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QweCI and HEALTHY FUTURES project to host symposium on links between climate, VBDs

The HEALTHY FUTURES (Health, environmental change and adaptive capacity) and QWeCI (Quantifying Quantifying Weather and Climate Impacts on Health in Developing Countries) projects will jointly host a symposium on links between climate and vector-borne diseases (VBDs) at the upcoming 4th East African Community Health and Scientific Conference, scheduled for 27th-29th March 2013 in Kigali, Rwanda.

20 Dec 2012

Amgen to pay $762 million fine for improper drug marketing

Biotech giant Amgen Inc. pleaded guilty in federal court to improper marketing of its anemia drug Aranesp and has agreed to pay $762 million in criminal fines and civil settlements to resolve complaints from company whistle-blowers. Federal prosecutors in New York said the Thousand Oaks company was "pursuing profits at the risk of patient safety" by encouraging doctors to use its popular anemia drug for unapproved uses to boost sales and to take market share from a rival drug maker.

20 Dec 2012

GW nursing professors receive three-year $790,000 gerontology grant from HHS

Beverly Lunsford, a George Washington University assistant professor of nursing, believes a health care crisis is brewing.

20 Dec 2012

Negotiators eye short-term and long-term 'doc fix' options

Single-year and two-year fixes to the "sustainable growth rate" formula -- or even a permanent fix -- are floated as the White House and congressional republicans continue negotiations over taxes and spending.

20 Dec 2012

Researchers report seroprevalence of three avian flu virus strains in pigs in southern China

Researchers report for the first time the seroprevalence of three strains of avian influenza viruses in pigs in southern China, but not the H5N1 avian influenza virus. Their research, published online ahead of print in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, has implications for efforts to protect the public health from pandemics.

20 Dec 2012

House Republicans seeking IRS response on health law subsidies

Prominent GOP committee chairmen are looking for documents that could affect the Internal Revenue Service rule about subsidies on the federal health insurance exchanges.

20 Dec 2012

Scientists uncover TDP-43 protein as possible target for treatment of ALS, FTD

Neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center say they have new evidence that challenges scientific dogma involving two fatal neurodegenerative diseases - amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) - and, in the process, have uncovered a possible therapeutic target as a novel strategy to treat both disorders.

20 Dec 2012

Lancet reports on global efforts to develop malaria vaccine

The Lancet reports on global efforts to develop a malaria vaccine, writing, "Since the mid-1980s, various malaria vaccine candidates have been tested in the hope of finding a molecule that can provide long-lasting immune protection against the disease that still kills 600,000 to 1.2 million people in sub-Saharan Africa each year. However, none has yet made it into routine use."

20 Dec 2012

Patients with hypertension or diabetes have increased risk of cancer recurrence, survival

By all accounts, a combination of colon cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure can be a recipe for medical disaster. Now, a new study led by a surgical oncologist and researcher at Temple University School of Medicine and Fox Chase Cancer Center has shown just how deadly this mix can be.

20 Dec 2012

Science supports early interventions for children in adversity

Neil Boothby, U.S. government special adviser and senior coordinator to the USAID administrator on children in adversity, writes in a USAID "IMPACTblog" post that the international community has scientific evidence and empirical data "that sho[w] investments made early in the lives of children yield greater returns than at any other point in the life cycle."

20 Dec 2012

Small, consistent changes in daily eating behavior can lead to sustainable weight loss

Making small easy changes to our eating habits on a consistent basis - 25 days or more per month - can lead to sustainable weight loss, according to research by Professor Brian Wansink in Cornell University's Food and Brand Lab.

20 Dec 2012

Speaker doesn't foresee increase in Medicare eligibility age this year

Congress doesn't need to raise the Medicare eligibility age this year, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Tuesday. Raising the eligibility age from 65 to 67 was on the table in earlier debt talks, and has been floated again as Boehner and President Obama look for a way to avoid the looming fiscal cliff.

20 Dec 2012

Researcher explores new PCR system to discover dangerous foodborne pathogens

Pina Fratamico is on the quest to find the easiest and fastest way to test for harmful Escherichia coli in ground beef. In an article published in Frontiers in Microbiology on the 20th of December, she explores using a next-generation real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) system to discover specific gene targets that indicate the presence of dangerous foodborne pathogens. The results show that assays performed using this PCR system are rapid, sensitive, and reliable.

