Posts
June 12, 2013
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3:40 PM | Saudi Arabia: 3 New MERS Cases (1 Fatal)
# 7379 My thanks to Helen Branswell for the head’s up that the KSA MOH had updated their MERS-CoV numbers. Below you’ll find their press statement, which as we’ve seen in the past, provides very little in the way of detail. MOH: "Three New Cases of Coronavirus Recorded in Al-Ahsa and the Eastern Region and One Case Passed Away in Hafr Al-Batin" 12 June 2013 Within the framework of the
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Brain imaging holds promise for improving the accuracy of diagnosis in brain disorders falling under the psychiatric domain.No reliable and valid brain imaging techniques currently exist for the diagnosis of depression or bipolar disorder. However, research progress has been rapid.Jonathan Savitz from the Laureate Institute for Brain Research and colleagues at Harvard University and Johnson and Johnson Research and Development recently summarized the current state of knowledge
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FAST (Face drooping; Arm weakness; Speech difficulty; Time to call) is the educational meme the American Stroke Association uses. A clinican’s need for speed is also the driving force behind the BrainAttack iPhone app, developed by a brother and sister team. Madhuri Koganti, MD, a practicing Dallas neurologist, and Balu Kadiyala, a Chicago-area technology expert, [...]
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Distribution of MERS-CoV cases - Credit VDU # 7389 Ian Mackay has taken a first look at the new Saudi MERS-CoV sequences deposited at GenBank, and he has some good news when it comes to the real-time PCR assays being used to identify this virus. These four new sequences – all isolated recently in Saudi Arabia – still match the targets established using isolates taken last year, and no decrease in detection efficiency is expected. To
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Laura Nielsen for Frontier Scientists In September 2012, at the end of last summer, the Arctic sea ice extent reached a record low since satellite measurements began. And, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, summer sea ice extent in the Arctic has declined roughly 40 percent in the last three decades. The Arctic is warming faster than other parts of the planet. This enhanced warming is called Arctic Amplification. It may seem like a far-away problem to
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2:12 PM | Osteo…huh?
Doctors search for new ways to solve the puzzle of a rare bone cancer Zach Sobiech (Image courtesy of YouTube) Recently, the world watched as 18-year-old Zach Sobiech transformed from a high school student living with cancer, to a rock star, living his dream of recording music and embracing his...
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2:01 PM | SPC: Midwest Under The Gun Today
# 7388 A brief reminder that the Storm Prediction Center has forecast a moderate risk of severe storms across much of the upper Midwest today. The area covered includes 81,100 square miles, and more than 20 million people living in places like Chicago, Indianapolis, Columbus, Ft Wayne, and Aurora. The risk for severe weather moves further east tomorrow, to include Washington D.C, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. It was almost a year ago
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# 7387 With a COCA Call scheduled for tomorrow afternoon on the MERS-CoV (see Reminder: CDC MERS-CoV COCA Call Thursday), the CDC has been busy over the past week producing and/or updating their guidance documents on handling suspected or confirmed cases that may show up in the United States (see CDC HAN: Updated Guidelines For Evaluation Of MERS-CoV). Yesterday they published their interim infection control advice. Interim Infection
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1:00 PM | T-16
Janet Lei, participant 2013. // 16 days. That’s all that stands between me and total immersion into what promises to be an extremely inspiring and eye-opening mind soup with the Nobel Laureates and my fellow young researchers. Too many superlatives? I just can’t contain my excitement! My supervisor rolled my eyes at me again today because I was chewing off the ear of another colleague about how great Lindau is going to be. I’ve been told that I have good
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1:00 PM | Biological Warfare
The History of Biological Warfare, Part 1 “And soon the rotting corpses tainted the air and poisoned the water supply, and the stench was so overwhelming that hardly one in several thousand was in a position to flee the remains of the Tartar army”. Gabrielle De’ Mussi, 1348, on the Siege of Kaffa. Long before weapons of mass destruction had been invented, disease ravaged battlefields and killed more soldiers than arrows, bayonets, and bombs did together. In times of war,
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12:37 PM | WHO: MERS, Masks, And The Media
# 7386 This morning the International Business Times carries an article on MERS-CoV threat in Saudi Arabia that reports the World Health Organization recommends that religious pilgrims wear a mask while among crowds during Ramadan. In fact, it is the main focus of the story. Ramadan Mecca Pilgrims to Wear Masks to Avert Coronavirus Epidemic Health authorities urge pilgrims to wear facemasks to prevent spread of Middle East virus
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11:55 AM | Don’t Text and Drive
We accept certain risks for the benefits of modern society. We pump explosive gas into homes, we run wires with potentially fatal electrical currents through our neighborhoods, and we ski at breakneck speeds down mountains for fun. We also allow people to operate vehicles weighing thousands of pounds at speeds that are potentially deadly if [...]
