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| Three more deaths from meningitis outbreak linked to injections Tuesday, Oct 30, 2012 12:02 PM PDT  (Reuters) - Three more patients have died after contracting fungal meningitis from potentially tainted steroid injections supplied by a Massachusetts company, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday, bringing the death toll from the outbreak to 28 nationwide. Two of the new deaths were in Michigan, which now has reported seven fatalities, and one in Tennessee which has confirmed 11 deaths, the CDC said. The two states have been the hardest hit by the outbreak, first discovered in Tennessee late last month. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kids who smoke menthol more likely to get hooked Tuesday, Oct 30, 2012 11:33 AM PDT NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Kids who experiment with menthol cigarettes are more likely to become habitual smokers than their peers who start out with the regular variety, new research findings suggest. In a study of tens of thousands of U.S. students, researchers found that kids who were dabbling with menthol cigarettes were 80 percent more likely to become regular smokers over the next few years, versus those experimenting with regular cigarettes. Menthol is added to cigarettes to give them a minty "refreshing" flavor. ... Full Story | Top |
| Burundi gets $2 billion aid pledge, U.N. says Tuesday, Oct 30, 2012 10:46 AM PDT GENEVA (Reuters) - Donors have pledged more than $2 billion for Burundi's 2012-2015 development strategy to help the central African nation rebuild after civil war, the United Nations said on Tuesday. "We ended up with more than $2 billion registered commitments at the conference," Pamphile Muderega of the National Aid Coordination Committee said in a statement. "This represents a doubling of our already optimistic expectations," he said. The statement was issued by the U.N. ... Full Story | Top |
| Should schools close during bad flu outbreaks? Tuesday, Oct 30, 2012 10:43 AM PDT NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new U.S. government study suggests that during a serious flu epidemic, closing schools can keep people - especially kids - out of the ER. Now, researchers say, the big questions include, When is it best to close schools? And what are the downsides? The study, reported in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, looked at what happened in two Texas communities during the H1N1 "swine" flu epidemic of 2009. In one community, schools were closed as a precaution; in the other, they weren't. ... Full Story | Top |
| Europe rights court condemns Poland in abortion rape case Tuesday, Oct 30, 2012 10:06 AM PDT STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday condemned Poland for the inhumane and degrading treatment of a 14-year-old rape victim whom the authorities tried to stop having an abortion. The girl's right to a private and family life had been flouted in 2008, the court ruled, saying she had been arbitrarily detained after being briefly placed in a home to separate her from her mother, who favored an abortion. ... Full Story | Top |
| Sandy curtails nuclear plants, oldest under alert Tuesday, Oct 30, 2012 09:43 AM PDT  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hurricane Sandy slowed or shut a half-dozen U.S. nuclear power plants, while the nation's oldest facility declared a rare "alert" after the record storm surge pushed flood waters high enough to endanger a key cooling system. Exelon Corp's 43-year-old Oyster Creek plant in New Jersey remains on "alert" status, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said early Tuesday. It is only the third time this year that the second-lowest of four emergency action levels was triggered. ... Full Story | Top |
| Singapore firm starts new Alzheimer's drug trials Tuesday, Oct 30, 2012 08:46 AM PDT LONDON (Reuters) - TauRx Therapeutics, a privately held biotech company based in Singapore, has launched two late-stage clinical studies testing a new kind of experimental drug against Alzheimer's. Its LMTX drug aims to attack the memory-robbing disease by blocking the build-up of a protein called tau that forms twisted fibers and tangles inside brain cells. Many scientists believe tau is an important cause of Alzheimer's, alongside another protein known as amyloid that has been the main focus of drug development efforts to date. ... Full Story | Top |
| Bayer to buy U.S. vitamin maker Schiff for $1.2 billion Tuesday, Oct 30, 2012 04:37 AM PDT  FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's Bayer is to buy U.S. vitamins maker Schiff Nutrition International for an agreed $1.2 billion as it seeks stable sources of growth to complement its more volatile prescription drugs business. Many pharmaceutical companies are keen to expand in non-prescription drugs as a steadier, albeit less profitable, counterweight to prescription medicines, where there are risks of, for example, clinical trial failures and patent expiries. ... Full Story | Top |
| Breast-cancer checks save lives despite over diagnosis Tuesday, Oct 30, 2012 03:33 AM PDT LONDON (Reuters) - Breast-cancer screening saves lives even though it also picks up cases in some women that would never have caused them a problem, according to a review published in The Lancet medical journal. The independent review, commissioned by the charity Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and Britain's Department of Health, follows fierce international debate about the benefits of routine screening and recent research that has argued it does more harm than good. ... Full Story | Top |
| Straumann to cut jobs as Europe sales slow Tuesday, Oct 30, 2012 01:43 AM PDT ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss dental implant maker Straumann said it would axe roughly 150 jobs to boost margins as it grapples with sluggish demand in Europe, its biggest market. The euro zone debt crisis has battered sales of dental implants made by Straumann and its Swiss rival Nobel Biocare as cash-strapped Europeans, worried about the downturn, cut back on non-essential dental treatment. ... Full Story | Top |
| Meningitis outbreak spreads to 19 states with case in Rhode Island Monday, Oct 29, 2012 06:04 PM PDT  (Reuters) - The deadly meningitis outbreak tied to steroid injections from potentially tainted medications spread to a 19th state on Monday with the first case reported in Rhode Island, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Only four of the 23 states that received some of the medication have not reported cases of fungal meningitis, which has killed 25 people nationwide. The four states that have not reported at least one case of meningitis are California, Nevada, West Virginia and Connecticut, the CDC said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Lilly trials boost amyloid link to Alzheimer's-analysis Monday, Oct 29, 2012 02:39 PM PDT (Reuters) - Levels of a protein believed to be a main cause of Alzheimer's disease rose in the blood of patients treated with Eli Lilly's experimental drug in late-stage trials, suggesting the protein, beta amyloid, was removed from the brain as intended, researchers said on Monday. Lilly in August disclosed that its drug solanezumab did not significantly arrest progression of the memory-robbing disease in the pair of Phase III studies, which tested patients with mild to moderate symptoms of Alzheimer's. ... Full Story | Top |
| Cancer docs often delay referrals to hospice care Monday, Oct 29, 2012 02:01 PM PDT  NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Cancer doctors often refer their patients to palliative care very late in the course of disease, according to a new survey from Canada. About a third of oncologists said they refer patients to palliative care, or hospice, when they diagnose a cancer that has spread and therefore usually is incurable. Another third, however, said they wait until chemotherapy has been stopped, which is often just a few months or even weeks away from death. "All palliative specialists believe that palliative care should be involved early," said Dr. ... Full Story | Top |
| Acupuncture may ease cancer-related fatigue Monday, Oct 29, 2012 01:16 PM PDT NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Acupuncture may help relieve fatigue in women who've had breast cancer, a new UK study suggests. Researchers found that women who attended six weekly acupuncture sessions had greater improvements in fatigue as well as anxiety, depression and quality of life, compared to those who only received educational materials. But that still doesn't prove it was the needles, themselves, that boosted women's energy levels, they said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Do secondhand smoke laws prevent heart attacks? Monday, Oct 29, 2012 01:14 PM PDT NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Heart attacks dropped by one-third in one county in Minnesota after two smoke-free workplace ordinances went into place, a new study shows. The lead researcher on the work said that decline was likely due to less secondhand smoke exposure in restaurants and bars, as smoke can trigger heart problems due to its effects on arteries and blood clotting. ... Full Story | Top |
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