Following is a summary of current health news briefs.
CDC says nine more cases of meningitis confirmed in U.S.
outbreak
2012-10-15T191344Z_2_BRE89E19W_RTROPTC_0_US-USA-HEALTH-MENINGIT
IS-CASES.XML () –
Insight: How compounding pharmacies rallied patients to
fight regulation
NEW YORK (Reuters) – When U.S. senators met nearly a decade
ago to consider the dangers of pharmacies that mix or alter
drugs with little federal oversight, health officials briefed
them on some alarming findings about the safety and efficacy of
drugs made by these “compounding pharmacies.” Dr. Steven
Galson, a top official at the Food and Drug Administration,
told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee
that in 2001 the agency had done a “limited” survey of drugs
from 12 such pharmacies, including hormones, antibiotics,
steroids and drugs to treat glaucoma, asthma and erectile
dysfunction.
More drugs may be linked to meningitis outbreak: FDA
CHICAGO/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Two other drugs made by the
Massachusetts pharmacy at the center of a deadly meningitis
outbreak may be linked to the disease, U.S. health regulators
said on Monday, potentially widening the scope of the health
crisis. The Food and Drug Administration said it was looking
into reports of a patient with possible meningitis who received
an injection of a different steroid than the one found to have
caused 15 deaths. It also said two transplant patients were
infected with the rare fungus linked to the meningitis outbreak
after receiving a heart drug also made by the New England
Compounding Center (NECC) of Framingham, Massachusetts.
Kids with ADHD have dimmer prospects: study
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Children with ADHD symptoms
tend to fare worse as adults than do kids without problems in
school, according to the longest follow-up study of the
disorder to date. They have less education and lower income, on
average, and higher rates of divorce and substance abuse,
according to findings released today in the Archives of General
Psychiatry.
Big tobacco companies resist admissions of wrongdoing
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. tobacco companies told a
federal judge on Monday they should not be required to tell the
public they manipulated nicotine levels to make cigarettes more
addictive, or that they repeatedly lied about the health
effects of light cigarettes. The companies – including Altria
Group Inc and Reynolds American Inc – have been
fighting with the U.S. Justice Department for six years about
the wording of what are known as “corrective statements.”
Meningitis outbreak expands to 15 states with Pennsylvania
case
CHICAGO (Reuters) – A fungal meningitis outbreak linked to
contaminated steroid injections expanded to 15 states on Monday
as Pennsylvania reported its first case of the disease that has
killed 15 people nationwide. The Pennsylvania patient, who
received an epidural steroid injection in July from medications
supplied by New England Compounding Center (NECC) of
Framingham, Massachusetts, is being treated in a hospital, the
Pennsylvania Department of Health said.
Weight loss surgery tied to increase in drinking
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – People who had weight loss
surgery reported greater alcohol use two years after their
procedures than in the weeks beforehand, in a new study. “This
is perhaps a risk. I don’t think it should deter people from
having surgery, but you should be cautious to monitor (alcohol
use) after surgery,” Alexis Conason, who worked on the study at
the New York Obesity Nutrition Research Center at St.
Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, told Reuters Health.
Indoor tanning still common in Germany
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Four in ten Germans ages 14 to
45 say they have tried indoor tanning and one in seven are
current users, according to a survey out today. Germany enacted
legislation banning minors from tanning salons in 2009. Yet
five percent of 14- to 17-year-olds in the survey, which was
done in 2011 and 2012, said they had used indoor tanning in the
past year.
Yosemite workers will be studied for disease clues
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Public health officials plan to
interview and collect blood samples from up to 2,500 Yosemite
National Park workers as they hunt for clues in the biggest
outbreak of the deadly hantavirus in nearly two decades, a
state health official said on Monday. The voluntary employee
screening, scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, is the most
recent effort to shed light on the rare, mouse-borne lung
disease, which infected nine park visitors and killed three
last summer.
Americans’ heart devices reused safely in India
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – U.S. patients’ used heart
devices can be safely implanted in seriously ill heart disease
patients in the developing world, a study out Monday suggests.
“These devices did work well. They delivered appropriate shocks
and saved lives,” said lead researcher Dr. Behzad B. Pavri, of
Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia.
