Scientists Hope to Figt MRSA, E.Coli With - Cockroaches and Locusts

MRSA, E.Coli With - Cockroaches and Locusts 

Scientists have reason to believe that cockroaches and locusts, which are widely reviled for their dirty image, could actually be more of a Health benefit than a health risk. Scientists at Nottingham University have discovered that the insects contain powerful antibiotic molecules in their brains that could be used to develop new treatments against MRSA and E-coli.

They have identified up to nine different molecules in the tissues of cockroaches and locusts that are toxic to bacteria and they hope will pave the way for new treatments for multi-drug resistant bacterial infections. The tissues of the brain and nervous system of the insects were able to kill more than 90 percent of MRSA and E.coli bacteria, without harming human cells.

"We hope that these molecules could eventually be developed into treatments for E. coli and MRSA infections that are increasingly resistant to current drugs," the Telegraph quoted Simon Lee, a postgraduate researcher who is presenting his work at the Society for General Microbiology's autumn meeting in Nottingham, as saying. "Also, these new antibiotics could potentially provide alternatives to currently available drugs that may be effective but have serious and unwanted side effects," he added.

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Consultant-Led Models Can Help Reduce Surgery Complications

Doctors In Operation Theater

The Acute Care Surgery ACS model, which is consultant-led, provides a safe surgical environment for patients and is associated with a reduced complication rate, according to an article in the Medical Journal of Australia.Dr Robert Gandy, Surgical Registrar at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, and co-authors conducted a retrospective historical control study, comparing appendicectomy outcomes for the ACS model with the traditional on-call (Trad) model.Dr Gandy said that the ACS model, when compared with the Trad model, resulted in reduced complication rates and fewer operations after midnight.The complication rate was lower in the ACS model than the Trad model (9.3 per cent versus 17.0 per cent).

After the intervention, there was no significant change between the ACS and Trad model in the time from presentation to arrival in theatre or length of stay, but the proportion of operations performed at night was reduced from 22.7 per cent (Trad model) to 17.3 per cent (ACS model). The ACS model is consultant-led. This means that a higher proportion of patients are reviewed by a consultant before surgery than in the Trad model (54.9 per cent versus 38.1 per cent). The consultant supervision reduces adverse outcomes without compromising registrar training opportunities, and is likely to reinforce patients confidence in their care.

“By implementing a consultant-led system and a culture in which emergency surgery is prioritised and separated from the elective surgical stream, complications and unnecessary operations after midnight can be reduced”, said Dr Gandy. The Medical Journal of Australia is a publication of the Australian Medical Association.

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Study Shows How Cancer 'Eats Patients Alive'

Cancer Patient

A recent theory proposed by scientists concerns how cancer cells grow and survive. The finding could help researchers design better diagnostiacs and therapies to target high-risk cancer patients.A large team of researchers at Thomas Jefferson University's Kimmel cancer center conducted four new studies.This new idea also explains why so many cancer patients say that "their cancer is eating them alive" - an accurate observation that has never been understood, the researchers say.

These four new studies provide evidence that tumor growth and metastasis is directly "fueled" by normal supporting cells. These supporting cells are called fibroblasts, and they produce the stroma (connective tissue) that surrounds tumor cells. As the cancer progresses, increasing numbers of these stromal cells eat themselves to provide recycled nutrients to tumor cells - leading to dramatic weight loss in patients. They also found that without recycled nutrients provided by fibroblasts, tumor cells are more fragile and die. Based on this breakthrough, the researchers propose that available drugs (now on the market), which sever the "parasitic" connection between tumor cells and fibroblasts, may be effective therapeutics.

"We think we have finally figured out how cancer really works - and this reverses 85 years of dogma, upon which current cancer research and therapy is based," says the study's senior investigator, Michael P. Lisanti, M.D., Ph.D., Chairman of Jefferson's Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine.

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Clinic's abortion license revoked

Baby in mothers womb

The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals ordered a Shreveport abortion clinic Friday to cease performing the procedures after determining the clinic's operating procedures were putting patients at risk.Agents from the DHH said they found the Hope Medical Group for Women, 210 Kings Highway, failed to administer physicals prior to procedures, properly administer anesthesia or monitor anesthetized patients' vital signs, according to the DHH license revocation letter.

"These are some of the most basic medical practices they were excluding," said Anthony Keck interim secretary for the Louisiana DHH. "They were out of compliance with several major licensing standards." Louisiana Act No. 490, signed into law earlier this year, requires the clinic to immediately suspend operations because of DHH findings and the revocation of their license. The clinic has 30 days to put forward an appeal. Before this law, abortion clinics could continue operations during the months-long appeal process, Keck said, The Hope Medical Group for Women is the first clinic in the state shut down utilizing the power of the new law.The infractions were discovered during an unannounced annual survey Aug. 11-13 from the Health Standards organization of the DHH, Keck said.

