Health News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Nonprofit launches campaign to reach uninsured

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:54:11 -0400

CHICAGO (AP) — A nonprofit group helping to spread the word about President Barack Obama's health care overhaul launched a campaign Tuesday that will target states with high numbers of uninsured Americans and tackle their skepticism with straightforward messages.

Medicare: Cost-saving changes coming for diabetics

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:57:29 -0400

WASHINGTON (AP) — Medicare begins a major change next month that could save older diabetics money and time when they buy crucial supplies to test their blood sugar — but it also may cause some confusion as patients figure out the new system.

Especially grim encephalitis toll feared in India

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:50:16 -0400

GORAKHPUR, India (AP) — A mosquito-borne disease that preys on the young and malnourished is sweeping across poverty-riven northern India again this monsoon season in what officials worry could be the deadliest outbreak in nearly a decade.

Study: Wiser medication use could cut health costs

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 06:06:30 -0400

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — If doctors and patients used prescription drugs more wisely, they could save the U.S. health care system at least $213 billion a year, by reducing medication overuse, underuse and other flaws in care that cause complications and longer, more-expensive treatments, researchers conclude.

Fast Thinking Saves Lives From Stroke

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 06:01:51 -0400

EU fines Lundbeck, eight others 146 million euros for blocking cheaper drugs

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 05:55:13 -0400

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators fined nine drugmakers a total of 146 million euros ($195.5 million) on Wednesday for blocking the supply of cheaper medicines on the market, with a penalty of 94 million euros imposed on Denmark's Lundbeck. The punishments follow a 2009 report by the European Commission on the pharmaceutical sector, which said "pay-for-delay" deals lead to consumers paying as much as 20 percent more for their medicines. The European Commission, which acts as competition regulator across the 27-member European Union, imposed a 21. ...

AstraZeneca, Bristol diabetes drug disappoints in key test

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 03:07:40 -0400

By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) - AstraZeneca and Bristol-Myers Squibb's diabetes drug Onglyza failed to reduce heart risks in a large clinical study, disappointing investors who had thought it might demonstrate an edge over rivals. The companies, which jointly sell several diabetes drugs, said on Wednesday the so-called SAVOR trial showed that patients on Onglyza had no fewer adverse cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks and strokes, than those on placebo. ...

Analysis: Hospital investors sold on U.S. health reform despite bumps

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 01:05:37 -0400

By Susan Kelly CHICAGO (Reuters) - Shares of U.S. hospital operators have been on a tear this year, on average posting triple the gains of the broader stock market, as investors tallied up the benefits of President Barack Obama's healthcare reform. While some on Wall Street have held back amid signs of trouble as U.S. states prepare to implement the reform law, long-term investors still see more reward than risk on the horizon for hospital stocks. They expect company earnings to strengthen as more Americans gain insurance coverage and hospitals lose less money treating the uninsured. ...

Accused Colorado theater gunman's lawyers seek psychiatric hospital video

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 00:26:34 -0400

By Keith Coffman DENVER (Reuters) - Attorneys for the former graduate student charged with shooting 12 moviegoers to death in a Denver-area theater last summer have renewed their bid for access to a videotape of their client at the hospital where he was undergoing psychiatric treatment. In a motion filed on Tuesday in Arapahoe County District Court, lawyers for James Holmes asked to be permitted to view footage of their client inside the facility where he was taken last November after jail officials deemed him a danger to himself. ...

Singapore fumes as air pollution hits 16-year high

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 22:17:38 -0400

SINGAPORE (AP) — Singaporeans rolled back military training, kept cough-stricken children indoors and considered wearing protective masks to work after a smoky haze triggered by forest fires in neighboring Indonesia caused air pollution to briefly hit its worst level in nearly 16 years.

18 mayors: Limit use of food stamps to buy soda

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 22:11:58 -0400

NEW YORK (AP) — The mayors of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and 15 other cities are reviving a push against letting food stamps be used to buy soda and other sugary drinks.

Beverage group: 18 mayors wrong on sugary drinks

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 22:01:11 -0400

NEW YORK (AP) — The American Beverage Association says efforts by the mayors of 18 cities to stop food stamps from being used to buy sugary drinks won't make the nation healthier.

Republican-led House passes bill restricting abortion

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:12:32 -0400

By Rachelle Younglai WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-controlled House of Representatives on Tuesday passed legislation severely restricting abortions, a move that could alienate women from the conservative party. The bill would ban abortions 20 weeks after fertilization occurs, a time when a fetus begins to feel pain, Republicans said. The legislation makes exceptions for victims of rape and incest as long as they first report the crime to authorities. The bill has no chance of becoming law with Democrats controlling the Senate and the White House threatening to veto it. ...

Melissa Etheridge Calls Angelina Jolie's Mastectomy 'the Most Fearful Choice You Can Make'

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:37:04 -0400

By Tony Maglio LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Melissa Etheridge believes Angelina Jolie jumped the gun with her double mastectomy. The singer, a breast cancer survivor, told The Washington Blade that she has the same BRCA gene mutation as Jolie. When asked about Jolie's choice to undergo a preventative double mastectomy, Etheridge called Jolie's decision "the most fearful choice you can make when confronting anything with cancer." "I wouldn't call it the brave choice," the singer said. ...

