http://www.krdo.com/-/417342/14777694/-/14whxw4/-/index.html en-US © 2011 Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc. Home Home en-US © 2011 Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc. http://www.krdo.com/news/health/Boys-with-ADHD-may-become-obese-adults/-/477210/20220150/-/dfub2sz/-/index.html Boys with ADHD may be at risk for obesity later in life, according to a new study -- which, if confirmed in larger studies, may have implications for more than 4 million kids in the United States living with the disorder. Researchers at NYU's Langone Medical Center have been following more than 200 kids for four decades. They found those who had ADHD in their early years were twice as likely to be obese at age 41. "This study was started by Dr. Rachel Klein in 1970, and it involved a number of waves of evaluation, during which the results of having hyperactivity in childhood were assessed," said Dr. F. Xavier Castellanos, a professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at NYU and one of the study authors. "We brought back individuals who were 41 years of age, and examined a number of measures, including brain imaging analyses. But during those brain imaging analyses, we noted that men who had been hyperactive children had a greater difficulty sitting in the scanner -- they were too large for the research scanner." That's when the idea took shape to look at all of the subjects' height and weight. Castellanos and his team instantly noticed the high levels of obesity -- twice as high as those adults who never suffered from ADHD. "This was not the first time this has been noted, so in that sense it is a confirmation," said Castellanos. "But other studies have not been able to be as definitive. Other studies have found a general tendency towards increased weight, but this is the first study that puts this in terms of clear clinical obesity." However, there is no clear reason as to why ADHD may lead to obesity. "The most reasonable explanation is that the characteristics of ADHD which involve being impulsive -- having a difficult time selecting between (things) that maybe immediately gratifying but in the long run are not such a good idea -- that that translates to the choices that are made at lunchtime and dinner and snacking," said Castellanos, though he said there was no direct evidence of that being the case, only speculation. Other experts say while this correlation appears to be strong, more research needs to be done. "The sample size was relatively small, and they only looked at white men," said CNN.com expert Dr. Jennifer Shu, a spokeswoman for the American Academy of Pediatrics. "That said, their conclusion summed it up nicely: people need to be aware that having childhood ADHD may put them at risk for later obesity." Shu also suggested another possible explanation for the link -- current treatments are largely centered around stimulant medications, which tend to reduce appetite. If the medication is stopped, appetite increases and patients may start gaining weight. The bottom line, says Castellanos? "It's very difficult across the board for people to lose weight and keep it off, so it's one of those things that is really best prevented," he said. "That's the major importance of alerting the public -- we can look into the future and say, 'This is coming up, so it's better to not ignore this potential risk and wait for it to become a problem.'" Mon, 20 May 2013 16:11:58 GMT 20220150 2013-05-20T16:11:58Z http://www.krdo.com/news/health/Cloning-stem-cells-What-does-it-mean/-/477210/20202484/-/77ieb8z/-/index.html A human embryo, containing about a couple hundred cells, is smaller than the period at the end of a sentence. Scientists need strong microscopes to see these precursors to life, and to take from them stem cells, which have the potential to become any cell in the body. Earlier this week a breakthrough in this field was announced. A group of researchers published in the journal Cell proof that they had created embryonic stem cells through cloning. The scientists produced embryos using human skin cells, and then used the embryos to produce stem cell lines. "It is an incredibly powerful approach with potential to generate almost any tissue in the body, genetically identical to the patient," said Jeff Karp, associate professor at Harvard Medical School and co-director of the Center for Regenerative Therapeutics at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Creating an embryo just from an egg and a skin cell seems like magic, but just how practical would the subsequent stem cells be? And does it actually amount to cloning? What they did Normally, an embryo is created when sperm enters the egg and it starts to divide. But, in the Cell study, Shoukhrat Mitalipov and colleagues at Oregon Health & Science University began with skin cells from an 8-month-old baby that had a genetic disease. They did not use sperm. To create each embryo, they took the DNA out of an egg, so that it was hollow, and replaced it with the skin cell's DNA instead. The baby's DNA was the only genetic material being used. With the help of chemicals, the egg started to divide just like a normal fertilized egg would. Then, within several days, embryos genetically identical to the baby were created, from which stem cells were derived. Embryonic stems research is inherently controversial because in order to use the stem cells for science, the embryo, which is a collection of cells that could develop into a fully formed human, is destroyed, even though embryos in these procedures are left over from in vitro fertilization. However, Mitalipov said the embryos created in his study, from skin cells and eggs, would not grow babies. That would have required additional technology, and it wasn't part of the study. While cloning stem cells is a technical breakthrough, there's already a method of deriving embryonic-like stem cells that doesn't require the use of embryos at all: induced pluripotent stem (IPS) cells, said Dr. George Daley, who is director of the Stem Cell Transplantation Program at Children's Hospital Boston and an international expert in stem cells. Induced pluripotent stem cells can come from any cell in the human body, including skin cells, so they don't have the moral quandaries surrounding them. Researchers have developed methods of inserting genes to "turn back the clock" on cells that have already specialized, so that they can turn into anything again. It doesn't matter what the cell was before; it can now be reprogrammed as any kind of cell researchers want. The new study involves a complex method that requires women to donate eggs, and a demanding manipulation of cell components on a tiny scale, Daley said. What remains to be seen is whether these cloned embryonic stem cells are more useful therapeutically than the noncontroversial induced pluripotent stem cells, and questions linger about their effectiveness. What's the best type of stem cell Ethical questions aside, researchers say they need to explore both embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells in order to see what works best for various diseases and conditions. Safety concerns linger around induced pluripotent stem cells because they were first created inserting four new genes. "Remember, this was a genetic manipulation that was done to generate those cells, and there is concern that (for) anything you derive from them and you put back in the patient as graft, you may be at risk," said John Gearhart, director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and one of the leading pioneers of stem cell research. New techniques have been developed, however, to make induced pluripotent stem cells without permanent genetic modifications that were associated with tumors. In mice, Daley and colleagues have shown that stem cells derived from the nuclear transfer of cells to make embryos -- the technique described in Mitalipov's paper -- were indeed closer to natural embryo stem cells than induced pluripotent stem cells. The differences were so subtle that they may not be meaningful, however, he said. The new study involves something similar to the cloning technique that led to the birth of Dolly, the famous cloned sheep that was born in July 1996. But making embryos for reproduction would require more advanced, complex techniques than were used in the new study -- and serious scientists do not endorse human cloning for reproduction. Mitalipov, senior author on the paper, laughs when asked if he wants to clone a person. "No, of course not," he said. "We tried the same approach to clone monkeys, because we'd been interested for biomedical research to produce cloned monkeys, and it never worked," he said. "We've been working for a decade in that area." Mitalipov and colleagues had no intention of this research leading to the birth of a cloned human. Researchers say there have been so many health problems in cloned animals, including Dolly herself, that it would not be ethical to attempt to create a cloned human. "No legitimate scientist would be stepping forward to apply this in reproductive cloning, or for fertility work," Daley said. "I would argue that really there are no good medical reasons to generate a cloned baby." So what is it good for? There's one important area where experts say Mitalipov's method could have tremendous implications: Mitochondrial disease. The mitochondria are the "power plants" of cells, supplying them with chemical energy. DNA in the mitochondria is inherited entirely from the mother's egg, unlike the DNA in the cell's nucleus, which comes from both parents. Mutations in mitochondrial DNA can lead to deadly diseases, and their associated mutations are passed down to each new generation. Induced pluripotent stem cells preserve these harmful mutations, says Mitalipov. A cell's mitochondrial DNA develops mutations over the course of a lifetime, little by little, and may result in diseases such as Parkinson's disease and diabetes, Mitalipov said. It's possible, he says, that one day there will be stem cell treatments for aging and age-related diseases. The only way to ensure that stem cells derived from an adult patient do not have mitochondrial DNA mutations would be to use the technique demonstrated in the new study, Mitalipov said: Creating embryos with cells from the patient's own body, and healthy eggs, for the purpose of deriving embryonic stem cells. "You want 0 miles in (the) rejuvenated cells that you want to put back into these patients," he said. "The 0 mileage engine is in the egg." Mitalipov's group also demonstrated in a 2012 Nature study that it could be possible to, using genetic techniques, reconstruct embryos that