Hamsters can carry deadly disease
DENVER, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- Federal health officials warn pet hamsters can carry tularemia after a Colorado boy contracted the potentially fatal condition from a hamster bite.
"Clinicians and public health officials should be aware that pet hamsters are a potential source of tularemia," officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote in the agency's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Tularemia, a potential bioterrorist agent, is an infectious disease commonly carried by small mammals, but has not previously been associated with pet hamsters. It can cause fever, diarrhea, difficulty breathing and death if not treated.
A 3-year-old Denver boy developed tularemia after being bitten on the finger by a pet hamster that subsequently died. The boy ultimately recovered after being treated with antibiotics.
CDC officials said one possible scenario is that wild rodents infected with tularemia may have infested the pet store that sold the hamster. The rodents could have spread the disease by urinating and defecating in the hamster cages.
Protein may be key to diabetic blindness
GAINESVILLE, Fla., Jan. 7 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists said a study in mice indicates a type of blindness that afflicts diabetics may be prevented by blocking the action of a single protein.
The technology used in the study could theoretically be turned into a therapy for humans quite rapidly, University of Florida researchers wrote in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
In the study, the scientists first analyzed samples of fluid obtained from the eyeballs of 46 patients with diabetic eye disease, including some with a condition called retinopathy, which causes as many as 24,000 cases of blindness each year.
A protein known as SDF-1 was found in each of the samples from diabetic patients but not in samples from non-diabetic patients, suggesting SDF-1 may play a role in causing retinopathy.
When mice with a retinopathy-like condition were injected with an antibody that blocked the action of SDF-1, the eye disease was halted.
The scientists want to test the therapy in monkeys and if that proves successful, to move ahead with trials in human patients.
Age a factor in reproductive technology
ATLANTA, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- A U.S. study released Friday said younger woman have an edge when it comes to using assisted reproductive technology to give birth using their own eggs.
The study by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found women in their 20s and early 30s had the most success with pregnancies using reproductive technology to help. The success rate steadily declined, however, once a women reached her mid-30s.
"This is a reminder that age remains a primary factor with respect to pregnancy success and younger women have greater success than older women, even with technology," the CDC report said.
Still, even with the newest technology, the study found just 37 percent of fresh non-donor procedures started in 2002 among women younger than 35 resulted in live births. By the time a woman reached 38-40, the success rate dropped to 21 percent and it declined to just 4 percent if a woman was older than 42.
ART includes infertility treatment procedures in which both egg and sperm are handled in a laboratory. Most procedures involve in vitro fertilization.
Vitamin C seen as no excercise booster
BOULDER, Colo., Jan. 7 (UPI) -- Don't count on Vitamin C to boost your exercise performance, researchers say in a new study.
Orange juice or other sources of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) may benefit your health but, the report says, contrary to what many people thought previously, ascorbic acid doesn't seem to help physical exercise performance.
Physiologists at the University of Colorado gave vitamin C to a group ranging in age from 23 to 61 prior to their performing exhaustive exercise on a treadmill.
Reporting in the online edition of the Journal of Applied Physiology, the Colorado physiologists said "the age-associated decline in aerobic capacity and cardiac output is unaffected by long-term administration of moderate daily ascorbic acid supplementation" for either men or women.
