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Atlanta struggles to meet MLK’s legacy on health care

While public safety commissioner Bull Connor's police dogs in 1963 attacked civil rights protesters in Birmingham, Ala., leaders in Martin Luther King Jr.'s hometown of Atlanta were burnishing its reputation as "the city too busy to hate."

4 Apr 2018

Getting better prepared to treat in-flight medical emergencies

"Ladies and gentlemen, is there a physician on board?" The flight attendant on a flight from Rwanda to Turkey made the announcement no one wants to hear, and Rachel Zang, MD, an Emergency Medicine resident at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, jumped into action.

31 Mar 2018

FDA grants accelerated approval to leukemia drug for patients with MRD-positive ALL

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted accelerated approval to Blincyto (blinatumomab) to treat adults and children with B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who are in remission but still have minimal residual disease (MRD).

30 Mar 2018

New review explores potentially safer therapies for treating chronic abdominal pain

An estimated 2 million people in the U.S. are addicted to prescription opioids- powerful doctor-prescribed medications for chronic or severe pain. The drugs are commonly prescribed to treat gastrointestinal pain caused by conditions such as Crohn's disease and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), raising the risk of addiction among this population.

29 Mar 2018

Study identifies potential genetic link in sudden infant death syndrome

Rare genetic mutations associated with impairment of the breathing muscles are more common in children who have died from sudden infant death syndrome (also known as ‘cot death’) than in healthy controls, suggesting a possible genetic element of the disorder, according to a case-control study in the UK and USA published in The Lancet.

29 Mar 2018

Genetic links to cot deaths found in new research

Cot death or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is a rare but unexplained and tragic occurrence where babies between ages two and four months who are apparently healthy die unexpectedly during sleep. SIDS is responsible for around 300 and 2400 deaths in the United Kingdom and United States of America yearly. Researchers have now found a genetic link that could explain the occurrence and risk of such incidents. The study appeared in the latest issues of the journal Lancet.

29 Mar 2018

Researchers highlight the need to reconsider mitochondrial replacement moratorium

Mothers with mitochondrial DNA mutations often give birth to children who face incurable and fatal illnesses. But a much-studied form of mitochondrial replacement could prevent the transmission of such diseases from mothers to children, researchers say.

28 Mar 2018

Frequent and public opioid users may be best candidates for naloxone training

In response to America's opioid crisis, public health departments and community organizations across the country have started to train opioid users to reverse overdoses in other users with the opioid-blocker naloxone.

26 Mar 2018

Sleep like a Victorian to help insomnia

Sleeping like a person living in the Victorian times is the new strategy to combat sleeplessness or insomnia it seems. Before the industrial revolution and rise of electricity, most people would go to bed when it got dark. They would sleep for around five hours and then wake up. The next hour or so would be dedicated to chores around the house, reading, relaxing or intimacy and then the people would settle down for a second round of sleep.

25 Mar 2018

Epidural stimulation can safely, effectively normalize blood pressure in patients with SCI

Patients with severe spinal cord injury (SCI) often experience chronically low blood pressure that negatively affects their health, their quality of life and their ability to engage in rehabilitative therapy.

19 Mar 2018

New guidelines intend to provide template for optimal, most up-to-date DMD care

Diagnostic and treatment advances are helping patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy - one of nine major types of muscular dystrophy that affects males - live into their 30s and beyond, raising challenges in such areas as education, vocation, levels of independence, personal relationships, emotional health, and intimacy.

13 Mar 2018

Study highlights significant clinical differences between men and women with sleep apnea

Researchers from the UCLA School of Nursing examined clinical records and magnetic resonance imaging brain scans of patients who were recently diagnosed with sleep apnea, and discovered several apparent connections between thinning of the brain's cerebral cortex and apnea symptoms.

13 Mar 2018

How Medicaid became a go-to funder for schools

Gerardo Alejandrez used to punch classmates, throw chairs and curse at his teachers, conduct that forced him to switch from school to school. "I had a lot of anger issues," the 16-year-old said recently.

9 Mar 2018

Dentists mysteriously succumbing to lung disease finds the CDC

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found nine dentists and dental healthcare workers with a progressive lung disease of which seven died. This was published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report yesterday (8th March 2018).

8 Mar 2018

When wildfire smoke invades, who should pay to clean indoor air?

As dense smoke from wildfires spread through communities across western Montana last summer, public health agencies faced an indoor problem, too: Residents suddenly needed filters to clean the air inside homes and public spaces, but there was no obvious funding source to pay for it.

8 Mar 2018