« May 2004 | Main | July 2004 »
Updated: 7:54 p.m. ET June 24, 2004
LONDON - An experimental vaccine sprayed into the nose protects monkeys against the SARS virus and could be developed to immunize humans, scientists said on Friday.
Only one dose of the vaccine, developed by scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the United States, was needed.
Friday, June 25, 2004 Posted: 1:52 PM EDT (1752 GMT)
ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- The number of cancer survivors in the United States has more than tripled to almost 10 million over the past three decades because of advances in detection and treatment, the government said.
Also, patients diagnosed between 1995 and 2000 have an estimated 64 percent chance of surviving five years, compared with a 50 percent rate -- a coin toss -- three decades ago, a study by National Cancer Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.
Article: http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/conditions/06/25/cancer.survival.ap/index.html
Friday, June 25, 2004 Posted: 10:40 PM EDT (0240 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Further testing is being conducted on the carcass of an animal that showed inconclusive results for mad cow disease in initial tests, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Friday.
Additional tissue samples were being sent to the National Veterinary Services Lab in Iowa , according to Dr. John Clifford, a deputy administrator at the USDA.
A more conclusive result would be available sometime in the next four to seven days, he said.
The animal had not entered the food supply before the testing took place, he said, and the carcass was being held pending further results.
Article: http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/06/25/mad.cow.testing/index.html
Hello,
I will be out of the office 6/24 through 7/5. Though I will be checking on the blog, there will most likely be only minimal postings! Be back soon.
CIndy Gruwell
BOOK REVIEW
Food Fight: the Inside Story of the Food Industry, America’s Obesity Crisis, and What We Can Do About It
by Kelly D Brownell and Katherine Battle Horgen, 2003, 352 pages, hardcover, $24.95. McGraw-Hill, Columbus, OH.
June Stevens
Departments of Nutrition and Epidemiology
University of North Carolina
School of Public Health, CB 7461
Chapel Hill, NC 27599
june_stevens@unc.edu
Obesity now rivals smoking in terms of health care costs and adverse effects on health and well-being, and the rapid rise in the prevalence of obesity over the past 2 decades shows no signs of leveling off. The current and future consequences of the obesity epidemic for national health make Food Fight a very timely book. Brownell and Horgen challenge the reader to reexamine the toxic environment in which we live and take note of many of the ways in which we, as a nation, have allowed this environment to encourage overeating and inactivity.
The Robert Wood Johnson Health & Society Scholars Program is a two-year post-doctoral fellowship designed to build the field of population health. Applications for entry into the program beginning August 2005 must be submitted on-line by October 15, 2004. More information is available at www.healthandsocietyscholars.org.
The AHC Learning Commons Summer Seminar Schedule is now available. Please take a look and plan to attend one of our exciting classes and learn more about the technologies available at the University and in the Commons.
You may feel free to contact me should you have any additional questions.
Cindy Gruwell x63995, gruwell@umn.edu
Last Updated: 2004-06-22 12:47:07 -0400 (Reuters Health)
GENEVA (Reuters) - West and central Africa, where five times as many children have been hit by polio in 2004 as last year, is on the brink of the largest epidemic in years with thousands of potential victims, experts warned on Tuesday.
A recent case in Sudan, which had not recorded any infections in three years, is the latest setback to a campaign to eradicate the crippling disease worldwide by 2005, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative said in a statement.
Article: http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2004/06/22/eline/links/20040622elin014.html
Last Updated: 2004-06-22 12:08:07 -0400 (Reuters Health)
By Andrew Quinn
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Southern Africa is in a death spiral as AIDS exacerbates food shortages and government and social networks teeter close to collapse, the head of the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday.
"If a 747 aircraft crashed every hour, there'd be an international outcry. That's the death toll we're facing but there is inadequate collective outrage," WFP Executive Director James Morris said at the end of a tour in the region, the worst hit worldwide by the global AIDS epidemic.
"The end result is that people are dying on a horrific scale and its victims are not getting the help they need."
