Cool Health News

Conflict in Nigeria’s oil-rich delta region is contributing to the spread of HIV in the country, IRIN/PlusNews reports. According to IRIN/PlusNews, rapes being committed by militants fighting for a greater share of the region’s oil wealth and the military are contributing to the spread of HIV.

About 400,000 no-cost condoms and 250,000 HIV/AIDS prevention pamphlets recently were distributed by Beijing’s Health Bureau to 119 hotels that contracted with the Olympic Games, as well as other hotels in the city, Xinhuanet reports. Condoms have been placed in more than 90,000 rooms in 424 hotels rated three stars or higher, Jin Dapeng, the bureau’s party chief, said.

BIOLASE Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: BLTI), the world’s leading dental laser company, today announced the global launch of a new software upgrade that includes innovations designed to extend the capabilities and useful life of installed first generation Waterlase hard and soft tissue dental laser systems.

A new technology, using electric pulses to destroy cancer tissue and named by NASA Tech Briefs as one of seven key technological breakthroughs of 2007, is receiving additional support aimed at moving the procedure to the marketplace. One of its lead developers, Rafael V.

A task force of the American Psychological Association has concluded there is no significant evidence that a single elective abortion increases the risk of mental health problems for adult women. The draft Report of the APA Task Force on Mental Health and Abortion is dated 13 August 2008 and was published online on the APA website on 18th August.

A nurse has been suspended from the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s (NMC) register for six months following a repeated failure to keep records of the care she provided for a patient at the Peartree Care Centre in Sydenham, Kent.

During the programme Terry Pratchett criticises the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence’s (NICE) decision to limit Alzheimer’s drugs. Terry Pratchett is right. It’s an absolute disgrace that people with early-stage Alzheimer’s continue to be denied access to the only drugs proven to treat the disease.

Sometimes during surgery to remove a tumor, cells become detached from the bulk of the tumor. In a small number of cases, these tumor cells stick to cells at the site of the surgical wound and go on to form a secondary tumor, having an enormous negative impact on the survival and quality of life of the patient. New data, generated by Marc Basson and colleagues, at the John D.

Rodolphe Fischmeister and colleagues, at INSERM UMR-S 769, France, have provided evidence that the contraction of the two regions of the heart, the atria and the ventricles, is differentially regulated. The contraction phase of the heart beat is controlled by several pathways, including one initiated by stimulation of cell surface proteins known as beta-adrenergic receptors.

Northwestern University nanoscientist Chad A. Mirkin has mass-produced the 2008 Summer Olympics logo — 15,000 times. All the logos take up only one square centimeter of space.

Opponents of a proposed ballot initiative to loosen Michigan’s restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research on Monday launched a campaign to defeat the measure, saying it would lead to human cloning, the Detroit News reports. State Sen.

A recent CDC report on HIV/AIDS in the U.S. — which found that about 56,000 new HIV infections occur in the U.S.

Steps taken by safety-net hospitals to attract insured patients to offset the costs of providing no-cost care to the indigent could compromise a hospital’s mission, according to a study published online on Tuesday in the journal Health Affairs, the Seattle Times reports.

The New York Times on Thursday examined “concern” among some Democrats that Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), who supports abortion rights, needs “to do more to regain the allegiance of Roman Catholic voters.” In the Democratic primary earlier this year, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.

While the number of cases of tuberculosis among North Carolina residents has declined over the last two decades, cases among foreign-born residents are increasing, the Raleigh News & Observer reports. Foreign-born residents account for more than 40% of the state’s cases, and the number is increasing as the foreign population grows, according to the News & Observer.

Some researchers on Wednesday at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City examined how expanding national HIV/AIDS treatment programs could prevent the spread of HIV, the Wall Street Journal’s “Health Blog” reports.

GTCbio just announced the scheduling of its 4th annual Neurodegenerative Diseases Drug Discovery Conference on October 9-10, 2008 in Philadelphia, PA. Neurodegenerative diseases continue to play an enormous role in the growing public health problem, disrupting the quality of life of millions of people and costing society billions of dollars annually.

GTCbio just announced the 3rd edition of its Biomarker Series - the Biomarker Discovery Europe Conference - taking place on October 2-3, 2008 in Dublin, Ireland. Over the last several years, biomarkers have been an increasingly important and a heavily researched topic at all of the leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies worldwide.

Cone-rod dystrophies (CRDs) are a group of eye diseases caused by progressive loss of the photoreceptor cells in the retina. In a study published online in Genome Research , researchers have identified a novel mutation in a gene associated with CRD in dogs, raising hopes that potential therapies can be developed for people suffering from these eye disorders.

DOR BioPharma, Inc. (OTCBB: DORB) (”DOR” or the “Company”), a late-stage biopharmaceutical company, announced that one of its academic development partners has initiated a second human clinical trial of RiVax in healthy volunteers. RiVax is a recombinant subunit vaccine designed to induce protection against exposure to ricin toxin, a category B biothreat.

