Spanish Ebola survivor thanks God for ‘bringing me back to life’ – Video

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Spanish Ebola survivor thanks God for #39;bringing me back to life #39;
An emotional Teresa Romero thanks God and health care workers for saving her life as she is released from Madrid #39;s Carlos III hospital after spending a month there, most of it in quarantine...

By: The Telegraph

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Spanish Ebola survivor thanks God for 'bringing me back to life' - Video

3rd Annual Inspired Excellence in Health Care Awards Gala | Las Vegas HEALS pt. 6 – Video

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3rd Annual Inspired Excellence in Health Care Awards Gala | Las Vegas HEALS pt. 6
Las Vegas HEALS honored six local physicians for their outstanding contributions to the community as Las Vegas continues to position itself as a world-class destination for health care services....

By: Las Vegas Heals

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3rd Annual Inspired Excellence in Health Care Awards Gala | Las Vegas HEALS pt. 6 - Video

No health insurance for small business

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The public small-business exchanges, however, are the only way employers can now avail themselves of the tax credits available, and a recent analysis of the plans by Mr. Gabel of NORC showed them to be less expensive, on average, than the ones available outside of the exchanges.

And some employers say they have clearly benefited. Robert S. Jaffe, president of Consensus Systems Technologies, in Shenorock, N.Y., was able to save about $32,000 by going through the exchanges to buy coverage for six employees. He chose Health Republic Insurance, a new co-op plan created under the law, for people who lived in the area. While he was initially concerned about the insurer, he says he was reassured by the care it gave a worker needing a liver transplant.

But some employers have been unimpressed with the options available through the marketplaces. "What I see on the exchange is junk," said Bill Frerichs, the owner of Frerichs Freight Lines in Belleville, Ill., a trucking business. He opted to stay with the coverage he had from Coventry Health Care, owned by Aetna.

Read More These common insurance myths may be costing you money

But even some of those who have taken advantage of the law to continue providing coverage say they worry about the future. Annie Grove, who along with her husband, Matt, owns Bagel Grove in Utica, N.Y., has about 20 employees, some of whom are covered under Medicaid. She offers a high-deductible plan to six of them, including herself, and uses the tax credit to help pay for about half of the cost. Ms. Grove says she is still unsure how long she will be able to pay for coverage, especially when the tax credits expire after two years and she can no longer use the money for premiums.

"My biggest concern is when the tax credits go away," she said.

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No health insurance for small business

Is quarantine merited for Ebola-exposed health-care workers? The science says no

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Daniel Bausch has come to dread the words an abundance of caution.

In the context of the response to the current West African Ebola crisis, Bausch knows if he hears that phrase hes not going to like the rest of the sentence.

Public health officials saying Were doing things out of an abundance of caution that usually means is Were doing something that has no scientific basis whatsoever, but were going to do it anyway, says Bausch, an Ebola expert at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans, La.

Public health experts and scientists point to a variety of measures that have been taken in the worlds response to the Ebola outbreak where it seems an abundance of caution some call it politics have trumped science.

They include: Entry screening at airports half a world away from the countries in the grip of the outbreak. Closing borders to millions of West Africans from three affected countries because 13,000 people have been infected. Trying to force into mandatory quarantine health-care workers who have risked their lives to volunteer in Ebola treatment centres.

The latter example has received the most public attention, thanks to two nearly back-to-back developments. Dr. Craig Spencer, a New York City resident who had volunteered with Medecins Sans Frontieres, tested positive for Ebola six days after returning to the United States from Guinea. Spencer had been out jogging and had eaten in a restaurant before he realized he was ill. When he spiked a fever, Spencer called MSF and the citys public health department.

A couple days later nurse Kaci Hickox, an MSF nurse returning from West Africa, found herself quarantined in a tent in a parking lot in New Jersey after that state decided all returning health-care workers would face mandatory quarantine regardless of whether they have symptoms. Hickox had flown into Newark en route to her home in Maine.

She went public with her strenuous objections. When she was released and allowed to travel home, Maine also tried to quarantine her until a court ruled against the state.

These events, plus an earlier case where an American nurse coming down with Ebola travelled on a plane, have raised questions about whether returning health-care workers pose a risk to the societies they are rejoining. But as elected officials deliberate on the right course to take, public health leaders warn that treating returning health-care workers like pariahs could hamstring Ebola control efforts by dissuading doctors and nurses from volunteering.

