http://www.ajc.com The latest headlines from AJC en-us Copyright 2009, Cox Newspapers Inc., AJC Sun, 5 Jul 2009 21:44:09 EDT Newspapers COXnet RSS Generator v1.0 http://img.coxnewsweb.com/C/08/17/52/image_1352178.jpg http://www.ajc.com 5 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/health/stories/2009/07/02/obama_health_care_plan.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=9 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/health/stories/2009/07/02/obama_health_care_plan.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=9 Thu, 2 Jul 2009 09:19:24 EDT President Barack Obama wanted to put a human face on his plans to overhaul health care, and a Virginia supporter did just that Wednesday. Fighting back tears, Debby Smith, 53, told Obama of her kidney cancer and her inability to obtain health insurance or hold a job. The president hugged her — she's a volunteer for his political operation — and called her "exhibit A" in an unsustainable system that is too expensive and complex for millions of Americans. "We are going to try to find ways to help you immediately," he told Smith as hundreds looked on at a community college forum — and countless others watched on television. But the nation's long-term needs require a greater emphasis on preventive care and "cost-effective care," he said. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/health/stories/2009/07/02/cdc_health_insurance_report.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=9 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/health/stories/2009/07/02/cdc_health_insurance_report.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=9 Thu, 2 Jul 2009 09:16:17 EDT The percentage of Americans with private health insurance has hit its lowest mark in 50 years, according to two new government reports. About 65 percent of non-elderly Americans had private insurance in 2008, down from 67 percent the year before, according to preliminary data released Wednesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "It's bad news," said Kenneth Thorpe, a health policy researcher at Emory University. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/health/stories/2009/07/02/cardiac_arrest_risk.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=9 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/health/stories/2009/07/02/cardiac_arrest_risk.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=9 Thu, 2 Jul 2009 09:13:51 EDT You don't have to be Michael Jackson to have this problem: The odds of surviving cardiac arrest after getting CPR in a hospital are slim and have not improved in more than a decade, a big Medicare study concludes. Only about 18 percent of such patients live long enough to leave the hospital, researchers found. Blacks fared worse than whites — a disparity only partly explained by more of them being treated in hospitals that did a poorer job of CPR. Results were published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/health/stories/2009/07/02/fawcett_rare_cancer.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=9 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/health/stories/2009/07/02/fawcett_rare_cancer.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=9 Thu, 2 Jul 2009 09:11:27 EDT In a perverse twist of medical fate, Farrah Fawcett has become the poster girl for anal cancer, a rare disease often linked to a sexually transmitted virus. Before her death last week, at age 62, the actress had come to terms with the illness and agreed to have her suffering and treatment chronicled for a television documentary. "She knew that she had the kind of anal cancer that she wasn't going to ultimately overcome, and decided to leave as much of a legacy of awareness as she possibly could," her physician, Dr. Lawrence Piro, said Tuesday before her funeral. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/health/stories/2009/07/02/schizophrenia_gene_variant.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=9 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/health/stories/2009/07/02/schizophrenia_gene_variant.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=9 Thu, 2 Jul 2009 09:09:38 EDT A handful of typos in a mysterious region of the human genetic code are connected to a slightly higher risk of schizophrenia, new studies show. In a first-of-its-kind look at the genetic elements of schizophrenia, a massive international effort focused on seven spots of genetic variation. Dozens of scientists then published three papers from the effort on Thursday in the journal Nature. Those genetic blips account for at most one-third of genetically caused schizophrenia. Based on studies of identical twins, scientists figure that about half of schizophrenia is inherited with the rest having other causes. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/health/stories/2009/07/01/obesity_georgia.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=9 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/health/stories/2009/07/01/obesity_georgia.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=9 Wed, 1 Jul 2009 10:38:46 EDT It seems Georgians are not making much progress in the battle of the bulge. The state's adults tipped the scales as 14th heaviest in the nation, according to a new report on obesity by the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The report, "F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing in America", found that 27.9 percent of Georgia adults are obese. The state tied with Texas. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/health/stories/2009/07/01/TB_vaccine_WHO.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=9 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/health/stories/2009/07/01/TB_vaccine_WHO.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=9 Wed, 1 Jul 2009 09:32:22 EDT The World Health Organization says a study has shown that babies with HIV could die if given a standard tuberculosis vaccine. WHO says a three-year study in South Africa found babies born with HIV had a higher risk of contracting a deadly form of TB if given the widely used BCG vaccine. The study recommends not vaccinating babies with HIV and delaying vaccination for those babies whose HIV status is unknown. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/health/stories/2009/07/01/us_obesity_rankings.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=9 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/health/stories/2009/07/01/us_obesity_rankings.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=9 Wed, 1 Jul 2009 09:30:10 EDT Mississippi's still king of cellulite, but an ominous tide is rolling toward the Medicare doctors in neighboring Alabama: obese baby boomers. It's time for the nation's annual obesity rankings and, outside of fairly lean Colorado, there's little good news. Obesity rates among adults rose in 23 states over the past year and didn't decline anywhere, says a new report from the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. And while the nation has long been bracing for a surge in Medicare as the boomers start turning 65, the new report makes clear that fat, not just age, will fuel much of those bills. In every state, the rate of obesity is higher among 55- to 64-year-olds — the oldest boomers — than among today's 65-and-beyond. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/health/stories/2009/07/01/spinal_fusion_complications.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=9 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/health/stories/2009/07/01/spinal_fusion_complications.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=9 Wed, 1 Jul 2009 09:25:58 EDT A bone growth agent used in thousands of spinal fusion surgeries for neck pain has been linked to complications and higher cost, according to the first nationwide study of the product. Safety questions arose last year about the protein product, BMP, when used in fusion surgeries in the neck region, a use not approved by federal regulators. "Some of these complications are life-threatening because the neck is such a sensitive area," said lead author Dr. Kevin Cahill of Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. The study appears in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/health/stories/2009/06/30/diabetes_vaccine_research.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=9 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/health/stories/2009/06/30/diabetes_vaccine_research.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=9 Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:36:26 EDT The doctor had barely pulled away the needle when a blister appeared on Tracey Berg-Fulton's abdomen: An experimental shot was revving up the 24-year-old's immune system — part of a bold quest to create a vaccine-like therapy for diabetes. "If we're right, that is what's going to stop Type 1 diabetes," said Dr. David Finegold as he watched the blisters appear — one to match each of four shots — with intense satisfaction. It's a big "if." The research is in its infancy, a first-step experiment to be sure the vaccine approach is safe before researchers at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh test their real target — kids newly diagnosed with this deadliest form of diabetes. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/health/stories/2009/06/30/drug_resistant_swineflu.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=9 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/health/stories/2009/06/30/drug_resistant_swineflu.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=9 Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:32:16 EDT For the first time, a case of swine flu has proven resistant to Tamiflu — the leading pharmaceutical weapon against the new virus, international health officials said Monday. The resistance was seen in a patient in Denmark, who has recovered. "The goods news is they just found one," said Dr. Carolyn Bridges of the U.S. Centers for Disease control and Prevention. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/health/stories/2009/06/30/swineflu_air_travel.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=9 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/health/stories/2009/06/30/swineflu_air_travel.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=9 Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:30:38 EDT In a startling measure of just how widely a new disease can spread, researchers accurately plotted swine flu's course around the world by tracking air travel from Mexico. The research was based on an analysis of flight data from March and April last year, which showed more than 2 million people flew from Mexico to more than 1,000 cities worldwide. Researchers said patterns of departures from Mexico in those months varies little from year to year; swine flu began its spread in March and April this year. Passengers traveled to 164 countries, but four out of five of those went to the United States. That fits with the path of the epidemic a year later. The findings were reported Monday in the New England Journal of Medicine. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/health/stories/2009/06/30/hawaii_swineflu_death.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=9 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/health/stories/2009/06/30/hawaii_swineflu_death.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=9 Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:28:29 EDT Hawaii is reporting its first swine flu death. The state Department of Health says an adult over 60 years old with an underlying medical condition died June 19 at Oahu's Tripler Army Medical Center after contracting the H1N1 virus. Department spokeswoman Janice Okubo said Monday the swine flu was not the patient's primary cause of death, but a secondary cause. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/health/stories/2009/06/29/EU_MED__OvaryTranspla_I0501.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=9 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/health/stories/2009/06/29/EU_MED__OvaryTranspla_I0501.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=9 Mon, 29 Jun 2009 10:07:30 EDT Two new techniques to preserve and transplant ovaries might give women a better chance to fight their biological clocks and have children when they are older, doctors announced Monday. In the past, scientists have performed ovarian transplants in women with cancer, since chemotherapy often causes infertility. Doctors typically take out patients' ovaries before the toxic treatment begins and then reimplant them later. Because of the cost and uncertainties involved — only a handful have been done successfully — this was thought only worthwhile for women with serious diseases who had few options. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/health/stories/2009/06/29/fda_painkiller_overdose_concerns.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=9 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/health/stories/2009/06/29/fda_painkiller_overdose_concerns.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=9 Mon, 29 Jun 2009 10:04:42 EDT Tylenol, Excedrin, NyQuil. These household brands and others have come to symbolize safe, convenient relief from the aches and pains of everyday life. But this week the Food and Drug Administration is focusing on a seldom-discussed side effect of the medications: severe liver damage. Since the drugs first became widely available in the 1950s, the FDA has tried to minimize the risks of acetaminophen — the pain-relieving, fever-reducing ingredient in Tylenol and dozens of other prescription and over-the-counter medications. Acetaminophen overdoses send an estimated 56,000 people to the emergency room each year, according to the FDA.