Minorities More Likely to Suffer Corporal Punishment in Schools
Minority children received a disproportionate share of the corporal punishment given to 223,190 American school children last year, says a study released Wednesday by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberty Union.
Black and Native American children were more than twice as likely as other students to be paddled, the Associated Press reported.
Most states have outlawed corporal punishment, but it remains widespread across the South. Texas and Mississippi accounted for 40 percent of the children who received corporal punishment at least once in the 2006-07 school year, followed by Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Florida and Missouri.
The study also found that boys were three times more likely to be paddled than girls, and special education children were also more likely to be paddled, the AP reported.
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Better Method Found to Make Red Blood Cells From Stem Cells
A more efficient way of making red blood cells from human embryonic cells has been developed by U.S. researchers, who said it may be a step toward large-scale production of transfusion supplies.
In lab tests, the manufactured blood cells behaved like natural red blood cells. The scientists said their results suggest that embryonic stem cells could someday supply type O-negative "universal donor" red cells for transfusion, the Associated Press reported.
The study was published online Tuesday in the journal Blood.
While the work is promising, one expert cautioned that major questions need to be answered, the AP reported. For example, can this process really create red blood cells on a large scale, and will the cells survive long enough in the human body to be useful, said Mohandas Narla, director of the Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute at the New York Blood Center.
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Genetic Testing Companies Cleared to Operate in California
Two companies that offer people information about their genes will be allowed to continue to do business in California.
The licenses received by Navigenics and 23andMe are expected to help defuse a controversy that began in June when the state's Department of Public Health sent "cease and desist" orders to the two companies and 11 others that offer genetic testing directly to consumers, The New York Times reported.
The health department said the companies can't solicit customers from California without receiving a license to operate as a laboratory. It also said doctors had to be involved in ordering genetic tests.
The companies argued that actual testing of customers' DNA samples was being done by outside laboratories with licenses. After reviewing the procedures used by Navigenics and 23andMe, state officials are satisfied the companies' interpretation is based on the scientific literature.
In addition, both companies have met the requirement for physician involvement in the testing, The Times reported.
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Christina Applegate Has Double Mastectomy
Television star Christina Applegate had a double mastectomy three weeks ago after being diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this month, and she will undergo reconstructive surgery over the next eight months, she revealed Tuesday.
Even though the cancer was contained in one breast, the 36-year-old actress decided to have both breasts removed, the Associated Press reported.
The Emmy-nominated star of "Samantha Who?" said Tuesday on ABC News' "Good Morning America" said it was a logical decision, since her mother battled breast cancer and she tested positive for the BRCA1 gene mutation linked to breast and ovarian cancer.
Applegate, now cancer-free, plans to launch a program to help women at high risk for breast cancer pay for an MRI, which isn't always covered by insurance, the AP reported. She's scheduled to appear on a one-hour TV special, "Stand Up to Cancer," on Sept. 5 to raise funds for cancer research.
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Vioxx Study Was 'Stealth' Marketing: Report
Stealth marketing was the main goal of a 1999 Vioxx study touted by Merck & Co. as proof that the painkiller caused fewer stomach problems than a less expensive painkiller called naproxen, according to a report published Tuesday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
The actual purpose of the ADVANTAGE study wasn't scientific, but rather to get doctors and patients in the habit of using Vioxx just in time for its launch, according to the report authors, who uncovered internal Merck documents, the Associated Press said.
The documents revealed that Merck's marketing division designed ADVANTAGE and handled the study's data collection and analysis, the news service said.
It's long been suspected that drug companies regularly do such marketing-oriented studies, but there's never been a "smoking gun" proving it, the report authors noted.
The Annals of Internal Medicine published the ADVANTAGE study in 2003 but was not told the true purpose of the study, according to an accompanying editorial co-authored by journal editor Dr. Harold C. Sox, the AP reported.
Vioxx was pulled from the market in 2004 after it was linked to cardiovascular problems.
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Most West Nile Patients Recover Within a Year
For most people infected with West Nile virus, symptoms such as fatigue and trouble moving fade after about a year, according to Canadian researchers who followed 156 patients for four years, CBC News reported.
About 20 percent of people infected with the mosquito-borne virus develop symptoms ranging from a mild flu-like illness to inflammation of the brain (encephalitis) or of the membranes covering the brain or spinal cord (meningitis). There is no vaccine or treatment for West Nile infection.
The patients in this study were scored on physical and mental functions, anxiety and depression. Most of them had normal scores within one year after being infected, even patients who developed encephalitis and meningitis, CBC News reported.
Dr. Mark Loeb, of McMaster University in Hamilton, and his colleagues expected patients with the worst symptoms would have poorer long-term results, but that wasn't the case.
The study was published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
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