UPISat, 15 Sep 2007 17:24 UTC
Texas doctors have identified nine cases of the skin disease leishmaniasis in patients who have not traveled to endemic areas.
The infectious disease, sometimes called the Baghdad boil, is common in South America, Mexico and the Middle East, but the North Texas patients identified by doctors at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center had not traveled to any of those areas.
Air pollution could be putting patients with heart disease at risk by affecting blood vessels and clotting, researchers warn.
A study by the University of Edinburgh and Umeå University measured the effects of diesel exhaust on heart and blood vessel function in men who have previously experienced a heart attack.
The research, funded by the British Heart Foundation and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that inhalation of diesel exhaust caused changes in the heart's electrical activity, suggesting that air pollution reduces the amount of oxygen available to the heart during exercise.
XinhuaFri, 14 Sep 2007 13:26 UTC
Around 22,580 chickens had died of bird flu (Avian Influenza - AI) virus in Indonesia's East Java Province from January to September 2007, a local official said.
The AI virus-infected chickens were mostly from back-yard farming, Antara news agency quoted Bambang Hermawan of the East Java provincial animal husbandry service as saying on Friday in Surabaya, capital of East Java province.
UPIFri, 14 Sep 2007 10:08 UTC
Doctors in Britain say they won't operate on a 57-year-old builder's broken ankle because he is a smoker.
Hospital officials say John Nuttall has to give up his 20 cigarette-a-day habit to be eligible for an operation, The (London) Daily Mail said Thursday.
Nuttall, who broke his ankle in three places in 2005, has smoked for 40 years.
Kim Dixon and Toni Clarke
ReutersFri, 14 Sep 2007 08:30 UTC
Cephalon Inc has warned doctors about deaths linked to improper use of its cancer pain drug Fentora, U.S. drug regulators said on Thursday, sending the company's shares down 5 percent.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration posted on its Web site Cephalon's letter to doctors dated September 10, warning of deaths and serious side effects in patients treated with the pain killer.
Cephalon spokeswoman Candace Steele said the company has received reports of three deaths related to inappropriate prescribing of the drug. The deaths occurred during the summer and are most likely due to respiratory failure, she said.
Would you drive a SUV called a Himmer" Phonetic symbolism refers to the notion that the sounds of words, apart from their assigned definition, convey meaning. A fascinating forthcoming paper from the October issue of the Journal of Consumer Research applies this theory to product names. The researchers find that product names with vowel sounds that convey positive attributes about the product are deemed more favorable by consumers.
Front vowel sounds are ones that are made with the tongue forward in the mouth, such as the sound of the letter "I" in mill. Back vowel sounds are ones that are made with the tongue farther back in the mouth, such as the "a" sound in mall. Numerous prior studies have shown that the two types of vowel sounds tend to be associated with different concepts that are strikingly uniform, even across cultures. Front vowel sounds convey small, fast, or sharp characteristics, while back vowel sounds convey large, slow, or dull characteristics.
Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMDFri, 14 Sep 2007 04:23 UTC
An expert panel says it's confident there's no health risk from aspartame -- the artificial sweetener used in thousands of food products.
"We conclude aspartame is very safe," panel coordinator Bernadene Magnuson, PhD, assistant professor of nutrition and food science at the University of Maryland, said at a news conference.
Do the panel findings lay to rest all concerns over aspartame safety?
"We hope so," panel chairman William J. Waddell, MD, professor and chair emeritus of toxicology at the University of Louisville, said at the news conference.
Not so, says Michael F. Jacobson, PhD, executive director of the consumer group Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).
WASHINGTON - The deaths of two patients prescribed a powerful painkiller as a headache treatment were among four fatalities linked to the recently approved drug, its manufacturer reported Thursday.
All is not well in the playgrounds of the world, says an international group of child therapists, including several prominent Canadians.
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| ©Vancouver Sun
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| A UNICEF report found that British children are among the most unhappy in the developed world. Outdoor, unstructured and loosely supervised play is missing in children's lives, the report added.
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New findings from the WTC health registry show rates were highest among volunteer workers, lowest among police officersThousands of World Trade Center rescue and recovery workers were still suffering serious mental health effects three years after the disaster, the Health Department reported today. New findings released from the World Trade Center Health Registry show that one in eight rescue and recovery workers (12.4%) likely had post-traumatic stress disorder when they were interviewed in 2003 and 2004. The findings were published today in
the American Journal of Psychiatry, available online
here.
