Study links arthritis work limitations
Thu, 11 Oct 2007 20:13:50 GMTBy DANIEL YEE, Associated Press Writer
ATLANTA - About a third of U.S. adults with arthritis say the chronic condition — the nation's leading cause of disability — has limited their ability to work, the government said Thursday.
A survey released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 33 percent of U.S. workers with arthritis suffered work limitations in 2003, the latest data available.
In Kentucky, slightly more than half of arthritis sufferers reported work limitations. Nevada had the lowest percentage, with about a fourth of its adults saying their work was limited.
"What was surprising about this was just how high and how strong an impact arthritis does have on work," said Kristina Theis of the CDC. The study is the first to provide a state-by-state breakdown on the impact of arthritis in the workplace.
"It's not just an aging problem, but it's a problem that hits people of all ages and adults. It changes people's lives dramatically and for decades," said Dr. Steven Abramson, director of rheumatology of New York University Hospital for Joint Diseases, who was not involved in the study.
Arthritis comprises over 100 different conditions, affecting an estimated 46 million Americans. The most common forms are osteoarthritis — affecting mostly older people — gout and rheumatoid arthritis. Symptoms generally include pain, aching, stiffness and swelling in or around the joints.
Overall, nearly 7 percent of all working adults in U.S. states experienced arthritis-related workplace limitations. Kentucky had the highest percentage of workers, 15 percent, with such limitations, followed by about 3 percent of workers in Hawaii, the CDC study said.
The study relied on a random sample telephone survey in which health officials asked workers whether they had ever been told by a doctor they had arthritis or a related condition. Then they were asked if arthritis or joint symptoms affected their ability to work and the type of work they could do.
Erica Gerber, 37, of Richmond, Va., said she was on her honeymoon in 2002 when her first symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis struck — swollen joints. Six months later, the condition forced her to end her job as a property manager.
"I was in the prime of my career. I became completely disabled. It just wrecked everything," she said. "The simplest things — from buttoning a shirt to getting down the steps of my townhouse just became impossible."
The CDC recommends people with arthritis exercise and take part in self-management programs such as one sponsored by the Arthritis Foundation that has been found to significantly decrease pain, Theis said.
"What we want to do is treat arthritis as early and as effectively as possible so we can keep people at work," said Dr. W. Hayes Wilson, national medical adviser for the Atlanta-based Arthritis Foundation.
A CDC study released in January said that the nation's cost for arthritis and related conditions was $128 billion in 2003, including roughly $81 billion in direct costs such as medical expenses and $47 billion in indirect costs, such as lost wages.
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On the Net:
CDC arthritis info: http://www.cdc.gov/arthritis/
Entrepreneur seeks condom size variety
Thu, 11 Oct 2007 20:32:06 GMTBy BURT HERMAN, Associated Press Writer
SEOGWIPO, South Korea - As the world's top condom experts convene this week to update international standards, one American entrepreneur has a simple message: Size matters. It's shaking up an industry that has generally taken a one-size-fits-all approach.
Frank Sadlo, founder of TheyFit, which makes what he claims are the world's first custom-fit condoms, is pushing for updated standards to allow greater variation in condom size.
It's not just about well-endowed men in cramped prophylactic quarters, Sadlo told a meeting Thursday of delegates from 21 countries under the Geneva-based International Organization for Standardization.
When given a choice, he said many men prefer condoms smaller than the standard minimum 6.3 inches long, with more than half ordering those less than 5.12 inches.
At the session in Seogwipo on South Korea's Jeju Island, more than 100 representatives — including leading manufacturers, government standards bodies and aid groups — pored over 42 pages of specifications and testing requirements for condoms.
Standards are especially crucial — failure could mean the spread of potentially deadly diseases or unwanted pregnancy.
"Our job is to do away with inferior condoms," said Eng Long Ong, meeting chairman and deputy head of the Malaysian Rubber Export Promotion Council, which estimates 13-14 billion condoms are made each year.
Getting quality condoms can be especially difficult in places like Africa, where they are a major part of AIDS prevention campaigns.
Ian Matondo, an adviser to the Malawi Health Ministry, said the issue of condoms breaking in Africa had nothing to do with the size of men's penises but was due to poor manufacturing.
The standard for testing condom strength is to fill it with air, a technique pioneered by the Swedes in the 1950s. Condoms of the standard length and width must hold at least 4.76 gallons of air — far more than they would ever be expected to contain under normal use.
Varying condom size would require standards and test equipment to change and is expected to require another a year for approval, Sadlo said.
The length issue is just one of many being debated at the five-day meeting, the 24th such session since 1975, where delegates were creating new standards for synthetic and female condoms.
