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Gene therapy for rare form of blindness wins US approval

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health officials approved the nation’s first gene therapy for an inherited disease, a treatment that improves the sight of patients with a rare form of blindness. It marks another major advance for the emerging field of genetic medicine. The approval for Spark Therapeutics offers a life-changing intervention for a small group of patients with a vision-destroying genetic mutation and hope for many more people with other inherited diseases. The drugmaker said it will not disclose the price until next month, delaying debate about the affordability of a treatment ...

US health officials to target high-risk alternative remedies

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health officials plan to crack down on a growing number of unproven alternative remedies, focusing on products containing dangerous ingredients that have occasionally been linked to serious injury and death. The Food and Drug Administration issued a new proposal for regulating homeopathic medicines that have long been on the fringe of mainstream medicine. The agency plans to target products that pose the biggest safety risks, including those marketed for children or for serious diseases. But under the government’s framework, the vast majority of low-risk ...

Survey: US teen use of marijuana remains high

NEW YORK (AP) — Teen use of marijuana remains high and vaping appears to be one reason, a new U.S. survey shows. One in 10 high school seniors said they had vaped marijuana at least once in the past year. It was the first time the annual survey asked about marijuana vaping and “it’s much higher than I expected,” said Richard Miech, the University of Michigan researcher who leads the study. For years, teen marijuana use in the U.S. has been seen as relatively flat. Some experts have been expecting it to rise as states loosened marijuana laws, more adults used it and fewer kids ...

‘Take all their excuses away’: Hard cases in heroin fight

CHICAGO (AP) — The van was coming for Richard Rivera, but it was taking a long time. He waited inside the entrance of Saint Anthony Hospital where he had spent the past three days getting off heroin. His next stop: a sober-living facility. As his addiction counselor, DeValle Williams, kept a silent watch, the 49-year-old Rivera griped about the people who found him a bed 22 miles away, complete with meals, job training and gym access. “They couldn’t find me a place closer?” he grumbled. Would Rivera get in the van, Williams wondered. Or would he walk away? Long before ...

CHICAGO (AP) — An increase in suicide rates among U.S. teens occurred at the same time social media use surged and a new analysis suggests there may be a link. Suicide rates for teens rose between 2010 and 2015 after they had declined for nearly two decades, according to data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Why the rates went up isn’t known. The study doesn’t answer the question, but it suggests that one factor could be rising social media use. Recent teen suicides have been blamed on cyberbullying, and social media posts depicting “perfect” ...

Is your own MD best in the hospital? Study eyes hospitalists

CHICAGO (AP) — The old-fashioned, family doctor style of medicine could be lifesaving for elderly hospitalized patients, a big study suggests, showing benefits over a rapidly expanding alternative that has hospital-based doctors overseeing care instead. Medicare patients with common conditions including pneumonia, heart failure and urinary infections who were treated by their own primary care doctors were slightly more likely to survive after being sent home than those cared for instead by hospitalists — internists who provide care only in hospitals. While hospitalist care can ...