French health minister seeks nap study

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 13:25:10 GMT

PARIS - The French already enjoy a 35-hour work week and generous vacation. Now the health minister wants to look into whether workers should be allowed to sleep on the job.
France launched plans this week to spend $9 million this year to improve public awareness about sleeping troubles. About one in three French people suffer from them, the ministry says.

Fifty-six percent of French complain that a poor night's sleep has affected their job performance, according to the ministry.

"Why not a nap at work? It can't be a taboo subject," Health Minister Xavier Bertrand said Monday. He called for further studies and said he would promote on-the-job naps if they prove useful.

France's state-run health insurance provider will send letters explaining the importance of good sleep. The Health Ministry's Web site offers tips on how best to get a good night's rest.

The ministry's online "Passport to Sleep" recommends cutting down on coffee, tea, colas, and athletic activity after 8 p.m., shunning TV time or working late in the evening, and listening better to the body's own sleep signals, such as yawning.

Bertrand said sleepiness causes 20 percent to 30 percent of highway accidents across France each year.

Nigeria reports bird flu cases in humans

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 15:44:05 GMT
By BASHIR ADIGUN, Associated Press Writer
ABUJA, Nigeria - Health officials reported Nigeria's first cases of bird flu in humans Wednesday, saying one woman had died and a family member had been infected but was responding to treatment.
The 22-year-old woman died Jan. 17 in Lagos, Information Minister Frank Nweke said. He added that the government was boosting surveillance across Africa's most-populous nation after the infections in Lagos, Nigeria's biggest city.

The World Health Organization did not immediately confirm the case.

Nigerian health officials earlier said 14 human samples were being tested. Nweke made no mention of those cases Wednesday.

An outbreak of H5N1 bird flu hit Nigeria last year, but no human infections had been reported until Wednesday. Until the Nigerian report, Egypt and Djibouti were the only African countries that had confirmed infections among people. Eleven people have died in Egypt.

The bird flu virus remains hard for humans to catch, but health experts fear H5N1 may mutate into a form that could spread easily among humans and possibly kill millions in a flu pandemic.

Amid a new H5N1 outbreak reported in recent weeks in Nigeria's north, hundreds of miles from Lagos, health workers have begun killing poultry.

Bird flu is generally not harmful to humans, but the H5N1 virus has claimed at least 157 lives worldwide since it began ravaging Asian poultry in late 2003, according to the WHO.

The H5N1 strain had been confirmed in 15 of Nigeria's 36 states.

By September, when the last known case of the virus was found in poultry in a farm near Nigeria's biggest city of Lagos, 915,650 birds had been slaughtered nationwide by government veterinary teams under a plan in which owners were promised compensation. However, many Nigerian farmers have yet to be reimbursed in the north of the country, and health officials fear that chicken deaths may be covered up by owners reluctant to kill their animals.

Since bird flu cases were first discovered in Nigeria last year, Cameroon, Djibouti, Niger, Ivory Coast, Sudan and Burkina Faso have also reported the H5N1 strain of bird flu in birds. There are fears that it has spread even farther than is known in Africa because monitoring is difficult on a poor continent with weak infrastructure.

There also is concern that millions of people with AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa will be particularly vulnerable, especially in rural areas with little access to health facilities. Many people keep chickens for food, even in densely populated urban areas.

Merck lobbies states over cancer vaccine

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 03:59:47 GMT
By LIZ AUSTIN PETERSON, Associated Press Writer
AUSTIN, Texas - Merck & Co. is helping bankroll efforts to pass state laws requiring girls as young as 11 or 12 to receive the drugmaker's new vaccine against the sexually transmitted cervical-cancer virus.
Some conservatives and parents'-rights groups say such a requirement would encourage premarital sex and interfere with the way they raise their children, and they say Merck's push for such laws is underhanded. But the company said its lobbying efforts have been above-board.

With at least 18 states debating whether to require Merck's Gardasil vaccine for schoolgirls, Merck has funneled money through Women in Government, an advocacy group made up of female state legislators around the country.

A top official from Merck's vaccine division sits on Women in Government's business council, and many of the bills around the country have been introduced by members of Women in Government.

"Cervical cancer is of particular interest to our members because it represents the first opportunity that we have to actually eliminate a cancer," Women in Government President Susan Crosby said.

Gardasil, approved by the federal government in June, protects girls and women against strains of the human papillomavirus, or HPV, that are responsible for most cases of cervical cancer. A government advisory panel has recommended that all girls get the shots at 11 and 12, before they are likely to be sexually active.

But no state has yet to add Gardasil to the list of vaccinations youngsters must have under law to be enrolled in school.

Merck spokeswoman Janet Skidmore would not say how much the company is spending on lobbyists or how much it has donated to Women in Government. Crosby also declined to specify how much the drug company gave.

But Skidmore said: "We disclosed the fact that we provide funding to this organization. We're not in any way trying to obscure that."

The New Jersey-based drug company could generate billions in sales if Gardasil — at $360 for the three-shot regimen — were made mandatory across the country. Most insurance companies now cover the vaccine, which has been shown to have no serious side effects.

Cathie Adams, president of the conservative watchdog group Texas Eagle Forum, said the relationship between Merck and Women in Government is too cozy.

"What it does is benefit the pharmaceutical companies, and I don't want pharmaceutical companies taking precedence over the authorities of parents," she said.

