FDA OKs Antidepressant to Treat Winter Blues
Federal regulators on Monday approved GlaxoSmithKline's antidepressant Wellbutrin XL to help treat the estimated half a million people in the United States who suffer from winter depression.
The U.S. Food and Administration said the drug is the first to be approved to treat the condition, which causes bouts of recurrent depression, and is known as seasonal affective disorder, or SAD. Wellbutrin XL (bupropion HCL extended release tablets) had been previously approved for treatment of major depressive disorder.
"The effectiveness of Wellbutrin XL for the prevention of SAD episodes was established in 3 double-blind, placebo-controlled trials in adults with a history of major depressive disorder in autumn and winter," the FDA said in a prepared statement. "Treatment was initiated prior to the onset of symptoms in the autumn (September to November) and was discontinued following a two-week taper that began the first week of spring (fourth week of March). In these trials, the percentage of patients who were depression-free at the end of treatment was significantly higher for those on Wellbutrin XL than for those on placebo; for all 3 studies combined, the overall rate of patients depression-free at the end of treatment was 84 percent for those on Wellbutrin XL compared to 72 percent for those on placebo."
The drug's label includes a "black box" warning on the increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior in pediatric patients treated with antidepressants.
As sunlight patterns change in autumn and winter, there is a shift in the "biological internal clocks" or circadian rhythms, according to the National Mental Health Association. This can cause your biological clocks to be out of step with normal activities. January and February are the most difficult months for sufferers, and younger persons and women are at higher risk, the association says.
A Better Brew to Fight Prostate Cancer?
That beer you're holding may contain small amounts of a compound thought to prevent prostate cancer and enlargement, according to an Oregon State University study, but you'd have to drink almost a case to activate its benefits.
Researchers said that xanthohumol, which is found in the hops used to brew beer, belongs to a group of plant compounds called flavonoids that can trigger the death of cancer cells along the surface of the prostate gland, the Associated Press reported Monday.
Fred Stevens, an assistant professor of medicinal chemistry at OSU's College of Pharmacy, said it may be possible for drug companies to develop pills containing concentrated doses of the flavonoid and to increase the xanthohumol content of hops. The Oregon study findings were published in a recent issue of Cancer Letters.
German scientists have already developed a beer that contains 10 times the amount of xanthohumol as traditional brews. The drink is being marketed as a healthy beer, the AP said, but research is still under way to determine if it has any effect on cancer.
Still, there should no rush to belly up to the bar, according to the head of the National Prostate Cancer Coalition. "It's every mans dream to hear that beer and pizza can prevent cancer," said Dr. Richard N. Atkins in a prepared statement. "However, the 17 beers and four large pizzas needed to get enough xanthohumol and lycopene to help prevent prostate cancer is unfortunately not advised. Our hope is that men know the facts and get tested for prostate cancer. Food, no matter how helpful it may be, is not a full preventive for prostate cancer."
Diabetes Vision Drug Trials Show Promise
Eli Lilly and Co. says two late-phase trials of its experimental drug Arxxant reduced the risk of vision loss by 42 percent among patients with serious eye problems caused by diabetes. The drug, which is awaiting federal approval, could bring Lilly an estimated $1 billion a year, The Indianapolis Star reported Monday.
Since no drug currently treats the disorder, called diabetic retinopathy, the typical current treatment uses laser surgery in advanced stages of the illness.
Dr. Louis Vignati, medical director for Lilly's Arxxant product team, told the newspaper that stemming vision loss could improve the quality of life for many diabetics, allowing them to keep driving cars or taking part in other everyday activities.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has agreed to speed up its usual one-year review time for Arxxant, since there are no approved treatments for diabetic eye disease.
The drug maker revealed the findings over the weekend at the annual scientific meeting of the American Diabetes Association in Washington, D.C.
Two U.S. Mad Cow Cases May Be a Different Strain
Two cases of mad cow disease in the United States have caused a stir among scientists, because they don't appear to have followed the usual pattern of development, the Associated Press reports.
The disease, discovered in Texas and Alabama, may be a different strain that appears spontaneously, the wire service quotes scientists as saying. Additionally, the dangerous lesions known as prions weren't detected to act the same way in the U.S. cattle. It is these lesions that deposit the plaque that kills brain cells, but this didn't happen with the two test animals.
There have only been a few cases of mad cow disease reported in the United States, leading government officials in late April to issue a statement that testing and control programs for the disease have been successful. This is in contrast to Europe, where thousands of cattle have been destroyed in the past 25 years.
Although the differences in the disease in the cattle have prompted scientific curiosity, the AP says that U.S. government officials aren't changing any procedures. "It's most important right now, till the science tells us otherwise, that we treat this as BSE regardless," the wire service quotes U.S. Agriculture Department chief veterinarian John Clifford as saying.
Study Shows Caffeine May Block Some Pain During Exercise
Can caffeine reduce the pain you feel during exercise?
It's a strong possibility, according to a small experiment from researchers at the University of Georgia, who reported their findings during the recent annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine in Denver.
The Los Angeles Times reports that 9 "college-age" women who weren't regular coffee drinkers participated in a leg exercise routine using their quadriceps muscles. Some of them were given a pill that contained the equivalent of two or three cups of coffee, while the others were given a placebo.
According to the Times, those who took the caffeine pills felt less pain between 25 percent and 48 percent of the time, all depending on which part of the routine they were doing.
Victor Maridakis, the University of Georgia's lead researcher, told the newspaper he believed that caffeine might block brain pain receptors. "Everyone wants that competitive edge," the Times quotes him as saying, "but it's how much you think you can handle and how your body reacts to it."
Monday, June 12, 2006
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Health Headlines - June 11
Two U.S. Mad Cow Cases May Be a Different Strain
Two cases of mad cow disease in the United States have caused a stir among scientists, because they don't appear to have followed the usual pattern of development, the Associated Press reports.
The disease, discovered in Texas and Alabama, may be a different strain that appears spontaneously, the wire service quotes scientists as saying. Additionally, the dangerous lesions known as prions weren't detected to act the same way in the U.S. cattle. It is these lesions that deposit the plaque that kills brain cells, but this didn't happen with the two test animals.
There have only been a few cases of mad cow disease reported in the United States, leading government officials in late April to issue a statement that testing and control programs for the disease have been successful. This is in contrast to Europe, where thousands of cattle have been destroyed in the past 25 years.
Although the differences in the disease in the cattle have prompted scientific curiosity, the A.P. says that U.S. government officials aren't changing any procedures. "It's most important right now, till the science tells us otherwise, that we treat this as BSE regardless," the wire service quotes U.S. Agriculture Department chief veterinarian John Clifford as saying.
Study Shows Caffeine May Block Some Pain During Exercise
Can caffeine reduce the pain you feel during exercise?
It's a strong possibility, according to a small experiment from researchers at the University of Georgia, who reported their findings during the recent annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine in Denver.
The Los Angeles Times reports that 9 "college-age" women who weren't regular coffee drinkers participated in a leg exercise routine using their quadriceps muscles. Some of them were given a pill that contained the equivalent of two or three cups of coffee, while the others were given a placebo.
According to the Times, those who took the caffeine pills felt less pain between 25 percent and 48 percent of the time, all depending on which part of the routine they were doing.
Victor Maridakis, the University of Georgia's lead researcher, told the newspaper he believed that caffeine might block brain pain receptors. "Everyone wants that competitive edge," the Times quotes him as saying, "but it's how much you think you can handle and how your body reacts to it."
Survey: Teen Smoking Rate No Longer Declining
Discouraging news about teenage smoking came late in the week from the U.S. government's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: The decline in smoking among teenagers, which began in the late 1990s, appears to be over.
The Associated Press reports that two surveys released Thursday and Friday indicate that about one in four teenagers is smoking, and that statistic hasn't changed since 2003.
"We were making good progress, and now it looks like we're not," the wire service quotes Dr. Corinne Husten, the CDC's acting director of the Office on Smoking and Health, as saying. The findings were based on the CDC's National Youth Risk Survey, which has been tracking 14,000 teenagers' lifestyles habits nationwide.
Between 1997 and 2003, the A.P. reported, the percentage of teenagers who said they smoked during the previous 30 days declined from 36 percent to 22 percent. But 23 percent of those surveyed in 2003 through 2005 said they had smoked a cigarette during the past 30 days.
"The fact that youth smoking rates are not declining anymore is a wake-up call," the wire service quotes Vince Willmore, a spokesman for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, as saying.
Genetic 'Shield' Guards Against Damaging Effects of Radiation Therapy
British researchers say they have found a way to shield healthy bone marrow cells from dangerous radiation during cancer treatments, the BBC reports.
Writing in the latest issue of the Journal of Gene Medicine, scientists from Manchester University's Paterson Institute for Cancer Research say they have developed a genetic technique that stimulates bone marrow stem cells to make more of the protein SOD2, which acts as a shield against radiation.
While radiation therapy is very effective in killing cancer cells, it still can't be targeted specifically enough to avoid killing healthy cells as well, the BBC reports.
In the lab study, The Paterson team used a benign virus to insert a copy of the SOD2 gene into bone marrow stem cells. This, in turn, increased production of the shielding protein.
This is the first step in a procedure the scientists say they hope to develop that will lead to a pre-treatment cancer patients can take before undergoing radiation therapy.
FDA Will Track Drugs to Fight Counterfeiting
Federal regulators will begin requiring wholesalers to track who handles the pharmaceuticals they sell, to help combat a rise in counterfeit drugs entering the legitimate market.
The decision Friday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to take effect Dec. 2. In practice, the move could affect the distribution system for medicines, requiring distributors to provide factory-to-pharmacy documentation of the chain of custody of drug products -- its so-called "pedigree" -- throughout the distribution system.
The FDA believes that radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology is the most promising way to track drugs as they move through the supply chain. However, the agency said that it will hold off requiring drug manufacturers and distributors to use the technology, until more businesses adopt the electronic track-and-trace tags, the Associated Press reported Friday.
The FDA urges U.S. consumers to purchase drugs only from state-licensed U.S. pharmacies and to be alert to changes in packaging, labeling, color, taste, pill shape or unanticipated side effects. Before buying drugs over the Internet, consumers should look for the Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites (VIPPS) seal on the Web site.
Safety Group Cites Sharp Drop in Firefighter Deaths
The U.S. National Fire Protection Association said Friday that 87 on-duty firefighters died in the United States in 2005, the third lowest toll since the fire-safety group began tracking deaths almost 30 years ago. Sudden cardiac deaths remained the leading cause of fatalities.
For the third straight year, the group said, firefighters were more likely to die responding to or returning from alarms and not at the scene of a fire. Of 26 deaths occurring in transit for 2005, 13 were due to sudden cardiac death and 10 were due to vehicle collisions or rollovers.
Particularly distressing, the group noted, were 11 firefighter deaths that occurred during training activities. The safety organization is conducting a special analysis of 100 training fatalities that occurred between 1996 and 2005.
Factors contributing to the drop in fatalities included decreases in deaths associated with wildland fires and the number of firefighters struck and killed by vehicles, the group said in a statement. It has compiled fatality figures for firefighters since 1977.
Two cases of mad cow disease in the United States have caused a stir among scientists, because they don't appear to have followed the usual pattern of development, the Associated Press reports.
The disease, discovered in Texas and Alabama, may be a different strain that appears spontaneously, the wire service quotes scientists as saying. Additionally, the dangerous lesions known as prions weren't detected to act the same way in the U.S. cattle. It is these lesions that deposit the plaque that kills brain cells, but this didn't happen with the two test animals.
There have only been a few cases of mad cow disease reported in the United States, leading government officials in late April to issue a statement that testing and control programs for the disease have been successful. This is in contrast to Europe, where thousands of cattle have been destroyed in the past 25 years.
Although the differences in the disease in the cattle have prompted scientific curiosity, the A.P. says that U.S. government officials aren't changing any procedures. "It's most important right now, till the science tells us otherwise, that we treat this as BSE regardless," the wire service quotes U.S. Agriculture Department chief veterinarian John Clifford as saying.
Study Shows Caffeine May Block Some Pain During Exercise
Can caffeine reduce the pain you feel during exercise?
It's a strong possibility, according to a small experiment from researchers at the University of Georgia, who reported their findings during the recent annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine in Denver.
The Los Angeles Times reports that 9 "college-age" women who weren't regular coffee drinkers participated in a leg exercise routine using their quadriceps muscles. Some of them were given a pill that contained the equivalent of two or three cups of coffee, while the others were given a placebo.
According to the Times, those who took the caffeine pills felt less pain between 25 percent and 48 percent of the time, all depending on which part of the routine they were doing.
Victor Maridakis, the University of Georgia's lead researcher, told the newspaper he believed that caffeine might block brain pain receptors. "Everyone wants that competitive edge," the Times quotes him as saying, "but it's how much you think you can handle and how your body reacts to it."
Survey: Teen Smoking Rate No Longer Declining
Discouraging news about teenage smoking came late in the week from the U.S. government's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: The decline in smoking among teenagers, which began in the late 1990s, appears to be over.
The Associated Press reports that two surveys released Thursday and Friday indicate that about one in four teenagers is smoking, and that statistic hasn't changed since 2003.
"We were making good progress, and now it looks like we're not," the wire service quotes Dr. Corinne Husten, the CDC's acting director of the Office on Smoking and Health, as saying. The findings were based on the CDC's National Youth Risk Survey, which has been tracking 14,000 teenagers' lifestyles habits nationwide.
Between 1997 and 2003, the A.P. reported, the percentage of teenagers who said they smoked during the previous 30 days declined from 36 percent to 22 percent. But 23 percent of those surveyed in 2003 through 2005 said they had smoked a cigarette during the past 30 days.
"The fact that youth smoking rates are not declining anymore is a wake-up call," the wire service quotes Vince Willmore, a spokesman for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, as saying.
Genetic 'Shield' Guards Against Damaging Effects of Radiation Therapy
British researchers say they have found a way to shield healthy bone marrow cells from dangerous radiation during cancer treatments, the BBC reports.
Writing in the latest issue of the Journal of Gene Medicine, scientists from Manchester University's Paterson Institute for Cancer Research say they have developed a genetic technique that stimulates bone marrow stem cells to make more of the protein SOD2, which acts as a shield against radiation.
While radiation therapy is very effective in killing cancer cells, it still can't be targeted specifically enough to avoid killing healthy cells as well, the BBC reports.
In the lab study, The Paterson team used a benign virus to insert a copy of the SOD2 gene into bone marrow stem cells. This, in turn, increased production of the shielding protein.
This is the first step in a procedure the scientists say they hope to develop that will lead to a pre-treatment cancer patients can take before undergoing radiation therapy.
FDA Will Track Drugs to Fight Counterfeiting
Federal regulators will begin requiring wholesalers to track who handles the pharmaceuticals they sell, to help combat a rise in counterfeit drugs entering the legitimate market.
The decision Friday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to take effect Dec. 2. In practice, the move could affect the distribution system for medicines, requiring distributors to provide factory-to-pharmacy documentation of the chain of custody of drug products -- its so-called "pedigree" -- throughout the distribution system.
The FDA believes that radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology is the most promising way to track drugs as they move through the supply chain. However, the agency said that it will hold off requiring drug manufacturers and distributors to use the technology, until more businesses adopt the electronic track-and-trace tags, the Associated Press reported Friday.
The FDA urges U.S. consumers to purchase drugs only from state-licensed U.S. pharmacies and to be alert to changes in packaging, labeling, color, taste, pill shape or unanticipated side effects. Before buying drugs over the Internet, consumers should look for the Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites (VIPPS) seal on the Web site.
Safety Group Cites Sharp Drop in Firefighter Deaths
The U.S. National Fire Protection Association said Friday that 87 on-duty firefighters died in the United States in 2005, the third lowest toll since the fire-safety group began tracking deaths almost 30 years ago. Sudden cardiac deaths remained the leading cause of fatalities.
For the third straight year, the group said, firefighters were more likely to die responding to or returning from alarms and not at the scene of a fire. Of 26 deaths occurring in transit for 2005, 13 were due to sudden cardiac death and 10 were due to vehicle collisions or rollovers.
Particularly distressing, the group noted, were 11 firefighter deaths that occurred during training activities. The safety organization is conducting a special analysis of 100 training fatalities that occurred between 1996 and 2005.
Factors contributing to the drop in fatalities included decreases in deaths associated with wildland fires and the number of firefighters struck and killed by vehicles, the group said in a statement. It has compiled fatality figures for firefighters since 1977.
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Health Headlines - June 10
Survey: Teen Smoking Rate No Longer Declining
Discouraging news about teenage smoking came late in the week from the U.S. government's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: The decline in smoking among teenagers, which began in the late 1990s, appears to be over.
The Associated Press reports that two surveys released Thursday and Friday indicate that about one in four teenagers is smoking, and that statistic hasn't changed since 2003.
"We were making good progress, and now it looks like we're not," the wire service quotes Dr. Corinne Husten, the CDC's acting director of the Office on Smoking and Health, as saying. The findings were based on the CDC's National Youth Risk Survey, which has been tracking 14,000 teenagers' lifestyles habits nationwide.
Between 1997 and 2003, the A.P. reported, the percentage of teenagers who said they smoked during the previous 30 days declined from 36 percent to 22 percent. But 23 percent of those surveyed in 2003 through 2005 said they had smoked a cigarette during the past 30 days.
"The fact that youth smoking rates are not declining anymore is a wake-up call," the wire service quotes Vince Willmore, a spokesman for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, as saying.
FDA Will Track Drugs to Fight Counterfeiting
Federal regulators will begin requiring wholesalers to track who handles the pharmaceuticals they sell, to help combat a rise in counterfeit drugs entering the legitimate market.
The decision Friday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to take effect Dec. 2. In practice, the move could affect the distribution system for medicines, requiring distributors to provide factory-to-pharmacy documentation of the chain of custody of drug products -- its so-called "pedigree" -- throughout the distribution system.
The FDA believes that radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology is the most promising way to track drugs as they move through the supply chain. However, the agency said that it will hold off requiring drug manufacturers and distributors to use the technology, until more businesses adopt the electronic track-and-trace tags, the Associated Press reported Friday.