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10:32 AM | CIDRAP: NVAC Weighs H7N9 Vaccine Options
# 7385 Lisa Schnirring of CIDRAP NEWS has the details of yesterday’s NVAC (National Vaccine Advisory Committee) meeting, where the emerging H7N9 virus was on the agenda. First a link to Lisa’s detailed report, then I’ll return with a bit more. Federal officials weigh H7N9 vaccine options Lisa Schnirring Staff Writer Jun 11, 2013 (CIDRAP News) – Intensive federal deliberations are under way on whether to stockpile a vaccine
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7:30 AM | Let’s start #lnlm13
Welcome to the Lindau Nobel Online Community site – the interactive forum. This is your place to be if you want to exchange ideas or share impressions and memories of the Nobel Meeting. We invite you to participate in every form of communication which offers this interactive platform. You may comment on blog posts and posts on Facebook, blog with us as a guest blogger, follow us on Twitter and tweet with us – don’t forget the hashtag #lnlm13, upload
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Herzlich willkommen in der Lindau Nobel Online Community. Wir bieten auf diesen Seiten das interaktive Forum begleitend zur Lindauer Nobelpreisträgertagung, die in diesem Jahr im Zeichen der Chemie steht. Sie sind hier richtig, wenn Sie zeitnah mitbekommen wollen, was in Lindau gerade geschieht. Und vor allem sind Sie hier richtig, wenn Sie mit uns die Topthemen der Tagung diskutieren wollen. Wie die Bezeichnung ‘interaktiv’ schon sagt, ist dies eine offene Seite, die zum Mitmachen […]
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What’s Keith Kloor got that I haven’t got? What’s Laura Helmuth got that I haven’t got? Why won’t Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. call me to complain about all the not-so-Respectful Insolence I’ve directed his way over the years. I mean, seriously. I spend nearly eight years criticizing his antivaccine crank views, and these two get…
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The definition of E-science and its related standards are still tenuous and flexible, but are about to undergo further delineation in the US. This is occurring as a response by many of the organizations called to action by the OSTP in its most recent efforts. (See Part 1 of this series, “Open Access Advocates Trumpet the Fall of the Paywall,” to learn more about the open access debate). That is, scientific and medical researchers, librarians, and publishers are attempting to... Read more
June 11, 2013
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This week PLOS Medicine focuses on diet, exercise, and road safety with the following new articles:
Nine years after the World Health Organization (WHO) adopted a global strategy on diet, physical activity, and health to address risk factors for noncommunicable …
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Pastured poultry is new old-style: Beyond cage-free, beyond free-range, it puts chickens out on grass for most of their lives, producing a bird that lives longer, looks healthier, and tastes distinctly different from standard supermarket chicken. Wired Science blogger Maryn ...
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We first met—and followed—Penn Medicine medical student Hayley Goldbach (M’15) almost two years ago when she blogged about her experiences in Botswana, as part of the Botswana-UPenn Partnership. We got a peek at her work at the dermatology clinic and what’s it like to study vulvar cancer in HIV positive...
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3:51 PM | Why are we so afraid of vaccines?
Despite the official retraction of the 1998 Lancet study that suggested a connection between vaccines and autism, as of 2010, 1 in 4 U.S. parents still believed that vaccines cause autism.
This belief is often cited as part of …
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In a previous post, I reviewed a recently clinical trial studying the effect of an orexin receptor blocking agent in the treatment of insomnia.Orexin appears to be a neurochemical involved in arousability and motor activity. Preliminary studies suggest the orexin receptor may provide a novel target for hypnotics in the treatment of insomnia.An important question in the effects of orexin is whether the hypnotic effect of orexin simulates the same sleep effects as seen by the more studied
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The Wellcome Trust funded development of the Primary Science Quality Mark award scheme to help improve and celebrate the quality of science teaching and learning in primary schools. A report on the mark and its use was recently published and we got Jane Turner, Director of the Primary Science Quality Mark, to explain why it […]
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Editor’s Note: On Friday, June 14, Farris K. Timimi, medical director of the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media will speak at Albert Einstein College of Medicine during a faculty development session associated with a social media grant Einstein received in 2012. Einstein is one of four medical schools in the United States selected for the Education [...]
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# 7384 Although I mentioned it a week ago, it is worth the reminder that on Thursday afternoon – June 13th - the CDC will conduct a COCA Call for clinicians on the MERS Coronavirus. COCA (Clinician Outreach Communication Activity) calls – are designed to provide clinicians and others working in the health field with the latest information on health issues. Recorded materials from earlier COCA calls may be accessed at this link. For
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12:14 PM | Don’t Stare Directly Into the Sun
This is the sort of thing that most people learn when they are very young. In fact, you don’t necessarily have to learn this – light that is bright enough to damage the retina is also painful and will cause you to close your eyes or look away. So telling people not to stare into [...]
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11:29 AM | Thailand’s Dengue Epidemic
Healthmap Dengue map # 7483 Last January in WHO: Neglected Tropical Diseases, we looked at a progress report on the global battle against NTDs (Neglected Tropical Diseases) that found – among other things – Dengue is the fastest spreading vector-borne viral disease today, having increased 30-fold around the world in the past 50 years. Almost unheard of outside of a few tropical ports in the early 1950s - driven by the post WWII travel boom –
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It’s just one more cut on the road to the proverbial death by a thousand cuts. I’m referring, unfortunately, to last week’s development in the state of Colorado. Specifically, I’m referring to the Colorado legislature’s truly boneheaded decision to license naturopaths, thus giving the imprimatur of the state to quackery and, in essence, legalizing a…
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Osteoarthritis is the “wear and tear” kind of arthritis that many of us develop as we get older. Cartilage becomes less resilient with age, collagen can degenerate, and inflammation and new bone outgrowths (osteophytes) can occur. This leads to pain, crepitus (Rice Krispie type crackling noises with movement), swelling and fluid accumulation in the joints [...]
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Senomyx SNMX continues to be a low valuation quasi-biotech company that is at this point essentially a call option on the thesis that their collaboration with Pepsico PEP will result in incorporation of a Senomyx high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and sucrose flavor enhancer into flagship Pepsi brands, resulting in transformative royalties for the compan [...]
