US- researchers found that inpatients experience an average of nearly one and a half potentially harmful errors in their medication record during a hospital stay. They started the search for the causes: admission and discharging are the most dangerous situations.
B. Braun Melsungen AG laid the foundation stone for a new manufacturing plant for production and development in nutrition solutions. The new production site includes a research lab and costs around 190 million Euro. In the future 270 employees will work on innovative denouements for the world market.
A new paper by Shahriar Mobashery, Navari Family Professor in Life Sciences at the University of Notre Dame, and researchers in his lab provides important insights into promising new antibiotics aimed at combating MRSA.
Almost all stomach cancers not related to the heart develop from the stomach ulcer causing bug H. pylori. A Japanese study shows that treatment to eradicate the mikrobe reduces the risk of developing new gastric carcinoma in patients.
Bayer Schering AG, Germany, acquires the preclinical anti-cancer program from Swiss pharma company Nycomed. Two potential drug candidates are expanding the German oncology pipeline.
Compared to 1997 people aged 60 and over receive a lot more from their physicians: Not more attention but more drugs or other medical aids. The average number of prescriptions for elder people doubled from 1997 to 2007, a report from The NHS Information Centre reveals.
A recent case from Eardisland, Herefordshire, demonstrates the impact of institutions like the Nursing & Midwifery Council in the UK that considers allegations of misconduct of nurses. A nurse was given a three-year caution for not adhering to the Council's professional code of conduct which led to serious consequences for the patient.
An international panel of physicians has updated the guidelines and recommendations for antiretroviral treatment of adult human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection after evaluating recent data, according to an article in JAMA, a theme issue on HIV/AIDS.
It sounds impressively simple: An over-the-counter pain-relieving gel from the drugstore may reduce the uncomfortable and even dolorous feeling women experience during mammography exams, according to the a study published in the online edition of Radiology.
Russia has one of the fastest-growing AIDS epidemic in the world. One reason for this development is unsafe sex of addicts. Therefore sexual behaviour should be considered as an important component in the treatment of drug-dependent people to stop HIV-transmission.
Magnetic Resonance Guided Focused Ultrasound (MRgFUS) therapy was introduced in June at the Amperklinikum in Dachau, near Munich, the third German site, after Berlin and Bochum for this new technology.
Along with MRSA and ESBL bacteria, Clostridium difficile is causing a growing problem. Epidemics of a new C. difficile strain have already occurred in hospitals in North America, England and the Benelux countries.
Arlington Medical Resources (AMR), a pharmaceutical market research firm, found that the number of patients treated with an antibiotic associated with MRSA-infections within U.S. acute care hospitals has increased 8 percent by the last year. But the average time MRSA-patients had to stay in hospital decreased by 10 percent.
In the EU blood clots are responsible for killing 544.000 people each year. Rivaroxaban, a new oral given anticoagulant drug from Bayer Healthcare, is significantly more effective than the current standard of care, according to three recent studies. The number of blood cluts in Europe is about 1.5 million per year, more than thirty percent of the patients affected die.
The German chapter of anti-corruption organisation Transparency International had another close look at the German healthcare system. And it didn't like what it found: In an updated policy paper, member of the board of directors Anke Martiny, deplores that "huge amounts of money belonging to the insured are lost" due to lack of transparency, to corruption and fraud.
Bayer and its affiliated firm Icon Genetics developed an own production process which provides the opportunity to make therapeutic proteins from tobacco plants. The pilot plant for biotech drugs opened on June 16 in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt.
USA - A new tuberculosis vaccine successfully tested at the University of North Carolina (UNC) is easier to administer and store and just as effective as one commonly used worldwide, according to research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The WHO-Euro region ranges from Portugal to the East Asian parts of Russia, including Central Asia and the Southern Caucasus. Because of the increasing numbers of tuberculosis and rates of multidrug resistance (MDR TB), tuberculosis was declared a regional emergency in 2004.
A third of the worlds population is infected with the bacterium Myobacterium tuberculosis which infects around nine million people annually.
The first FDA-approved prescription medication that reduces blood phenylalanine (Phe) levels in patients with Phenylketonuria (PKU) — a genetic disorder that prevents the normal use of protein foods and can lead to impaired brain development if untreated — could result in more regular screening of blood phenylalanine (Phe) levels in PKU patients.
The next big development in biological targeted therapies for advanced breast cancer will be drugs acting via multiple mechanisms, experts told delegates attending the 1st Asian Breast Cancer conference, held in New Delhi 9-10 February.
Austria - An unusually high number of measles cases is currently causing concern amongst the public as well as health officials. Presumed to have originated in a private school in Salzburg, increasing numbers of cases were being reported at the end of March and beginning of April.
Patients suffering from moderate to severe seasonal allergic rhinitis experience significantly improved therapeutic effects when combining nasal Azelastine spray with Fluticason nasal spray as opposed to using Fluticason nasal spray by itself. Those are the surprising results of a study released by the Annals of Allergy & Asthma Immunology (1) in January 2008. Azelastine is a first-line,…
During a workshop organized by the European Science Foundation (ESF), researchers discussed further steps in developing computerised “in-silico” models of the heart that simulate the real heart and enable possible drugs and therapies to be tested without risk to people.
Patients with severe COPD may benefit more from therapy that combines salmeterol and fluticasone [SFC] than treatment with tiotropium, according to results from a long-term, multi-center study, “Investigating New Standards for Prophylaxis in Reducing Exacerbations” (INSPIRE) that directly compared the two therapies.