21 Jul, 2010 in Health and Pharmacy News by admin

Health Highlights: July 19, 2010

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

More People Receiving AIDS Drugs: WHO

The number of people worldwide using life-saving AIDS drugs increased 12-fold between 2003 as well as 2010, says the World Health Organization.

Final year alone, there was a 1.2 million increase, bringing to 5.2 million the total number of people receiving antiretroviral treatment, the Associated Press reported.

That large boost in 2009 was due to improved access to treatment globally, but especially in sub-Saharan Africa, according to Gottfried Hirnschall, director of WHO’s HIV/AIDS department.

“That’s obviously where the greatest need is in terms of numbers is, but that’s really where we possess seen the most impressive scale-up in terms of treatment access,” Hirnschall told the AP.

The recent figures were presented at an international AIDS conference in Vienna, Austria.

While the increase is significant, many more people still need access to antiretroviral treatment, Bill Clinton said in a keynote address, the AP reported.

“Five million people on treatment is a lot compared to where we started but still a third of those who need treatment today,” the former U.S. president said. “We cannot get to the end of this epidemic without both more money as well as real changes in the way we spend it.”

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Caribbean Rocklike Hit By Dengue Fever

Dozens of deaths possess been reported as mosquito-borne dengue fever reaches epidemic levels in the Caribbean.

Tepid weather as well as an unusually beginning rainy season that led to an explosion in mosquito populations are being blamed for the situation, which is straining the capacity of hospitals in some countries, the Associated Press reported.

There possess been 27 deaths reported in the Dominican Republic as well as at least five possess died as well as another 6,300 cases possess been reported in Puerto Rico, which faces what may be its worst dengue outbreak in more than a decade, according to officials.

“We are having a really large epidemic,” Kay Tomashek, epidemiology section essential of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control as well as Prevention’s dengue branch in Puerto Rico, told the AP.

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Drug’s Breast Cancer Promise Seems to Fade: Report

U.S. regulators could rescind approval of the cancer drug Avastin for the treatment of breast cancer, based on follow-up studies reported Friday that failed to show the medication shrank tumors or extended lives, according to published reports.

The Food as well as Drug Administration on Tuesday will consult a panel of outside experts to review the evidence on the Roche drug, the Associated Press said. It’s likely the FDA will withdraw approval of Avastin as a breast cancer treatment.

The drug is as well as approved for lung, colon, brain as well as kidney cancer.

Avastin received conditional FDA approval in 2008 based on preliminary evidence that it shrank breast cancer tumors. Continued approval would depend on subsequent studies showing a survival benefit, the agency said.

But two follow-up studies recently submitted by Roche failed to show that Avastin prolonged lives significantly longer than chemotherapy alone, the AP said. As well as the tumor shrinkage findings of previous studies were not confirmed by recent data, according to documents posted online, the news agency said.

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