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West Nile virus is spreading faster than it has in years, and the pace of the mosquito-borne disease is getting worse, health officials report. States are reporting more cases than usual, says Marc Fischer, a specialist in mosquito-borne diseases with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Fort Collins, Colo. "There's been a lot of mosquito activity in most states" this year, Fischer...
August 15, 2012
For years, states have struggled to raise the quality of care in nursing homes by using a regulatory stick - citations, fines and other sanctions - when serious problems are discovered. Last month, Ohio adopted a distinctly different, carrot-like approach by using financial incentives that encourage better services for frail seniors. It's the latest effort to address longstanding concerns such as too...
August 15, 2012
You probably won't find it in medical dictionaries, but a problem that has come to be known as sitting disease is rampant in the USA. The term captures how many people are glued to their seats for hours at the office, in their cars and in front of the TV. Government statistics suggest that almost half of us report sitting more than six hours a day; 65% say they spend more than two hours a day watching...
August 13, 2012
The new standards for school lunches require schools to: Serve larger portions of fruits and vegetables daily. Portion sizes vary by age group, from cup to 1 cup of vegetables; cup to 1 cup of fruit. Students must select at least cup of fruit or vegetable. Offer a minimum number of dark green vegetables, red-orange vegetables, starchy vegetables and legumes each week. Make sure at least half the grains...
August 13, 2012
When students head back to school, most will be offered a smorgasbord of healthier lunches. New federal nutrition standards for school meals take effect, raising the bar for the first time in more than 15 years. Schools must meet the standards to get federal meal reimbursements. The changes are dramatic - more variety, larger portions of fruits and vegetables, at least half of grains made of whole...
August 13, 2012
In this digital age, U.S. physicians still send and receive some 15 billion faxes a year. But not Dr. Howard Luks, chief of sports medicine and knee replacements at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, N.Y. Luks, whose practice operates as a small business, is an avid user of Doximity, a Facebook-like social network for health care professionals. The service, launched 17 months ago, has enabled...
August 13, 2012
The benefits of taking cholesterol-lowering medications outweigh the increased risk some patients have of developing diabetes from using the drugs, a report out Thursday says. Patients who were at higher risk for diabetes were 39% less likely to develop a cardiovascular illness on statins and 17% less likely to die. Patients who were not already at risk for diabetes and were taking statins had a 52%...
August 10, 2012
Federal health officials took steps Thursday to head off the emergence of a new gonorrhea "superbug" that is resistant to standard antibiotics. Gonorrhea, a sexually transmitted disease that infects 700,000 Americans a year, is resistant to all but one class of antibiotics and could soon become untreatable, federal health officials warned. Doctors at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued...
August 10, 2012
More people in the USA say they're walking regularly, a new government survey shows. But fewer than half say they meet the federal government's physical activity guidelines. About 62% of adults in 2010 said they walked at least once for 10 minutes or more in the past week, up from 56% in 2005. That means about 145 million walk at least a little, either for fun, relaxation, exercise or to get to places...
August 8, 2012
The federal government says its graphic ad campaign showing diseased smokers has been such a success that it is planning another round next year to nudge more Americans to kick the habit. The ads, which ran for 12 weeks in spring and early summer, aimed to get 500,000 people to try to quit and 50,000 to kick the habit long-term. "The initial results suggest the impact will be even greater than that,"...
August 7, 2012
Changing the type of DVDs, videos and TV shows that preschoolers watch during the day may help them sleep better at night. A program that encouraged parents of kids ages 3 to 5 to replace age-inappropriate media content with more suitable programming found "long-lasting, significant reductions in sleep problems," says Michelle Garrison of Seattle Children's Research Institute, lead author of the study...
August 6, 2012
Honesty may boost your health, suggests a study that found telling fewer lies benefits people physically and mentally. Each week for 10 weeks, 110 people ages 18-71 took a lie detector test and completed health and relationship measures assessing the number of major and minor lies they told that week, says lead author Anita Kelly, a psychology professor at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. She...
August 6, 2012
A: Investors may be waiting for stocks to return to their highs of fall 2007. But dividends are already there. U.S. companies are scheduled to boost their dividend payments in the second quarter by $12 billion, pushing the payout to a record, says S&P Dow Jones Indices. All told, investors received a 14% boost in dividend cash payments in the second quarter. The turnaround in dividends has been breathtaking....
