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Media Advisory: Lack Of Rules For Genetic Testing Akin To Wild, Wild West, According To Stanford Podcast
With just $399 and a bit of saliva in a cup, consumers can learn about their genetic risk for diseases from breast cancer to Alzheimer"s. Now, thanks to social networking sites set up by personal genomics companies, they can also share that information with family, friends and even strangers on the Internet.
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New Test From Quest Diagnostics Helps Physicians Choose HIV Antiretroviral Therapy In Patients With History Of Drug Resistance
Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE: DGX), the world"s leading provider of diagnostic testing, information and services, today announced the availability of a new laboratory developed test designed to help physicians determine whether a patient with a history of HIV drug resistance will respond to the latest class of HIV antiretroviral therapies. The HIV-1 Coreceptor Tropism Test, which reports results in approximately half the time of the nearest competing test, provides physicians with timely information so they may more quickly determine or change therapy based on how the HIV virus infects cells in the individual patient.
News of the day
Teens Are Exposed To Tobacco Content On Social Networking Sites
When teens surf the Internet, are they exposed to tobacco content or imagery? The study, "Exposure to Tobacco on the Internet: Content Analysis of Adolescents" Internet Use," tracked the Web pages viewed by 346 teens between the ages of 14 and 17 years. During a one-month period of data collection, these adolescents viewed 1.2 million Web pages. Of those pages, 0.72 percent contained tobacco or smoking content. Pro-tobacco content was found on 1,916 pages, anti-tobacco content on 1,572 pages, and complex and/or unclear content on 5,055 pages. Most of the tobacco-related content seen by teens was found on social networking sites. MySpace in particular represented 53 percent of the pages on which tobacco content was found. Previous studies have found a link between exposure to tobacco content in traditional media and adolescent smoking. The authors caution that as more communication occurs online in social networking sites, this may also impact adolescent smoking.
Diagnostics

Antivirals Might Be Wasted On The Elderly, Researchers Warn

A model of influenza transmission and treatment suggests that, if the current swine flu pandemic behaves like the 1918 flu, antiviral treatment should be reserved for the young. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Infectious Diseases found that, in this situation, providing the elderly with antiviral drugs would not significantly reduce mortality, and may lead to an increase in resistance. Stefano Merler, from the Bruno Kessler Foundation, an Italian research organization, worked with researchers from the Istituto Superiore di Sanitç  to model the effect of antiviral treatment on the spread of influenza. He said, "Although it is too early to confidently predict some important features of the ongoing influenza pandemic, the use of antivirals is confirmed to be the most effective single intervention, in the absence of vaccines. It requires, however, a very large stockpile of antiviral drugs. Our work demonstrates that even in countries where the antiviral stockpile is not sufficient to treat 25% of the population, the minimum level suggested by the WHO, it is possible to reduce morbidity and excess mortality by prioritizing the use of antivirals by age". Merler and his colleagues modeled the effects of flu outbreaks of varying virulence, finding that, depending on the behavior of the virus, treatment of over 65s may not lead to any significant reduction in the cumulative number of cases. He said, "Although a policy of age-specific prioritization of antiviral use will be controversial ethically, it may be the most efficient use of stockpiled therapies. This is of particular importance for countries where the amount of drug stockpiled is well below the WHO"s suggested level". Obtaining early estimates of the overall impact of the epidemic and of age-specific case fatality rates can thus be crucial for optimizing the use of antivirals during the ongoing influenza pandemic. Notes: Age-prioritized use of antivirals during an influenza pandemic Stefano Merler, Marco Ajelli and Caterina Rizzo BMC Infectious Diseases (in press) http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcinfectdis/ Graeme Baldwin BioMed Central


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