Morris, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's special envoy for Humanitarian Needs in Southern Africa, said there were some signs of progress in food production, with Zambia enjoying a surplus and governments implementing emergency programmes.
Article: http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2004/06/22/eline/links/20040622elin011.html
Jun. 22, 2004. 11:58 AM
Liberals promises 'health system that all Ontarians can have confidence in'
FROM CANADIAN PRESS
A three-year plan to revamp Ontario's public health system in the wake of the SARS crisis will result in more medical and research staff and better methods for tracking diseases and other community health concerns, the province's health minister said today in announcing $41.7 million in new funding.
George Smitherman announced the first comprehensive changes to the public health system since the 1980s, when the Health Protection and Promotion Act set out the first minimum standards for public health programs and services in Ontario.
Amy L. Becker Contributing Writer
Jun 22, 2004 (CIDRAP News) – The possibility of a smallpox outbreak highlights a key threat to America's public health system: What if a person needs a vaccine but there is no nurse to give the shot?
America's growing shortage of qualified public health workers could undermine terrorism preparedness, according to a recent report from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO).
Article: http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/bt/bioprep/news/jun2204shortage.html
Hello All,
The Bio-Med Summer Instruction schedule is out! Check out the latest of our offerings....you can register online! at: http://www.biomed.lib.umn.edu/lc.html.
Pick from the following:
OVID MEDLINE
Ovid vs. PubMed
PubMed Special Features
Refworks
PDAs and Handhelds: PDAS and Pocket PCs in Clinical Practice
PowerPoint: Beyond the Basics
All classes are free for U of M students, faculty, and staff! Pass the word...
For more information contact: Cindy Gruwell at x63995 or gruwell@umn.edu
Clinical Interfaces Award Program
Team Awards at the interface of the clinical and basic sciences. Research supported by this program must:
" foster new and collaborative ways of addressing complex problems of human health and disease;
" be conducted by teams that include key investigators from at least three disciplines as equal partners. One of these key investigators must be a clinical investigator; and
" be unique and only achievable through integration of a cross-disciplinary team of investigators.
Disciplines include: the biological, physical, chemical, social and population sciences, mathematics, computer sciences, and engineering. Proposals in all disease areas will be considered. Up to three full grants of up to $2.25 million will be awarded.
Pre-proposal deadline: November 2, 2004.
Award start date: October 1, 2005
Full details and instructions are available on the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation's web site: http://www.ddcf.org/mrp/ciap
MONDAY, June 21 (HealthDayNews) -- Environmental toxins called proteasome inhibitors cause a Parkinson's disease (news - web sites)-like movement disorder in rats, according to new research.
The findings suggest that these natural toxins may contribute to the development of Parkinson's in humans. Proteasome inhibitors are produced by bacteria and fungi. Human-made proteasome inhibitors also find their way into the environment.
"These results suggest that we should determine how widespread these toxins are in the environment, how humans are exposed to them, and how such exposures correlate with the incidence of Parkinson's disease," study lead author Kevin St. P. McNaught, of Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, said in a prepared statement.
The study appears in the online edition of the journal Annals of Neurology.
Tue Jun 22, 2004 11:16 AM ET
By Patricia Reaney
LONDON (Reuters) - Cigarette smokers die on average 10 years earlier than non-smokers but kicking the habit, even at 50 years old, can halve the risk, according to half a century of research reported on Tuesday.
Findings from a 50-year study into the dangers of smoking showed that if people quit by the age of 30 they can avoid nearly all of the risk of dying prematurely.
"Cigarette smoking reduces the expectation of life by 10 years," said 91-year-old Oxford University Professor Richard Doll who discovered the link between cancer and smoking.
"It is clear that consistent cigarette smoking doubles mortality throughout adult life -- middle and old age. It is also clear that giving up smoking can eliminate a very large part of the hazard," he told Reuters.
Doll and Bradford Hill confirmed the link between smoking and lung cancer in a landmark study published in the British Medical Journal on June 26, 1954.
