1st Cases of Bird Flu From Wild Fowl Documented
Four people from Azerbaijan are the first confirmed cases of bird flu being passed from wild fowl, Britain's The Guardian newspaper reported Monday.
The four victims died after they plucked the feathers from dead swans to sell for pillows, the newspaper said. Three other people were infected the same way but survived.
Most of the 220 other documented cases of bird flu have been transmitted to people via infected domestic birds, the newspaper said. A few are believed to have acquired the deadly H5N1 strain from other people.
The Azerbaijani cases were first reported in March, but were only recently confirmed. Six of the seven victims, all between ages 10 and 20, were from the same family. Hunting and harvesting wild birds is illegal in Azerbaijan, and surviving family members finally conceded to plucking the feathers from the dead birds, The Guardian said.
1 Million Chocolate Bars Recalled for Salmonella
British candymaker Cadbury Schweppes says despite the recall of 1 million chocolate bars for possible salmonella contamination, the rest of its candy remains safe, the Associated Press reported Monday.
The company said a batch of chocolate used to make the bars had been contaminated with waste water from a leaky pipe at a factory in Marlbrook, England, in January. The products were recalled as a precaution, the company said, despite tests that found only "minute traces" of bacteria, the AP reported.
The British government said it was investigating why Cadbury didn't alert authorities earlier, the wire service said.
A spokesman for Cadbury, the world's largest confectionary company, said, "Our products are perfectly safe. We'd gone through our rigorous testing process."
Britain's Health Protection Agency told the wire service it was too early to determine whether the contamination might be linked to 45 cases of a rare strain of salmonella reported in Britain over the past four months.
Digital Handheld Device Helps Blind People 'Read'
A new electronic device that combines a personal digital assistant and a digital camera promises to help blind people to understand everything from menus to cooking instructions, the Associated Press reported Monday.
"It's not quite like having a pair of eyes that work, but it's headed in that direction," James Gashel, executive director at the National Federation of the Blind, told the wire service.
Users position the reader over a document, taking a snapshot of the text. The image is then read by the handheld's synthetic voice.
The device, developed by inventor Ray Kurzweil, has been dubbed the Kurzweil-National Federation of the Blind Reader. It's set to go on sale Saturday for about $3,500, the AP said.
Gashel labeled the technology the biggest breakthrough for the 10 million blind and visually impaired people in the United States in three decades. He calls it "the camera that talks."
New Test May Offer Alzheimer's Insights
U.S. researchers hope to answer an important and long-vexing question about the origins of Alzheimer's disease: Do patients with the condition have high levels of a brain protein because they make too much of it or because they can't clear it from their brains fast enough?
Scientists at the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis say they have developed the first safe and sensitive way to monitor the production and clearance rates of amyloid beta peptide (Abeta) in the human central nervous system. The new testing process could open an important window into the origin of Alzheimer's disease that, in addition to helping scientists better understand the source of the condition, will likely help them improve its diagnosis and treatment, the researchers said.
High levels of Abeta in the brain are a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease and are believed to be a key cause of the condition. Tests that measure Abeta levels in the cerebrospinal fluid have been available for some time. However, those tests gave no hint as to whether Abeta in patients' brains came from an increase in the mechanisms that make the protein or a reduction in the processes that regularly clear it from the brain, the researchers said.
Because Alzheimer's symptoms take many years to develop, some researchers had assumed the creation and clearance rates for Abeta were very slow. But the initial test of the new technique, applied to six healthy volunteers, suggests the opposite.
"Abeta has the second-fastest production rate of any protein whose production rate has been measured so far," says lead author Dr. Randall Bateman, assistant professor of neurology at the school. "In a time span of about six or seven hours, you make half the amyloid beta found in your central nervous system."
Ideally, the production and clearance rates stay balanced, causing the overall amount of Abeta in the central nervous system to remain constant. In the healthy volunteers who were the first test subjects, Bateman found the production and clearance rates were the same. He is now applying the technique to individuals with Alzheimer's disease.
Researchers are developing Alzheimer's drugs that either decrease Abeta production or increase its clearance, Bateman said, and the new test could be important in determining which approach is most effective.
The test also may be useful in the diagnosis of Alzheimer's prior to the onset of symptoms, which appear after the disease has inflicted widespread and largely irreversible damage to the brain.
The study appears online June 25 in the journal Nature Medicine.
HIV Drug Approved for Those Not Responding to Existing Drugs
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved Prezista (darunavir), a new drug for adults whose HIV infection hasn't responded to treatment with other antiretroviral drugs.
Prezista, a new protease inhibitor, is approved to be used with a low-dose of ritonavir and other active anti-HIV agents. Ritonavir, a protease inhibitor approved in 1996, slows the breakdown of Prezista in the body, increasing the concentration of Prezista in the patient's system, the FDA said.
HIV causes AIDS, which results in more than 15,000 premature deaths each year in the United States and more than 2.8 million deaths each year worldwide.
"This approval offers new hope to HIV patients who too often urgently need new therapies in order to maintain their health," said Dr. Andrew C. von Eschenbach, acting FDA commissioner. "This drug is not a cure, but when combined with other standard therapies, it presents one more major step in our effort to help patients combat the effects of the disease."
Monday, June 26, 2006
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Health Headlines - June 25
New Test May Offer Alzheimer's Insights
U.S. researchers hope to answer an important and long-vexing question about the origins of Alzheimer's disease: Do patients with the condition have high levels of a brain protein because they make too much of it or because they can't clear it from their brains fast enough?
Scientists at the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis say they have developed the first safe and sensitive way to monitor the production and clearance rates of amyloid beta peptide (Abeta) in the human central nervous system. The new testing process could open an important window into the origin of Alzheimer's disease that, in addition to helping scientists better understand the source of the condition, will likely help them improve its diagnosis and treatment, the researchers said.
High levels of Abeta in the brain are a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease and are believed to be a key cause of the condition. Tests that measure Abeta levels in the cerebrospinal fluid have been available for some time. However, those tests gave no hint as to whether Abeta in patients' brains came from an increase in the mechanisms that make the protein or a reduction in the processes that regularly clear it from the brain, the researchers said.
Because Alzheimer's symptoms take many years to develop, some researchers had assumed the creation and clearance rates for Abeta were very slow. But the initial test of the new technique, applied to six healthy volunteers, suggests the opposite.
"Abeta has the second-fastest production rate of any protein whose production rate has been measured so far," says lead author Dr. Randall Bateman, assistant professor of neurology at the school. "In a time span of about six or seven hours, you make half the amyloid beta found in your central nervous system."
Ideally, the production and clearance rates stay balanced, causing the overall amount of Abeta in the central nervous system to remain constant. In the healthy volunteers who were the first test subjects, Bateman found the production and clearance rates were the same. He is now applying the technique to individuals with Alzheimer's disease.
Researchers are developing Alzheimer's drugs that either decrease Abeta production or increase its clearance, Bateman said, and the new test could be important in determining which approach is most effective.
The test also may be useful in the diagnosis of Alzheimer's prior to the onset of symptoms, which appear after the disease has inflicted widespread and largely irreversible damage to the brain.
The study appears online June 25 in the journal Nature Medicine.
HIV Drug Approved for Those Not Responding to Existing Drugs
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved Prezista (darunavir), a new drug for adults whose HIV infection hasn't responded to treatment with other antiretroviral drugs.
Prezista, a new protease inhibitor, is approved to be used with a low-dose of ritonavir and other active anti-HIV agents. Ritonavir, a protease inhibitor approved in 1996, slows the breakdown of Prezista in the body, increasing the concentration of Prezista in the patient's system, the FDA said.
HIV causes AIDS, which results in more than 15,000 premature deaths each year in the United States and more than 2.8 million deaths each year worldwide.
"This approval offers new hope to HIV patients who too often urgently need new therapies in order to maintain their health," said Dr. Andrew C. von Eschenbach, acting FDA commissioner. "This drug is not a cure, but when combined with other standard therapies, it presents one more major step in our effort to help patients combat the effects of the disease."
Losing Weight Helps People With Osteoarthritis
Patients with knee osteoarthritis who lose weight are significantly less disabled and are better able to manage pain, a new study found.
"Weight-reduction therapy in overweight osteoarthritic patients is a very appealing goal, both with regards to disease specific pain and disability reduction as well as for overall health benefits such as cardiovascular risk reduction" said study author Robin Christensen, of The Parker Institute, HS Frederiksberg Hospital, in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The findings were presented Saturday at the 2006 European League Against Rheumatism Congress, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Osteoarthritis is the most common form of joint disease, and is often associated with significant disability and an impaired quality of life. A number of studies had suggested a relationship between weight loss and health gains in patients with knee osteoarthritis. This led the Danish researchers to launch a "meta-analysis" of existing research to see if weight loss really did offer health gains.
The researchers reviewed 23 clinical trials. Their conclusion: The evidence shows that osteoarthritis patients will experience at least a "moderate clinical effect in their physical disability (ES>0.5) with a moderate dietary regime following more than 7.6 percent weight reduction.
"A 10 percent reduction in body weight results in a moderate-to-large improvement in self reported physical disability," Christensen said.
Rheumatoid Arthritis Diminishes Patients' Sex Lives
One-third of patients with rheumatoid arthritis feel their condition has a "considerably" negative influence on their sex lives, new research finds.
"Today's findings indicate the need for increased attention on the effect of rheumatoid arthritis on sexual activity as well as reveal that sexual problems should be addressed as part of the general health care given to RA patients," said Ylva Helland, department of rheumatology at Diakonhjemmet Hospital in Oslo, Norway.
The findings were presented Saturday at the 2006 European League Against Rheumatism Congress, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
The study found that 31 percent of RA patients reported that the disease had no impact on sexual activity, with another 38 percent saying it had "little" impact. But, 21 percent said their condition had considerable impact on their sex lives, and 10 percent said RA made sexual activity either almost or totally impossible.
Compared to the female patients, men were more likely to report a significant impact on their sexual activity.
Human Bird-Flu Transmission Confirmed in Indonesian Cluster
The first case of human-to-human transmission of the bird flu virus has been confirmed in laboratory tests of samples taken from a 10-year-old Indonesian boy who died last month from the H5N1 avian influenza strain, a World Health Organization official said Friday.
Genetic sequencing of a virus sample taken from the boy showed a minute change that was also found in a sample taken from his father, who also later died, said Dick Thompson, a spokesman for the United Nations health agency in Geneva, Switzerland. Human-to-human transmission had been suspected as the cause of the infection in seven members of a family of eight from the island of Sumatra.
The Sumatran cluster attracted international attention because it represented the largest reported instance of bird-flu spread among people and the first evidence of a three-person chain of infection.
U.S. researchers hope to answer an important and long-vexing question about the origins of Alzheimer's disease: Do patients with the condition have high levels of a brain protein because they make too much of it or because they can't clear it from their brains fast enough?
Scientists at the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis say they have developed the first safe and sensitive way to monitor the production and clearance rates of amyloid beta peptide (Abeta) in the human central nervous system. The new testing process could open an important window into the origin of Alzheimer's disease that, in addition to helping scientists better understand the source of the condition, will likely help them improve its diagnosis and treatment, the researchers said.
High levels of Abeta in the brain are a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease and are believed to be a key cause of the condition. Tests that measure Abeta levels in the cerebrospinal fluid have been available for some time. However, those tests gave no hint as to whether Abeta in patients' brains came from an increase in the mechanisms that make the protein or a reduction in the processes that regularly clear it from the brain, the researchers said.
Because Alzheimer's symptoms take many years to develop, some researchers had assumed the creation and clearance rates for Abeta were very slow. But the initial test of the new technique, applied to six healthy volunteers, suggests the opposite.
"Abeta has the second-fastest production rate of any protein whose production rate has been measured so far," says lead author Dr. Randall Bateman, assistant professor of neurology at the school. "In a time span of about six or seven hours, you make half the amyloid beta found in your central nervous system."
Ideally, the production and clearance rates stay balanced, causing the overall amount of Abeta in the central nervous system to remain constant. In the healthy volunteers who were the first test subjects, Bateman found the production and clearance rates were the same. He is now applying the technique to individuals with Alzheimer's disease.
Researchers are developing Alzheimer's drugs that either decrease Abeta production or increase its clearance, Bateman said, and the new test could be important in determining which approach is most effective.
The test also may be useful in the diagnosis of Alzheimer's prior to the onset of symptoms, which appear after the disease has inflicted widespread and largely irreversible damage to the brain.
The study appears online June 25 in the journal Nature Medicine.
HIV Drug Approved for Those Not Responding to Existing Drugs
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved Prezista (darunavir), a new drug for adults whose HIV infection hasn't responded to treatment with other antiretroviral drugs.
Prezista, a new protease inhibitor, is approved to be used with a low-dose of ritonavir and other active anti-HIV agents. Ritonavir, a protease inhibitor approved in 1996, slows the breakdown of Prezista in the body, increasing the concentration of Prezista in the patient's system, the FDA said.
HIV causes AIDS, which results in more than 15,000 premature deaths each year in the United States and more than 2.8 million deaths each year worldwide.
"This approval offers new hope to HIV patients who too often urgently need new therapies in order to maintain their health," said Dr. Andrew C. von Eschenbach, acting FDA commissioner. "This drug is not a cure, but when combined with other standard therapies, it presents one more major step in our effort to help patients combat the effects of the disease."
Losing Weight Helps People With Osteoarthritis
Patients with knee osteoarthritis who lose weight are significantly less disabled and are better able to manage pain, a new study found.
"Weight-reduction therapy in overweight osteoarthritic patients is a very appealing goal, both with regards to disease specific pain and disability reduction as well as for overall health benefits such as cardiovascular risk reduction" said study author Robin Christensen, of The Parker Institute, HS Frederiksberg Hospital, in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The findings were presented Saturday at the 2006 European League Against Rheumatism Congress, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Osteoarthritis is the most common form of joint disease, and is often associated with significant disability and an impaired quality of life. A number of studies had suggested a relationship between weight loss and health gains in patients with knee osteoarthritis. This led the Danish researchers to launch a "meta-analysis" of existing research to see if weight loss really did offer health gains.
The researchers reviewed 23 clinical trials. Their conclusion: The evidence shows that osteoarthritis patients will experience at least a "moderate clinical effect in their physical disability (ES>0.5) with a moderate dietary regime following more than 7.6 percent weight reduction.
"A 10 percent reduction in body weight results in a moderate-to-large improvement in self reported physical disability," Christensen said.
Rheumatoid Arthritis Diminishes Patients' Sex Lives
One-third of patients with rheumatoid arthritis feel their condition has a "considerably" negative influence on their sex lives, new research finds.
"Today's findings indicate the need for increased attention on the effect of rheumatoid arthritis on sexual activity as well as reveal that sexual problems should be addressed as part of the general health care given to RA patients," said Ylva Helland, department of rheumatology at Diakonhjemmet Hospital in Oslo, Norway.
The findings were presented Saturday at the 2006 European League Against Rheumatism Congress, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
The study found that 31 percent of RA patients reported that the disease had no impact on sexual activity, with another 38 percent saying it had "little" impact. But, 21 percent said their condition had considerable impact on their sex lives, and 10 percent said RA made sexual activity either almost or totally impossible.
Compared to the female patients, men were more likely to report a significant impact on their sexual activity.
Human Bird-Flu Transmission Confirmed in Indonesian Cluster
The first case of human-to-human transmission of the bird flu virus has been confirmed in laboratory tests of samples taken from a 10-year-old Indonesian boy who died last month from the H5N1 avian influenza strain, a World Health Organization official said Friday.
Genetic sequencing of a virus sample taken from the boy showed a minute change that was also found in a sample taken from his father, who also later died, said Dick Thompson, a spokesman for the United Nations health agency in Geneva, Switzerland. Human-to-human transmission had been suspected as the cause of the infection in seven members of a family of eight from the island of Sumatra.
The Sumatran cluster attracted international attention because it represented the largest reported instance of bird-flu spread among people and the first evidence of a three-person chain of infection.
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Health Headlines - June 24
HIV Drug Approved for Those Not Responding to Existing Drugs
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved Prezista (darunavir), a new drug for adults whose HIV infection hasn't responded to treatment with other antiretroviral drugs.
Prezista, a new protease inhibitor, is approved to be used with a low-dose of ritonavir and other active anti-HIV agents. Ritonavir, a protease inhibitor approved in 1996, slows the breakdown of Prezista in the body, increasing the concentration of Prezista in the patient's system, the FDA said.
HIV causes AIDS, which results in more than 15,000 premature deaths each year in the United States and more than 2.8 million deaths each year worldwide.
