Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA articles from June 2002

Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA archives from June 2002

Trichomoniasis risk similar for infected, healthy women.(Brief Article)
June 2, 2002... 2002 JUN 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - Women infected with HIV develop trichomoniasis at rates comparable to those seen in seronegative women, researchers in the United States report. ...

Neonatal respiratory syncytial virus infections trigger diverse immune response.(Brief Article)
June 2, 2002... 2002 JUN 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - Infants who contract respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection show wide-ranging antiviral immune activity, according to researchers in the United States. ...

Single rotavirus genotype linked to gastroenteritis outbreaks.(Brief Article)
June 2, 2002... 2002 JUN 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - A single, distinctive type of rotavirus may be responsible for the vast majority of rotavirus-induced gastroenteritis, researchers report. Dr. Dixie D....

Successful vaccination feasible in low-income countries.(Brief Article)
June 2, 2002... 2002 JUN 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Results of a study in the May 4, 2002, issue of the Lancet highlight the success of a WHO-recommended measles elimination strategy in southern Africa. Authors of the study emphasize how such strategies...

Serious reactions commonly identified after drug receives FDA approval.(Brief Article)
June 2, 2002... 2002 JUN 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The safety of recently approved drugs might not be known until they have been on the market for several years, according to a new study in the May 1, 2002 issue of the Journal of the American Medical...

NHF praises Congresswoman for calling attention to bleeding disorders in women.(National Hemophilia Foundation)(Brief Article)
June 2, 2002... 2002 JUN 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The National Hemophilia Foundation (NHF) praised Congresswomen Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) for responding to its call to help raise awareness nationwide about undiagnosed bleeding disorders in women by...

U.S. school food poisoning reports up.(Brief Article)
June 2, 2002... 2002 JUN 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Coming to school menus nationwide: Tainted burgers, fruit and other foods? Reported outbreaks of school-related food-borne illnesses have been rising about 10% a year, a congressional study said April...

Burton interested in vaccine data.(Republican Congressman Dan Burton)(Brief Article)
June 2, 2002... 2002 JUN 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Insurance companies say a congressman's threatened subpoena of medical information about millions of people could violate patient privacy and force them to close a database that lets the government...

CDC reports 'disturbing increase' in child obesity.(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)(Brief Article)
June 2, 2002... 2002 JUN 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Overweight children are being hospitalized at dramatically rising rates for diabetes, sleep apnea and other diseases that obesity causes or worsens. Obesity accounts for a tiny proportion of all...

America's No. 3 killer is the least of Americans' health worries.(Brief Article)
June 2, 2002... 2002 JUN 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- If you asked 1000 people what health condition worries them most, how many would say stroke? The answer: 10, just 1%. Stroke is America's No. 3 killer and a leading cause of serious, long-term...

CDC reports asthma still a problem for millions.(Brief Article)
June 9, 2002... 2002 JUN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Asthma remains a major public health problem in the United States despite some evidence that death rates have leveled off and hospitalization rates have declined. In 1999, an estimated 26.7 million...

Children greatest victims of degrading environment.(Brief Article)
June 9, 2002... 2002 JUN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Every day, 5500 children die from diseases caused by consuming water and food polluted with bacteria, according to a new study released by three United Nations agencies. This alarming figure, from...

Foundation presses Capitol Hill on health education in elementary school.(Brief Article)
June 9, 2002... 2002 JUN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Hepatitis C has hit the headlines identifying the devastating impact on the lives of celebrities, healthcare workers, and especially prisoners and injection drug users. An estimated 2.7 million...

CDC assesses susceptibility testing practices in U.S.(Brief Article)
June 9, 2002... 2002 JUN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Antimicrobial resistance is rapidly changing for pneumococci, and recommendations for susceptibility testing probably will continue to change, according to new data in the U.S. Centers for Disease...

Direct observation of treatment at health centers may be counterproductive.(Brief Article)
June 9, 2002... 2002 JUN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - Researchers in the United Kingdom and Pakistan argue that the World Health Organization's (WHO) recommended guidelines for directly observed tuberculosis...

Drug warning issued by Glaxo.(Brief Article)
June 9, 2002... 2002 JUN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Patients prescribed the AIDS drug Combivir should immediately make sure they got the right pills, the manufacturer says, after people in four states bought Combivir bottles that actually contained...

Few know about pill for emergencies.(Brief Article)
June 9, 2002... 2002 JUN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Nearly 4 years after the government approved "morning-after" pills to help prevent unwanted pregnancies following unprotected sex, many women don't know about them and few doctors tell them such an...

CDC urges gay men to get HIV tests.(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention )(Brief Article)
June 9, 2002... 2002 JUN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Hoping to head off a new surge of infections, the U.S. government has recommended for the first time that sexually active gay and bisexual men get tested once a year for the AIDS virus. Previous...

