Local NYC news outlets are abuzz with the news that there has been an outbreak of measles among ultra-orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn this year. It’s thought that a family visiting from London that had not been vaccinated against the disease initiated the current outbreak. The infants and toddlers who acquired the disease in Brooklyn [...]
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Before rotavirus vaccines were on the market, the disease caused more than 200,000 annual emergency room visits, 55,000 to 70,000 hospitalizations and 20 to 60 child deaths in the United States alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Rotavirus causes severe diarrhea and is responsible for an estimated half a million deaths of [...]
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ACSH has been in the forefront of countering specious fears about vaccines — that MMR shots cause autism, polio vaccines sterilize Muslim or Hindu girls, or that the HPV vaccine will lead to promiscuity, for example. Now some researchers have developed a surveillance system, reported in The Lancet, to track vaccine mentions, and used it [...]
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Girls in developing countries will have a chance to get vaccinated against cervical cancer, thanks to two pharmaceutical giants and top health groups. Merck & Co. and GlaxoSmithKline PLC have agreed to chop the price of their HPV vaccines, Gardasil and Cervarix, to as little as U.S. $4.50 per dose. The vaccines cost about $130 [...]
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Kudos are due to the editorial board of the San Diego Union-Tribune for their stand against a proposal to levy a penny-an-ounce tax on a wide variety of beverages — including sports and energy drinks and bottled teas, among others. The monies raised via these proposed taxes are aimed, ostensibly, at helping the fight against [...]
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A new meta-analysis suggests that breast cancer may be more deadly for women who have cosmetic implants, largely thought to be a result of receiving the diagnosis at a later stage. Study authors explain that the breast implants are “radio-opaque” — meaning they appear “light” on the dark breast tissue background — which makes it [...]
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Fans of irony will be hard-pressed to suppress a smile here. Researchers at The University of Guelph in Ontario are developing a novel vaccine which may help control the gastrointestinal symptoms that are commonly seen in children with autism. The vaccine will have no direct effect on the behavioral aspects of the disease, nor will it in any [...]
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“Just say no” is the message from a new study published in the latest edition of JAMA Internal Medicine. The authors noted that the value of the PSA (prostate-specific antigen) test as a screening tool to detect prostate cancer has been in question for years (particularly for older men), but now the evidence against PSA’s benefit as [...]
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Alcoholism, an extremely widespread disease with devastating consequences, takes a huge toll on individuals, families and society at large. But, despite this, alcoholics have one real option: quitting outright (AA) with or without the help of drugs. But the drugs available are woefully inadequate— Antibuse, which has its own problems with toxicity, makes people violently ill after they consume even one [...]
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An influential panel of experts, the United States Preventive Services Task Force, this week recommended that some healthy women at high risk of developing breast cancer take one of two drugs (tamoxifen or raloxifene) in an attempt to reduce their risk of developing breast cancer. This advice (which would fall under the definition of “chemoprevention”) [...]
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Can you patent a human gene? The Supreme Court today seemed skeptical, raising questions about the legality of Myriad Genetic’s isolation of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes that signal an increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer. It’s a complex issue. Companies can’t patent abstract ideas, natural phenomena and laws of nature. But an appeals [...]
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If you need another reminder about the importance of vaccinations, just look to the events of this past weekend. A Wisconsin college student and a Los Angeles man died of meningitis, and the New York City Department of Health issued an alert stating that five measles cases occurred in Borough Park, Brooklyn this past month [...]
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