Saturday, December 31, 2011

Daily News Digest: Reuters Health News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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Saturday, December 31, 2011 8:33 PM PST
Today's Reuters Health News Headlines - Yahoo! News:
Roberts defends justices on healthcare recusal issue
Sat,31 Dec 2011 03:04 PM PST
Reuters -

photoWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chief Justice John Roberts expressed confidence on Saturday in the decisions by his Supreme Court colleagues on when to recuse themselves, an issue that has emerged in the legal battle over President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul law. Some Democrats in Congress have called for Justice Clarence Thomas to be recused because of his wife's work for conservative groups that opposed the law while some Republicans have called for Justice Elena Kagan's recusal because of her prior position in the Obama administration. ...


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China says man dies of bird flu
Sat,31 Dec 2011 08:39 AM PST
Reuters - BEIJING (Reuters) - A man in southern China's Guangdong province died of bird flu Saturday a week after being admitted to hospital with a fever, state media reported. The 39-year-old bus driver living in Shenzhen, just across the border from Hong Kong, developed symptoms on December 21 and was admitted to a hospital on December 25 because of severe pneumonia, the official Xinhua news agency said. He died in the early afternoon of multiple organ failure, having tested positive for the H5N1 virus, the report added. ... Full Story
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MSF ponders Somali presence after attack: official
Sat,31 Dec 2011 07:04 AM PST
Reuters - BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Medecins Sans Fontieres is withdrawing non-Somali staff from a hospital in Mogadishu where two of its staff were shot dead but the aid group hopes to maintain its operation in Somalia despite the danger, an official said on Friday, Meinie Nicolai, president of MSF's Belgian branch which runs the hospital in the Somali capital, said Thursday's attack did not appear to be politically driven. "For us to leave Somalia would be a last option," Nicolai told Reuters. "It is not a political action as far as we can read it today," she added. "It's not against the organisation. ... Full Story
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China says finds no more excess toxins in milk
Fri,30 Dec 2011 07:20 PM PST
Reuters - BEIJING (Reuters) - China's quality watchdog said it has found no further problems with milk tainted by high levels of carcinogenic mildew in tests of products by major dairy producers. Public concern was triggered this week after milk giant Mengniu Dairy Co Ltd said its Sichuan plant had destroyed products found by a government quality watchdog to contain the cancer-causing substance aflatoxin. Aflatoxin occurs naturally in the environment and is produced by certain common types of fungi. It can cause severe liver damage, including liver cancer. ... Full Story
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FDA says no need to recall Enfamil formula
Fri,30 Dec 2011 07:15 PM PST
Reuters - (Reuters) - U.S. health officials said they found no trace of potentially deadly bacteria that killed two infants in recent weeks in sealed cans of Enfamil baby formula, and that a recall was unnecessary, providing relief for the product's manufacturer, Mead Johnson Nutrition Co. ... Full Story
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U.S. approves Prevnar pneumonia vaccine for adults
Fri,30 Dec 2011 02:22 PM PST
Reuters - (Reuters) - U.S. health regulators approved the expansion of Pfizer Inc's blockbuster Prevnar vaccine for use in adults 50 and older to fight pneumonia, meningitis and other diseases cause by pneumococcus bacteria. Prevnar 13 is designed to fight 13 forms of a bacterium called Streptococcus pneumoniae, or pneumococcus. Pneumonia caused by the pneumococcal organism is one of the biggest causes of death in older people and its incidence begins to increase after age 50. ... Full Story
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Yoga helps breast cancer survivors curb fatigue
Fri,30 Dec 2011 02:21 PM PST
Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - About one third of breast cancer survivors experience fatigue that can affect their quality of life, but a small new study finds that doing yoga might help restore some lost vitality. After three months of twice-weekly yoga classes, a group of breast cancer survivors in California reported significantly diminished fatigue and increased "vigor." A control group of women who took classes in post-cancer health issues, but didn't do yoga, had no changes in their fatigue or depression levels. Dr. ... Full Story
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Ohio Medicaid cancer patients survive less time
Fri,30 Dec 2011 02:21 PM PST
Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Cancer patients on Medicaid survive less time after their diagnosis than people with private or no insurance, data from Ohio show. Looking only at highly treatable types of tumors, researchers found Medicaid enrollees were between 1.6 and 2.4 times as likely as other patients to die of their disease within five years. It's unclear exactly how to interpret those findings, but researchers agree they're important. "This shows that there are problems at a national level that we need to be aware of," said Dr. Derek Raghavan, who worked on the study. ... Full Story
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MSF ponders Somali presence after attack: official
Fri,30 Dec 2011 02:13 PM PST
Reuters - BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Medecins Sans Fontieres is withdrawing non-Somali staff from a hospital in Mogadishu where two of its staff were shot dead but the aid group hopes to maintain its operation in Somalia despite the danger, an official said on Friday, Meinie Nicolai, president of MSF's Belgian branch which runs the hospital in the Somali capital, said Thursday's attack did not appear to be politically driven. "For us to leave Somalia would be a last option," Nicolai told Reuters. "It is not a political action as far as we can read it today," she added. "It's not against the organisation. ... Full Story
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WHO "deeply concerned" by mutated birdflu research
Fri,30 Dec 2011 01:43 PM PST
Reuters -