Half a century later, Doll and Oxford University Professor Richard Peto report the 50-year results from the same study of 34,439 British doctors in the journal.
Article: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=5483593
Monday, June 21, 2004 Posted: 9:20 AM EDT (1320 GMT)
... The message still hasn't gotten out that mammography will save lives.
-- Dr. Herman Kattlove, medical editor American Cancer Society
ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- After more than a decade of urging by doctors that women over 40 should receive mammograms yearly, few actually do so, according to a large cancer study.
Only 6 percent of women who received a mammogram in 1992 received mammograms yearly for the next 10 years, according to a study of 72,417 women of all ages at Massachusetts General Hospital, the largest look at mammography to date.
The American Cancer Society recommends that all women 40 and older receive a mammogram and a breast exam yearly. Younger women are encouraged to receive a breast exam every three years.
Article: http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/conditions/06/21/mammograms.ap/index.html
Tuesday, June 22, 2004 Posted: 10:02 AM EDT (1402 GMT)
SUGAR LAND, Texas (AP) -- Leading up to her hysterectomy about five years ago, Ruby Calad thought she understood all the insurance bureaucracy involving her HMO.
"I'd done my homework," the suburban Houston woman said.
But the day after her operation, she was told by a Houston-area hospital she had to be released because her HMO, Cigna Healthcare of Texas Inc., would approve no additional expenses. She was discharged prematurely, then wound up in an emergency room a few days later, she said.
"(It) ended up costing them more money," Calad, 50, recalled Monday, a few hours after learning the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled against her in a lawsuit stemming from her HMO's decision.
Article: http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/06/22/hmos.ap/index.html
Basics of Database Searching: Ovid Medline or PubMed
Learn the basics of health science database searching through Medline (OVID) using Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and other tools.
PubMed:
Monday, June 21 10:00 - 11:00am AHC Learning Commons
RefWorks
RefWorks, a web-based bibliographic management service, allows students, faculty, and staff to create personal, databases of references. Users may import references from online services or add them manually. RefWorks accurately formats papers and bibliographies with popular format styles including APA, MLA, Turabian, and Chicago.
Topics Covered:
Setting up an account
Direct exporting
Searching MNCAT/PubMed directly
Saving citations and importing
Intro to working with WORD
Creating a bibliography
Tuesday, June 22 2:00 - 3:00pm AHC Learning Commons
Register at: http://www.biomed.lib.umn.edu/inst/lcclassregfm.html or drop in!
For more information please call the reference desk at: x63260 or email us at:medref@umn.edu
VOA News
21 Jun 2004, 12:27 UTC
Doctors in Singapore say the virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is present in the tears of patients with the disease.
The findings could make SARS easier to detect, but also show an increased risk for health care workers treating SARS patients.
The study was published Monday in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.
Detecting viruses in tears is a well established diagnostic technique, but this is the first report that SARS has been detected in this way.
Washington Times
Brasilia, Brazil, Jun. 18 (UPI) -- Foot-and-mouth disease has returned to Brazil for the first time in nearly three years, local news sources reported Friday.
The disease is highly contagious and affects cloven-hoofed animals like cows and sheep, though is not usually a danger to humans.
The Ministry of Agriculture said tests taken earlier this month from a remote herd came back positive, Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper reported. It is the first time in 34 months that foot-and-mouth has been detected in Brazil.
Friday, June 18, 2004
San Francisco Chronicle
Need a doctor? Need to go to a hospital? Better answer this question first: Do you have health insurance?
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, for 44 million Americans -- 8.5 million of them children -- the answer is no. That includes 6.4 million Californians, 15 percent of whom are under age 18. The picture is not much better for the millions more whose coverage is grossly inadequate
Thu Jun 17, 2004 04:19 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The gap between blacks and whites in the occurrence of a serious infectious disease of newborns is narrowing, due in part to recent guidelines that emphasize testing and treating mothers carrying the microbe.
