Category: news-perspectives

Changes in how humans live and travel have increased the spread of diseases we get from animals, a new series of reports says. The new reports, published in the journal Lancet, focus on zoonotic infections. These are diseases that spread from other animals to humans. Infections in wildlife may be spread to humans by carriers such as mosquitoes and ticks. Sometimes they are spread by direct contact. All of these contacts have increased, the Lancet articles say. Reasons include widespread changes in land use and more world trade and travel. For example, people may be exposed to wildlife for the first time when an area opens up to logging or farming. Some infections that spread to humans from animals, such as HIV, have become pandemics. This means they affect many people across a wide area. Until now, scientists have never predicted that an infection would become a pandemic.

A new drug for insomnia helped people get a little more sleep with few side effects, researchers report. Suvorexant acts in a different way than drugs now on the market. It targets the brain chemicals that help keep people awake. Other drugs affect the brain in a broader way. That’s one reason for side effects, such as daytime sleepiness. The new study of suvorexant included 254 healthy adults with insomnia. People were randomly assigned to receive 1 of 4 doses of suvorexant. They took the drug for 4 weeks and placebo (fake) pills for another 4 weeks. They spent the first night of each treatment in a sleep lab. On their first day taking suvorexant, they slept about 5% to 13% longer than those who took the placebo. That equaled about 21 to 37 extra minutes of sleep. The average difference varied with the dose people were taking.

Taking statin drugs and also exercising may reduce the risk of early death up to 70%, a new study finds. That finding comes from a study of 10,000 veterans. All had high LDL (“bad cholesterol”) and received care at a U.S. veterans’ hospital. Nearly all of them were men. Everyone took a treadmill test to assess fitness. Researchers looked at people’s medical records and kept track of people for 10 years. Those who took statins were 35% less likely to die during the study than people who did not take these drugs. Statins reduce LDL and inflammation. Death rates were 70% lower for people who had the highest fitness level and also took statins than for those who did neither. The fittest people had 60% lower death rates even if they did not take statins.

Nearly all adults and older teens should get tested for HIV at least once, a top group of experts says. The advice comes from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Doctors and insurance companies often follow this group’s advice on preventive care. The task force recommends that people ages 15 through 64 get the test as a routine part of a checkup. In the past, tests were recommended only for people at high risk of infection. But the new advice is based on growing evidence that treatment not only lengthens life but also greatly reduces the chance of spreading the virus to others. Experts estimate that 20% of those who are infected don’t know it and therefore are not getting treatment. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has backed widespread HIV testing for some time. But most doctors still don’t do the tests routinely.

From carnivals to birthday parties, kids love jumping around inside inflatable bouncers. But thousands of them are hurt every year, a new study shows. And the number of injuries is soaring. The study found that about 30 children a day now are being treated in emergency rooms for bouncer injuries. Researchers got their numbers from the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Bouncer injuries treated in hospitals increased from fewer than 1,000 in 1995 to nearly 11,000 in 2010. The numbers doubled just since 2008. Researchers said they were surprised by the rapid increase. Kids most often got hurt by falling inside the bouncer or tumbling out of it. Bumping into other kids also caused injuries. Broken bones, sprains and strains were the most common injuries. Some children had only bruises. But about 7% had concussions. Manufacturers have guidelines designed to promote safe use.

U.S. diabetes rates are getting worse faster in some states than others, a study shows. The fastest growth was in Oklahoma. Diabetes rates there tripled in 15 years. Southern states also had big increases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did the study. It was based on phone surveys of adults done in 1995 and 2010. People were asked if a doctor had ever told them they had diabetes. Nationwide, about 8% said yes. Several states exceeded that nationwide average. Mississippi, which has the nation’s highest obesity rate, also had the top diabetes rate, almost 12% in 2010. Oklahoma’s rate jumped to 10% in 2010. In several Southern states, the rates doubled. They rose to more than 9% in Kentucky, 10% in Georgia and 11% in Alabama. The CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published the study. The Associated Press wrote about it November 15.

Most teens are trying to build up or tone muscles, a new survey suggests. And some are doing this in potentially dangerous ways, the study finds. The study was based on a survey of about 2,800 middle and high school students from the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. More than 90% of boys and 80% of girls said they exercised more in order to build or tone muscles. About two-thirds of boys and nearly that many girls said they had changed their eating habits for the same reason. One-third of boys and one-fifth of girls had used protein powders or shakes. Some teens even used potentially dangerous supplements or drugs. About 5.9% of boys and 4.6% of girls said they had used steroids. About 10.5% of boys and 5.5% of girls had used creatine, amino acids, hydroxyl methylbutyrate (HMB), DHEA or growth hormones. The journal Pediatrics published the study.

U.S. adults get almost as many calories from alcohol as from sugar-sweetened drinks, a new government study has found. The study was based on interviews with more than 11,000 people. They were asked detailed questions about what they ate and drank in the last 24 hours. Sugar-sweetened drinks accounted for about 6% of calories and alcohol added about 5%. One-third of men and one-fifth of women had consumed some form of alcohol on the day in question. The average was about 150 calories a day — equal to a beer — for men. For women, the average was about 50 calories a day, roughly half a glass of wine. Men drank mostly beer. Women drank beer, wine and liquor, with no clear favorites. Younger adults drank more than older ones. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the study. The Associated Press wrote about it November 15.

If a rash returns after you’ve been treated for Lyme disease, chances are it’s a new infection, a new study suggests. Lyme is caused by bacteria that are transmitted by tick bites. Taking antibiotics cures most people. But for some the symptoms don’t go away or return. The new study included 17 people who had been treated for Lyme disease. Then the distinctive “bull’s eye” rash came back, in some cases up to 3 times. Skin or blood samples were taken after each rash appeared. They all showed Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria, the type that causes Lyme disease. In the new study, researchers looked more closely. They did a genetic analysis of the samples. In each case, the bacteria that caused the first outbreak and later outbreaks were different strains. That means there was a new infection, not a return of the old infection. The rash also appeared at a different spot when it returned.

Advice and encouragement from text messages may help people quit smoking, a review of research suggests. The study was done by the Cochrane Collaboration. This is an independent group that offers expert review of medical research on various topics. In this case, the reviewers looked at 5 earlier studies. They included about 9,000 people. All of the studies randomly divided people into 2 groups. One group received regular text and/or video messages to help them quit smoking. The other group received a different form of support. People in this group got occasional phone calls or texts. After 6 months, people who received the text or video messages were more likely to be still not smoking. In the largest study, involving 6,000 people, about 9% of those in the text group were still not smoking after 6 months. About 4% of those who did not receive texts were smoke-free.