Saturday, Nov 01st
Last update08:10:46 AM GMT
Health Glance
Scientists have found a faulty gene linked to half of all breast cancers which experts have hailed as the most important discovery in the disease since the 1970s.
The finding will help researchers understand how cancer develops and may in future lead to new treatments, they said. Everyone is born with the gene, called NRG1, but in some people it gets damaged during their lifetime and this can lead to cancer developing, it has been found.
While research has suggested that the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders in American children was about 1 of every 150 children, a new government study estimates that the prevalence is more likely about 1 in every 91 children.
The researchers culled data for the study from the 2007 National Survey of Children's Health, which included more than 78,000 children from across the country, all between 3 and 17 years old.
Any health-care overhaul that Congress and President Obama enact is likely to have as its centerpiece a fundamental reform: Insurers would not be allowed to reject individuals or charge them higher premiums based on their medical history.
But simply banning medical discrimination would not necessarily remove it from the equation, economists and health-care analysts say.
America's healthcare industry has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to block the introduction of public medical insurance and stall other reforms promised by Barack Obama. The campaign against the president has been waged in part through substantial donations to key politicians.
According to a new U.S. Geological Survey study, scientists detected mercury contamination in every fish sampled in nearly 300 streams across the United States.
Waterways across the upper Midwest are increasingly plagued with ugly, smelly and potentially deadly blue-green algae, bloomed by drought and fertilizer runoffs from farm fields, that's killed dozens of dogs and sickened many people.
Aquatic biologists say it's a problem that falls somewhere between a human health concern and a nuisance, but will eventually lead to more human poisoning.
The Food and Drug Administration admitted Thursday that it mistakenly approved a patch for injured knees last year after being pressured by members of Congress and the manufacturer.
Internal documents demonstrate that agency’s scientific reviewers repeatedly determined that the device, known as Menaflex and manufactured by ReGen Biologics Inc., was unsafe because the device often failed, forcing patients to get another operation.
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