"This approval offers new hope to HIV patients who too often urgently need new therapies in order to maintain their health," said Dr. Andrew C. von Eschenbach, acting FDA commissioner. "This drug is not a cure, but when combined with other standard therapies, it presents one more major step in our effort to help patients combat the effects of the disease."
The most common side effects of the Prezista-ritonavir regimen include diarrhea, nausea and headache. The risks and benefits of Prezista have not been established for adults who have not been previously treated for HIV, or for children, the FDA said.
Rheumatoid Arthritis Diminishes Patients' Sex Lives
One-third of patients with rheumatoid arthritis feel their condition has a "considerably" negative influence on their sex lives, new research finds.
"Today's findings indicate the need for increased attention on the effect of rheumatoid arthritis on sexual activity as well as reveal that sexual problems should be addressed as part of the general health care given to RA patients," said Ylva Helland, department of rheumatology at Diakonhjemmet Hospital in Oslo, Norway.
The findings were presented Saturday at the 2006 European League Against Rheumatism Congress, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
The study found that 31 percent of RA patients reported that the disease had no impact on sexual activity, with another 38 percent saying it had "little" impact. But, 21 percent said their condition had considerable impact on their sex lives, and 10 percent said RA made sexual activity either almost or totally impossible.
Compared to the female patients, men were more likely to report a significant impact on their sexual activity.
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic disease characterized by inflammation of the lining of the joints. It can produce long-term joint damage, resulting in chronic pain, loss of function and disability, according to the Arthritis Foundation.
Human Bird-Flu Transmission Confirmed in Indonesian Cluster
The first case of human-to-human transmission of the bird flu virus has been confirmed in laboratory tests of samples taken from a 10-year-old Indonesian boy who died last month from the H5N1 avian influenza strain, a World Health Organization official said Friday.
Genetic sequencing of a virus sample taken from the boy showed a minute change that was also found in a sample taken from his father, who also later died, said Dick Thompson, a spokesman for the United Nations health agency in Geneva, Switzerland. Human-to-human transmission had been suspected as the cause of the infection in seven members of a family of eight from the island of Sumatra.
"We have seen a genetic change that confirms in a laboratory that the virus has moved from one human to another," Thompson told Bloomberg News. The change in the virus "doesn't seem to have any significance in terms of the pathology of the disease or how easily it's transmitted,' he said.
The Sumatran cluster attracted international attention because it represented the largest reported instance of bird-flu spread among people and the first evidence of a three-person chain of infection.
A 37-year-old woman suspected of being the first family member to die was buried before samples were taken. She reportedly mixed fowl manure with soil with her bare hands to fertilize her garden.
The woman's 10-year-old nephew, an 18-month-old niece, two teenage sons and a 29-year-old sister became sick between May 2 and May 4, and later died after having close contact with the woman during her illness, Bloomberg said. A 25-year-old brother was also infected but survived.
The New York Times reported that the first five family members to fall ill had identical strains of H5N1, but the virus had mutated slightly in the sixth victim, the 10-year-old boy, who passed it to his father. That mutation allowed the lab to confirm the route of transmission.
World health officials said there was no evidence that the mutated virus is any better adapted to human infection than before. In fact, the WHO has been following 54 neighbors and family members who lived near the family for a month, and none has contracted the virus, the newspaper said.
At least 130 of the 228 people known to be infected with bird flu since 2003 have died, according to the WHO. World health officials are tracking the spread of the virus in the event it becomes more adept at infecting people.
FDA Approves Generic Version of Zocor
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration Friday approved the first generic version of Zocor, Merck & Co.'s popular cholesterol-lowering statin drug whose patent protection expires at midnight.
The FDA decision capped a difficult week for Merck, since Zocor generated $3.1 billion in sales in the United States and $4.4 billion worldwide last year for the firm. But Zocor's patent expiration also could mean fewer profits at drug maker Pfizer Inc., whose rival cholesterol drug, Lipitor, is the world's most popular medicine, with global sales last year of $12 billion. Lipitor's patent runs until 2011.
Stains drugs accounted for $16 billion in U.S. sales in 2005. Simvastatin (Zocor) is recommended for use with a diet restricted in saturated fat to treat high cholesterol and to reduce triglycerides and other fatty substances in the blood , the FDA said.
"Simvastatin is a widely used cholesterol lowering agent, and its generic version can bring significant savings to the millions of Americans with this disease," Gary J. Buehler, director of FDA's Office of Generic Drugs, said in a prepared statement.
Zocor has sold for about $3 a daily pill. As a result of the patent expiration, simvastatin's cost could drop 30 percent or more in the next few days, and by as much as 90 percent next year, to about 30 cents a pill, according to The New York Times.
In addition to approving simvastatin, the FDA approved three other generics this week:
* Finasteride tablets, 1 mg (Propecia), for the treatment of mild to moderate male pattern hair loss in men between 18 and 41 years of age.
* Finasteride tablets, 5 mg, (Proscar), for the treatment of benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) in men with an enlarged prostate to improve symptoms by reducing the size of the prostate.
* Lamotrigine tablets (chewable), 5 mg and 25 mg (Lamictal), as therapy for treating patients with seizures due to epilepsy.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved Prezista (darunavir), a new drug for adults whose HIV infection hasn't responded to treatment with other antiretroviral drugs.
Prezista, a new protease inhibitor, is approved to be used with a low-dose of ritonavir and other active anti-HIV agents. Ritonavir, a protease inhibitor approved in 1996, slows the breakdown of Prezista in the body, increasing the concentration of Prezista in the patient's system, the FDA said.
HIV causes AIDS, which results in more than 15,000 premature deaths each year in the United States and more than 2.8 million deaths each year worldwide.
"This approval offers new hope to HIV patients who too often urgently need new therapies in order to maintain their health," said Dr. Andrew C. von Eschenbach, acting FDA commissioner. "This drug is not a cure, but when combined with other standard therapies, it presents one more major step in our effort to help patients combat the effects of the disease."
The most common side effects of the Prezista-ritonavir regimen include diarrhea, nausea and headache. The risks and benefits of Prezista have not been established for adults who have not been previously treated for HIV, or for children, the FDA said.
Rheumatoid Arthritis Diminishes Patients' Sex Lives
One-third of patients with rheumatoid arthritis feel their condition has a "considerably" negative influence on their sex lives, new research finds.
"Today's findings indicate the need for increased attention on the effect of rheumatoid arthritis on sexual activity as well as reveal that sexual problems should be addressed as part of the general health care given to RA patients," said Ylva Helland, department of rheumatology at Diakonhjemmet Hospital in Oslo, Norway.
The findings were presented Saturday at the 2006 European League Against Rheumatism Congress, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
The study found that 31 percent of RA patients reported that the disease had no impact on sexual activity, with another 38 percent saying it had "little" impact. But, 21 percent said their condition had considerable impact on their sex lives, and 10 percent said RA made sexual activity either almost or totally impossible.
Compared to the female patients, men were more likely to report a significant impact on their sexual activity.
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic disease characterized by inflammation of the lining of the joints. It can produce long-term joint damage, resulting in chronic pain, loss of function and disability, according to the Arthritis Foundation.
Human Bird-Flu Transmission Confirmed in Indonesian Cluster
The first case of human-to-human transmission of the bird flu virus has been confirmed in laboratory tests of samples taken from a 10-year-old Indonesian boy who died last month from the H5N1 avian influenza strain, a World Health Organization official said Friday.
Genetic sequencing of a virus sample taken from the boy showed a minute change that was also found in a sample taken from his father, who also later died, said Dick Thompson, a spokesman for the United Nations health agency in Geneva, Switzerland. Human-to-human transmission had been suspected as the cause of the infection in seven members of a family of eight from the island of Sumatra.
"We have seen a genetic change that confirms in a laboratory that the virus has moved from one human to another," Thompson told Bloomberg News. The change in the virus "doesn't seem to have any significance in terms of the pathology of the disease or how easily it's transmitted,' he said.
The Sumatran cluster attracted international attention because it represented the largest reported instance of bird-flu spread among people and the first evidence of a three-person chain of infection.
A 37-year-old woman suspected of being the first family member to die was buried before samples were taken. She reportedly mixed fowl manure with soil with her bare hands to fertilize her garden.
The woman's 10-year-old nephew, an 18-month-old niece, two teenage sons and a 29-year-old sister became sick between May 2 and May 4, and later died after having close contact with the woman during her illness, Bloomberg said. A 25-year-old brother was also infected but survived.
The New York Times reported that the first five family members to fall ill had identical strains of H5N1, but the virus had mutated slightly in the sixth victim, the 10-year-old boy, who passed it to his father. That mutation allowed the lab to confirm the route of transmission.
World health officials said there was no evidence that the mutated virus is any better adapted to human infection than before. In fact, the WHO has been following 54 neighbors and family members who lived near the family for a month, and none has contracted the virus, the newspaper said.
At least 130 of the 228 people known to be infected with bird flu since 2003 have died, according to the WHO. World health officials are tracking the spread of the virus in the event it becomes more adept at infecting people.
FDA Approves Generic Version of Zocor
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration Friday approved the first generic version of Zocor, Merck & Co.'s popular cholesterol-lowering statin drug whose patent protection expires at midnight.
The FDA decision capped a difficult week for Merck, since Zocor generated $3.1 billion in sales in the United States and $4.4 billion worldwide last year for the firm. But Zocor's patent expiration also could mean fewer profits at drug maker Pfizer Inc., whose rival cholesterol drug, Lipitor, is the world's most popular medicine, with global sales last year of $12 billion. Lipitor's patent runs until 2011.
Stains drugs accounted for $16 billion in U.S. sales in 2005. Simvastatin (Zocor) is recommended for use with a diet restricted in saturated fat to treat high cholesterol and to reduce triglycerides and other fatty substances in the blood , the FDA said.
"Simvastatin is a widely used cholesterol lowering agent, and its generic version can bring significant savings to the millions of Americans with this disease," Gary J. Buehler, director of FDA's Office of Generic Drugs, said in a prepared statement.
Zocor has sold for about $3 a daily pill. As a result of the patent expiration, simvastatin's cost could drop 30 percent or more in the next few days, and by as much as 90 percent next year, to about 30 cents a pill, according to The New York Times.
In addition to approving simvastatin, the FDA approved three other generics this week:
* Finasteride tablets, 1 mg (Propecia), for the treatment of mild to moderate male pattern hair loss in men between 18 and 41 years of age.
* Finasteride tablets, 5 mg, (Proscar), for the treatment of benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) in men with an enlarged prostate to improve symptoms by reducing the size of the prostate.
* Lamotrigine tablets (chewable), 5 mg and 25 mg (Lamictal), as therapy for treating patients with seizures due to epilepsy.
Friday, June 23, 2006
Health Headlines - June 23
WHO: Bird flu virus mutated in Indonesia
A World Health Organization investigation showed that the H5N1 virus mutated in an Indonesian family cluster on Sumatra island, but bird flu experts insisted Friday it did not increase the possibility of a human pandemic.
The virus that infected eight members of a family last month — killing seven of them — appears to have slightly mutated in a 10-year-old boy, who is suspected of having passed the virus to his father, the WHO investigative report said.
It is the first evidence of possible human-to-human transmission of the H5N1 virus, said Tim Uyeki, an epidemiologist from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He added that the virus died with the father and did not pass outside the family.
"It stopped. It was dead end at that point," he said, stressing that viruses are always slightly changing and there was no reason to raise alarm bells.
The findings appeared in a report obtained by The Associated Press that was distributed at a closed meeting in Jakarta attended by some of the world's top bird flu experts.
The three-day session that wraps up Friday was convened after Indonesia asked for international help checking the virus, which has killed 39 people there.
Experts fear the virus will mutate into a form that spreads easily among people, potentially starting a pandemic. So far, it remains hard for people to catch, and most human cases have been traced to contact with infected birds.
WHO concluded in its report that human-to-human transmission likely occurred among seven relatives infected with the H5N1 virus in a remote farming village on Sumatra island. An eighth family member who was buried before specimens could be taken is believed to have been infected by poultry, a WHO report said.
Despite the virus' slight mutation in the father and son, Uyeki insisted that an analysis suggested there was "nothing remarkable about these viruses."
Bird flu has killed at least 130 people worldwide since it began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003.
Older Transfused Blood May Raise Risks After Surgery
When it comes to blood transfused during surgery into very sick heart patients, newer may be better, researchers report.
"High-risk patients who received older blood were more likely to die after cardiac surgery," said lead investigator Dr. Elliot Bennett-Guerrero, director of perioperative clinical research at the Duke University Medical Center.
Specifically, repeat bypass patients who received the "freshest" blood during their operation (stored for one to 19 days) had a 4 percent in-hospital death rate, compared to a 25 percent rate in similar patients receiving the "oldest" blood (stored for 31 to 42 days). U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations prohibit the use of blood stored for more than 42 days.
The study authors and others stressed that blood transfusion is often absolutely necessary to save lives. They also noted that for healthier patients requiring fewer units of blood, any increase in risk from receiving older blood would probably be minimal.
The study appears in the July issue of Analgesia & Anesthesia.
Each year, Americans receive more than 12 million units of potentially life-saving blood, with more than 2 million units used in cardiovascular surgeries, according to data included in the study.
Whether or not the amount of time blood has spent in storage can affect the recipient's health "has been an age-old question in transfusion medicine," Bennett-Guerrero said.
In the new study, the Duke team took a retrospective look at the medical files of 321 patients who underwent repeat, open-heart surgeries for either coronary artery bypass or valve replacement between 1995 and 2001. The patients received a relatively large amount of donated blood -- an average of 5 units -- during these procedures.
The researchers tracked the patients' incidence of in-hospital and long-term mortality, as well as post-surgical complications such as kidney failure. They compared the rate of those types of outcomes to the number of units and age of the blood each patient received.
In-hospital death rates rose along with the age of blood received, the study found, as did hospital length-of-stay -- an average of 3.5 days for those receiving freshest blood vs. seven days for those getting older units.
Patients who received older blood also had higher rates of death in the eight years after their surgery, the researchers noted. According to Bennett-Guerrero, that's probably due to the long-term consequences of complications sustained just after surgery (for example, kidney failure) that may have been triggered -- at least in part -- by the use of older transfused blood.
Why might blood stored closer to the 42-day maximum be less healthy than "younger" blood?
"One of the theories is that as red blood cells age during storage, they become stiffer," Bennett-Guerrero said. "There's lots of evidence that these stiffer red blood cells may not deliver oxygen as efficiently. Or, they may even clot up or get stuck in organs and cause those organs to become damaged."
One blood expert called the study "commendable" but urged caution in interpreting the results.
"This paper is provocative, but it's a retrospective study with lots of confounding factors," said Dr. Richard Benjamin, chief medical officer of the American Red Cross. "We need to do a randomized, prospective trial to see if what we think we are seeing here is real."
Benjamin noted that the study focused on the very sickest type of patients, whose surgeries required very large amount of blood. The average "low-risk" patient might require just one or two units, he said.
"Remember, the more blood that you get, the more likely you are to get at least one old unit," Benjamin said. He added that the patients in the Duke study were already fragile; it's likely that healthier individuals wouldn't be at any significant risk from receiving a unit of older blood. "The danger [to that group] is infinitesimally small," Benjamin said.
And he said that, until supplies of donated blood increase, the only alternative is for patients is to receive "no blood at all."
"Our difficulty at the Red Cross is that we'd love to give everyone fresh blood -- there's no question about that," Benjamin said. "But we can't because there just isn't enough of it. So, we have to keep it on the shelf for a while. If we restricted its use to fresh blood only, a lot of people wouldn't get transfused, and they'd die."
Bennett-Guerrero agreed that a larger, prospective trial is needed, and said his team is applying for a U.S. National Institutes of Health grant to conduct just such a trial. If the results of that trial are similar to those found in the retrospective study, they may point to a need for more selective rationing of fresher blood to specific patients on a case-by-case basis, he said.
Bennett-Guerrero also seconded the notion that older, sicker patients may be at highest risk from receiving older blood.
"If you look at patients who are doing really well, maybe at lower risk for surgical procedures, my guess is that in that setting, it doesn't matter whether they even receive the blood or not, or whether the blood is older," he said. "But if you take someone who is 80 years old with complex heart surgery, who's already at high risk of developing complications, it may be a factor that puts them over the edge."
Health Tip: Heat Stroke? Get Help!
Heat stroke occurs when the body is not able to cool itself to a safe temperature. It usually happens when a person is exposed for too long to the sun, without proper shade, cooling and hydration.
The very young and the very old are most sensitive to heat and most likely to develop heat stroke, as are people who work outside and those taking certain medications, the University of Maryland Medical Center says.
