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Governor asked to intercede
August 2009
CLEARWATER, FL - Family Network on Disabilities of Florida (FND) asked Gov. Crist and Commissioner of Education Eric Smith to impose an immediate statewide moratorium on corporal punishment against disabled students in Florida's public schools.
This follows a report by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) detailing a graphic instances of punishment of disabled students, several of whom were from Florida.
The ACLU/HRW report found children with disabilities are punished at a higher rate than the student body as a whole.
It found disabled students are often punished for behaviors resulting from their disability and are many times beyond their control.
Rich La Belle, FND executive director, said: "The time is now to end this practice.
We call on the governor, the commissioner, superintendents, and school boards across the state to end corporal punishment of students with disabilities immediately.
Once this happens, we can discuss where to go from here.
We want to make sure that the new school year (is) without students with disabilities being subjected to this type of punishment."
LONDON - BBC News disclosed experts believe they found a "ground-breaking" laser treatment which could prevent millions of older people from going blind. The technique helps reverse age-related macular degeneration (AMD) - the leading cause of blindness in over 60s in the western world. Developed by Prof. John Marshall, of King's College, the laser returns the back of the eye to its youthful state. Improvements in sight were noted in early proof-of-concept trials. AMD affects more than 200,000 people in the UK and attacks the central vision. AMD develops when a membrane at the back of the eye becomes clogged with natural waste materials produced by the light-sensitive cells, which clouds vision. In youthful eyes, enzymes clear away the debris, but as ageing sets in this system can fail. The painless "short pulse" laser works by boosting the release of the enzymes to clean away the waste without damaging the cells that enable us to see. Early tests proved promising in around 50 people with diabetic eye disease.
IOWA CITY, IA - The Disability Law & Policy e-Newsletter of the Law, Health Policy & Disability Center at the University of Iowa College of Law and the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University disclosed that www.Disaboom.com, a resource for the disabled, unveiled its new Disability Organizations directory. It includes more than 450 mostly non-profit groups which provide services to the disabled. The directory has three categories: major disability organizations, disability-specific organizations, and groups for living with disabilities. The list is at: www.disaboom.com/Resources/DisabilityOrganizations/Default.aspx.
BALTIMORE - HealthDay News noted seniors who head south each winter to escape the cold often feel better thinking about the warmer climes. Still, there are adjustments to ensure the "snowbirds" stay healthy. Spending more time outdoors, plus more time socializing, boosts mood and well-being for 65-plus senior travelers, said Barbara Resnick, a board member of the American Geriatric Society and a professor at the University of Maryland School of Nursing. A winter spent in warmer locales "certainly can reduce the risk of depression," she said. Besides boosting mood, a season in the south may improve overall physical health, Resnick added, since warmer weather tends to improve conditions such as asthma. Of course, wintering in Arizona or Florida cuts seniors' risk of slipping on icy sidewalks, a major cause of hip fracture and other injuries. Too much sun exposure; dehydration; heat stroke, and a "vacation" mindset that may lead to risky behavior, such as unsafe sex or excess drinking.
MENLO PARK, CA - Premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance rose an average 6.1% in 2007 verwus 7.7% last year, higher than a gain in workers' wages (3.7%) or inflation rate (2.6%), noted the 2007 Employer Health Benefits Survey from Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust. The 6.1% figure was the lowest growth since 1999, (5.3%). Since 2001, family coverage premiums rose 78%, wages gained 19%, and inflation 17%. The average premium for family coverage in 2007 is $12,106; workers on average pay $3,281 from paychecks to cover their family policy.
CLEVELAND - The Brain Emporium offers Cleveland elders a chance to refute the adage, "You can’t teach an old dog new tricks." The Emporium, northeast Ohio’s first computerized brain fitness center, is a mind gymnasium where local elders can pump up their mental strength and expand their flexibility. Founder/director T.J. McCallum, associate professor of psychology at Case Western Reserve University, envisioned such an exercise center three years ago. With funding from the university, doors opened this spring. The facility gives older adults time to work with cutting-edge brain-training programs and games at little to no cost. Judson Retirement Community resident Josephine Rich, 89, finds her participation enjoyable: "I feel I’m benefiting from this fun," she said. "I enjoy the challenge. I find that I don’t have to refer to my lists as often." The programs are designed to engage and stimulate different areas of cognition, including memory, visual-spatial abilities, mental flexibility, processing speed, language, and planning.
