The FTC has finally gotten off of its duff, and filed an antitrust complaint against Cephalon for payments to generic drug makers not to make a generic version of Provigil.
Unfortunately with the Roberts/Scalito court, I’m pretty sure that at least 4 of the justices are in big pharma’s pocket.
I discussed this on the Usenet* group Rec.Org.SCA about three years ago.
I was watching something on the Discovery Channel, and some people were making arguments that the Black Death could not have been Yerisnia Pestis, because some of its characteristics were simply completely at odds with what is observed in modern Bubonic Plague outbreaks.
Looking back at the archives, my assessment was that it was likely a variant of the Plague with a higher affinity for lung tissues (I mention the Marmot sub-variant as an example).
In any case, Tara C. Smith just did a 4 part blog series on Y. pestis as the black death, which thoroughly convinces me that Y. pestis was Black Death.
It’s a very good read.
*Originally called UUCP, it was a system for bouncing public BBS type messages through the internet. You can still access it, and it works fairly well, but the signal to noise ratio degraded to the point of near uselessness when AOL gave it’s (l)users access to the system during the Eternal September, with the inevitable tragedy of the commons.
Researchers working on behalf of the mobile phone industry :rofl: have discovered that exposure to cell phone emissions can interfere with your sleep cycle.
Obviously, there is a need for more study, but the methodology, where a group of volunteers were exposed to either 884 MHz signals, or to a sham signal, seems to be a pretty good study format.
I am not sure if this was single, or double blind. (in the latter, the researchers don’t know who got the placebo either).
Definitive word to my mind:
Dr Chris Idzikowski, the director of the Edinburgh Sleep Centre, says: “There is now more than sufficient evidence, from a large number of reputable investigators who are finding that mobile phone exposure an hour before sleep adversely affects deep sleep.”
My first night at home with the CPAP went fairly well.
This is the 3rd time that I’ve tried this, the first two times were at sleep centers.
The first time was a disaster, with me feeling like I was choking as I drifted off to sleep, and the second time, I think that I had a less ham-handed tech running things, so it went fairly well.
The CPAP did wake me up a couple of times, but I think that it’s just a matter of getting used to it, though I am grateful that this model has a ramp up mode, so when trying to go to sleep, it starts slow, and builds up pressure, in my case 7cm water gauge, which helps me drift off.
My wife didn’t notice any slower, and I was not feeling significantly more refreshed when I woke up than I normally do, but I’m told that this takes time.
Ok, I’m not Hannibal Lechter, though, I just have a snoring and apnea problem, so I’ve got myself a CPAP kit, with mask.
We now appear to have some Human to Human H5N1 infections in Pakistan.
Pakistan may have had human-to-human bird flu transmission – Summary : Health
كونا : Pakistan tests for H5N1 after two farmer die – السكان – 14/12/2007
A while ago, I posted that there was an H5N1 fatality without evidence of poultry contact.
Now the father of the victim is ill and tests positive.
Of interest is that the 24 year old son died before the 52 year old father. I wonder if this indicates a “cytokine storm”, which was why the 1918 flu killed young adults more than the very old or young, as is the norm.
Local animal husbandry and veterinary officials say they haven’t found evidence of an avian flu epidemic in Jiangsu Province, the report said.
So it looks like it came from something, or possibly someone other than birds.
Not good.
The California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute has found a substance in Marijuana, cannabidiol (CBD) that appears to be effective in treating cancer.
Unfortunately, CBD does not get you high, and you don’t get enough via smoking, but it appears to block an Id-1 gene associated with metastasis.
Expect the work to be somewhere other than the US, the “War on Drugs” land.
This story details the mad scramble of drug companies to get in on ground level of eyelash lengthening drugs.
The truth of the drug companies is that they are not looking for cures, but for lifelong treatments, hence the moribund research into antibiotics, and (until recently) vaccines.
Nope, it’s gotta be erectile dysfunction, baldness, and now eyelashes.
Here is what is going on, Genentech makes two drugs, Avastin and Lucentis. The former is used to treat colon cancer, and the latter “wet” macular degeneration, one of the more common forms of blindness.
The drugs are very similar, but Avastin, when cut to a dosage for eye treatment, costs about $38.00/dose, as opposed to Lucentis, which wholesales for $1,950.00 a dose (no, I have not misplaced a decimal place.
So now Genentech is going to cut off pharmacists it believes are delivering the drug to ophthalmologists who use it in an off label application.
They claim that it’s safety concerns. Bullsh$#!
This press release is important because new flu strains begin in birds, particularly waterfowl, that tend to swim in, and eat from bodies of water where this might accumulate, and hence lead to the development of drug resistant strains of bird flu.
Contact: Jerker Fick
jerker.fick@chem.umu.se
46-480-446-225
Public Library of Science
Tamiflu survives sewage treatmentSwedish researchers have discovered that oseltamivir (Tamiflu); an antiviral drug used to prevent and mitigate influenza infections is not removed or degraded during normal sewage treatment. Consequently, in countries where Tamiflu is used at a high frequency, there is a risk that its concentration in natural waters can reach levels where influenza viruses in nature will develop resistance to it. Widespread resistance of viruses in nature to Tamiflu increases the risk that influenza viruses infecting humans will become resistant to one of the few medicines currently available for treating influenza.
”Antiviral medicines such as Tamiflu must be used with care and only when the medical situation justifies it,” advises Björn Olsen, Professor of Infectious Diseases with the Uppsala University and the University of Kalmar. “Otherwise there is a risk that they will be ineffective when most needed, such as during the next influenza pandemic.”