Adams said Merck's method of lobbying quietly through groups like Women in Government in addition to meeting directly with legislators are common in state government but still should raise eyebrows. "It's corrupt as far as I'm concerned," she said.

A mandatory vaccine against a sexually transmitted disease could be a tough sell in the Lone Star State and other conservative strongholds, where schools preach abstinence and parents' rights are sacrosanct.

But Merck has doubled its spending on lobbyists in Texas this year, to between $150,000 and $250,000, as lawmakers consider the vaccine bill for girls entering the sixth grade.

Also, the drugmaker has hired one of the state's most powerful lobbyists, Mike Toomey, who once served as Republican Gov. Rick Perry's chief of staff and can influence conservatives who see him as one of their own.

"What we support are approaches that achieve high immunization rates," said Skidmore, the Merck spokeswoman. "We're talking about cervical cancer here, the second-leading cancer among women worldwide."

The legislation already has the enthusiastic support of the conservative governor.
"I look at this no different than vaccinating our children for polio," Perry said. "If there are diseases in our society that are going to cost us large amounts of money, it just makes good economic sense, not to mention the health and well being of these individuals to have those vaccines available."
Proposals for mandates have popped up from California to Connecticut since the first piece of legislation was introduced in September in Michigan. Michigan's bill was narrowly defeated last month. Lawmakers said the requirement would intrude on families' privacy, even though, as in most states' proposals, parents could opt out.
Even with such opt-out provisions, mandates take away parents' rights to make medical decisions for their children, said Linda Klepacki of the Colorado-based evangelical organization Focus on the Family. The group contends the vaccine should be available for parents who want it, but not forced on those who don't.
But Texas Rep. Jessica Farrar said her proposal is aimed at protecting children whose parents are less informed about or less interested in preventive care.
"Not everybody has equal sets of parents," said Farrar, a Houston Democrat who had precancerous cells removed from her cervix several years ago. "I think this is a public health issue and to not want to eradicate cervical cancer is irresponsible."
Drug-industry analyst Steve Brozak of W.B.B. Securities has projected Gardasil sales of at least $1 billion per year — and billions more if states start requiring the vaccine. "I could not think of a bigger boost," he said.

Esophageal cancer surgery not affected by obesity

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 15:43:13 GMT
By Anthony J. Brown, MD
NEW YORK - Obese patients who undergo surgery for esophageal cancer with a procedure called transhiatal esophagectomy appear to fare just as well as their normal weight counterparts, according to study findings presented Tuesday at the Society of Thoracic Surgeons annual meeting in San Diego.
In the last 20 years, the most common cell type involved in esophageal cancer in the U.S. has changed. Most of these cancers were composed of squamous cell carcinomas, cells derived from the middle layer of skin. But now, 85 percent of esophageal cancers are adenocarcinomas, cells that originate from the lining of certain organs.

Researchers believe this is due, in large part, to the rising obesity epidemic, since adenocarcinoma is related to gastroesophageal reflux, or "GERD," which, in turn, is associated with obesity.

Transhiatal esophagectomy, which avoids the longer recovery time required after a chest incision, approaches the esophagus through the abdomen, and typically takes longer to perform in obese patients.

The current study findings indicate that the longer procedural time does not translate into an increase in hospital length of stay, more complications or a higher death rate.

However, comparable outcomes in obese patients may not be attained at all hospitals -- the key is experience. As senior investigator Dr. Mark Orringer told Reuters Health, "this is an operation that needs to be performed at high-volume centers by experienced surgeons."

He added that at his center, the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor, "we've even developed special instruments for use in obese patients."

Orringer's group compared the outcomes of 133 profoundly obese patients, with a body mass index of more than 34 (normal BMI ranges from the low to mid 20s) and 133 non-obese patients who underwent transhiatal esophagectomy for cancer at the researchers' center between 1977 and 2006.

As noted, the procedure took longer in obese patients, but their hospital length of stay, infection rate, and mortality were comparable to those of the non-obese patients.

Orringer believes that roughly 98 percent of esophageal surgeries can now be performed using the transhiatal approach.

He added that "we always start with the intention of performing a transhiatal esophagectomy." However, the patient is always informed beforehand that a chest incision might be required if the operation can't be completed by going through the abdomen.

Greek health ministry rejects olive cancer cure

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 12:32:15 GMT

ATHENS - The Greek health ministry has moved to curb what it called &;ridiculous behaviour&; following reports that a wonder-cure for cancer had been found in olive leaf extract.
&;No systematic clinical study exists ... to prove the usefulness of olive leaf or fruit extract ,&; the ministry said in a statement, warning patients against straying from their prescribed medication.

The statement came after several TV chat shows last week hosted self-styled therapists claiming that olive leaves mixed in water had curative properties against the illness.

A few days later, grocers on the island of Crete began stocking raw leaves, and two brothers in the Peloponnese had a fatal argument over whether to administer the &;olive frappe&; to an ailing sibling.

Even in the leafy Athens suburb of Kifissia, people have been spotted raiding olive trees which could be covered in pesticides, warned deputy health minister Thanassis Yiannopoulos.

&;This ridiculous behaviour must stop ... people should trust scientists,&; Yiannopoulos told private Flash Radio.

&;The dietary benefits of olive oil have been documented, but there is no study anywhere in the world,&; he said, adding that Greek media have been warned against broadcasting &;scientifically baseless&; information.

62 user(s) online 1 here 262 most online 1,089 Visitor(s) Today 3,815,837 Visits 11/01/2002