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Survey Reveals Women Aren't Doing All They Can To Support Breast Health
A recent Yankelovich survey unveiled that although a large majority of women know there are simple steps they can take to support breast health, few women are taking the necessary actions. What"s more, 80 percent of the women surveyed have been personally affected by breast cancer or know someone who has been. To address this issue, One A Day Women"s Multivitamins is encouraging women to join a virtual march against breast cancer through the One A Day Women"s Take A Stand Campaign.
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JCR And The Joint Commission To Host Pediatric Safety Conference
Children are especially vulnerable in the hospital and they are the population at highest risk of a medication error, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Meeting their needs in this environment can be especially challenging. The Joint Commission and Joint Commission Res (JCR) "Pediatric Conference: Safe Care, Quality Care, We Care" will help health care organizations review current pediatric emergency and perioperative services as benchmarks to improve their organizational approaches. JCR is a not-for-profit affiliate of The Joint Commission.
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CareFirst BCBS Covers ENO Measurement For Diagnosis, Asthma Treatment
Apieron, Inc. said that CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield has adopted a positive coverage policy for the measurement of exhaled nitric oxide (eNO). The Medical Directors of CareFirst determined that the published, peer-reviewed evidence is sufficient to support benefit coverage for the treatment of asthma. The policy, effective July 20, 2009, states the measurement of exhaled nitric oxide is considered medically necessary in the management of asthma patients. CareFirst is the largest health care insurer in the Mid-Atlantic region, serving nearly 3.4 million members in Maryland, District of Columbia and portions of Virginia.
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New Vaccine Strategy Might Offer Protection Against Pandemic Influenza Strains

A novel vaccine strategy using virus-like particles (VLPs) could provide stronger and longer-lasting influenza vaccines with a significantly shorter development and production time than current ones, allowing public health authorities to react more quickly in the event of a potential pandemic. Ted Ross, Ph.D., an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh"s Center for Vaccine Research, presented his laboratory"s latest data on the efficacy of VLP vaccines for potential pandemic strains, such as H5N1 and 1918 influenza, at the 109th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Philadelphia. "Virus-like particles look just like a live virus, but they are hollow shells without a genome inside and they cannot reproduce," Ross explained. "Because they look like the virus, they evoke a more robust immune response against the real thing." Ross and his colleagues have already made VLP vaccines that have been tested in early clinical trials and appear to provide complete protection against both the H5N1 avian influenza virus and the 1918 Spanish influenza virus. "There is a debate in the influenza community about priming the human population for potential pandemic strains such as H5N1 or 1918," Ross said. "Some researchers advocate adding these strains to the annual flu vaccine. They might not match the next pandemic flu strain exactly, but could provide some of protection." Others contend that it might be premature, as well as costly, to vaccinate people against a virus that may never emerge, he said. The current injectable vaccine for seasonal influenza is a trivalent, inactivated vaccine. It consists of three different influenza strains that are grown in eggs and then inactivated, or killed, by chemicals that break them into tiny pieces. Because they no longer look like the circulating virus, conventionally made vaccines strains do not elicit as strong an immune response as VLP vaccines. Because it is made with live, attenuated virus, the inhaled, mist-based vaccine can elicit a strong immune response but can also increase the risk of side effects. VLPs can be quickly and easily produced in several ways, including growing them in cell cultures or in plants. Also, if the genes in the disease virus are identified, then researchers can generate particles for a vaccine without an actual sample of the agent. "The sequence for the recent H1N1 "swine flu" virus was online and available to scientists long before physical samples could be delivered," Dr. Ross noted. "It would have been possible to produce VLPs in quantity in as little as 12 weeks while conventional vaccines require physical samples of the virus and production can take approximately nine months." One VLP-based vaccine already is on the market, namely the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine. Jim Sliwa American Society for Microbiology *See our Map Of H1N1 Outbreaks *See our Mexico Swine Flu Blog


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