Colgate Low risk from counterfeits
Fri, 15 Jun 2007 11:12:51 GMT
NEW YORK - Personal-care products maker Colgate-Palmolive Co. said Friday there is a low health risk to consumers who purchased tubes of counterfeit toothpaste, which were recalled because they may contain a poisonous chemical.
The company, which conducted its own analysis on counterfeit samples, said both it and the
Food and Drug Administration came to the same conclusion.
On Thursday MS USA Trading, Inc. of North Bergen, N.J., the importer involved in the initial recall announcement, said the toothpaste may contain diethylene glycol, a chemical found in antifreeze.
The company said the 5-ounce or 100 ml toothpaste, imported from South Africa, was sold in discount stores in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
"Made in South Africa" is printed on the boxes, which include Regular, Gel, Triple and Herbal versions. There may also be several misspelled words on the package including "isclinically", "SOUTH AFRLCA" and "South African Dental Assoxiation."
Colgate said it is currently picking up suspected counterfeit products at discount stores where it was reportedly distributed and checking to make sure all accounts handling Colgate toothpaste in the United States do not have the counterfeit product.
Colgate said it is providing more representatives on its consumer information line, extending its hours and adding weekend hours to help answer questions.
The consumer information line is 1-800-468-6502.
3 million in Japan have mental illness
Fri, 15 Jun 2007 15:30:33 GMT
TOKYO - The number of Japanese suffering from mental illnesses topped 3 million for the first time in 2005, the government said Friday, amid efforts to improve mental health services in Japan.
Approximately 3.028 million Japanese were diagnosed with mental illness, according to a report on people with disabilities issued annually by the Cabinet Office. Mental illness data, tabulated only periodically, was last featured in 2002.
2005 was the first year the number exceeded 3 million, Cabinet Office official Toshiaki Nagato said. Japan's population in 2005 was 127 million.
The report does not explain why the numbers have increased, said Nagato, who helped compile the report.
But he said it likely reflected an increase in the number of mental health care facilities and other treatment options that allow more sufferers to come forward and be counted.
The government has recently started to ease restrictions on compensation allowing more people suffering from depression or stress-related illnesses to qualify for help.
The government has earmarked substantial funds for programs to help those with depression and other mental illnesses and is more actively involved in trying to get those affected to seek help through awareness programs.
Earlier this year, officials said more Japanese claimed and received compensation for work-related suicides and mental-health problems in 2006 than ever before.
Conditions regarded as mental illnesses in the report included addictions,
Alzheimer's disease, depression, epilepsy and stress-related disabilities.
River blindness may resist drug
Fri, 15 Jun 2007 12:41:35 GMT
By MARIA CHENG, AP Medical Writer
LONDON - The parasite that causes river blindness, a crippling disease endemic in Africa, may be developing resistance to the one drug used to treat it, according to research published Friday in The Lancet.
The discovery could force public health officials to rethink strategies for controlling river blindness, also known as onchocerciasis.
In The Lancet study, researchers tested 2,501 people in disease-endemic regions of Ghana from 2004 to 2005, and found 19.5 percent had the worms that cause river blindness.
Doctors treated 342 people, from 10 communities within the regions, with ivermectin, and then tested them to see if immature worms were still in their system. Ivermectin only acts to kill young worms, so any adult worms in patients would still be present, even after treatment.
In four of the 10 communities, people were shown carrying a higher number of immature worms — the opposite result expected from the drug — suggesting the parasite was developing immunity.
"This finding represents a wake-up call that any parasite-control program that relies on a single antimicrobial agent is always at risk of derailment," wrote Dr. Peter J. Hotez, president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, in an accompanying commentary in The Lancet. Hotez was not linked to the study.
River blindness is caused by a thin worm that's transmitted to humans by black flies. The worms can cause intense itching, elephantiasis of the genitals and blindness if they reach the eyes.
Officials said there were currently there are 18 million cases in 36 countries worldwide, including in tropical regions of the Americas.
