Sunday, March 12, 2006

Health Headlines - March 12

Possible Mad Cow Case Found

A possible case of mad cow disease has been found during routine testing by the U.S. Agriculture Department, the Associated Press reported Sunday.

The cow did not enter the human or animal food chain, said USDA Chief Veterinarian John Clifford. More detailed tests are being conducted at the department's laboratory in Ames, Iowa, and the results should be available within four to seven days.

"This inconclusive result does not mean we have found a new case of BSE [mad cow disease]," Clifford said in a statement. "Inconclusive results are a normal component of most screening test, which are designed to be extremely sensitive."

Eating meat products contaminated with mad cow disease has been linked to more than 150 deaths worldwide from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare and fatal nerve disease for humans. A majority of those deaths were in Britain, where there was an outbreak of mad cow disease in the 1980s. There has been only one confirmed case in the United States, although the federal government believes the person got the disease in Britain. U.S. agricultural investigators found two cases of mad cow disease, in December 2003 and June 2005. Since then, the government has increased its level of testing.

Cameroon Fourth African Country to Report Bird Flu

Cameroon became the fourth African country to report the deadly bird flu virus, the government announced Sunday.

The Associated Press reported that a laboratory in Paris confirmed the finding.

The H5N1 bird flu strain was found in a duck on a farm near the northern town of Maroua. That town borders Nigeria, which was the first African country to be struck by the virus when it was discovered on a commercial poultry farm in February. The virus has since been reported in Niger and Egypt.

Experts are worried that the virus is spreading undetected in Africa, where there are no laboratories set up to test for the virus and officials are poorly equipped to deal with such a crisis.

Since 2003, the H5N1 virus has spread from Asia to Africa, Europe and the Middle East. It has decimated poultry flocks in many countries, and has killed more than 90 people. Experts worry that the continued spread of the virus increases the likelihood that it will mutate into a form that's easily transmitted between humans, resulting in a pandemic.

The virus has already been transferred to two species of mammals, including a stone marten (a type of weasel) in Germany, and cats in Germany and Austria.

Platelet Donation Restrictions Shelved By Panel

Personal donations of platelets shouldn't be limited, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel has ruled, the Associated Press reported Friday.

The federal proposal, which first surfaced as part of a tightening of donation guidelines, suggested limiting each person to 24 pints a year. Platelets -- the component in blood that makes clotting possible -- are scarce in the United States because they only last five days after they are collected, the AP said. For some, including certain cancer patients, regular transfusions are necessary because they can't make their own platelets.

The current guidelines limit platelet donors to 24 times a year, which would average roughly 72 pints, the wire service reported. The new proposal set off a firestorm among donation centers, which argued that healthy donors can quickly replace lost platelets, the wire service said. The FDA advisory panel apparently agreed. The full agency doesn't have to follow a panel's recommendations, but usually does.

The panel did recommend that if people donate two to three pints at one time, they shouldn't donate again for at least a week, the AP reported. During donation, platelets are removed through a process called apheresis, where the blood is drawn through one arm, put into a centrifuge to remove the platelets, and the remaining blood is returned to the donor through the other arm.

Polio Drugs Should Be Developed, Council Says

Drugs to combat polio should be developed to protect against any outbreaks that might occur once worldwide vaccination programs have ended, a committee of the National Research Council suggested.

The Associated Press reported Friday that the committee was concerned that, despite the fact that the number of polio cases worldwide has plummeted from 355,000 in 1988 to 784 in 2003, if the disease is indeed eliminated in the next few years people will stop getting vaccinated. The World Health Organization plans to keep using the current vaccine for three years after the disease is eradicated. The current oral vaccine uses a weakened polio virus, although the injected vaccine used more often in the United States uses a dead virus, the wire service said.

"The development of one or more antiviral drugs against poliovirus, although expensive, serves as an insurance policy that provides an additional means of reacting to repeated outbreaks due to continued circulation of vaccine-derived strains, should they occur," the committee concluded.

Teens Think 'Alcopops' Are 'Fun and Cool'

Many California teens think that drinking fizzy and fruity alcoholic beverages called "alcopops" is fun and cool and that they won't get drunk, according to comments collected from more than 300 young people from around the state.

The teens are bombarded with ads that glamorize alcopops, which include products such as Smirnoff Ice and Mike's Hard Lemonade. Here are some of the comments the teens made about alcopops:

* "It's a drink you can control without passing out. You feel comfortable drinking them."
* "Most alcopops are very popular because it doesn't have any effect and it's like a soft drink."
* "The more you see it, the more obligated you feel to taste it. If it tastes good, you will want more."
* "People in the ads are always cool and sober, they aren't drunk or acting stupid."

The findings were released Friday by the Center for Applied Research Solutions, in conjunction with a public hearing by the California Senate Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families, which heard submissions about the negative effects that underage drinking has on communities.

Measles Death Toll Cut by 48 Percent

The number of people killed by measles around the world has declined by 48 percent since the late 1990s, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

The global measles death toll went from 871,000 in 1999 to 454,00 in 2004. The largest reduction was in sub-Sahara Africa, where measles cases and deaths declined by 60 percent, BBC News reported.

The two organizations, which pledged in 2001 to cut measles deaths in half by 2005, say that vaccination programs are the reason for the success.

Under an umbrella organization called the Measles Initiative, a number of groups targeted their prevention efforts in 47 countries that account for 98 percent of measles deaths. Between 1999 and 2005, nearly 500 million children received measles vaccinations, BBC News reported.

Food Fact:
Coffee on the dark side?


If p.m. coffee leaves you too perky to sleep, try cutting it off earlier rather than cutting it out completely. Coffee's stimulatory effects usually take 6 - 8 hours to wear off, so consider your bedtime when you reach for an afternoon or evening cup. The effects -- it can exacerbate insomnia, nervousness, anxiety and even panic attacks -- may last longer in women taking oral contraceptives and in older people. But coffee isn't a demon, either. Short-term studies have found that a cup's worth -- 100mg -- can increase self-confidence, energy and motivation to work.

Fitness Tip of the day:
Run for your life?


If you don't want to run alongside traffic, you're not alone. If you need to run or walk in an area where traffic is an issue, always run against the flow of traffic. Also be certain to wear reflective clothing so that you are clearly visible at all times.

FAQ of the day:
What's the healthiest way to handle garlic and onions?


The way you handle garlic and onions affects their health-protective compounds. The more you cut, chop, smash or otherwise disturb raw onions or garlic, the more compounds they will release. If you're going to cook garlic, for example, it's a good idea to smash or chop it about 10 minutes before.

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