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Number Of Abortion Procedures Continues To Decline In Minnesota And Wisconsin
The following summarizes news coverage of state abortion statistics in Minnesota and Wisconsin.~ Minnesota: The number of abortions performed in Minnesota decreased for the second consecutive year in 2008, according to an annual report from the state Department of Health, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. Except for a one-time increase in 2006, the number of abortions in Minnesota has trended downward since a peak in 1980, when 19,028 procedures were performed. The new report found that 12,948 abortions were performed in the state in 2008, a decrease of 895 from 2007. Women ages 20 to 24 accounted for about one-third of the procedures, the most among any age group. The number of procedures among teenagers continued a decline that began in the 1990s but had leveled off slightly earlier this decade, the report found. The report also found that less than one-third of women reported using contraception and about one in seven was married at the time of conception (Von Sternberg, Minneapolis Star Tribune, 7/1).~ Wisconsin: Wisconsin abortion providers performed 8,229 procedures in 2008, the lowest number since the state began collecting statistics in 1974, according to an annual report by the state Department of Health Services, the AP/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports. The number of abortions has declined annually since 2003, when 10,557 procedures were performed. State law requires abortion providers to provide DHS with the data. According to the report, slightly more than half of abortions took place in the first eight weeks of pregnancy. Women who had never been married accounted for about three-fourths of all procedures. The report found that 12% of abortions occurred among women ages 35 and older; 34% were among women ages 20 to 24; 11% were among women ages 18 and 19; and 6% were among girls ages 15 to 17. The number of abortions among minors decreased from 551 in 2007 to 500 in 2008, with parents providing consent in 452 of those cases (Richmond, AP/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, 6/30).
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Hyperion Therapeutics Announces Results Of Phase I Study In Patients With Liver Cirrhosis
Hyperion Therapeutics, Inc. announced top-line results from a phase I study of HPN-100 in patients with liver cirrhosis. The data were presented as part of the 2009 Digestive Disease Week meeting. The abstract is titled "Pharmacokinetic (PK) and Safety Analyses of a Novel Ammonia-Reducing Agent in Healthy Adults and Patients with Cirrhosis."
News of the day
Recent Studies And Surveys
Health Affairs: Annual Medical Spending Attributable to Obesity: Payer- and Service-Specific Estimates -- Using data from 1998 and 2006 Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys (MEPS) - "a nationally representative survey of the civilian noninstitutionalized population that quantifies a person"s total annual medical spending by type of service and of payment" - the authors estimate the health cost of obesity in the U.S. is $147 billion. "Across all payers, per capita medical spending for the obese is $1,429 higher per year, or roughly 42 percent higher, than for someone of normal weight. In aggregate, the annual medical burden of obesity has increased from 6.5 percent to 9.1 percent of annual medical spending and could be as high as $147 billion per year (in 2008 dollars) based on the NHEA [National Health Expenditure Accounts] estimate," according to the study. In conclusion, the authors write, "The take-home message is that without a strong and sustained reduction in obesity prevalence, obesity will continue to impose major costs on the health system for the foreseeable future. And although health reform may be necessary to address health inequities and rein in rising health spending, real savings are more likely to be achieved through reforms that reduce the prevalence of obesity and related risk factors, including poor diet and inactivity" (7/27).
Cardiovascular

Exploring The Complexity Of Symbiosis In DNA And Cell Biology

The unique association between microorganisms and their hosts, whether insects, plants, or mammals, provides a fascinating view into how microbial symbionts adapt to changing biological environments. Insights into the diversity and complexity of symbiotic relationships are the focus of the current special issue of DNA and Cell Biology, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The issue is available free online at http://www.liebertpub.com/dna "Symbiosis is one of the most rapidly growing fields in biology.... After decades of focusing on bacteria in pure culture, it is evident that to manage them for our benefit, we need to understand bacteria in association with the complex biological environments with which they contend in the natural world," write Jo Handelsman, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of DNA and Cell Biology, Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and President of the Rosalind Franklin Society, and Guest Editor Margaret J. McFall-Ngai, Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in their Editorial. The issue contains articles representative of the broad range of scientific topics and disciplines related to microbial symbiosis. These include "The Oral Microbial Consortium"s Interaction with the Periodontal Innate Defense System," which describes a process called "local chemokine paralysis," in which the membership and characteristics of the bacterial community that populates the gingival crevice in the human mouth affect the ability of the natural immune defenses in the mouth to detect the presence of harmful bacteria and orchestrate their destruction. Author Richard Darveau, PhD, from the University of Washington in Seattle, describes this phenomenon as "another mechanism by which the action of a single bacterial member of the oral consortium can affect the host responses to a wide variety of different bacteria." The term "symbiont plasticity" describes the mechanisms by which symbiotic microbes adapt to changes in host development, immune responses, and the changing external environment. Jennifer Wernegreen, PhD, from the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, MA, and Diana Wheeler, PhD, from the University of Arizona, in Tucson, use the example of mutualism between Blochmannia and their ant hosts to illustrate how the bacteria rely on genetic, ecological, and physiological means to maintain the functional flexibility that allows them to meet the needs of an ant colony rather than the individual ants that make up the colony. Their thought-provoking review of the impact of symbiotic lifestyle on genetic variation and microbial adaptation is entitled, "Remaining Flexible in Old Alliances: Functional Plasticity in Constrained Mutualisms." Adam Silver and Joerg Graf from the University of Connecticut, in Storrs, explore the role of virulence factors and specific toxins produced by members of the Aeromonas veronii bacterial group in the article "Prevalence of Genes Encoding the Type Three Secretion System and the Effectors AexT and AexU in the Aeromonas veronii Group." These bacteria can cause a range of infections, from diarrhea and wound infections to life-threatening septicemia and meningitis. The authors demonstrate the presence of the type-3 secretion factors AexT and AexU in a variety of Aeromonas veronii strains and propose different functions for these two toxins. Vicki Cohn Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News


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