Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA articles from July 2002

Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA archives from July 2002

U.S. teen birth rate falls to new record low in 2001.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 7, 2002... 2002 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson released a report June 6, 2002, showing birthrates among teenagers fell for the 10th straight year to a new record low in 2001. "This is...

Challenge experiments in chimpanzees imply hepatitis C vaccine not impossible.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 7, 2002... 2002 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Sonia Nichols, senior medical writer - Government researchers in the U.S. have completed studies on chimpanzees which have heightened the proposition that a vaccine against hepatitis C virus (HCV)...

Cost-effectiveness of African intervention programs scrutinized.(HIV infection)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 7, 2002... 2002 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - Researchers in Europe have reached some surprising conclusions about the cost-effectiveness of African programs to control HIV infection. "African...

FDA approves restricted marketing of Lotronex.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 7, 2002... 2002 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approval a supplemental new drug application (sNDA) that permits marketing of Lotronex (alosetron hydrochloride) with restrictions. The manufacturer...

Better tests may help detect congenital syphilis in newborns.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 7, 2002... 2002 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas research team has developed two blood tests that quickly and reliably diagnose congenital syphilis in newborns. "This is the first...

CDC: Vials in lab not sprayed with bleach.(Centers for Disease Control; anthrax)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2002... 2002 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A Texas laboratory where a worker contracted anthrax failed to spray its vials with the recommended bleach solution because it made the labels come off, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and...

Labeling changes approved for Celebrex.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 7, 2002... 2002 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The FDA has approved labeling changes for Celebrex (celecoxib) based on the results of the Celecoxib Long-term Arthritis Safety Study (CLASS). CLASS was a prospective double-blind randomized safety...

CDC gives $1.5 million for Tulsa bioterrorism prevention.(Centers for Disease Control)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 7, 2002... 2002 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is giving the Tulsa, Oklahoma health department $1.5 million for bioterrorism research. Voters rejected a property tax increase in February...

New approach holds promise.(Lyme disease)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 7, 2002... 2002 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Call them the pest posse. Mice are being used to kill a more dreaded pest - ticks - in the latest strategy for preventing Lyme disease. A new contraption developed by federal scientists and a...

U.S. cesarean births rapidly rising.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 7, 2002... 2002 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Almost one in four American women who gave birth last year had a cesarean section, the highest rate in 13 years - an increase fueled by repeat operations and also women who schedule C-sections for...

FDA issues new rules on compounding.(pharmacist preparations)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2002... 2002 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- U.S. pharmacists cannot brew up large batches of unapproved drugs to sell, the government said June 4, 2002, in new guidelines for specially mixed medications. The new regulations are meant to...

CDC reports on progress toward eradication in Nigeria.(polio surveillance)(Brief Article)
July 7, 2002... 2002 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Nigeria has greatly improved its surveillance system for polio in the past 2 years, and should place Nigeria on the verge of interrupting poliovirus transmission. Nigeria is one of three global...

FDA to require tracking risky devices.(Brief Article)
July 7, 2002... 2002 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- U.S. health officials will begin requiring makers of certain high-risk medical devices to closely track how well they work in patients. The new rules mark an effort to better identify dangerous side...

Diabetes patients fall short of recommended care.(Brief Article)
July 14, 2002... 2002 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Maria G. Essig, MS, ELS, senior medical writer ? Researchers in the U.S. find a large percentage of diabetes patients face health risks because they lack the recommended routine care and monitoring....

FDA increases sampling of imported shrimp and crayfish.(Brief Article)
July 14, 2002... 2002 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced June 14, 2002, that it will be increasing the sampling of imported shrimp and crayfish (also known as crawfish) for the presence of...

U.S. announces plans to study ephedra.(Brief Article)
July 14, 2002... 2002 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy G. Thompson has announced new efforts to expand scientific research on the safety of ephedrine alkaloids and to aggressively pursue the illegal...

Fewer antibiotics prescribed for children in the U.S.(Brief Article)
July 14, 2002... 2002 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A survey of office-based physicians shows antibiotic prescriptions decreased overall and for common respiratory tract infections among American children and young teenagers during the 1990s, according...