The FDA urges U.S. consumers to purchase drugs only from state-licensed U.S. pharmacies and to be alert to changes in packaging, labeling, color, taste, pill shape or unanticipated side effects. Before buying drugs over the Internet, consumers should look for the Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites (VIPPS) seal on the Web site.
Safety Group Cites Sharp Drop in Firefighter Deaths
The U.S. National Fire Protection Association said Friday that 87 on-duty firefighters died in the United States in 2005, the third lowest toll since the fire-safety group began tracking deaths almost 30 years ago. Sudden cardiac deaths remained the leading cause of fatalities.
For the third straight year, the group said, firefighters were more likely to die responding to or returning from alarms and not at the scene of a fire. Of 26 deaths occurring in transit for 2005, 13 were due to sudden cardiac death and 10 were due to vehicle collisions or rollovers.
Particularly distressing, the group noted, were 11 firefighter deaths that occurred during training activities. The safety organization is conducting a special analysis of 100 training fatalities that occurred between 1996 and 2005.
Factors contributing to the drop in fatalities included decreases in deaths associated with wildland fires and the number of firefighters struck and killed by vehicles, the group said in a statement. It has compiled fatality figures for firefighters since 1977.
Lawsuits Filed Over Lipitor Side Effects
Two men filed suit in New York State Supreme Court this week against Pfizer Inc., claiming the company didn't issue loud-enough warnings about the potential side effects of its popular anti-cholesterol drug Lipitor.
"It ruined my life," said Michael Mazzariello, a 47-year-old attorney from New York City and one of the plaintiffs. Mazzariello said he couldn't walk without a cane, tend his garden or lift his 1-year-old child.
A second lawsuit was filed by Charles M. Wilson, a former insurance executive from Atlanta, who claimed similar side effects made him ill.
The Associated Press reported Thursday that Mazzariello did manage to stand by himself at a news conference in Manhattan to say that the symptoms subsided once he stopped taking the drug, but that he still felt pain.
Pfizer has vowed to fight the lawsuits, calling them "baseless." A company spokesman said that all potential side effects of the drug are included on its labeling and that research has repeatedly shown that the drug is safe for a vast majority of users.
Lipitor, a type of statin used to lower cholesterol, is the top-selling medication in the world and brings in more than $12 billion a year for Pfizer.
Polio Outbreak in Namibia Puzzles WHO
An polio outbreak that has killed 7 people and paralyzed 33 more in the southern African nation of Namibia has left World Health Organization officials puzzled over its unusual course.
Polio normally attacks infants and young children, not adults, and Namibia had been free of the disease for a decade, The New York Times reported Friday. Vaccine stocks were low only enough for routine vaccination of infants and people were turned away when supplies ran out.
When new vaccine shipments arrive, the outbreak should be brought under control with relative ease, Dr. David L. Heymann, the WHO director general's representative for polio eradication, told the newspaper.
Namibia, home to 2 million people on Africa's southwest coast, has been headlines all week because of the recent birth there of Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, the daughter of actors Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Acccording to the Times, the baby was born in a coastal resort -- about 150 miles from the capital, Windhoek, where the polio outbreak occurred.
Drug Company Halts Enrollment of Children in Antibiotic Trial
The pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis has stopped enrolling children in clinical trials of an antibiotic that some reports said could cause liver failure in adults.
The drug maker said it halted tests on its own Thursday to ensure that trials of the antibiotic Ketek complied with U.S. Food and Drug Administration requirements, the Associated Press reported Friday.
On Thursday, The New York Times cited internal FDA memorandums that said some safety officials believed the company should remove Ketek from the market, severely restrict its use or add a prominent warning label about its potentially fatal side effects. The company denied the suspension was linked to the newspaper's report.
Ketek is currently approved only for adults and is used to treat sinusitis, bronchitis and pneumonia. The company had been testing the drug as a treatment for ear infections and tonsillitis in nearly 4,000 infants and children in more than a dozen countries, including the United States.
Discouraging news about teenage smoking came late in the week from the U.S. government's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: The decline in smoking among teenagers, which began in the late 1990s, appears to be over.
The Associated Press reports that two surveys released Thursday and Friday indicate that about one in four teenagers is smoking, and that statistic hasn't changed since 2003.
"We were making good progress, and now it looks like we're not," the wire service quotes Dr. Corinne Husten, the CDC's acting director of the Office on Smoking and Health, as saying. The findings were based on the CDC's National Youth Risk Survey, which has been tracking 14,000 teenagers' lifestyles habits nationwide.
Between 1997 and 2003, the A.P. reported, the percentage of teenagers who said they smoked during the previous 30 days declined from 36 percent to 22 percent. But 23 percent of those surveyed in 2003 through 2005 said they had smoked a cigarette during the past 30 days.
"The fact that youth smoking rates are not declining anymore is a wake-up call," the wire service quotes Vince Willmore, a spokesman for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, as saying.
FDA Will Track Drugs to Fight Counterfeiting
Federal regulators will begin requiring wholesalers to track who handles the pharmaceuticals they sell, to help combat a rise in counterfeit drugs entering the legitimate market.
The decision Friday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to take effect Dec. 2. In practice, the move could affect the distribution system for medicines, requiring distributors to provide factory-to-pharmacy documentation of the chain of custody of drug products -- its so-called "pedigree" -- throughout the distribution system.
The FDA believes that radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology is the most promising way to track drugs as they move through the supply chain. However, the agency said that it will hold off requiring drug manufacturers and distributors to use the technology, until more businesses adopt the electronic track-and-trace tags, the Associated Press reported Friday.
The FDA urges U.S. consumers to purchase drugs only from state-licensed U.S. pharmacies and to be alert to changes in packaging, labeling, color, taste, pill shape or unanticipated side effects. Before buying drugs over the Internet, consumers should look for the Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites (VIPPS) seal on the Web site.
Safety Group Cites Sharp Drop in Firefighter Deaths
The U.S. National Fire Protection Association said Friday that 87 on-duty firefighters died in the United States in 2005, the third lowest toll since the fire-safety group began tracking deaths almost 30 years ago. Sudden cardiac deaths remained the leading cause of fatalities.
For the third straight year, the group said, firefighters were more likely to die responding to or returning from alarms and not at the scene of a fire. Of 26 deaths occurring in transit for 2005, 13 were due to sudden cardiac death and 10 were due to vehicle collisions or rollovers.
Particularly distressing, the group noted, were 11 firefighter deaths that occurred during training activities. The safety organization is conducting a special analysis of 100 training fatalities that occurred between 1996 and 2005.
Factors contributing to the drop in fatalities included decreases in deaths associated with wildland fires and the number of firefighters struck and killed by vehicles, the group said in a statement. It has compiled fatality figures for firefighters since 1977.
Lawsuits Filed Over Lipitor Side Effects
Two men filed suit in New York State Supreme Court this week against Pfizer Inc., claiming the company didn't issue loud-enough warnings about the potential side effects of its popular anti-cholesterol drug Lipitor.
"It ruined my life," said Michael Mazzariello, a 47-year-old attorney from New York City and one of the plaintiffs. Mazzariello said he couldn't walk without a cane, tend his garden or lift his 1-year-old child.
A second lawsuit was filed by Charles M. Wilson, a former insurance executive from Atlanta, who claimed similar side effects made him ill.
The Associated Press reported Thursday that Mazzariello did manage to stand by himself at a news conference in Manhattan to say that the symptoms subsided once he stopped taking the drug, but that he still felt pain.
Pfizer has vowed to fight the lawsuits, calling them "baseless." A company spokesman said that all potential side effects of the drug are included on its labeling and that research has repeatedly shown that the drug is safe for a vast majority of users.
Lipitor, a type of statin used to lower cholesterol, is the top-selling medication in the world and brings in more than $12 billion a year for Pfizer.
Polio Outbreak in Namibia Puzzles WHO
An polio outbreak that has killed 7 people and paralyzed 33 more in the southern African nation of Namibia has left World Health Organization officials puzzled over its unusual course.
Polio normally attacks infants and young children, not adults, and Namibia had been free of the disease for a decade, The New York Times reported Friday. Vaccine stocks were low only enough for routine vaccination of infants and people were turned away when supplies ran out.
When new vaccine shipments arrive, the outbreak should be brought under control with relative ease, Dr. David L. Heymann, the WHO director general's representative for polio eradication, told the newspaper.
Namibia, home to 2 million people on Africa's southwest coast, has been headlines all week because of the recent birth there of Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, the daughter of actors Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Acccording to the Times, the baby was born in a coastal resort -- about 150 miles from the capital, Windhoek, where the polio outbreak occurred.
Drug Company Halts Enrollment of Children in Antibiotic Trial
The pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis has stopped enrolling children in clinical trials of an antibiotic that some reports said could cause liver failure in adults.
The drug maker said it halted tests on its own Thursday to ensure that trials of the antibiotic Ketek complied with U.S. Food and Drug Administration requirements, the Associated Press reported Friday.
On Thursday, The New York Times cited internal FDA memorandums that said some safety officials believed the company should remove Ketek from the market, severely restrict its use or add a prominent warning label about its potentially fatal side effects. The company denied the suspension was linked to the newspaper's report.
Ketek is currently approved only for adults and is used to treat sinusitis, bronchitis and pneumonia. The company had been testing the drug as a treatment for ear infections and tonsillitis in nearly 4,000 infants and children in more than a dozen countries, including the United States.
Health Headlines - June 9
FDA Will Track Drugs to Fight Counterfeiting
Federal regulators will begin requiring wholesalers to track who handles the pharmaceuticals they sell, to help combat a rise in counterfeit drugs entering the legitimate market.
The decision Friday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to take effect Dec. 2. In practice, the move could affect the distribution system for medicines, requiring distributors to provide factory-to-pharmacy documentation of the chain of custody of drug products -- its so-called "pedigree" -- throughout the distribution system.
The FDA believes that radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology is the most promising way to track drugs as they move through the supply chain. However, the agency said that it will hold off requiring drug manufacturers and distributors to use the technology, until more businesses adopt the electronic track-and-trace tags, the Associated Press reported Friday.
The FDA urges U.S. consumers to purchase drugs only from state-licensed U.S. pharmacies and to be alert to changes in packaging, labeling, color, taste, pill shape or unanticipated side effects. Before buying drugs over the Internet, consumers should look for the Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites (VIPPS) seal on the Web site.
Safety Group Cites Sharp Drop in Firefighter Deaths
The U.S. National Fire Protection Association said Friday that 87 on-duty firefighters died in the United States in 2005, the third lowest toll since the fire-safety group began tracking deaths almost 30 years ago. Sudden cardiac deaths remained the leading cause of fatalities.
For the third straight year, the group said, firefighters were more likely to die responding to or returning from alarms and not at the scene of a fire. Of 26 deaths occurring in transit for 2005, 13 were due to sudden cardiac death and 10 were due to vehicle collisions or rollovers.
Particularly distressing, the group noted, were 11 firefighter deaths that occurred during training activities. The safety organization is conducting a special analysis of 100 training fatalities that occurred between 1996 and 2005.
Factors contributing to the drop in fatalities included decreases in deaths associated with wildland fires and the number of firefighters struck and killed by vehicles, the group said in a statement. It has compiled fatality figures for firefighters since 1977.
Lawsuits Filed Over Lipitor Side Effects
Two men filed suit in New York State Supreme Court this week against Pfizer Inc., claiming the company didn't issue loud-enough warnings about the potential side effects of its popular anti-cholesterol drug Lipitor.
"It ruined my life," said Michael Mazzariello, a 47-year-old attorney from New York City and one of the plaintiffs. Mazzariello said he couldn't walk without a cane, tend his garden or lift his 1-year-old child.
A second lawsuit was filed by Charles M. Wilson, a former insurance executive from Atlanta, who claimed similar side effects made him ill.
The Associated Press reported Thursday that Mazzariello did manage to stand by himself at a news conference in Manhattan to say that the symptoms subsided once he stopped taking the drug, but that he still felt pain.
Pfizer has vowed to fight the lawsuits, calling them "baseless." A company spokesman said that all potential side effects of the drug are included on its labeling and that research has repeatedly shown that the drug is safe for a vast majority of users.
Lipitor, a type of statin used to lower cholesterol, is the top-selling medication in the world and brings in more than $12 billion a year for Pfizer.
Polio Outbreak in Namibia Puzzles WHO
An polio outbreak that has killed 7 people and paralyzed 33 more in the southern African nation of Namibia has left World Health Organization officials puzzled over its unusual course.
Polio normally attacks infants and young children, not adults, and Namibia had been free of the disease for a decade, The New York Times reported Friday. Vaccine stocks were low only enough for routine vaccination of infants and people were turned away when supplies ran out.
When new vaccine shipments arrive, the outbreak should be brought under control with relative ease, Dr. David L. Heymann, the WHO director general's representative for polio eradication, told the newspaper.
Namibia, home to 2 million people on Africa's southwest coast, has been headlines all week because of the recent birth there of Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, the daughter of actors Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Acccording to the Times, the baby was born in a coastal resort -- about 150 miles from the capital, Windhoek, where the polio outbreak occurred.
Drug Company Halts Enrollment of Children in Antibiotic Trial
The pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis has stopped enrolling children in clinical trials of an antibiotic that some reports said could cause liver failure in adults.
The drug maker said it halted tests on its own Thursday to ensure that trials of the antibiotic Ketek complied with U.S. Food and Drug Administration requirements, the Associated Press reported Friday.
On Thursday, The New York Times cited internal FDA memorandums that said some safety officials believed the company should remove Ketek from the market, severely restrict its use or add a prominent warning label about its potentially fatal side effects. The company denied the suspension was linked to the newspaper's report.
Ketek is currently approved only for adults and is used to treat sinusitis, bronchitis and pneumonia. The company had been testing the drug as a treatment for ear infections and tonsillitis in nearly 4,000 infants and children in more than a dozen countries, including the United States.
Amsterdam Opens Clinic for Young Video Game Addicts
The Netherlands is opening Europe's first detox clinic for young video game addicts who've got too much game.
Keith Bakker, director of Amsterdam-based Smith & Jones Addiction Consultants, said video games look innocent enough but compulsive play is as addictive as gambling or taking drugs.
"We have kids who don't know how to communicate with people face-to-face because they've spent the last three years talking to somebody in Korea through a computer," Bakker told the Associated Press. "Their social network has completely disappeared."
The eight-week program will include counseling for gamers and introductions to alternative activities that don't need a mouse-click to enjoy.
A New Twist to the 'Sex and the Headache' Story
Wake Forest University medical researchers say that some headaches may pack more than just a wallop.
Reporting in an upcoming issue of Headache, the team say migraine-headache sufferers reported higher levels of sexual desire than those with other types of headaches.
The researchers said sexual desire and migraine headaches have been linked to levels of serotonin, a brain chemical that also plays a role in depression. An excess of serotonin may be associated with decreased libido, and migraine sufferers are reported to have low system levels of the brain chemical.
Federal regulators will begin requiring wholesalers to track who handles the pharmaceuticals they sell, to help combat a rise in counterfeit drugs entering the legitimate market.
The decision Friday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to take effect Dec. 2. In practice, the move could affect the distribution system for medicines, requiring distributors to provide factory-to-pharmacy documentation of the chain of custody of drug products -- its so-called "pedigree" -- throughout the distribution system.
The FDA believes that radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology is the most promising way to track drugs as they move through the supply chain. However, the agency said that it will hold off requiring drug manufacturers and distributors to use the technology, until more businesses adopt the electronic track-and-trace tags, the Associated Press reported Friday.
The FDA urges U.S. consumers to purchase drugs only from state-licensed U.S. pharmacies and to be alert to changes in packaging, labeling, color, taste, pill shape or unanticipated side effects. Before buying drugs over the Internet, consumers should look for the Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites (VIPPS) seal on the Web site.
Safety Group Cites Sharp Drop in Firefighter Deaths
The U.S. National Fire Protection Association said Friday that 87 on-duty firefighters died in the United States in 2005, the third lowest toll since the fire-safety group began tracking deaths almost 30 years ago. Sudden cardiac deaths remained the leading cause of fatalities.
For the third straight year, the group said, firefighters were more likely to die responding to or returning from alarms and not at the scene of a fire. Of 26 deaths occurring in transit for 2005, 13 were due to sudden cardiac death and 10 were due to vehicle collisions or rollovers.
Particularly distressing, the group noted, were 11 firefighter deaths that occurred during training activities. The safety organization is conducting a special analysis of 100 training fatalities that occurred between 1996 and 2005.
Factors contributing to the drop in fatalities included decreases in deaths associated with wildland fires and the number of firefighters struck and killed by vehicles, the group said in a statement. It has compiled fatality figures for firefighters since 1977.
Lawsuits Filed Over Lipitor Side Effects
Two men filed suit in New York State Supreme Court this week against Pfizer Inc., claiming the company didn't issue loud-enough warnings about the potential side effects of its popular anti-cholesterol drug Lipitor.
"It ruined my life," said Michael Mazzariello, a 47-year-old attorney from New York City and one of the plaintiffs. Mazzariello said he couldn't walk without a cane, tend his garden or lift his 1-year-old child.
A second lawsuit was filed by Charles M. Wilson, a former insurance executive from Atlanta, who claimed similar side effects made him ill.
The Associated Press reported Thursday that Mazzariello did manage to stand by himself at a news conference in Manhattan to say that the symptoms subsided once he stopped taking the drug, but that he still felt pain.
Pfizer has vowed to fight the lawsuits, calling them "baseless." A company spokesman said that all potential side effects of the drug are included on its labeling and that research has repeatedly shown that the drug is safe for a vast majority of users.
Lipitor, a type of statin used to lower cholesterol, is the top-selling medication in the world and brings in more than $12 billion a year for Pfizer.
Polio Outbreak in Namibia Puzzles WHO
An polio outbreak that has killed 7 people and paralyzed 33 more in the southern African nation of Namibia has left World Health Organization officials puzzled over its unusual course.
Polio normally attacks infants and young children, not adults, and Namibia had been free of the disease for a decade, The New York Times reported Friday. Vaccine stocks were low only enough for routine vaccination of infants and people were turned away when supplies ran out.
