Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA articles from February 2002

Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA archives from February 2002

Concurrent Use Of Prescription Drugs, Herbs Raises Concerns.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 3, 2002... 2002 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- In any given week, most U.S. adults take at least one medication, and one in six patients taking prescription drugs also use herbal products or other natural supplements, posing potential risks of...

Use Of Highly Recommended Antibiotics For UTIs Decreasing.(urinary tract infection)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 3, 2002... 2002 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Although the antibiotic trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole is highly recommended for urinary tract infection (UTI) treatment, other antibiotics that are more expensive and less highly recommended are...

CDC Says Anthrax Risk Is Diminishing.(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)(Brief Article)
February 3, 2002... 2002 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told postal workers that medical experts are providing their best advice on anthrax, but the disease isn't well enough understood to tell...

Report Recommends Measures Against Future Attacks.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2002... 2002 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The United States must do more to secure its borders, protect communications systems and develop drugs to combat bioterrorism, says a new report on homeland defense. The recommendations, from the...

Treatment With LJP 394 Improves QOL In Patients With Renal Disease.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 3, 2002... 2002 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Data on a drug candidate for lupus renal disease, LJP 394 (La Jolla Pharmaceutical Co.), were presented at an NIH-sponsored conference, SLE: Targets for New Therapeutics. Findings from a previous...

Postal Worker Case Puzzles Doctors.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2002... 2002 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The case of an ailing postal inspector who tests negative for anthrax but was exposed to it and displays symptoms similar to it raises new questions about the disease. The worker, a 37-year-old...

Hillary Clinton Urges New York To Stockpile Antiradiation Pill.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2002... 2002 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton urged New York state to stockpile a pill that could help prevent thyroid cancer caused by a nuclear power plant explosion. But state officials say the senator's push...

Study Details Treatment Of Injured After September 11 Attacks.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 3, 2002... 2002 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Fewer than 800 people were treated at the hospitals nearest the felled World Trade Center over the two days following the September 11 attack, a study released January 10, 2002, shows. Of those,...

Bone Graft Device Gets Nod From Advisory Committee.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2002... 2002 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Government scientists have recommended approval of a device that could radically change spinal surgery because it carries a genetically engineered protein to spur bone growth. Medtronic, Inc.'s,...

Florida Suicide Pilot Took Controversial Drug Accutane.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2002... 2002 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A 15-year-old student pilot who killed himself by crashing an airplane into a skyscraper was prescribed an acne medication whose links to suicide and depression have been the subject of federal...

Merck & Co. Cited By FDA For Problems At Vaccine Plant.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2002... 2002 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Merck & Co. has been cited twice by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for quality-control problems at a Pennsylvania plant where a number of vaccines are produced. The Star-Ledger of Newark,...

Anthrax Immune Globulin Added to Stockpile.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2002... 2002 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The government is adding an experimental anthrax treatment to the nation's bioterrorism drug stockpile, a protective protein culled from the blood of soldiers who received the anthrax vaccine. The...

CDC Renews Sprout Warning: Cook Them, Don't Eat Raw.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2002... 2002 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Federal health officials have renewed warnings about alfalfa sprouts, urging Americans to cook them thoroughly to kill harmful bacteria and recommending that some people stay away altogether. The...

Lettuce Plants Internalize Bacteria.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2002... 2002 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Lettuce that has been fertiziled with manure or irrigated with water that is contaminated with Escherichia coli O157:H7 can take the bacteria up through its root system and internalize it inside its...

Antiterrorism Costs Exceeds $60 Billion.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 3, 2002... 2002 FEB 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Congress has provided more than $60 billion since September 2001 to combat terrorism at home and abroad and to rebuild from the attacks on New York and Washington. That's roughly five times what the...

Study Links El Nino To Deadly South American Disease.(predictions of Verruga peruana or bartonellosis outbreaks)(Brief Article)
February 10, 2002... 2002 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- In a groundbreaking collaborative study, NASA climatologists and U.S. military health specialists may have discovered a way to predict outbreaks of a deadly South American disease by observing sea...

