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The leaders of Russia and class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Ukraine held their first talks on Friday since Moscow annexed Crimea, airing ways to end their four-month conflict in a brief encounter during commemorations in France of the World War Two D-Day landings. French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel brought together Russia's Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian president-elect Petro Poroshenko for a 15-minute meeting before they joined other dignitaries for lunch. Putin went on to have an equally short meeting with class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Barack Obama in which, according to a White House official, the U.S. President urged him to recognize Poroshenko as Ukraine's leader and to cut off arms supplies to pro-Russian separatists. French officials have been plotting for weeks to use the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings - a key event helping to end World War Two - to try to break the ice in the most serious European secur

The impact of a deadly pig virus on U.S. trade is mounting, with 11 countries limiting imports of live hogs and one banning pork imports, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's top veterinarian said on Wednesday. El Salvador, Guatemala and South Africa have banned imports of live U.S. hogs following the discovery of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea (PEDv) in the United States last year, John Clifford, the USDA's chief veterinary officer, said. class="mandelbrot_refrag"> China , class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Japan , the European Union and class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Russia have restricted hog imports, while four other countries have imposed unofficial limitations, he said. Uzbekistan has banned imports of U.S. pork, while Costa Rica has banned imports of pork casings. "This is beginning to have a much greater impact than what any of us initially thought that it would," Clifford said about PEDv at an industry gathering in Des Moines,

class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Saudi Arabia will test camels in the kingdom for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), its agriculture minister was quoted as saying, a day after a Saudi study reinforced a long-suspected link between the animals and human cases of the deadly virus. _0"> There have been 691 confirmed cases of MERS, including 284 deaths, in class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Saudi Arabia since it was identified two years ago, and many scientists have said for months that camels are the most likely source of transmission from animals to humans. A case study published on Wednesday of a Saudi man who died from the disease last year appeared to back that up, scientists said. Agriculture Minister Fahad Balghunaim said a program to register and number class="mandelbrot_refrag"> livestock including camels had begun last year and would be accelerated, the Arab News English-language daily reported. He said all camel class="man

Young people who are more active growing up tend to end up with stronger bones, but many older teenagers don’t get enough exercise to see those benefits, a recent study found. The good news, researchers said, is that lots of physical activity during childhood seems to set up young adults for years of strong bones, even if they don’t exercise much during their teen years. “What parents do to make sure kids are active today matters down the road,” said Kathleen Janz, the study’s lead author from the University of Iowa in Iowa City. “When you accumulate physical activity as a child, you end up with what looks like better bone as an adolescent,” she told Reuters Health. Participants in the research were part of the Iowa Bone Development Study, an ongoing study of bone health during childhood and young adulthood. The children had been recruited for that study between 1998 and 2002 when they were about five years old. At ages five, eight, 11, 13, 15 and 17 years old, the 530 part

An animal-rights group has called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to fine the Massachusetts Institute of Technology because of a January incident in which a rabbit at a research lab died when it was left in its cage while it was sent for cleaning. _0"> The group, Stop Animal Exploitation Now, which opposes the use of animals in class="mandelbrot_refrag"> medical research , on its website called on people to contact USDA officials and seek a $10,000 fine. MIT said in a letter to the National Institutes of Health, which oversees the use of animals in scientific research, that the incident occurred in January, when an employee of the school was cleaning a cage that housed three rabbits. The employee removed two of the rabbits from the cage but failed to take out the third before putting the cage into a sanitizing machine. The employee, an 11-year-veteran of the school who was not identified, resigned later that month. "MIT deeply regrets that the acc

Shares of class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Halozyme Therapeutics Inc jumped about 11 percent a day after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration lifted a hold on a trial testing an advanced version of the company's flagship drug delivery technology. _0"> The company said on Wednesday it would restart enrolling patients for the trial following the approval of an amended study design by an independent review boards. The regulator imposed the hold in April, after Halozyme voluntarily halted the mid-stage study over concerns of a possible difference in the rate of blood clots found in pancreatic cancer patients receiving Halozyme's treatment and those given approved cancer therapies. Halozyme said it had revised its study design to include another main goal, which will assess the rate of blood clots in patients receiving the therapy.   true       The trial is testing a more potent form of Halozyme's existing technology to deliver chemotherapy drugs intrave

