Sunscreens and ratings may improve
Mon, 11 Jun 2007 18:08:50 GMTBy LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer
WASHINGTON - Shade your kids. Strong new evidence suggests overall sun exposure in childhood, not just burns, is a big key to who later develops deadly skin cancer.
The news comes as the government is finishing long-awaited rules to improve sunscreens.
The http://www.epa.gov/sunwise/uvindex.html
Scrutiny for sunscreenrepellent combos
Mon, 11 Jun 2007 18:11:17 GMTBy The Associated Press
Sunscreen and insect repellent in the same bottle? The products may save time, but the government is questioning if there should be more oversight.
The issue: A handful of small studies, using animal and human skin cells, suggest mixing sunscreen with the insect repellent DEET might increase DEET absorption — and make sunscreen not protect as well.
Also, sunscreen is supposed to be applied repeatedly in great dollops, as sweating or swimming wears it off. And it's for young children, starting at 6 months of age. But insect repellents have limits on how often they're used, and how young. How can product labels reconcile those instructions?
About 20 versions of sunscreen-bug repellent combinations are sold, says the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA regulates sunscreen, and the Environmental Protection Agency regulates insect repellent — but the combo products are in limbo, not really belonging to either agency.
So the FDA put out a notice seeking comment on whether concerns were strong enough that the products should have additional oversight.
No, says the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association, which contends the studies that raised the questions are flawed.
"We need to do more studies," counters Dr. Darrell Rigel of the American Academy of Dermatology.
Complicating the issue, Canadian researchers recently tested human skin cells and found questions beyond all-in-one products: Spraying on DEET and then rubbing on sunscreen actually increased DEET absorption the most.
Just because more DEET is absorbed doesn't mean it's enough to harm, cautions Dr. Charles Ganley, FDA's nonprescription drugs chief. His bigger question is whether the products bear proper instructions.
A decision could come later this year.
Troops struggle with finding therapists
Mon, 11 Jun 2007 00:02:25 GMTBy KIMBERLY HEFLING, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Soldiers returning from war are finding it more difficult to get mental health treatment because military insurance is cutting payments to therapists, on top of already low reimbursement rates and a tangle of red tape.
Wait lists now extend for months to see a military doctor and it can takes weeks to find a private therapist willing to take on members of the military. The challenge appears great in rural areas, where many National Guard and Reserve troops and their families live.
To avoid the hassles of Tricare, the military health insurance program, one frustrated therapist opted to provide an hour of therapy time a week to http://www.ha.osd.mil/dhb/mhtf/default.cfm
Tricare: http://www.tricare.mil/
Give an Hour: http://www.giveanhour.org
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Alzheimers cases may quadruple by 2050
Sun, 10 Jun 2007 10:49:02 GMTWASHINGTON - More than 26 million people worldwide have http://www.alz.org/
Obese children with leukemia have poorer outlook
Mon, 11 Jun 2007 15:56:32 GMTBy David Douglas
NEW YORK - Young patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and a high body mass index, a measure commonly used to estimate whether a person is underweight or overweight, at the time of diagnosis are at increased risk of relapse and other untoward events, according to researchers.
ALL is a type of leukemia that commonly affects children and young adults. It typically has a rapid onset and progression, but usually responds to intensive combination chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Lead investigator Dr. Anna M. Butturini told Reuters Health that &;obesity is associated with lower probability of cure in pre-adolescents and teenagers with ALL.&; Moreover, she added, &;A current analysis suggests that same is true in adults with the same disease.&;
Butturini of Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and colleagues reviewed and analyzed data from 4,260 young patients with newly diagnosed ALL enrolled in five concurrent studies. The results were verified in a second group of 1,733 patients enrolled in a sixth study.
The initial group consisted of 343 obese and 3,917 non-obese patients, the researchers report in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. After adjusting the data to account for factors associated with increased risk, the obese patients were 35 percent more likely to have a negative event and were 29 percent more likely to have a cancer relapse. The effects were more pronounced and in those who were older than 10 years of age.
At one time, &;obesity in cancer was rare,&; Butturini pointed out. &;Now a large proportion of our patients are obese and we must face the challenge they present.&;
She added, &;The mechanisms underlying the effect of obesity on outcome of ALL are probably more complex than just differences in pharmacokinetics between obese and non-obese individuals.&;
A better understanding of why obese patients with ALL are at increased risk of relapse, Butturini concluded, &;will likely help us to design better therapies for both obese and non-obese patients.&;
SOUIRCE: Journal of Clinical Oncology, May 20, 2007.
Eritrean custom stronger than law on cutting girls
Mon, 11 Jun 2007 10:10:27 GMTBy Jack Kimball
HAGAZ, Eritrea - For 3-year-old Amira, a law banning female genital mutilation in Eritrea came too late.
Wrapped in an orange traditional dress, Amira's mother, who gives her name only as Gerejet, says she circumcised the child to please her future husband.
&;It was the culture that we have taken from our grandmothers, but we also do it for the pleasure of the men,&; the 30-year-old told Reuters in a small village west of the Eritrean capital.
Like Gerejet and Amira, some 100 million women worldwide have been circumcised, a procedure that at its most extreme involves cutting off the clitoris and external genitalia then stitching the vagina to reduce a woman's sexual desire.
Eritrea banned female genital mutilation in April. The government has warned anyone taking part in or promoting the practice faces a fine of several hundred dollars or up to 10 years in jail.
Government officials are optimistic the law will force a change in attitudes but others worry the practice is too ingrained for legal threats to have much impact. About 90 percent of Eritrean woman have undergone the ordeal.
