Latest Health News

A blood test to diagnose which heart attack survivors will suffer heart failure is the goal of a new five-year, $11.6 million contract to the UT Health Science Center San Antonio from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). Each year more than 1.2 million Americans suffer a heart attack. In a third of these individuals, the damage results in heart failure, a progressive condition in which the heart cannot pump enough blood to meet the body's oxygen needs. Half of these 400,000 survivors will die within five years...

Ayusman Sen, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Penn State University, has been honored with the Chemical Research Society of India (CRSI) Medal. Sen is only the second recipient of the medal, which is awarded exclusively to outstanding chemists of Indian origin who work outside of India. Sen's research encompasses the twin themes of catalysis and new materials, with one of the goals being the development of new catalysts that will enable the synthesis of polymers and related materials with novel combinations of properties...

News outlets are following the politics and rhetoric surrounding the new health law. NPR reports on six myths perpetuated by some critics of the law. They include: the law helps President Barack Obama raise a private army and that those who want public coverage have to have a microchip implanted. That began with a provision in House-passed bill, which was not in the final bill. "It called for the Food and Drug Administration to create a registry of medical devices that could be implanted in people...

The Washington Post: "Amid high unemployment and a weak economy, employers have been shifting health care costs to workers, according to a study released Thursday. The premiums that employees pay for employer-sponsored family coverage rose an average of 13.7 percent this year, while the amount that employers contribute fell by 0.9 percent, the survey found...

Nearly half of all Americans used at least one prescription drug per month in 2008, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Bloomberg reports. That's a 10 percent increase over the preceding decade. Over that time, yearly spending by Americans on drugs doubled to $234 billion. "The two biggest-sellers last year were Pfizer Inc.'s Lipitor for high cholesterol and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s clot-buster, Plavix. The rise of such medicines may continue as insurers add as many as 32 million customers through the U.S...

As many as 5 million uninsured kids are eligible for Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program, according to a report published Friday in the journal Health Affairs, Reuters reports. "An estimated 7.3 million children were uninsured on an average day in 2008 and 65 percent of them were eligible for Medicaid or CHIP coverage, the report said. ... Thirty-nine percent of eligible uninsured children live in just three states - California, Texas and Florida, the report by the Washington-based Urban Institute Health Policy Center said...

Politico reports that as "Congress prepares to return for a limited pre-election agenda, Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) said she has picked up wide support for her bill to permit embryonic stem-cell research and expects it will pass this month. Although it has been strongly opposed by anti-abortion activists, she voiced confidence that the measure will be a political boost for its backers as well as good policy. ... Her proposal has gained additional urgency following the Aug. 23 ruling by U.S...

USA Today reports that food safety groups are slamming how well U.S. Department of Agriculture regulated the farms implicated in the salmonella outbreak. "Though USDA says its authority was limited, the agency's egg graders were at Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms at least 40 hours a week - including before the outbreak - inspecting the size and quality of eggs inside processing buildings. ...

The Columbus Dispatch: "Gov. Ted Strickland's administration announced today that nearly $200 million in recently freed up state funds will go to Ohio hospitals, community mental health services, and a program which provides medication to low-income residents with HIV/AIDS. ... The state money became available after Congress agreed to continue paying a higher share of the cost of state Medicaid programs that provide insurance coverage to the poor. The higher federal contribution which had been set to expire Dec. 31 will continue through June 30" (Candisky, 9/2). Florida Tribune: "Gov...

Urban Institute/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: The Health Status Of New Medicaid Enrollees Under Health Reform - Using the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, authors of this paper found "strong evidence that those who will enroll [in Medicaid after 2014] are likely to be healthier than nondisabled adults currently enrolled in Medicaid ... There is, however, a high likelihood of adverse selection - the least healthy and older among the new eligibles will be more likely to enroll. ...

Surer Footing For Medicare The Washington Post Under the act, Medicare is stronger than it has been in years, and seniors will get new benefits. That's no illusion; that's progress (Dr. Donald Berwick, 9/3). Shifting The Health Cost Burden The New York Times In other words, employers shifted virtually all of the increased premium costs to their hapless workers, who were in a weak position to resist in an economy where there were few other jobs to jump to (9/2)...

"A group of 60 nations, including France, Britain and Japan, will propose at the U.N. [summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)] this month that a tax be introduced on international currency transactions to raise funds for development aid, ministers said on Wednesday," Reuters reports (Irish, 9/1). Ministers estimate the proposed "0.005 percent [tax] on currency transactions" could "raise as much as $35 billion a year in development aid," according to BusinessWeek (Viscusi, 9/2)...

An experimental malaria drug was shown to effectively treat the disease in mice with only a single dose, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science, Reuters reports (Kelland, 9/2). The new drug, known as NITD609, "represents an entirely new class of medicines to treat malaria ... Human trials, backed by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis AG, could begin later this year," the Wall Street Journal writes (Naik, 9/3)...

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) "has called a special meeting on the recent spike in food prices, responding to fears of a repeat of the shortages that led to riots in parts of the world two years ago," the Associated Press reports. The inter-governmental committee on grains will meet on Sept. 24, most likely in Rome, according to FAO spokesperson Christopher Matthews. "He said a large number of member countries had expressed concern about a possible repeat of the 2008 food crisis," the AP reports (9/3)...

"The IMF and the World Bank have stepped up aid to flood-hit Pakistan to help the country cope with its worst-ever humanitarian disaster," Agence France-Presse reports. IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said the fund "'will provide around 450 million dollars in immediate emergency financing' to Pakistan to help manage the aftermath of devastating floods," the news service reports (9/2). In a statement on Thursday, "Strauss-Kahn said he will ask the IMF board to make the loan available this month...

VOA News examines President Barack Obama's $63 billion Global Health Initiative (GHI), noting the initiative's emphasis on cost-effective strategies to improve child- and maternal-health as well as programs to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria. The article includes recent comments by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on the role the GHI will play in strengthening health systems and the administration's ongoing commitment to global HIV/AIDS programs...

People who believe that fate and chance control their lives are more likely to be superstitious -- but when faced with death they are likely to abandon superstition altogether, according to a recent Kansas State University undergraduate research project. The project, led by Scott Fluke, a May 2010 K-State bachelor's graduate in psychology, Olathe, focuses on personality traits that lead to superstition. Fluke received a $500 Doreen Shanteau Undergraduate Research Fellowship in 2009 to work with the team of Russell Webster, graduate student in psychology, Shorewood, Ill...

School children who consume foods purchased in vending machines are more likely to develop poor diet quality - and that may be associated with being overweight, obese or at risk for chronic health problems such as diabetes and coronary artery disease, according to research from the University of Michigan Medical School. The study also looked at foods sold in school stores, snack bars and other related sales that compete with USDA lunch program offerings and found that these pose the same health and diet risks in school-aged children...

A new report by terrorism researchers at the University of Maryland concludes that the deadly hostage-taking incident at the Discovery Communications headquarters in suburban Washington, D.C. meets the criteria of a terrorist act - a rare one for media organizations and the nation's capital region. Hostage-taking, though, is a familiar pattern in capital-region terror, the researchers add...

The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology expressed its disapproval and disappointment this week in response to the Aug. 23 ruling in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that granted a preliminary injunction barring federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research. In a statement, the society said the decision, which came in response to a lawsuit filed by two adult stem-cell researchers, effectively halts human embryonic stem-cell research in the United States and "represents a crossroads in American scientific policy...