Black and white children differ in triacylglycerol, VLDL, obesity associations.(very low density lipoprotein (VLDL))(Brief Article)
July 14, 2002... 2002 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Maria G. Essig, MS, ELS, senior medical writer - The relationships of obesity to triacylglycerol and very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) levels differ between white children and black children,...

Whirlpool footbaths can be source of infection.(Brief Article)
July 14, 2002... 2002 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - Whirlpool footbaths can harbor fast-growing, infectious mycobacteria, researchers in the United States warn. "In September 2000, a physician in northern...

Researchers shed light on mechanisms of voluntary alcohol consumption.(Brief Article)
July 14, 2002... 2002 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center, University of California-San Francisco, report in the June 14, 2002, issue of Cell that the brain chemical messenger dopamine and ethanol...

Drug makers say vaccine shortage will diminish by year's end.(Brief Article)
July 14, 2002... 2002 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- An acute shortage of vaccines for many common childhood diseases should subside by year's end, but drug makers, doctors and lawmakers say that without government intervention more shortfalls could...

U.N. agencies urge 'Days of Tranquillity' for immunization campaign in Burundi.(Brief Article)
July 14, 2002... 2002 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Concerned that continued armed clashes in Burundi could hinder vaccination campaigns targeting more than 3 million children in the country, U.N. officials have called on all parties to the conflict to...

FDA clears two test meters.(Brief Article)
July 14, 2002... 2002 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared for marketing two glucose test meters used with personal digital assistants (PDAs). The devices will allow people with diabetes to more...

Top health and finance officials meet partners on improving health of poor.(Brief Article)
July 14, 2002... 2002 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Senior officials from developing countries and development partners convened at the World Health Organization's Geneva headquarters in June 2002, to start turning theory - on improving health, which...

NIDDKD summarizes progress and future directions for management.(hepatitis C)(Brief Article)
July 14, 2002... 2002 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Substantial advances in treatment for chronic hepatitis C and a decline in the number of new infections, were highlighted by a panel convened by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). ...

Protein essential for switching on T-cell response.(Brief Article)
July 14, 2002... 2002 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A minor change in a cell protein impairs the ability of a key type of immune cell to marshal the body's defenses against disease, according to a study by researchers at the U.S. National Institute of...

Clinicians should consider influenza A and B when diagnosing a febrile respiratory illness during the summer.(Brief Article)
July 14, 2002... 2002 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The 2001-02 influenza season was mild to moderate in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Influenza A (H3N2) viruses predominated, but influenza B...

New therapy for 'black fever' is 95% effective.(Brief Article)
July 14, 2002... 2002 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Scientists have developed a new treatment for the 500,000 people who develop visceral leishmaniasis each year, a disease also known as "black fever" and "kala azar." The new drug, miltefosine...

Pittsburgh hospital alerts patients to fatal brain disease risk.(Brief Article)
July 14, 2002... 2002 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Presbyterian hospital will alert patients who had neurosurgery between April 17, 2001, and April 6, 2002, of a slight risk that surgical instruments may...

Study concludes benefits of anti-HIV therapy during pregnancy outweigh risks.(Brief Article)
July 14, 2002... 2002 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A new study found no association between the use of an anti-HIV treatment that uses a combination of drugs during pregnancy and an increased risk of such birth complications as premature delivery,...

Nanogen and CDC begin gene-based E. coli assay development collaboration.(Brief Article)
July 14, 2002... 2002 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Nanogen, Inc., (NGEN) has entered into a development site agreement with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and will shortly begin installation of a nanochip molecular biology...

Patients at high risk should be screened to help prevent onset of disease.(diabetes)(Brief Article)
July 14, 2002... 2002 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Lynn Yoffee, senior medical writer - The term "pre-diabetes" has been officially adopted by the American Diabetes Association and the National Institutes of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases...

Feds stockpiling antiradiation pills.(Brief Article)
July 14, 2002... 2002 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- U.S. government agencies have ordered 350,000 potassium iodide pills from a North Carolina company to protect people from cancer caused by radioactive iodine, which can be released in nuclear...

