Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:
Health Care Hikes Dwarf Earnings Increases
Worker costs for employer-provided health insurance have shot up 36 percent since 2000, while earnings have only risen 12.4 percent over the same span, according to a report from the consumer group Families USA.
The number of Americans forced to spend at least 25 percent of their income on medical costs climbed to 14.3 million this year from 11.6 million four years ago, according to the group's report cited by the Washington Post.
For four consecutive years, health insurance premiums have posted double-digit increases, reaching nearly $10,000 for a typical family of four, the newspaper reported. According to the Families USA survey, premiums paid by workers in 26 states and the District of Columbia climbed 40 percent.
U.S. Census Bureau statistics show the number of Americans without any health insurance hit a record 45 million in 2003, accounting for 15.6 percent of the population, the Post said.
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First Person-to-Person Bird Flu Case Cited
Two members of a Thai family have died and a third has become sick in what the government says is the first likely case of person-to-person transmission of bird flu, according to The New York Times.
The Thai health ministry, however, said there was no evidence that the virus had mutated into a germ that posed a greater danger to people. Global health officials have long touted a scenario in which a severe strain of bird flu combined with a human flu germ, creating a strain that would resist vaccines and pose the threat of a human pandemic.
An 11-year-old girl who died Sept. 8 while living with her 32-year-old aunt was probably infected, the Thai government now says. The girl's body was cremated before the significance of her illness was known, the newspaper reported.
The girl's 26-year-old mother, who visited the youngster in the hospital and attended her funeral, has just died from bird flu but had not come in contact with infected birds, the government said. The girl's aunt is hospitalized with a confirmed case of the disease, the Times reported.
The government has put hospitals across the country on alert for any additional cases, and the health ministry is asking volunteers in the area where the family became sick to report anyone who fell ill with cold- or flu-like symptoms, the newspaper said.
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Only One Artificial Heart Patient Still Living
A Indiana man implanted with an artificial heart 147 days ago has died, leaving only one surviving member of the original 14 patients to receive the device.
Don Graham, 73, of New Albany, Ind., died Sunday at a Louisville, Ky., hospital from unspecified complications related to the artificial device. The plastic-and titanium unit is made by Abiomed, Inc., which refused comment on Graham's death, the Associated Press reported.
The lone surviving recipient is an unidentified patient who underwent surgery May 24 at Jewish Hospital in Louisville. The patient remains in intensive care.
The AbioCor heart is battery-powered and, unlike similar devices of the past, has no wires or tubes that protrude through the skin, the AP reported. Abiomed has approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for one additional implant as part of its clinical trial, the wire service said.
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Average Cost of U.S. Nursing Home is $70K Annually: Survey
The average cost of a private room in a nursing home in the United States is $70,080 a year, or $192 a day, according to a survey released Monday by the MetLife Mature Market Institute.
The highest rates are in Alaska, where the cost is $204,765 a year -- or an average of $561 a day. The lowest rates are found in Shreveport, La., at $36,135 annually -- $99 a day. The average length of stay in a nursing home is 2.4 years, making the average cost of a nursing home stay approximately $168,192, the survey found.
The report also revealed that the cost of a home health-care aide averages $18 an hour nationally. Home health care is most expensive in Hartford, Conn. -- at $28 an hour -- and least expensive in Shreveport, La., and Jackson, Miss., where rates average $13 an hour.
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Gun Suicides Higher in Rural Areas: Survey
Suicides with guns have outpaced gun homicides in the last decade and now account for more than half of all firearm deaths in the United States.
And the rate of gun suicides is higher in rural areas, while homicides are the most common form of gun death in cities, HealthDay reports.
Those findings are contained in a study by University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researchers that appears in the October issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
Yet these trends have escaped attention, particularly in rural areas, said study author Charles Branas, assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania.
"There is a perception that gun problems are in the cities, and that the areas outside of cities are not touched by gun death. But the truth is that the risk of being shot to death is the same in rural areas," Branas said.
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Stem Cells Found to Help Heart, Eyes
Stem cells, plagued with political controversy because they are harvested from human embryos, have found separate experimental uses in helping the heart and eyes, the Washington Post reported Monday.
In the first instance, Israeli researchers showed that the cells -- which scientists can coax into forming cells of some 200 bodily organs and tissues -- can serve as "bodily pacemakers" when injected directly into failing animal hearts. The researchers at the Technion-Israeli Institute of Technology in Haifa reported Sunday that the versatile cells were able to correct faulty heart rhythms in pigs when used this way.
A second experiment led to the first documented growth of retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells, which are nerve cells that live inside the eye that keep the retina healthy. The natural loss of these cells as people get older is thought to be responsible for age-related vision loss, the Post reported. Scientists at Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, Mass., created RPE cells in a dish, then showed theoretically how they could be transplanted directly into a patient's eyes.
President Bush, stressing that stem cells are usually harvested from human embryos that are destroyed in the process, has banned federal funding on all but existing stem cell lines. Robert Lanza, a lead researcher in the Massachusetts vision project, told the newspaper that the president's position was narrow-minded.
"It's becoming clear that each [stem cell] colony is different and can do different tricks," he said. "To limit federally funded research to just a handful of lines is a mistake." |