PHILADELPHIA - Medical News Today disclosed that one year after three adults got gene therapy for an inherited form of blindness, scientists found the patients retain the same vision gains measured within weeks. This is the first study to report one-year gene therapy safety and efficacy in treating young adults with Leber Congenital Amaurosis (LCA), which causes severe vision impairment in infants and children. The findings were in Human Gene Therapy online and the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). The patients - 22, 24, and 25 - who got the therapy have a specific type of LCA caused by a genetic mutation in the RPE65 gene. This gene normally makes a critical protein in the visual cycle. Without this protein, light-sensitive photoreceptor cells are starved of a retina-specific form of vitamin A and can’t function, blocking vision. "We had shown that RPE65 gene therapy can reverse completely one of the two components of this complex disease and provide patients with increased day- and night-vision within weeks," said Dr. Artur V. Cideciyan, research associate professor of ophthalmology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and lead author. "We now show the longevity of the visual improvements extends to at least one year." The team included Penn, Penn's Scheie Eye Institute, and the University of Florida/Gainesville.
LOUISVILLE, KY - Scientists led by Dr. Jayakrishna Ambati at the University of Kentucky found a biological marker for neovascular age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of blindness in older adults. A receptor known as CCR3 shows strong potential as a means for early detection of AMD and preventive treatment. Findings were online at the journal Nature. "This is a major shift in (MD) research," said Dr. Ambati, professor of physiology, professor/vice-chair of ophthalmology and visual sciences in the College of Medicine. "With CCR3, we have for the first time found a unique molecular signature for the disease. This brings us closer than we’ve ever been to developing a clinical diagnostic tool to discover/treat the disease early, before vision is lost." Neovascular ("wet-type") MD is caused by invasive growth of new blood vessels in the thin vascular layer that provides nourishment and oxygen to the eye.
IOWA CITY, IA - The Disability Law & Policy e-Newsletter of the Law, Health Policy & Disability Center at the University of Iowa College of Law and the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University noted that due to budget cuts in the state of Washington, the Dept. of Social and Health Services lowered in-home care for disabled children for all families. The cuts will save $31 million in the state budget and affect 3,100 families. Three families are suing to keep the state from cutting their children's hours on the basis that budget cuts aren’t legal justification for reducing the hours of in-home care.
LOS ANGELES - Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute doctors disclosed completion of the first procedure where a patient's own heart tissue was used to grow specialized heart stem cells injected back into the patient's heart in an effort to repair and re-grow healthy muscle after a heart attack. The minimally-invasive effort was tried on the first patient on June 26 as part of a Phase I investigative study okayed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and supported by the Specialized Centers for Cell-based Therapies at the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. It’s the first to use adult cells from a patient's own heart to try to heal injured heart muscle. "This procedure signals a new and exciting era in the understanding and treatment of heart disease," said Dr. Eduardo Marban, director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, who developed the technique and is leading the clinical trial. "Five years ago, we didn't even know the heart had its own type of stem cells. Now, we’re exploring how to harness such stem cells to help patients heal their own damaged hearts."
NEW YORK - USNews.com ranks U.S. best hospitals by the way they handle demanding situations - replacing an 85-year-old man's heart valve, or diagnosing and treating a spinal tumor. Ranking are in 16 specialties, from cancer and heart disease to respiratory disorders and urology - 4,861 hospitals were considered; 21 made the Honor Roll: Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore; Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN; Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles; Cleveland Clinic; Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston; New York-Presbyterian University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell; University of California/San Francisco Medical Center; Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Barnes-Jewish Hospital/Washington University, St. Louis; Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston; Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC; University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle; UPMC-University of Pittsburgh Medical Center; University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers, Ann Arbor; Stanford Hospital and Clinics, Stanford, CA; Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville; NYU Medical Center, New York; Yale-New Haven Hospital, New Haven, CN; Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York; Methodist Hospital, Houston, Ohio State University Hospital, Columbus.
SAN DIEGO - University of California/San Diego School of Medicine researchers identified a protein produced by cancerous lung epithelial cells that enhances metastasis by stimulating the activity of inflammatory cells. Their findings in the journal Nature explain how advanced cancer cells usurp parts of the host innate immune system to generate an inflammatory microenvironment hospitable for metastasis of lung cancer. The discovery could lead to a therapy to limit metastasis of this most common lethal form of cancer. Scientists were headed by Dr. Michael Karin, UC/San Diego distinguished professor of pharmacology/pathology, who has investigated effects of inflammation on cancer development and progression. They used a straightforward biochemical approach to identify proteins produced by metastatic cancer cells responsible for generation of an inflammatory microenvironment that supports growth of metastases.
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - HealthDay News issued a wake-up call to U.S. men and women with type 2 diabetes: Snoring at night or nodding off in the day may signal Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), a potentially life-threatening problem affecting 33% of diabetics. Based on strong early evidence linking the two disorders, global health experts encourage doctors to assess diabetic patients for OSA symptoms and to screen sufferers for metabolic disease. This comes from the International Diabetes Federation Task Force on Epidemiology and Prevention. "It’s probably too early to see any concrete evidence of changes in practice, but there’s little doubt that awareness of the importance of screening people with diabetes and people with sleep apnea for the other condition is rising," said Dr. Jonathan Shaw, associate professor at the International Diabetes Institute, and lead author of the task force consensus statement. Sleep apnea occurs when a person's airway becomes blocked during sleep. It's usually caused by collapse of soft tissue in the back of the throat during sleep. It deprives sleep and may raise the risk for high blood pressure and heart disease. OSA is prevalent among diabetics.
BETHESDA, MD - The National Institute of Mental Health, under the U.S. National Institutes of Health, launched a large-scale study to learn whether early/aggressive treatment, personally targeted with different therapeutic efforts, will lower symptoms and prevent gradual deterioration of function characteristic of chronic schizophrenia. The Recovery After an Initial Schizophrenia Episode (RAISE) project is funded by NIMH with support from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). RAISE is a model of how Recovery Act money can hasten science related to public health problems and potentially benefit those most in need. "This initiative will help us determine whether intervention started early, (with) diverse sustained treatment and rehabilitation, can make it possible for more people with schizophrenia to return successfully to work and school," said NIMH director Dr. Thomas R. Insel. "RAISE will test ways which involve intervening immediately upon diagnosis, incorporating options now available in a more piecemeal fashion to schizophrenics.
DENVER - Reuters Health noted intrauterine exposure to maternal diabetes and obesity raises risk of type 2 diabetes in adolescents, results of the SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth Case-Control Study shows. Dr. Dana Dabelea, of the University of Colorado, and her team studied these relationships in 79 youths with type 2 diabetes diagnosed before age 20 and 190 non-diabetic control youths in Colorado and South Carolina. About 30% were boys, 70% were girls. The report in Diabetes Care details 30.4% of diabetic subjects and 6.3% of controls were exposed to maternal diabetes, while 57% and 27.4%, respectively, were exposed to maternal overweight/obesity in utero. The age-, sex-, and race-adjusted ratio was 7.3 for maternal diabetes and 3.6 for maternal overweight/obesity. The ties were similar for non-Hispanic white, Hispanic, and African-American youth. The team figures 47% of early-onset type 2 diabetes can be tied to intrauterine exposure to maternal diabetes and obesity.
SAN DIEGO - An international study in PLoS Genetics of the entire human genome found new genes seemingly tied to making some children more susceptible to Kawasaki disease (KD). This is one of the first genetic studies of an infectious disease to check the whole genome. University of California scientists in the School of Medicine’s Dept. of Pediatrics joined a team from the University of Western Australia, Emma Children’s Hospital (The Netherlands), Genome Institute of Singapore, and Imperial College London. They studied naturally-occurring genetic variation in almost 900 cases of KD from these countries. "KD tends to run in families, suggesting genetic components to risk," said Dr. Jane C. Burns, professor and chief, Division of Allergy, Immunology, and Rheumatology, UC Dept. of Pediatrics. "This systematic genome-wide study is simply letting the genetics tell us what are the key genes in KD pathogenesis." KD is a serious illness of young children that causes high fever, rash, red eyes and lips, swollen glands, and swollen hands and feet with peeling skin. The cause is unknown.