20 Dec 2012

NPR's 'Shots' blog examines malaria drug resistance in Southeast Asia

"Global efforts to combat malaria are under threat from new strains of drug-resistant malaria, which are cropping up in Southeast Asia," particularly in Cambodia, Myanmar (also known as Burma), Thailand and Vietnam, NPR's "Shots" blog reports.

20 Dec 2012

New clues in understanding how epithelial cells repair themselves following chlorine-related injury

Scarring of the airways can lead to long-term breathing problems for some people exposed to high levels of chlorine gas from events such as an industrial accident, chemical spill following a train derailment or terroristic chemical warfare. Household mishaps from mixing bleach with acidic cleaning products also can cause release of chlorine gas; if this occurs in a poorly ventilated space, chlorine levels could be high enough to cause lung injury.

20 Dec 2012

Malaria Journal article reports on WHO Malaria Policy Advisory Committee meeting

Noting "the Malaria Policy Advisory Committee to the World Health Organization met in Geneva, Switzerland, from 11 to 13 September, 2012," an article published in the Malaria Journal on Wednesday "provides a summary of the discussions, conclusions and recommendations from that meeting," according to the article abstract.

20 Dec 2012

GI bacteria exert some control over their hosts' appetites: Review

Over the last half decade, it has become increasingly clear that the normal gastrointestinal (GI) bacteria play a variety of very important roles in the biology of human and animals. Now Vic Norris of the University of Rouen, France, and coauthors propose yet another role for GI bacteria: that they exert some control over their hosts' appetites.

20 Dec 2012

West African human population genomes provide important clues about evolution of HIV

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) may have affected humans for much longer than is currently believed. Alfred Roca, an assistant professor in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois, thinks that the genomes of an isolated West African human population provide important clues about how the disease has evolved.

20 Dec 2012

Investigators report non-coding miRNAs as appealing biomarkers for cancer malignancy

As many as 50 percent of all human protein-coding genes are regulated by microRNA (miRNA) molecules. While some miRNAs impact onset and progression of cancer, others can actually suppress the development of malignant tumors and are useful in cancer therapy. They can also serve as potential biomarkers for early cancer detection. In a new issue of Cancer Biomarkers, investigators report on non-coding miRNAs as appealing biomarkers for malignancy.

20 Dec 2012

Hospitals with good work environment have low readmission rates

New research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing has found that Medicare patients treated in hospitals with a good work environment for nurses had up to ten percent lower odds of readmission than those treated in hospitals with a poor work environment.

20 Dec 2012

Medical News

QweCI and HEALTHY FUTURES project to host symposium on links between climate, VBDs

Amgen to pay $762 million fine for improper drug marketing

GW nursing professors receive three-year $790,000 gerontology grant from HHS

Negotiators eye short-term and long-term 'doc fix' options

Researchers report seroprevalence of three avian flu virus strains in pigs in southern China

House Republicans seeking IRS response on health law subsidies

Scientists uncover TDP-43 protein as possible target for treatment of ALS, FTD

Lancet reports on global efforts to develop malaria vaccine

Patients with hypertension or diabetes have increased risk of cancer recurrence, survival

Science supports early interventions for children in adversity

Small, consistent changes in daily eating behavior can lead to sustainable weight loss

Speaker doesn't foresee increase in Medicare eligibility age this year

Researcher explores new PCR system to discover dangerous foodborne pathogens

NPR's 'Shots' blog examines malaria drug resistance in Southeast Asia

New clues in understanding how epithelial cells repair themselves following chlorine-related injury

Malaria Journal article reports on WHO Malaria Policy Advisory Committee meeting

GI bacteria exert some control over their hosts' appetites: Review

West African human population genomes provide important clues about evolution of HIV

Investigators report non-coding miRNAs as appealing biomarkers for cancer malignancy

Hospitals with good work environment have low readmission rates

How industrial hygiene flow calibration supports defensible exposure data

How electrical engineering ensures accurate calibration and patient safety

The importance of ketones from a clinical and medical perspective

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