Breaking News Archives
- each day's breaking news from December 1, 2003
(check here for breaking news you might have missed and breaking news that
didn't ever hit the "front page")
More News -
all the news most recently
posted on this website
All the News - a running tab of
everything posted on this website since October 29, 2003
click here to
download Adobe Reader click
here for Picks
of the Week click
here for the old "Recommended List"
To receive daily "top stories" updates, send an email to
sandym@touchngo.com with the words "subscribe
top stories" in the subject line. For today's
top stories, click
here.
►March 10, 2004 -
Breaking the rules on artifical blood - New Scientist via
www.eurekalert.org - "Numerous past attempts to
develop synthetic blood have failed because doctors got the basic science wrong,
claim a handful of researchers...This week it was announced that a blood
substitute based on their alternative theories is looking promising in an early
trial. Developing a suitable blood substitute for people has been a major effort
for decades. An artificial blood would relieve shortages and prevent patients
being infected by contaminated supplies...Ideally, it could be given to anyone
without triggering rejection, so accident victims could be given transfusions
immediately without testing to see what blood group they are. And a long-lasting
form that does not need to be kept cold would be ideal for use in disasters,
wars and remote areas. But company after company has worked on substitutes only
to abandon their efforts because of safety concerns."
►March 10, 2004 -
Better
Drug for Killer Bugs - Ivanhoe - "New research shows a powerful new drug can
reduce hospital infections and keep patients alive...Francis Tally, M.D., from
Cubist Pharmaceuticals, has studied hospital-acquired infections most of his
career. He says a new drug he has helped develop can quickly eliminate
gram-positive infections...The FDA approved the drug in November 2003 to treat
gram-positive infections. The drug, called daptomycin (Cubicin), is an
antibiotic that fights bacteria in the body. It is used to treat bacterial
infections of the skin and underlying skin structures. Dr. Tally tells Ivanhoe:
'It’s a new class of drugs. It’s a natural product from a soil organism and has
potent activity against all gram-positive organisms.'”
►March 10, 2004 -
Pediatricians are Right on - JAMA
via Ivanhoe - "New research shows pediatricians who relied on their own judgment
rather than clinical guidelines to treat infants with fever were often more
accurate in prognosis."
►March 10, 2004 - One
pill for obesity and smoking - Scientists are developing a pill that helps
people quit smoking and slim down at the same time. - BBC
►March 10, 2004 -
Management and
Outcomes of Care of Fever in Early Infancy - journal article
(JAMA) - "Conclusions
Pediatric clinicians in the United Statesuse individualized clinical
judgment in treating febrile infants.In this study, relying on
current clinical guidelines wouldnot have improved care but would
have resulted in more hospitalizationsand laboratory testing."
►March 9, 2004 -
Question on US Anthrax Test - At ASM biodefense meeting, scientists say
methods are not based on solid science - The Scientist via
www.biomedcentral.com - "More than
two years after the US anthrax letter attacks, the standard testing procedures
for detecting the disease on indoor surfaces remain unreliable and unproven,
according to two scientists who have studied the problem. The likely inaccuracy
of those methods may leave the nation unable to determine the extent of
contamination should another attack occur, they said at the annual
American Society of
Microbiology (ASM) Biodefense research meeting in Baltimore today (March
9)."
►March 9, 2004 - Euros
concerned for US science - Scientists worried that politics is damaging
science in the US-and the world - The Scientist via
www.biomedcentral.com - "Some
European scientists are growing increasingly concerned at the potential wider
ramifications of what they see as political interference with scientific freedom
in the US...Scientists interviewed by The Scientist in recent days said
they believed that continued political interference from the Bush administration
would not only have a negative impact on the quality of US science, but
eventually on global science."
►March 4, 2004 - Tears
of rage wept in France - Researchers take to the streets of Paris in
mourning for the 'death' of science - The Scientist via
www.biomedcentral.com - "French
researchers came together across the capital yesterday to mark a day of mourning
for science. "Sciences at half mast" took place 1 week to the day before the
planned
mass resignation of research directors on March 9...Several gatherings were
organized throughout the city. Black humor sketches were scheduled to take place
in front of Jussieu University, home to many of the capital's science students.
At the Museum of Natural History, researchers were due to celebrate the first
public appearance of the homo scientificus...'Like Pasteur, we are all
enraged,' said
Alain Fisher, a specialist in genetic therapies from the Necker hospital.
'It seems that these days, it is better to be a young waiter than a young
researcher.'"
►March 4, 2004 - New
ethics rules at NIH - Top scientists now required to reveal financial ties
to companies dealing with agency - The Scientist via
www.biomedcentral.com - "Senior
officials at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) must now file public
financial disclosure forms revealing their incomes as well as any stock, fees,
and payments from pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that have dealings
with the agency. The policy change was announced Monday (March 1) at the first
meeting of NIH's Blue Ribbon Panel on Conflict of Interest Policies. Previously,
NIH officials had been required to disclose this information, but the reports
remained confidential."
►March 10, 2004 -
Whooping
Cough Outbreak Grows - www.wcax.com - "Cases
of pertussis, better known as whooping cough, continue to pop up in New York's
North Country...Adolescents between the ages of 11 and 14 seem to be at the
highest risk. Seventy-percent of all the cases in Clinton County fall into this
age group. Because pertussis is passed through saliva, health officials are
urging everyone to practise what they call 'respiratory etiquette'.
Comment: We could lessen both our
real and perceived needs for medication and vaccines by using common sense.
