(Reuters) – The H1N1 swine flu virus can develop resistance quickly to antivirals used to treat it, U.S. doctors reported on Friday.
Government researchers reported on the cases of two people with compromised immune systems who developed drug-resistant strains of virus after less than two weeks on therapy. Read More…
by Katie Adams
The Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act, more commonly referred to as the “healthcare bill”, has taken over a year to craft and has been a lightning rod for political debate because it effectively reshapes major facets of the country’s healthcare industry.
Timeline Of The New Healthcare Bill
Don’t understand what is going to change or when? Here is a snapshot of key changes.
1. Genetically Modified Foods
Although the E.U. is continuously coming under attack for policies banning genetically modified (GM) foods, the community is highly suspicious of them, as well as the agro-industrial pressures that drive their use. The problem with GM foods is that there is simply not sufficient research and understanding to inform good public policy. In spite of widespread GM use without apparent negative impacts in other countries, the recent public reaction to trans-fats are reason enough to support a precautionary principle for the food supply chain. Read More…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Most migraine sufferers have no idea when their next headache will strike, according to a survey of 900 people with the painful headaches.
This is important, Dr. X. Henry Hu of Merck & Co., Inc., in West Point, Pennsylvania, and colleagues say, because early treatment with migraine drugs called triptans can help reduce headache severity. (Merck makes one of these drugs, Maxalt, and funded the study.) Read More…
Critics say health insurance shouldn’t be mandatory because health care is not a right. But it is a right in emergency rooms.
By Howard Gleckman,
One day soon, I would like to walk into my neighborhood supermarket, load up my cart with goodies and walk out the door. When I’m confronted by security about the matter of paying for the stuff, I’ll just tell them to make everyone else in the store pick up the tab. If I lived in Virginia, I’d tell ‘em to go see Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who says I don’t have to pay. Read More…
(Reuters) – The number of head and neck cancers linked to a virus spread by oral sex is rising rapidly and suggests boys as well as girls should be offered protection through vaccination, doctors said Friday.
Despite an overall slight decline in head and neck cancers in recent years, cases of a particular form called oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) have increased sharply, particularly in the developed world.
This growth seems to be linked to cancers caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV), scientists said in a report in the British Medical Journal. Read More…
By Debjani Baidyaray
Mumbai, March 26: Contact lenses with vitamin E can treat glaucoma, an eye disorder almost 100 times longer than possible by keeping glaucoma medicine near the eye. This is not possible with currently available commercial lenses, claim the scientists.
Uninsured kids with pre-existing conditions might not get help until 2014
by Phil Galewitz and Andrew Villegas
Clotie Robinson has tried for four years to buy health coverage for her 8-year-old daughter who suffers from depression and other mental illnesses, but she’s been consistently rejected by insurance companies.
WASHINGTON — A quiet revolution is transforming how medical care is delivered in this country, and it has very little to do with the sweeping health care legislation that President Obama just signed into law.
But it could have a big impact on that law’s chances for success.
Traditionally, American medicine has been largely a cottage industry. Most doctors cared for patients in small, privately owned clinics — sometimes in rooms adjoining their homes. Read More…