Hog losses on U.S. farms from a deadly virus have slowed, reaching about 8 million head currently after hitting 7 million around February, an economist with a leading pork industry group told Reuters. Rising temperatures heading into the summer may be a factor, Paragon Economics President and National Pork Producers Council consultant Steve Meyer said at World Pork Expo 2014, as the virus tends to thrive under cold, damp conditions. There is still no official tally of the number of pig deaths from Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv), which first appeared in the United States in April 2013 and has since swept through 30 states. The government has said it will make PEDv reportable, which means cases must be officially registered. Despite millions of dollars spent on research, no one knows how the virus entered the country, and there is no reliable vaccine. Meyer said the 7 million figure was when about 50 percent of the sows in the United States had been infected. "I had t

Birth control pills seem to work as well as antibiotics for long-term treatment of acne in women, according to a new review of past clinical trials. After six months, both treatments reduced acne by just over 50 percent, prompting dermatologists to call the Pill a good alternative for some women and a means of avoiding the drawbacks of stronger oral acne medications or long-term antibiotic use. Past research has shown that both antibiotics and birth control pills can improve acne, but the new review compared the two options side-by-side and found antibiotics worked better after three months, but after six months of use, results were about equal. “Oral contraceptives (OCPs) take longer to work because they have a different mechanism of action,” said Dr. Kelly H. Tyler, who was not involved in the new review. “Antibiotics have anti-inflammatory properties, and OCPs do not have those same properties, so the reduction in acne is going to be more gradual and less dramatic in the b

European regulators said on Thursday they have completed their assessment of drug manufacturing violations at Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd's facility in Toansa, class="mandelbrot_refrag"> India , and although deficiencies were found, they pose no risk to public health. The regulators said they were satisfied by corrective measures put in place by the company after U.S. regulators found deviations in January. The assessment stands in stark contrast to the response of U.S. regulators to the deficiencies found at the plant. The Food and Drug Administration barred Ranbaxy from making and selling pharmaceutical ingredients from the Toansa facility "to prevent substandard quality products from reaching U.S. consumers." Ranbaxy is in the process of being acquired by Indian-based Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd for $3.2 billion. In March the FDA banned imports from Sun's plant at Karkhadi. G.N. Singh, the Drugs Controller General of class="mandelbrot_r

A dramatic upward revision in the number of people killed by the MERS virus in class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Saudi Arabia may signal a fresh approach from Riyadh, but also raises new questions about how the two-year-old outbreak has been handled. Experts in global health and infectious diseases say transparency with data is critical to learning more about the virus, which until two years ago had never been seen in humans but has now killed more than 300 people worldwide. And while an announcement on Tuesday that a historical review of the outbreak had revealed 113 previously unreported cases, including 92 deaths, suggested greater openness, some scientists said international health authorities may have been kept in the dark.   true       "It really calls into question why these cases weren't reported before - particularly those that are at least two or more months back in time," said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Resear

A simulated training program helped adults with autism spectrum disorder improve their job interview skills and confidence in a small new study. "Individuals with autism spectrum disorder are typically (impaired) in their ability to socially communicate, so in the job interview setting, they may have difficulty picking up social cues," lead author Matthew J. Smith told Reuters Health. “They may have difficulty sharing things in a positive way or they may have difficulty coming across as easy to work with,” said Smith, a psychiatry researcher at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. The employment rate for adults with autism is very low and approximately 50,000 people with autism turn 18 each year in the U.S., say the authors. The interactive virtual reality program, which the researchers call Molly, was designed to improve the interview skills of adults with psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, as well as ad

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Thursday ordered farmers to start reporting cases of a deadly pig virus and pledged over $26 million in funding to combat the disease, pushing back against criticism of his handling of a widespread outbreak. _0"> Vilsack, speaking to a roomful of farmers at an industry gathering in Iowa, said they must tell the U.S. Department of Agriculture about outbreaks of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv) effective immediately to help control the spread of the disease. The USDA had said in April it would require reporting of cases of PEDv and Swine Delta Coronavirus, but provided few details. [ID:nL2N0NA0F3] PEDv first appeared in the United States over a year ago and has wiped out an estimated 10 percent of U.S. pigs. The virus causes diarrhea and vomiting and is nearly always lethal to baby piglets. Veterinarians have said the USDA failed to protect the nation from the virus, which had never been in the country before it was found in

