Cheaper blood thinner just as effective, study says
Injections of the blood thinner heparin treat blood clots just as effectively as a top-selling version that is many times more expensive, researchers said on Tuesday.
To treat deep vein thrombosis, which appears most often as blood clots in the legs, injections of low-molecular weight heparin such as Sanofi-Aventis’ blockbuster Lovenox and Pfizer’s Fragmin have been increasingly seen as more convenient and effective than original heparin.
The original blood thinner, called unfractionated heparin and derived from pig tissues, is given intravenously in the hospital and patients are closely monitored.
Indonesia girl tests positive for bird flu - official
A 6-year-old Indonesian girl tested positive for bird flu on Tuesday, a government official said, as the World Health Organisation ruled out human transmission in a village with a series of confirmed and suspected bird flu cases.
The girl from Bekasi, an eastern suburb of Jakarta, is the 60th case of avian influenza in Indonesia, 46 of which have been fatal.
“The girl is still alive and receiving treatment in hospital. She is getting better,” I Nyoman Kandun, director general of communicable disease control, told reporters.
S. African AIDS activists in court for protests
Zackie Achmat, one of South Africa’s top AIDS activists, appeared in court on Tuesday on trespassing charges after leading a protest against government policies to fight the disease.
Achmat and dozens of Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) activists were arrested last week for demonstrating in a government building in Cape Town.
The court appearances came barely a week after the South African government’s AIDS policies came under renewed attack at a global conference in Canada, with campaigners venting their anger against the health minister.
Computer-automated weight loss counseling works
An Internet-based weight loss program that provides users with automated and tailored behavioral counseling may be as effective in the short-term as an Internet program that incorporates human e-mail counseling, new study findings suggest.
“This study shows that an Internet behavioral weight loss program providing weekly feedback about weight, diet, and activity from either a computer-automated program or a human e-mail counselor produced significant weight loss,” Dr. Deborah F. Tate, of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and her colleagues write in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
What’s more, both types of programs appear to be more successful than a self-directed program that offers no additional counseling.