Despite these gains, however, blacks are still twice as likely to get the disease, known as group B streptococcal or GBS. The bug that causes the infection is passed from the mother to the baby during delivery, and GBS is the most common life-threatening infection in newborns.
The guidelines, which were released in 2002 by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, recommended screening all pregnant women for GBS and administering antibiotics during labor to women found to be carrying the organism, according to information in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Fri Jun 18, 2004 10:27 AM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - Environmental hazards such as pollution, unsafe water, poor sanitation, lead poisoning and injuries are the cause of one third of child and adolescent deaths in the European region, health experts said on Friday.
Pollution from burning coal and wood indoors without ventilation is a leading killer of children in the central Asian republics and Turkey.
Unsafe water and sanitation is a major cause of young deaths in eastern European nations, while injuries, mainly from road traffic accidents, top the list across the European region, according to a report by the World Health Organization (WHO).
6/17/2004 11:34:00 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: National Desk
Contact: CDC Press Office, 404-639-3286
WASHINGTON, June 17 /U.S. Newswire/ -- HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today announced an additional $849 million in awards to states, territories, and four major metropolitan areas to strengthen the ability of government and public health agencies to respond to bioterror attacks, infectious diseases and natural disasters.
"This funding is a critical component to our national security," Secretary Thompson said. "Our state and local public health system is the first line of defense when it comes to detection, reporting and containing a terrorist attack, an infectious disease outbreak or any other public health emergency."
This funding is in addition to $498 million released earlier this month by HHS' Health Resources Services Agency to strengthen hospitals and improve overall response capability. All totaled since Sept. 11, 2001, HHS has invested more than $3.7 billion in strengthening the nation's public health infrastructure.
Thu Jun 17, 2004 02:35 PM ET
By Paul Simao
ATLANTA (Reuters) - Smoking rates among U.S. high school students sank to their lowest levels in at least 13 years, according to a study released on Thursday, bolstering hopes the nation is recovering from an epidemic of teen cigarette use.
Higher prices for cigarettes and a wave of youth-oriented anti-tobacco programs in schools and the media were cited by health officials as the main factors behind the sharp decreases in smoking among students in grades 9 to 12.
About 22 percent admitted in 2003 to being current smokers, or those who had smoked at least once in the previous month, according to data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
By Ajitha Gunaratna
16 June 2004
An island-wide outbreak of dengue fever in Sri Lanka in recent months has underlined the steady deterioration of public health care and preventative measures to contain the disease.
Up to June 8, there had been 4,347 cases officially recorded for the year, including 22 deaths. In May alone, there were 1,532 cases—three times more than for April. Health officials admit that for the first quarter of the year the figure was 40 percent higher than for the corresponding period last year. The capital of Colombo as well as Gampaha, Kandy and Kurunegala districts are among the worst affected areas
Article: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/jun2004/deng-j16.shtml
June 15, 2004
The obesity epidemic in the US remains a major public health concern as the current obesity rate shows no signs of decline, according to a national benchmark study on obesity.
The government report, contains data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 1999-2000 and 2001-2002. The report identifies the prevalence of overweight , obesity and extreme obesity in the American population, as defined by the body mass index (BMI), a measure of weight to height.
The 1999-2000 survey indicated 64.5 percent of adults were overweight, with an increase to 65.7 percent in 2001-2002. Obesity rates rose from 30.5 percent to 30.6 percent; with extreme obesity on the rise as well, from 4.7 percent to 5.1 percent.
Among children aged 6 through 19 years in 1999-2002, 31 percent were at risk for overweight or overweight and 16.0 percent were overweight.
"The level of obese and overweight Americans remains at alarming levels," said Allison Hedley, lead researchers, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The full report is published in the June issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The authors concluded, "There is no indication that the prevalence of obesity among adults and overweight among children is decreasing. The high levels of overweight among children and obesity among adults remain a major public health concern".
A similar report released today indicates the obesity rate in Canada is currently at 15 percent.
The link indicated below will take U of M students faculty, and staff to a just published editorial in the June 2 copy of JAMA.