Pregnancy outcomes don’t differ among women who use a vaginal hormone gel during in vitro fertilization or a hormone shot, according to a new study. The results may encourage more doctors and women to use the hormone gel, which tends to be much less painful than the shot that’s injected into the muscle, according to the study’s lead author. "Progesterone in oil is much less expensive but it is notoriously painful and usually requires that a second person do the injection, while vaginal gel is more expensive but tolerated much better in most patients who can self-administer the drug," Dr. Daniel B. Shapiro of Reproductive Biology Associates in Atlanta, Georgia, told Reuters Health by email. Progesterone is typically produced by the ovaries to prepare the lining of the uterus to accept an embryo. During IVF, women take pills to stop progesterone production so they do not ovulate. They need to somehow replace the hormone. “The gold standard of care has been intramuscul

The U.S. National Institutes of Health has awarded $25 million to the J. Craig Venter Institute to back an initiative to study infectious diseases like malaria and influenza at the genetic level to help find better treatments and preventive measures. The institute, with offices in Maryland and California, will use the 5-year grant from NIH to establish the Genome Center for Infectious Diseases to study the genetic secrets of a wide range of bacteria, viruses and parasites, officials said on Thursday. The effort will include genetic sequencing of a number of pathogens and research on genetic mechanisms behind the emergence of antibiotic resistance, they said.   true       "It's a pretty big program," said Karen Nelson, president of the non-profit institute, in a telephone interview. Infectious diseases are among the leading causes of death worldwide. Venter, the former NIH researcher who founded the institute, said in a statement that the new work will be aimed at &q

The Obama administration is revamping the class="mandelbrot_refrag"> health insurance marketplace HealthCare.gov and removing significant parts from it to ensure that glitches on the site do not return, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing presentations to health insurers and interviews with government officials and contractors. _0"> The revamp and its tight timeline are raising concerns that consumers could encounter another troubled rollout when they return to the site to choose health plans, the paper said. Open enrollment on the site for 2015 coverage starts Nov. 15 with a new homepage and class="mandelbrot_refrag"> tools .   true       A system to automate payments to insurers was running behind schedule, the WSJ reported, quoting a presentation that federal officials made to health insurers. ( link.reuters.com/pup89v ) The government is turning its focus to cloud computing from class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Amazon.com Inc

Fighting obesity by taxing sugary drinks and restricting junk food advertisements aimed at children has support from a wide majority of residents surveyed in a Southern California public health study released on Thursday.     The findings from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health come as friction mounts between the beverage industry and health advocates over the best way to fight obesity and diabetes, tied by studies to over-consumption of soda, sweets and junk food. “There have been a lot of arguments against this sort of policy," including claims it will cost the poor more to buy food, said Paul Simon, head of chronic disease prevention for the county and lead author of the study. But Simon said nearly two-thirds of those surveyed by the county in a broad 2011 assessment of public attitudes toward health issues, said they supported a soda tax, and three-quarters favored limiting junk food class="mandelbrot_refrag"> advertising . Public health ad

A new way of evaluating tumors may soon help cancer patients identify the underlying genetic link to their disease - and the best possible treatment – all in a single test. Researchers are set to begin clinical trials using a more comprehensive testing method that looks for all of the known genes that may be active in a tumor. The new method could guide patients to the right drug earlier, potentially replacing current tests known as companion diagnostics that only look for a specific biological trait or “biomarker.” The presence of a biomarker can predict whether a new class of drugs called targeted therapies will work on particular tumors. Results of these broader tests could even be used to quickly identify which patients might benefit from experimental drugs being tested in clinical trials. U.S. health officials see it as the future direction of cancer diagnostics. "We really are moving away from this one drug, one biomarker, one companion diagnostic," said Dr Richar

For very young children, awareness of food brands increases greatly between ages three and four and is highest for unhealthy foods, according to a new study from Ireland. Food-brand knowledge predicts what kids will ask for later, said lead author Mimi Tatlow-Golden of the School of Psychology at University College Dublin. The study included 172 children in Ireland, ages three to five years old, a quarter of whom were from Northern Ireland, where class="mandelbrot_refrag"> marketing regulations differ from the rest of the country.   true       Just over half of the kids attended school in a disadvantaged community, according to local government and education department data. Parents filled out questionnaires about family demographics, eating habits and children’s TV viewing alone and with others. Researchers surveyed the kids at school one at a time, showing them nine food brand logos and product images, four belonging to healthy foods and five to less health

