No Effective Drugs for Anorexia Nervosa: Study
No current medications effectively treat the eating disorder anorexia nervosa. But some forms of behavioral therapy may help prevent relapse and provide other limited benefits, says a study released Monday by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
Researchers reviewed scientific literature published since 1980 and concluded that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) helped prevent relapse in adult anorexic patients once their weight had been restored to normal. There wasn't enough evidence to determine whether CBT was effective during the acute phase of the disorder, before restoration of normal weight.
Family therapy does not appear to work in adults with longstanding anorexia nervosa, the review found.
It also concluded that several medications and behavioral therapies can help patients suffering from bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder. For example, one short-term clinical trial found that the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) fluoxetine was helpful in treating bulimia.
Cognitive behavioral therapy and interpersonal psychotherapy were found to be helpful in reducing the core symptoms of bulimia nervosa -- binge eating and purging -- and easing the psychological symptoms of the disorder. However, the optimum length of treatment is unclear.
"These findings underscore the need to learn more about the causes of these frightening and poorly understood illnesses and to find effective treatments," Dr. Carolyn M. Clancy, AHRQ director, said in a prepared statement. "In the meantime, we need to make sure that clinicians use the evidence we currently have to help those suffering from eating disorders.
Canada Confirms 5th Mad Cow Case
Tests have confirmed Canada's fifth case of mad cow disease since 2003.
The disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), was found in a 6-year-old dairy cow on a farm in British Columbia's Fraser Valley, CTV News reported.
"Our investigation has taken us back to the farm, which is known to be the birth farm of this cow, and we're in the process of assembling, through farm records, those herd mates that were of similar age and likely consumed the same feed," said George Luterbach, a senior veterinarian for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).
"These animals will be removed, destroyed and tested," he told CTV News.
No part of the infected cow entered the human or animal feed systems, officials said. Late last week it was announced that Canada's BSE surveillance program had identified the diseased cow, but initial tests for BSE proved inconclusive.
There are concerns that confirmation of another case of mad cow disease could harm Canada's efforts to get the United States to reopen its borders to Canadian cows older than 30 months.
However, Luterbach said Canada's trading partners recognize that BSE control measures are in place in Canada and the CFIA does not anticipate that other countries will respond severely to this latest case of mad cow disease, CTV News reported.
Chinese Face Transplant Patient Doing Well
A Chinese man who last week underwent the world's second face transplant was reported to be progressing well. Li Guoxing, 30, had completely regained consciousness and was able to take some liquid food. He was also allowed to take the first look at his new face, Chinese state media reported.
He's currently forbidden from making any movements that might prevent his wounds from healing, and he'll be kept in isolation for two weeks, said doctors at Xijing hosptial in the city of Xian in central China.
"The surgery scar will not be obvious but there is a difference in the donor's and recipient's skin color, so that will be noticeable," Dr. Zhang Hui, the doctor in charge of post-surgery treatment, told the China Daily.
Li's face was disfigured when he was attacked by a bear two years ago. During the 14-hour transplant last Thursday and Friday, he received a new upper lip, cheek and nose from the face of a brain-dead male donor.
Last year, a French woman became the first person in the world to receive a face transplant.
Saw Palmetto Doesn't Help Men With Enlarged Prostates
Saw palmetto does not help improve urinary symptoms in men with enlarged prostates, says a U.S. study in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The findings contradict previous anecdotal reports that taking the herbal remedy did benefit men with enlarged prostates, also known as benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH), BBC News reported.
The year-long study included 225 men with BPH who were randomly assigned to take either saw palmetto or a placebo pill twice a day. The men did not know which one they were taking. The men were assessed regularly to see if they had any changes in symptoms or urinary function.
"If you look at the change in symptoms over time between the two groups, it was almost identical," research leader Dr. Stephen Bent said. "There was almost no statistically significant difference at any time point during the study."
BPH affects about one third of men over age 50.
National Flu Pandemic Response Plan Readied
A national plan for responding to an avian flu pandemic is almost ready for President Bush's approval, the Washington Post reported Sunday.
A document outlining the plan identifies more than 300 tasks for various federal agencies, the newspaper said. Those details include which frontline workers should be vaccinated first, expanding Internet capacity to handle the flood of workers who would work from home, drive-through medical exams operated by the Department of Veterans that would spot suspected cases, agreements with other nations should the United States be unable to print currency at U.S. mints, and a stockpiling of latex gloves by the military.
The 240-page plan is designed to help the country function during what could be an 18-month crisis that could kill 1.9 million people. Bush saw a draft of the document on March 17, and is expected to sign the still-evolving plan within the week. The plan shows that some agencies are well-prepared for a pandemic while others are still struggling with basic questions on response, the newspaper said.
Monday, April 17, 2006
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Health Headlines - April 16
National Flu Pandemic Response Plan Readied
A national plan for responding to an avian flu pandemic is almost ready for President Bush's approval, the Washington Post reported Sunday.
A document outlining the plan identifies more than 300 tasks for various federal agencies, the newspaper said. Those details include which frontline workers should be vaccinated first, expanding Internet capacity to handle the flood of workers who would work from home, drive-through medical exams operated by the Department of Veterans that would spot suspected cases, agreements with other nations should the United States be unable to print currency at U.S. mints, and a stockpiling of latex gloves by the military.
The 240-page plan is designed to help the country function during what could be an 18-month crisis that could kill 1.9 million people. Bush saw a draft of the document on March 17, and is expected to sign the still-evolving plan within the week. The plan shows that some agencies are well-prepared for a pandemic while others are still struggling with basic questions on response, the newspaper said.
Iowa Mumps Epidemic Spreads to Eight States
Iowa's mumps epidemic continued to spread this week, reaching eight states, CNN reported.
Iowa, which has reported more than 600 suspected cases since December, has received about 50 reports of new infections a day for at least the last week. Other states reporting cases include Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and Wisconsin, federal health officials said Friday. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not released the name of the eighth state, according to CNN.
The CDC has begun a multi-state investigation since it suspects that air travel is causing the disease to spread throughout the Midwest. The agency is asking state health departments to notify any passengers who were possibly exposed to two mumps-infected travelers who took nine flights on two air carriers. The CDC had identified five Northwest Airlines flights taken between March 26-29 with stops in Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan and Washington, and four American Airlines flights on April 2 with stops in Arizona, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri and Idaho. So far, no mumps cases on those flights have been reported.
This mumps outbreak is the biggest to hit the United States in 20 years, the CDC said.
Retailers Start Pulling Contact Lens Solution From Shelves
Retailers began pulling ReNu with MoistureLoc contact lens solution from their store shelves Friday, after the product's maker, Bausch & Lomb, made the request on Thursday.
The cleaning solution is being investigated as a possible cause of 109 reported fungal eye infections since last June, according to the Associated Press.
Bausch & Lomb is recommending that consumers use another contact lens solution while U.S. health officials conduct their investigation.
"We find ourselves in a position where the safety of one of our products, ReNu with MoistureLoc manufactured at our United States plant, is in question," company chairman and chief executive Ronald L. Zarella said in a statement.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors have spent weeks at Bausch & Lomb's plant in Greenville, S.C., but have not been able to detect any source of contamination, the New York Times reported.
Volunteers to Try HIV Vaccine
People began signing up this week to take an experimental HIV vaccine that was developed at Emory University, the Associated Press reported Friday.
At the start of the trial, 12 people at four universities will be given the shots, which are licensed by Geovax Inc., an Atlanta-based biotechnology firm. This is a Phase I trial, where low doses are given to test for safety and immune response, Geovax Chief Executive Officer Don Hildebrand told the AP. A second, higher dose will be given in a few months if all goes well. After that, future trials would be conducted to see whether the vaccine actually stops HIV from causing AIDS.
This vaccine is one of more than 30 AIDS vaccines that are in the early stages of human trials in almost two dozen countries, according to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. A Merck & Co. vaccine is already being used in a Phase II trial involving 3,000 people.
The Geovax vaccine, which was developed by a research team from the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory, is to be administered in four doses spread over the course of two months.
World's Second Face Transplant Done at Chinese Hospital
A Chinese military hospital says it's conducted the world's second face transplant on a man who was disfigured during a bear attack two years ago.
In a 14-hour operation, the 30-year-old hunter received a new cheek, upper lip and nose from a single donor. The man, identified as Li Guoxing from the southwestern province of Yunnan, was reported to be in good condition, BBC News reported.
Last November, a 38-year-old French woman became the first person in the world to receive a face transplant. Isabelle Dinoire received new lips, chin and nose. Her face was disfigured when she was mauled by her dog.
FDA Approves Injectable Drug to Treat Alcoholism
Monthly injections of the drug Vivitrol (naltrexone) to treat alcoholism received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval Thursday. The drug was previously only sold in daily pill form.
The injectable form of the drug will be made by Alkermes Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., and will be marketed and sold by Cephalon Inc. of Frazer, Pa., the Associated Press reported.
Vivitrol blocks neurotransmitters in the brain believed to be associated with alcohol dependence.
The companies hope the once-monthly injections, done at a doctor's office, will make it easier than the daily pill for alcoholics to stick with their treatment program.
The price of the injectable drug won't be decided until it's launched in the United States in late June, the AP reported. The drug will carry a black-box warning cautioning patients that it can cause liver damage. The pill form carries a similar warning.
A national plan for responding to an avian flu pandemic is almost ready for President Bush's approval, the Washington Post reported Sunday.
A document outlining the plan identifies more than 300 tasks for various federal agencies, the newspaper said. Those details include which frontline workers should be vaccinated first, expanding Internet capacity to handle the flood of workers who would work from home, drive-through medical exams operated by the Department of Veterans that would spot suspected cases, agreements with other nations should the United States be unable to print currency at U.S. mints, and a stockpiling of latex gloves by the military.
The 240-page plan is designed to help the country function during what could be an 18-month crisis that could kill 1.9 million people. Bush saw a draft of the document on March 17, and is expected to sign the still-evolving plan within the week. The plan shows that some agencies are well-prepared for a pandemic while others are still struggling with basic questions on response, the newspaper said.
Iowa Mumps Epidemic Spreads to Eight States
Iowa's mumps epidemic continued to spread this week, reaching eight states, CNN reported.
Iowa, which has reported more than 600 suspected cases since December, has received about 50 reports of new infections a day for at least the last week. Other states reporting cases include Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and Wisconsin, federal health officials said Friday. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not released the name of the eighth state, according to CNN.
The CDC has begun a multi-state investigation since it suspects that air travel is causing the disease to spread throughout the Midwest. The agency is asking state health departments to notify any passengers who were possibly exposed to two mumps-infected travelers who took nine flights on two air carriers. The CDC had identified five Northwest Airlines flights taken between March 26-29 with stops in Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan and Washington, and four American Airlines flights on April 2 with stops in Arizona, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri and Idaho. So far, no mumps cases on those flights have been reported.
This mumps outbreak is the biggest to hit the United States in 20 years, the CDC said.
Retailers Start Pulling Contact Lens Solution From Shelves
Retailers began pulling ReNu with MoistureLoc contact lens solution from their store shelves Friday, after the product's maker, Bausch & Lomb, made the request on Thursday.
The cleaning solution is being investigated as a possible cause of 109 reported fungal eye infections since last June, according to the Associated Press.
Bausch & Lomb is recommending that consumers use another contact lens solution while U.S. health officials conduct their investigation.
"We find ourselves in a position where the safety of one of our products, ReNu with MoistureLoc manufactured at our United States plant, is in question," company chairman and chief executive Ronald L. Zarella said in a statement.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors have spent weeks at Bausch & Lomb's plant in Greenville, S.C., but have not been able to detect any source of contamination, the New York Times reported.
Volunteers to Try HIV Vaccine
People began signing up this week to take an experimental HIV vaccine that was developed at Emory University, the Associated Press reported Friday.
At the start of the trial, 12 people at four universities will be given the shots, which are licensed by Geovax Inc., an Atlanta-based biotechnology firm. This is a Phase I trial, where low doses are given to test for safety and immune response, Geovax Chief Executive Officer Don Hildebrand told the AP. A second, higher dose will be given in a few months if all goes well. After that, future trials would be conducted to see whether the vaccine actually stops HIV from causing AIDS.
This vaccine is one of more than 30 AIDS vaccines that are in the early stages of human trials in almost two dozen countries, according to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. A Merck & Co. vaccine is already being used in a Phase II trial involving 3,000 people.
The Geovax vaccine, which was developed by a research team from the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory, is to be administered in four doses spread over the course of two months.
World's Second Face Transplant Done at Chinese Hospital
A Chinese military hospital says it's conducted the world's second face transplant on a man who was disfigured during a bear attack two years ago.
In a 14-hour operation, the 30-year-old hunter received a new cheek, upper lip and nose from a single donor. The man, identified as Li Guoxing from the southwestern province of Yunnan, was reported to be in good condition, BBC News reported.
Last November, a 38-year-old French woman became the first person in the world to receive a face transplant. Isabelle Dinoire received new lips, chin and nose. Her face was disfigured when she was mauled by her dog.
FDA Approves Injectable Drug to Treat Alcoholism
Monthly injections of the drug Vivitrol (naltrexone) to treat alcoholism received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval Thursday. The drug was previously only sold in daily pill form.
The injectable form of the drug will be made by Alkermes Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., and will be marketed and sold by Cephalon Inc. of Frazer, Pa., the Associated Press reported.
Vivitrol blocks neurotransmitters in the brain believed to be associated with alcohol dependence.
The companies hope the once-monthly injections, done at a doctor's office, will make it easier than the daily pill for alcoholics to stick with their treatment program.
The price of the injectable drug won't be decided until it's launched in the United States in late June, the AP reported. The drug will carry a black-box warning cautioning patients that it can cause liver damage. The pill form carries a similar warning.
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Health Headlines - April 15
Iowa Mumps Epidemic Spreads to Eight States
Iowa's mumps epidemic continued to spread this week, reaching eight states, CNN reported.
Iowa, which has reported more than 600 suspected cases since December, has received about 50 reports of new infections a day for at least the last week. Other states reporting cases include Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and Wisconsin, federal health officials said Friday. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not released the name of the eighth state, according to CNN.
The preponderance of mumps cases in Iowa have been reported on college campuses, where close living quarters help the virus spread.
The CDC has begun a multistate investigation since it suspects that air travel is causing the disease to spread throughout the Midwest. The agency is asking state health departments to notify any passengers who were possibly exposed to two mumps-infected travelers who took nine flights on two air carriers. The CDC had identified five Northwest Airlines flights taken between March 26-29 with stops in Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan and Washington, and four American Airlines flights on April 2 with stops in Arizona, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri and Idaho. So far, no mumps cases on those flights have been reported.
This mumps outbreak is the biggest to hit the United States in 20 years, the CDC said.
Retailers Start Pulling Contact Lens Solution From Shelves
Retailers began pulling ReNu with MoistureLoc contact lens solution from their store shelves Friday, after the product's maker, Bausch & Lomb, made the request on Thursday.
The cleaning solution is being investigated as a possible cause of 109 reported fungal eye infections since last June, according to the Associated Press.
Bausch & Lomb is recommending that consumers use another contact lens solution while U.S. health officials conduct their investigation. The company plans to place advertisements in major newspapers to inform consumers about alternative products, The New York Times reported.
"We find ourselves in a position where the safety of one of our products, ReNu with MoistureLoc manufactured at our United States plant, is in question," company chairman and chief executive Ronald L. Zarella said in a statement.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors have spent weeks at Bausch & Lomb's plant in Greenville, S.C., but have not been able to detect any source of contamination, the Times reported.
On Thursday, a New York man filed a lawsuit against Bausch & Lomb, claiming the company knew in February that ReNu with MoistureLoc could cause fungal eye infections but waited until this week to halt sales of the product. The suit seeks unspecified damages and class-action status.
Volunteers to Try HIV Vaccine
People began signing up this week to take an experimental HIV vaccine that was developed at Emory University, the Associated Press reported Friday.
At the start of the trial, 12 people at four universities will be given the shots, which are licensed by Geovax Inc., an Atlanta-based biotechnology firm. This is a Phase I trial, where low doses are given to test for safety and immune response, Geovax Chief Executive Officer Don Hildebrand, told the AP. A second, higher dose will be given in a few months if all goes well. After that, future trials would be conducted to see whether the vaccine actually stops HIV from causing AIDS.
This vaccine is one of more than 30 AIDS vaccines that are in the early stages of human trials in almost two dozen countries, according to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. A Merck & Co. vaccine is already being used in a Phase II trial involving 3,000 people.
The Geovax vaccine, which was developed by a research team from the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory, is to be administered in four doses spread over the course of two months.
World's Second Face Transplant Done at Chinese Hospital
A Chinese military hospital says it's conducted the world's second face transplant on a man who was disfigured during a bear attack two years ago.
In a 14-hour operation, the 30-year-old hunter received a new cheek, upper lip and nose from a single donor. The man, identified as Li Guoxing from the southwestern province of Yunnan, was reported to be in good condition, BBC News reported.
Last November, a 38-year-old French woman became the first person in the world to receive a face transplant. Isabelle Dinoire received new lips, chin and nose. Her face was disfigured when she was mauled by her dog.
A statement released by Xijing military hospital said this second face transplant was "even more complex and meticulous than the one performed by the French," BBC News reported.
FDA Approves Injectable Drug to Treat Alcoholism
Monthly injections of the drug Vivitrol (naltrexone) to treat alcoholism received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval Thursday. The drug was previously only sold in daily pill form.
