Thursday, March 01, 2007

Health Headlines - March 1

First Drug to Prevent Vomiting in Dogs Approved

The first drug to prevent and treat vomiting in dogs has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The agency said that it approved tablet and injectable forms of Cerenia (maropitant citrate). The tablets prevent acute vomiting and vomiting due to motion sickness, and the injectable version prevents and treats acute vomiting.

Both forms of Cerenia are available only by order of a veterinarian.

Along with motion sickness, other causes of vomiting in dogs include chemotherapy treatment, parvoviral infection, kidney disease, and pancreatitis. Acute vomiting can lead to electrolyte abnormalities, weakness, dehydration and even death, the FDA said.

Cerenia is made by Pfizer, Inc.

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Another $1 Billion Needed to Eradicate Polio: WHO

It will take another $1 billion and at least two more years to halt the spread of polio and eradicate the disease in the four nations -- Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and Nigeria -- that still have polio, the World Health Organization estimates.

So far, about $5 billion has been spent on the program, which previously set target dates of 2000 and 2005 to eradicate polio, CBC News reported.

At a meeting scheduled Wednesday in Switzerland, WHO officials were to meet with health experts and representatives of donor nations to ensure that all of the program partners remain committed to the goal of eradicating polio.

Delegates also were set to discuss a number of issues, such as war, health infrastructure, and rumors about the safety of the oral polio vaccine, that are hampering vaccination efforts in the four nations where polio has not been eradicated, CBC News said.

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Prince Charles Attacks Big Mac

Britain's Prince Charles has suggested that banning McDonald's fast food would be an important step in improving people's diets, the British news agency The Press Association reported.

While touring the Imperial College London Diabetes Center in the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, Charles asked one of the center's nutritionists: "Have you got anywhere with McDonald's? Have you tried getting it banned? That's the key."

Charles, who is first in line to the British throne, is a supporter of organic food, the Associated Press reported.

A spokesman for McDonald's Corp., based in Oak Brook, Ill., said Charles' remarks were disappointing.

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Two HIV/AIDS Drugs Offer New Options for Patients

Two new HIV/AIDS drugs that proved safe and highly effective in clinical trials could offer important new treatment options for patients, experts said at the 14th Annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections held in Los Angeles.

The drugs -- Pfizer's maraviroc and Merck's raltegravir -- would add two new classes of drugs to the four currently available to fight HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, The New York Times reported. Both drugs could receive approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration later this year.

If approved, these drug could prove especially important to tens of thousands of patients in the United States infected with HIV that has become resistant to current drugs.

"This is a really remarkable development in the field," Dr. John W. Mellors of the University of Pittsburgh said at a news conference at the meeting. Mellors, who was not involved in the studies on the two new drugs but has been a consultant to Merck and Pfizer, compared the findings from the clinical trials on the two drugs to the discovery in the mid-1990s that a cocktail of drugs could significantly extend the lives of HIV patients, The Times reported.

Pfizer has already applied for FDA approval of maraviroc and an FDA advisory panel is scheduled to meet April 24 to discuss the application. Merck says it will submit an application for approval of raltegravir in the second quarter of the year.

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Report Looks at Substance Abuse in States

Utah had the lowest rate (21.3 percent) of past month underage drinking (ages 12 to 20) in 2004-05, while Wisconsin had the highest rate (39.5 percent), says a report on substance abuse and mental health released Wednesday by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

The report also found that Utah had the lowest rate of past month alcohol use (30.1 percent) among those 12 years and older, while Wisconsin had the highest rate (65.3 percent). Wisconsin also had the highest rate (75.7 percent) of past month alcohol use in the 18 to 25 age group.

The use of illegal drugs in the past month for all persons age 12 or older was lowest in Iowa (5.9 percent) and highest in Alaska (12.2 percent). South Dakota had the lowest rate (3.4 percent) of past year nonmedical use of prescription pain relief drugs by people age 12 and older, while Utah had the highest rate (6.5 percent).

Past year cocaine use by those age 12 and older was lowest in North Dakota (1.7 percent) and highest in Washington, D.C. (3.4 percent). Past month use of illicit drugs other than marijuana among those 12 years and older was lowest in North Dakota and South Dakota (2.8 percent) and highest in Colorado (4.5 percent).

The annual rate of first-time marijuana use was lowest in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi and West Virginia (1.4 percent) and highest in Alaska (2.6 percent). Iowa had the lowest rate (4.2 percent) of past month marijuana use among those 12 years and older, while Alaska had the highest rate (10.1 percent).

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Estrogen Pollutants Turn Male Frogs into Females

Male tadpoles were turned into female frogs by estrogen-like pollutants similar to those found in the environment, which may help explain why up to a third of frog species worldwide face extinction, according to a Swedish study.

Researchers exposed two species of frogs to levels of estrogen that match levels found in waters in Canada, Europe and the United States, Agence France Presse reported.

The percentage of female frogs in two control groups of tadpoles not exposed to the estrogen was less than 50 percent. Tadpoles exposed to the highest levels of estrogen became females 95 to 100 percent of the time.

"Obviously, if all the frogs become female it could have a detrimental effect on the population," said study co-author Cecilia Berg.

The findings will be published in May in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, AFP reported.

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