Health | WPN World People News

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has issued an advisory to the treatment community about a marked increase in deaths since the beginning of the year that were reportedly linked to the use of heroin contaminated with the drug fentanyl. Fentanyl is a form of opioid, and when used in combination with heroin, can cause severe injury and even death. There have been 17 deaths linked to the possible use of fentanyl-contaminated heroin in the Pittsburgh, Pa. area alone since January 24, 2014. In January, there were 22 such deaths reported in Rhode Island. These trends can expand quickly to include large and more distant geographic areas of the country. There have already been reported cases in New Jersey and Vermont.

New mortality estimates from WHO show that annual measles deaths have reached historic lows, dropping 78% from more than 562 000 in 2000 to 122 000 in 2012. During this time period, an estimated 13.8 million deaths have been prevented by measles vaccination and surveillance data showed that reported cases declined 77% from 853 480 to 226 722.

Women who take aspirin daily may reduce their risk of ovarian cancer by 20 percent, according to a study by scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health. However, further research is needed before clinical recommendations can be made.

Adults with low-grade gliomas, a form of brain tumor, who received a chemotherapy regimen following completion of radiation therapy, lived longer than patients who received radiation therapy alone, according to long-term follow-up results from a National Institutes of Health-supported randomized controlled clinical trial.

The U.S. National Institutes of Health, 10 biopharmaceutical companies and several nonprofit organizations launched an unprecedented partnership to transform the current model for identifying and validating the most promising biological targets of disease for new diagnostics and drug development.