The injectable form of the drug will be made by Alkermes Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., and will be marketed and sold by Cephalon Inc. of Frazer, Pa., the Associated Press reported.
Vivitrol blocks neurotransmitters in the brain believed to be associated with alcohol dependence.
The companies hope the once-monthly injections, done at a doctor's office, will make it easier than the daily pill for alcoholics to stick with their treatment program, which also includes counseling or group therapy.
"Daily adherence to medication is challenging for most people, and even more challenging for people with alcoholism," said Richard Pops, Alkermes' chief executive officer.
The price of the injectable drug won't be decided until it's launched in the United States in late June, the AP reported. The drug will carry a black-box warning cautioning patients that it can cause liver damage. The pill form carries a similar warning.
Iowa's mumps epidemic continued to spread this week, reaching eight states, CNN reported.
Iowa, which has reported more than 600 suspected cases since December, has received about 50 reports of new infections a day for at least the last week. Other states reporting cases include Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and Wisconsin, federal health officials said Friday. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not released the name of the eighth state, according to CNN.
The preponderance of mumps cases in Iowa have been reported on college campuses, where close living quarters help the virus spread.
The CDC has begun a multistate investigation since it suspects that air travel is causing the disease to spread throughout the Midwest. The agency is asking state health departments to notify any passengers who were possibly exposed to two mumps-infected travelers who took nine flights on two air carriers. The CDC had identified five Northwest Airlines flights taken between March 26-29 with stops in Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan and Washington, and four American Airlines flights on April 2 with stops in Arizona, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri and Idaho. So far, no mumps cases on those flights have been reported.
This mumps outbreak is the biggest to hit the United States in 20 years, the CDC said.
Retailers Start Pulling Contact Lens Solution From Shelves
Retailers began pulling ReNu with MoistureLoc contact lens solution from their store shelves Friday, after the product's maker, Bausch & Lomb, made the request on Thursday.
The cleaning solution is being investigated as a possible cause of 109 reported fungal eye infections since last June, according to the Associated Press.
Bausch & Lomb is recommending that consumers use another contact lens solution while U.S. health officials conduct their investigation. The company plans to place advertisements in major newspapers to inform consumers about alternative products, The New York Times reported.
"We find ourselves in a position where the safety of one of our products, ReNu with MoistureLoc manufactured at our United States plant, is in question," company chairman and chief executive Ronald L. Zarella said in a statement.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors have spent weeks at Bausch & Lomb's plant in Greenville, S.C., but have not been able to detect any source of contamination, the Times reported.
On Thursday, a New York man filed a lawsuit against Bausch & Lomb, claiming the company knew in February that ReNu with MoistureLoc could cause fungal eye infections but waited until this week to halt sales of the product. The suit seeks unspecified damages and class-action status.
Volunteers to Try HIV Vaccine
People began signing up this week to take an experimental HIV vaccine that was developed at Emory University, the Associated Press reported Friday.
At the start of the trial, 12 people at four universities will be given the shots, which are licensed by Geovax Inc., an Atlanta-based biotechnology firm. This is a Phase I trial, where low doses are given to test for safety and immune response, Geovax Chief Executive Officer Don Hildebrand, told the AP. A second, higher dose will be given in a few months if all goes well. After that, future trials would be conducted to see whether the vaccine actually stops HIV from causing AIDS.
This vaccine is one of more than 30 AIDS vaccines that are in the early stages of human trials in almost two dozen countries, according to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. A Merck & Co. vaccine is already being used in a Phase II trial involving 3,000 people.
The Geovax vaccine, which was developed by a research team from the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory, is to be administered in four doses spread over the course of two months.
World's Second Face Transplant Done at Chinese Hospital
A Chinese military hospital says it's conducted the world's second face transplant on a man who was disfigured during a bear attack two years ago.
In a 14-hour operation, the 30-year-old hunter received a new cheek, upper lip and nose from a single donor. The man, identified as Li Guoxing from the southwestern province of Yunnan, was reported to be in good condition, BBC News reported.
Last November, a 38-year-old French woman became the first person in the world to receive a face transplant. Isabelle Dinoire received new lips, chin and nose. Her face was disfigured when she was mauled by her dog.
A statement released by Xijing military hospital said this second face transplant was "even more complex and meticulous than the one performed by the French," BBC News reported.
FDA Approves Injectable Drug to Treat Alcoholism
Monthly injections of the drug Vivitrol (naltrexone) to treat alcoholism received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval Thursday. The drug was previously only sold in daily pill form.
The injectable form of the drug will be made by Alkermes Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., and will be marketed and sold by Cephalon Inc. of Frazer, Pa., the Associated Press reported.
Vivitrol blocks neurotransmitters in the brain believed to be associated with alcohol dependence.
The companies hope the once-monthly injections, done at a doctor's office, will make it easier than the daily pill for alcoholics to stick with their treatment program, which also includes counseling or group therapy.
"Daily adherence to medication is challenging for most people, and even more challenging for people with alcoholism," said Richard Pops, Alkermes' chief executive officer.
The price of the injectable drug won't be decided until it's launched in the United States in late June, the AP reported. The drug will carry a black-box warning cautioning patients that it can cause liver damage. The pill form carries a similar warning.
Friday, April 14, 2006
Health Headlines - April 14
Stores Told to Stop Selling Contact Lens Solution
Eye-care products maker Bausch & Lomb on Thursday asked retailers across the United States to temporarily stop selling ReNu with MoistureLoc contact lens solution, which is being investigated as a possible cause of 109 reported fungal eye infections since last June.
Bausch & Lomb is recommending that consumers use another contact lens solution while U.S. health officials conduct their investigation. The company plans to place advertisements in major newspapers to inform consumers about alternative products, The New York Times reported.
"We find ourselves in a position where the safety of one of our products, ReNu with MoistureLoc manufactured at our United States plant, is in question," company chairman and chief executive Ronald L. Zarella said in a statement.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors have spent weeks at Bausch & Lomb's plant in Greenville, S.C., but have not been able to detect any source of contamination, the Times reported.
On Thursday, a New York man filed a lawsuit against Bausch & Lomb, claiming the company knew in February that ReNu with MoistureLoc could cause fungal eye infections but waited until this week to halt sales of the product. The suit seeks unspecified damages and class-action status.
'Goths' Have High Rates of Self-Harm and Attempted Suicide
Goths -- a subculture of young people fascinated by death and the dark aspects of human nature -- have high rates of self-harm and attempted suicide, says a University of Glasgow, Scotland study in the current issue of the British Medical Journal.
Researchers surveyed more than 1,258 young adults several times through their teen years and found that 53 percent of teens who said they were goths admitted to self-harm (deliberately cutting, burning, hitting or poisoning oneself) and 47 percent said they'd attempted suicide, ABC News reported.
"Although only fairly small numbers of young people identify themselves as belonging to the goth subculture, rates of self-harm and attempted suicide are very high among this group," lead researcher Robert Young said.
He added that teens were more likely to have hurt themselves before they became involved in the goth scene. This suggests that troubled teens may be attracted to goth culture, not that the subculture promotes self-harm, ABC News reported.
Teens who were into hip-hop, "indie" rock, or pop culture had much lower rates of self-harm, the study found.
FDA Approves Injectable Drug to Treat Alcoholism
Once-a-month injections of the drug Vivitrol (naltrexone) to treat alcoholism received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval Thursday. The drug was previously only sold in daily pill form.
The injectable form of the drug will be made by Alkermes Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., and will be marketed and sold by Cephalon Inc. of Frazer, Pa., the Associated Press reported.
Vivitrol blocks neurotransmitters in the brain believed to be associated with alcohol dependence.
The companies hope the once-monthly injections, done at a doctor's office, will make it easier than the daily pill for alcoholics to stick with their treatment program, which also includes counseling or group therapy.
"Daily adherence to medication is challenging for most people, and even more challenging for people with alcoholism," said Richard Pops, Alkermes' chief executive officer.
The price of the injectable drug won't be decided until it's launched in the United States in late June, the AP reported. The drug will carry a black-box warning cautioning patients that it can cause liver damage. The pill form carries a similar warning.
Canadian Officials Checking Possible Mad Cow Case
Canadian officials are investigating a suspected case of mad cow disease in a six-year-old dairy cow in British Columbia.
A final series of tests is being conducted by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency after initial tests failed to determine whether the cow had bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), CBC News reported.
Initial tests by provincial authorities were inconclusive. Samples from the cow, being raised on a farm in the Fraser Valley, were then sent to the National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease, where further testing indicated "a preliminary positive result."
This third series of tests is expected to be completed over the weekend, CBC News reported. If confirmed, this would be the fifth native-born case of BSE in Canada.
Officials say the case does not pose any danger to humans. No part of the cow entered the human or animal food systems and the cow's entire carcass has been placed under control.
Doctors Reverse Heart Transplant
British doctors reversed a "piggyback" heart transplant in a 12-year-old girl after they determined her own heart was strong enough to pump blood on its own again.
Hannah Clark had received the donor heart 10 years ago, but doctors left in her diseased heart. She recently developed severe complications with her immune system, so doctors decided to remove the donor heart so the girl could be taken off immune suppression drugs that prevented her from rejecting the transplanted heart, the Associated Press reported.
After the donor heart was removed, Hannah's own heart was able to cope on its own. She made a quick recovery and went home a week after the operation.
"It is a very unique situation for a piggyback heart transplant to offer a window, a period of time, for the diseased heart to recover sufficiently to take over the circulation again 10 years later," said Dr. Victor Tsang, one of the surgeon's who removed the donor heart.
Even though Hannah is doing well at the moment, doctors said this is a unique case and could offer no long-term prognosis.
FDA to Discuss Nano Materials
The increasing use of nanotechnology in everyday products has prompted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to schedule an October meeting to discuss new kinds of nano materials being developed for products the agency regulates, such as drugs, foods, cosmetics, and medical devices.
Because of their incredibly small size, nano materials can pose different safety issues than larger materials. The meeting will help alert the FDA to any scientific issues about nanotechnology.
The FDA's announcement about the meeting comes as German officials investigate why nearly 100 people suffered respiratory problems after using a new cleaning product that contains nano particles, the Associated Press reported. The product, Magic Nano, is not available in the United States and has been withdrawn from the German market.
"These incidents have demonstrated that the introduction of new technologies in consumer products must be coupled with an assessment of the possible risks arising from their use. It is incumbent on science to communicate this message to consumers as well," Andreas Hensel, president of Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, said in a statement.
Eye-care products maker Bausch & Lomb on Thursday asked retailers across the United States to temporarily stop selling ReNu with MoistureLoc contact lens solution, which is being investigated as a possible cause of 109 reported fungal eye infections since last June.
Bausch & Lomb is recommending that consumers use another contact lens solution while U.S. health officials conduct their investigation. The company plans to place advertisements in major newspapers to inform consumers about alternative products, The New York Times reported.
"We find ourselves in a position where the safety of one of our products, ReNu with MoistureLoc manufactured at our United States plant, is in question," company chairman and chief executive Ronald L. Zarella said in a statement.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors have spent weeks at Bausch & Lomb's plant in Greenville, S.C., but have not been able to detect any source of contamination, the Times reported.
On Thursday, a New York man filed a lawsuit against Bausch & Lomb, claiming the company knew in February that ReNu with MoistureLoc could cause fungal eye infections but waited until this week to halt sales of the product. The suit seeks unspecified damages and class-action status.
'Goths' Have High Rates of Self-Harm and Attempted Suicide
Goths -- a subculture of young people fascinated by death and the dark aspects of human nature -- have high rates of self-harm and attempted suicide, says a University of Glasgow, Scotland study in the current issue of the British Medical Journal.
Researchers surveyed more than 1,258 young adults several times through their teen years and found that 53 percent of teens who said they were goths admitted to self-harm (deliberately cutting, burning, hitting or poisoning oneself) and 47 percent said they'd attempted suicide, ABC News reported.
"Although only fairly small numbers of young people identify themselves as belonging to the goth subculture, rates of self-harm and attempted suicide are very high among this group," lead researcher Robert Young said.
He added that teens were more likely to have hurt themselves before they became involved in the goth scene. This suggests that troubled teens may be attracted to goth culture, not that the subculture promotes self-harm, ABC News reported.
Teens who were into hip-hop, "indie" rock, or pop culture had much lower rates of self-harm, the study found.
FDA Approves Injectable Drug to Treat Alcoholism
Once-a-month injections of the drug Vivitrol (naltrexone) to treat alcoholism received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval Thursday. The drug was previously only sold in daily pill form.
The injectable form of the drug will be made by Alkermes Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., and will be marketed and sold by Cephalon Inc. of Frazer, Pa., the Associated Press reported.
Vivitrol blocks neurotransmitters in the brain believed to be associated with alcohol dependence.
The companies hope the once-monthly injections, done at a doctor's office, will make it easier than the daily pill for alcoholics to stick with their treatment program, which also includes counseling or group therapy.
"Daily adherence to medication is challenging for most people, and even more challenging for people with alcoholism," said Richard Pops, Alkermes' chief executive officer.
The price of the injectable drug won't be decided until it's launched in the United States in late June, the AP reported. The drug will carry a black-box warning cautioning patients that it can cause liver damage. The pill form carries a similar warning.
Canadian Officials Checking Possible Mad Cow Case
Canadian officials are investigating a suspected case of mad cow disease in a six-year-old dairy cow in British Columbia.
A final series of tests is being conducted by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency after initial tests failed to determine whether the cow had bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), CBC News reported.
Initial tests by provincial authorities were inconclusive. Samples from the cow, being raised on a farm in the Fraser Valley, were then sent to the National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease, where further testing indicated "a preliminary positive result."
This third series of tests is expected to be completed over the weekend, CBC News reported. If confirmed, this would be the fifth native-born case of BSE in Canada.
Officials say the case does not pose any danger to humans. No part of the cow entered the human or animal food systems and the cow's entire carcass has been placed under control.
Doctors Reverse Heart Transplant
British doctors reversed a "piggyback" heart transplant in a 12-year-old girl after they determined her own heart was strong enough to pump blood on its own again.
Hannah Clark had received the donor heart 10 years ago, but doctors left in her diseased heart. She recently developed severe complications with her immune system, so doctors decided to remove the donor heart so the girl could be taken off immune suppression drugs that prevented her from rejecting the transplanted heart, the Associated Press reported.
After the donor heart was removed, Hannah's own heart was able to cope on its own. She made a quick recovery and went home a week after the operation.
"It is a very unique situation for a piggyback heart transplant to offer a window, a period of time, for the diseased heart to recover sufficiently to take over the circulation again 10 years later," said Dr. Victor Tsang, one of the surgeon's who removed the donor heart.
Even though Hannah is doing well at the moment, doctors said this is a unique case and could offer no long-term prognosis.
FDA to Discuss Nano Materials
The increasing use of nanotechnology in everyday products has prompted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to schedule an October meeting to discuss new kinds of nano materials being developed for products the agency regulates, such as drugs, foods, cosmetics, and medical devices.
Because of their incredibly small size, nano materials can pose different safety issues than larger materials. The meeting will help alert the FDA to any scientific issues about nanotechnology.
The FDA's announcement about the meeting comes as German officials investigate why nearly 100 people suffered respiratory problems after using a new cleaning product that contains nano particles, the Associated Press reported. The product, Magic Nano, is not available in the United States and has been withdrawn from the German market.
"These incidents have demonstrated that the introduction of new technologies in consumer products must be coupled with an assessment of the possible risks arising from their use. It is incumbent on science to communicate this message to consumers as well," Andreas Hensel, president of Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, said in a statement.
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Health Headlines - April 13
Canadian Officials Checking Possible Mad Cow Case
Canadian officials are investigating a suspected case of mad cow disease in a six-year-old dairy cow in British Columbia.
A final series of tests is being conducted by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency after initial tests failed to determine whether the cow had bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), CBC News reported.
Initial tests by provincial authorities were inconclusive. Samples from the cow, being raised on a farm in the Fraser Valley, were then sent to the National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease, where further testing indicated "a preliminary positive result."
This third series of tests is expected to be completed over the weekend, CBC News reported. If confirmed, this would be the fifth native-born case of BSE in Canada.
Officials say the case does not pose any danger to humans. No part of the cow entered the human or animal food systems and the cow's entire carcass has been placed under control.
Doctors Reverse Heart Transplant
British doctors reversed a "piggyback" heart transplant in a 12-year-old girl after they determined her own heart was strong enough to pump blood on its own again.
Hannah Clark had received the donor heart 10 years ago, but doctors left in her diseased heart. She recently developed severe complications with her immune system, so doctors decided to remove the donor heart so the girl could be taken off immune suppression drugs that prevented her from rejecting the transplanted heart, the Associated Press reported.
After the donor heart was removed, Hannah's own heart was able to cope on its own. She made a quick recovery and went home a week after the operation.
"It is a very unique situation for a piggyback heart transplant to offer a window, a period of time, for the diseased heart to recover sufficiently to take over the circulation again 10 years later," said Dr. Victor Tsang, one of the surgeon's who removed the donor heart.
Even though Hannah is doing well at the moment, doctors said this is a unique case and could offer no long-term prognosis.
FDA to Discuss Nano Materials
The increasing use of nanotechnology in everyday products has prompted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to schedule an October meeting to discuss new kinds of nano materials being developed for products the agency regulates, such as drugs, foods, cosmetics, and medical devices.
