Consumers still worried about E. coli

Sun, 04 Feb 2007 21:18:03 GMT
By JANET FRANKSTON LORIN, Associated Press Writer
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - September's national spinach recall has shaken consumer confidence in the safety of leafy green vegetables, according to a new national survey.
Consumers are still avoiding greens and questioning safety issues, months after spinach contaminated with http://www.foodpolicyinstitute.org

U.N. bird flu chief Expect more cases

Sun, 04 Feb 2007 16:49:43 GMT
By CHRIS BRUMMITT, Associated Press Writer
JAKARTA, Indonesia - The world should expect more bird flu outbreaks in the coming months, the U.N. official coordinating the global fight against the virus warned Sunday after Britain recorded its first case of the H5N1 strain on a commercial farm.
Dr. David Nabarro said, however, that he did not expect the virus to spread in Britain to neighboring farms because of the quick containment measures put in place by the government.

"This should mean that there won't therefore be spread ... into other parts in the vicinity," he told The Associated Press in Indonesia, the country worst hit by the virus. "That is what I hope, but of course we will see over the next few days."

He said countries around the world where the virus was not endemic would likely see more cases in poultry before June, mostly spread by migrating birds.

"I am expecting to see outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in a number of locations over the next three or four months, and I am basing it on what happened last year," he said, stressing that the risk to human health remained very small.

Nabarro said a recent spike in human deaths in Indonesia meant the country must do more to fight the virus despite improving its efforts in recent months, including the slaughter of backyard chickens in the capital last week.

"Just at the moment there are rather a lot of ... so that is why everybody needs to be a little anxious about what is happening and everybody needs to be forceful on moving rapidly and strongly forward with intensifying measures."

H5N1 has prompted the slaughter of millions of birds across Asia since late 2003 and caused the deaths of more than 160 people worldwide, around a third of them in Indonesia, according to the World Health Organization.

Most people killed so far have been infected by domestic fowl and the virus remains very hard for humans to catch. But experts fear it could mutate into a form that easily spreads among humans, sparking a pandemic with the potential to kill millions.

S.D. billionaire donates 36400 million

Sun, 04 Feb 2007 21:34:10 GMT
By CARSON WALKER, Associated Press Writer
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - Around here, T. Denny Sanford is not known just for the billions he made in banking — he's also known for the millions he has donated.
When officials at Sioux Valley Hospitals & Health Systems told him of their dream to transform the facility into a major research institution for children's health, he donated $400 million, and they promised to rename the institution after him — Sanford Health.

"I have been ed as wanting to die broke," Sanford , 71, said at Saturday's announcement before 1,800 employees and community leaders. Hospital president and CEO Kelby Krabbenhoft "is certainly doing the best job he can to make it happen."

The hospital began in 1894 and has grown to become the largest employer in the region, with 12,000 employees, 340 physicians, 115 clinics and 24 hospitals.

The $400 million will go toward several projects that will bear Sanford's name and expand the health system beyond its current patient base in South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska.

They include building five pediatric clinics in North America tied to the new children's hospital in Sioux Falls that will bear his name and is scheduled to open in 2009. It would also establish more than 20 separate specialized facilities around a medical center, with a goal of joining the ranks of the world's best hospitals

"One of my hopes is that we create a Mayo for kids," Sanford said later Saturday at a gala dinner to raise money for the children's hospital.

Sanford's net worth is roughly $2.5 billion. He made his fortune as the owner of First Premier Bank, and Premier Bankcard — among the nation's leading credit card providers.

Sanford was ranked 49th on a Business Week magazine list of the 50 most generous philanthropists in November. His biography states that his "primary interest is in helping sick, disadvantaged, abused and/or neglected children."

Sanford's other recent donations include $70 million to convert an abandoned mine into a science laboratory, $16 million for the children's hospital, and $20 million to the health system to expand projects involving the University of South Dakota's School of Medicine.

___

On the Net:

Sanford Health: http://www.sanfordhealth.org

Texas Gov. orders anticancer vaccine

Sat, 03 Feb 2007 11:26:47 GMT
By LIZ AUSTIN PETERSON, Associated Press Writer
AUSTIN, Texas - Some conservatives and parents' rights groups worry that requiring girls to get vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer would condone premarital sex and interfere with the way they raise their children.
By using an executive order that bypassed the Legislature, Republican Gov. Rick Perry — himself a conservative — on Friday avoided such opposition, making Texas the first state to mandate that schoolgirls get vaccinated against the virus.

Beginning in September 2008, girls entering the sixth grade will have to receive Gardasil, Merck & Co.'s new vaccine against strains of the human papillomavirus, or HPV.

Perry also directed state health authorities to make the vaccine available free to girls 9 to 18 who are uninsured or whose insurance does not cover vaccines. In addition, he ordered that Medicaid offer Gardasil to women ages 19 to 21.

