Many urologists miss or misdiagnose Chlamydia in young, sexually active patients, according to a letter published online in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections. Chlamydia trachomatis infection can lead to a condition known as epididymo-orchitis, in which the testicles and a tube that stores sperm become inflamed. These symptoms
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A new study published online earlier this week by the British medical journal The Lancet suggests that the number of women dying during pregnancy or childbirth has dropped by more than one third in the past three decades, from half a million annual deaths in 1980 to 343,000 as of 2008. The study, sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates
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Despite concerns about stigma faced by obese patients—and research suggesting an inverse relationship between physicians’ respect for patients and patients’ weight—a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that obese patients receive the same quality of care as their slimmer peers. A team of
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Between 1999 and 2006 the number of people hospitalized for poisoning from prescription drugs including opioids (such as OxyContin and Vicodin) and tranquilizers and sedatives (depressants such as Valium, Xanax and Ambien) has increased by 65%—representing nearly twice the increase in hospitalizations due to overdose with other
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Growing resistance to two leading antibiotic treatments could make the sexually transmitted infection gonorrhea more difficult to treat, according to warnings from a British health official reported by the BBC. At a meeting of the Society for General Microbiology in Edinburgh, Dr. Catherine Ison, a gonorrhea specialist from the U.K.’s
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After at least three infants died of suffocation while being carried in Infantino “SlingRider” or “Wendy Bellissimo” baby slings, the San Diego-based company issued a recall of 1 million of the products in the U.S. and 15,000 throughout Canada. Earlier this month a spokeswoman for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission …
Adding to previous research suggesting that incremental increases in the cost of alcohol can yield significant health and financial benefits, a new study published online this week in the journal The Lancet suggests that slightly increasing the per unit cost of alcohol could prompt people to drink less, resulting in fewer cases of
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Infections acquired in the hospital can be a dangerous and even deadly problem for patients, yet establishing effective ways to systematically minimize exposure to harmful pathogens is a persistent problem for medical institutions. In fact, a recent study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that roughly half of all
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A large scale study of children between the ages of 2 to 19 finds that a growing number of young children are extremely obese—or have a body mass index greater than 35 kg/m. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), children who are in the 85th up to 95th percentile (or have a BMI higher than 25 kg/m,
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In laboratory tests, a chemical derived from bananas proved as effective against HIV as two currently used pharmaceuticals, according to new research published in the March 19 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry. Dr. David Markovitz* and colleagues at the University of Michigan found that a lectin, or protein, in bananas may be
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Transferring the care of a patient from one physician to another is a standard—and necessary—part of hospital care. Yet, among trainee doctors, important information often gets overlooked during these hand-offs, according to a new study published in the March issue of the journal Pediatrics. Researchers at the University of Chicago
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Public health officials campaigning to reduce our excessive salt consumption—Americans generally eat twice the recommended amount each day—often point out that a societal approach to change is essential, as most of the salt we consume is already in food before we even pick up the shaker. Dining out isn’t exactly a low-sodium
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This past Monday, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released a new policy statement on choking prevention for children, recommending, among other things, changes in government oversight of food choking hazards, and asking food manufacturers to consider redesigning potentially dangerous food products, such as hot dogs and hard …
