A Hartland, WI medical products manufacturer ceased production Monday after the U.S. Marshals Service arrived to seize materials. H&P Industries, which makes alcohol wipes and other products distributed by Triad Group, has been under investigation by the Food and Drug Administration for bacterial contamination issues. Triad Group has been sued by a Texas couple who blame the firm for the death of their 2-year-old son. In the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Houston, Shanoop and Sandra Kothari say an alcohol wipe from the company was the likely source of bacterial meningitis that killed their son, Harry, in November. Last week, the FDA asked H&P Industries to voluntarily stop production of its drug products.
Every year, the infectious "superbug" known as MRSA kills thousands of Americans who never should have died. But an international group of scientists think they may have found the key to shutting down the lethal bacteria that leads to these deaths and to countless less-serious infections. According to Jim Hedrick, the advanced organic materials scientist at IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose, CA, the potential now exists to make a kind of biodegradable nanoparticle that can be applied to the human body, either through injection or topical application, that could eradicate superbugs like MRSA. And looking down the line, Hedrick added, the team thinks other dangerous bacteria, like E-coli, could also be in its gun sights.
Abbott Laboratories is betting heart patients will benefit from a new type of arterial stent that dissolves away when it is no longer needed. Stents are scaffold-like devices used to prop open clogged heart arteries. Most stents are made of metal. But Abbott's new device, called Absorb, is made from a plastic-like material called polylactide that is commonly used in surgical sutures. The Absorb scaffold—Abbott doesn't call it a stent—is designed to completely fade away in two years and to cease supporting arteries at six months. Abbott won European regulatory approval for Absorb this year, but the company plans only limited marketing there until it gathers more supporting medical evidence next year. The company doesn't expect to file an application seeking U.S. regulatory approval until 2015.
Soon after Robert Tyranski was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, he volunteered to let a local researcher take thousands of images of his brain and neck. The images will be used to examine a new phenomenon that has generated enormous debate in the MS community, especially in Detroit, where two high-profile Wayne State University researchers represent both sides. Discovered by an Italian doctor, the theory's premise is that some MS patients have narrowed veins that impede blood flow in the brain and spinal cord. Symptoms could be relieved with a treatment similar to angioplasty, typically used in heart patients. A vast departure from conventional drug therapy, the theory has yet to be scientifically validated and some doctors are cautioning against it. But many patients consider it a breakthrough and are traveling to other states to get treated for the phenomenon known as chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency, or CCSVI.
Inside the Genesee County Health Department, Mark Valacak gestures to a darkened office that until a few months ago housed a clinic providing free baby formula and diapers to poor mothers. Around a corner is another empty waiting area. It's Tuesday, one of the two days of the week the STD clinic is closed because of budget cuts, and Valacak worries that the service cutback could lead to an increase in syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases. In cities and counties across the nation, the housing bust has hit health care. In Genesee County, where housing prices have plunged and foreclosures have been widespread, property tax revenues have declined by 15 percent over the past two years. The decrease is hampering efforts by the county, which is 75 miles northwest of Detroit and the birthplace of General Motors Corp., to provide healthcare to the poor as well as public health services.
Should you be paid to part with a kidney? It's an unseemly question, but it's one that medical professionals have been grappling with as the waiting list for kidneys gets longer, supply of the organs stagnates and other solutions fall short. In 1999, just over 40,000 Americans were on the waiting list for a kidney, according to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, a record that's overseen by the government. By 2009, the list had grown to nearly 83,000 people, the National Kidney Foundation says. That same year, just 16,500 people received a transplant. To help increase supply of the organs, some transplant professionals have suggested establishing a market for kidneys so that donors could receive cash or other incentives—such as health or life insurance— in exchange for their healthy organ. (Donors can live a healthy life with only a single kidney.)