Report: 1 in 3 Seinors Dies With Alzheimer's Or Dementia

A staggering 1 in 3 seniors dies with Alzheimer's disease or other types of dementia, says a new report that highlights the impact the mind-destroying disease is having on the rapidly aging population.

Dying with Alzheimer's is not the same as dying from it. But even when dementia isn't the direct cause of death, it can be the final blow - speeding someone's decline by interfering with their care for heart disease, cancer or other serious illnesses. That's the assessment of the report released Tuesday by the Alzheimer's Association, which advocates for more research and support for families afflicted by it.

"Exacerbated aging," is how Dr. Maria Carrillo, an association vice president, terms the Alzheimer's effect. "It changes any health care situation for a family."

In fact, only 30 percent of 70-year-olds who don't have Alzheimer's are expected to die before their 80th birthday. But if they do have dementia, 61 percent are expected to die, the report found. Read more >>

Babies from the genetic pool of three people

While here in the United States we bicker about whether single-parent households can raise children as well as two-parent ones, in Britain, they’re way ahead of us. They’re up to three parents in the mix, bless their souls.

They don’t mean three parents under the same roof. That would be chaos, clearly. (The three wouldn’t be able to buy fitted sheets for a triple bed — plus their driveway probably would be too small.) They mean a kid made from the genetic goop of three people.

So, a kid with Mom’s eyes, Dad’s nose and the height of ... a generous DNA donor. An aunt or uncle? A neighbor? The pool guy? It’s a serious topic, with the serious goal of allowing parents who carry genetic defects to produce children who are free of those defects.

Genetically modifying an egg that carries a risk for muscular dystrophy, for example, would eliminate it in not only the baby, but in all future stock from that family line. A British committee, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, is now mulling whether to lift the ban on genetic modification. Read more >>

Ebola outbreak: patients flee Uganda hospital amid contagion fears

Terrified patients fled from a hospital in western Uganda as soon as news broke that a mysterious illness that killed at least 14 people in the region was Ebola, one of the world's most virulent diseases.

Government officials and a World Health Organization representative confirmed the Ebola outbreak at a news conference in Kampala on Saturday. "Laboratory investigations done at the Uganda Virus Research Institute ... have confirmed that the strange disease reported in Kibaale is indeed Ebola haemorrhagic fever," they said in a joint statement. Health officials said at least 20 people had been infected and of those 14 had died.

There is no treatment or vaccine against Ebola, which is transmitted by close personal contact and, depending on the strain, can kill up to 90% of those who contract the virus. It has a devastating history in Uganda, where in 2000, at least 425 people were infected, of whom more than half died. Ebola was previously reported in the country in May last year, when it killed a 12-year-old girl. Read more >>