Outbreak of deadly piglet virus spreads to 13 U.S. states

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:35:51 -0400

By P.J. Huffstutter CHICAGO (Reuters) - A swine virus deadly to young pigs, one never before seen in North America, is spreading rapidly across the United States and proving harder to control than previously believed. The virus now has spread to 13 states - with more than 100 positive cases to date - since it was first diagnosed in the United States last month, said Montserrat Torremorell, the Allen D. Leman Chair in Swine Health and Productivity at the University of Minnesota's College of Veterinary Medicine. ...

Mississippi leans on Google to crack down on illegal products

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:18:26 -0400

By Diane Bartz WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mississippi's attorney general said on Tuesday he would subpoena documents from Google Inc as part of a probe into allegations the Web search company facilitated the sale of drugs without a prescription and other illegal products. Google responded in a blog post that it had been vigorous in working to limit drug advertisements to legitimate companies that comply with the law and to combat what it called "rogue online pharmacies. ...

Enroll America sets private outreach for Obamacare sign-up

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:07:26 -0400

By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Enroll America, a nonprofit group at the center of the political fight over President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law, launched a multi-state grassroots campaign on Tuesday to help sign up millions of uninsured Americans for health coverage in the coming months. The group, which has strong ties to the Obama administration and the healthcare industry, announced plans for more than 50 events in 18 states, including California, Florida and Texas, as part of its "Get Covered America" campaign. ...

FDA probes deaths of two patients on Lilly schizophrenia drug

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:06:54 -0400

By Ransdell Pierson (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is investigating the cases of two individuals who died after injections with Eli Lilly and Co.'s long-acting treatment for schizophrenia, Zyprexa Relprevv. Both patients died three to four days after receiving "an appropriate dose" of the medicine, and both had very high levels of the drug in their bloodstreams, the FDA said in a bulletin released on its website on Tuesday. ...

Lullaby Medicine for Premature Babies

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:32:24 -0400

Something as old as mankind itself is helping keep pre-term babies alive — the lullaby. Research shows that music has become an important new ally for babies who are born too soon and struggle to breathe and eat. The neonatal intensive care unit in a hospital is filled with technology that helps keep the hospital's tiniest, most fragile patients alive. At New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Cornell – and others across the country – the relentless beeping of monitors fades when music takes over. The effect on preemies isn't just dramatic; it's physical.

Ohio residents accused of holding disabled woman in slavery

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:25:32 -0400

By Kim Palmer CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Three Ohio residents are accused of holding an intellectually disabled woman and her daughter against their will and forcing the woman to perform physical labor for them, threatening her with snakes if she didn't comply, authorities said on Tuesday. The trio, Jordie Callahan, Jessica Hunt and Daniel Brown, conspired to beat the woman and her child and forced them to sleep in a padlocked room with a large iguana, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. ...

Naked gymnast faces charges over San Francisco transit stop antics

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:49:06 -0400

By Laila Kearney SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A trained gymnast whose naked acrobatics and harassment of passengers at a San Francisco public transit station were captured on video and circulated widely on the Internet is facing criminal charges over his antics, authorities said on Tuesday. Yeiner Alberto Perez Garizabalo, 24, was caught on video doing handstands and contortions on turnstiles and front flips off a concrete newsstand - all in the nude - at a Bay Area Rapid Transit District station on May 10. ...

Past care tied to later treatment's success

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:46:32 -0400

By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - If a person doesn't have much success with one pain treatment, they may say the next one they try doesn't work so great either, suggests a new study from Germany. Previous studies have found that people receiving a dummy pill in clinical trials don't fare as well once they're switched to the real drug, compared to those who have been getting the real treatment all along, according to Dr. Ulrike Bingel, the study's lead author from the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf. ...

New Hampshire nears approval of medical marijuana law

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:38:01 -0400

By Jason McLure LITTLETON, New Hampshire (Reuters) - New Hampshire is set to become the final state in New England to allow medical marijuana after negotiators from the Republican-controlled Senate and Democratic-controlled House agreed Tuesday on a bill backed by Governor Maggie Hassan. The law would allow up to four marijuana dispensaries to open as soon as 2015. Patients with cancer, HIV, glaucoma and other diseases would be eligible to purchase the drug with state-issued identity cards from a physician or nurse practitioner certifying that they need it to soothe pain. ...

U.S. court finds Novo Nordisk Prandin diabetes drug patent invalid

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:25:37 -0400

(Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court found the patent on Novo Nordisk's Prandin diabetes drug in combination with metformin to be invalid, paving the way for introduction of a generic version of the medicine, the Danish drugmaker said on Tuesday. In a 2-1 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a district court ruling handed down in 2011, the company said. Novo said it still believes the patent to be valid and was reviewing the ruling. ...

