments for some conditions, cutting health system costs says an editorial in this week’s British Medical Journal.
Behavioural medicine - using treatments borrowed from psychology such as cognitive behavioural therapy - has the potential to reduce pain, argue the authors. Treating a patient with a system of behavioural instructions before surgery, for instance, can lower the amount of anaesthetic required during the operation, and cut the time they need to stay in hospital.
Rheumatoid arthritis costly for employers
|
|
The medical costs of employees with rheumatoid arthritis are among the highest of any chronic health condition, new research suggests.
In a study of nine large U.S. employers, researchers found that workers with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) had an average yearly medical cost of $7,337, versus $3,250 for employees without the disease.
Considering direct medical expenditures and indirect costs—like disability payment and lost work days—RA was second only to kidney failure in expense. Nearly all of the excess costs of RA were for direct medical care.
US senator questions FDA-approved blood study
|
|
A key Senate Republican pressed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday for details on its role in the clinical trial of an experimental blood substitute being tested on trauma patients in 18 states, in some cases without their consent.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley asked the FDA to make a full public disclosure about the clinical trial of Northfield Laboratories Inc.‘s PolyHeme blood substitute, after its safety was called into question in a Wall Street Journal article.
“It is outrageous that, for all intents and purposes, the FDA allowed a clinical trial to proceed, which makes every citizen in the United States a potential ‘guinea pig’ without providing a practical, informative warning to the public,” the Iowa Republican said in a letter to acting FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach.
US will spend one in five dollars on healthcare
|
|
Health-care spending is outpacing the growth of the American economy and will consume 20 percent of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) by 2015, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said on Wednesday.
By comparison, health-care spending accounted for about 16 percent of U.S. GDP in 2004, the latest year for which data are available, according to a study by CMS economists published in the journal Health Affairs.
National health care spending will grow by an average 7.2 percent annually over the coming decade, the study estimated. This will be slower than in recent years but still 2.1 percent faster than GDP growth, it said.
Food experts say public has inadequate understanding of food risk issues
|
|
A recent study shows that food safety experts have little confidence in the public’s understanding of food risk issues. The study is published in the Journal of Food Safety.
Researchers surveyed 400 food safety experts in Ireland to determine what they think about the public’s understanding and knowledge of food risk issues, including factors such as what they think contribute to this knowledge as well as the gaps in understanding, and how they feel this could be rectified.
Botulism
|
|
What is botulism?
How is botulism spread?
Is botulism spread from person to person?
How can botulism be prevented?
What are the symptoms?
How is botulism treated?
Is there a vaccine to prevent infection from the botulism toxin?
What is botulism?
Botulism is a rare disease caused by a toxin produced by the spore-forming bacterium Clostridium botulinum. C. botulinum occurs naturally and can be found in soil, water, animals, contaminated food or agricultural products. The toxin produced by C. botulinum is the most potent toxin known and can affect humans, animals, even fish.
UK may let women donate eggs
|
|
Women in Britain may be allowed to donate eggs for therapeutic cloning and stem cell research to find new treatments for illnesses ranging from diabetes to heart disease.
The government’s fertility watchdog, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), said on Tuesday it is recommending a change in guidelines that would enable women to provide eggs altruistically for research purposes.
High efficiency vacuum cleaners no better at protecting against dust mites
|
|
Researchers at the North West Lung Centre, run by The University of Manchester and based at Wythenshawe Hospital, have discovered that vacuum cleaners with ‘high-efficiency particulate air’ or HEPA filters are no more effective than standard models at reducing exposure to dust-mites.
The team compared nasal air samples taken before and during vacuum cleaning using both HEPA and non-HEPA vacuum cleaners. They found a small increase in exposure to dust-mite during vacuuming with either type of machine, which was increased when emptying the dust compartments of either.
Set Pharmacy Copays to Reduce Costs, Avoid Cost-Shifting
|
|
Express Scripts research reveals how changes to prescription benefit copayments can reduce healthcare costs through greater use of generic drugs without shifting costs to consumers.
“A study released today, based on an analysis of 2004 prescription claims, indicates a pharmacy benefit plan design that increases the differential between brand and generic copayments by $10 can expect to achieve a 3 to 4 percentage point increase in the generic fill rate, which can translate into a 3 to 4 percent savings in drug costs,” says Jake Cedergreen, director, benefit design and modeling.
Team Discovers Possible “Universal Strategy” to Combat Addiction
|
|
An international research team led by the University of Saskatchewan has discovered a signaling pathway in the brain involved in drug addiction, together with a method for blocking its action, that may point to a single treatment strategy for most addictions.
Their findings appear in the March issue of the prestigious journal Nature Medicine.
The team, led by Xia Zhang, associate professor in the U of S department of psychiatry, found that a naturally occurring enzyme known as PTEN acts on the part of the brain where many drugs of abuse exert their rewarding effects - the ventral tegmental area (VTA).