Every year, public health officials give out more than 20 million doses of ivermectin, used to treat river blindness since 1987. Experts estimate the drug has prevented nearly 40,000 cases of blindness a year. To date, nearly $600 million has been spent trying to eliminate river blindness from the world.
"It's not surprising that we're seeing some drug resistance," Hotez said. "You can't rely on a single tool without any backup." The emerging problem of resistance to this drug underlines the need to find new drugs and possibly even vaccines, he said.
Experts have acknowledged that relying exclusively on ivermectin was not the best strategy.
"It's been taken for granted for years that the river blindness problem has been solved because we have ivermectin," said Roger Prichard, the study's lead author and a professor at McGill University's Institute of Parasitology. "But the problem has not been solved. We need another drug."
Radiotherapy error could affect hundreds
Fri, 15 Jun 2007 02:17:30 GMT
By MARCO CHOWN OVED, Associated Press Writer
PARIS - Hundreds of brain cancer patients in France and perhaps others in the United States may be contacted about their radiation treatments from malfunctioning machines, which were ordered shut down by the French government after a manufacturer's warning.
The maker of the equipment, Brainlab of Munich, Germany, downplayed the risks and the company's founder said it involved a small targeting error that was unlikely to cause problems for patients. However, a company notification sent to a U.S. clinic warned the problem could cause "injury or death."
Brainlab officials said they believed the malfunction occurred in just seven models in use worldwide. Four hospitals in France, two in the United States and one in Spain have the equipment, but the company would not name the U.S. hospitals. Brainlab would only say that U.S. government health authorities and the affected U.S. hospitals were notified.
A company official said the hospitals were in Ohio and Washington state.
The Cleveland Clinic confirmed that it is the Ohio hospital that uses the BrainLab machine. The hospital discontinued use of the machine after being notified of the problems last week, spokeswoman Eileen Sheil said.
Martin Weinhouse, a physics expert at Cleveland Clinic, said the problem involves a small aiming error that can occur when Brainlab's Novalis system is used with another manufacturer's head frame, a ring-shaped device that circles the head and is used in delivering radiation.
Weinhouse said the error involves a deviation of about 1.25 millimeters, which is similar to variations inherent in the delivery system anyway and he did not believe it would lead to serious problems.
Brainlab founder and chief executive officer Stefan Vilsmeier told The Associated Press that because doctors typically allow a certain margin of error in targeting a tumor with radiation, "We don't expect any problems with the patients."
A copy of the notification sent to hospitals and dated June 4, was obtained by the Associated Press. It said the malfunction meant the "patient is set to an unintended position" when receiving radiation treatment and added: "This may cause serious injury or death to the patient."
The
Food and Drug Administration regulates radiation therapy, but spokeswoman Julie Zawisza said the agency had no knowledge of the problem. FDA rules require that manufacturers promptly notify the agency of serious problems that could affect patient health.
Dr. Georges Noel, a radiotherapy expert at the Paul Strauss cancer center in Strasbourg, said machine malfunctions were potentially harmful.
"A mistargeted machine could irradiate healthy brain tissue ... It could kill healthy tissue," Noel said. Whether this would have a large or small effect on the patient depends on the part of the brain affected, he said.
Some 550 Brainlab radiotherapy machines are in use worldwide — the largest number of them in the United States.
Valley Medical Center in the Seattle suburb of Renton, Wash., was notified by Brainlab on June 5 and has discontinued its use of the machine, spokesman Perry Cooper said.
About 70 patients were treated with the machine in the past two years at Valley Medical, Cooper said, adding doctors were reviewing patients' records and notifying them of the defect. The hospital has not seen any problems with patients, Cooper said.
In France, where there has been a rash of problems with radiotherapy, the Health Ministry this week ordered use of four of the country's eight radiotherapy machines suspended indefinitely following the warning that they were not targeting properly. All four were Brainlab models.
