My Yahoo! + Movable Type Blog

recall

2009-12-05T20:38:45Z

Unilever, the maker of SlimFast products, has issued a voluntary recall of all 11-ounce SlimFast Ready-to Drink cans due to possible bacterial contamination. This nationwide recall affects 10 million cans that are packed in paperboard cartons of 4, 6, or 12. All flavors and all lots are included in this recall.

A production issue caused the possibility of contamination by Bacillus cereus, a micro-organism, which may cause diarrhea and possibly nausea and/or vomiting. The FDA press release stated that probability of serious adverse health consequences after using the product is remote.

Doug

CDIstaffing.com

Cell Phones

2009-12-04T16:19:27Z

There has been no substantial change in the number of adult brain tumours since mobile phone usage sharply increased in the mid-1990s, Danish scientists say.

The Danish Cancer Society looked at the rates of brain tumours among 20 to 79 year olds from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.

They found that trends in cancer rates had not altered from the period before mobiles were introduced.

doug

CDIstaffing.com

Lead

2009-12-03T16:17:23Z

Childhood exposure to lead can cause permanent brain damage, a new study has found.

"What we have found is that no region of the brain is spared from lead exposure. Distinct areas of the brain are affected differently," study author Kim Cecil, an imaging scientist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and a professor of radiology, pediatrics and neuroscience at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, said in a news release.

Doug

CDIstaffing.com

Infections

2009-12-02T17:38:28Z

Nearly half of patients in intensive care units globally contract infections, and 70 percent are being treated with antibiotics, a development that may aid the rise of drug-resistant viruses, researchers announced Tuesday.

Patients who contracted infections were more likely to not survive, specifically if they become septic, a survey of 13,000 patients noted. Still, a major concern that remains is over-prescription of antibiotics in patients without infections, which can lead to antibiotic resistance.

"Importantly, the incidence of sepsis is increasing, as is the number of consequent infection-related deaths," Dr. Jean-Louis Vincent of Erasme University Hospital in Brussels, Belgium and researchers wrote.

Doug

CDIstaffing.com

meds

2009-11-29T16:28:33Z

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Friday it has approved a new vaccine to prevent seasonal influenza.

Agriflu, made by Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, is not intended to protect against the H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu.

The vaccine was approved using an accelerated approval process, the FDA said. Novartis demonstrated that the vaccine induces levels of antibodies in the blood that are effective in preventing seasonal influenza, but it still needs to conduct further studies.

Doug

CDIstaffing.com

Diabetes

2009-11-28T15:32:13Z

The number of Americans with diabetes will nearly double in the next 25 years, and the costs of treating them will triple, according to a new report.

The figures, in a University of Chicago report released Friday, add fuel to the congressional debate regarding reining in the cost of health care.

By 2034, 44.1 million Americans will be living with diabetes -- nearly twice the current number of 23.7 million, according to the report, published in the December issue of the journal Diabetes Care. About 90 percent of those with diabetes have type 2, a version of the condition that develops over time.

Doug

CDIstaffing.com

Swine Flu

2009-11-25T16:49:24Z

China has detected eight cases of swine flu mutation, a health official said Wednesday, amid longstanding concerns among scientists that the virus could change into a more dangerous form.

Last week, the World Health Organization said it was investigating samples of variant swine flu linked to two deaths in Norway.

But Shu Yuelong, director of the Chinese National Influenza Center, told the official Xinhua News Agency that the mutated swine flu virus found China has shown an "isolated" spread in the mainland, is not resistant to drugs and can be prevented by vaccines.

Doug

CDIstaffing.com

Smoking

2009-11-24T17:36:49Z

If you need another reason to stop smoking while pregnant, or to rid your home of lead, a new study suggests that children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy and who are exposed to the metal have more than twice the usual risk of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Study co-author Dr. Tanya E. Froehlich, of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in Ohio, told Reuters Health that the lead finding is particularly "surprising," given that the blood lead levels in the study children -- even those in the top third of the sample - were, on average, about a tenth of the threshold for harmful effects set by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "These are not high levels of lead exposure; they are historically what we would consider to be low levels," Froehlich said.

Doug

CDIstaffing.com

Smoking

2009-11-23T20:07:11Z

Children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy or who were exposed to lead have more than double the risk of having attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder as other children, new resea

Children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy and whose blood showed signs of lead exposure had eight times the risk of having ADHD.

