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Side Discrepancy Errors In Radiology Reports Rare But Often Clinically Significant
Side discrepancy errors in radiology reports do occur and it is important that radiologists, referring physicians and patients communicate well to help prevent errors in clinical management, according to a study performed at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA. "Side discrepancy errors refer to instances when the side of the lesion is incorrectly noted in one or more sections of the radiology report," said Minal Jagtiani Sangwaiya, MD, lead author of the study.
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ARUP Laboratories Applauds FDA's Decision On The Value Of KRAS-Mutation Testing In Colorectal Cancer
ARUP Laboratories, a national clinical and anatomic pathology reference laboratory and a leader in innovative laboratory research and development, supports the U.S. Food and Drug Administration"s (FDA) decision to put KRAS on the label of two targeted drugs, Vectibix (panitumumab) and Erbitux (cetuximab). On July 17, 2009, the FDA noted that, "retrospective analyses of metastatic colorectal cancer trials have not shown a treatment benefit for Erbitux/Vectibix in patients whose tumors had KRAS mutations in codon 12 or 13," and that the use of the drugs is not recommended for the treatment of colorectal cancer patients with these mutations.
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Rwanda Launches Campaign To Address Cross-Generational Sex
The Rwanda Ministry of Youth recently launched a six-month campaign aimed at reducing the trend of cross-generational sex, which some health officials say is contributing to the spread of HIV among young people in the country, the New Times/AllAfrica.com reports. Rwanda"s National Commission for the Fight Against AIDS, USAID and Population Services International launched the campaign urging youth to avoid having sex with older people. The minister of youth, Protais Mitali, said that all institutions in the country should help address the trend in order to curb the spread of HIV among young people. According to Anita Asiimwe, executive secretary of the commission, data show that Rwandan women ages 20 to 24 are five times more likely to be HIV-positive than men their age. She added that statistics indicate that one out of every 10 girls had her first sexual experience with a man 10 or more years older. She added, "Since older men are much more likely to be [HIV-positive] than their male counterparts, young girls appear to be getting infected by older men, rather than by boys of their age." Staci Leuschuer with PSI Rwanda said that there are lower rates of condom use among young people, noting that about 40% of young people report condom use and that about 24% to 25% of girls ages 15 to 24 are using condoms (Mutara, New Times/AllAfrica.com, 5/24).
Cardiovascular

Study Finds Evidence Of Malaria Origins, Could Lead To Vaccine Development

"Malaria may have jumped to humans from chimpanzees much as AIDS did, U.S. researchers reported on Monday in a [Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences] study they hope could help in developing a vaccine against the infection," Reuters reports. The researchers found evidence the Plasmodium falciparum parasite that "causes most cases of malaria is a close genetic relative of a parasite found in chimpanzees," the news service writes (8/4). According to the Mail Online, chimpanzees are known to harbor the Plasmodium reichenowi parasite, which is closely related to P. falciparum. Although most researchers assumed these parasites co-existed separately in humans and chimpanzees for the last five million years, "the new research shows the chimp parasites are wide-ranging, indicating malaria went from animals to humans in much the way HIV, SARS and swine flu did. It suggests P. falciparum evolved from P. reichenowi," the publication writes. "Discovery of these parasites shows a broader range of relatives to the human parasite, some of which might provide key insights in drug development or act as vaccines that may help prevent human malaria," said Francisco Ayala, an evolutionary biologist, and lead author on the study, (8/4). The other lead author Nathan Wolfe, of Stanford University and the Global Viral Forecasting Initiative, said, "It is now clear that a new disease that successfully jumps from an animal to a human can last not just for decades, but millennia or more," the Associated Press reports. As a result, the "task of stopping future disease spillovers from animals to humans vital, not only for saving lives today, but for the health of people for many generations to come," he said. According to Wolfe, a better understanding of the chimp parasites could lead to improved malaria medicine or the development of a vaccine. He noted that early smallpox vaccines were developed from the related cowpox. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, Tufts University and the National Geographic Society (Schmid, 8/3). National Geographic (Avasthi, 8/3) and NPR (Hamilton, 8/3) also covered the story. This information was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at globalhealth.kff.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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