Blindness eased by historic stem cell treatment

For the first time since they were discovered 13 years ago, human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) have shown medical promise.

Two people with eye degeneration both say their vision improved in the four months after they received implants of retinal pigment epithelial cells made from hESCs. The treatments were also safe, with no sign that the cells triggered aggressive tumours called teratomas, no sign of immune rejection of the cells, and no inflammation.

Discovered in 1998, hESCs had previously failed to deliver on their medical promise. The new procedures, performed by Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology of Marlborough, Massachusetts, and colleagues, could represent a turning point for hESC therapies.

 op-ed

Ritalin Gone Wrong

Attention-deficit drugs increase concentration in the short term, which is why they work so well for college students cramming for exams. But when given to children over long periods of time, they neither improve school achievement nor reduce behavior problems. The drugs can also have serious side effects, including stunting growth.

Sadly, few physicians and parents seem to be aware of what we have been learning about the lack of effectiveness of these drugs.

What gets publicized are short-term results and studies on brain differences among children. Indeed, there are a number of incontrovertible facts that seem at first glance to support medication. It is because of this partial foundation in reality that the problem with the current approach to treating children has been so difficult to see.

Scientists call for 60-day suspension of mutant flu research

Delay will allow time for debate on regulating potentially dangerous research.

As controversy rages around the scientists who created mutant strains of the H5N1 avian influenza virus, leading flu researchers have called for a 60-day voluntary pause on such work. The call comes in a statement jointly published today in Nature (R. A. M. Fouchier et al. Nature 481, 443; 2012) and Science.

On 20 December, the United States government — acting on advice from the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) — asked both journals to publish only the main conclusions of two flu studies, but not to reveal details "that could enable replication of the experiments by those who would seek to do harm”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/27/us/a-ballot-push-to-legalize-marijuana-with-alcohol-as-the-role-model.html?_r=1&hp

TMZ

DEMI MOOREHealth Crisis ...Inhaling Nitrous Oxide

Demi Moore's friend called paramedics Monday night after the actress inhaled a dangerous amount of nitrous oxide ... TMZ has learned.
 
Sources tell TMZ ... one of Demi's friends who was at her home told emergency workers Demi was doing whip-its. A whip-it is a street name for a type of nitrous oxide inhalant.

The friend said she became upset when Demi had a reaction to a whip-it and lapsed into semi-consciousness.

Fighting science with politics

Emergency contraceptive pills have long been a hot button issue in US politics due to their mischaracterization as inducing abortion and promoting promiscuity, leading to delayed approvals and restricted access. A recent decision on the Plan B One-Step pill suggests that, once again, science has taken a back seat to politics.

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On 7 December, Secretary Kathleen Sebelius of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) blocked the decision by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve over-the-counter (OTC) sales of the emergency contraceptive Plan B One-Step to women aged 16 and younger (seepage 8). Sebelius's action marks the first instance in which the HHS has overruled a verdict by the FDA, and it sets a disturbing precedent for the ability of the FDA to act independently of outside interests in assessing the safety and efficacy of drugs and medical devices.

Mexico’s Drug War Bloodies Areas Thought Safe

MEXICO CITY — The Mexican drug war that has largely been defined by violence along the border is intensifying in interior and southern areas once thought clear of the carnage, broadening a conflict that has already overwhelmed the authorities and dispirited the public, according to analysts and new government data.

Last week, two headless bodies were found in a smoldering minivan near the entrance to one of the largest and most expensive malls in Mexico City, generally considered a refuge from the grisly atrocities that have gripped other cities throughout the drug war.

Two other cities considered safe just six months ago — Guadalajara and Veracruz — have experienced their own episodes of brutality: 26 bodies were left in the heart of Guadalajara late last year, on the eve of Latin America’s most prestigious book fair, and last month the entire police force in Veracruz was dismissed after state officials determined that it was too corrupt to patrol a city where 35 bodies were dumped on a road in September.

After Years of Decline, Polio Cases in Afghanistan Triple in a Year

Appointed by the government, paid for by international agencies and given free passage by the Taliban in one of the last three countries in the world where polio is endemic, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s 65,000 volunteers and workers had seemed to have nearly wiped out the disease — until recently.

After years of steady decline, only 25 polio cases were reported in the country in 2010, prompting one international health care official to declare that “the Afghans are heroes.” Then last year, the number tripled to 76, the Afghan Ministry of Public Health said. While the total remains small, polio is highly contagious, and health experts say that each detected case is an indicator of hundreds of “silent” ones, mainly children with mild infections who become carriers.

For Intrigue, Malaria Drug Gets the Prize

Artemisinin’s discovery is being talked about as a candidate for a Nobel Prize in Medicine. Millions of American taxpayer dollars are spent on it for Africa every year.

The Chinese drug artemisinin has been hailed as one of the greatest advances in fighting malaria, the scourge of the tropics, since the discovery of quinine centuries ago.

But few people realize that in one of the paradoxes of history, the drug was discovered thanks to Mao Zedong, who was acting to help the North Vietnamese in their jungle war against the Americans. Or that it languished for 30 years thanks to China’s isolation and the indifference of Western donors, health agencies and drug companies.

Now that story is coming out. But as happens so often in science, versions vary, and multiple contributors are fighting over the laurels. That became particularly clear in September, when one of the Lasker Awards — sometimes called the “American Nobels” — went to a single one of the hundreds of Chinese scientists once engaged in the development of the drug
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U.S. to Force Drug Firms to Report Money Paid to Doctors

To head off medical conflicts of interest, the Obama administration is poised to require drug companies to disclose the payments they make to doctors for research, consulting, speaking, travel and entertainment.

Many researchers have found evidence that such payments can influence doctors’ treatment decisions and contribute to higher costs by encouraging the use of more expensive drugs and medical devices.