Month: September 2013

Surgical Exposure to a Brain-Eating Protein: A Small but Unavoidable Risk

By Maayan Lubell NAHARIYA, Israel (Reuters) – Not a hundred miles from Damascus, a Syrian rebel lies in a hospital bed, an Israeli sentry at the door. Nearby a Syrian mother sits next to her daughter, shot in the back by a sniper. What started this year as a trickle is now a steady flow of Syrians, scores of civilians and fighters wounded in the civil war and being discreetly brought across the Golan frontline into Israel – a country with which Syria is formally still at war. …

MOSCOW (AP) — A pre-dawn fire swept through a Russian psychiatric hospital Friday, killing 37 people, officials said. Authorities had long warned that the mostly wooden building dating to the 19th century was unsafe.

By Kathryn Doyle NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Expectant mothers can use corticosteroid creams for irritated skin without putting their fetus at risk, except for large amounts of very strong creams, a new study suggests. In general, using those ointments during pregnancy was not linked to babies’ chances of having cleft palate, being born early or small or any other measured negative outcome, researchers found. That’s not surprising and is in line with previous research, lead author Dr. Ching-Chi Chi of the dermatology department of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Chiayi, Taiwan, said. …

By Kathryn Doyle NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Doctors rarely talk to patients about using sunscreen, even when patients have a history of skin cancer, according to surveys of U.S. physicians over two decades. Despite professional guidelines encouraging doctors to educate their patients about sun protection, in more than 18 billion patient visits from 1989 to 2010, sunscreen was mentioned less than one percent of the time. Even dermatologists managed to mention sunscreen in less than two percent of visits, researchers found. …

By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Children who are not vaccinated according to the schedule recommended by U.S. health officials are at an increased risk of catching whooping cough, according to a new study. Researchers found kids who fell significantly behind on their diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis (DTaP) shots were between 19 and 28 times more likely to be diagnosed with whooping cough, also known as pertussis, than children who were vaccinated on time. …

By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) – Syrian government forces are bombing and shelling hospitals in rebel-held areas to stop sick and wounded people getting treatment, acts which constitute war crimes, U.N. investigators said on Friday. Fighters loyal to President Bashar al-Assad purposefully denied people medical care as a “weapon of war” and had also tortured people in their own medical centers, the independent investigators said. The U.N. team had details of a smaller number of incidents when rebel forces attacked hospitals. …