photoLONDON (Reuters) - The World Health Organization issued a stern warning on Friday to scientists who have engineered a highly pathogenic form of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, saying their work carries significant risks and must be tightly controlled. The United Nations health body said it was "deeply concerned about the potential negative consequences" of work by two leading flu research teams who this month said they had found ways to make H5N1 into a easily transmissable form capable of causing lethal human pandemics. ...


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Massachusetts man diagnosed with rare rabies case
Fri,30 Dec 2011 01:19 PM PST
Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters) - Massachusetts reported its first case of human rabies since 1935, state health officials said on Friday, after confirming that a Cape Cod man in his 60s had fallen ill with the rare but potentially fatal disease. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health said it had determined the man, who was not identified by name, was "diagnosed with rabies." The man is hospitalized in critical condition, they said. ... Full Story
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FDA approves Pfizer's Prevnar pneumonia vaccine for adults
Fri,30 Dec 2011 12:09 PM PST
Reuters - (Reuters) - U.S. health regulators approved the expansion of Pfizer Inc's blockbuster Prevnar vaccine for use in adults 50 and older to fight pneumonia, meningitis and other diseases cause by pneumococcus bacteria. Prevnar 13 is designed to fight 13 forms of a bacterium called streptococcus pneumoniae, or pneumococcus. Pneumonia caused by the pneumococcal organism is one of the biggest causes of death in older people and its incidence begins to increase after age 50. ... Full Story
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Drivers on methadone twice as likely to crash
Fri,30 Dec 2011 10:47 AM PST
Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Men on methadone treatment for drug addiction were more than twice as likely to be involved in a traffic accident as the general population in a new study from Norway. The researchers looked at two and a half years' worth of data on drug prescriptions and on motor vehicle accidents, and found that among the roughly 2,500 people prescribed methadone for drug addiction treatment, there were 26 vehicle accidents - a rate at least double that of the rest of the population. ... Full Story
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Fruit, veggie lovers not immune to weight gain
Fri,30 Dec 2011 10:45 AM PST
Reuters -

photoNEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A large new European study finds that simply eating a lot of fruits and vegetables may not be enough to stave off the weight gain that often comes with age -- except for people who recently quit smoking. Researchers found that of nearly 374,000 adults in 10 European countries, who were followed for five years, those who ate the most fruits and vegetables were no less likely to gain weight once other factors -- like calorie intake and exercise habits -- were taken into account. ...


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Family of French implant maker planned new plant
Fri,30 Dec 2011 10:44 AM PST
Reuters -

photoMARSEILLE, France (Reuters) - The Frenchman who sparked a global health scare by selling sub-standard breast implants is listed as a consultant for a new protheses plant his son planned to open in June, according to a regional French newspaper. Citing confidential company documents, the daily Nice Matin reported that Jean-Claude Mas, whose defunct company PIP sold poor quality protheses around the world for years, is listed as a technical and commercial consultant at a new firm set up by his son to make breast implants. Mas's lawyer, Yves Haddad, could not be reached for comment on Friday. ...


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