Perry, a conservative Christian who opposes abortion and stem-cell research using embryonic cells, counts on the religious right for his political base. But he has said the cervical cancer vaccine is no different from the one that protects children against polio.

"The HPV vaccine provides us with an incredible opportunity to effectively target and prevent cervical cancer," he said.

Opponents say Perry should have let the Legislature decide whether to impose a mandate.

"He's circumventing the will of the people," said Dawn Richardson, president of Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education, a citizens group that fought for the right to opt out of other vaccine requirements. "There are bills filed. There's no emergency except in the boardrooms of Merck, where this is failing to gain the support that they had expected."

Texas allows parents to opt out of inoculations by filing an affidavit objecting to the vaccine on religious or philosophical reasons. Conservative groups say such provisions still interfere with parents' rights to make medical decisions for their children.

The executive order is effective until Perry or a successor changes it, and the Legislature has no authority to repeal it, said Perry spokeswoman Krista Moody. Moody said the Texas Constitution permits the governor, as head of the executive branch, to order other members of the executive branch to adopt rules like this one.

The federal government approved Gardasil in June, and a government advisory panel has recommended that all girls get the shots at 11 and 12, before they are likely to be sexually active.

Merck 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.

The New Jersey-based drug company is bankrolling efforts to pass state laws across the country mandating Gardasil for girls as young as 11 or 12. It doubled its lobbying budget in Texas and has funneled money through Women in Government, an advocacy group made up of female state legislators around the country.

Perry has ties to Merck and Women in Government. One of the drug company's three lobbyists in Texas is Mike Toomey, Perry's former chief of staff. His current chief of staff's mother-in-law, Texas Republican state Rep. Dianne White Delisi, is a state director for Women in Government.

The governor also received $6,000 from Merck's political action committee during his re-election campaign.

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.

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. Susan Crosby, the group's president, also declined to specify how much the drug company gave.

Obesity poses larger diabetes risk than inactivity

Fri, 02 Feb 2007 23:22:47 GMT
By David Douglas
NEW YORK - Although obesity and lack of physical activity both raise the risk of type 2 diabetes in women, obesity appears to be the more important factor, researchers report in the journal Diabetes Care.
Dr. Frank Hu of the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, and colleagues note that the relative contribution of obesity and inactivity to the risk of developing type 2 diabetes remains controversial.

To investigate further, the researchers monitored 68,907 women taking part in the Nurses' Health Study, a large ongoing study that is evaluating women's health over time. The women in the current trial had no history of diabetes, cardiovascular disease or cancer at study entry. During 16 years of follow-up, there were 4,030 incident cases of type 2 diabetes.

After allowing for age, smoking, and other diabetes-associated factors, the risk of type 2 diabetes increased progressively with increasing body mass index (BMI - the ratio of height to weight often used to determine if someone is overweight or too thin). The risk also increased with waist circumference, and decreased with physical activity levels.

Using women who had a healthy weight and were physically active as the reference group, the relative risks of type 2 diabetes were 16.75 in women with a BMI of 30 or more and were inactive. The corresponding risk in obese women who were active was 10.74. In women who were lean but inactive, the relative risk was 2.08.

Although both variables were significant predictors of type 2 diabetes, the researchers found that the association for waist circumference was substantially stronger than that for physical inactivity.

They researchers conclude that "the magnitude of risk contributed by obesity is much greater than that imparted by lack of physical activity," and therefore "weight loss and maintenance of healthy weight should be emphasized as an eventual goal to prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes."

SOURCE: Diabetes Care, January 2007.

Sex issues may signal other health risks

Sat, 03 Feb 2007 00:48:13 GMT
By MARIA CHENG, AP Medical Writer
LONDON - Doctors shouldn't shy away from asking patients about their sex lives, a new research paper advises. Researchers say problems in the bedroom can translate into serious medical conditions, and ignoring sexual dysfunction may mean missing early indicators for heart failure, depression or other ailments, according to a paper published in Friday's issue of The Lancet.
"Sex is a legitimate part of medicine, but it has largely been kept separate from the rest of medicine," said Dr. Rosemary Basson, the paper's lead author. Basson is based at the British Columbia Centre for Sexual Medicine in Vancouver.

Basson and her co-author, Dr. Willibrord Weijmar Schultz of the University Medical Centre in Groningen, the Netherlands, examined numerous medical databases looking for sexual dysfunctions in combination with diseases such as heart failure, diabetes, depression, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's. Many sexual problems were identified as possible red flags of underlying or imminent medical conditions.

"If a man comes in with erectile dysfunction, it can be the tip of the iceberg," said Dr. Andrew McCullough, a sexual health expert at New York University Medical Center who was not connected to the paper.

