Researchers have created a new approach for studying resistance to Neuraminidase Inhibitors (NI) in influenza. The study, published December 7 in PLoS Computational Biology, combines data from influenza infections of human volunteers with a mathematical model which estimates the expected number of newly generated resistant infections. [click link for full article]

Professor of Anesthesiology Orin Guidry, MD, from the Medical University of South Carolina was featured in a recent USA Today article discussing the growing concern of anesthesia awareness occurring with the release of the new film Awake starring Hayden Christensen and Jessica Alba, where a patient experiences consciousness during surgery. Intraoperative awareness occurs when a patient becomes conscious but remains paralyzed during an operation. [click link for full article]

A new clinical report from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says that existing Do-Not-Resuscitate Orders (DNR) for children should be reevaluated when the child requires surgery. [click link for full article]

Children are more vulnerable than adults to the adverse effects of air pollution for several reasons. First, children have increased exposure to many air pollutants because they spend more time outside, have higher breathing rates and higher levels of physical activity compared with adults. In addition, the human lung continues to develop through adolescence, and exposure to harmful air pollutants during childhood has an important impact on lung development. [click link for full article]

In the first month after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and surrounding areas in August 2005, 17% of the city’s residents reported serious mental illness, compared with 10% of people living in areas near the city and an estimated prevalence of 1% to 3% in the general population, according to a study published Tuesday in the Archives of General Psychiatry, the [click link for full article]

UnitedHealth Group, the largest U.S. health insurer, and Humana, the fourth-largest health insurer, have “bet heavily on the federal Medicare program” as “sales slump in the private-sector parts of their business,” the New York Times reports. [click link for full article]

“Natural and Manmade Disasters and Mental Health,” Journal of the American Medical Association: In the commentary, David Satcher, former U.S. surgeon general and commissioner of the [click link for full article]

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt on Tuesday in a letter to the Senate Finance Committee wrote that White House advisers would recommend a veto of any Medicare legislation that includes cuts to Medicare Advantage plans or changes to the Medicare prescription drug benefit, CQ Today reports. [click link for full article]

Diesel exhaust fumes on polluted streets have a measurable effect on people with asthma, according to the first study looking at exhausts and asthma in a real-life setting, published on 6 December in the New England Journal of Medicine.The new study looked at the effects on 60 people with mild and moderate asthma of walking along the western end of busy Oxford Street in London, where only diesel-powered taxis and buses are permitted. [click link for full article]

Gene-expression profiles might be used to identify prognostic biomarkers for Kawasaki disease, and help to unravel the underlying biology of the illness, research published this week in the online open access journal Genome Biology reveals. The new findings also support the idea that gene-expression profiles might be used to generate biomarkers for other systemic inflammatory illnesses. [click link for full article]