Gale Scott

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Oct. 10 approved a new drug combining ledipasvir and sofosbuvir (Harvoni/Gilead) as a treatment for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. The approval is the third drug approved for chronic HCV in the past year. The others are simeprevir (Olysio/Janssen) and sofosbuvir (Sovaldi/Gilead).

Neurogenesis does not happen much in healthy brains, but it does after a stroke. In a mouse study, a Swedish team has determined how that happens. Their discovery could hold promise for regenerating neurons for many conditions. Reporting in Science , Jens Magnusson and colleagues called their finding "potentially useful for neuronal replacement strategies."

As friends and family mourned Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan, there was some good news. Ebola tests done on a Dallas County Sherrif's deputy came back negative. The Texas State Department of Health made the announcement Oct. 9. The patient, identified as Michael Monnig, had briefly visited the apartment where Duncan was staying and on Oct. 8 was admitted to the hospital where Duncan died, Texas Health Presbyterian.

Animal lovers expressed outrage Oct. 8 as health officials in Spain made good on their pledge to euthanize the 12-year-old pet dog of a woman known to have the Ebola virus. But a research study published in Emerging Infectious Diseases in 2005 documented that many dogs in Africa that lived in neighborhoods where the virus was prevalent showed signs they were carrying the virus. The CDC supplied the Ebola tests for that research.

Doctors who treated Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, the 42-year-old Liberian man who died in Dallas Oct. 8, likely missed their window of opportunity. "It's hard to say exactly what happened, but they sent him home and he came back later-and with Ebola, the earlier the treatment, the better," said Sanjay Gupta, MD, head of the emergency department at Franklin Hospital in Valley Stream, NY.

Heart trouble can start early for obese children, a German research team found. Writing in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Norman Manger, MD, and colleagues compared blood pressure, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and glucose metabolism in 61 obese children with that of 40 children with healthy weights. The obese group had an average BMI of about 31 while the control group's average BMI was about 20.

In women with aortic stenosis (AS) survival is linked to whether resulting left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is adaptive or maladaptive. In men with AS, there is no such link, a German study found.

As part of federal efforts to curb prescription drug abuse, the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) is reclassifying hydrocodone-combination drugs (Vicodin/AbbVie) as a schedule 2 controlled substance. But even if the tighter controls mean some doctors will switch appropriate patients to schedule 3 drugs, like acetaminophen with codeine, alternative painkillers have a long way to go to topple the market leader, according to data from IMS Health.

For patients with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia, statin therapy is often not enough to reduce LDL cholesterol. In two articles in The Lancet, researchers report on promising results of two international Phase 3 trials of evolocumab. The drug is a monoclonal antibody to proprotein convertase sudbtilism/kexin type 9 (PCSK9).

In an article in Annals of Surgery, Debbi Li, MD and colleagues at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada report on a retrospective study of 14,124 diverticulitis patients cared for without surgery. The research goal was to quantify the risks of readmission and emergency surgery when patients did not get a prophylactic colectomy.

Physicians have few effective weapons to treat a migraine, an ailment that accounts for more than half of disability with a neurological cause. Chronic migraine is said to affect 2% of the world's population.

Clostridium difficile (C. diff) infection is now the leading cause of infectious nosocomial diarrhea in the industrialized world. But by following Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) treatment guidelines, clinicians can significantly reduce recurrence and mortality, a Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Pharmacy team reports.

Concerned about a mysterious outbreak of pediatric paralysis, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has asked physicians to report any similar cases. In Denver, CO, 10 children have been admitted to Children's Hospital Colorado with limb weakness and paralysis since Aug. 1, according to the hospital.

Citing a "public health epidemic" of death and addiction related to use of prescription opioids, the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) calls for a multi-pronged approach to curbing prescriptions. But the group stresses that finding ways to help patients in chronic pain is worthwhile and difficult.

Patients with the relapsing-remitting form of multiple sclerosis have shown improvement with glatiramer acetate. Although it is unclear exactly how the drug works, recently published research has shed light on the ways in which glatiramer acetate affects B cells.

Schools could do more to ensure that children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are getting adequate exercise, a team of Oregon State University researchers found. Writing in Autism Research and Treatment Kiley Tyler and colleagues reported on their study measuring the physical fitness of children with ASD. The study was done at OSU in Corvallis, OR, where Tyler is a doctoral student in exercise and sport science.

When Jana Shaw, MD heard hospitals in the Midwest were seeing a surge in pediatric cases of Enterovirus-D68, she and colleagues at Upstate Golisano Children's Hospital went on full alert. That meant adding beds, supplies, and staff, and gearing up public relations to keep the public informed about EV-D68. Nationally, with physicians already watching for outbreaks of Ebola and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, specimens from respiratory illness patients were soon on their way to testing labs. An unintended consequence was the that the US Centers for Disease Control an Prevention facilities were soon overwhelmed. In an opinion piece in Jama Pediatrics and an interview with HCPLive.com, Shaw talks about the merits and downside of the all-out preparedness effort.

