Influenza :: Antivirals oseltamivir and zanamivir effectively curb influenza virus
Two antiviral drugs, oseltamivir and zanamivir, are highly effective when given as a preventive measure to reduce the spread of the influenza virus.
Illness
Malaria :: Researchers discover surprising drug that blocks malaria
Northwestern University researchers have uncovered how malaria parasites break into red blood cells and how to block the invading parasites with a commonly prescribed high-blood pressure medication. This opens the door for important new drugs to which the parasites are much less likely to become resistant. Malaria is surging worldwide because of drug resistance and the lack of an effective vaccine. Jamaica, which had eradicated the disease for 50 years, recently reported an outbreak.
Aphasia :: Genetic cause found for word-finding disease Aphasia
Northwestern University researchers have discovered a genetic cause of a mysterious neurological disease in which people have trouble recalling and using words. The illness, Primary Progressive Aphasia, differs from Alzheimer’s Disease in which a person’s memory becomes impaired. In PPA, which can begin in the 40’s and 50’s, people eventually lose the ability to express themselves and understand speech. Although people lose the ability to communicate, they are still able to perform complicated tasks.
Health :: Rural individuals most likely to have recurrent trauma center admissions
About 3.4 percent of patients treated in rural trauma centers appear to be recidivists, meaning that they have visited the facility more than once for separate injuries, according to a report in the January issue of Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Substance abuse appears to be the common feature among urban and rural recurrent trauma patients.
Dementia :: Relationship between delirium and dementia
For the most part, dementia and delirium have been viewed as separate and distinct conditions. But a special section of the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences, appearing in January 2007, looks at their interface, asking: Can delirium itself lead to the development of a cognitive disorder? Do delirium and dementia represent opposite ends of the same spectrum of disease, rather than two separate conditions?
Bird Flu :: Japan confirms bird flu outbreak
Japanese officials confirmed that bird flu caused the deaths of more than two-thousand chickens at a farm 900 kilometers southwest of Tokyo. The officials have not determined whether this particular strain of bird flu is the feared H5N1 or another less deadly form.
E Coli :: Taco Bell E coli outbreak linked to California lettuce
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it has moved closer to identifying the source of illness for the Taco Bell E. coli outbreak. FDA and the state of California, working in conjunction with state health officials in Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin, have DNA-matched the strain of E. coli O157:H7 bacteria associated with the outbreak with two environmental samples gathered from dairy farms near a lettuce growing area in California’s Central Valley.
Diarrhea :: Travelers need to know more about diarrhea
A survey of 104 vacationers boarding flights for Mexico revealed that their general level of knowledge about the prevention of this condition was generally adequate; however, there were still some things they needed to know more about how to avoid a nasty case of travellers’ diarrhea, but they don’t know everything they should, according to a University of Alberta study.
Cell :: Leading cause of US food-borne illness makes its own pathway through cells
Yale researchers now have some answers about how the bacterium that is the leading cause of food-borne illness in the United States enters cells of the gut and avoids detection and destruction, according to a presentation at the annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology in San Diego in December.
Asthma :: Respiratory diseases like asthma ‘undertreated’ in the USA
Many patients in the USA with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) do not receive the recommended levels of care, researchers have found.