Trial to Test Stem Cells for Heart Attacks
ABC News
WASHINGTON -- A clinical trial to test the safety of treating heart attack damage with stem cells is about to get under way, following a study that showed the therapy helped in pigs. Two patients have been enrolled so far at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, and a total of 48 are expected to take part across the country, said Dr. Joshua M. Hare, who is leading the study. The process uses adult stem cells taken from the bone marrow. These cells, called mesenchymal cells, have been shown to give rise to a variety of cell types. While they don't have the potential to develop into as many cell types as embryonic stem cells, using them avoids the controversy over taking cells from a human embryo.

Nursing Program Gets $60,000 Boost
Alamogordo Daily News
SANTA FE -- The nursing program at New Mexico State University-Alamogordo was one of 16 selected to share in a $2 million appropriation, getting an additional $60,000 in funding, Gov. Bill Richardson announced. Richardson said the funding was needed to boost the number of nurses in the state. He said the state has 25 percent fewer nurses than it needs, and some have estimated that the shortfall could double by the year 2020. “New Mexico, like virtually every state in the country, is facing a nursing shortage that threatens to become a crisis,” Richardson said.

Bush, Mother Push Medicare Drug Plan
The Washington Post
ATLANTA -- President Bush and his 80-year-old mother implored low-income seniors Friday to sign up for the new Medicare prescription drug plan and renewed the White House campaign to restructure Social Security. Congress authorized $1 billion to implement the new Medicare program and explain it to the public, though some advocates for the elderly complain that many seniors are unaware of or confused about the plan.

Officials Puzzle Over Abortion Pill Deaths
San Francisco Chronicle
Federal health investigators are baffled: Why have four California women died from a bloodstream infection after using a controversial abortion pill? Two of the deaths — one this year and one last year — were reported last week by the Food and Drug Administration. The other two deaths occurred in 2003. All were caused by sepsis, a bloodstream infection, although the women didn't have all the usual symptoms for sepsis, such as fever, health officials say.

N.Y. Diabetes-Tracking Plan Draws Concern
The Associated Press
NEW YORK -- At least half a million New Yorkers have diabetes, many of them at risk for blindness, kidney failure, amputations and heart problems because they are doing a poor job of controlling their illness. The question is, how much privacy are they willing to give up for a chance at better health?

Gene that regulates normal embryonic development is
found at high levels in virtually all forms of breast cancer
News-Medical.Net
A gene that appears to help regulate normal embryonic development is found at high levels in virtually all forms of breast cancer, according to a new study led by Laszlo Radvanyi, Ph.D., associate professor of breast and melanoma medical oncology at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Expert Testifies He Resisted Vioxx Efforts
The Associated Press
ANGLETON, Texas -- A doctor told jurors Friday in the nation's first Vioxx-related civil trial that he resisted prescribing Vioxx at his former family practice clinic because he disputed Merck & Co.'s assertion that the painkiller was safe. Dr. David Egilman, a public health professor at Brown University, began testifying Friday as an expert witness for the plaintiff's team in the second week of the trial.

Cardiologist to Testify in Vioxx Trial
The Associated Press
ANGLETON, Texas -- At the crux of the nation's first Vioxx-related civil trial under way is whether Merck & Co.'s once lucrative painkiller caused a Texas man's 2001 death from arrhythmia. While the New Jersey pharmaceutical giant pulled the drug from the market last year after a study showed it doubled the risk of heart attack or stroke if taken for 18 months or more, the company claims no studies link Vioxx to arrhythmia, or an irregular heartbeat.

Senators Demand More Information on MTBE
ABC News
WASHINGTON -- Twenty-one senators asked the Environmental Protection Agency for more information Thursday about an internal paper that reportedly concludes that the gasoline additive MTBE may cause cancer. Key elements of the document, which has not been made public, surfaced as lawmakers considered whether to shield the makers of MTBE from product liability lawsuits as a result drinking water contamination in at least 36 states.

Cervical Cancer Deaths Frustrate Doctors
InteliHealth
WASHINGTON -- Virtually all deaths from cervical cancer are preventable, yet the disease will kill almost 4,000 women in this country this year. Frustrated scientists know who most of them will be: black women in the South, Hispanics along the Texas-Mexico border, white women in Appalachia and the rural Northeast, Vietnamese immigrants.