August 6, 2012
The latest outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus has killed 16 people in Uganda, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday, increasing the previous toll by one. "Today we have 50 suspected cases and 16 dead," WHO spokesman Tarek Jasarevic told reporters in Geneva. For the time being the epidemic was restricted to the west of the country, Jasarevic said, adding that a single case reported in Kampala...
August 3, 2012
Aug. 03 - GHENT - Depending on the quantity and kind of chemicals burned in the fire in Columbia County, produce, animals and humans may have been exposed to dangerous fallout. Department of Health officials said an undetermined amount of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) went up in the conflagration that began Wednesday night. And an accounting of all the various chemicals that burned is still underway...
August 3, 2012
Aug. 03 - CONCORD - New Hampshire health officials will outline their plan this afternoon to expand patient testing in the hepatitis C outbreak at Exeter Hospital to an additional 3,400 patients. The Department of Health and Human Services has scheduled a 2 p.m. press conference in Concord to discuss the patient testing. So far, only patients who were treated in the hospital's cardiac catheterization...
August 3, 2012
Aug. 03 - EXETER - A majority of the 30 patients who were infected with hepatitis C while receiving treatment at Exeter Hospital have now filed lawsuits seeking compensation for their physical and emotional damages. Exeter Hospital is named in 19 lawsuits filed in Rockingham Superior Court by former Exeter Hospital patients who now carry the liver disease. They include 18 lawsuits filed on behalf of...
August 3, 2012
Aug. 03 - When Victoria Elizabeth Acierno came into the world, she made a grand entrance. Little Victoria was born on Sunday morning at her parents' home in Geneva-on-the-Lake. Weighing in at 6 pounds, 14 ounces, Victoria was delivered by village police officer Sandy Davis. Mom McKenzie Acierno had no idea she was pregnant. McKenzie Acierno's day began much like any other Sunday, except for some lingering...
August 3, 2012
If healthy women no longer need Pap smears every year - and all major health groups now agree they don't - is there any reason to see obstetrician/gynecologists every year? The country's leading group of such doctors, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, says yes. In newly updated guidelines, the doctors encourage women to keep coming annually for "well woman" exams. Even if that...
August 2, 2012
Aug. 02 - Since learning five years ago that he had high blood pressure, Jeffrey Firebaugh has tried six or seven types and combinations of medications to control it. Nothing has worked. "I've pretty much taken about everything you can take for it," said Firebaugh, 32. "It's been a struggle." He hopes that taking part in tests for a new investigational procedure offered by doctors at Washington University...
August 2, 2012
Wondering just where the germs lurk when you check into a hotel? Maybe not always where you'd expect. Hotel guests actually stand a better chance of picking up bacteria turning on the TV or lights than opening the bathroom door, a recent study suggests. Some of the most contaminated surfaces include the somewhat obvious, such as the toilet basin and bathroom floor, but also the TV remote control and...
August 1, 2012
Three months ago, Aimee Copeland's father asked the world to pray. Aimee, a 24-year-old West Georgia University graduate student who suffered a deep wound to her left calf in a May 1 ziplining incident, had been diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis - also known as "flesh-eating bacteria." Her father, Andy Copeland, began a blog to "ask people for prayers." He also created a Facebook page called "Believe...
August 1, 2012
As the last of $1 billion worth of this year's health insurance rebate checks goes out to consumers this week, insurers and government officials say the new regulation may be keeping premiums lower for everyone. "Consumers who are not getting rebates are benefiting from the plan," said Teresa Miller, acting director of the office of oversight for the Center for Medicare Services. "Insurers are keeping...
August 1, 2012
It's 8 a.m., and the Dupont Circle location here of frozen yogurt chain Pinkberry is open for business. Frozen yogurt for breakfast? Not necessarily. This store is one of 17 Pinkberrys across the U.S. that's been testing adding plain Greek yogurt to the menu since June, and customers are here for their protein fix. Legil Moody, a trainer at Washington Sports Club next door, stopped in on his way to...
August 1, 2012
Parents and other caregivers who demean, bully, humiliate or otherwise emotionally abuse children may not know the harm they can cause and often do not get the help they and their children need, a report from the American Academy of Pediatrics says. "Psychological maltreatment is just as harmful as other types of maltreatment," says today's report in Pediatrics. Yet it is not recognized, understood...
July 30, 2012
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