UN agencies join OAU to fight diseases spread through tsetse flies.(Organization of African Unity)(Brief Article)
July 14, 2002... 2002 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Three United Nations agencies have announced plans to team with the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in the fight against diseases spread through tsetse flies, which cause sleeping sickness in...

Study: Soviet test caused outbreak.(smallpox)(Brief Article)
July 14, 2002... 2002 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- U.S. Officials weighing whether to dispense smallpox vaccine to the nation were presented with the possibility June 15, 2002, that the virus might be a more effective terrorist weapon than they...

Vaccine decision ahead.(smallpox)(Brief Article)
July 14, 2002... 2002 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The question carries critical weight in the new age of bioterrorism: Who should have access to vaccine against deadly smallpox? The killer has not infected a human in more than two decades, and...

Research shows different races, ethic groups receiving different levels of preventive care.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 21, 2002... 2002 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Hispanic women are less likely to receive breast examinations and blood pressure and cholesterol screening than white women are, according to a new University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill...

CDC releases Hanford Study final report on thyroid disease.(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center report on Hanford Nuclear Weapons Production Facility)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2002... 2002 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Findings announced from the Hanford Thyroid Disease Study (HTDS) Final Report show that the risks of thyroid disease in study participants were about the same regardless of the radiation dose they...

Breakfast is key to best diet.(Children's Nutrition Research Center)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 21, 2002... 2002 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Teen breakfast-skippers beware: You could lose out on an important nutritional contribution to your total daily food intake. Adolescents who eat breakfast are two to five times more likely than...

High-carbohydrate diets net lower calorie levels.(U.S. Department of Agriculture's Continuing Survey of Food Intakes)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 21, 2002... 2002 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Agricultural Research Service scientists have found that people whose diets are highest in carbohydrates actually eat fewer calories per day and are less likely to be obese than people who eat diets...

Cardiac differences in infants born to HIV-positive mothers may persist.
July 21, 2002... 2002 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The hearts of children whose mothers are infected with HIV show subtle differences in cardiac structure and function by echocardiogram regardless of whether the children are born infected with HIV. ...

FDA suspends operations of medical gas facility.(Air Liquide America Corp. suspended for contaminated trailers)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2002... 2002 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has shut down certain operations of Air Liquide America Corp. (ALAC), a medical gas facility in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. The company had failed to assure...

Large-scale testing of new AIDS vaccine postponed.(Aventis Pasteur S.A. and VaxGen Inc. products testing program in Thailand)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2002... 2002 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Large-scale testing of two combined AIDS vaccines scheduled to begin August has been postponed until the end of the year. The tests, involving thousands of volunteers, were delayed as more time...

U.N. report says 'dramatic changes' in sexual behavior needed in many poor countries.(HIV and AIDS prevention)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 21, 2002... 2002 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A year after the 189-nation U.N. General Assembly adopted a plan to halt the AIDS epidemic, a U.N. report issued Sunday said "dramatic changes" in sexual awareness and behavior are still needed in many...

CDC to launch new injury research agenda.(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 21, 2002... 2002 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- On June 25, 2002, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released its new research agenda forecasting the direction for injury research at CDC from 2002 to 2007. Injury is the...

Ridge: CDC won't be part of new homeland security department.(U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2002... 2002 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shouldn't be part of a massive reorganization of agencies into one homeland security department, director Tom Ridge says. Ridge, who explained...

High dietary intake of vitamin C and vitamin E linked with reduced risk.(Alzheimer disease research)(Statistical Data Included)
July 21, 2002... 2002 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Consumption of a diet that is high in vitamin C and vitamin E may lower the risk of Alzheimer disease (AD), according to an article in the June 26, 2002, issue of the Journal of the American Medical...

Officials still hopeful genetic analysis will aid investigation.(anthrax attacks still to be solved)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2002... 2002 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Investigators into last fall's anthrax attacks say they remain hopeful that sophisticated genetic fingerprinting, which has so far proved fruitless, may help crack the case. The most promising...

Drug-resistant bug found in Ohio patient.(Staphylococcus aureus resistant to vancomycin and methicillin)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2002... 2002 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A drug-resistant germ was discovered last year in a Cleveland Clinic patient in a case that was only the eighth of its kind in the nation. One of the eight victims of the germ known as vancomycin...

