'VERY DANGEROUS': New Sexually-Transmitted Superbug Worries Doctors

Published May 05, 2013

FoxNews.com

Doctors are warning of a new sexually-transmitted superbug that they say could ultimately prove more deadly than AIDS.

The antibiotic-resistant strain of gonorrhea HO41 was reportedly discovered in Japan two years ago in a 31-year-old female sex worker.

"This might be a lot worse than AIDS in the short run because the bacteria is more aggressive and will affect more people quickly," Alan Christianson, a doctor of naturopathic medicine, recently told CNBC. "Getting gonorrhea from this strain might put someone into septic shock and death in a matter of days. This is very dangerous."

Reportedly added William Smith, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors: "It's an emergency situation. As time moves on, it's getting more hazardous."

According to CNBC, Smith urged Congressional lawmakers as late as last week to allocate additional funding - $54 million - to develop an antibiotic capable of fighting HO41, as well as to conduct a public awareness campaign.

"I'm hopeful we'll get the additional funds, but I can't say for sure," Smith reportedly said. "What I do know is we don't have the resources to fight this as it stands now."

"People need to practice safe sex, like always," Christianson told CNBC. "Anyone beginning a new relationship should get tested along with their partner. The way gonorrhea works, not everyone knows they have it. And with this new strain it's even more important than ever to find out. "

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Doctors warn of 'aggressive' new sexually-transmitted superbug

Published May 05, 2013

FoxNews.com

Doctors are warning of a new sexually-transmitted superbug that they say could ultimately prove more deadly than AIDS.

The antibiotic-resistant strain of gonorrhea HO41 was reportedly discovered in Japan two years ago in a 31-year-old female sex worker.

"This might be a lot worse than AIDS in the short run because the bacteria is more aggressive and will affect more people quickly," Alan Christianson, a doctor of naturopathic medicine, recently told CNBC. "Getting gonorrhea from this strain might put someone into septic shock and death in a matter of days. This is very dangerous."

Reportedly added William Smith, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors: "It's an emergency situation. As time moves on, it's getting more hazardous."

According to CNBC, Smith urged Congressional lawmakers as late as last week to allocate additional funding - $54 million - to develop an antibiotic capable of fighting HO41, as well as to conduct a public awareness campaign.

"I'm hopeful we'll get the additional funds, but I can't say for sure," Smith reportedly said. "What I do know is we don't have the resources to fight this as it stands now."

"People need to practice safe sex, like always," Christianson told CNBC. "Anyone beginning a new relationship should get tested along with their partner. The way gonorrhea works, not everyone knows they have it. And with this new strain it's even more important than ever to find out. "

View the original article here

Doctors: Despite severity of events, patients' outlook is 'high'

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Two patients are still in critical condition at Boston Medical Center, and 10 are in serious condition, said one doctor.

Dr. Peter Burke, chief of trauma surgery at the South End hospital, said Wednesday that his hospital still has a total of 19 patients. Eight of them will be operated on today.

“We are looking to discharge one or two of these patients as well today,” he said.

According to the Boston Globe, a 5-year-old boy is one of the two in critical condition, while the other is a man in his 60s.

Burke said initially, the hospital had 10 or 11 critical condition patients – and now there are only two.

“Most patients are making good progress, moving through the process,” he said.

Burke said the hospital’s next steps are to re-evaluate patients’ wounds.

“Because of the capricious nature of the trauma, you can’t tell exactly all the damage that may have happened, and you need to look at things over time,” he said. “So time is a really important concept here in terms of wounds and what happens to them.”

Tufts Medical Center has treated 14 patients with injuries relating to the marathon, and so far, seven of them have been discharged. Seven patients remain hospitalized at Tufts, but none of them are in critical condition, nor do they have amputations, according to a hospital spokesperson.

On Tuesday, doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital said they were confident no further lives would be lost.

