Rapid Flu Test can be wrong

Hayli Murphy hears her mother’s cell phone ring, and she bounces off the couch to get it. Watching her run around, it’s hard to believe that just a few weeks ago, the 9-year-old was heavily sedated in a pediatric intensive care unit, a ventilator doing the job her lungs — ravaged by H1N1 flu — could no longer do.

“She was right there. She was at death’s door,” remembered her mother, Julie Murphy.

Hayli spent 43 days in the intensive care unit at Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida.

Looking back at her daughter’s illness, one of the things that strikes her mother is that in the days before Hayli was admitted to the hospital, a test showed that she did not have the flu — twice.

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Scientists able to regrow breast?

Researchers in Australia plan to test a medical “scaffold” designed to stimulate natural breast tissue to regrow following surgery.

Doctors from the Bernard O’Brien Institute of Microsurgery in Melbourne, will test the technique next year in a trial involving six patients.

The team say that the permanent fat found in breasts can be grown inside this contoured scaffold.

They claim to have successfully tested the device in pigs.

The results of that experiment were presented at a plastic surgery conference in Sydney.

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Dieting keeps diabetes at bay

A period of careful eating and regular exercise can stave off diabetes for a decade, a study suggests.

US researchers followed up nearly 3,000 overweight people who had taken part in a three year diabetes prevention programme.

The group had initially been divided into three – assigned either to a diet and exercise programme, the diabetes drug metformin or a placebo.

The Lancet report notes it was the dieters who reaped the most benefit.

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Physical activity reduces breast cancer risks

In this October, the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a new epidemiological study suggests that physical activity may reduce the risk of breast cancer.

Many women including many breast cancer survivors walked to streets to raise breast cancer awareness this month. Walking occasionally may be better than nothing, but regular physical activity could be more beneficial, according to the study.

The new study published in the Jul-Sept 2009 issue of Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention found women doing a job that required them to stand or move most of time in a day were 34 percent less likely to contract breast cancer than those spending most of their time sitting.

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Study: One swine flu shot is all you need

Early results from the first trial of a pandemic flu vaccine suggest that just one dose is likely to provide “robust” protection from the new H1N1 strain, also dubbed swine flu, researchers said Thursday.

The study, sponsored by Australia-based CSL Limited, showed that nearly 97% of volunteers given a standard dose of the vaccine produced antibody levels that typically protect against flu infection, giving planners the welcome news that they may need less vaccine to save more lives.

“If those data hold up, it would be a very good result,” said William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, president-elect of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. “Frankly, I had anticipated it would take two doses” weeks apart.

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WHO: No Tamiflu for healthy people with swine flu

LONDON — The World Health Organization says healthy people who catch swine flu don’t need antiviral drugs like Tamiflu.

In new advice issued to health officials on Friday, the U.N. agency said doctors don’t need to give Tamiflu to healthy people who have mild to moderate cases of swine flu.

WHO said the drug should definitely be used to treat people in risk groups who get the virus. That includes children less than five years old, pregnant women, people over age 65 and those with other health problems like heart disease, HIV or diabetes.

The new advice contradicts government policies such as those in Britain, which has been giving out Tamiflu to all people suspected of having swine flu.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

A(H1N1) Advisory for Patients and Caregivers

We have here two different advisory from the Singapore government for 2 different categories of people:

1. People who are suspected of having A(H1N1) or those diagnosed with it
2. People who are caring for those in the above group or may be in contact with them

If you fall into the first category, click here for the advisory.

If you fall into the second category, click here for the advisory.

The advisories are some common sense tips and suggestions on how to prevent the spread of the disease.

First swine flu vaccine batches

Baxter International Inc said on Wednesday it completed its first commercial batches of H1N1 vaccine in late July and is discussing distribution plans with national health authorities.

The swine flu vaccine, to be sold under the brand name Celvapan, is made using Baxter’s cell culture process, which is designed to be faster than traditional vaccine production methods, where virus samples must be put into specially raised chicken eggs to grow.

Baxter has supply contracts with five countries, including the U.K., Ireland and New Zealand, but not the United States, said spokeswoman Deborah Spak.

“Mainly because of our production scale,” she said, noting that the company currently has orders for 80 million doses.

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Language ‘predicts dementia risk’

People with superior language skills early in life may be less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease decades later, research suggests.

A team from Johns Hopkins University studied the brains of 38 Catholic nuns after death.

They found those with good language skills early in life were less likely to have memory problems – even if their brains showed signs of dementia damage.

The study appears online in the journal Neurology.

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New cancer drug “shows promise”

Researchers say a new type of cancer treatment has produced highly promising results in preliminary drug trials.

Olaparib was given to 19 patients with inherited forms of advanced breast, ovarian and prostate cancers caused by mutations of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.

In 12 of the patients – none of whom had responded to other therapies – tumours shrank or stabilised.

The study, led by the Institute of Cancer Research, features in the New England Journal of Medicine.

For more details, click here.

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