Health News

Access to drugs for non-communicable diseases should learn from HIV fight

Date: Jul-23-2013
Access to drugs for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) represents the latest treatment-access crisis, and will require a transformation in global health much like the fight for access to patented HIV/AIDS medicines in developing countries did a decade ago...

Barriers to interventions to prevent malaria in pregnancy similar across sub-Saharan Africa

Date: Jul-23-2013
The main barriers to the access, delivery, and use of interventions that help to prevent malaria in pregnant women are relatively consistent across sub-Saharan African countries and may provide a helpful checklist to identify the factors influencing uptake of these important interventions, according to a study published in this week's PLOS Medicine...

Pre-clinical animal research must improve

Date: Jul-23-2013
Less than five percent of promising basic science discoveries that claim clinical relevance lead to approved drugs within a decade, partly because of flawed pre-clinical animal research. A number of recent initiatives seek to improve the quality of such studies, and an article published this week in PLOS Medicine identifies key experimental procedures believed to increase clinical generalizability...

Non-communicable diseases may be neglected in post-2015 sustainable development goals

Date: Jul-23-2013
While non-communicable diseases (NCDs) exact a heavy burden on populations and governments around the world, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, it is not clear that they will be included or prioritized within the new development agenda to replace the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) programme that ends in 2015...

Kidney stones associated with modest increased risk of coronary heart disease in women, but not men

Date: Jul-23-2013
An analysis of data from three studies that involved a total of more than 240,000 participants found that a self-reported history of kidney stones was associated with a statistically significant increased risk of coronary heart disease among women but no significant association was evident for men, according to a study in the July 24/31 issue of JAMA.  "Nephrolithiasis [kidney stones] is a common condition, with the prevalence varying by age and sex. A recent estimate from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a representative sample of the U.S...

Difference in breast cancer survival between black and white women has not changed substantially

Date: Jul-23-2013
In an analysis of 5-year survival rates among black and white women diagnosed with breast cancer between 1991 and 2005, black women continued to have a lower rate of survival, with most of the difference related to factors including poorer health of black patients at diagnosis and more advanced disease, rather than treatment differences, according to a study in the July 24/31 issue of JAMA.  "For 20 years health care investigators in the United States have been keenly aware of racial disparities in survival among women with breast cancer...

Survey assesses views of physicians regarding controlling health care costs

Date: Jul-23-2013
In a survey of about 2,500 U.S. physicians on their perceived role in addressing health care costs, they reported having some responsibility to address health care costs in their practice and expressed general agreement with quality initiatives that may also reduce cost, but expressed less enthusiasm for cost containment involving changes in payment models, according to a study in the July 24/31 issue of JAMA.  "The increasing cost of U.S. health care strains the economy...

Increasing incidence of type 1 diabetes among children in Finland appears to have leveled off

Date: Jul-23-2013
"The incidence of type l diabetes (T1D), one of the most prevalent chronic diseases in children, has increased worldwide," write Valma Harjutsalo, Ph.D., of the Diabetes Prevention Unit, Helsinki, Finland, and colleagues, who conducted a study to examine the incidence rates of T1D between 2006 and 2011 in Finnish children younger than 15 years as well as the 32-year trend (1980-2011).  As reported in a Research Letter, all children with newly diagnosed T1D were ascertained using several nationwide registers...

Report documents organ transplantation as source of fatal rabies virus case

Date: Jul-23-2013
An investigation into the source of a fatal case of raccoon rabies virus exposure indicates the individual received the virus via a kidney transplant 18 months earlier, findings suggesting that rabies transmitted by this route may have a long incubation period, and that although solid organ transplant transmission of infectious encephalitis is rare, further education to increase awareness is needed, according to a study in the July 24/31 issue of JAMA.  The rabies virus causes a fatal encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) and can be transmitted through tissue or organ transplantation...

Food rituals tickle your taste buds

Date: Jul-23-2013
Remember those Reese's Peanut Buttercup ads? They showed people performing a series of "rituals" before eating the candy, suggesting that because of this, it would taste so much better. Well, according to researchers, this might not be far from the truth. A study published in the journal Psychological Science reveals that performing rituals before we eat can change the taste and perception of our food. Researchers from the University of Minnesota did four experiments to test the idea that ritualistic behavior before eating enhances the pleasure of consumption...