Health News

NICE recommends once-daily oral medicine Aubagio® for the treatment of active relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis

Date: Jan-22-2014
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) today issued its final guidance recommending that Aubagio® (teriflunomide 14 mg) should be reimbursed within the National Health Service (NHS) for the treatment of adults with active relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS).

Longer screening intervals possible with HPV-based tests

Date: Jan-22-2014
A new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden finds that testing for human papilloma virus (HPV) allows for longer time between screening tests when compared to cytology-based testing. The study is published in the scientific journal British Medical Journal (BMJ).Cervical screening programs have until recently relied on cytology to identify women at risk for developing cervical cancer.

International deal to screen potential cancer drugs using DNA 'barcodes'

Date: Jan-22-2014
An innovative screening technology that tags compounds with unique strands of DNA - like barcodes - will be used to assess up to a billion prototype drug molecules for anti-cancer activity, under a collaboration announced today (22 January 2014) between The Institute of Cancer Research, London, Cancer Research Technology (CRT) and Denmark-based drug discovery company Nuevolution A/S.

Dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine for treating uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria

Date: Jan-22-2014
Dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine is more effective than artemether-lumefantrine, and has fewer side effects than artesunate-mefloquine' concludes a systematic review published by the Cochrane Infectious Disease Group, hosted by LSTM.Dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine is one of five artemisinin-based combination therapies currently recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), and this review finds that it is also one of the most studied.

ViiV Healthcare's new HIV medicine Tivicay(TM) (dolutegravir) is approved in Europe​

Date: Jan-22-2014
ViiV Healthcare has announced that the European Commission has approved TivicayTM (dolutegravir), an integrase inhibitor, for use in combination with other anti-retroviral medicinal products for the treatment of HIV infected adults and adolescents above 12 years of age.

Anti-swine flu vaccination linked to increased risk of narcolepsy in young adults

Date: Jan-22-2014
Pandemrix is an influenza vaccination, created in 2009 to combat H1N1, known as Swine Flu. Now, a team of Swedish clinicians testing the vaccine for links to immune-related or neurological diseases have linked Pandemrix to an increased risk of narcolepsy in young adults.Using a population-based prospective cohort study, the team analyzed data from regional vaccination registries and national health registries, covering seven healthcare regions and 61% of the Swedish population.

It's all about me: Do narcissists make good line managers?

Date: Jan-22-2014
Does your boss lack empathy or have a 'grandiose sense of self importance,' if so they may be a narcissist and new research in Personnel Psychology has explored the risks, and benefits, of having one as your manager.From an employers' perspective, many narcissistic traits mirror attributes considered strong leadership material, such as social dominance, extroversion and high self-esteem. The research team found that these traits, in particularly extroversion, led to a strong link between narcissism and what they called 'leadership emergence'.

Effective screening for cervical cancer through large-scale HPV self-testing

Date: Jan-22-2014
Self-testing for Human Papillomavirus (HPV) - the virus that causes cervical cancer - is as effective at detecting cancer as a conventional smear test (cytology screening) even when scaled up to test large populations.Researchers from Queen Mary University of London conducted a pilot study of 100,242 Mexican women - the largest study of its kind - aged 25-75 and from low-income backgrounds. Around 11% of women tested positive for HPV (10,863 women).However, when self-testing was rolled out on this scale, the number of women referred to clinics for follow-up tests rapidly increased.

Comparison between telephone and in-person genetic counseling

Date: Jan-22-2014
Genetic counseling delivered over the telephone is as effective as face-to-face counseling, finds the largest randomized study to date comparing the two methods. The multi-center study, led by researchers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, was reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

New brain-imaging technique offers brain training potential

Date: Jan-22-2014
A new brain-imaging technique enables people to 'watch' their own brain activity in real time and to control or adjust function in pre-determined brain regions. The study from the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital - The Neuro, McGill University and the McGill University Health Centre, published in NeuroImage, is the first to demonstrate that magnetoencephalography (MEG) can be used as a potential therapeutic tool to control and train specific targeted brain regions.