When new vaccine shipments arrive, the outbreak should be brought under control with relative ease, Dr. David L. Heymann, the WHO director general's representative for polio eradication, told the newspaper.
Namibia, home to 2 million people on Africa's southwest coast, has been headlines all week because of the recent birth there of Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, the daughter of actors Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Acccording to the Times, the baby was born in a coastal resort -- about 150 miles from the capital, Windhoek, where the polio outbreak occurred.
Drug Company Halts Enrollment of Children in Antibiotic Trial
The pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis has stopped enrolling children in clinical trials of an antibiotic that some reports said could cause liver failure in adults.
The drug maker said it halted tests on its own Thursday to ensure that trials of the antibiotic Ketek complied with U.S. Food and Drug Administration requirements, the Associated Press reported Friday.
On Thursday, The New York Times cited internal FDA memorandums that said some safety officials believed the company should remove Ketek from the market, severely restrict its use or add a prominent warning label about its potentially fatal side effects. The company denied the suspension was linked to the newspaper's report.
Ketek is currently approved only for adults and is used to treat sinusitis, bronchitis and pneumonia. The company had been testing the drug as a treatment for ear infections and tonsillitis in nearly 4,000 infants and children in more than a dozen countries, including the United States.
Amsterdam Opens Clinic for Young Video Game Addicts
The Netherlands is opening Europe's first detox clinic for young video game addicts who've got too much game.
Keith Bakker, director of Amsterdam-based Smith & Jones Addiction Consultants, said video games look innocent enough but compulsive play is as addictive as gambling or taking drugs.
"We have kids who don't know how to communicate with people face-to-face because they've spent the last three years talking to somebody in Korea through a computer," Bakker told the Associated Press. "Their social network has completely disappeared."
The eight-week program will include counseling for gamers and introductions to alternative activities that don't need a mouse-click to enjoy.
A New Twist to the 'Sex and the Headache' Story
Wake Forest University medical researchers say that some headaches may pack more than just a wallop.
Reporting in an upcoming issue of Headache, the team say migraine-headache sufferers reported higher levels of sexual desire than those with other types of headaches.
The researchers said sexual desire and migraine headaches have been linked to levels of serotonin, a brain chemical that also plays a role in depression. An excess of serotonin may be associated with decreased libido, and migraine sufferers are reported to have low system levels of the brain chemical.
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Health Headlines - June 8
Health Official Urged Halt of Kids' Antibiotic Trial
A U.S. Food and Drug Administration official last month called for a halt in clinical trials of an antibiotic for children because the drug could be deadly, according to internal memorandums from the agency.
The drug, Ketek, made by Sanofi-Aventis, is currently approved only for use in adults as a treatment for sinusitis, bronchitis and pneumonia. The company is testing the drug as treatment for ear infections and tonsillitis in almost 4,000 infants and children in more than a dozen countries, including the United States, The New York Times reported Thursday.
According to a recent review by FDA safety officials, there is growing evidence that Ketek is unusually toxic -- 12 adult patients in the United States have suffered liver failure, including four who died; 23 others suffered serious liver injury. Other antibiotics cause liver failure, but Ketek seems to do so almost four times as often, the officials concluded in the review, the newspaper reported.
"How does one justify balancing the risk of fatal liver failure against one day less of ear pain?" Dr. Rosemary Johann-Liang, an official in the FDA's Office of Drug Safety at the agency, wrote in one of the memorandums obtained by the Times. Other safety officials wrote in their review that the agency should consider forcing Sanofi-Aventis to withdraw Ketek from the market, severely restrict its uses, even in adults, or add a prominent warning to its label about potentially fatal side effects, the paper said.
FDA spokeswoman, Susan Bro, asked about the Johann-Liang memorandum, said that it was "a preliminary, raw assessment" and that "the final decision will be made by experts who have the full benefit of a large section of opinion and scientific fact."
Melissa Feltmann, a spokeswoman for Sanofi-Aventis, said the company was in discussions with the FDA about the drug.
Informed Consent Takes Back Seat in Public Crisis: FDA
Victims of a future terrorist attack or public health emergency would no longer have to give permission before experimental tests could be run to determine why they're sick, under a federal rule published Wednesday. Privacy experts immediately condemned the ruling as unnecessary and ripe for abuse.
The rule, issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, would allow health care workers to run experimental tests on blood and other samples taken from people who have fallen sick as a result of a bioterrorist attack, bird flu outbreak, detonation of a dirty bomb or any other life-threatening public health emergency, the Associated Press reported. In all other cases, the use of an experimental test still requires the informed consent of a patient, as well as the review and approval of an outside panel.
Dr. Deborah Peel, chairwoman of the Patient Privacy Rights Foundation, a watchdog group, told AP, "This sounds like they're taking for themselves the right to test individuals every time they declare a public health emergency. There is no way getting consent would delay testing."
The rule is subject to public comment until Aug. 7. The FDA said it published the rule without first seeking comments because it would hinder the response to an outbreak of bird flu or other public health emergency. The agency said the lack of such an exemption impeded the public health response to the SARS epidemic of 2003, AP reported.
Guidant Considered Warning Docs on Heart-Device Defects: Report
Guidant Corporation, which last year defended its decision not to tell physicians about significant heart-device defects, had drafted a "Dear Doctor" letter to disclose the hazards but decided not to send it, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
The proposed letter and other company records, released this week by a Texas state judge, may have significant legal and financial consequences. Since last fall, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Food and Drug Administration have been conducting an inquiry into Guidant's handling of safety issues affecting several now-recalled defibrillators.
A spokeswoman for the United States attorney's office in Minneapolis that's heading the federal inquiry declined to comment on the investigation, according to the paper's report.
At least seven patients are known to have died in episodes in which Guidant defibrillators failed to work because of an electrical defect. But many experts believe that the number is probably higher because implanted heart devices are rarely examined after a patient's death to see if they were working properly, the newspaper said.
A defibrillator is an implanted device that senses potentially fatal heart rhythms and corrects them with a timed electrical shock to restore a normal heartbeat.
FDA Stands Behind Fish Advisory
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is reassuring consumers that its 2004 advisory about what Americans need to know about eating fish remains current, despite fears of mercury contamination in the catch.
In a prepared statement, the agency repeated its advisory recommendations that "fish and shellfish are an important part of a healthy diet and can contribute to heart health and children's proper growth and development. Because of their many healthy benefits we recommend that women and young children include them as a regular part of their diet. However, nearly all fish and shellfish contain traces of mercury."
The agency also repeated that five of the most commonly eaten fish -- shrimp, canned light tuna, salmon, pollock and catfish -- have low levels of mercury.
Consumer Reports on Tuesday had warned that pregnant women should not eat canned tuna, because a small percentage contains levels of methyl mercury as high as fish that the FDA said pregnant women should never eat -- shark, swordfish, King Mackerel, or tilefish., according to a report in USA Today.
The FDA said that although some canned tuna may contain higher mercury levels, others are lower, and that scientists took averages into account in the recommendations.
Health experts agree that eating fish is good for most people. But there are concerns that mercury and other pollutants can offset the benefits.
Angolan Cholera Death Toll Tops 1,500
A cholera outbreak in Angola has claimed 1,576 lives since February, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, with 250-300 infections still being reported daily.
The African country, whose health and public infrastructure was torn apart in a 20-year civil war that ended in 2002, reported a total of 41,475 cases in 13 of its 18 provinces as of May 31, according to the Associated Press.
The overall fatality rate stood at 3.8 percent -- above the 1 percent the WHO considers average, the report said. It's estimated that a quarter of the 4 million Angolans in the capital of Luanda live in shantytowns.
Cholera, which can be treated easily but is a major killer in developing countries, is transmitted through contaminated water. It is linked to poor hygiene, overcrowding and inadequate sanitation.
A U.S. Food and Drug Administration official last month called for a halt in clinical trials of an antibiotic for children because the drug could be deadly, according to internal memorandums from the agency.
The drug, Ketek, made by Sanofi-Aventis, is currently approved only for use in adults as a treatment for sinusitis, bronchitis and pneumonia. The company is testing the drug as treatment for ear infections and tonsillitis in almost 4,000 infants and children in more than a dozen countries, including the United States, The New York Times reported Thursday.
According to a recent review by FDA safety officials, there is growing evidence that Ketek is unusually toxic -- 12 adult patients in the United States have suffered liver failure, including four who died; 23 others suffered serious liver injury. Other antibiotics cause liver failure, but Ketek seems to do so almost four times as often, the officials concluded in the review, the newspaper reported.
"How does one justify balancing the risk of fatal liver failure against one day less of ear pain?" Dr. Rosemary Johann-Liang, an official in the FDA's Office of Drug Safety at the agency, wrote in one of the memorandums obtained by the Times. Other safety officials wrote in their review that the agency should consider forcing Sanofi-Aventis to withdraw Ketek from the market, severely restrict its uses, even in adults, or add a prominent warning to its label about potentially fatal side effects, the paper said.
FDA spokeswoman, Susan Bro, asked about the Johann-Liang memorandum, said that it was "a preliminary, raw assessment" and that "the final decision will be made by experts who have the full benefit of a large section of opinion and scientific fact."
Melissa Feltmann, a spokeswoman for Sanofi-Aventis, said the company was in discussions with the FDA about the drug.
Informed Consent Takes Back Seat in Public Crisis: FDA
Victims of a future terrorist attack or public health emergency would no longer have to give permission before experimental tests could be run to determine why they're sick, under a federal rule published Wednesday. Privacy experts immediately condemned the ruling as unnecessary and ripe for abuse.
The rule, issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, would allow health care workers to run experimental tests on blood and other samples taken from people who have fallen sick as a result of a bioterrorist attack, bird flu outbreak, detonation of a dirty bomb or any other life-threatening public health emergency, the Associated Press reported. In all other cases, the use of an experimental test still requires the informed consent of a patient, as well as the review and approval of an outside panel.
Dr. Deborah Peel, chairwoman of the Patient Privacy Rights Foundation, a watchdog group, told AP, "This sounds like they're taking for themselves the right to test individuals every time they declare a public health emergency. There is no way getting consent would delay testing."
The rule is subject to public comment until Aug. 7. The FDA said it published the rule without first seeking comments because it would hinder the response to an outbreak of bird flu or other public health emergency. The agency said the lack of such an exemption impeded the public health response to the SARS epidemic of 2003, AP reported.
Guidant Considered Warning Docs on Heart-Device Defects: Report
Guidant Corporation, which last year defended its decision not to tell physicians about significant heart-device defects, had drafted a "Dear Doctor" letter to disclose the hazards but decided not to send it, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
The proposed letter and other company records, released this week by a Texas state judge, may have significant legal and financial consequences. Since last fall, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Food and Drug Administration have been conducting an inquiry into Guidant's handling of safety issues affecting several now-recalled defibrillators.
A spokeswoman for the United States attorney's office in Minneapolis that's heading the federal inquiry declined to comment on the investigation, according to the paper's report.
At least seven patients are known to have died in episodes in which Guidant defibrillators failed to work because of an electrical defect. But many experts believe that the number is probably higher because implanted heart devices are rarely examined after a patient's death to see if they were working properly, the newspaper said.
A defibrillator is an implanted device that senses potentially fatal heart rhythms and corrects them with a timed electrical shock to restore a normal heartbeat.
FDA Stands Behind Fish Advisory
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is reassuring consumers that its 2004 advisory about what Americans need to know about eating fish remains current, despite fears of mercury contamination in the catch.
In a prepared statement, the agency repeated its advisory recommendations that "fish and shellfish are an important part of a healthy diet and can contribute to heart health and children's proper growth and development. Because of their many healthy benefits we recommend that women and young children include them as a regular part of their diet. However, nearly all fish and shellfish contain traces of mercury."
The agency also repeated that five of the most commonly eaten fish -- shrimp, canned light tuna, salmon, pollock and catfish -- have low levels of mercury.
Consumer Reports on Tuesday had warned that pregnant women should not eat canned tuna, because a small percentage contains levels of methyl mercury as high as fish that the FDA said pregnant women should never eat -- shark, swordfish, King Mackerel, or tilefish., according to a report in USA Today.
The FDA said that although some canned tuna may contain higher mercury levels, others are lower, and that scientists took averages into account in the recommendations.
Health experts agree that eating fish is good for most people. But there are concerns that mercury and other pollutants can offset the benefits.
Angolan Cholera Death Toll Tops 1,500
A cholera outbreak in Angola has claimed 1,576 lives since February, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, with 250-300 infections still being reported daily.
The African country, whose health and public infrastructure was torn apart in a 20-year civil war that ended in 2002, reported a total of 41,475 cases in 13 of its 18 provinces as of May 31, according to the Associated Press.
The overall fatality rate stood at 3.8 percent -- above the 1 percent the WHO considers average, the report said. It's estimated that a quarter of the 4 million Angolans in the capital of Luanda live in shantytowns.
Cholera, which can be treated easily but is a major killer in developing countries, is transmitted through contaminated water. It is linked to poor hygiene, overcrowding and inadequate sanitation.
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Old Wives' Tales
Old wives' tales are perhaps as old as language itself. They're part of our oral tradition, originating long before pen and ink, books and movies, and certainly before the Internet. Why do we cling to such tales about common ailments and our health when we live in a world rich with medical expertise and proven treatments and cures?
Some probably have survived through the ages because they offer comforting advice about experiences we all share, have little control over, and usually worry about, such as birth and sickness.
Many old wives' tales, especially those surrounding pregnancy and childbirth, have been proven false or ineffective by advances in medicine and technology. One example is the use of prenatal ultrasound to detect the sex of a fetus instead of dangling a ring suspended on a string over the expectant woman's belly. According to the tale, if the ring swings from side to side, it's a girl, and if it swings in a circle, it's a boy. An ultrasound reading may not be as much fun, but the test results are certainly more accurate.
Some old wives' tales about health and sickness have some basis in fact, whereas other, newer ones seem to reflect a kind of technophobia, such as those related to watching television. Some old wives' tales are true, most are harmless - and at least one described here is dangerous.
Tales About Pregnancy
If the fetal heart rate is under 140 beats per minute (BPM), it's a boy.
False. A baby girl's heart rate is usually faster than a boy's, but only after the onset of labor. There's no difference between fetal heart rates for boys and girls, but the rate does vary with the age of the fetus. By approximately the fifth week of pregnancy, the fetal heart rate is near the mother's - around 80 to 85 BPM. It continues to accelerate until early in the ninth week, when it reaches 170 to 200 BPM and then decelerates to an average of 120 to 160 BPM by the middle of the pregnancy. Normal fetal heart rate during labor ranges from 120 to 160 BPM for boys and girls.
Extra weight out front means a girl; weight around the hips and bottom indicates a boy.
False. If a woman has a short torso, there's no place for the baby to grow but out. A long torso may mean roomier accommodations for a baby, making it less likely for a woman's belly to bulge outward. And a wide belly may just mean that the baby is sideways.
If a woman's carrying low, it's a boy; if a woman's carrying high, it's a girl.
False. If a woman's carrying high, this may be her first pregnancy or her body's in good shape. Stomach muscles have a tendency to become more elastic with each pregnancy, so a belly that's seen more than one pregnancy may hang a little low.
Dark nipples indicate a boy.
False. This color change has nothing to do with the sex of the child - an increase in progesterone (a steroid hormone secreted by the placenta and ovaries) and the melanocyte-stimulating hormone (which regulates skin pigmentation) causes dark areas of the body to become more pronounced in most pregnant women. Nipples, birthmarks, moles, or beauty marks may appear darker during pregnancy. A dark line also may appear down the middle of the belly. Called the linea nigra (black line), it runs from above the navel to the pubic area. Darkened areas usually fade soon after childbirth.
Don't breastfeed a toddler during pregnancy because the new baby needs all the nourishment it can get.
False. If a woman is healthy, breastfeeding during pregnancy won't harm her, the fetus, or her toddler. (A doctor may recommend that a pregnant woman not breastfeed, though, if she has a nutritional deficiency, is underweight, or is at risk for pre-term labor.)
Tales About Caring for Babies and Toddlers
Wearing shoes will help a baby learn to walk sooner.
False. Just the opposite is true in this case. Keeping a baby barefoot can help strengthen his or her foot muscles and help the child learn to walk earlier. Once a toddler is walking, though, he or she needs comfortable shoes that fit well - they shouldn't be rigid. Shoes should conform to the shape of a child's feet and provide a little extra room for growth.
An infant walker will help a baby learn to walk sooner.
False. Babies who spend their active hours in walkers may learn to sit, crawl, and walk later than children who have to learn these skills on their own if they want to get around. Sitting in an infant walker, with its wide tray and small leg openings, blocks the visual feedback so important to a baby learning about muscle coordination. More significantly, baby walkers are dangerous. Nearly 14,000 injuries are treated in emergency rooms every year as a result of walkers. And thirty-four children have died since 1973 because of baby walkers. Stairway falls in walkers can be especially severe. In a policy statement, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended a ban on the manufacture and sale of mobile infant walkers in the United States.
Cats can steal the air from a baby's mouth.
False. This tale goes back hundreds of years to a time when cats were associated with witchcraft and evil spirits. Cat-lovers, rest easy - it's anatomically impossible for a cat or other animal to suffocate a baby by sealing the baby's mouth with its own. Even so, cats and other pets should be supervised around small children and introduced to a baby gradually. You should also keep cats (just as you should keep other items, like blankets and plush toys) out of your baby's crib or bassinet.
Tales About Foods and Drinks
Feed a cold, starve a fever.
False. Both high fevers and colds can cause fluid loss. Drinking plenty of liquids such as water, fruit juice, and vegetable juice can help prevent dehydration. And with both fevers and colds, it's fine to eat regular meals - missing nutrients may only make a person sicker.
Wait an hour after eating before swimming.
False. According to the American Red Cross, it's usually not necessary for you or your child to wait an hour before going in the water. However, it is recommended that you wait until digestion has begun, especially if you've had a big fatty meal and you plan to swim strenuously. The Red Cross also advises against chewing gum or eating while in the water, both of which could cause choking.
