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Rehab benefit for meth abuse not crystal clear

Community-based residential rehabilitation significantly reduces methamphetamine use compared with detoxification, but the effect only lasts for up to a year, researchers report.

27 Jul 2012

Diabetes cutoffs don’t quite cut it for South Asians

Individuals of South Asian origin may require closer monitoring for Type 2 diabetes, suggest researchers.

27 Jul 2012

‘Narrow therapeutic window’ for oxygen in brain injury

Hyperoxia, as well as hypoxia, early after hospital admission is associated with poor outcomes and mortality in patients with traumatic brain injury, report researchers in the Archives of Surgery.

27 Jul 2012

Mylan receives FDA approval for generic Sporanox ANDA

Mylan Inc. today announced that its subsidiary Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc. has received final approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) for Itraconazole Capsules, 100 mg.

27 Jul 2012

New platform for detecting substandard and counterfeit medicines using microfluidics

A new platform for detecting substandard and counterfeit medicines using microfluidics has been recognized with a grant from Saving Lives at Birth's "Grand Challenge through Development." Dubbed PharmaCheck, the technology is a portable, field-based tool for assessing the quality of medicines in developing countries with increased accuracy, sensitivity and reliability.

27 Jul 2012

Minnesota expanding health coverage to 16,000 kids

Minnesota, after getting federal approval of a 2009 law, will expand health care coverage to more than 16,000 lower-income kids without a waiting period or premiums.

27 Jul 2012

Potential biomarker to predict lung cancer patients' response to chemotherapy

Patients with the most common type of lung cancer are notoriously insensitive to chemotherapy drugs, including cisplatin. New findings related to the cellular pathways that regulate responses to cisplatin have now been published by Cell Press on July 26th in the journal Cell Reports.

27 Jul 2012

Letter to the editor: The role for pre-exposure prophylaxis in the fight against AIDS

This letter to Kaiser Health News responds to KHN's interview with Michael Weinstein, the president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

27 Jul 2012

NPR examines whether goal of treating all HIV-positive people with ARVs is feasible

Noting new guidelines released at the XIX International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) in Washington, D.C., this week "call for everybody with HIV to be started on antiretroviral drugs [ARVs] as soon as they test positive for the virus," NPR's "Shots" blog examines "whether the goal is achievable, and who would pay for this enormous expansion in treatment."

27 Jul 2012

PedBrain Tumor network publishes evaluation of first 125 genome analyses of medulloblastomas

Brain tumors are the primary cause of cancer mortality in children. Even if a cure is possible, young patients often suffer from the stressful treatment which can be harmful to the developing brain. The most common childhood brain tumors are medulloblastoma and pylocytic astrocytoma.

27 Jul 2012

Lawmakers call for bipartisan support for AIDS funding at AIDS 2012 panel discussion

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) on Wednesday at the XIX International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C., joined former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) for a panel discussion on bipartisanship "focusing on sustaining the engagement of the U.S. Congress in order to demonstrate and encourage continued U.S. leadership in the fight against global AIDS," the Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog reports.

27 Jul 2012

Families abandon women who suffered spinal injuries in Pakistan earthquake

Women who suffered spinal injuries in the 2005 Pakistan earthquake continued to endure hardships years later, including abandonment by spouses and families, according to new research from the University of Alberta.

27 Jul 2012

Obama campaign's health care message tailored to minority populations

Politico reports on the White House's focused outreach to minority groups that have very high rates of uninsurance. In a National Urban League appearance, President Barack Obama offered a defense of the health law and other policies.

27 Jul 2012

MEG-MRI combined device for mapping the human brain

Researchers at Aalto University in Finland have developed the world's first device designed for mapping the human brain that combines whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology. MEG measures the electrical function and MRI visualizes the structure of the brain. The merging of these two technologies will produce unprecedented accuracy in locating brain electrical activity non-invasively.

27 Jul 2012

Mo. gov. expects health law questions to be settled by lawmakers in 2013

States are implementing the health law: In Missouri, the governor says legislators will likely wait until the 2013 legislative session to settle their decisions on the health law's Medicaid expansion and exchanges, Texans get insurance rebates and Georgia works to define "basic" health coverage.

27 Jul 2012

Viral evolution and host protein levels predict rapid disease progression in hepatitis C patients

Scientists at the National Institutes of Health have identified several factors in people infected with the hepatitis C virus that may predict whether the unusually rapid progression of disease from initial infection to severe liver conditions, such as cirrhosis, will occur. Knowing whether a patient's condition is likely to deteriorate quickly could help physicians decide on the best course of treatment.

27 Jul 2012

Medicaid expansion could save lives, study finds

A Harvard study published in the New England Journal of Medicine indicates that low-income residents of three states that expanded Medicaid generally lived longer, were healthier and had better access to health care than residents of neighboring states that did not expand the program.

27 Jul 2012

Study investigates molecular markers in drug-resistant ovarian cancer

A new study by TCD researchers investigates drug-resistant ovarian cancer cells. The findings which have been recently published in the international publication, PLoS One will increase understanding of molecular markers in drug-resistant ovarian cancer with a view to improving clinical treatment.

27 Jul 2012

Washington Post examines circumcision as HIV prevention strategy

"Although circumcision's effect on protection against HIV is clear -- three studies have shown a 60 percent reduction in risk to men -- as a public health strategy, it is fraught with caveats," the Washington Post reports.

27 Jul 2012

Scientists analyze raw sewage samples to determine illicit drug use

Surveys of drug use form an important basis for the development of effective drug policies, and also for measuring the effectiveness of existing policies. For the first time in history, scientists have now made direct comparisons of illicit drug use in 19 European cities by a cooperative analysis of raw sewage samples.

27 Jul 2012