Heat stroke is typically characterized by flushed, hot and dry skin. Other symptoms can include dizziness, headache, confusion, fatigue, seizure, and loss of consciousness.
Someone with heat stroke should receive professional medical attention. A heat stroke victim should be brought inside out of the sun and cooled down immediately. The skin should be wiped down with cool water and fanned to bring the body temperature down. Ice packs should be applied to the groin and armpits, and the patient should rest in a cool place with the feet slightly elevated.
Doctors often treat heat stroke victims with intravenous fluids. Bed rest is usually recommended.
A World Health Organization investigation showed that the H5N1 virus mutated in an Indonesian family cluster on Sumatra island, but bird flu experts insisted Friday it did not increase the possibility of a human pandemic.
The virus that infected eight members of a family last month — killing seven of them — appears to have slightly mutated in a 10-year-old boy, who is suspected of having passed the virus to his father, the WHO investigative report said.
It is the first evidence of possible human-to-human transmission of the H5N1 virus, said Tim Uyeki, an epidemiologist from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He added that the virus died with the father and did not pass outside the family.
"It stopped. It was dead end at that point," he said, stressing that viruses are always slightly changing and there was no reason to raise alarm bells.
The findings appeared in a report obtained by The Associated Press that was distributed at a closed meeting in Jakarta attended by some of the world's top bird flu experts.
The three-day session that wraps up Friday was convened after Indonesia asked for international help checking the virus, which has killed 39 people there.
Experts fear the virus will mutate into a form that spreads easily among people, potentially starting a pandemic. So far, it remains hard for people to catch, and most human cases have been traced to contact with infected birds.
WHO concluded in its report that human-to-human transmission likely occurred among seven relatives infected with the H5N1 virus in a remote farming village on Sumatra island. An eighth family member who was buried before specimens could be taken is believed to have been infected by poultry, a WHO report said.
Despite the virus' slight mutation in the father and son, Uyeki insisted that an analysis suggested there was "nothing remarkable about these viruses."
Bird flu has killed at least 130 people worldwide since it began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003.
Older Transfused Blood May Raise Risks After Surgery
When it comes to blood transfused during surgery into very sick heart patients, newer may be better, researchers report.
"High-risk patients who received older blood were more likely to die after cardiac surgery," said lead investigator Dr. Elliot Bennett-Guerrero, director of perioperative clinical research at the Duke University Medical Center.
Specifically, repeat bypass patients who received the "freshest" blood during their operation (stored for one to 19 days) had a 4 percent in-hospital death rate, compared to a 25 percent rate in similar patients receiving the "oldest" blood (stored for 31 to 42 days). U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations prohibit the use of blood stored for more than 42 days.
The study authors and others stressed that blood transfusion is often absolutely necessary to save lives. They also noted that for healthier patients requiring fewer units of blood, any increase in risk from receiving older blood would probably be minimal.
The study appears in the July issue of Analgesia & Anesthesia.
Each year, Americans receive more than 12 million units of potentially life-saving blood, with more than 2 million units used in cardiovascular surgeries, according to data included in the study.
Whether or not the amount of time blood has spent in storage can affect the recipient's health "has been an age-old question in transfusion medicine," Bennett-Guerrero said.
In the new study, the Duke team took a retrospective look at the medical files of 321 patients who underwent repeat, open-heart surgeries for either coronary artery bypass or valve replacement between 1995 and 2001. The patients received a relatively large amount of donated blood -- an average of 5 units -- during these procedures.
The researchers tracked the patients' incidence of in-hospital and long-term mortality, as well as post-surgical complications such as kidney failure. They compared the rate of those types of outcomes to the number of units and age of the blood each patient received.
In-hospital death rates rose along with the age of blood received, the study found, as did hospital length-of-stay -- an average of 3.5 days for those receiving freshest blood vs. seven days for those getting older units.
Patients who received older blood also had higher rates of death in the eight years after their surgery, the researchers noted. According to Bennett-Guerrero, that's probably due to the long-term consequences of complications sustained just after surgery (for example, kidney failure) that may have been triggered -- at least in part -- by the use of older transfused blood.
Why might blood stored closer to the 42-day maximum be less healthy than "younger" blood?
"One of the theories is that as red blood cells age during storage, they become stiffer," Bennett-Guerrero said. "There's lots of evidence that these stiffer red blood cells may not deliver oxygen as efficiently. Or, they may even clot up or get stuck in organs and cause those organs to become damaged."
One blood expert called the study "commendable" but urged caution in interpreting the results.
"This paper is provocative, but it's a retrospective study with lots of confounding factors," said Dr. Richard Benjamin, chief medical officer of the American Red Cross. "We need to do a randomized, prospective trial to see if what we think we are seeing here is real."
Benjamin noted that the study focused on the very sickest type of patients, whose surgeries required very large amount of blood. The average "low-risk" patient might require just one or two units, he said.
"Remember, the more blood that you get, the more likely you are to get at least one old unit," Benjamin said. He added that the patients in the Duke study were already fragile; it's likely that healthier individuals wouldn't be at any significant risk from receiving a unit of older blood. "The danger [to that group] is infinitesimally small," Benjamin said.
And he said that, until supplies of donated blood increase, the only alternative is for patients is to receive "no blood at all."
"Our difficulty at the Red Cross is that we'd love to give everyone fresh blood -- there's no question about that," Benjamin said. "But we can't because there just isn't enough of it. So, we have to keep it on the shelf for a while. If we restricted its use to fresh blood only, a lot of people wouldn't get transfused, and they'd die."
Bennett-Guerrero agreed that a larger, prospective trial is needed, and said his team is applying for a U.S. National Institutes of Health grant to conduct just such a trial. If the results of that trial are similar to those found in the retrospective study, they may point to a need for more selective rationing of fresher blood to specific patients on a case-by-case basis, he said.
Bennett-Guerrero also seconded the notion that older, sicker patients may be at highest risk from receiving older blood.
"If you look at patients who are doing really well, maybe at lower risk for surgical procedures, my guess is that in that setting, it doesn't matter whether they even receive the blood or not, or whether the blood is older," he said. "But if you take someone who is 80 years old with complex heart surgery, who's already at high risk of developing complications, it may be a factor that puts them over the edge."
Health Tip: Heat Stroke? Get Help!
Heat stroke occurs when the body is not able to cool itself to a safe temperature. It usually happens when a person is exposed for too long to the sun, without proper shade, cooling and hydration.
The very young and the very old are most sensitive to heat and most likely to develop heat stroke, as are people who work outside and those taking certain medications, the University of Maryland Medical Center says.
Heat stroke is typically characterized by flushed, hot and dry skin. Other symptoms can include dizziness, headache, confusion, fatigue, seizure, and loss of consciousness.
Someone with heat stroke should receive professional medical attention. A heat stroke victim should be brought inside out of the sun and cooled down immediately. The skin should be wiped down with cool water and fanned to bring the body temperature down. Ice packs should be applied to the groin and armpits, and the patient should rest in a cool place with the feet slightly elevated.
Doctors often treat heat stroke victims with intravenous fluids. Bed rest is usually recommended.
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Health Headlines - June 22
Chinese SARS-Bird Flu Report Puzzles WHO
Chinese scientists Wednesday said that a man initially thought to have SARS actually died of bird flu in 2003 -- two years before the country reported any human bird-flu infections to the World Health Organization. But the scientists now want to withdraw their report to a leading medical journal.
WHO was surprised by the report, which came from eight scientists and not the Chinese government. The findings were printed Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine. At the last minute, however, at least one of the Chinese scientists e-mailed the journal Wednesday morning, requesting that the report be withdrawn. Journal editors were waiting to see whether the authors would now retract the paper, according to the Associated Press.
The confusion surrounding the man's death in Beijing raises the possibility that other cases in China already attributed to SARS may have actually been the deadly H5N1 flu. "It's hard to believe that this is the only person in all of China who developed H5N1" that year, Dr. John Treanor, a flu expert at the University of Rochester, told the news service.
A WHO spokesman in China said the agency would formally request that the Chinese Ministry of Health clarify the report and explain why it took more than two years to uncover the finding. Attempts to reach the Chinese scientists for comment were unsuccessful, the AP reported.
China didn't report its first human cases of bird flu outside Hong Kong until 2005. Eight infections and five deaths were recorded that year, and this year the government has reported at least 10 infections and seven deaths. The SARS outbreak in China began in November 2002, but was not recognized until the following spring. More than 1,450 cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome were confirmed, the vast majority in Asia. Many cases were diagnosed based on symptoms, which are similar to those of bird flu, and not lab tests.
During the SARS outbreak, some public-health experts questioned whether the Chinese government was being candid about the extent of the crisis.
The New England Journal of Medicine report raised the possibility that the two dangerous viruses emerged simultaneously. The newly disclosed case in Beijing means "there may be more jumps from birds to people than we realized," a journal editor told AP.
Health Insurance Coverage for Children Improved in 2005
American children experienced the greatest increase in health insurance coverage since 1997, but coverage for all Americans continues to vary by state, according to two new reports released Wednesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The reports, which present the latest data on U.S. health habits, found that in 2005, an estimated 41.2 million persons of all ages (14.2 percent) were without health insurance, down from 15.4 percent in 1997. During the same time period, only 8.9 percent of children were without insurance, compared to 13.9 percent in 1997.
Among other key findings in the CDC report were a rise in both diagnosed diabetes and asthma, up to 7.4 percent and 7.8 percent of the population, respectively.
Texas lead the nation in persons not covered for health care with 24 percent lacking insurance. Massachusetts topped the list of 20 states for which statistics were available for the study, with just 6 percent of its residents lacking coverage.
The findings are available on the CDC's Web site at www.cdc.gov/nchs.
Limiting Teen Driving Cuts Crash Rates: Study
A study of young drivers has found that limiting the hours they drive and their number of passengers can reduce crash rates among teens by 20 percent.
Researchers with the Traffic Injury Research Foundation in Ottawa, Canada, compared accidents involving 16-year-old drivers in Oregon and Ontario in 2002. Oregon restricted unsupervised nighttime driving and the number of passengers, while Ontario did not carry the prohibitions at the time of the study, according to the Associated Press.
Crashes involving injuries and deaths were 20 percent fewer among the teen drivers in Oregon, which prohibits unsupervised driving between midnight and 5 a.m. for entry-level drivers and prevents drivers from having passengers under age 20 during the first six months of receiving a driver's license.
Traffic accidents kill about 6,000 U.S. motorists between the ages of 16 to 20 every year, making them the leading cause of death for teens, the AP noted. Safety experts say teens are more prone to crashes because they lack experience and driving skills.
Resistant Staph Infections Are Global Problem
As many as 53 million people worldwide may be carriers of a bacterial superbug that's becoming more resistant to antibiotics, the Times of London said Wednesday.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a serious staph infection, is frequently acquired by surgical patients and others in hospitals. While the germ can be carried harmlessly on the skin, the bacterium can be lethal if it enters the body.
The germ is spreading into the general community, where frequent physical contact can increase the risk of transmission, doctors at the Groningen University Medical Centre in the Netherlands wrote in the online version of The Lancet. Those most at risk of infection include homeless people, prisoners, military recruits, gay men, children in day-care centers, and athletes who participate in contact sports, the newspaper said.
The drug-resistant germ is becoming more prevalent even in Scandinavian nations that have waged the biggest campaign against MRSA, the scientists said.
Drug Prices in U.S. Jump in 2006, Surveys Find
Prices for the most frequently prescribed drugs jumped sharply in the first quarter of the year, as the new Medicare drug coverage program was going into effect, two independent U.S. surveys found.
Wholesale prices charged by pharmaceutical companies rose 3.9 percent in the first three months of the year -- four times the inflation rate during the same span, according to an AARP analysis reported by the Associated Press.
The price of the popular sleep aid Ambien shot up 13.3 percent, and the top-selling cholesterol drug Lipitor jumped 4.7 percent to 6.5 percent, depending on the dose prescribed, the AARP said.
A separate survey by the patient advocacy group Families USA found similar price rises, the wire service reported. For the typical older American who takes an average of four prescription drugs, the price jumps translated to a $240 average increase over the 12 months ended March 31, the AARP said.
A drug industry trade group, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association, issued a statement calling the surveys "erroneous," the AP reported. The group said prices, in fact, had risen less than 2 percent since Jan. 1.
Meanwhile, U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has accused Merck & Co. of conspiring with insurance companies to create lower copays for people who buy Merck's anti-cholesterol drug Zocor than for customers who would buy a soon-to-be released generic alternative, the AP said. Schumer asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate.
Chinese scientists Wednesday said that a man initially thought to have SARS actually died of bird flu in 2003 -- two years before the country reported any human bird-flu infections to the World Health Organization. But the scientists now want to withdraw their report to a leading medical journal.
WHO was surprised by the report, which came from eight scientists and not the Chinese government. The findings were printed Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine. At the last minute, however, at least one of the Chinese scientists e-mailed the journal Wednesday morning, requesting that the report be withdrawn. Journal editors were waiting to see whether the authors would now retract the paper, according to the Associated Press.
The confusion surrounding the man's death in Beijing raises the possibility that other cases in China already attributed to SARS may have actually been the deadly H5N1 flu. "It's hard to believe that this is the only person in all of China who developed H5N1" that year, Dr. John Treanor, a flu expert at the University of Rochester, told the news service.
A WHO spokesman in China said the agency would formally request that the Chinese Ministry of Health clarify the report and explain why it took more than two years to uncover the finding. Attempts to reach the Chinese scientists for comment were unsuccessful, the AP reported.
China didn't report its first human cases of bird flu outside Hong Kong until 2005. Eight infections and five deaths were recorded that year, and this year the government has reported at least 10 infections and seven deaths. The SARS outbreak in China began in November 2002, but was not recognized until the following spring. More than 1,450 cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome were confirmed, the vast majority in Asia. Many cases were diagnosed based on symptoms, which are similar to those of bird flu, and not lab tests.
During the SARS outbreak, some public-health experts questioned whether the Chinese government was being candid about the extent of the crisis.
The New England Journal of Medicine report raised the possibility that the two dangerous viruses emerged simultaneously. The newly disclosed case in Beijing means "there may be more jumps from birds to people than we realized," a journal editor told AP.
Health Insurance Coverage for Children Improved in 2005
American children experienced the greatest increase in health insurance coverage since 1997, but coverage for all Americans continues to vary by state, according to two new reports released Wednesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The reports, which present the latest data on U.S. health habits, found that in 2005, an estimated 41.2 million persons of all ages (14.2 percent) were without health insurance, down from 15.4 percent in 1997. During the same time period, only 8.9 percent of children were without insurance, compared to 13.9 percent in 1997.
Among other key findings in the CDC report were a rise in both diagnosed diabetes and asthma, up to 7.4 percent and 7.8 percent of the population, respectively.
Texas lead the nation in persons not covered for health care with 24 percent lacking insurance. Massachusetts topped the list of 20 states for which statistics were available for the study, with just 6 percent of its residents lacking coverage.
The findings are available on the CDC's Web site at www.cdc.gov/nchs.
Limiting Teen Driving Cuts Crash Rates: Study
A study of young drivers has found that limiting the hours they drive and their number of passengers can reduce crash rates among teens by 20 percent.
Researchers with the Traffic Injury Research Foundation in Ottawa, Canada, compared accidents involving 16-year-old drivers in Oregon and Ontario in 2002. Oregon restricted unsupervised nighttime driving and the number of passengers, while Ontario did not carry the prohibitions at the time of the study, according to the Associated Press.
Crashes involving injuries and deaths were 20 percent fewer among the teen drivers in Oregon, which prohibits unsupervised driving between midnight and 5 a.m. for entry-level drivers and prevents drivers from having passengers under age 20 during the first six months of receiving a driver's license.
Traffic accidents kill about 6,000 U.S. motorists between the ages of 16 to 20 every year, making them the leading cause of death for teens, the AP noted. Safety experts say teens are more prone to crashes because they lack experience and driving skills.
Resistant Staph Infections Are Global Problem
As many as 53 million people worldwide may be carriers of a bacterial superbug that's becoming more resistant to antibiotics, the Times of London said Wednesday.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a serious staph infection, is frequently acquired by surgical patients and others in hospitals. While the germ can be carried harmlessly on the skin, the bacterium can be lethal if it enters the body.
The germ is spreading into the general community, where frequent physical contact can increase the risk of transmission, doctors at the Groningen University Medical Centre in the Netherlands wrote in the online version of The Lancet. Those most at risk of infection include homeless people, prisoners, military recruits, gay men, children in day-care centers, and athletes who participate in contact sports, the newspaper said.
