Medical Discount Blog

The AIDS virus has hideouts deep in the immune system that today’s drugs can’t reach. Now scientists finally gain discovered how HIV builds one of those fortresses - and they’re exploring whether a drug already used to fight a parasite in developing countries just might hold a solution to break in.

Researchers have long struggled unsuccessfully to attack what they call reservoirs of dormant HIV, and the new work is in very early stages.

But University of Rochester scientists say it may be fairly straightforward to attack one of these reservoirs, blood cells called macrophages that HIV hijacks and turns into viral hideaways. (Read the full post about ‘Unlocking HIV’s Drug-Proof Fortresses’…)

It’s the most common preventable demise in the hospital.

“It’s staggering to muse about the number of patients who have preventable events related to clots in their legs, which eventually become fatal,” said Dr. Nick Morrissey, a vascular surgeon at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

Blood clots that travel to the lungs murder 25,000 Americans every year. (Read the full post about ‘An Overlooked Cause Of Hospital Death’…)

PARIS (AFP) - A new study shows that parent training programmes fail to reduce behavioural problems in toddlers, suggesting that coaching on how to rear children may be a waste of time and wealth. (Read the full post about ‘Parenting lessons don’t stop toddler tantrums: study (AFP)’…)

THURSDAY, Jan. 31 (HealthDay News) — Scientists think they have discovered a mechanism that prompts early menopause and might account for some infertility problems in women.

PTEN — a gene that's known for suppressing tumor growth — apparently besides keeps immature eggs in the ovary from ripening too quickly. When researchers deleted the PTEN gene in mice, the rodents ran out of their entire supply of eggs while they were still in the mouse equivalent of early adulthood.

(Read the full post about ‘Study Spots Gene That Plays Role in Infertility (HealthDay)’…)

Health care disparities remain between white and minority children, but the gaps narrowed over the past 20 years, according to a report sponsored by the Foundation for Child Development and released on Wednesday by the New America Foundation, CQ HealthBeat reports (Grimaldi, CQ HealthBeat, 1/29). For the study, researchers looked at data records of minority and white children from 1985 to 2004 that were based onward 28 measures, including health, income and education. The measures then were combined to determine the child well-being table of contents (Koch, USA Today, 1/28).

According to the report, the number of white, black and Hispanic children with health insurance has increased since 1985. (Read the full post about ‘Study Finds Improvements In Access To Health Care For Minority Children’…)

By Liz Szabo, USA TODAY Giving a cheap and widely available drug to pregnant women at high risk of too soon ripe delivery cut the risk of cerebral palsy in their babies by nearly half, according to a study presented Thursday.

Premature babies are at high risk for cerebral palsy, an often devastating movement disorder caused by brain damage before, during or after birth, says study co-author John Thorp, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

(Read the full post about ‘Study: Magnesium sulfate cuts risk of CP in preemies’…)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The AIDS virus has hideouts deep in the immune system that today’s drugs can’t space. Now scientists finally have discovered how HIV builds one of those fortresses — and they’re exploring whether a drug already used to fight a parasite in developing countries just might hold a key to break in.

Researchers have long struggled unsuccessfully to attack what they call reservoirs of dormant HIV, and the recently made known work is in very early stages.

But University of Rochester scientists say it may be fairly straightforward to attack human being of these reservoirs, blood cells called macrophages that HIV hijacks and turns into viral hideaways.

The new discovery shows the exact steps that HIV takes to do that — and found that some existing drugs, including a long-used treatment for leishmaniasis called miltefosine, can block the main step and thus cause these cells to self-destruct.

“It’s a very smart virus,” before-mentioned lead researcher Dr.

(Read the full post about ‘Team studies how HIV hides in body’…)

GENEVA (AP) — Swiss AIDS experts said Thursday that some people with HIV who meet strict conditions and are under method of treating can safely have being obliged unprotected sex with non-infected partners. (Read the full post about ‘Swiss change safe sex message on HIV’…)

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) is “calculating” that her experience on the issue of health care will provide her with an favorable opportunity over rival Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) among Hispanic voters, the Wall Street Journal reports.

According to the Journal, the “Hispanic vote is huge” in many of the states that will hold Democratic presidential primaries on Feb. 5, as Hispanics account for 22.8% of eligible voters in California, 17% in Arizona, 12.3% in Colorado, 11.4% in New York and 9.9% in New Jersey. (Read the full post about ‘Democratic Presidential Candidate Sen. Clinton Promotes Health Care Proposal To Attract Hispanic Voters’…)

German legislature has expanded the responsibilities of the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) with the latest Health Care Reform (Statutory Health Insurance [SHI] - Act to Promote Competition). So far, the assessment of drugs has been limited to their clinical benefit. In future, the Institute is also to consider the costs of therapies and place these costs in relation to the benefits determined beforehand. IQWiG has recently presented a methods proposal that will be discussed broadly with the (scientific) public in the coming months. (Read the full post about ‘A Concept For Cost-Benefit Assessment Methods In The German Health Care System’…)