The earlier autism could be diagnosed the more likely children could be helped. Currently that is done mostly by assessing a child's behavior. The search for a reliable quantitative measurement that could both identify the condition and its severity may have gotten a boost from researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY. The technique could also help clinicians or researchers see if a therapy is working.

Thirty-two states now have confirmed cases of Enterovirus-D68 (EV-D68). But that is not cause for alarm, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The new numbers are actually older cases. The reporting lag is because the CDC's testing laboratories have been overwhelmed with requests to test specimens.

Organ supply and demand varies sharply by geography in the US. "The status quo is intolerable-there is too much geographic disparity," said Michael Charlton, MD, speaking at a Sept. 16 meeting in Chicago where transplant surgeons and others debated a controversial proposal to consolidate the nation's current regional organ distribution districts. The forum was convened by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), a non-profit organization that under a contract with the federal Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) runs the current system of deciding which donor organs go where.

Is one beta blocker better than another for patients born with long QT syndrome? In a report published in The Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Abeer Abu-Zeitone, PhD, and colleagues found that in their study group, nadolol worked best at preventing a recurrent serious cardiac event and that propranolol, the oldest beta-blocker available, did the worst.

The American College of Cardiology (ACC) has had a change of heart. The group is now recommending doctors treating heart attack patients for arterial blockages should treat lesions in both cardiac arteries, not just the "culprit" artery that led to the MI.

Enterovirus-D68 could soon be in the rearview mirror, according to a Hartford, CT, pediatric intensivist who has treated more than 20 children hospitalized with the infection. "We may have plateaued," said Christopher Carroll, MD, an asthma specialist at Connecticut Children's Medical Center. While children are still being admitted for respiratory problems, "Now it's more a mix of symptoms, not those of classic enterovirus." Though he could not say for certain the outbreak has peaked, he did say that "things are not continuing to get worse."

Counseling at-risk teens and adults to change risky behavior is an effective way to reduce the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, according to the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). The group is updating its guidelines for primary care physicians to recommend they offer appropriate patients such behavioral advice. The task force also calls for routine screening for chlamydia and gonorrhea for sexually active teens and women up to age 24. Older women who are pregnant or may be at risk of infection due to a variety of sexual behaviors-such as having multiple partners or exchanging sex for money or drugs-should also be screened, the USPSTF said.

Workplace flu shots are a good investment, a new survey found. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Sept. 19 urged all health care personnel to get flu vaccinations. The CDC also released the results of a survey of 1,882 health care clinicians meant to determine what factors influenced those who got the shots. Among its findings, when workplaces offered free shots on-site, compliance was 61.6% when the vaccinations were offered for one day only. When they were offered for multiple days, compliance rose to 80.4%. When employers did not offer the shots at all, compliance dropped to 49.0%

Despite the availability of lipid-lowering and antihypertensive drugs, lifestyle changes could prevent 79% of myocardial infarction (MI) in men, a Swedish study found. The drugs can be effective but "adherence to a healthy lifestyle still has an impressive impact" and avoids any pharmalogical side effects, according Agneta Akesson, PHD, of the Institute of Environmental Medicine in Stockholm, Sweden. Writing in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology[link TK], Akesson concludes that "A healthy diet together with low-risk lifestyle practices and absence of abdominal adiposity may prevent the vast majority of MI events in men."

Contrary to standard definitions of autism in play a decade ago, children on the autism spectrum do not have problems with learning language. What they have trouble with is using their language skills in communicating effectively, a new study confirms.

As Enterovirus D68 continues to spread across the US, the prognosis for children who are hospitalized with infections tends to be good. That applies to children with asthma, as well. "It's hard to say whether this virus is hitting kids with asthma harder than other viruses-but it is not causing as severe symptoms as other viruses out there, like adenovirus," said Christopher Carroll, MD, a pediatric intensivist and asthma specialist at Connecticut Children's Medical Center in Hartford, CT. "Even certain strains of rhinovirus are worse," Carroll said.

Physicians are often tasked with explaining vaccination safety to concerned parents. Parental fears that routine vaccines can trigger neurological diseases have led to decreasing vaccination rates in some countries and subsequent outbreaks of preventable illnesses. A team of Dutch researchers has debunked the idea that vaccination can cause severe epilepsy

Researchers have long known that the risk for schizophrenia is inherited. In new findings published online Sept 15 in The American Journal of Psychiatry, senior investigator C. Robert Cloninger, MD, PhD, of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO, said his team identified distinct gene clusters that contribute to 8 different classes of the disease.