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A doctor from Texas is in grave condition and terrified for his life after he contracted the incurable Ebola virus he was treating in West Africa, colleagues said Monday. Dr. Kent Brantley, 33, is one of two Americans in the region who have contracted the deadly disease, which has now killed nearly 700 people in West Africa, according to the World Health Organization. The father of two had been treating Ebola victims in Monrovia, Liberia, when he began to notice symptoms related to the virus, CBS reports. “I’m praying fervently that God will help me survive this disease,” he said...

Academic publishing was rocked by the news on July 8 that a company called Sage Publications is retracting 60 papers from its Journal of Vibration and Control, about the science of acoustics. The company said a researcher in Taiwan and others had exploited peer review so that certain papers were sure to get a positive review for placement in the journal. In one case, a paper's author gave glowing reviews to his own work using phony names. Acoustics is an important field. But in biomedicine faulty research and a dubious peer-review process can have life-or-death consequences. In June, Dr. Francis...

LifeNews recently published an article by Mark Leach about what happened when his baby was born with Down syndrome. Leach describes how he and his wife felt abandoned by the medical establishment and how the hospital gave them outdated and scant information about Down syndrome. In response to his experience, and the experiences of many other Down syndrome parents, he has become the bioethics specialist at the National Center for Prenatal & Postnatal Down Syndrome Resources, and works to get positive, life-affirming information into the hands of new Down syndrome parents and those who go through prenatal testing for Down...

A physician at the helm of Sierra Leone's efforts to contain and control the Ebola epidemic has just been diagnosed with the virus, according to reports from Reuters and the BBC. Sheik Umar Khan, a virologist, has treated more than 100 patients with the deadly disease and was admitted earlier this week to a high containment treatment facility, according to a statement released on Tuesday by the government. A source inside the ward told Reuters that the doctor is receiving treatment, though no details were given on his current state of health. Health Minister Miatta Kargbo called Khan a "national...

Johns Hopkins Hospital has agreed to a $190 million settlement with more than 8,000 patients of a gynecologist who secretly photographed and videotaped women's bodies in the examining room with a pen-like camera he wore around his neck, lawyers said Monday. Dr. Nikita Levy was fired in February 2013, days after an employee alerted hospital authorities about her suspicions. Levy committed suicide 10 days later. Investigators discovered roughly 1,200 videos and 140 images in his home. "All of these women were brutalized by this," said the women's lead attorney, Jonathan Schochor. "Some of these women needed counseling, they were sleepless,...

Cardiac surgeons and medical societies are asking the CMS to reconsider proposed payment rates for implanting Abbott's MitraClip, a device that treats a debilitating heart condition. Because the device itself costs more than $30,000, the proposed reimbursement rate would make it “prohibitive for hospitals to be able to offer this significant care so badly needed for a large majority of our patients,” Dr. Gregory Helmer, a cardiologist at the University of Minnesota, said in comments submitted to the CMS.

Three more people in Colorado have been diagnosed with the plague after coming in contact with an infected dog whose owner contracted a life-threatening form of the disease, state health officials said on Friday. In all, four people were infected with the disease from the same source, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said in a statement.

Russian terrorists destroyed the top world research scientists. On board of the downed Boeing was actually a potential cure for HIV. As a result of the loss of the aircraft at Donetsk mankind has lost about 100 AIDS specialists. In addition, the Board might be a cure for HIV. The downed over Donbass Malaysian Boeing flew the world's leading experts in the field of AIDS scientists, physicians and community leaders. All of them were to assemble at the beginning on Sunday in Melbourne (Australia) International Conference. As reported by the International AIDS society, on board the aircraft, via Kuala Lumpur,...

Abortion may be legal in Catholic Italy but more and more doctors are refusing to terminate pregnancies, with many women now having to resort to procedures carried out in secret, The Local's Angela Giuffrida discovers. Ever since a Benito Mussolini-era ban on abortions as a “crime against the purity of the Italian race” was wiped out in 1978, thanks to a group of determined women, including the former foreign minister Emma Bonino, women in Italy are, by law, entitled to terminate a pregnancy within the first three months. After 90 days, abortions are only allowed if the foetus is badly...

When mice with the human equivalent of Type 2 diabetes were injected with the protein FGF1, their blood sugar levels returned to normal over two days. Just one injection of the protein both regulated these levels and even helped reverse insulin insensitivity – the underlying cause of diabetes. Published in the journal Nature, the research on FGF1 could revolutionize diabetes treatment. In addition to being effective against diabetes, the protein has several advantages over current diabetes drugs. It does not result in dangerous side effects seen with other diabetes drugs, such as heart problems, weight gain, or hypoglycemia. Additionally, FGF1...