Doctors are being increasingly advised to take the initiative to ask patients about their sex lives, including basic questions about who they have sex with, how frequently and if they engage in potentially risky behavior.

"People aren't going to volunteer that kind of information unless they're specifically asked," said Dr. Jonathan Zenilman, chief of the infectious diseases division at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, who was not involved with the research.

What patients often fail to realize, physicians say, is that sexual dysfunctions are often a symptom of something more serious.

For instance, men with erectile dysfunction, the most common sexual disorder in older men, are often at increased risk of heart disease. In one study of 132 men who had heart surgery, nearly half had a history of erectile dysfunction. That diagnosis preceded the heart surgery in nearly 60 percent of the men.

In women, picking up on sex clues is more difficult. "Women don't have as obvious a physical signal for sexual problems as men," said Basson. But a woman's lack of sexual desire reveals an underlying depression in up to 26 percent of cases. Taken together with other symptoms, sexual abnormalities in women could point to hormone conditions, kidney failure, diabetes, or other chronic diseases.

By using sexual problems as early indicators of medical complications, doctors can capitalize on valuable lead time to treat their patients. "The first manifestation of early diabetes could be erectile dysfunction," said Zenilman. "It may not be what men want to hear, but if it's caught early enough, you can still do something about it."

In the case of depression, patients often go for years without being treated. If astute clinicians were able to make the connection between lack of sexual desire with psychiatric conditions such as depression or post-traumatic stress syndrome, patients could be offered treatment earlier, according to Zenilman.

Yet while sexual problems can be an indicator of poor health, the prospect of better sex may persuade people to lead healthier lives.

"Sex can be used as a great carrot for people," said McCullough. "People will be more willing to make lifestyle modifications to improve their health if they think they'll also get improved sex."

Federal money for 911 health woes just a start say survivors

Sat, 03 Feb 2007 19:47:26 GMT
by Catherine Hours
NEW YORK - What with the asthma, trauma, depression and 13 medications a day, life has all but stopped for Marvin Bethea, a paramedic who was buried in the rubble of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
Despite three years off work and several stints in hospital, the 47-year-old still considers himself lucky. &;I'm one of the fortunate to have health coverage,&; he says, laboring between breaths.

Like many others caught up in the September 11 attacks, Bethea wants Washington to do more for the rescuers, volunteers and residents suffering ill health due to their exposure to toxic dust and rubble near Ground Zero.

The first federal funding for those suffering from conditions such as asthma or lung disease was unveiled Tuesday, when President George W. Bush announced 25 million dollars for a program at New York's Mount Sinai hospital.

Bush on Wednesday met Ceasar Borja, the 21-year-old son of a New York cop who died last week of lung problems developed since working at Ground Zero, to discuss the federal measures.

Borja became an instant spokesman for those suffering conditions related to the September 11 attacks when he attended Bush's State of the Union address in Washington last week on the same day his father died.

&;I expressed how the funding should be expanded, not for just the heroes and heroines that were present there,&; Borja told reporters after his talks with Bush, who was in New York to visit the stock exchange.

&;Everyone should be taken care of and paid for completely by the federal government,&; he added.

According to Mount Sinai, which runs a program dedicated to those suffering September 11-related illnesses, 250 million dollars a year are needed to tackle the issue and cope with the volume of patients.

New York Senator Hillary Clinton has requested 1.9 billion dollars in federal money for the care program. &;I am grateful for this first step but there is a long road ahead,&; Clinton said.

Bush said in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday that no rescuers involved in the 9/11 cleanup operation should be without help, but others have urged the safety net to be spread far wider -- and not just cover rescuers.

&;Those who rushed into harm's way were heroes. And they ought to be honored. And I also believe that they ought not to go without health care,&; Bush said.

&;We're going to work with Congress to make sure that those folks who went into harm's way don't go without health care&;, he added.

But in New York, people like Bethea are still waiting.

&;I do appreciate the 25 million that he gave, it's nice, but it's a drop in a bucket,&; says Bethea, who helps run the group &;Unsung Heroes Helping Heroes.&; &;Twenty-five million is not going to do it... There's a lot of frustration too, because this has been going on for five years.&;

The former paramedic says he has been to Washington 12 times in the last two years to press the case of September 11 rescuers but was never met by the president.

In the last three years he has been in hospital seven times. He explains that his medication costs 1,100 dollars a month, and although he is covered by health insurance, not everyone is so lucky.

