HK orders clean up as swine flu spreads in China
|
|
Alarmed by an outbreak of swine flu in mainland China that has killed 34 people, Hong Kong’s government set up tough new measures on Monday to try to protect the southern territory from the disease.
Over 180 people have been infected with Streptococcus suis, a form of swine flu, in China’s southwestern Sichuan province since June.
The Hong Kong government ordered pig farms in the city to strictly observe hygiene standards and to dispose of pig carcasses properly in designated areas.
Russian drugs abuse “catastrophic”—police
|
|
Drug abuse in Russia has reached “catastrophic” proportions, posing a threat to national security, a top anti-narcotics police officer was quoted as saying on Friday.
Viktor Khvorostyan, head of the Moscow section of the Federal Narcotics Service, said some four percent of the population, or about six million people, are addicts. The average age of teenagers first trying drugs had fallen dramatically, he said.
Silicone breast implants get FDA OK
|
|
Silicone gel-filled breast implants won conditional approval to return to the broad U.S. market after a 13-year ban when health officials on Thursday backed a version made by Mentor Corp.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the device maker must satisfy a number of conditions before it receives final approval to sell the implants. FDA officials said they were legally prohibited from making the conditions public.
Mentor said the conditions were “generally consistent” with recommendations from an FDA advisory panel earlier this year.
Britain to double aid to fight killer diseases
|
|
Britain will double its donation to a global fund that fights diseases such as AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and it hopes other donors will follow suit, the government said on Friday.
International Development Secretary Hilary Benn said the government will increase its aid from 51 million pounds ($88.68 million) a year to 100 million pounds for 2006 and 2007.
Study confirms drug combo prevents AIDS
|
|
Combination treatment with anti-AIDS drugs cut the rate of progression from infection with HIV to AIDS by 86 percent compared to patients not receiving treatment, British researchers said on Friday.
They found that the effectiveness of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), a combination of at least three agents from two drug classes, increased with time.
“Our results indicate that HAART reduced the rate of progression to AIDS by 86 percent and that its effectiveness compared with no treatment increased with time since initiation,” said Dr. Jonathan Sterne, of the University of Bristol, in southwestern England, who headed the research team.
House approves added veterans medical funds
|
|
Military veterans’ medical facilities would get a $1.5-billion infusion of cash to help treat those wounded in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan under legislation approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday.
The House voted 410-10 to pass an unrelated spending bill for federal lands and environmental programs that contained the added veterans’ funds.
FDA bans Bayer antibiotic for poultry use
|
|
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday banned the use of Baytril, a poultry antibiotic made by Bayer, an unprecedented action aimed at preventing the rise of drug-resistant germs that infect people.
The FDA, which first proposed the ban five years ago, said the use of Baytril in chickens has made it difficult for doctors to treat human patients who have food poisoning. The drug was sometimes used by farmers to treat entire poultry flocks when a few birds showed signs of respiratory disease.
Indonesia drops mass culling plan to fight bird flu
|
|
Indonesia will not carry out a planned mass culling of farm animals to combat bird flu virus due to a lack of funds, a minister said on Thursday.
Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono said Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country, would stick to vaccinating healthy animals and only cull those infected by the H5N1 virus.
Senate advances bill to restrict cold medicines
|
|
The Senate judiciary committee on Thursday unanimously approved a bill that would limit access to common cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine, an ingredient that can be used to make the highly addictive drug methamphetamine.
The committee sent the “Combat Meth Bill” to the full Senate. A similar bill in the House of Representatives has been referred to a subcommittee for consideration.
Malpractice fears drive docs to order excess tests
|
|
In evaluating patients who have chest pain, some emergency room physicians too often order unnecessary tests and hospitalizations out of fear of malpractice lawsuits, according to a new study. “Concern about malpractice has a formidable effect on physician decision making,” particularly in the scenario of a possible heart attack or unstable angina, collectively referred to as acute coronary syndrome, Dr. David A. Katz told Reuters Health.
Katz, from University of Iowa, Iowa City, and colleagues developed a malpractice fear scale and used it to evaluate the association between emergency physicians’ fear of malpractice and the evaluation and treatment of patients with symptoms suggestive of an acute coronary syndrome.
Pesticide exposure causes illnesses in schools
|
|
Although reported illnesses due to pesticide exposures at schools in the US are relatively uncommon, the incidence of such exposures among schoolchildren has increased in recent years, investigators report.
There are no specific federal guidelines limiting pesticide exposures at schools, Dr. Walter A. Alarcon and colleagues note in their report in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association.
Egg cells derived from bone marrow in mice
|
|
Stem cells from bone marrow may serve as a source of egg cells, at least in mice, and may lead to new fertility treatments if the same proves true in people, scientists reported Thursday.
Their study, published in the journal Cell, challenges long-held scientific belief that mammals including mice and humans generate egg cells only when they are fetuses—and are born with all the eggs they will ever have.
UK Appeals Court overturns “right-to-food” verdict
|
|
The body that regulates British doctors won an appeal on Thursday against a ruling that gave a terminally ill patient the right to stop doctors from withdrawing food and drink when he will be close to death.
Leslie Burke, 45, who has a degenerative brain condition, fears artificial nutrition could be stopped against his wishes when he cannot talk anymore.
The Court of Appeal overturned an earlier High Court ruling, which said that any decision over withdrawal of nutrition and hydration from those who are terminally ill should be left in the hands of the patients.
China bacteria outbreak worsens, dead pigs dug up
|
|
The number of people infected by what Chinese authorities believe is a pig-borne bacterial disease in the southwest has jumped by 14 to 131, state media said on Thursday as officials insisted the outbreak could be controlled.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said it is watching developments closely, but a spokesman said the disease appears to be localized and poses no threat internationally.
U.S. House OKs small business health plan
|
|
The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday approved legislation that would allow small businesses to pool together to purchase health insurance for their workers.
Backers said the measure would restrain health costs and help cover some of the millions of uninsured working people, but critics said this approach could provide bare-bones insurance to some workers and leave others facing even higher bills.