"The effectiveness of many interventions to improve health in poor populations in the developing world remains untested and therefore unproven. It is sometimes assumed that what works is known and that the only challenge is to make interventions widely available to underserved populations worldwide, the so-called know-do gap. However, other than vaccination, few global health interventions are evidence-based.
Evidence-based global health requires use of the evidence from randomized controlled trials and other scientifically valid studies to evaluate global health interventions and to measure progress in improving global health."
Full Article: http://tc.liblink.umn.edu/sfx_local?id=Entrez:PubMed&id=pmid:15173158
Tue Jun 15, 2004 02:45 PM ET
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Want to avoid a heart attack? How about a stroke? Or is it cancer or diabetes you fear?
The advice to avoid all of them is the same -- exercise more, stay slim or slim down, eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, do not smoke and visit your doctor.
The American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society and the American Diabetes Association teamed up on Tuesday to deliver a simple, clear message to the U.S. public and to doctors -- these top four killers are all mostly caused by lifestyle.
Many studies have indicated that up to two-thirds of all cases of cancer are caused by smoking, poor diet, or a lack of exercise, as opposed to unlucky genes or environmental chemicals.
Article: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=5429566
Tuesday, June 15, 2004 Posted: 4:23 PM EDT (2023 GMT)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- A new test for the AIDS virus that detects proteins inside the microbe may be more sensitive than existing tests, U.S. researchers said.
The test, which can also be adapted to detect the misshapen prions that cause mad cow disease and related sicknesses, may be useful for screening donated blood and monitoring patients, the developers at the University of Maryland's Institute of Human Virology said Monday.
They said it is 25 times more sensitive than the best technology currently available.
Article: http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/conditions/06/15/aids.test.reut/index.html
JCR is a complicated but often useful database that provides bibliometric information on scholarly journals. The Libraries' now have an ongoing subscription to this and it has been controversial in the past. Learning more about it may help you as you work with users - or as you consider using it yourself for collection analysis, etc. This one-hour workshop will briefly give an overview of the database and allow time for hands-on experience in the database.
All sessions will be in room s30c Wilson. Registration is required and seating limited to 20/session.
Available sessions:
Wednesday, June 23, 2004 11:00 AM -- 12:00 PM
Tuesday, July 20, 2004 12:30 PM -- 1:30 PM
Registration is at: http://www.lib.umn.edu/registration/index.phtml#eventidXX89
Friday, June 11, 2004 Posted: 11:42 AM EDT (1542 GMT)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- More Americans are abusing alcohol than in the 1990s, but fewer are technically alcoholics, U.S. government researchers.
They found that the number of American adults who abuse alcohol or are alcohol dependent rose to 17.6 million or 8.46 percent of the population in 2001-2002 from 13.8 million or 7.41 percent of the population in 1991-1992.
The researchers cannot say why heavy drinking is up.
Article: http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/06/11/alcohol.abuse.reut/index.html
Wed Jun 9, 2004 02:54 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Most early-stage prostate cancers take a long time to progress. For this reason, older men with the disease may be offered the option of "watchful waiting" rather than immediate treatment, since the cancer may never become threatening during their lifetime.
However, new research shows that a substantial minority of prostate cancers will progress to an aggressive type after 15 years of watchful waiting.
Dr. Jan-Erik Johansson, from Orebro University Hospital in Sweden, and colleagues report the findings in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association.
Article: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=5385435
Wed Jun 9, 2004 06:24 PM ET
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A study of specially bred mice suggests that a mercury preservative in vaccines could potentially cause some of the brain changes in autism, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.
The publication of the study gives fuel to an alliance of environmentalists, parents of children with autism, anti-vaccine advocates and politicians who say they will continue to fight to prove that vaccines can cause autism in susceptible children.
But experts who issued a report last month saying there was no link between vaccines and autism said they had already seen the study and rejected it.
