IN BRIEF
CHICAGO — Baby gates meant to protect young children aren't always as safe as parents think. A new study says nearly 2,000 U.S. children get emergency room treatment each year from injuries resulting from falling through or climbing on these gates.
Most injuries weren't serious. But the researchers say parents should know about precautions. That includes using bolted gates, not pressure-mounted ones, at the top of the stairs.
Researcher Lara McKenzie and colleagues at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, examined data on children up to age 6.
The number injured on gates more than tripled over 20 years. These cases climbed from about 4 per 100,000 children in 1990 to almost 13 per 100,000 in 2010.
LOS ANGELES — The Food & Drug Administration is warning that injections of corticosteroids into the spine's epidural space — an extremely common treatment for radiating back or neck pain — in rare cases may result in loss of vision, stroke, paralysis and death.And that's even in the absence of fungal and other contamination introduced by compounding pharmacies that killed 48 people in 2012 and 2013.Physicians offering these injections to patients with back or neck pain should discuss these rare but serious risks with patients considering a jab of steroidal medication into the cerebrospinal fluid, the FDA said.The warnings mark the opening volley of an FDA effort to improve the safety of a pain treatment that thrives in medical practice without ever having received the agency's formal blessing.New antidepressant shows promiseExisting antidepressants, if they work at all, can take weeks to work, and for the deeply depressed, that can mean the difference between life and death. Researchers have discovered and tested an agent that, in mice at least, appears to reverse hopeless behavior quickly and continues to work for a sustained period.The latest hope as a psychiatric rescue drug is called MI-4, and news of its promise was reported this week at the San Diego meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.In the test tube, MI-4 was found to simultaneously increase the availability in the brain of three neurotransmitters that play a key role in depression: serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine. Researchers led by Jeffery N. Talbot found that in mice that had been stressed and trained to expect no rescue from frightening circumstances-a depression-like condition called “learned helplessness”-MI-4 quickly restored more hopeful behavior.
NEW YORK — Bearded dragons have joined the list of pets that can give you salmonella poisoning.In the last two years, 132 people in 31 states have been infected with a rare form of salmonella bacteria. Thirty-one answered detailed questionnaires about their illnesses; of those, 21 said they'd handled bearded dragons — a popular lizard native to Australia.Health investigators also found the rare bacteria in the terrarium of a bearded dragon tied to the outbreak. They're calling this the first U.S. salmonella outbreak caused by this kind of pet.“We are confident bearded dragons are the source of the outbreak” said Casey Barton Behravesh of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which released a report on the outbreak Thursday.Bearded dragons are desert animals that can grow to be about 20 inches long. Some are cream and brown in color, others are red, orange or yellow. Some sell in pet stores for around $70 to $100.They can appear clean and healthy but still be shedding bacteria, experts say.The CDC officials warned owners should wash their hands thoroughly after handling the lizards and keep them out of kitchens, sinks and bathtubs. They also should be kept away from small children.There have been no deaths in the current outbreak, but 42 percent have been hospitalized.Other pets that carry the salmonella bug include frogs, toads, turtles, snakes, hedgehogs, chicks and ducklings.
