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Health Highlights: July 20, 2004

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

Disabled Students Sue Over Med School Exams

Four learning-disabled California students who took the medical school entrance exam in April are suing the organization that administered the test. The suit alleges that the students weren't given extra time to complete the exam as required by state law.

The students say that when they asked for the extra accommodations, the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) decided they weren't severely disabled and therefore not entitled to the extra time, according to an account by the San Francisco Chronicle.

One of the students has dyslexia and attention deficit disorder, the newspaper reported, without describing the conditions of the other plaintiffs. Their suit alleges that the AAMC's policy "penalizes individuals with disabilities for the very intelligence, skills, academic commitment, and diligence which would allow them to succeed in medical school and become successful doctors."

A spokeswoman for the AAMC refused to comment on the suit, but said the association was committed to providing "appropriate accommodations" to disabled applicants.

The suit seeks an immediate injunction that would let the plaintiffs take the next scheduled test on Aug. 14 with the extra time they say they need, the newspaper reported.

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Tainted Tomatoes Don't Yield Salmonella Culprit

When lab tests revealed Salmonella in an unopened bag of tomatoes taken from a Pennsylvania grocery chain, state health officials thought they may have found the source of this month's food poisoning outbreak that has sickened more than 110 state residents.

But the tests ultimately revealed that the strain of Salmonella found in the tomatoes wasn't the same Javiana strain responsible for the outbreak, which has also sickened about 40 people outside Pennsylvania, according to the Post-Gazette of Pittsburgh.

The outbreak has been traced to a number of Sheetz grocery stores and filling stations, which oddly enough is where state health officials also found the tainted bag of tomatoes. Now that the tomatoes have been ruled out as a suspect in the food poisoning outbreak, the search for a source goes on.

A spokesperson for the company that supplied the tomatoes, Coronet Foods, told the newspaper that the company had been informed that the type of bacteria found on the tomatoes did not pose a health risk.

The outbreak, which also is being investigated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, has been linked to food consumed in the first half of July. According to the newspaper, no additional cases have been reported since Sheetz restocked its lettuce and tomatoes last week in response to the outbreak.

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Botox Approved for Excessive Sweating

Add excessive sweating to the list of conditions stymied by the medical marvel known as Botox.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted its latest approval of the drug, derived from the same bacterium that causes deadly botulism, to treat primary axillary hyperhidrosis, a condition characterized by severe underarm sweating. Approval was granted to treat cases in which even prescription antiperspirants are ineffective, the agency said in a statement.

In clinical trials, 91 percent of users showed a 50 percent reduction in armpit sweating four weeks after being injected with the drug, compared to 36 percent of participants who had taken a non-medicinal placebo. The trials did not include tests to see if Botox controlled excessive sweating in other parts of the body, the agency said.

Botox was first approved in 1989 to treat two eye muscle disorders. The Allergan drug has since won the FDA's OK to treat a neurological disorder that causes severe neck muscle contractions, and as a cosmetic therapy to reduce frown lines between the eyebrows.

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Cost of Treating Alzheimer's Poses Huge Financial Burden

The number of Medicare beneficiaries identified as having Alzheimer's disease soared 250 percent in the 1990s, and experts say that will translate into a huge jump in health-care costs.

Duke University researchers found that the increase was highest (460 percent) among blacks. These figures essentially mean that people are getting care for what ails them, but it does not come cheap. And experts now suggest the degenerative neurological condition will become the top public health crisis of this century, according to HealthDay.

This was one of several studies detailing the costs associated with Alzheimer's disease presented at the International Conference on Alzheimer's Diseases and Related Disorders in Philadelphia, which runs from July 17-22.

"Unless a prevention or cure is found soon, Alzheimer's disease will overwhelm our already stretched health-care system and bankrupt Medicare and Medicaid," Sheldon Goldberg, president and chief executive officer of the Alzheimer's Association, said in a prepared statement.

The number of Americans with Alzheimer's is expected to increase from 4.5 million to 16 million by 2050.

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Air Travelers Want to Be Contacted if Disease Threat Exists

The vast majority of American air travelers -- 94 percent -- would want public health authorities to contact them if they might have been exposed to a serious contagious disease on an airplane. And they'd be willing to provide information that would help public health officials contact them, according to a new study by the Harvard School of Public Health.

Currently, international air travelers must offer emergency contact information and a large majority are willing to continue doing so. Nearly nine in 10 Americans who travel internationally would be willing to give the airlines the name and telephone number of someone who could be contacted in case of an emergency, the study found.

Domestic air travelers aren't required to provide emergency contact information, but most would be willing to do so.

"The combination of possible threats of bioterrorism carried out on airplanes and newly emerging infectious diseases has left most Americans willing to cooperate with public health authorities who need emergency contact information to head off the spread of dangerous diseases," said Robert J. Blendon, a professor of health policy and political analysis at the Harvard School of Public Health.

The worldwide SARS epidemic last year highlighted the difficulties public health officials can have in notifying airline passengers quickly, the study noted.

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