Jun 22 Lawmakers concerned chocolate e-cigarettes may lure teens By Victoria Pasquantonio As of January of this year, there were more than 460 e-cigarette brands available for purchase online, and around 7,700 flavors, including Swedish fish, roasted marshmallow and vanilla cupcake. Continue reading
Jun 21 Proposed laws on experimental drugs stir debate By Stephen Fee This May, Colorado's governor signed the nation's first "right to try" bill, which allows terminally ill patients to try unapproved — and potentially dangerous — drugs outside of clinical trials and without approval from federal regulators. Continue reading
Jun 21 Missouri measure would enact drug program for dying patients By Mike Sherry, The Hale Center for Journalism If you were dying and had exhausted all conventional treatment options, wouldn’t you want immediate access to a drug that might prove to be a miracle cure? That’s the promise of proposed legislation that could make Missouri the third state… Continue reading
Jun 21 Watch 'Right to try' law gives terminal patients access to drugs not approved by FDA By PBS News Hour Continue watching
Jun 19 Survey finds most Americans who purchased health care on exchanges were uninsured By Julie Appleby, Kaiser Health News Nearly six in 10 Americans who bought insurance for this year through the health law’s online marketplaces were previously uninsured—most for at least two years, according to a new survey that looks at the experiences of those most affected by… Continue reading
Jun 18 Watch Searching for the holy grail of snake bite antidotes By PBS News Hour Although snake bites are rarely fatal in the United States, every year about 100,000 people die worldwide after being bitten by venomous snakes. A California doctor has developed a nasal spray treatment that may be able to help some snake… Continue watching
Jun 18 A new approach to death by snake By Spencer Michels Despite their notoriety, snakes -- according to some enthusiasts -- aren’t getting the attention they deserve, especially when they bite people, which they do with some frequency. The World Health Organization estimates that between 94,000 and 125,000 people die every… Continue reading
Jun 18 What does it mean to be a caregiver in America? By Colleen Shalby Not everyone who’s a caregiver does so for a living. Many people in the U.S. are long-term caregivers for ailing family members, spending, on average, 20 hours a week caring for loved ones. Continue reading
Jun 18 Thousands of Lyme disease tests unproven and possibly inaccurate, NECIR reports By Colleen Shalby Roughly $492 million is spent on more than 3.4 million Lyme tests in the U.S. each year. But according to the New England Center of Investigative Reporting in a report released Tuesday, that number doesn’t include the thousands of… Continue reading
Jun 17 Insurers choke on price of new hepatitis C-curing pill By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press WASHINGTON — Your money or your life? Sovaldi, a new pill for hepatitis C, cures the liver-wasting disease in 9 of 10 patients, but treatment can cost more than $90,000. Leading medical societies recommend the drug as a first-line treatment,… Continue reading