&;FGM is a deep-rooted culture and it needs a persistent continuous effort ,&; Luul Ghebreab, president of the National Union of Eritrean Women, told Reuters.
The U.N. Children's Fund, UNICEF, says Eritrea ranks amongst the worst in the world for FGM and a survey by Eritrea's government in 2002 found less than one percent of circumcisions were performed by trained health professionals.
Pirkko Heinonen, the UNICEF representative in Eritrea, says the practice spans Christian and Muslim communities as well as all nine of Eritrea's ethnic groups.
&;But we have come to a turning point. It was the exception not to be cut but I think in the younger age group, it is the exception to be cut,&; she says.
Sitting inside her thatched-roof house, Gerejet believes Eritrean women will welcome the new law. She had circumcised her daughter because no man would marry a girl unless she was cut.
&;But nothing will happen to another daughter if she is not cut,&; Gerejet says in Hagaz, 100 km from Asmara. &;We thank God the law was issued. At least the pain will stop.&;
THE CIRCUMCISER
Government officials say the law banning the practice is only part of a long process of public education dating since Eritrea's 30-year independence struggle from Ethiopia.
&;Eritrea is easily manageable, there is a chain system, a village level, the sub-zone, the zonal level. We can control it,&; said Tesfay Misgna, a health ministry campaigner.
Tesfay said communities have taken a lead in banning the practice: &;The legal issues are very vital, because some people need them. But even some villages made their own laws before the government made it.&;
&;By the year 1999, it was 95 percent and then 2003, it was 89 percent. Nowadays we hope it will be less that this.&;
Meriam Mohamed Omar, a former circumciser, pulls the fabric of her purple dress to mimic external genitalia and sticks a small needle through it.
&;I used to use a thin stick from a palm tree. You hold the genitalia in two then cut it,&; she says.
Meriam says she stopped the practice four years ago after learning of the consequences for a girl. Some 3 million girls are afflicted globally each year, according to the United Nations.
&;Most of the time she suffers the pain when she is giving birth, but also during sex,&; Meriam says.
The United Nations says circumcised women are up to 70 percent more vulnerable to potentially fatal bleeding after delivery. Up to 20 out of every 1,000 babies born in Africa die because their mothers were circumcised.
Aid workers say cultural traditions will be the biggest barrier to eradicating female circumcision. Across the riverbed from Hagaz in the village of Glass, residents say the practice still goes on.
&;The people just say they accept , but they really don't,&; one resident says. Heinonen says the new law is a milestone in the process and agrees there is still much to do.
&;It is a very difficult thing to do to your family when you are one of the first ones to stop it,&; she says.
&;It is based on a real fear that if I do not let my daughter to be cut, is she going to be seen as a prostitute?&;
Washington court will hear autismvaccine suits
Sun, 10 Jun 2007 21:23:00 GMTBy Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
WASHINGTON - A special court that will pit scientists against activists in the debate over whether vaccines have caused autism in many children begins hearings on Monday with the first test case, involving a 12-year-old Arizona girl.
Although science has weighed in heavily on the question -- with strong evidence that vaccines are not linked to the disease -- a very vocal group of people remains unconvinced.
More than 4,800 cases are pending, filed by parents who believe their children have autism that was caused by vaccines. The little-known U.S. Court of Federal Claims has set up an omnibus hearing in Washington, D.C., with the first case expected to last three weeks.
The parents are seeking payment under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, a no-fault system that has a $2.5 billion fund built up from a 75-cent-per-dose tax on vaccines.
&;Monday will mark the first time ever that evidence of autistic harm from childhood vaccines is examined and cross-examined in a court of law,&; activist David Kirby, who wrote a book about the purported vaccine and autism link, said in a statement.
No judges but instead three &;special masters&; will hear the test cases. They are Denise Vowell, a former U.S. Army chief trial judge; Patricia Campbell-Smith, a former environmental lawyer and clerk at the Federal Claims Court; and George Hastings a former tax claims expert at the Department of Justice.
The first test case will ask whether a combination vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, plus a mercury-containing preservative called thimerosal, caused the autism of Michelle Cedillo, now 12.
&;The profound downward change in Michelle's health began seven days following the MMR,&; the Legal Times newspaper ed Michelle's mother Theresa Cedillo as saying.
TRAUMATIC SHOTS
Vaccine experts say parents often link vaccines with their children's symptoms because getting a shot can be upsetting, and children are vaccinated at an age when autism and related disorders are often first diagnosed.
They point to two Institute of Medicine reports, in 2001 and 2004, that reviewed the evidence and determined there was no link between vaccines and autism.
&;From my standpoint, this question has been asked and answered,&; Dr. Paul Offitt of the Philadelphia Children's Hospital, who helped invent a rotavirus vaccine, told reporters in a telephone briefing.
&;You know, it's a scientific question. It's best answered in a scientific venue. It's been done. I mean, the court is not a place to determine scientific truths. The court is a place to settle disputes.&;
Dr. Peter Hotez of the Sabin Vaccine Institute said he is confident his daughter's autism was not caused by any vaccines.
&;Even if we could turn back the clock and do it all over again, I can honestly say that we would still give Rachel her full complement of pediatric vaccines and our confidence in this is based on what we know about autism,&; Hotez told reporters in the same briefing.
Offitt and Hotez say many studies show that children who have been vaccinated are no more likely to develop autism than children who have not been vaccinated. And they note that although thimerosal was removed from all childhood vaccines in the United States, except flu vaccines, by 2002, rates of autism have continued to climb.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about one in every 150 children has autism or a related disorder such as Asperger's syndrome.
The CDC estimates that about 560,000 people up to age 21 in the United States have autism, which can severely disable a child by interfering with speech and behavior.
