Richard Knox

Prevention Pill Cuts HIV Risk For Injecting Drug Users

Richard Knox — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 16:53:00 +0000

A once-a-day pill has been proven to lower the risk of getting HIV among needle-using drug addicts, just as it does among heterosexual couples and men who have sex with men.

Among 2,400 injecting drug users in Bangkok, those assigned to take a daily dose of an antiviral drug Viread, or tenofovir generically, had half the risk of getting HIV over a four-year period as those who took a placebo pill.

Triple Threat: Middle East Respiratory Virus And 2 Bird Flus

Richard Knox — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 20:31:00 +0000

The World Health Organization is warning health care workers everywhere to suspect a disease called Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, whenever they see a case of unexplained pneumonia.

Monday's warning comes at the end of a six-day WHO investigation in Saudi Arabia, where 40 of the 55 cases of the respiratory disease have occurred.

NIH Chief Rejects Ethics Critique Of Preemie Study

Richard Knox — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 12:59:00 +0000

The chief of the National Institutes of Health is disavowing a ruling from the government office that oversees the ethics of human research.

At issue is a controversial study of more than 1,300 severely premature infants.

Obama Administration Seeks To Loosen Antibiotic Approvals

Richard Knox — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 06:19:00 +0000

Every day in hospitals all over America, thousands of patients die of infections that used to be curable. But the antibiotics used to treat them aren't working anymore.

It's called drug resistance, and it's largely a consequence of antibiotics overuse.

A Boston Family's Struggle With TB Reveals A Stubborn Foe

Richard Knox — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 07:34:00 +0000

Thanks to gold-standard tuberculosis treatment and prevention programs, cases of TB in the United States have declined every year for the past two decades — to the lowest level ever.

But TB's course through the Williams family in Boston shows that no nation can afford to relax its efforts to find, treat and prevent TB.

Young Women With Breast Cancer Opting For Mastectomy

Richard Knox — Fri, 31 May 2013 18:15:00 +0000

Most women diagnosed with breast cancer when they're 40 or younger are choosing mastectomy rather than more limited and breast-conserving lumpectomy plus radiation, a study of women in Massachusetts finds.

Moreover, most of those choosing mastectomy elect to have the other, noncancerous breast removed, too.

These findings will be presented Monday at the American Society Clinical Oncology's a

Researchers Find Bird Flu Is Contagious Among Ferrets

Richard Knox — Thu, 23 May 2013 19:52:00 +0000

Scientists have completed the first assessments of how readily the H7N9 flu virus in China can pass among ferrets and pigs. The mammals provide the best inkling of how dangerous these bugs may become for humans.

The news is both bad and good.

Middle East Virus Spreads Between Hospitalized Patients

Richard Knox — Mon, 13 May 2013 18:06:00 +0000

It's been eight months since a Saudi Arabian doctor described a previously unknown virus related to SARS.

Officials Prepare For Another Flu Pandemic — Just In Case

Richard Knox — Wed, 08 May 2013 06:49:00 +0000

There's been a buzz of activity at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta since scientists got their first samples of a new bird flu virus from China four weeks ago.

Already they've prepared "seed strains" of the virus, called H7N9, and distributed them to vaccine manufacturers so the companies can grow them up and make them into experimental flu vaccine.

They've also come up

Recovery Begins For Mother, Daughter Injured In Boston

Richard Knox — Thu, 02 May 2013 07:03:00 +0000

The number of Boston bombing victims still in the hospital dropped to 19 as of Wednesday evening.

Mother And Daughter Injured In Boston Bombing Face New Future

Richard Knox — Wed, 01 May 2013 07:17:00 +0000

Forty-seven-year-old Celeste Corcoran is propped up in her hospital bed. In a nearby window is a forest of blooming white orchids from well-wishers. On the opposite wall, a big banner proclaims "Corcoran Strong."

She's recalling how thrilled she was to be near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, waiting for her sister Carmen Accabo to run by. "I just remember standing there, wanting to be as close as I could to catch her," Corcoran says. "I really just needed to see her face."

And then the first of the two bombs went off, throwing Celeste Corcoran off her feet.

Failure Of Latest HIV Vaccine Test: A 'Huge Disappointment'

Richard Knox — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 16:27:00 +0000

The largest current study of an AIDS vaccine, involving 2,500 people, is being stopped.

After an oversight committee took a preliminary peek at the results this past Monday, they concluded there was no way the study would show that the vaccine prevents HIV infection.

Nor would the vaccine suppress the wily virus among people who get infected despite being vaccinated.

So they pulled the plug on HVTN-505, as the study is called.

Researchers Find Hormone That Grows Insulin-Producing Cells

Richard Knox — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 21:04:00 +0000

The work is only in mice so far, but it sure is intriguing.

A newly found hormone revs up production of cells that make insulin — the very kind that people with advanced diabetes lack.

Harvard scientists, reporting the discovery Thursday in Cell, call the hormone betatrophin because it stimulates the production of beta cells in the pancreas. These cells make insulin, which the body needs to control blood sugar.

With Bird Flu, "Right Now, Anything Is Possible"

Richard Knox — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 09:38:00 +0000

An international dream team of flu experts assembled in China today.

Underscoring the urgency that public health agencies feel about the emergence of a new kind of bird flu, the team is headed by Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the World Health Organization's top influenza scientist.

Before he left Geneva, Fukuda explained the wide-open nature of the investigation in an interview with NPR.

"The biggest question is just what's going to happen," he told Shots. "We've had a lot of experience in the last decade with new animal influenza viruses. But ...

Boston Doctors Compare Marathon Bomb Injuries To War Wounds

Richard Knox — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 12:23:00 +0000

Boston hospitals always staff up their emergency rooms on Marathon Day to care for runners with cramps, dehydration and the occasional heart attack.

But Monday, those hospitals suddenly found themselves with more than 100 traumatized patients — many of them with the kinds of injuries seen more often on a battlefield than a marathon.

Like most big-city hospitals these days, Tufts Medical Center runs regular disaster drills, featuring simulated patients smeared with fake blood.

So when word came Monday afternoon that there had been