Irish court gives go-ahead to Roche acne drug case
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An Irish judge ruled on Friday that a man who believes the acne drug Accutane caused his son’s suicide can pursue his case against Swiss drugs maker Roche Holdings despite rejecting an out-of-court settlement.
Roche had hoped to get the case dismissed after Liam Grant turned down a settlement that offered maximum damages under Irish law, plus related costs, but did not include an admission of liability.
Justice Joseph Finnegan accepted that continuing the case would be both costly and expensive, involving millions of documents and months of court time, but ruled that Grant had a constitutional right to pursue his case to establish liability.
Afghans head to remote mountains in polio battle
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Afghan health workers battling polio will set off into remote mountains next week hoping to reach about two million children who missed an immunization drive because they were cut off by heavy snow.
Afghanistan is on the verge of eradicating polio with only one case reported so far this year compared with 27 in 2000.
“The campaign is a vital step in ensuring that no children are missed in the nationwide effort,” Edward Carwardine, a spokesman for the U.N. Children’s Fund, said on Thursday.
China wages “people’s war” on spreading drug abuse
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China has launched a people’s war on drug abuse, offering rewards for information on traffickers, a top official said on Thursday, tackling a problem that was wiped out after the Communist Party came to power in 1949.
China, which borders the “Golden Triangle” opium-producing region where the borders of Myanmar, Thailand and Laos meet, has about a million registered addicts and many more who are not registered.
House majority seeks vote on drug importation
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A bipartisan majority of House members has signed a letter made public on Thursday urging a vote on legislation that would allow Americans to save money by importing drugs from foreign countries.
The bill passed the House by a wide margin two years ago but died in the Senate. Sponsors say support has grown to well over the 221 signatures on the letter. A majority is 218 votes.
The backers of the legislation told a news conference they do not currently plan to take aggressive procedural measures to force a vote - but didn’t rule out that option down the road.
Fewer Americans smoking, study finds
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Fewer Americans are smoking, but their numbers are not dropping as quickly as U.S. health officials would like, according to a report issued on Thursday.
The survey finds that 21.6 percent of U.S. adults said they smoked in 2003, down from 22.5 percent in 2002 and 22.8 percent in 2001.
For the second year in a row, more people are former smokers than current smokers, the report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds, with nearly 46 million now having kicked the habit.
China hails bird flu vaccine amid prophesies of doom
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China has developed vaccines that block the spread of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu among birds and mammals, Xinhua news agency reported, as scientists in the west warned of a possible global pandemic killing millions.
Scientists fear that avian flu, which is infectious in birds but does not spread easily among humans, could mutate into a form more capable of passing from animals to people.
The H5N1 strain first surfaced in poultry in Hong Kong and China eight years ago and has killed 37 people in Vietnam, 12 in Thailand and four in Cambodia.
Antibiotic might stop diabetic eye damage
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Experiments in rats suggest that minocycline, an antibiotic, could curb a common cause of vision problems in people with diabetes.
Minocycline is a “strong candidate for further consideration as a therapeutic drug in reducing the retinal complications of diabetes,” Dr. J. Kyle Krady and colleagues from the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine in Hershey write in the medical journal Diabetes.
Time running out to stop bird flu - experts
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It could infect 20 percent of the world’s population, kill many millions and create an economic crisis but scientists say not enough is being done to combat a bird flu virus that could trigger a global pandemic.
The Asian H5N1 virus that first surfaced in poultry in Hong Kong and China eight years ago has killed 37 people in Vietnam, 12 in Thailand and four in Cambodia.
Global health officials fear it could mutate into a lethal strain that could rival the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic that killed between 20 and 40 million people.
Strong genetic basis for tonsillitis
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Recurrent tonsillitis (inflammation of the tonsils) may have a strong genetic component, researchers report in the Archives of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery.
Lead investigator Dr. Ellen Kvestad from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo told Reuters Health that the disease is known to run in families but the finding that this is due to genetic factors with no contribution from common environmental factors “was a bit surprising.”
Kvestad and associates used data from 9479 Norwegian twins to investigate the possible genetic and environmental contributions to recurrent tonsillitis.
Danish tax may drain world’s top sperm bank
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The source of the world’s biggest sperm bank may soon run dry if Danish authorities decide to tax donors, Cryos International Sperm Bank said on Wednesday.
Denmark, with the world’s highest income tax levels, wants sperm donors to pay tax on the 500 crown ($84.59) reimbursement men receive for their services.
WHO launches study on harmful use of alcohol
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The World Health Organisation (WHO), already campaigning against obesity and smoking, launched a probe on Wednesday into alcohol, which is estimated to kill 1.8 million people each year.
A resolution, initiated by Nordic countries, was adopted by ministers from the WHO’s 192 member states on the final day of their annual 10-day assembly.
It expressed alarm at “trends in hazardous consumption”, or binge drinking, particularly among young people, and cited a growing risk in developing countries.
Indiana executes man who wanted to donate liver
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Indiana on Wednesday executed a convicted murderer who had sought a reprieve so he could donate part of his liver to an ailing sister.
Gregory Johnson, 40, was pronounced dead at 12:28 a.m. CDT (0528 GMT) after an injection of lethal chemicals, officials at the Indiana State Prison said.
Study links garden pesticides to Parkinson’s risk
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Gardeners should wear protective clothing when using pesticides, say scientists who have concluded in a new study that the chemicals can increase the risk of Parkinson’s disease.
Researchers at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland have discovered that the more pesticides gardeners are exposed to, the more likely they are to develop the degenerative brain disease.
Taiwan denies reports of re-emergence of SARS
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Taiwan’s health authorities denied on Wednesday domestic media reports that a man who died last week had tested positive for SARS.
The Chinese-language China Times reported that a businessman who had recently returned from China was suspected to have died from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and one of his sons had since been hospitalised with similar symptoms.
The bladder does not shrink with age
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Bladders do not appear to shrink with age, suggesting that urinary troubles in older people can no longer be considered a normal part of aging, according to new study findings released this week.
Investigators from the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania found that women between the ages of 22 and 90 had bladders that could hold roughly the same amount of fluid.