Many Neonatal Intensive Care Workers Carry Candida On Their Hands.(Brief Article)
February 10, 2002... 2002 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - Health care workers may be partly to blame for rising rates of Candida infections in intensive care units for newborns, researchers in the United States have...

Sandia Technology To Ensure 'Farm-To-Fork' Safety Of Food Supply.(Sandia National Laboratories of the Department of Energy)(Brief Article)
February 10, 2002... 2002 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- When farm-to-fork systems fail, billions of dollars can be lost and people can die. To help prevent such failure, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories, a Department of Energy (DOE)...

Rubella Almost Eradicated In The United States.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 10, 2002... 2002 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A study of the incidence and characteristics of rubella (also known as German measles) cases reported in the United States from 1990 through 1999 shows record low levels of the disease. However, the...

CDC Releases New Web Resources For Clinicians, Lab Professionals, Public.(bioterroism resources)(Brief Article)
February 10, 2002... 2002 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) unveiled a redesigned website offering both new and updated bioterrorism resources for health professionals and the public, January 18, 2002....

Fibrosing Skin Condition Among Patients With Renal Disease.(Brief Article)
February 10, 2002... 2002 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Since 1997, 49 people suffering from poor kidney function in the United States and Europe have been diagnosed with a new skin condition. Patients with this condition have large areas of raised and...

Prevalence In The United States Is Increasing.(Lyme disease )(Brief Article)
February 10, 2002... 2002 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The trend of increasing prevalence of Lyme disease is continuing in the United States, according to latest data analyzed. Lyme disease, a tick-borne bacterial illness, continues to be an important...

PKIDs Report Explains The ABCs Of Hepatitis A-E.(Parents of Kids with Infectious Diseases)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 10, 2002... 2002 FEB 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The national nonprofit agency PKIDs (Parents of Kids with Infectious Diseases) has released a report examining how viral hepatitis affects children's health and its medical, emotional, and civil rights...

U.S. Mortality Rate Trends For Four Major Cancers Reported.(National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion/United States)(Brief Article)
February 17, 2002... 2002 FEB 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Death rates from cancers of the lung, colon and rectum, and breast decreased during the 1990s, due in part to lower prevalence of smoking, early detection, and more effective treatments, according to a...

FDA Approves Drug to Treat Rare Pediatric Liver Disease.(Food and Drug Administration, Nitisinone)(Brief Article)
February 17, 2002... 2002 FEB 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved on January 22, 2002, a new drug, nitisinone capsules, to treat hereditary tyrosinemia type I (HT-1), a rare pediatric disease causing progressive liver...

Senate To Probe Red Cross' History Of Safety Violations.(blood products)(Brief Article)
February 17, 2002... 2002 FEB 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Federal safety violations by the American Red Cross that have forced the charity to recall increasing numbers - thousands of pints - of blood products are prompting a Senate investigation. The Red...

FDA Speeds Up Drug Approvals - Slightly.(Brief Article)
February 17, 2002... 2002 FEB 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Medicines aren't racing onto the U.S. market nearly as fast as they did in the booming late 1990s, but federal regulators did speed up their reviews of therapies slightly in 2001. Government...

U.S. Is Making Advances Against Disease, But There Are Glaring Racial Gaps.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 17, 2002... 2002 FEB 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Americans made advances in the 1990s against a broad range of diseases and other health threats, but glaring racial and ethnic disparities remain, the government reported. The U.S. Centers for...

Generic Dexedrine Spansule Capsules Approved.(Barr Laboratories Inc.)(Brief Article)
February 17, 2002... 2002 FEB 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Barr Laboratories' application to manufacture and market a generic version of GlaxoSmithKline's Dexedrine Spansule Capsules sustained release 5...

Death Toll From Outbreak Rises To 34 In Central Africa.(outbreak of Ebola virus)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 17, 2002... 2002 FEB 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Ebola has claimed five more victims in Gabon, news reports said on January 26, 2002, bringing the death toll from the disease in two Central African countries to 34. The new deaths were reported...

