SanLuisObispo.com: Health

Volcano erupts in Iceland, hundreds evacuated

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 06:22 PDT

By By GUDJON HELGASON and PAISLEY DODDS -- A volcano erupted near a glacier in southern Iceland, shooting ash and molten lava into the air and forcing the evacuation Sunday of hundreds of people from nearby villages.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, but a state of emergency was declared and scientists feared the eruption could trigger a larger and potentially more dangerous eruption at the Katla volcano.

Saturday's eruption, which occurred just before midnight (2000 EDT, 8 p.m. EDT), came weeks after a series of small earthquakes. Television footage showed lava flows along the fissure.

Demise of coral, salamander show impact of Web

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 05:22 PDT

The Internet has emerged as one of the greatest threats rare species, fueling the illegal wildlife trade and making it easier to buy everything from live baby lions to wine made from tiger bones, conservationists said Sunday.

The Web's impact was made clear at the meeting of the 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES. Delegates voted overwhelmingly Sunday to ban the trade of the Kaiser's spotted newt which the World Wildlife Fund says has been devastated by the Internet trade.

The United States and Sweden, meanwhile are proposing to regulate the trade in red and pink coral which is crafted into expensive jewelry and sold extensively on the web.

Nepalese doc is God of Sight to poor

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 21:09 PDT

By By MARGIE MASON -- Raj Kaliya Dhanuk sits on a wooden bench, barefoot, with a tattered sari covering thin arms as rough as bark. Thick clear tears bleed from her eyes, milky saucers that stare at nothing.

For nearly a year, cataracts have clouded out all sight from the 70-year-old grandmother's world. With no money, she assumed she'd die alone in darkness. But now she waits quietly outside the operating room for her turn to meet Nepal's God of Sight.

"I am desperate. If only I could see my family again," she whispers in her native tongue. "I feel so bad when I hear the baby cry because I can't help him. I want to pick him up."

Study: Lesser-known bug a bigger hospital threat

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 06:21 PDT

By By MIKE STOBBE -- As one superbug seems to be fading as a threat in hospitals, another is on the rise, a new study suggests.

A dangerous, drug-resistant staph infection called MRSA is often seen as the biggest germ threat to patients in hospitals and other health care facilities. But infections from Clostridium difficile - known as C-diff - are surpassing MRSA infections, the study of 28 hospitals in the Southeast found.

"I think MRSA is almost a household name. Everybody thinks of MRSA as a serious threat," said Dr. Becky Miller, an infectious diseases specialist at Duke University Medical Center. She presented the research Saturday in Atlanta, at a medical conference on infection in health care facilities.

Testing overseas may explain big drop in TB cases

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:37 PDT

By By MIKE STOBBE -- An unexpected big drop in new U.S. tuberculosis cases is probably because of stepped up screening and treatment of immigrants before they leave their native countries, health officials say.

The nation's TB rate dropped more than 11 percent last year, the largest single-year decrease in more than 50 years of federal record keeping, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported this week. TB rates have been falling, but generally about 4 percent a year.

The drop was so steep that some experts are cautious about celebrating. While testing overseas may explain the decline, underdiagnosis and undertreatment could also be factors, the CDC said. A final report is due in the fall.

Doctors, AARP support new health overhaul bill

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:02 PDT

By By CARLA K. JOHNSON -- The nation's largest association of doctors and the AARP senior citizens' lobby are endorsing President Barack Obama's revised health overhaul legislation.

James Rohack, president of the American Medical Association, said Friday that the pending bill isn't perfect, but it's the next step toward real reform of the nation's health care system.

"This is certainly not the bill we would have written, but we cannot let the perfect be the enemy of the good," Rohack said.

Correction: WHO drug-resistant TB story

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:32 PDT

In a March 18 story about drug-resistant tuberculosis, The Associated Press reported erroneously that there were no U.S. cases in 2008 of extensively drug-resistant TB. There were four cases in 2008 and no cases in 2009, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Report: USDA lax in policing organics marketing

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 19:07 PDT

By By MARY CLARE JALONICK -- The Agriculture Department has failed to enforce penalties against some who falsely marketed foods as organic, according to an internal department investigation.

A report by the agency's inspector general says the agency needs to step up enforcement of those who sell products under the "USDA Organic" label but do not meet government standards to do so. The report says the department has made improvements in maintaining the integrity of the organic program in recent years, but needs to better handle complaints about potential violators.

Oversight of the organic program has become more important and more scrutinized as the industry has exploded in popularity over the last decade, growing 14 to 21 percent annually with sales of $24.6 billion in 2008. As more companies have vied to be part of the business, critics have charged that the government has not been restrictive enough in what it allows to be labeled as organic.