Because of their incredibly small size, nano materials can pose different safety issues than larger materials. The meeting will help alert the FDA to any scientific issues about nanotechnology.
The FDA's announcement about the meeting comes as German officials investigate why nearly 100 people suffered respiratory problems after using a new cleaning product that contains nano particles, the Associated Press reported. The product, Magic Nano, is not available in the United States and has been withdrawn from the German market.
"These incidents have demonstrated that the introduction of new technologies in consumer products must be coupled with an assessment of the possible risks arising from their use. It is incumbent on science to communicate this message to consumers as well," Andreas Hensel, president of Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, said in a statement.
Most People Satisfied with Their Medicare Drug Plan: Survey
Nearly eight out of 10 people enrolled in a Medicare prescription drug plan say they're satisfied, and only 20 percent said they felt like they were not saving money with their plans, according to a survey released Thursday by AARP.
It found that 63 percent of respondents felt their new Medicare drug plan is either better or as good as their previous coverage, while 17 percent felt it was worse.
Forty percent said they believed they would have needed to give something up if Medicare had not added the new drug benefit. Those sacrifices may have included groceries, reducing medication, finding less expensive housing, and cutting back on savings.
"Before Medicare added a drug benefit, more than half of those in the program either lacked drug coverage or had inadequate coverage that did not protect them from high out-of-pocket costs. The new plans fill a critical need for affordable prescription drugs," AARP Director of Health Strategy Cheryl Matheis said in a prepared statement.
As of March, more than 27 million people were enrolled in a new Medicare drug plan.
Fast Food Is Fattier in U.S.
Depending on where you are in the world, french fries and some chicken products at McDonald's or KFC restaurants may contain more dangerous trans fats than the same items at the chains' outlets in other locations, says a Danish report published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The researchers analyzed McDonald's chicken nuggets, KFC hot wings, and both companies' french fries in dozens of countries in 2004 and 2005, the Associated Press reported.
At a McDonald's in New York City, a large fries and chicken nuggets combo contained 10.2 grams of trans fats, compared with about 3 grams in the Czech Republic, Russian and Spain, and 0.33 grams in Denmark.
A large order of KFC hot wings and fries in New York had 5.5 grams of trans fats, compared with 19 grams of trans fats in Poland and Hungary, and less than a gram in Denmark, Germany and Russia, the AP reported.
Even within the United States, there were major differences. A large order of french fries at a New York City McDonald's contained 30 percent more trans fats than the same item at a McDonald's in Atlanta.
Research shows that eating just five grams of trans fat a day increases the risk of heart disease by 25 percent. Hydrogenated vegetable oil, which is high in trans fats, is used by many restaurants to fry food.
Airline Passengers May Have Spread Mumps
Health officials suspect that two airline passengers may have played a role in spreading the Iowa mumps epidemic to six other Midwestern states.
"These people may have exposed other people on those planes or in these airports," Kevin Teale, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Public Health, told the Associated Press.
There have been 515 suspected cases of mumps reported in Iowa and: 43 reported cases in Nebraska; 33 in Kansas; four each in Illinois, Missouri and Wisconsin; and one in Minnesota. This is the first mumps epidemic in the country in 20 years. No deaths have been reported.
Iowa health officials have identified state residents who were potentially infectious when they traveled by air in late March and early April, the AP reported. No mumps cases in other states have yet been linked to the air travelers.
Canadian officials are investigating a suspected case of mad cow disease in a six-year-old dairy cow in British Columbia.
A final series of tests is being conducted by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency after initial tests failed to determine whether the cow had bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), CBC News reported.
Initial tests by provincial authorities were inconclusive. Samples from the cow, being raised on a farm in the Fraser Valley, were then sent to the National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease, where further testing indicated "a preliminary positive result."
This third series of tests is expected to be completed over the weekend, CBC News reported. If confirmed, this would be the fifth native-born case of BSE in Canada.
Officials say the case does not pose any danger to humans. No part of the cow entered the human or animal food systems and the cow's entire carcass has been placed under control.
Doctors Reverse Heart Transplant
British doctors reversed a "piggyback" heart transplant in a 12-year-old girl after they determined her own heart was strong enough to pump blood on its own again.
Hannah Clark had received the donor heart 10 years ago, but doctors left in her diseased heart. She recently developed severe complications with her immune system, so doctors decided to remove the donor heart so the girl could be taken off immune suppression drugs that prevented her from rejecting the transplanted heart, the Associated Press reported.
After the donor heart was removed, Hannah's own heart was able to cope on its own. She made a quick recovery and went home a week after the operation.
"It is a very unique situation for a piggyback heart transplant to offer a window, a period of time, for the diseased heart to recover sufficiently to take over the circulation again 10 years later," said Dr. Victor Tsang, one of the surgeon's who removed the donor heart.
Even though Hannah is doing well at the moment, doctors said this is a unique case and could offer no long-term prognosis.
FDA to Discuss Nano Materials
The increasing use of nanotechnology in everyday products has prompted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to schedule an October meeting to discuss new kinds of nano materials being developed for products the agency regulates, such as drugs, foods, cosmetics, and medical devices.
Because of their incredibly small size, nano materials can pose different safety issues than larger materials. The meeting will help alert the FDA to any scientific issues about nanotechnology.
The FDA's announcement about the meeting comes as German officials investigate why nearly 100 people suffered respiratory problems after using a new cleaning product that contains nano particles, the Associated Press reported. The product, Magic Nano, is not available in the United States and has been withdrawn from the German market.
"These incidents have demonstrated that the introduction of new technologies in consumer products must be coupled with an assessment of the possible risks arising from their use. It is incumbent on science to communicate this message to consumers as well," Andreas Hensel, president of Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, said in a statement.
Most People Satisfied with Their Medicare Drug Plan: Survey
Nearly eight out of 10 people enrolled in a Medicare prescription drug plan say they're satisfied, and only 20 percent said they felt like they were not saving money with their plans, according to a survey released Thursday by AARP.
It found that 63 percent of respondents felt their new Medicare drug plan is either better or as good as their previous coverage, while 17 percent felt it was worse.
Forty percent said they believed they would have needed to give something up if Medicare had not added the new drug benefit. Those sacrifices may have included groceries, reducing medication, finding less expensive housing, and cutting back on savings.
"Before Medicare added a drug benefit, more than half of those in the program either lacked drug coverage or had inadequate coverage that did not protect them from high out-of-pocket costs. The new plans fill a critical need for affordable prescription drugs," AARP Director of Health Strategy Cheryl Matheis said in a prepared statement.
As of March, more than 27 million people were enrolled in a new Medicare drug plan.
Fast Food Is Fattier in U.S.
Depending on where you are in the world, french fries and some chicken products at McDonald's or KFC restaurants may contain more dangerous trans fats than the same items at the chains' outlets in other locations, says a Danish report published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The researchers analyzed McDonald's chicken nuggets, KFC hot wings, and both companies' french fries in dozens of countries in 2004 and 2005, the Associated Press reported.
At a McDonald's in New York City, a large fries and chicken nuggets combo contained 10.2 grams of trans fats, compared with about 3 grams in the Czech Republic, Russian and Spain, and 0.33 grams in Denmark.
A large order of KFC hot wings and fries in New York had 5.5 grams of trans fats, compared with 19 grams of trans fats in Poland and Hungary, and less than a gram in Denmark, Germany and Russia, the AP reported.
Even within the United States, there were major differences. A large order of french fries at a New York City McDonald's contained 30 percent more trans fats than the same item at a McDonald's in Atlanta.
Research shows that eating just five grams of trans fat a day increases the risk of heart disease by 25 percent. Hydrogenated vegetable oil, which is high in trans fats, is used by many restaurants to fry food.
Airline Passengers May Have Spread Mumps
Health officials suspect that two airline passengers may have played a role in spreading the Iowa mumps epidemic to six other Midwestern states.
"These people may have exposed other people on those planes or in these airports," Kevin Teale, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Public Health, told the Associated Press.
There have been 515 suspected cases of mumps reported in Iowa and: 43 reported cases in Nebraska; 33 in Kansas; four each in Illinois, Missouri and Wisconsin; and one in Minnesota. This is the first mumps epidemic in the country in 20 years. No deaths have been reported.
Iowa health officials have identified state residents who were potentially infectious when they traveled by air in late March and early April, the AP reported. No mumps cases in other states have yet been linked to the air travelers.
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Health Headlines - April 12
Lawsuits Target Benzene in Soft Drinks
Lawsuits filed by parents Tuesday against two U.S. soft drink companies allege that their beverages may contain the cancer-causing chemical benzene and pose a threat to children.
The class action lawsuits, filed in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston and in Leon County Circuit Court in Tallahassee, Fla., accuse Polar Beverages Inc. and Zone Brands Inc. of not taking precautions to prevent benzene from forming in their beverages, the Associated Press reported.
The lawsuits allege that independent laboratory tests of the companies' beverages found benzene levels of 5 parts per billion, which is higher than the U.S. federal limit for drinking water. The plaintiffs want the companies barred from selling drinks that may contain benzene in Massachusetts and Florida.
Benzene can form in soft drinks that contain two ingredients -- vitamin C (ascorbic acid), and either sodium benzoate or potassium benzoate. However, the presence of those ingredients doesn't mean benzene is present in a drink. Heat or light exposure can trigger the formation of benzene, the AP reported.
"It's impossible for parents to know which soft drinks are safe and which contain cancer-causing benzene," said plaintiff Timothy Newell.
He and the other plaintiffs noted that other soft drink companies have either removed one of the ingredients that can form benzene or have added ingredients to prevent the formation of the chemical in their drinks, the AP reported.
Polar Beverages released a statement saying all of its products are safe.
Coroner Links Detective's Death to World Trade Center Cleanup
A New Jersey coroner has made the first known ruling that links a death to cleanup work at the World Trade Center site in Manhattan following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The case involves the death of 34-year-old James Zadroga, a police detective who developed respiratory disease after spending 470 hours working at the site. He died on Jan. 6 of respiratory failure. The autopsy results were released Tuesday by Zadroga's family and union, the Associated Press reported.
"It is felt with a reasonable degree of medical certainty that the cause of death in this case was directly related to the 9/11 incident," Dr. Gerard Burton, a pathologist at the Ocean County medical examiner's office, wrote in the Feb. 28 autopsy.
Zadroga had inflammation in his lung tissue due to "a history of exposure to toxic fumes and dust," Breton wrote. He also detected material "consistent with dust' in Zadroga's lungs; the officer also had a damaged liver and enlarged heart and spleen, the AP reported.
Last week, a report released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that many survivors of the World Trade Center attacks are still suffering respiratory problems and psychological symptoms.
Bird Flu May Be Limited Threat to U.S., Expert Says
Even if the dangerous H5N1 bird flu virus does make it to the United States, it's unlikely to be as serious a threat to U.S. poultry or people as it is in developing nations, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. bird flu expert.
"The surveillance is going to be so intense that it is very unlikely that there is going to be the type of situation we see everywhere from Nigeria to Indonesia," Fauci, infectious disease chief at the National Institutes of Health, told the Associated Press.
He noted that U.S. poultry farmers keep their birds isolated from wild birds and that most Americans have limited contact with poultry or their droppings.
"It won't be what you see in countries in which there is no regulation, in which there is no incentive to compensate farmers, in which the people, who are so poor, when they see their chickens are getting infected they immediately sell them or they don't tell anybody because they don't want them culled," Fauci told the AP.
Even so, the U.S. government must prepare for a worst-case bird flu scenario, including a human pandemic, he added.
Since 2003, bird flu has killed 109 people in nine countries, mostly in Asia, and has forced the slaughter of more than 200 million domestic fowl in Africa, Asia and Europe.
Jury Awards Punitive Damages in Vioxx Case
A New Jersey jury awarded $9 million in punitive damages on Tuesday to a man who blamed his heart attack on the once-popular painkiller Vioxx.
The jury decision found that manufacturer Merck & Co. failed to warn of the risks of its now-withdrawn arthritis drug and misrepresented the risks to physicians.
The damages are in addition to $4.5 million already awarded as compensatory damages to John McDarby, 77, of Park Ridge, who suffered a heart attack after four years on Vioxx, a painkiller taken by 20 million Americans before being pulled off the market, the Associated Press reported.
Tuesday's decision capped a five-week trial that combined two cases: that of McDarby, a retired insurance agent, and Thomas Cona, 60, of Cherry Hill, who said he took the drug for 22 months before his 2003 heart attack, but he couldn't prove it.
Cona's prescription records showed only enough for about seven months' use, and the six-woman, two-man jury rejected his claim that Vioxx was to blame and awarded him only the cost of his prescription.
This is the sixth trial involving Vioxx, and the first involving long-term use. Merck faces 9,650 other lawsuits.
FDA Proposes New Rules for Medical Gas Canisters
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is proposing new rules for the labeling, color and designs of medical gas containers in order to prevent problems that can lead to patient death and injury.
In the past decade, medical gas container mix-ups have killed at least eight patients and injured 16 others, health officials said. But nursing homes and hospitals are not required to report such cases to the FDA, so the actual number of deaths and injuries could be higher, the Associated Press reported.
The FDA proposal includes a standard color-coding system for the canisters and wraparound labels. The tanks would be fitted with outlet connections that are not easy to remove. This is meant to discourage improper hookup of the wrong types of medical gases to patient breathing equipment.
The new rules would also ban the reuse of industrial gas canisters for medical use, which can result in contamination by cleaning solvent residues, the AP reported.
Public comments on the proposed rules are being accepted by the FDA until July 10.
Lawsuits filed by parents Tuesday against two U.S. soft drink companies allege that their beverages may contain the cancer-causing chemical benzene and pose a threat to children.
The class action lawsuits, filed in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston and in Leon County Circuit Court in Tallahassee, Fla., accuse Polar Beverages Inc. and Zone Brands Inc. of not taking precautions to prevent benzene from forming in their beverages, the Associated Press reported.
The lawsuits allege that independent laboratory tests of the companies' beverages found benzene levels of 5 parts per billion, which is higher than the U.S. federal limit for drinking water. The plaintiffs want the companies barred from selling drinks that may contain benzene in Massachusetts and Florida.
Benzene can form in soft drinks that contain two ingredients -- vitamin C (ascorbic acid), and either sodium benzoate or potassium benzoate. However, the presence of those ingredients doesn't mean benzene is present in a drink. Heat or light exposure can trigger the formation of benzene, the AP reported.
"It's impossible for parents to know which soft drinks are safe and which contain cancer-causing benzene," said plaintiff Timothy Newell.
He and the other plaintiffs noted that other soft drink companies have either removed one of the ingredients that can form benzene or have added ingredients to prevent the formation of the chemical in their drinks, the AP reported.
Polar Beverages released a statement saying all of its products are safe.
Coroner Links Detective's Death to World Trade Center Cleanup
A New Jersey coroner has made the first known ruling that links a death to cleanup work at the World Trade Center site in Manhattan following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The case involves the death of 34-year-old James Zadroga, a police detective who developed respiratory disease after spending 470 hours working at the site. He died on Jan. 6 of respiratory failure. The autopsy results were released Tuesday by Zadroga's family and union, the Associated Press reported.
"It is felt with a reasonable degree of medical certainty that the cause of death in this case was directly related to the 9/11 incident," Dr. Gerard Burton, a pathologist at the Ocean County medical examiner's office, wrote in the Feb. 28 autopsy.
Zadroga had inflammation in his lung tissue due to "a history of exposure to toxic fumes and dust," Breton wrote. He also detected material "consistent with dust' in Zadroga's lungs; the officer also had a damaged liver and enlarged heart and spleen, the AP reported.
Last week, a report released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that many survivors of the World Trade Center attacks are still suffering respiratory problems and psychological symptoms.
Bird Flu May Be Limited Threat to U.S., Expert Says
Even if the dangerous H5N1 bird flu virus does make it to the United States, it's unlikely to be as serious a threat to U.S. poultry or people as it is in developing nations, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. bird flu expert.
"The surveillance is going to be so intense that it is very unlikely that there is going to be the type of situation we see everywhere from Nigeria to Indonesia," Fauci, infectious disease chief at the National Institutes of Health, told the Associated Press.
He noted that U.S. poultry farmers keep their birds isolated from wild birds and that most Americans have limited contact with poultry or their droppings.
"It won't be what you see in countries in which there is no regulation, in which there is no incentive to compensate farmers, in which the people, who are so poor, when they see their chickens are getting infected they immediately sell them or they don't tell anybody because they don't want them culled," Fauci told the AP.
Even so, the U.S. government must prepare for a worst-case bird flu scenario, including a human pandemic, he added.
Since 2003, bird flu has killed 109 people in nine countries, mostly in Asia, and has forced the slaughter of more than 200 million domestic fowl in Africa, Asia and Europe.
Jury Awards Punitive Damages in Vioxx Case
A New Jersey jury awarded $9 million in punitive damages on Tuesday to a man who blamed his heart attack on the once-popular painkiller Vioxx.
The jury decision found that manufacturer Merck & Co. failed to warn of the risks of its now-withdrawn arthritis drug and misrepresented the risks to physicians.
The damages are in addition to $4.5 million already awarded as compensatory damages to John McDarby, 77, of Park Ridge, who suffered a heart attack after four years on Vioxx, a painkiller taken by 20 million Americans before being pulled off the market, the Associated Press reported.
Tuesday's decision capped a five-week trial that combined two cases: that of McDarby, a retired insurance agent, and Thomas Cona, 60, of Cherry Hill, who said he took the drug for 22 months before his 2003 heart attack, but he couldn't prove it.