&;People are losing their homes, I know this gentleman who had to go with his child's college fund because he had no more money. People get their lights turned off, families are breaking up because finances are a strain on a marriage&;, he says.
The press has also started to express increased frustration. &;It will be up to the president to deliver the real and substantial resources that only the federal government can muster for the heretofore forgotten victims of 9/11,&; the Daily News said in a recent editorial.
&;What About Us?,&; the Newsday tabloid asked in a front page story featuring a police officer with brain cancer.
Research by Mount Sinai Medical Center released in September found several thousand police officers, firefighters, construction workers, office workers and volunteers were still suffering respiratory problems.
An estimated 40,000 people helped clear debris from the site of the World Trade Center in late 2001 and early 2002, many of whom did not wear face masks.
Scientists believe their symptoms are linked to the fine particles released from the debris and inhaled deep into the lungs.
An autopsy carried out on a 34-year-old police officer last year for the first time established an official link between respiratory complaints and the hours workers spent sifting through the rubble at Ground Zero.
For David Newman, from the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, the priorities are to develop long term care for those affected and to properly address the impact on local residents, not just emergency responders.
&;What we're faced with fundamentally is a public health crisis,&; he says.
&;It warrants a concerted, rather than a piecemeal public health response.&;

Kidney disease raises hip fracture risk in women

Fri, 02 Feb 2007 23:27:06 GMT
By David Douglas
NEW YORK - Elderly women with moderate kidney dysfunction are considerably more likely to experience hip fracture than those without impaired kidneys, researchers report in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
If these findings are confirmed by other studies, Dr. Kristine E. Ensrud told Reuters Health, doctors should evaluate kidney function when they determine the risk of hip fracture in older women.

Ensrud of the VA Medical Center, Minneapolis, and colleagues note in their paper that an increased rate of hip fractures has been reported in patients with end-stage kidney disease, but the effect of less severe kidney disease on fracture risk is uncertain.

To investigate further, the researchers studied a group of community-based women 65 years or older who were taking part in an osteoporotic bone fracture study.

The team compared kidney function in 149 women who had hip fractures and 150 women who had vertebral fractures with that of 396 randomly selected women without broken bones.

Mildly and moderately impaired kidney function increased the risk of hip fracture by more than 50 percent and more than 100 percent, respectively. However, kidney function did not have an effect on vertebral fractures.

SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, January 26, 2007.

Lab disaster may lead to new cancer drug

Sun, 04 Feb 2007 14:55:50 GMT
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
WASHINGTON - Her carefully cultured cells were dead and Katherine Schaefer was annoyed, but just a few minutes later, the researcher realized she had stumbled onto a potential new cancer treatment.
Schaefer and colleagues at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York believe they have discovered a new way to attack tumors that have learned how to evade existing drugs.

Tests in mice suggest the compound helps break down the cell walls of tumors, almost like destroying a tumor cell's "skeleton."

The researchers will test the new compound for safety and hope they can develop it to treat cancers such as colon cancer, esophageal cancer, liver and skin cancers.

"I was using these cancer cells as models of the normal intestine," Schaefer said in a telephone interview.

Normal human cells are difficult to grow and study in the lab, because they tend to die. But cancer cells live much longer and are harder to kill, so scientists often use them.

Schaefer was looking for drugs to treat the inflammation seen in Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, both of which cause pain and diarrhea.

She was testing a compound called a PPAR-gamma modulator. It would never normally have been thought of as a cancer drug, or in fact a drug of any kind.

"I made a calculation error and used a lot more than I should have. And my cells died," Schaefer said.

A colleague overheard her complaining. "The co-author on my paper said,' Did I hear you say you killed some cancer?' I said 'Oh', and took a closer look."

They ran several tests and found the compound killed "pretty much every epithelial tumor cell lines we have seen," Schaefer said. Epithelial cells line organs such as the colon, and also make up skin.

It also killed colon tumors in mice without making the mice sick, they reported in the journal International Cancer Research.

The compound works in much the same way as the taxane drugs, including Taxol, which were originally derived from Pacific yew trees.

"It targets part of the cell cytoskeleton called tubulin," Schaefer said. Tubulin is used to build microtubules, which in turn make up the cell's structure.

Destroying it kills the cell, but cancer cells eventually evolve mechanisms to pump out the drugs that do this, a problem called resistance.

"Resistance to anti-tubulin therapies is a huge problem in many cancers. We see this as another way to get to the tubulin," Schaefer said.

The PPAR-gamma compound does this in a different way from the taxanes, which might mean it could overcome the resistance that tumor cells often develop to chemotherapy.

"Most of the drugs like Taxol affect the ability of tubulin to forms into microtubules. This doesn't do that -- it causes the tubulin itself to disappear. We do not know why."
Schaefer's team plans more safety tests in mice. As the compound is already patented, her team will probably have to design something slightly different to be able to patent it as a new drug.
Taxol, developed by U.S. National Cancer Institute researchers and manufactured by Bristol-Myers Squibb in 1993, had annual sales of $1.6 billion at its peak in 2000.

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