Month: April 2013

By Thomas Ferraro WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The fate of one of President Barack Obama's key gun-control proposals appeared on Monday night to be in the hands of two senators: one Democrat, the other Republican, both of them longtime opponents of restrictions on guns. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Republican Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania are seeking a compromise on expanding background checks for prospective gun buyers. …

(Reuters) – An implantable lens designed by Bausch & Lomb Inc to reduce vision distortion as well as allow patients to focus on near and distant objects was safe and effective, advisers to the U.S. health regulator said. The Ophthalmic Devices Panel of the Medical Devices Advisory Committee voted 10-to-none that the company’s Trulign Toric Accommodating Posterior Chamber Intraocular Lens was safe. The lens — designed to move inside the eye — allows patient to focus on near, intermediate and distant objects without using spectacles after cataract surgeries. …

By Toni Clarke WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. health regulators have approved a drug to treat morning sickness that was withdrawn from the market 30 years ago amid claims, since debunked, that it caused birth defects. The drug, Diclegis, made by Duchesnay Inc, a private Canadian company, is a generic version of a product that was initially approved in the United States under the name Bendectin in 1956. It was withdrawn in 1983 following a slew of lawsuits from mothers claiming their children had been harmed by it. The U.S. …

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — An expert witness testified Monday that average lead levels in baby foods fall below the threshold for warning labels mandated under a California reporting standard.

By Laura Zuckerman (Reuters) – A fungus tied to a disease devastating hibernating bats in the United States has been found in an Alabama cave system critical to the survival of endangered gray bats, government scientists said on Monday. Detection of the fungus that causes the bat disease, white-nose syndrome, in the Fern Cave National Wildlife Refuge in Alabama “could be pretty catastrophic” for the up to 1.6 million protected gray bats that hibernate there, said Paul McKenzie, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service endangered species coordinator. …

WASHINGTON (AP) — Talk about a comeback: A treatment pulled off the market 30 years ago has won Food and Drug Administration approval again as the only drug specifically designated to treat morning sickness.

By Sharon Bernstein LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A federal judge has rebuffed California Governor Jerry Brown’s effort to ease U.S. oversight of mental health services in the state’s overcrowded prisons, saying he did not trust officials to improve conditions for inmates. Brown, a Democrat, is under political pressure to scale back a program under which state prisoners are sent to local jurisdictions to ease crowding. That move has led to the early release of thousands of non-violent offenders from lower-level county jails as municipalities struggle to make room for them. …

By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) – A party drug available over the Internet and often taken by young people in Britain and the United States may harbor unknown risks because it has both stimulant and hallucinogenic effects, scientists said on Tuesday. Researchers who analyzed the effect of the drug called “Benzo Fury” on the brains of rats found it had similar effects to some illegal drugs such as amphetamines or cocaine, which can cause hallucinations and are also addictive. …

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Not-for-profit U.S. hospitals began confronting another threat to their shaky finances last week with the start of reductions to Medicare that are included in the universal federal spending cuts known as sequestration, Moody's Investors Service said on Monday. Sequestration called for slicing 2 percent from reimbursements paid by the Medicare health insurance program for the elderly, beginning on April 1. That will likely lower the revenues of hospitals, physicians and other healthcare providers by $11 billion in 2013, the rating agency said in a special report. …

By Dan Whitcomb LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – An autopsy has determined that the son of popular U.S. evangelical pastor Rick Warren, found dead in California on Friday, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, an Orange County Sheriff’s spokesman said on Monday. Rick Warren said in a letter to staff of his Orange County-based Saddleback Valley Community Church over the weekend that Matthew Warren, 27, committed suicide after a lifelong struggle with depression and mental illness. …

L-carnitine, a naturally-occurring substance in red meat and a chemical additive of many energy drinks, is associated with the development of atherosclerosis, suggests the outcome of research published yesterday.

By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – There is not enough evidence to recommend for or against screening for oral cancer, a government-backed panel said today, due to a lack of data on possible benefits and harms tied to screening. The most common causes of oral cancer are cigarette smoking and alcohol as well as the sexually-transmitted human papillomavirus, or HPV. The American Cancer Society estimates 36,000 people will be diagnosed with oral cancer in 2013 and close to 7,000 will die of the disease. …