Coffee stunts your growth.
False. Coffee won't affect a child's growth, but too much caffeine doesn't belong in a child's diet. Excess caffeine can prevent the absorption of calcium and other nutrients.
Fish is brain food.
True. Fish is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids that have been found to be very important for brain function. Certain fish, however, have significant levels of mercury. Therefore, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), suggests that pregnant women and women of child bearing age decrease their exposure to mercury by either avoiding eating swordfish, shark, and tuna, or limiting their consumption to these fish to once per month.
Chocolate causes acne.
True ... and false. Studies show that no specific food has been proven to cause acne. However, some people may notice their breakouts are worse after eating certain foods - and these foods are different depending on the person. For example, some people may notice breakouts after eating chocolate, while others are fine with chocolate but notice they get breakouts after drinking too much coffee. If that's the case for your child, it may help to have him or her cut back on that food and see if it makes a difference.
Spicy foods can cause ulcers.
False. Spicy foods may aggravate ulcer symptoms in some people, but they don't bring about ulcers. A bacterial infection or overuse of pain medications such as aspirin or anti-inflammatory drugs is the usual cause.
Eating carrots will improve your eyesight.
False. This tale may have started during World War II, when British intelligence spread a rumor that their pilots had remarkable night vision because they ate lots of carrots. They didn't want the Germans to know they were using radar. Carrots - and many other vegetables high in vitamin A - do help maintain healthy eyesight, but eating more than the recommended daily allowance won't improve vision.
Tales About Health and Medical Conditions
If you go outside with wet hair, you'll catch a cold.
False. Cold weather, wet hair, and chills don't cause colds. Viruses do. People tend to catch colds more often in the winter because these viruses are spread more easily indoors, where there may be more contact with dry air and people with colds. Dry air - indoors or out - can lower a person's resistance to infection.
Reading in dim light will damage your eyes.
False. Although reading in a dimly lit room won't do any harm, good lighting can help prevent eye fatigue and make reading easier.
Too much TV is bad for your eyes.
False. Watching television won't hurt your eyes (no matter how close to the TV you sit), although too much TV can be a bad idea for kids. Research shows that children who consistently spend more than 10 hours a week watching TV are more likely to be overweight, aggressive, and slower to learn in school.
If you cross your eyes, they'll stay that way.
False. Only about 4% of the children in the United States have strabismus, a disorder in which the eyes are misaligned, giving the appearance that they're looking in different directions. Eye crossing does not lead to strabismus.
Thumb sucking causes buck teeth.
True ... and false. Thumb sucking often begins before birth and generally continues until age 5. If a child stops around the ages of 4 to 5, no harm will be done to his or her jaws and teeth. However, parents should discourage thumb sucking after the age of 4, when the gums, jaw, and permanent teeth begin their most significant growth. It is, therefore, after this age that there is a possibility that thumb, finger, or pacifier sucking will contribute to buck teeth.
Cracking knuckles causes arthritis.
False. However, habitual knuckle cracking tends to cause hand swelling, decreased grip strength, and can result in functional hand impairment.
Too much loud noise can cause hearing loss.
True. Just 15 minutes of listening to loud, pounding music; machinery; or other noises can cause temporary loss of hearing and tinnitus, a ringing in the ears. Loud noise causes the eardrum to vibrate excessively and can damage the tiny hairs in the cochlea, a cone-shaped tube in the inner ear that converts sound into electrical signals for the brain to process. Although temporary hearing loss usually disappears within a day or 2, continuous exposure to extreme noise can result in permanent hearing loss. For example, if a child is wearing headphones - and those around him or her can hear the music - the volume is too high.
Some probably have survived through the ages because they offer comforting advice about experiences we all share, have little control over, and usually worry about, such as birth and sickness.
Many old wives' tales, especially those surrounding pregnancy and childbirth, have been proven false or ineffective by advances in medicine and technology. One example is the use of prenatal ultrasound to detect the sex of a fetus instead of dangling a ring suspended on a string over the expectant woman's belly. According to the tale, if the ring swings from side to side, it's a girl, and if it swings in a circle, it's a boy. An ultrasound reading may not be as much fun, but the test results are certainly more accurate.
Some old wives' tales about health and sickness have some basis in fact, whereas other, newer ones seem to reflect a kind of technophobia, such as those related to watching television. Some old wives' tales are true, most are harmless - and at least one described here is dangerous.
Tales About Pregnancy
If the fetal heart rate is under 140 beats per minute (BPM), it's a boy.
False. A baby girl's heart rate is usually faster than a boy's, but only after the onset of labor. There's no difference between fetal heart rates for boys and girls, but the rate does vary with the age of the fetus. By approximately the fifth week of pregnancy, the fetal heart rate is near the mother's - around 80 to 85 BPM. It continues to accelerate until early in the ninth week, when it reaches 170 to 200 BPM and then decelerates to an average of 120 to 160 BPM by the middle of the pregnancy. Normal fetal heart rate during labor ranges from 120 to 160 BPM for boys and girls.
Extra weight out front means a girl; weight around the hips and bottom indicates a boy.
False. If a woman has a short torso, there's no place for the baby to grow but out. A long torso may mean roomier accommodations for a baby, making it less likely for a woman's belly to bulge outward. And a wide belly may just mean that the baby is sideways.
If a woman's carrying low, it's a boy; if a woman's carrying high, it's a girl.
False. If a woman's carrying high, this may be her first pregnancy or her body's in good shape. Stomach muscles have a tendency to become more elastic with each pregnancy, so a belly that's seen more than one pregnancy may hang a little low.
Dark nipples indicate a boy.
False. This color change has nothing to do with the sex of the child - an increase in progesterone (a steroid hormone secreted by the placenta and ovaries) and the melanocyte-stimulating hormone (which regulates skin pigmentation) causes dark areas of the body to become more pronounced in most pregnant women. Nipples, birthmarks, moles, or beauty marks may appear darker during pregnancy. A dark line also may appear down the middle of the belly. Called the linea nigra (black line), it runs from above the navel to the pubic area. Darkened areas usually fade soon after childbirth.
Don't breastfeed a toddler during pregnancy because the new baby needs all the nourishment it can get.
False. If a woman is healthy, breastfeeding during pregnancy won't harm her, the fetus, or her toddler. (A doctor may recommend that a pregnant woman not breastfeed, though, if she has a nutritional deficiency, is underweight, or is at risk for pre-term labor.)
Tales About Caring for Babies and Toddlers
Wearing shoes will help a baby learn to walk sooner.
False. Just the opposite is true in this case. Keeping a baby barefoot can help strengthen his or her foot muscles and help the child learn to walk earlier. Once a toddler is walking, though, he or she needs comfortable shoes that fit well - they shouldn't be rigid. Shoes should conform to the shape of a child's feet and provide a little extra room for growth.
An infant walker will help a baby learn to walk sooner.
False. Babies who spend their active hours in walkers may learn to sit, crawl, and walk later than children who have to learn these skills on their own if they want to get around. Sitting in an infant walker, with its wide tray and small leg openings, blocks the visual feedback so important to a baby learning about muscle coordination. More significantly, baby walkers are dangerous. Nearly 14,000 injuries are treated in emergency rooms every year as a result of walkers. And thirty-four children have died since 1973 because of baby walkers. Stairway falls in walkers can be especially severe. In a policy statement, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended a ban on the manufacture and sale of mobile infant walkers in the United States.
Cats can steal the air from a baby's mouth.
False. This tale goes back hundreds of years to a time when cats were associated with witchcraft and evil spirits. Cat-lovers, rest easy - it's anatomically impossible for a cat or other animal to suffocate a baby by sealing the baby's mouth with its own. Even so, cats and other pets should be supervised around small children and introduced to a baby gradually. You should also keep cats (just as you should keep other items, like blankets and plush toys) out of your baby's crib or bassinet.
Tales About Foods and Drinks
Feed a cold, starve a fever.
False. Both high fevers and colds can cause fluid loss. Drinking plenty of liquids such as water, fruit juice, and vegetable juice can help prevent dehydration. And with both fevers and colds, it's fine to eat regular meals - missing nutrients may only make a person sicker.
Wait an hour after eating before swimming.
False. According to the American Red Cross, it's usually not necessary for you or your child to wait an hour before going in the water. However, it is recommended that you wait until digestion has begun, especially if you've had a big fatty meal and you plan to swim strenuously. The Red Cross also advises against chewing gum or eating while in the water, both of which could cause choking.
Coffee stunts your growth.
False. Coffee won't affect a child's growth, but too much caffeine doesn't belong in a child's diet. Excess caffeine can prevent the absorption of calcium and other nutrients.
Fish is brain food.
True. Fish is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids that have been found to be very important for brain function. Certain fish, however, have significant levels of mercury. Therefore, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), suggests that pregnant women and women of child bearing age decrease their exposure to mercury by either avoiding eating swordfish, shark, and tuna, or limiting their consumption to these fish to once per month.
Chocolate causes acne.
True ... and false. Studies show that no specific food has been proven to cause acne. However, some people may notice their breakouts are worse after eating certain foods - and these foods are different depending on the person. For example, some people may notice breakouts after eating chocolate, while others are fine with chocolate but notice they get breakouts after drinking too much coffee. If that's the case for your child, it may help to have him or her cut back on that food and see if it makes a difference.
Spicy foods can cause ulcers.
False. Spicy foods may aggravate ulcer symptoms in some people, but they don't bring about ulcers. A bacterial infection or overuse of pain medications such as aspirin or anti-inflammatory drugs is the usual cause.
Eating carrots will improve your eyesight.
False. This tale may have started during World War II, when British intelligence spread a rumor that their pilots had remarkable night vision because they ate lots of carrots. They didn't want the Germans to know they were using radar. Carrots - and many other vegetables high in vitamin A - do help maintain healthy eyesight, but eating more than the recommended daily allowance won't improve vision.
Tales About Health and Medical Conditions
If you go outside with wet hair, you'll catch a cold.
False. Cold weather, wet hair, and chills don't cause colds. Viruses do. People tend to catch colds more often in the winter because these viruses are spread more easily indoors, where there may be more contact with dry air and people with colds. Dry air - indoors or out - can lower a person's resistance to infection.
Reading in dim light will damage your eyes.
False. Although reading in a dimly lit room won't do any harm, good lighting can help prevent eye fatigue and make reading easier.
Too much TV is bad for your eyes.
False. Watching television won't hurt your eyes (no matter how close to the TV you sit), although too much TV can be a bad idea for kids. Research shows that children who consistently spend more than 10 hours a week watching TV are more likely to be overweight, aggressive, and slower to learn in school.
If you cross your eyes, they'll stay that way.
False. Only about 4% of the children in the United States have strabismus, a disorder in which the eyes are misaligned, giving the appearance that they're looking in different directions. Eye crossing does not lead to strabismus.
Thumb sucking causes buck teeth.
True ... and false. Thumb sucking often begins before birth and generally continues until age 5. If a child stops around the ages of 4 to 5, no harm will be done to his or her jaws and teeth. However, parents should discourage thumb sucking after the age of 4, when the gums, jaw, and permanent teeth begin their most significant growth. It is, therefore, after this age that there is a possibility that thumb, finger, or pacifier sucking will contribute to buck teeth.
Cracking knuckles causes arthritis.
False. However, habitual knuckle cracking tends to cause hand swelling, decreased grip strength, and can result in functional hand impairment.
Too much loud noise can cause hearing loss.
True. Just 15 minutes of listening to loud, pounding music; machinery; or other noises can cause temporary loss of hearing and tinnitus, a ringing in the ears. Loud noise causes the eardrum to vibrate excessively and can damage the tiny hairs in the cochlea, a cone-shaped tube in the inner ear that converts sound into electrical signals for the brain to process. Although temporary hearing loss usually disappears within a day or 2, continuous exposure to extreme noise can result in permanent hearing loss. For example, if a child is wearing headphones - and those around him or her can hear the music - the volume is too high.
Health Headlines - June 7
Female Hormone May Prevent Type 1 Diabetes
New animal research suggests that a naturally produced estrogen hormone known as estradiol might help protect against diabetes by preventing the death of pancreatic cells critical to the production of insulin.
The findings are based on work with mice and have not yet been tried in a human trial.
"This is the first study that shows that the female hormone estrodial is important to ensuring pancreatic beta-cell survival in both females and males," said study co-author Dr. Franck Mauvais-Jarvis. He is an assistant professor with the department of molecular and cellular biology and the department of medicine in the division of diabetes, endocrinology & metabolism at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
Almost 21 million Americans are currently living with diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association.
Most people with diabetes have what's known as the type 2 form of the disease, which results from the body's inability to properly use the naturally produced hormone insulin to regulate blood sugar levels by processing sugars into energy.
However, between 5 percent and 10 percent of diabetics have a version of the disease known as type 1 diabetes, in which the body doesn't produce any insulin.
Focusing on type 1 diabetes, Mauvais-Jarvis and his colleagues noted that the body's inability to produce insulin is driven by the death of insulin-producing pancreatic beta-cells.
In an attempt to isolate estradiol's potential impact on pancreatic beta-cell destruction, the researchers worked with both male and female mice that were either unable to produce estradiol, lacked an estrogen receptor needed for normal estradiol functioning, or were given a compound that prevented the estrogen receptors from working.
Reporting in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers said that both genders of mice experienced severe beta-cell death while demonstrating dramatically lower-than-normal levels of insulin production -- leading to the onset of type 1 diabetes.
However, Mauvais-Jarvis and his team found that after administering targeted doses of estradiol, the pancreatic beta-cells were "rescued" from death, insulin production resumed, and diabetes was averted.
The researchers concluded that -- at least in mice -- estradiol appears to offer protection against the chain of events that lead to type 1 diabetes.
Mauvais-Jarvis was cautiously optimistic that the work with mice might one day translate into a benefit for humans at risk for diabetes.
"One has to be cautious, because this study has been performed in mice, and although the mouse is the best available model to study human diseases, mice are not humans," he said.
Still, Mauvais-Jarvis said the study indicates that estradiol may offer a new clinical route for the prevention of diabetes in women and men.
"That's a novel paradigm," he said. "Thirty years ago, it was believed that sex hormones were involved only in reproduction and sexual behavior. But in the last 10 years, there has been a kind of challenge to this concept, and we have discovered novel functions regarding estrodial -- such as the prevention of beta-cell death -- that have been revealed to be true for both sexes."
Mauvais-Jarvis stressed, however, that offering patients estrogen-replacement therapy wasn't an option, given recent findings that such treatment appears to elevate the risk of breast cancer in women.
Rather, he suggested that "the future is try to dissect the good and the bad uses of estrodial," in an effort to develop medicines that could prevent beta-cell deaths and diabetes without harmful side effects.
Dr. Robert Rizza, a professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic, and president of the American Diabetes Association, called the new findings "intriguing."
"There have been various studies that have shown that estrogen may lower the risk for developing diabetes, and this study shows why this might be the case," he sad. "This could be a mechanism."
"It may or may not be true for humans," Rizza added. "But it will teach us more about how estrogen works. And if it turns out to be the case, this could be used for other novel therapies to prevent diabetes."
Biggest Specialty Drug Spending Increase Found With Anti-Inflammatories
Americans spent 33.9 percent more in 2005 on anti-inflammatories -- the biggest percentage increase in any specialty drug category, a new U.S. report finds.
Drugs used to treat anti-inflammatory diseases -- such as rheumatoid arthritis -- include the injectable brands Enbrel, Humira, Kineret and Remicade. These drugs have an average cost of $1,417 per prescription and comprise more than 19 percent of the yearly total that most patients are allowed to spend on a specialty drug in a drug benefit plan.
The biggest reason for this dramatic increase in spending for these drugs? According to the 2006 Express Scripts Specialty Drug Trend Report, treatments for inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis are beginning earlier in a patient's life and lasting longer. Additional uses for medications -- such as Enbrel being used to treat psoriasis -- are also causing more patients to use these drugs.
Costs seem to be somewhat controlled with a reported increase in specialty pharmacy usage -- up 77 percent in 2005. Home prescription deliveries decreased by 30 percent, while local pharmacy pickups decreased by 2 percent.
"Enhanced patient-care models and management programs offered by specialty pharmacies encourage therapy adherence, helping to improve outcomes while reducing overall treatment costs," Dr. Steve Miller, chief medical officer of Express Script's CuraScript, said in a prepared statement.
Other statistics noted in the report:
After anti-inflammatories, the class of drugs used to treat multiple sclerosis experienced the next largest increase, at 11.7 percent per prescription.
Inflation pushed anti-cancer drugs to an average of almost $1,600 per prescription, and drugs for treating anemia saw a 6 percent increase in spending.
Technology advancements in tests and screenings drove the use of growth hormone replacement drugs to increase by 10 percent.
Anticoagulant usage increased 21.4 percent -- but future generic alternatives to some expensive brands in this category could help curtail these costs.
Reduced utilization caused a decrease in spending for infertility drugs by 3.9 percent, and specialty antiviral drugs saw a decrease of 6.7 percent.
Health Tip: Be Careful About Herbal Supplements
The makers of herbal supplements say they can treat or prevent a host of conditions and symptoms, including arthritis, headaches and colds. But you should do your homework when selecting herbal supplements for what ails you, the American Academy of Family Physicians warns.
Although herbal supplements may contain natural ingredients, the AAFP says some of these products also contain potential allergens and chemicals that can make you sick -- and they aren't necessarily listed on the product's label.
Certain people should be especially careful about taking herbal supplements, including those with diabetes, high blood pressure, epilepsy, blood clotting problems, Parkinson's, heart disease, liver or thyroid problems. People with psychiatric conditions or conditions of the immune system also should be particularly cautious, the academy warns.
Health Tip: Bad Breath Isn't Always a Harmless Problem
Although halitosis (bad breath) usually is nothing more than a harmless reflection of what you've eaten, sometimes it's a sign of a serious dental or medical condition, the American Dental Association says.
Halitosis could indicate chronic bronchitis or sinusitis, postnasal drip, gastrointestinal illness, and liver or kidney disease, the ADA warns.
