Here are some of the latest health and medical news
developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
George McGovern 'No Longer Responsive': Daughter
Former U.S. senator and presidential candidate George McGovern
is "no longer responsive" in hospice care, his family said in a
statement released through Avera McKennan Hospital in South
Dakota.
Earlier, daughter Ann McGovern told the
Associated Pressthat her 90-year-old father is "nearing the
end" and appears restful and peaceful.
McGovern was the Democratic candidate against President Richard
Nixon in 1972 and lost in an historic landslide. He was a member of
the U.S. House from 1957 to 1961 and a U.S. senator from 1963 to
1981.
In recent years, he devoted his efforts to world hunger, the
APreported.
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Dole American Salad Mix Recalled
Bags of Dole American ready-to-eat salad mix are being recalled
after a sample tested positive for a type of bacteria called
Listeria monocytogenes, which can cause serious illness.
The recalled 12-ounce bags were distributed in in Illinois,
Indiana, Maine, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania,
Tennessee and Wisconsin. The bags are coded A275298A or B and have
a use-by date of Oct. 17 and a UPC code of 714300093, the
Wall Street Journalreported.
No illnesses have been reported in connection with the recalled
salad mix, according to Dole Fresh Vegetables.
The company said the contamination was found in a random sample
test conducted by the Tennessee Department of Agriculture. Listeria
can cause serious infections and is especially dangerous in
pregnant women, newborns, seniors and people with weakened immune
systems, the
WSJreported.
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TB Cases, Deaths Fall: WHO
The number of people worldwide newly diagnosed with tuberculosis
fell from 8.8 million in 2010 to 8.7 million in 2011, while deaths
from the disease fell from 1.45 million to 1.4 million, the World
Health Organization says.
Even though the number of new TB cases and deaths declined in
all six WHO regions, the agency said that Africa and Europe are not
on track to meet the goal of halving 1990 levels of TB death in the
next three years,
Bloomberg Newsreported.
The WHO said only 20 percent of patients with multi-drug
resistant TB have been diagnosed, and also said that the first new
TB medicines in more than 40 years may become available in
2013.
"We are now at a crossroads between TB elimination within our lifetime, and millions more TB deaths," Mario Raviglione, director of the WHO's Stop TB Partnership, said in a statement, Bloombergreported.
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Study Callenges Cranberry Juice Claims
Claims that cranberry juice prevents or treats bladder and
urinary tract infections (UTIs) have been exaggerated, according to
a new study.
Researchers reviewed 24 studies that included nearly 5,000
people and found that cranberry juice may be helpful only in women
with recurrent UTIs,
ABC Newsreported.
Typical women would need to drink at least two glasses of
cranberry juice a day over a long period of time to prevent a UTI,
said the study authors, who added that it's unclear whether
cranberry-based products such as pills would prove more beneficial
than juice.
"More studies of other cranberry products such as tablets and capsules may be justified, but only for women with recurrent UTIs, and only if these products contain the recommended amount of active ingredient," said lead researcher Ruth Jepson of the University of Stirling in the U.K., ABC Newsreported.
The study was published Oct. 16 in
The Cochrane Library.
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