Health Headlines - November 9

Medical marijuana debate increases

The growing number of medical marijuana clinics opening in California has ratcheted up the debate about both their legitimacy and worthiness, observers say.

California's Compassionate Use Act passed in 1996 allowed patients holding a valid doctor's recommendation to possess and cultivate marijuana for personal medical use. Those in favor of the act touted medical marijuana's benefit in patients with AIDS, chronic pain and cancer, The Sacramento Bee reported.

State and federally funded research concerning medical marijuana was conducted by Dr. Donald Abrams, chief of oncology at San Francisco General Hospital. "I see cancer patients every day who suffer from loss of appetite, weight loss, pain, anxiety, depression, insomnia and nausea. With cannabis, I can recommend one medicine instead of writing prescriptions for six or seven," he said.

Recently, there has been a rise in the number of physicians who recommend marijuana for less critical conditions, from migraines to restless leg syndrome, the Bee said.

The California Medical Board has received and checked into 81 complaints against physicians who've recommended marijuana to patients since 1996.

Some doctors were sanctioned for not detecting overt, drug-seeking behaviors in patients looking for medical marijuana recommendations. Records indicate some complaints to the board came from undercover police officers.

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Invasive crayfish in Wis. ponds targeted

State officials said nearly 4,000 gallons of bleach will be used to kill an invasive crayfish species living in ponds in Germantown, Wis.

Randy Schumacher, Department of Natural Resources regional fisheries coordinator in Milwaukee, said the chemical should eliminate the aggressive Louisiana red swamp crayfish from the Esquire Estates storm water pond and a smaller Germantown pond, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said Saturday.

Schumacher said the crayfish species was illegally released in Germantown this year and their size and aggressive nature makes them a threat to the native crayfish population.

It remains unknown who released the Louisiana crayfish in Germantown, Schumacher said.

"No one should be releasing any animal outdoors without a permit from the DNR," said the DNR official, who added the bleach dispersal will take place Thursday or Friday.

The Journal Sentinel said the invasive crayfish species was also discovered in a Sam Poerio Park fishing pond in Kenosha, Wis. As a precaution, a fabric fence was erected on the pond's shoreline to keep the crayfish from moving to other bodies of water.

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Double H1N1 vaccine, but still not enough

Federal health officials said Friday that there is twice as much H1N1 vaccine -- 38 million doses -- available as two weeks ago.

"The majority of this is injectable doses," Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said at a briefing in Atlanta.

"If all goes well, we are expecting about 8 million doses to be available in the week ahead that's if everything goes well. As vaccine supplies increase, we think things should go better, but we still don't have enough vaccine."

State and local health departments are in the best position to determine how to effectively use and direct the vaccine doses that become available, Schuchat said.

"The key now is focusing on the priority groups, children and young adults up through age 24, pregnant women, parents or caretakers of babies under 6 months. People with chronic conditions and health workers," Schuchat said.

The Champaign-Urbana Public Health Department in Illinois developed an innovative program to provide the H1N1 vaccine to children with special needs via a clinic where the nurse comes out to the car to give the vaccination.

There have been some 90 million people vaccinated for seasonal flu, but more is needed. Usually seasonal flu strains don't increase until December through May.

"Everything we are seeing is the H1N1 virus," Schuchat said. "Hopefully, there will be additional supplies of seasonal flu vaccine."