Two bombs exploded within seconds of each other near the Boylston Street finish line Monday, killing three people and injuring 176. Many injuries occurred from a variety of sharp objects lodged in the body – ranging from shrapnel and metallic fragments to pellets and nails.

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ABORTION TRIAL: Family Recalls Philadelphia Doctor's Lack of Sympathy

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  This undated photo released by the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office shows Karnamaya Mongar, left, and her unidentified husband. (AP/Philadelphia District Attorney)

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  March 8, 2010: In this photo, Dr. Kermit Gosnell is seen during an interview with the Philadelphia Daily News at his attorney's office in Philadelphia.AP/Philadelphia Daily News

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Twenty months in a refugee camp in war-torn Bhutan didn’t break Karnamaya Mongar. But the 41-year-old Virginia woman met her demise in 2009 after seeking an abortion from a Philadelphia doctor who could face the death penalty if convicted on seven counts of first-degree murder.

Through a Nepalese interpreter, Mongar’s daughter, Yashoda Gurung, testified Tuesday in the ongoing trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, about the labor-inducing drugs and painkiller her mother was administered while awaiting the abortion provider to arrive for the second-trimester procedure. Gurung, 24, said she tried to wish her mother well before she was moved into the procedure room on Nov. 19, 2009, at the Women’s Medical Society clinic in West Philadelphia.

“My mom was sleeping,” Gurung told jurors through a translator. “That’s what I thought. I tried to wake her up and the lady said, ‘Leave her alone.’”

"I tried to wake her up and the lady said, ‘Leave her alone.'"

- Yashoda Gurung, daughter of victim

Prosecutors allege Gosnell’s untrained, unlicensed staff gave Mongar a fatal combination of oral and intravenous drugs and failed to properly monitor her vital signs. She went into cardiac arrest and a coma and died the following day. Gosnell’s attorney, Jack McMahon, has countered that Mongar, who was 19 weeks pregnant at the time, had unreported respiratory damage and died of complications.

Gosnell faces a third-degree murder charge in Mongar’s death. He is also charged with seven counts of first-degree murder for infants who were allegedly born alive and were killed by suffering severed spinal cords at Gosnell’s hands. The graphic trial, now in its fifth week, has led some conservative critics at the Media Research Center and other organizations to claim that most mainstream media outlets were slow to cover Gosnell’s alleged crimes because they run counter to supposed widely held support for abortion rights.

Damber Ghalley, Mongar’s brother, testified Tuesday he was told Mongar’s situation was “bad” when she arrived for the procedure. Ghalley said she spoke to Gosnell as she was being led to an ambulance.

“He said, ‘The procedure was done,” he told jurors. “Your sister’s heart stopped.”

Ghalley testified he saw Gosnell the following day outside the hospital where his sister died.

“He said the same thing: The procedure was done. I didn’t do anything wrong,” Ghalley said. “I would be able to answer [to] any person, anywhere. He did not express sympathy.”

Gosnell, who faces a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Mongar’s relatives, is also charged with violating Pennsylvania’s abortion law for allegedly performing abortions after 24 weeks. Some observers have said the trial highlights the difficulty to get an abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, or the end of the second trimester. A clinic near Mongar’s home in Woodbridge, Va., reportedly did not perform abortions after 14 weeks.

A janitor and handyman at the clinic -- which catered to minorities, the impoverished and women with late-term pregnancies -- also testified Tuesday, saying the facility had frequent plumbing problems and that toilets backed up weekly.

“I told the doc I would remove the toilet and lay it on its side, but somebody else would have to clean that out,” James Johnson testified.

Johnson’s shocking testimony solicited tears from some courtroom onlookers, including Day Gardner, president of the Washington-based National Black ProLife Coalition, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

In a petition on its website, the conservative Media Research Center called on broadcast networks to stop “censoring” coverage of the sensational trial. Networks like ABC and NBC have given the story “zero coverage” during morning and evening shows and CBS finally ended its coverage blackout on April 15, a month after opening arguments began, MRC officials claim.

