Although awareness has grown about viruses like Zika that can devastate the unborn, cytomegalovirus (CMV), a much more common and equally harmful prenatal viral infection, doesn’t get discussed with pregnant moms as much as it should. Medical counseling, testing, and administration of anti-viral medications could save more babies and their families from a lifetime of….
Continue ReadingArchives for October 2016
Sexually transmitted infections hit record in U.S.
Sexually active Americans set new records in 2015. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that in the most recent year of monitoring the “total combined cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis reported … reached the highest number ever.” Young people of both sexes, and men who engage in sex with other men, as….
Continue ReadingMedical care extremes: cost cutting in the Carolinas, gouging in Florida
Hospitals and health systems are making stark choices between offering models to assist their communities and reduce medical costs−or raking in profits, no matter how outrageous and shame-provoking their charges might be. Evidence of the extremes came this week in reports about alternative realities. Let’s start with the positive view, recognizing exemplary efforts in the Charlotte,….
Continue ReadingFederal auditors assail $359 million in Medicare costs for chiropractic care
Federal auditors have found that 80 percent of Medicare spending in a recent year on chiropractic care−some $359 million−was medically unnecessary. The federal insurance program for senior citizens should not have thrown taxpayer dollars at chiropractors to treat strains, sprains, or joint conditions, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General says. Its….
Continue ReadingFDA lets medical device-makers report safety woes in lax, secretive ways
Instead of acting as a tough federal watchdog that protects and informs patients about problems with medical devices−from heart valves to drug pumps−the federal Food and Drug Administration all too often has served as an industry lap cat offering late, lax oversight in reporting safety woes, a new report finds. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune and former agency….
Continue ReadingPrice hikes and product hype: Big Pharma’s relentless push
Just how rapacious can Big Pharma be? Makers hype more drugs as nation faces opioid drug abuse epidemic In the face of an epidemic of opioid painkiller abuse, the drug industry’s answer appears to be: push even more pills on the public. The Washington Post notes that “six in 10 American adults take prescription drugs,….
Continue ReadingCDC warns open-heart surgery patients on risks of medical-device infection
Post-op heart surgery patients who experience night sweats, muscle aches, weight loss, fatigue, or unexplained fever should contact their doctors, stat, federal officials say. They’re warning that a medical device, designed to keep organs and blood at a constant temperature, was contaminated with nontuberculous mycobacterium (NTM). Officials already have confirmed more than two dozen NTM….
Continue Reading‘Theater,’ video help to clarify risk-benefit of treatments like mammograms
Just as patients are unwell and struggling, their well-intentioned doctors may confront them with difficult choices about their care. They often do so with daunting data, and hard to decipher numbers that don’t really answer the vital question: How well does this treatment work, especially for me? Kudos to two Maryland experts, internist Andrew Lazris,….
Continue ReadingWhen will patients stop swallowing bunk about magic of pill popping?
If aliens beamed down from another planet, how shocked might they be by modern patients’ willingness to ingest crazy stuff in the name of their health or well-being? Is it surprising or distressing that in the 21st century so many patients swallow so much hokum and downright dangerous thinking? Let’s start with an excellent but….
Continue ReadingBaltimore confronts an epidemic of gun violence
A lethal epidemic is sweeping Baltimore neighborhoods, costing taxpayers millions of dollars, as well as demoralizing caregivers who struggle with its casualties daily. Researchers, tragically, are barred from developing detailed data about this scourge to try to curb its increasingly deadly harm. Kudos to the Baltimore Sun and reporter Justin George for investigating for a….
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