Synthetic polyurethane condoms are an alternative for people allergic to rubber latex and can be thinner without losing strength. They also conduct heat better for "much more sensitivity with lovemaking," said Grant Burt, international division director for Japan's Sagami Rubber Industries Co.
Female condoms are seeing increasing use in Africa, where they are often distributed for free so women can take control of disease prevention, said Matondo.
Innovation for male condoms has focused on adding textures to enhance sexual pleasure, or offering different colors or lubricants. At the meeting, South Korean manufacturer Unidus displayed its "Long-Love" condom — featuring desensitizing cream inside to prevent premature ejaculation so men "make a lasting impression."
Widths vary but condom length is usually standard, as it believed latex can stretch to fit all men. The average adult penis is 5-6 inches long, experts said.
Sadlo said his inspiration for custom condoms arose from his days playing baseball at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, where locker room tales of exploits with the opposite sex often failed to include use of condoms due to complaints they did not fit.
A more comfortable condom contributes to men actually using them, said Michael Reece, director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at Indiana University.
"Typically, when a man complains about condom fit, we have assumed that he means that condoms are too small and we have often just ignored this complaint because we think that men are bragging about the size of their penis," Reece said via e-mail.
He said men also have problems with condoms being too large.
"It is time for those who establish condom manufacturing standards to consider whether an expanded range of condom sizes is necessary," Reece said.
Sadlo offers a "fit kit," a sheet of paper printed from a computer for sizing — and advising the user to watch out for paper cuts. The chart only runs from long to longer.
The product was offered from 2003-2006 in the United States before he withdrew it to upgrade from 55 to 95 sizes. Changing international standard would make it easier to widely offer the product, rather than seeking approval in each country.
Sadlo said it has been difficult to transform the condom industry.
"In order to bring about revolutionary change, you need to have the mind-set of a trailblazer, you need to keep focused on your vision," he said.
Doctors map genome for drugresistant TB
Thu, 11 Oct 2007 20:43:09 GMTJOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Doctors said Thursday that a genome for one strain of an extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis has been sequenced — a finding they say could help fight the deadly disease.
Doctors mapped the bacteria in a week using technology developed in the United States, said Dr. Carl Montague of LifeLab, a biotechnology project funded by the South African government.
"We consider this a breakthrough because it will provide for more analysis of MDR and XDR-TB , and to understand the differences between them," Montague said.
The complete genome sequencing data has not yet been shared with other scientists. Previous tuberculosis strains have already been mapped, and some experts are uncertain how quickly the research will result in new diagnostics or treatments.
"This is just one strain," said Dr. Mario Raviglione, director of the World Health Organization's Stop TB department. Raviglione said there are hundreds of strains of XDR-TB, and that even if a new diagnostic test was developed from this genome, it would probably only work for that specific strain.
"Mapping the genome may open up interesting ways to look at the bacteria, but we are far from having any new tests or treatments," he said.
Last year, the World Health Organization announced an outbreak of XDR-TB in South Africa in which all but one of the 53 patients confirmed with the strain died. To date, more than 300 cases have been identified, and at least 30 more are reported each month.
About 330,000 South Africans have TB, and 6,000 have a multiple drug-resistant variant, officials said. Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis exists worldwide, including in eastern Europe, Russia and the United States.
Jury finds Wyeth liable in drugs lawsuit
Thu, 11 Oct 2007 21:41:32 GMTBy SANDRA CHEREB, Associated Press Writer
RENO, Nev. - A jury levied a $134.5 million judgment against pharmaceutical giant Wyeth in a lawsuit filed by three Nevada women who claimed the company's hormone replacement drugs caused their breast cancer.
It was the largest award to date against the Madison, New Jersey-based company, which faces about 5,300 similar lawsuits across the country in state and federal courts.
All involve the drugs Premarin, an estrogen replacement, and Prempro, a combination of estrogen and progestin. The drugs are prescribed to women to ease symptoms of menopause.
The panel deliberated for two days before announcing its verdict late Wednesday in favor of Jeraldine Scofield, 75, of Fallon; Arlene Rowatt, 67, of Incline Village; and Pamela Forrester, 64, of Yerington. The same five-man, two-woman jury will return to the courtroom Friday to consider punitive damages against the drug maker.
Wyeth spokesman Doug Petkus on Thursday said the company would have no comment because the case was not finished. Washoe District Judge Robert Perry issued a gag order early in the proceedings. But in an e-mail to The Associated Press, Petkus said 20 similar cases have gone to trial or been otherwise resolved. Of those, he said three resulted in favor of the company, two plaintiff verdicts were set aside by the courts, and three cases were dismissed on summary judgment.
Twelve other cases were voluntarily dismissed by plaintiffs before trial, he said.
