Reuters Health News Summary
Following is a summary of current health news briefs.
For obesity surgery, consider accredited centers
Patients have better weight loss surgery outcomes in accredited centers, a review of past studies has found. Researchers analyzed 13 studies with a combined 1.5 million participants that examined the differences in deaths and major complications at accredited versus non-accredited centers.
Tobacco, fast food in easier reach of minority and low-income students
Compared to schools with mostly white students, schools with higher numbers of Hispanic, black, and low-income students are more likely to have tobacco retailers and fast-food restaurants in easy reach, researchers say. "Schools are places where we expect to be healthy, supportive environments for kids, but right outside the door (students) could be exposed to unhealthy influences," lead author Heather D'Angelo of Westat in Rockville, Maryland told Reuters Health in a phone interview.
Blood Mica: Deaths of child workers in India's mica 'ghost' mines covered up to keep industry alive
In the depths of India's illegal mica mines, where children as young as five work alongside adults, lurks a dark, hidden secret - the cover-up of child deaths with seven killed in the past two months, a Thomson Reuters Foundation investigation has revealed. Investigations over three months in the major mica producing states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh found child labor rife, with small hands ideal to pick and sort the valued mineral that puts the sparkle in cosmetics and car paint.
Remote heart monitoring can help detect emergencies
(Reuters Health) - Instead of having heart monitors with noisy alarms near patients' beds in the hospital, it might be better to have off-site technicians do the heart monitoring remotely, a recent study suggests. Traditional on-site heart monitoring can involve a lot of false alarms that don't always help detect cardiac arrests and other serious events, said lead study author Dr. David Cantillon, a researcher at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.
Millennial hookup culture may not be a real thing
(Reuters Health) - People may think of millennials as being one right swipe away from a quick hookup, but a new study suggests many 20-somethings are actually having less sex than their parents did back in the day. "The misperception that millennials have a hook-up culture may be driven by the most promiscuous members of the generation, who are now able to advertise their exploits through social media," said lead study author Jean Twenge, a psychology researcher at San Diego State University in California.
Theranos CEO faces critics, presents new product plans
The chief executive of embattled Theranos Inc on Monday presented plans for a new product and said the blood testing company was working diligently to rectify all of its outstanding issues involving its product and laboratory operations. CEO Elizabeth Holmes described new technologies that she said were "distinct from the operations of our clinical laboratories" that have come under scrutiny - part of a presentation before some 2,650 scientists at the American Association for Clinical Chemistry meeting in Philadelphia.
Florida to begin aerial spraying of insecticides to control Zika
Florida will conduct an aerial insecticide spraying campaign at dawn on Wednesday in an effort to kill mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus, officials in Miami-Dade County said. The campaign will cover a 10-mile area that includes the one-mile-square area just north of downtown Miami that health officials have identified as the hub of Zika transmission in the state, the officials said on Tuesday.
Few seniors seeking health advice from Dr. Google
Even though most seniors have cell phones and computers, they still don't go online to find answers to medical questions, contact doctors or fill prescriptions, a U.S. study suggests. "While we found that the majority of seniors use basic digital technology, very few are using digital health technology or the advanced features the internet has to offer, said lead study author Dr. David Levine, a researcher at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
U.S. officials provide stopgap Zika funds, Congress urged to act
Federal health officials, scrambling to fund efforts to combat the spread of the Zika virus in the United States, said on Tuesday they have provided more stopgap money to various locales while calls grew for Congress to cut short its recess and act. Concern is mounting about the threat posed by the mosquito-borne virus after authorities in Florida last week reported the first signs of local transmission of Zika in the continental United States.
China's 'mosquito factory' aims to wipe out Zika, other diseases
Every week, scientists in southern China release 3 million bacteria-infected mosquitoes on a 3 km (two-mile) long island in a bid to wipe out diseases such as dengue, yellow fever and Zika. The scientists inject mosquito eggs with wolbachia bacteria in a laboratory, then release infected male mosquitoes on the island on the outskirts of the city of Guangzhou.
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