LONDON - BBC News disclosed experts believe they found a "ground-breaking" laser treatment which could prevent millions of older people from going blind. The technique helps reverse age-related macular degeneration (AMD) - the leading cause of blindness in over 60s in the western world. Developed by Prof. John Marshall, of King's College, the laser returns the back of the eye to its youthful state. Improvements in sight were noted in early proof-of-concept trials. AMD affects more than 200,000 people in the UK and attacks the central vision. AMD develops when a membrane at the back of the eye becomes clogged with natural waste materials produced by the light-sensitive cells, which clouds vision. In youthful eyes, enzymes clear away the debris, but as ageing sets in this system can fail. The painless "short pulse" laser works by boosting the release of the enzymes to clean away the waste without damaging the cells that enable us to see. Early tests proved promising in around 50 people with diabetic eye disease.
IOWA CITY, IA - The Disability Law & Policy e-Newsletter of the Law, Health Policy & Disability Center at the University of Iowa College of Law and the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University disclosed that www.Disaboom.com, a resource for the disabled, unveiled its new Disability Organizations directory. It includes more than 450 mostly non-profit groups which provide services to the disabled. The directory has three categories: major disability organizations, disability-specific organizations, and groups for living with disabilities. The list is at: www.disaboom.com/Resources/DisabilityOrganizations/Default.aspx.
BALTIMORE - HealthDay News noted seniors who head south each winter to escape the cold often feel better thinking about the warmer climes. Still, there are adjustments to ensure the "snowbirds" stay healthy. Spending more time outdoors, plus more time socializing, boosts mood and well-being for 65-plus senior travelers, said Barbara Resnick, a board member of the American Geriatric Society and a professor at the University of Maryland School of Nursing. A winter spent in warmer locales "certainly can reduce the risk of depression," she said. Besides boosting mood, a season in the south may improve overall physical health, Resnick added, since warmer weather tends to improve conditions such as asthma. Of course, wintering in Arizona or Florida cuts seniors' risk of slipping on icy sidewalks, a major cause of hip fracture and other injuries. Too much sun exposure; dehydration; heat stroke, and a "vacation" mindset that may lead to risky behavior, such as unsafe sex or excess drinking.
MENLO PARK, CA - Premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance rose an average 6.1% in 2007 verwus 7.7% last year, higher than a gain in workers' wages (3.7%) or inflation rate (2.6%), noted the 2007 Employer Health Benefits Survey from Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust. The 6.1% figure was the lowest growth since 1999, (5.3%). Since 2001, family coverage premiums rose 78%, wages gained 19%, and inflation 17%. The average premium for family coverage in 2007 is $12,106; workers on average pay $3,281 from paychecks to cover their family policy.
CLEVELAND - The Brain Emporium offers Cleveland elders a chance to refute the adage, "You can’t teach an old dog new tricks." The Emporium, northeast Ohio’s first computerized brain fitness center, is a mind gymnasium where local elders can pump up their mental strength and expand their flexibility. Founder/director T.J. McCallum, associate professor of psychology at Case Western Reserve University, envisioned such an exercise center three years ago. With funding from the university, doors opened this spring. The facility gives older adults time to work with cutting-edge brain-training programs and games at little to no cost. Judson Retirement Community resident Josephine Rich, 89, finds her participation enjoyable: "I feel I’m benefiting from this fun," she said. "I enjoy the challenge. I find that I don’t have to refer to my lists as often." The programs are designed to engage and stimulate different areas of cognition, including memory, visual-spatial abilities, mental flexibility, processing speed, language, and planning.
PHILADELPHIA - Medical News Today disclosed that one year after three adults got gene therapy for an inherited form of blindness, scientists found the patients retain the same vision gains measured within weeks. This is the first study to report one-year gene therapy safety and efficacy in treating young adults with Leber Congenital Amaurosis (LCA), which causes severe vision impairment in infants and children. The findings were in Human Gene Therapy online and the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). The patients - 22, 24, and 25 - who got the therapy have a specific type of LCA caused by a genetic mutation in the RPE65 gene. This gene normally makes a critical protein in the visual cycle. Without this protein, light-sensitive photoreceptor cells are starved of a retina-specific form of vitamin A and can’t function, blocking vision. "We had shown that RPE65 gene therapy can reverse completely one of the two components of this complex disease and provide patients with increased day- and night-vision within weeks," said Dr. Artur V. Cideciyan, research associate professor of ophthalmology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and lead author. "We now show the longevity of the visual improvements extends to at least one year." The team included Penn, Penn's Scheie Eye Institute, and the University of Florida/Gainesville.
LOUISVILLE, KY - Scientists led by Dr. Jayakrishna Ambati at the University of Kentucky found a biological marker for neovascular age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of blindness in older adults. A receptor known as CCR3 shows strong potential as a means for early detection of AMD and preventive treatment. Findings were online at the journal Nature. "This is a major shift in (MD) research," said Dr. Ambati, professor of physiology, professor/vice-chair of ophthalmology and visual sciences in the College of Medicine. "With CCR3, we have for the first time found a unique molecular signature for the disease. This brings us closer than we’ve ever been to developing a clinical diagnostic tool to discover/treat the disease early, before vision is lost." Neovascular ("wet-type") MD is caused by invasive growth of new blood vessels in the thin vascular layer that provides nourishment and oxygen to the eye.
IOWA CITY, IA - The Disability Law & Policy e-Newsletter of the Law, Health Policy & Disability Center at the University of Iowa College of Law and the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University noted that due to budget cuts in the state of Washington, the Dept. of Social and Health Services lowered in-home care for disabled children for all families. The cuts will save $31 million in the state budget and affect 3,100 families. Three families are suing to keep the state from cutting their children's hours on the basis that budget cuts aren’t legal justification for reducing the hours of in-home care.
LOS ANGELES - Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute doctors disclosed completion of the first procedure where a patient's own heart tissue was used to grow specialized heart stem cells injected back into the patient's heart in an effort to repair and re-grow healthy muscle after a heart attack. The minimally-invasive effort was tried on the first patient on June 26 as part of a Phase I investigative study okayed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and supported by the Specialized Centers for Cell-based Therapies at the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. It’s the first to use adult cells from a patient's own heart to try to heal injured heart muscle. "This procedure signals a new and exciting era in the understanding and treatment of heart disease," said Dr. Eduardo Marban, director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, who developed the technique and is leading the clinical trial. "Five years ago, we didn't even know the heart had its own type of stem cells. Now, we’re exploring how to harness such stem cells to help patients heal their own damaged hearts."
NEW YORK - USNews.com ranks U.S. best hospitals by the way they handle demanding situations - replacing an 85-year-old man's heart valve, or diagnosing and treating a spinal tumor. Ranking are in 16 specialties, from cancer and heart disease to respiratory disorders and urology - 4,861 hospitals were considered; 21 made the Honor Roll: Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore; Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN; Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles; Cleveland Clinic; Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston; New York-Presbyterian University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell; University of California/San Francisco Medical Center; Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Barnes-Jewish Hospital/Washington University, St. Louis; Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston; Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC; University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle; UPMC-University of Pittsburgh Medical Center; University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers, Ann Arbor; Stanford Hospital and Clinics, Stanford, CA; Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville; NYU Medical Center, New York; Yale-New Haven Hospital, New Haven, CN; Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York; Methodist Hospital, Houston, Ohio State University Hospital, Columbus.