An hour's drive to the southeast, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Dr. Eduardo Marban has recently launched an experiment to help patients like Karpman. Marban led one of the earlier stem cell trials, using cells taken by biopsy from the patient's own heart. The cells were multiplied in a laboratory for two to three weeks and then reinfused through a catheter. At the time, says Marban, it was thought that the stem cells themselves turned into new heart muscle and blood vessels. "In fact, the more we learned, the more we realized that that's not what these cells...

Scientists at Oxford University and Kings College London develop blood test which can predict the onset of Alzheimer's so that drugs could target the disease before symptoms appear A blood test has been developed to predict if someone will develop Alzheimer’s within a year, raising hopes that the disease could become preventable. After a decade of research, scientists at Oxford University and King’s College London are confident they have found 10 proteins which show the disease is imminent. Clinical trials will start on people who have not yet developed Alzheimer’s to find out which drugs halt its onset. The blood...

Scientists led by Dr David Fairlie from the University of Queensland, Australia, have found abnormal amounts of an inflammatory protein called PAR2 in the fat tissues of overweight and obese rats and humans. PAR2 is also increased on the surfaces of human immune cells by common fatty acids in the diet. When obese rats on a diet high in sugar and fat were given a new oral drug that binds to PAR2, the inflammation-causing properties of this protein were blocked, as were other effects of the high-fat and high-sugar diet, including obesity itself. "This important new finding links obesity and...

Some harmful bacteria are increasingly resistant to treatment with antibiotics. A discovery might be able to help the antibiotics treat the disease. A soil sample from a national park in eastern Canada has produced a compound that appears to reverse antibiotic resistance in dangerous bacteria. Scientists at McMaster University in Ontario discovered that the compound almost instantly turned off a gene in several harmful bacteria that makes them highly resistant to treatment with a class of antibiotics used to fight so-called superbug infections. The compound, called aspergillomarasmine A, or AMA, was extracted from a common fungus found in soil and...

The future scares a lot of people. Climate change, a growing population, and fewer natural resources will certainly pose new challenges for the human race in the next few decades. But when you consider ongoing social and economic progress and all of the coming innovations in science and technology, there’s plenty of room for optimism. We’ve pulled out some of our favorite ideas about the future of our world. Child mortality rates will be vastly lower. During the 20th century, the sharpest declined in mortality involved deaths of children under 5 years old, according to the assessment on human health...

CNN reporter Drew Griffin has owned the revelations surrounding the Department of Veterans Affairs and their scandalous treatment of military veterans. After a year of investigation, he broke the story involving the creation of secret waiting lists at a Phoenix VA hospital where 40 vets died awaiting care. Griffin’s reporting led to the uncovering of several more secret waiting lists – a revelation that forced President Barack Obama to accept the resignation of his VA secretary, Gen. Eric Shinseki. On Monday, Griffin discussed a new report from an independent government oversight agency which found that VA has been ignoring whistleblowers...

"Pee in a cup" is a phrase you should prepare to hear frequently this election season. A requirement that doctors be subject to random drug and alcohol testing is the curb-appeal provision in a measure that will be on the California ballot in November. The brains behind the initiative titled the Troy and Alana Pack Patient Safety Act -- named after two Danville children killed by a substance-abusing driver in 2003 -- clearly figured out that voters are more likely warm to the part that promises drug tests for doctors than the measure's more important provision, which would lift the...

Benjamin LaMontagne, who died at his home in February four days after wisdom tooth extraction, was killed by a tissue infection of his gums, neck and jaw... after routine oral surgery, was killed by a rare, aggressive bacterial infection that caused swelling of his jaw and neck, according to the state Medical Examiner’s Office. The medical examiner’s report, released Thursday to the Portland Press Herald in response to a public records request, lists the cause of death as cervical necrotizing fasciitis, commonly called “flesh-eating bacteria.” The infection is caused by a powerful strain of streptococcus A, a group of pathogens...

Scientists at the University of East Anglia have made a breakthrough in the race to solve antibiotic resistance. New research published today in the journal Nature reveals an Achilles’ heel in the defensive barrier which surrounds drug-resistant bacterial cells. The findings pave the way for a new wave of drugs that kill superbugs by bringing down their defensive walls rather than attacking the bacteria itself. It means that in future, bacteria may not develop drug-resistance at all. The discovery doesn’t come a moment too soon. The World Health Organization has warned that antibiotic-resistance in bacteria is spreading globally, causing severe...

Sarah Knapton, The TelegraphJune. 18, 2014 The global threat of antibiotic resistance could finally be tackled after British scientists discovered a chink in the armour of deadly bacteria. Health experts have warned that within 20 years even routine operations like hip replacements and organ transplants could be deadly because of the risk of infection. But now scientists at the University of East Anglia have discovered how the bug responsible for E-coli and salmonella builds an impenetrable wall to keep out antibiotics. They believe that within a few years they could develop a drug which switches off the wall-building mechanism, making...