Dr. Mady Hornig of Columbia University in New York said her study shows the possibility that a genetic predisposition could leave certain children vulnerable to a range of toxins in vaccines, including a mercury-based preservative called thimerosal.
Article: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=5386673
Despite a slowdown in 2003, the pace remains ahead of U.S. economic expansion, study determines.
June 9, 2004: 8:12 AM EDT
CHICAGO (Reuters) - The pace of growth in medical costs eased significantly in 2003, but still bounded well ahead of economic expansion, making it among the biggest burdens facing corporate America, a report released Wednesday said.
A sharp slowdown in prescription drug spending growth offset by a steep rise in hospital prices fueled a jump in underlying medical costs of 7.4 percent, well below the 9.6 percent rise recorded in 2002, the study by the non-profit Center for Studying Health System Change found.
The report analyzed health care revenues to hospitals, doctors and for prescription drugs for privately insured individuals, compiled by research group Milliman USA for 2003.
Article: http://money.cnn.com/2004/06/09/news/economy/health_costs.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes
Tuesday, June 8, 2004 Posted: 9:23 AM EDT (1323 GMT)
Hospital Bills
Even if you're already pregnant, have no insurance or not enough insurance,...
hit.namimedia.com
Hospital Bill?
Already pregnant? With or without insurance? Maternitycard can help expecting...
hit.namimedia.com
HEALTH LIBRARY
• Health Library
Health Treatment
Health Insurance
Medical Research
Hospitals and Clinics
or Create your own
Manage alerts | What is this?
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- U.S. hospitals owned by investors with the aim of making money are less cost-efficient than nonprofits, Canadian researchers said.
And experts who wrote a commentary on the study said converting all investor-owned hospitals to nonprofit status could have saved $6 billion in 2001.
The report, published in Monday's issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, adds fuel to the debate over whether health care should follow a business model.
Dr. P.J. Devereaux and colleagues at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, reviewed medical studies on hospital care in the United States, covering 350,000 patients and hundreds of hospitals.
Article: http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/06/08/hospital.expenses.reut/index.html
Tue Jun 8, 2004 11:18 AM ET
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new class of breast cancer drug that women can take after the standard five years of tamoxifen therapy saves lives as well as preventing the return of tumors, researchers from Canada reported on Tuesday.
Femara, made by Swiss drugmaker Novartis, reduced the risk of death by 39 percent in women who took it, compared with women who took a placebo.
It reduced the spread of cancer, called metastasis, by 40 percent, they told a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in New Orleans.
The findings add to the evidence that the drugs, called aromatase inhibitors, are a valuable extra weapon in the arsenal against breast cancer, which will affect 1.2 million people globally this year and kill 40,000 in the United States alone.
Article: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=5373546
Tue 8 June, 2004 04:01
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Using one type of immune system cell to turn off another stopped type-1 diabetes in mice and may offer a new approach to the devastating disease, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
The study suggests it may be possible to retrain a faulty immune system, stopping it from ravaging the pancreas and causing type-1 or juvenile diabetes, the researchers said.
Writing in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, Kristin Tarbell and colleagues at Rockefeller University in New York said they used immune system cells called dendritic cells to stimulate production of suppressor T-cells.
Article: http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=5366749§ion=news
Friday, June 4, 2004 Posted: 11:05 AM EDT (1505 GMT)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Elderly Americans and disabled people are confused and disappointed by the new Medicare drug law, according to a study released by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.
The report, based on 10 focus groups in three U.S. cities conducted by a bipartisan pair of pollsters, examined attitudes about the drug discount cards that went into effect this week and about the prescription drug benefit that will be available in 2006.
Article: http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/06/04/card.confusion.reut/index.html
Environmental Information- General
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Links to comprehensive information about environmental issues.
Information and data resources are organized by topic area in the links at left. Sites that cover more than one topic are cross-referenced on two or more of these page links.
Link: http://eelink.net/environmentalinformation-general.html
The traditional Fulbright Scholar Program sends 800 U.S. faculty and professionals abroad each year. Grantees lecture and conduct research in a wide variety of academic and professional fields.
