Top 5 Health News of the Week : 25th – 30th January 2010
Welcoming all our readers to this weeks health news roundup, we must say we saw loads of news pouring in from different quarters this week. Right from diseases like malaria to staph or ear infections. If gathering information on any of these health-related news is on your list of priorities, then you have come to right place. We present you the top 5 health news for this week.
The week kick started with a news concerning trauma patients. A study from Baylor College of Medicine alleges that the use of a cervical collar on a trauma patient could be more harmful to the person. This may lead to secondary injuries or even death. The experts reproduced dissociative injuries, injuries in which there appears to be a division between two segments in the neck due to an impaired ligament, in nine cadavers. They then used the cervical collars based on regular Emergency Medical Services procedure. Via a variety of imaging technologies, it was supposedly found that using the cervical collar seemingly caused an atypical increased disconnection between the vertebrae at the injury level.
The next news included specific details about fighting staph infections. Scientists from University of Illinois at Chicago and Israel’s Weizman Institute of Science claim to have found that two antibiotics partnering together could be more capable in combating pathogenic bacteria as compared to either drug on its own. Independently, lankacidin and lankamycin, two antibiotics produced generally by the microbe streptomyces, seem to be somewhat capable in evading pathogens. The researchers supposedly found that when used together, the two antibiotics are apparently much more effectual in curbing growth of dangerous pathogens like MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, and perhaps others. Lankacidin and lankamycin apparently act upon the ribosomes, the protein-synthesizing factories of the cell. A newly-made protein appears to leave the ribosome using tunnel through the ribosome body. A few antibiotics supposedly ward off an infection by preventing the ribosome from hoarding proteins, while others seem to bind in the tunnel and block the protein’s way. However, when scientists understood that streptomyces also generates lankamycin, they wanted to determine if the two drugs could assist each other.
The third news tackles the issue of memory loss and ADHD is flies as well as humans. A study from Freie Universität and the Queensland Brain Institute in Brisbane, Australia apparently found a technique to gauge the attention span of a fly. The outcomes may lead to supplementary development in the understanding of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism in humans. Using a genetic fruit fly model, Drosophila melanogaster, the experts discovered that a fly’s level of distractibility is believed to be finely tuned to facilitate ‘standard’ behavioral responses to an incessantly changing environment. The fruit flies were administered methylphenidate, which is promoted under the brand name Ritalin and is applied to treat patients with ADHD. The experts apparently found that the drug appeared to have similar effects on fruit flies as it had on humans. It presumably helped the distractible flies to concentrate on the visual stimuli.
Parents need to pay attention to this news as it addresses the matter of pediatric ear infections. A study from UCLA and Women’s Hospital in Boston seems to suggest that enhanced air quality over the past decade could have resulted in lesser cases of ear infections among children. The study authors evaluated National Health Interview Survey data of roughly 1,20,060 children between the years of 1997 and 2006. They supposedly measured the amount of cases of three disease conditions for each year namely recurrent ear infections i.e. around three or more in a year, respiratory allergy and seizure activity, which is apparently not affected by air quality but was integrated as a control condition. These numbers were then apparently cross-referenced with the EPA’s air-quality details on pollutants, in addition to carbon monoxide, nitrous dioxide, sulfur dioxide and certain substances, for the same time frame. The experts supposedly discovered that as air quality increasingly turned better, the sum of instances of recurrent ear infections significantly decreased.
The last news of the weekly is regarding malaria. A study is attempting to combat the worldwide transmission of drug-resistant parasites. It seems to have made a breakthrough in the quest for an improved treatment. Apparently, malaria parasites stay live within our red blood cells and feed on proteins, breaking them down in order to use the proceeds i.e. amino acids as building blocks for their own proteins. When they have reached an adequate size, they split and rip open the red cell and enter another, thereby replicating the procedure until acute disease or death takes place. The experts found that certain ‘digestive enzymes’ in the parasites may allow them to take on this procedure. Notably, the scientists have apparently now found out the three-dimensional structures of two enzymes and demonstrated how drugs may be planned to immobilize the enzymes.
We have come to the end of our weekly. We will once again meet next week with loads of interesting news from the field of health and medicine. Until then, stay fit and healthy!