"Whenever there's an action against a facility like this, there's a lot of thought that goes into it," Keck said. "The violations were so egregious and so consistent that we felt it was necessary to order them to cease and desist immediately." No physicals were conducted before any of the 14 procedures the agents reviewed, Keck said. He said physicals are necessary before anesthetizing patients who could have complicated medical backgrounds making anesthesia dangerous.

The DHH also found the clinic failed to have a trained professional monitor patients' level of consciousness, respiratory and cardiovascular status after the administration of intravenous medications and sedative gases, among other infractions relating to sedation, according to the letter.The clinic's patient service manager, Kathleen Pittman, said she knew nothing about the license suspension.

"This is the first I'm hearing of it," she said. "We closed at 5 p.m. and had not received any such notice."The health department said it faxed the notice to the clinic Friday afternoon.Pittman said the facility normally operates Monday through Saturday. Besides abortion procedures, the clinic offers pregnancy testing and counseling, emergency contraception and adoption referrals.The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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Health Q&A on flu vaccines

swine flu

Q: I know I might be a little early, but what do I need to know now about flu vaccination for the upcoming flu season?

A: The worldwide outbreak of H1N1 influenza ("flu") caused the medical community to look carefully at past recommendations for flu vaccine use. As a result, new guidelines are now in place for the next flu season. The goal is to make flu immunity by vaccination more universal and thereby reduce risk to the community as a whole. Following the new recommendations for vaccine use and practicing habits that reduce your risk of virus exposure can greatly decrease your chances of catching the flu in the next season.

Vaccine experts met in February at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and recommended by consensus that all individuals over 6 months should get the flu vaccine for the 2010-2011 season. The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices supports the advice. Both the nasal spray and injected vaccines for 2010-2011 combine coverage of the H1N1 virus with two other flu viruses that are expected to move through communities in the coming year.

As in the past, people at the highest risk of severe illness and complications from the flu definitely need to get the vaccine. The risk groups include young children, pregnant women, people with chronic health conditions such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease and lung disorders and people over age 65. The goal of universal protection, however, will require that as many people as possible over 6 months get vaccinated.Following the vaccine recommendation can significantly reduce risk of flu to you and your family.

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Flu shots received by half of California health care workers

flu season

During the 2008-2009 flu season, according to a consumer group, just over half of workers received flu shots. For workers from nearly 250 and hospital groups, according to the Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports, said that state public health department data shows an overall vaccination rate of just over 52 percent. Reports have stated that for preventing workers from transmitting flu to patients, a vaccination rate of about 80 per cent is needed and the present rate is below this. There were less than one-quarter of health workers according to some California hospitals who had received shots.

Vaccination rates that were more than 80 per cent were reported by only a handful of hospitals. Consumers Union also stated that more than 100 hospitals for which data was unavailable were not included in the report. CDC Director Thomas Frieden said, "We don't know what this season will hold, but we do expect there will be more vaccine available at a better time.”

Reports sated that it was believed that the 2009 H1N1 virus did not do as it was expected to but there were 274,000 people hospitalized and about 61 million people were sickened that led to 12,470 deaths.

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Study reveals new warning signs that may predict kidney transplant failure

A new study has suggested that kidney transplants that show a combination of fibrosis (scarring) and inflammation after one year are at higher risk of long-term transplant failure.

kidney 

 The researchers analyzed factors related to transplant survival in 151 patients who had no apparent problems after living-donor kidney transplantation.One- year biopsies showed no abnormalities in 57 percent of kidneys; another 30 percent had fibrosis (scarring) but no inflammation. In these two groups, the transplanted kidney continued to function normally from one to five years'' follow-up.

However, in the remaining 13 percent of transplants, the biopsies showed fibrosis plus inflammation. These transplants had declining kidney function and a reduced long-term survival rate. Kidneys showing fibrosis plusin flammation also had increased numbers of immune cells as well as a "rejection-like" gene expression signature.Thus, in apparently normal kidney transplants, biopsies showing fibrosis and inflammation signal kidney damage and an increased risk of long-term failure. "It is likely that the intragraft environment of patients with fibrosis and inflammation is damaging to the allograft," says Stegall.Without routine "protocol" biopsies, these warning signs would go undetected until clinical abnormalities developed, comments Mark D. Stegall, MD (Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN).

"The use of protocol biopsies allows for more detailed investigations of the intragraft environment," he says. "Such routine biopsies could provide a unique way to predict which kidney transplant recipients may be at increased risk for loss of kidney function, or to identify potential targets for early preventative treatment."The study appears in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).

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Migraine management boosts sufferers' ability to self-manage symptoms

Psychological treatments could offer migraine sufferers a confidence boost in their ability to self-manage their symptoms, according to a new study.