Geneva atom smasher sets record for beam energy

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 04:44 PDT

By By ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS -- Operators of the world's largest atom smasher on Friday ramped up their massive machine to three times the energy ever previously achieved, in the run-up to experiments probing the secrets of the universe.

The European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, said beams of protons circulated at 3.5 trillion electron volts in both directions around the 27-kilometer (17-mile) tunnel housing the Large Hadron Collider under the Swiss-French border at Geneva.

The next major development is expected in a few days when CERN starts colliding the beams in a new round of research to examine the tiniest particles and forces within the atom in hopes of finding out more about how matter is made up.

Life�s one long drama for overreactors

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 21:18 PDT

By Linda Lewis Griffith -- �My girlfriend overreacts to the least little thing,� the young man confided in my office. �She worries if I don�t immediately return her phone calls. She breaks into tears if dinner doesn�t turn out as she planned. I love her. She�s tender and caring. But everything is such a production!�

This mountain-out-of-a-molehill woman doesn�t mean to create unnecessary strife and drama. Her intentions and devotion are beyond reproach. Still, her excessive, often inappropriate, reactions are exhausting to her friends and loved ones and make them reluctant to get involved in her projects or events.

Overreactors tend to be anxious, fretful people for whom the tiniest mishap elicits an earth-shattering response. They�re also emotionally inflexible. They have trouble adapting to minor changes. They�re easily overwhelmed by life�s minor curve balls and fall to pieces when things don�t go as planned.

FDA panel backs implant for mild heart failure

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:26 PDT

By By MATTHEW PERRONE -- Federal health advisers said Thursday an electronic heart implant should be approved for a large group of heart-disease patients who currently aren't eligible for the device.

A Food and Drug Administration panel of cardiologists voted unanimously in favor of Boston Scientific's heart-regulating device to treat mild heart failure, so long as the company tracks the long-term safety of patients.

The FDA is not required to follow the panel's advice, though it often does. Currently the device is approved for moderate to severe heart failure.

Correction: Hospice-Defibrillator story

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:25 PDT

In a story March 15 about hospices being slow to turn off patients' defibrillators, The Associated Press reported erroneously the proportion that had a way to identify implant recipients. The study found 20 percent had a method to do so, not one in 20.

Cloak of invisibility takes a step forward

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:21 PDT

By By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID -- From Grimm's fairy tales to Harry Potter, the cloak of invisibility has played a major role in fiction. Now scientists have taken a small but important new step toward making it reality.

Researchers at Germany's Karlsruhe Institute of Technology report they were able to cloak a tiny bump in a layer of gold, preventing its detection at nearly visible infrared frequencies.

Their cloaking device also worked in three dimensions, while previously developed cloaks worked in two dimensions, lead researcher Tolga Ergin said.

AP Enterprise: NASA, cruise line got flu shots

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:45 PDT

By By MIKE STOBBE -- Last fall, as swine flu cases mounted and parents desperately sought to protect their kids, the hard-to-get vaccine was handed out in some surprising places: the Royal Caribbean cruise line, the headquarters of drug giant Merck, the Johnson Space Center and a Department of Energy office in Idaho.

In some cases, financial institutions and other recipients got doses before some county health departments and doctors' offices, according to records obtained by The Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Also, even though the federal government spent more than $1.6 billion to manufacture and distribute the vaccine, there is no complete record of where it went.

Gates-linked vaccine group wants $4.3 billion

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 07:14 PDT

By By BRADLEY S. KLAPPER -- A global vaccine initiative launched with the help of Bill Gates is seeking $4.3 billion in new funding to ramp up child immunization campaigns against deadly diseases such as hepatitis B, diarrhea and pneumonia in the developing world.

The Geneva-based GAVI alliance, launched a decade ago as a partner of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said governments and other donors could help save 4.2 million lives if they meet the funding demands through 2015.

It will make its appeal for the cash at a meeting next week in The Hague, Netherlands. The group already has $2.7 billion in the bank for its programs over the next five years, meaning its total budget would be about $7 billion.

WHO: Not sure if drug-resistant TB is worsening

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:04 PDT

By By MARIA CHENG -- The World Health Organization says it doesn't have enough information to know if it is winning the fight against drug-resistant tuberculosis.

In a new report on the global status of drug-resistant TB based on data from 2008, the agency says almost half of all people with the disease are in China and India, with both countries reporting about 100,000 new cases each.

High rates of drug-resistant TB strains were also seen in eastern Europe and central Asia, with up to 60 percent of people who already had TB in some parts of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan developing drug-resistant versions.