Month: January 2013

Heart attack pattern shifted after Katrina

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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Heart attacks are usually most common on weekdays and mornings, especially Mondays, but new data analysis shows that pattern reversed in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. “The fact that it’s such a polar opposite shift is really surprising,” lead author Dr. Matthew Peters of Tulane University told Reuters Health. After the storm the overall number of attacks tripled, likely due to an increased number of smokers. They were more likely on weekday evenings and weekends, according to data published in The American Journal of Cardiology. …

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Native Canadians could block development, chief warns

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Assembly of First Nations Chief Shawn Atleo speaks during a news conference in OttawaOTTAWA (Reuters) – Native Canadians are so angry that they could resort to blocking resource development and bring the economy "to its knees" unless the Conservative government addresses their grievances, an influential chief said on Thursday. Native Canadian chiefs are due to meet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Friday to discuss the poor living conditions facing many of Canada's 1.2 million aboriginals. "We have had enough. Our young people have had enough. Our women have had enough … . We have nothing left to lose," said Grand Chief Derek Nepinak from the province of Manitoba. …

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Study finds increase in unused transplant livers

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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – The number of donor livers thrown away in the U.S. has increased since 2004 due – in part – to a population growing older and heavier, according to a new study that also points to changes in medical practice that may make some donor livers less viable. “The rationale for looking at this question in the first place is that the number of liver transplants done in the U.S. has gone down,” said the study’s lead author Dr. Eric Orman, a fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. …

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Drugmakers report U.S. shortages of flu vaccine, Tamiflu

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Boston Mayor Thomas Menino addresses delegates during the second session of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte(Reuters) – This year's U.S. flu season has created shortages of the Tamiflu treatment for children and of the most widely used flu vaccine, their manufacturers said. Roche Holding AG told Reuters late on Wednesday that it had a shortage of the liquid form of Tamiflu, given to children who already have the flu to slow or stop symptoms. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration confirmed that there have been supply interruptions in some locations. Roche said it told wholesalers and distributors in recent weeks that temporary delays in shipments were imminent. …

Weightlessness no cure for "morning clumsies," astronaut says

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – Like many people, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield confesses that he’s sometimes clumsy in the morning just after waking up. The three-time astronaut, now living aboard the International Space Station, was surprised to learn that did not change in the weightless environment of space. “When I come out of my sleeping berth to go into our galley and our bathroom, I bump into things even though I’m floating weightless,” the 53-year-old pilot told reporters during an in-flight press conference on Thursday. …

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Scientists urge end to limits on gun safety research

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Research restrictions pushed by the National Rifle Association have stopped the United States from finding solutions to firearms violence, more than a hundred scientists from virtually every major U.S. university told Vice President Joe Biden’s task force on gun violence in a letter on Thursday. In the wake of the December school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, and other mass homicides, the group of economists, health researchers, educators, doctors and criminologists said funding should be restored to a range of study areas, from gun safety to tracking illegal …

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Florida slashes estimated cost of Medicaid expansion to $3 billion

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TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters) – In a dramatic about-face, Florida’s health agency now says the cost to state taxpayers of expanding Medicaid under President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform law would be barely more than a tenth of its original estimate. Governor Rick Scott, a Republican who had fought hard against the reform law known as Obamacare, had complained on Monday that the optional expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare would cost Florida taxpayers $26 billion over the next decade, using the original estimate by the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration. …

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