It s no secret that staph infections resistant to multiple antibiotics have become a major problem in hospitals over the past few decades. But such infections contracted outside of a medical setting have also been problematic: The rate of community-onset methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) peaked at 62 percent of the population in 2006. However, the increased awareness of this problem may finally have had some impact.

Josh Bloom, MedCity News July 3, 2012, "Mr. President, sign that user fee bill"
It s not often Congress acts in a genuinely bipartisan fashion. When it does, there s almost certainly a serious national interest at stake.
And genuine bipartisanship was in full effect a few weeks ago when the House of Representatives voted by a stunning 387-to-5 margin to pass a piece of legislation reauthorizing the Prescription Drug User Fee Act, or PDUFA.

While everyone knows don t they? that regular aerobic exercise is good for your circulation and waistline, few are aware of another important benefit: reduced risk of breast cancer.

Friday's Chicago Tribune ran an interesting story on how quality control problems at many dietary supplement manufacturing plants were causing unsafe products that were making people sick.
Interesting, yes, but they completely missed the point.
The article mentioned a few cases, including a factory where a half of a rat found next to a scoop used to fill containers with protein powder. This puzzled me, since I cannot imagine how a half of a rat could possibly climb all the way up a table.

It wouldn't be a complete month without a study (or two) on coffee.

Fewer women in their 40s are having mammograms, a new study from the Mayo Clinic reports and this is good news. In 2009, a federal advisory panel recommended that women should wait until age 50 rather than age 40, as was previously recommended before beginning regular mammographic screenings for breast cancer.

A story in last week's Chicago Tribune sketches a detailed (and often disgusting) portrait of the appalling conditions in which many dietary supplements are manufactured. The lengthy piece draws on recent FDA reports that have found manufacturing violations in half of the 450 supplement firms the agency has inspected since 2008, describing unsanitary factories and haphazard recipes.

You might recall our Dispatch item last week, which we discussed the latest blow to the pharmaceutical industry: Roche Pharmaceuticals announced it will be closing its R&D center in Nutley, NJ, after 80 years of operation. ACSH s Dr. Josh Bloom chronicles this story and its repercussions in his latest blog post for Medical Progress Today. You can read it in its entirety here.

In yet more dismal news from the smoking front, researchers at Cambridge University have found that, compared to standardized feedback, tailored online advice may be no better at helping smokers quit.

Researchers continue to investigate how to help smokers kick their lethal and addictive habit. Unfortunately, two recent studies involving nicotine patches and individualized therapy fall vastly short of a breakthrough.