SAN DIEGO - University of California/San Diego School of Medicine researchers identified a protein produced by cancerous lung epithelial cells that enhances metastasis by stimulating the activity of inflammatory cells. Their findings in the journal Nature explain how advanced cancer cells usurp parts of the host innate immune system to generate an inflammatory microenvironment hospitable for metastasis of lung cancer. The discovery could lead to a therapy to limit metastasis of this most common lethal form of cancer. Scientists were headed by Dr. Michael Karin, UC/San Diego distinguished professor of pharmacology/pathology, who has investigated effects of inflammation on cancer development and progression. They used a straightforward biochemical approach to identify proteins produced by metastatic cancer cells responsible for generation of an inflammatory microenvironment that supports growth of metastases.
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - HealthDay News issued a wake-up call to U.S. men and women with type 2 diabetes: Snoring at night or nodding off in the day may signal Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), a potentially life-threatening problem affecting 33% of diabetics. Based on strong early evidence linking the two disorders, global health experts encourage doctors to assess diabetic patients for OSA symptoms and to screen sufferers for metabolic disease. This comes from the International Diabetes Federation Task Force on Epidemiology and Prevention. "It’s probably too early to see any concrete evidence of changes in practice, but there’s little doubt that awareness of the importance of screening people with diabetes and people with sleep apnea for the other condition is rising," said Dr. Jonathan Shaw, associate professor at the International Diabetes Institute, and lead author of the task force consensus statement. Sleep apnea occurs when a person's airway becomes blocked during sleep. It's usually caused by collapse of soft tissue in the back of the throat during sleep. It deprives sleep and may raise the risk for high blood pressure and heart disease. OSA is prevalent among diabetics.
BETHESDA, MD - The National Institute of Mental Health, under the U.S. National Institutes of Health, launched a large-scale study to learn whether early/aggressive treatment, personally targeted with different therapeutic efforts, will lower symptoms and prevent gradual deterioration of function characteristic of chronic schizophrenia. The Recovery After an Initial Schizophrenia Episode (RAISE) project is funded by NIMH with support from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). RAISE is a model of how Recovery Act money can hasten science related to public health problems and potentially benefit those most in need. "This initiative will help us determine whether intervention started early, (with) diverse sustained treatment and rehabilitation, can make it possible for more people with schizophrenia to return successfully to work and school," said NIMH director Dr. Thomas R. Insel. "RAISE will test ways which involve intervening immediately upon diagnosis, incorporating options now available in a more piecemeal fashion to schizophrenics.
DENVER - Reuters Health noted intrauterine exposure to maternal diabetes and obesity raises risk of type 2 diabetes in adolescents, results of the SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth Case-Control Study shows. Dr. Dana Dabelea, of the University of Colorado, and her team studied these relationships in 79 youths with type 2 diabetes diagnosed before age 20 and 190 non-diabetic control youths in Colorado and South Carolina. About 30% were boys, 70% were girls. The report in Diabetes Care details 30.4% of diabetic subjects and 6.3% of controls were exposed to maternal diabetes, while 57% and 27.4%, respectively, were exposed to maternal overweight/obesity in utero. The age-, sex-, and race-adjusted ratio was 7.3 for maternal diabetes and 3.6 for maternal overweight/obesity. The ties were similar for non-Hispanic white, Hispanic, and African-American youth. The team figures 47% of early-onset type 2 diabetes can be tied to intrauterine exposure to maternal diabetes and obesity.
SAN DIEGO - An international study in PLoS Genetics of the entire human genome found new genes seemingly tied to making some children more susceptible to Kawasaki disease (KD). This is one of the first genetic studies of an infectious disease to check the whole genome. University of California scientists in the School of Medicine’s Dept. of Pediatrics joined a team from the University of Western Australia, Emma Children’s Hospital (The Netherlands), Genome Institute of Singapore, and Imperial College London. They studied naturally-occurring genetic variation in almost 900 cases of KD from these countries. "KD tends to run in families, suggesting genetic components to risk," said Dr. Jane C. Burns, professor and chief, Division of Allergy, Immunology, and Rheumatology, UC Dept. of Pediatrics. "This systematic genome-wide study is simply letting the genetics tell us what are the key genes in KD pathogenesis." KD is a serious illness of young children that causes high fever, rash, red eyes and lips, swollen glands, and swollen hands and feet with peeling skin. The cause is unknown.