Body

Episodic treatment of HIV/AIDS with antiretroviral drugs increases the overall risk of death when compared with continuous antiretroviral treatment (ART), but the reasons why have been unknown. Now, researchers have found that higher levels of certain markers of inflammation and blood-clotting are strongly associated with intermittent ART and with a higher risk of death from non-AIDS diseases.

RICHMOND, Va. (Oct. 21, 2008) – Virginia Commonwealth University Institute of Molecular Medicine researchers have traced the evolutionary origin of two genes that serve as primary cellular sensors of infection with RNA viruses, such as influenza, poliovirus, West Nile virus, and HIV, which may ultimately provide researchers with insight into a possible new pathway for the development of innate immunity.

Depression symptoms are associated with significantly higher use of healthcare services following a heart attack, according to a new study released today by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). With approximately 70,000 Canadians experiencing a heart attack each year, this new data may help thousands of people get the care they need and reduce hospital visits.

Lack of sleep, excessive television/computer screen time, stress, gambling, alcohol and tobacco use and other health-related issues are taking a toll on college students' academic performance, according to a study released by the University of Minnesota Boynton Health Service.

Approximately one in four biological medicinal products (such as antibodies, enzymes and insulin) approved since 1995 in the U.S. and Europe have had at least one safety-related regulatory action issued for them 10 years after their approval, including about 11 percent receiving a "black box" warning, according to a study in the October 22/29 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on the Health of the Nation.

PORTLAND, Ore. – New research at Oregon Health & Science University reveals millions of children from low- to middle-income families are going without health insurance, even when at least one parent has private health insurance through his or her employer.

Approximately 4 percent of U.S. children and adolescents have a gap in health insurance coverage at some point during the year, even though they have at least one parent who is insured, according to a study in the October 22/29 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on the Health of the Nation.

Jennifer E. DeVoe, M.D., D.Phil., of Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, presented the findings of the study at a JAMA media briefing at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

A proposal to implement a value-added tax for universal health insurance vouchers would also provide for significant decreases in other taxes, according to the authors of a commentary in the October 22/29 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on the Health of the Nation. They add that this plan would create incentives for cost-containment and health care quality.

In order to achieve comprehensive health care reform, states cannot do it alone. States and the federal government must partner and collaborate to overcome barriers and challenges to create high-quality, affordable health care, according to the authors of a commentary in the October 22/29 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on the Health of the Nation.

Ezekiel Emanuel, M.D., Ph.D., of the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md., presented the commentary at a JAMA media briefing at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

DURHAM, N.C., -- Medicare's pay-for-performance program ranks and rewards hospitals according to how well they meet certain guidelines for clinical care. But researchers at Duke Clinical Research Institute say the program penalizes hospitals that care for the greatest numbers of the poor and needy by not taking into account their greater clinical burden.

Patients in the Valley with emphysema might soon be breathing a little easier thanks to a new airway bypass study called the Exhale Airways Stents for Emphysema (EASE) trial. The trial principal is Dr. Karl Van Gundy aided by investigators Drs. Michael Peterson, Jose Joseph, Timothy Evans and Kathryn Bilello – all pulmonologists at UCSF Fresno Medical Education Program. The study is a multi-center, international trial that is designed to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of this new and innovative procedure.

DALLAS – Oct. 21, 2008 – Conventional wisdom has been that respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) – a common virus that causes infection in the lungs – comes and goes in children without any long lasting impact.

A study conducted in mice by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers, however, suggests that RSV may hide in the lungs even after other symptoms abate, ultimately resurfacing to cause recurrent wheezing and chronic airway disease.

Inflammation, a frontline defense against infection or disease, can help nurture skin cancer, researchers have found.

IDO, an enzyme that works like a firefighter to keep inflammation under control, can be commandeered to protect early malignant cells, say Medical College of Georgia researchers studying an animal model of chronic inflammation and skin cancer.

Researchers are on the verge of unleashing the power of the element boron in a new generation of drugs and therapies, as decades of research begins to bear fruit. Boron has to date far been one of biology's best kept secrets, but is now attracting fast growing research interest and investment from the pharmaceutical industry in the quest for novel drugs to tackle cancer and infectious diseases, potentially overcoming limitations and side effects of current products.

In a prospective study of over 1800 interviewed young Finnish twins, early-onset depressive disorders at age 14 significantly predicted daily smoking, smokeless tobacco use, frequent illicit drug use, frequent alcohol use and recurrent intoxication three years later, even among those adolescents who were not users at baseline.