Study: Two Drugs Powerless Against Flu
Delthia Ricks
(Newsday, New York, Feb. 3, 2006)
“New evidence confirms two standard antivirals are powerless against this season’s flu strains, which are outfoxing the drugs in a growing pattern of resistance that poses a public health danger, federal health investigators said yesterday.”
Researchers See Hope for Chlamydia Vaccine
(Reuters, Feb. 3, 2006)
“Scientists said on Thursday that they are a step closer to a vaccine against a bacteria that causes one of the world’s leading causes of blindness and a common sexually transmitted disease.”
Women Are Said To Face Hidden Heart Disease Risk
Denise Grady
(The New York Times, Feb. 1, 2006)
“Women are more likely than men to have a hidden type of coronary disease in which their heart muscle is starved for oxygen even though their coronary arteries look clear and free of blockages on X-rays, doctors are reporting.”
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Drug Shows Promise in Curbing Compulsive Gambling, Study Says
Robert Lee Hotz
(Los Angeles Times, Feb. 1, 2006)
“In the largest clinical study of its kind, researchers at the University of Minnesota found that daily doses of an experimental drug called nalmefene, often used to treat alcoholism, appeared to curb the craving to gamble.”
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Study: Depression Risky During Pregnancy Jamie Talan
(Newsday, New York, Jan. 31, 2006)
“Pregnant women who stop using anti-depressants may be putting themselves at great risk for another depressive episode, a new study has found, which dismisses the myth that pregnancy hormones ward off depression.”
Insulin in the Brain
Scott Allen
(The Boston Globe, Jan. 30, 2006) “A small but growing chorus of scientists is becoming convinced that insulin is just as important to the brain as it is to the body.”
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3.3 Million Children Worldwide Die of Birth Defects, Study Says
Scott Allen
(The Boston Globe, Jan. 31, 2006)
“Nearly 8 million children worldwide are born with serious birth defects each year and 3.3 million die from them, according to the first-ever global estimate of the toll of genetic disorders ranging from heart deformities to spina bifida. Researchers from the March of Dimes said their report released yesterday was evidence of a ‘serious, vastly underappreciated and under-funded public health problem.'”
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One’s Own Stem Cells May Treat Lupus
(Associated Press, Jan. 31, 2006)
“[Thirty-three-year-old Edjuana Ross] is among 48 patients with severe lupus who had [a stem-cell transplant from her own bone marrow] at Northwestern Memorial Hospital…The probability of disease-free survival for five years was 50 percent, encouraging for those who failed more conventional treatment for the most severe form of lupus, a disease in which the body’s immune system attacks its own organs and tissues.”
Tests Show Potential for Ricin Vaccine
(Associated Press, Jan. 31, 2006)
“Researchers led by Dr. Ellen Vitetta of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas found a way to modify the toxic sections of the ricin molecule to disrupt its poisonous effect.”
Gene Causes Parkinson’s in Ashkenazim
Judy Siegel-Itzkovich
(The Jerusalem Post, Jan. 25, 2006)
“Although Parkinson’s disease has not generally been regarded as genetic in origin, researchers at Yeshiva University’s Einstein College of Medicine and Beth Israel Medical Center in New York have discovered a single gene that is the ‘major cause’ of Parkinson’s in Ashkenazi Jews.”