“It is clear why the liberal media would not want this story to get out — because it would expose the American people to the truth about the horrific and ghastly practices of abortionists and compel everyone with a sense of decency to call for an end to such practices,” the petition read. “But that is in direct opposition to the liberal media's agenda — and that is why they won't cover it.”

The petition also cited an op-ed that appeared in USA Today on April 11 by columnist Kirsten Powers, who is also a Fox News contributor.

"Infant beheadings. Severed baby feet in jars. A child screaming after it was delivered alive during an abortion procedure,” Powers wrote. “Haven't heard about these sickening accusations?”

A Lexis-Nexis search of the news shows on the three major television networks found that none had mentioned the Gosnell trial in the last three months. The lone exception was Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan’s take on a "Meet the Press" segment, according to Powers.

"It's not your fault,” Powers continued. “Since the murder trial of Pennsylvania abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell began March 18, there has been precious little coverage of the case that should be on every news show and front page."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Doctors at Boston hospital confident no further lives will be lost

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  Medical workers respond following an explosion at the 2013 Boston Marathon in Boston, Monday, April 15, 2013.AP Photo/The Boston Globe, David L Ryan

Most of the victims of yesterday’s bombings suffered from traumatic injuries to their lower extremities, according to trauma surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital.

So far, doctors at MGH have performed four amputations, and two more limbs are still at risk of needing removal.  However, doctors remain hopeful they can save those patients’ legs.

But overall, most patients taken to MGH are conscious, and doctors estimate some can be released within the next few days.  Somewhere between six and eight patients have been medically sedated to help alleviate pain.

“They’re in a rather stable condition, and thank God they’re all alive,” Dr. George Velmahos, trauma surgeon at MGH, said in a press conference Tuesday.

Many patients had a variety of sharp objects lodged in their bodies – including metallic fragments from pellets and nails.  Some patients had up to 40 pieces of shrapnel inside of them.

Fortunately, surgeons at MGH were able to stop the patients’ bleeding as quickly as possible and replace all lost blood.  However, while all the patients have been stabilized, there is still much work to be done, according to Velmahos.

Not only is MGH working to provide the best medical relief possible, they are also offering emotional support to patients and their families.

“It’s obviously an extremely sad day, and even more so for the patients and their relatives,” Velmahos said at the conference.

Doctors believe all of the patients who remain at the hospital were spectators at yesterday’s marathon, not runners.  A few runners were initially seen at the hospital, but did not warrant long-term treatment.

After an explosion of this kind, doctors typically see three types of injuries.  The first involves traumatic injury to the body as a direct result of the bomb.  Other injuries are indirect effects that result from people being pushed or thrown at a high speed against objects and walls.  Lastly, many can receive particle injury from flying objects or pieces of the bomb that have broken away.

While yesterday’s events have been incredibly shocking, trauma surgeons at MGH said they are used to seeing these types of injuries and are confident they can help patients recover as quickly as possible.

“The experience has been overwhelming; …we’re suffering emotionally for what happened to the people of Boston and many others,” Velmahos said.  “At the same time, we can’t help but feel proud because the medical community at Massachusetts General responded in an amazing way.”

Overall, at least 176 people were injured in yesterday's bombings, 17 of whom were critically injured.  So far, three people were killed by the bombs.

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Suing doctors over a miracle baby is just plain wrong

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I am in shock over the story of a woman in Ohio suing a clinic over a failed abortion – after she delivered a healthy baby.

This lawsuit is of particular interest to me, because as a high-risk obstetrician, I have had many complicated obstetrical cases. But I still can’t swallow how a physician gets sued for a wrongful birth.

RELATED: Woman sues Ohio clinic over failed abortion after delivering healthy 'miracle' baby

A wrongful birth suit occurs when a doctor, without causing any health risks to a fetus, is charged with negligence after a full delivery of the living child.  In this particular case, the patient alleges that the doctors failed to abort her fetus during her initial abortion.  The woman was told her pregnancy could put her life at risk, because she had been diagnosed with uterine didelphys – a condition which results in a double uterus with individual cervices.

