Pregnancy complications tied to later stroke risk
Women who suffer certain complications during pregnancy apparently run a higher risk of having a stroke later in life, according to findings reported Tuesday at the annual meeting of the American Neurological Association in San Diego, California.
Dr. Monique V. Chireau and colleagues at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, used the university’s Perinatal and Health Services Outcomes database to investigate a possible link between pregnancy complications and stroke risk.
China vows to cut drug prices to appease angry public
China said on Wednesday it would lower the retail prices of 22 kinds of medicine as a means of reeling in some of the soaring costs of health care sparking social discontent across the country.
The failure of health reforms and rising costs of medical care have become flash points for social anger and unrest in China, where hundreds of millions of people cannot afford to see doctors or get medicine.
Indonesia mulls final anti-polio drive in November
Indonesia hopes to hold another polio immunization drive in November to stamp out the disease, an official said on Wednesday, a day after launching a program to vaccinate millions of children for the second time this year.
There have been 240 polio cases in Indonesia since May, when the crippling disease re-emerged after being eradicated from the world’s fourth most populous country a decade ago.
UK docs told to hold antidepressants for teens
Antidepressants should not be used as first-line treatment in patients younger than 18 years old—even for moderate-to-severe or psychotic Depression—Britain’s health economics watchdog, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, said on Wednesday.
In children (5-11 years old) and young people (12-18) with Depression, psychological therapy such as group cognitive behaviour therapy should be the first-line treatment, backed up by advice on exercise, diet, controlling anxiety and methods of improving sleep.
Early heart-healthy eating urged for kids
Children as young as age 2 can and should, with the help of their parents, get a jump start on eating behavior that’s healthy for the heart, according to new dietary recommendations released by the American Heart Association (AHA) and endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The new dietary recommendations for infants, children and adolescents update guidelines issued in 1982 on the same topic. Why now? According to the AHA, significant changes have occurred in the prevalence of heart risk factors and nutrition behaviors in children.
US experts weigh guidelines for impotence drug use
Doctors, drugmakers and health officials should take steps to curb abuse of erectile dysfunction drugs while research continues on whether use of the medicines increase the rate of HIV infections, especially among gay men, experts said in draft guidelines on Tuesday.
Research may suggest a role, but more studies are needed on how the drugs affect transmission of the virus and whether they encourage risky sexual behavior, a group of physicians, drug company representatives and patient advocates said at a government-sponsored conference near Washington.
China sets blueprint for fighting flu pandemic
China announced colour-coded emergency measures on Wednesday to avert or handle an influenza pandemic amid fears that a deadly strain of bird flu could mutate and infect millions of people around the world.
Millions of Chinese catch flu every winter, while avian influenza, including the deadly H5N1 strain that has killed 65 people in Asia, is believed endemic among the country’s bird population.
LA hospital suspends liver transplants in scandal
A Los Angeles hospital on Tuesday suspended its liver transplant program after allowing a Saudi patient to jump to the top of the waiting list and falsifying data to cover it up.
St. Vincent Medical Center said that two of its chief liver transplant surgeons had been fired and that it had launched a thorough investigation.
UK announces plans to ban school junk food
Junk food high in fat, salt or sugar is to be banned in schools across England within a year, Education Secretary Ruth Kelly announced on Wednesday after a high profile campaign by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver.
Kelly, speaking to the BBC and Sky News, said she would give details of the ban during her speech at the Labour Party conference in Brighton.
Glaxo adds birth defect caution to Paxil label
GlaxoSmithKline Plc is alerting physicians about a study suggesting the company’s antidepressant Paxil may be linked more often to birth defects than similar drugs, U.S. regulators said on Tuesday.
The British drug maker, in a letter to physicians, said it was adding the information to the prescribing instructions on Paxil’s label. Glaxo said it was difficult to tell if Paxil caused the defects, most of which were cardiovascular, in infants born to women who took the drug while pregnant.
Weight loss may precede Alzheimer’s, study finds
Some older people who inexplicably lose weight may be in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.
A study of more than 800 healthy nuns, priests and monks who were slightly overweight on average showed that those who lost about one unit of body mass index a year—a little more than five pounds (2 kg) or so—had a 35 percent greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s than those with no weight change.
Cell Therapeutics lung cancer drug helps women
Cell Therapeutics Inc. on Tuesday said a mid-stage trial of it experimental lung cancer drug showed a significant survival benefit for women, sending its shares soaring more than 40 percent.
In the recently completed study, Cell Therapeutics said the 35 women with advanced non-small cell lung cancer who received its Xyotax plus the chemotherapy carboplatin had a 36 percent probability of living at least one year.
