Home > News

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

Smallpox Vaccine Test Stopped Due to Side Effects

Recruitment of volunteers to test a new smallpox vaccine has been halted early after participants developed significant heart inflammation, the Washington Post reported.

While biodefense contractor Acambis PLC said it would continue to study those who had already been given the experimental vaccine, it said it would no longer administer the inoculation to new recruits, the newspaper said.

The trials had been conducted to test the Acambis product, ACAM2000, versus Dryvax, a smallpox vaccine that has long-since been approved. The company said three participants among the 1,132 volunteers who had been given either vaccine experienced heart inflammation -- at least one coming from the group testing the newer shot, the Post reported.

A spokesman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told the newspaper he didn't know what effect the announcement might have on the government's plans to use more than 200 million doses of ACAM2000 it has stockpiled in the event of a bioterrorist attack -- enough for every American.

The newer product is a modernized version of Dryvax, and experts had predicted the two vaccines might share some harmful side effects, the newspaper reported. A leading government health official called the initial stockpile a "stopgap" until a safer alternative became available.

-----

AIDS Drug Price Hike Fuels Import Debate

A recent decision by the maker of a leading AIDS drug to quintuple its price is adding fuel to the debate over whether to legalize imports of cheaper drugs from Canada and elsewhere, according to The New York Times.

In January, Abbott Laboratories increased the price of Norvir to about $7,800 per year from $1,500, the newspaper reported. The medication is a needed ingredient in many drug "cocktails" taken by tens of thousands of AIDS patients. Abbott said the price hike was needed to offset ongoing research into AIDS and other diseases.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services plans to hold hearings on whether to make some drug imports legal. Separate hearings will focus on whether generic versions of Norvir should be approved before company patents on the medication expire, the newspaper reported.

Norvir was first introduced in 1996, and has since generated sales of more than $1 billion for Abbott. With the recent price hike, thousands of Americans who need the medication are paying about 10 times the current price in Europe, where drug prices are more tightly regulated by government, the Times said.

-----

FDA OKs Trial of Thought-Activated Brain Implant

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved trials of a new brain implant that sounds like the basis of a science fiction movie.

Massachusetts-based Cyberkinetics Inc. has won FDA permission to begin implanting small chips into the skulls of paralyzed patients, which could allow users to command a computer to act -- just by thinking about the instructions they wish to send, according to the Associated Press.

This early example of thought-activated technology could ultimately bolster the quality of life for victims of stroke or paralyzing diseases like cerebral palsy or Lou Gehrig's disease, the wire service reported.

Cyberkinetics, which is far from the only company working on such technology, told the AP it hopes to bring a product to market in three to five years.

-----

CDC to Stockpile Flu Vaccine for Children

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will stockpile about four million doses of flu vaccine for children up to 18 years old.

The two-year program, which will cost about $80 million, is meant to avoid the kind of flu-vaccine shortage that caught U.S. health officials off-guard this past winter, the Associated Press reported.

The just-concluded flu season got off to an unusually early and severe start, causing a rush of parents seeking flu shots for their children. Emergency rooms were crowded with children sick with the flu. In the end, it turned out to be a fairly typical flu season, according to federal officials.

Still, flu claimed the lives of 143 children, which is about average. Most had not received a flu shot.

The vaccine stockpile is intended for children but some adults may be allowed access to it during a crisis, if approval is granted by Congress, the AP said.

-----

World's Oldest Lab Mouse Turns 4

Yoda, believed to be the world's oldest laboratory mouse, turned 4 years old over the weekend, making him the equivalent of 136 in human years.

Yoda is a dwarf mouse born April 10, 2000, at the University of Michigan Medical School. He has lived nearly double the average laboratory mouse lifespan, which is about two years.

"Yoda is only the second mouse I know to have made it to his fourth birthday without the rigors of a severe calorie-restricted diet," Dr. Richard A. Miller, professor of pathology in the school's Geriatrics Center, said in a prepared statement.

But Yoda is more than a curiosity. He and other geriatric mice in Miller's lab offer important clues about how genes and hormones affect human aging and disease risk later in life.

-----

Talking, Hugs Top Choices for Beating the Blues in Britain

Having someone to talk to and getting a hug are the two most preferred ways to beat the blues, according to a survey by the Mental Health Foundation in the United Kingdom.

The survey found that 83 percent of women and 68 percent of men said having someone to talk to was their top choice for helping them when they were feeling down. Having a hug was ranked second by 57 percent of women and 45 percent of men.

Using sex to lighten their mood was selected by more than twice as many men as women, who preferred spending time with family, BBC News Online reported.

Exercise, spending time with a pet, and having a drink were other ways people said they coped when feeling down.

Copyright © 2004 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.