Currently browsing category

News, Page 36

Designer molecule lowers HIV levels: trial results

This meant the designer molecule dubbed 3BNC117 may be best used in combination with other drugs, said the team — while highlighting the promise of a new, immunotherapy-based approach to fighting HIV. “This represents potentially a new class of drugs with activity against HIV,” study co-author Marina Caskey of New York's Rockefeller University told AFP. So-called monoclonal antibodies like 3BNC117 which are cloned from a single parent immune cell, hold the promise of actually killing HIV-infected cells. The new agent, cloned from a cell taken from an HIV-positive person, was given to 12 uninfected volunteers and 17 infected with HIV.

Food safety focus of new health campaign

The United Nations launched a food safety campaign Tuesday for an era in which millions are dying of hunger or tainted produce even as more and more people fall ill from eating too much. The epidemic, which has claimed more than 10,000 lives since December 2013, has been blamed partly on people venturing ever deeper into the forest in search of resources.

Red Cross gets approval from Saudi-led coalition for Yemen aid

The International Committee Red Cross hopes to bring vital medical supplies and aid workers into Yemen on Monday after receiving approval from the Saudi-led military coalition, an ICRC spokeswoman said. The aid agency has been negotiating for nearly a week to deliver life-saving supplies and equipment to Yemen, where the coalition has conducted 11 days of air strikes against Iran-backed Shi’ite Houthis. “We have received permission from the coalition for two planes now, one carrying supplies and one with staff,” ICRC spokeswoman Sitara Jabeen told Reuters on Sunday.

Egyptian court begins retrial of Mubarak in corruption case

An Egyptian court began a retrial on Saturday of former president Hosni Mubarak and his sons for allegedly diverting public funds earmarked for the renovation of presidential palaces to upgrade family properties. Mubarak, 86, toppled in a 2011 popular uprising, was sentenced to three years in prison last May and his two sons were given four-year jail terms in the same case. Egyptian state television aired brief footage of Mubarak and his sons inside a cage in the courtroom in the Police Academy.

US scientists report promising new melanoma vaccines

Experimental tailor-made vaccines targeting melanoma patients' individual genetic mutations have given encouraging preliminary results, researchers have said. The clinical test on three patients with this form of aggressive skin cancer in an advanced stage is unprecedented in the United States. The vaccines appear to boost the number and diversity of T-cells, which are key to the human immune system and attack tumors, researchers said in a report published Thursday in the journal Science. Melanoma accounts for around five percent of all new cancer cases diagnosed in the United States, but that proportion is rising.

A Wake-Up Call and a Scary Diagnosis

As a business speaker and trainer, I shake a lot of hands. But for the past year, I have done so as quickly as possible, then tried to keep my hands out of sight. I do a lot of presentations and it's hard to be effective with your hands tucked away, but I was mortified for others to see them.My hands aren't deformed. I keep my nails nice, but I…

U.S. House approves bipartisan fix to Medicare doctors pay

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved a bipartisan bill to permanently repair the formula for reimbursing Medicare physicians, solving a longstanding problem and making adjustments to the way Medicare costs are paid. Drafted by House Speaker John Boehner and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, the bill replaces a 1990s formula that linked doctor pay to the economy with a new one more focused on quality of care. The bill also requires means-testing of Medicare beneficiaries so that people with higher income pay higher premiums. …