Year: 2014

By Simon Cambers MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Slapping on the sun cream may be second nature to Australians but it seems some of the world’s leading players are taking unnecessary risks by not wearing any protection against skin cancer at the opening grand slam of the year. Australian Open officials have been handing out sun cream and advising fans to cover up while play was suspended at Melbourne Park on Thursday due to the excessive heat, as temperatures passed 40 degrees Celsius for a third straight day. Defending men’s champion Novak Djokovic took to Twitter to spread the message, saying “protect yourself people” but others, including world number one Rafael Nadal, have said they preferred not to use it at all. “Players (don’t like) that it doesn’t feel great on your skin and also when you’re sweating it drips in your eyes,” said Paul Annacone, the former coach of Roger Federer and Pete Sampras and now in charge of Sloane Stephens.

By Simon Cambers MELBOURNE, Jan 16 (Reuters) – Slapping on the sun cream may be second nature to Australians but it seems some of the world’s leading players are taking unnecessary risks by not wearing any protection against skin cancer at the opening grand slam of the year. Australian Open officials have been handing out sun cream and advising fans to cover up while play was suspended at Melbourne Park on Thursday due to the excessive heat, as temperatures passed 40 degrees Celsius for a third straight day. Defending men’s champion Novak Djokovic took to Twitter to spread the message, saying “protect yourself people” but others, including world number one Rafael Nadal, have said they preferred not to use it at all. “Players (don’t like) that it doesn’t feel great on your skin and also when you’re sweating it drips in your eyes,” said Paul Annacone, the former coach of Roger Federer and Pete Sampras and now in charge of Sloane Stephens.

By Roberta Rampton WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama sought to build a united front with Democratic senators on Wednesday, inviting them to the White House to chat about "shared goals" heading into midterm elections in which Republicans will try to exploit Obama's woes to pick up seats. Obama urged senators to hold off on a proposed Iran sanctions bill that many support – and which he has vowed to veto. The White House has said the legislation would derail an international deal to curb Iran's nuclear program. Obama, not known for his tendency to schmooze, sat on a stool with a microphone in the ornate East Room of the White House, giving brief remarks before taking questions from senators for about 90 minutes.

By Kate Kelland, Health and Science Correspondent LONDON (Reuters) – Toby Stroh was in his 20s when his doctor told him he would go blind in his 50s, and his years of playing tennis and being able to drive or work could be gone long before that. Now aged 56, two years after his retina was deliberately infected with a virus carrying a gene to correct a protein deficiency that was destroying its cells, he is a regular on the tennis court and has a successful career in law. “For the last 30 years I’ve been living under the insidious inevitability of going blind,” Stroh told reporters at a briefing about his experimental treatment. “Now there is a very real prospect I will continue to be able to see.” Stroh is one of a handful of patients with an inherited cause of progressive blindness called choroideremia who took part in an early stage trial of a potential gene therapy treatment designed to correct a genetic defect that means retina cells gradually die.

By Laila Kearney SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Firefighters responding to an Asiana Airlines plane that crash-landed in San Francisco in July were warned about the presence of a teenage passenger who was later fatally struck by an emergency vehicle, new video footage of the aftermath shows. Ye Mengyuan, a 16-year-old passenger from China, survived the initial impact of the July 6 crash only to be struck and killed by an emergency vehicle as she lay near the wreckage of the first fatal commercial airplane crash in the United States since February 2009. One video, first released by CBS News late on Tuesday, shows a firefighter pointing to Ye, who appeared motionless in a patch of dry grass without no foam nearby. Another video shows a firefighter flagging down a fire truck headed toward the plane.

(Reuters) – Amarin Corp Plc said U.S. health regulators delayed their decision to reconsider a rescinded agreement that could support a marketing application for an expanded use of the company’s blood fat-lowering drug. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration had in October revoked a Special Protocol Assessment (SPA) agreement covering a large late-stage trial of the drug, Vascepa. Following an appeal from Amarin, the regulator said it would determine by January 15 whether it would reconsider that decision. …

By Sharon Begley NEW YORK (Reuters) – The late-December surge that pushed enrollment in private health insurance plans under Obamacare past 2.1 million people continued into 2014, officials of several state-run insurance marketplaces said on Wednesday. It was encouraging news for White House hopes of signing up 7 million Americans by March 31, the deadline for 2014 coverage under President Barack Obama's healthcare law. That goal has appeared elusive due to the disastrous performance of HealthCare.gov, the federal enrollment portal through which Americans in 36 states sign up to buy health insurance, in October and November, even as the websites of many of the 15 state-run exchanges fared better. The Washington Health Benefit Exchange has had about 8,000 enrollments in private health plans since late December, bringing the total to just over 73,000.

Merck & Co Inc’s experimental blood clot-preventing drug vorapaxar should be approved to reduce the risk of further heart problems in people who have suffered a recent heart attack, an advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration concluded on Wednesday. The FDA is not bound to follow the advice of its advisory panels but typically does so. Results from a trial known as TRA 2P were “robust,” panelists said, and justified approval for patients who had suffered a heart attack. “I think this drug addresses a real unmet medical need,” said Dr. Philip Sager, consulting professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine.