Here are some of the latest health and medical news
developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
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Switching Egg DNA Shields Against Mitochondrial Disease:
Study
U.S. researchers who switched bits of defective DNA in a human
egg with the same healthy DNA from another egg say this technique
could prevent women from passing rare and potentially deadly
mitochondrial disease to their children.
Half of the eggs with the transplanted DNA got fertilized, and
many of those developed into healthy human embryos, according to
laboratory test results published in the journal
Nature, the
Wall Street Journalreported.
In a previous experiment, the team of researchers conducted the
same type of DNA transfer in monkeys and let the eggs proceed to
live births. Those animals are now three years old and doing
well.
Based on the results of these two experiments, "we expect to be
in clinical trials in two or three years," Shoukhrat Mitalipov, a
lead author of the new study and a development biologist at Oregon
Health & Science University in Portland, Ore., told the
WSJ.
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Medicare Policy Change Helps Patients Who Need Rehab
Services
A proposed Medicare change will enable thousands of patients
with disabilities or severe chronic illnesses such as Alzheimer's
disease to keep getting rehabilitation and other services.
The change agreed to by the Obama administration in a national
class action suit would mean that these patients would continue to
receive physical and occupational therapy and other services at
home or in a nursing home, even if they don't show improvement,
Gill Deford, a lawyer with the Center for Medicare Advocacy, told
the
Associated Press.
Longstanding Medicare policy says patients must show improvement
to keep receiving rehabilitation services. This was challenged in
court by the Center for Medical Advocacy and other groups.
"If you have a chronic condition, by definition you are not improving," Deford told the AP. "Our view is that Medicare regulations were intended to allow people to maintain their health status. They don't have to show they are getting any better. The point is to allow them not to get any worse, if possible."
The change could affect tens of thousands -- perhaps hundreds of
thousands -- of patients in the U.S. with conditions such as
Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis, and chronic lung disease.