Health Headlines - August 18

Merck Has 2 Legal Setbacks Over Vioxx

A U.S. federal court jury in New Orleans on Thursday ordered drug maker Merck to pay $51 million to a former FBI agent who said his 2002 heart attack was caused by the painkiller Vioxx.

Merck had argued that 62-year-old Gerald Barnett's history of heart disease was to blame for his heart attack, Bloomberg news reported.

In a second legal setback for the company, a state judge in New Jersey overturned a November trial decision that favored Merck, the Associated Press reported. State Superior Court Judge Carol Higbee ruled that new evidence showed Merck withheld information linking Vioxx use of more than 18 months with a greater risk of heart attack, the wire service said.

The New Orleans verdict was Merck's fourth loss in nine Vioxx trials, Bloomberg said. The company withdrew the drug from the market in 2004 after studies concluded that the painkiller increased the risk of heart attack and stroke in some patients.

Merck faces more than 16,000 Vioxx lawsuits and says it plans to fight each one in court. It's budgeted about $1 billion for legal costs to defend itself but has not put aside any money for liability, Bloomberg reported.

Some Online Games Promote Sociability: Study

They're often criticized for isolating people from one another or being a waste of time, but some popular online video games actually "promote sociability and new worldviews," according to an American study.

Researchers at the University of Illinois-Champaign and the University of Wisconsin-Madison studied the form and function of massively multiplayer online games (MMOs). They concluded that the games don't isolate people, but act as virtual coffee shops or pubs where "social bridging" occurs, United Press International reported.

Examples of positive kinds of MMOs include "Asheron's Call" and "Lineage."

"By providing places for social interaction and relationships beyond the workplace and homes, MMOs have the capacity to function much like the hangouts of old," the study authors wrote. In fact, the lack of real world hangouts is what's behind the popularity of MMOs, they added.

Their findings are published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication.

Target Recalls Firestreet Scooters

Target is recalling about 185,000 F Forward Firestreet Scooters with parts that can break while in use, which could cause falls and injuries.

The scooters' handlebars, wheels and wheel brakes can break and detach. Target has received five reports of incidents and injuries from falls, including a broken arm, cracked teeth, bruises to the head, face and arm, a lacerated toe, and scratches, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said.


The recalled red or blue aluminum scooters have a fold-down frame and model number BZ 020 SP. The "F Forward" logo is on the stem, wheel or base deck of the scooters. They were sold across the U.S. for about $24 from February 2004 through July 2006.

Consumers with these scooters should return them to the nearest Target store, where they'll receive a $24 gift card, plus applicable sales tax. For more information, contact Target at 1-800-440-0680 between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. CT, Monday through Friday.

Fewer Doctors Accepting Medicaid Patients

It's becoming more difficult for U.S. Medicaid beneficiaries to find a doctor who'll take new patients and the program's low reimbursement rates are a major reason for the problem, according to a study by the Center for Studying Health System Change.

The rate of doctors who don't accept new Medicaid patients has increased from about 19.5 percent in the mid-1990s to about 21 percent in recent years, the Associated Press reported.

The study noted that, on average, Medicaid reimbursement rates to doctors are 69 percent of what Medicare pays and an even lower percentage of what's paid out by private insurers.

Administrative hassles are another common complaint from doctors. For example, they need to get approval from Medicaid before they can prescribe medications or order tests for patients, the study said.

The decline in doctors who'll accept new Medicaid patients is much more pronounced among those in solo or small group practices. This means that more and more Medicaid patients are forced to go to large practices for care, the AP reported.

Government cuts to Medicaid have made it harder for doctors to provide care to program beneficiaries, said Dr. J. Edward Hill, immediate past president of the American Medical Association.

"This unsettling data comes as little surprise given Medicaid's high administrative costs and low payment rates, while the overhead costs associated with practicing medicine continue to increase," Hill told the AP.

Anthrax Killed Drum Maker in Scotland

Anthrax from spores in animal skins likely killed a man in Scotland in early July, health officials say.

Drum maker Christopher "Pasqual" Norris, 50, died July 8 but the cause of his death wasn't known at the time. Tests suggest that he died from anthrax contracted from animal skins he used to make drums, The Times Online reported.

The man's house has been sealed off and officials have set up an incident control team. The disease is not passed from person to person and there's no reason to believe there's any risk to other people, Health Protection Scotland said.

Ten of 30 people who recently visited Norris have been given a course of antibiotics.

This was the first human case of anthrax in Scotland in nearly 20 years, and the first death in more than 30 years, The Times Online reported.

This case is similar to a February incident in the United States, when a 44-year-old New York City man was diagnosed with inhaled anthrax he contracted by working with African animal hides used to make drums.

The man had to be hospitalized but recovered from the illness.

Gene May Help Explain Complex Human Brain

A gene that's undergone major mutations in the last five million years may be one reason why humans have much more complex brains than other animals, say researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

The HAR1 gene is active in a time of peak brain growth during embryonic development. The gene is present in the same cells that help build the cerebral cortex, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The gene appears to exist in the brains of all animals and has changed little over hundreds of millions of years. But that's not the case in humans, where HAR1 has changed significantly over the last few million years, the study said.

Today, about 10 percent of the human HAR1 gene is different than the HAR1 gene in chimpanzees, which may explain why human brains are three times larger than chimp brains, the Tribune reported.

The findings may help scientists better understand the human brain's genetic building blocks. The study was published Wednesday in the online edition of the journal Nature.