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| Cardiac rehab may benefit oldest patients Thursday, Jul 25, 2013 12:56 PM PDT By Kerry Grens NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Exercise-based rehabilitation programs for heart patients are tied to health benefits even among the most elderly, according to a new study. "Unfortunately, there are some people even now who believe (some patients are) too old to go into such programs. We don't believe so. It's quite the reverse. You do get a benefit from this," said Dr. Killian Robinson, one of the study authors from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. drugmakers cheer 'speed lane' for breakthrough therapies Thursday, Jul 25, 2013 12:38 PM PDT By Toni Clarke WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new regulatory pathway could shave years off the traditional drug approval process in the United States, according to some companies whose drugs have been given "breakthrough therapy" designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Speaking at a briefing in Washington to raise awareness of the drug review process, Dr. Jay Siegel, head of global regulatory affairs at Johnson & Johnson, said he expects two years to be knocked off the time it would typically take the FDA to review ibrutinib, the company's experimental cancer drug. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. HPV vaccination rates far from goal, officials say Thursday, Jul 25, 2013 11:44 AM PDT By Yasmeen Abutaleb WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Only slightly more than half of U.S. girls aged 13 to 17 had been vaccinated against a virus that can cause cervical and other cancers last year, and a top U.S. health official said on Thursday that more must be done to bring the rate up to the long-term goal of 80 percent. The vaccination rate to protect against human papillomavirus (HPV) was 53.8 percent last year for teen-age girls, just marginally higher than the 53 percent rate a year earlier, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Thursday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Stomach virus linked to produce sickens 285 people in 11 U.S. states Thursday, Jul 25, 2013 11:16 AM PDT (Reuters) - At least 285 people in 11 states have been sickened by a parasitic infection commonly linked to fresh produce, and the exact cause of the outbreak has yet to be pinpointed, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday. Most of the cyclospora infections have been clustered in the Midwest, with 138 cases reported in Iowa and 70 in neighboring Nebraska. The remainder have been identified in Texas, Georgia, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, New Jersey and Ohio. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. makes it easier to sell medical supplies to Iran Thursday, Jul 25, 2013 11:13 AM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Thursday expanded the list of medical devices that can be exported to Iran without special permission, as it seeks to show support for humanitarian needs in a country that has been hit hard by Western sanctions. The United States and its European allies have tightened their economic sanctions on Iran to pressure the government to rein in its nuclear program, which the West suspects aims to produce a bomb. Iran says the program is for peaceful purposes such as generating electricity and making medical isotopes. ... Full Story | Top |
| Milwaukee County reports 27 cases of Legionnaire's disease Thursday, Jul 25, 2013 11:04 AM PDT By Mary Wisniewski (Reuters) - A late start to summer weather in the Upper Midwest may be linked to an outbreak of 27 cases of Legionnaire's disease in Milwaukee County since June 1 of this year, a health official said on Thursday. The outbreak includes 19 cases of the illness, a severe form of pneumonia, among Milwaukee residents, according to the city's health department. Two other county cases are suspected. ... Full Story | Top |
| GSK replaces China chief amid corruption scandal Thursday, Jul 25, 2013 10:57 AM PDT  By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline has appointed one of its top European executives as the new head of operations in China, amid a corruption scandal there that has rocked Britain's biggest drug maker. Herve Gisserot, senior vice president for Europe, will take over as general manager from Mark Reilly, who will remain with the company as a senior member of the management team, a spokesman said on Thursday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Sex researcher Virginia Johnson dies at 88: local media Thursday, Jul 25, 2013 10:36 AM PDT KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - Sex researcher Virginia Johnson, part of the famed Masters and Johnson team which did groundbreaking work on human sexuality, has died in St. Louis at the age of 88, St. Louis Public Radio reported on Thursday, quoting her son Scott. Johnson and her ex-husband William Masters, who died in 2001, published the bestselling book "Human Sexual Response" in 1966. (Reporting by Kevin Murphy; Editing by Greg McCune and Gerald E. McCormick) Full Story | Top |
