According to the information published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC on Wednesday, the death rate in the United States caused by the ongoing listeria outbreak has already arrived at a number of 28.

The CDC reported that there is a total number of 133 cases which are related to any of the four associated outbreak strains to Listeria monocytogenes. These have been listed in the twenty six various states in U.S.

Not only that, besides the 28 listed reported deaths caused by the listeria outbreak, one woman who was pregnant also had a miscarriage due to the suffering she experienced from the illness.

Previously, FDA or Food and Drug Administration had issued an announcement last September 14, announcing that Jensen Farms had submitted to a voluntary recall on their cantaloupes which are branded Rocky Ford, subsequent to the reports associating it to a multistate listeria outbreak.

On the other hand, even though the reported recall on Jensen’s cantaloupes were taken out from the shelves of their stores, more and more cases may be accounted due to the delay of time between analyses and confirmation in the laboratory.

Additionally, experts explain that it can take some time, possibly up to two months, between eating foods which re contaminated and developing the illness. This means that additional cases may keep on persisting for the following months.

The Centers for Disease and Prevention further noted that elderly individuals, especially those who have failing immune systems and pregnant women, are more susceptible to listeria. They have given all customers a fair warning not to take in cantaloupes with labels of Rocky Ford brand.

However, CDC suggested that the cantaloupes which do not come from the Jensen farms are safe to eat.

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With the reported salmonella outbreak in six states, which has infected about 42 individuals, Wegmans Inc. has recalled the pine nuts sold in their grocery stores.

On Thursday, the New York-based chain has declared that they had recalled around 5,000 pounds of their pine nuts that are Turkish bulk-purchased. The products were sold within the period of July 1 up to October 18 at grocery stores of Wegmans located in Maryland, New York, Virginia, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and illnesses took place in the said states and in Arizona.

Jo Natale, the spokesperson of the company explained that on the average, the amount acquired by the company’s customers would be between around 8^th of a pound and a quarter of a pound. Natale further emphasized that not all of their customers who purchased the pine nuts made use of a Shoppers Club card, however, a lot of consumers – majority of them are represented by those 13,000 something people who were informed about the recall the company will do.

Moreover, Natale explained that Wegmans has acquired the pine nuts from Sunrise Commodities of Englewood Cliffs, a distributor they have been using as of 2010.

The CDC or Center for Disease Control reported that infections caused by the pine nuts began last August 20. In addition, two patients have been reported to be hospitalized due to the sickness.

The Food and Drug Administration is now investigating the situation and told that Wegmans immediately cooperated with the investigation.

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Experts who are still in attempt to stop the outbreak of Dengue fever has released, for the first time, mosquitoes out in the wild, which had been modified genetically so that they will pass on the deadly DNA that destroys their offspring.

According to a study, there were around 19,000 insects that are genetically modified released into the 25 acres located at Grand Cayman Island last 2009. Soon after the releasing, tests have shown that those made up most of the sixteen percent of the population of mosquitoes; additionally, the deadly gene was carried by around ten percent of larvae.

The scientists calculated that the lab-altered mosquitoes, which happened to be all males, were about half as triumphant when it comes to mating as normal.

Reports presented that dengue fever has already victimized a lot of people, at most a hundred million cases around the globe for each year. This has made the illness one of the most medically noteworthy viruses which are caused by such insects.

Researchers told that there is still no vaccine, which boosts the need to limit the mosquitoes that carry such virus. In addition, they explained that the test has encouraged concerns about a possibility that there might be unintended environmental consequences.

Moreover, the researchers further noted that the data they gathered will permit them to tentatively approximate the number of mosquitoes that might have to be released in the said area, enable for them to hold back the target population.

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MetLife says that long-term health costs have increased up to 5.6% this year, piloted by assisted-living expenses, and continues to rise at a higher rate in the middle of a not so strong financial system.

The largest U.S. life insurer, New York-based MetLife, said in their report that the standard cost for assisted living rose 5.6 percent to $41,724 a year, in comparison to a 5.2 percent increase last year. The rate for a private nursing-home room increased 4.4 percent to $87,235 a year and adult day services climbed 4.5 percent to $70 a day. Home health-aide service was unchanged at $21 an hour, based as well on the report.

Director of The MetLife Mature Market Institute, Sandra Timmermann, declared in a statement, “This year’s increases are greater than previous years. The state of the economy, combined with rising health-care and energy costs, are having a significant impact on long-term care rates.”

