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Residential washing machines may not eliminate hospital-acquired bacteria

Residential washing machines may not always use hot enough water to eliminate dangerous bacteria like methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Acinetobacter, a Gram-negative bacteria, from hospital uniforms, according to a study published in the November issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.

4 Oct 2011

Canada Supreme Court rules Vancouver's safe drug-injection site can stay open

"Vancouver's Insite clinic, the only such safe-injection site for people who use drugs in North America, can stay open, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Friday in a landmark defeat for the federal government," Reuters reports.

4 Oct 2011

Telestroke improves care and reduces costs

The use of long-distance video and data hookups to link remote community hospitals with stroke neurologists in large centres provides the same level of care as having everyone in the same room, according to a new study presented today at the Canadian Stroke Congress.

4 Oct 2011

Supreme Court opens new term, health law challenge tops agenda

The cases coming before the court "address some of the central issues facing the country," said former Solicitor General Walter Dellinger. The clashes over health care and immigration "are not mere lawyers' issues, but fundamental questions about how the country is governed."

4 Oct 2011

Central African Republic declares new cholera outbreak

Central African Republic Health Minister Jean-Michel Mandaba on Friday declared a new outbreak of cholera in the south of the country had already killed at least 10 people, Agence France-Presse reports.

4 Oct 2011

NIH Director to deliver keynote address at eighth SIO international conference

The Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO) announced today that National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, MD, PhD, will deliver the keynote address at its eighth international conference, which is co‐sponsored by Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

4 Oct 2011

NICU stress linked with alterations in brain structure and function of preterm infants

New research shows that exposure to stressors in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is associated with alterations in the brain structure and function of very preterm infants. According to the study now available in Annals of Neurology, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Neurological Association and Child Neurology Society, infants who experienced early exposure to stress displayed decreased brain size, functional connectivity, and abnormal motor behavior.

4 Oct 2011

Chad launches three-day polio vaccination campaign

Chad's President Idris Deby, alongside Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, on Friday launched a three-day polio vaccination campaign at the Friendship China-Chad hospital "as part of efforts to rid the central African nation of the infectious disease," AlertNet reports.

4 Oct 2011

Interactive video games appear to safely enhance physical therapy for ICU patients

Interactive video games, already known to improve motor function in recovering stroke patients, appear to safely enhance physical therapy for patients in intensive care units (ICU), new research from Johns Hopkins suggests.

4 Oct 2011

AHRQ: 55.1 million American adults treated for hypertension in 2008

One in four American adults (55.1 million) was treated in 2008 for hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

4 Oct 2011

Council On Foreign Relations examines maternal health in Afghanistan

Isobel Coleman, senior fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy and director of the Civil Society, Markets and Democracy Initiative at the Council On Foreign Relations, reports on the council's website on maternal health in Afghanistan, writing that one out of 11 Afghan women is likely to die in childbirth during her lifetime; Afghan women are 200 times more likely to die giving birth than by a bomb or bullet. Not surprisingly, Save the Children this year ranked Afghanistan the worst country in the world to be a mother. Yet, there are some positive signs.

4 Oct 2011

CDRH report highlights scientific activities that support medical device industry

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) today released a report highlighting scientific activities that support the medical device industry and product development, while maintaining the safety and effectiveness of the products.

4 Oct 2011

Individuals should act against NCDs

In this Foreign Policy Association blog post, freelance writer Julia Robinson calls for individuals to start demanding more action on non-communicable diseases (NCDs), writing, "It is possible to have stronger responses to NCDs" than those presented in the political declaration that resulted from last month's U.N. High-level Meeting (HLM) on NCDs, such as the smoking bans, requirements for posting nutrition information in restaurants and trans fat restrictions enacted in New York City by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

4 Oct 2011

PE, CT appear to reduce PTSD symptoms in patients with recent traumatic event

Prolonged exposure therapy, cognitive therapy, and delayed prolonged exposure therapy, appear to reduce posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in patients who have experienced a recent traumatic event, according to a report published Online First by Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

4 Oct 2011

Cancer patients prefer to use Web-based technology for quality of life survey

When cancer patients are given the choice, they are significantly more likely to use Web-based technology to answer questions about their quality of life six months after treatment, compared to a paper survey, according to a unique study presented at a scientific session, October 5, 2011, at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology.

4 Oct 2011

Viewpoints: Mixing Obama and Ryan's plans, cancer rationing and stalling federal aid

What has been revealed is that the systems set up during an industrial era to provide health care, retirement income and support during economic downturns are inadequate for and ill-suited to our post-industrial, globalized economy. ...one can imagine a system in which all workers and nonworkers are required to buy insurance from the government-regulated exchanges being set up in each region or state under the Obama health-care reform plan.

4 Oct 2011

Latest findings on cancer to be presented at 10th AACR international conference

What: The 10th AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research will bring together scientists to share the latest findings in genetics, chemoprevention and lifestyle choices that may prevent cancer.

4 Oct 2011

Hospitalization for an acute event can lead to long-term institutionalization

Confirming many elderly patients' worst fears, a national study has shown that being hospitalized for an acute event, such as a stroke or hip fracture, can lead to long-term institutionalization in a nursing home. Equally alarming, researchers found that direct discharge to a skilled nursing facility -- a common practice designed to reduce hospital stays -- put patients at "extremely high risk" of needing long-term nursing home care.

4 Oct 2011

Cholera death toll in Haiti rises to 6,435; U.N. official says hardships remain in camps

Haitian health authorities on Friday said the death toll from cholera has risen to 6,435 since October and that "the number of people infected with cholera almost reached half a million, although the ministry repeated the epidemic was decreasing," Xinhua reports.

4 Oct 2011

Roundup: Blue Shield of Calif. drops coverage of controversial drug in breast cancer treatment; Perry presses stem cell therapy

Blue Shield of California will no longer pay for the use of the drug Avastin to treat breast cancer, a sign that support for the widely debated and expensive treatment may be eroding among health plans.

4 Oct 2011