Sun Jun 6, 2004 06:13 PM ET
By Ransdell Pierson
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins may prevent various forms of cancer, including prostate and colon cancer, two teams of researchers said on Sunday.
Israelis who took statins had a 51 percent lower risk of developing colon cancer than those who did not take the drugs, Dr. Stephen Gruber of the University of Michigan told a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
A second study at Oregon Health & Science University Cancer Institute showed that men who took statins had a 58 percent lower risk of prostate cancer.
Article: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=5354558
Sun Jun 6, 2004 04:55 PM ET
By Bill Borden and Ransdell Pierson
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Little by little, new targeted therapies are helping cancer patients live longer, even if they do not offer miraculous cures, researchers said on Sunday.
They are learning how to combine the best new targeted therapies with older drugs to eke out a few extra months or even years for cancer patients -- which can mean a lot to a patient hoping to live long enough to see a child graduate or marry.
And each small step builds on earlier progress, so that the overall five-year survival rate for all cancers combined is now 63 percent, according to the American Cancer Society, up from 51 percent in 1975.
"It is sort of like a glacier -- you have this slow but extremely powerful movement. But it's not a fast movement," Dr. Michael Friedman, chief executive officer of the City of Hope Cancer Center in California, said in an interview.
Article: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=5354434
By Liz Szabo, USA TODAY
NEW ORLEANS — An experimental drug, part of a new generation of "targeted therapies," improves survival for patients with advanced, hard-to-treat lung cancer by more than 40%, researchers announced Saturday.
Scientists are hailing the news about Tarceva, announced at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in New Orleans, as an important advance in cancer therapy.
Tarceva did not cure anyone.
But in an international clinical trial of more than 700 patients, scientists found that those who took Tarceva survived an average of 6.7 months, while those who received a placebo lived 4.7 months, according to the study, presented by Frances A. Shepherd, a professor of medicine at the University of Toronto. Patients were randomly assigned to receive either Tarceva or a sugar pill, and neither patients nor their doctors knew who was getting the real drug.
Article: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-06-05-tarceva_x.htm
Fri Jun 4, 2004 11:20 AM ET
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Scientists in Singapore said on Friday they had developed a faster method of detecting strains of the SARS virus.
A new chip containing a "genetic fingerprint" reduces the length of molecular testing of the disease to three days from about one week, the Genome Institute of Singapore said.
The faster a strain of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is pin-pointed, the quicker health workers can identify the origin of an outbreak and who else may be infected - critical steps in bringing outbreaks under control.
SARS infected about 8,000 people worldwide in 2003, killing nearly 800 including 33 in Singapore. It briefly re-emerged in China in April, killing one person.
Article: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=5347890
By Clara Pirani
June 5, 2004
FEWER people are contracting cancer and those diagnosed with the disease are now living longer as better screening and more sophisticated treatments lower mortality rates, landmark research shows.
The study released yesterday showed America joining Australia as the two top nations when it comes to cancer survival rates.
The US National Cancer Institute's report revealed cancer incidence rates fell 0.5 per cent per year from 1991 to 2001, while death rates from all cancers combined dropped 1.1 per cent per year from 1993 to 2001.
"Overall, Australia's mortality rates are actually dropping more than the US rates," said Mark Elwood, director of the National Cancer Control Initiative in Melbourne.
Article: http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,9751668%255E421,00.html
Mission
The Public Health Foundation (PHF) is a national, non-profit organization, dedicated to improving the public’s health by helping strengthen and build capacity and infrastructure of the public health system, including agencies, organizations, workforce and communities. PHF accomplishes this through conducting applied research, sharing knowledge, providing training and technical assistance, anticipating future needs and leading constructive change.
By Nanci Hellmich, USA TODAY
Childhood obesity in the USA looks significantly worse than previously believed, suggests the largest assessment ever of public school students.
The report, released Thursday, indicates 40% of students in Arkansas are overweight or at risk of becoming so. Currently, the U.S. government estimates that 30% of the nation's kids are overweight or on their way to being too heavy.
