Month: August 2013

HONOLULU (Reuters) – A 20-year-old German tourist who lost an arm in a shark attack off the coast of Maui last week died of her wounds on Wednesday, her family said, becoming the first person to die of a shark attack in Hawaii in nearly a decade. Jana Lutteropp, 20, had been hospitalized since she was attacked while snorkeling near Maui and had been on life support prior to her death, a hospital spokeswoman said. “Jana fought hard to stay alive. …

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Vice President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that his son Beau had undergone "a successful procedure" and would return to Delaware after going to Houston on Monday for tests to probe the cause of symptoms that included weakness and disorientation. Biden provided no other details. News reports said doctors had discovered a mass in the son's brain and that he had undergone tests for cancer at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Beau Biden, 44, is the vice president's oldest son and the attorney general of the state of Delaware. …

By Jonathan Kaminsky TACOMA, Washington (Reuters) – A U.S. soldier who gunned down 16 Afghan civilians last year was an attentive father of two children and a duty-bound Army man before the attacks, his brother testified at a sentencing hearing on Wednesday. William Bales spoke warmly of his youngest brother, Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, saying the former high school football player left a carefree bachelor life behind to enlist in the military in the aftermath of al Qaeda attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. …

By Soyoung Kim and Deena Beasley (Reuters) – Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc has given potential buyers, including Amgen Inc, access to trial data on its new cancer drug, removing a key hurdle that was holding up deal talks, according to three people familiar with the matter. The company’s attempt to sell itself for around $9.5 billion hit an impasse in recent weeks after lead bidder Amgen sought trial data about blood cancer drug Kyprolis – something that Onyx was reluctant to share, Reuters reported last week. …

By Mark Felsenthal WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama sought a progress report from state officials on Wednesday on the rollout of his signature health care law, stepping up his profile on the issue as the launch of a key provision of the law nears on October 1. Obama spoke by videoconference with the officials responsible for setting up new online health insurance exchanges that are at the heart of the program. These markets will offer private coverage at federally subsidized rates to individuals and families with low-to-moderate incomes. …

By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Bringing treatment and other help to depressed, middle-aged and older African Americans in their homes was modestly effective in a new study. After four months of weekly one-hour sessions with a trained social worker, participants scored lower on a scale measuring symptoms of depression, compared to those who didn’t get the home visits. “Our focus was very much to help people address their immediate concerns and anxieties and become engaged in activities that are important to them,” Laura Gitlin, the study’s lead author, told Reuters Health. …

By Megha Rajagopalan BEIJING (Reuters) – A Chinese industry group is collecting information on the pricing and business practices of foreign and local makers of medical equipment for the government in a survey that sources said was unusual in the amount of detail it sought. Two industry sources who have seen the questionnaire said it was unclear if regulators were about to investigate China’s $20 billion medical devices market following multiple probes into corruption and possible price fixing in the pharmaceuticals sector. …

By Jessica Wohl (Reuters) – CVS Caremark Corp said on Wednesday that it has taken the unusual step of cutting off access to powerful pain-killers for more than 36 doctors and other healthcare providers found to prescribe the drugs at an alarmingly high rate. The drugstore chain, which was drawn into a government crackdown on prescription painkiller abuse last year, began revoking the dispensing privileges of certain providers in late 2012, said CVS Chief Medical Officer Troyen Brennan. “This isn’t a definitive solution to the problem,” Brennan told Reuters. …

HAVANA (AP) — The United States has issued an advisory for travelers to Cuba after several foreign visitors were sickened by cholera in recent weeks.

By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – In a new study of former athletes with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), researchers have found the disease tends to show up in one of two ways: early, with depression and behavioral changes, or later, with memory loss. Researchers talked to the relatives of 36 people who had the brain condition identified on an autopsy and found all but three had shown symptom patterns that followed one of those two trajectories. …

Kali Hardig is showing signs of recovery after contracting Naegleria fowleri.