If watching the foods you eat and brushing and flossing regularly do not control halitosis, the ADA recommends talking to your dentist about any other conditions that may be responsible, including periodontal disease. If your dentist doesn't find a cause, you should talk with your doctor.
Health Tip: Scleroderma Characterized by Hardening of the Skin
Scleroderma, an autoimmune disorder whose primary symptom is hardening of the skin, affects up to four times as many women than men. It also tends to strike people between ages 25 and 55, although it can occur at any age.
The cause of scleroderma is unknown, says the Scleroderma Foundation. The severity of the disease depends on which body parts are affected, and how early and appropriately the condition is treated.
Treatments often are directed at individual symptoms, including gastrointestinal problems, joint pain and high blood pressure.
Scleroderma, affecting about 300,000 people in the United States, isn't infectious, contagious or cancerous, the foundation says.
Health Tip: What to Expect After LASIK
If you're considering LASIK eye surgery, you may be wondering how quickly you'll see the results.
The Eye Surgery Education Council says that although many patients see improved vision immediately or the day after surgery, the full improvement may not be seen for up to a few months.
Side effects -- including dry eyes, blurry vision and reduced night vision -- are not uncommon and are usually temporary after LASIK surgery. Most of these symptoms clear up on their own. If they don't, the eye council recommends talking to your doctor.
New animal research suggests that a naturally produced estrogen hormone known as estradiol might help protect against diabetes by preventing the death of pancreatic cells critical to the production of insulin.
The findings are based on work with mice and have not yet been tried in a human trial.
"This is the first study that shows that the female hormone estrodial is important to ensuring pancreatic beta-cell survival in both females and males," said study co-author Dr. Franck Mauvais-Jarvis. He is an assistant professor with the department of molecular and cellular biology and the department of medicine in the division of diabetes, endocrinology & metabolism at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
Almost 21 million Americans are currently living with diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association.
Most people with diabetes have what's known as the type 2 form of the disease, which results from the body's inability to properly use the naturally produced hormone insulin to regulate blood sugar levels by processing sugars into energy.
However, between 5 percent and 10 percent of diabetics have a version of the disease known as type 1 diabetes, in which the body doesn't produce any insulin.
Focusing on type 1 diabetes, Mauvais-Jarvis and his colleagues noted that the body's inability to produce insulin is driven by the death of insulin-producing pancreatic beta-cells.
In an attempt to isolate estradiol's potential impact on pancreatic beta-cell destruction, the researchers worked with both male and female mice that were either unable to produce estradiol, lacked an estrogen receptor needed for normal estradiol functioning, or were given a compound that prevented the estrogen receptors from working.
Reporting in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers said that both genders of mice experienced severe beta-cell death while demonstrating dramatically lower-than-normal levels of insulin production -- leading to the onset of type 1 diabetes.
However, Mauvais-Jarvis and his team found that after administering targeted doses of estradiol, the pancreatic beta-cells were "rescued" from death, insulin production resumed, and diabetes was averted.
The researchers concluded that -- at least in mice -- estradiol appears to offer protection against the chain of events that lead to type 1 diabetes.
Mauvais-Jarvis was cautiously optimistic that the work with mice might one day translate into a benefit for humans at risk for diabetes.
"One has to be cautious, because this study has been performed in mice, and although the mouse is the best available model to study human diseases, mice are not humans," he said.
Still, Mauvais-Jarvis said the study indicates that estradiol may offer a new clinical route for the prevention of diabetes in women and men.
"That's a novel paradigm," he said. "Thirty years ago, it was believed that sex hormones were involved only in reproduction and sexual behavior. But in the last 10 years, there has been a kind of challenge to this concept, and we have discovered novel functions regarding estrodial -- such as the prevention of beta-cell death -- that have been revealed to be true for both sexes."
Mauvais-Jarvis stressed, however, that offering patients estrogen-replacement therapy wasn't an option, given recent findings that such treatment appears to elevate the risk of breast cancer in women.
Rather, he suggested that "the future is try to dissect the good and the bad uses of estrodial," in an effort to develop medicines that could prevent beta-cell deaths and diabetes without harmful side effects.
Dr. Robert Rizza, a professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic, and president of the American Diabetes Association, called the new findings "intriguing."
"There have been various studies that have shown that estrogen may lower the risk for developing diabetes, and this study shows why this might be the case," he sad. "This could be a mechanism."
"It may or may not be true for humans," Rizza added. "But it will teach us more about how estrogen works. And if it turns out to be the case, this could be used for other novel therapies to prevent diabetes."
Biggest Specialty Drug Spending Increase Found With Anti-Inflammatories
Americans spent 33.9 percent more in 2005 on anti-inflammatories -- the biggest percentage increase in any specialty drug category, a new U.S. report finds.
Drugs used to treat anti-inflammatory diseases -- such as rheumatoid arthritis -- include the injectable brands Enbrel, Humira, Kineret and Remicade. These drugs have an average cost of $1,417 per prescription and comprise more than 19 percent of the yearly total that most patients are allowed to spend on a specialty drug in a drug benefit plan.
The biggest reason for this dramatic increase in spending for these drugs? According to the 2006 Express Scripts Specialty Drug Trend Report, treatments for inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis are beginning earlier in a patient's life and lasting longer. Additional uses for medications -- such as Enbrel being used to treat psoriasis -- are also causing more patients to use these drugs.
Costs seem to be somewhat controlled with a reported increase in specialty pharmacy usage -- up 77 percent in 2005. Home prescription deliveries decreased by 30 percent, while local pharmacy pickups decreased by 2 percent.
"Enhanced patient-care models and management programs offered by specialty pharmacies encourage therapy adherence, helping to improve outcomes while reducing overall treatment costs," Dr. Steve Miller, chief medical officer of Express Script's CuraScript, said in a prepared statement.
Other statistics noted in the report:
After anti-inflammatories, the class of drugs used to treat multiple sclerosis experienced the next largest increase, at 11.7 percent per prescription.
Inflation pushed anti-cancer drugs to an average of almost $1,600 per prescription, and drugs for treating anemia saw a 6 percent increase in spending.
Technology advancements in tests and screenings drove the use of growth hormone replacement drugs to increase by 10 percent.
Anticoagulant usage increased 21.4 percent -- but future generic alternatives to some expensive brands in this category could help curtail these costs.
Reduced utilization caused a decrease in spending for infertility drugs by 3.9 percent, and specialty antiviral drugs saw a decrease of 6.7 percent.
Health Tip: Be Careful About Herbal Supplements
The makers of herbal supplements say they can treat or prevent a host of conditions and symptoms, including arthritis, headaches and colds. But you should do your homework when selecting herbal supplements for what ails you, the American Academy of Family Physicians warns.
Although herbal supplements may contain natural ingredients, the AAFP says some of these products also contain potential allergens and chemicals that can make you sick -- and they aren't necessarily listed on the product's label.
Certain people should be especially careful about taking herbal supplements, including those with diabetes, high blood pressure, epilepsy, blood clotting problems, Parkinson's, heart disease, liver or thyroid problems. People with psychiatric conditions or conditions of the immune system also should be particularly cautious, the academy warns.
Health Tip: Bad Breath Isn't Always a Harmless Problem
Although halitosis (bad breath) usually is nothing more than a harmless reflection of what you've eaten, sometimes it's a sign of a serious dental or medical condition, the American Dental Association says.
Halitosis could indicate chronic bronchitis or sinusitis, postnasal drip, gastrointestinal illness, and liver or kidney disease, the ADA warns.
If watching the foods you eat and brushing and flossing regularly do not control halitosis, the ADA recommends talking to your dentist about any other conditions that may be responsible, including periodontal disease. If your dentist doesn't find a cause, you should talk with your doctor.
Health Tip: Scleroderma Characterized by Hardening of the Skin
Scleroderma, an autoimmune disorder whose primary symptom is hardening of the skin, affects up to four times as many women than men. It also tends to strike people between ages 25 and 55, although it can occur at any age.
The cause of scleroderma is unknown, says the Scleroderma Foundation. The severity of the disease depends on which body parts are affected, and how early and appropriately the condition is treated.
Treatments often are directed at individual symptoms, including gastrointestinal problems, joint pain and high blood pressure.
Scleroderma, affecting about 300,000 people in the United States, isn't infectious, contagious or cancerous, the foundation says.
Health Tip: What to Expect After LASIK
If you're considering LASIK eye surgery, you may be wondering how quickly you'll see the results.
The Eye Surgery Education Council says that although many patients see improved vision immediately or the day after surgery, the full improvement may not be seen for up to a few months.
Side effects -- including dry eyes, blurry vision and reduced night vision -- are not uncommon and are usually temporary after LASIK surgery. Most of these symptoms clear up on their own. If they don't, the eye council recommends talking to your doctor.
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Health Headlines - June 6
Cancer of the Larynx Linked to Asbestos Exposure
Asbestos, already generally accepted as a cause of a number of respiratory ailments including lung cancer, may also be a source for laryngeal cancer, the U.S. government's Institute of Medicine says.
The Associated Press reports that a series of studies have found that certain cancers of the throat and lungs are similar, so the U.S. Senate asked the institute to investigate a potential link between asbestos and other upper-body cancers.
In addition to lung cancer, asbestos, historically used to insulate buildings, is also linked to mesothelioma, a rare cancer that attacks the lining of the chest.
But the institute said there was not enough evidence of a connection between asbestos and other malignancies, including cancers of the upper throat and esophagus.
Harvard Scientists Begin Experiments to Clone Human Embryos
U.S. scientists said Tuesday they have begun work on cloning human embryos to create stem cells, a goal that some find ethically objectionable, according to the Associated Press.
Dr. George Daley, a leading expert in blood diseases and an executive committee member of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, is overseeing the work at Children's Hospital Boston, the main pediatric teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. Daley said he had begun experiments but declined to describe the results, AP reported.
The Children's Hospital team's goal is to create stem cells for treating blood diseases like sickle-cell anemia, leukemia and other blood disorders. Two other researchers, Douglas Melton and Kevin Eggan, have received approval from a series of review boards to begin similar work, the institute said. Melton plans to focus on diabetes. Eggan plans to work on neurodegenerative conditions like Lou Gehrig's disease.
By cloning embryos, scientists hope to produce transplant material to treat a variety of diseases. Stem cells can give rise to more specialized cells and tissues that can be genetically matched to patients, avoiding the problem of rejection.
The University of California, San Francisco, is also pursuing the cloning of human embryos, according to AP, joining the race among a small group of researchers in this controversial pursuit.
Medicaid Recipients Will Need Proof of Citizenship
Starting July 1, millions of low-income Americans will have to show proof of United States citizenship, such as a birth certificate or a U.S. passport, if they seek health care through their state Medicaid programs. The new requirement will apply to all Medicaid applications, as well as all applications to renew Medicaid coverage after that date, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.
Health analysts and advocacy groups for the poor and mentally ill say they fear the provision, designed to root out cases of illegal immigrants getting their care paid for by the government, could prevent some citizens from getting their own care. The advocates have asked the Bush administration to presume those seeking care are eligible and be given time to get the necessary documentation.
Mark McClellan, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the agency was sensitive to the consumer groups' concerns and was crafting a process for exceptions, according to AP.
Federal law says a person must be a citizen to receive Medicaid benefits; however, emergency care cannot be denied. Forty-six states now can accept a signed declaration as proof of U.S. citizenship, but only Montana, New York, New Hampshire and Texas require applicants to submit documents verifying citizenship, the AP said.
New Test Spots Bird Flu in Birds Within 4 Hours, Official Says
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said Tuesday that scientists have a new test that can tell within four hours if a bird is infected with bird flu, but it still will take about a week to know if it has the deadly Asian strain.
Bird flu hasn't yet reached North America, but testing of migrating wild birds has begun in an attempt to catch it early if it does, Johanns told the Associated Press, in a joint interview with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt.
Leavitt added that four hours also is how long it takes to get preliminary results in people infected with the H5N1 virus, too. But if bird flu ever begins spreading easily among people, that's too long, he told the AP. 'If it occurs anywhere in the world, it's just a matter of weeks until it appears in the United States,' Leavitt said.
Bird flu has killed at least 127 people worldwide since it began spreading in Asia in late 2003. Though it is difficult for people to catch the virus, experts fear it could mutate into a form easily spread between people, potentially sparking a worldwide outbreak.
Pot Impairs Learning in Adolescent Rats: Study
The main active ingredient in marijuana leads to short-term impairment of learning in adolescent rats, but doesn't seem to affect adults similarly, Duke University Medical Center researchers report.
Their study compared the effects of delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) on the memory ability of adolescent and adult rats to see if the animals, and perhaps humans, are more sensitive to THC at certain stages. Researchers found that chronic exposure to THC during adolescence may not lead to long-term damage persisting into adulthood, but said the finding should be interpreted cautiously, since other studies have suggested the damage may be longer-lasting.
The study tested the effects of THC exposure on memory and learning by dosing rats with varying amounts, training them to navigate a "water maze," and then measuring how well the rats remembered how to get to a stationary platform in the water. After the THC had cleared the rats' systems and the adolescents had reached full maturity, the researchers tested how well they performed in the water maze. The chronic exposure appeared to have no effect on the rats' later learning abilities, the study found.
The findings appear in the March 2006 issue of the journal Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior, which is expected to be published June 8.
"There are plenty of good reasons for adolescents to not smoke pot," said H. Scott Swartzwelder, a professor of psychiatry at Duke and the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the senior author on the study. "The teen years require a lot of learning and preparation for adulthood."
Asbestos, already generally accepted as a cause of a number of respiratory ailments including lung cancer, may also be a source for laryngeal cancer, the U.S. government's Institute of Medicine says.
The Associated Press reports that a series of studies have found that certain cancers of the throat and lungs are similar, so the U.S. Senate asked the institute to investigate a potential link between asbestos and other upper-body cancers.
In addition to lung cancer, asbestos, historically used to insulate buildings, is also linked to mesothelioma, a rare cancer that attacks the lining of the chest.
But the institute said there was not enough evidence of a connection between asbestos and other malignancies, including cancers of the upper throat and esophagus.
Harvard Scientists Begin Experiments to Clone Human Embryos
U.S. scientists said Tuesday they have begun work on cloning human embryos to create stem cells, a goal that some find ethically objectionable, according to the Associated Press.
Dr. George Daley, a leading expert in blood diseases and an executive committee member of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, is overseeing the work at Children's Hospital Boston, the main pediatric teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. Daley said he had begun experiments but declined to describe the results, AP reported.
The Children's Hospital team's goal is to create stem cells for treating blood diseases like sickle-cell anemia, leukemia and other blood disorders. Two other researchers, Douglas Melton and Kevin Eggan, have received approval from a series of review boards to begin similar work, the institute said. Melton plans to focus on diabetes. Eggan plans to work on neurodegenerative conditions like Lou Gehrig's disease.
By cloning embryos, scientists hope to produce transplant material to treat a variety of diseases. Stem cells can give rise to more specialized cells and tissues that can be genetically matched to patients, avoiding the problem of rejection.
The University of California, San Francisco, is also pursuing the cloning of human embryos, according to AP, joining the race among a small group of researchers in this controversial pursuit.
Medicaid Recipients Will Need Proof of Citizenship
Starting July 1, millions of low-income Americans will have to show proof of United States citizenship, such as a birth certificate or a U.S. passport, if they seek health care through their state Medicaid programs. The new requirement will apply to all Medicaid applications, as well as all applications to renew Medicaid coverage after that date, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.
Health analysts and advocacy groups for the poor and mentally ill say they fear the provision, designed to root out cases of illegal immigrants getting their care paid for by the government, could prevent some citizens from getting their own care. The advocates have asked the Bush administration to presume those seeking care are eligible and be given time to get the necessary documentation.
Mark McClellan, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the agency was sensitive to the consumer groups' concerns and was crafting a process for exceptions, according to AP.
Federal law says a person must be a citizen to receive Medicaid benefits; however, emergency care cannot be denied. Forty-six states now can accept a signed declaration as proof of U.S. citizenship, but only Montana, New York, New Hampshire and Texas require applicants to submit documents verifying citizenship, the AP said.
New Test Spots Bird Flu in Birds Within 4 Hours, Official Says
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said Tuesday that scientists have a new test that can tell within four hours if a bird is infected with bird flu, but it still will take about a week to know if it has the deadly Asian strain.
Bird flu hasn't yet reached North America, but testing of migrating wild birds has begun in an attempt to catch it early if it does, Johanns told the Associated Press, in a joint interview with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt.
Leavitt added that four hours also is how long it takes to get preliminary results in people infected with the H5N1 virus, too. But if bird flu ever begins spreading easily among people, that's too long, he told the AP. 'If it occurs anywhere in the world, it's just a matter of weeks until it appears in the United States,' Leavitt said.
Bird flu has killed at least 127 people worldwide since it began spreading in Asia in late 2003. Though it is difficult for people to catch the virus, experts fear it could mutate into a form easily spread between people, potentially sparking a worldwide outbreak.
Pot Impairs Learning in Adolescent Rats: Study
The main active ingredient in marijuana leads to short-term impairment of learning in adolescent rats, but doesn't seem to affect adults similarly, Duke University Medical Center researchers report.
Their study compared the effects of delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) on the memory ability of adolescent and adult rats to see if the animals, and perhaps humans, are more sensitive to THC at certain stages. Researchers found that chronic exposure to THC during adolescence may not lead to long-term damage persisting into adulthood, but said the finding should be interpreted cautiously, since other studies have suggested the damage may be longer-lasting.
The study tested the effects of THC exposure on memory and learning by dosing rats with varying amounts, training them to navigate a "water maze," and then measuring how well the rats remembered how to get to a stationary platform in the water. After the THC had cleared the rats' systems and the adolescents had reached full maturity, the researchers tested how well they performed in the water maze. The chronic exposure appeared to have no effect on the rats' later learning abilities, the study found.
The findings appear in the March 2006 issue of the journal Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior, which is expected to be published June 8.
"There are plenty of good reasons for adolescents to not smoke pot," said H. Scott Swartzwelder, a professor of psychiatry at Duke and the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the senior author on the study. "The teen years require a lot of learning and preparation for adulthood."