would not have the unhealthy mitochondrial mutations. This is not cloning, but draws on similar knowledge, and could cure a family's genetic disease lineage in the future. What's next? Daley estimates human clinical trials in stem cells will start within one to three years, but perhaps it could take a decade or more before the impact of stem cell therapy becomes widespread. Gearhart is confident that the more we learn how to manipulate stem cells safely, there will be safe way to provide them to patients who need them. But there are different levels of risk for different uses. There will always be a risk-benefit calculation to be made, he said. Different areas of stem cell research have proven to be harder than others. Beta cells for type I diabetes have been "a very difficult nut to crack," Gearhart said, but there have been promising developments in repairing the heart, something that his lab has worked on, as well as for eye diseases. "I think it's going to be exciting times over the next several years when it comes to this," he said. Mon, 20 May 2013 09:52:45 GMT 20202484 2013-05-20T09:52:45Z http://www.krdo.com/news/health/Trust-your-memory-Maybe-you-shouldn-t/-/477210/20202510/-/rufimy/-/index.html You probably feel pretty attached to your memories -- they're yours, after all. They define who you are and where you came from, your accomplishments and failures, your likes and dislikes. Your memories help you separate friends from enemies. They remind you not to eat too much ice cream or drink cheap tequila because you remember how horrible it felt the last time you indulged. Or do you? One conversation with Elizabeth Loftus may shake your confidence in everything you think you remember. Loftus is a cognitive psychologist and expert on the malleability of human memory. She can, quite literally, change your mind. Her work is reminiscent of films like "Memento" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," where what you believe happened is probably far from the truth -- whether you're the eyewitness to a crime or just trying to move past a bad relationship. "She's most known for her important work on memory distortion and false memories," says Daniel Schacter, a psychology professor at Harvard University who first met Loftus in 1979 and describes her as energetic, smart and passionate. "It's made people in the legal system aware the memory does not work like a tape recorder." In fact, Loftus' research shows your memory works more like a Wikipedia page -- a transcription of history created by multiple people's perceptions and assumptions that's constantly changing. Eyewitness testimony One of Loftus' first experiments, published in 1974, involved car accidents. In the lab she played videos of different incidents and then asked people what they remembered seeing. Their answers depended greatly on how she phrased the question. For instance, if she asked how fast the cars were going when they "smashed" into each other, people estimated, on average, that the cars were going 7 mph faster than when she substituted the word "hit" for "smashed." And a week after seeing the video, those who were asked using the word "smashed" remembered seeing broken glass, even though there was none in the film. Even a preposition can make the difference in an eyewitness account, Loftus found. In a subsequent study she asked people if they saw "a broken headlight" or "the broken headlight." Those who were asked about "the" broken headlight were more likely to remember seeing it, though it never existed. Police officers' biggest mistake is talking too much, Loftus says. "They don't, you know, wait and let the witness talk. They are sometimes communicating information to the witness, even inadvertently, that can convey their theory of what happened, their theory of who did it." This is particularly troubling when witnesses are identifying a perpetrator in a lineup. One of Loftus' studies found even facial recognition can be "contagious" -- if a witness overhears another witness or police officer describe a misleading facial feature, they are more likely to describe the criminal with that feature. It's not all the cops' fault. "Misinformation is out there in the real world, everywhere," Loftus says. "Witnesses talk to each other ... they turn on the television or read the newspaper if it's a high-publicity event. They see other witnesses' account. All of these situations provide opportunities for new information to supplement, distort or contaminate their memories." Loftus has testified in and consulted on hundreds of trials over the past several decades, usually for the defense. Many were high-profile cases, including those of the Hillside Strangler, Michael Jackson, Martha Stewart, Oliver North and Phil Spector. She's not bothered by defending people others sometimes see as vicious criminals. "DNA testing ... has revealed that there are hundreds and hundreds of people who have been convicted in crimes, and they're completely innocent," she says, noting that they're often convicted because of unreliable eyewitness testimony. Repressed memories Perhaps Loftus' most powerful -- and controversial -- work came in the 1990s when she first began manufacturing false memories. In 1990, Loftus got an intriguing call from the defense attorney for George Franklin, father of Eileen Franklin. In her mid-20s, Eileen Franklin claimed she remembered seeing her father rape and murder her best friend as a child. The prosecution said she had repressed the memory up until that point. Loftus testified at the trial about the fallibility of memories but could not say whether she had ever studied repressed memories such as Eileen Franklin was maintaining. George Franklin was convicted, and Loftus went back to the lab. After doing some research, she became convinced a therapist might have led Eileen Franklin to suspect her father in the murder. Therapists were essentially guiding patients to remember false events, Loftus believed -- asking leading questions and telling their patients to imagine an event that might have happened. For example, if a woman came in with an eating disorder, her therapist might say "80% of patients with an eating disorder were abused. Were you?" Then the therapist might ask the patient to think about who might have abused her and when. While Loftus couldn't definitively prove that repressed memories weren't real, she could show that it was possible to implant a memory of a traumatic event that never happened. Loftus recruited 24 students and their close family members for her 1995 study "The Formation of False Memories." She asked each family member to provide her with three real childhood memories for their student, and then sent these memories in a packet, along with one false memory, to the study participants. The false memories were about getting lost on a shopping trip and included real details, such as the name of a store where they often shopped and siblings they were likely with. The students were told all four memories were real and had been supplied by their family member. After receiving the packet, the students identified whether they remembered each event and how confident they were that it had happened to them. In follow-up interviews the researchers asked them to recall details from the events they remembered. Seven of the 24 students "remembered" the false event in their packets. Several recalled and added their own details to the memory. "It was pretty exciting to watch these normal, healthy individuals pick up on the suggestions in our interviews, and pick up the false information that we fed them," Loftus says. Loftus continued her experiments, convincing study participants they had broken a window with their hand, witnessed a drug bust, choked on an object before the age of 3 and had experienced other traumatic events. And she continued to testify in cases involving repressed memories. "I don't think there's any credible, scientific support for this notion of massive repression," Loftus says. "It's been my position that, you know, we may one day find (the evidence), but until we do, we shouldn't be locking people up." Unhealthy habits Loftus soon began to wonder if she could influence other behaviors. What if she could convince people they had a negative experience with unhealthy food as a child? Would they eat less of it as an adult? Using her finely tuned "recipe" for memory implantation, she guided study participants to believe they had gotten sick eating strawberry ice cream as children. A week later, researchers asked about the ice cream incident. Many participants had developed a detailed memory -- what Loftus calls a "rich false memory" -- about when they had gotten sick. Subsequent studies showed this memory affected the participant's actual eating behavior. It seemed obvious to Loftus that there was potential here to fight obesity. Therapists couldn't lie to their patients, but parents could convince kids that they didn't like ice cream or other fattening foods. Critics raged that she was advocating lying to children. "Which would you rather have?" Loftus replied simply. "A kid with obesity, heart problems, shortened lifespan, diabetes -- or maybe a little bit of false memory?" Schacter, who also studies memory, objects to the term "playing around" with someone's mind. He, Loftus and others like them are simply trying to understand what's going on in our memories, he says. "We're assessing the limits of memory, the accuracy of memory. ... Almost by definition we think we're remembering accurately, even though we're not." Already this year Loftus has co-authored studies on false memories related to alcohol, politics and stressful events. In one, called "Queasy Does It," Loftus' team took the same methods they used to persuade people to eat less ice cream and applied them to vodka or rum. Loftus says this research could potentially be used to help addicts in the future. Her lab at the University of California Irvine is also working to identify the individual differences that make people more or less susceptible to memory alteration. Sometime Loftus worries about crossing into unethical territory -- like when she created false memories in military personnel who were training to survive as prisoners of war. When the study published, she feared "we were going to basically be giving (our enemies) a recipe for how to do bad things to other people and then contaminate their memory." But as a scientist, she says sharing how to implant memories -- so we can potentially learn how to protect against it -- is better than burying the information. Walking the line In 2006, Loftus attended a talk by legal scholar Adam Kolber on the legal and ethical