Number of seniors contracting AIDS growing.(Brief Article)
June 9, 2002... 2002 JUN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Newly divorced after 23 years of marriage, Jane P. Fowler was hesitant to reenter the dating scene. When the then 50-year-old woman finally began seeing someone, it was a man she had known for years -...

Cantaloupes recalled over reports of salmonella.(Brief Article)
June 9, 2002... 2002 JUN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A McAllen, Texas, importer and distributor of Susie brand cantaloupe from Mexico said May 11, 2002 it was issuing a voluntary nationwide recall of the product because it has been associated with...

Study identifies factors associated with poorer health status among Gulf War veterans.(Brief Article)
June 9, 2002... 2002 JUN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Military veterans who were deployed to the Persian Gulf in 1990-1991 reported poorer health status than comparable veterans in the armed forces at that time but who were not deployed to the Gulf,...

CDC warns of possible HIV test kit shortage.(Brief Article)
June 9, 2002... 2002 JUN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Federal health officials are warning about a possible shortage of a kit used to confirm HIV test results that initially come back positive. The possible shortage means some patients may have to wait...

Lilly, patients hope drug for asbestos-related cancer gains OK.(Brief Article)
June 9, 2002... 2002 JUN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Eli Lilly and Co. is working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to gain fast-track approval of a drug to treat a rare cancer linked to asbestos exposure. If approved, the drug would become...

Pneumococcal vaccine could prevent leading worldwide cause of childhood death.(Brief Article)
June 9, 2002... 2002 JUN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- In a recent clinical trial conducted in 40,000 children in Soweto, South Africa, scientists from Emory University and the University of Witwatersrand found that a new version of a pneumococcal vaccine...

Sepsis on the increase in U.S., according to Emory University and CDC study.(Brief Article)
June 16, 2002... 2002 JUN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The incidence of sepsis - a severe, whole-body immune response to infection - is increasing by an average of 16% a year in the U.S., according to research by investigators at Emory University School of...

Family involvement key to helping children lose weight and keep it off.(Brief Article)
June 16, 2002... 2002 JUN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- There is hope for parents concerned about their children's health in the wake of a recent U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study showing a disturbing increase in childhood obesity and...

New guidelines developed for Pneumocystis pneumonia prophylaxis.(Brief Article)
June 16, 2002... 2002 JUN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - Researchers in the United States have developed a new policy for administration of Pneumocystis pneumonia prophylaxis to HIV patients. "Human...

Dramatic increase in cancer burden predicted as U.S. population ages.(Brief Article)
June 16, 2002... 2002 JUN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to the latest "Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer" - a yearly update on cancer occurrence and trends in the U.S.- cancer death rates decreased from 1993 to 1999, and cancer...

Advances developed to detect bioterrorist agents could find use in protecting food supplies.(Brief Article)
June 16, 2002... 2002 JUN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Technologies developed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers and other scientists to fight bioterrorism could find another use - detecting naturally occurring pathogens in food. ...

High-School smoking down sharply.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 16, 2002... 2002 JUN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Smoking by high-school students has dropped to its lowest level in a decade, the government says, crediting steep cigarette taxes and school programs that discourage kids from picking up the habit. ...

Medical centers to test vaccine.(Brief Article)
June 16, 2002... 2002 JUN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Five medical centers around the U.S. are enlisting more than 1500 volunteers for a government-sponsored study of the most effective way to administer the anthrax vaccine. The study will test...

Collaboration with National Cancer Institute, FDA to develop drug-screening assay.(Brief Article)
June 16, 2002... 2002 JUN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- BioForce Nanosciences, Inc., the leading developer of nanoarray biomolecular analysis systems, has announced a research collaboration with the National Cancer Institute and the U.S. Food and Drug...

PAHO, Red Cross unite to fight disease, child deaths.(Pan American Health Organization )(Brief Article)
June 16, 2002... 2002 JUN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) signed a landmark agreement with the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) on May 15, 2002, to work together to reduce childhood deaths, fight...

U.S. trends in smoking, binge drinking, obesity worrisome.(Brief Article)
June 16, 2002... 2002 JUN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A study estimating state-specific trends in health risk factors and clinical preventive services in 11 measures showed varying results, with improvement in receipt of some preventive services, but...

U.S. Preventive Services task force finds sufficient evidence to recommend screening adults for depression.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 23, 2002... 2002 JUN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force now finds sufficient evidence to encourage primary care clinicians to screen their adult patients for depression. Formal screening can make it easier to...

That scar on your arm won't help if the man next to you is infected.(smallpox vaccination)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 23, 2002... 2002 JUN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- If you had a smallpox vaccination as a child and think you're still protected, think again. Almost everyone vaccinated before smallpox was eradicated in the mid-1970s has now lost their immunity. ...

Researchers announce experimental antidote.(anthrax)(Brief Article)
June 23, 2002... 2002 JUN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- University of Texas researchers say they've genetically engineered an experimental anthrax antidote - a protein that offers an anthrax toxin a more attractive docking site than its usual target of...