The drug-resistant germ is becoming more prevalent even in Scandinavian nations that have waged the biggest campaign against MRSA, the scientists said.
Drug Prices in U.S. Jump in 2006, Surveys Find
Prices for the most frequently prescribed drugs jumped sharply in the first quarter of the year, as the new Medicare drug coverage program was going into effect, two independent U.S. surveys found.
Wholesale prices charged by pharmaceutical companies rose 3.9 percent in the first three months of the year -- four times the inflation rate during the same span, according to an AARP analysis reported by the Associated Press.
The price of the popular sleep aid Ambien shot up 13.3 percent, and the top-selling cholesterol drug Lipitor jumped 4.7 percent to 6.5 percent, depending on the dose prescribed, the AARP said.
A separate survey by the patient advocacy group Families USA found similar price rises, the wire service reported. For the typical older American who takes an average of four prescription drugs, the price jumps translated to a $240 average increase over the 12 months ended March 31, the AARP said.
A drug industry trade group, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association, issued a statement calling the surveys "erroneous," the AP reported. The group said prices, in fact, had risen less than 2 percent since Jan. 1.
Meanwhile, U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has accused Merck & Co. of conspiring with insurance companies to create lower copays for people who buy Merck's anti-cholesterol drug Zocor than for customers who would buy a soon-to-be released generic alternative, the AP said. Schumer asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate.
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Health Headlines - June 21
Drug Prices in U.S. Jump in 2006, Surveys Find
Prices for the most frequently prescribed drugs jumped sharply in the first quarter of the year, as the new Medicare drug coverage program was going into effect, two independent surveys found.
Wholesale prices charged by pharmaceutical companies rose 3.9 percent in the first three months of the year -- four times the inflation rate during the same span, according to an AARP analysis reported by the Associated Press.
The price of the popular sleep aid Ambien shot up 13.3 percent, and the top-selling cholesterol drug Lipitor jumped 4.7 percent to 6.5 percent, depending on the dose prescribed, the AARP said.
A separate survey by the patient advocacy group Families USA found similar price rises, the wire service reported. For the typical older American who takes an average of four prescription drugs, the price jumps translated to a $240 average increase over the 12 months ended March 31, the AARP said.
A drug industry trade group, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association, issued a statement calling the surveys "erroneous," the AP reported. The group said prices, in fact, had risen less than 2 percent since Jan. 1.
Meanwhile, U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has accused Merck & Co. of conspiring with insurance companies to create lower copays for people who buy Merck's anti-cholesterol drug Zocor than for customers who would buy a soon-to-be released generic alternative, the AP said. Schumer asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate.
"It appears Senator Schumer is criticizing us because he says that our prices are too low. That's a new one," the wire service quoted a Merck spokesman as saying.
Lowering Stress Could Boost Pregnancy Chances
Reducing stress could help some women improve their chances of becoming pregnant, researchers at Emory University in Atlanta say.
A combination of stress management therapy and instruction on better diet and exercise "restored fertility" in 80 percent of participants in a small study, CBS News reported.
The researchers measured amounts of the stress hormone cortisol in study participants, who were ages 20-35. The scientists concluded that psychotherapy aimed at stress reduction could be an easier, less expensive alternative than fertility treatments.
Results were presented at a meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Prague.
Israeli researchers at the same meeting offered additional evidence that lifestyle changes could boost fertility, noting that women who were entertained by a trained clown shortly before they received in vitro fertilization treatments were up to 35 percent more likely to conceive, news reports said.
Faulty Gene Combination Linked to Breast Cancer
Icelandic women who had a pair of faulty genes were almost certain to develop breast cancer, researchers in Reykjavik found.
It's not clear to what degree that finding applies to women from other countries, the Associated Press reported.
Defects on two genes discovered in the 1990s -- BRCA1 and BRCA2 -- have been linked to inherited forms of breast cancer. But since they account for only 10 percent to 15 percent of total breast cancer cases, scientists have long searched for a genetic accomplice, the wire service said.
The BARD1 gene may be just that, according to the AP.
Women's risk of developing breast cancer roughly doubled when they were found to have mutations in both the BARD1 and BRCA2 genes, the Icelandic scientists said. In the United States, however, the genetic mutation in the BRCA1 gene is more common than the BRCA2 anomaly, according to the wire service.
The research, led by the company deCode Genetics Inc., included 1,090 Icelandic women with breast cancer, comparing them to 703 women who were free of the disease. Results are published in the journal PLoS Medicine.
World's Women Ignorant About Fertility: Survey
Most women who participated in a global survey of fertility issues didn't know many of the basic facts about reproductive health, including the age at which female fertility begins to decline, the survey's sponsor said Tuesday.
Other questions dealt with the impact of sexually transmitted disease on reproductive health, the effects of contraception, and the percentage of couples who are infertile. None of the more than 17,000 respondents from 10 countries was able to answer all 15 survey questions correctly, the American Fertility Association (AFA) said in a statement.
Respondents with a college education were more knowledgeable about fertility issues than those with a high school background, the association said. The general lack of knowledge was especially prevalent in Uganda, where surveyors interviewed some 6,500 people, often traveling by bicycle from village to village, the AFA said.
Other participants were from the United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Slovak Republic, Argentina, Turkey, and Belgium. Survey results were announced Tuesday at a meeting of the European Society of Human Reproductive Endocrinology in Prague.
Acupuncture Won't Help Hot Flashes: Report
Acupuncture was no better at preventing hot flashes associated with menopause than sham treatments, Mayo Clinic researchers found.
Four years ago, U.S. Women's Health Initiative scientists reported landmark findings that the female hormone estrogen -- once routinely prescribed to calm hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms -- raised women's risk of breast cancer and heart problems. This drove millions of women to seek alternative treatments.
Experts tell the Washington Post that women with hot flashes frequently respond to non-medicinal placebos, thinking their symptoms are actually being treated.
The Mayo researchers evaluated 103 women between the ages 45 and 59 who said they had at least five hot flashes daily. Half of the women who thought they were receiving acupuncture actually had the needles placed superficially where they would have no proven value. The women who had actual acupuncture had no better response to hot flashes than those who received the sham treatments, the researchers said.
Study results were presented at a recent meeting of the North American Conference on Complementary and Alternative Medicine, and are to be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Menopause, the Post said.
Prices for the most frequently prescribed drugs jumped sharply in the first quarter of the year, as the new Medicare drug coverage program was going into effect, two independent surveys found.
Wholesale prices charged by pharmaceutical companies rose 3.9 percent in the first three months of the year -- four times the inflation rate during the same span, according to an AARP analysis reported by the Associated Press.
The price of the popular sleep aid Ambien shot up 13.3 percent, and the top-selling cholesterol drug Lipitor jumped 4.7 percent to 6.5 percent, depending on the dose prescribed, the AARP said.
A separate survey by the patient advocacy group Families USA found similar price rises, the wire service reported. For the typical older American who takes an average of four prescription drugs, the price jumps translated to a $240 average increase over the 12 months ended March 31, the AARP said.
A drug industry trade group, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association, issued a statement calling the surveys "erroneous," the AP reported. The group said prices, in fact, had risen less than 2 percent since Jan. 1.
Meanwhile, U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has accused Merck & Co. of conspiring with insurance companies to create lower copays for people who buy Merck's anti-cholesterol drug Zocor than for customers who would buy a soon-to-be released generic alternative, the AP said. Schumer asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate.
"It appears Senator Schumer is criticizing us because he says that our prices are too low. That's a new one," the wire service quoted a Merck spokesman as saying.
Lowering Stress Could Boost Pregnancy Chances
Reducing stress could help some women improve their chances of becoming pregnant, researchers at Emory University in Atlanta say.
A combination of stress management therapy and instruction on better diet and exercise "restored fertility" in 80 percent of participants in a small study, CBS News reported.
The researchers measured amounts of the stress hormone cortisol in study participants, who were ages 20-35. The scientists concluded that psychotherapy aimed at stress reduction could be an easier, less expensive alternative than fertility treatments.
Results were presented at a meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Prague.
Israeli researchers at the same meeting offered additional evidence that lifestyle changes could boost fertility, noting that women who were entertained by a trained clown shortly before they received in vitro fertilization treatments were up to 35 percent more likely to conceive, news reports said.
Faulty Gene Combination Linked to Breast Cancer
Icelandic women who had a pair of faulty genes were almost certain to develop breast cancer, researchers in Reykjavik found.
It's not clear to what degree that finding applies to women from other countries, the Associated Press reported.
Defects on two genes discovered in the 1990s -- BRCA1 and BRCA2 -- have been linked to inherited forms of breast cancer. But since they account for only 10 percent to 15 percent of total breast cancer cases, scientists have long searched for a genetic accomplice, the wire service said.
The BARD1 gene may be just that, according to the AP.
Women's risk of developing breast cancer roughly doubled when they were found to have mutations in both the BARD1 and BRCA2 genes, the Icelandic scientists said. In the United States, however, the genetic mutation in the BRCA1 gene is more common than the BRCA2 anomaly, according to the wire service.
The research, led by the company deCode Genetics Inc., included 1,090 Icelandic women with breast cancer, comparing them to 703 women who were free of the disease. Results are published in the journal PLoS Medicine.
World's Women Ignorant About Fertility: Survey
Most women who participated in a global survey of fertility issues didn't know many of the basic facts about reproductive health, including the age at which female fertility begins to decline, the survey's sponsor said Tuesday.
Other questions dealt with the impact of sexually transmitted disease on reproductive health, the effects of contraception, and the percentage of couples who are infertile. None of the more than 17,000 respondents from 10 countries was able to answer all 15 survey questions correctly, the American Fertility Association (AFA) said in a statement.
Respondents with a college education were more knowledgeable about fertility issues than those with a high school background, the association said. The general lack of knowledge was especially prevalent in Uganda, where surveyors interviewed some 6,500 people, often traveling by bicycle from village to village, the AFA said.
Other participants were from the United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Slovak Republic, Argentina, Turkey, and Belgium. Survey results were announced Tuesday at a meeting of the European Society of Human Reproductive Endocrinology in Prague.
Acupuncture Won't Help Hot Flashes: Report
Acupuncture was no better at preventing hot flashes associated with menopause than sham treatments, Mayo Clinic researchers found.
Four years ago, U.S. Women's Health Initiative scientists reported landmark findings that the female hormone estrogen -- once routinely prescribed to calm hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms -- raised women's risk of breast cancer and heart problems. This drove millions of women to seek alternative treatments.
Experts tell the Washington Post that women with hot flashes frequently respond to non-medicinal placebos, thinking their symptoms are actually being treated.
The Mayo researchers evaluated 103 women between the ages 45 and 59 who said they had at least five hot flashes daily. Half of the women who thought they were receiving acupuncture actually had the needles placed superficially where they would have no proven value. The women who had actual acupuncture had no better response to hot flashes than those who received the sham treatments, the researchers said.
Study results were presented at a recent meeting of the North American Conference on Complementary and Alternative Medicine, and are to be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Menopause, the Post said.
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Health Headlines - June 20
Faulty Gene Combination Linked to Breast Cancer
Icelandic women who had a pair of faulty genes were almost certain to develop breast cancer, researchers in Reykjavik found.
It's not clear to what degree that finding applies to women from other countries, the Associated Press reported.
Defects on two genes discovered in the 1990s -- BRCA1 and BRCA2 -- have been linked to inherited forms of breast cancer. But since they account for only 10 percent to 15 percent of total breast cancer cases, scientists have long searched for a genetic accomplice, the wire service said.
The BARD1 gene may be just that, according to the AP.
Women's risk of developing breast cancer roughly doubled when they were found to have mutations in both the BARD1 and BRCA2 genes, the Icelandic scientists said. In the United States, however, the genetic mutation in the BRCA1 gene is more common than the BRCA2 anomaly, according to the wire service.
The research, led by the company deCode Genetics Inc., included 1,090 Icelandic women with breast cancer, comparing them to 703 women who were free of the disease. Results are published in the journal PLoS Medicine.
Acupuncture Won't Help Hot Flashes: Report
Acupuncture was no better at preventing hot flashes associated with menopause than sham treatments, Mayo Clinic researchers found.
Four years ago, U.S. Women's Health Initiative scientists reported landmark findings that the female hormone estrogen -- once routinely prescribed to calm hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms -- raised women's risk of breast cancer and heart problems. This drove millions of women to seek alternative treatments.
Experts tell the Washington Post that women with hot flashes frequently respond to non-medicinal placebos, thinking their symptoms are actually being treated.
The Mayo researchers evaluated 103 women between the ages 45 and 59 who said they had at least five hot flashes daily. Half of the women who thought they were receiving acupuncture actually had the needles placed superficially where they would have no proven value. The women who had actual acupuncture had no better response to hot flashes than those who received the sham treatments, the researchers said.
Study results were presented at a recent meeting of the North American Conference on Complementary and Alternative Medicine, and are to be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Menopause, the Post said.
Military Cemeteries May Be Closed in Bird Flu Outbreak
U.S. military veterans who die during a bird flu pandemic may not be immediately interred in one of the nation's 120 military cemeteries, which could be closed during such an outbreak, according to contingency plans by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The VA buries about 93,000 veterans and eligible family members a year, and might not have the staff available during a bird flu pandemic to continue the burials, according to VA plans cited by the Associated Press.
The federal government is preparing for a worst-case scenario of some 2 million deaths in the United States during an avian flu pandemic, the wire service said.
Instead of immediate burial, the VA said bodies of bird flu victims may have to be stored in refrigerated warehouses or specially outfitted trucks until staffing shortages ease, the AP said.
Pentagon: Homosexuality a Mental Disorder
Decades after mental health experts abandoned the notion that homosexuality was a mental disorder, a newly uncovered Pentagon document lists being gay alongside retardation and other mental problems, the Associated Press reported.
The document was found by the Center for Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military, at the University of California at Santa Barbara. A Pentagon spokesman told the wire service that the document was under review.
The U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy bars the Pentagon from asking about a service member's sexual preference but orders discharge for those who are openly gay. Last year, 726 military members were discharged under the policy, the first time that number had increased since 2001, the AP said.
The newly uncovered document, called a Defense Department Instruction, was criticized by the American Psychiatric Association, which in a recent letter to the Pentagon's top doctor noted that the APA backed off the notion that homosexuality was a mental disorder in 1973, the wire service reported.
Nine members of Congress wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Monday asking that the Pentagon review its policies, the AP said. It did not identify the lawmakers nor the specific contents of their letter.
Having a Boy May Raise Risk of Later Miscarriage
Having a first-born male child seems to raise some women's risk of subsequent miscarriage, Danish researchers found.
The scientists at University Hospital in Copenhagen hypothesize that male genes can trigger an immune reaction in some women that endangers later pregnancies, Britain's Daily Mail newspaper reported Tuesday.
Vulnerable first-time mothers who gave birth to a boy were almost two-thirds less likely to have a second child. Of 305 study participants who had unexplained recurring miscarriages, 60 percent had first-born boys, the newspaper said.
"We think there is an immune response against genes from the male Y chromosome," study leader Dr. Henrietta Svarre Nielsen told the paper.
The research was presented Tuesday at a meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Prague.
World's Women Ignorant About Fertility: Survey
Most women who participated in a global survey of fertility issues didn't know many of the basic facts about reproductive health, including the age at which female fertility begins to decline, the survey's sponsor said Tuesday.
Other questions dealt with the impact of sexually transmitted disease on reproductive health, the effects of contraception, and the percentage of couples who are infertile. None of the more than 17,000 respondents from 10 countries was able to answer all 15 survey questions correctly, the American Fertility Association (AFA) said in a statement.
Respondents with a college education were more knowledgeable about fertility issues than those with a high school background, the association said. The general lack of knowledge was especially prevalent in Uganda, where surveyors interviewed some 6,500 people, often traveling by bicycle from village to village, the AFA said.
Other participants were from the United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany, Israel, The Netherlands, Slovak Republic, Argentina, Turkey, and Belgium. Survey results were announced Tuesday at a meeting of the European Society of Human Reproductive Endocrinology in Prague.
Icelandic women who had a pair of faulty genes were almost certain to develop breast cancer, researchers in Reykjavik found.
It's not clear to what degree that finding applies to women from other countries, the Associated Press reported.
Defects on two genes discovered in the 1990s -- BRCA1 and BRCA2 -- have been linked to inherited forms of breast cancer. But since they account for only 10 percent to 15 percent of total breast cancer cases, scientists have long searched for a genetic accomplice, the wire service said.
The BARD1 gene may be just that, according to the AP.