Novartis announced that it started shipments of its Fluvirin Influenza Virus Vaccine to US health care facilities and practitioners for the 2008/2009 influenza season. The company is producing up to 40 million doses of Fluvirin, with the World Health Organization recommended change in all three virus strains included in the influenza vaccine composition.

Nearly 11% of children headed back to school this fall have asthma. Annually, school aged children with asthma miss just under 13 million days in the classroom making asthma related illness one of the most common reasons kids are absent from school.

As we come close to the Beijing Olympic Games, a review article in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) reminds us that the heat and humidity in the Beijing region will present a formidable challenge to all athletes. Moreover, poor quality of air can also affect all athletes, especially those with asthma.

Yesterday at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched a package of priority interventions designed to help low- and middle-income countries move towards universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support.

US researchers have found a way to produce immortal cell strains and tissue types from diseased patients by converting their cells into pluripotent stem cells with the same genetic errors.

Michigan is one of about 25 U.S. states that do not have laws requiring insurance plans that cover prescription drugs to cover birth control, and that “should change,” a Lansing State Journal editorial says.

HIV/AIDS advocates on Tuesday at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City discussed travel restrictions around the world for people living with HIV/AIDS, the AP/Los Angeles Times reports.

GE Healthcare, the US$17 billion healthcare business of General Electric Company (GE), announces broadening the use of its LOGIQ e, a leading compact ultrasound system to the medical team of the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE). This system will be used prior, during and after the 2008 Beijing Olympics, on all elite Spanish athletes.

GE Healthcare announced the commercial release of a new pre-clinical computed tomography scanner specifically designed to accelerate research in the areas of cardiac disease and drug development. The GE eXplore CT 120 scanner is an all-new design based on years of research CT scanner experience.

Multidetector CT (MDCT) is just as accurate as MRI in assessing myocardial infarct size–an important predictor of clinical outcome– in an emergency setting according to a recent study conducted by researchers in collaboration between the VA Medical Center in San Francisco, CA and the University Claude Bernard in Lyon, France.

The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) has been formally notified by Celgene Europe Ltd of Pharmion Ltd’s decision to withdraw the application for a centralised marketing authorisation for the medicine Orplatna (satraplatin) 10 mg and 50 mg capsules.

By the middle of next year, more people from around the world will be enrolled in trials to test pre-exposure prophylaxis as an HIV prevention method than in trials for HIV vaccine candidates or microbicides, according to a report released Sunday by the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition at the opening of the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, the New York Times reports.

Health insurers have access to a “powerful new tool for evaluating whether to cover individual consumers: a health ‘credit report’ drawn from databases containing prescription drug records on more than 200 million Americans,” the Washington Post reports.

Both the number of teenage girls participating in commercial sex work and sexual violence have increased in Kenya following the December 2007 presidential election that resulted in political violence, and experts have said the increase will undermine the country’s progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS, the AP/Google.com reports.

The New York Times on Sunday examined how U.S. “hospitals are taking it upon themselves to repatriate seriously injured or ill immigrants because they cannot find nursing homes willing to accept them without insurance.” The article is the second in a series, titled “Getting Tough,” that examines efforts by government and other organizations to coerce undocumented immigrants to leave the U.S.

The Washington Post on Sunday launched a series of reports examining the “lives of low-wage workers” based on a survey by the Post, the Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University. “Many struggle to pay for life’s basics — housing, food and health care — and most report having virtually no financial cushion should they stumble,” the Post reports.

Having “failed” during the Bush administration “to keep American women from having access to basic birth control,” religious conservatives are “trying to use the guise of an existing ‘conscience’ requirement to achieve” what they could not “accomplish through an open political process,” syndicated columnist Marie Cocco writes in an Akron Beacon Journal opinion piece.

The New York Daily News on Friday examined the New York City-based STFree Certifications’ “sexual history license,” which allows people to provide their testing history for sexually transmitted infections to potential partners. The service aims to reduce the spread of STIs, including HIV/AIDS, the Daily News reports.

The Baltimore Sun on Thursday examined a group of outreach workers that since May has been promoting HIV/AIDS prevention and testing in the city’s densest concentration of nude dance clubs. The group on Thursday nights offers no-cost condoms and tests for HIV, syphilis and hepatitis C.

Many people with HIV/AIDS in Hartford, Conn., are “frustrated” that programs serving blacks in the city appear to be “rapidly drying up,” the Hartford Courant reports. Thirty-eight percent of Hartford residents living with AIDS are black and 40% are Hispanic.

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security and International Law on Friday voted 7-2 to approve a bill (HR 5924) that would increase the number of U.S. work visas available annually for foreign nurses, CQ HealthBeat reports.The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.), would increase the number of visas to 20,000 annually for three years.

