Month: February 2014

By Lacey Johnson GEORGETOWN, Delaware (Reuters) – A jury heard final arguments on Wednesday in the trial of a well-known Delaware pediatrician accused of waterboarding his 11-year-old stepdaughter. Prosecutors sought to portray Dr. Melvin Morse, a best-selling author on near-death experiences, as a controlling manipulator. Morse’s lawyer told jurors, who are scheduled to begin deliberations on Thursday, that his stepdaughter and wife were liars. His stepdaughter, 11 at the time, told authorities that Morse had physically abused her, including waterboarding her on four occasions.

Confusion over when and how often to get mammograms.        

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most states are still lagging when it comes to sign-ups under President Barack Obama's health care law, but an Associated Press analysis of numbers reported Wednesday finds a dozen high-achievers getting ahead of the game.

By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration on Wednesday said the number of people who have enrolled in private Obamacare health plans rose to 3.3 million from October 1 to February 1, providing new evidence that its effort to extend coverage to the uninsured is gaining momentum. Data collected from new health insurance marketplaces set up in all 50 states, under President Barack Obama's healthcare law, showed enrollment rising by 1.1 million or 53 percent in January and surpassing a government projection set before the botched rollout of the federal website HealthCare.gov. "We're seeing a healthy growth in enrollment," Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary, told reporters in a conference call. Administration officials said the enrollment results bring to 9.6 million the number of people who have signed up for private plans or been found eligible for the Medicaid program for the poor since enrollment began on October 1.

(Reuters) – U.S. Food and Drug Administration declined to approve Durect Corp’s post-operative pain treatment, saying the application lacked enough data to prove the drug was safe. Durect’s shares fell about 30 percent after the bell. The FDA indicated that more clinical safety studies would have to be conducted on the drug, Posidur, Durect said. The specialty pharmaceutical company said it was evaluating the issues described in the “complete response letter”, the type of letter issued by the FDA to convey that it cannot approve a drug application in its current form.

(Reuters) – A new swine virus, distinct from the deadly PEDv pig virus, has been found in fecal samples taken from four different farms in Ohio last month and early this month, the Ohio Department of Agriculture said on Wednesday. This is only the second time the virus has been reported and the first time it has been seen in the United States, said Yan Zhang, a scientist in the department’s Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory. The pigs that contracted the new virus, called Swine DeltaCoronavirus (SDCV), suffered from diarrhea, which is also a symptom of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv) and transmissible gastroenteritis (TGE). Of the four Ohio farms where the virus was discovered, one tested positive for Swine DeltaCoronavirus but negative for PEDv and TGE.