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Artificial Liver For Drug Tests
If you have hay fever, headaches or a cold, it"s only a short way to the nearest chemist. The drugs, on the other hand, can take eight to ten years to develop. Until now animal experiments have been an essential step, yet they continue to raise ethical issues. "Our artificial organ systems are aimed at offering an alternative to animal experiments," says Professor Heike Mertsching of the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB in Stuttgart. "Particularly as humans and animals have different metabolisms. 30 per cent of all side effects come to light in clinical trials." The test system, which Professor Mertsching has developed jointly with Dr. Johanna Schanz, should in future give pharmaceutical companies greater security and shorten the path to new drugs. Both researchers received the "Human-centered Technology" prize for their work.
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New Ovarian Transplant Technique Could Expand Use Of Procedure To Preserve Fertility
Two recent advancements in ovarian transplant techniques could potentially expand the availability of the procedure for women seeking to avoid fertility problems as they age, researchers reported Monday at a meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology, the AP/Yahoo! News reports. According to the AP/Yahoo! News, ovary transplants traditionally have been performed on women with cancer as a method of preserving fertility after chemotherapy or other treatments that can affect the reproductive system. The procedure involves removing the ovaries before treatment and re-implanting them after treatment is complete. Because only a handful of these procedures have been successful, ovarian transplants have been an option only for women with serious diseases. However, as more women delay having children until their 30s or 40s, researchers say the new techniques, in theory, could make it simpler for healthy younger women to have an ovary removed, frozen and then re-implanted later in life when they are ready to have children.The first study examined how many eggs were lost or preserved in fresh and frozen ovarian tissue of 15 young women prior to the start of cancer treatment. According to the study, there was no difference in the quantity of eggs in the fresh tissue and in the ovaries frozen using a new ultra-fast technique. The study found that about 50% of a woman"s eggs were lost using the traditional, slow-freezing methods of preserving the ovaries.The second study reported on a new surgical technique to restore an ovary"s function after transplantation. For the study, Pascal Piver of Limoges University Hospital and colleagues divided the transplant process into two separate procedures in an attempt to more quickly re-establish blood and hormone supplies to the ovary. In the first procedure, the researchers performed a graft of small pieces of ovarian tissue to prompt blood vessels to grow. They performed the ovary transplant three days later. The technique was successful in a woman who lost fertility because of treatment for sickle cell anemia.Sherman Silber, director of the St. Louis Infertility Center in Missouri and a researcher for the first study, said the new techniques "could dramatically expand our reproductive life span." He added, "This is not an experimental procedure for cancer patients anymore. The question is whether more women should be able to have this option" (Cheng, AP/Yahoo! News, 6/29).
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Rabies: How To Protect Yourself And Your Pets
Rabies is a virus that occurs in mammals and infects the central nervous system; the disease can cause death in humans if it is not treated. Nearly 90 percent of cases occur in wild animals (raccoons, bats, foxes etc.); less than 10% of cases occur in domestic animals like dogs or cats. Humans usually become infected when they are bitten by an infected animal.
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Rural Doctors To Invite PM On Rural Health 'fact Finding' Tour, Australia

The Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) will write to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd this week to invite him to participate in a national "fact finding" tour of rural hospitals, rural practices, health centres and Aboriginal Medical Services. The call comes a day after the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission released its final report on health reform recommendations for Australia-a report which unfortunately lacked any substantial recommendations for much-needed new initiatives to increase the number of health professionals working in the bush. "We know Prime Minister Rudd is aware of the critical shortage of rural health professionals that is impacting so badly on access to healthcare in country Australia, but there is a big difference in being aware of the situation in a general sense and seeing it first-hand in community after community after community" RDAA CEO, Steve Sant, said. "We desperately need Mr Rudd to tour rural Australia from east to west, and north to south, to see for himself the devastating impact that the shortage of doctors, nurses and other health professionals is having on access to healthcare in rural Australia, and to hear about the crisis directly from those working on the frontline. "We"d like him to spend some real time with rural doctors to see the types of complex cases they deal with on a day to day basis, and to find out how far their patients have to travel if they need further diagnosis and treatment. We"d also like him to accompany these doctors in the middle of the night to attend an emergency or delivery at their local hospital, to show him just how important these doctors, the healthcare professionals they work with, and the hospitals themselves, are. "Mr Rudd has already promised that he will visit 24 major city hospitals as part of his consultation process on national health reform following the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission"s final report, but we are disappointed he has not made a similar promise to visit the country hospitals, general practices, health centres and Aboriginal Medical Services that play such a pivotal role in meeting the healthcare needs of the one-third of rural Australians who live in the bush. Such visits would enable the rural health professionals providing these much-needed services, as well as the rural patients they serve, to have their say. "We would like Mr Rudd to invest one week of his time in travelling with our President, Dr Nola Maxfield, to rural communities in each state and the Northern Territory-towns like Murray Bridge in South Australia, Cloncurry in Queensland, Karratha in Western Australia, and Moree in NSW just to name a few. "And importantly, we"d like him not only to experience the challenges facing the doctors and other health professionals working in the bush, but also the success stories-the towns where, because of the hard and constructive efforts of local communities and health professionals, sustainable healthcare services have been established and are thriving. "It is time for our politicians to see first-hand the value of supporting the provision of local healthcare in rural and remote communities-we sincerely hope that Prime Minister Rudd will be the first to take us up on our offer." Rural Doctors Association of Australia


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