Monday, June 05, 2006
Health Headlines - June 5
FDA Panel Backs New Leukemia Drug
A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel on Friday recommended approval of a new drug that treats certain leukemias when other treatments have failed, the Associated Press reported.
The drug, known as Sprycel, would be used to treat chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in patients who have developed a resistance or intolerance to Gleevec. CML represents 14 percent of all adult leukemias, according to the FDA.
Bristol-Myers Squibb, which makes Sprycel, also got the panel's blessing to use the drug to treat Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the AP reported.
The FDA is expected to decide whether to approve Sprycel by June 28; the advisory panel met in Atlanta to coincide with the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting, which is being held in that same city.
Vets May Have Been Exposed to Virus
Improperly sterilized equipment might have exposed more than 22,000 veterans who underwent prostate biopsies to deadly viruses, federal officials have warned.
The Associated Press reported Saturday that U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs officials said it was unlikely someone could get infected, and no patient is known to have fallen ill yet.
Regardless, the agency is offering free blood tests as a precaution. Maine officials were the first to question whether the cleaning procedure for prostate biopsy equipment was sufficient, VA spokesman Jim Benson told the wire service. The equipment contains a probe that could hold traces of fluids that might harbor the viruses that cause AIDS or hepatitis.
Since April, the VA has alerted 21 medical centers in 18 states, including Puerto Rico, about the possibility of contamination. About 7,000 veterans have contacted the federal agency, and 2,000 have been tested.
"It's too soon to have any information on their test results because each of the potential diseases we might be worried about require not only initial tests but confirmatory tests as well," Benson told the AP. "Right now, our first priority is getting information out to every veteran."
Experts Question High Cost of Cancer Care
Cancer treatments are the most expensive medical therapies in the United States, and a panel of experts said Friday it is time to rethink the cost of drugs that only add a few months to a patient's life.
Convening at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Atlanta this weekend, the six doctors on the panel noted that physicians and ethicists alike are struggling with the dilemma, according to Newsday. The cancer treatment industry is a $210 billion annual enterprise, the paper reported.
A steady stream of highly priced drugs has been pumped out by the pharmaceutical industry in recent years, and these medications tend to cost insurers and patients $2,000 to $5,000 a month, the panel said. However, these treatments have captured both headlines and the attention of patients desperate for a few more months of life.
"Everybody is affected," said Dr. Neal Meropol, of the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. ""The doctors, patients, insurers, entire economies."
Scios to Conduct Safety Review of Heart Drug Natrecor
Scios Inc., a division of Johnson & Johnson, said Thursday that it would spend more than $100 million to conduct a safety study of its controversial heart-failure drug, Natrecor.
The trial seeks to address safety issues concerning the drug since last year. Other studies had suggested that Natrecor, an intravenous drug approved in 2001 that was designed to treat breathing problems that can accompany heart failure, could lead to increased risk of kidney problems and a higher risk of mortality within the first month of treatment, the Associated Press reported.
Patient enrollment is expected to begin early next year and involve 7,000 people in the United States, Canada and Europe, according to Scios. The company has yet to select the lead researchers, and said it doesn't know how long the trial will take to complete, AP reported.
Clot-Busting Drug Helps Revive Cardiac-Arrest Patients
Emergency room doctors were able to double the number of patients who could be revived from cardiac arrest after using a "clot buster" drug normally reserved for treating patients during a heart attack, according to a study in the June issue of Resuscitation.
The pilot study involved patients with cardiac arrest who didn't respond to standard therapy. Of 50 patients who received the clot-buster tenecteplase, known medically as a fibrinolytic agent therapy, 26 percent were revived, compared to 12 percent of patients who got standard therapy alone. However, not all patients who were revived lived long enough to be discharged from the hospital, according to the study.
Sudden loss of heart function occurs in more than 260,000 people a year nationwide and at least 93 percent of them die, according to the report. Standard treatment for cardiac arrest is Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) measures, which include cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), drugs such as adrenaline, and defibrillation, an electric shock to the heart.
"Clot-busting agents show promise as a new therapy for this abrupt and catastrophic loss of heart function," said study author Dr. William P. Bozeman, an emergency medicine specialist at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C. "We are in dire need of additional treatment options for sudden cardiac arrest, because there is only a 5 percent to 7 percent survival rate using interventions we now have."
A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel on Friday recommended approval of a new drug that treats certain leukemias when other treatments have failed, the Associated Press reported.
The drug, known as Sprycel, would be used to treat chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in patients who have developed a resistance or intolerance to Gleevec. CML represents 14 percent of all adult leukemias, according to the FDA.
Bristol-Myers Squibb, which makes Sprycel, also got the panel's blessing to use the drug to treat Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the AP reported.
The FDA is expected to decide whether to approve Sprycel by June 28; the advisory panel met in Atlanta to coincide with the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting, which is being held in that same city.
Vets May Have Been Exposed to Virus
Improperly sterilized equipment might have exposed more than 22,000 veterans who underwent prostate biopsies to deadly viruses, federal officials have warned.
The Associated Press reported Saturday that U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs officials said it was unlikely someone could get infected, and no patient is known to have fallen ill yet.
Regardless, the agency is offering free blood tests as a precaution. Maine officials were the first to question whether the cleaning procedure for prostate biopsy equipment was sufficient, VA spokesman Jim Benson told the wire service. The equipment contains a probe that could hold traces of fluids that might harbor the viruses that cause AIDS or hepatitis.
Since April, the VA has alerted 21 medical centers in 18 states, including Puerto Rico, about the possibility of contamination. About 7,000 veterans have contacted the federal agency, and 2,000 have been tested.
"It's too soon to have any information on their test results because each of the potential diseases we might be worried about require not only initial tests but confirmatory tests as well," Benson told the AP. "Right now, our first priority is getting information out to every veteran."
Experts Question High Cost of Cancer Care
Cancer treatments are the most expensive medical therapies in the United States, and a panel of experts said Friday it is time to rethink the cost of drugs that only add a few months to a patient's life.
Convening at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Atlanta this weekend, the six doctors on the panel noted that physicians and ethicists alike are struggling with the dilemma, according to Newsday. The cancer treatment industry is a $210 billion annual enterprise, the paper reported.
A steady stream of highly priced drugs has been pumped out by the pharmaceutical industry in recent years, and these medications tend to cost insurers and patients $2,000 to $5,000 a month, the panel said. However, these treatments have captured both headlines and the attention of patients desperate for a few more months of life.
"Everybody is affected," said Dr. Neal Meropol, of the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. ""The doctors, patients, insurers, entire economies."
Scios to Conduct Safety Review of Heart Drug Natrecor
Scios Inc., a division of Johnson & Johnson, said Thursday that it would spend more than $100 million to conduct a safety study of its controversial heart-failure drug, Natrecor.
The trial seeks to address safety issues concerning the drug since last year. Other studies had suggested that Natrecor, an intravenous drug approved in 2001 that was designed to treat breathing problems that can accompany heart failure, could lead to increased risk of kidney problems and a higher risk of mortality within the first month of treatment, the Associated Press reported.
Patient enrollment is expected to begin early next year and involve 7,000 people in the United States, Canada and Europe, according to Scios. The company has yet to select the lead researchers, and said it doesn't know how long the trial will take to complete, AP reported.
Clot-Busting Drug Helps Revive Cardiac-Arrest Patients
Emergency room doctors were able to double the number of patients who could be revived from cardiac arrest after using a "clot buster" drug normally reserved for treating patients during a heart attack, according to a study in the June issue of Resuscitation.
The pilot study involved patients with cardiac arrest who didn't respond to standard therapy. Of 50 patients who received the clot-buster tenecteplase, known medically as a fibrinolytic agent therapy, 26 percent were revived, compared to 12 percent of patients who got standard therapy alone. However, not all patients who were revived lived long enough to be discharged from the hospital, according to the study.
Sudden loss of heart function occurs in more than 260,000 people a year nationwide and at least 93 percent of them die, according to the report. Standard treatment for cardiac arrest is Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) measures, which include cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), drugs such as adrenaline, and defibrillation, an electric shock to the heart.
"Clot-busting agents show promise as a new therapy for this abrupt and catastrophic loss of heart function," said study author Dr. William P. Bozeman, an emergency medicine specialist at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C. "We are in dire need of additional treatment options for sudden cardiac arrest, because there is only a 5 percent to 7 percent survival rate using interventions we now have."
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Health Headlines - June 4
AIDS toll may reach 100 million in Africa
It began quietly, when a statistical anomaly pointed to a mysterious syndrome that attacked the immune systems of gay men in California. No one imagined 25 years ago that AIDS would become the deadliest epidemic in history. Since June 5, 1981, HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has killed more than 25 million people, infected 40 million others and left a legacy of unspeakable loss, hardship, fear and despair.
Its spread was hastened by ignorance, prejudice, denial and the freedoms of the sexual revolution. Along the way from oddity to pandemic, AIDS changed they way people live and love.
Slowed but unchecked, the epidemic's relentless march has established footholds in the world's most populous countries. Advances in medicine and prevention that have made the disease manageable in the developed world haven't reach the rest.
In the worst case, sub-Saharan Africa, it has been devastating. And the next 25 years of AIDS promise to be deadlier than the first.
AIDS could kill 31 million people in India and 18 million in China by 2025, according to projections by U.N. population researchers. By then in Africa, where AIDS likely began and where the virus has wrought the most devastation, researchers said the toll could reach 100 million.
"It is the worst and deadliest epidemic that humankind has ever experienced," Mark Stirling, the director of East and Southern Africa for UNAIDS, said in an interview.
More effective medicines, better access to treatment and improved prevention in the last few years have started to lower the grim projections. But even if new infections stopped immediately, additional African deaths alone would exceed 40 million, Stirling said.
"We will be grappling with AIDS for the next 10, 20, 30, 50 years," he said.
Efforts to find an effective vaccine have failed dismally, so far. The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative says 30 are being tested in small-scale trials. More money and more efforts are being poured into prevention campaigns but the efforts are uneven. Success varies widely from region to region, country to country.
Still, science offers some promise. In highly developed countries, cocktails of powerful antiretroviral drugs have largely altered the AIDS prognosis from certain death to a manageable chronic illness.
There is great hope that current AIDS drugs might prevent high-risk people from becoming infected. One of these, tenofovir, is being tested in several countries. Plans are to test it as well with a second drug, emtricitabine or FTC.
But nothing can be stated with certainty until clinical trials are complete, said Anthony Fauci, a leading AIDS researcher and infectious diseases chief at the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
And then there is the risk that treatment will create a resistant strain or, as some critics claim, cause people to lower their guard and have more unprotected sex.
Medicine offers less hope in the developing world where most victims are desperately poor with little or no access to the medical care needed to administer and monitor AIDS drugs. Globally, just 1 in 5 HIV patients get the drugs they need, according to a recent report by UNAIDS, the body leading the worldwide battle against the disease.
Stirling said that despite the advances, the toll over the next 25 years will go far beyond the 34 million thought to have died from the Black Death in 14th century Europe or the 20 to 40 million who perished in the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic.
Almost two-thirds of those infected with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa where poverty, ignorance and negligent political leadership extended the epidemic's reach and hindered efforts to contain it. In South Africa, the president once questioned the link between HIV and AIDS and the health minister urged use of garlic and the African potato to fight AIDS, instead of effective treatments.
AIDS is the leading cause of death in Africa, which has accounted for nearly half of all global AIDS deaths. The epidemic is still growing and its peak could be a decade or more away.
In at least seven countries, the U.N. estimates that AIDS has reduced life expectancy to 40 years or less. In Botswana, which has the world's highest infection rate, a child born today can expect to live less than 30 years.
"Particularly in southern Africa, we may have to apply a new notion, and that is of `underdeveloping' nations. These are nations which, because of the AIDS epidemic, are going backwards," Peter Piot, the director of UNAIDS, said in a speech in Washington in March.
Later, at a meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, last month, Piot cited encouraging news including a sharp fall in new infections in some African countries. There also has been an eightfold increase in the number of Africans benefiting from antiretroviral treatment, he said.
But, he warned, "the crisis of AIDS continues and is getting worse and any slackening of our efforts would jeopardize the hard-won gains of each and every one of us."
Besides the personal suffering of the infected and their families, the epidemic already has had devastating consequences for African education systems, industry, agriculture and economies in general. The impact is magnified because AIDS weakens and kills many young adults, people in their most productive years.
So many farmers and farmworkers have died of AIDS that the U.N. has invented the term "new variant famine." It means that because of AIDS, the continent will experience persistent famine for generations instead of the usual cycles of hunger tied to variable weather.
Africa's misery hangs like a sword over Asia, Eastern Europe and the Caribbean.
Researchers don't expect the infection rates to rival those in Africa. But Asia's population is so big that even low infection rates could easily translate into tens of millions of deaths.
Although fewer than 1 percent of its people are infected, India has topped South Africa as the country with the most infections, 5.7 million to 5.5 million, according to UNAIDS.
The astonishing numbers have grown from a humble beginning.
Nobody knows for sure when or where, but the AIDS epidemic is thought to have begun in the primeval forests of West Africa when a virus lurking in the blood of a monkey or a chimpanzee made the leap from one species to another, infecting a hunter.
Researchers have found HIV in a blood sample collected in 1959 from a man in Kinshasa, Congo. Genetic analysis of his blood suggested the HIV infection stemmed from a single virus in the late 1940s or early 1950s.
For decades at least, the early human infections went unnoticed on a continent where life routinely is harsh, short and cheap.
Then, on June 5, 1981, the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta reported five young actively homosexual men in Los Angeles had a new, mysterious and as yet unnamed illness that attacked the immune system and caused a type of pneumonia. A month later, it reported an odd surge among homosexual men in the number of cases of Karposi Sarcoma, a rare cancer now linked to AIDS.
In the early days of the epidemic, just the mention of AIDS elicited snickers and jokes. Few saw it as a major threat. It was the "Gay Plague," and for some, divine retribution for a lifestyle Christian fundamentalists and other conservatives consider deviant and sinful.
When heterosexuals began to contract the disease through blood transfusions and other medical procedures, they were often portrayed as "innocent" victims of a disease spread by the immoral and licentious behavior of others.
The initial reactions and prejudices associated with AIDS slowed the early response to the epidemic and limited the funding. Too much time, money and effort was spent on the wrong priorities, Stirling aid.
"Over the last 25 years, the one real weakness was the search for the magic bullet. There is no quick and simple fix," he said. "But with the recent successes we are starting to see the end of epidemic."
"There is evidence to suggest we are at the tipping point," said Stirling.
The pace of change over the last couple of years suggests the number of new infections can be reduced by 50 to 60 percent by 2020 — if the momentum continues.
"It is surely possible, it is doable," Stirling said.
Severe Allergic Reactions Can Kill
Severe allergic reactions called anaphylaxis mean that even a tiny morsel of food or an insect bite could prove deadly.
But experts at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI) said better public awareness of the dangers could change all that.
An anaphylactic reaction occurs after a person eats a food to which they are allergic. Each year in the United States, several hundred people die from anaphylaxis, which can even strike people with no previously diagnosed food allergies.
Signs of anaphylaxis include:
Itching, hives, flushing, difficulty breathing, vomiting, diarrhea, light-headedness, confusion or shock.
Rapid onset of symptoms in several different body systems.
If you, or someone else, experience symptoms of anaphylactic reaction, the AAAAI recommends the following actions:
Call 911 immediately.
If a person has suffered from a previous anaphylactic reaction and carries adrenaline in either an EpiPen or Twinject, administer the medication first and then call 911.
Antihistamines should not be the sole treatment. Studies have shown that epinephrine should be the first medication administered during an anaphylactic reaction.
People who've suffered an anaphylactic reaction should seek medical attention.
Research has shown that they should be under observation by medical personnel for several hours after the reaction in case they suffer a relapse.
Follow-up care is important. Many people who've had an anaphylactic reaction don't seek medical attention or may not even recognize that they've had a reaction.
"Deaths have unfortunately been reported of people who initially had only mild reactions to a food, such as hives, and then later ate the food again accidentally without having the benefit of an allergist advising them on an anaphylaxis action plan," Dr. Suzanne Teuber, chairwoman of the AAAAI's Adverse Reactions to Food Committee, said in a prepared statement.
Formerly conjoined twins leave hospital
Six-month-old twin girls who were surgically separated last month were released from the hospital Saturday and could return home in a few days, the Mayo Clinic said.
Abbigail and Isabelle Carlsen joined their parents, Jesse and Amy Carlsen, at the Ronald McDonald House, which provides care for children who have been treated at the Mayo Clinic.
The family was scheduled to return to its home to Fargo, N.D., on Tuesday.
A farewell celebration for the twins was planned for Monday at the hospital.
The girls were born Nov. 29 attached at the diaphragm, pancreas and liver. They also shared a common bile duct and part of an intestine. They were separated May 12.
It began quietly, when a statistical anomaly pointed to a mysterious syndrome that attacked the immune systems of gay men in California. No one imagined 25 years ago that AIDS would become the deadliest epidemic in history. Since June 5, 1981, HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has killed more than 25 million people, infected 40 million others and left a legacy of unspeakable loss, hardship, fear and despair.
Its spread was hastened by ignorance, prejudice, denial and the freedoms of the sexual revolution. Along the way from oddity to pandemic, AIDS changed they way people live and love.
Slowed but unchecked, the epidemic's relentless march has established footholds in the world's most populous countries. Advances in medicine and prevention that have made the disease manageable in the developed world haven't reach the rest.
In the worst case, sub-Saharan Africa, it has been devastating. And the next 25 years of AIDS promise to be deadlier than the first.
AIDS could kill 31 million people in India and 18 million in China by 2025, according to projections by U.N. population researchers. By then in Africa, where AIDS likely began and where the virus has wrought the most devastation, researchers said the toll could reach 100 million.
"It is the worst and deadliest epidemic that humankind has ever experienced," Mark Stirling, the director of East and Southern Africa for UNAIDS, said in an interview.
More effective medicines, better access to treatment and improved prevention in the last few years have started to lower the grim projections. But even if new infections stopped immediately, additional African deaths alone would exceed 40 million, Stirling said.
