Year: 2014

By Toni Clarke WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Food and Drug Administration exceeded its authority when it set up a surveillance program to monitor employees in its medical device division who it suspected of leaking trade secrets, two prominent Republican lawmakers said on Wednesday. The charge was made in a report released by Representative Darrell Issa, chairman of the House oversight panel, and Senator Charles Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. The report found that the FDA may have broken laws protecting whistleblowers and that interim policies put in place by the agency last year to safeguard them were insufficient. FDA spokeswoman Erica Jefferson said in a statement that the agency had not been given an opportunity to review the full report but said "many of the findings outlined paint an incomplete picture of the matter." In April 2010, the FDA engaged contractors to check on first one scientist and then four more using a software monitoring program called Spector 360, the report said.

The convicted killers of South African anti-apartheid hero Chris Hani were attacked by a fellow inmate wielding a kitchen spoon, a correctional services spokesman said on Wednesday. Clive Derby-Lewis and Janus Walus suffered head and hand injuries after they were attacked by an inmate at a Pretoria prison, spokesman Manelisi Wolela said in a statement. His murder threatened to derail South Africa’s transition from white minority rule to multi-racial democracy, leading to riots across the country and triggering fears of a civil war. Walus, a Polish immigrant to South Africa, shot Hani dead outside his home.

Figures show that obesity rates for preschoolers have fallen dramatically over the last 10 years. According to Medical News Today, CDC statistics show a 43 percent drop in obesity among youngsters 2 to 5 years old. Overall U.S. obesity rates remained at the same level, and they actually went up significantly in women at least 60. The CDC says that unlike the specific role BMI measurements play in determining an adult’s weight status, a child’s weight category is the result of considering age- and sex-specific BMI percentiles.

By Kathleen Raven NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Among older couples, physical illnesses can strain a marriage, but maintaining a healthy sex life could make a difference in how happily both partners cope, a new study suggests. Researchers have long known the illnesses that come with age are linked to poorer marriage quality, but exactly why has not been clear. According to the new analysis, sexual intimacy is the link that keeps partners positive about their marriages in the face of difficult times, and a lack of sex makes matters worse. The results “suggest that it may be important to stay sexually connected to protect” the quality of a marriage, lead author Adena Galinsky told Reuters Health.

China's environment ministry has vowed to 'harshly punish' factories and power plants that contributed to a hazardous smog which enveloped much of Northern China, official state media reported on Wednesday. Investigations had found that some thermal power plants, cement and steel makers in the northern province of Hebei had failed to halt or curtail production during severely smoggy days despite government orders, state news agency Xinhua quoted the Ministry of Environmental Protection as saying.

The days of visiting a clinic to receive a flu vaccine may be over, a new study suggests. Researchers from the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Emory University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found self-vaccination may be possible using a microneedle patch instead of a traditional needle.

Phantom limb pain is relieved with help of computer-generated arm.        

By Kathryn Doyle NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Older people who take blood pressure medications had more serious injuries from falls than those not taking medications, according to a new study. The added risk with blood pressure meds for falls that cause serious injury has been suggested before, but older people shouldn’t stop taking their medications based just on these results, the authors say. “It is important to remember that no single study, and particularly an observational study such as ours, can give a definitive answer,” said Dr. Mary E. Tinetti, who led the research. “We cannot say definitively that antihypertensive medications led to serious fall injuries such as hip fractures,” said Tinetti, a geriatrics researcher at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.