One of the most common forms of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease is marked by a progressive degeneration of brain tissue and primarily affects people over the age of 65. Watch this personal exploration of the devastating condition.
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Residents had to “bawl and shout” for help and some were left in bed until midday, inspectors find.
The money will support a proton beam therapy clinical trial for patients with mouth and throat cancer.
Ian Hitchcock died after eating a contaminated sandwich at the Royal Hospital Derby, it is claimed.
Working long hours is linked to an increased risk of stroke, researchers say.
After maggots were found on a male patient, Arizona’s health department has issued a notice of intent to revoke the license of a Phoenix-area Hacienda HealthCare facility where an incapacitated patient gave birth to a baby in 2018 following a sexual assault.
The Arizona Republic reports that state health officials sent an email Friday announcing they will seek to revoke the facility’s license. NBC reports the agency’s decision is “based on findings from a recent survey and an extremely disturbing incident involving inadequate patient care” — the discovery of maggots near an incision on a male resident.
RELATED: Nurse Arrested in Sexual Assault of Woman Who Gave Birth in Long-Term Vegetative State
According to the Republic, the email reads, “The Notice of Intent to Revoke allows for the department to have increased accountability and oversight of the facility and does not mean Hacienda must immediately shut down.”
PEOPLE’s inquiries to Arizona’s Department of Health Services and Hacienda were not immediately returned.
A spokesperson for the facility told ABC15 that the patient was immediately taken to the hospital and that the incident was “swiftly self-reported to the relevant oversight agencies.”
RELATED: Facility Where Woman in Vegetative State Gave Birth Was Cited After Staff Walked in on Nude Patient
The facility made national headlines last year when a 29-year-old resident in a long-term vegetative state gave birth to a baby.
Nathan Sutherland, 37, a nurse at the facility, was arrested earlier this year, and has pleaded not guilty to one count of sexual assault and one count of vulnerable adult abuse. His attorney has not responded to PEOPLE’s previous requests for comment.
RELATED: Woman in Vegetative State Who Gave Birth in Nursing Facility Was 'Violated Repeatedly'
RELATED: Comatose Woman Was Last Examined by Doctor More Than 8 Months Prior to Giving Birth in Facility
In a lawsuit against the state of Arizona, the family of the victim — who has been identified as a Native American woman of the Apache tribe — said it was likely she had been impregnated previously.
RELATED: After Woman in Long-Term Vegetative State at Ariz. Nursing Facility Gives Birth, CEO Resigns
The suit states the victim “experienced severe physical and emotional trauma as a result of likely months, if not years, of repeated violent rape and assault.”
The victim, a resident of the facility since she was a toddler, “lacks sufficient understanding and mental capacity to make decisions or give consents for her medical, placement or financial estate” and suffers from quadriplegia, recurrent pneumonia and a seizure disorder, according to her medical records.
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E-cigarettes aren’t exactly the healthy alternatives to cigarettes that marketing hype suggests. Among the most popular in the e-cig space is a model called Juul. While manufacturers claim that e-cigarettes can help people break addictions to harmful tobacco products, CDC has expressed concerns about the safety of Juul and similar products. Specifically, CDC has said that e-cigarettes aren’t safe for kids, teenagers, and young adults, noting that most e-cigs contain a highly addictive and potentially harmful substance called nicotine. Kids hooked on e-cigs are more likely to smoke regular cigarettes later in life, CDC says.
But we’ve recently been alerted to another danger related to e-cigarette use. A 17-year-old featured in a new case report was harmed by an e-cigarette—not because of its addictive properties but because it exploded in his mouth.
RELATED: Teens Are 'Juuling' At School. Here's What That Means
That’s right: While he was using his e-cig, it exploded. He went to the emergency room two hours later, reporting swellingand pain in his jaw. Among other things, his chin was punctured, he had “extensive lacerations,” and he had a fractured, according to the New England Journal of Medicine.
His treatment included having his jaw re-set, dental extraction, and debridement (removal) of weak tissue. The patient healed well, but the authors of the new report warn that e-cigarettes need to be used with caution.
“The increasing prevalence of vaping among adolescents is a public health concern,” the report says.
The FDA has provided some tips for avoiding an e-cigarette explosion. For starters, don’t charge your device overnight. Replace the device’s battery if it gets wet or damaged. Don’t charge your device with a phone charger, and only use batteries that e-cigarette manufacturers recommend for their devices. Lastly, don’t expose your e-cigarette to extreme temperatures. That means keeping it out of direct sunlight in the summer.
RELATED: E-Cigarettes to Be Regulated as Tobacco Products
A charity for terminally ill children warns hospices are under threat unless the NHS increases funding.
Changes in a chemical called serotonin were found 15 to 20 years in advance of symptoms.
Researchers at Indiana University School of Medicine have discovered how a dangerous parasite maintains a steady supply of nutrients while replicating inside of its host cell: it calls for delivery.
Toxoplasma gondii is a single-celled parasite capable of infecting any animal, including humans. Up to one-third of infections in people happen through contact with cat waste or contaminated food or water. Although the parasite only causes acute disease in immune compromised persons, the infection is permanent and has been associated with neurological diseases such as schizophrenia and rage disorder.
The parasite can invade virtually all types of cells in the body. Once inside, it begins to divide exponentially, a process that requires a great deal of resources. The parasite extracts most of the nutrients it needs for replication from its host cell, including essential amino acids like arginine. Because arginine is quickly depleted from the host cell, researchers wanted to learn where the parasite gets more of the amino acid to fuel its expansion into the hundreds.
In a collaborative study funded by the National Institutes of Health, microbiology and immunology professor Bill Sullivan, PhD and biochemistry and molecular biology professor Ronald Wek, PhD identified a cellular starvation stress response that occurs within two hours after Toxoplasma infection. The study was led by Leo Augusto, a postdoctoral fellow in the Sullivan and Wek laboratories, who used a variety of mutant host cells to discern that a protein called GCN2 becomes activated as parasites consume the host cell’s arginine supply. Augusto mapped out the cascade of events following GCN2 activation, leading him to discover that host cells infected with Toxoplasma express more of an arginine transporter called CAT1 at their cell surface. CAT1 brings more arginine into the infected cell so Toxoplasma can continue to binge.
These findings suggest infected host cells can sense their nutrients being depleted. Oblivious to the parasites growing inside them, the host cells unwittingly gear up to bring in more arginine to compensate for the loss. The identification of proteins like GCN2 that are important for parasite growth and replication may serve as promising new drug targets to treat intracellular pathogens.
“Pathogens that live and grow inside of cells face special challenges,” Sullivan said. “Intracellular pathogens have to replicate without raising alarms, but in order to grow they need to pilfer nutrients from the host. Our study shows that Toxoplasma gets additional nutrients simply by hijacking a starvation response already built into the host cell.”
Whether the parasite does this on purpose or if it is a happy accident is still a lingering question. Augusto’s work appears to suggest the latter, as parasites deficient in arginine uptake did not elicit a strong starvation response in host cells.
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Materials provided by Indiana University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