Radiotherapy treatment involves a one-time blast by a high-energy X-Ray that is aimed from several sources and focused on one point to kill the tumor. It typically has a margin of error of 0.8 millimeters when used on brain tumors.
In the malfunctioning French machines, the margin was found to have increased to 1.25 millimeters, Brainlab said in a statement.
"This security margin is always used to avoid critical organs: very important parts of the brain such as those that control sight," said Dr. Christian Carrie, coordinator of radiotherapy at the Leon Berard Cancer Center in Lyon.
Carrie said that with a security margin, "we cannot be sure, but we can hope" to avoid killing healthy brain tissue "even if there is a problem with the targeting of 1 millimeter."
Brainlab sent out its notification after it identified a calibration error in a new machine in Spain, Vilsmeier said. That machine has not yet been used on patients.
The problem was the second in France involving Brainlab machines in recent months. In April, 145 patients received an improper dose of radiation from Brainlab equipment in Toulouse in southern France. The company blamed the problem on a "calibration error" and French nuclear safety officials are investigating.
Brainlab says that problem was not connected to the latest malfunction with the radiotherapy machines.
Four hospitals, in Nancy, Tours, Montpellier and Paris, shut down their radiotherapy machines Monday and an analysis of the machines has begun.
The hospitals have also begun tracking down all patients who may have received treatment from the malfunctioning machines, a number that may top 620, reported Le Parisien newspaper.
Brainlab is offering a software update that should take care of the problem, Vilsmeier said.
In 2004 and 2005, 24 patients in Epinal received as much as a 30 percent overdose of radiation while undergoing prostate cancer treatment. Four of these patients died, and their families are suing the hospitals, claiming that the deaths were a result of the overdoses.
A 32 year-old woman died of complications after receiving a radiation treatment to an area 10 times the size she should have, in Lyon in 2004.
In both the Epinal and Lyon incidents, hospitals blamed the problems on human error.
___
AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner in Chicago contributed to this report.
Drink and drugs 39fuel sexual health crisis39
Fri, 15 Jun 2007 14:09:22 GMT
LONDON - Strong links between alcohol, drugs and risky sexual behaviour are providing fuel for a &;sexual health crisis&; in Britain, a government advisory body report said Friday.
Sexual health among the young has deteriorated seriously in the last 12 years, and media coverage of celebrities' hard-partying lifestyles may make the problem worse, the Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and
HIV said.
The study is the latest indictment of childhood in Britain. In February,
UNICEF placed it bottom of league table of wealthy countries for child wellbeing and found that more under 15s had had sex than in any other country.
&;Young people, from their early teens, are defining a lifestyle that involves alcohol, drugs and sex,&; said the group's chair, Baroness Joyce Gould.
&;We need to address why our young people have turned to these behaviours -- behaviours which put them at risk.&;
The report found that Britain had the highest rate of sexual disease infection and teenage pregnancy in Europe.
There has been a &;disturbing&; increase in STIs -- over the last 12 years, chlamydia and HIV are up 300 percent and syphilis 2,000 percent.
The study found a &;strong correlation&; between sexually transmitted infections, sex and drug use and added that alcohol &;can increase the risk of having unprotected sex.&;
It also highlighted the impact which advertising and celebrities can have from a young age, citing the &;publicity and coverage of sex, drugs and excessive drinking by 'celebrities' and 'pop idols' and by characters in 'soaps,' making it an acceptable lifestyle.&;
Its authors recommended a more collaborative and less &;puritanical&; official approach to the issues and said condoms should be more accessible to young people and sex education mandatory in schools.
Factors including young people having parents who were ambitious for them plus a confindante as well as achievement at school were all helpful.
Professor Mark Bellis, head of the Centre for Public Health, Liverpool John Moores University, said in the report that drugs and alcohol were &;fuel for a sexual health crisis&; but added: &;Ambition in young people is a very, very good contraceptive.&;
Health Minister Caroline Flint said the government would study the report but added that officials were &;continually looking at new ways of working to ensure a joined-up approach.&;