A report released by the Health Protection Agency shows that around one in 50 Injecting Drug Users (IDUs) in the UK are now infected with HIV. This is around twice the level seen at the beginning of the decade. In particular the HIV prevalence amongst those injecting for less than three years has increased since 2002. Increasing evidence suggests that crack cocaine is a major factor.
Dr. Jeanne Santoli is an MD and a Master in Public Health. She is Deputy Director of the Immunization Services Division at the National Centers of – National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at CDC. In a recent press conference, she told that when there is disease present in a community, individuals may still benefit from vaccinations, so the vaccine is the best way to protect yourself against influenza.
Fifty U.S. hospitals, including NYU Medical Center, have been named to the first Leapfrog Top Hospitals list, based on results from the Leapfrog Hospital Quality and Safety Survey, a national rating system that offers a broad assessment of a hospital?s quality and safety.
Soot particles spewing from the exhaust of diesel trucks constitute a major contributor to the alarmingly high rates of asthma symptoms among school-aged children in the South Bronx, according to the results of a five-year study by researchers at New York University?s School of Medicine and Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.
A research team has identified a key enzyme responsible for triggering a chain of events that results in allergic reaction, according to new study findings published this week in Nature Immunology. The work by researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University, the Hospital for Special Surgery and Weill Cornell Medical College in New York sets the stage for development of new strategies and target therapies that control allergic disease – the sixth leading cause of chronic disease in the United States.
A new study suggests that moderate exercise during pregnancy is safe even for women with chronic illness. Black women are twice as likely to have premature or low birth weight infants compared with white women, but the reasons why are not clear, Dr. Suezanne T. Orr of East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina and her colleagues note.
Breast cancer survivors might one day avoid the prospect of invasive breast reconstruction surgery, opting instead for an approach that would involve using stem cells derived from their own fat, suggest University of Pittsburgh researchers who are studying the potential these cells may have for regenerating new breast tissue.
A consortium of American and Canadian researchers report in Science Express, a rapid online publication by the journal Science, the discovery of a new genetic link to Crohn’s disease. While most of the mutations in the gene, which codes for a receptor in a major inflammatory pathway, are strongly associated with Crohn?s, surprisingly, one type of mutation appears to confer significant protection. The finding, say the researchers, points to a crucial target for drugs that might better manage Crohn?s disease and ulcerative colitis.
Schering-Plough reported data from EPIC3, a large ongoing clinical study, showing that retreatment with PEG-INTRON(R) (peginterferon alfa-2b) and REBETOL(R) (ribavirin, USP) combination therapy can result in sustained virologic response(1) (SVR) in patients with chronic hepatitis C who failed previous treatment with any alpha interferon-based combination therapy, including peginterferon regimens. In this study, 56 percent of patients who had undetectable virus (HCV-RNA) after 12 weeks went on to achieve SVR with a 48-week course of therapy. Of the first 1,354 patients retreated, approximately 38 percent had undetectable virus at week 12. Importantly, patients who did not have undetectable virus at 12 weeks had little chance of achieving SVR. Overall, 23 percent of patients achieved SVR.
A series of studies, conducted by a psychotraumatology research group headed by Thomas Elbert in collaboration with Penn State psychologist William Ray, has examined a group of people who have been exposed to different magnitudes of torture and found the appearance of dissociation (mental separation from the incident) long after the event. The research is published in the latest issue of Psychological Science.