Health Headlines - October 7

New Orleans Hospitals Should Be Torn Down: Official

Both of the public hospitals in New Orleans should be torn down due to the damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina, the chief of the state's Charity Hospital System said Wednesday.

Charity and University Hospitals "were issued their death warrant by Katrina and the cataclysmic floods it spawned," said Donald Smithburg, as quoted by the Associated Press.

Louisiana State University officials had been pushing to replace the facilities even before the storm, the wire service reported. Charity was built in the 1930s and University in the 1960s, the AP said.

Weeks after Katrina savaged Louisiana, many of the people killed by the storm remain unidentified.

So far, 972 deaths have been confirmed in Louisiana but only 32 victims' names have been made public and only 61 bodies have been released, The New York Times reported.

In Mississippi, 196 of the 221 people killed by Katrina have been publicly identified.

Bird Flu Experts to Meet in Washington, D.C.

Representatives from 65 countries and global organizations will meet at the U.S. State Department beginning Thursday to map a global strategy for dealing with a potential bird flu pandemic.

International experts, including those from the World Health Organization, continue to warn of the possibility that the avian flu virus that's currently sweeping Southeast Asia could mutate into a form that's easily passed between people. Since humans haven't built up immunity to the germ, the results of a mutated virus could be catastrophic, experts told the Associated Press.

So far, the virus has infected only about 65 people, most of whom appear to have contracted it from birds, the wire service said.

In an interview Wednesday, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt told CNBC that the United States was starting to prepare for a possible pandemic by stockpiling vaccines and antiviral drugs. The nation, he said, should pay careful attention to potential outbreaks both domestically and overseas, the AP reported.

Lupus Drug Fails to Meet Goals in Study

The Human Genome Sciences (HGS) drug LymphoStat-B has failed to significantly prevent lupus flare-ups or lessen symptoms of the painful disease in human trials, the company said Wednesday.

The company was encouraged, however, by results that showed some reduction in symptoms among 75 percent of the 449 study patients who already had markers for lupus in their blood, the Associated Press reported.

HGS said it would consult with its partner on the drug, GlaxoSmithKline, before deciding whether to continue studying the medication.

Lupus, which causes the body's immune system to attack its own organs, affects some 1.5 million Americans, mostly women. Symptoms include swollen joints, rashes, fever, and fatigue.

U.S. Issues Rules for Electronic Prescriptions, Records

The U.S. government has issued new regulations that further President Bush's goal of converting most of the nation's drug prescriptions and health records to electronic form, the Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday.

The proposals establish the conditions under which hospitals and other certified institutions can provide doctors with hardware, software and other information technologies for "e-prescribing" and creating electronic medical records, the department said in a statement.

Electronic prescribing enables a doctor to send an electronic prescription to a patient's pharmacy, cutting down on errors, including those caused by handwriting that's difficult to read.

The federal government is considering imposing a monetary cap on the value of the technology that can be given to doctors by a single institution, the HHS statement said.

The public has 60 days to comment on the proposed rules before they are made final, the department said.

Ozone Pollution Harms Sperm

Increased exposure to ozone air pollution affects developing sperm and results in lower semen quality, new research shows. The finding may help scientists better understand some causes of infertility for the estimated 2.1 million couples in the United States who have trouble achieving pregnancy.

Researchers analyzed semen samples from 48 regular donors to a Los Angeles-area sperm bank. They compared the quality of the semen samples with data on air quality and concluded that elevated ozone levels near donors' homes negatively affected semen quality.

The study is published in the current issue of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

"We noted an inverse relationship between ozone exposure and sperm concentration in all time points studied, suggesting that spermatozoa are susceptible to this toxic exposure throughout spermatogenesis," the study authors wrote.

They did not find a similar association between sperm density and exposure to other air pollutants like nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and fine particulate matter.

U.S. Supreme Court to Revisit Assisted Suicide Issue

The U.S. Supreme Court will revisit the issue of doctor-assisted suicide in a test of the federal government's power to prevent it.

Currently, Oregon is the only state that allows terminally ill patients to get lethal doses of medication from their doctors. Oregon voters have twice endorsed physician-assisted suicide, but the White House has challenged the state law, the Associated Press reported.

If the Supreme Court rules against the Bush administration in this case, other states may also decide to pass laws permitting doctor-assisted suicide. This case is the first to come before the new chief justice John Roberts.

In 1997, the Supreme Court ruled that terminally ill patients have no constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide. However, that ruling left room for state-by-state experimentation on the issue, the AP reported.

Food Fact:
Herbal form = function.

For herbally "enhanced" drinks, pay attention to what the label doesn't say. Labels typically do not list the form of an herb, making it impossible to gauge effectiveness. With ginkgo, for example, potential benefits have been seen in extracts standardized to contain a certain percentage of active ingredients. If the ginkgo in a drink is not of this kind, it will be ineffective no matter how much is added.

Fitness Tip of the day:
Walk it off.

Who needs special training or fancy gear to tone up your body and perk up your frame of mind? All it takes is your own two feet. Research shows that just 20 minutes a day of brisk walking will lower your risk of serious diseases -- that's just four five-minute walks a day! A half-hour a day is even healthier. Walk 45 minutes a day, and watch your waistline shrink.

FAQ of the day:
Do I need to drink milk to get my calcium?

Your calcium may be OK, but you may be lacking vitamin D, which is essential for calcium absorption and bone health. We typically get vitamin D from sunlight (our skin synthesizes the vitamin using UV light) and fortified foods, such as milk and some breakfast cereals. But other milk-based foods, such as yogurt and cheese, use unfortified milk, so no vitamin D. If you don't drink fortified milk, are over age 65, and spend a lot of time indoors, consider a vitamin D supplement providing 400 to 600 IU daily.