Women's risk of developing breast cancer roughly doubled when they were found to have mutations in both the BARD1 and BRCA2 genes, the Icelandic scientists said. In the United States, however, the genetic mutation in the BRCA1 gene is more common than the BRCA2 anomaly, according to the wire service.
The research, led by the company deCode Genetics Inc., included 1,090 Icelandic women with breast cancer, comparing them to 703 women who were free of the disease. Results are published in the journal PLoS Medicine.
Acupuncture Won't Help Hot Flashes: Report
Acupuncture was no better at preventing hot flashes associated with menopause than sham treatments, Mayo Clinic researchers found.
Four years ago, U.S. Women's Health Initiative scientists reported landmark findings that the female hormone estrogen -- once routinely prescribed to calm hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms -- raised women's risk of breast cancer and heart problems. This drove millions of women to seek alternative treatments.
Experts tell the Washington Post that women with hot flashes frequently respond to non-medicinal placebos, thinking their symptoms are actually being treated.
The Mayo researchers evaluated 103 women between the ages 45 and 59 who said they had at least five hot flashes daily. Half of the women who thought they were receiving acupuncture actually had the needles placed superficially where they would have no proven value. The women who had actual acupuncture had no better response to hot flashes than those who received the sham treatments, the researchers said.
Study results were presented at a recent meeting of the North American Conference on Complementary and Alternative Medicine, and are to be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Menopause, the Post said.
Military Cemeteries May Be Closed in Bird Flu Outbreak
U.S. military veterans who die during a bird flu pandemic may not be immediately interred in one of the nation's 120 military cemeteries, which could be closed during such an outbreak, according to contingency plans by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The VA buries about 93,000 veterans and eligible family members a year, and might not have the staff available during a bird flu pandemic to continue the burials, according to VA plans cited by the Associated Press.
The federal government is preparing for a worst-case scenario of some 2 million deaths in the United States during an avian flu pandemic, the wire service said.
Instead of immediate burial, the VA said bodies of bird flu victims may have to be stored in refrigerated warehouses or specially outfitted trucks until staffing shortages ease, the AP said.
Pentagon: Homosexuality a Mental Disorder
Decades after mental health experts abandoned the notion that homosexuality was a mental disorder, a newly uncovered Pentagon document lists being gay alongside retardation and other mental problems, the Associated Press reported.
The document was found by the Center for Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military, at the University of California at Santa Barbara. A Pentagon spokesman told the wire service that the document was under review.
The U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy bars the Pentagon from asking about a service member's sexual preference but orders discharge for those who are openly gay. Last year, 726 military members were discharged under the policy, the first time that number had increased since 2001, the AP said.
The newly uncovered document, called a Defense Department Instruction, was criticized by the American Psychiatric Association, which in a recent letter to the Pentagon's top doctor noted that the APA backed off the notion that homosexuality was a mental disorder in 1973, the wire service reported.
Nine members of Congress wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Monday asking that the Pentagon review its policies, the AP said. It did not identify the lawmakers nor the specific contents of their letter.
Having a Boy May Raise Risk of Later Miscarriage
Having a first-born male child seems to raise some women's risk of subsequent miscarriage, Danish researchers found.
The scientists at University Hospital in Copenhagen hypothesize that male genes can trigger an immune reaction in some women that endangers later pregnancies, Britain's Daily Mail newspaper reported Tuesday.
Vulnerable first-time mothers who gave birth to a boy were almost two-thirds less likely to have a second child. Of 305 study participants who had unexplained recurring miscarriages, 60 percent had first-born boys, the newspaper said.
"We think there is an immune response against genes from the male Y chromosome," study leader Dr. Henrietta Svarre Nielsen told the paper.
The research was presented Tuesday at a meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Prague.
World's Women Ignorant About Fertility: Survey
Most women who participated in a global survey of fertility issues didn't know many of the basic facts about reproductive health, including the age at which female fertility begins to decline, the survey's sponsor said Tuesday.
Other questions dealt with the impact of sexually transmitted disease on reproductive health, the effects of contraception, and the percentage of couples who are infertile. None of the more than 17,000 respondents from 10 countries was able to answer all 15 survey questions correctly, the American Fertility Association (AFA) said in a statement.
Respondents with a college education were more knowledgeable about fertility issues than those with a high school background, the association said. The general lack of knowledge was especially prevalent in Uganda, where surveyors interviewed some 6,500 people, often traveling by bicycle from village to village, the AFA said.
Other participants were from the United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany, Israel, The Netherlands, Slovak Republic, Argentina, Turkey, and Belgium. Survey results were announced Tuesday at a meeting of the European Society of Human Reproductive Endocrinology in Prague.
Monday, June 19, 2006
Health Headlines - June 19
Cough Suppressant Patches Recalled After Child's Seizure
The maker of a cough-suppressing vapor patch is recalling the product after an unidentified child suffered a seizure after chewing on one, the Associated Press reported Monday.
All versions of Triaminic Vapor Patches are being recalled by the Swiss drug firm Novartis AG, the company said. The patches contain camphor, eucalyptus oil and menthol, and are meant to be applied to the chest or throat. But the company acknowledged that children could remove the patches -- recommended for children ages two years and older -- and place them in their mouths, the wire service reported.
Ingesting the patch's contents can cause a burning sensation in the mouth, headache, nausea, vomiting or seizure, the AP said. In the lone reported instance of a child chewing on the patch, the victim recovered the same day, Novartis said.
More than 50 million of the patches have been sold, the company said. Parents should discard the product or return it to the place of purchase for a refund. For more information, call Novartis at 1-800-452-0051, or visit http://www.triaminic.com.
U.S. Supreme Court Refuses to Block Medicare Drug Provision
Rebutting state claims that the new Medicare drug benefit was a prescription for financial hardship, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to block part of the law that requires states to reimburse the federal government for certain expenses, the Associated Press reported.
The court, without comment, refused a bid by 15 states to overturn a requirement that the states pay Washington, D.C., money they are expected to save from no longer having to subsidize drugs for people enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid, the AP reported.
The national prescription benefit for the elderly and disabled took effect on Jan. 1. Kentucky, Maine, Missouri, Texas and New Jersey wanted the justices to issue an injunction against the disputed provision, and 10 other states filed briefs with the court claiming the provision threatened state independence, the wire service said. The court rejected both claims without comment.
Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz had argued that the provision was expected to cost the states billions of dollars over the next two years, the AP said.
Use of Amphetamines in the Workplace Declines, Tester Says
Use of amphetamines in the American workplace fell 8 percent last year, and corporate drug use overall fell to a 17-year-low, the nation's biggest corporate drug testing firm said Monday.
Quest Diagnostics said its semi-annual drug testing index revealed that 0.48 percent of all corporate amphetamine tests came back positive in 2005, down from 0.52 percent in 2004. Amphetamine tests included detection of methamphetamine, a frequently abused street drug that's often created in home-made laboratories from ingredients found in many cold medicines.
Overall, workplace drug use fell to its lowest level since Quest began publishing its index in 1988, the company said in a statement. Of tests for all drugs conducted in the United States last year, 4.1 percent came back positive, versus 4.5 percent a year earlier.
Corporate marijuana use alone sank 12 percent in 2005 from the prior year, Quest said.
2.4 Million Started Painkillers Without Prescription in 2004
New federal statistics show that almost 2.4 million Americans began taking narcotic pain relievers for nonmedical use in the past year -- more than those who started using marijuana or cocaine.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration took data from the 2004 National Survey on Drug Use and Health and found that 2.4 million persons 12 or older initiated non-medical use of prescription pain relievers in the 12 months prior to the survey. Meanwhile, an estimated 2.1 million Americans started using marijuana, and 1 million began using cocaine.
Among the drugs taken: 48 percent of new initiates used Vicodin, Lortab or Lorcet; 34.3 percent used Darvocet, Darvon, or Tylenol with codeine; 20 percent used Percocet, Percodan or Tylox; 18.4 percent used generic hydrocodone; 14.3 percent used generic codeine; 8.4 percent used Oxycontin; and 4.3 percent used morphine. Over half of people who began non-medical use of pain medications (54.9 percent) in 2004 were female, according to the report.
"While overall illicit drug use continues to decline among our young people, we are always paying close attention to the data to identify any potential areas of concern," said SAMHSA Administrator Charles Curie. "Abuse of prescription pain medication is dangerous and can lead to the destructive path of addiction. The initiation rates show we must continue our efforts to help the public confront and reduce all drug abuse."
Canada Widens Bird-Flu Quarantine on Prince Edward Island
Canada this weekend broadened quarantine measures to contain bird flu on Prince Edward Island, where an infected gosling was found on a farm last week and a second farm was under watch after officials discovered there had been movement of people and perhaps poultry between the two farms.
Both farms had a small, mixed flock of free-range birds, Jim Clark, national manager of the avian influenza working group of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, told CBC News Monday.
The alarm was raised last week when a goose tested positive for an H5 virus on a farm in western P.E.I. Four of 11 geese died on that farm, leading to a post-mortem that proved inconclusive, Clark said. So far, no sign of bird flu has been found on the second farm, Clark said, but he couldn't be certain under the final results were available Tuesday or Wednesday.
The tests will check if the virus is the H5N1 strain that has killed more than 140 million poultry and at least 129 people, mainly in Asia, according to Bloomberg News.
Over the weekend, Hungarian officials culled 3,000 more domestic poultry on fears they were exposed to the virus, the Magyar Nemzet newspaper reported Monday. Indonesia also reported its 50th human case of the disease last week, as authorities made plans to slaughter more poultry. The disease has spread across two-thirds of the country's provinces and killed more than one person a week this year.
Animal health officials worldwide are monitoring for H5N1, described by some scientists as the most lethal avian flu strain yet recorded. It has spread to almost 40 countries in Asia, Europe and Africa this year, and the diseased fowl increase the risk to humans that the virus may mutate into a pandemic that could kill millions of people.
The maker of a cough-suppressing vapor patch is recalling the product after an unidentified child suffered a seizure after chewing on one, the Associated Press reported Monday.
All versions of Triaminic Vapor Patches are being recalled by the Swiss drug firm Novartis AG, the company said. The patches contain camphor, eucalyptus oil and menthol, and are meant to be applied to the chest or throat. But the company acknowledged that children could remove the patches -- recommended for children ages two years and older -- and place them in their mouths, the wire service reported.
Ingesting the patch's contents can cause a burning sensation in the mouth, headache, nausea, vomiting or seizure, the AP said. In the lone reported instance of a child chewing on the patch, the victim recovered the same day, Novartis said.
More than 50 million of the patches have been sold, the company said. Parents should discard the product or return it to the place of purchase for a refund. For more information, call Novartis at 1-800-452-0051, or visit http://www.triaminic.com.
U.S. Supreme Court Refuses to Block Medicare Drug Provision
Rebutting state claims that the new Medicare drug benefit was a prescription for financial hardship, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to block part of the law that requires states to reimburse the federal government for certain expenses, the Associated Press reported.
The court, without comment, refused a bid by 15 states to overturn a requirement that the states pay Washington, D.C., money they are expected to save from no longer having to subsidize drugs for people enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid, the AP reported.
The national prescription benefit for the elderly and disabled took effect on Jan. 1. Kentucky, Maine, Missouri, Texas and New Jersey wanted the justices to issue an injunction against the disputed provision, and 10 other states filed briefs with the court claiming the provision threatened state independence, the wire service said. The court rejected both claims without comment.
Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz had argued that the provision was expected to cost the states billions of dollars over the next two years, the AP said.
Use of Amphetamines in the Workplace Declines, Tester Says
Use of amphetamines in the American workplace fell 8 percent last year, and corporate drug use overall fell to a 17-year-low, the nation's biggest corporate drug testing firm said Monday.
Quest Diagnostics said its semi-annual drug testing index revealed that 0.48 percent of all corporate amphetamine tests came back positive in 2005, down from 0.52 percent in 2004. Amphetamine tests included detection of methamphetamine, a frequently abused street drug that's often created in home-made laboratories from ingredients found in many cold medicines.
Overall, workplace drug use fell to its lowest level since Quest began publishing its index in 1988, the company said in a statement. Of tests for all drugs conducted in the United States last year, 4.1 percent came back positive, versus 4.5 percent a year earlier.
Corporate marijuana use alone sank 12 percent in 2005 from the prior year, Quest said.
2.4 Million Started Painkillers Without Prescription in 2004
New federal statistics show that almost 2.4 million Americans began taking narcotic pain relievers for nonmedical use in the past year -- more than those who started using marijuana or cocaine.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration took data from the 2004 National Survey on Drug Use and Health and found that 2.4 million persons 12 or older initiated non-medical use of prescription pain relievers in the 12 months prior to the survey. Meanwhile, an estimated 2.1 million Americans started using marijuana, and 1 million began using cocaine.
Among the drugs taken: 48 percent of new initiates used Vicodin, Lortab or Lorcet; 34.3 percent used Darvocet, Darvon, or Tylenol with codeine; 20 percent used Percocet, Percodan or Tylox; 18.4 percent used generic hydrocodone; 14.3 percent used generic codeine; 8.4 percent used Oxycontin; and 4.3 percent used morphine. Over half of people who began non-medical use of pain medications (54.9 percent) in 2004 were female, according to the report.
"While overall illicit drug use continues to decline among our young people, we are always paying close attention to the data to identify any potential areas of concern," said SAMHSA Administrator Charles Curie. "Abuse of prescription pain medication is dangerous and can lead to the destructive path of addiction. The initiation rates show we must continue our efforts to help the public confront and reduce all drug abuse."
Canada Widens Bird-Flu Quarantine on Prince Edward Island
Canada this weekend broadened quarantine measures to contain bird flu on Prince Edward Island, where an infected gosling was found on a farm last week and a second farm was under watch after officials discovered there had been movement of people and perhaps poultry between the two farms.
Both farms had a small, mixed flock of free-range birds, Jim Clark, national manager of the avian influenza working group of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, told CBC News Monday.
The alarm was raised last week when a goose tested positive for an H5 virus on a farm in western P.E.I. Four of 11 geese died on that farm, leading to a post-mortem that proved inconclusive, Clark said. So far, no sign of bird flu has been found on the second farm, Clark said, but he couldn't be certain under the final results were available Tuesday or Wednesday.
The tests will check if the virus is the H5N1 strain that has killed more than 140 million poultry and at least 129 people, mainly in Asia, according to Bloomberg News.
Over the weekend, Hungarian officials culled 3,000 more domestic poultry on fears they were exposed to the virus, the Magyar Nemzet newspaper reported Monday. Indonesia also reported its 50th human case of the disease last week, as authorities made plans to slaughter more poultry. The disease has spread across two-thirds of the country's provinces and killed more than one person a week this year.
Animal health officials worldwide are monitoring for H5N1, described by some scientists as the most lethal avian flu strain yet recorded. It has spread to almost 40 countries in Asia, Europe and Africa this year, and the diseased fowl increase the risk to humans that the virus may mutate into a pandemic that could kill millions of people.
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Health Headlines - June 18
Protestors Demand Better Care for Those Exposed to 9/11 Dust
Over 200 people rallied at New York City's ground zero Saturday to protest what they say is the U.S. government's failure to care for those whose health was affected by airborne contaminants at the site of the 9/11 attacks.
"Our goal is very simple," said Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, a New York City Democrat. "We want everyone exposed to the deadly toxins monitored and everyone who is sick treated."
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determined the air at ground zero safe to breathe in the days following the attacks. But experts have since questioned that conclusion. Many of those gathered Saturday said their health had been seriously impaired since breathing in fumes and airborne toxins, the New York Times reported.
Maloney and others are demanding better recognition of 9/11-linked illness and improved health care benefits for those affected. The government has set aside over $100 million for the screening and care of ground zero workers, but Maloney said that amount doesn't begin to cover expected costs for tens of thousands of workers.
Speaking at the rally yesterday was Joseph Zadroga, whose son James -- a 34-year-old New York City police detective -- died in January from heart and lung complications. A New Jersey medical examiner concluded that Zadroga's death was "directly related to the 9/11 incident."
"I really believe that my son would be alive today if they took care of him right after 9/11," Zadroga told the Times.
Separated Twins' Condition Deemed Stable
Two 10-month-old, formerly conjoined twin girls were successfully separated in a marathon surgery in Los Angeles Thursday and are now in stable condition, the Associated Press reported.
Steve Rutledge, a spokesman for Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, said Regina and Renata Salinas are resting on ventilators in intensive care cribs, with no signs of infection or other problems. He said doctors do not yet know when the Mexican-born girls might leave the ICU.
The surgery to separate the girls took almost a full day as surgeons separated and divided up bone and organs shared by the twins. The girls -- who were fused together from the lower chest to the pelvis -- only shared one large intestine, so doctors made the decision to give that organ to Renata. They said it is possible Regina may require a colostomy later in life.