implications of memory-dampening drugs. According to Kolber, neuroscientists had made significant strides in creating medications victims could take after a traumatic event to dampen the intensity of their memories. Kolber contended that while those drugs could hamper legal proceedings, "We have a deeply personal interest in controlling our own minds that entitles us to a certain freedom of memory." Loftus was fascinated. "I thought to myself, 'I would want (the drugs),'" she says. Her colleague disagreed. So like any good experimental psychologist, Loftus started a study. She asked people if they were the victim of a vicious crime, would they want to take the drug? Eighty percent said no. Well, maybe they want to be able to testify against the perpetrator, Loftus thought. So she ran it again -- this time asking if they would take the drug after seeing their military buddy blown up by an IED overseas. Eighty percent refused. "I thought, maybe I need to explain to them just how bad post-traumatic stress disorder is," she remembers. So she did. "And they still don't want the drug." The results taught Loftus just how much people cherish their memories. "Even if it's going to be a harmful memory, they don't want to let it go," she says. "(This is) why sometimes I get such resistance to the work I do. Because it's telling people that your mind might be full of much more fiction than you realize. And people don't like that." But you don't need a psychological researcher to distort your memory in a lab, Loftus says. People distort their own memories all the time -- they remember getting better grades than they did, voting in more elections than they did, having kids that walked or talked earlier than they actually did. Loftus calls this "prestige-enhancing memories." We all want to remember ourselves as just a little bit better than we really are, Loftus says, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Scientists call it "depressive realism," and say depressed people may just remember things more accurately than the rest of us. "A little bit of memory distortion might be good for people," Loftus says. This from the woman who has the power to make us remember traumatic childhood events that never happened. Hey, at least we still like ice cream. Mon, 20 May 2013 09:12:19 GMT 20202510 2013-05-20T09:12:19Z http://www.krdo.com/news/gop-irs-scandal-one-more-strike-against-health-care-law/-/417220/20202742/-/3crpcs/-/index.html Republicans capped the week with another attack against President Obama's health care reform, criticizing the law and its relationship with the Internal Revenue Service. "It's the IRS that will be responsible for enforcing many of these regulations. If we've learned anything this week, it's that the IRS needs less power, not more," Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland, an anesthesiologist of nearly 30 years' experience, said Saturday in the Republican weekly address. The Republican-controlled House passed for the third time a repeal of Obamacare this week, a measure that has little chance of going anywhere in the Senate. The vote marked the 37th time Republicans have attempted to eliminate the 2010 law. Adding fuel to their fire this week was the controversy in which the IRS admitted to targeting conservative groups applying for tax exempt status during the past three years. Two top officials stepped down over the ordeal, a scandal that drew scorn from President Obama and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. While the outgoing IRS commissioner, Steven Miller, said the over-scrutinizing of the groups amounted to "foolish mistakes," he maintained in a congressional hearing Friday that they were not conducted out of political bias. Republicans, however, used the controversy to further criticize health care reform, as the IRS is tasked with implementing many of the law's provisions. Lawmakers also highlighted the fact that the current director of the Affordable Care Act office in the IRS used to head up the agency's tax exempt/government entities office, the same department taking heat over the recent dust-up with conservative groups. "You can't make this stuff up," Harris said in the address. With several of the health care reforms taking effect next year, Republicans are drumming up more opposition to the law. Harris argued the law's mandate to purchase health insurance would "turn lives upside down" and fears of rising costs are discouraging small business owners from hiring new workers. "Obamacare is knocking Americans off the ladder of opportunity, and the sooner we repeal it, the sooner we can start fixing health care for working families," said the congressman, who was elected in 2010. Americans remain divided over Obamacare. Forty-six percent disapprove of the law, while 41% approve of the 2010 health care reform act, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released last month. Forty-one percent said the law will not affect them, while 37% say it will hurt rather than help, the poll showed. Sun, 19 May 2013 07:12:14 GMT 20202742 2013-05-19T07:12:14Z http://www.krdo.com/news/Amputee-Aimee-Copeland-uses-new-bionic-hands/-/417220/20195580/-/rhqvc3z/-/index.html Flesh-eating bacteria amputee Aimee Copeland now uses the latest technology in prosthetic hands to chop vegetables, pick up tiny items like Skittles, and comb and iron press her hair. With the bionic hands, Copeland is looking forward to cleaning her house -- she's a neat freak, she tells CNN -- and cooking her own food. She's something of a foodie but has been able to eat only microwaveable foods, she adds. "I really want to be able to get back in the kitchen and start cooking some delicious vegetarian meals for myself," she said as she used the hands in a demonstration for media outlets this week. "It just mimics so well a natural hand that it really just reminds me of before the accident, how I would have done things," she added. "I never thought I would actually be able to hold a knife and cut something. That's just incredible." The "i-limb ultra revolution" hands can cost up to $120,000 each, said a spokesman for manufacturer Touch Bionics. Copeland demonstrated the prosthetic hands at the firm's office in Hilliard, Ohio, showing how hand positions can also be remotely set with an iPad application using a blue-tooth connection. The "bioism" software can also be downloaded to an iPhone and iPod, the spokesman said. On May 1, 2012, Copeland, a University of West Georgia graduate student, was outdoors with friends at the Little Tallapoosa River, about 50 miles west of Atlanta when the homemade zip line she was holding snapped. She fell and got a gash in her leg that required 22 staples to close. Three days later, still in pain, she went to an emergency room, and doctors eventually determined she had necrotizing fasciitis caused by the flesh-devouring bacteria Aeromonas hydrophila. Doctors performed amputations to save her life. She lost parts of all limbs: her hands, a leg and a foot. After the surgery, her family home in Snellville, just east of Atlanta, added a 1,956-square-foot "Aimee's Wing," donated by a builder. In other upcoming milestones, Copeland, whose story raised the nation's awareness of flesh-eating bacteria, will receive a service dog this summer, when she will work with amputee children in a wilderness camp. She is hoping to receive a prosthetic leg later this year as well. Walking will be a dream come true, she said. Copeland is working to complete her master's degree before the end of the year. Sat, 18 May 2013 12:51:19 GMT 20195580 2013-05-18T12:51:19Z http://www.krdo.com/news/health/5-things-to-know-about-SARS-like-virus/-/477210/20190128/-/ylmta/-/index.html A new virus in the same family as SARS -- found for the first time in humans in recent months -- has infected 40 people, most of them in the Middle East. Half of those infected have died, according to the World Health Organization. Earlier this week, the WHO reported two health care workers in Saudi Arabia had been sickened while treating patients. Cases of the virus, called the novel coronavirus or nCoV, have also been reported in European countries, most recently France but also Germany and the United Kingdom. NCoV is part of a family called coronaviruses, which cause illnesses ranging from the common cold to SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, as well as a variety of animal diseases. However, the new virus is not SARS. NCov acts like a cold and attacks the respiratory system, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said. But symptoms, which include fever and a cough, are severe and can lead to pneumonia and kidney failure. Gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhea have also been seen, according to the WHO. Here are five things you need to know about nCoV: Widespread transmission hasn't been seen All the clusters of cases seen so far have been transmitted between family members or in a health care setting, the WHO said in an update Friday. "Human-to-human transmission occurred in at least some of these clusters, however, the exact mode of transmission is unknown." That means it's not yet known how humans contract the virus. But, experts say, there has been no evidence of cases beyond the clusters into communities. Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, previously has said the infection is "very serious" but appears "very difficult to acquire." "The recent increase in cases may in part be related to increased awareness among the medical community, however the demonstrated ability of this virus to transmit between humans and to cause large outbreaks has increased concerns about the possibility of sustained transmission," according to the WHO. Cases are connected to the Middle East "All of the European cases have had a direct or indirect connection to the Middle East," the WHO said in a statement Friday. "However, in France and the United Kingdom, there has been limited local transmission among close contacts who had not been to the Middle East but had been in contact with a traveler recently returned from the Middle East." Most of the cases so far are seen in older men with other medical conditions, experts have said. Precise numbers are difficult to ascertain, as officials don't know how many people might contract a mild form of nCoV. Saudi Arabia leads the number of laboratory-confirmed cases with 30. No cases have been reported in the United States as of Friday, but infectious disease experts have said they would not be surprised if it happens. Underlying health conditions may make you more susceptible A large number of nCoV patients have another condition, the WHO said, suggesting "increased susceptibility from underlying medical conditions may play a role in transmission." In addition, the infection has shown up "atypically" and without respiratory symptoms in people whose immune systems are compromised. No travel warnings have been issued The WHO and CDC have not issued travel health warnings for any country related to the novel coronavirus. Travelers planning to visit the Middle East, however, should see their health care provider if they develop a fever and respiratory symptoms like a cough or shortness of breath within 10 days of returning from the Arabian Peninsula or surrounding nations, according to the CDC. There are no treatments and no vaccine So far, those with nCoV have received supportive treatments to relieve their symptoms. Sat, 18 May 2013 12:49:55 GMT 20190128 2013-05-18T12:49:55Z http://www.krdo.com/news/Judge-temporarily-blocks-Ark-abortion-law/-/417220/20193548/-/dlwqoi/-/index.html A federal judge on Friday ordered a preliminary injunction blocking an Arkansas law that would ban abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy, a court official told CNN on Friday. The official spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity, citing department policy. U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright in Little Rock, Ark., ordered the injunction amid a challenge by the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups. The measure was set to take effect in August, according to the ACLU. "We have asked the court to stop this dangerous law from going into effect," Holly Dickson, legal director of the ACLU of Arkansas, said in a news release Friday. "This law is aimed at allowing politicians to insert themselves into deeply personal and private medical care and decisions for which they should have no say." The state's legislature had passed the measure and then, in March, overrode a veto by Gov. Mike Beebe. Roe v. Wade, a 1973 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, legalized the right to an abortion in all 50 states. Statutory time limits on when abortions can take place, however, vary from state to state. North Dakota recently banned most abortions after six weeks, the most restrictive law in the country. EMBED Fri, 17 May 2013 18:29:54 GMT 20193548 2013-05-17T18:29:54Z http://www.krdo.com/news/health/study-finds-poop-in-most-public-pools/-/477210/20190540/-/14eutc0/-/index.html A new study shows that more than half of public pools contain bacterial evidence of human fecal matter. Investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a new study with state and local public health departments last summer in which they collected samples from pool filters at 161 pools in the metro-Atlanta area. 58 percent of the samples contained a particular bacterium that lives in the digestive tract of humans and other warm-blooded animals. The researchers treated the presence of the bacteria - which is actually E. coli - as “a fecal indicator,” they wrote in their report. The CDC suggests that swimmers delivered some of the bacteria into the water by failing to take a thorough shower before getting into the pool. However, larger quantities of E. coli could be introduced through "a formed or diarrheal fecal incident in the water," the report notes. Pools in private clubs were less likely to contain E. coli, but investigators still found it in 49 percent of cases. Municipal pools had the highest incidence of the bacteria - 70 percent - followed by water parks, at 66 percent. Investigators also found Pseudomonas aeruginosa prevalent in 59 percent of all pools tested. This bacterium can cause swimmer’s ear, an inflammation of the outer ear and ear canal. It also causes itchy skin. Fri, 17 May 2013 15:09:33 GMT 20190540 2013-05-17T15:09:33Z http://www.krdo.com/news/health/Answers-to-your-breast-cancer-questions/-/477210/20179552/-/wcxtpoz/-/index.html When Angelina Jolie revealed she'd had a double mastectomy, she probably had a pretty good idea that her bravery would empower other women to tell their breast cancer stories. What she didn't know was that one of these women co-anchors a national morning news show. On May 14, when Zoraida Sambolin walked into work and heard Jolie's news, she realized this was the right time to tell viewers that five weeks before, she'd been diagnosed with breast cancer and had decided to have a double mastectomy. "Angelina Jolie chose to bear her soul in writing and I chose to follow her lead in front of all our viewers Tuesday," she later wrote in an article on CNN.com. "I am not yet on the other side, but judging by all the e-mails I've received from survivors, I am headed to a place that is stronger, wiser and definitely more empowered." Sambolin, co-host of CNN's "Early Start," is grateful for all the love and support she's received from CNN's viewers and readers. Many asked questions about their own health or the health of someone they love. Sambolin asked me to help answer these questions. I'm worried I might have breast cancer. What are the signs? Breastcancer.org, the National Breast Cancer Foundation and the Mayo Clinic explain the signs and symptoms of breast cancer. Angelina Jolie got a test to see if she carried a faulty breast cancer gene. Should I get that test? Read this Empowered Patient column and this CNN article by Dr. Susan Domchek to help you decide. CNN's iReporters have weighed in with their own decisions about breast cancer genetic testing, and this CNNMoney article discusses whether your insurance will cover genetic testing. Like Angelina Jolie, I carry a faulty gene for breast cancer. Should I also get a double mastectomy? Dr. Aaron Carroll writes on CNN.com about the risks and benefits of Jolie's choice. For another woman's perspective, read Allison Gilbert's moving article on CNN.com. My doctor thinks I might have breast cancer. What tests will she use to find out? Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the American Cancer Society explain the tests doctors use to diagnose breast cancer. I've had a biopsy and read my pathology report, but I don't understand it. Can you help? Breastcancer.org breaks down the information in a pathology report. I was just diagnosed with breast cancer. What's my next step? My Breast Cancer Coach and Susan G. Komen can walk you through this new world you've entered. I thought breast cancer was breast cancer. Now I'm learning I have a certain type of breast cancer. Help -- I'm confused. The Mayo Clinic explains the different types of breast cancer. Sambolin has breast cancer and decided to get a double mastectomy. Actress Christina Applegate made that same choice. I have breast cancer -- should I get a mastectomy? There are a lot of treatment options for breast cancer, and it's not always easy to decide which is best for you. Komen, the American Cancer Society, and the National Breast Cancer Foundation all have treatment guides. If I get a mastectomy, how will surgeons give me new breasts? This CNN.com article explains breast cancer reconstruction options. Should I get involved in a breast cancer study? The American Cancer Society has some guidance. My cancer isn't going away. What should I do? The American Cancer Society has this advice for what to do if breast cancer doesn't go away or if it returns. I'd like to connect with other women with breast cancer. Where can I find them? There are many forums and online communities for women who have breast cancer, such as Previvors and Survivors, the Association of Cancer Online Resources, and Breastcancer.org. Fri, 17 May 2013 09:31:14 GMT 20179552 2013-05-17T09:31:14Z http://www.krdo.com/news/health/A-workout-a-day-may-keep-cancer-away/-/477210/20173944/-/6dwtnrz/-/index.html Less cancer treatment may be better, and being in good physical shape may help keep cancer away, according to the latest research being presented at the largest convergence of cancer experts worldwide. The American Society of Clinical Oncology meets at the end of the month in Chicago. A briefing was held Wednesday for journalists covering the meeting. Here are some highlights from studies being presented: Exercise may keep cancer away Getting into shape may help you ward off cancer -- or boost your survival chances if you are diagnosed, according to a new study. Researchers from the University of Vermont studied more than 17,000 men for close to 20 years. They found those who exercised the most were 68% less likely to develop lung cancer and 38% less likely to develop colorectal cancers than the least active men. Among those men who did develop either of those two cancers or prostate cancer, exercise helped reduce the risk of death by 14% for each incremental increase in fitness level. Boosting your immune system to fight cancer Among the other six studies highlighted, two looked at new approaches in immunotherapy treatments -- drugs that train the immune system to recognize and kill cancer cells. One study found that a new antibody, known only as MPDL3280A, shrank tumors in 21% of the patients studied, all of whom were suffering from melanoma, lung or kidney cancers. The drug was well-tolerated at all dose levels by the majority of patients, and reports of serious adverse reactions were infrequent, officials said. Researchers presented results from the first phase of a clinical trial of MPDL3280A. The purpose of these initial trials is to establish the safety and dosage guidelines for an investigational drug. If it's found to be safe, as in this case, it must be tested in much bigger trials with many more people. So far, the early results are promising, according to researchers. The second study found that the combination of two immunotherapy drugs -- Yervoy and Nivolumab -- can help shrink melanoma tumors. More than half of study participants saw their tumors shrink by more than half, and nearly a third saw their tumors shrink by 80%, just in the first 12 weeks of treatment, according to the study author. Before Yervoy received Food and Drug Administration approval two years ago, patients with melanoma -- the deadliest form of skin cancer -- had no real treatment options. Nivolumab still needs FDA approval. Researchers have known that at some point, cancer cells figure out how to circumvent Yervoy and tumors start to grow again, but this study suggests that a combination of these drugs can lengthen the benefit of Yervoy. "After years of not having success in immunotherapy, we now have two (different studies) showing significant progress," said Dr. Sandra Swain, president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. "With these two therapies, we're seeing very rapid, profound and long-lasting tumor shrinkage, which is something that hasn't