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Americans come up with first swine flu vaccine

The company based in Connecticut, Protein Sciences Corporation, won a $35-million government contract to develop an influenza vaccine using insect cell technology and Protein Sciences's director Dan Adams says the first batch of about 100,000 doses were produced last week and the manufacture of the vaccine continues.

24 Jun 2009

Underweight and extremely obese die earlier

Underweight people and those who are extremely obese die earlier than people of normal weight - but those who are overweight actually live longer than people of normal weight.

24 Jun 2009

Intervention strategies to curb spread of pandemic flu

Mathematicians, biostaticians and public health officials from Canada, Mexico and the United States will gather at Arizona State University this week to focus on understanding, possibly mitigating the spread of the H1N1 flu virus. They are planning to take up the challenge of proposing science-based strategies that can slow the spread of pandemic flu.

24 Jun 2009

Longer life linked to specific foods in Mediterranean diet

Some food groups in the Mediterranean diet are more important than others in promoting health and longer life according to new research published on bmj.com.

24 Jun 2009

1.02 billion starving people worldwide, U.N. says

For the first time, the number of chronically hungry people worldwide is greater than 1 billion, according to a recent U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) statement, the Financial Times reports (Blas, Financial Times, 6/19).

23 Jun 2009

UNHCR calls for world to do more to protect refugees

To mark World Refugee Day on June 20, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) urged the "international community to do more to protect and care for refugees around the world," VOA News reports (Schlein, VOA News, 6/20).

22 Jun 2009

Experts explore link between allergies and interstitial cystitis

Allergy testing and treatment may offer a new therapeutic option for many patients with interstitial cystitis (IC). IC is a severely painful bladder condition affecting as many as 8 million women and 1.5 million men in the United States. Patients and the providers who treat them have long noticed a correlation between allergies and IC.

22 Jun 2009

Study exposes tobacco industry's ‘shonky’ behaviour

Researchers in the United States have revealed that tobacco companies have continually changed the ingredients and the design of their cigarettes over time without alerting smokers.

21 Jun 2009

New discovery on how botulism paralyzes nerve cells

New structures of a botulism toxin interacting with a mimic of the nerve-cell protein it destroys suggest new ways to block this often-fatal interaction. Indeed, the mimic molecules have such high affinity for the toxin and bind to it so tightly that they themselves could possibly serve as anti-toxin drugs with further modification, the researchers said.

21 Jun 2009

Seattle Genetics starts trial of SGN-35 for anaplastic large cell lymphoma

Seattle Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SGEN), has announced that it has initiated a phase II clinical trial of SGN-35 for patients with relapsed or refractory systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL). SGN-35 is an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) that utilizes Seattle Genetics’ proprietary technology to empower antibodies by linking them to potent cell-killing drugs.

18 Jun 2009

Costs are soaring even as California considers further cuts to care programs

In Los Angeles County, being disabled can cost a year's income. That's because the annual cost of in-home care services for seniors living alone is now $319 more than this group's median income of $17,029.

18 Jun 2009

Gout gene discovered

Having partnered last year with an international team that surveyed the genomes of 12,000 individuals to find a genetic cause for gout, Johns Hopkins scientists now have shown that the malfunctioning gene they helped uncover can lead to high concentrations of blood urate that forms crystals in joint tissue, causing inflammation and pain - the hallmark of this disease.

18 Jun 2009

A long ‘to-do’ list for FDA Chief Hamburg

The Washington Post details Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg’s to-do list, noting that during her brief tenure the agency has announced nearly-daily warnings about various consumer products and created an internal task force to recommend ways to release more information about FDA decisions and policies.

18 Jun 2009

Relation between local food environments and obesity among adults

Living in an area with more fast food outlets and convenience stores than supermarkets and grocers has been associated with obesity in a Canadian study. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Public Health have shown that your local food environment can affect your weight.

17 Jun 2009

Bariatric surgery raises kidney stone risk

The most popular type of gastric bypass surgery appears to nearly double the chance that a patient will develop kidney stones, despite earlier assumptions that it would not, Johns Hopkins doctors report in a new study. The overall risk, however, remains fairly small at about 8 percent.

17 Jun 2009

New understanding on how "trans fats" gum up cellular machinery

Partially hydrogenated vegetable oils in processed foods contain trans fatty acids that interfere with the regulation of blood flow. A new report reveals a new way in which these "trans fats" gum up the cellular machinery that keeps blood moving through arteries and veins.

17 Jun 2009

U.N. Secretary-General, WHO Director-General appeal for continued investment in global health

Despite the current global economic crisis, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday called for a continued international commitment to investing in health, Xinhua/People's Daily reports.

17 Jun 2009

Relief efforts for displaced people in Pakistan barely coping, report says

Despite significant efforts from Pakistani authorities and humanitarian organizations to respond to the world’s largest and fastest displacement of people in more than a decade, relief efforts are barely coping, according to an Oxfam report published on Monday, the International News reports.

17 Jun 2009

FDA focuses on contact lens safety

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is taking steps to improve contact lens safety by reminding consumers of the importance of following proper cleaning and storing procedures. Consumers who do not follow instructions for contact lens care and use increase their risk of serious eye infections that can lead to blindness.

16 Jun 2009

Jeffrey Friedman receives Shaw Prize for discovery of leptin

Jeffrey M. Friedman, Marilyn M. Simpson Professor and head of the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics at Rockefeller University, has received the 2009 Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine. The prize was announced today by the Hong Kong-based Shaw Prize Foundation.

16 Jun 2009