A recent article published in the open-access journal PLoSPathogens maintains that over its evolutionary history,reassortment of the influenza A virus happens often.Genetic reassortment is when genetic material mixes from two similarviruses that are infecting the same cell. Influenza virus A is aspecies of virus that causes influenza in birds, humans, pigs, andhorses; it has often given rise to human influenza pandemics.

“The American Medical Association applauds members of the U.S. Senate for their work to determine the potential links between the environment and breast cancer through the Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act of 2007 (S. 579). Greater funding for research to better understand the relationship between breast cancer and our environment can help provide valuable information to potentially reduce the incidence of the disease.

The UPMC Cancer Centers recently was awarded the National Chairman’s Citation for Excellence in Community Service from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The organization was nominated by the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Society and was the only center to receive the award this year, out of over 50 nominations.

The results of a 12-month trial of a cardiac telemedicine service supervised by the Greater Manchester and Cheshire (GMC) Cardiac Network, has proven that the service avoids immediate referral of patients with non-acute chest-pain symptoms to hospital care, in nearly 60% of cases.

Three Democratic governors on Tuesday called on Congress to block a Bush administration directive that has made it difficult for states to expand their SCHIP programs, the AP/Houston Chronicle reports (Freking, AP/Houston Chronicle, 2/26).

FDA has not changed its “morally indefensible standard” of how it balances risk and reward when approving drugs despite its approval last week of Genentech’s cancer treatment Avastin for metastatic breast cancer treatment, a

The Des Moines Register on Monday profiled the increasing diversity of courses offered at Iowa’s public universities that discuss sex and sexuality. The University of Iowa has 35 course sections for spring that contain the word “sex” in the titles.

About 99,000 physicians — or about 16% of those eligible to participate in the Medicare quality reporting program — submitted reports at least once during the 2007 reporting period, acting CMS Administrator Kerry Weems wrote in a recent letter to the Senate Finance Committee,

Postmenopausal women taking combined hormone replacement therapy have only a slightly higher risk of developing breast cancer, but there are much greater chances they will experience the worry of abnormal mammograms or undergo an avoidable breast biopsy than postmenopausal women not taking the drugs, according to a study published Monday, the

Changes in Medicaid rules proposed last week by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services should be suspended until the next presidential administration, Senate Budget Committee Chair Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said Tuesday, CongressDaily reports. Conrad said that a moratorium on four Medicaid regulations could be extended into the next Congress for $1 billion.