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| Polio-like illness seen in up to 25 California children Monday, Feb 24, 2014 05:57 PM PST By Laila Kearney SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A rare and mysterious polio-like illness may have afflicted up to 25 children in California, several of whom have suffered limb paralysis, and health experts were struggling to identify the cause of the ailment, medical researchers said on Monday. Since 2012, between 20 and 25 previously healthy children from across California have shown signs of the illness, possibly caused by an infectious virus, the American Academy of Neurology said in a statement detailing the research of two California neurologists. One of the children remains in serious condition but none have died from the syndrome, researchers said. Stanford University pediatric neurologist Keith Van Haren said in a statement that the cases could indicate the possibility of an "emerging infectious polio-like syndrome in California," although federal health officials said there were too few cases to consider the spread of the ailment as an imminent threat. Full Story | Top |
| Amanda Bynes pleads no contest in 2012 drunken driving case Monday, Feb 24, 2014 05:52 PM PST  Former teen star Amanda Bynes on Monday pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor driving offense in Los Angeles stemming from a 2012 accident in which she struck a sheriff's patrol car. The lawyer for Bynes, 27, entered the plea to the charge of reckless driving with an alcohol component, Los Angeles County District Attorney spokeswoman Jane Robison said. Bynes, who starred in her own Nickelodeon sketch comedy TV series "The Amanda Show" at age 13, was sentenced by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Edward Moreton to three years' probation and three months of alcohol education programs. Last year she was placed in psychiatric care for starting a small fire in front of a home in the Los Angeles suburb of Thousand Oaks. Full Story | Top |
| Pakistani village gives girls pioneering sex education class Monday, Feb 24, 2014 05:33 PM PST  By Amjad Ali JOHI, Pakistan (Reuters) - In neat rows, the Pakistani girls in white headscarves listened carefully as the teacher described the changes in their bodies. Sex education is common in Western schools but these ground-breaking lessons are taking place in deeply conservative rural Pakistan, a Muslim nation of 180 million people. Publicly talking about sex in Pakistan is taboo and can even be a death sentence. Almost nowhere in Pakistan offers any kind of organised sex education. Full Story | Top |
| Pill mix-up led to Kennedy 'drugged driving' trial: defense Monday, Feb 24, 2014 02:46 PM PST  By Victoria Cavaliere WHITE PLAINS, New York (Reuters) - A Kennedy family member's groggy behavior after her 2012 arrest for side-swiping a tractor trailer in New York was not the result of a criminal act but of mistakenly taking a sleeping pill instead of thyroid medication, her lawyers argued at her trial Monday. Kerry Kennedy, 54, daughter of assassinated Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the ex-wife of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, has pleaded not guilty to a charge of driving while impaired. "This case is about a mistake, plain and simple," defense attorney Gerald Lefcourt said in his opening statement in Westchester County Court in White Plains, about 35 miles north of New York City. Her mother, Ethel Kennedy, widow of Senator Kennedy, was also in the courtroom as Lefcourt described Kennedy as a devout Roman Catholic and a devoted humanitarian and mother who would never willfully drive while impaired. Full Story | Top |
| S&P 500 ends less than 1 point below record closing high Monday, Feb 24, 2014 02:35 PM PST  By Caroline Valetkevitch NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Monday and the S&P 500 hit a record intraday high, helped by gains in health insurers' shares and optimism about merger activity. The Nasdaq reached a 14-year high, though all three indexes closed off their highs for the session. The S&P 500 finished less than a point away from its record closing high of 1,848.38. Humana Inc and UnitedHealth Group ranked among the S&P 500's biggest percentage gainers, with Humana's stock jumping 10.6 percent to $113.69 after it said the government's proposed cuts to the private Medicare program appeared to be less than it had forecast. Full Story | Top |
| Jury out on vitamins' use against heart disease, cancer Monday, Feb 24, 2014 02:17 PM PST By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - There is not enough evidence to recommend that people take multivitamins or single or paired nutrients to prevent cancer or heart disease, according to a government-backed panel. But there is enough evidence to recommend that people do not take beta-carotene or vitamin E to prevent those conditions, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) said. The final recommendations, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, largely mirror draft guidelines that were released by the USPSTF in November (see Reuters Health story of November 11, 2013 here: http://reut.rs/1e1ilDe.) They do not apply to people with known vitamin deficiencies or chronic illnesses. "Because so much money is spent and so many people think they're doing themselves good by taking multivitamins, we really do need research to find out if that is the case," Dr. Virginia Moyer, who chairs the USPSTF, told Reuters Health. Full Story | Top |
| Vegetarian diets may lower blood pressure Monday, Feb 24, 2014 01:06 PM PST  By Shereen Jegtvig NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People who eat a vegetarian diet tend to have lower blood pressure than non-vegetarians, according to a new review of past studies. Researchers said for some people, eating a vegetarian diet could be a good way to treat high blood pressure without medication. Vegetarian diets exclude meat, but may include dairy products, eggs and fish in some cases. High blood pressure contributes to a person's risk of heart disease, stroke, kidney disorders and other health problems. Full Story | Top |