Mortality may be tied to prolonged exposure to low-dose radiation.(women radiation technologists at risk for breast cancer)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2002... 2002 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Women who worked as radiation technologists before 1950 have a higher risk of dying from breast cancer than those who began working in more recent years, reported Aparna K. Mohan, MD, PhD, now with the...

Mounting evidence indicates heart disease link.(mental depression research)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2002... 2002 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- For those who suffer from depression, here's another reason to be blue: a new review of recent research concludes that depressed but otherwise healthy adults are at high risk of developing heart...

Feds widen investigation into asbestos poisoning.(shipments of vermiculite ore may be cause)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2002... 2002 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- U.S. health officials are trying to determine whether ore mined in Montana and shipped across the country may have spread potentially fatal asbestos. The western Montana town of Libby, which for...

Statin use in older adults associated with increase risk.(research into prevention of heart attacks and strokes)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2002... 2002 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Older adults may benefit from the use of statins for the prevention of cardiovascular events such as heart attacks and strokes, according to a study in the June 24, 2002, issue of the Archives of...

New pathway for treating kidney failure studied.(drug research for hypertension)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2002... 2002 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A Medical College of Georgia (MCG) researcher is tracing the pathway that leads people with hypertension to kidney damage and possible kidney destruction. He's found a key vasodilator that is...

Bioterror attack would pit lives against liberties, expert says.(Stephen Teret of Center for Law and Public's Health)(Brief Article)
July 21, 2002... 2002 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A widespread bioterrorist attack would force U.S. authorities into a tricky balancing act pitting the struggle to save lives against civil liberties, a legal expert says. Stephen Teret, chief of...

Gene test predicts survival.(patients with diffuse large-B-cell lymphomas)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 21, 2002... 2002 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Cancer researchers have devised a genetic test that can accurately predict the survival chances of patients with some aggressive forms of lymphoma. The test yielded a genetically based survival...

Canada helps U.N. Children's Fund jumpstart vaccination campaign in Angola.(Brief Article)
July 21, 2002... 2002 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The government of Canada has donated $5.5 million (Canadian) to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) for a major measles vaccination campaign in Angola, where a recent peace deal has led to the...

Frequent nut consumption associated with decreased risk of sudden cardiac death.(Brief Article)
July 21, 2002... 2002 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Men who eat nuts two or more times per week have a lower risk of sudden cardiac death, according to a study in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Christine M. Albert, MD, MPH, of Brigham and...

World Health Organization declares European zone free of polio.(Brief Article)
July 21, 2002... 2002 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The World Health Organization has declared its European zone, which includes former Soviet republics and almost 1 billion people, free of the polio virus. Southeastern Turkey was the last area in...

Vitamin E study is called 'tremendously significant' in search for cure.(Brief Article)
July 21, 2002... 2002 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Nutritional supplements such as vitamin E may be able to stop prostate cancer before it starts, according to health researchers. They point to a major new trial involving 30,000 men to study the...

U.S. facing influx of counterfeit drugs.(Brief Article)
July 21, 2002... 2002 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Once a problem mainly in developing countries, counterfeit medicine is increasingly turning up in the United States, prompting federal health officials to hunt new ways to keep the nation's drugs...

Stem cell hopes double.(Brief Article)
July 21, 2002... 2002 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Nature has published two remarkable stem cell papers online. One describes an adult stem cell that may turn out to be just as versatile as embryonic stem (ES) cells. The other shows that ES cells can...

Few women regret sterilization procedures.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2002... 2002 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Few of the women who undergo tubal sterilization or whose husbands undergo vasectomy later go on to regret either procedure, according to a study funded by the U.S. National Institute of Child Health...

Success of private-sector patient information with prescription medicines assessed.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2002... 2002 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced the findings from a 2001 study designed to assess the extent and usefulness of private-sector prescription information patients receive when...

National study halted since health risks exceed benefits in postmenopausal women on estrogen.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2002... 2002 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers nationwide have halted the part of a 40-center study that involved trying to determine the risks versus the benefits of healthy postmenopausal women taking the hormones estrogen and...

