Monday, October 25, 2004
New Interim Guidelines Address Use of Antiviral Medications for Influenza
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Influenza Antiviral Medications: 2004-05 Interim Chemoprophylaxis and Treatment Guidelines
""Influenza antiviral medications are an important adjunct to influenza vaccine in the prevention and treatment of influenza. In the setting of the current vaccine shortage, CDC has developed interim recommendations on the use of antiviral medications for the 2004-05 influenza season. These interim recommendations are provided, in conjunction with previously issued recommendations on use of vaccine, to reduce the impact of influenza on persons at high risk for developing severe complications secondary to infection.""
[Via Medscape Headlines]
How To Reduce The Risk Of Catching The Flu
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From the JCAHO:
New National Campaign Offers Americans Three Easy Steps To Prevent Infections
The Joint Commission urges Americans to do three easy things to limit the spread of respiratory infections in health care settings and communities.
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Clean your hands – Rub hands vigorously with soap and warm water for at least 15 seconds after using the bathroom, taking out the trash, changing a diaper, or before handling food. Use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers is an acceptable alternative. Americans should also not hesitate to ask their doctors, nurses, dentists or other caregivers whether they have cleaned their hands before rendering care. It is also important that your hands be clean when caring for a sick friend or family member at home.
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Cover your mouth and nose – To stop the spread of infectious diseases through sneezes and coughs, cover your mouth and nose with a tissue, your hands, or the crook of your elbow. Then, remember to wash your hands.
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Avoid close contact – A fever or symptoms of a contagious illness are clear signs to you or your child to stay at home and away from other people, either at work or at school. If you are sick and go to work or school, you place others at risk for getting sick as well.
Thursday, October 21, 2004
Bush and GOP Sites Outage, DDOS Attack Suspected
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Bush and GOP Sites Outage, DDOS Attack Suspected:
""Web sites for President Bush's campaign and the Republican National Committee are investigating outages.""
[Via eWEEK Technology News]
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Pentagon Says No Need for a U.S. Draft of Doctors (Reuters)
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Pentagon Says No Need for a U.S. Draft of Doctors (Reuters):
""Reuters - The Pentagon said on Wednesday it does not need or want a draft of doctors and other medical workers even as another agency updates contingency plans for such a draft in the event of a national catastrophe.""
[Via Yahoo! News: Top Stories]
Why Do Carbs Turn To Fat?
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Researchers uncover process for carb-induced fat formation:
""Researchers are one step closer to understanding how high carbohydrate diets lead to obesity and diabetes. They have shown that a single protein called carbohydrate response element binding protein activates several genes that cause cells in the liver to turn sugar into fat.""
[Via Science Blog - Science News Stories]
Monday, October 18, 2004
How Technology Failed In Iraq
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MIT Technology Review: How Technology Failed In Iraq
" “Next to the fall of Baghdad,” says Marcone, “that bridge was the most important piece of terrain in the theater, and no one can tell me what’s defending it. Not how many troops, what units, what tanks, anything. There is zero information getting to me. Someone may have known above me, but the information didn’t get to me on the ground.” Marcone’s men were ambushed repeatedly on the approach to the bridge. But the scale of the intelligence deficit was clear after Marcone took the bridge on April 2." "
Saturday, October 16, 2004
State Limiting Obesity Lawsuits
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Obesity lawsuits:
" "Michigan becomes the thirteenth state to ban civil lawsuits 'against restaurants and other sectors of the food industry for serving or making food that made people fat' by way of specific legislation. The Michigan Trial Lawyers Association opposed the measure...." "
[Via PointOfLaw Forum]
Friday, October 15, 2004
MIT Technology Review: Global Warming Bombshell
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""Suddenly the hockey stick, the poster-child of the global warming community, turns out to be an artifact of poor mathematics.""
See the analysis at http://www.uoguelph.ca/~rmckitri/research/trc.html. Why not in a major scientific journal? Because Nature rejected it. You decide.
[From MIT Technology Review]
Tuesday, October 12, 2004
Nobel laureate calls for steeper tax cuts in US
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Yahoo! News - Nobel laureate calls for steeper tax cuts in US:
""Edward Prescott, who picked up the Nobel Prize for Economics, said President George W. Bush's tax rate cuts were "pretty small" and should have been bigger.