European Union member states on Friday agreed that live pig imports from United States and Canada must be tested for a deadly virus that has killed millions of piglets. _0"> The latest measures complement import requirements on pig blood products that may be used for feeding piglets, which the European Union agreed last month. In a statement, the European Commission, the EU executive, said the temporary testing was to protect the EU pig industry from Porcine Epidemic Diarrhoea, which has swept the United States and helped to push pork prices to record highs. The United States and Canada exported some 900 pigs for breeding purposes to the European Union in 2013, the Commission said.   true       The European Union does not need to import pigs for food because it produces 22 million tons of pig meat annually, more than enough for EU needs. The EU executive has also asked the European Food Safety Authority to research new strains of the virus, which it said will enable a

People with both depression and diabetes have higher markers of inflammation in their blood than those with diabetes alone, a new study suggests. Researchers have known that people with diabetes have a higher rate of depression than those without the blood sugar disorder. And people with both conditions tend to do worse over the long run than people with diabetes but no depression. Inflammation is a sign of the body responding to disease, trauma or other stressors. The new study suggests higher inflammation levels may help explain the link between diabetes, depression and worse overall health, researchers said. But it’s still not clear how, exactly. “We asked, why is depression so bad for diabetes? The study suggests that we have a possible biological explanation,” Dr. Khalida Ismail told Reuters Health. “Inflammation may be driving a number of different long-term conditions. That’s quite a new way of thinking of the mind and the body,” she said. Ismail worked on the study

Lapses in hospital infection control measures exacerbated an outbreak of a deadly new viral disease which has infected more than 60 people and killed at least 10 in the United Arab Emirates, health investigators said on Friday. Reporting the findings of a five-day mission to the UAE, experts from the World Health Organisation said, however, that they found no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission of new Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). "The recent upsurge of cases in Abu Dhabi appears to have been caused by a combination of factors, including a breach in infection prevention and control measures in health care settings, active surveillance and increase in community acquired cases," they said in a statement. First reported in humans in 2012, MERS causes severe and often fatal respiratory illness, with symptoms similar to those seen during the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003. Its around 40 percent death rate

Women who take oral contraceptives desire different traits in an imaginary man than women not on the Pill, according to a small study in class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Italy . Whether that translates to their choices in the real world remains uncertain, but with more than 60 million women taking the Pill worldwide, the study authors write, the possibility that it changes mating dynamics is worth examining. “It is important to reflect on these aspects from an evolutionary point of view, as changes in preference for indicators of genetic quality in a sexual partner are considered to be functional and adaptive,” said Alessio Gori, lead author of the study and a psychologist at the University of Florence. Past research has found that when women view images of potential male partners during the most fertile time of their menstrual cycle, they tend to prefer the guys with more masculine traits. Oral contraceptives prevent ovulation, so women on the Pill don’t have a most-

An infectious disease expert and former head dealmaker at Merck & Co is racing against his ex-employer and other drugmakers to develop a treatment for a germ that ravages the colon and kills as many as 14,000 Americans each year. Roger Pomerantz on Monday became chief executive officer of privately held Seres Health, whose lead product has proven highly effective against the c. difficile bacteria in early-stage clinical trials. The condition occurs in patients who have been treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics that kill off "friendly" bacteria in the gut, allowing c. difficile to take root and prosper there. It causes colitis, including serious diarrhea and fever that can recur and are not well-controlled by current treatments. The infections, which are most dangerous for the elderly and others with weakened immune systems, typically occur in hospitals, nursing homes and doctor's offices, but are becoming more common in the community at large. Some industry a

Both psoriasis patients and the people who live with them say psoriasis negatively impacts their quality of life, according to a new study. And both groups tend to report more depression and anxiety than people not affected by the condition. About 7.5 million Americans have psoriasis, which is characterized by itchy, painful plaques on the skin. Previous research has found that people with psoriasis have a higher risk of cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases and develop more infections than those without psoriasis. The condition has also been linked to psychiatric disorders.   true       “The number of studies per year about quality of life in psoriasis keeps growing year after year and thanks to these studies we know that psoriatic patients have an impairment of their quality of life as well as higher levels of anxiety and depression, feelings of stigmatization, higher risk of suicidality and lower employment rate, among other problems,” Dr. Eliseo Martinez-Garcia told Reuter