| Pregnant bird flu patient may add to information on Tamiflu
A pregnant woman in Indonesia who shows symptoms of bird flu agreed to take Tamiflu. The medicine, recommended by the World Health Organization to treat the lethal virus, may be a risk to her unborn fetus, a doctor said. The 35-year-old woman, two months pregnant, began a course of Roche Holding AG's antiviral to treat an infection possibly caused by the H5N1 avian influenza strain, said Luhur Soeroso, a doctor at the Adam Malik Hospital in Medan on Sumatra island. Clinicians have had little experience treating H5N1 in pregnant women, and if the woman has the disease, her case may provide needed information. There is no adequate data on the use of Tamiflu, known scientifically as oseltamivir, in pregnant women, according to the WHO. Animal studies don't indicate direct or indirect harmful effects on pregnancy or fetal development, the health agency said in March.
Pregnancy eases arthritis
When Denise Swanson developed rheumatoid arthritis nearly three decades ago, it was like a sudden storm of pain, swelling and fatigue. It was excruciating for the then-21-year-old college student just to pick up her backpack. She couldn't even write. Medication eased her pain and stiffness, but not much. "I would move like an old lady," said Swanson, now a 49-year-old special-education teacher. "It was scary." But then a few years later Swanson and her husband, Tom, did something that happened to bring total relief from the devastating disease: They decided to have a baby. All of Swanson's symptoms disappeared about a month after she became pregnant. "With all the things you're supposed to cope with in pregnancy, this was a joy," Swanson said.
‘Silent killer’ as treatment for heart and lung disease
Carbon Monoxide (CO), a gas once dubbed the silent killer by the UKs health and safety executive, could provide a life-saving treatment for an incurable lung and heart condition, report researchers at Harvard Medical School, US. The researchers showed that CO can be used to reverse pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), which is caused by uncontrolled proliferation of the smooth muscle cells of the pulmonary arteries blood vessels that carry blood from the heart to the lungs. Uncontrolled proliferation remodels the blood vessels, thickening the blood vessel wall and blocking blood flow. This eventually causes fatal heart failure. .
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