Conjoined twins are extremely rare. In the U.S., experts estimate that such births occur once in every 200,000 live deliveries.
Officials Warn of Medicare Scams
Seniors are falling prey to telephone scams where callers ask for banking information in exchange for enrollment in Medicare's Part D drug plan, officials at the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said Friday.
"We are taking further steps to prevent, identify, and help law enforcement officials apprehend these scam artists," CMS head Dr. Mark B. McClellan said in a statement.
Medicare Part D enrollment for 2006 officially closed May 15, and enrollment for 2007 does not begin until the fall.
"Part D enrollment has ended. Unless you've just become eligible for Medicare, you should be leery about people telling you to sign up for a new Medicare drug plan," Vicki Gottlich, senior policy advisor for the Center for Medicare Advocacy in Washington, D.C., told the Boston Globe.
"If someone calls you, don't give them your Social Security number, your credit card number, or bank account number," Gottlich advised. Officials at CMS also noted that it is against Medicare rules for marketers to go into residences uninvited, or ask for bank account numbers or other personal data over the phone. Seniors who suspect fraud can call CMS at 877-772-3379.
Dutch Surgeons Perform New Heartburn Surgery
A team of Dutch surgeons performed a new form of surgery on Friday to ease gastric reflux, the Associated Press reported.
Unlike standard surgeries, the new procedure avoids the need for an external incision in the abdomen. Instead, doctors conducted the camera-guided procedure via a tube threaded down the patient's throat into the stomach.
Tiny, newly developed robotic tools performed the surgery, which involved pulling together part of the stomach lining to form a kind of valve at the bottom of the esophagus.
Gastric reflux, which affects millions of Americans, is caused when stomach acids splash up past a weakened esophageal sphincter into the esophagus.
One expert said it's not clear whether this new surgery -- developed by Seattle-based EndoGastric Solutions, Inc. -- will become the new standard, since other techniques are also being tested.
"What's not clear right now is which of the different approaches - and there are several - will win out," Dr. Larry Brandt, chief of the gastrointestinal department at Montefiore Medical Center, New York City, told the AP.
Iowa Mumps Outbreak Under Control
Health officials in Iowa said on Friday that the number of cases of mumps in the state had dropped considerably in the past few weeks, suggesting that this year's unusual outbreak has been contained.
As of Wednesday, the Iowa Department of Public Health reported 1,938 confirmed or probable cases of mumps in the state, up by just 14 cases from the previous week.
As reported by the Associated Press, Iowa was the worst-hit of a number of 12 Midwest states affected by the mumps outbreak, which together reported 3,200 cases. No deaths and few hospitalizations were reported from the usually mild illness, which hit colleges especially hard.
Experts are blaming the outbreak on the failure of many American children to get booster shots after receiving their first mumps vaccine as babies. To fill that gap, Iowa health officials have offered free vaccination to all 18-to-46-year-olds.
"We had many more people vaccinated, so the number of susceptible people went down," Dr. Patricia Quinlisk, state epidemiologist, told the AP.
Over 200 people rallied at New York City's ground zero Saturday to protest what they say is the U.S. government's failure to care for those whose health was affected by airborne contaminants at the site of the 9/11 attacks.
"Our goal is very simple," said Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, a New York City Democrat. "We want everyone exposed to the deadly toxins monitored and everyone who is sick treated."
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determined the air at ground zero safe to breathe in the days following the attacks. But experts have since questioned that conclusion. Many of those gathered Saturday said their health had been seriously impaired since breathing in fumes and airborne toxins, the New York Times reported.
Maloney and others are demanding better recognition of 9/11-linked illness and improved health care benefits for those affected. The government has set aside over $100 million for the screening and care of ground zero workers, but Maloney said that amount doesn't begin to cover expected costs for tens of thousands of workers.
Speaking at the rally yesterday was Joseph Zadroga, whose son James -- a 34-year-old New York City police detective -- died in January from heart and lung complications. A New Jersey medical examiner concluded that Zadroga's death was "directly related to the 9/11 incident."
"I really believe that my son would be alive today if they took care of him right after 9/11," Zadroga told the Times.
Separated Twins' Condition Deemed Stable
Two 10-month-old, formerly conjoined twin girls were successfully separated in a marathon surgery in Los Angeles Thursday and are now in stable condition, the Associated Press reported.
Steve Rutledge, a spokesman for Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, said Regina and Renata Salinas are resting on ventilators in intensive care cribs, with no signs of infection or other problems. He said doctors do not yet know when the Mexican-born girls might leave the ICU.
The surgery to separate the girls took almost a full day as surgeons separated and divided up bone and organs shared by the twins. The girls -- who were fused together from the lower chest to the pelvis -- only shared one large intestine, so doctors made the decision to give that organ to Renata. They said it is possible Regina may require a colostomy later in life.
Conjoined twins are extremely rare. In the U.S., experts estimate that such births occur once in every 200,000 live deliveries.
Officials Warn of Medicare Scams
Seniors are falling prey to telephone scams where callers ask for banking information in exchange for enrollment in Medicare's Part D drug plan, officials at the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said Friday.
"We are taking further steps to prevent, identify, and help law enforcement officials apprehend these scam artists," CMS head Dr. Mark B. McClellan said in a statement.
Medicare Part D enrollment for 2006 officially closed May 15, and enrollment for 2007 does not begin until the fall.
"Part D enrollment has ended. Unless you've just become eligible for Medicare, you should be leery about people telling you to sign up for a new Medicare drug plan," Vicki Gottlich, senior policy advisor for the Center for Medicare Advocacy in Washington, D.C., told the Boston Globe.
"If someone calls you, don't give them your Social Security number, your credit card number, or bank account number," Gottlich advised. Officials at CMS also noted that it is against Medicare rules for marketers to go into residences uninvited, or ask for bank account numbers or other personal data over the phone. Seniors who suspect fraud can call CMS at 877-772-3379.
Dutch Surgeons Perform New Heartburn Surgery
A team of Dutch surgeons performed a new form of surgery on Friday to ease gastric reflux, the Associated Press reported.
Unlike standard surgeries, the new procedure avoids the need for an external incision in the abdomen. Instead, doctors conducted the camera-guided procedure via a tube threaded down the patient's throat into the stomach.
Tiny, newly developed robotic tools performed the surgery, which involved pulling together part of the stomach lining to form a kind of valve at the bottom of the esophagus.
Gastric reflux, which affects millions of Americans, is caused when stomach acids splash up past a weakened esophageal sphincter into the esophagus.
One expert said it's not clear whether this new surgery -- developed by Seattle-based EndoGastric Solutions, Inc. -- will become the new standard, since other techniques are also being tested.
"What's not clear right now is which of the different approaches - and there are several - will win out," Dr. Larry Brandt, chief of the gastrointestinal department at Montefiore Medical Center, New York City, told the AP.
Iowa Mumps Outbreak Under Control
Health officials in Iowa said on Friday that the number of cases of mumps in the state had dropped considerably in the past few weeks, suggesting that this year's unusual outbreak has been contained.
As of Wednesday, the Iowa Department of Public Health reported 1,938 confirmed or probable cases of mumps in the state, up by just 14 cases from the previous week.
As reported by the Associated Press, Iowa was the worst-hit of a number of 12 Midwest states affected by the mumps outbreak, which together reported 3,200 cases. No deaths and few hospitalizations were reported from the usually mild illness, which hit colleges especially hard.
Experts are blaming the outbreak on the failure of many American children to get booster shots after receiving their first mumps vaccine as babies. To fill that gap, Iowa health officials have offered free vaccination to all 18-to-46-year-olds.
"We had many more people vaccinated, so the number of susceptible people went down," Dr. Patricia Quinlisk, state epidemiologist, told the AP.
Saturday, June 17, 2006
Health Headlines - June 17
Separated Twins' Condition Deemed Stable
Two 10-month-old, formerly conjoined twin girls were successfully separated in a marathon surgery in Los Angeles Thursday and are now in stable condition, the Associated Press reported.
Steve Rutledge, a spokesman for Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, said Regina and Renata Salinas are resting on ventilators in intensive care cribs, with no signs of infection or other problems. He said doctors do not yet know when the Mexican-born girls might leave the ICU.
The surgery to separate the girls took almost a full day as surgeons separated and divided up bone and organs shared by the twins. The girls -- who were fused together from the lower chest to the pelvis -- only shared one large intestine, so doctors made the decision to give that organ to Renata. They said it is possible Regina may require a colostomy later in life.
Conjoined twins are extremely rare. In the U.S., experts estimate that such births occur once in every 200,000 live deliveries.
Officials Warn of Medicare Scams
Seniors are falling prey to telephone scams where callers ask for banking information in exchange for enrollment in Medicare's Part D drug plan, officials at the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said Friday.
"We are taking further steps to prevent, identify, and help law enforcement officials apprehend these scam artists," CMS head Dr. Mark B. McClellan said in a statement.
Medicare Part D enrollment for 2006 officially closed May 15, and enrollment for 2007 does not begin until the fall.
"Part D enrollment has ended. Unless you've just become eligible for Medicare, you should be leery about people telling you to sign up for a new Medicare drug plan," Vicki Gottlich, senior policy advisor for the Center for Medicare Advocacy in Washington, D.C., told the Boston Globe.
"If someone calls you, don't give them your Social Security number, your credit card number, or bank account number," Gottlich advised. Officials at CMS also noted that it is against Medicare rules for marketers to go into residences uninvited, or ask for bank account numbers or other personal data over the phone. Seniors who suspect fraud can call CMS at 877-772-3379.
Dutch Surgeons Perform New Heartburn Surgery
A team of Dutch surgeons performed a new form of surgery on Friday to ease gastric reflux, the Associated Press reported.
Unlike standard surgeries, the new procedure avoids the need for an external incision in the abdomen. Instead, doctors conducted the camera-guided procedure via a tube threaded down the patient's throat into the stomach.
Tiny, newly developed robotic tools performed the surgery, which involved pulling together part of the stomach lining to form a kind of valve at the bottom of the esophagus.
Gastric reflux, which affects millions of Americans, is caused when stomach acids splash up past a weakened esophageal sphincter into the esophagus.
One expert said it's not clear whether this new surgery -- developed by Seattle-based EndoGastric Solutions, Inc. -- will become the new standard, since other techniques are also being tested.
"What's not clear right now is which of the different approaches - and there are several - will win out," Dr. Larry Brandt, chief of the gastrointestinal department at Montefiore Medical Center, New York City, told the AP.
Iowa Mumps Outbreak Under Control
Health officials in Iowa said on Friday that the number of cases of mumps in the state had dropped considerably in the past few weeks, suggesting that this year's unusual outbreak has been contained.
As of Wednesday, the Iowa Department of Public Health reported 1,938 confirmed or probable cases of mumps in the state, up by just 14 cases from the previous week.
As reported by the Associated Press, Iowa was the worst-hit of a number of 12 Midwest states affected by the mumps outbreak, which together reported 3,200 cases. No deaths and few hospitalizations were reported from the usually mild illness, which hit colleges especially hard.
Experts are blaming the outbreak on the failure of many American children to get booster shots after receiving their first mumps vaccine as babies. To fill that gap, Iowa health officials have offered free vaccination to all 18-to-46-year-olds.
"We had many more people vaccinated, so the number of susceptible people went down," Dr. Patricia Quinlisk, state epidemiologist, told the AP.
Blacks Hear Better Than Whites: Study
Blacks hear better than whites, woman hear better than men, and despite all the ear-blasting devices of modern electronics, hearing levels in the United States are about the same as they were 35 years ago, a government study has found.
The racial and sex differences confirmed earlier studies that had reached the same conclusion, but the new study by scientists with the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health was the largest national sample yet to report such a finding, the Associated Press reported Thursday.
Some scientists believe that higher melanin levels in blacks may play a role in how the body removes harmful chemical compounds caused by damage to the sensitive hair cells in the inner ear. In this way, higher melanin may protect blacks from noise-induced hearing loss as years go by.
Elliott Berger, an Indianapolis-based hearing protection expert, said that genetics or differences in noise exposure may explain the difference between women and men. "Boys have typically done noisier activities," Berger told AP.
The study looked at more than 5,000 people who underwent hearing tests from 1999 through 2004 as part of a comprehensive, annual federal health survey that included physical examinations. The 10- to 20-minute test involved wearing headphones and pressing a button when a tone was heard. Frequency and decibel levels were also measured.
Women were more sensitive to higher frequency tones in the test. They could hear higher tones at 11 to 22 decibels, compared with 19 to 32 decibels for men, AP reported. The results closely followed those collected from hearing tests conducted from 1971 to 1975.
Two 10-month-old, formerly conjoined twin girls were successfully separated in a marathon surgery in Los Angeles Thursday and are now in stable condition, the Associated Press reported.
Steve Rutledge, a spokesman for Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, said Regina and Renata Salinas are resting on ventilators in intensive care cribs, with no signs of infection or other problems. He said doctors do not yet know when the Mexican-born girls might leave the ICU.
The surgery to separate the girls took almost a full day as surgeons separated and divided up bone and organs shared by the twins. The girls -- who were fused together from the lower chest to the pelvis -- only shared one large intestine, so doctors made the decision to give that organ to Renata. They said it is possible Regina may require a colostomy later in life.
Conjoined twins are extremely rare. In the U.S., experts estimate that such births occur once in every 200,000 live deliveries.
Officials Warn of Medicare Scams
Seniors are falling prey to telephone scams where callers ask for banking information in exchange for enrollment in Medicare's Part D drug plan, officials at the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said Friday.
"We are taking further steps to prevent, identify, and help law enforcement officials apprehend these scam artists," CMS head Dr. Mark B. McClellan said in a statement.
Medicare Part D enrollment for 2006 officially closed May 15, and enrollment for 2007 does not begin until the fall.
"Part D enrollment has ended. Unless you've just become eligible for Medicare, you should be leery about people telling you to sign up for a new Medicare drug plan," Vicki Gottlich, senior policy advisor for the Center for Medicare Advocacy in Washington, D.C., told the Boston Globe.
"If someone calls you, don't give them your Social Security number, your credit card number, or bank account number," Gottlich advised. Officials at CMS also noted that it is against Medicare rules for marketers to go into residences uninvited, or ask for bank account numbers or other personal data over the phone. Seniors who suspect fraud can call CMS at 877-772-3379.
Dutch Surgeons Perform New Heartburn Surgery
A team of Dutch surgeons performed a new form of surgery on Friday to ease gastric reflux, the Associated Press reported.
Unlike standard surgeries, the new procedure avoids the need for an external incision in the abdomen. Instead, doctors conducted the camera-guided procedure via a tube threaded down the patient's throat into the stomach.
Tiny, newly developed robotic tools performed the surgery, which involved pulling together part of the stomach lining to form a kind of valve at the bottom of the esophagus.
Gastric reflux, which affects millions of Americans, is caused when stomach acids splash up past a weakened esophageal sphincter into the esophagus.
One expert said it's not clear whether this new surgery -- developed by Seattle-based EndoGastric Solutions, Inc. -- will become the new standard, since other techniques are also being tested.
"What's not clear right now is which of the different approaches - and there are several - will win out," Dr. Larry Brandt, chief of the gastrointestinal department at Montefiore Medical Center, New York City, told the AP.
Iowa Mumps Outbreak Under Control
Health officials in Iowa said on Friday that the number of cases of mumps in the state had dropped considerably in the past few weeks, suggesting that this year's unusual outbreak has been contained.
As of Wednesday, the Iowa Department of Public Health reported 1,938 confirmed or probable cases of mumps in the state, up by just 14 cases from the previous week.
As reported by the Associated Press, Iowa was the worst-hit of a number of 12 Midwest states affected by the mumps outbreak, which together reported 3,200 cases. No deaths and few hospitalizations were reported from the usually mild illness, which hit colleges especially hard.
Experts are blaming the outbreak on the failure of many American children to get booster shots after receiving their first mumps vaccine as babies. To fill that gap, Iowa health officials have offered free vaccination to all 18-to-46-year-olds.
"We had many more people vaccinated, so the number of susceptible people went down," Dr. Patricia Quinlisk, state epidemiologist, told the AP.
Blacks Hear Better Than Whites: Study
Blacks hear better than whites, woman hear better than men, and despite all the ear-blasting devices of modern electronics, hearing levels in the United States are about the same as they were 35 years ago, a government study has found.
The racial and sex differences confirmed earlier studies that had reached the same conclusion, but the new study by scientists with the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health was the largest national sample yet to report such a finding, the Associated Press reported Thursday.
