Month: May 2013

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A 33-year-old Polish man received a face transplant just three weeks after being disfigured in a workplace accident, in what his doctors said Wednesday is the fastest time frame to date for such an operation. It was Poland's first face transplant.

By Toni Clarke WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Merck & Co's experimental insomnia drug moved a step closer to U.S. approval on Wednesday after a panel of medical experts said it is effective and safe at lower doses. The advisory panel was convened to help the U.S. Food and Drug Administration decide whether to approve the drug, suvorexant, which would be the first in a new class of sedatives that block chemicals in the brain called orexins that help keep people awake. The drugs are designed to help people fall asleep and stay asleep. …

Rather than significantly hardening tooth enamel, fluoride may cut cavities by making it harder for oral bacteria to stick around. Karen Hopkin reports.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Voters approved a law limiting the number of medical pot shops in Los Angeles after politicians failed for years to corral the blossoming industry.

By Jessica Dye NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. Senate committee on Wednesday unanimously approved legislation that would increase federal oversight for companies that compound and sell sterile drugs across state lines. The proposed legislation was introduced in response to a meningitis outbreak last fall that killed more than 50 people and sickened more than 700. The outbreak was traced to contamination found in steroid injections made by the New England Compounding Center. The bill was passed unanimously on a voice vote by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee. …

By Toni Clarke WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Merck & Co's experimental insomnia drug was safe and effective at the lower of two doses studied, a panel of medical experts said on Wednesday, increasing the chance it will be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The advisory panel was convened to help the FDA decide whether to approve the drug, suvorexant, which would be the first in a new class of sedatives designed to help people fall asleep and stay asleep. …

In a medical first, doctors used plastic particles and a 3-D laser printer to create an airway splint to save the life of a baby boy who used to stop breathing nearly every day.

By Verna Gates BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) – U.S. and state health authorities are investigating an unidentified respiratory illness that has killed two of 10 people hospitalized with it in Alabama since last week. Preliminary tests do not indicate the bird flu, nor a new mutation of any known influenza virus, said Dr. Mary McIntyre, an assistant state health officer at the Alabama Department of Public Health. Two patients did test positive for the H1N1 strain of the flu. …

Johns Hopkins researchers have published findings from an osteoarthritis study that could eventually make joint replacement an obsolete treatment for the debilitating disease.