MetLife congested with regard to accommodating requests for long-term care insurance in 2010, mentioning “financial challenges” in the industry. Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America said it would end writing the rules by the last part of this year. Since 2009, Allianz SE which is based in Munich has advertised no new long-term guidelines.

In addition, Timmerman said, “Long-term care rates continue to outpace the medical inflation rate.”

Medicaid lends a hand to maintain operating expenses for low-income Americans and face the long-term medical services while Medicare deals with on home health services and short-term nursing only, based on Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

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Based on the new report released on last Wednesday, thousands of ingredients that go into food have been sorted as harmless by private commerce alone, without any U.S. government failure to notice.

The report issued by the Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety journal focused on the study financed by the health and consumer safety arm of the nonprofit Pew Charitable Trusts, the Pew Health Group.

Erik Olson, Pew Health Group’s director of food and consumer safety programs and one of the study’s authors said that, “We don’t know the names of a lot of these chemicals because the companies have never told FDA or the public about them. Often there is not publicly available data on the potential health impacts because FDA has never evaluated them.”

According to the Grocery Manufacturers Association, the industry only sorts out components as safe after a battery of thorough biological tests but consents that more lucidity would help put up consumer assurance.

Leon Bruner, the association’s chief science officer supports the approximations of the research rational. He said, “The system is less transparent than it should be so we’re looking to open that dialogue. We are completely comfortable with increasing the transparency or the visibility of ingredients that go through the process.”

FDA Deputy Commissioner Michael Taylor said Wednesday that the research brought up significant concerns. He stated, “Transparency in decision-making is a high priority for FDA, and FDA considers it timely to explore whether the statutory and regulatory framework for food additives adequately addresses today’s need for transparency.”

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According to a report accounted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, just about forty American people die each day due to painkiller overdose like OxyContin and Vicodin. The rate is about 15,000 each year, concealing the quantity of deaths from cocaine and heroin combined.

CDC director, Dr. Thomas Frieden stated that they are in the middle of an outbreak of over dosage on prescription narcotic drugs. The problem is said to have originated from some irresponsible doctors and not from drug pushers staying on the corners of the street.

The officials discussed that the problem of abuse on such drugs is now getting worse. The CDC found out that the figure of deaths is representing a three times increase over the past ten years. In addition, they also discovered that last year 2010, there were just adequate painkillers approved in supplying each and every adult for a one-month supply only.

Not only it is a problem of abuse, but also it is an expensive problem. The officials emphasized on putting the nonmedical use costing, such as misuse of the drug, of the prescribed painkillers at $72.5 billion basing on the data of an insurance company and the government.

In every state, the number of deaths related to the sale of prescribed painkillers varies. The epidemic is quite hard on states like Oklahoma, Florida and New Mexico.

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A part of Wells Fargo and Company, Wells Fargo Insurance Services USA, Inc. has declared that Darryl Ives, Rod Okimoto, and Kathy Hinz have joined its Bay Area-based Technology Practice and will have a new office in San Jose as a component of the continuous expansion.

These people will help build up customer associations in Silicon Valley, be of assistance to spread out Wells Fargo Insurance Services’ existence in the market, and lead efforts to discover new business prospects. Rod Sockolov, the managing director and Technology Practice leader for Wells Fargo Insurance Services’ San Francisco Bay Area region, is the one they will report to.

As said by Sockolov, “We are committed to strengthening our team by investing in top talent like Kathy, Darryl and Rod. Their valuable knowledge and expertise will further strengthen Wells Fargo’s capabilities to provide our customers with the insurance and technology solutions they need.”

After functioning and serving at Lockton and Aon in San Jose where he worked at Silicon Valley’s vigorous technology trade, Okimoto is in one with Wells Fargo Insurance Services now. In thirty years of service, he has served Silicon Valley starting as a Highly Protected Risk (HPR) engineer at FM Global in Mountain View.

Another one to join the Wells Fargo Insurance Services is Ives. He has worked for ten clients as an outsourced risk manager and has been in National Semiconductor Company (NSC) in Santa Clara for ten years. He was also educated as an HPR in Industrial Risk Insurers in San Francisco.

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On Monday, U.S. researchers have reported that violence seen among teenagers may be possibly associated with their heavy consumption of soft drinks.