Obamacare-like groups tied to lower costs: study

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:23:24 -0400

By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Large independent doctor practices that focus on primary care tend to spend less money and are more likely to meet guidelines for Americans on Medicare than smaller groups, according to a new study. The findings suggest that the so-called Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) created by the 2010 Affordable Care Act may improve the quality of care while lowering spending, said the study's lead author. "I think our analysis is sort of searching for pockets of excellence and seeing whether those pockets of excellence echo the ACOs. ...

MRI may help find infection from tainted injection

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:14:03 -0400

By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Some people who received potentially contaminated steroid injections may benefit from a MRI to check for signs of infection, a new study suggests - even if they don't have obvious symptoms. Researchers screened 172 people who had been injected with methylprednisolone from a New England Compounding Center (NECC) lot tied to meningitis and fungal infections, and found abnormal test results for 36 of them. That included 13 people who had no new or worsening symptoms, such as pain and weakness near the injection site. ...

Magazine's Suicide-Themed Fashion Spread Causes Uproar

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:47:59 -0400

Some suicide prevention experts and feminists condemned images of famous literary suicides as tasteless and commercial; but some say photos were only art and Americans view death as a "taboo."

Suicide-Themed Fashion Spread Causes Uproar

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:45:06 -0400

Some suicide prevention experts and feminists condemned images of famous literary suicides as tasteless and commercial; but some say photos were only art and Americans view death as a "taboo."

Russia evacuates thousands after blasts at army munitions store

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:41:02 -0400

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Some 6,000 people were evacuated in Russia's southwestern Samara region on Tuesday after ammunition explosions shook a military training area, the Emergencies Ministry said. The ministry said five explosions initially took place at the site on Tuesday evening, triggering a fire that was still causing blasts hours later. Footage aired on Russia's state television showed plumes of dark smoke rising from the site, where the ministry said some 11 million pieces of ammunition was stored. ...

Vice Axes Suicide Fashion Spread in Uproar

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:34:20 -0400

Some suicide prevention experts and feminists condemned images of famous literary suicides as tasteless and commercial; but some say photos were only art and Americans view death as a "taboo."

Industry-backed studies more prominent at meetings

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:11:20 -0400

By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Studies that are funded by pharmaceutical companies or involve industry-backed scientists tend to be more prominent at cancer meetings than independent studies, a new report suggests. "Figuring out the reasons behind these findings is critical," said Dr. Beverly Moy, who led the analysis at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center in Boston. She and her colleagues also found the proportion of presentations with a financial conflict of interest increased between the 2006 and 2011 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meetings. ...

Exclusive: Japan's Astellas looks to sell dermatology assets - sources

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:30:56 -0400

By Jessica Toonkel NEW YORK (Reuters) - Japanese drugmaker Astellas Pharma Inc is looking to sell its dermatology portfolio, which could be worth between $500 million and $1 billion, according to three people familiar with the situation. Astellas has hired London-based investment banking boutique DC Advisory to sell the assets, according to two of the people, who wished to remain anonymous because they are not permitted to speak to the press. The company's dermatology portfolio, which includes a drug to treat eczema called Protopic, sells products around the world. ...

AstraZeneca turnaround is 3-4 year journey, says CEO

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:50:29 -0400

By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) - Turning around drugmaker AstraZeneca will be a long haul, with a strategy of revamping research and boosting acquisitions set to take up to four years to pay off, its chief executive said on Tuesday. Speaking as the group unveiled the location for a new global headquarters and research center in Cambridge, England, Pascal Soriot said he was not expecting any short-term fixes for the group, which is struggling from falling sales as patents expire. ...

Maine Democrats scramble after governor blocks Medicaid expansion

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:33:04 -0400

By Dave Sherwood BOWDOINHAM, Maine (Reuters) - Democratic legislators in Maine scrambled on Tuesday to muster the votes needed to override Republican Governor Paul LePage's late-night veto of a bill to expand Medicaid coverage to an additional 60,000 people. LePage late on Monday blocked a compromise bill that would have increased the number of low-income people eligible for the federal insurance program, an expansion allowed by the U.S. healthcare reform that stands as the signature domestic legislative achievement of President Barack Obama's first term. ...

U.S. patent case climaxes with win for Canadian vibrator maker

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:07:23 -0400

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Couples in the United States looking to spice up their sex lives will have to do without certain adult toys after a U.S. trade panel ruled on Monday that some companies are violating a patent held by a Canadian company for a two-armed vibrator. The U.S. International Trade Commission found that vibrator maker Lelo Inc as well as distributors and a retailer infringe on Standard Innovation Corp's patent for a two-armed vibrator that couples can use during intercourse. ...

New Virus Delivery Method Could Help Treat Blinding Diseases

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:57:00 -0400

Researchers have developed an easier method to insert viruses carrying special genes into the eye. Their eventual goal is restoring sight destroyed by blinding diseases.

Watch: Baby's Skull Cut, Reshaped for 'Normal Life'

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:31:10 -0400

Six-month-old Ryan Burke's skull was growing lopsided until Texas surgeons intervened.