Flu stains similar to South America flu

Posted on October 8, 2011 by hippocraticsolutions

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ATLANTA, Sept. 16 (UPI) — It’s too soon to tell which flu strain will predominate this flu season but officials say strains chosen for the flu shot seem to resemble flu in South America.

Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta say the United States experienced low levels of influenza activity from May 22 to Sept. 3, but influenza A (H3N2), 2009 influenza A (H1N1), and influenza B viruses were detected worldwide and identified sporadically in the United States.

“Typical seasonal patterns of influenza activity occurred in the Southern Hemisphere,” the report says. “Although neither the influenza strain that will dominate nor the severity of influenza for the 2011/2012 U.S. influenza season can be predicted, antigenic characterization of viral isolates — isolated virus strains — during the summer appear antigenically similar to the influenza vaccine strains in the Northern Hemisphere 2011/2012 vaccine.”

To prevent influenza and its associated complications, influenza vaccination is recommended in all persons age 6 months and older, and should proceed for everyone without contraindications to vaccination as soon as vaccine is available in their community.

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Study links breast cancer pain to fatigue

Posted on October 8, 2011 by hippocraticsolutions

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GRANADA, Spain, Sept. 16 (UPI) — Spanish researchers say about 83 percent of those diagnosed with breast cancer survive five years but 66 percent of them suffer fatigue following treatment.

Lead author Manuel Arroyo of the University of Granada linked psychological disorders and physical pain episodes with fatigue after treatment of a breast tumor.

“Cancer-related fatigue is the symptom that most limits quality of life and is most common in patients that survive cancerous processes,” Arroyo says in a statement.

Fifty-nine female patients treated for breast cancer were tracked for one year after treatment and their psychological and physical condition — as well tiredness, pain, limited movement, depression, etc. — was assessed.

A statistical procedure allowed inferences to be made similar to those from a larger sample, the researchers say.

“This method means that the data were more reliable and eliminated the problem of having a reduced sample size,” Arroyo says. “It is difficult to find volunteers because patients are not often very willing to participate in research after having been through such harsh treatment.”

The team of researchers linked sensory hypersensitivity, limited movement and certain psychological conditions with fatigue observed following cancer treatment, Arroyo says.

“These findings should motivate patient support programs which improve their psychological condition and offer resources that can reduce pain,” Arroyo says. “If fatigue is not treated, patients can suffer it for years, having a serious physical, emotional, social and economic impact.”

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Recall of oral contraceptives issued

Posted on October 7, 2011 by hippocraticsolutions

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HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Sept. 16 (UPI) — A U.S. pharmaceutical company says it is issuing a voluntary, nationwide, retail-level recall of multiple lots of oral contraceptives for a packaging error.

Qualitest Pharmaceuticals said the error caused selected blisters in the packaging to be rotated 180 degrees within the card, reversing the weekly tablet orientation and obscuring lot numbers and expiry dates.

As a result, the daily regimen may be incorrect and could leave women without adequate contraception and at risk for unintended pregnancy, a company release said Thursday.

The recall is effective immediately and includes the following products: Cyclafem 7/7/7, Cyclafem 1/35, Emoquette, Gildess FE 1.5/30, Gildess FE 1/20, Orsythia, Previfem and Tri-Previfem.

Consumers with questions should call 1-877-300-6153 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. CDT Monday through Friday, Qualitest said.

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Wikipedia cancer information ‘more dense’

Posted on October 7, 2011 by hippocraticsolutions

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PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 16 (UPI) — Wikipedia ranks higher in search engine results for diseases, updates faster and provides “more dense” information, U.S. and Israeli researchers say.

Dr. Yaacov Lawrence, the study leader and director of the Center for Translational Research in Radiation Oncology at the Sheba Medical Center in Israel, and Dr. Malolan Rajagopalan of the University of Pittsburgh chose 10 cancers and selected key factual statements for each cancer from standard oncology textbooks.

Medical student volunteers examined the the National Cancer Institute’s Physician Data Query — comprehensive peer-reviewed, patient-oriented cancer database — and Wikipedia articles against the prepared statements.

