Month: June 2013

By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Some people who received potentially contaminated steroid injections may benefit from a MRI to check for signs of infection, a new study suggests – even if they don’t have obvious symptoms. Researchers screened 172 people who had been injected with methylprednisolone from a New England Compounding Center (NECC) lot tied to meningitis and fungal infections, and found abnormal test results for 36 of them. That included 13 people who had no new or worsening symptoms, such as pain and weakness near the injection site. …

CHICAGO (AP) — A nonprofit group helping to spread the word about President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul launched a campaign Tuesday that will target states with high numbers of uninsured Americans and tackle their skepticism with straightforward messages.

Some suicide prevention experts and feminists condemned images of famous literary suicides as tasteless and commercial; but some say photos were only art and Americans view death as a “taboo.”        

Some suicide prevention experts and feminists condemned images of famous literary suicides as tasteless and commercial; but some say photos were only art and Americans view death as a “taboo.”        

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Some 6,000 people were evacuated in Russia’s southwestern Samara region on Tuesday after ammunition explosions shook a military training area, the Emergencies Ministry said. The ministry said five explosions initially took place at the site on Tuesday evening, triggering a fire that was still causing blasts hours later. Footage aired on Russia’s state television showed plumes of dark smoke rising from the site, where the ministry said some 11 million pieces of ammunition was stored. …

Some suicide prevention experts and feminists condemned images of famous literary suicides as tasteless and commercial; but some say photos were only art and Americans view death as a “taboo.”        

By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Studies that are funded by pharmaceutical companies or involve industry-backed scientists tend to be more prominent at cancer meetings than independent studies, a new report suggests. “Figuring out the reasons behind these findings is critical,” said Dr. Beverly Moy, who led the analysis at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center in Boston. She and her colleagues also found the proportion of presentations with a financial conflict of interest increased between the 2006 and 2011 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meetings. …