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| Trial opens for California policemen charged in homeless man's death Monday, Dec 02, 2013 05:40 PM PST  Defense lawyers countered that 37-year-old Kelly Thomas suffered from a weakened heart brought on by drug abuse and died because he became combative with the police officers during the July 5, 2011 incident that lead to his death. Former police officer Manuel Ramos, 39, is charged with second degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in Thomas' death, Jay Cicinelli, a 41-year-old ex-corporal with the Fullerton Police Department, is charged with involuntary manslaughter and use of excessive force. "This was routine and yet within the space of 30 minutes Kelly Thomas would be laying in the street in a pool of his own blood, unconscious and dying," he said. Full Story | Top |
| Genetic test maker 23andMe stops marketing after FDA warning Monday, Dec 02, 2013 05:35 PM PST  (Reuters) - Home genetic test maker 23andMe, which is backed by Google Inc, stopped marketing its products last week after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned that it did not have regulatory approval to do so, a company spokeswoman said. The FDA said last week it had sent a warning letter to the company on November 22 stating that products designed to diagnose, mitigate or prevent disease were medical devices that required regulatory clearance. Company founder Anne Wojcicki said in a November 26 blog post that the company had been talking to the FDA since 2008 and had submitted its first application for clearance in July last year, followed by another submission in September. "We stand behind the data that we return to customers - but we recognize that the FDA needs to be convinced of the quality of our data as well," Wojcicki wrote in the post. Full Story | Top |
| Health disparities 'could be eliminated in a generation': study Monday, Dec 02, 2013 04:02 PM PST By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Health disparities between rich and poor nations could be banished in a generation by investment in research, vaccines and drugs to combat diseases such as AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, global health experts said on Tuesday. In a report setting out a plan for a "grand convergence" in health, the experts said world leaders needed to press for a concerted increase in research and development (R&D) investment to develop new medicines, vaccines and health technologies. "For the first time in human history, we are on the verge of being able to achieve a milestone for humanity: eliminating major health inequalities...so that every person on earth has an equal chance at a healthy and productive life," said Larry Summers, a former U.S. Treasury Secretary who co-chaired a commission on global health. The report, called "Global Health 2035: A World Converging within a Generation" was written by 25 leading international health experts and economists, chaired by Summers, of Harvard University, and published in The Lancet health journal. Full Story | Top |
| Man removed from flight in Phoenix after TB alert Monday, Dec 02, 2013 03:52 PM PST A man suspected of having tuberculosis was removed from a US Airways Express flight with 70 passengers aboard shortly after it landed in Phoenix over the weekend, authorities said on Monday. The man was removed from a flight from Austin, Texas, on Saturday, one of the busiest U.S. travel days of the year, after an alert from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Even if TB is confirmed in the traveler, the risk to other passengers and the crew is extremely low ... we are not recommending other precautions," CDC spokesman Benjamin Haynes said. A US Airways spokesman said the Transportation Security Administration had not flagged the passenger prior to the flight, although once in the air the CDC notified the airline that he had "do not board" status. Full Story | Top |
| Retooled Obamacare website traffic surges but problems remain Monday, Dec 02, 2013 03:48 PM PST A surge of visitors clogged the U.S. government's revamped healthcare insurance shopping website on Monday, signaling that President Barack Obama's administration has a way to go in fixing the portal that showcases his signature domestic policy. By 5:30 p.m. EST, the website had logged 750,000 visitors, the White House said, nearly the 800,000 daily users the refurbished site is supposed to be able to handle. That was significant progress for a website that has become the face of one of the biggest crises of Obama's administration, one that has undermined the Democratic president's promotion of an activist government and threatened to become a drag on Democrats in next year's elections, when control of Congress will be at stake. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, was passed in 2010. Full Story | Top |
| Obama announces funding for AIDS research, prevention Monday, Dec 02, 2013 03:44 PM PST  President Barack Obama on Monday announced a boost to funding for research into HIV/AIDS prevention and pledged up to $5 billion to support an international effort aimed at combating HIV/AIDS. Speaking at the White House to mark World AIDS Day, the president said the United States would contribute $1 for every $2 pledged by other donors over the next three years to support The Global Fund, an international financing institution that fights AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Obama also said he would redirect $100 million into a National Institutes of Health program to research a cure for HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS. "The United States should be at the forefront of new discoveries into how to put HIV into long-term remission without requiring lifelong therapies - or, better yet, eliminate it completely," Obama said at an event attended by Secretary of State John Kerry and software magnate Bill Gates, whose foundation has pledged up to $500 million for The Global Fund. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. hospital worker sentenced to 39 years for spreading hepatitis Monday, Dec 02, 2013 02:48 PM PST  By Daniel Lovering CONCORD, New Hampshire (Reuters) - A former New Hampshire hospital technician who caused dozens of people to become infected with hepatitis C when he injected himself with syringes of pain killers that were then used on patients was sentenced to 39 years in prison on Monday. David Kwiatkowski, 34, admitted in August to stealing the drugs and leaving used syringes for hospital use for years despite knowing he was infected with hepatitis C, a potentially fatal virus that attacks the liver. He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante in Concord, New Hampshire, after pleading guilty to obtaining controlled substances by fraud and tampering with a consumer product. The judge said his actions verged on "cruelty." "The whole reason I got into healthcare was to help people, and my addiction took that away," Kwiatkowski said before being sentenced. Full Story | Top |
