U.S. Government to Release Revised U.S. HIV Estimates
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday it will soon release long-awaited revised estimates of how many Americans become infected with the AIDS virus every year. Activists have been saying the numbers are sharply higher and have been urging the CDC to release the numbers. In June, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director […]
U.S. Lawmakers Probe FDA Approval of Ranbaxy Drugs
Two leading U.S. Democrats said on Tuesday they are investigating whether Food and Drug Administration knowingly allowed the sale of Ranbaxy drugs that may have been backed by fraudulent data. The congressional investigation stems from information released as part of a probe by U.S. law enforcement authorities into whether the Indian drugmaker submitted false data […]
UK Agency Urges Doctors to Cut Antibiotics
British doctors should slash the number of times they prescribe antibiotics for respiratory tract infections because the drugs rarely help, the country’s drug cost watchdog said on Wednesday. This means doctors in the state’s health system should not prescribe antibiotics for most cases of sore throats, colds, bronchitis or other types of respiratory infections, the […]
UK Doctors to Face Regular Tests of Competence
Britain’s 150,000 doctors will have to show they are fit to practice once every five years in the nation’s biggest change to medical regulation for 150 years. Doctors falling below standard risk being struck off the medical register unless they improve, under plans published by England’s Chief Medical Officer Liam Donaldson on Wednesday. At present […]
U.S. Flu Pandemic Vaccination Plan Puts Health Care Workers First
Essential health care workers would be immunized first if a flu pandemic broke out in the United States, the government said on Wednesday. The Department of Health and Human Services released long-awaited details on who would get vaccinated and when if a serious global influenza epidemic emerged. The plan puts a million health care workers, […]
Strontium Reduces Postmenopausal Nonvertebral and Vertebral Fracture Risk
Long-term strontium ranelate treatment reduces the risk of nonvertebral and vertebral fractures in women with postmenopausal osteoporosis, according to a report in the June issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism. “There are now several first-line treatments for osteoporosis,” Dr. Jean-Yves Reginster from the University of Liege, Belgium told Reuters Health. The present study “is the first […]
Vancomycin Underdosing Very Common in the Obese
More than 70% of obese patients do not receive adequate doses of vancomycin, possibly resulting in subtherapeutic concentrations, according to Dallas-based researchers. Criteria that are more stringent suggest that this may also be true of a much wider group of patients. In the June issue of the American Journal of Medicine, Dr. Ronald G. Hall […]
WellPoint Profit Beats Estimates, Shares Rise
Health insurer WellPoint Inc said on Wednesday profit fell 10 percent, as medical costs ate further into premiums, but its shares rose more than 6 percent as results beat projections, helped by strength in its pharmacy and behavioral health businesses. Although the largest U.S. health insurer by membership tempered its full-year profit and enrollment forecasts, […]
Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension More Severe in Carriers of BMPR2 Mutation
Among patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), those with germline mutations in the gene encoding bone morphogenetic protein receptor 2 (BMPR2) present at an earlier age and with more severe hemodynamic compromise, according to findings from a French study. Dr. Marc Humbert of Universite Paris-Sud 11 and colleagues screened 223 consecutive patients with PAH for […]
Growth Hormone Therapy May Decrease Diabetes Risk in Girls With Turner Syndrome
Growth hormone (GH) treatment has beneficial effects on body composition, regional fat deposition and glucose tolerance in girls with Turner syndrome, a study suggests. “We found that GH-treated girls were leaner, with less abdominal fat and normal glucose tolerance compared with never-treated girls in the current study and compared with Turner syndrome girls in studies […]