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Obesity costs California $21.7 billion a year

California businesses are feeling the financial pinch from employees with obesity-related health conditions, State Public Health Officer Dr. Richard J. Jackson announced today. The combined cost of physical inactivity, obesity and overweight totaled $21.7 billion in 2000, according to a new report, The Economic Costs of Physical Inactivity, Obesity and Overweight in California Adults, the first such research conducted for California.

5 Apr 2005

Hospital Compare gives the rundown on US hospital services

Hospital Compare, a new service, will give Americans the ability to compare the quality of care in nearly all of the nation’s hospitals using quality information available from the Centres for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA).

5 Apr 2005

Hospital Compare gets thumbs up from National Quality Forum

The National Quality Forum (NQF) has applauded the public release of hospital performance measurement data through the launch of Hospital Compare.

3 Apr 2005

HHS awards $97 million contract to Sanofi Pasteur to speed the production process for new influenza vaccines

United States Department of Health and Human Services has awarded a $97 million contract to Sanofi Pasteur to speed the production process for new influenza vaccines for the U.S.

3 Apr 2005

New trial for treatment of liver disease

The Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) Clinical Research Network is launching its first two clinical trials for the study of NASH, a liver disease that resembles alcoholic liver disease but occurs in patients who drink little or no alcohol.

3 Apr 2005

Vaccine prevents deadly pneumonia in African children

Global health leaders today presented new research showing that vaccinating infants against Streptococcus pneumoniae -- a bacterium that causes deadly pneumonia, meningitis and sepsis -- could substantially reduce death and serious illness among children in the developing world. If used widely, a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine could prevent hundreds of thousands of child deaths each year.

28 Mar 2005

New therapy for treating cat allergies looks promising

Andrew Saxon, M.D., and a team of researchers at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have found that a molecule designed to block cat allergies can prevent allergic reactions in laboratory mice and was also successful when tested on human cells in a test tube.

28 Mar 2005

Mental health service costs offset by savings in other public sectors

Penn State researchers have found that reduced expenditures for inpatient hospitalization, the juvenile justice system, the child welfare system and the special education system offset the costs of the improved mental health services delivered to youth through the system of care approach now being tried in communities in every state in the U.S.

28 Mar 2005

Docosahexaenoic acid may protect against the accumulation of a protein believed to be linked to Alzheimer's disease

Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), an omega-3 fatty acid, may protect against the accumulation of a protein believed to be linked to Alzheimer's disease, according to the results of a new study published in the March 30, 2005 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. The study used Martek DHA, which is produced from microalgae.

23 Mar 2005

Time for ethical reflection is before experimentation begins

The time for ethical reflection is before experimentation begins, especially in the case of potential new methods for creating human embryos for research, according to bioethicists from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and the Mayo Clinic in the spring issue of Ethics & Medicine.

16 Mar 2005

Lesbian body image differs from that of women overall

Over three-quarters of lesbian adults (77%) describe their body weight as overweight while 67% of all female adults surveyed describe their body weight as overweight.

15 Mar 2005

College students not at a greater risk for alcohol dependence problems

Although college students had higher rates of yearly, monthly, and weekly alcohol use than their peers not attending college, they did not appear to be at a greater risk for alcohol dependence problems, according to an article in the March issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.

7 Mar 2005

Measles deaths halved

Dr LEE Jong-wook, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General, has congratulated countries for their successful efforts in protecting children from measles.

7 Mar 2005

Suicides outnumber homicides in the U.S

Charles Curie, head of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said suicides in the United States run at about 80 a day or more than 29,000 a year, three for each two homicides.

2 Mar 2005

Cesarean delivery is associated with an increased risk of childhood asthma hospitalization in premature infants

Cesarean delivery is associated with an increased risk of childhood asthma hospitalization in premature infants, but not in full-term infants, according to a report published in this month’s Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, the scientific journal of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI).

22 Feb 2005

FDA will create a new independent Drug Safety Oversight Board to oversee the management of drug safety issues

In a recent meeting with employees, HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt shared an emboldened vision for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that included a new culture of openness, improved oversight and enhanced independence.

16 Feb 2005

Immediate access to antibiotics stems spread of sexually transmitted diseases

In an editorial to be published in The New England Journal of Medicine, researchers at Johns Hopkins offer their support for a study which shows that providing faster, more direct access to antibiotics for partners of newly infected patients reduces re-infection rates and spread of sexually transmitted diseases, such as gonorrhea and Chlamydia, compared to standard practice.

16 Feb 2005

Not enough evidence to say gun laws reduce violence

Despite a proliferation of gun registration requirements, bans on specific firearms and “zero tolerance” policies for guns in schools over the past three decades, the jury is still out on whether these laws help prevent gun violence, according to a new review of studies in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

10 Feb 2005

Eleventh Edition of the Report on Carcinogens

The Department of Health and Human Services released its Eleventh Edition of the Report on Carcinogens today, adding seventeen substances to the growing list of cancer-causing agents, bringing the total to 246.

31 Jan 2005

Tentative approval of co-packaged lamivudine/zidovudine fixed dose combination tablets and nevirapine tablets

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced the tentative approval of a co-packaged antiretroviral drug regimen manufactured by Aspen Pharmacare of South Africa for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in adults.

26 Jan 2005