Some scientists believe that higher melanin levels in blacks may play a role in how the body removes harmful chemical compounds caused by damage to the sensitive hair cells in the inner ear. In this way, higher melanin may protect blacks from noise-induced hearing loss as years go by.
Elliott Berger, an Indianapolis-based hearing protection expert, said that genetics or differences in noise exposure may explain the difference between women and men. "Boys have typically done noisier activities," Berger told AP.
The study looked at more than 5,000 people who underwent hearing tests from 1999 through 2004 as part of a comprehensive, annual federal health survey that included physical examinations. The 10- to 20-minute test involved wearing headphones and pressing a button when a tone was heard. Frequency and decibel levels were also measured.
Women were more sensitive to higher frequency tones in the test. They could hear higher tones at 11 to 22 decibels, compared with 19 to 32 decibels for men, AP reported. The results closely followed those collected from hearing tests conducted from 1971 to 1975.
Friday, June 16, 2006
Health Headlines - June 16
Volunteers Begin Testing Bird Flu Nasal Vaccine
A U.S. team on Thursday began tests in human volunteers on an experimental H5N1 avian flu vaccine. The shot contains live but weakened viruses and is administered through the nose via an inhaler or spray.
Experts hope the new vaccine will afford greater protection than injectable vaccines and do so in smaller doses, although some scientists aren't sure it will induce enough of a protective response in humans to be worthwhile. The vaccine was developed by a team at the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the Canadian Press reported Friday.
The trial is being conducted by The Center for Immunization Research at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore, Md., in collaboration with the U.S. National Institutes of Health and MedImmune Inc., a Gaithersburg, Md.-based company that makes one of only two live-attenuated influenza vaccines in the world. The other is made by a Russian manufacturer, CP said.
The live-virus vaccine being tested is administered through the nose and replicates the way that regular viruses do. This low-level infection activates the immune system to develop antibodies that could protect against later exposure to a full-strength virus, the researchers explained.
First Drug Regimen Approved for Advanced Cervical Cancer
The first combination of drugs to treat late-stage cervical cancer received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval Thursday.
Hycamtin (topotecan hydrochloride) -- already approved to treat cancers of the ovaries and lung -- is newly sanctioned in combination with cisplatin to treat cervical cancer that's too advanced or is unlikely to respond to treatments including surgery and radiation, the agency said.
Some 10,000 U.S. women are diagnosed annually with cervical cancer, leading to 3,700 deaths each year. In clinical trials involving 293 women, participants who used the combination survived an average of 9.4 months, versus 6.5 months among those who took cisplatin alone, the FDA said
Hycamtin, made by GlaxoSmithKline, was approved in 1996 for ovarian cancer and in 1998 for small-cell lung cancer. People who take it are at risk for neutropenia, a drop in white blood cell count that boosts a person's risk of infections. Users are also at risk for a decrease in blood platelets, which could lead to excessive bleeding and anemia, the FDA said.
Docs Question Merits of Cosmetic Lasers: Newspaper
A growing number of doctors who have used lasers and other technologies to counter drooping skin are questioning whether the devices actually work as touted, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
Body sculpting treatments and related procedures are among the fastest-growing cosmetic procedures, the newspaper said, as the global pricetag in 2005 topped $4.2 billion. But actual results are marginal at best, physicians tell the Journal.
Some dermatologists and plastic surgeons are becoming increasingly critical of what they say are their colleagues' tendencies to show dramatic before-and-after pictures that overstate typical results. Makers of the devices attribute the complaints to the fact that patient results aren't always as dramatic as surgery, the newspaper reported.
There is little documented scientific evidence of the effectiveness of cosmetic lasers and other treatments, the Journal noted. One reason may be that the requirements for approval of these devices by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are much less stringent than evidence required for the FDA's approval of drugs, the newspaper said.
Baseball Wants to Strike Out Prostate Cancer
To raise awareness of the dangers of prostate cancer, Major League Baseball says it will observe Father's Day this Sunday by working with corporate sponsors to donate money to prostate cancer research for every home run hit that day.
In an article on its Web site, Major League Baseball said an informative card would be distributed to fans at all MLB ballparks on Sunday, and that players and coaches would don symbolic wristbands and blue-ribbon uniform decals.
And The New York Times reported that traditional seventh-inning stretch activities would instead be done on Sunday during the sixth inning, symbolizing that one in every six American men will develop prostate cancer during his lifetime.
Many Parents Underestimate Asthma Risk: Study
Nearly half of all parents who participated in a global survey were unaware that a child with a mild form of asthma could still die from an acute attack, European researchers say.
One in three fatal asthma attacks involves a mild form of the disease, the Associated Press reported of data released at a Vienna meeting by the European Academy of Allergology and Clinical Immunology.
A survey of nearly 5,500 parents -- primarily in Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States -- found that parents frequently cut back on their children's use of inhalers and other treatments when their children have side effects, the wire service reported.
This exposes these children to a host of potential problems, including worsening asthma symptoms, more frequent attacks, and the need for more trips to the doctor or emergency room, the academy warned.
Some 225,000 people died from asthma last year, according to the World Health Organization, a number that's projected to rise by almost 20 percent in the next decade, the AP reported.
A U.S. team on Thursday began tests in human volunteers on an experimental H5N1 avian flu vaccine. The shot contains live but weakened viruses and is administered through the nose via an inhaler or spray.
Experts hope the new vaccine will afford greater protection than injectable vaccines and do so in smaller doses, although some scientists aren't sure it will induce enough of a protective response in humans to be worthwhile. The vaccine was developed by a team at the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the Canadian Press reported Friday.
The trial is being conducted by The Center for Immunization Research at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore, Md., in collaboration with the U.S. National Institutes of Health and MedImmune Inc., a Gaithersburg, Md.-based company that makes one of only two live-attenuated influenza vaccines in the world. The other is made by a Russian manufacturer, CP said.
The live-virus vaccine being tested is administered through the nose and replicates the way that regular viruses do. This low-level infection activates the immune system to develop antibodies that could protect against later exposure to a full-strength virus, the researchers explained.
First Drug Regimen Approved for Advanced Cervical Cancer
The first combination of drugs to treat late-stage cervical cancer received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval Thursday.
Hycamtin (topotecan hydrochloride) -- already approved to treat cancers of the ovaries and lung -- is newly sanctioned in combination with cisplatin to treat cervical cancer that's too advanced or is unlikely to respond to treatments including surgery and radiation, the agency said.
Some 10,000 U.S. women are diagnosed annually with cervical cancer, leading to 3,700 deaths each year. In clinical trials involving 293 women, participants who used the combination survived an average of 9.4 months, versus 6.5 months among those who took cisplatin alone, the FDA said
Hycamtin, made by GlaxoSmithKline, was approved in 1996 for ovarian cancer and in 1998 for small-cell lung cancer. People who take it are at risk for neutropenia, a drop in white blood cell count that boosts a person's risk of infections. Users are also at risk for a decrease in blood platelets, which could lead to excessive bleeding and anemia, the FDA said.
Docs Question Merits of Cosmetic Lasers: Newspaper
A growing number of doctors who have used lasers and other technologies to counter drooping skin are questioning whether the devices actually work as touted, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
Body sculpting treatments and related procedures are among the fastest-growing cosmetic procedures, the newspaper said, as the global pricetag in 2005 topped $4.2 billion. But actual results are marginal at best, physicians tell the Journal.
Some dermatologists and plastic surgeons are becoming increasingly critical of what they say are their colleagues' tendencies to show dramatic before-and-after pictures that overstate typical results. Makers of the devices attribute the complaints to the fact that patient results aren't always as dramatic as surgery, the newspaper reported.
There is little documented scientific evidence of the effectiveness of cosmetic lasers and other treatments, the Journal noted. One reason may be that the requirements for approval of these devices by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are much less stringent than evidence required for the FDA's approval of drugs, the newspaper said.
Baseball Wants to Strike Out Prostate Cancer
To raise awareness of the dangers of prostate cancer, Major League Baseball says it will observe Father's Day this Sunday by working with corporate sponsors to donate money to prostate cancer research for every home run hit that day.
In an article on its Web site, Major League Baseball said an informative card would be distributed to fans at all MLB ballparks on Sunday, and that players and coaches would don symbolic wristbands and blue-ribbon uniform decals.
And The New York Times reported that traditional seventh-inning stretch activities would instead be done on Sunday during the sixth inning, symbolizing that one in every six American men will develop prostate cancer during his lifetime.
Many Parents Underestimate Asthma Risk: Study
Nearly half of all parents who participated in a global survey were unaware that a child with a mild form of asthma could still die from an acute attack, European researchers say.
One in three fatal asthma attacks involves a mild form of the disease, the Associated Press reported of data released at a Vienna meeting by the European Academy of Allergology and Clinical Immunology.
A survey of nearly 5,500 parents -- primarily in Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States -- found that parents frequently cut back on their children's use of inhalers and other treatments when their children have side effects, the wire service reported.
This exposes these children to a host of potential problems, including worsening asthma symptoms, more frequent attacks, and the need for more trips to the doctor or emergency room, the academy warned.
Some 225,000 people died from asthma last year, according to the World Health Organization, a number that's projected to rise by almost 20 percent in the next decade, the AP reported.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Health Headlines - June 15
First Drug Regimen Approved for Advanced Cervical Cancer
The first combination of drugs to treat late-stage cervical cancer received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval Thursday.
Hycamtin (topotecan hydrochloride) -- already approved to treat cancers of the ovaries and lung -- is newly sanctioned in combination with cisplatin to treat cervical cancer that's too advanced or is unlikely to respond to treatments including surgery and radiation, the agency said.
Some 10,000 U.S. women are diagnosed annually with cervical cancer, leading to 3,700 deaths each year. In clinical trials involving 293 women, participants who used the combination survived an average of 9.4 months, versus 6.5 months among those who took cisplatin alone, the FDA said
Hycamtin, made by GlaxoSmithKline, was approved in 1996 for ovarian cancer and in 1998 for small-cell lung cancer. People who take it are at risk for neutropenia, a drop in white blood cell count that boosts a person's risk of infections. Users are also at risk for a decrease in blood platelets, which could lead to excessive bleeding and anemia, the FDA said.
Many Parents Underestimate Asthma Risk: Study
Nearly half of all parents who participated in a global survey were unaware that a child with a mild form of asthma could still die from an acute attack, European researchers say.
One in three fatal asthma attacks involves a mild form of the disease, the Associated Press reported of data released at a Vienna meeting by the European Academy of Allergology and Clinical Immunology.
A survey of nearly 5,500 parents -- primarily in Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States -- found that parents frequently cut back on their children's use of inhalers and other treatments when their children have side effects, the wire service reported.
This exposes these children to a host of potential problems, including worsening asthma symptoms, more frequent attacks, and the need for more trips to the doctor or emergency room, the academy warned.
Some 225,000 people died from asthma last year, according to the World Health Organization, a number that's projected to rise by almost 20 percent in the next decade, the AP reported.
Separated Twins 'Doing Great'
Conjoined twins, attached from the chest to the pelvis and who shared internal organ function, were separated in a daylong operation Wednesday by a surgical team at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.
The twins, 10-month-old Regina and Renata Salinas Fierros, were transferred early Thursday to side-by-side beds in an intensive care unit after their surgeries were complete, hospital spokeswoman Janet Dotson told the Associated Press.
"The girls are doing great," she added.
The AP reported that the twins were finally separated as the pelvic bone was cut shortly before 6:30 p.m. PT.Wednesday night. The procedure had lasted more than 12 hours and was especially difficult, the wire service said, because doctors had to devise a way to separate the liver, bladder and genitalia so that each child could function on her own.
Investigators: NIH Worker Allegedly Profited From Tissue Samples
A senior researcher at the U.S. National Institutes of Health may have profited by at least $285,000 from the transfer of human tissue samples in what appears to be a violation of agency ethics rules, House investigators told the Associated Press.
The investigators said the transfer of the samples to the drug giant Pfizer would not have been approved had agency permission been sought by Dr. Trey Sunderland, an Alzheimer's disease expert at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The arrangement raises questions about lax oversight at the agency, the investigators told the wire service.
Sunderland, chief of the geriatric psychiatry branch at the NIMH, asserted his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination Wednesday by refusing to testify at congressional hearings on the allegations.
He's been under congressional scrutiny before, the AP said. The House Energy and Commerce Committee has investigated allegations that Sunderland received $517,000 since 1999 in consulting fees or expense reimbursements from Pfizer without any record of agency approval for those payments, the wire service reported.
The latest probe centers on investigators' belief that there were "reasonable grounds" that $285,000 of the $517,000 Sunderland received from Pfizer stemmed from giving the company access to spinal fluid and plasma samples in connection with Pfizer's work on an Alzheimer's drug, the AP said.
"Federal laws and policies do not permit NIH scientists to profit personally from their jobs and their patients by providing irreplaceable government assets," Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) told the wire service. Whitfield chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee's oversight and investigation subcommittee.
An attorney for Sunderland, Robert Muse, said his client "didn't receive a dime for providing anything to Pfizer. He received fees for consulting as well as for lectures. These were known to NIH and they were permitted under NIH rules," Muse told the AP.
The transfer of tissue samples was done under a 1998 material transfer agreement between the NIMH and Pfizer, the AP reported. A company spokesman could not be reached for immediate comment, the wire service said.
HHS Chief Uses Emergency Jet for Meetings: Newspaper
A private jet reserved for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in cases of emergency has been used by Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt to attend news conferences and meetings across the country, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Wednesday.
While the CDC says it has used the jet for three emergencies since January, Leavitt has used the Gulfstream III jet on 19 trips to more than 90 cities, his spokeswoman told the newspaper. Most of Leavitt's trips, at a cost to taxpayers of more than $700,000, were to promote the new Medicare prescription drug benefit for seniors, the newspaper said.
In two cases, CDC officials responding to emergencies were forced to use other planes because Leavitt was using the CDC jet, the Journal-Constitution said.
A Leavitt spokeswoman defended his use of the plane, saying the trips complied with federal guidelines. Before 2006, Leavitt typically took commercial jets, as other cabinet members say they do frequently, the newspaper reported.
Last fall, Congress authorized Leavitt to use the jet at his discretion because of the nature of his work during emergencies and "significant events," the newspaper said.
Leavitt was unavailable to respond to the newspaper's story, it said.
The first combination of drugs to treat late-stage cervical cancer received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval Thursday.
Hycamtin (topotecan hydrochloride) -- already approved to treat cancers of the ovaries and lung -- is newly sanctioned in combination with cisplatin to treat cervical cancer that's too advanced or is unlikely to respond to treatments including surgery and radiation, the agency said.
Some 10,000 U.S. women are diagnosed annually with cervical cancer, leading to 3,700 deaths each year. In clinical trials involving 293 women, participants who used the combination survived an average of 9.4 months, versus 6.5 months among those who took cisplatin alone, the FDA said
Hycamtin, made by GlaxoSmithKline, was approved in 1996 for ovarian cancer and in 1998 for small-cell lung cancer. People who take it are at risk for neutropenia, a drop in white blood cell count that boosts a person's risk of infections. Users are also at risk for a decrease in blood platelets, which could lead to excessive bleeding and anemia, the FDA said.
Many Parents Underestimate Asthma Risk: Study
Nearly half of all parents who participated in a global survey were unaware that a child with a mild form of asthma could still die from an acute attack, European researchers say.
One in three fatal asthma attacks involves a mild form of the disease, the Associated Press reported of data released at a Vienna meeting by the European Academy of Allergology and Clinical Immunology.
A survey of nearly 5,500 parents -- primarily in Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States -- found that parents frequently cut back on their children's use of inhalers and other treatments when their children have side effects, the wire service reported.
This exposes these children to a host of potential problems, including worsening asthma symptoms, more frequent attacks, and the need for more trips to the doctor or emergency room, the academy warned.
Some 225,000 people died from asthma last year, according to the World Health Organization, a number that's projected to rise by almost 20 percent in the next decade, the AP reported.
Separated Twins 'Doing Great'
Conjoined twins, attached from the chest to the pelvis and who shared internal organ function, were separated in a daylong operation Wednesday by a surgical team at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.
The twins, 10-month-old Regina and Renata Salinas Fierros, were transferred early Thursday to side-by-side beds in an intensive care unit after their surgeries were complete, hospital spokeswoman Janet Dotson told the Associated Press.
"The girls are doing great," she added.
The AP reported that the twins were finally separated as the pelvic bone was cut shortly before 6:30 p.m. PT.Wednesday night. The procedure had lasted more than 12 hours and was especially difficult, the wire service said, because doctors had to devise a way to separate the liver, bladder and genitalia so that each child could function on her own.
