Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA articles from April 2002

Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA archives from April 2002

WHO: Financial and political commitment needed to eradicate Guinea worm disease.(World Health Organization)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 7, 2002... 2002 APR 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Armed conflict and wavering commitment are threatening the eradication of one of the world's most devastating diseases. While the number of people infected by Guinea worm has dropped by 98% over the...

Researchers track parasite contamination.(Toxoplasma gondii)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 7, 2002... 2002 APR 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Scientists with the U.S. Agricultural Research Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have been awarded a grant to study sources of exposure to an insidious parasite. The...

Markers of Hantavirus infection identified.(Brief Article)
April 7, 2002... 2002 APR 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - Researchers in the United States have identified several factors which are useful for distinguishing between true Hantavirus infection and conditions with...

ImClone Systems and FDA discuss resubmission of Erbitux.(Brief Article)
April 7, 2002... 2002 APR 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Merck KGaA has confirmed that it was represented at the March meeting between its strategic partner ImClone Systems Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). ...

Disease leveling off but many cities hit hard by high infection rates.(Gonorrhea)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 7, 2002... 2002 APR 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Gonorrhea has leveled off in the United States but rates are still rising in many cities hit hardest by the infection, a finding health officials say is unacceptable. The national gonorrhea rate...

CDC to test flu strain that shut down Grand Island Veterans home.(Centers for Disease Control)(Brief Article)
April 7, 2002... 2002 APR 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will test samples taken from Grand Island (Nebraska) Veterans Home residents after an outbreak of the flu there forced a quarantine. ...

Panel advises flu shots for babies.(Brief Article)
April 7, 2002... 2002 APR 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A U.S. government advisory panel decided to encourage flu shots for children ages 6-23 months - a group not previously on the recommended list for the vaccine. The government currently recommends...

IOM data review changes Agent Orange finding.(Institute of Medicine)(Brief Article)
April 7, 2002... 2002 APR 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- An Institute of Medicine (IOM) review of the scientific data looking at the connection between Vietnam veterans' exposure to Agent Orange and a rare form of childhood leukemia in veterans' offspring has...

Indian parents stay away from immunization campaign.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 7, 2002... 2002 APR 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Paramedics in an Indian state have gone door-to-door to give antipolio doses to children after parents stayed away from a United Nations immunization campaign, fearing side effects. Officials said...

NIAID releases counter-bioterrorism research agenda.(National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases )
April 14, 2002... 2002 APR 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has released the NIAID Counter-Bioterrorism Research Agenda for CDC Category A Agents, a document describing the Institute's...

Many deficiencies in investigations of contacts of patients with active TB.(tuberculosis)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 14, 2002... 2002 APR 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Improvement is needed in the complex process of contact investigations to ensure that contacts of patients with active tuberculosis (TB) are identified and properly screened, according to an article in...

Study says AIDS drugs may increase heart attack risk.(Brief Article)
April 14, 2002... 2002 APR 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- New research raises the possibility that lifesaving AIDS drugs may also increase the risk of heart trouble, though experts say the medicines' benefits still far outweigh any hazard. Researchers...

FDA approves quicker reviews for new medications.(Food and Drug Administration)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 14, 2002... 2002 APR 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reached an agreement with the drug companies it regulates to speed the review of new medications, in return for tens of millions of dollars in new...

CDC lab worker infected.(at private lab contracted by Centers for Disease Control)(Brief Article)
April 14, 2002... 2002 APR 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A Texas laboratory worker testing specimens from last fall's anthrax attacks contracted the skin form of the disease, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported. Officials...

CDC finds no link among recent rash outbreaks in schoolchildren.(Centers for Disease Control)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 14, 2002... 2002 APR 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A U.S. study of recent rash outbreaks in school children has shown no common cause, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Schools in 14 states have reported some type of...

FDA issues international warning on possibly dangerous instruments.(Food and Drug Administration, products made by A and A Medical Inc.)(Brief Article)
April 14, 2002... 2002 APR 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. government sent doctors an urgent warning March 14, 2002 that a Georgia-based manufacturer may not have sterilized numerous devices used in births, infertility treatments and other gynecology...

