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Health News

• HIV tests not yet as routine as cholesterol checks (AP)

  AP - Two years after the government urged making HIV tests as common as cholesterol checks, there are small gains but still one in five people infected with the AIDS virus doesn't know it, scientists said Thursday.

• Teen lives 4 months with no heart, leaves hospital (AP)

  AP - D'Zhana Simmons says she felt like a "fake person" for 118 days when she had no heart beating in her chest. "But I know that I really was here," the 14-year-old said, "and I did live without a heart."

  
  

• Insurers make pitch for health coverage mandate (AP)

  AP - The health insurance industry said Wednesday it will support a national health care overhaul that requires them to accept all customers, regardless of pre-existing medical conditions — but in return it wants lawmakers to mandate that everyone buy coverage.

• Surgeon who did first US heart transplant dies (AP)

  AP - Dr. Adrian Kantrowitz, a cardiac surgeon who performed the nation's first human heart transplant and who also developed lifesaving medical implants, has died. He was 90. Kantrowitz died Friday in Ann Arbor of complications from heart failure, said his wife, Jean Kantrowitz.

  
  

• Doctors transplant windpipe with stem cells (AP)

  AP - Doctors have given a woman a new windpipe with tissue grown from her own stem cells, eliminating the need for anti-rejection drugs. "This technique has great promise," said Dr. Eric Genden, who did a similar transplant in 2005 at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. That operation used both donor and recipient tissue. Only a handful of windpipe, or trachea, transplants have ever been done.

  
  

• Obese have right to 2 airline seats: Canada court (Reuters)

  Reuters - Obese people have the right to two seats for the price of one on flights within Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Thursday.

• Pfizer drops bid to sell Viagra over the counter in Europe (AFP)

  AFP - Pfizer has dropped its bid to market its potency pill Viagra over the counter in Europe, the US pharmaceutical giant announced Thursday.

  
  

• Clinical Trials Update: Nov. 20, 2008 (HealthDay)

  HealthDay - (HealthDay News) -- Here are the latest clinical trials, courtesy of CenterWatch:

• Texting Food Diaries Helps Kids Stick With Diets (HealthDay)

  HealthDay - THURSDAY, Nov. 20 (HealthDay News) -- Experts hope that letting kids have their fingers do the texting will increase compliance with the food diaries that are such a critical part of successful dieting.

• When the Caregiver Becomes the Patient (HealthDay)

  HealthDay - THURSDAY, Nov. 20 (HealthDay News) -- The stress of providing care for a loved one with Alzheimer's results in 25 percent of family caregivers having at least one emergency room or hospital visit every six months, says an Indiana University study.

• Colorectal Cancer Treatment Costs Vary Widely (HealthDay)

  HealthDay - THURSDAY, Nov. 20 (HealthDay News) -- The cost of treating colorectal cancer can vary by tens of thousands of dollars per patient.