Study: Few new drugs in last decade were improvement.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 23, 2002... 2002 JUN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Only 15% of new drugs approved in the U.S. during the last decade were novel chemicals that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) deemed a significant improvement over older drugs, a study says...

World Trade Center site workers not exposed to hazardous asbestos, study says.(Brief Article)
June 23, 2002... 2002 JUN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Workers at the World Trade Center site were not exposed to hazardous levels of asbestos during weeks 2, 3 and 4 of the cleanup, according to hundreds of air samples taken at ground zero. But...

Officials trace origin of salmonella outbreak.(Texas)(Brief Article)
June 23, 2002... 2002 JUN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Texas health officials traced a salmonellosis outbreak that sickened at least 650 people to a hotel's salsa and an infected food service worker who prepared it each day. The worker did not have...

Tainted meat may be sent to market.(Brief Article)
June 23, 2002... 2002 JUN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A bacteria testing system meant to ensure that ground beef is safe instead is allowing potentially tainted meat to be put on the American market, consumer advocacy groups said May 23, 2002. A...

Lilly, patients hope drug for asbestos-related cancer gains OK.(Eli Lilly and Co.)(Brief Article)
June 23, 2002... 2002 JUN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Eli Lilly and Co. is working with U.S. regulators to speed up review of a drug to treat a rare cancer linked to asbestos exposure. If approved, the drug, known as Alimta, would become the first...

USDA expanding front line of antirabies campaign in East.(United States. Department of Agriculture)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 23, 2002... 2002 JUN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Yellow planes dropping vaccine-laden fishmeal cakes will soon be flying above Pennsylvania as the federal government expands the front lines of a biological warfare campaign. The enemy: rabies. ...

FDA to OK drugs using animal data.(Food and Drug Administration)(Brief Article)
June 23, 2002... 2002 JUN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is set to allow approval of some drugs based on animal studies in cases where it wouldn't be possible or ethical to test them in humans. The rules finalized...

Youngsters ignore sun-safety advice, survey finds.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 23, 2002... 2002 JUN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Sun-worshipping youngsters are still seeking tans - and not using sunscreen - despite warnings about the dangers of skin cancer, a survey of preteens and adolescents found. Only a third of the...

CDC commits to research in big way.(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launches smallpox research)(Brief Article)
June 23, 2002... 2002 JUN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- In June, U.S. Army virologist Peter Jahrling will put on a blue spacesuit, enter one of the country's highest-security laboratories and begin injecting monkeys with deadly smallpox. The goal is to...

CDC touts learning of stroke signs.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 23, 2002... 2002 JUN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Nearly half of all deaths from stroke happen before the victim can get to a hospital, the government said May 23, 2002, urging Americans to brush up on warning signs. Of 167,366 stroke deaths in...

CDC reports dramatic decrease in chickenpox cases and hospitalizations in areas with increasing use of vaccine.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 30, 2002... 2002 JUN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- During the period from July 2000 to June 2001, an estimated 73% of United States children aged 19-35 months were vaccinated to protect them from chickenpox (varicella), up from 68% in 2000 and 57.5% in...

WHO diagnostic criteria for diabetes more accurate than ADA standards.(oral glucose tolerance test)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 30, 2002... 2002 JUN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Maria G. Essig, MS, ELS, senior medical writer - American Diabetes Association (ADA) criteria for diagnosing diabetes in obese patients underestimate the prevalence of the disease, according to a...

New standards from NIST may provide 'all-natural' benefits.(National Institute of Standards and Technology sets quality checks for botanical dietary supplements)(Brief Article)
June 30, 2002... 2002 JUN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A new National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) effort to develop standard reference materials (SRMs) for a number of popular botanical dietary supplements will provide tools that...

Study examines cost-effectiveness of treatment interventions.(type 2 diabetes)(Brief Article)
June 30, 2002... 2002 JUN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Aggressive treatment of high blood pressure can improve health outcomes while reducing a diabetes patient's lifetime health care costs by about $1000, according to a new study by the U.S. Centers for...

Lockheed wins IT infrastructure contract for Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.(Brief Article)
June 30, 2002... 2002 JUN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) has won a 7.5 year contract to provide agency-wide information technology and infrastructure support services for the federal government's Centers for Medicare and Medicaid...

WHO: Genome research could save millions in developing world.(World Health Organization)(Brief Article)
June 30, 2002... 2002 JUN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Genetic research has the potential to lead to major medical advances within the coming years against such killer diseases as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, potentially saving millions of lives,...

VA studies long-term effects of terrorism.(Veterans' Affairs)(Brief Article)
June 30, 2002... 2002 JUN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The indirect consequences of a terrorist attack may be more severe than the direct, long-term harm caused by a weapon of mass destruction, according to researchers from the Department of Veterans...