The research revealed that Wikipedia updates faster than PDQ; but the hyperlinks embedded within Wikipedia take the user to more dense information, while PDQ provides more simplified explanations on the content a user clicks on for more information.

“PDQ’s readability is doubtless due to the site’s professional editing, whereas Wikipedia’s lack of readability may reflect its varied origins and haphazard editing,” Lawrence says in a statement. “Overall our results are reassuring: on the one hand Wikipedia appears to be extremely accurate, on the other, the resources invested in the creation and upkeep of the PDQ are clearly justified. The sites appear to be complementary — but I recommend to my patients that they start with PDQ where they are less likely to get lost in jargon and hyperlinks.”

The findings are published in the Journal of Oncology Practice.

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Policies needed for earlier Alzheimer’s

Posted on October 7, 2011 by hippocraticsolutions

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PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 16 (UPI) — Increasingly, Alzheimer’s patients learn they have the disease before symptoms affect daily functioning, but may not know how to react, researchers say.

“We need to develop systems now, to navigate the challenges of a pre-clinical Alzheimer’s diagnosis,” Dr. Jason Karlawish, a professor of medicine and medical ethics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania who was the study author, says in a statement.

“It’s only a matter of time before we are able identify Alzheimer’s before the patient is ill, like we’ve done with cholesterol and heart disease.”

People strongly differ in their desire to know their risk and will react differently to a high Alzheimer’s risk score or diagnosis in the early stages of the disease.

In some cases, biomarker test results can be harmful because patients may develop anxiety or serious depression, Karlawish says.

To safely and effectively communicate a diagnosis of pre-clinical Alzheimer’s disease, Karlawish recommends researchers track the emotional and physical impact of a pre-clinical diagnosis, then develop and disseminate best practices.

When an effective Alzheimer’s therapy or intervention is found, a process will be necessary to ensure the patients who stand to benefit most are prioritized accordingly, the researchers say.

“The Alzheimer’s disease label does not equate to disability,” Karlawish says. “In order to ensure that patients’ daily lives — i.e. driving, financial planning, work status — aren’t negatively or prematurely limited, laws and policies need to be revised to prevent stigma, discrimination and, when patients do suffer disability, exploitation.”

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ADHD kids do better if they play outside

Posted on October 7, 2011 by hippocraticsolutions

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CHAMPAIGN, Ill., Sept. 16 (UPI) — U.S. children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder who routinely spend time outside with trees and grass exhibit milder symptoms, researchers say.

Study authors Andrea Faber Taylor, a visiting crop sciences teaching associate at the University of Illinois, and Frances (Ming) Kuo, a natural resources and environmental sciences professor at the school, said the study involved 400 children with ADHD. Symptoms of ADHD include severe difficulty concentrating, hyperactivity and poor impulse control.

“Before the current study, we were confident that acute exposures to nature — sort of one-time doses — have short-term impacts on ADHD symptoms,” Kuo said in a statement.

“The question is, if you’re getting chronic exposure, but it’s the same old stuff because it’s in your back yard or it’s the playground at your school, then does that help?”

The study, published in the journal Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, found children with ADHD who regularly played in outdoor settings with lots of green — grass and trees, for example — have milder ADHD symptoms than those who play indoors or in built outdoor environments.

“On the whole, the green settings were related to milder overall symptoms than either the ‘built outdoors’ or ‘indoors’ settings,” Taylor added.

The researchers also found that children who were high in hyperactivity — rather than ADD — tended to have milder symptoms if they regularly played in a green and open environment such as a soccer field or expansive lawn rather than in a green space with lots of trees or an indoor or built outdoor setting.

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Children poisoned by medications on rise

Posted on October 6, 2011 by hippocraticsolutions

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CINCINNATI, Sept. 16 (UPI) — The number of children admitted to U.S. hospitals after taking a potentially toxic dose of medication rose dramatically in recent years, researchers say.

Dr. Randall Bond, an emergency medicine physician at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, says exposure to prescription products accounted for most of the emergency visits at 55 percent, admissions at 76 percent and significant harm at 71 percent.