The researchers explained that students in the high school department, specifically in the inner city of Boston, consumed over five cans of soft drinks that are non-diet every week, and they found out that a percentage between nine and fifteen are more possibly to involve themselves in an aggressive attitude such as violence than those teenagers who drank less of it.

Harvard School of Public Health’s professor David Hemenway stated that they what they have found was there was really a very strong association between the number of soft drink cans and how violent the kids who consumed those soft drink cans. Not only in the aggressive behavior the kids shown against other peers, but also violence against siblings and in dating relationships.

He further emphasized that he and his colleagues were shocked when they saw how transparent the association between those factors was.

The study was conducted basing on the questionnaires filled out by a number of 1,878 students aging between fourteen an eighteen from public schools in Boston’s inner city. Most of the respondents were of African-American, Hispanic, or mixed. Just a few of them were White or Asian.

The students were asked how many soft drinks they have consumed in the past seven days – that is carbonated non-diet soft drinks. Additionally, the teens were also asked if they drink alcohol, done smoking, showed violence against dating partners, peers or family members, and carried a weapon.

The results showed that among those who drink fourteen cans weekly, over 58% had been violent against their peers, 43% carried a knife or gun and 27% had been aggressive against their dating partners. For those who drank one or no cans of soft drink, 35% had shown violence against their peers, 23% carried a knife or gun, and 15% showed violence against their dating partners.

In general, the results presented that those teens who consumed soft drinks were more possibly to involve themselves in violent behavior, even though ethnicity and other factors were included.

Hemenway affirmed that they want to look at this study even more closely.

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According to a latest research, those people who are in diet and regained weight appeared to not just going back to their past habits; however, they are experiencing struggles against their hormones, which is a persistent biological urge.

One of the authors of the study, Joseph Projetto from the University of Melbourne located in Australia explained that individuals who have regained weight should not be inconsiderate of themselves. He further emphasized that human’s most basic instinct is eating, giving us a reason not to blame it to eating alone.

The new research can be read on the New England Journal of Medicine’s Thursday issue.

For most of those who involve themselves in dieting, the common problem is weight regain.

The researchers studied on what drives weight regain. Projetto and his colleagues registered about fifty obese or overweight patients in a ten-week diet program in Australia. The main objective is to observe the participants, particularly to what would happen to individuals who have loose minimum of ten percent of their body weight.

Overall, out of the fifty participants, only 34 people have lost their weight and remained with the study for analysis and further observation. According to the people involved in the study, the program was extreme.

On the average, during the ten-week program, the participants had lost about thirty pounds – that is faster compared to the usual advice of losing around one to two pounds weekly. Within the program, they took in around 500 to 550 calories per day, and had used a meal replacement named Optifast with an additional vegetable meal for eight weeks. After that, for two weeks, the participants were little by little reintroduced to common foods.

The researchers checked the blood levels of the hormones that primarily affected the appetite of a human being. The major result was based from the comparisons between hormone levels before and after the weight-loss program. The results showed that out of nine hormones, there were six still out of strike in a path that really boosts hunger.

Generally, the study suggested that the continuing effect of levels of hormone with weight gain was not that surprising. Experts not connected to the study stated that it probably had nothing to do with how fast a person losses weight.

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According to a latest research, women who frequently drink a little amount of alcohol may probably increase their life span risk of breast cancer—that is less than a drink per day.

Harvard Medical School’s assistant professor of medicine Dr. Wendy Chen, along with her colleagues reported that those women who drank between three to six drinks every week within several years were found fifteen percent more possibly to have breast cancer compared to those who did not drink any alcohol.

In addition, drinking heavier is considered as drinking not more than two drinks each day, and is linked to a 51 percent increase in breast cancer risk.

Moreover, the outcome was cumulative; through the breast cancer risk increasing by ten percent by every ten grams rise in consuming alcohol in every day. The situation may seem troublesome, but it is worth recalling that on the usual, the general risk of breast cancer still is modest.

Women’s College Research Institute’s Dr. Steven Narod explained that based on the data of the study, women who regularly consume alcohol each day could look forward to their ten-year risk of breast cancer to raise to 3.5% from 2.8%. For those who consume two drinks per day, the risk could increase to 4.1% from 2.8%.

The latest results will be supplementary evidence that is connects breast cancer to drinking alcohol. However, previous studies have presented that the risk of breast cancer can be enhanced through drinking alcoholic beverages, which on the other hand is suggested in reducing the heart disease risk.

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