All news posts from April 01, 2008 to April 30, 2008

Two doctors who owned clinics where an outbreak of hepatitis C is linked to unsafe medical practices, face temporary restraining orders that could lead to a permanent lose of their medical licenses. 

The first in what likely will be several indictments was unsealed Tuesday in connection with UCLA Medical Center celebrity record-leaking. In this indictment, a workers is alleged to have sold records for $4,600. She is facing up to 10 years in prison for violating the HIPAA privacy act.

Speaking strongly for the first time before U.S. lawmakers, the FDA said Tuesday it believes that intentional heparin contamination came from China. The plant's owner says that country has stopped his people from investigating the contamination. Heparin comes from pig intestines sourced locally.  

A survey finds that seven percent of Americans or someone in their family, married so they could receive healthcare benefits in 2007. With healthcare costs outpacing the cost of housing, food and credit cards, it's estimated the average family insurance plan costs an employee $1,000 per month. That creates serious financial problems for 28 percent of respondents. 

In yet another study, Fosamax is linked to the risk of developing atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart beat. But researchers conclude that the benefits of drugs in this class that fight the ravages of osteoporosis, outweigh the risks.

Common viruses such as those that cause Human papillomavirus and measles have been found in lung cancers. At an international conference, researchers speculate that they may be a co-carcinogen that increases the risk and growth of lung cancers.

A JAMA study reports that artificial blood has led to a 30 percent increase in the risk of death and in a three-fold risk of heart attacks. Still, participants are being enrolled in drug trials without informed consent and the FDA allows manufacturers to withhold negative trial results, the study concludes. 

Just as our nation has skyrocketing obesity rates, the number of diabetic mothers has doubled and increased five fold among teenage mothers, raising the risk for miscarriage, stillbirth and birth defects.

Capping 14 years of litigation, a Miami-Dade judge has ruled that tens of thousands of smokers can share in a $600 million fund set up to compensate those injured by cigarettes. The fund will be distributed regardless of the severity of injury as the judge ruled trying individual cases would be too lengthy.

26 Californians who were dropped by their health insurers, got back their policies after the state intervened on their behalf. Thousands more could also get their health coverage back under a state policy that more liberally interprets preexisting condition.  One woman sued and won $9 million.  

Late night infomercials tell you just what you want to hear. They have a cure for what ails you from diabetes, arthritis, insomnia, extra weight and cellulite. Yes, you can cure all of that for just $19.95 plus shipping and handling.

Health insurers in Florida had a good year in 2007.
$550 million in profits were enjoyed among the seven major carriers, a drop of $170 million from the year before. Still four million Floridians go uninsured and premiums for employers keep rising.

This year’s flu season is the worst in three years according to the Centers for Disease Control, made worse because the flu vaccine was not particularly effective. Cases of the flu are still being reported, even though this year’s season peaked in mid-February...

Baxter International attributes four deaths to use of its blood thinner heparin. The Food and Drug Administration counts 103 deaths following the use of heparin (though all may not be due strictly to heparin) and the number is rising. That disparity doesn’t disturb the chairman and chief executive of Baxter International, Robert L. Parkinson, Jr. who spoke to investors about Baxter’s first quarter earnings today.

Beginning Monday at your favorite New York City eatery you can ask for ketchup, fries and get the calorie count for both. A federal judge Wednesday upheld a city health regulation requiring some chain restaurants post the calorie count of selections on their menu. The state restaurant association had challenged the rule as a violation of the First Amendment by forcing restaurants to carry a message.

Sometimes all it takes is an appearance of impropriety to raise suspicions. That is exactly what happened to Dr. Peter Libby, the chief of cardiology at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital who had taken money from drug companies to consult and lecture because of his growing and glowing reputation. The compensation ranged from a couple thousand dollars to tens of thousands to help drug companies with the development of drugs and to craft solid drug trials...

Drug maker, Merck & Co., has always characterized its conduct as above board and ethically appropriate among pharmaceutical companies. “We employ rigorous scientific methods to design, conduct, analyze, and report results of clinical trials in the development of innovative drugs and vaccines, with a focus on meeting unmet medical needs and with an ethic that puts the interests of the patient first.”

Diet is a four letter word. The DASH Diet is an eating plan for life. That's why the National Institutes of Health originally promoted the plan to lower blood pressure without medication. Hypertension affects one in four Americans over the age of 60. Now researchers say the DASH diet also lessens your risk for coronary heart disease and stroke.

A natural substance found in the blood appears to slow the development of Parkinson’s disease according to a new report. The antioxidant is called urate. It is a salt that comes from uric acid and is usually found in blood. Too much urate can lead to gout and kidney stones.

Might it be that a former radio and television executive, with no background in science or medicine or even a college degree could help invent a cure for cancer? 60 Minutes profiled John Kanzius this past Sunday, April 13th. As improbable as it sounds, Kanzius and his radio wave machine is now the basis of leading research at the University of Pittsburgh and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston in killing cancer cells.