Brain Cancer Cases At Pratt & Whitney Plants To Be Studied.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 17, 2002... 2002 FEB 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Medical research into brain cancer deaths of Pratt and Whitney workers at the jet engine maker's North Haven, Connecticut, plant will be expanded to include employees at all plants in the state. A...

'Brain Pacemaker' Gets FDA Approval.(Food and Drug Administration approves brain stimulation therapy)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 17, 2002... 2002 FEB 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved brain stimulation therapy to relieve some of the debilitating symptoms of Parkinson disease. An estimated 1 million Americans have Parkinson...

FDA Approves Eligard.(Food and Drug Administration)(Brief Article)
February 17, 2002... 2002 FEB 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Atrix Laboratories, Inc., (ATRX) has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Eligard 7.5 mg (formerly Leuprogel One-Month Depot), leuprolide acetate for subcutaneous...

World Health Organization Grants Official Relations To Corporate Watchdog Infact.(Brief Article)
February 24, 2002... 2002 FEB 24 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- In an important step by the World Health Organization (WHO), the international health body is granting official WHO relations status to Infact, the U.S.-based corporate accountability organization. In...

Pneumococcal Surface Adhesin Shows Promise.(Brief Article)
February 24, 2002... 2002 FEB 24 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - Researchers in the United States say that a pneumcoccal protein can induce potent antibacterial immune responses. "Pneumococcal surface adhesin A (PsaA), a...

Germ-Fighting Office Out To Defend Country Against Deadly Outbreaks.
February 24, 2002... 2002 FEB 24 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- They're the Green Berets of the germ world. They gather intelligence on invading armies of lethal microbes and then try to force them to retreat. They must be ready to leave their families for...

Countries Strive for Better Food Safety.(Brief Article)
February 24, 2002... 2002 FEB 24 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The first ever Global Forum of Food Safety Regulators took place in Marrakech, seeking ways to improve the safety of food worldwide at every step of the food production chain - from farmers, through...

Amid Bioterrorism Threat, States Revisit Old-Style Quarantines.(Brief Article)
February 24, 2002... 2002 FEB 24 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Sobered by the recent alarm over anthrax and bioterrorism, state officials have begun using the Q-word: quarantine. The public health tactic has been revisited as officials consider roping off...

Belgian Toxic Food Scare Spreads to Pork.(Brief Article)
February 24, 2002... 2002 FEB 24 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The country's latest toxic food scare spread beyond poultry into the pork industry after authorities admitted some pigs that had eaten contaminated feed had already entered the food supply. ...

United States. Infant Mortality Rate Drops 20% in Last Decade.(Brief Article)
February 24, 2002... 2002 FEB 24 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Infant mortality in the United States dropped 20% in the 1990s, health officials said January 31, 2002, crediting a push for prenatal care and new technology that helps keep low-birth-weight babies...

Is Fighting The 'Flu More Useful Than Preparing For Anthrax?(Brief Article)
February 24, 2002... 2002 FEB 24 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- In 13,000 words on research priorities, the National Institutes of Health spanned the medical alphabet from arthritis to xeroderma pigmentosum. There was no mention of anthrax or bioterrorism. ...

Food and Drug Administration. Drug Approvals Slightly Faster.(Brief Article)
February 24, 2002... 2002 FEB 24 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Medicines aren't racing onto the U.S. market nearly as fast as they did in the booming late 1990s, but federal regulators did slightly speed up their reviews of therapies last year. New government...

Hygienics Laboratory Gets $1 Million For Bioterrorism.(Brief Article)
February 24, 2002... 2002 FEB 24 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The University of Iowa Hygienics Laboratory has received a $1 million grant to help prevent bioterrorism, University President Mary Sue Coleman said. A special Congressional appropriation was...

VA Creates Gulf War Advisory Committee.(Brief Article)
February 24, 2002... 2002 FEB 24 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi announced a new advisory committee that will help the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) oversee its research into the medical problems of Gulf War...