21 Aug, 2009 in Health and Pharmacy News by admin

Health Highlights: Aug. 20, 2009

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Here are some of the latest health as well as health examination news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

Mercury Ordinary in U.S. Fish: Study

Mercury was found in every fish caught in 291 U.S. streams as well as rivers by U.S. Geological Survey scientists, as well as 25 percent of the fish had levels of mercury considered unsafe for people who consume average amounts of fish.

The USGS study found that some of the highest levels of mercury were in fish used from “blackwater” streams in the Southeast, Bloomberg news reported. High levels of mercury were as well as found in fish in the Northeast as well as Upper Midwest, as well as in waterways in the West that flow near gold as well as mercury mines.

Coal-fired power plants make most the mercury found in streams, rivers as well as fish, the USGS said.

“This science sends a cloudless message that our country must continue to confront pollution,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a news release, Bloomberg reported.

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Meningitis Vaccine Given Accelerated Approval by FDA

Accelerated approval for Hiberix, a Haemophilus b Conjugate Vaccine, has been granted by the U.S. Food as well as Drug Administration, drug maker GlaxoSmithKline said Wednesday.

Hiberix was approved as a booster dose for take in kids ages 15 months to 4 years aged in order to protect them from invasive disease caused by Haemophilus influenzae class b (Hib), RTTNews reported.

Hib disease is an often humorless as well as potentially deadly bacterial infection that can cause meningitis.

The FDA’s accelerated approval is meant to help deal with a shortage in the United States of a vaccine to protect infants from Hib. GlaxoSmithKline said the vaccine should be available within several weeks, RTTNews reported.

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Resiliency Testing Introduced for U.S. Soldiers

Normal assessments of soldiers’ resiliency will be introduced by the U.S. Army this fall in a program that was created partly as a response to rising numbers of soldier suicides.

As of Oct. 1, all active duty as well as reserve soldiers will be required to total an online, 170-question assessment designed to assess how they’re feeling emotionally, spiritually, as well as physically. The test will be repeated every two years, the Associated Press reported.

Soldiers’ scores on the test won’t be revealed to their commanders. But, commanders will be told incase soldiers possess used the test as well as participated in follow-up training. All soldiers will receive some training regardless of their scores.

“It’s not looking for disease,” said Brig. Gen. Rhonda Cornum, essential of comprehensive solider fitness, the AP reported. “We only know incase (progress) is sufficient incase in two years the solder scores best as well as is best in the interim.”

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More Patients Leaving Hospitals Against Health examination Advice

An increasing number of patients are leaving U.S. hospitals against the advice of health examination staff, according to a federal government report released Wednesday.

Between 1997 as well as 2007, the number of such cases increased by about 39 percent, from 264,000 to 368,000, said the latest News as well as Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research as well as Quality.

An analysis of cases in which patients west the hospital against health examination advice in 2007 found that:

  • The top five reasons patients were in hospital were: chest pain with no determined cause (25,600); alcohol-related disorders (25,300); substance-related disorders (21,000); depression or other mood disorders (13,900); as well as diabetes with complications (12,500).
  • Medicaid as well as Medicare patients each accounted for about 27 percent of cases, uninsured patients accounted for 22 percent, as well as 19 percent of cases involved patients with intimate insurance.
  • Men were about 1.5 times more likely than women to leave the hospital against health examination advice.
  • Patients in the Northeast had the highest rate of leaving hospitals against health examination advice — 2 per 1,000 population vs. a nationwide average of 1 per 1,000 population.

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FDA Launches Recent Tobacco Control Center

In an effort to lower the hundreds of thousands of tobacco-related deaths in the United States each year, the recent Center for Tobacco Products was launched this week by the Food as well as Drug Administration.

The center was created to oversee the implementation of the Family Smoking Prevention as well as Tobacco Control Act, including establishment as well as enforcement of advertising as well as promotion restrictions, as well as reviewing premarket applications for recent as well as modified-risk tobacco products.

It will take “the best available science to guide the development as well as implementation of effective community health strategies to lower the burden of illness as well as death caused by tobacco products,” according to an FDA news release.

The earliest director will be Dr. Lawrence Deyton, a clinical professor of medicine as well as health policy at George Washington University School of Medicine as well as Health Sciences. Deyton is an expert on veterans’ health issues, community health as well as tobacco take.

“I am eager for the challenge of leading the tobacco team at FDA,” Deyton said in the news release. “This is a tremendous opportunity for us at FDA to work hand-in-hand with the CDC, researchers at the National Institutes of Health, as well as community health leaders in the states to make progress in combating tobacco take the leading cause of preventable death in the United States.”

Each year, cigarette smoking causes an estimated 438,000 deaths, or about 1 of every 5 deaths, in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control as well as Prevention. On average, adults who smoke cigarettes die 14 years earlier than nonsmokers.

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