The Swedish research group demonstrated that oseltamivir, the active substance in Tamiflu, passes virtually unchanged through sewage treatment.
“That this substance is so difficult to break down means that it goes right through sewage treatment and out into surrounding waters,” says Jerker Fick, Doctor in Chemistry at Umeå University and the leader of this study.
The Swedish research group also revealed that the level of oseltamivir discharged through sewage outlets in certain countries may be so high that influenza viruses in nature can potentially develop resistance to the drug.
“Use of Tamiflu is low in most countries, but there are some exceptions such as Japan, where a third of all influenza patients are treated with Tamiflu,” explains Jerker Fick.
Influenza viruses are common among waterfowl, especially dabbling ducks such as mallards. These ducks often forage for food in water near sewage outlets. Here they can potentially encounter oseltamivir in concentrations high enough to develop resistance in the viruses they carry.
“The biggest threat is that resistance will become common among low pathogenic influenza viruses carried by wild ducks.” adds Björn Olsen. These viruses could then recombinate with viruses that make humans sick to create new viruses that are resistant to the antiviral drugs currently available.
The Swedish researchers advise that this problem must be taken seriously so that humanity’s future health will not be endangered by too frequent and unnecessary prescription of the drug today.
###Disclaimer
This press release refers to an upcoming article in PLoS ONE. The release has been provided by the article authors and/or their institutions. Any opinions expressed in this are the personal views of the contributors, and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of PLoS. PLoS expressly disclaims any and all warranties and liability in connection with the information found in the release and article and your use of such information.
Their study was published in the high-ranked journal PLoS ONE. The entire article is available free online, and can be read at the following address: http://www.plosone.org/doi/pone.0000986
Citation: Fick J, Lindberg RH, Tysklind M, Haemig PD, Waldenstro¨m J, et al (2007) Antiviral Oseltamivir Is not Removed or Degraded in Normal Sewage Water Treatment: Implications for Development of Resistance by Influenza A Virus. PLoS ONE 2(10): e986. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0000986
PLEASE ADD THE LINK TO THE PUBLISHED ARTICLE IN ONLINE VERSIONS OF YOUR REPORT (URL live from October 2): http://www.plosone.org/doi/pone.0000986
He is able to move is arms and legs to some degree, which at this early stage is very promising.
The medical treatment was interesting:
Green said the key was the quick action taken by Cappuccino to run an ice-cold saline solution through Everett’s system that put the player in a hypothermic state. Doctors at the Miami Project have demonstrated in their laboratories that such action significantly decreases the damage to the spinal cord due to swelling and movement.
It is apparently a fairly new treatment.
Good news, Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) has made his first public appearance.
He needs a cane, at least, and his speech is halting, but he seems to be doing well in his recovery from his brain hemorrhage of almost a year ago..
Congratulations and best wishes to him and his family.
Or, more accurately, he wants it more than his he wants to disappoint his campaign contributors in the US insurance industry, because he’s doing his level best to make sure that children don’t get medical care.
First, he threatens to veto improvements to SCHIP, and now he’s crippling the existing program.
Finally, the American Psychological Association come out against torture.
The American Psychological Association has ruled that psychologists can no longer be associated with several interrogation techniques that have been used against terrorism prisoners in US custody. The methods are immoral, psychologically damaging and counterproductive in eliciting useful information, they say.
Psychologists who witness interrogators using mock executions, simulated drowning, sexual and religious humiliation, stress positions or sleep deprivation are required to intervene to stop such abuse. They must report the activities to superiors and report the involvement of any other psychologists to the association. It may strip those professionals of their memberships.
I’m not sure whether to be heartened that they have taken action, or to be depressed that it’s taken 5 years for them to reach the obvious conclusion that waterboarding, chaining people in excruciating positions, subjecting them to heat and cold, etc. is a bad thing psychologically.
This actually may have significance, because in a number of US states, membership in the APA is required to hold a license.
Oxford researchers have uncovered a gene for left handedness.
It appears that this gene is also associated with brain symmetry, and there is small a correlation to schizophrenia and other mental illness.
That explains why my left-handed wife married me.
You don’t have to be crazy to marry a Saroff, but it helps.
An FDA task force is recommending that no notice be given to consumers about the use of nanotechnology in their food and drugs. Big surprise, Bush toadie and FDA commissioner Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach said he endorsed the report and its recommendations.
The AG department has done the same thing with genetically modified organisms, and forbidden testing for Mad Cow in the US.
These organizations should be about protecting the consumer first, but nut in a Republithug administration.
It turns out that the Bush administration forbade the Surgeon General from going to the special Olympics.
The reason given?
Why couldn’t he attend? Because of the games’ association with a certain “prominent family.”
Carmona: “I was specifically told by a senior person, ‘Why would you want to help those people?'” (Let’s be charitable and assume that by “those people,” the official meant the family and not the disabled children.) When asked after the hearing whether that “prominent family” was the Kennedys, Carmona replied, “You said it. I didn’t.”
Take a breath and contemplate this. The nation’s top health officer wanted to go to a completely non-political event and pin a few medals on the proud chests of disabled kids. And he was barred from doing so because showing up would have constituted lending aid and comfort to the Kennedys.
Bush and his evil minions™ politicized the bloody Special Olympics.
How small, how petty, and how evil do you have to be to do this.
The Bush Administration does not believe in reality, or policy, it’s all just politics.
The testimony of Richard Carmona, former Surgeon General of the United Sates.