Year: 2013

In this season of the flu and other bugs like the norovirus, people are constantly told that the best and first line of defense is hand sanitizers and soaps to kill as many as 400,000 germs per hand travel with us every day.

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – David France has been a top investigative reporter for decades, covering everything from the sex-abuse scandal in the Catholic Church to the struggles of war veterans for the likes of Newsweek and New York magazine. But at age 53 he embarked on a second career as a first-time filmmaker. “I was a frustrated still-life photographer,” France said, admitting that he’d barely even picked up a movie camera before embarking on the Oscar-nominated documentary “How to Survive a Plague. …

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Spending on Social Security and healthcare will double to $3.2 trillion a year over the next decade, threatening a sharp rise in national debt unless Congress acts to avoid the danger, congressional researchers warned on Tuesday. A report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office did not put forth a plan to resolve the long-term imbalance between revenues and spending on retirement and healthcare benefits. But it said that action taken now would help minimize the economic impact of whatever course lawmakers can agree on. …

U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., announced that he introduced legislation on Tuesday that would de-federalize marijuana and create a framework for federal taxation of cannabis. The bill, that was co-sponsored by Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., would follow Colorado’s model of regulating marijuana like alcohol. Here are the details.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Behind a barbed wire-topped wall by a busy New Delhi highway a teenager sits alone in a locked room, accused of taking part in a gang rape that first sparked nationwide protests and now a debate over whether Indian law is too lenient on juveniles. Police allege the youth and five men lured a 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist and her male friend onto a bus where they repeatedly raped her and beat her with a metal bar before tossing the bleeding couple onto a road. The woman died of internal injuries two weeks later. …

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Drops in smoking may have helped drive cancer death rates down among black men during the last decade, but they are still more likely to die of cancer than whites, according to a new analysis. “I think we see some really good news, but then we also see some trends that are going in the wrong direction,” said Carol DeSantis, the study’s lead author from the American Cancer Society (ACS) in Atlanta. Using information from several databases, the researchers analyzed information on the number of cancers diagnosed and the number of cancer deaths reported across the U.S. …

(Reuters) – KFC parent Yum Brands Inc on Tuesday said time, not ad spending, is the cure for a steep sales decline at its restaurants in China that was sparked by a food safety scare late last year. The fast-food operator makes more than half of its overall sales in China, and customers there began shunning Yum's restaurants in December after news reports and government investigations focused on chemical residue found in a small portion of its chicken supply. The company was not fined by food safety authorities. …

PALERMO, Sicily (Reuters) – The Sicilian regional government in Italy said on Tuesday it would revoke permission for the United States to build a ground station for a satellite defense system, citing health concerns. It said there were insufficient studies about the effect the ground station’s electromagnetic waves could have on the health of residents around the city of Niscemi. Outgoing U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said during a visit to Italy last month that he understood the concerns of residents but that U.S. studies had concluded there would be no health risks. …

ATLANTA (Reuters) – Mentally ill adults in the United States smoke cigarettes at a 70 percent higher rate than adults without any kind of mental illness, according to a report released by federal health agencies on Tuesday. Statistics show smoking by the mentally ill is a “very serious health issue that needs more attention” and should prompt mental health facilities to ban the habit, said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We need to do more to help smokers with mental illness quit,” Frieden told reporters during a telephone briefing. …

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Fewer elderly Americans are dying in acute care hospitals than were a decade ago, according to a new study of where Medicare beneficiaries spend their final months of life. However, between 2000 and 2009 there was also an increase in the proportion of people admitted to the intensive care unit in the month before they died – suggesting there hasn’t been a general trend toward less aggressive end-of-life care. “It shows that we’re not yet providing the type of care in the place of care that necessarily may be what people most want,” said Dr. …

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Getting a cortisone injection won’t cure tennis elbow any better than a drug-free saline shot, according to a new study – and it might actually slow recovery. Researchers found that a few weeks after receiving the steroid shots, people reported less pain and disability than those who’d been given placebo injections. But a year later, the same patients lagged behind the placebo group in their likelihood of complete recovery. “This absolutely confirms that steroid injections are not a good idea,” said Dr. …

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Key Democratic and Republican senators reintroduced legislation on Tuesday that would make it illegal for brand-name pharmaceutical companies to pay generic drug makers to keep their cheaper medicines off the market. Such deals, in which big drug companies resolve patent litigation with potentially infringing generic firms by reaching a settlement that delays a generic version of a drug in exchange for a payment, have angered U.S. and European antitrust enforcers for years. …