Doug

CDIstaffing.com

Health Reform

2009-11-22T12:55:07Z

Each bill creates a public option. The Senate bill allows states to opt out.

Individual mandate

Each bill requires people to buy insurance or pay a penalty -- $750 by 2016 in the Senate bill and 2.5 percent of income in the House bill.

Subsidies/exchanges

Each bill sets up insurance marketplaces, called exchanges, in which people without access to affordable coverage through an employer can buy plans. Subsidies are available to households earning up to 400 percent of the poverty level, or $88,200 for a family of four.

Employer mandate

The Senate bill does not require employers to offer health insurance, but it fines employers with more than 50 employees if even one receives a subsidy through the new exchanges. The fine is equal to $750 for every person on the payroll.

The House bill requires employers to pay 65 percent of family premiums or pay a penalty based on payroll; businesses with less than $500,000 in payroll are exempt.

Abortion provision

The Senate bill bars the use of federal funds for abortion but doesn't go as far as the House bill. It requires at least one plan in the exchange to offer abortion and one that doesn't.

The House bill bans abortion from being covered in the public option or in the exchange's private plans that take subsidized costumers. There is an exemption if a woman's life is in danger or in cases of rape or incest.

Medicaid expansion

The Senate bill expands Medicaid to cover everyone earning less than 133 percent of the federal poverty level, or $29,327 for a family of four.

The House bill expands Medicaid to cover households earning less than 150 percent of the federal poverty level, or $33,075 for a family of four.

Insurance reforms

Each bill includes bans on lifetime limits, premium disparity based on health status and sex, and coverage denials based on preexisting conditions.

Doug

CDIstaffing.com

Mortality

2009-11-21T12:54:39Z

Diarrhea doesn't make headlines. Nor does pneumonia. AIDS and malaria tend to get most of the attention.

Yet even though cheap tools could prevent and cure both diseases, they kill an estimated 3.5 million kids under 5 each a year globally — more than HIV and malaria combined.

"They have been neglected, because donor or partnership mechanisms shifted their emphasis to HIV and AIDS and other issues," said Dr. Tesfaye Shiferaw, a UNICEF official in Africa. "These age-old traditional killers remain with us. The ones dying are the children of the poor."

Global spending on maternal, newborn and child health was about $3.5 billion in 2006, according to a report by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. That same year, nearly $9 billion was devoted to HIV and AIDS, according to UNAIDS.

Pneumonia is the biggest killer of children under 5, claiming more then 2 million lives annually or about 20 percent of all child deaths. AIDS, in contrast, accounts for about 2 percent.

Doug

CDIstaffing.com

Downs syndrome

2009-11-20T00:40:58Z

New research may provide the foundation for future medical treatment of memory deficits associated with Down syndrome

The research was conducted in mice that were genetically engineered to have a condition similar to Down syndrome, a genetic disorder.

It is still not clear if humans would benefit from the findings.

Still, the researchers found that mice with the syndrome-like condition could use their brains

more effectively when the signaling of norepinephrine, a neurotransmitter that helps nerve cells communicate, was boosted.

"If you intervene early enough, you will be able to help kids with Down syndrome to collect and modulate information," Dr. Ahmad Salehi, the study's primary author, said in a news release from Stanford University Medical Center. "Theoretically, that could lead to an improvement in cognitive functions in these kids." Salehi, a research health science specialist at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, in California, was a senior scientist at Stanford when the study was conducted.

Doug

CDIstaffing.com

meds

2009-11-17T12:19:07Z

It isn't often that a study involving a couple of hundred people shakes up medical science.

That's what happened Monday, when doctors formally reported that lowly niacin, a B vitamin, did a significantly better job of shrinking artery plaque than a billion-dollar blockbuster called ezetimibe, the active ingredient in the cholesterol drugs Zetia and Vytorin.

"The results are very clear," says lead investigator Allen Taylor of the Medstar Research Institute. "Niacin was superior

Doug

CDIstaffing.com

Smoking

2009-11-15T12:07:30Z

After decades of progress, the number of Americans who smoke hasn't budged over the last five years and actually rose slightly from 2007 to 2008, according to a new report from the CDC.

Smoking

2009-11-15T12:07:27Z

After decades of progress, the number of Americans who smoke hasn't budged over the last five years and actually rose slightly from 2007 to 2008, according to a new report from the CDC.