New research estimates Cold War nuclear testing could have caused 11,000 cancer deaths.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 14, 2002... 2002 APR 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Radioactive fallout from Cold War nuclear testing exposed virtually everyone in the United States, and contributed to about 11,000 cancer deaths, an unpublished study by the national U.S. Centers for...

CDC detects first U.S. cases of parasite disease.(Centers for Disease Control, Chagas' disease)(Brief Article)
April 14, 2002... 2002 APR 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Three transplant patients contracted a dangerous parasitic disease from their new organs in the first such documented cases in the United States, the government said March 14, 2002. Two of the three...

20 cents-a-dose vaccine safe and immunogenic.(cholera vaccine trials)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 21, 2002... 2002 APR 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Trials of a cholera vaccine manufactured in Vietnam at a cost of about only US$0.20 a dose have produced encouraging results, especially for children, an international team of researchers reports in...

Community water fluoridation now reaches nearly two-thirds of U.S. population.(U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 21, 2002... 2002 APR 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Nearly two-thirds of U.S. residents who receive water from public water systems now receive fluoridated water, according to an article released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...

ART associated with significant increased risk for multiple births.(U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report on assisted reproductive technology)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 21, 2002... 2002 APR 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has published its first report of state-specific data on assisted reproductive technology (ART), procedures such as in vitro fertilization in which...

FDA pulls jelly candies due to choking hazard.(Golden Country Oriental Food and Five Continents Ltd.)(Brief Article)
April 21, 2002... 2002 APR 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing two recalls of all flavors of mini jelly candies because these products present a choking hazard. The candies are packaged in small sealed...

U.S. Army scientists achieve research breakthrough.(U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases; smallpox research)(Brief Article)
April 21, 2002... 2002 APR 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Army scientists from Fort Detrick, Maryland, have made a breakthrough in smallpox research that could lead to developing better vaccines against bioterrorist attacks, according to a report in the...

High turnover rate may undermine HIV/hemophilia care.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 21, 2002... 2002 APR 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The high turnover rate of health workers taking care of patients who have both HIV and hemophilia is due more to stress from coworkers than to the high emotional demands of such work, according to a...

FDA approval for indomethacin extended-release capsules.(Brief Article)
April 21, 2002... 2002 APR 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Able Laboratories Inc. (ABRX), reports that it has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its abbreviated new drug application (aNDA) for Indomethacin Extended Release Capsules...

Antidepressant SNEC-2 begins phase I clinical trial.(Brief Article)
April 21, 2002... 2002 APR 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Synaptic Pharmaceutical Corp. (SNAP) has announced that it has initiated a phase I clinical trial of SNEC-2 - the company's drug candidate for treatment of depression. The compound has shown positive...

U.S. Army to test company's antibiotics as potential anti-bioterrorism drugs.(Brief Article)
April 21, 2002... 2002 APR 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Antex Biologics Inc. (ANX) reported that the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases has agreed to test certain of the company's antibiotic compounds as potential drugs to be used...

CDC calls flu season a mild one, says plenty of vaccine still available.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 21, 2002... 2002 APR 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. flu season is nearing its peak, with a rising number of cases in the past several weeks, the government said. About 14% of the specimens sent to a nationwide network of labs tested...

Measles no longer endemic disease in U.S.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 21, 2002... 2002 APR 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- In 2000 a total of 86 confirmed measles cases were reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) by state and local health departments, according to the Morbidity and Mortality...

Ciphergen confirms use of its ProteinChip system.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 21, 2002... 2002 APR 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Ciphergen Biosystems, Inc., (CIPH) confirmed that the ovarian cancer detection study was conducted using Ciphergen's ProteinChip Biology System to discover and assay the patterns of proteins utilized...

Morbidity among foreign-born populations in United States rises.(tuberculosis)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 21, 2002... 2002 APR 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- In June 2001, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a 7% decline in the number of new TB cases reported from 1999 to 2000, indicating continued progress in reducing TB in the...