French Officials Awaiting Results of Turkey Bird Flu Tests
Bird flu has been found on a turkey farm in France, but officials said Friday that they're still awaiting test results to confirm whether it's the deadly H5N1 strain, Agence France Presse reported.
If confirmed, it would be the first outbreak of the virus in poultry stocks in France, which is the largest poultry producerer in the European Union (EU). The H5N1 virus has been found in wild birds in France.
So far, the virus has been confirmed in 10 European countries.
EU health ministers were scheduled to meet Friday with international health experts on how to deal with large-scale outbreaks of H5N1. It's expected the EU ministers will agree to launch a public education campaign to raise awareness about bird flu, AFP reported.
Since it first appeared in 2003, the H5N1 virus has devastated poultry flocks and killed 92 people. Experts fear it may mutate into a form that's easily transmitted between humans and spark a pandemic.
Meanwhile, a new poll shows that about 60 percent of Americans are concerned about bird flu, but fewer than a third believe it will show up in the United States this year. The poll of 1,043 adults also found that blacks are more worried about bird flu than whites, the Associated Press reported.
The poll also found that only 2 percent of the respondents had talked to their doctor about Tamiflu or other antiretroviral drugs that might be used to treat bird flu in humans. Even fewer reported that they'd obtained a prescription, the AP reported.
That seems to contradict reports that many Americans are trying to stockpile Tamiflu.
Three More People Placed on Antibiotics in Anthrax Case
As officials widened their investigation into an anthrax case in New York City, three people at a Brooklyn residence were placed under medical observation and put on antibiotics, Newsday reported.
In total, seven people in New York exposed to raw animal hides being used to make drums have been placed on antibiotics, the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said in statement.
A 44-year-old Greenwich Village man with inhalation anthrax is listed in stable condition in a hospital in Pennsylvania. It's believed that Vado Diomande, a dancer and drummer, contracted the potentially fatal bacteria from untreated goat hides he got in West Africa two months ago, Newsday reported.
He was diagnosed with anthrax after he collapsed following a performance he gave in Sayre, Pennsylvania.
This is an isolated incident that does not pose a threat to public health or safety and there's not a shred of evidence suggesting criminal or terrorist activity, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg emphasized.
Many Nursing Home Residents Need New Drug Benefit: Study
There's a greater than expected need for the new Medicare drug benefit in U.S. nursing homes, where 20 percent of residents lack prescription drug coverage, says a University of Maryland study in the March issue of the journal Medical Care.
Of the nursing home residents without prescription drug coverage, 37 percent have incomes below the federal poverty level and 35 percent have incomes between 100 and 200 percent of the poverty level.
The study authors concluded that "there is a much greater need for Part D drug coverage among nursing home residents than commonly thought." They also found that many nursing home residents would likely qualify for subsidized Part D coverage for those with low incomes.
The authors noted that 56 percent of nursing home residents on Medicare also qualify for Medicaid. This could leave them vulnerable to changes in access to drugs that they need as the system switches from Medicaid to Medicare drug benefits.
"The Medicare drug benefit is a potentially important benefit for many of our most vulnerable Americans, particularly patients with low incomes, who are in poor health. It will be important to monitor whether low-income nursing home residents qualify for premium and cost-sharing subsidies," said Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund, which provided financial support for the study.
Compounds May Slow Parkinson's Disease
The antibiotic minocycline and the muscle-related compound creatine may slow the progression of Parkinson's disease, suggests a pilot study funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
The study included 200 people in the earliest stages of Parkinson's disease who did not yet require any medication to control symptoms. The disease didn't seem to progress as rapidly in patients who took either minocycline or creatine as it did in patients who took a placebo, the Associated Press reported.
The findings were published online this week in the journal Neurology and presented Thursday at the World Parkinson Congress in Washington, D.C.
It's believed the two compounds may reduce a type of cellular stress or combat inflammation that can damage cells.
Minocycline is a prescription antibiotic while creatine is available in dietary supplements. However, researchers noted that creatine products in stores may not be as potent as those used in the study, the AP reported.
Industry Withheld Data on Chromium-Related Lung Cancer Risks
The chromium industry withheld important data on the links between hexavalent chromium and lung cancer when it presented research to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OHSA) last year, concludes a study by researchers at George Washington University and consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.
The study, published in the journal Environmental Health, charged that the chromium industry withheld the data because it was worried about stricter workplace regulations, the Associated Press reported.
About 380,000 jewelers, steelworkers and welders in the U.S. are exposed to hexavalent chromium on the job, the researchers said.
The study found that industry data submitted to the OHSA suggested that only the highest -- and not intermediate -- levels of exposure to the carcinogenic metal resulted in a significantly higher risk of lung cancer, the AP reported.
The revelation about the withheld data comes about a week before OHSA is set to issue a new standard on acceptable workplace levels of chromium. It's not clear what impact this study will have on that.
Current regulations limit chromium workplace levels to 52 micrograms per cubic meter. The OHSA supports restricting levels to 1 microgram per cubic meter, slightly lower than what's considered intermediate exposure. Public Citizen wants levels capped at 0.25 microgram per cubic meter, the AP reported.
Food Fact:
Fillet buster.
When trying to decide on the freshest fish, a few simple rules will help end the debate. First, let your nose by your guide. Fresh fish should smell like seawater, not "fishy." Fillets should look moist, not slimy or dried out. Fish has a reputation as "brain food," and while eating it hasn't been shown to actually increase your IQ, it's certainly smart to eat fish often. Fish is a protein with little artery-clogging saturated fat. Lean, white-fleshed fish, such as cod or flounder, has about one gram of fat and 125 calories in a 4-oz. portion.
Fitness Tip of the day:
Uncover hidden muscles.
The key to six-pack abs is not 500 sit-ups a day; it's skipping the excess calories. Improved muscle definition comes from losing body fat, not from increasing muscle size. For a healthy lean body, you need to find a balance between exercise and diet. Weight training will condition the muscle, but unless you address your total calorie intake, all that hard work will be hiding under a layer of fat.
FAQ of the day:
Why cut back on calories if I have diabetes?
Listen to your doctor. Cutting back on calories will improve your blood sugar, blood cholesterol profile and blood pressure -- classic signifiers of insulin resistance syndrome -- whether or not you lose weight. Even if you are eating only slightly more calories than you are burning each day, you are overloading your system, which is triggering an inherited tendency for Type 2 diabetes. If you continue to take in your current number of calories from middle age on, the imbalance will get worse, and your risk of heart disease will go up.
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