Migraine

In the study, Elizabeth Seng and Dr. Kenneth Holroyd from Ohio University in the US compared the effects of various treatment combinations for severe migraine - drug therapy with or without behavioral management. And they showed that those patients receiving the behavioural management program alongside drug therapy are significantly more confident in their ability to use behavioural skills to effectively self-manage migraines.And surprisingly, the increase in confidence in self-management abilities is greatest among those who feel that they have very little control over their condition before treatment starts. 

The researchers analyzed data for 176 participants in the US Treatment of Severe Migraine Trial. Treatment programs included acute drug therapy for all, with either ß-blockers or placebo - each with or without behavioral migraine management. The behavioural migraine management program consisted of demonstrations of migraine management skills during four monthly clinic visits, which were then applied between sessions by participants through workbooks, audiotape lessons, and guided home practice. 

Their analyses showed that the addition of behavioral migraine management to drug therapy dramatically increased participants' confidence in their ability to effectively self-manage migraine, compared to migraine drug therapy alone. Behavioral management also increased participants' belief that migraine can be influenced by one's own behaviour and decreased the belief that migraines are primarily influenced by chance or fate. 

"Our exploratory analyses offer an optimistic message: brief psychological interventions for migraine management can effectively increase sufferers' confidence in self-management and can be long-lasting," concluded the authors.Psychological interventions enhanced drug therapy, enabling participants to take a more active role in their treatment by using behavioral skills to manage migraines. The findings are published online in Springer's journal Annals of Behavioral Medicine.

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Drugs to fight bone thinning double cancer risk

Hundreds of thousands of women taking drugs to reverse bone thinning could be doubling their oesophagus (gut) cancer risk.

                                         
                                                   

A major study shows those taking bisphosphonate (a class of drugs used to strengthen bone) drugs for five years, the recommended duration to improve bone strength, are at highest risk, but any level of use was linked to excess risk. Around 1.4 million British women are eligible for treatment because of osteoporosis, but a quarter do not respond or suffer crippling stomach side-effects, reports the Daily Mail. Patients can avoid these symptoms by taking their pills on empty stomach and stay upright for 30 minutes before eating and drinking, say doctors. It is thought that gastric reflux, where stomach acid flows back up the food pipe, may cause precancerous changes, according to the British Medical Journal.Researchers from the University of Oxford's cancer epidemiology unit and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) looked at the use of oral bisphosphonates, including Fosamax, and three types of cancer. For those taking the drugs for at least three years - five years on average - the risk was more than double compared with those who had never taken them. Typically, oesophageal cancer develops in one per 1,000 people aged 60 to 79 years over five years. Five years' use of the drugs would push this up to two cases per 1,000.

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West Nile at all-time high in Suffolk

                                                   

Virus

West Nile virus is at an all-time high in Suffolk County, as an additional 48 mosquito samples tested positive Aug. 18-20 in areas that included Rocky Point.The latest positive samples bring Suffolk's total for the season up to 196, compared with just 17 positive samples last year, officials said, good for a record high for the county since 1999, when West Nile Virus was first discovered in New York. One Rocky Point sample tested positive.Four people have contracted West Nile virus this season in Suffolk, compared to just one case last season.'With the amount of virus present, you really don't want to get bitten.'Dr. Scott Campbell, Suffolk County Department of Health Services

Since West Nile virus hit New York over a decade ago, four people who contracted the virus have died; two people died in 2002, as well as two people in 2003, according to the county Department of Health Services.In early August, health officials announced an emergency public health threat in Suffolk, and two county parks were shut down at night due to risk of the virus.Scott Campbell, chief of the arthropod-borne-disease laboratory at the health department, said the reason for the high numbers of positive mosquito samples and cases of the virus is the combination of the recent wet spring and the current dry summer. He said limited water forces birds and mosquitoes -- who carry West Nile virus and give it to each other in a cyclical fashion -- to concentrate in the same areas. He said a wet spring and dry summer is the equation for a huge increase in West Nile virus.

"This year is the perfect storm when it comes to that combination," Dr. Campbell said.He said preventing mosquito bites and breeding is essential."With the amount of virus present, you really don't want to get bitten," he said.He suggested emptying water from containers, buckets, wheelbarrows and tires in yards, where mosquitoes are likely to breed.To combat the prevalence of mosquitoes, the county has sprayed pesticides in areas of Suffolk. Further mosquito spraying is planned for Southaven County Park and parts of Yaphank and Shirley.The county urges residents to avoid mosquito bites by using mosquito repellent when outdoors, putting up screens on all windows and doors and minimizing time spent outdoors between dusk and dawn.

In a press release, the health department advised residents to properly drain roof gutters, change water in birdbaths, and clean and chlorinate swimming pools to prevent mosquito breeding.West Nile virus is a disease that can attack the nervous system. Symptoms are sometimes nonexistent but can include fever, headache, disorientation, coma, muscle weakness and numbness. To report mosquito problems or stagnant pools of water, call the West Nile virus hotline in Suffolk County at 631-787-2200.

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