Arkansas is one of the nation's poorest states, and low-income adults are known to have high obesity levels. But researchers say the study's numbers show problems across income levels.
"As more data comes in, I think it's going to be this bad everywhere. I don't think it's isolated to Arkansas," says Carden Johnston, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Article: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-06-04-child-obesity_x.htm
By Peggy Peck
United Press International
Published 6/3/2004 4:40 PM
The National Cancer Institute's annual report to the nation, released Thursday, confirms what cancer experts have been suggesting for the past decade -- the war on the disease is now a winning proposition, with fewer cases occurring and fewer people dying.
The report, which covers the years 1975 to 2001, reveals from 1999 to 2001 there was a decrease of 0.5 percent per year in the number of cancers, while the death rate from all cancers dropped by 1.1 percent per year from 1991 to 2001.
Perhaps the most welcome news is lung cancer death rates in women leveled off between 1995 and 2001, after steadily increasing for years. Also, in an indication that women may indeed have "come a long way, baby," lung cancer in women also is on the decline.
Though the stats in this year's cancer report are grabbing headlines, the reality is this year's numbers simply are continuing a trend started in the early 1990s.
Dr. Robert Young, president of Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia and a past president of the American Cancer Society, told United Press International the success story in cancer is like "a giant battleship changing course. It isn't that easy to change course, but once you do change course it is pretty easy to keep going in the same direction."
Article: http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20040603-035354-2997r
Wednesday, June 2, 2004 Posted: 10:53 AM EDT (1453 GMT)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Junk foods such as sugary sodas and chips make up nearly one-third of calories in the U.S. diet, researchers said.
A study of 4,700 adults showed that, despite the increased popularity of low-carbohydrate diets, soft drinks and pastries pile on more calories in the daily diet than anything else.
"What is really alarming is the major contribution of 'empty calories' in the American diet," said Gladys Block, a professor of epidemiology and public health nutrition at the University of California, Berkeley, who led the study.
Writing in the June issue of the Journal of Food Chemistry and Analysis, Bock and colleagues said that sweets and desserts, soft drinks and alcoholic beverages account for nearly 25 percent of all calories consumed by Americans.
Article: http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/diet.fitness/06/02/junk.food.reut/index.html
02/06/2004 13:01 - (SA)
Beijing - The Chinese capital has closed down its Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) prevention headquarters and ended emergency control measures as of June 1, state press reported Wednesday.
In a similar move, the Ministry of Public Health announced the suspension of daily surveillance reports on the epidemic, saying the latest outbreak had been effectively put under control, Xinhua news agency said.
Article: http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Sars/0,,2-10-1488_1536253,00.html
Tue Jun 1, 2004 10:47 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Air pollution causes heart disease, the American Heart Association said on Tuesday.
While pollution does not cause as many heart attacks as high blood pressure, for example, it is a serious risk factor, the group said in a statement.
"This is a serious public health problem due to the enormous number of people affected and because exposure to air pollution occurs over an entire lifetime," said Dr. Robert Brook of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, who helped write the statement.
Writing in the Association's journal Circulation, Brook and colleagues said this was the first firm conclusion from the group about the long-term effects of chronic exposure to pollution. Their statement adds authority to a collection of findings that some groups have disputed.
Article: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=5316791
01 Jun 2004 20:12:53 GMT
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
WASHINGTON, June 1 (Reuters) - Mental disorders from severe depression to uncontrolled anger are surprisingly common around the world, and most of the worst cases are not being treated, researchers reported on Tuesday.
The biggest concerted study of global mental illness shows that rates vary greatly -- with 4.3 percent of people living in Shanghai showing symptoms of mental disorders in the past year, compared to 26 percent in the United States.
Even if people are not concealing their histories of mental illness -- which many undoubtedly are -- the problem is enormous, said Ronald Kessler of Harvard Medical School in Boston, who led the World Health Organization study.
Article: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N01379273.htm