Medical Newswire!

Health News Health News Headlines - Yahoo! News Get the latest health news headlines from Yahoo! News. Find breaking health news, including analysis and opinion on top health stories. Birth control coverage up for federal appeal 23 May 2013 at 12:58am DENVER (AP) ? In the most prominent challenge of its kind, Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. is asking a federal appeals court Thursday for an exemption from part of the federal health care law that requires it to offer employees health coverage that includes access to the morning-after pill. Nearly all US states see hefty drop in teen births 22 May 2013 at 9:23pm NEW YORK (AP) ? The nation's record-low teen birth rate stems from robust declines in nearly every state, but most dramatically in several Mountain States and among Hispanics, according to a new government report. Doctors save Ohio boy by 'printing' an airway tube 22 May 2013 at 3:09pm In a medical first, doctors used plastic particles and a 3-D laser printer to create an airway splint to save the life of a baby boy who used to stop breathing nearly every day. BTG builds interventional medicine platform with deals 23 May 2013 at 12:01am LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's BTG said it would make two acquisitions, one extending its expertise in liver cancer and the other a treatment for severe blood clots, to create an interventional medicine business with potential sales of $1 billion. The company said on Thursday it had agreed to buy the targeted therapies division of Nordion Inc, for about $200 million in a deal that adds Therasphere radioactive glass beads treatment for liver cancer to its chemotherapy beads unit. ... Pfizer takes its shot at a vaccine for evasive superbug 22 May 2013 at 10:28pm By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) - Kathrin Jansen is a microbiologist with at least two breakthrough vaccines to her name: she brought the cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil to market for Merck and helped develop the $4 billion a year pneumonia and meningitis vaccine Prevnar 13 for Pfizer. Jansen's next vaccine success could come by taming the superbug MRSA, a drug-resistant bacterium that she has seen ravage a healthy man up close and personally. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infects an estimated 53 million people globally and costs more than $20 billion a year to treat. ... Teen birth rates decline in most US states 22 May 2013 at 9:21pm The U.S. teen birth rate fell 25 percent over five years to a record low of 31 births per 1,000 teens ages 15 to 19, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nebraska attorney general wants abortion clinic nurse's license revoked 22 May 2013 at 8:45pm By Katie Schubert OMAHA, Nebraska (Reuters) - Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning on Wednesday filed a petition to revoke the license of the only nurse at a controversial abortion clinic in the state for allegedly providing substandard care and improperly administering drugs. ... Polish man gets quick face transplant after injury 22 May 2013 at 8:11pm WARSAW, Poland (AP) ? A 33-year-old Polish man received a face transplant just three weeks after being disfigured in a workplace accident, in what his doctors said Wednesday is the fastest time frame to date for such an operation. It was Poland's first face transplant. Merck's insomnia drug moves a step closer to U.S. approval 22 May 2013 at 6:02pm By Toni Clarke WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Merck & Co's experimental insomnia drug moved a step closer to U.S. approval on Wednesday after a panel of medical experts said it is effective and safe at lower doses. The advisory panel was convened to help the U.S. Food and Drug Administration decide whether to approve the drug, suvorexant, which would be the first in a new class of sedatives that block chemicals in the brain called orexins that help keep people awake. The drugs are designed to help people fall asleep and stay asleep. ... Fluoride Loosens Bacterial Enamel Grip 22 May 2013 at 5:24pm Rather than significantly hardening tooth enamel, fluoride may cut cavities by making it harder for oral bacteria to stick around. Karen Hopkin reports. Vote on pot shops could end lingering LA issue 22 May 2013 at 4:37pm LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Voters approved a law limiting the number of medical pot shops in Los Angeles after politicians failed for years to corral the blossoming industry. Senate committee advances drug compounding bill 22 May 2013 at 3:58pm By Jessica Dye NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. Senate committee on Wednesday unanimously approved legislation that would increase federal oversight for companies that compound and sell sterile drugs across state lines. The proposed legislation was introduced in response to a meningitis outbreak last fall that killed more than 50 people and sickened more than 700. The outbreak was traced to contamination found in steroid injections made by the New England Compounding Center. The bill was passed unanimously on a voice vote by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee. ... FDA panel says Merck's sleep drug safe, effective at lower dose 22 May 2013 at 3:57pm By Toni Clarke WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Merck & Co's experimental insomnia drug was safe and effective at the lower of two doses studied, a panel of medical experts said on Wednesday, increasing the chance it will be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The advisory panel was convened to help the FDA decide whether to approve the drug, suvorexant, which would be the first in a new class of sedatives designed to help people fall asleep and stay asleep. ... Health officials probe deadly respiratory illness in Alabama 22 May 2013 at 2:49pm By Verna Gates BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) - U.S. and state health authorities are investigating an unidentified respiratory illness that has killed two of 10 people hospitalized with it in Alabama since last week. Preliminary tests do not indicate the bird flu, nor a new mutation of any known influenza virus, said Dr. Mary McIntyre, an assistant state health officer at the Alabama Department of Public Health. Two patients did test positive for the H1N1 strain of the flu. ... Osteoarthritis Study Could Make Joint Replacement Obsolete 22 May 2013 at 2:47pm Johns Hopkins researchers have published findings from an osteoarthritis study that could eventually make joint replacement an obsolete treatment for the debilitating disease.