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Crackdown on Florida's 'pill mills' reduces painkiller overdose deaths

A crackdown on Florida's "pill mills" - clinics dispensing large quantities of prescription painkillers often for cash-only and without proper medical examinations - appears to have dramatically reduced the number of overdose deaths in the state from these drugs and may have also led to a drop in heroin overdose deaths, new research suggests.

22 Dec 2015

Rutgers scientist provides insight into risks associated with using tanning bed

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has proposed a ban on tanning bed use by those under 18. In 2013, a law was enacted in New Jersey banning those under the age of 17 from using tanning beds. Jerod L. Stapleton, PhD, is a behavioral scientist at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and assistant professor of medicine at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, whose research aims to understand why young people frequently engage in indoor tanning.

22 Dec 2015

Drug that boosts activity in the brain's 'garbage disposal' system may slow Alzheimer's disease

A drug that boosts activity in the brain's "garbage disposal" system can decrease levels of toxic proteins associated with Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders and improve cognition in mice, a new study by neuroscientists at Columbia University Medical Center has found.

22 Dec 2015

Benjamin Wolozin receives $500,000 award in Alzheimer's Disease Drug Discovery Research

Research that leads to improved therapies for Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients is one goal of Boston University School of Medicine professor of pharmacology and neurology Benjamin Wolozin, MD, PhD. He was one of six researchers awarded a two-year, $500,000 award in Alzheimer's Disease Drug Discovery Research by the Edward N. & Della L. Thome Memorial Foundation.

22 Dec 2015

UTHealth receives nearly $5.7 million from CPRIT for cancer research

The Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas has awarded nearly $5.7 million in grants to The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health. The grants will fund projects that train innovative cancer researchers, increase breast and cervical cancer screening among Hispanics and raise awareness about the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine.

22 Dec 2015

New easy-to-use computer program can quickly identify drug-resistant infections

Scientists have developed an easy-to-use computer program that can quickly analyse bacterial DNA from a patient's infection and predict which antibiotics will work, and which will fail due to drug resistance. The software is currently being trialled in three UK hospitals to see whether it could help speed up diagnosis of drug-resistant infections and enable doctors to better target the prescription of antibiotics.

21 Dec 2015

Periodontal disease may increase breast cancer risk

Postmenopausal women with periodontal disease were more likely to develop breast cancer than women who did not have the chronic inflammatory disease. A history of smoking significantly affected the women's risk.

21 Dec 2015

Flu vaccine: the facts. An interview with Dr Lisa Maragakis

There are different formulations of the flu vaccine but in general they all do the same thing, which is to stimulate our body's immune system to recognize and fight against the influenza virus.

21 Dec 2015

Australian researchers develop new technique to combat chronic bacterial infections in hospitals

One of the scourges of infections in hospitals – biofilms formed by bacteria that stick to each other on living tissue and medical instruments, making them harder to remove – can be tricked into dispersing with the targeted application of nanoparticles and heat, researchers have found.

21 Dec 2015

New data shows opioid overdose deaths hit record levels in 2014

From 2000 to 2014 nearly half a million Americans died from drug overdoses. Opioid overdose deaths, including both opioid pain relievers and heroin, hit record levels in 2014, with an alarming 14 percent increase in just one year, according to new data published today in CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

20 Dec 2015

FDA approves Fenix Continence Restoration System to treat fecal incontinence

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved the Fenix Continence Restoration System to treat fecal incontinence in patients who are not candidates for, or have previously failed, medical or other surgical options.

20 Dec 2015

Chronic alcohol use with repeated binge drinking can cause more damage to the liver

Excessive alcohol consumption is a global public health issue. In the United States, binge drinking is the most common form - so common, in fact, that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports approximately one in six adults binge drinks about four times each month.

18 Dec 2015

Smoking bans may stop casual smokers from becoming heavy smokers

If governments want to discourage smoking among young people, both high taxes and smoking bans do the job - but bans may have one key advantage.

18 Dec 2015

MPP signs licensing agreement with AbbVie to address future demands for HIV treatment in Africa

The Medicines Patent Pool today announced a new licensing agreement with AbbVie, a global biopharmaceutical company, that seeks to address future demands for HIV treatment Lopinavir/Ritonavir (LPV/r) in South Africa and across Africa. The agreement has been reached in particular to help ensure sustainability of long-term supply of LPV/r, the most widely used second-line HIV treatment in South Africa and across Africa.

18 Dec 2015

Findings show promising evidence for creating broad-spectrum antiviral

UW researchers working in collaboration with Kineta Inc. and the University of Texas at Galveston have shown that making a drug-like molecule to turn on innate immunity can induce genes to control infection in several -known viruses.

18 Dec 2015

New study pinpoints five top risk factors responsible for undernutrition among children in India

In India, nearly 40% of all children are stunted--of extremely low height for their age--and nearly 30% are underweight. A new study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has now pinpointed the five top risk factors responsible for more than two-thirds of the problem.

18 Dec 2015

More effort needed to reduce risks of mosquito-transmitted epidemics in the U.S. and Mexico

Despite the increasing risks of mosquito-transmitted epidemics in the United States and Mexico, policymakers in both countries have made little effort to prevent future outbreaks, according to a new policy brief by tropical-disease and science policy experts at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy.

18 Dec 2015

LifeVest wearable cardioverter defibrillator approved for children at risk for sudden cardiac arrest

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved a new indication for the LifeVest wearable cardioverter defibrillator. The LifeVest is approved for certain children who are at risk for sudden cardiac arrest, but are not candidates for an implantable defibrillator due to certain medical conditions or lack of parental consent.

17 Dec 2015

Environmental exposures and behaviors contribute to the majority of cancers, study shows

Researchers have found that extrinsic factors such as environmental exposures and behaviors contribute heavily to the development of the vast majority of cancers.

17 Dec 2015

Candidiasis needs to be treated early, aggressively to help vulnerable hospitalized patients

One of the most common causes of healthcare-associated infections, candidiasis is a serious, life-threatening fungal infection that needs to be treated early, aggressively and appropriately, note updated guidelines released by the Infectious Diseases Society of America and published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

17 Dec 2015

Public Health News and Research

Crackdown on Florida's 'pill mills' reduces painkiller overdose deaths

Rutgers scientist provides insight into risks associated with using tanning bed

Drug that boosts activity in the brain's 'garbage disposal' system may slow Alzheimer's disease

Benjamin Wolozin receives $500,000 award in Alzheimer's Disease Drug Discovery Research

UTHealth receives nearly $5.7 million from CPRIT for cancer research

New easy-to-use computer program can quickly identify drug-resistant infections

Periodontal disease may increase breast cancer risk

Flu vaccine: the facts. An interview with Dr Lisa Maragakis

Australian researchers develop new technique to combat chronic bacterial infections in hospitals

New data shows opioid overdose deaths hit record levels in 2014

FDA approves Fenix Continence Restoration System to treat fecal incontinence

Chronic alcohol use with repeated binge drinking can cause more damage to the liver

Smoking bans may stop casual smokers from becoming heavy smokers

MPP signs licensing agreement with AbbVie to address future demands for HIV treatment in Africa

Findings show promising evidence for creating broad-spectrum antiviral

New study pinpoints five top risk factors responsible for undernutrition among children in India

More effort needed to reduce risks of mosquito-transmitted epidemics in the U.S. and Mexico

LifeVest wearable cardioverter defibrillator approved for children at risk for sudden cardiac arrest

Environmental exposures and behaviors contribute to the majority of cancers, study shows

Candidiasis needs to be treated early, aggressively to help vulnerable hospitalized patients

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