Category: Health Care News

This week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved OraQuick in-Home HIV Test, the first ever over-the-counter test that allows people to determine whether they are infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus in the privacy of their own home. This will make it easy for you and me to know whether we are infected with the deadly HIV, but how reliable is this test?

OraQuick is extremely accurate when conducted by professionals but it does become less reliable when done by do-it-yourselfers who are the main target of the OraQuick in-Home HIV test. According to the New York Times, researchers have found that the home test is “accurate 99.98 percent of the time for people who do not have the virus”. This means that about one in 5,000 people would have a false positive test. In other words, OraQuick in-Home test will say that said person is positive for HIV even when s/he in fact does not have the disease.

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Public health win: FDA ordered to act to stem antibiotic overuse in farm animals

It’s a hellish and frightening prospect — the chance of acquiring Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA), a staph bacterial infection that’s resistant to methicillin and common antibiotics like oxacillin, penicillin and amoxicillin.

Most commonly manifesting as ghastly, pus-filled pustules or boils that are red, swollen and painful, MRSA can quickly develop into a severe and life-threatening infection of the bloodstream, lung or heart.

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UK charity aims to lower rising numbers of diabetic foot amputations. A new initiative called ‘Putting Feet First’ aims to slash the numbers of amputations carried out on diabetics by a half over the next five years.

Sam Wright, 56, from Conlig, Northern Ireland is one of a growing number of diabetics in the United Kingdom who have lost limbs to amputation.

Diagnosed with type 2 diabetes more than 10 years ago, Wright admits that he didn’t immediately take care of his condition until December 2008, when he began to experience problems with his left foot.

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Just in case you missed it, here’s something straight out of a sci-fi thriller—except that it’s true and has been recently in the news: Scientists in a lab, working on a dangerous virus that usually kills half of those infected, have mutated it to make it as contagious as the common flu.

For as long as the virus remains locked up in a lab, we’re safe. But what if the virus escapes—or gets into the hands of bioterrorists? Unleashed, the virus could trigger a pandemic that would kill millions around the world.

So far, the Dutch scientist and the University of Wisconsin-Madison virologist whose bird flu researches sparked recent global controversy have agreed (on Jan. 20)—together with 37 other bird flu scientists—to suspend their research for 60 days.

Continue reading “Bird Superflu Virus: Yoshihiro Kawaoka & Ron Fouchier Research Halted”

A sleep disorder that interrupts breathing can raise women’s risk of dying from heart attacks and having other cardiovascular problems in much the same way as it does for men.

What’s more, obstructive sleep apnea is also linked with sudden hearing loss, particularly in men.

These are recent findings of two independent studies, the first one by researchers from Spain, and the second from a new study in Taiwan.

But treating severe apnea at night with a mask and breathing device called continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP, can also help reduce the risk of heart attack deaths in women with apnea—just as it can in men, the Spanish researchers report.

Continue reading “Sleep Apnea Health Risks: Heart Attack & Deafness?”

AICAR Exercise Pill Benefits: It Prevents Heatstroke?: Here’s good news for athletes who are raring to compete in, say, Tucson, Arizona on a hot summer day or cocky soldiers wanting to go on this summer’s tour of duty to Afghanistan, but who are barred from doing so because of an extreme heat sensitivity called malignant hyperthermia.

New research shows that the compound dubbed the AICAR exercise pill or “couch potato pill” because it slows muscle fatigue and improves muscle endurance without exercise may also be used to prevent heatstroke—at least in mice. The findings are found in a paper published by the journal Nature Medicine.

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