Investigators: NIH Worker Allegedly Profited From Tissue Samples
A senior researcher at the U.S. National Institutes of Health may have profited by at least $285,000 from the transfer of human tissue samples in what appears to be a violation of agency ethics rules, House investigators told the Associated Press.
The investigators said the transfer of the samples to the drug giant Pfizer would not have been approved had agency permission been sought by Dr. Trey Sunderland, an Alzheimer's disease expert at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The arrangement raises questions about lax oversight at the agency, the investigators told the wire service.
Sunderland, chief of the geriatric psychiatry branch at the NIMH, asserted his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination Wednesday by refusing to testify at congressional hearings on the allegations.
He's been under congressional scrutiny before, the AP said. The House Energy and Commerce Committee has investigated allegations that Sunderland received $517,000 since 1999 in consulting fees or expense reimbursements from Pfizer without any record of agency approval for those payments, the wire service reported.
The latest probe centers on investigators' belief that there were "reasonable grounds" that $285,000 of the $517,000 Sunderland received from Pfizer stemmed from giving the company access to spinal fluid and plasma samples in connection with Pfizer's work on an Alzheimer's drug, the AP said.
"Federal laws and policies do not permit NIH scientists to profit personally from their jobs and their patients by providing irreplaceable government assets," Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) told the wire service. Whitfield chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee's oversight and investigation subcommittee.
An attorney for Sunderland, Robert Muse, said his client "didn't receive a dime for providing anything to Pfizer. He received fees for consulting as well as for lectures. These were known to NIH and they were permitted under NIH rules," Muse told the AP.
The transfer of tissue samples was done under a 1998 material transfer agreement between the NIMH and Pfizer, the AP reported. A company spokesman could not be reached for immediate comment, the wire service said.
HHS Chief Uses Emergency Jet for Meetings: Newspaper
A private jet reserved for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in cases of emergency has been used by Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt to attend news conferences and meetings across the country, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Wednesday.
While the CDC says it has used the jet for three emergencies since January, Leavitt has used the Gulfstream III jet on 19 trips to more than 90 cities, his spokeswoman told the newspaper. Most of Leavitt's trips, at a cost to taxpayers of more than $700,000, were to promote the new Medicare prescription drug benefit for seniors, the newspaper said.
In two cases, CDC officials responding to emergencies were forced to use other planes because Leavitt was using the CDC jet, the Journal-Constitution said.
A Leavitt spokeswoman defended his use of the plane, saying the trips complied with federal guidelines. Before 2006, Leavitt typically took commercial jets, as other cabinet members say they do frequently, the newspaper reported.
Last fall, Congress authorized Leavitt to use the jet at his discretion because of the nature of his work during emergencies and "significant events," the newspaper said.
Leavitt was unavailable to respond to the newspaper's story, it said.
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Health Headlines - June 14
Investigators: NIH Worker Allegedly Profited From Tissue Samples
A senior researcher at the U.S. National Institutes of Health may have profited by at least $285,000 from the transfer of human tissue samples in what appears to be a violation of agency ethics rules, House investigators told the Associated Press.
The investigators said the transfer of the samples to the drug giant Pfizer would not have been approved had agency permission been sought by Dr. Trey Sunderland, an Alzheimer's disease expert at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The arrangement raises questions about lax oversight at the agency, the investigators told the wire service.
Sunderland, chief of the geriatric psychiatry branch at the NIMH, asserted his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination Wednesday by refusing to testify at congressional hearings on the allegations.
He's been under congressional scrutiny before, the AP said. The House Energy and Commerce Committee has investigated allegations that Sunderland received $517,000 since 1999 in consulting fees or expense reimbursements from Pfizer without any record of agency approval for those payments, the wire service reported.
The latest probe centers on investigators' belief that there were "reasonable grounds" that $285,000 of the $517,000 Sunderland received from Pfizer stemmed from giving the company access to spinal fluid and plasma samples in connection with Pfizer's work on an Alzheimer's drug, the AP said.
"Federal laws and policies do not permit NIH scientists to profit personally from their jobs and their patients by providing irreplaceable government assets," Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) told the wire service. Whitfield chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee's oversight and investigation subcommittee.
An attorney for Sunderland, Robert Muse, said his client "didn't receive a dime for providing anything to Pfizer. He received fees for consulting as well as for lectures. These were known to NIH and they were permitted under NIH rules," Muse told the AP.
The transfer of tissue samples was done under a 1998 material transfer agreement between the NIMH and Pfizer, the AP reported. A company spokesman could not be reached for immediate comment, the wire service said.
HHS Chief Uses Emergency Jet for Meetings: Newspaper
A private jet reserved for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in cases of emergency has been used by Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt to attend news conferences and meetings across the country, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Wednesday.
While the CDC says it has used the jet for three emergencies since January, Leavitt has used the Gulfstream III jet on 19 trips to more than 90 cities, his spokeswoman told the newspaper. Most of Leavitt's trips, at a cost to taxpayers of more than $700,000, were to promote the new Medicare prescription drug benefit for seniors, the newspaper said.
In two cases, CDC officials responding to emergencies were forced to use other planes because Leavitt was using the CDC jet, the Journal-Constitution said.
A Leavitt spokeswoman defended his use of the plane, saying the trips complied with federal guidelines. Before 2006, Leavitt typically took commercial jets, as other cabinet members say they do frequently, the newspaper reported.
Last fall, Congress authorized Leavitt to use the jet at his discretion because of the nature of his work during emergencies and "significant events," the newspaper said.
Leavitt was unavailable to respond to the newspaper's story, it said.
Bid to Prevent Hospital Errors Has Saved Thousands, Director Says
More than 122,000 lives have been saved at U.S. acute care facilities in the past 18 months because of a national campaign to prevent hospital errors, the program's director said Wednesday.
Some 3,100 institutions participated in the effort, led by Harvard Professor Dr. Donald Berwick, who announced the results Wednesday at an Atlanta hospital conference. The campaign focused on better protection against drug errors, preventing post-surgical infections, and deployment of emergency rapid-response teams, the Associated Press reported.
Participating hospitals, which represented about three-quarters of the nation's acute care beds, were asked to send Berwick their mortality data for analysis, the AP said.
A widely publicized 1999 report estimated that up to 98,000 Americans die each year due to hospital errors and substandard care, the wire service said.
Separately, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday it was launching a new bid to prevent drug errors caused by unclear abbreviations used in doctors' prescriptions. As an example, the agency said the abbreviation for international units (IU) was easily mistaken for the abbreviation for intravenous (IV).
The FDA said it would produce a series of brochures, posters and public service advertisements aimed at doctors. More than 7,000 Americans die each year due to medication errors, the agency said.
KFC Sued Over Trans Fats in Recipes
A public advocacy group is suing KFC over the ongoing use of trans fat-laden partially hydrogenated oils in the company's fried chicken recipes, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest wants to either get a ban on KFC's use of the fatty oils or force the company to tell customers that trans fats can cause heart disease, the newspaper said.
The suit was brought in District of Columbia Superior Court and a decision would be binding only in Washington, the newspaper said.
Scientists consider trans fats among the most unhealthy of all fats. About 80 percent of those found in the average American's diet come from partially hydrogenated oils, the Times said.
KFC issued a statement calling the lawsuit "completely without merit." The firm noted that complete nutrition information for its products was available in its restaurants and on its Web site.
"We have been reviewing alternative oil options, but there are a number of factors to consider including maintaining KFC's unique taste and flavor of Colonel Sanders' Original Recipe," the statement continued.
Jerry Lewis Has Mild Heart Attack
Legendary comedian Jerry Lewis is recovering in a San Diego hospital from what a spokeswoman is calling a mild heart attack, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.
Lewis, 80, had the heart attack on Sunday and also has "a touch of pneumonia," according to a spokeswoman for a Las Vegas casino where Lewis had been scheduled to perform next month. The engagement has been postponed, the wire service said.
Just last week, Lewis appeared at a Las Vegas news conference to announce his first live performances in five years, following a bout with pulmonary fibrosis, a debilitating lung ailment.
A senior researcher at the U.S. National Institutes of Health may have profited by at least $285,000 from the transfer of human tissue samples in what appears to be a violation of agency ethics rules, House investigators told the Associated Press.
The investigators said the transfer of the samples to the drug giant Pfizer would not have been approved had agency permission been sought by Dr. Trey Sunderland, an Alzheimer's disease expert at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The arrangement raises questions about lax oversight at the agency, the investigators told the wire service.
Sunderland, chief of the geriatric psychiatry branch at the NIMH, asserted his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination Wednesday by refusing to testify at congressional hearings on the allegations.
He's been under congressional scrutiny before, the AP said. The House Energy and Commerce Committee has investigated allegations that Sunderland received $517,000 since 1999 in consulting fees or expense reimbursements from Pfizer without any record of agency approval for those payments, the wire service reported.
The latest probe centers on investigators' belief that there were "reasonable grounds" that $285,000 of the $517,000 Sunderland received from Pfizer stemmed from giving the company access to spinal fluid and plasma samples in connection with Pfizer's work on an Alzheimer's drug, the AP said.
"Federal laws and policies do not permit NIH scientists to profit personally from their jobs and their patients by providing irreplaceable government assets," Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) told the wire service. Whitfield chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee's oversight and investigation subcommittee.
An attorney for Sunderland, Robert Muse, said his client "didn't receive a dime for providing anything to Pfizer. He received fees for consulting as well as for lectures. These were known to NIH and they were permitted under NIH rules," Muse told the AP.
The transfer of tissue samples was done under a 1998 material transfer agreement between the NIMH and Pfizer, the AP reported. A company spokesman could not be reached for immediate comment, the wire service said.
HHS Chief Uses Emergency Jet for Meetings: Newspaper
A private jet reserved for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in cases of emergency has been used by Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt to attend news conferences and meetings across the country, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Wednesday.
While the CDC says it has used the jet for three emergencies since January, Leavitt has used the Gulfstream III jet on 19 trips to more than 90 cities, his spokeswoman told the newspaper. Most of Leavitt's trips, at a cost to taxpayers of more than $700,000, were to promote the new Medicare prescription drug benefit for seniors, the newspaper said.
In two cases, CDC officials responding to emergencies were forced to use other planes because Leavitt was using the CDC jet, the Journal-Constitution said.
A Leavitt spokeswoman defended his use of the plane, saying the trips complied with federal guidelines. Before 2006, Leavitt typically took commercial jets, as other cabinet members say they do frequently, the newspaper reported.
Last fall, Congress authorized Leavitt to use the jet at his discretion because of the nature of his work during emergencies and "significant events," the newspaper said.
Leavitt was unavailable to respond to the newspaper's story, it said.
Bid to Prevent Hospital Errors Has Saved Thousands, Director Says
More than 122,000 lives have been saved at U.S. acute care facilities in the past 18 months because of a national campaign to prevent hospital errors, the program's director said Wednesday.
Some 3,100 institutions participated in the effort, led by Harvard Professor Dr. Donald Berwick, who announced the results Wednesday at an Atlanta hospital conference. The campaign focused on better protection against drug errors, preventing post-surgical infections, and deployment of emergency rapid-response teams, the Associated Press reported.
Participating hospitals, which represented about three-quarters of the nation's acute care beds, were asked to send Berwick their mortality data for analysis, the AP said.
A widely publicized 1999 report estimated that up to 98,000 Americans die each year due to hospital errors and substandard care, the wire service said.
Separately, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday it was launching a new bid to prevent drug errors caused by unclear abbreviations used in doctors' prescriptions. As an example, the agency said the abbreviation for international units (IU) was easily mistaken for the abbreviation for intravenous (IV).
The FDA said it would produce a series of brochures, posters and public service advertisements aimed at doctors. More than 7,000 Americans die each year due to medication errors, the agency said.
KFC Sued Over Trans Fats in Recipes
A public advocacy group is suing KFC over the ongoing use of trans fat-laden partially hydrogenated oils in the company's fried chicken recipes, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest wants to either get a ban on KFC's use of the fatty oils or force the company to tell customers that trans fats can cause heart disease, the newspaper said.
The suit was brought in District of Columbia Superior Court and a decision would be binding only in Washington, the newspaper said.
Scientists consider trans fats among the most unhealthy of all fats. About 80 percent of those found in the average American's diet come from partially hydrogenated oils, the Times said.
KFC issued a statement calling the lawsuit "completely without merit." The firm noted that complete nutrition information for its products was available in its restaurants and on its Web site.
"We have been reviewing alternative oil options, but there are a number of factors to consider including maintaining KFC's unique taste and flavor of Colonel Sanders' Original Recipe," the statement continued.
Jerry Lewis Has Mild Heart Attack
Legendary comedian Jerry Lewis is recovering in a San Diego hospital from what a spokeswoman is calling a mild heart attack, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.
Lewis, 80, had the heart attack on Sunday and also has "a touch of pneumonia," according to a spokeswoman for a Las Vegas casino where Lewis had been scheduled to perform next month. The engagement has been postponed, the wire service said.
Just last week, Lewis appeared at a Las Vegas news conference to announce his first live performances in five years, following a bout with pulmonary fibrosis, a debilitating lung ailment.
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Health Headlines - June 13
Doctor Who Sparked Vaccine Controversy Faces Charges
The doctor who sparked a worldwide scare over the safety of the MMR vaccine is expected to be charged with professional misconduct by Great Britain's General Medical Council, the London Independent reported Monday.
Dr. Andrew Wakefield, whose 1998 research paper published in the British medical journal The Lancet purported to show a link between the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and autism, is accused in preliminary charges of publishing "inadequately founded" research, failing to obtain ethical committee approval, obtaining funding "improperly," and of subjecting children to "unnecessary and invasive investigations," according to the newspaper.
Detailed charges against Wakefield, 50, are being formulated by the GMC's lawyers and a public hearing is expected next year. If Wakefield is found guilty, he could be struck from the medical register, the Independent reported.
After Wakefield and 12 other doctors published the warning about the combined vaccine, tens of thousands of parents boycotted its use, leading to rising cases of all three illnesses.
The research was said to have done more damage than anything published in a scientific journal in living memory, according to the newspaper.
New Diabetes Drugs Add Double Punch to Older Medications
Two experimental pills seem to pack a one-two punch for older diabetes drugs -- they not only help lower blood sugar levels but also help with weight loss.
The once-a-day medications are the first in a new class of type 2 diabetes drugs that manufacturers Merck & Co. and Novartis AG hope to win U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for and to begin selling by year's end, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.
Merck's pill, Januvia or sitagliptin, lowered blood sugar levels by 0.67 percent for participants in a yearlong trial, or just as much as another, older drug, glipizide, the AP reported. Novartis' pill, Galvus or vildagliptin, reduced blood sugar levels by 1.9 percent when used with another older drug, pioglitazone, which reduces insulin resistance.
Excess weight is a common problem in type 2 patients. Both experimental pills helped patients maintain or even lose weight in the trials. Side effects of the pills included cold and flu-like symptoms and headaches.
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.
The doctor who sparked a worldwide scare over the safety of the MMR vaccine is expected to be charged with professional misconduct by Great Britain's General Medical Council, the London Independent reported Monday.
Dr. Andrew Wakefield, whose 1998 research paper published in the British medical journal The Lancet purported to show a link between the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and autism, is accused in preliminary charges of publishing "inadequately founded" research, failing to obtain ethical committee approval, obtaining funding "improperly," and of subjecting children to "unnecessary and invasive investigations," according to the newspaper.
Detailed charges against Wakefield, 50, are being formulated by the GMC's lawyers and a public hearing is expected next year. If Wakefield is found guilty, he could be struck from the medical register, the Independent reported.
After Wakefield and 12 other doctors published the warning about the combined vaccine, tens of thousands of parents boycotted its use, leading to rising cases of all three illnesses.
The research was said to have done more damage than anything published in a scientific journal in living memory, according to the newspaper.
New Diabetes Drugs Add Double Punch to Older Medications
Two experimental pills seem to pack a one-two punch for older diabetes drugs -- they not only help lower blood sugar levels but also help with weight loss.
The once-a-day medications are the first in a new class of type 2 diabetes drugs that manufacturers Merck & Co. and Novartis AG hope to win U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for and to begin selling by year's end, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.
Merck's pill, Januvia or sitagliptin, lowered blood sugar levels by 0.67 percent for participants in a yearlong trial, or just as much as another, older drug, glipizide, the AP reported. Novartis' pill, Galvus or vildagliptin, reduced blood sugar levels by 1.9 percent when used with another older drug, pioglitazone, which reduces insulin resistance.
Excess weight is a common problem in type 2 patients. Both experimental pills helped patients maintain or even lose weight in the trials. Side effects of the pills included cold and flu-like symptoms and headaches.
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.
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