Let’s look at a couple of facts:  A didelphys uterus does not necessarily mean that a pregnancy or a mother’s life is at risk.  There have been many successful pregnancies in which the mother has had a double uterus.  Yes, there are risk factors involved, especially when it comes to premature delivery.  However, to high-risk obstetricians, this condition is well understood.

Even though I have limited knowledge of all the facts in this case, a failed termination – especially during the first trimester – is quite common.  The chances are also heightened when, like in this case, the anatomy is distorted, or there are issues of obesity.  

It’s not clear to me if the patient wanted to follow up with the clinic to pursue another procedure.  According to a statement, she failed to show up for a second appointment.  Regardless, lawyers are still pursuing this wrongful birth suit, which in my opinion is unethical and immoral.  The reason it will move forward is because there are doctors willing to testify against this clinic for a hefty fee.

I am all for patients receiving compensation when there is negligence or maleficence on behalf of physicians or hospitals.  But when you have a healthy mother and a healthy baby, and the only charge is the inconvenience of giving birth to a miracle, then that’s just plain wrong.

Dr. Manny Alvarez

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New nano-'tracking devices' allow doctors to visualize stem cells inside hearts

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Heart stem cell therapy after a major heart attack holds the promise of helping to repair severely damaged cells by encouraging the growth of new ones. However, the process – which involves infusing healthy stem cells into the heart to replace the damaged tissue – has had limited success in clinical trials.

In order to get the most benefit from heart stem cell treatment, it is essential for doctors to properly place the cells in the heart.  But, once the stem cells are injected, it’s difficult to determine exactly where they wind up, and many scientists believe faulty placement is ultimately the culprit of the therapy’s disappointing results.

Now, that problem could be potentially solved with a new visualization technique developed by Dr. Sam Gambhir and fellow researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine in California.  Their study, published in Science Translational Medicine, details the invention of silica nanoparticles, which can be injected inside stem cells, acting as tiny tracking devices that allow doctors to see the stem cells’ path inside the body.

According to the study’s researchers, the most encouraging results from heart stem cell therapy have been seen after bypass surgery, which is done right after a patient has suffered a heart attack.  If performed correctly, stem cell injections can encourage new cell proliferation and help increase blood flow up to 10 percent.

To get the most benefit, doctors have to find the perfect place in which the cells will do the most work.

“The best place is the region (in the heart) between the damaged tissue and the healthy tissue,” Jesse Jokerst, a postdoctoral fellow in the Stanford Molecular Imaging Scholars Program and one of the study’s authors, told FoxNews.com.  “That’s where the most therapeutic benefit can occur. When placed there, the stem cells can take advantage of the blood flow in the healthy region, but can effect a change in the diseased region.”

In order to determine where to place the cells, physicians currently take images of the heart through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) – one image before the injection to estimate placement, and a second image after the injection to see how the cells have developed. But the time period between the capture of those pictures leaves a lot to be desired, as the stem cells do not have a unique “signature” that allows doctors to differentiate between them and the normal heart cells.

Feeling somewhat blind, the doctors have many questions once the stem cells are injected.  Did they reach their intended target? Did they remain at the heart wall? How many cells actually stayed and how many diffused or died?  Inevitably, the doctors have to wait weeks following the stem cell injection to get their questions “answered,” by observing if heart function improved.  

Making a stem cell 'movie'

Frustrated by those time constraints, the researchers realized all their questions could be answered a lot faster and much more accurately through ultrasound imaging.

“MRI is like taking a photograph,” Jokerst explained.  “But we want to see the cells like in a movie, and that’s what ultrasound allowed us to do.”