Cona's prescription records showed only enough for about seven months' use, and the six-woman, two-man jury rejected his claim that Vioxx was to blame and awarded him only the cost of his prescription.
This is the sixth trial involving Vioxx, and the first involving long-term use. Merck faces 9,650 other lawsuits.
FDA Proposes New Rules for Medical Gas Canisters
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is proposing new rules for the labeling, color and designs of medical gas containers in order to prevent problems that can lead to patient death and injury.
In the past decade, medical gas container mix-ups have killed at least eight patients and injured 16 others, health officials said. But nursing homes and hospitals are not required to report such cases to the FDA, so the actual number of deaths and injuries could be higher, the Associated Press reported.
The FDA proposal includes a standard color-coding system for the canisters and wraparound labels. The tanks would be fitted with outlet connections that are not easy to remove. This is meant to discourage improper hookup of the wrong types of medical gases to patient breathing equipment.
The new rules would also ban the reuse of industrial gas canisters for medical use, which can result in contamination by cleaning solvent residues, the AP reported.
Public comments on the proposed rules are being accepted by the FDA until July 10.
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Health Headlines - April 11
Jury Awards Punitive Damages in Vioxx Case
A New Jersey jury awarded $9 million in punitive damages on Tuesday to a man who blamed his heart attack on the once-popular painkiller Vioxx.
The jury decision found that manufacturer Merck & Co. failed to warn of the risks of its now-withdrawn arthritis drug and misrepresented the risks to physicians.
The damages are in addition to $4.5 million already awarded as compensatory damages to John McDarby, 77, of Park Ridge, who suffered a heart attack after four years on Vioxx, a painkiller taken by 20 million Americans before being pulled off the market, the Associated Press reported.
Tuesday's decision capped a five-week trial that combined two cases: that of McDarby, a retired insurance agent, and Thomas Cona, 60, of Cherry Hill, who said he took the drug for 22 months before his 2003 heart attack, but he couldn't prove it.
Cona's prescription records showed only enough for about seven months' use, and the six-woman, two-man jury rejected his claim that Vioxx was to blame and awarded him only the cost of his prescription.
This is the sixth trial involving Vioxx, and the first involving long-term use. Merck faces 9,650 other lawsuits.
FDA Proposes New Rules for Medical Gas Canisters
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is proposing new rules for the labeling, color and designs of medical gas containers in order to prevent problems that can lead to patient death and injury.
In the past decade, medical gas container mix-ups have killed at least eight patients and injured 16 others, health officials said. But nursing homes and hospitals are not required to report such cases to the FDA, so the actual number of deaths and injuries could be higher, the Associated Press reported.
The FDA proposal includes a standard color-coding system for the canisters and wraparound labels. The tanks would be fitted with outlet connections that are not easy to remove. This is meant to discourage improper hookup of the wrong types of medical gases to patient breathing equipment.
The new rules would also ban the reuse of industrial gas canisters for medical use, which can result in contamination by cleaning solvent residues, the AP reported.
Public comments on the proposed rules are being accepted by the FDA until July 10.
Pharmaceutical Industry 'Disease Mongering' to Boost Drug Sales: Report
Drug companies are "disease mongering" in order to increase sales, says a report in the journal Public Library of Science Medicine.
Pharmaceutical firms are putting healthy people at risk by medicalizing health conditions such as menopause, said report authors David Henry and Ray Moynihan of Newcastle University in Australia.
They noted that risk factors such as osteoporosis and high cholesterol are being presented as diseases and that drug companies are exaggerating rare conditions such as restless legs syndrome and mild conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome, BBC News reported.
The report authors also criticized drug industry efforts to convince the American public that 43 percent of women live with sexual dysfunction.
"Disease-mongering is the selling of sickness that widens the boundaries of illness and grows the markets for those who sell and deliver treatments," the report said.
"It is exemplified most explicitly by many pharmaceutical industry-funded disease awareness campaigns -- more often designed to sell drugs than to illuminate or to inform or educate about the prevention of illness or the maintenance of health," the report also said.
Abortion Pill Cleared in 1 Death
The RU-486 abortion pill was not responsible for one woman's death out of the two cases now being investigated by U.S. federal regulators. The cause of the other death is still being examined, the Food and Drug Administration said Monday.
The FDA did not elaborate on which of the two deaths had been ruled out as being linked to RU-486. However, it was a death that took place several weeks after the abortion, Cindy Summers, a spokeswoman for RU-486 manufacturer Danco Laboratories, told the Baltimore Sun.
The death still under investigation occurred several days after RU-486 was administered to the woman. The FDA announced last month that it was examining the two deaths.
Since 2001, four women in California and one in Canada have died from septic shock after taking RU-486. About 575,000 women in the United States have taken the drug since the FDA approved it in 2000.
Supporters of the drug say the FDA's announcement Monday is further proof that RU-486 is safe, the Sun reported.
Electronic Health Information Technology Improves Care
Electronic health information technology, such as electronic records, can improve healthcare quality and efficiency, says a study released Tuesday by the RAND Corporation. However, the study also said that more needs to be done to show health workers how to adopt the technology.
Researchers reviewed 257 previous studies on health information technology.
"There is good evidence to show that health information technology can provide substantial benefits," study lead author Dr. Basit Chaudhry, a RAND researcher and University of California, Los Angeles physician, said in a prepared statement.
"What we don't have is evidence showing most health providers how to make the technology work in their hospital or in their office. They need better information aboiut how to move from paper records to electronic records," Chaudhry said.
The RAND study concluded that data from the previous studies showed that health information technology can improve compliance with medical treatment guidelines, reduce medication errors, and decrease the use of potentially unnecessary medical care.
The findings appear in the May issue of the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
A New Jersey jury awarded $9 million in punitive damages on Tuesday to a man who blamed his heart attack on the once-popular painkiller Vioxx.
The jury decision found that manufacturer Merck & Co. failed to warn of the risks of its now-withdrawn arthritis drug and misrepresented the risks to physicians.
The damages are in addition to $4.5 million already awarded as compensatory damages to John McDarby, 77, of Park Ridge, who suffered a heart attack after four years on Vioxx, a painkiller taken by 20 million Americans before being pulled off the market, the Associated Press reported.
Tuesday's decision capped a five-week trial that combined two cases: that of McDarby, a retired insurance agent, and Thomas Cona, 60, of Cherry Hill, who said he took the drug for 22 months before his 2003 heart attack, but he couldn't prove it.
Cona's prescription records showed only enough for about seven months' use, and the six-woman, two-man jury rejected his claim that Vioxx was to blame and awarded him only the cost of his prescription.
This is the sixth trial involving Vioxx, and the first involving long-term use. Merck faces 9,650 other lawsuits.
FDA Proposes New Rules for Medical Gas Canisters
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is proposing new rules for the labeling, color and designs of medical gas containers in order to prevent problems that can lead to patient death and injury.
In the past decade, medical gas container mix-ups have killed at least eight patients and injured 16 others, health officials said. But nursing homes and hospitals are not required to report such cases to the FDA, so the actual number of deaths and injuries could be higher, the Associated Press reported.
The FDA proposal includes a standard color-coding system for the canisters and wraparound labels. The tanks would be fitted with outlet connections that are not easy to remove. This is meant to discourage improper hookup of the wrong types of medical gases to patient breathing equipment.
The new rules would also ban the reuse of industrial gas canisters for medical use, which can result in contamination by cleaning solvent residues, the AP reported.
Public comments on the proposed rules are being accepted by the FDA until July 10.
Pharmaceutical Industry 'Disease Mongering' to Boost Drug Sales: Report
Drug companies are "disease mongering" in order to increase sales, says a report in the journal Public Library of Science Medicine.
Pharmaceutical firms are putting healthy people at risk by medicalizing health conditions such as menopause, said report authors David Henry and Ray Moynihan of Newcastle University in Australia.
They noted that risk factors such as osteoporosis and high cholesterol are being presented as diseases and that drug companies are exaggerating rare conditions such as restless legs syndrome and mild conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome, BBC News reported.
The report authors also criticized drug industry efforts to convince the American public that 43 percent of women live with sexual dysfunction.
"Disease-mongering is the selling of sickness that widens the boundaries of illness and grows the markets for those who sell and deliver treatments," the report said.
"It is exemplified most explicitly by many pharmaceutical industry-funded disease awareness campaigns -- more often designed to sell drugs than to illuminate or to inform or educate about the prevention of illness or the maintenance of health," the report also said.
Abortion Pill Cleared in 1 Death
The RU-486 abortion pill was not responsible for one woman's death out of the two cases now being investigated by U.S. federal regulators. The cause of the other death is still being examined, the Food and Drug Administration said Monday.
The FDA did not elaborate on which of the two deaths had been ruled out as being linked to RU-486. However, it was a death that took place several weeks after the abortion, Cindy Summers, a spokeswoman for RU-486 manufacturer Danco Laboratories, told the Baltimore Sun.
The death still under investigation occurred several days after RU-486 was administered to the woman. The FDA announced last month that it was examining the two deaths.
Since 2001, four women in California and one in Canada have died from septic shock after taking RU-486. About 575,000 women in the United States have taken the drug since the FDA approved it in 2000.
Supporters of the drug say the FDA's announcement Monday is further proof that RU-486 is safe, the Sun reported.
Electronic Health Information Technology Improves Care
Electronic health information technology, such as electronic records, can improve healthcare quality and efficiency, says a study released Tuesday by the RAND Corporation. However, the study also said that more needs to be done to show health workers how to adopt the technology.
Researchers reviewed 257 previous studies on health information technology.
"There is good evidence to show that health information technology can provide substantial benefits," study lead author Dr. Basit Chaudhry, a RAND researcher and University of California, Los Angeles physician, said in a prepared statement.
"What we don't have is evidence showing most health providers how to make the technology work in their hospital or in their office. They need better information aboiut how to move from paper records to electronic records," Chaudhry said.
The RAND study concluded that data from the previous studies showed that health information technology can improve compliance with medical treatment guidelines, reduce medication errors, and decrease the use of potentially unnecessary medical care.
The findings appear in the May issue of the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
Monday, April 10, 2006
Health Headlines - April 10
Obesity Drug Xenical Should be Banned: Public Citizen
The prescription obesity drug Xenical (orlistat) should be immediately removed from the U.S. market because it may increase the risk of aberrant crypt foci (ACF), which are widely believed to be a precursor to colon cancer, the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen said in a petition filed Monday with the Food and Drug Administration.
Public Citizen, based in Washington, D.C., said its petition is based on findings from a review of data from Roche Pharmaceuticals, which makes orlistat, and recent findings that the drug causes ACF in the colon of rats.
The group also expressed concern that the FDA seems poised to approve U.S. sales of an over-the-counter version of orlistat.
"The failure to ban the prescription version of this drug or worse, to make it much more widely available by allowing OTC sales, is a decision that is likely to increase cancer incidence," Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group, said in a prepared statement.
Joining Public Citizen in the petition are Case Western Reserve School of Medicine pathologists -- Dr. Theresa Pretlow and Dr. Thomas Pretlow -- who are experts on ACF's link to colorectal cancer.
Study to Examine Chocolate's Effect on Cardiovascular Disease
A British researcher wants to study whether dark chocolate can help people with cardiovascular disease.
Professor Roger Corder of the William Harvey Research Institute in London plans to study 40 patients in order to determine if flavonoids found in dark chocolate offer any health benefits, BBC News reported.
Previous research has suggested that flavonoids -- which are also found in red wine, tea, fruits and vegetables -- may reduce levels of so-called LDL "bad" cholesterol that cause hardening of the arteries, strokes and heart attacks.
"It is probably wrong to say that all dark chocolate is good for you," Corder told the BBC. "I think it is going to take at least six to 12 months before it is clear which are the best dark chocolate brands to recommend."
There is some evidence to suggest that dark chocolate may have short-term beneficial effects on circulation, noted Dr. Charmaine Griffiths, spokeswoman for the British Heart Foundation.
"But it is important to remember that chocolate is far more often part of the problem for heart health than the solution," she told the BBC. "Eating five portions of fruit and vegetables a day is a better way to get the heart-protective antioxidants without having to worry so much about the fats and sugars packed into chocolate."
Brain Scans Help Explain Autistic Traits
Poor communication between brain areas in people with autism may explain why they have difficulty relating to other people, says a U.K. study in the journal Neuroimage.
The weak connections between their brain areas mean that people benefit less from social situations, resulting in poor interaction with others, the University of London researchers concluded.
They compared the brain scans of 16 people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and a control group of 16 people without autism. Both groups were shown images of two faces and two houses on a screen and asked to determine if they were identical, BBC News reported.
The brains scans revealed that both groups had the same reaction to the images of the houses. However, the faces prompted much greater brain activity among the people in the control group than in the people with ASD, which explains their lack of interest in faces.
"It seems that, for people with ASD, paying attention to a face is much harder to do and doesn't have the same effect," said research head Dr. Geoff Bird of the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience.
New Yorkers More Likely to Suffer Mental Distress
New York City residents are more likely to suffer mental distress than other Americans, according to results of a survey released Monday by the City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
The survey found that nearly one in seven adult New Yorkers described their mental health last year as frequently "not good," on 14 or more days of the month, compared to one in 10 adults in a national survey, The New York Times reported.
The higher rate of "frequent mental distress" (like stress, depression and other emotional problems) among New York City residents was statistically significant, said Dr. Lloyd I. Sederer, executive deputy commissioner for mental hygiene at the health department.
The reasons for the difference between New Yorkers and other Americans aren't clear.
"I wish we knew, in a way that we could say with confidence, why that difference is," Sederer told the Times.
Kidney-Stone Treatment May Hike Diabetes, Blood Pressure Risk
Lithotripsy, which uses shock waves to pulverize kidney stones, significantly increases the risk of diabetes and high blood pressure later in life, says a Mayo Clinic study published Monday in the Journal of Urology.
The Mayo team found that patients who had lithotripsy developed diabetes at nearly four times the rate of patients whose kidney stones were treated using other methods. The patients treated with lithotripsy also developed high blood pressure about 50 percent more often, The New York Times reported.
This is the first study to identify diabetes as a complication of lithotripsy. Previous research yielded conflicting findings about the link between lithotripsy and high blood pressure.
The Mayo team said it wants to conduct research in animals to determine how the shock waves used in lithotripsy actually cause diabetes and high blood pressure.
The researchers hypothesize that the shock waves may increase diabetes risk by damaging insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. They also suggest that lithotripsy may hike the risk of high blood pressure by scarring the kidneys and affecting their secretion of hormones that influence blood pressure, the Times reported.
About one million people in the United States have had the procedure since it was introduced in the country in 1984.
The prescription obesity drug Xenical (orlistat) should be immediately removed from the U.S. market because it may increase the risk of aberrant crypt foci (ACF), which are widely believed to be a precursor to colon cancer, the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen said in a petition filed Monday with the Food and Drug Administration.
Public Citizen, based in Washington, D.C., said its petition is based on findings from a review of data from Roche Pharmaceuticals, which makes orlistat, and recent findings that the drug causes ACF in the colon of rats.
The group also expressed concern that the FDA seems poised to approve U.S. sales of an over-the-counter version of orlistat.
"The failure to ban the prescription version of this drug or worse, to make it much more widely available by allowing OTC sales, is a decision that is likely to increase cancer incidence," Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group, said in a prepared statement.
Joining Public Citizen in the petition are Case Western Reserve School of Medicine pathologists -- Dr. Theresa Pretlow and Dr. Thomas Pretlow -- who are experts on ACF's link to colorectal cancer.
Study to Examine Chocolate's Effect on Cardiovascular Disease
A British researcher wants to study whether dark chocolate can help people with cardiovascular disease.
Professor Roger Corder of the William Harvey Research Institute in London plans to study 40 patients in order to determine if flavonoids found in dark chocolate offer any health benefits, BBC News reported.
Previous research has suggested that flavonoids -- which are also found in red wine, tea, fruits and vegetables -- may reduce levels of so-called LDL "bad" cholesterol that cause hardening of the arteries, strokes and heart attacks.
"It is probably wrong to say that all dark chocolate is good for you," Corder told the BBC. "I think it is going to take at least six to 12 months before it is clear which are the best dark chocolate brands to recommend."
There is some evidence to suggest that dark chocolate may have short-term beneficial effects on circulation, noted Dr. Charmaine Griffiths, spokeswoman for the British Heart Foundation.
"But it is important to remember that chocolate is far more often part of the problem for heart health than the solution," she told the BBC. "Eating five portions of fruit and vegetables a day is a better way to get the heart-protective antioxidants without having to worry so much about the fats and sugars packed into chocolate."
Brain Scans Help Explain Autistic Traits
Poor communication between brain areas in people with autism may explain why they have difficulty relating to other people, says a U.K. study in the journal Neuroimage.
The weak connections between their brain areas mean that people benefit less from social situations, resulting in poor interaction with others, the University of London researchers concluded.
They compared the brain scans of 16 people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and a control group of 16 people without autism. Both groups were shown images of two faces and two houses on a screen and asked to determine if they were identical, BBC News reported.
The brains scans revealed that both groups had the same reaction to the images of the houses. However, the faces prompted much greater brain activity among the people in the control group than in the people with ASD, which explains their lack of interest in faces.
"It seems that, for people with ASD, paying attention to a face is much harder to do and doesn't have the same effect," said research head Dr. Geoff Bird of the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience.
