Previous Medical News
2009/10/17
1. Swine flu study finds hardest hit are women, young and obese (Journal of the American Medical Association, 10/14/09)
Patients who became the most critically ill with swine flu and those who died were relatively healthy young women -- not the elderly and chronically ill. This article examines the swift progression of the disease among 168 people hospitalized in Canada between April 16 and Aug. 12, at the height of the outbreak. The average patient was 32.3, but 50 patients were children. All required treatment in the intensive care unit, with 136 of patients relying on a ventilator to help them breathe.
2. Swine flu and kids: Heed warning signs (Multiple sources, 10/12/09)
Parents should seek immediate help if emergency warning signs develop in their children. These include:
- Fast or troubled breathing.
- Bluish skin color.
- Lack of thirst.
- Failure to wake up easily or interact.
- Irritability so that the child does not want to be held.
- Improvement of symptoms, then a return to fever and worse cough.
- Fever with a rash.
Parents should also seek medical help if flu symptoms develop in children most vulnerable to flu complications: those younger than 5 or with high-risk conditions, including asthma and other lung problems; cerebral palsy, epilepsy and other neurological diseases; heart, kidney or liver problems; and diabetes.
3. Kids younger than 10 may need two swine flu shots (Sanofi-Aventis, 10/14/09)
Children under 10 may need two shots to be fully protected, //vaccine maker Sanofi Pasteur stated this past week.
4. Sickest swine flu patients require heroic measures (Journal of the American Medical Association, 10/14/09)
Once swine flu patients are sick enough to need hospital care, they decline very fast, requiring ventilators and advanced treatments that quickly strain scarce hospital resources. 95 percent of the patients had some underlying risk factor, most of these were very common, such as asthma, smoking, obesity or high blood pressure. Most people who get H1N1 will not have severe disease, which so far only occurs in about 1 in 1,000 patients.
5. Swine Flu claims 11 more kids this week (CDC, 10/16/09)
There's a worrisome number of child deaths this week from swine flu, eleven. And it appears that supplies of vaccine will remain scarce for at least the next couple of weeks. Eighty-six children have died of swine flu in the U.S. since it burst on the scene last spring — 43 of those deaths reported in September and early October alone. That's a startling number because in some past winters, the CDC has counted 40 or 50 child deaths for the entire flu season and no one knows how long this swine flu outbreak will last.
6. Albany Judge Blocks Vaccination Rule
A New York State judge on 10/16/09 suspended a health regulation that would compel hundreds of thousands of health care workers and hospital volunteers to be vaccinated for seasonal and swine flu. Justice Thomas J. McNamara, of State Supreme Court in Albany, issued the temporary restraining order in response to three lawsuits contending that the state’s health commissioner, Dr. Richard F.Daines, had overstepped his authority in requiring vaccinations. State health commissioner Dr. Daines, through the state hospital review and planning council, issued the regulation on Aug. 13 ordering health care workers and volunteers in hospitals, home health care agencies and hospice care to be vaccinated by Novemmber 30.
7. Minimally invasive prostate surgery carries risk (Journal of the American Medical Association, 10/14/09)
The technique, which can shorten hospital stays and reduce some complications, is linked to a higher risk of incontinence and erectile dysfunction. Minimally invasive forms of radical prostatectomy (in which the prostate gland is removed), often including the use of a robot.
8. For women on HRT, tenderness may be warning sign (Archives of Internal Medicine, 10/09)
Women whose breasts became tender after taking hormone replacement therapy had nearly twice the risk of developing breast cancer than women whose breasts did not become tender on the drugs.
9. U.S. Pregnancy Rate Is Dropping (CDC. 10/14/09)
The U.S. pregnancy rate dropped by 11% from 1990 to 2005. The 2005 pregnancy rate is close to the nation's pregnancy rate in 1976.
10. Results of AIDS Vaccine Questioned (Multiple Sources, 10/13/09)
A secondary analysis of the results have suggested that the vaccine was not quite as good as people had believed, reducing infections by only 24%, which was not statistically significant. The first analysis included all 16,000 people who participated in the trial and produced the promising results. The secondary analysis excluded patients who did not follow the experimental regimen. When that was done, the results were less convincing.
11. Less Invasive Surgery Repairs Aortic Aneurysm (Journal of the American Medical Association, 10/14/09)
Less invasive endovascular repair of deadly aortic aneurysms is easier on patients and -- at least for two years -- carries no extra risk of death. Aortic aneurysm -- dangerous ballooning of the body's central artery -- can be fatal if not detected and repaired. They're the 15th leading cause of death in the U.S. Unfortunately, the operation to repair an aortic aneurysm is dangerous. Indeed, it's one of the surgical procedures that carries the highest death risk. Open surgery is the standard method for repair. But in the last decade techniques and tools have been developed that allow repair of aortic aneurysms using minimally invasive techniques, requiring just small incisions in the groin.
12. Alcohol Abstainers at Higher Risk of Depression (Addiction, 10/09)
Those who never drink are at significantly higher risk for not only depression but also anxiety disorders.
13. Smoking Bans Good for Non-Smokers' Hearts (American Heart Association, 10/15/09)
Bans on smoking in restaurants, bars and other gathering spots reduce the risk of heart attacks among nonsmokers. If you have heart disease, you need to stay away from secondhand smoke. It's an immediate threat to your life. More than 126 million nonsmoking people in the U.S. are regularly exposed to someone else's tobacco smoke.
14. Heart-Healthy Diet May Also Be Good for the Brain; Nuts, Vegetables, Fish Cut Alzheimer's Risk (American Neurological Association, Baltimore, Oct. 11-14, 2009)
A diet rich in cruciferous and green leafy vegetables, nuts, fish, and tomatoes and low in red meat and high-fat dairy products may protect against Alzheimer's disease.
15. Sidewalks, parks, farm markets cut diabetes risk (Archives of Internal Medicine, 10/09)
People who live in neighborhoods with safe sidewalks, ample parks, good public transportation and ready access to fresh fruits and vegetables are 38 percent less likely to develop diabetes than others.
16. Want Sun Protection? Wear Red or Blue (Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 11/09)
Deep blue and red cotton fabrics are better than yellow at protecting skin against damaging ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun.
17. Working past retirement boosts health (Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 10/09)
Older people who hold temporary or part-time jobs after retirement enjoy better physical and mental health than those who stop working entirely. Those who continue to work in their original field also have better mental health than those who change fields.
18. Drop in Certain Visual Skills May Precede Alzheimer's (Archives of Neurology, 10/09)
The ability to perceive relationships between objects (visuospatial skills) may decline years before a person is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. In this study there was an inflection point (sudden change to a steeper slope of decline) in visuospatial abilities three years before clinical diagnosis of dementia.
19. Giving babies tylenol may blunt vaccines' effects (Lancet, 10/16/09)
Giving babies Tylenol to prevent fever when they get childhood vaccinations may backfire and make the shots a little less effective. This is the first major study to tie reduced immunity to the use of fever-lowering medicines.
