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Last Updated: Oct 29, 2008 - 11:04:25 AM |
Celebrities rush to receive hepatitis A vaccine
The New York Health Department said this week that more than 90 people have taken the hepatitis A vaccine offered to the guests who attended actor Ashton Kutcher's 30th birthday party at a city nightclub and other patrons.
What happened was that a bartender at the New York hot spot Socialista was found infected with hepatitis A while serving the event.
Officials feared that the bartender may spread the hepatitis A virus by handling drinking materials with his bare bands to the celebrity guests including Madonna, Lucy Liu and Salma Hayek and other Socialista patrons.
Hepatitis A rarely causes any long term effect and people infected with the virus would spontaneously clear it up in weeks without having any serious consequences. But a vaccine, which should be administered within two weeks of infection, may minimize the possible health risk or at least deliver a sense of comfort.
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FEMA agrees to test trailers for formaldehyde
Dwellers of trailers assigned by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) after hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the Gulf Coast in 2005 can request testing for formaldehyde in their trailers, the associated press reports.
Earlier the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released lab testing results for 519 trailers and mobile homes in Louisiana and Mississippi saying that the average level of formaldehyde, a known carcinogen, was five times higher than the common level encountered in new modern homes.
The levels of formaldehyde were too high in the trailers for people to continue using these temporarily housing facilities, prompting the FEMA to decide to move the tenants out of these contaminated trailers. The results showed that in some trailer formaldehyde can be as high as 40 times higher.
After hurricanes, the FEMA provided about 120,000 travel trailers to the hurricane survivors. But starting in 2006, some residents reported headaches and nosebleeds, which were allegedly linked to high levels of formaldehyde, a colorless gas with a pungent smell commonly used in plywood and resins among others. But the FEMA initially dismissed such complaints and said the trailers were made in compliance with the industrial standards.
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Quitting smoking harder for blacks and Hispanics
A study led by researchers from Columbia University found quitting smoking is not easy, but particularly for Hispanics and blacks while it's relatively easier for whites. The findings were published in the winter edition of the journal Ethnicity & Disease.
The study followed up 559 smokers, 360 whites, 126 blacks and 73 Hispanics, all given eight weeks of treatment with buproprion (Zyban), the nicotine patch and counseling, three standard treatments.
The study showed 60 percent of whites stopped smoking compared to 41 percent among the Hispanic group and 38 percent of the blacks.
Lirio Covey, associate professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University Medical Center, co-author of the study, said it's unclear why there was such a difference, but she said there was some common ground for those who were unable to quit smoking.
Among blacks, quitting was less possible among those with lower body mass index and having a smoker in the household. For Hispanics, the younger were less likely to quit.
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FDA cracks down unapproved health claims
The Food and Drug Administration announced Friday that it has obtained a permanent injunction against Brownwood Acres Foods and Cherry Capital Services (doing business as Flavnoid Sciences) and two company executives.
The companies and individuals involved were thus prohibited from making and distributing any products with health claims about curing, treating, mitigating or preventing disease.
At issue are products such as juice concentrates, soft fruit gel capsules, fruit bars, dried fruits, liquid glucosamine and salmon oil capsules. The FDA said the companies have a history of promoting their products using unapproved health claims.
The companies agreed to remove the claims from their labels and other materials.
The FDA does not allow any health claim on food and food supplements. Any claim that is related to health must obtain FDA approval before the product is put on the market.
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Tamiflu-resistant flu viruses reported in more countries
At least 20 countries have reported cases of Tamiflu resistant flu viruses, according to the World Health Organization which released a statement Friday, promoting scientists to worry that the antiviral drug stockpiled by many countries in hopes to fight a future flu pandemic may end up useless sooner than expected.
Japan now has appeared on the list of countries that have reported the Tamiflu-resistant flu viruses. Earlier it was reported that such drug-resistant flu viruses were non-existent in the country although it is probably the only country that heavily relies on Tamiflu to treat seasonal flu.
So far resistant flu viruses have been reported in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Canada, the United States and 15 European countries. The rate of Tamiflu resistant viruses varied from country to country, ranging from as high as 40 percent in France to as low as 8 percent in Canada and the United States.
Tamiflu is not used to prevent flu. Rather, it is used to treat symptoms of seasonal flu. Studies showed patients using the drug shortened their duration of flu symptoms by a day or two and in some cases, lessened the severity of the symptoms.
The drug was controversial as it has been linked to elevated risk for committing suicides. But Roche, the company that makes the drug, denies that Tamiflu would raise risk for suicidal attempts.
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