The sweeping health care bill signed by President Obama in March -- the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act -- is the biggest overhaul of American health care in decades. It will expand insurance coverage by 30 million people, tighten consumer regulations, update Medicare and eventually require almost everyone to obtain health insurance -- but it will be phased in gradually between now and 2014. While many state insurance regulators wore business suits to their national meeting in Seattle on Saturday, they were approached by a smaller number of people wearing a different kind of suit. Health-care-reform activists sported surgical gowns and masks as they chanted and handed out packets that offered to "disinfect" the gathering from a "lobbyist pandemic." The packets included soap, a hand wipe, a clothespin and a face mask to protect against "lobbyist lies ... lobbyist germs ... and lobbyist stench" — underscoring that emotions over health-care reform haven't entirely subsided since President Obama signed a historic reform law in March. Commercial insurance is only one part of the story. It is no secret that treatment of people with diabetes, congestive heart failure, asthma and other chronic conditions account for a high percentage of Medicare costs. 0 comments

Federal drug regulators on Friday approved a new form of emergency contraceptive pill that prevents pregnancies if taken as many as five days after unprotected intercourse. Ella, a new emergency contraceptive that can prevent pregnancy within 120 hours after intercourse, joins two other pills approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) specifically for this purpose. Ella, however, beats out the other pills by providing protection for 48 hours longer. Women who have unprotected intercourse have about 1 chance in 20 of becoming pregnant. Those who take Plan B within three days cut that risk to about 1 in 40, while those who take ella would cut that risk to about 1 in 50, regulators say. Studies show that ella is less effective in obese women. Unlike levonorgestrel, the leading postcoital contraceptive now available, ulipristal remained equally effective over time, so women taking the drug five days after intercourse were no more likely to get pregnant than women who took the drug one day after intercourse. Levonorgestrel must be taken within 72 hours after intercourse. 0 comments

British scientists say they've found a new gene that allows any bacteria to become a superbug. In an article in the online journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, doctors are warning that the gene is widespread in India and could soon appear worldwide. An enzyme called New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase, or NDM-1, is the culprit in question. NDM-1 is found inside bacteria, like E. coli, and makes them extremely virulent and resistant to most antibiotics. The resistant gene has also been detected in Australia, Canada, the U.S., the Netherlands and Sweden. The researchers say since many Americans and Europeans travel to India and Pakistan for elective procedures like cosmetic surgery, it was likely the superbug gene would spread worldwide. NDM-1 (New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase 1) is a new gene that enables a bacterium to become highly resistant to nearly all antibiotics; it is spread in Enterobacteriaceae taken from patients in India and Pakistan. NDM-1 can exist inside different bacteria, like E.coli, and it makes them resistant to one of the most powerful groups of antibiotics - carbapenems. 0 comments

The age of puberty is declining for girls, with more girls developing breasts by age 7 than in years past, according to a new study. That's worrisome because early puberty has been linked to an increased risk of breast and endometrial cancer, as well as a greater tendency toward low self-esteem and poor body image, according to a report published Monday in Pediatrics. Ethnicity plays a role in earlier puberty, says researcher Frank M. Biro, MD, director of the division of adolescent medicine at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati. So does body composition. By age 7, about 10 percent of white and 23 percent of black girls had started developing breasts, the researchers found. This compared with 5 and 15 percent respectively in a study published in 1997. The new research confirms what many doctors have been seeing in their practices for years, said Lore Nelson, an adolescent medicine specialist at the University of Kansas Hospital. 0 comments