Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. government and the richest
charity are offering bounties to a new wave of scientists to
wipe out HIV, the virus that causes AIDS and is one of the
world’s biggest killers.
Frustrated by one failure after another, the U.S. is asking
scientists to outline a major program to find a cure for HIV,
while the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle is offering
grants of $100,000 for researchers working on ways to drive Read the rest of this entry »

Loop diuretics include widely used medicines such as Lasix, Bumex and Demadex, which are commonly prescribed to patients with congestive heart failure. Because these medications increase the loss of calcium, there has been a concern that they might reduce bone mineral density, increasing users’ risk for fractures.
However, “much of the association that may have been blaming loop diuretics may have really been a result of the other health problems Read the rest of this entry »

A government watchdog has confirmed what some of us have suspected for some time.
The Food and Drug Administration has done virtually nothing to monitor the conflicts of interests of doctors who do clinical trials of drugs and medical devices used on human subjects. This is disgraceful.
The physicians who conduct these trials are supposed to help decide whether or not a drug is effective in treating people. And now the inspector general of the Read the rest of this entry »

A public health scare, a PR failure
The FDA did little to allay fears this week that it was mishandling the tainted milk scandal, but the WHO says it acted properly
Concerned about the Chinese tainted milk scare, Suvapa took her three-year-old son to see his doctor for advice two weeks ago. To her the surprise, the doctor said, “Don’t worry, the problem will not come here.”
The 30-year-old mother was not convinced by the doctor’s assurances. Read the rest of this entry »

LOS ANGELES—Los Angeles County officials and a hospital are investigating why the medical center lost power when a wind-whipped wildfire roared through the campus.
The outage on Saturday forced staffers at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center to use hand-powered ventilators to help keep critical patients alive.
Hospital spokeswoman Carla Nino says Monday the investigation will be done by the hospital and the county Department of Public Works. Read the rest of this entry »

Increase Whole Grains, Decrease Risk of Heart Failure
You don’t have to be a nutritionist to know that whole grains are good for you. However, you may not know that increasing your consumption of whole grains can reduce your chances of heart disease quite dramatically. Conversely, slightly increasing your consumption of high fat dairy and eggs can increase your odds at suffering from the common modern ailment.
conducted by the University Read the rest of this entry »

In 2006, an estimated 807,082 men and women over 65 were hospitalized for heart failure, up from 348,866 in 1980 — a 131 percent increase.
And the increase in hospitalization rates has been more dramatic among women than men, according to the Drexel University study, to be presented Sunday at the American Heart Association’s annual scientific sessions in New Orleans.
“You could probably talk to any cardiologist, no matter what practice setting Read the rest of this entry »

The flu strain circulating this year is resistant to the oft-used antiviral drug Tamiflu, but people shouldn’t worry too much, government health officials said yesterday. That’s because there are other drugs that work against this flu virus, such as Relenza and Flumadine, according to Joseph Bresee, chief of influenza prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To be most effective, these medications must be taken within the first Read the rest of this entry »

Tension increased further yesterday between the US and the allies of President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela when Washington announ-ced that Bolivia had failed to co-operate adequately in fighting the drugs trade and offered to evacuate its citizens from La Paz.
In the past week Bol-ivia and Venezuela have expelled US ambassadors, with Washington reciprocating in an intensifying dispute over the battle with drugs.
US officials are angry that Bolivia, Read the rest of this entry »

Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. government and the richest
charity are offering bounties to a new wave of scientists to
wipe out HIV, the virus that causes AIDS and is one of the
world’s biggest killers.
Frustrated by one failure after another, the U.S. is asking
scientists to outline a major program to find a cure for HIV,
while the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle is offering
grants of $100,000 for researchers working on ways to drive Read the rest of this entry »