"What Bush has done has been not very big, it's pretty small," Prescott told CNBC financial news television.
"Tax rates were not cut enough," he said. Lower tax rates provided an incentive to work, Prescott said.
Prescott and Norwegian Finn Kydland won the 2004 Nobel Economics Prize for research into the forces behind business cycles." "
CDC Posts Interim Guidelines for Influenza Vaccination
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CDC Posts Interim Guidelines for Influenza Vaccination
[Via Medscape Headlines]
U.S. FDA Tried to Block Vioxx Results: Lawmaker
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U.S. FDA Tried to Block Vioxx Results: Lawmaker:
""U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials pressured an agency safety official to keep quiet or water down his findings that the now-withdrawn arthritis drug Vioxx was dangerous to the heart, a leading Senate Republican charged on Thursday.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley said he interviewed FDA scientist David Graham as part of the committee's probe of how the agency handled the Merck & Co. Inc. drug, which the company pulled a week ago.
According to a statement from Grassley, Graham said he had been "ostracized" and subject to "veiled threats" and "intimidation" from within the FDA when he tried to get his research published in the weeks before Merck acknowledged Vioxx's risks.""
U.S. Health Officials Release National Flu Pandemic Plan
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U.S. Health Officials Release National Flu Pandemic Plan:
""The Dept of Health and Human Services recently released its plan to respond to and prepare for an influenza pandemic, detailing domestic actions as well as its role in the global health community.
The Nation's Health""
[Via Medscape Headlines]
Saturday, October 9, 2004
Device To Improve Venipuncture Accuracy
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Vein contrast enhancer improves chances you'll get stuck only once:
" "Herbert Zeman has invented a device he calls the vein contrast enhancer (VCE) that is aimed at reducing failed attempts at hitting the vein the first time during blood tests, injections, and IV drip insertions. The device uses infrared LEDs to point out areas of high blood concentration, which, if the patient is in fact human, are veins. The LEDs illuminate the skin at a wavelength of 740 nanometers which is highly-absorbed by blood and dispered by fat and other tissue. The result is an image that represents the location of veins. This image is then projected back onto the skin using a “hot mirror” that ensures accuracy within 0.06mm.""
![vein contrast enhancer]()
[Via Engadget]
Thursday, October 7, 2004
Iraq Survey Group Report Available
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The Iraq Survey Group report is available at the CIA website. They've broken out the 'Key Findings' as a separate PDF document. Don't just be content to let some reporter tell you what is says. Go look for yourself...
Tuesday, October 5, 2004
Harvest of Organs Was 'Homicide'
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The Australian: Harvest of organs was 'homicide':
""A US coroner issued a homicide finding yesterday after determining that two hospitals allowed vital organs to be removed from a man before they had proven he was brain dead.
William Rardin's cause of death was "removal of his internal organs by an organ recovery team", ruled coroner Mark Young in Montrose County, Colorado.
He said he did not believe the case should be a criminal matter, but suggested it "should lead to a clarification of what the accepted standard is".
Mr Young said the two hospitals did not follow "accepted medical standards" or meet state guidelines in determining that Rardin, 31, was brain dead after he shot himself last month.""
What were the tests done at the hospital to determine brain death? Splashy headline, but we need more facts to really know what went on.
Donor card, anyone?
Brain MRI Successfully Adapted for Intraoperative Use
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Brain MRI Successfully Adapted for Intraoperative Use in Germany.
A neurosurgeon's wet dream
FDA Public Health Advisory: Safety of Vioxx
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FDA Public Health Advisory: Safety of Vioxx from the FDA and also a FAQ.
As far as I have been able to find out, the results that led to the early termination of the APPROVe trial have not been published. What seems to have happened is that the trial was terminated because interim analysis revealed the increased risk of heart attacks in those taking Vioxx for more than 18 months. Of note is the fact that the study enrolled fewer than three thousand patients, yet still possessed enough power to allow this conclusion, which suggests to me that complications were not rare (in which case a much larger study sample would have been needed to demonstrate this result).
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Sep Nov
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