The Medical Expert Report

The number of people in the USA who took one prescription medication in a one month period rose 10% during the decade up to the end of 2008. Americans spent US234.1 billion on prescription medications in 2008, more than double the figure in 1999, according to a report published by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). A prescription drug or medication is one that requires a doctor's prescription, as opposed to an OTC (over-the-counter) drug, which can be purchased straight from the pharmacy without having to see the doctor first...

Researchers have made a major breakthrough in finding out how aggressive cancers originate, raising hope of novel targeted therapies for future breast cancer patients, according to a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Cell Stem Cell. The scientists say this is the first study to show that the most aggressive cancers probably arise from intermediary, or progenitor, cells, which may significantly influence future research into fighting breast cancer...

Quite an unusual case of Legionnaire's disease arose in 2010 and is now being thoroughly investigated. Why so strange? A healthy 67 year old man contracted Legionnaire's through a cut on his hand while handling compost in his garden. This week's edition of The Lancet reports the full details based on a Case Report by Dr. Simon M Patten, Royal Alexandra Hospital, Paisley and his colleagues. In March 2010, this fit senior in the United Kingdom arrived at the Royal Alexandra Hospital possessing eight days delirium, fever with shakes, lethargy, and shortness of breath...

Mary Harney, Minister for Health & Children, yesterday (Thursday 2nd September, 2010) welcomed the publication of the findings of the All-Ireland Traveller Health Study, which she launched in July 2007...

Macmillan Cancer Support and Boots UK today officially launched a groundbreaking new three-year partnership, which aims to help provide the two million people living with cancer, and their family and friends, increased access to the information and support they need - when they need it, where they need it...

There's still time to register and gain firsthand knowledge of the latest products, technologies and techniques in dentistry at the American Dental Association's (ADA) 151st Annual Session and World Marketplace Exhibition. It takes place Oct. 9 - Oct. 12 at the Orlando (Fla.) Orange County Convention Center. The ADA Annual Session offers attendees the choice of more than 245 relevant and topical continuing education courses, with more than 50% of lecture courses offered free with registration. Advance registration discounts, benefits only available through Sept...

UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe "said Thursday that global contributions to fighting [HIV/AIDS] are dropping off for the first time in 15 years amid tough economic times," Agence France-Presse reports. "The world economic recession is pushing countries ... to enforce austerity," Sidibe said during a press conference in Tokyo during which he called upon Japan to maintain its support for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. "Governments and donors are second-guessing in terms of their budget and priorities," he added...

Regional Director of WHO for Africa Luis Sambo discussed during the 60th session of the Africa Committee of the WHO how the global economic situation could impact funding for health programs in Africa and the ability for countries to reach U.N. Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets, PANA/Afrique en ligne reports. In a report to the meeting taking place in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, "Sambo indicated that between 2008 and 2009, Africa's real average GDP growth rate declined from about 5% in 2008 to 2...

Inter Press Service examines how some African countries are benefiting from the global agriculture fund the G8 pledged $22 billion to in July 2009. According to the article, the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), which seeks to increase African spending on agriculture to foster more growth, "has received a major boost as several countries have begun drawing" on the G8 money. "The World Bank is administering the funds...

From catastrophic floods in Pakistan that have left millions homeless and hungry to the aftermath of Haiti's devastating earthquake, relief efforts are under way in many parts of the world where disasters have brought food crises along with destruction. In Africa's Sahel region, severe drought has been followed by floods that are now threatening the food security of millions of people among the world's poorest. More than half of Niger's population - some 7 million people - as well as millions more in neighbouring Chad, Mali and Mauritania face hunger and malnutrition...

Using two of the planet's largest, creative online communities -- World of Warcraft gamers and Etsy artists -- as their laboratory, two Indiana University Bloomington researchers hope to understand how the inner workings of such massive, networked collaborations could benefit scientists, corporations and the very IT designers who facilitated the success of the two online communities...

The National Institutes of Health has announced that it has awarded the first new grants under the Biomedical Research on the International Space Station (BioMed-ISS) initiative, a collaborative effort between NIH and NASA. Using a special microgravity environment that Earth-based laboratories cannot replicate, researchers will explore fundamental questions about important health issues, such as how bones and the immune system get weak. "Through this initiative, the NIH is proud to continue its longstanding partnership with NASA," said NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D...

Award presentation at the 23rd Congress of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology in Amsterdam, The Netherlands The European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) is pleased to announce Moussa B. H. Youdim as the recipient of the 2010 ECNP Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his innovative and lasting contribution to the area of neurodegenerative diseases and neuropsychiatric drug development. The ECNP Lifetime Achievement Award is presented biennially and recognises significant and lasting impact on the field of neuropsychopharmacology...

Under a recently signed agreement, the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) and the Ukraine's International Radioecology Laboratory (IRL) will collaborate on radiation ecology research, including projects in the region impacted by the catastrophic accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant 24 years ago. Researchers at IRL use the area around Chernobyl as an extensive laboratory for studying the effects of radioactive contamination and methods of decontamination...

New research based on a study at Bradford Teaching Hospitals, shows that hospital inpatients are, on average, likely to miss out on almost 10% of their medication doses. The study, will be presented at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's annual conference 5-6th September. Overall, 9.7% of prescribed medicines were omitted. However, this could be explained by a variety of reasons, including 'nil by mouth' policies after surgery, specific advice from a health professional to withhold doses and very often, patients themselves refusing to take medication...

New models, reinforced by in vivo experimentation, show why 5-10% of bone fractures don't heal properly, and how these cases may be treated to restart the healing process. Results of the model, published September 2 in the open-access journal PLoS Computational Biology, may benefit the ageing population in which the occurrence of bone fractures is expected to rise substantially in the near future. In 5 to 10% of bone fracture cases, the healing process does not succeed in repairing the bone, which leads to the formation of delayed unions or even non-unions - fractures that fail to heal...

A new study suggests that patients can play an important part in reducing medicines wastage by ensuring unused medicines are removed from their repeat prescriptions. Unwanted medicines returned to community pharmacies by patients are estimated to cost the NHS at least £100 million a year. The study, to be presented at the Royal Pharmaceutical annual conference on 5-6 September, examined the number of medicine packs returned after public education campaigns in Guernsey and Alderney...

A new study, to be presented at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's annual conference 5-6 September 2010, shows that treating minor ailments such as coughs, colds and indigestion in community pharmacies rather than GP surgeries is a very cost effective use of NHS resources. Around 57 million GP consultations take place every year for minor ailments at an estimated cost of £2 million1...

Installers, designers, maintenance firms and manufacturers of electric gates, are being urged to seriously consider new safety advice issued by the Health and Safety Executive today, following the recent deaths of two children involving these gates. The safety alert points out that limiting the closing forces of gates alone will not provide sufficient protection to meet the relevant standards, and installers must fit additional safeguards to gates in public areas...

Farmers across the East Midlands are being reminded to wear safety straps when driving their tractors, especially during the busy harvest period. Not wearing a lap strap or seat restraint puts farmers at greater risk of being thrown from the cab and crushed between the tractor and the ground. They are also putting themselves at risk of serious injury from being thrown around inside the cab. Over the past ten years almost one in four (24 per cent) fatal accidents in agriculture have involved workplace transport, some of these involving tractors overturning...