been seen before with immunotherapies." Less is more Three additional studies presented in the Wednesday briefing examined existing therapies for various cancers and which ones were the most effective. The first, from Washington University in St. Louis, found that a 25% stronger dose of radiation used to treat patients with one type of lung cancer were more dangerous for the patients -- and less effective in treating the disease. The study, of patients with non-small cell lung cancer who were also receiving chemotherapy, showed an increase in "local failure," meaning cancer cells at the radiation site either weren't killed or began growing. "Many doctors expected that using a higher dose of radiation would mean better outcomes for patients, so this was a surprising result," Swain said. "This study should put an end to discussions about higher dose treatments." A second study looked at the efficacy of post-surgery chemotherapy and radiation for patients with seminoma, a common type of testicular cancer, versus follow-up monitoring of the patients. Researchers looked at 1,800 patients with stage 1 seminoma in Denmark, where the typical post-surgery treatment protocol calls for regular clinic visits, CT scans, X-rays and blood work -- not chemo or radiation. However, many U.S. treatment centers do use chemo and radiation as part of post-surgery treatment. More than 80% of patients did not relapse after surgery, the study found, eliminating the need for follow-up chemotherapy or radiation. In those who did relapse, follow-up treatment led to a 99.5% survival rate. "In this study, we see that surveillance alone was safe," said Dr. Clifford Hudis, president-elect of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. The final study looked at whether patients with a particular form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma should have regular CT scans to detect relapses after they finish treatment. The study showed most relapses weren't detected by the scans, but by patients' complaints of symptoms, routine physical exams or blood work. "We can spare patients from the cost and excessive radiation from follow-up CT scans," Hudis said. The final study looked at a new class of drugs called PI3K delta inhibitors, being tested in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. The specific drug tested in the trial -- Idelalisib -- was shown in a first phase of study to be safe in high-risk populations, and to help reduce the size of affected lymph nodes for long periods of time. It may soon lead to alternatives to chemo for slow-growing blood cancers, Swain said. Fri, 17 May 2013 09:19:08 GMT 20173944 2013-05-17T09:19:08Z http://www.krdo.com/news/health/High-tech-tools-for-STDs/-/477210/20143820/-/ah4f2c/-/index.html Ramin Bastani believed he was about to get lucky. A woman he'd met earlier that night was making her way toward his bedroom. Suddenly, he hesitated. It didn't go unnoticed. "What's your deal? Are you gay?" the woman asked. No. He wasn't gay. "What is it?" she wondered. "Oh my gosh! Do you have an STD?" No, it wasn't that either. Alarmed, she stepped away from him. "Oh my God! Yes, you do. You have an STD," he recalls her saying emphatically. Bastani confessed what was bothering him -- he barely knew this woman. "No," he told her. "I'm afraid you might." She slapped him across the face and walked out of the room. It's the kind of awkward moment a lot of men might prefer to forget, but for Bastani it was the impetus for starting his company, Qpid.me, a free website that lets users text and share their verified sexually transmitted disease results with potential partners. "I remember sitting back thinking, 'There's got to be a better way,' " Bastani says. At any given time, there are 110 million sexually transmitted infections among men and women across the nation, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Young people contract half of all new cases. They're also tech-savvy, and that's driving the development of new high-tech STD prevention tools geared toward them. Qpid.me users can share their verified test results for HIV, chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis. Their status comes directly from their own U.S. health care provider. It shows when they got tested and includes a disclaimer that notes the user may have had sex since then. The company promotes the service as a way to "spread the love, nothing else." It's a modern, flirtatious version of "I'll show you mine, if you show me yours," Bastiani says, that can make would-be lovers more attractive to each other. "We're lining the idea of getting tested with actually getting more action," he says. Another STD tech tool helps people have difficult conversations with past lovers. Studies show 23% of partners of people diagnosed with STDs are ever warned they might also be at risk. At sotheycanknow.org, users can provide that warning anonymously by e-mail for free. "There is obviously a lot of anxiety with talking to a past partner about a diagnosis, particularly if you're not close to that person, or if it was a casual partner, or if it was someone that you had a falling out with," says Jenny McManus, the company's director of operations. "We're hoping to get those patients who wouldn't normally tell their partners to do it through our anonymous service." The U.S.-based service lets users notify former partners about chlamydia, gonorrhea and trichomoniasis. The anonymous e-mail has information about the STD exposure and where the recipient can go to get tested. Users are asked to certify that they are sending the e-mail for the right reasons, but the site doesn't require the results to be verified. Recipients can report misuse of the service to the company. For users who are willing to speak to their former sex partners, the site also offers scripts for the difficult discussion. Another STD tech tool out there is an app called STD Triage. Worried you might have symptoms of an STD? This service lets you take a picture of a rash, for example, on your private parts, and for about $40, you can send it in and get a response back from a doctor within a day about what it might be. The app screens for STDs that result in physical symptoms such as syphilis, herpes and genital warts. Twenty-five percent of the images screened are actually STDs, the company says. Often the images show something else entirely, such as an infected hair follicle. "There are a lot of worried people out there," says the company's founder, Alexander Borve. "People actually think they have an infection and they don't." The service is available internationally. The screenings are not definitive -- they only provide potential diagnoses. The results include information about what the user may be experiencing and recommendations for treatment, including when to see a dermatologist or visit an STD clinic to have the diagnosis verified. "We're not a diagnostic service. We're not trying to substitute the doctor relationship," Borve says. "We're getting the right patient at the right time to the right level of health care." Thu, 16 May 2013 15:57:32 GMT 20143820 2013-05-16T15:57:32Z http://www.krdo.com/news/economy-tracker/Will-insurance-cover-genetic-testing-preventive-surgery/-/477266/20170782/-/85mbea/-/index.html Women who discover they carry a hereditary gene mutation that dramatically increases their risk of breast and ovarian cancers face big decisions and the possibility of tens of thousands of dollars in medical costs. Carriers of the BRCA gene mutation have up to an 85 percent chance of getting breast cancer and a 60 percent chance of getting ovarian cancer in their lifetime, according to FORCE, a nonprofit for people affected by hereditary breast and ovarian cancers. Those who make the tough decision to remove as much of the breast and ovarian tissue as possible can significantly decrease their risk of cancer, but doing so isn't cheap. Initial genetic testing for mutations on the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which typically serve as tumor suppressors, costs roughly $4,000 when not covered by insurance, according to Myriad Genetics, the only laboratory that analyzes the tests. Subsequent tests for family members of a mutation carrier tend to be cheaper because the initial mapping has already been done. If someone tests positive, doctors recommend they have a mammogram and MRI scans at least once a year, which can add up to several thousand dollars. And if they opt for a preventive ovary removal surgery or double mastectomy with reconstructive surgery, the costs can climb to tens of thousands of dollars or more, though insurance usually covers at least part of the bill. While most insurance companies will also pay for genetic testing, patients have to be deemed "high-risk" first. For women, that often means they either have to be diagnosed with breast cancer before age 45 or have multiple close blood relatives (like an aunt, mother or sister) who have been diagnosed with breast or ovarian cancer. Men who are diagnosed with breast cancer at any age are typically covered. Yet some insurers have broader criteria than others, said Lisa Schlager, vice president of community affairs and public policy at FORCE. "We do have people who shouldn't get tested and end up getting it covered," said Schlager. "And then we have people who should be tested and they get denied." Medicare, for instance, is stricter than most private insurers and will only cover testing for women who have already been diagnosed with cancer. According to Myriad, 95 percent of eligible patients receiving the tests are insured and out-of-pocket costs are typically less than $100. Under the Affordable Care Act, BRCA genetic testing is now classified as preventative care, requiring no out-of-pocket cost for those who are deemed eligible, although some plans still don't recognize that requirement yet, said Myriad spokesman Ron Rogers. The company also offers a financial assistance program for low-income patients -- those who earn less than two times the federal poverty limit, which is $22,980 for a single-person household -- without health insurance. But for those who are uninsured and don't qualify, the costs can be prohibitive. "It has got to be a priority to ensure that more women can access gene testing and lifesaving preventive treatment, whatever their means and background, wherever they live," actress Angelina Jolie wrote in a New York Times editorial announcing she had undergone a preventive double mastectomy after testing positive for a BRCA1 mutation. Claudia Gilmore, who underwent a preventive double mastectomy in 2011 at the age of 23, spent roughly $2,500 out of pocket for her