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Is quarantine merited for Ebola-exposed health-care workers? The science says no

Union activity heats up in St. Louis' health care sector

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Nursing home workers at several St. Louis area facilities are attempting to organize and have turned to the health care arm of Service Employees International Union in recent months.

On Monday, SEIU Healthcare of Missouri and Kansas filed petitions with the National Labor Relations Board seeking representation elections at two area facilities, the Crestwood Health Care Center in Florissant and Ackert Park Skilled Care Community in University City.

The employees seeking SEIU representation include certified nurse assistants, medical technicians, dietary aides, and laundry and housekeeping staffers. About 80 workers at Crestwood and 70 at Ackert are affected.

Officials with Crestwood and Ackert could not immediately be reached for comment.

Crestwood is operated by Maryland Heights-based Reliant Care Management Company LLC, which operates 15 nursing homes in Missouri and Illinois, according to its website. Ackert is owned and operated by Future Focus of U-City LLC, according to its website. Future Focus parent company is St. Charles-based Focused Senior Communities, which operates as a consultant for other nursing homes in addition to developing and operating facilities, its website states.

Bryan Evans, collective bargaining and representation coordinator for SEIU, said the workers were looking to improve wages, working conditions, and quality of care.

If the union wins the elections, it would begin bargaining on behalf of its members for a contract.

The petitions are the latest of several organizing efforts at area nursing homes.

In August, SEIU Healthcare successfully organized about 120 service workers at The Cedars of Town and Country in Chesterfield.

Also in August, a petition was filed on behalf of staffers at Green Valley Nursing Home & Rehabilition Center in Spanish Lake. But the petition was later withdrawn, according to the NLRB.

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Union activity heats up in St. Louis' health care sector

New Genetic Test Diagnoses Rare Childhood Diseases

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A powerful new genetic test that scans for rare childhood diseases is providing faster and more conclusive results than ever before. The test examines the entire genome to identify the single gene mutation that led to the disorder.

When Calvin Lapidus was eight months old, his mother Audrey suspected he was not developing normally, even though his doctors said he was.

By eight months he wasnt sitting up on his own," she recalled. "He wasnt rolling over on his own and he was just missing his milestones.

A frantic odyssey to learn what was wrong led the family to the Clinical Genomics Center at the University of California Los Angeles. The Center had just introduced a test called exome sequencing, an analysis of the entire genome at once, instead of gene by gene. Calvin was its first patient, said Stanley Nelson, a UCLA professor of human genetics and pathology and laboratory medicine.

He described the typical scenario: Children come in with a set of symptoms, a set of problems, a set of issues, and its very difficult for physicians to say which one of 5,000 diseases this patient has.

Some conditions are so rare that a physician may have only seen a few, if any, cases in his or her practice.

Sequencing DNA

The team at the Center extracted and sequenced DNA from blood samples from Calvin and his parents. Then they scanned all the genes simultaneously to find the single mutation that caused the disorder.

Nelson said that on average every location in the genome is examined and re-examined 100 times.

What that means is that we see 50 of the DNA variants that you got from your mom," he said. "We see 50 of the DNA variants that you got from your dad at every single base position in the exome, or in the protein coating part of the genome.

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New Genetic Test Diagnoses Rare Childhood Diseases

CSF-Delivered Gene Therapy Shows Promise for Spinal Muscular Atrophy

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ELK GROVE VILLAGE, Ill., Nov. 5, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A manuscript from the laboratory of Dr. Brian Kaspar of Nationwide Childrens Hospital was recently published in the journal Molecular Therapy. The paper, Improving single injection CSF delivery of AAV9-mediated gene therapy for SMA-a dose response study in mice and nonhuman primates is the first publication resulting from a groundbreaking collaboration between Cure SMA, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), and Dr. Kaspar.

Beginning in 2010, Cure SMA made a series of grants to Dr. Kaspar to study gene therapy, also called gene transfer. Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is caused by a mutation in the survival motor neuron 1 gene (SMN1). Because of this mutation, the individual does not produce enough survival motor neuron (SMN) protein. Gene transfer may increase SMN levels by using a virus, called a vector, to deliver the SMN1 gene to affected cells. Kaspars laboratory discovered that Adeno-associated virus serotype 9 (AAV9) had the unique ability to cross the blood brain barrier and the Blood-Cerebrospinal Fluid Barrier (CSF).

Dr. Kaspar and his team have studied two approaches for SMA: an injection into a vein, a process known as systemic delivery which is currently in Phase I/2 clinical trials, and delivery directly into the cerebrospinal spinal fluid (CSF), a process known as CSF-delivered gene therapy.

Using the data generated with Cure SMA funding on the CSF-delivery of the drug, Dr. Kaspar and his team were able to secure a $4 million grant from NINDS in 2013, to develop this delivery approach for human clinical trials in SMA.

Development of therapies requires collaboration of academics, advocacy, industry, and government-no single party has the resources to do this alone. The collaboration between Dr. Brian Kaspar, Cure SMA, and the NIH is an exciting model in leveraging resources and expertise in the hope of accelerating therapy development for SMA, said Dr. John Porter, PhD, Program Director at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

The results of this research collaboration are the subject of Dr. Kaspars latest article. Using a one-time delivery of the AAV9 carrying the human SMN gene, the researchers found SMA animals, which typically die at 15 days of age, surpassed 280 days median survival, with many animals surviving past 400 days. This is a remarkable extension in survival with normal motor function. Furthermore, the group tested this delivery approach in larger species and found significant targeting of motor neurons throughout the brain and spinal cord.

Dr. Kaspar stated, We are very pleased with the results of this study and are working diligently to advance a CSF route of delivery to human clinical trials for SMA. We are grateful for the support from Cure SMA and NINDS. We stand at an exciting juncture in SMA research and clinical translation with strong will to see effective therapies for all those with SMA.

We are excited to see expansion of the gene therapeutic program and the potential to advance this route of delivery to patients with SMA. The latest results supports further development of a CSF-delivered gene therapy treatment, said Jill Jarecki, PhD, Cure SMAs research director.

Current Clinical Trials for SMA Gene Therapy

The technology for both systemic and CSF-delivered gene therapy has been licensed to AveXis, a clinical stage biotechnology company. AveXis and Nationwide Childrens Hospital are currently collaborating on a Phase I/2 clinical trial testing the systemic delivery method in infants with SMA. The trial (NCT02122952) opened for enrollment in Columbus, Ohio in April 2014 and is currently recruiting in the dose-escalation phase of the trial.

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CSF-Delivered Gene Therapy Shows Promise for Spinal Muscular Atrophy

These Killer Husqvarna Concepts Are Retro Futurism Done Right

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Husqvarna has a certain cachet, even if you remove the overblown Steve McQueen connection. Combine that with the recent interest in lightweight, entertaining rides (see: Ducati Scrambler), and you've got a recipe for success. And that's exactly what we have with this menacingly beautiful pair of 401 concepts.

Created for Husqvarna by the industrial designers at Kiska the same Austrian company the shaped the KTM X-Bow the two 401s go by the Swedish names Vit Pilen (White Arrow) and Svart Pilen (Black Arrow), and were inspired by the Silver Pilen, one of the lightest, fastest, and smallest bikes of the 50s. But that's where the nostalgia stops.

Both bikes weigh in at 397 pounds and use an exposed trellis frame, combined with upside-down TP forks, and 17-inch wheels. The neo-retro body work flows into the incorporated fuel tank and both bikes wear a dual-LED headlamp with a lit halo surrounding the outer bezel just like the Scrambler.

The Vit Pilen is the more road-focused of the two, embracing the stripped-down cafe racer vibe and adorning it with a clean, ovoid exhaust, bronze and yellow detailing, a swept-back seat, and semi-slick tires.

The Svart Pilen adds knobby, street-legal rubber, an incredibly trick high-mounted exhaust, dirt bars, skid plates, and a pair of racks one on the tank and another on the tail to strap down some gear before tackling the trails.

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These Killer Husqvarna Concepts Are Retro Futurism Done Right

Sarafina!The Music Of Liberation (Broadway Cast Recording) – 23.Freedom Is Coming Tomorrow Reprise – Video

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Sarafina!The Music Of Liberation (Broadway Cast Recording) - 23.Freedom Is Coming Tomorrow Reprise
Sarafina!The Music Of Liberation (Broadway Cast Recording) - 23.Freedom Is Coming Tomorrow Reprise Written by Mbongeni Ngema. Music and lyrics by Mbongeni Ngema. Additional songs by Hugh ...

By: MissHello Mara

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Sarafina!The Music Of Liberation (Broadway Cast Recording) - 23.Freedom Is Coming Tomorrow Reprise - Video