| Study finds link between women's height and cancer risk Thursday, Jul 25, 2013 10:01 AM PDT By Laura Zuckerman (Reuters) - Women's chances of developing cancer after menopause increase with their height, according to a new study. Among nearly 145,000 women between the ages of 50 and 79, researchers found that height was more strongly associated with cancer than such established risk factors as obesity. The association held true for everything from thyroid cancer to melanoma, researchers reported in the latest issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. It's not height itself that's the risk factor, though. ... Full Story | Top |
| C-sections take longer for obese women Thursday, Jul 25, 2013 09:56 AM PDT By Kathryn Doyle NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Cesarean sections take longer, on average, when new mothers are obese, according to a recent study. More time isn't necessarily a bad thing and may indicate that the doctor was taking extra care not to damage the woman's tissues, said lead author Dr. Shayna Conner. "But, if a baby is in trouble and needs to be delivered quickly, a slower cesarean can potentially lead to complications," Conner, of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, told Reuters Health. ... Full Story | Top |
| Algeria puts army in charge of fighting drug trafficking Thursday, Jul 25, 2013 08:52 AM PDT By Lamine Chikhi ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algeria has identified drug trafficking as a top national security threat linked to militancy in the region and put its powerful army in charge of fighting it, interior minister Daho Ould Kablia said. "We are waging a war. It is a war against a new form of terrorism: drugs trafficking," Ould Kablia told the APS state news agency late on Wednesday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Biogen's new MS drug shines in market debut Thursday, Jul 25, 2013 08:34 AM PDT By Bill Berkrot (Reuters) - Biogen Idec Inc on Thursday reported sales of its new multiple sclerosis drug Tecfidera had surpassed Wall Street's most bullish forecasts, raising expectations that it will eventually become the dominant oral MS treatment. In its first quarter on the market, Tecfidera posted sales of $192 million, including inventory stocking. Biogen said about $110 million of the total represented underlying patient demand. Analysts had expected about $66 million, with the more bullish forecasts at about $90 million. ... Full Story | Top |
| WHO had asked India to ban toxin that killed children Thursday, Jul 25, 2013 08:15 AM PDT By Jo Winterbottom and Kate Kelland NEW DELHI/LONDON (Reuters) - The pesticide that killed 23 Indian schoolchildren last week is a nerve poison banned by many countries because of what the World Health Organisation (WHO) describes as its "high acute toxicity". As early as 2009, the United Nations health agency urged India to consider a ban on the pesticide monocrotophos - the substance said by a magistrate investigating the deaths to be the cause of the poisoning. ... Full Story | Top |
| Risk from MERS virus "very low" for haj pilgrims: WHO Thursday, Jul 25, 2013 08:08 AM PDT LONDON (Reuters) - The risk from a new Middle East respiratory virus for millions of Muslims planning to go to the annual haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia is very low and there is no need for pilgrims to be screened, the World Health Organisation said on Thursday. While it encouraged countries to raise awareness about the virus to help reduce the risk of the virus spreading among pilgrims, the U.N. health agency said it would not be recommending any travel or trade restrictions. The virus, called the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), can cause coughing, fever and ... Full Story | Top |
| Israel's SciVac eyes global expansion of 3G hepatitis B vaccine Thursday, Jul 25, 2013 08:05 AM PDT  By Steven Scheer REHOVOT, Israel (Reuters) - Israeli drug company SciVac is seeking U.S. approval for a widely used hepatitis B vaccine as part of a push for increased global sales of a product which it says could stem global growth in the disease. Some 1.2 million people die each year from HBV, 100 times more than HIV, while as many as 400 million people are carriers. SciVac - 45 percent owned by Opko Health, which is controlled by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Chairman Phillip Frost - has applied to the U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
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