Health Headlines - November 6

Hormone/Radiation Prostate Therapy Survival as Successful After 6 Months as it is Longer Term

The effectiveness of hormone and/or radiation therapy on prostate cancer patients has nothing to do with how long it's used after six months, a new study says.

Research presented Nov. 5 at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology's 48th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia revealed that patients with prostate cancer who used hormone and/or radiation therapy for no more than six months had just as good a survival rate as those whose therapy lasted as long as two years.

"Our study's findings suggest that treating current patients with shorter-term hormone therapy may not only be equally effective, but also improve their quality of life, due to a lesser degree of treatment side effects," said Dr. Cliff Robinson, a radiation oncologist at the Cleveland Clinic and the study's lead author in a news release.

But the researchers can't explain why longer term therapy isn't more effective. "A number of factors could complicate the issue, and this area needs further investigation before any conclusions can be drawn," Robinson said. The hormone therapy lowers the male hormone androgen, and in combination with radiation therapy, shrinks or slows the growth of the prostate malignancy.

TB Cases in United Kingdom Rise 10.8 % in One Year

A significant increase in the number of reported tuberculosis cases has United Kingdom health officials alarmed, BBC News reports.

The number of cases between 2004 and 2005 rose by almost 11 percent, from 7,321 to 8,113. If there is a silver lining in this, it is that the reason for the increase has been identified.

According to BBC News, 38 percent of the cases were among people from South Asian ethnic background -- India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. But only 22 percent of the TB cases were found in people who had come to England, Wales or Northern Ireland during the past two years, Dr. John Watson, head of the Health Protection Agency's (HPA) Respiratory Diseases Department, told the BBC.

Nevertheless, the preponderant number of TB cases in the UK -- 5,310 -- came from people born outside the country.

Health officials said the government needed to intensify its efforts to screen the population for early detection of TB, which still can be fatal.

Houston Ends Flu Shot Program for Early Voters

Flu vaccinations have entered the sometimes ugly world of politics.

The Associated Press reports that the city of Houston has stopped what at first seemed to be an excellent campaign to promote getting a flu shot, especially for those who need one the most. Mayor Bill White had offered free flu vaccinations to anyone over the age of 50 at early voting sites around the city.

But, says the wire service, Republican politicians objected because the neighborhoods where the vaccinations were offered were primarily black and Hispanic, which the GOP leaders claimed contained mostly Democrat voters. Houston health officials denied the charge, the AP reported, saying the selected neighborhoods were the ones that needed the vaccine the most.

White, who ended the program after about 1,300 shots had been administered, is former head of the Texas Democratic Party. But he told the wire service that politics was not behind the flu shot program. "There was no political motive whatsoever to do it," the AP quotes White as saying.

Factors for a "Healthy Community" Identified

Is your town a healthy town?

Researchers at Saint Louis University say they've identified certain characteristics that encourage both physical activity and esthetic satisfaction in a community environment.

One of the lead researchers, Laura Brennan Ramirez, an adjunct assistant professor of community health at Saint Louis University School of Public Health, said in a news release, "We haven't really designed our communities well for older adults, particularly once they get to the point that they can't drive." And, Ramirez adds, constantly using a car "detracts from our physical, social and mental health."

Among the common factors the scientists determined were needed to maintain healthy communities were more use of hiking and biking trails and crosswalks; construction of sidewalks and mass transit to support physical activity; the use of monuments and historic attractions to encourage walking; creation of interconnecting physical education programs in schools and on the job.

The findings are published in the December 2006 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

WHO Calls Chinese Bird-Flu Situation 'Confusing'

China's lack of openness about its handling of bird-flu cases makes it difficult for experts to determine if the dangerous H5N1 virus is mutating and spreading, a World Health Organization official told Agence France Presse Friday.

"The situation in China is quite confusing and there is some conflicting information," said Julie Hall, the WHO's coordinator of epidemic alert and response in China.

"We really don't know how many strains of bird flu there are in China because we have limited amounts of information shared with us by the Ministry of Agriculture and the virus samples we have asked for have not been shared," Hall told AFP.

She made her remarks after Chinese officials discounted claims by U.S. and Hong Kong scientists that a new strain of bird flu -- called the "Fujian-like" strain -- had appeared in southern China.

China's Ministry of Agriculture said the strain of bird flu that's emerged in southern China is consistent with earlier strains, AFP reported.

Expert worry that the H5N1 bird-flu virus could mutate into a form that's easily transmitted between humans and spark a global pandemic.

Fish and Seafood Species Could Collapse by 2048: Report

Populations of fish and seafood species in the world's oceans could collapse by 2048 if current overfishing and pollution trends continue, says a report published Friday in the journal Science.

The team of international experts that wrote the report spent four years analyzing data from a variety of sources, the Associated Press reported.

"At this point, 29 percent of fish and seafood species have collapsed -- that is, their catch has declined by 90 percent. It is a very clear trend, and it is accelerating," said lead author Boris Worm of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. "If the long-term trend continues, all fish and seafood species are projected to collapse within my lifetime -- by 2048."

He added that it's not too late to turn things around as long as action is taken soon, the AP reported.

"We need a shift from single species management to ecosystem management. It just requires a big chunk of political will to do it," Worm said.