"We will be grappling with AIDS for the next 10, 20, 30, 50 years," he said.
Efforts to find an effective vaccine have failed dismally, so far. The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative says 30 are being tested in small-scale trials. More money and more efforts are being poured into prevention campaigns but the efforts are uneven. Success varies widely from region to region, country to country.
Still, science offers some promise. In highly developed countries, cocktails of powerful antiretroviral drugs have largely altered the AIDS prognosis from certain death to a manageable chronic illness.
There is great hope that current AIDS drugs might prevent high-risk people from becoming infected. One of these, tenofovir, is being tested in several countries. Plans are to test it as well with a second drug, emtricitabine or FTC.
But nothing can be stated with certainty until clinical trials are complete, said Anthony Fauci, a leading AIDS researcher and infectious diseases chief at the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
And then there is the risk that treatment will create a resistant strain or, as some critics claim, cause people to lower their guard and have more unprotected sex.
Medicine offers less hope in the developing world where most victims are desperately poor with little or no access to the medical care needed to administer and monitor AIDS drugs. Globally, just 1 in 5 HIV patients get the drugs they need, according to a recent report by UNAIDS, the body leading the worldwide battle against the disease.
Stirling said that despite the advances, the toll over the next 25 years will go far beyond the 34 million thought to have died from the Black Death in 14th century Europe or the 20 to 40 million who perished in the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic.
Almost two-thirds of those infected with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa where poverty, ignorance and negligent political leadership extended the epidemic's reach and hindered efforts to contain it. In South Africa, the president once questioned the link between HIV and AIDS and the health minister urged use of garlic and the African potato to fight AIDS, instead of effective treatments.
AIDS is the leading cause of death in Africa, which has accounted for nearly half of all global AIDS deaths. The epidemic is still growing and its peak could be a decade or more away.
In at least seven countries, the U.N. estimates that AIDS has reduced life expectancy to 40 years or less. In Botswana, which has the world's highest infection rate, a child born today can expect to live less than 30 years.
"Particularly in southern Africa, we may have to apply a new notion, and that is of `underdeveloping' nations. These are nations which, because of the AIDS epidemic, are going backwards," Peter Piot, the director of UNAIDS, said in a speech in Washington in March.
Later, at a meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, last month, Piot cited encouraging news including a sharp fall in new infections in some African countries. There also has been an eightfold increase in the number of Africans benefiting from antiretroviral treatment, he said.
But, he warned, "the crisis of AIDS continues and is getting worse and any slackening of our efforts would jeopardize the hard-won gains of each and every one of us."
Besides the personal suffering of the infected and their families, the epidemic already has had devastating consequences for African education systems, industry, agriculture and economies in general. The impact is magnified because AIDS weakens and kills many young adults, people in their most productive years.
So many farmers and farmworkers have died of AIDS that the U.N. has invented the term "new variant famine." It means that because of AIDS, the continent will experience persistent famine for generations instead of the usual cycles of hunger tied to variable weather.
Africa's misery hangs like a sword over Asia, Eastern Europe and the Caribbean.
Researchers don't expect the infection rates to rival those in Africa. But Asia's population is so big that even low infection rates could easily translate into tens of millions of deaths.
Although fewer than 1 percent of its people are infected, India has topped South Africa as the country with the most infections, 5.7 million to 5.5 million, according to UNAIDS.
The astonishing numbers have grown from a humble beginning.
Nobody knows for sure when or where, but the AIDS epidemic is thought to have begun in the primeval forests of West Africa when a virus lurking in the blood of a monkey or a chimpanzee made the leap from one species to another, infecting a hunter.
Researchers have found HIV in a blood sample collected in 1959 from a man in Kinshasa, Congo. Genetic analysis of his blood suggested the HIV infection stemmed from a single virus in the late 1940s or early 1950s.
For decades at least, the early human infections went unnoticed on a continent where life routinely is harsh, short and cheap.
Then, on June 5, 1981, the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta reported five young actively homosexual men in Los Angeles had a new, mysterious and as yet unnamed illness that attacked the immune system and caused a type of pneumonia. A month later, it reported an odd surge among homosexual men in the number of cases of Karposi Sarcoma, a rare cancer now linked to AIDS.
In the early days of the epidemic, just the mention of AIDS elicited snickers and jokes. Few saw it as a major threat. It was the "Gay Plague," and for some, divine retribution for a lifestyle Christian fundamentalists and other conservatives consider deviant and sinful.
When heterosexuals began to contract the disease through blood transfusions and other medical procedures, they were often portrayed as "innocent" victims of a disease spread by the immoral and licentious behavior of others.
The initial reactions and prejudices associated with AIDS slowed the early response to the epidemic and limited the funding. Too much time, money and effort was spent on the wrong priorities, Stirling aid.
"Over the last 25 years, the one real weakness was the search for the magic bullet. There is no quick and simple fix," he said. "But with the recent successes we are starting to see the end of epidemic."
"There is evidence to suggest we are at the tipping point," said Stirling.
The pace of change over the last couple of years suggests the number of new infections can be reduced by 50 to 60 percent by 2020 — if the momentum continues.
"It is surely possible, it is doable," Stirling said.
Severe Allergic Reactions Can Kill
Severe allergic reactions called anaphylaxis mean that even a tiny morsel of food or an insect bite could prove deadly.
But experts at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI) said better public awareness of the dangers could change all that.
An anaphylactic reaction occurs after a person eats a food to which they are allergic. Each year in the United States, several hundred people die from anaphylaxis, which can even strike people with no previously diagnosed food allergies.
Signs of anaphylaxis include:
Itching, hives, flushing, difficulty breathing, vomiting, diarrhea, light-headedness, confusion or shock.
Rapid onset of symptoms in several different body systems.
If you, or someone else, experience symptoms of anaphylactic reaction, the AAAAI recommends the following actions:
Call 911 immediately.
If a person has suffered from a previous anaphylactic reaction and carries adrenaline in either an EpiPen or Twinject, administer the medication first and then call 911.
Antihistamines should not be the sole treatment. Studies have shown that epinephrine should be the first medication administered during an anaphylactic reaction.
People who've suffered an anaphylactic reaction should seek medical attention.
Research has shown that they should be under observation by medical personnel for several hours after the reaction in case they suffer a relapse.
Follow-up care is important. Many people who've had an anaphylactic reaction don't seek medical attention or may not even recognize that they've had a reaction.
"Deaths have unfortunately been reported of people who initially had only mild reactions to a food, such as hives, and then later ate the food again accidentally without having the benefit of an allergist advising them on an anaphylaxis action plan," Dr. Suzanne Teuber, chairwoman of the AAAAI's Adverse Reactions to Food Committee, said in a prepared statement.
Formerly conjoined twins leave hospital
Six-month-old twin girls who were surgically separated last month were released from the hospital Saturday and could return home in a few days, the Mayo Clinic said.
Abbigail and Isabelle Carlsen joined their parents, Jesse and Amy Carlsen, at the Ronald McDonald House, which provides care for children who have been treated at the Mayo Clinic.
The family was scheduled to return to its home to Fargo, N.D., on Tuesday.
A farewell celebration for the twins was planned for Monday at the hospital.
The girls were born Nov. 29 attached at the diaphragm, pancreas and liver. They also shared a common bile duct and part of an intestine. They were separated May 12.
Saturday, June 03, 2006
Health Headlines - June 3
FDA Panel Backs New Leukemia Drug
A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel on Friday recommended approval of a new drug that treats certain leukemias when other treatments have failed, the Associated Press reported.
The drug, known as Sprycel, would be used to treat chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in patients who have developed a resistance or intolerance to Gleevec. CML represents 14 percent of all adult leukemias, according to the FDA.
Bristol-Myers Squibb, which makes Sprycel, also got the panel's blessing to use the drug to treat Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the AP reported.
The FDA is expected to decide whether to approve Sprycel by June 28; the advisory panel met in Atlanta to coincide with the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting, which is being held in that same city.
Scios to Conduct Safety Review of Heart Drug Natrecor
Scios Inc., a division of Johnson & Johnson, said Thursday that it would spend more than $100 million to conduct a safety study of its controversial heart-failure drug, Natrecor.
The trial seeks to address safety issues concerning the drug since last year. Other studies had suggested that Natrecor, an intravenous drug approved in 2001 that was designed to treat breathing problems that can accompany heart failure, could lead to increased risk of kidney problems and a higher risk of mortality within the first month of treatment, the Associated Press reported.
Patient enrollment is expected to begin early next year and involve 7,000 people in the United States, Canada and Europe, according to Scios. The company has yet to select the lead researchers, and said it doesn't know how long the trial will take to complete, AP reported.
Clot-Busting Drug Helps Revive Cardiac-Arrest Patients
Emergency room doctors were able to double the number of patients who could be revived from cardiac arrest after using a "clot buster" drug normally reserved for treating patients during a heart attack, according to a study in the June issue of Resuscitation.
The pilot study involved patients with cardiac arrest who didn't respond to standard therapy. Of 50 patients who received the clot-buster tenecteplase, known medically as a fibrinolytic agent therapy, 26 percent were revived, compared to 12 percent of patients who got standard therapy alone. However, not all patients who were revived lived long enough to be discharged from the hospital, according to the study.
Sudden loss of heart function occurs in more than 260,000 people a year nationwide and at least 93 percent of them die, according to the report. Standard treatment for cardiac arrest is Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) measures, which include cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), drugs such as adrenaline, and defibrillation, an electric shock to the heart.
"Clot-busting agents show promise as a new therapy for this abrupt and catastrophic loss of heart function," said study author Dr. William P. Bozeman, an emergency medicine specialist at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C. "We are in dire need of additional treatment options for sudden cardiac arrest, because there is only a 5 percent to 7 percent survival rate using interventions we now have."
Genital Cutting Raises Death Risk for Mothers, Babies: Study
The practice of female genital cutting -- also called female circumcision -- raises the likelihood by more than 50 percent that the woman or her baby will die, according to research published Friday in The Lancet.
Serious medical complications surrounding childbirth, such as bleeding, also rose substantially in women who had undergone the procedure, the report added. More than 100 million women worldwide have undergone genital cutting, mostly in childhood. Often performed without anesthesia or sterile technique, its immediate results are pain, bleeding, infection and a risk of urinary infection, according to doctors.
"Finally, we have data to prove what health workers have long known: That female genital mutilation is a health issue, a killer of women and children, as well as a human-rights issue," Adrienne Germain, president of the International Women's Health Coalition, told The New York Times.
Female genital cutting varies in severity, from full removal of the clitoris and labia to a lesser procedure in which only the clitoris is removed. In some African cultures, genital mutilation is considered a coming-of-age ceremony. Its supporters have contended that it is a cultural practice -- like male circumcision among Jews -- with few long-term health consequences.
Restaurants Urged to Trim Portion Sizes
A U.S. government-commissioned report released Friday suggests restaurants are in prime position to both improve diets and combat obesity by serving smaller portions and adding more fruit and vegetable dishes to their menus.
Funded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the 136-page report said Americans now consume fully one-third of their daily intake of calories outside the home in the nation's nearly 900,000 restaurants and other establishments that serve food, the Associated Press reported.
The top three restaurant favorites? Burgers, fries and pizza.
An estimated 64 percent of Americans are overweight, including the 30 percent who are obese, according to the report. It pegged the annual medical cost of the problem at nearly $93 billion.
A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel on Friday recommended approval of a new drug that treats certain leukemias when other treatments have failed, the Associated Press reported.
The drug, known as Sprycel, would be used to treat chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in patients who have developed a resistance or intolerance to Gleevec. CML represents 14 percent of all adult leukemias, according to the FDA.
Bristol-Myers Squibb, which makes Sprycel, also got the panel's blessing to use the drug to treat Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the AP reported.
The FDA is expected to decide whether to approve Sprycel by June 28; the advisory panel met in Atlanta to coincide with the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting, which is being held in that same city.
Scios to Conduct Safety Review of Heart Drug Natrecor
Scios Inc., a division of Johnson & Johnson, said Thursday that it would spend more than $100 million to conduct a safety study of its controversial heart-failure drug, Natrecor.
The trial seeks to address safety issues concerning the drug since last year. Other studies had suggested that Natrecor, an intravenous drug approved in 2001 that was designed to treat breathing problems that can accompany heart failure, could lead to increased risk of kidney problems and a higher risk of mortality within the first month of treatment, the Associated Press reported.
Patient enrollment is expected to begin early next year and involve 7,000 people in the United States, Canada and Europe, according to Scios. The company has yet to select the lead researchers, and said it doesn't know how long the trial will take to complete, AP reported.
Clot-Busting Drug Helps Revive Cardiac-Arrest Patients
Emergency room doctors were able to double the number of patients who could be revived from cardiac arrest after using a "clot buster" drug normally reserved for treating patients during a heart attack, according to a study in the June issue of Resuscitation.
The pilot study involved patients with cardiac arrest who didn't respond to standard therapy. Of 50 patients who received the clot-buster tenecteplase, known medically as a fibrinolytic agent therapy, 26 percent were revived, compared to 12 percent of patients who got standard therapy alone. However, not all patients who were revived lived long enough to be discharged from the hospital, according to the study.
Sudden loss of heart function occurs in more than 260,000 people a year nationwide and at least 93 percent of them die, according to the report. Standard treatment for cardiac arrest is Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) measures, which include cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), drugs such as adrenaline, and defibrillation, an electric shock to the heart.
"Clot-busting agents show promise as a new therapy for this abrupt and catastrophic loss of heart function," said study author Dr. William P. Bozeman, an emergency medicine specialist at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C. "We are in dire need of additional treatment options for sudden cardiac arrest, because there is only a 5 percent to 7 percent survival rate using interventions we now have."
Genital Cutting Raises Death Risk for Mothers, Babies: Study
The practice of female genital cutting -- also called female circumcision -- raises the likelihood by more than 50 percent that the woman or her baby will die, according to research published Friday in The Lancet.
Serious medical complications surrounding childbirth, such as bleeding, also rose substantially in women who had undergone the procedure, the report added. More than 100 million women worldwide have undergone genital cutting, mostly in childhood. Often performed without anesthesia or sterile technique, its immediate results are pain, bleeding, infection and a risk of urinary infection, according to doctors.
"Finally, we have data to prove what health workers have long known: That female genital mutilation is a health issue, a killer of women and children, as well as a human-rights issue," Adrienne Germain, president of the International Women's Health Coalition, told The New York Times.
Female genital cutting varies in severity, from full removal of the clitoris and labia to a lesser procedure in which only the clitoris is removed. In some African cultures, genital mutilation is considered a coming-of-age ceremony. Its supporters have contended that it is a cultural practice -- like male circumcision among Jews -- with few long-term health consequences.
Restaurants Urged to Trim Portion Sizes
A U.S. government-commissioned report released Friday suggests restaurants are in prime position to both improve diets and combat obesity by serving smaller portions and adding more fruit and vegetable dishes to their menus.
Funded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the 136-page report said Americans now consume fully one-third of their daily intake of calories outside the home in the nation's nearly 900,000 restaurants and other establishments that serve food, the Associated Press reported.
The top three restaurant favorites? Burgers, fries and pizza.
An estimated 64 percent of Americans are overweight, including the 30 percent who are obese, according to the report. It pegged the annual medical cost of the problem at nearly $93 billion.
Friday, June 02, 2006
Health Headlines - June 2
Medicare Posts Hospital Payment Information
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services posted information online Thursday on what Medicare pays for 30 common elective procedures and other hospital admissions.
Available to consumers, providers and payers through the HHS Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services -- at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/HealthCareConInit/01_Overview.asp#TopOfPage -- the figures show the range of payments by county and the number of cases treated at each hospital for a variety of therapies provided to seniors and people with disabilities in fiscal year 2005. The data include 30 common elective procedures, including heart operations and implanting cardiac defibrillators; hip and knee replacements; kidney and urinary tract operations; gallbladder operations and back and neck operations, and for common non-surgical admissions.
In addition, CMS said it will post payment information for common elective procedures for ambulatory surgery centers later this summer, and common hospital outpatient and physician services this fall.
"Once people gain better information, they become better consumers of health care and that helps get health-care costs down and quality of care up," HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said. "The federal government is the biggest single purchaser of health care in America, and by taking steps to post prices and quality data, we hope to encourage more insurance companies, hospitals, clinics and doctors to do the same."
World Trade Center Responders' Illnesses Worse Than Expected
Almost five years after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, doctors say they are surprised by the growing number of responders seeking help for the first time -- 100 people a month in the biggest monitoring program -- and by the severity of illnesses among Sept. 11 workers already in treatment, according to a report Thursday in Newsday.
"There's no question there's continuing demand, and many in the treatment program are quite ill," Dr. Robin Herbert, co-director of the World Trade Center Worker and Volunteer Medical Screening Program at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan, told the paper. The program, which has examined about 15,000 responders since 2002, revealed that doctors are finding "remarkable persistence" in breathing disorders such as chronic sinusitis and asthma, stomach ailments such as gastrointestinal reflux disease and psychological problems such as post traumatic stress disorder -- a suite of maladies one survivor called "my 9/11 plague."
Patients also suffered potentially fatal lung scarring and cases of cancer, some of which experts are unwilling to attribute directly to exposure to Ground Zero toxins, the paper said.
Meanwhile, New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas R. Frieden and Dr. John Howard, director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and coordinator for federal World Trade Center health response programs, Thursday urged all 71,000 people enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Registry to participate in the first of several planned follow-up surveys since it was launched in 2003.
Findings drawn from the registry will enable researchers to determine whether any disease patterns exist among registrants. All information given will be kept confidential, officials said.
CDC Reports on Major Trends in U.S. Fight Against HIV/AIDS
With Monday the 25th anniversary of the first documented AIDS cases in the United States, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released a report examining major trends in the nation's HIV/AIDS epidemic over the last quarter-century.