“The problem of pediatric medication poisoning is getting worse, not better,” Bond says in a statement.

“Prevention efforts at home have been insufficient. We need to improve storage devices and child-resistant closures and perhaps require mechanical barriers, such as blister packs.”

Bond studied patient records from 2001 to 2008 from the National Poison Data system — an electronic database of all calls to members of the American Association of Poison Control Centers.

A total of 453,559 children age 5 and younger exposed to a potentially toxic dose of a single pharmaceutical agent, either prescription or over-the-counter, were involved in the study.

The study, published in the Journal of Pediatrics, says the most likely explanation is a rise in medications taken around small children.

A 1998 to 1999 indicates half of adults had taken at least one prescription medication in the preceding week and 7 percent had taken five or more. In 2006, the same survey indicates 55 percent had taken at least one prescription medication in the preceding week and 11 percent had taken five or more, the study says.

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Calcium linked to prostate cancer

Posted on October 6, 2011 by hippocraticsolutions

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LOS ANGELES, Sept. 17 (UPI) — A high intake of calcium is linked to prostate cancer among African-American men who are genetically good absorbers of the mineral, U.S. researchers say.

Gary G. Schwartz at Wake Forest Baptist and colleagues at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California and the Cancer Prevention Institute of California studied 783 African-American men living in the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas.

More than 500 were diagnosed with prostate cancer. The researchers studied the effects of genotype, calcium intake and diet-gene interactions.

Although prostate cancer is 36 percent more common among African-Americans than in non-Hispanic whites, data on the diet-cancer link primarily comes from Caucasian populations.

The research team targeted a genetic allele that is more common in populations of African origin than in other populations and is associated with regulating calcium absorption.

The study, available online ahead of the January print issue of the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, finds men who reported the highest intake of calcium were two times more likely to have localized and advanced prostate cancer than those who reported the lowest consumption.

Men with genes indicating poor calcium absorption were 59 percent less likely to have been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer than men who genetically were the best absorbers of calcium.

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Heavy drinking + smoking = fire risk

Posted on October 6, 2011 by hippocraticsolutions

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MELBOURNE, Sept. 17 (UPI) — Heavy drinkers may die needlessly in house fires that would otherwise have been escapable, researchers in Australia suggest.

Lead researcher Dorothy Bruck of Victoria University in Melbourne examined coroners’ records for 95 fire victims and found that 58 percent had positive results on blood-alcohol tests — often with very high alcohol levels.

The intoxicated victims were less likely than sober ones to have had obstacles preventing their escape from the fire — like barred windows or an exit route that was blocked by the fire — and at least some intoxicated victims might have survived had they been roused in time.

Most of the victims in the study were alone at the time of the fire, and many were asleep. Well-placed smoke detectors or having other, sober people in the house would have protected some, Bruck said.

However, mixing smoking and drinking is dangerous. Those who had been drinking were about 4.5 times more likely to have died in fires that involved “smoking materials,” like discarded cigarettes, Bruck said.

“A key message is that smoking and drinking together constitute a high-risk activity, even in your own home,” Bruck said in a statement.

The findings are published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

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BP’s workers may have escaped harm

Posted on October 6, 2011 by hippocraticsolutions

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NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 17 (UPI) — Air and water studies near BP’s oil spill off Louisiana found cleanup workers may have escaped harm from toxic substances in the oil, researchers say.

Senior editor Elizabeth Wilson describes research showing that benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene — collectively termed BTEX — remained dissolved in the Gulf of Mexico, and did not vaporize into the air where they could be inhaled by cleanup workers.

The spill began July 20, 2010, with an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon facility, 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana, killing 11 oil workers. By the time the well was capped 87 days later, a record 4.9 million barrels — 206 million gallons — of oil had spilled.

Tempering that apparent good news for the health of cleanup workers, there are concerns that other substance released by the crude oil — substances that do not dissolve as well in water — die become airborne during the 2010 disaster. If so, they could pose a health threat to cleanup workers, the article notes.

The findings are published in the Chemical & Engineering News.

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