The FDA has just approved a new diagnostic test that will expedite the time needed to confirm a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection. Whereas current MRSA tests take up to 48 hours to generate results, the BD GeneOhm StaphSR test, developed by BD Diagnostics, can detect MRSA within five hours of culturing a sample.
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As a heat wave sweeps over New York City and much of the rest of the country, we’d be remiss if we didn’t pass on a recommendation from New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
First of all, it’s important to remember that those at increased risk for hospitalization and death from heat stroke include adults ages 65 and older, as well as patients with cardiovascular disease, psychiatric illness (often involving substance abuse), diabetes, or respiratory illness. Poorer neighborhoods also see a higher rate of heat-related illness and death.
Previous studies have suggested that certain pain-relieving drugs, with the exception of aspirin and acetaminophen, may increase the risk of heart attack or death from a cardiovascular event. The drugs under suspicion are non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents (NSAIDs). Now a new study published in the American Journal of Medicine and led by Dr. Anthony A.
A series of studies published in the journal Neuron find that genetic mutations may be the underlying cause of a major portion of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Led by Dr. Matthew W. State, associate professor of psychiatry and genetics at Yale University, the study found that 25 percent of ASD cases are caused by inherited gene mutations passed on from parent to child. But what about ASD cases that arise in children with no family history of the disorder?
Speaking of organic sprouts, in his Sunday column for The New York Times, columnist Nicholas Kristof offers a strange alternative theory of how the E. coli outbreak occurred. In a somewhat bizarre interpretation of the facts, he concludes that overuse of animal antibiotics was one cause:
Ambulance diversion, the rerouting of emergency vehicles from emergency rooms due to overcrowding, has been tied to an increased risk of patient death. A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association has found that, when ambulances were diverted from ERs for 12 hours or more, there was a 20 percent increased risk of death among a group of nearly 14,000 elderly heart attack patients. Dr.
As spring turns to summer, ACSH anticipates better beach weather, plenty of summer movie sequels, and a new seasonal scare from the Environmental Working Group (EWG). Well, the EWG has yet to disappoint us, and this time, they’re warning us about sunscreens that may contain phototoxic and “dangerous endocrine disrupting” chemicals such as retinyl palmitate and oxybenzone, respectively.
Media coverage of the disastrous E. coli outbreak in Europe has become a source of both anxiety and relief for Americans: In Germany, nearly 3,000 have fallen ill thus far — 700 with acute kidney failure — and 27 have died, but there’s been no sign that this highly virulent form of E. coli has caused any illness in the U.S.
Atrazine, the herbicide most responsible for the well being of the cornfields across so much of the U.S. countryside, has once again been deemed a non-threat to human health. Most recently, the respected ongoing Agricultural Health Study (AHS) found no link between exposure to atrazine and overall cancer risk.
When it was discovered that an outbreak of Legionnaire s Disease at the Playboy Mansion was responsible for sickening at least 24 attendees of the DomainFest Global Conference in February, it was thanks to Facebook, not the Los Angeles County health authorities. Writing in The New York Times, Bronwyn Garrity describes this recent epidemiological phenomenon that uses social media outlets, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare, to track the spread of diseases.
On his tobacco blog, Tobaccoanalysis.com, ACSH scientific advisor Dr. Michael Siegel, a professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, addresses the misleading claims of a recent article published in Tobacco Control, in which the authors reprimand the tobacco industry for not doing enough to lower the levels of tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs) in cigarettes over the years.
The CDC has determined that the 2011-12 flu vaccine formula will remain the same as last season’s. But that doesn’t mean that folks who were vaccinated last year can skip the shot this year. That’s because the immunity conferred by the flu vaccine wears off in less than a year, so you won’t be protected come winter if you haven’t had another shot.
In yesterday’s Dispatch, ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross expressed skepticism toward claims made by Justin Gillis in The New York Times that man-made climate change has already manifested in the form of decreased agricultural output. Well, Dr. Ross wasn’t the only one critical of these assertions. Dr.
There is a reliable means of reducing the risk of permanent disability from a stroke, though many stroke victims may not act quickly enough to receive it. A clot-dissolving drug called tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) has been approved by the FDA since 1996, but it is used by only a very small percentage of stroke victims, most likely because it must be administered within a few hours of stroke onset in order to be effective.
Physicians — and consumers — should be aware of particular Ayurvedic medicine products that have been associated with two recent New York City cases of lead poisoning in adults. This report from the New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene offers a full advisory in regard to Pregnita, Vasant Kusumakar Ras with Gold and Pearl and Mahashakti Rasayan.
Ever since the FDA finally approved silicone gel breast implants in 2006, the procedure has grown in popularity; nearly 400,000 breast enlargement or reconstruction procedures were performed in the U.S. in 2010 alone. While confirming that silicone gel-filled breast implants are safe and effective when used as intended, the FDA emphasized that women should fully understand the risks prior to considering silicone gel-filled breast implants for breast augmentation or reconstruction.
A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that, among prostate cancer patients, current smokers have an increased risk of prostate cancer mortality compared with non-smokers. Led by Dr. Stacey Kenfield and colleagues from the Harvard School of Public Health, researchers also found that the number of pack-years smoked was directly associated with an increased risk of death from prostate cancer.
Writing in today s New York Post, ACSH s Dr. Josh Bloom points out a troubling trend that may be hindering America s ability to compete globally on the scientific front: science jobs are quickly vanishing in the U.S. As large pharmaceutical companies, starved for revenue, continue to absorb smaller ones, jobs are lost each time. Independent of this, many more research jobs are now being outsourced to China and India. Dr.
It is a common complaint among American doctors, researchers, and investors that the FDA takes much longer than its European counterpart to approve new drugs. However, a seven-year study just published in Health Affairs contradicts the assumption, having found that 23 out of 35 new cancer drugs debuted on the U.S. market before being cleared in Europe.
Diseased lungs. Corpses. Rotting teeth. A man smoking from a tracheotomy hole. These are some of the shocking images featured in the Food and Drug Administration s recently unveiled series of cigarette package warnings. The FDA asserts that these graphic warnings will serve public health by terrifying smokers into quitting. But ACSH s Dr.
A new study reveals that fewer Americans are developing colorectal cancer (CRC). Between 2003 and 2007, the rate of new CRC cases in the U.S. fell by over 13 percent, representing nearly 66,000 fewer cancer cases and 32,000 fewer CRC deaths during this period. CDC director Thomas Frieden told Reuters that half of the decline in CRC cases can be attributed to increased screening, which rose from 52 percent in 2002 to 65 percent in 2010. One thing we know is that screening works, he said.
Those suffering from blood clotting disorders will find welcome relief in the FDA s approval of a new anticoagulant, rivaroxaban, co-developed by Johnson & Johnson and Bayer AG.
Although some version of the intrauterine device (IUD) has been available for female contraception since the 1970s, side effects both large and small prevented most women from considering it a valid option. However, advances in design and usage have resulted in the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists formal endorsement of the device for all healthy adult women.
Readers who turn to ABC as their source of news will get a very skewed impression of distinguished professor Dr. David Allison, head of the Section on Statistical Genetics at the University of Alabama and director of the National Institutes of Health-funded Nutrition Obesity Research Center. An ABC News article by Dan Harris and Maggy Patrick which was apparently pulled from the national TV newscast at the last moment accuses Dr.
Women who have just given birth and are older than 34 or have had a Cesarean section are now advised to avoid contraceptives containing estrogen, say new government guidelines. Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have concluded that birth control pills containing estrogen could increase the risk of a blood clot in some new mothers when taken within six weeks of giving birth.
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