Antipsychotics, Dementia, and Mortality Risk: Risk of Mortality Among Individual Antipsychotics in Patients With Dementia, Feb 09, 2012

"Using national data from the US Department of Veterans Affairs for fiscal years 1999-2008, Kales and colleagues retrospectively assessed 180-day mortality risk for 33,604 patients with dementia aged 65 years or older who began outpatient treatment with risperidone, olanzapine, quetiapine, haloperidol, or valproate. Using multivariate models and propensity adjustments, the investigators found that haloperidol was associated with the highest mortality rates (relative risk [RR], 1.54; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.38-1.73), followed by risperidone (reference), olanzapine (RR, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.89-1.10), valproic acid and its derivatives (RR, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.78-1.06), and quetiapine (RR, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.67-0.80). The mortality risk with haloperidol was highest in the first 30 days but decreased significantly and sharply thereafter. Among the other agents, mortality risk differences were most significant in the first 120 days and declined in the subsequent 60 days during follow-up"

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The Resurgence of Measles: Guidance for Clinicians: Measles Today: A Public Health Threat, Feb 09, 2012

"Measles is one of the most contagious infectious diseases in humans. It is a major contributor to child mortality worldwide and kills approximately 1-3 of every 1000 infected individuals, even in developed countries.[1] An effective vaccine was introduced in the 1960s, and along with global prioritization of measles control initiatives, this advance has significantly reduced the burden of disease. In 1997, 36 million cases and more than 1 million deaths occurred worldwide, but measles now accounts for an estimated 164,000 deaths per year globally. Endemic transmission was declared to be eliminated in the United States and the Americas in 2000.[2-4]"

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The 2012 Immunization Schedules: What's New? Feb 09, 2012

"The 2012 Childhood and Adolescent Immunization Schedules, approved by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American Academy of Family Physicians, were released on February 1, 2012. As in the past, 3 schedules are provided: one for children 0 through 6 years of age, another for children 7 through 18 years of age, and a catch-up schedule for children and adolescents who start late or fall more than 1 month behind. The days of learning the schedule once in school are over. As has been the case for the past several years, this year's schedule includes some notable changes. The increasingly complex schedule is accompanied by a number of footnotes, and the devil is in the details -- the footnotes are important, and providers are advised to use all 3 schedules and their respective footnotes together rather than treat them as stand-alone schedules. Medscape spoke with Michael T. Brady, MD, Chairperson of the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases and Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University about the most significant of this year's recommendations."

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