Malt-O-Meal is supposed to be good for you but so far at least 23 are sick from a discovery of salmonella contamination in the cereal. The box of Puffed Rice and Puffed Wheat has a “best if used by” date of between April 8 and March 18, 2009. The company is voluntarily pulling two cereals off store shelves.

In the largest of three major studies to look at the causes of breast cancer in post menopausal women, researchers find that even moderate drinking in women increases the risk of developing breast cancer. 184,000 women were part of the investigation by the National Cancer Institute.

This may be “The Story” where people around the country say enough is enough. That from Rosalind Wiseman, author of the best-selling book, Queen Bees and Wannabes, which was the basis for the movie Mean Girls. Wiseman coaches teachers, school systems with the Owning Up™ program, teaching kids to speak about social injustice and recognize the group dynamic that can lead to social cruelty and violence among young people.

YouTube is the free video service where anyone with a handicam can shoot a video and post it for the entertainment of the online community. But some teens in Lakeland, Florida, north of Tampa, took this to the next level. Police released video this week showing the brutal beating of a 16-year- old girl so they could allegedly post the video on YouTube and MySpace. This was no joke.

The Food and Drug Administration is reporting that 103 people have died over the last 15 months from the blood-thinner heparin. That’s more than three times the reported number from earlier this year that triggered a massive nationwide recall of heparin. Baxter International Inc. recalled batches of heparin after 19 people had fatal allergic reactions. Since then the FDA has been investigating the plant in China where heparin is manufactured from pig intestines.

Medical errors are costing us billions and leading to preventable deaths. That from the fifth annual Patient Safety in American Hospitals study, by HealthGrades, a leading hospital rating organization. It finds from 2004 through 2006 there were 238,337 preventable deaths among Medicare patients. That cost the program and ultimately taxpayers $8.8 billion.

The near-death experience of the newborn twins of actor Dennis Quaid along with a new study are highlighting the frequency of medication related harm to children in U.S. hospitals. Researchers find that hospital mix-ups involving drugs affect about seven percent of hospitalized U.S. children. That translates to one in 15 hospitalized children or 540,000 kids each year.

Two Las Vegas clinics that gave at least seven people hepatitis C had their licenses revoked by the city Monday after they forked over a $500,000 fine. That saved the executives in charge a face-to-face meeting with the approximately 80 angry citizens in attendance who hoped someone would be held accountable for the public health debacle.

Meat eaters in Spain are in a panic after the public health director admits that two people have died from eating beef infected with mad cow disease. In humans the disease manifests as variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease (vCJD), a painful, brain wasting disease that is thought to be transmitted from eating infected meat and bone. The disease is always fatal.

A woman gets married looking for a partner for life and for help with the house. Forget that theory, at least the latter thought. A University of Michigan study finds that for married woman, having a husband actually means more housework, an extra seven hours of extra housework a week.

A federal judge has given the green light to an investigation into whether Countrywide Finiancial Corp. abused and defrauded borrowers, a key component of this country's failing mortgage industry. Judge Thomas Agresti of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Pittsburgh gave the okay to a Justice Department arm, the Office of the U.S. Trustee, that polices the bankruptcy courts.

Icelandic men now are in the lead for a long life, surpassing Japanese in life expectancy. While in the U.S. men live 75.2 years, Icelandic men are now living to an average of 79.4 years according to United Nations statistics.

As it stands now cigarettes and tobacco products are exempt from federal regulation that applies to ingredients in medications, consumer products and even dog food. Now a bill in Congress would give the Food and Drug Administration the power to oversee and regulate cigarettes.

Genes may explain why some smokers develop lung cancer and some don’t. Three independent genetic studies point to a genetic variation that is linked to developing lung cancer.

"A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members," so said spiritual leader, Mahatma Ghandi. If that is so, the U.S. has a lot to live up to. This report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that 90,000 infants are maltreated every year in this country. About one of every 43 infants is in danger, mostly during the first week of their lives.

While thousands if not millions of people report no adverse affects from the use of botulinum neurotoxin to smooth muscles, a new report suggests you might be harming your brain. The study is published in the Journal of Neuroscience by researchers at the University of Padova in Italy.

You’ve heard the recommendation ad nauseum– drink eight glasses of water a day to stay hydrated! Now researchers say “never mind”. The University of Pennsylvania researchers reviewed all the science on staying hydrated by drinking lots of water.

A 15-year old teen dies from what his parents are told is bacterial meningitis. They decide he should live on, so in a gesture of giving they donate his organs.

Tomorrow is World Autism Awareness Day, a time to focus on what causes the social deficit disease that circumvents normal interactions and development in children. New research on schizophrenia suggests it could be a cousin to autism.

You see someone collapsed in an apparent cardiac crisis. Most people will stand there and gawk but fast-thinkers should not hesitate to jump in and give the person chest compressions, even if they aren’t trained professions, said the American Heart Association (AHA) on Monday