‘Cure’ touted for hepatitis C
Researchers are reporting a potential “cure” for hepatitis C, a blood-borne viral infection that is the leading cause of cirrhosis, liver cancer and the need for liver transplants in the United States.
Use of the drug peginterferon, either alone or in combination with the drug ribavirin, reduced levels of the virus to undetectable levels for as long as seven years, the researchers say.
“This paper strongly suggests, for the first time, that hepatitis C is a curable disease,” said lead researcher Dr. Mitchell Shiffman, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine. “After treatment, 99.6 percent of the patients remained virus undetectable for over five years.”
The virus usually is spread through contact with infected blood and blood products. Treatments can last 72 weeks, depending on the reaction to therapy, which can be an unpleasant process due side effects such as fever and chills.
Air bags injure short and tall
Tall people as well as short people can receive serious injuries from air bags, a new study found.
“This is the first time that there is proof to substantiate the concern about small-stature occupants, and it is the first time that there has been any implication that tall people are also at risk,” said lead researcher Dr. Craig Newgard, an assistant professor of emergency medicine and public health and preventive medicine Oregon Health & Science University.
The researchers examined more than 11 years of data, including results for older air bags and newer “smart” bags designed to compensate for a person’s weight.
Air bags were found effective for people between 5 foot 3 and 5 foot 11 but harmful to people shorter than 4 foot 11 and those more than 6 foot 3. Body weight was not a factor in injury rates.
Apples, fish urged in pregnancy
By eating apples and fish during pregnancy, a woman might protect her child from asthma and allergic diseases later, a new study in the Netherlands and Scotland shows. Apples protected against wheezing and asthma, while fish seemed to lower the risk of eczema.
“To our knowledge, we are one of the first studies evaluating the influence of maternal consumption of so many different foods and food groups during pregnancy on childhood asthma and allergic disease,” said study author Saskia Willers, a doctoral student at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.
Children of women who ate fish once or more a week were 43 percent less likely to have had eczema at age 5 than children of mothers who never ate fish. Those whose mothers ate more than four apples a week during pregnancy were 37 percent less likely to have ever wheezed, 46 percent less likely to have had asthma symptoms and 53 percent less likely to have had doctor-confirmed asthma compared with children of mothers who ate one or no apples a week.
But pregnant women must avoid fish that may contain excess mercury, such as king mackerel, tilefish, shark, swordfish and albacore tuna.