New Yorkers More Likely to Suffer Mental Distress
New York City residents are more likely to suffer mental distress than other Americans, according to results of a survey released Monday by the City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
The survey found that nearly one in seven adult New Yorkers described their mental health last year as frequently "not good," on 14 or more days of the month, compared to one in 10 adults in a national survey, The New York Times reported.
The higher rate of "frequent mental distress" (like stress, depression and other emotional problems) among New York City residents was statistically significant, said Dr. Lloyd I. Sederer, executive deputy commissioner for mental hygiene at the health department.
The reasons for the difference between New Yorkers and other Americans aren't clear.
"I wish we knew, in a way that we could say with confidence, why that difference is," Sederer told the Times.
Kidney-Stone Treatment May Hike Diabetes, Blood Pressure Risk
Lithotripsy, which uses shock waves to pulverize kidney stones, significantly increases the risk of diabetes and high blood pressure later in life, says a Mayo Clinic study published Monday in the Journal of Urology.
The Mayo team found that patients who had lithotripsy developed diabetes at nearly four times the rate of patients whose kidney stones were treated using other methods. The patients treated with lithotripsy also developed high blood pressure about 50 percent more often, The New York Times reported.
This is the first study to identify diabetes as a complication of lithotripsy. Previous research yielded conflicting findings about the link between lithotripsy and high blood pressure.
The Mayo team said it wants to conduct research in animals to determine how the shock waves used in lithotripsy actually cause diabetes and high blood pressure.
The researchers hypothesize that the shock waves may increase diabetes risk by damaging insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. They also suggest that lithotripsy may hike the risk of high blood pressure by scarring the kidneys and affecting their secretion of hormones that influence blood pressure, the Times reported.
About one million people in the United States have had the procedure since it was introduced in the country in 1984.
Sunday, April 09, 2006
Health Headlines - April 9
9/11 Survivors Still Struggling With Health Problems: Report
Many survivors of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center are still suffering respiratory problems and psychological symptoms, according to a new government study.
About 62 percent of the survivors were enveloped in the dust, smoke and debris spewed into the air as the towers collapsed, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Friday said.
About 57 percent reported new or worsening respiratory problems after the attacks, and 21 percent have had severe headaches, the agency said according to a Bloomberg report.
More than 64 percent said they were depressed, anxious or had other emotional problems; almost 11 percent were in severe psychological distress at the time they were interviewed, the Daily News reported.
The collapse released particles of concrete, glass, plastic and paper into the air; fires at the 16-acre pile of rubble burned for about 3 months, and many people inhaled the fumes when they returned to work in lower Manhattan, the CDC report said.
Between Sept. 5, 2003, and Nov. 20, 2004, the city Health Department interviewed 71,437 who had been affected by the attacks in 2001. The CDC then sampled data from 8,418 people on the registry -- excluding those involved in rescue and recovery efforts.
The government plans to periodically monitor the physical and mental health of the 71,437 people for 20 years as part of its World Trade Center Health Registry program.
Feds Open Criminal Probe Into Calif. Liver Transplant Program
Federal investigators have launched a criminal probe into UC Irvine Medical Center's failed liver transplant program, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.
While the focus of the probe was not made clear, a spokesman for the university confirmed Saturday that the hospital was served with a subpoena for documents by the FBI, which is working with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
"We have received a Department of Justice administrative subpoena related to the liver transplant program," UC Irvine spokesman James Cohen said in a prepared statement released Saturday. Cohen declined to provide details but said the university would cooperate.
UCI closed its liver transplant program in November after the Times reported that 32 patients on its waiting list died in 2004 and 2005, during a period when the hospital was rejecting viable organs from a donor network.
By 2004, private insurance companies had begun steering their liver transplant patients away from UCI to other hospitals in the region. As a result, UCI was relying almost exclusively on patients whose insurance was provided under government coverage, the newspaper reported.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services withdrew certification of the program after the Times story, ending federal payments for the treatments.
Israel's Sharon to Be Declared 'Permanently Incapacitated'
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has been in a coma for three months following a massive stroke, will be declared permanently incapacitated Tuesday, Israeli officials said Sunday.
The declaration will officially signal the end of his reign, the Justice Ministry added, according to an Associated Press report.
Sharon, 78, was declared temporarily incapacitated following the stroke Jan. 4, but under Israeli law after 100 days an official replacement for him has to be named.
That deadline expires Friday, but because the weeklong Jewish Passover holiday begins Wednesday, the declaration has been moved up to Tuesday -- with the proviso that it not take effect if Sharon's condition improves before the deadline, Justice Ministry spokesman Jacob Galanti said.
Officials at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, where Sharon is being treated, said Sunday that discussions were still under way on whether to move him to a long-term care facility. Hospital spokesman Ron Krumer defined Sharon's condition as "serious, but stable," a reflection that his life is not in immediate danger, the AP reported.
Experts say Sharon's chances of recovery are extremely slim.
Norovirus Outbreak Kills 3 at Washington Retirement Home
A third person died Friday from a viral outbreak at a retirement center in Vancouver, Wash., which has so far sickened more than 55 residents and workers, authorities said.
Forty residents and 19 staff members of the Cascade Inn were affected by the norovirus. Nine people have been hospitalized, Clark County health officials said, according to the Associated Press.
The first patient died late Wednesday and the second Thursday morning.
All three deaths involved elderly residents with other underlying medical conditions, health officials said.
The 180 residents of the Cascade Inn have been asked to remain in their rooms and their friends and families are being urged not to visit them. All social activities have been cancelled, the reported.
Norovirus is common and includes symptoms such as diarrhea, nausea and vomiting.
Silicone Implants Linked to High Platinum Levels in Women: Study
High and potentially dangerous levels of the metal platinum were found in the bodies of women who'd had silicone gel breast implants for many years, according to research published this week in the journal Analytical Chemistry, published by the American Chemical Society.
The findings were released just as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration appears poised to allow silicone implants back on the market, the Washington Post reported.
Platinum is used in the implants as a catalyst to transform the silicone into a gel-like form.
The study found high levels of platinum salts in the hair, urine and breast milk of 16 women who'd had silicone gel implants for an average of 14 years. The researchers concluded that the platinum in the women's bodies was in a form that made it a potential source of toxic or severe allergic reactions.
The FDA is "carefully reviewing the article, and we don't know how long that will take," spokeswoman Susan Cruzan told the Post.
Last year, the agency deemed two applications to sell silicone gel implants to be "approvable," but the FDA has not yet given final approval to those applications.
"This is the first time the research has found platinum in this possibly harmful form in implanted women," Marlene Keeling, president of Chemically Associated Neurological Disorders, told the Post. The Houston nonprofit group helped fund the research, and Keeling has filed a citizen's petition with the FDA requesting that the two applications be delayed until further research is conducted into the platinum issue.
Many survivors of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center are still suffering respiratory problems and psychological symptoms, according to a new government study.
About 62 percent of the survivors were enveloped in the dust, smoke and debris spewed into the air as the towers collapsed, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Friday said.
About 57 percent reported new or worsening respiratory problems after the attacks, and 21 percent have had severe headaches, the agency said according to a Bloomberg report.
More than 64 percent said they were depressed, anxious or had other emotional problems; almost 11 percent were in severe psychological distress at the time they were interviewed, the Daily News reported.
The collapse released particles of concrete, glass, plastic and paper into the air; fires at the 16-acre pile of rubble burned for about 3 months, and many people inhaled the fumes when they returned to work in lower Manhattan, the CDC report said.
Between Sept. 5, 2003, and Nov. 20, 2004, the city Health Department interviewed 71,437 who had been affected by the attacks in 2001. The CDC then sampled data from 8,418 people on the registry -- excluding those involved in rescue and recovery efforts.
The government plans to periodically monitor the physical and mental health of the 71,437 people for 20 years as part of its World Trade Center Health Registry program.
Feds Open Criminal Probe Into Calif. Liver Transplant Program
Federal investigators have launched a criminal probe into UC Irvine Medical Center's failed liver transplant program, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.
While the focus of the probe was not made clear, a spokesman for the university confirmed Saturday that the hospital was served with a subpoena for documents by the FBI, which is working with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
"We have received a Department of Justice administrative subpoena related to the liver transplant program," UC Irvine spokesman James Cohen said in a prepared statement released Saturday. Cohen declined to provide details but said the university would cooperate.
UCI closed its liver transplant program in November after the Times reported that 32 patients on its waiting list died in 2004 and 2005, during a period when the hospital was rejecting viable organs from a donor network.
By 2004, private insurance companies had begun steering their liver transplant patients away from UCI to other hospitals in the region. As a result, UCI was relying almost exclusively on patients whose insurance was provided under government coverage, the newspaper reported.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services withdrew certification of the program after the Times story, ending federal payments for the treatments.
Israel's Sharon to Be Declared 'Permanently Incapacitated'
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has been in a coma for three months following a massive stroke, will be declared permanently incapacitated Tuesday, Israeli officials said Sunday.
The declaration will officially signal the end of his reign, the Justice Ministry added, according to an Associated Press report.
Sharon, 78, was declared temporarily incapacitated following the stroke Jan. 4, but under Israeli law after 100 days an official replacement for him has to be named.
That deadline expires Friday, but because the weeklong Jewish Passover holiday begins Wednesday, the declaration has been moved up to Tuesday -- with the proviso that it not take effect if Sharon's condition improves before the deadline, Justice Ministry spokesman Jacob Galanti said.
Officials at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, where Sharon is being treated, said Sunday that discussions were still under way on whether to move him to a long-term care facility. Hospital spokesman Ron Krumer defined Sharon's condition as "serious, but stable," a reflection that his life is not in immediate danger, the AP reported.
Experts say Sharon's chances of recovery are extremely slim.
Norovirus Outbreak Kills 3 at Washington Retirement Home
A third person died Friday from a viral outbreak at a retirement center in Vancouver, Wash., which has so far sickened more than 55 residents and workers, authorities said.
Forty residents and 19 staff members of the Cascade Inn were affected by the norovirus. Nine people have been hospitalized, Clark County health officials said, according to the Associated Press.
The first patient died late Wednesday and the second Thursday morning.
All three deaths involved elderly residents with other underlying medical conditions, health officials said.
The 180 residents of the Cascade Inn have been asked to remain in their rooms and their friends and families are being urged not to visit them. All social activities have been cancelled, the reported.
Norovirus is common and includes symptoms such as diarrhea, nausea and vomiting.
Silicone Implants Linked to High Platinum Levels in Women: Study
High and potentially dangerous levels of the metal platinum were found in the bodies of women who'd had silicone gel breast implants for many years, according to research published this week in the journal Analytical Chemistry, published by the American Chemical Society.
The findings were released just as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration appears poised to allow silicone implants back on the market, the Washington Post reported.
Platinum is used in the implants as a catalyst to transform the silicone into a gel-like form.
The study found high levels of platinum salts in the hair, urine and breast milk of 16 women who'd had silicone gel implants for an average of 14 years. The researchers concluded that the platinum in the women's bodies was in a form that made it a potential source of toxic or severe allergic reactions.
The FDA is "carefully reviewing the article, and we don't know how long that will take," spokeswoman Susan Cruzan told the Post.
Last year, the agency deemed two applications to sell silicone gel implants to be "approvable," but the FDA has not yet given final approval to those applications.
"This is the first time the research has found platinum in this possibly harmful form in implanted women," Marlene Keeling, president of Chemically Associated Neurological Disorders, told the Post. The Houston nonprofit group helped fund the research, and Keeling has filed a citizen's petition with the FDA requesting that the two applications be delayed until further research is conducted into the platinum issue.
Saturday, April 08, 2006
Health Headlines - April 8
9/11 Survivors Still Struggling With Health Problems: Report
Many survivors of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center are still suffering respiratory problems and psychological symptoms, according to a new government study.
About 62 percent of the survivors were enveloped in the dust, smoke and debris spewed into the air as the towers collapsed, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Friday said.
About 57 percent reported new or worsening respiratory problems after the attacks, and 21 percent have had severe headaches, the agency said according to a Bloomberg report.
More than 64 percent said they were depressed, anxious or had other emotional problems; almost 11 percent were in severe psychological distress at the time they were interviewed, the Daily News reported.
The collapse released particles of concrete, glass, plastic and paper into the air; fires at the 16-acre pile of rubble burned for about 3 months, and many people inhaled the fumes when they returned to work in lower Manhattan, the CDC report said.
Between Sept. 5, 2003, and Nov. 20, 2004, the city Health Department interviewed 71,437 who had been affected by the attacks in 2001. The CDC then sampled data from 8,418 people on the registry -- excluding those involved in rescue and recovery efforts.
The government plans to periodically monitor the physical and mental health of the 71,437 people for 20 years as part of its World Trade Center Health Registry program.
Silicone Implants Linked to High Platinum Levels in Women: Study
High and potentially dangerous levels of the metal platinum were found in the bodies of women who'd had silicone gel breast implants for many years, according to research published this week in the journal Analytical Chemistry, published by the American Chemical Society.
The findings were released just as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration appears poised to allow silicone implants back on the market, the Washington Post reported.
Platinum is used in the implants as a catalyst to transform the silicone into a gel-like form.
The study found high levels of platinum salts in the hair, urine and breast milk of 16 women who'd had silicone gel implants for an average of 14 years. The researchers concluded that the platinum in the women's bodies was in a form that made it a potential source of toxic or severe allergic reactions.
The FDA is "carefully reviewing the article, and we don't know how long that will take," spokeswoman Susan Cruzan told the Post.
Last year, the agency deemed two applications to sell silicone gel implants to be "approvable," but the FDA has not yet given final approval to those applications.
"This is the first time the research has found platinum in this possibly harmful form in implanted women," Marlene Keeling, president of Chemically Associated Neurological Disorders, told the Post. The Houston nonprofit group helped fund the research, and Keeling has filed a citizen's petition with the FDA requesting that the two applications be delayed until further research is conducted into the platinum issue.
OTC Diet Drug Moves Closer to Market
An over-the-counter (OTC) version of the prescription diet drug Xenical received an "approvable" letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, drug company GlaxoSmithKline said Friday.
The company is confident that the OTC product -- with the proposed name Alli -- could be in U.S. drugstores later this year, following further discussions with the FDA, Steven L. Burton, vice president of weight control products for Glaxo's consumer health division, told The New York Times.
That would make this drug the first FDA-approved weight-loss product sold without a doctor's prescription. The drug works by blocking fat absorption.
In January, an FDA advisory panel voted 11 to 3 that the lower-dose version of Xenical could be sold without a prescription. The OTC version would be cheaper than Xenical, which costs about $2 a pill, The Times reported.
Clinical studies of the OTC version found that people who used the drug lost an average of five to six additional pounds over six months, compared to people on similar diets who did not take the drug.
Norovirus Outbreak Kills 2 at Washington Retirement Home
Two people have died and more than 40 residents and staff at a Vancouver, Wash.-retirement home are sick after an outbreak of norovirus.
One patient died late Wednesday and the other Thursday morning.
The 180 residents of the Cascade Inn have been asked to remain in their rooms and their friends and families are being urged not to visit them. All social activities have been cancelled, the Associated Press reported.
Norovirus is common and includes symptoms such as diarrhea, nausea and vomiting.
Healthcare Worker Shortages Threaten 57 Countries: WHO
Many countries are vulnerable to disease outbreaks, such as a potential bird flu pandemic, because they lack enough doctors, nurses and midwives, the World Health Organization warns in its annual report released Friday.
The report estimates that 57 nations have "critical shortages" of healthcare workers and require another 2.4 million people to deal with health emergencies, Bloomberg news reported. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia have the worst healthcare worker shortages.
The report noted that health crisis funding is adequate but that "many national health systems are weak, unresponsive, inequitable, even unsafe."
Bird flu, which has killed more than 100 people worldwide since 2003, "is indicative of a more fundamental need for effective international capacity to marshal the requisite human resources" during disease outbreaks.
Many survivors of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center are still suffering respiratory problems and psychological symptoms, according to a new government study.
About 62 percent of the survivors were enveloped in the dust, smoke and debris spewed into the air as the towers collapsed, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Friday said.
About 57 percent reported new or worsening respiratory problems after the attacks, and 21 percent have had severe headaches, the agency said according to a Bloomberg report.
More than 64 percent said they were depressed, anxious or had other emotional problems; almost 11 percent were in severe psychological distress at the time they were interviewed, the Daily News reported.
The collapse released particles of concrete, glass, plastic and paper into the air; fires at the 16-acre pile of rubble burned for about 3 months, and many people inhaled the fumes when they returned to work in lower Manhattan, the CDC report said.
Between Sept. 5, 2003, and Nov. 20, 2004, the city Health Department interviewed 71,437 who had been affected by the attacks in 2001. The CDC then sampled data from 8,418 people on the registry -- excluding those involved in rescue and recovery efforts.
The government plans to periodically monitor the physical and mental health of the 71,437 people for 20 years as part of its World Trade Center Health Registry program.
Silicone Implants Linked to High Platinum Levels in Women: Study
High and potentially dangerous levels of the metal platinum were found in the bodies of women who'd had silicone gel breast implants for many years, according to research published this week in the journal Analytical Chemistry, published by the American Chemical Society.
The findings were released just as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration appears poised to allow silicone implants back on the market, the Washington Post reported.
Platinum is used in the implants as a catalyst to transform the silicone into a gel-like form.
The study found high levels of platinum salts in the hair, urine and breast milk of 16 women who'd had silicone gel implants for an average of 14 years. The researchers concluded that the platinum in the women's bodies was in a form that made it a potential source of toxic or severe allergic reactions.