Among the CDC's major findings: Substantial decreases in overall HIV incidence since the late 1980s; reduced HIV transmission due to intravenous drug use; and the near-elimination of mother-to-child HIV transmission. The findings appear in the June 2 issue of the the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Still, the report noted, HIV/AIDS has had a disproportionate impact on racial and ethnic minorities. To build on successes so far, the studies urged that HIV testing and counseling remain cornerstones of HIV prevention, and that targeted prevention programs continue to be expanded for gay men, African-Americans, women, and others at risk for infection. Prevention interventions for the estimated one million HIV-positive Americans are critical, according to the report.
The CDC report said the estimated number of U.S. infants born with HIV declined from a peak of approximately 1,650 in 1991 to fewer than 240 in 2002. The annual number of new AIDS cases increased rapidly through the 1980s (peaking at 77,916 in 1992) but dropped significantly to about 40,000 annually since 1998, due to behavioral risk-reduction and HIV testing programs, screening of the blood supply, and introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy in 1996.
Despite progress, however, the report noted that racial disparities continue to pose a major challenge. From 2001-2004, rates of HIV diagnoses were 8.5 times higher among blacks, and 3.3 times higher among Hispanics, than among whites. The researchers said that a new, nationwide system to estimate HIV incidence will soon enable better targeting of HIV prevention programs for minorities and others at risk of infection.
Acting FDA Chief Quits NCI Post
Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, acting head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said Wednesday that he would resign this month from his other job as director of the National Cancer Institute, a post he had held since 2002, according to the Associated Press.
Von Eschenbach's resignation from the NCI will be effective June 10, according to Christina Pearson, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. John Niederhuber will become acting director of the NCI, Pearson said. Niederhuber is currently NCI's deputy director.
A urology surgeon, von Eschenbach became acting FDA commissioner in September 2005, but his holding of both positions -- one as director of a government institute that helps develop drugs, the other as head of the federal agency that regulates them -- had raised questions of a potential conflict of interest, according to the AP.
Von Eschenbach's Senate confirmation as FDA commissioner remains in limbo over a dispute involving the agency's position on emergency contraceptive pills.
Health-Care Budget Imbalances Cost Employers, Consumers Billions
Imbalances in the U.S. health-care system resulting from tight Medicare and Medicaid budgets are costing employers and consumers billions of dollars more a year, according to a report in The New York Times on several studies examining the issue.
Seattle-based Premera Blue Cross has found an acceleration in higher costs to private payers in Washington state, as hospitals and doctors juggle constraints in the federal insurance programs. Another 2004 California study found that health plans and consumers paid an additional $4.5 billion for hospital care in that state to compensate for Medicaid and Medicare constraints, and other research has come to similar conclusions across the country.
Kenneth E. Thorpe, a health-care economist at Emory University, said that unpaid hospital bills, mostly for the uninsured, cost the United States about $45 billion a year.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services posted information online Thursday on what Medicare pays for 30 common elective procedures and other hospital admissions.
Available to consumers, providers and payers through the HHS Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services -- at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/HealthCareConInit/01_Overview.asp#TopOfPage -- the figures show the range of payments by county and the number of cases treated at each hospital for a variety of therapies provided to seniors and people with disabilities in fiscal year 2005. The data include 30 common elective procedures, including heart operations and implanting cardiac defibrillators; hip and knee replacements; kidney and urinary tract operations; gallbladder operations and back and neck operations, and for common non-surgical admissions.
In addition, CMS said it will post payment information for common elective procedures for ambulatory surgery centers later this summer, and common hospital outpatient and physician services this fall.
"Once people gain better information, they become better consumers of health care and that helps get health-care costs down and quality of care up," HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said. "The federal government is the biggest single purchaser of health care in America, and by taking steps to post prices and quality data, we hope to encourage more insurance companies, hospitals, clinics and doctors to do the same."
World Trade Center Responders' Illnesses Worse Than Expected
Almost five years after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, doctors say they are surprised by the growing number of responders seeking help for the first time -- 100 people a month in the biggest monitoring program -- and by the severity of illnesses among Sept. 11 workers already in treatment, according to a report Thursday in Newsday.
"There's no question there's continuing demand, and many in the treatment program are quite ill," Dr. Robin Herbert, co-director of the World Trade Center Worker and Volunteer Medical Screening Program at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan, told the paper. The program, which has examined about 15,000 responders since 2002, revealed that doctors are finding "remarkable persistence" in breathing disorders such as chronic sinusitis and asthma, stomach ailments such as gastrointestinal reflux disease and psychological problems such as post traumatic stress disorder -- a suite of maladies one survivor called "my 9/11 plague."
Patients also suffered potentially fatal lung scarring and cases of cancer, some of which experts are unwilling to attribute directly to exposure to Ground Zero toxins, the paper said.
Meanwhile, New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas R. Frieden and Dr. John Howard, director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and coordinator for federal World Trade Center health response programs, Thursday urged all 71,000 people enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Registry to participate in the first of several planned follow-up surveys since it was launched in 2003.
Findings drawn from the registry will enable researchers to determine whether any disease patterns exist among registrants. All information given will be kept confidential, officials said.
CDC Reports on Major Trends in U.S. Fight Against HIV/AIDS
With Monday the 25th anniversary of the first documented AIDS cases in the United States, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released a report examining major trends in the nation's HIV/AIDS epidemic over the last quarter-century.
Among the CDC's major findings: Substantial decreases in overall HIV incidence since the late 1980s; reduced HIV transmission due to intravenous drug use; and the near-elimination of mother-to-child HIV transmission. The findings appear in the June 2 issue of the the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Still, the report noted, HIV/AIDS has had a disproportionate impact on racial and ethnic minorities. To build on successes so far, the studies urged that HIV testing and counseling remain cornerstones of HIV prevention, and that targeted prevention programs continue to be expanded for gay men, African-Americans, women, and others at risk for infection. Prevention interventions for the estimated one million HIV-positive Americans are critical, according to the report.
The CDC report said the estimated number of U.S. infants born with HIV declined from a peak of approximately 1,650 in 1991 to fewer than 240 in 2002. The annual number of new AIDS cases increased rapidly through the 1980s (peaking at 77,916 in 1992) but dropped significantly to about 40,000 annually since 1998, due to behavioral risk-reduction and HIV testing programs, screening of the blood supply, and introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy in 1996.
Despite progress, however, the report noted that racial disparities continue to pose a major challenge. From 2001-2004, rates of HIV diagnoses were 8.5 times higher among blacks, and 3.3 times higher among Hispanics, than among whites. The researchers said that a new, nationwide system to estimate HIV incidence will soon enable better targeting of HIV prevention programs for minorities and others at risk of infection.
Acting FDA Chief Quits NCI Post
Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, acting head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said Wednesday that he would resign this month from his other job as director of the National Cancer Institute, a post he had held since 2002, according to the Associated Press.
Von Eschenbach's resignation from the NCI will be effective June 10, according to Christina Pearson, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. John Niederhuber will become acting director of the NCI, Pearson said. Niederhuber is currently NCI's deputy director.
A urology surgeon, von Eschenbach became acting FDA commissioner in September 2005, but his holding of both positions -- one as director of a government institute that helps develop drugs, the other as head of the federal agency that regulates them -- had raised questions of a potential conflict of interest, according to the AP.
Von Eschenbach's Senate confirmation as FDA commissioner remains in limbo over a dispute involving the agency's position on emergency contraceptive pills.
Health-Care Budget Imbalances Cost Employers, Consumers Billions
Imbalances in the U.S. health-care system resulting from tight Medicare and Medicaid budgets are costing employers and consumers billions of dollars more a year, according to a report in The New York Times on several studies examining the issue.
Seattle-based Premera Blue Cross has found an acceleration in higher costs to private payers in Washington state, as hospitals and doctors juggle constraints in the federal insurance programs. Another 2004 California study found that health plans and consumers paid an additional $4.5 billion for hospital care in that state to compensate for Medicaid and Medicare constraints, and other research has come to similar conclusions across the country.
Kenneth E. Thorpe, a health-care economist at Emory University, said that unpaid hospital bills, mostly for the uninsured, cost the United States about $45 billion a year.
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Health Headlines - June 1
Merck Admits Vioxx Data Error
Vioxx-maker Merck & Co. acknowledged Tuesday that it had erred when it reported early last year that a crucial statistical test showed the pain killer caused heart problems only after 18 months of continuous use.
The time issue is critical, because the company has taken the position in court that Vioxx can cause heart problems only if used continuously for more than 18 months, The New York Times reported. Merck had based the 18-month theory largely on data from a clinical trial, called Approve, in which the company tracked 2,600 patients to see whether Vioxx could prevent colon polyps. The company has now acknowledged that the statistical analysis of that test does not support the 18-month theory.
Nevertheless, Merck said it stood by the overall findings it reported in 2005 and published in The New England Journal of Medicine, including its conclusion that Vioxx's heart risks were not apparent if patients took the drug for less than 18 months. Outside scientists, however, said the company's admission, coupled with other clinical trials tracking real-world Vioxx use, supports critics' claims that Vioxx caused heart problems quickly.
An estimated 20 million Americans had taken Vioxx, which was withdrawn from the market in September 2004. Merck still faces more than 11,000 patient lawsuits.
U.N. Chief Chides World Leaders Over AIDS Fight
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned leaders joining a three-day meeting in New York City Wednesday that the world has fallen far short of its promises five years ago to fight HIV/AIDS, and to find new ways to tackle the virus.
The United Nations hopes the high-level meeting on AIDS will bring a surge of new funding, after a report warned that the epidemic continues to spread, efforts to fight AIDS among women and children had failed and that young people still have little understanding of the disease, according to the Associated Press. The report also said that $20 billion will be needed each year to fight AIDS by 2008.
Several heads of state and dozens of government officials will seek to craft a document that charts a course to provide universal access for AIDS prevention and treatment by 2010, the AP reported.
The 25-year-old AIDS epidemic has claimed 25 million lives and shows no signs of slowing down, a United Nations agency reported earlier this week.
FDA Approves Growth Hormone
In a long-awaited decision, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved on Tuesday a new human growth product but stressed that its action doesn't set a precedent for other biological medicines.
Made using recombinant DNA technology, Omnitrope (somatropin) is used to treat growth disorders in children and adults. It is manufactured by Sandoz, a division of Novartis, which first applied for approval of the product in July 2003. The FDA had said it was unable to reach a decision sooner because of scientific and legal issues, and it later held public meetings to discuss the approval process for follow-on products, according to the Associated Press.
Omnitrope is considered a "follow-on" product because it is so similar to other products already approved that previous safety data could be considered in approving the new version. The drug has previously been approved for use in Australia and in Europe.
Patients Taking Blood Thinners Need Extra Help: Survey
Patients taking prescription blood thinners to prevent serious illness -- about 4 million Americans -- require more help managing these volatile medications and show a disconnect between knowledge of safe practices and use, according to survey data released Tuesday by the SOS Rx Coalition.
The results suggest that much more patient education is needed, as well as improved communication among health-care providers, caregivers and patients themselves. The drugs are often difficult to manage, require frequent monitoring, and can interact dangerously with other medications, herbal supplements, vitamins, and foods, the survey authors said.
SOS Rx is a collaborative coalition, put together by the National Consumers League, of more than 80 participating organizations dedicated to promoting outpatient medication safety. The patients' survey was just one of three online pollings within the United States conducted by Harris Interactive with patients, caregivers, and physicians about the use of oral anticoagulants on behalf of the NCL. Complete survey data, including caregivers' and physicians' perspectives, as well as focus group research and background, are available at http://www.mybloodthinner.org.
Indonesian Boy Latest Bird Flu Victim
Bird flu killed a 15-year-old Indonesian boy from the West Java town of Tasikmalaya, a health official confirmed Wednesday.
The latest victim, the third from the province, was rushed to a hospital in the city of Bandung on Monday and died a day later, Hariyadi Wibisono, director of communicable disease control at the Ministry of Health, told the Associated Press. Last week, a 10-year-old girl and her 18-year-old brother who lived in another village died of the disease. Sick and dead birds were reported near their home.
Still puzzled about how the disease spreads so quickly and how wild birds have helped disperse the H5N1 virus, more than 300 scientists and animal experts met in Rome Tuesday to examine these and other questions at a two-day conference organized by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and the Paris-based World Organization for Aniabdo.
Lung Cancer's Gender Differences Under Study
Two new studies are exploring whether estrogen is a key player in how lung cancer acts differently in women than in men and might also be used to fight the No. 1 cancer killer.
One study at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of California, Los Angeles, will test whether women fare better given the anti-estrogen drug Faslodex on top of the lung cancer drug Tarceva. Their research indicates that estrogen may act as a fuel for lung tumors -- just like it does for many breast tumors -- and that blocking estrogen with the same drugs that breast cancer patients use might also work in the lungs, the Associated Press reported.
The other study, involving 600 women around the country, tests an experimental drug called Xyotax that, conversely, may need estrogen to work. Preliminary research shows that some 45 percent of women given Xyotax survived lung cancer for a year, compared with just 25 percent of women given standard drugs or men given either regimen. Women with the most estrogen in their blood fared best.
Expeerts estimate that lung cancer will claim more than 162,000 lives this year, 72,000 of them women -- more than are killed by breast, ovarian, uterine and cervical cancers combined.
Vioxx-maker Merck & Co. acknowledged Tuesday that it had erred when it reported early last year that a crucial statistical test showed the pain killer caused heart problems only after 18 months of continuous use.
The time issue is critical, because the company has taken the position in court that Vioxx can cause heart problems only if used continuously for more than 18 months, The New York Times reported. Merck had based the 18-month theory largely on data from a clinical trial, called Approve, in which the company tracked 2,600 patients to see whether Vioxx could prevent colon polyps. The company has now acknowledged that the statistical analysis of that test does not support the 18-month theory.
Nevertheless, Merck said it stood by the overall findings it reported in 2005 and published in The New England Journal of Medicine, including its conclusion that Vioxx's heart risks were not apparent if patients took the drug for less than 18 months. Outside scientists, however, said the company's admission, coupled with other clinical trials tracking real-world Vioxx use, supports critics' claims that Vioxx caused heart problems quickly.
An estimated 20 million Americans had taken Vioxx, which was withdrawn from the market in September 2004. Merck still faces more than 11,000 patient lawsuits.
U.N. Chief Chides World Leaders Over AIDS Fight
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned leaders joining a three-day meeting in New York City Wednesday that the world has fallen far short of its promises five years ago to fight HIV/AIDS, and to find new ways to tackle the virus.
The United Nations hopes the high-level meeting on AIDS will bring a surge of new funding, after a report warned that the epidemic continues to spread, efforts to fight AIDS among women and children had failed and that young people still have little understanding of the disease, according to the Associated Press. The report also said that $20 billion will be needed each year to fight AIDS by 2008.
Several heads of state and dozens of government officials will seek to craft a document that charts a course to provide universal access for AIDS prevention and treatment by 2010, the AP reported.
The 25-year-old AIDS epidemic has claimed 25 million lives and shows no signs of slowing down, a United Nations agency reported earlier this week.
FDA Approves Growth Hormone
In a long-awaited decision, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved on Tuesday a new human growth product but stressed that its action doesn't set a precedent for other biological medicines.
Made using recombinant DNA technology, Omnitrope (somatropin) is used to treat growth disorders in children and adults. It is manufactured by Sandoz, a division of Novartis, which first applied for approval of the product in July 2003. The FDA had said it was unable to reach a decision sooner because of scientific and legal issues, and it later held public meetings to discuss the approval process for follow-on products, according to the Associated Press.
Omnitrope is considered a "follow-on" product because it is so similar to other products already approved that previous safety data could be considered in approving the new version. The drug has previously been approved for use in Australia and in Europe.
Patients Taking Blood Thinners Need Extra Help: Survey
Patients taking prescription blood thinners to prevent serious illness -- about 4 million Americans -- require more help managing these volatile medications and show a disconnect between knowledge of safe practices and use, according to survey data released Tuesday by the SOS Rx Coalition.
The results suggest that much more patient education is needed, as well as improved communication among health-care providers, caregivers and patients themselves. The drugs are often difficult to manage, require frequent monitoring, and can interact dangerously with other medications, herbal supplements, vitamins, and foods, the survey authors said.
SOS Rx is a collaborative coalition, put together by the National Consumers League, of more than 80 participating organizations dedicated to promoting outpatient medication safety. The patients' survey was just one of three online pollings within the United States conducted by Harris Interactive with patients, caregivers, and physicians about the use of oral anticoagulants on behalf of the NCL. Complete survey data, including caregivers' and physicians' perspectives, as well as focus group research and background, are available at http://www.mybloodthinner.org.
Indonesian Boy Latest Bird Flu Victim
Bird flu killed a 15-year-old Indonesian boy from the West Java town of Tasikmalaya, a health official confirmed Wednesday.
The latest victim, the third from the province, was rushed to a hospital in the city of Bandung on Monday and died a day later, Hariyadi Wibisono, director of communicable disease control at the Ministry of Health, told the Associated Press. Last week, a 10-year-old girl and her 18-year-old brother who lived in another village died of the disease. Sick and dead birds were reported near their home.
Still puzzled about how the disease spreads so quickly and how wild birds have helped disperse the H5N1 virus, more than 300 scientists and animal experts met in Rome Tuesday to examine these and other questions at a two-day conference organized by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and the Paris-based World Organization for Aniabdo.
Lung Cancer's Gender Differences Under Study
Two new studies are exploring whether estrogen is a key player in how lung cancer acts differently in women than in men and might also be used to fight the No. 1 cancer killer.
One study at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of California, Los Angeles, will test whether women fare better given the anti-estrogen drug Faslodex on top of the lung cancer drug Tarceva. Their research indicates that estrogen may act as a fuel for lung tumors -- just like it does for many breast tumors -- and that blocking estrogen with the same drugs that breast cancer patients use might also work in the lungs, the Associated Press reported.
The other study, involving 600 women around the country, tests an experimental drug called Xyotax that, conversely, may need estrogen to work. Preliminary research shows that some 45 percent of women given Xyotax survived lung cancer for a year, compared with just 25 percent of women given standard drugs or men given either regimen. Women with the most estrogen in their blood fared best.
Expeerts estimate that lung cancer will claim more than 162,000 lives this year, 72,000 of them women -- more than are killed by breast, ovarian, uterine and cervical cancers combined.
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