Health & WellnessS


Cow

Sixth 'Taste' Discovered - Calcium



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©Michael Tordoff
A section of a rat tongue stained for the calcium-sensing receptor, CaSR, which is in the central, bright green onion-shaped taste bud.

Here's the new taste sensation - your tongue might be able to taste calcium.

The capability to taste calcium has now been discovered in mice. With these rodents and humans sharing many of the same genes, the new finding suggests that people might also have such a taste.

Pills

Cel-Sci lets Teva sell cancer drug

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. got the OK to market and distribute Cel-Sci Corp.'s cancer drug Multikine in Israel and Turkey.

Once the drug has been approved, Vienna-based Cel-Sci (AMEX:CVM) will make the product, while the Israel-based generic pharmaceutical giant will be responsible for sales. Revenue will be split evenly between both companies.

Pills

UK Drug chief angry at medicine cost



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©SPL
NICE advises on which drugs should be bought by the NHS

The head of a government health advisory body has accused pharmaceutical companies of driving up the price of medicine.

Professor Sir Michael Rawlins says drugs are expensive because of "perverse incentives" in the pharmaceutical industry.

The chairman of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) made his comments to the Observer newspaper.

NICE has recently been criticised for failing to approve kidney cancer drugs.

Pills

US Drug reps cut back on doctor freebies

Soon, those drug-branded pens, clipboards and coffee mugs will be a thing of the past in physicians offices.

The nation's largest pharmaceutical trade association now says its members can no longer hand out those trinkets and freebies, and it sharply curtailed when, where and how drug companies can wine and dine physicians.

The new code of conduct, which goes into effect Jan. 1, was designed to squelch, once and for all, any negative perceptions that doctors are influenced by or make prescribing choices as a result of gifts from drug manufacturers.

Health

Silver is key to reducing pneumonia associated with breathing tubes

People have long prized silver as a precious metal. Now, silver-coated endotracheal tubes are giving critically ill patients another reason to value the lustrous metal. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the NASCENT Investigation Group, report that the silver-coated tubes led to a 36 percent reduction of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP).

Arrow Down

West Nile victim still ailing six years after virus struck

Jackie Reid doesn't have much faith in new research that shows many people who have contracted West Nile virus from infected mosquitoes will fully recover.

Her 67-year-old husband, Ron, contracted the virus in 2002 from a mosquito bite while in Toronto. It soon developed into a neurological condition - encephalitis, a swelling of the brain. Six years later, the city man still requires around-the-clock care.

People

Career women are their own worst enemies: study

Singapore - Women are their own workplace enemies when it comes to cracking the glass ceiling, with an international study finding they are less likely to promote themselves and network than their male counterparts.

The 2008 study, part of U.S. behavioral scientist Shannon L. Goodson's new book The Psychology of Sales Call Reluctance, compared almost 11,500 professional women with 16,700 men from 34 countries.

Black Cat

Workplace violence comes in many forms

You may think you know that person over in the next cubicle. You know what position his kid plays on his Little League team. You know he makes a mean guacamole for the company picnic. And you know he always remembers to send his wife flowers on her birthday.

Health

UK: Village vomiting virus gets worse

At least 110 people have now been affected by an outbreak of norovirus in a Cornish seaside village.

Health

New virus scare in Brisbane, Australia

A female veterinarian who euthanased a racehorse infected with the potentially deadly Hendra virus has a nervous wait to be cleared of the virus after a needlestick injury.