surgeries, which she said would have cost around $100,000 without insurance coverage. She also took a month of paid time off work using her employer's short-term disability policy, something she said not all workers would be able to do. "The point of getting a BRCA genetic test is so you can do something with that information," said Gilmore, now a public health graduate student at the University of California Los Angeles. "If a woman doesn't have health insurance, how could she even consider preventive surgery or ongoing medical surveillance for the rest of her life?" Uninsured patients could receive genetic testing by participating in research studies or seeking out financial assistance programs at hospitals and local nonprofits. Some surgeons are also able to arrange free preventative surgeries for uninsured patients who test positive, said Ellen Matloff, director of Cancer Genetic Counseling at Yale Cancer Center and a plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging Myriad's patent for the BRCA gene. Still, many simply choose to go without the test. "Those people come to see me, we tell them they're not covered and how much it will cost, and we never send their sample to Myriad," Matloff said. "It happens more often than we like." Thu, 16 May 2013 13:58:24 GMT 20170782 2013-05-16T13:58:24Z http://www.krdo.com/news/health/Human-odor-may-attract-malaria-mosquitoes/-/477210/20163576/-/237do3z/-/index.html We think of malaria as a disease that infects more than 200 million people a year, with transmission happening through mosquito bites. But it's not entirely the fault of the mosquitoes. Scientists are exploring how the malaria parasite itself may actually change a mosquito's behavior to make it more attracted to humans, as if controlling its mind so that the bug goes after us. A new study in the journal PLOS One demonstrates, for the first time, that mosquitoes infected with malaria are more attracted to human odor than uninfected mosquitoes. This is only a proof of concept, however; more research needs to be done to confirm. "What we've shown is malaria parasites can manipulate the mosquito's behavior to make it sense our body odor much more easily, and that means they're much more likely to find us," said Dr. James Logan of the Department of Disease Control at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, senior author of the study. Methods Researchers used 59 malaria-infected mosquitoes and 97 mosquitoes that were not infected. (Only female mosquitoes transmit the parasite.) A male volunteer wore nylon socks for 20 hours to collect human odor on the material. Scientists then examined how mosquitoes responded to a human-smelling sock compared with a standard nylon sock without a human odor. Results Both groups of mosquitoes were generally uninterested in the sock without the human odor. But mosquitoes with malaria paid a lot more attention to the human-smelling sock, landing on it and probing it more than the non-infected mosquitoes. This represents the first time female mosquitoes have exhibited a behavior change as a result of malaria in response to human odor, the study authors wrote. Implications Logan and colleagues have won a research grant to study this further over three years. In the next step, they will take body smell samples from 30 people, "mixing it all up so we've got an overall coverage of different types of human odor," he said. Scientists already know that individuals can differ in their attractiveness to mosquitoes. Eventually, this may lead scientists to identify chemicals that can be used as lures for traps to target malaria-infected mosquitoes. Currently, the traps catch all kinds of mosquitoes, regardless of their malaria status. It would be more efficient, and better for monitoring purposes, to trap only those that have the parasite. This method might even be used to bring the population down. There are some other intriguing examples in nature of how parasites control the minds of their hosts. A type of fungus, for example, can take over and eventually kill the ants it infects. But these "zombie ants" don't have the tremendous human impact of malaria-carrying mosquitoes, which caused an estimated 660,000 deaths in 2010. "The importance is that we showed in a biologically relevant system of a mosquito, a parasite and a blood host, that the parasite can manipulate the behavior of a mosquito," said lead study author Renate Smallegange, who now works at Wageningen Academic Publishers. Thu, 16 May 2013 12:17:25 GMT 20163576 2013-05-16T12:17:25Z http://www.krdo.com/news/health/Report-questions-benefits-of-salt-reduction/-/477210/20143714/-/qba3yiz/-/index.html Reducing salt consumption below the currently recommended 2,300 milligrams -- about 1 1/2 teaspoons-- per day maybe unnecessary, according to a new report released Tuesday by the Institute of Medicine. The news follows a decades-long push to get Americans to reduce the amount of salt in their diet because of strong links between high sodium consumption and hypertension, a known risk factor for heart disease. The IOM, at the request of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reviewed recent studies published through 2012 that explored ties between salt consumption and direct health outcomes like cardiovascular disease and death. The organization describes itself as "an independent, nonprofit organization that works outside of government to provide unbiased and authoritative advice to decision makers and the public." Researchers determined there wasn't enough evidence to say whether lowering salt consumption to levels between 1,500 and 2,300 mg per day could increase or decrease your risk of heart disease and mortality. But lowering sodium intake might adversely affect your health, the panel found. "These new studies support previous findings that reducing sodium from very high intake levels to moderate levels improves health," said committee chair Brian Strom, the George S. Pepper professor of public health and preventive medicine at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine. "But they also suggest that lowering sodium intake too much may actually increase a person's risk of some health problems." Those problems, he said, could include heart attack or death. The current Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that a sub-group of people - anyone older than 51, African Americans, and people with high blood pressure, diabetes or chronic kidney disease -- limit their salt intake to 1,500 mg a day. The IOM committee found no benefit, but possibly a risk of poor health outcomes with lower salt intake in people with these pre-existing conditions, but said that evidence is inconsistent and limited. "While the current literature provides some evidence for adverse health effects of low sodium intake among individuals with diabetes, CKD (kidney disease), or pre-existing CVD (cardiovascular disease), the evidence on both the benefit and harm is not strong enough to indicate that these subgroups should be treated differently from the general U.S. population," the report said. "Thus, the committee concluded that the evidence on direct health outcomes does not support recommendations to lower sodium intake within these subgroups to, or even below, 1,500 mg per day." American adults eat on average 3,400 mg of salt a day, according to the IOM. Groups like the American Heart Association support reducing that number. In 2011, the AHA called for a reduction in daily consumption, recommending all Americans eat no more than 1,500 mg a day. The IOM report, the AHA said Tuesday, does not accurately assess salt impact on health. "While the American Heart Association commends the IOM for taking on the challenging topic of sodium consumption, we disagree with key conclusions," said the association's CEO, Nancy Brown. "The report is missing a critical component -- a comprehensive review of well-established evidence which links too much sodium to high blood pressure and heart disease." The Salt Institute says it welcomes the IOM study, calling it a major breakthrough in the salt debate. "This whole thing has been blood pressure-driven and this study finally looks at overall health outcomes," said Morton Satin, vice president of science and research for the institute. "The study makes it very, very clear that the level of 1,500 mg that has been recommended in the dietary guidelines is not warranted, despite this full-throated cry for these levels by some organizations ... We hope this is the opening of the much broader review of the available evidence and a devotion to ensuring that our guidelines reflect the science." The IOM panel was not asked to make recommendations on what a healthy range should be. It says more research is needed to help shed light on how lower sodium levels affect health in all Americans. On Monday, the Center For Science In The Public Interest published results of a new investigation on what they call the food industry's failed efforts to reduce sodium levels in pre-packaged and restaurant foods. It called for phased-in limits in an effort to prevent heart disease. The group tracked nearly 500 food products between 2005 and 2011. "The strategy of relying on the food industry to voluntarily reduce sodium has proven to be a public health disaster," said CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson. "Inaction on the part of industry and the federal government is condemning too many Americans to entirely preventable heart attacks, strokes, and deaths each year." Thu, 16 May 2013 10:52:18 GMT 20143714 2013-05-16T10:52:18Z http://www.krdo.com/news/health/Health-care-workers-sickened-by-new-virus/-/477210/20162670/-/msr63/-/index.html Two health care workers in Saudi Arabia were sickened while treating patients with a dangerous new virus, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. The health care workers were exposed to patients with the novel coronavirus, or nCoV, the WHO said in a statement Wednesday. One is a 45-year-old man who is currently in critical condition after becoming ill May 2, and the second is a 43-year-old woman who became ill on May 8 and is in stable condition. The woman has a co-existing health condition, the organization said. "Although health care associated transmission has been observed before with nCoV (in Jordan in April 2012), this is the first time health care workers have been diagnosed with nCoV infection after exposure to patients," according to the WHO. "Health care facilities that provide care for patients with suspected nCoV infection should take appropriate measures to decrease the risk of transmission of the virus to other patients and health care workers." NCoV was recently