HEALTH (MSM)
By Stephanie Nebehay and Daniel Bases GENEVA/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Medecins Sans Frontieres called on Wednesday for an independent international commission to investigate the deadly U.S. bombing of its hospital in Kunduz in Afghanistan, which it deems a war crime. The medical charity said that the inquiry would gather facts and evidence from the United States, NATO and Afghanistan, as well as testimony from MSF staff and patients who survived
By Andrew M. Seaman (Reuters Health) – – Sexual orientation may be a factor in a person’s risks of skin cancer and of using indoor tanning devices, suggests a new study. Gay and bisexual men were up to six times more likely than straight men to use indoor tanning devices and to experience skin cancer while lesbian and bisexual women were about half as likely as straight women to do
By Lisa Rapaport (Reuters Health) – – Patients may be more likely to harm themselves or attempt suicide after weight-loss surgery, a Canadian study suggests. Most of them had a common type of bariatric surgery known as gastric bypass, which helps patients shed excess pounds by reducing stomach capacity from about three pints to the size of a shot glass. During the first three years after surgery, 111 patients received
By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) – Scientists studying people with depression say brain scans could be used to predict who is most likely to relapse, an approach that could help doctors make better decisions about who should stay on antidepressants and who should stop. In a small study of 64 patients, the researchers found that significant differences showed up in brain scans of those who later went on to have
By Steve Barnes LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (Reuters) – Planned Parenthood has sought class action status for its Medicaid patients in Arkansas after a U.S. judge ordered the state to continue payments to three women who challenged Arkansas’ move to halt payments to the organization. The filing in federal court in Arkansas on Monday could reverse the state’s decision to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood programs in the state, lawyers
Spark Therapeutics Inc’s experimental gene therapy helped improve vision in patients with a type of inherited eye disorder in a late-stage study, bringing it a step closer to becoming the first gene therapy to win U.S. approval. Spark said its lead drug, SPK-RPE65, met the goals of improving vision and sensitivity to light in patients with inherited retinal dystrophies (IRDs) who were previously at the risk of total blindness. SPK-RPE65
Doctors Without Borders on Monday called for a full investigation into the Kunduz air strike that killed 22 people at an Afghan hospital run by the aid group, citing discrepancies in U.S. and Afghan accounts of the incident. The United States bears responsibility for the targets it hits, Christopher Stokes, general director for the group, also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), said in a statement. “Their description of the
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health authorities are ordering manufacturers of specialized medical scopes to study how the reusable devices are cleaned following a series of life-threatening bacterial outbreaks at U.S. hospitals.
By Kate Kelland LONDON, Oct 5 (Reuters) – – Some 30 years after the world’s worst nuclear accident blasted radiation across Chernobyl, the site has evolved from a disaster zone into a nature reserve, teeming with elk, deer and wolves, scientists said on Monday. “When humans are removed, nature flourishes – even in the wake of the world’s worst nuclear accident,” said Jim Smith, a specialist in earth and environmental
A trio of scientists earned the 2015 Nobel Prize for Medicine on Monday for unlocking revolutionary treatments for malaria and roundworm, helping to roll back two parasitic diseases that blight millions of lives. Tu Youyou of China won half of the award for her work in artemisinin, a drug based on ancient Chinese herbal medicine, the Nobel jury announced. Irish-born William Campbell and Satoshi Omura of Japan shared the other
