Month: October 2013

A team of British and American researchers have linked cases of a certain type of Crohn’s disease to specialized intestinal cells. Their findings suggest that small-bowel Crohn’s might actually be a specialized form of the illness, a discovery that could result in new kinds of treatment.

It sounds disgusting but could solve a serious problem. Doctors have found a way to put healthy people's poop into pills that can cure gut infections.

BEIJING (Reuters) – Swarms of giant hornets have killed 42 people and injured 1,640 in China’s northwestern province of Shaanxi in recent weeks, the official Xinhua news agency said on Thursday. Authorities are destroying nests, putting up warning signs and raising public awareness via television, radio and the Internet, it said. Residents have been told to wear long sleeves when they go out, and not to try to drive away the swarms. …

By Yoko Kubota TOKYO (Reuters) – Novartis AG said on Thursday it had overhauled management operations and sanctioned key staff in Japan after a scandal involving research into its Diovan blood pressure drug in the country. The Swiss company’s pharmaceutical head David Epstein said the episode would not have a significant impact on the group’s profits, although he acknowledged sales of the drug had fallen. “Overall Diovan is a relatively small part of our portfolio, given the breadth of the medicines that we have, so the impact should not be significant,” Epstein said. …

By David Morgan and Lewis Krauskopf (Reuters) – The U.S. government on Wednesday scrambled to add computer capacity to handle an unexpectedly large number of Americans logging onto new online insurance marketplaces created under President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law. Technical glitches and heavy traffic slowed Tuesday's launch of the marketplaces, particularly for the federal Healthcare.gov website serving 36 states. …