Health Headlines - August 26

Gerald Ford Has Angioplasty

Former U.S. President Gerald Ford, 93, had an artery-clearing procedure called angioplasty Thursday at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, the Associated Press reported.

During the procedure, a balloon is inflated inside clogged arteries to open up the vessels. In Ford's case, wire mesh tubes called stents also were placed in two coronary arteries to increase blood flow, said a statement released by his spokeswoman, Penny Circle. She said Ford was resting comfortably in his hospital room.

John Murphy, a Mayo Clinic spokesman, confirmed that Ford had angioplasty but did not provide details, the AP reported.

On Monday, Ford had surgery to implant a heart pacemaker. He's been at the Mayo Clinic since Aug. 15, when he was admitted for what were said to be tests and evaluation.

Millions of Americans Uninsured for Years

Nearly 17 million Americans under age 65 were without health insurance continuously for at least four years (2001-2004), says a report released Friday by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Of those people, 38 percent were Hispanic, the report noted.

Additional findings from the report included:

* About 16 percent (6 million) of the 39 million Hispanics under age 65 in the United States had no private health insurance or public coverage at any time between 2001 and 2004.
* The poorest people in the United States accounted for nearly one of every four long-term uninsured cases.
* Nearly one in 10 Americans under age 65 in fair or poor health was uninsured for at least four years.
* Adults aged 18 to 24 were most likely to be continuously uninsured. About 10 percent of the people in this age group had no coverage.

A second AHRQ report that looked at a shorter time frame (the first half of 2005) found that nearly 50 million Americans under age 65 did not have health insurance. Of those, 29 percent were Hispanic.

Severe Reactions May Require Two Doses of Epinephrine

One dose of epinephrine may not be enough to save the lives of people with severe allergies, says a coroner in Quebec, Canada.

Coroner Jacques Ramsay was investigating the case of 61-year-old Pierre Drolet, who was stung by a wasp. Drolet gave himself a shot of epinephrine but still died due to a severe allergic reaction, CBC News reported.

In his inquest's final report, Ramsay said a second shot of epinephrine may have saved Drolet's life.

"In a third of cases similar to Monsieur Drolet, we know that one injection will not be enough, and a person may need another injection," Ramsay said. "Therefore, I think it would be very wise [for people with severe allergies] to carry with them two injections rather than one."

There were other factors in Drolet's death, Ramsay noted. He said Drolet was taking heart medication that interfered with epinephrine and the ambulance took too long to reach Drolet.

A Montreal allergy expert noted another possible factor -- Drolet's epinephrine supply had expired, CBC News reported.

HIV Drug May Prevent Cervical Cancer

The antiviral drug lopinavir -- commonly used to treat HIV -- could be used to prevent cervical cancer, say researchers at the University of Manchester in the U.K.

They found that the oral drug also attacks the virus (HPV) that causes cervical cancer. They suggest that a pessary or cream form of lopinavir that's applied to the cervix could help women infected with HPV avoid surgery to remove early cervical cancer, BBC News reported.

Vaccines for cervical cancer are already being developed, but these would only protect people who haven't yet been infected by HPV, the researchers said.

In a laboratory study, the team found that small doses of liquid lopinavir selectively killed HPV-infected cervical cancer cells. Their findings appear in the journal Antiviral Therapy.

The researchers plan to conduct human clinical trials of a lopinavir cream or pessary treatment, according to BBC News.

New California Plan Provides Drug Discounts

Uninsured, lower-income California residents will get discounts of up to 40 percent on name-brand drugs under an agreement reached this week by legislative Democrats and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The California Prescription Drug Initiative provides enrollees with discounts of about 60 percent on generic drugs and about 40 percent on name-brand drugs. The annual enrollment fee will be $10, the Associated Press reported.

Under the plan, drug companies will have to meet benchmark discounts for drugs. If they don't, they could be removed from the preferred drug list used by Medi-Cal, which provides about $4 billion worth of drugs a year to the elderly and poor.

Drug companies will have until August 2010 to comply voluntarily with the plan.

In a statement issued Thursday, Democratic Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez said the measure was "long overdue," the AP reported. Assembly Republican leader George Plescia criticized the plan, calling it a "heavy-handed approach."

Companies Cut Benzene in Children's Drinks

As part of a settlement of lawsuits filed by parents, two U.S. companies that make children's soft drinks have eliminated ingredients that can cause the formation of cancer-causing benzene in their products.

Zone Brands Inc. of Atlanta, TalkingRain Beverage Co. of Washington state, and the parents who filed the lawsuits agreed to settle the dispute, say documents filed in the District of Columbia Superior Court. A hearing was scheduled for Friday to consider the settlement, the Associated Press reported.

Both drink makers said their products never posed a health risk.

However, after the parents' lawsuits were filed, the two companies agreed in April and May to change their ingredients. They also agreed to refund or replace drinks made before the ingredients were changed.

The lawsuits alleged that independent laboratory tests found that the companies' children's drinks contained levels of benzene that were higher than the U.S. federal limit for drinking water, the AP reported.

Other drink makers are facing similar lawsuits in California, Florida, Kansas, Massachusetts and New Jersey.

Benzene can form in drinks that contain vitamin C (ascorbic acid) and either potassium benzoate or sodium benzoate. In drinks with these ingredients, heat or sunlight can cause a reaction that leads to the formation of benzene, the AP reported.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said there is no safety concern from the drinks. The agency said that benzene levels in children's drinks it tested were relatively low compared with other sources of exposure to benzene.