| Republican Abbott widens lead in Texas governor's race over Davis Monday, Feb 24, 2014 12:39 PM PST  By Jon Herskovitz AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - The Republican front-runner in the race for Texas governor, Greg Abbott, has increased his lead over likely Democratic rival Wendy Davis, according to a poll released on Monday. State Attorney General Abbott has an 11-percentage-point lead over State Senator Davis, the poll by the University of Texas and the Texas Tribune found. That was a wider lead than the six-point edge Abbott held in a November poll. Davis enjoyed an early boost last year following a marathon filibuster against proposed state abortion restrictions, but the more recent figures suggest a tough road ahead for her in Republican-dominated Texas, where Democrats have not won a statewide race since 1994. Full Story | Top |
| Ugandan president signs anti-gay bill, defying the West Monday, Feb 24, 2014 12:02 PM PST  By Elias Biryabarema ENTEBBE, Uganda (Reuters) - Uganda's president signed a law imposing harsh penalties for homosexuality on Monday, defying protests from rights groups, criticism from Western donors and a U.S. warning that it will complicate relations. Gay rights activists in Uganda said they planned a legal challenge. Ugandan officials broke into loud applause as President Yoweri Museveni put his signature to the document in front of foreign journalists at his State House outside the capital. Gambia's President Yahya Jammeh last week called homosexuals "vermin". Full Story | Top |
| George W. Bush launches program to help veterans transition from war Monday, Feb 24, 2014 11:58 AM PST  By Margaret Chadbourn WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. President George W. Bush on Sunday promoted a new initiative to help veterans transition back to civilian life and aid in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. The onetime commander-in-chief, who led the United States into war in Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003, said he wants to highlight the challenges facing service members returning from war zones, as well as their families. "I have a duty," Bush said in an interview that aired on Sunday on ABC's "This Week." "Obviously I get slightly emotional talking about our vets because I have an emotional...," Bush said, trailing off. About 2.5 million U.S. service members have served in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001, according to the Department of Defense. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. insurers say proposed Medicare cuts less than feared Monday, Feb 24, 2014 09:53 AM PST  U.S. health insurers including Humana Inc said on Monday that the government's proposed cuts to privately run Medicare programs appear to represent a funding decline of around 4 percent, less than the possible cuts of 7 percent or deeper that analysts had been expecting. Shares of most insurers rose on Monday, with Humana leading the pack, up 9.2 percent at $112.29 on the New York Stock Exchange in early afternoon. Shares of UnitedHealth Group Inc were up 2.8 percent at $75.91 and Aetna Inc was up 2.6 percent at $72.24. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services late on Friday released its proposal for 2015 Medicare Advantage funding. Full Story | Top |
| Anti-gay communities linked to shorter lives: study Monday, Feb 24, 2014 09:28 AM PST By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People who are gay, lesbian or bisexual tend to die earlier in communities where citizens are less accepting of same-sex relationships, according to a new study. "The size of the relationship between anti-gay prejudice and mortality was large," Mark Hatzenbuehler told Reuters Health. Hatzenbuehler is the study's lead author from the Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University in New York. He and his colleagues write in the journal Social Science and Medicine that although it has been thought that the amount of prejudice or stigma in a community is tied to the health of its residents, it has been hard to measure stigma. Full Story | Top |
| White House says Uganda takes step backward by signing gay legislation Monday, Feb 24, 2014 09:09 AM PST  The White House sharply criticized Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Monday for signing legislation that imposes harsh penalties for homosexuality, calling it a step backward. "Instead of standing on the side of freedom, justice, and equal rights for its people, today, regrettably, Ugandan President Museveni took Uganda a step backward by signing into law legislation criminalizing homosexuality," White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement. His statement did not say whether U.S. assistance to Uganda would be suspended. Washington is one of Uganda's largest foreign donors, with assistance of more than $400 million annually in recent years. Full Story | Top |
| Arkansas lawmakers to vote on funds for alternative to Obamacare Monday, Feb 24, 2014 09:08 AM PST  By Steve Barnes LITTLE ROCK (Reuters) - Arkansas lawmakers will try once again this week to provide funding for the state's Private Option medical insurance plan that has drawn interest from lawmakers in other states as an alternative to Obamacare. The Arkansas Senate approved the $915 million appropriation for the Private Option plan last week, but the House narrowly rejected it in several votes last week. Governor Mike Beebe, a Democrat who helped craft the plan with Republican lawmakers who control the statehouse, said failure to pass the funding could blow a hole in the budget. "The very Republican anti-Washington healthcare contingent, when all this came out, that didn't want a state exchange now has come to the conclusion that they want to reverse their position and do a state exchange," Beebe told a news conference in Washington on Monday. Full Story | Top |
| Pfizer's Prevnar prevents pneumonia in elderly - study Monday, Feb 24, 2014 08:45 AM PST Pfizer Inc said on Monday that Prevnar 13, its blockbuster vaccine against childhood infections, prevented pneumonia outside of hospitals in people age 65 and older, in one of the largest drug trials ever conducted. The 85,000-patient study, called CAPiTA, also showed that Prevnar 13 prevented invasive pneumococcal disease, meaning infections of Streptococcus pneumonia bacteria in the bloodstream and other normally sterile sites in the body. Wall Street analysts have predicted that success of the trial would boost annual sales of Prevnar 13 by $1 billion or more, as doctors steer elderly patients to the product. "We expect the U.S. and other developed markets to broadly recommend adult use of the product," given favorable results from the study, J.P. Morgan analyst Chris Schott said in a research note. Full Story | Top |
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