Year: 2013

A new study released in the journal Alcoholism finds that cutting alcohol with diet drinks may make them more potent than using their full-calorie counterparts.

CHICAGO (AP) — Commonly used steroid shots may worsen tennis elbow in the long run and increase chances that the painful condition will reappear, a small study found.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A federal jury on Tuesday ordered Merck & Co Inc to pay $285,000 in a lawsuit over the risks of its osteoporosis drug Fosamax, the second loss for the company after several earlier trials. The eight-person jury in U.S. District Court in Manhattan found that Merck failed to warn plaintiff Rhoda Scheinberg’s doctors of the risks associated with Fosamax. The jury rejected the plaintiff’s argument that Fosamax was a defective product. More than 4,000 lawsuits are pending in federal and state courts arising out of injuries allegedly caused by the one-time blockbuster …

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, already the most unpopular governor in the nation, has his work cut out for him at his annual "state of the state" speech on Wednesday – and this time he probably won't be relying on a python named "Squeezy." The fiscal crisis caused by pension underfunding in Illinois is so bad that some hospitals wait a year to be paid by the state for insurance claims. At the same time, teachers in Chicago's wealthy suburbs are retiring with six-figure salaries set by school districts on which pensions are calculated, and the state pays the bill. …

A St. Louis obstetrician was chastised on Facebook, and later reprimanded by her bosses, after joking online about arriving late for a patient’s delivery because the patient had frequently been late to appointments. “So I have a patient who has chosen to either no-show or…

An outbreak of fungal meningitis prompted surprise inspections.

(Reuters) – Health insurer Centene Corp reported a 70 percent drop in profit due to higher costs associated with a severe flu season in the United States and a weak performance by its Medicaid contracts in Texas and Kentucky. Net profit fell to $9.1 million, or 17 cents per share, for the quarter ended December 31, from $30.1 million, or 57 cents per share, a year earlier. Analysts on average expected earnings of 32 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Total revenue rose 59 percent to $2.4 billion of which premium and services revenue brought in $2.3 billion. …

(Reuters) – Massachusetts health regulators have ordered 11 compounding pharmacies to partially or completely halt operations and cited another 21 for minor violations, after unannounced inspections of 40 pharmacies across the state. The wave of inspections follow a deadly U.S. meningitis outbreak stemming from a tainted steroid that was made by the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Massachusetts. The 2012 outbreak led to 45 deaths, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. …

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. states would be free to decide how to regulate marijuana just like beer and wine without running foul of federal law under legislation being proposed by two Democratic lawmakers. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon and Jared Polis of Colorado plan to introduce two bills in the House of Representatives on Tuesday amid a growing movement to legalize pot for personal use, whether recreational or medical. One bill would end a federal ban on marijuana and give states jurisdiction over its use and regulate it in a similar way to alcohol sales, with federal oversight. …

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – A 20-year-old man died on Tuesday from injuries sustained during a January 27 fire at a nightclub in southern Brazil, bringing the death toll from the disaster to 238 and adding to concerns it may rise further. The health department for Rio Grande do Sul state, where the Kiss nightclub in the college town of Santa Maria is located, did not give a precise cause for the death at the Santa Rosa hospital in Porto Alegre, the state’s capital. …

NEW YORK (AP) — Opponents are pressing to delay enforcement of the city’s novel plan to crack down on supersized, sugary drinks, saying businesses shouldn’t have to spend millions of dollars to comply until a court rules on whether the measure is legal.