►March 11, 2004 -
Mass. lawmakers
consider meningitis vaccine bill - Proposed bill would require college
students to either take shot or sign waiver - The Tufts Daily - "Dr. Margaret
Higham, the medical director of Tufts Health Services, said that the Menomune
vaccine 'protects against two-thirds of the strands of the disease and has very
few side effects. Tufts strongly recommends it, but does not require the
vaccination.'"
►March 2, 2004 -
DNA-boosted sunscreen may fight cancer - Therapy fools cells into protecting
themselves from sun. - Nature Science Update via
www.nature.com - "The incidence of skin cancer has increased around 20-fold
since the 1930s, thanks largely to people's penchant for sunbathing and exotic
holidays. When UV rays in sunlight hit skin cells' DNA, they causes mutations
that can make cells multiply and form skin tumours...Today's sunscreens, which
passively block damaging UV rays, are sometimes ineffective because users often
do not apply them frequently enough or in sufficient quantities. So, many
researchers are seeking ingredients that actively help cells fight or repair sun
damage."
Comment: Or could the ongoing increase
in skin cancer be due not to misuse of sunscreens, but because people MISTAKENLY
think sunscreens prevent skin cancer and are spending even more time in the sun
than they would otherwise? For more on this go to
Sunscreen 'increases
cancer risk'
►March 4, 2004 -
Scientists behaving badly - Journal editors reveal researchers' wicked ways.
- Nature Science Update via www.nature.com -
"They lie, they cheat and they steal. Judging by the cases described by a group
of medical journal editors, scientists are no different from the rest of
us...Last week's annual report1 of the Committee on
Publishing Ethics details the misdemeanours that the group of journal editors
grappled with in 2003. Although the number of reported cases - 29 - is tiny
compared with the tens of thousands of papers published in medical journals
every year, the cases cover a wide range of unethical activity, from attempted
bribery to potential medical malpractice.'
Comment: And how many more cases went
unreported? This has to be but the tip of the iceberg.
►March 11, 2004 -
Flu vaccines for
all? - As a federal advisory panel considers recommending universal
vaccination, some groups point out drawbacks. - Christian Science Monitor -
"Advocates say the program would reduce incidence of the disease and, quite
possibly, reduce fatalities. It would also give drug manufacturers a
larger and predictable market for their vaccines, so that shortages would not
occur during major epidemics. But some observers are balking. Many
Americans have ethical, medical, or religious objections to being vaccinated,
they point out. Others suffer from side effects of the vaccine."
►March 11, 2004 -
Alternative vaccine for smallpox - A new smallpox vaccine has produced
encouraging results in tests on monkeys and mice. - BBC - "Research, published
in Nature, showed the vaccine protected monkeys from the related condition
monkeypox...And a Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study suggests
it may be better tolerated by people with weakened immune systems."
►March 10, 2004 -
Effectiveness of safer smallpox vaccine demonstrated against monkeypox - NIH/National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases via
www.eurekalert.org - "A mild,
experimental smallpox vaccine known as modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA) is nearly
as effective as the standard smallpox vaccine in protecting monkeys against
monkeypox, a study by researchers of the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases (NIAID), one of the National Institutes of Health, has
found. Monkeypox is used to test the effectiveness of a smallpox vaccine because
of its similarity to the smallpox virus. The study appears in the March 11 issue
of Nature...'These findings are important to the search for a replacement
vaccine for people with health conditions that would prevent them from using the
current smallpox vaccine,' says Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of NIAID.
Currently, Dryvax is the only commercially available smallpox vaccine in the
United States. 'In addition, because an initial MVA injection may help lessen
the side effects experienced from Dryvax, MVA may serve as an important
pre-vaccine for large-scale vaccination efforts in the event of a bioterror
threat involving smallpox.'"
►March 10, 2004 -
New
smallpox vaccine appears safer in tests - An experimental smallpox vaccine
believed to be safer than the traditional vaccination has been shown in
laboratory tests to effectively protect monkeys and mice against a pox virus,
researchers say. - AP via CNN
►March 10, 2004 -
'Death knell' hope in meningitis fight -
www.manchesteronline.co.uk -
"RESEARCHERS at a health protection lab in Manchester are working on a vaccine
that could spell the end for meningitis...Head of vaccines research Ray Borrow
is now testing three possible vaccines for meningitis B...But there is still no
vaccine to protect against the most common deadly strain of the disease -
meningitis B, which mostly affects children under the age of five, killing one
in every 10 infected children each year."
►March 10, 2004 -
Meningitec Vaccine Debuts to Combat Meningitis In Canada - Wyeth
Pharmaceutiques via Doctor's Guide - "Meningitec™, a vaccine developed to
protect against the bacteria that cause meningitis C, is now available in
Canada. Together with Prevnar®, the only vaccine approved to prevent
pneumococcal disease in children as young as two months of age, Canadian parents
are now able to help protect their children against the leading forms of
bacterial meningitis."
Breaking News Archives
- each day's breaking news from December 1, 2003
(check here for breaking news you might have missed and breaking news that
didn't ever hit the "front page")
More News -
all the news most recently
posted on this website
All the News - a running tab of
everything posted on this website since October 29, 2003
DISCLAIMER: All
information, data, and material contained, presented, or provided here is for
general information purposes only and is not to be construed as reflecting the
knowledge or opinions of the publisher, and is not to be construed or intended
as providing medical or legal advice. The decision whether or not to vaccinate
is an important and complex issue and should be made by you, and you alone, in
consultation with your health care provider.
"A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth."
-- Albert Einstein, letter to a friend, 1901
"I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves, and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education."
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to William C. Jarvis, September 28, 1820
"What's the point of vaccination if it doesn't protect you from the unvaccinated?"
-- Sandy Gottstein
"Who gets to decide what the greater good is and how many will be sacrificed to it?"