During the Reno trial, Wyeth lawyers argued that the drugs are safe and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. They also said information about possible risks is included with every prescription and provided to the women's doctors.
They also argued that the women had other risk factors, making it impossible to link their cancer with the hormone replacement drugs.
All three women were awarded $7.5 million in past damages. Jurors also awarded $36 million each to Scofield and Rowatt for future damages, and $40 million to Forrester.
After the verdict was announced, the women hugged their attorneys and cried, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported.
"You so deserved this," one lawyer, Zoe Littlepage, told them. "You so, so deserved this."
Geoffrey White, another lawyer for the women, also deferred comment Thursday until after the punitive phase. He said his firm represents 102 other women in Nevada pursuing cases against Wyeth.
The drug company reached an undisclosed settlement last October with a fourth woman who had been part of the Washoe District Court lawsuit.
Carol McCreary was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001 after taking Prempro for about three years. Her case was settled just days before her trial was to begin.
"I am happy to get on with my life and not spend the next several weeks in a courtroom," she said in a statement soon after the settlement was reached.
McCreary, 59, died in April.
Wyeth shares dropped 38 cents Thursday to $45.78
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On the Net:
Wyeth: http://www.wyeth.com
HK experts warn against antiimpotence remedies
Thu, 11 Oct 2007 08:50:01 GMTBy Tan Ee Lyn
HONG KONG - Researchers have warned about &;herbal remedies&; for erectile dysfunction sold over-the-counter in Hong Kong after most of them were found to contain untested variants of well-known anti-impotence drugs.
These variants, or &;analogues,&; are copies of controlled drugs but they are slightly modified in their chemical structure to escape patent and other drug-related laws.
Cranked out illegally, these chemicals are not tested for their efficacy or safety and can have unpredictable, adverse effects. They are added undeclared into &;health products,&; which do not come under stringent tests in most countries.
Writing in the latest issue of the Hong Kong Medical Journal, the scientists said they studied 26 anti-impotence products sold in convenience stores and pharmacies.
Although their packaging declared that they contained only &;herbal ingredients,&; variants of sildenafil and vardenafil were found in 14 of them. Sildenafil was found in one product.
Sildenafil and vardenafil are generic names for their better known trade labels Viagra and Levitra, respectively, and they are prescribed drugs in Hong Kong.
&;The positive rate of concealed drug analogues in male erectile dysfunction health products is alarmingly high. Such analogues are difficult to detect by ordinary laboratory methods and might be used in an attempt to evade regulatory inspection,&; wrote the researchers at the Hospital Authority Toxicology Reference Laboratory in the journal's October issue.
&;Without going through the stringent drug testing process, the adverse effects of these chemicals remain largely unknown and unpredictable,&; they warned, as they called for urgent and more effective surveillance and control.
&;The medical profession and the public should be alerted to this under-recognized threat.&;
This malpractice came to light when a previously healthy 28-year-old man got admitted to hospital for an unsteady gait and frequent falls -- signs of ataxia.
Doctors then learnt that he had taken an anti-impotence &;health product&; for over a week before showing those symptoms.
Classified as phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors, sildenafil and vardenafil are known to have side-effects like nausea, headache, facial flushing and visual disturbances. Serious cardiovascular effects have also been reported.
But ataxia has never been linked to this class of drugs.
&;Unlike the parent pharmaceutical, no formal studies have been performed to assure the safety and efficacy of these analogues,&; the researchers wrote.
&;Evidently, the adverse effects of drug analogues are highly unpredictable and the consumption of such products is dangerous.&;
Analogues have also been found in so called &;natural&; or &;herbal&; slimming products in Hong Kong and at least one woman has died of a cardiac arrest after consuming them.
Faulty vaccine causes 69 polio cases in Nigeria WHO
Thu, 11 Oct 2007 19:45:04 GMTABUJA - Sixty-nine children in northern Nigeria contracted polio following a vaccination against the disease, a WHO official in Nigeria said on Thursday.
&;They were vulnerable which they hadn't been vaccinated enough. These are extremely rare cases, however,&; WHO representative Peter Eriki told AFP.
He ruled out that the virus could have come from contamination of the vaccine. In rare cases, the virus in the vaccine can mutate into a form that can paralyse, according to WHO.
&;This is a sign that we must vaccinate more people,&; Eriki said, indicating that around 10 percent of the Nigerian population has dodged the vaccination campaign.
&;Those who are vaccinated are completely protected. The better thing to do is to ensure that all children are vaccinated,&; he added.
The vaccination campaigns launched by the United Nations and the Nigerian government came up against resistance from Muslim chiefs in the northern part of the country in 2003. Some argued that the polio vaccination was part of a plot hatched by the US to sterilise Muslims.
