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Impact of plastics on human health and ecosystems

Plastics surround us. A vital manufacturing ingredient for nearly every existing industry, these materials appear in a high percentage of the products we use every day. Although modern life would be hard to imagine without this versatile chemistry, products composed of plastics also have a dark side, due in part to the very characteristics that make them so desirable-their durability and longevity.

20 Mar 2010

Genetic study may help develop potential treatment strategies for stiff skin syndrome

By studying the genetics of a rare inherited disorder called stiff skin syndrome, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have learned more about scleroderma, a condition affecting about one in 5,000 people that leads to hardening of the skin as well as other debilitating and often life-threatening problems.

20 Mar 2010

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center awarded ECRI Institute Health Devices Achievement Award

Masimo, the inventor of Pulse CO-Oximetry™ and Measure-Through Motion and Low Perfusion pulse oximetry, is pleased to report that Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (Lebanon, New Hampshire) has received the 4th Annual ECRI Institute Health Devices Achievement Award yesterday for an innovative patient monitoring project that uses its Masimo SET pulse oximetry and Masimo Patient SafetyNet remote monitoring and clinician notification system.

20 Mar 2010

EUREKA project develops unique range of antibodies

EUREKA project E! 3424 RECAN has developed a range of unique and highly specific monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies - the proteins produced in the blood which counteract bacteria, viruses or cancerous cells.

20 Mar 2010

Investigation on spread of illegal drug use in social networks

Recent studies have shown that behaviors such as happiness, obesity, smoking and altruism are "contagious" within adult social networks. In other words, your behavior not only influences your friends, but also their friends and so on.

20 Mar 2010

New WHO report estimates 440,000 MDR-TB cases worldwide in 2008

There were an estimated 440,000 cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) around the world in 2008 - one-third of which were fatal, according to a new WHO report on drug-resistant TB, the Los Angeles Times reports (Maugh, 3/19).

20 Mar 2010

APHA urges U.S. House of Representatives to support health reform legislation

The American Public Health Association today urged members of the U.S. House of Representatives to support the health reform legislation and related reconciliation improvements that will come to the House floor for a vote in the coming days.

20 Mar 2010

Hospital costs for treating septicemia increased from $4.1 billion in 1997 to $12.3 billion in 2007

The hospital costs for treating septicemia increased by an average of nearly 12 percent each year from 1997 to 2007, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Treating this potentially deadly blood infection increased from $4.1 billion in 1997 to $12.3 billion in 2007.

20 Mar 2010

$Stress fracture: Causes and treatment strategies$

Stress fracture: Causes and treatment strategies

When pain from increased physical activity doesn’t go away in a couple of days, the cause could be a stress fracture. The March issue of Mayo Clinic Health Letter covers these tiny, partial bone fractures, why they occur and how they are treated.

20 Mar 2010

House Democrats prepare for Sunday vote on health reconciliation bill

The Associated Press: "In seeking enough votes to overhaul the nation's health care system, President Barack Obama is telling nervous Democratic lawmakers that their political fates are linked to the bill's passage, discouraging the notion that they can save themselves by opposing it, House members say." White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs "who said the president has spoken with more than three dozen Democratic lawmakers since Monday, repeatedly sidestepped questions of whether Obama has told them his presidency's fate depends on the legislation's passage" (Babington, 3/19).

20 Mar 2010

Effective defense against HIV: Acne drug minocycline

Johns Hopkins scientists have found that a safe and inexpensive antibiotic in use since the 1970s for treating acne effectively targets infected immune cells in which HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, lies dormant and prevents them from reactivating and replicating.

20 Mar 2010

Myths and explainers about health reform bill and Congressional procedures

The Washington Post reports on a few of the misconceptions that are creating "the mythology about how we got here." The "myths" examined include "this could have been a bipartisan bill," "Democrats gave up on the public option too soon," "Scott Brown changed everything," "the public is undecided about health-care reform," and "how lawmakers vote on health-care reform will be the top issue in the 2010 midterm elections" (Cillizza, 3/21).

20 Mar 2010

Arthritis Foundation supports Congress’ efforts for meaningful health care reform

The Arthritis Foundation supports the efforts of Congress to enact meaningful health care reform to address the health care needs of the 46 million men, women and children with arthritis.

20 Mar 2010

ITDS can be effective for screening fever during H1N1 influenza pandemic: UNMC researchers

Researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center found an Infrared Thermal Detection System to be a fast and effective fever screening tool in clinical settings during the H1N1 influenza pandemic. The ITDS detected fever in patients through split-second, non-contact skin temperature measurements.

20 Mar 2010

Hospital News: Insurer negotiations, exemptions at risk, and Florida money trouble

Hospitals are pushing for higher reimbursement rates - in some cases, raises of more than 20 percent - and insurers are increasingly fighting back, The Wall Street Journal reports. "Hospitals argue that low Medicare rates and cuts to Medicaid mean that hospitals have to get money from elsewhere, and increasingly that is private insurers.

20 Mar 2010

Turning microRNAs into novel drugs

Researchers around the globe are working on turning microRNAs, over 5,000 of which already have been identified, into novel drugs for a wide range of applications, reports Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN). These noncoding single-stranded RNAs act through binding to complementary mRNA sequences, thus preventing their translation into protein or accelerating mRNA breakdown, according to the March 15 issue of GEN.

20 Mar 2010

Obama emphasizes historic nature of health care vote during final rally

The Washington Post: "Thousands of people rallied loudly for passage of health-care legislation in Northern Virginia Friday as President Obama tried one final time to demonstrate public support for the health-care bill that is moving toward a Sunday afternoon vote in Congress.

20 Mar 2010

Breast cancer survivors at increased risk of developing second cancer: Study

Certain rare mutations in the ataxia telangiectasia mutated gene, combined with radiation exposure, may increase a woman's risk of developing a second cancer in the opposite breast, according to a study published online March 19 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

20 Mar 2010

For undecided lawmakers, health care bill is personal

Politico: The decision on how to vote on the health care overhaul affects members differently than nearly any other issue. "[N]o other single issue — civil rights, Medicare, even war in this age of professional armies — quite matches the personal side of health care's stubborn details. … Everybody gets sick; everybody dies.

20 Mar 2010

FDA panel favors approval with conditions of Medtronic's Revo MRI SureScan pacing system

Medtronic, Inc.today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Circulatory System Devices Panel of the Medical Devices Advisory Committee has voted unanimously in favor of approval with conditions of the Revo MRI™ SureScan™ pacing system designed as MR Conditional, or safe for use in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) systems under specified conditions.

20 Mar 2010