Mortality News and Research

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Study reveals that daily commuting may lead to mosquito-borne diseases

University of Hawaii at Manoa assistant researcher Durrell Kapan recently published a paper, Man Bites Mosquito: Understanding the Contribution of Human Movement to Vector-Borne Disease Dynamics, in PLoS One. Published August 26, the paper highlights how daily commuting patterns in mega-cities may be a critically overlooked factor in understanding the resurgence of mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue fever, infecting 50-100 million people annually.

21 Sep 2009

TIME examines voluntary airline tax that aims to fund global health projects

TIME examines a voluntary airline tax, to be introduced in the U.S. and several European countries in January, that aims to "make up a shortfall in official government aid to poor countries — a shortfall exacerbated by the world financial crisis." The tax will be used to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and it will also go towards improving maternal health and reducing child mortality.

21 Sep 2009

IPS examines maternal mortality in Mozambique

Inter Press Service examines efforts to curb maternal mortality in Mozambique. The article profiles the work of English medical doctor Peg Cumberland and her team, who have trained "around 400 local people in remote health care" since she came to the country more than 13 years ago.

21 Sep 2009

Experts’ comments on America's obesity epidemic

As a recent Newsweek article states, "it's hardly clear that there actually is an obesity epidemic, or that fat people are at greater risk of death than people of normal weight, or that weight loss—relentlessly promoted by public-health officials as the solution to America's weight problem—is an attainable goal at all."

19 Sep 2009

EPO and growth factor therapy safe for anemic MDS patients

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), a group of blood disorders that can lead to acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in some patients, often cause severe anemia (when the body lacks a sufficient number of functional red blood cells).

18 Sep 2009

Research to identify breast cancer disparities

In an effort to continue to deliver on its vision of a world without breast cancer, Susan G. Komen for the Cure,((R) )San Diego conducted an in-depth, county-wide research and community needs assessment to identify disparities in breast cancer across populations.

18 Sep 2009

Researchers to focus on abnormal fetal growth and chronic kidney disease

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University two grants totaling $3.5 million to study epigenetic changes - chemical modifications of genes caused by stress, diet or other environmental influences - and how they contribute to human diseases and biological processes.

18 Sep 2009

Two-day forum addresses maternal, child mortality in Asia-Pacific region

Poor health care, gender inequality, violence and poverty are to blame for Asian-Pacific countries' failure to significantly reduce maternal and child mortality rates in the region, Noeleen Heyzer, executive secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), said during the Asia-Pacific Forum on International Conference on Population and Development in Bangkok.

18 Sep 2009

Blue Mountain Hospital implements OpenVista to improve clinical outcomes

Medsphere Systems Corporation, the leading provider of open source healthcare IT solutions, today announced the successful implementation of OpenVista, the company's flagship electronic health record (EHR) at the 11-bed Blue Mountain Hospital in Blanding, Utah.

17 Sep 2009

Protein kinase Erk3 plays a critical role in intrauterine growth and lung maturation

Dr. Sylvain Meloche, Principal Investigator at the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) of the Universit- de Montr-al, and his colleagues have uncovered the critical role played by the protein kinase Erk3 in fetal growth potential and lung maturation.

17 Sep 2009

AF Stat Call to Action for Atrial Fibrillation document released

A diverse collaboration of healthcare leaders today released the AF Stat Call to Action for Atrial Fibrillation to serve as a roadmap for reducing the burden of atrial fibrillation (AFib) in the United States. The document outlines critical issues surrounding the management of AFib, and recommends priority actions in the areas of policy, management, education and quality.

17 Sep 2009

Understanding Mexico's management of the A(H1N1) outbreak

When the hitherto undetected A(H1N1) influenza attacked Mexico explosively in late April 2009, the world watched with critical attention as that country's leaders scrambled to manage the emerging public health crisis.

16 Sep 2009

Patients with celiac disease face increased risk of mortality

New research indicates that patients with lesser degrees of celiac disease-related symptoms, such as intestinal inflammation or latent celiac disease, have a modestly increased risk of death, according to a study in the September 16 issue of JAMA.

16 Sep 2009

Optimer's North American phase 3 Fidaxomicin study results presented at the 49th ICAAC

Optimer Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: OPTR) today announced that new data highlighting fidaxomicin's (OPT-80) lower CDI recurrence rates and reduced risk of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) acquisition from Optimer's North American phase 3 study were presented at the 49th Annual Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) in San Francisco.

16 Sep 2009

Long-term implications of severe acute kidney problems

Hospitalized patients who experience acute kidney problems that require dialysis are at increased risk of receiving chronic dialysis once discharged, but do not have an increased risk of death, according to a study in the September 16 issue of JAMA.

16 Sep 2009

FDA grants orphan drug status to Advanced Life Sciences' Restanza

Advanced Life Sciences Holdings, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: ADLS) today announced that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Orphan Drug Designation to Restanza(TM) (cethromycin), its novel, once daily oral antibiotic, for the prophylactic treatment of plague and tularemia. Both tularemia and plague are classified by the Centers for Disease Control as Category A Bioterrorism Agents, which is the highest priority classification.

16 Sep 2009

$Heart failure patients with moderate ejection fractions may benefit from CRT$

Heart failure patients with moderate ejection fractions may benefit from CRT

Early findings from a Medtronic, Inc. sponsored study show heart failure patients with moderate ejection fractions, over 35 percent, may receive comparable benefits from cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) as compared to those with low ejection fractions of equal to or less than 35 percent.

16 Sep 2009

Implantable defibrillator therapy not beneficial for women with heart failure

Implantable cardioverter-defibrillators do not appear to be associated with a reduced risk of death in women with advanced heart failure, according to a meta-analysis of previously published research in the September 14 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

15 Sep 2009

Possible link between El Ni-o and flu pandemic

Research conducted at Texas A&M University casts doubts on the notion that El Ni-o has been getting stronger because of global warming and raises interesting questions about the relationship between El Ni-o and a severe flu pandemic 91 years ago. The findings are based on analysis of the 1918 El Ni-o, which the new research shows to be one of the strongest of the 20th century.

15 Sep 2009

HFSA's annual scientific meeting features four late breaking clinical trials

The 13th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Heart Failure Society of America (HFSA) today featured four late breaking clinical trials at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston.

15 Sep 2009