In The News — December 26-30
December 30, 2005
Chinese Inmates’ Organs For Sale To Britons
A Chinese company has begun marketing kidneys, livers and other organs from executed prisoners to sick Britons in need of transplants.
(Washington Times)
Embryo Cloning Cheat Resigns in Disgrace
The world’s most successful cloning scientist, Prof Hwang Woo-suk, who was hailed as a superstar with “God’s hand” in his native South Korea, has resigned in disgrace. The furore that erupted yesterday over how his team partly faked results will send shock waves around the scientific world, damage the image of biotechnology and cast a shadow over rival British efforts to develop the next generation of medicine.
(Telegraph)
Cord-Blood Procedure on Rise
When Shakera Neal’s baby girl Aleasia was born, doctors knew she might need special help to survive, because her first child, Alandee, died before he was 4 months old. Neal, of Delray Beach, said tests confirmed her daughter had the same inherited immune-system disorder that had killed her son. To create a normal immune system, doctors at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami gave Aleasia a transplant of stem cells taken from closely matched umbilical-cord blood donated by the parents of a healthy newborn.
(South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
Public Defibrillators Save Lives
Putting electric shock machines in public places to treat cardiac arrest victims saves lives, researchers say.
(BBC)
Hospital Overdoses Common to Heart Attack Patients
Of the 30,136 heart attack patients studied who were treated last year at 387 U.S. hospitals, 42% got excessive doses of blood thinners. Overdoses were particularly common in thin people, women, the elderly and those with kidney problems.
(AP)
Hwang Associates Gave Key Witness $30,000
Two members of a stem-cell research team allegedly gave $30,000 to a former member of the group to retract comments about fabricating research data.
(UPI)
Dying Can Aid Stem Cell Research
Scientists should be allowed to experiment with new stem cell therapies on terminally ill patients in the hope of saving their lives or at least speeding up the pace of research, one of Britain’s leading scientists has said.
(Scotsman)
Drug Firms Make More Study Results Public
Drug companies are making public more information about medical studies they are conducting, but some still withhold key details, a new analysis of a federal registry finds.
(AP)
Number of Diabetics in Maine Doubles
The number of diabetics in Maine has doubled since 1994, and state officials are worried that inactivity and overeating are pushing rates up even more.
(AP)
Clinical Trial to Test Stem Cells for Pediatric Brain Injuries
Researchers will assess the safety and potential of treating traumatic brain injuries in children with stem cells derived from the children’s own bone marrow. This study is the first to test stem cell therapy for traumatic brain injury, the scientists said.
(HealthDay)
Genetic Test Can Detect Heart Transplant Rejection
A simple blood test can detect whether heart transplant patients are rejecting their donated heart, and it may also reduce the need for invasive heart-muscle biopsies, a new study has found.
(HealthDay)
Brain Scans Show How Memories Are Retrieved
Remember the last vacation you took? That question can release a flood of memories — where you went, how you got there, the things you did while on the beach or the ski slope, and more. And now neuroscientists at Princeton University have discovered the mechanism of this “mental time travel,” a finding that may someday help people with memory problems of the sort that occur in Alzheimer’s disease.
(HealthDay)
Bug Mutates into Medical Mystery
First came stomach cramps, which left Christina Shultz doubled over and weeping in pain. Then came nausea and fatigue — so overwhelming she couldn’t get out of bed for days. Just when she thought things couldn’t get worse, the nastiest diarrhea of her life hit — repeatedly forcing her into the hospital. Doctors finally discovered that the 35-year-old Hilliard, Ohio, woman had an intestinal bug that used to be found almost exclusively among older, sicker patients in hospitals and was usually easily cured with a dose of antibiotics. But after months of treatment, Shultz is still incapacitated.
(Washington Post)
Many Resist Getting Flu Vaccines
For a lot of people, however, the vaccine shortage doesn’t matter. Despite urging from health officials and doctors, many people refuse to get their flu vaccines, even when they’re free and plentiful. They’re suspicious that they’ll catch the flu or some other illness from the shots.
(MSNBC)
Peruvian With New Thumbs Ready to Go Home
His scarred right hand trembling, Francisco del Alamo-Benavente gripped a plastic clothespin between his thumb – which used to be his index finger – and his ring finger. Squeezing with all his might, he pried the clothespin about a quarter-inch apart and fastened it to a metal rod.
(AP)
All Prof. Hwang’s Stem Cells Found to Be Fake
Prof. Hwang was found to have secured no stem cells for his research by a Seoul National University investigation panel. In a conference held on Dec. 28, 2005, the panel announced that the five stem cells Prof. Hwang allegedly froze and unfroze did not match with the cells of the patients who provided nuclei in a DNA test.
(Seoul Times)
Mobile Clinic Tries to Fill Health Needs
Around 46 million U.S. residents don’t have health insurance; a small number regularly show up at a mobile clinic at Deerfield Elementary School outside Washington, D.C., every Monday morning. The 33-foot (10-m) van equipped with two examination rooms, one of four “governor’s wellmobiles” run by the University of Maryland School of Nursing, goes to a different location in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. each day, serving thousands of people without health insurance.
(Reuters)
Tiny Biosensor to Detect Cancer
Scientists are developing a tiny biosensor to detect cancer proteins and potentially the bug that causes MRSA.
(BBC)