The researchers decided to work with a material called silica – a chemical compound somewhat related to glass, which is found in sand and quartz.  After creating silica particles with diameters of just 300 nanometers – one-three-thousandth the width of a human hair – the team injected the tiny silica “trackers” into the stem cells, which easily ingested and stored them without any complications.  The stem cells – which were derived from the hearts of mice, pigs and humans – were then injected into the hearts of healthy mice, where they were observed by the researchers.

As soon as the stem cells left the needle, sound waves from an ultrasound passed through the body.  The silica, which is ideal for backscattering ultrasound waves, caused the waves to bounce back, highlighting where the stem cells were aggregating in the body.

According to Jokerst, the cells appeared much more clearly than they had imagined.

“Luckily, when we put the nanoparticles inside the cells, they aggregated together into larger structures inside of the cellular compartments,” Jokerst said.  “We were prepared to have OK signal, but we were surprised at how dramatic the signal increase was as a result of that aggregation.”

Through this new technique, the team was able to detect as little as 70,000 stem cells through ultrasound and as little as 250,000 through MRI.   The Stanford team has filed for provisional patents for their invention, but they noted this type of imaging wouldn’t be available in humans for at least three to five years.  One of the biggest hurdles the procedure still needs to overcome is biodegradation – making it so the particles degrade to even smaller particles once the imaging is done so that they can be excreted in the urine.

Overall, Jokerst envisions this treatment being used on patients with shortness of breath, congestive heart failure, and most notably, those who have suffered severe heart attacks.  Ideally, patients would benefit from the current imaging technique, and the new more film-like procedure.

“We’ve changed the composition; so not only would we have MRI signal, but also ultrasound signal,” he added.

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Dr. Manny: Yes, some medical tests are unnecessary, but doctors will still do them

The professional societies of 17 medical specialties have recently released a list of 135 medical tests, treatments and procedures they have deemed almost always unnecessary and potentially harmful for patients.  The initiative is part of a campaign called Choosing Wisely and is meant to encourage doctors to either avoid or seriously question performing the tests on the list.

I do agree there are dozens upon dozens of tests that are unnecessary.  After years of being utilized, many of these extraneous procedures have failed to alter the outcome of treatments for conditions that either tend to resolve themselves or can be monitored less expensively.

For many patients, the first question they ask is, “Why were these tests used in the first place?” Well, as these tests were developed, they were implemented in clinical protocols and became the standard medical practices during their times. However, what many patients fail to remember is that science is a living entity.  It is constantly changing and adapting. Unfortunately, it’s also difficult to break old habits, and that’s why today, many physicians continue to use numerous old practices and procedures simply because they have gotten used to them.

One of the problems we currently face is that this type of behavior by the health care system has become extremely expensive, and now the common routine for many doctors is no longer to ‘see patient first, do tests later’ – but instead ‘do tests first, see patient after.’

Now, I have to count myself among the many who has relied on the latter behavior for years.  To me, one of the biggest motivating factors has never been about the money, but instead protecting myself from litigation.  Malpractice lawsuits have prompted many physicians in this country to depend on excessive testing, because they know perfectly well that if they miss a problem, there will be 20 lawyers looking to charge them with negligence. The way these malpractice lawyers operate is by locating paid medical experts – in other words, pitting doctor against doctor – who are more than happy to point out that the reason there was a bad medical outcome was because that doctor failed to do the appropriate test.  

One of the more provocative suggestions from the Choosing Wisely initiative concerns Pap smears.  According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), doctors should treat women whose cervical cancer Pap tests found dysplasia – unless the abnormalities persist two years later. However, if cervical cancer is present and the gynecologist fails to identify it, I am sure that in less than a minute, a lawyer would find an expert to say this patient should have been treated earlier.  

This is how it goes for many of the ‘unnecessary’ tests listed by the 17 professional societies.  At the end of the day, if we want to change the habits of doctors after so many years, then these academies should be more proactive in protecting physicians against litigation instead of simply making broad statements that leave patients and physicians hanging out to dry.

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