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.