The Chicago Tribune/Boston Globe on Thursday examined the debate concerning the potential benefits for pregnant women to store umbilical cord blood. According to the Tribune/Globe, there are more than 24 companies that offer storage of cord blood for a fee. Some physicians say that some of the companies are “preying” on the anxieties of pregnant women and their partners, the Tribune/Globe reports.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in an interview with C-SPAN’s “Q and A” Sunday said that her support for abortion rights has not conflicted with her requests to receive Holy Communion in the Roman Catholic Church, as it has for other lawmakers, The Hill reports.

Amid the negative reaction that UNAIDS’ recent report on the HIV/AIDS pandemic drew from some global health advocates, “it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that the news on AIDS is more good than bad,” according to a Los Angeles Times editorial.

CDC on Saturday ahead of the XVII International AIDS Conference, which opened Sunday in Mexico City, released updated national estimates of the annual number of new HIV infections that occur in the U.S., the Washington Post reports (Brown, Washington Post, 8/3).

Several media outlets recently profiled attendees at the International People Living With HIV Conference and the XVII International AIDS Conference, which are both being held in Mexico City. HIV-Positive Advocates Inter Press Service reports that about 350 delegates from HIV advocacy organizations gathered in the Mexican capital for a two-day conference that opened Thursday.

Lawmakers and witnesses at a House Committee on Small Business hearing on Thursday discussed various barriers, such as high costs and privacy concerns, to adopting health information technology services for small and private health care practitioners, CQ HealthBeat reports.

Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California and other groups on Friday filed a lawsuit in Sacramento County Superior Court that asks the California secretary of state to remove misleading language about a parental notification ballot initiative from the official voter guide, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The Michigan Board of State Canvassers on Wednesday scheduled an Aug. 21 meeting to review signatures submitted for state ballot initiatives, including a proposal to loosen state restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research, the AP/Lansing State Journal reports. The board also set an Aug. 13 deadline for opponents to challenge sample signatures.

The following summarizes articles related to efforts that seek to address racial and ethnic health disparities.Farmington, N.M.: CDC has chosen the Central Consolidated School District to participate in a new curriculum program designed to reduce children’s risk for diabetes, the Farmington Daily Times reports.

The call to eliminate all funding for HIV/AIDS vaccine research and prevention programs and “shifting” those funds to the expansion of HIV/AIDS treatment is a “dangerous sentiment” that is “sweeping over the AIDS establishment,” Laurie Garrett, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, writes in an International Herald Tribune opinion piece.

President Bush on Wednesday signed into law legislation (HR 5501) that reauthorizes the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief at $48 billion through 2013. Two newspapers have published editorials in response to the bill. Summaries appear below.

CMS on Thursday announced new Medicare reimbursement rules that include additions to a list of preventable conditions for which the program will no longer pay hospitals to treat as of Oct. 1, CQ HealthBeat reports (Reichard, CQ HealthBeat, 7/31).

Women diagnosed with breast cancer shoulder the emotional burden of disclosing their diagnosis to loved ones, managing the feelings of others at precisely the time when they need support themselves, according to research to be presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA).

Criminals who use firearms may find it much harder to evade justice in future, thanks to an ingenious new bullet tagging technology developed in the UK. The tiny tags - just 30 microns* in diameter and invisible to the naked eye - are designed to be coated onto gun cartridges.

JDRF said on Friday (August 1, 2008) that it has recognized the work of two top diabetes researchers who are focused on accelerating the pace of science in understanding the autoimmune attack that causes type 1 diabetes, and on preventing or reversing the severe complications of this chronic and life-threatening disease. The recipients of the third annual Scholar Award are Dr. Jeffrey A.

The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has published several new resources to help people learn more about urologic and kidney disorders. These disorders are among the most critical health problems in the United States, affecting millions of Americans, including children and young adults.

Abbott Laboratories on Wednesday agreed to pay between $10 million and $27.5 million to settle an antitrust lawsuit filed by HIV/AIDS advocates and other drug companies over an increase in the price of the company’s antiretroviral drug Norvir, the AP/International Herald Tribune reports (AP/International Herald Tribune, 7/31).

While summer is the time of year people like to spend most of their day outside, summer allergens keep many sinus sufferers from enjoying activities such as barbequing, hanging out at the pool and spending time in the park, to name a few.

In the United States, Lyme disease is the most frequently reported disease that can be passed from animals to humans. These animal-borne diseases can make people very sick, and proper anticipation of disease outbreaks and effective intervention are crucial to protecting the public.

A recent study published in the journal Bone found that higher intakes of calcium, such as those recommended by the USDA, may significantly improve bone health in children.

The first NHS online maternity guide, offering a wealth of information on pregnancy and birth, at just the click of a mouse, was launched recently.

A study published looking at US soldiers injured in Iraq shows the need for investment in emerging treatment technologies for serious injuries both by the UK military and the NHS. All of the patients included in the study were suffering from combat injuries classed as grade III tibial fractures, 68% of which were from blasts such as road side bombs.