The FDA is "carefully reviewing the article, and we don't know how long that will take," spokeswoman Susan Cruzan told the Post.
Last year, the agency deemed two applications to sell silicone gel implants to be "approvable," but the FDA has not yet given final approval to those applications.
"This is the first time the research has found platinum in this possibly harmful form in implanted women," Marlene Keeling, president of Chemically Associated Neurological Disorders, told the Post. The Houston nonprofit group helped fund the research, and Keeling has filed a citizen's petition with the FDA requesting that the two applications be delayed until further research is conducted into the platinum issue.
OTC Diet Drug Moves Closer to Market
An over-the-counter (OTC) version of the prescription diet drug Xenical received an "approvable" letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, drug company GlaxoSmithKline said Friday.
The company is confident that the OTC product -- with the proposed name Alli -- could be in U.S. drugstores later this year, following further discussions with the FDA, Steven L. Burton, vice president of weight control products for Glaxo's consumer health division, told The New York Times.
That would make this drug the first FDA-approved weight-loss product sold without a doctor's prescription. The drug works by blocking fat absorption.
In January, an FDA advisory panel voted 11 to 3 that the lower-dose version of Xenical could be sold without a prescription. The OTC version would be cheaper than Xenical, which costs about $2 a pill, The Times reported.
Clinical studies of the OTC version found that people who used the drug lost an average of five to six additional pounds over six months, compared to people on similar diets who did not take the drug.
Norovirus Outbreak Kills 2 at Washington Retirement Home
Two people have died and more than 40 residents and staff at a Vancouver, Wash.-retirement home are sick after an outbreak of norovirus.
One patient died late Wednesday and the other Thursday morning.
The 180 residents of the Cascade Inn have been asked to remain in their rooms and their friends and families are being urged not to visit them. All social activities have been cancelled, the Associated Press reported.
Norovirus is common and includes symptoms such as diarrhea, nausea and vomiting.
Healthcare Worker Shortages Threaten 57 Countries: WHO
Many countries are vulnerable to disease outbreaks, such as a potential bird flu pandemic, because they lack enough doctors, nurses and midwives, the World Health Organization warns in its annual report released Friday.
The report estimates that 57 nations have "critical shortages" of healthcare workers and require another 2.4 million people to deal with health emergencies, Bloomberg news reported. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia have the worst healthcare worker shortages.
The report noted that health crisis funding is adequate but that "many national health systems are weak, unresponsive, inequitable, even unsafe."
Bird flu, which has killed more than 100 people worldwide since 2003, "is indicative of a more fundamental need for effective international capacity to marshal the requisite human resources" during disease outbreaks.
Friday, April 07, 2006
Health Headlines - April 7
Silicone Implants Linked to High Platinum Levels in Women: Study
High and potentially dangerous levels of the metal platinum were found in the bodies of women who'd had silicone gel breast implants for many years, according to research published this week in the journal Analytical Chemistry, published by the American Chemical Society.
The findings were released just as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration appears poised to allow silicone implants back on the market, the Washington Post reported.
Platinum is used in the implants as a catalyst to transform the silicone into a gel-like form.
The study found high levels of platinum salts in the hair, urine and breast milk of 16 women who'd had silicone gel implants for an average of 14 years. The researchers concluded that the platinum in the women's bodies was in a form that made it a potential source of toxic or severe allergic reactions.
The FDA is "carefully reviewing the article, and we don't know how long that will take," spokeswoman Susan Cruzan told the Post.
Last year, the agency deemed two applications to sell silicone gel implants to be "approvable," but the FDA has not yet given final approval to those applications.
"This is the first time the research has found platinum in this possibly harmful form in implanted women," Marlene Keeling, president of Chemically Associated Neurological Disorders, told the Post. The Houston nonprofit group helped fund the research, and Keeling has filed a citizen's petition with the FDA requesting that the two applications be delayed until further research is conducted into the platinum issue.
OTC Diet Drug Moves Closer to Market
An over-the-counter (OTC) version of the prescription diet drug Xenical received an "approvable" letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, drug company GlaxoSmithKline said Friday.
The company is confident that the OTC product -- with the proposed name Alli -- could be in U.S. drugstores later this year, following further discussions with the FDA, Steven L. Burton, vice president of weight control products for Glaxo's consumer health division, told The New York Times.
That would make this drug the first FDA-approved weight-loss product sold without a doctor's prescription. The drug works by blocking fat absorption.
In January, an FDA advisory panel voted 11 to 3 that the lower-dose version of Xenical could be sold without a prescription. The OTC version would be cheaper than Xenical, which costs about $2 a pill, The Times reported.
Clinical studies of the OTC version found that people who used the drug lost an average of five to six additional pounds over six months, compared to people on similar diets who did not take the drug.
Norovirus Outbreak Kills 2 at Washington Retirement Home
Two people have died and more than 40 residents and staff at a Vancouver, Wash.-retirement home are sick after an outbreak of norovirus.
One patient died late Wednesday and the other Thursday morning.
The 180 residents of the Cascade Inn have been asked to remain in their rooms and their friends and families are being urged not to visit them. All social activities have been cancelled, the Associated Press reported.
Norovirus is common and includes symptoms such as diarrhea, nausea and vomiting.
Healthcare Worker Shortages Threaten 57 Countries: WHO
Many countries are vulnerable to disease outbreaks, such as a potential bird flu pandemic, because they lack enough doctors, nurses and midwives, the World Health Organization warns in its annual report released Friday.
The report estimates that 57 nations have "critical shortages" of healthcare workers and require another 2.4 million people to deal with health emergencies, Bloomberg news reported. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia have the worst healthcare worker shortages.
The report noted that health crisis funding is adequate but that "many national health systems are weak, unresponsive, inequitable, even unsafe."
Bird flu, which has killed more than 100 people worldwide since 2003, "is indicative of a more fundamental need for effective international capacity to marshal the requisite human resources" during disease outbreaks.
FDA to Increase Monitoring of Heart Devices
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration plans to strengthen its oversight of heart devices such as implantable defibrillators, a move partly prompted by criticism of the agency's past monitoring of such devices.
For the first time, the FDA will appoint outside medical experts to help the agency review the safety of units already on the market, The New York Times reported. The FDA has traditionally used advisory panels of experts to help the agency decide whether to approve the sale of new devices.
The experts reviewing heart devices currently being sold will assist the FDA in interpreting data from device manufacturers and will advise the agency on how best to respond to recalls and other problems, the Times reported.
The FDA's decision to boost its monitoring of heart devices is partly due to criticism about how it has done the job in the past, acknowledged Dr. Daniel G. Schultz, director of the agency's Center for Devices and Radiological Health.
The issue of heart-device safety received widespread attention last year when it was revealed that the Guidant Corporation decided not to alert doctors and patients about life-threatening defects in some models of implantable heart defibrillators.
FDA Plans Review of Wireless Phone Safety
A newly published analysis that suggests a link between long-term cell and wireless phone use and brain cancer is being met with skepticism by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Even so, the FDA said it plans to hold a meeting to evaluate potential health risks associated with cordless and cell phones.
The analysis, which used data from two Swedish studies in 2003 and 2005, concluded that more than 10 years of wireless phone use was associated with an increased risk of brain tumors.
The FDA said the new findings were inconsistent with earlier studies and were difficult to interpret, Bloomberg news reported.
The planned meeting will "evaluate research conducted to date and identify gaps in knowledge that warrant additional research," the FDA said in a statement on its Web site. It did not specify a date for the meeting.
High and potentially dangerous levels of the metal platinum were found in the bodies of women who'd had silicone gel breast implants for many years, according to research published this week in the journal Analytical Chemistry, published by the American Chemical Society.
The findings were released just as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration appears poised to allow silicone implants back on the market, the Washington Post reported.
Platinum is used in the implants as a catalyst to transform the silicone into a gel-like form.
The study found high levels of platinum salts in the hair, urine and breast milk of 16 women who'd had silicone gel implants for an average of 14 years. The researchers concluded that the platinum in the women's bodies was in a form that made it a potential source of toxic or severe allergic reactions.
The FDA is "carefully reviewing the article, and we don't know how long that will take," spokeswoman Susan Cruzan told the Post.
Last year, the agency deemed two applications to sell silicone gel implants to be "approvable," but the FDA has not yet given final approval to those applications.
"This is the first time the research has found platinum in this possibly harmful form in implanted women," Marlene Keeling, president of Chemically Associated Neurological Disorders, told the Post. The Houston nonprofit group helped fund the research, and Keeling has filed a citizen's petition with the FDA requesting that the two applications be delayed until further research is conducted into the platinum issue.
OTC Diet Drug Moves Closer to Market
An over-the-counter (OTC) version of the prescription diet drug Xenical received an "approvable" letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, drug company GlaxoSmithKline said Friday.
The company is confident that the OTC product -- with the proposed name Alli -- could be in U.S. drugstores later this year, following further discussions with the FDA, Steven L. Burton, vice president of weight control products for Glaxo's consumer health division, told The New York Times.
That would make this drug the first FDA-approved weight-loss product sold without a doctor's prescription. The drug works by blocking fat absorption.
In January, an FDA advisory panel voted 11 to 3 that the lower-dose version of Xenical could be sold without a prescription. The OTC version would be cheaper than Xenical, which costs about $2 a pill, The Times reported.
Clinical studies of the OTC version found that people who used the drug lost an average of five to six additional pounds over six months, compared to people on similar diets who did not take the drug.
Norovirus Outbreak Kills 2 at Washington Retirement Home
Two people have died and more than 40 residents and staff at a Vancouver, Wash.-retirement home are sick after an outbreak of norovirus.
One patient died late Wednesday and the other Thursday morning.
The 180 residents of the Cascade Inn have been asked to remain in their rooms and their friends and families are being urged not to visit them. All social activities have been cancelled, the Associated Press reported.
Norovirus is common and includes symptoms such as diarrhea, nausea and vomiting.
Healthcare Worker Shortages Threaten 57 Countries: WHO
Many countries are vulnerable to disease outbreaks, such as a potential bird flu pandemic, because they lack enough doctors, nurses and midwives, the World Health Organization warns in its annual report released Friday.
The report estimates that 57 nations have "critical shortages" of healthcare workers and require another 2.4 million people to deal with health emergencies, Bloomberg news reported. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia have the worst healthcare worker shortages.
The report noted that health crisis funding is adequate but that "many national health systems are weak, unresponsive, inequitable, even unsafe."
Bird flu, which has killed more than 100 people worldwide since 2003, "is indicative of a more fundamental need for effective international capacity to marshal the requisite human resources" during disease outbreaks.
FDA to Increase Monitoring of Heart Devices
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration plans to strengthen its oversight of heart devices such as implantable defibrillators, a move partly prompted by criticism of the agency's past monitoring of such devices.
For the first time, the FDA will appoint outside medical experts to help the agency review the safety of units already on the market, The New York Times reported. The FDA has traditionally used advisory panels of experts to help the agency decide whether to approve the sale of new devices.
The experts reviewing heart devices currently being sold will assist the FDA in interpreting data from device manufacturers and will advise the agency on how best to respond to recalls and other problems, the Times reported.
The FDA's decision to boost its monitoring of heart devices is partly due to criticism about how it has done the job in the past, acknowledged Dr. Daniel G. Schultz, director of the agency's Center for Devices and Radiological Health.
The issue of heart-device safety received widespread attention last year when it was revealed that the Guidant Corporation decided not to alert doctors and patients about life-threatening defects in some models of implantable heart defibrillators.
FDA Plans Review of Wireless Phone Safety
A newly published analysis that suggests a link between long-term cell and wireless phone use and brain cancer is being met with skepticism by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Even so, the FDA said it plans to hold a meeting to evaluate potential health risks associated with cordless and cell phones.
The analysis, which used data from two Swedish studies in 2003 and 2005, concluded that more than 10 years of wireless phone use was associated with an increased risk of brain tumors.
The FDA said the new findings were inconsistent with earlier studies and were difficult to interpret, Bloomberg news reported.
The planned meeting will "evaluate research conducted to date and identify gaps in knowledge that warrant additional research," the FDA said in a statement on its Web site. It did not specify a date for the meeting.
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Health Headlines - April 6
Jury Awards $4.5 Million in Vioxx Case
One of two plaintiffs was awarded $4.5 million in compensatory damages after a New Jersey jury handed down a split verdict Wednesday in a trial involving the once-popular painkiller Vioxx.
After two days of deliberations, the jury ruled that drug maker Merck & Co. concealed the heart attack dangers of the drug and failed to warn doctors and the public about the risks, the Associated Press reported.
The jurors found that Vioxx caused the heart attack of one plaintiff, who took it for four years, and awarded him compensatory damages. But the jury concluded that the drug did not cause the heart attack of the second plaintiff and awarded him only the cost of his Vioxx prescription.
This trial was the first involving long-term use of Vioxx and could prompt Merck to rethink its strategy of fighting each Vioxx lawsuit individually, the AP reported.
On Thursday, the former CEO of Merck denied a plaintiff lawyer's suggestions that the drugmaker withheld information about the safety of Vioxx from the Food and Drug Administration.
Former CEO Raymond Gilmartin took the stand in a court hearing aimed at determining whether Merck should pay punitive damages to the plaintiff who received compensatory damages for his heart attack.
This is the sixth trial involving Vioxx, and Merck faces 9,650 other lawsuits.
Teen Drug Use Dips, But Drinking Continues: Report
Drug use among American teens has dipped nationwide but underage drinking persists, with jumps in California and Wisconsin, according to a substance abuse report released Thursday.
The report by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration was based on interviews of 135,500 people and is the first to document state-by-state drug and alcohol use from 2002 to 2004, according to the Associated Press.
In 2004, 10.9 percent of young people age 12 to 17 reported that they had used an illegal drug in the past month, a drop from 11.4 percent in 2002, the report found. Fueling the decline were six states -- Illinois, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont and Virginia -- while use in other states was largely flat.
At the same time, teen alcohol use remained basically unchanged -- from 17.67 percent in 2002 to 17.65 percent in 2004. But in California, among the youths age 12 to 20, drinkers rose from 24.7 percent to 26.3 percent, while in Wisconsin, they increased from 34.7 percent to 38.3 percent.
"While we are making progress on drug and alcohol use among youth, underage drinking continues as a stubbornly persistent problem," said Charles Curie, administrator of SAMHSA. "It's time to change attitudes toward teen drinking from acceptance to abstinence."
The report showed wide disparities from state to state when it came to tobacco use as well as abuse of alcohol and drugs, including cocaine, marijuana and the non-medical use of pain relievers.
Alaska and New Mexico topped the list among those ages 12 and older who reported using an illegal drug in the past month, at 11.8 percent and 11.3 percent, respectively, compared to a national average of 8.1 percent. The most drug-free were Mississippi (5.8 percent) and Iowa (6.5 percent).
Among teens, tobacco-producing state Kentucky as well as South Dakota had the most tobacco use at 24.3 percent and 21.3 percent, respectively, compared to a national average of 14.4 percent. The lowest were Utah (8.7 percent) and the District of Columbia (9 percent).
Partners Adopt Each Other's Eating Habits
Men tend to eat more healthy when they get married or move in with a partner while women often start to eat more sugars and fats and put on weight, say researchers at Newcastle University in the U.K.
They reviewed seven studies from a number of countries and found that men start eating lighter, healthier meals and more fruits and vegetables. On the other hand, women began consuming creamier, heavier meals, BBC News reported.
The authors said these changes in eating habits are the result of each partner trying to please the other.
The review included a U.S. study of more than 9,000 adults that found an association between marriage and weight gain in women. It also found a link between moving out of a marriage and weight loss in women. This may be due to more structured eating and less time for exercise within marriage.
The findings appear in the journal Complete Nutrition.
FDA Admits Soft Drinks Contain Significant Benzene Levels
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has acknowledged that a study found 19 of 24 samples from diet sodas contained cancer-causing benzene levels that were, on average, four times higher than the safe limit for drinking water.
Despite that, the agency said it was not concerned about the safety of soft drinks.
"We haven't changed our view that, right now, there is not a safety concern, not a public health concern," Laura Tarantino, the FDA's director of food additive safety, told the Associated Press.
"But what we need to do is understand how benzene forms and to ensure the industry is doing everything to avoid those circumstances," she said.
The FDA's acknowledgement Wednesday about the levels of benzene in soft drinks contradicts information released last week by the agency that said there were insignificant levels of benzene in soft drinks, the AP reported.
Tarantino said the FDA has been conducting a separate study of benzene in soft drinks, but is not yet ready to release the results.
One group suggested the FDA is suppressing information about benzene in soft drinks.
"If they're so confident the situation is not a safety risk, they need to release the data to prove it," Richard Wiles, vice president of the Environmental Working Group, told the AP. "The only data available to the public contradict their claim."
Dead Swan is Scotland's First Case of H5N1
The deadly H5N1 bird flu virus has been confirmed in a dead swan found in Scotland, the Associated Press reported.
The swan was found at a harbor in Cellardyke, more than 450 miles north of London. Movement of poultry in the area has been restricted and officials are considering whether to expand the current two-mile protection zone around the harbor.
In other news, the number of human cases of bird flu in Egypt has increased to nine after a toddler from the southern city of Sohag tested positive for the virus.
The 16-month-old girl's mother bred chickens in the house and some of the chickens were found dead. Other members of the family are being tested for the virus, the AP reported.