| Myanmar looks abroad for investment in healthcare Monday, Dec 02, 2013 02:25 PM PST  By Jared Ferrie YANGON (Reuters) - Yangon General Hospital was once the jewel in the crown of one of Southeast Asia's best healthcare systems. It is a scene that Myanmar's reformist government hopes to change as it ratchets up spending on the sector and seeks foreign investment to revive one of Asia's sickest healthcare systems. Several leading regional healthcare companies are already operating in Myanmar and others plan to enter soon, seeing huge potential in the country's underserved population of about 60 million people. Attracting foreign investment is part of an overhaul of the healthcare system by the quasi-civilian government that took over from the army in 2011. Full Story | Top |
| More evidence heavy but healthy people still at risk Monday, Dec 02, 2013 02:10 PM PST By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new analysis supports the idea that obese people who are otherwise healthy are still at risk of heart problems down the road. Researchers who reviewed past studies found that even heavy people who didn't have high blood pressure or diabetes, for instance, had more heart attacks and strokes over time than healthy normal-weight people. "It made perfect sense to say there might be a group that have extra body fat but aren't necessarily at risk," James O. Hill said. It's just the risk may be lower (than among obese people who also have other problems) and it might take a little longer to see it." Hill, executive director of the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center at the University of Colorado in Aurora, co-wrote a commentary published with the new analysis. Full Story | Top |
| Michigan woman sues U.S. Catholic bishops over miscarriage treatment Monday, Dec 02, 2013 02:06 PM PST By Brendan O'Brien (Reuters) - A Michigan woman has sued the U.S. Catholic bishops, arguing that a Catholic hospital in Michigan denied her adequate treatment during a painful miscarriage because of a policy banning even the discussion of abortion as an option. Tamesha Means said she went to a Catholic hospital in Muskegon, Michigan, the only hospital within 30 minutes of her home, when her water broke in December 2010 after only 18 weeks of pregnancy, according to the lawsuit filed Friday in Detroit federal court. Full Story | Top |
| Soups, statues and soothsayers in demand as China eases one-child law Monday, Dec 02, 2013 01:52 PM PST  By Adam Jourdan SHANGHAI (Reuters) - In a dimly-lit arcade in downtown Shanghai, shopkeeper Xia Zihan holds out a glinting, yellow-glass carving of the fertility goddess Guanyin, a range she says is starting to sell well after China relaxed its single-child policy last month. "Since the news allowing a second child, we've already asked our factory to increase production of the Guanyin statues," said Xia, adding she expected to see around a 10-20 percent increase in demand for the figurines that cost around one thousand yuan ($160) each. With an estimated bump of up to 10 percent in the number of births per year, the demand for maternal healthcare is bound to surge, a lift for private hospital operators who are increasing their share of China's gigantic healthcare market. Healthcare providers like Singapore-based Raffles Medical Group Ltd, Malaysia's IHH Healthcare Bhd and U.S. healthcare firm Chindex International Inc already operate in China. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. officials act on HealthCare.gov even though traffic is below capacity Monday, Dec 02, 2013 01:39 PM PST Obama administration officials acted to limit access to the troubled HealthCare.gov website on Monday after seeing signs of growing problems even though the number of users was still well below the site's capacity. But with only about 35,000 users online at around 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT), system monitoring staff detected performance issues, according to an official with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which is responsible for the site. Full Story | Top |
| For black men, early household linked to blood pressure Monday, Dec 02, 2013 01:32 PM PST  Based on health data for 500 unrelated black men over age 20 enrolled in the Howard University Family Study, researchers found those who had lived with one parent rather than two as children had higher average blood pressure readings. The men who had grown up in single-parent households also had a 46 percent greater risk of developing high blood pressure, also known as hypertension. "These differences in mean blood pressure and the prevalence of hypertension among men raised in two-parent households vs. single-parent households during childhood are quite significant," Debbie Barrington said. Barrington led the study at the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities with colleagues at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Full Story | Top |
| Hospitals will quote prices for parking, not procedures Monday, Dec 02, 2013 01:30 PM PST By Shereen Jegtvig NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People usually don't know what their medical procedures cost until after they leave the hospital, and a new study suggests they would have a hard time finding out in advance Inspired by an earlier study looking at hip replacement surgery costs, researchers tried to see if consumers could get price quotes for a much simpler diagnostic test from Philadelphia area hospitals. They found that parking prices were readily available by calling the hospital and asking, but only three out of 20 hospitals could provide the cost of an electrocardiogram test. It was a great study and a real eye opener," said Dr. Joseph Bernstein, a professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. "Still, if you wanted to disbelieve its conclusions, you had an out," Bernstein, who led the new study, told Reuters Health. Full Story | Top |
| Positive parenting won't make up for yelling, insulting Monday, Dec 02, 2013 01:27 PM PST "There's a fair amount of data out there that says that parental verbal aggression toward a kid is very damaging," Byron R. Egeland said. Egeland has studied child maltreatment and development at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and was not involved in the new research. Past research has linked verbally aggressive parenting to changes in children's brain development and to personality disorders later in life, researchers led by Ann Polcari write in the journal Child Abuse & Neglect. They rated each of their parent's verbal aggression on a scale from zero to 105, based on how often mothers or fathers yelled at, scolded, insulted and blamed them as kids. Full Story | Top |
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