NHLBI study shows weight concerns increase girls' risk of becoming smokers.(National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute )(Brief Article)
July 28, 2002... 2002 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Concern about weight and the drive to be thin increase the risk a girl will become a daily smoker by the time she's 18 or 19 years old, according to a new study sponsored by the National Heart, Lung,...

Americans visiting doctors more often.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2002... 2002 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Americans made 823.5 million visits to doctors' offices in 2000, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey. The number of doctor visits has been increasing over the past decade,...

African program needs $233 million, WHO says.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2002... 2002 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- African scientists, multilateral and donor organizations, research agencies and industry met in Cape Town in June 2002, to accelerate research and testing for the development of an AIDS vaccine for...

Substance abuse increases in New York City on aftermath of September 11 attacks.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2002... 2002 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Survey results indicate that smoking and alcohol and marijuana use increased among residents of Manhattan during the 5-8 weeks after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Almost...

Civilians to get supply of vaccine.(anthrax vaccine)(Brief Article)
July 28, 2002... 2002 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Much of the Pentagon's supply of anthrax vaccine, originally intended exclusively for military personnel, is likely to be reserved for civilian use, a senior Pentagon official has announced. David...

Campaign urges consumers to use antibiotics wisely.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2002... 2002 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The ad shows a tantalizing glimpse of gold inside a treasure chest. No, not a pirate's doubloon: The message is that antibiotics are one of America's great treasures and it's everybody's...

Obesity and smoking increase risk.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2002... 2002 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Extremely overweight people and smokers are more likely to report having asthma than are their thinner, nonsmoking counterparts, according to a study presented at the American Thoracic Society...

CDC: Alabama adults have highest blood pressure rate in nation.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2002... 2002 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Greasy, fried, salty food that's a regular part of many Southern diets has resulted in high blood pressure for nearly one in three adults in Alabama, the worst rate in the nation, according to a U.S....

Aventis Pasteur ready to meet nation's needs for tetanus, diphtheria vaccine.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2002... 2002 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Aventis Pasteur has produced a sufficient supply of the adult and adolescent vaccine for tetanus and diphtheria, Tetanus and Diphtheria Toxoids Adsorbed For Adult Use (Td), to meet the nation's...

NIAID expands university vaccine testing network.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2002... 2002 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has awarded seven new contracts that will expand and reorganize its network of university-based sites conducting clinical trials...

Smoking more cancerous than believed, WHO cancer experts say.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2002... 2002 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Tobacco smoke is even more cancerous than previously thought, for both smokers and nonsmokers who breathe in the fumes, causing cancer in many more parts of the body than previously believed, a panel...

Tobacco kills more than a million people a year in the Americas: Can we reduce the death toll?(Brief Article)
July 28, 2002... 2002 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- While scientists look for a vaccine against AIDS and work to eradicate measles, another epidemic stalks the Americas, taking an annual toll of more than 1 million lives, a plague that science finds...

More clues about obesity revealed by brain-imaging study.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2002... 2002 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The idea that obese people eat too much because they find food more palatable than lean people do has gained support from a new brain-imaging study at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven...

Many women don't tell physician or begin treatment, study finds.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2002... 2002 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Osteoporosis is underdiagnosed and undertreated, according to a study by University at Buffalo researchers presented June 18, 2002, at the annual meeting of the Society for Epidemiological Research....

CDC official: Laws need updating.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2002... 2002 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- America's public health system is weakened by inadequate training and outdated laws unfit to handle 21st-century risks, a top official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said June 18,...

Researchers question claims for embattled egg powder.
July 28, 2002... 2002 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Marilyn Coleman moved from the suburbs of Ohio nearly 2 years ago so she'd have room for 10,000 chickens laying "magic bullets" she said can boost the human immune system. That was before a U.S....

Government health officials say they are stockpiling vaccine.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2002... 2002 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Within the coming year, the U.S. government expects to stockpile 286 million doses of smallpox vaccine - enough to protect every U.S. citizen in case of a bioterrorist attack. The news was...

More preventive TB treatment should reduce cases in non-U.S.-born.(Brief Article)
July 28, 2002... 2002 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- More aggressive treatment of latent tuberculosis infections in non-U.S.-born residents in New York City could reduce the very high rate of the active disease in this population, according to an...