Of the nine people in Egypt who've been infected, two have died. Both were women in their 30s.
In Cambodia, bird flu is suspected in the death of a 12-year-old boy. If that's confirmed, he would be the sixth victim in that country.
Germany confirmed its first case of H5N1 bird flu in domestic fowl, detected at a poultry farm in the east.
In Gaza, half a million chickens have been ordered slaughtered due to exposure to bird flu. This follows the previous slaughter of a quarter of a million chickens.
And the European Union announced that restrictions on poultry imports from Croatia, Romania and Turkey have been extended until the end of July.
One of two plaintiffs was awarded $4.5 million in compensatory damages after a New Jersey jury handed down a split verdict Wednesday in a trial involving the once-popular painkiller Vioxx.
After two days of deliberations, the jury ruled that drug maker Merck & Co. concealed the heart attack dangers of the drug and failed to warn doctors and the public about the risks, the Associated Press reported.
The jurors found that Vioxx caused the heart attack of one plaintiff, who took it for four years, and awarded him compensatory damages. But the jury concluded that the drug did not cause the heart attack of the second plaintiff and awarded him only the cost of his Vioxx prescription.
This trial was the first involving long-term use of Vioxx and could prompt Merck to rethink its strategy of fighting each Vioxx lawsuit individually, the AP reported.
On Thursday, the former CEO of Merck denied a plaintiff lawyer's suggestions that the drugmaker withheld information about the safety of Vioxx from the Food and Drug Administration.
Former CEO Raymond Gilmartin took the stand in a court hearing aimed at determining whether Merck should pay punitive damages to the plaintiff who received compensatory damages for his heart attack.
This is the sixth trial involving Vioxx, and Merck faces 9,650 other lawsuits.
Teen Drug Use Dips, But Drinking Continues: Report
Drug use among American teens has dipped nationwide but underage drinking persists, with jumps in California and Wisconsin, according to a substance abuse report released Thursday.
The report by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration was based on interviews of 135,500 people and is the first to document state-by-state drug and alcohol use from 2002 to 2004, according to the Associated Press.
In 2004, 10.9 percent of young people age 12 to 17 reported that they had used an illegal drug in the past month, a drop from 11.4 percent in 2002, the report found. Fueling the decline were six states -- Illinois, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont and Virginia -- while use in other states was largely flat.
At the same time, teen alcohol use remained basically unchanged -- from 17.67 percent in 2002 to 17.65 percent in 2004. But in California, among the youths age 12 to 20, drinkers rose from 24.7 percent to 26.3 percent, while in Wisconsin, they increased from 34.7 percent to 38.3 percent.
"While we are making progress on drug and alcohol use among youth, underage drinking continues as a stubbornly persistent problem," said Charles Curie, administrator of SAMHSA. "It's time to change attitudes toward teen drinking from acceptance to abstinence."
The report showed wide disparities from state to state when it came to tobacco use as well as abuse of alcohol and drugs, including cocaine, marijuana and the non-medical use of pain relievers.
Alaska and New Mexico topped the list among those ages 12 and older who reported using an illegal drug in the past month, at 11.8 percent and 11.3 percent, respectively, compared to a national average of 8.1 percent. The most drug-free were Mississippi (5.8 percent) and Iowa (6.5 percent).
Among teens, tobacco-producing state Kentucky as well as South Dakota had the most tobacco use at 24.3 percent and 21.3 percent, respectively, compared to a national average of 14.4 percent. The lowest were Utah (8.7 percent) and the District of Columbia (9 percent).
Partners Adopt Each Other's Eating Habits
Men tend to eat more healthy when they get married or move in with a partner while women often start to eat more sugars and fats and put on weight, say researchers at Newcastle University in the U.K.
They reviewed seven studies from a number of countries and found that men start eating lighter, healthier meals and more fruits and vegetables. On the other hand, women began consuming creamier, heavier meals, BBC News reported.
The authors said these changes in eating habits are the result of each partner trying to please the other.
The review included a U.S. study of more than 9,000 adults that found an association between marriage and weight gain in women. It also found a link between moving out of a marriage and weight loss in women. This may be due to more structured eating and less time for exercise within marriage.
The findings appear in the journal Complete Nutrition.
FDA Admits Soft Drinks Contain Significant Benzene Levels
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has acknowledged that a study found 19 of 24 samples from diet sodas contained cancer-causing benzene levels that were, on average, four times higher than the safe limit for drinking water.
Despite that, the agency said it was not concerned about the safety of soft drinks.
"We haven't changed our view that, right now, there is not a safety concern, not a public health concern," Laura Tarantino, the FDA's director of food additive safety, told the Associated Press.
"But what we need to do is understand how benzene forms and to ensure the industry is doing everything to avoid those circumstances," she said.
The FDA's acknowledgement Wednesday about the levels of benzene in soft drinks contradicts information released last week by the agency that said there were insignificant levels of benzene in soft drinks, the AP reported.
Tarantino said the FDA has been conducting a separate study of benzene in soft drinks, but is not yet ready to release the results.
One group suggested the FDA is suppressing information about benzene in soft drinks.
"If they're so confident the situation is not a safety risk, they need to release the data to prove it," Richard Wiles, vice president of the Environmental Working Group, told the AP. "The only data available to the public contradict their claim."
Dead Swan is Scotland's First Case of H5N1
The deadly H5N1 bird flu virus has been confirmed in a dead swan found in Scotland, the Associated Press reported.
The swan was found at a harbor in Cellardyke, more than 450 miles north of London. Movement of poultry in the area has been restricted and officials are considering whether to expand the current two-mile protection zone around the harbor.
In other news, the number of human cases of bird flu in Egypt has increased to nine after a toddler from the southern city of Sohag tested positive for the virus.
The 16-month-old girl's mother bred chickens in the house and some of the chickens were found dead. Other members of the family are being tested for the virus, the AP reported.
Of the nine people in Egypt who've been infected, two have died. Both were women in their 30s.
In Cambodia, bird flu is suspected in the death of a 12-year-old boy. If that's confirmed, he would be the sixth victim in that country.
Germany confirmed its first case of H5N1 bird flu in domestic fowl, detected at a poultry farm in the east.
In Gaza, half a million chickens have been ordered slaughtered due to exposure to bird flu. This follows the previous slaughter of a quarter of a million chickens.
And the European Union announced that restrictions on poultry imports from Croatia, Romania and Turkey have been extended until the end of July.
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Health Headlines - April 5
Many Hospital Admissions Begin in Emergency Department
Hospital emergency departments are the starting point for 55 percent of the 29.3 million annual admissions to U.S. community hospitals for conditions other than pregnancy, childbirth and neonatal care, says the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
In 2003, 26 percent of all patients admitted through the emergency department had heart or blood vessel diseases, 15 percent had respiratory diseases, 14 percent had digestive disorders, and 11 percent had injuries, the report said.
Pneumonia (935,000 admissions in 2003) topped the list of 20 specific conditions for patients admitted to a hospital through the emergency department. Others at the top of the list included congestive heart failure, chest pain, hardening of the arteries, heart attack, chronic obstructive lung disease, and stroke.
The average cost of a hospital stay for a patient admitted through the emergency department was $7,400. Medicare and state Medicaid programs covered 66 percent of such admissions.
People in the Northeast were most likely to be admitted to the hospital through the emergency department, while people in the West were least likely, the report said.
Iowa Mumps Outbreak Grows
In the past week, the number of cases of mumps in Iowa has increased to at least 300 and the illness has started showing up in neighboring states as health officials try to determine the cause of the largest outbreak of mumps in the United States since 1988.
More than a third of the cases have been reported in the Dubuque area.
Fifty-five new mumps cases have been reported in Iowa within the past week alone, the Chicago Tribune reported. In recent years, the state has averaged just three cases of mumps a year.
Illinois has reported eight confirmed and seven possible cases of mumps, mostly in counties near Iowa. Two cases have been reported in Nebraska and one case in Minnesota.
Health officials are at a loss to explain the outbreak.
"We don't have any concrete answers. We expected the numbers to rise, but there is no way to predict how high the numbers will go," Meghan Harris, surveillance epidemiologist for the Iowa Department of Health, told the Tribune.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has sent a team of investigators to Iowa.
As they search for answers, health officials are focusing on college campuses, where the first cases of mumps were discovered late last year. College students account for about 21 percent of the reported cases and the median age of people infected by the virus is 21, the newspaper said.
Doctors Reattach Piece of Sharon's Skull
Doctors reattached a piece of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's skull on Wednesday, a day after the operation was delayed because Sharon had a respiratory infection, Hadassah Hospital officials said.
The piece of skull had been removed during a previous operation on Sharon, who has had multiple surgeries since he suffered a debilitating stroke in early January, the Associated Press reported.
The operation to reattach the section of skull was successful and Sharon was taken back to his room in intensive care, where he has been hospitalized in a coma since his stroke.
Massachusetts to Offer Health Coverage to Nearly All Residents
A bill passed by the Massachusetts legislature Tuesday means that state will become the first to provide nearly universal health coverage. Gov. Mitt Romney has said he will sign the bill.
The bill, which uses a variety of approaches to make it possible for all the state's citizens to obtain health insurance, requires all Massachusetts residents to have health insurance by July 1, 2007, The New York Times reported.
It's estimated the plan will cover 515,000 uninsured people within three years. That's about 95 percent of people currently without health coverage. Less than 1 percent of the population will not have health insurance under the new plan.
Under the bill, government subsidies to private insurance plans will enable more of the working poor to purchase health coverage and increase the number of children eligible for free coverage, the Times reported.
People who can afford private insurance will be penalized on their state income taxes if they don't have health coverage. Businesses with more than 10 employees that don't provide health insurance will be assessed up to $295 per worker per year.
"This is probably about as close as you can get to universal," Paul B. Ginsburg, president of the nonpartisan Center for Studying Health System Change, told the Times.
"It's definitely going to be inspiring to other states about how there was this compromise. They found a way to get to a major expansion of coverage that people could agree on. For a conservative Republican, this is an individual responsibility. For a Democrat, this is government helping those that need help," Ginsburg said.
No Aspartame/Cancer Link: Study
The artificial sweetener aspartame does not increase the risk of cancer, says a U.S. National Cancer Institute study that included more than 500,000 American adults.
The findings, presented Tuesday at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, should help ease concerns about aspartame. An Italian study released last year found that aspartame appeared to increase the risk of leukemia and lymphoma cancers in female rats, the Associated Press reported.
This new study included 340,045 men and 226,945 women, ages 50 to 69. They filled out surveys in 1995 and 1996 that detailed their food and beverage consumption. Using this information, researchers calculated how much aspartame the study participants consumed.
Over five years of follow-up, 376 of the participants developed brain tumors and 2,106 developed blood-related cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma. The study authors concluded there was no link between aspartame and these cancers in general or for specific types, the AP reported.
Aspartame is used in thousands of products, including diet sodas, chewing gum, dairy products, and many medicines, the news service said.
Abstinence Emphasis for AIDS Plan Causing Problems: Report
Concerns about the emphasis on abstinence and fidelity in President George W. Bush's global AIDS plan are raised in a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
The report said the plan's requirement that a large portion of funding be dedicated to abstinence and fidelity is creating confusion in many countries and hindering other HIV/AIDS prevention methods in some countries, including programs to lower rates of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, the Washington Post reported.
The Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator requires that 20 percent of all AIDS spending be used for prevention. Fifty percent of that prevention budget must be used for programs to halt sexual transmission of HIV. Two-thirds of that money has to be spent on promoting abstinence and fidelity, the newspaper said.
The requirements mean that program managers in countries receiving U.S. funding have the difficult task of balancing the needs of their local populations and the demands of U.S. officials.
Hospital emergency departments are the starting point for 55 percent of the 29.3 million annual admissions to U.S. community hospitals for conditions other than pregnancy, childbirth and neonatal care, says the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
In 2003, 26 percent of all patients admitted through the emergency department had heart or blood vessel diseases, 15 percent had respiratory diseases, 14 percent had digestive disorders, and 11 percent had injuries, the report said.
Pneumonia (935,000 admissions in 2003) topped the list of 20 specific conditions for patients admitted to a hospital through the emergency department. Others at the top of the list included congestive heart failure, chest pain, hardening of the arteries, heart attack, chronic obstructive lung disease, and stroke.
The average cost of a hospital stay for a patient admitted through the emergency department was $7,400. Medicare and state Medicaid programs covered 66 percent of such admissions.
People in the Northeast were most likely to be admitted to the hospital through the emergency department, while people in the West were least likely, the report said.
Iowa Mumps Outbreak Grows
In the past week, the number of cases of mumps in Iowa has increased to at least 300 and the illness has started showing up in neighboring states as health officials try to determine the cause of the largest outbreak of mumps in the United States since 1988.
More than a third of the cases have been reported in the Dubuque area.
Fifty-five new mumps cases have been reported in Iowa within the past week alone, the Chicago Tribune reported. In recent years, the state has averaged just three cases of mumps a year.
Illinois has reported eight confirmed and seven possible cases of mumps, mostly in counties near Iowa. Two cases have been reported in Nebraska and one case in Minnesota.
Health officials are at a loss to explain the outbreak.
"We don't have any concrete answers. We expected the numbers to rise, but there is no way to predict how high the numbers will go," Meghan Harris, surveillance epidemiologist for the Iowa Department of Health, told the Tribune.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has sent a team of investigators to Iowa.
As they search for answers, health officials are focusing on college campuses, where the first cases of mumps were discovered late last year. College students account for about 21 percent of the reported cases and the median age of people infected by the virus is 21, the newspaper said.
Doctors Reattach Piece of Sharon's Skull
Doctors reattached a piece of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's skull on Wednesday, a day after the operation was delayed because Sharon had a respiratory infection, Hadassah Hospital officials said.
The piece of skull had been removed during a previous operation on Sharon, who has had multiple surgeries since he suffered a debilitating stroke in early January, the Associated Press reported.
The operation to reattach the section of skull was successful and Sharon was taken back to his room in intensive care, where he has been hospitalized in a coma since his stroke.
Massachusetts to Offer Health Coverage to Nearly All Residents
A bill passed by the Massachusetts legislature Tuesday means that state will become the first to provide nearly universal health coverage. Gov. Mitt Romney has said he will sign the bill.
The bill, which uses a variety of approaches to make it possible for all the state's citizens to obtain health insurance, requires all Massachusetts residents to have health insurance by July 1, 2007, The New York Times reported.
It's estimated the plan will cover 515,000 uninsured people within three years. That's about 95 percent of people currently without health coverage. Less than 1 percent of the population will not have health insurance under the new plan.
Under the bill, government subsidies to private insurance plans will enable more of the working poor to purchase health coverage and increase the number of children eligible for free coverage, the Times reported.
People who can afford private insurance will be penalized on their state income taxes if they don't have health coverage. Businesses with more than 10 employees that don't provide health insurance will be assessed up to $295 per worker per year.
"This is probably about as close as you can get to universal," Paul B. Ginsburg, president of the nonpartisan Center for Studying Health System Change, told the Times.
"It's definitely going to be inspiring to other states about how there was this compromise. They found a way to get to a major expansion of coverage that people could agree on. For a conservative Republican, this is an individual responsibility. For a Democrat, this is government helping those that need help," Ginsburg said.
No Aspartame/Cancer Link: Study
The artificial sweetener aspartame does not increase the risk of cancer, says a U.S. National Cancer Institute study that included more than 500,000 American adults.
The findings, presented Tuesday at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, should help ease concerns about aspartame. An Italian study released last year found that aspartame appeared to increase the risk of leukemia and lymphoma cancers in female rats, the Associated Press reported.
This new study included 340,045 men and 226,945 women, ages 50 to 69. They filled out surveys in 1995 and 1996 that detailed their food and beverage consumption. Using this information, researchers calculated how much aspartame the study participants consumed.
Over five years of follow-up, 376 of the participants developed brain tumors and 2,106 developed blood-related cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma. The study authors concluded there was no link between aspartame and these cancers in general or for specific types, the AP reported.
Aspartame is used in thousands of products, including diet sodas, chewing gum, dairy products, and many medicines, the news service said.
Abstinence Emphasis for AIDS Plan Causing Problems: Report
Concerns about the emphasis on abstinence and fidelity in President George W. Bush's global AIDS plan are raised in a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
The report said the plan's requirement that a large portion of funding be dedicated to abstinence and fidelity is creating confusion in many countries and hindering other HIV/AIDS prevention methods in some countries, including programs to lower rates of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, the Washington Post reported.
The Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator requires that 20 percent of all AIDS spending be used for prevention. Fifty percent of that prevention budget must be used for programs to halt sexual transmission of HIV. Two-thirds of that money has to be spent on promoting abstinence and fidelity, the newspaper said.
The requirements mean that program managers in countries receiving U.S. funding have the difficult task of balancing the needs of their local populations and the demands of U.S. officials.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Health Headlines - April 4
Generic Drugs Have Major Impact on Prices: FDA
Generic drugs can have a dramatic impact on prescription drug prices, says a U.S. Food and Drug Administration analysis released Tuesday.
For example, the analysis found that the introduction into the marketplace of just two generic versions of a brand-name drug can reduce the cost to consumers by nearly half, the Associated Press reported.
When there's just one generic version, it usually sells for about 94 percent of its brand name rival. However, when there's a second generic version, the average price of the generic drugs decreases to about 52 percent of the brand name medicine.