found for the first time in humans, and cases have occurred across parts of the Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia. As of Wednesday, the organization said it had been informed of 40 laboratory-confirmed cases of human infection with nCoV worldwide since last September. Twenty people in six countries -- France, Germany, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom -- have died. Coronaviruses, which are common around the world, often cause colds. The novel coronavirus is also in the same family as SARS. NCoV acts like a cold and attacks the respiratory system, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said. But symptoms are severe, and can lead to pneumonia and kidney failure. Thu, 16 May 2013 10:50:52 GMT 20162670 2013-05-16T10:50:52Z http://www.krdo.com/news/health/7-questions-on-cancer-gene-testing/-/477210/20156344/-/9g2h9xz/-/index.html News of Angelina Jolie's decision to undergo a prophylactic double mastectomy has instantly increased awareness of hereditary forms of cancer caused by mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. While the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes were discovered in the mid-1990s, genetic testing for the genes is increasingly available. Jolie's case highlights the importance of knowing one's family history and learning one's cancer risks in order to address them proactively. Everyone has the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. We have two copies of each gene and get one each from our mother and father. They play a role in protecting the body against the development of cancer. Individuals with mutations in either of these genes have increased cancer risks, most notably for breast and ovarian cancer. Individuals with mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 benefit from tailored management aimed at reducing cancer risks and detecting cancers early when they are most treatable. Genetic counselors and other health care providers can help determine if testing is appropriate and who in the family should undergo testing first. In addition, it is important to provide educational and anticipatory guidance on the impact and implications of genetic test results. Here are some common questions that our team is asked regarding genetic testing for breast and ovarian cancer: What is BRCA testing? BRCA testing is a genetic test that looks at the sequence or code of the BRCA1 and/or BRCA2 genes. Changes or mutations in the genetic code indicate increased cancer risks. The test can be performed on a blood or saliva sample. It takes about three weeks to get results. What does a positive result mean? A positive test result in BRCA1 or BRCA2 means that the person has a genetic mutation that increases cancer risk. A positive BRCA1 result gives a woman a 60 percent to 80 percent lifetime risk of breast cancer and a 30 percent to 45 percent lifetime risk of ovarian cancer. A positive BRCA2 result gives a woman a 50 percent to 70 percent lifetime risk of breast cancer and a 10 percent to 20 percent lifetime risk of ovarian cancer. BRCA1 and BRCA2 are also associated with other moderately increased cancer risks that vary, depending on which gene has a mutation. For example, BRCA2 mutations are also associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer and male breast cancer. Does everyone need to be tested? If not, who should be? Only about 5 percent of breast cancers and 10 percent to 15 percent of ovarian cancers are caused by mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2. Therefore, not everyone needs to undergo genetic testing. Genetic counselors and other health care providers can help determine whether genetic testing is appropriate by exploring one's personal and family history of cancer and other factors such as ethnicity, as BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations are more common in certain populations. How much is BRCA testing, and does insurance cover it? BRCA testing is usually covered by insurance if certain criteria are met. There are different types of BRCA testing, ranging in cost from $475 to about $4,000. Genetic counselors are helpful in determining what type of testing is indicated. Testing is less expensive once a mutation has been identified within a family. Who should get genetic counseling? Individuals with a personal or family history of breast cancer appearing before age 50, ovarian cancer at any age, breast cancer in both breasts, male breast cancer, multiple cases of breast cancer within a family, and breast cancer in individuals of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry should get genetic counseling to determine whether they should be tested. When should I be tested? In addition to determining if BRCA testing is appropriate for you or your family, your health care providers can help you consider when to undergo genetic testing. It is important to consider when medical management might be changed for individuals with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations, as this can guide the decision of when to test. For example, breast cancer screening typically starts at age 25 for women with mutations. Since BRCA mutations are not associated with pediatric cancer risks, testing for children is not recommended. What factors should I weigh in deciding whether to have a preventive mastectomy or oophorectomy (ovary removal)? Detailed discussions with genetics experts, surgical oncologists, plastic surgeons and genetic counselors are important steps in considering whether and when a prophylactic mastectomy or oophorectomy is right for you. While the lifetime risk for breast and ovarian cancers in BRCA carriers are high, the risks increase with age. Considering the risk of breast or ovarian cancer based on age can be helpful in timing these interventions. Since breast cancer screening is good at picking up breast cancers early, when they are most treatable, screening is a reasonable option for carriers. Since ovarian cancer screening has not been proven reliably to catch ovarian cancers early, risk-reducing oophorectomy is recommended for BRCA1 and BRCA2 carriers, ideally between the ages of 35 and 40. Wed, 15 May 2013 16:46:08 GMT 20156344 2013-05-15T16:46:08Z http://www.krdo.com/news/health/Parents-sue-S-C-for-making-child-female/-/477210/20152802/-/jgl47u/-/index.html The adoptive parents of a child born with male and female organs say South Carolina mutilated their son by choosing a gender and having his male genitalia surgically removed. The surgery took place when the child was 16 months old and a ward of the state, according to a lawsuit filed by the parents against three doctors and several members of the South Carolina Department of Social Services. The child's biological mother was deemed unfit, and the biological father had apparently abandoned him, according to the suit. So others made the decision. The child, now 8 years old, feels more like a boy and "wants to be a normal boy," said Pamela Crawford, the boy's adoptive mother. "It's become more and more difficult, just as his identity has become more clearly male, the idea that mutilation was done to him had become more and more real," she said in a video released by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is assisting in the case. "There was no medical reason that this decision had to be made at this time." Marilyn Matheus, a spokeswoman for the South Carolina Department of Social Services, said the agency does not have any comment on the pending litigation. The defendants named in the suit also include doctors from Medical University of South Carolina and Greenville Memorial Hospital. Sandy Dees, a spokeswoman for the Greenville Health System, said she could not comment because of the litigation. Assigned to be a girl, but identifying as a boy The child, identified in the lawsuit as "M.C.," refuses to be called a girl and lives as a boy. His family, friends, school, religious leaders and pediatrician support his identity. "We just let him follow his instincts as much as we can," his adoptive father, John Mark Crawford, said in the video. Pamela Crawford said performing gender assignment surgery on a baby robbed her child of the ability to make the decision for himself. "I would have never made the decision to choose the gender either way," she said. "What I would have been working with is how do we preserve as much functioning in either direction because we can't know what this child's gender identity is going to be." The lawsuit claims doctors at a state hospital and Department of Social Services workers "decided to remove M.C.'s healthy genital tissue and radically restructure his reproductive organs in order to make his body appear to be female." The suit says the surgery violated the 14th Amendment, which says that no state shall "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law." The suit also asks for "compensatory damages in an amount to be determined at trial." But the adoptive father said the real intent of the lawsuit "is just to uphold these constitutional principles -- integrity of a person's body, and some kind of due process for infants where people around them in power are considering doing surgeries like this." Pamela Crawford agreed. "I would give anything for this to not have been done to our child," she said. "I don't want it to happen to any more kids." Wed, 15 May 2013 15:52:58 GMT 20152802 2013-05-15T15:52:58Z http://www.krdo.com/news/health/Copper-in-hospital-rooms-may-stop-infections/-/477210/20146244/-/solbv3z/-/index.html Hospital-acquired infections are a huge problem in the United States. Wouldn't it be amazing if they could be prevented merely through the materials used in the hospital room? Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina explored covering key surfaces in hospital intensive care units in copper alloy, and found that this is an effective measure against the spread of some key types of bacterial infections. Their study is published in the journal Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology. Background Up to $45 billion a year is spent on health care costs related to hospital-acquired infections, and an estimated 100,000 deaths occur annually because of them, the study authors wrote. The antimicrobial properties of copper have been known for hundreds of years, said Michael Schmidt, the study's senior author -- for at least 4,500 years. Ancient Indians realized that if water sits in a copper pot, this prevents illness, because the copper kills the bacteria. It's not used as often nowadays because molded plastics and stainless steel have taken over, being easy and in expensive. How does it work? Copper is used to transmit electrons in walls for electricity. Similarly, bacteria will donate electrons to the copper metal, which places the organism in an electrical deficit. As a consequence, free radicals are generated inside the cell. The cell's proteins essentially get bleached, and its DNA get fractured. The electrical potential of the cell also gets collapsed. "It's pretty hard to develop resistance from that multi-hit mechanism of action," Schmidt said. How they did it The study authors conducted the trial in the intensive care units of three different hospitals. Patients were randomly placed in copper or non-copper rooms. The study took place between July 2010 and June 2011. Copper is an expensive material, so researchers carefully chose which parts of the ICU room should have the coating, based on the likelihood of a patient, staff member or visitor touching it. These included the rails that the patient uses to lift himself or herself out of bed, chair arms, the IV pole, the remote control and the tray that's used over the bed. On the whole, copper surfaces covered less than 10 percent of the room in the settings used in this study. The researchers were most interested in the spread of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE). They compared the rates of hospital-acquired infections from any cause, or colonization with one of these two types of bacteria in the patients. Colonization means the bacteria is present on the person -- such as on the skin, respiratory tract or gastrointestinal tract -- without signs or symptoms of infection, said lead study author Dr. Cassandra Salgado. Results Rooms with copper alloy surfaces were associated with lower infection and colonization for both of these types of bacteria than in normal ICU rooms. For hospital acquired infections, the rate was lowered from 0.081 to 0.034. Implications The challenge, of course, is investing the capital into buying new furniture and equipment for ICU rooms, Schmidt said. But he calculates that the cost of outfitting a room in this way would be recovered, in terms of money saved from preventing infections, after three months. The researchers did not look at whether this intervention affects a patient's 30-day readmission rate, or whether it would work in a hospital room that's not part of an ICU. Other researchers are looking at whether copper also stops carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), a deadly, antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria, Schmidt said. "Bacteria have sex so quickly among their friends in their hospital environment, it may actually reduce the spread of CRE and other multi-drug resistant microbes, simply because the DNA is fractured," Schmidt said. Some of the study authors reported financial connections to the Copper Development Industry, which is the market development, engineering and information services arm of the copper industry. But this isn't the only research team that's looking into this question. A separate group at the University of California, Los Angeles, received a $2.5 million federal grant in 2012 to study the germ-fighting effectiveness of copper in hospitals. The cost effectiveness of that is still unclear, said Dr. Daniel Uslan, director of the antimicrobial stewardship program at UCLA's Geffen School of Medicine. "I suspect the costs will be favorable, but more data is needed and I hope our study at UCLA will answer this important question," he said in an e-mail. "We also don't yet know which surfaces in a room are most critical. Can you get by with just coating one or two items, or do all the touch surfaces need to be copper coated? Obviously the costs will change dramatically depending on the number of surfaces coated." Wed, 15 May 2013 13:29:13 GMT 20146244 2013-05-15T13:29:13Z http://www.krdo.com/news/Sambolin-I-feel-empowered-in-cancer-fight/-/417220/20146554/-/3in05pz/-/index.html What are the chances you walk into work and the lead story is Angelina Jolie has had a double mastectomy when you are facing one yourself? I have been struggling for weeks with how to tell my co-workers and viewers that I have breast cancer and have chosen to have a double mastectomy. How much should I share? Will I be an emotional wreck? Do I want people feeling sorry for me? Angelina empowered me to share my story. I was diagnosed with breast cancer five weeks ago, on April 9. Saying it, talking about it, dealing with it has been a complicated journey. Luckily, I have a very early form of breast cancer called DCIS. MRI scans show some questionable areas in my left breast and many in my right. After several consultations with some of the finest doctors in New York and Chicago (my hometown), volumes of research and some serious soul searching, I have chosen to have a double mastectomy. Angelina Jolie chose to bear her soul in writing and I chose to follow her lead in front of all our viewers Tuesday. I identified with some of the issues she candidly discussed, such as her children, her sexuality and her femininity. I never expected to share this news so publicly and I certainly did not want to become the story. But judging from the outpouring of support, I am not alone. I have a history of fibrocystic breast tissue, which is very dense and complicated to read in a mammogram. For years, I've had biopsies and two years ago, prior to starting at CNN, I had a lumpectomy to remove abnormal tissue that doctors thought was cancer. One doctor said that in my case cancer was a matter of when, not if. Still, when I got the call five weeks ago, it knocked me over. My greatest challenge was sharing the news with the people who love me. My son Nico and my daughter Sofia were the hardest. I sat with Nico, 14, and asked him what came to mind when he thought of breast cancer. His response was a fight. I knew then he had the right attitude. I pulled out the book "Breast Cancer for Dummies" and explained in great detail what my diagnosis was and how I chose to treat it. He listened intently but still worried I was going to die. I explained that my decision gave me the best chance of survival long term. I promised this would not kill me. I agonized for weeks about how to tell my daughter, and even consulted a psychologist. Would she instantly think her breasts were sick, too? Were they? Would the information scare her and would she be overwhelmed by fear of losing me and potentially getting sick herself? I worried about nothing. I asked her the same question I asked Nico and her response was that breast cancer makes people's hair fall out and that they get sick. I told her neither would happen to me and that I would have surgery and be back in no time. That was plenty for her. I surprised myself by worrying about my sexuality. Logically, I knew that getting rid of all the breast tissue was the best decision for me. But would I still be attractive and desirable to my partner? I was angry at myself for even caring about that, but I did. I was choosing reconstruction, so that to the outside world nothing would look different -- but I knew and he knew. Kenny, my fiancé, was focused on making me whole. He said nothing mattered more to him than having me alive. Yet I still worried. Kenny happens to be executive vice president of the Chicago White Sox and travels nonstop. But he halted his schedule so he could be by my side for every appointment and every moment of vulnerability. He held my hand and sat with me when I cried. We have talked in great detail with doctors about the changes ahead, and privately about our personal feelings. They have been graphic, emotional conversations that have made us stronger. Early on, a very dear friend told me very matter-of-factly to treat this cancer as a pain-in-the-ass inconvenience. Getting there takes time and, in my case, a lot of prayer and a lot of research. I hope that every woman facing this decision takes the time to understand her options and surrounds herself with the support she needs to get through the difficult times. There are challenges to access that need to be tackled, especially for our Latina women. There is a lot of work and I am poised for the challenge to help others like me. I am grateful for the support and information available to me. My goal is to pay my many blessings forward. What I know, you will know. I am not yet on the other side, but judging by all the e-mails I've received from survivors, I am headed to a place that is stronger, wiser and definitely more empowered. My final words here are thank you -- for the many blessings, thoughts, prayers and even hugs you have sent my way today. Keep them coming! Wed, 15 May 2013 10:55:29 GMT 20146554 2013-05-15T10:55:29Z http://www.krdo.com/news/economy-tracker/us-charges-89-with-defrauding-medicare-of-223-million/-/477266/20144858/-/p50wq1z/-/index.html Federal officials announced charges Tuesday against 89 people who allegedly bilked Medicare for $223 million. The cases arouse from operations in eight cities and included charges against doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers. An investigation in Miami netted 25 suspects accused of securing $44 million worth of false billings by a variety of methods, including fake invoices for home health care, mental health services and physical therapy. The group allegedly bribed Medicare beneficiaries for their personal information and used it to create billing documents for services that weren't necessary or weren't even provided. The leader of the scheme, federal officials say, purchased a variety of luxury cars -- including two Lamborghinis, a Ferrari and a Bentley -- with the ill-gotten proceeds. In Detroit, three suspects allegedly netted $12 million by falsely posing as doctors, writing prescriptions and claiming to have provided psychotherapy to patients. Officials also levied charges in Louisiana, Houston, Los Angeles, Tampa, Chicago and Brooklyn. Since establishing the Medicare Fraud Strike Force in 2007, the Justice Department and the Department of Health and Human Services have charged more than 1,500 people with falsely billing Medicare for more than $5 billion. Attorney General Eric Holder said at a press conference announcing the cases that over the past three fiscal years, the government has returned an average of eight dollars for every one dollar it's spent fighting healthcare fraud. He warned, however, that these efforts will be compromised should Congress fail to reverse the automatic budget cuts that went into effect this year and cut the Justice Department's budget for the 2013 fiscal year by over $1.6 billion. "Allowing these cuts would be both unwise and unacceptable," Holder said. Wed, 15 May 2013 07:37:37 GMT 20144858 2013-05-15T07:37:37Z