WHO Survey Indicates People Lack Understanding Of Antibiotics.

Image Source: http://ibraheem-altowaiher.deviantart.com/art/Antibiotics-MD-198124195

Reuters (11/17, Kelland) reports that according to the World Health Organization, peoples’ misunderstanding and ignorance of antibiotics is contributing to the increase in drug-resistant pathogens. A survey released by the WHO revealed that 64 percent of participants incorrectly believed that antibiotics could be used to treat colds and the flu. Additionally, a third of people surveyed believed that they should stop taking antibiotics when they feel better instead of completing the entire treatment course as prescribed.

CBS News (11/17) reports on its website that the WHO “surveyed nearly 10,000 people across 12 countries as part of the CDC’s ‘Get Smart About Antibiotics Week,’-- an effort to stop the threat posed by resistance to antibiotics.” Meanwhile, another “76 percent of respondents believed antibiotic resistance meant the body was becoming resistant, but it is actually the bacteria that is becoming resistant.” Medscape (11/17, Brooks) also reports on the story.

ESRD Risk Tool for Kidney Donor Candidates

Based on the latest NEJM 2015 article 

http://www.transplantmodels.com/esrdrisk/

Is 120 mm Hg the new BP target? What headlines aren’t telling you

The results of the SPRINT trial are in, and you’ve probably heard that making 120 mm Hg the new blood pressure target helped lower mortality rates. Yet the study outcomes apply only to a specific subset of patients with hypertension. See whether or not your patients may fit into this category. Read more at AMA Wire®.

Lowering Blood Pressure Target May Lead To Lower Rates Of CV Events.

The CBS Evening News (11/9, story 9, 1:25, Pelley) reported that “a new study that says sharply lower blood pressure leads to significantly longer lives.” On ABC World News(11/9, story 8, 1:00, Muir), ABC’s Dr. Richard Besser reported, “The results were so startling, they stopped the study...early.”

In a 1,300-word article, the New York Times (11/10, Kolata, Subscription Publication) reports that investigators found that “among the 9,361 hypertension patients followed for an average of 3.2 years, there were 27 percent fewer deaths (155 compared with 210) and 38 percent fewer cases of heart failure (62 compared with 100) among patients who achieved the systolic pressure target of 120 than among those who achieved the current 140 target.” Altogether, “there was a 25 percent reduction — 243 compared with 319 — in people who had a heart attack, heart failure or stroke or died from heart disease, Dr. Paul K. Whelton, a principal investigator for the study, said.” The findings were presented at the American Heart Association meeting and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The AP (11/10, Marchione) reports that “too-low blood pressure, fainting episodes and more worrisome, kidney problems were 1 percent to 2 percent higher in the lower pressure group.” However, “falls that cause injury due to lightheadedness were not more common, as had been feared especially for older people.”

The Seattle Times (11/10, Aleccia) reports that “the study, dubbed the Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial — or SPRINT — was stopped in September, nearly two years early, when it became clear that radically lowering blood pressure for many people older than 50 helped prevent heart attacks and other heart problems and deaths.”

Reduced-Fat Diets No More Effective Than Other Weight-Loss Diets, Meta-Analysis Suggests.

Bloomberg News (10/29, Tozzi) reports that a meta-analysis published Oct. 29 in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology “finds reducing fat isn’t any more effective for losing weight than other diets.”

The CBS News (10/29, Marcus) website reports that after analyzing data from “53 studies” including “more than 68,000 adults,” researchers found that “reduced-fat diets only led to more weight loss when compared with no diet at all.” Individuals “on low-carbohydrate diets lost substantially more weight than those who went the low-fat route.”

TIME (10/29, Sifferlin) reports that the study authors concluded that “public health guidelines should stop recommending low-fat diets for weight loss, stressing that more research is needed to find what strategy is most effective and able to be maintained.”

Also covering the story are CNBC (10/29, Ferris), Vox, HealthDay (10/29, Doheny), AFP (10/29), the Telegraph (UK) (10/29, Donnelly), and The Guardian (UK) (10/29, Boseley).

FDA Warns Hepatitis C Drugs Could Cause Severe Liver Damage To Patients With Underlying Liver Disease.

The Wall Street Journal (10/23, Loftus, Subscription Publication) reports that the Food and Drug Administration issued a warning on Thursday that AbbVie Inc.’s Viekira Pak (ombitasvir/paritaprevir/ritonavir with dasabuvir) and Technivie (ombitasvir/paritaprevir/ritonavir) may cause severe liver damage to patients who have an underlying liver disease.

The Washington Post (10/23, Dennis) reports that the FDA said it had received reports of at least 26 cases since late 2014 of patients “who either died or had to undergo liver transplantation” after taking the hepatitis C drugs, with the liver damage occurring in the first month of treatment. According to the Post, the agency “will require AbbVie to add new warnings to the safety labels of the drugs for patients who already have advanced liver disease linked to hepatitis C” and “urged doctors to closely monitor patients taking the drugs for symptoms of worsening liver disease.” Bloomberg News (10/23, Bloomfield) and the AP (10/23, Perrone) also cover the story.

Late Bedtimes May Be Linked To Weight Gain Over Time.

On its website, CBS News (10/3, Welch) reported that research published in Sleep suggests that “going to bed later during the workweek is associated with weight gain over time.” Investigators looked at “data on more than 3,300 teens and young adults recorded at different intervals over the course of about 15 years.”

HealthDay (10/3, Preidt) reported that the investigators “found that each extra hour of late bedtime was associated with a more than two-point increase in body mass index (BMI).” The data indicated that the association “between late bedtimes and BMI increase was not significantly affected by total sleep time, amount of exercise, or time spent in front of computers or televisions.”