As more generic versions of the same drug are produced, the price continues to fall. When there are nine generic versions, their average price is about 20 percent of the matching brand name medicine. The analysis is posted on the FDA's Web site, the AP reported.
While the FDA's analysis shows the price reduction benefits of generic drugs, the agency faces ongoing criticism that it's too slow to approve generic drugs. Currently, the FDA has a backlog of about 800 generic drug applications.
Compound Shows Anti-Tumor Activity
Results from preclinical studies show that the anti-cancer compound AV-412 -- a EGFR/HER2 kinase inhibitor -- demonstrated anti-tumor activity against tumors that were both sensitive and resistant to Tarceva (erlotinib) and Iressa (gefitinib).
The findings were announced Tuesday by AVEO Pharmaceuticals, Inc. at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.
During the preclinical studies, the drug was tested in non-small cell lung cancer cell lines and in mice.
The company says AV-412's mechanism of action may prove beneficial to patients with non-small cell lung cancer, metastatic breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, head and neck cancer, and hormone refractory prostrate cancer.
The drug is slated to enter clinical trials this year to test i6s safety and efficacy in treating solid tumors.
Survey Reveals Antibiotics Misuse
Even though only 22 percent of American respondents said they believed that leftover antibiotics should be saved and used again, 46 percent of those with leftover antibiotics admitted saving them, according to an international survey of 4,500 people in 11 countries.
Misuse of antibiotics is a contributing cause of antibiotic resistance. Saving unused antibiotics for future use is a potential problem because an antibiotic prescribed to treat one illness may not be an appropriate or necessary treatment for another illness.
Internationally, the survey found that younger patients were much less likely than older patients to be compliant when it comes to the use antibiotics. In the United States, 33 percent of respondents ages 18 to 34 reported noncompliance, compared to 11 percent of respondents age 50 and older.
Overall, Americans are on par with global noncompliance rates. The findings suggest that younger people may need to be targeted for more public education about the proper use of antibiotics.
The survey findings were presented this week at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.
Rapid Vaccination Response Could Combat Human Bird Flu Outbreak
A quick and aggressive vaccination campaign at the first sign of a bird flu outbreak in humans is the most effective way to fight it, even if the vaccine isn't perfectly matched to the virus causing the outbreak, says a study in this week's online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Researchers used computer models to study how a flu outbreak could be controlled by vaccines, other medications and measures such as restricting travel and closing schools, the Associated Press reported.
Along with a vaccination effort, the rapid use of several million doses of antiviral drugs, such as Tamiflu, could help slow the spread of the disease, said the study, which was led by Timothy C. Germann of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
In other news, a U.S. health expert warned that it's just a matter of time before there's a flu pandemic that could kill millions of people.
"I think of it as the earthquake in San Francisco: you know it's on the fault, you know it's going to occur but you can't tell if it's going to occur this year or the year after," Dr. Roger Glass, the new director of the Fogarty International Center at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, told the AP.
And the United Nations' chief coordinator for avian influenza said Tuesday that the deadly bird flu virus has spread rapidly over the past three months, infecting birds in 30 new countries, double the number previously stricken since 2003.
"This is a really serious global situation," Dr. David Nabarro told reporters in Beijing. "During the last three months globally, there has been an enormous and rapid spread of H5N1."
Approach of Menopause May Increase Depression Risk
As women approach menopause, they may have an increased risk of suffering depression for the first time in their lives, according to two U.S. studies in the April issue of the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.
One study found that women nearing menopause were almost twice as likely to suffer depression, while the second study found that women who reported symptoms of depression were five times more likely to be nearing menopause, the Associated Press reported.
The women in these studies had no prior history of depression.
While most women reach menopause without suffering depression, this research suggests that some women may be more susceptible to depression as they approach menopause.
One of the studies found that women with a history of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) may have a greater risk of depression as they near menopause, the AP reported.
The other study found that women who had both hot flashes and more stressful events in their lives -- such as a divorce or death in the family -- were more likely to suffer depression as they neared menopause.
Black TV Channel Had More Fast Food Ads: Study
A black-oriented U.S. television channel carried far more fast food and snack ads in one week last summer than channels with more general programming, says a new study.
It compared afternoon and evening ads on the Black Entertainment Television (BET), the first black-targeted cable channel in the United States, to ads on the WB network and the Disney Channel, the Associated Press reported.
More than half the 1,100 ads carried by the channels were for fast food and drinks, such as sodas.
BET carried about 66 percent of the fast food ads, compared to 34 percent on WB and zero on Disney. About 82 percent of ads for drinks were on BET, compared to 11 percent on WB and 6 percent on Disney. BET had 60 percent of the snack ads, while 40 percent were on Disney and none on WB, the AP reported.
The findings appear in the April issue of Pediatrics.
Generic drugs can have a dramatic impact on prescription drug prices, says a U.S. Food and Drug Administration analysis released Tuesday.
For example, the analysis found that the introduction into the marketplace of just two generic versions of a brand-name drug can reduce the cost to consumers by nearly half, the Associated Press reported.
When there's just one generic version, it usually sells for about 94 percent of its brand name rival. However, when there's a second generic version, the average price of the generic drugs decreases to about 52 percent of the brand name medicine.
As more generic versions of the same drug are produced, the price continues to fall. When there are nine generic versions, their average price is about 20 percent of the matching brand name medicine. The analysis is posted on the FDA's Web site, the AP reported.
While the FDA's analysis shows the price reduction benefits of generic drugs, the agency faces ongoing criticism that it's too slow to approve generic drugs. Currently, the FDA has a backlog of about 800 generic drug applications.
Compound Shows Anti-Tumor Activity
Results from preclinical studies show that the anti-cancer compound AV-412 -- a EGFR/HER2 kinase inhibitor -- demonstrated anti-tumor activity against tumors that were both sensitive and resistant to Tarceva (erlotinib) and Iressa (gefitinib).
The findings were announced Tuesday by AVEO Pharmaceuticals, Inc. at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.
During the preclinical studies, the drug was tested in non-small cell lung cancer cell lines and in mice.
The company says AV-412's mechanism of action may prove beneficial to patients with non-small cell lung cancer, metastatic breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, head and neck cancer, and hormone refractory prostrate cancer.
The drug is slated to enter clinical trials this year to test i6s safety and efficacy in treating solid tumors.
Survey Reveals Antibiotics Misuse
Even though only 22 percent of American respondents said they believed that leftover antibiotics should be saved and used again, 46 percent of those with leftover antibiotics admitted saving them, according to an international survey of 4,500 people in 11 countries.
Misuse of antibiotics is a contributing cause of antibiotic resistance. Saving unused antibiotics for future use is a potential problem because an antibiotic prescribed to treat one illness may not be an appropriate or necessary treatment for another illness.
Internationally, the survey found that younger patients were much less likely than older patients to be compliant when it comes to the use antibiotics. In the United States, 33 percent of respondents ages 18 to 34 reported noncompliance, compared to 11 percent of respondents age 50 and older.
Overall, Americans are on par with global noncompliance rates. The findings suggest that younger people may need to be targeted for more public education about the proper use of antibiotics.
The survey findings were presented this week at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.
Rapid Vaccination Response Could Combat Human Bird Flu Outbreak
A quick and aggressive vaccination campaign at the first sign of a bird flu outbreak in humans is the most effective way to fight it, even if the vaccine isn't perfectly matched to the virus causing the outbreak, says a study in this week's online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Researchers used computer models to study how a flu outbreak could be controlled by vaccines, other medications and measures such as restricting travel and closing schools, the Associated Press reported.
Along with a vaccination effort, the rapid use of several million doses of antiviral drugs, such as Tamiflu, could help slow the spread of the disease, said the study, which was led by Timothy C. Germann of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
In other news, a U.S. health expert warned that it's just a matter of time before there's a flu pandemic that could kill millions of people.
"I think of it as the earthquake in San Francisco: you know it's on the fault, you know it's going to occur but you can't tell if it's going to occur this year or the year after," Dr. Roger Glass, the new director of the Fogarty International Center at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, told the AP.
And the United Nations' chief coordinator for avian influenza said Tuesday that the deadly bird flu virus has spread rapidly over the past three months, infecting birds in 30 new countries, double the number previously stricken since 2003.
"This is a really serious global situation," Dr. David Nabarro told reporters in Beijing. "During the last three months globally, there has been an enormous and rapid spread of H5N1."
Approach of Menopause May Increase Depression Risk
As women approach menopause, they may have an increased risk of suffering depression for the first time in their lives, according to two U.S. studies in the April issue of the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.
One study found that women nearing menopause were almost twice as likely to suffer depression, while the second study found that women who reported symptoms of depression were five times more likely to be nearing menopause, the Associated Press reported.
The women in these studies had no prior history of depression.
While most women reach menopause without suffering depression, this research suggests that some women may be more susceptible to depression as they approach menopause.
One of the studies found that women with a history of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) may have a greater risk of depression as they near menopause, the AP reported.
The other study found that women who had both hot flashes and more stressful events in their lives -- such as a divorce or death in the family -- were more likely to suffer depression as they neared menopause.
Black TV Channel Had More Fast Food Ads: Study
A black-oriented U.S. television channel carried far more fast food and snack ads in one week last summer than channels with more general programming, says a new study.
It compared afternoon and evening ads on the Black Entertainment Television (BET), the first black-targeted cable channel in the United States, to ads on the WB network and the Disney Channel, the Associated Press reported.
More than half the 1,100 ads carried by the channels were for fast food and drinks, such as sodas.
BET carried about 66 percent of the fast food ads, compared to 34 percent on WB and zero on Disney. About 82 percent of ads for drinks were on BET, compared to 11 percent on WB and 6 percent on Disney. BET had 60 percent of the snack ads, while 40 percent were on Disney and none on WB, the AP reported.
The findings appear in the April issue of Pediatrics.
Monday, April 03, 2006
Health Headlines - April 3
Study Questions Claims of U.S. Autism Epidemic
There's little actual data to support warnings about an autism epidemic in the United States, according to a University of Wisconsin-Madison study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.
U.S. Department of Education statistics on special education show a 657 percent increase in autism from 1993 to 2003. However, this new study says those numbers are misleading and may be partly due to what the researchers called "diagnostic substitution," the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
They noted that while the number of reported autism cases has increased, there's been a decline in cases of students with mental retardation and learning disabilities.
The study authors said that different sorts of data may have to be used in order to accurately estimate autism rates in the United States.
Non-Bleach Cleaners May Help Hospital Bacteria Thrive
Cleaners that contain bleach are the only ones that can kill dangerous hospital bacteria called Clostridium difficile. Some cleaners without bleach may actually help the bacteria thrive, says a U.K. study.
C. difficile causes severe diarrhea and is especially dangerous to older patients.
University of Leeds researchers tested five cleaning products against different strains of C. difficile and found that all the strains produced more spores when they were exposed to two cleaners that did not contain bleach, BBC News reported.
The increased production of spores increases the odds that the bacteria will survive for months or even years in hospitals and infect more patients.
The study authors did not reveal the names of the two cleaning products, BBC News reported. The findings were presented at a meeting of the Society for General Microbiology.
High Protein Diet During Pregnancy Can Stress Babies
Pregnant women should not eat a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet because they may give birth to children who are more susceptible to stress, says a U.K. study to be presented Tuesday at a meeting of the European Congress of Endocrinology.
The study tracked 86 children born in 1967-68 to mothers who were instructed by an obstetrician to eat a pound of red meat a day while they were pregnant. This advice was given to the women in order to prevent the pregnancy complication pre-eclampsia, BBC News reported.
When the children were in their 30s, the researchers had them do a series of stressful tasks, such as public speaking and mental arithmetic. The participants' blood pressure and levels of the stress hormone cortisol were measured before and after those tasks.
The more red meat their mothers had consumed during pregnancy, the higher the levels of cortisol in the adult children.
"We don't know why this occurs -- it may that the baby is put under stress during pregnancy which causes irreversibly high levels of cortisol," study leader Dr. Rebecca Reynolds told BBC News.
Brain Scans Predict Benefits of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Brain scans can predict which patients suffering from depression will benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy, a new study says.
Results of the study, by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, appear in the April issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry.
"We found that people with depression who have increased activity in one area of the brain and decreased activity in another in response to emotional stimuli are more likely to respond to a specific treatment -- cognitive therapy," said Greg J. Siegle, assistant professor of psychiatry at the university.
The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify the brain areas that were active or inactive when exposed to a negative stimulus. While undergoing fMRI, 14 unmedicated participants with depression and 21 control subjects who had never reported symptoms of depression were presented with emotional words and asked if those words applied to them. The participants with depression then completed 16 sessions of cognitive behavioral therapy over 12 weeks as part of a larger clinical trial.
The researchers found that compared to the control participants, nine of the people with depression had decreased activity in a region of the brain called the subgenual cingulate cortex after they read negative words. Of those nine, seven recovered from their depressive symptoms after cognitive behavioral therapy, the researchers said.
Mumps Epidemic Reported in Iowa
In what U.S. health officials are describing as the nation's largest mumps outbreak in at least 17 years, nearly 245 diagnosed or suspected cases of the disease have been reported in Iowa since mid-January.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it is the nation's only outbreak, which the agency defines as five or more cases in a concentrated area, the Associated Press reported.
"We are calling this an epidemic," said Iowa state epidemiologist Dr. Patricia Quinlisk, adding that mumps has spread to more than one-third of the state and does not appear to be limited to certain age groups or other segments of the population.
The CDC said the agency has no explanation for the outbreak. But Quinlisk said one possible explanation is that the infection originated in England because the strain in Iowa has been identified by the CDC as the same one that has caused tens of thousands of cases of mumps in a major outbreak in Britain over the past two years, the AP said.
There's little actual data to support warnings about an autism epidemic in the United States, according to a University of Wisconsin-Madison study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.
U.S. Department of Education statistics on special education show a 657 percent increase in autism from 1993 to 2003. However, this new study says those numbers are misleading and may be partly due to what the researchers called "diagnostic substitution," the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
They noted that while the number of reported autism cases has increased, there's been a decline in cases of students with mental retardation and learning disabilities.
The study authors said that different sorts of data may have to be used in order to accurately estimate autism rates in the United States.
Non-Bleach Cleaners May Help Hospital Bacteria Thrive
Cleaners that contain bleach are the only ones that can kill dangerous hospital bacteria called Clostridium difficile. Some cleaners without bleach may actually help the bacteria thrive, says a U.K. study.
C. difficile causes severe diarrhea and is especially dangerous to older patients.
University of Leeds researchers tested five cleaning products against different strains of C. difficile and found that all the strains produced more spores when they were exposed to two cleaners that did not contain bleach, BBC News reported.
The increased production of spores increases the odds that the bacteria will survive for months or even years in hospitals and infect more patients.
The study authors did not reveal the names of the two cleaning products, BBC News reported. The findings were presented at a meeting of the Society for General Microbiology.
High Protein Diet During Pregnancy Can Stress Babies
Pregnant women should not eat a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet because they may give birth to children who are more susceptible to stress, says a U.K. study to be presented Tuesday at a meeting of the European Congress of Endocrinology.
The study tracked 86 children born in 1967-68 to mothers who were instructed by an obstetrician to eat a pound of red meat a day while they were pregnant. This advice was given to the women in order to prevent the pregnancy complication pre-eclampsia, BBC News reported.
When the children were in their 30s, the researchers had them do a series of stressful tasks, such as public speaking and mental arithmetic. The participants' blood pressure and levels of the stress hormone cortisol were measured before and after those tasks.
The more red meat their mothers had consumed during pregnancy, the higher the levels of cortisol in the adult children.
"We don't know why this occurs -- it may that the baby is put under stress during pregnancy which causes irreversibly high levels of cortisol," study leader Dr. Rebecca Reynolds told BBC News.
Brain Scans Predict Benefits of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Brain scans can predict which patients suffering from depression will benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy, a new study says.
Results of the study, by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, appear in the April issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry.
"We found that people with depression who have increased activity in one area of the brain and decreased activity in another in response to emotional stimuli are more likely to respond to a specific treatment -- cognitive therapy," said Greg J. Siegle, assistant professor of psychiatry at the university.
The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify the brain areas that were active or inactive when exposed to a negative stimulus. While undergoing fMRI, 14 unmedicated participants with depression and 21 control subjects who had never reported symptoms of depression were presented with emotional words and asked if those words applied to them. The participants with depression then completed 16 sessions of cognitive behavioral therapy over 12 weeks as part of a larger clinical trial.
The researchers found that compared to the control participants, nine of the people with depression had decreased activity in a region of the brain called the subgenual cingulate cortex after they read negative words. Of those nine, seven recovered from their depressive symptoms after cognitive behavioral therapy, the researchers said.
Mumps Epidemic Reported in Iowa
In what U.S. health officials are describing as the nation's largest mumps outbreak in at least 17 years, nearly 245 diagnosed or suspected cases of the disease have been reported in Iowa since mid-January.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it is the nation's only outbreak, which the agency defines as five or more cases in a concentrated area, the Associated Press reported.
"We are calling this an epidemic," said Iowa state epidemiologist Dr. Patricia Quinlisk, adding that mumps has spread to more than one-third of the state and does not appear to be limited to certain age groups or other segments of the population.
The CDC said the agency has no explanation for the outbreak. But Quinlisk said one possible explanation is that the infection originated in England because the strain in Iowa has been identified by the CDC as the same one that has caused tens of thousands of cases of mumps in a major outbreak in Britain over the past two years, the AP said.
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