Health Headlines - May 9, 2009

Appearance of New Flu Raises Alarms
Although public health officials are breathing a little easier about the danger from the new H1N1 flu virus, they are still concerned about what will happen this coming fall and winter. That is when flu season really gets underway in Europe and North America. Because it takes so long to develop a vaccine, virologists need to get started now if they plan to immunize the population against this flu next year.
Epidemiologists may get an early hint of how this influenza virus will behave, however. The next several months will be winter in the southern hemisphere. Health experts in Australia, New Zealand and Argentina will be on the lookout for any mutations or changes in the severity of the H1N1 virus. Flu flourishes during the winter and tends to fade away during the summer. That’s why the World Health Organization will be carefully watching how this flu behaves in the southern hemisphere for the next several months.

Safety Questions Raised about Generic Drugs
The Institute for Safe Medication Practices, an independent organization dedicated to reducing medication errors and dangers, has issued its analysis of medication safety problems during the third quarter of 2008. This analysis was conducted on problems reported to the FDA MedWatch program. In addition to serious psychiatric (suicidal and homicidal) reactions to the stop-smoking drug Chantix, the analysis also revealed serious problems with quality control of generic products. Heart drugs such as digoxin, isosorbide and propafenone can all have serious effects on patients’ health if they are not the correct strength. One or more manufacturer has recalled each of these medications during the past year. Some narcotics (fentanyl and morphine sulfate) have also been recalled. According to the ISMP, the FDA’s system requires “systematic independent review.”
http://www.ismp.org/QuarterWatch/default.asp


President Wants to Boost Budget for FDA
The FDA has come under a lot of criticism for failing to protect the public health with respect to food safety (as the salmonella contamination of peanut products demonstrated) as well as drug safety. In defense of the agency, supporters point out that it is being asked to tackle more and more complex tasks with inadequate resources. President Obama is trying to rectify this problem with a request for an additional $300 million in the allocation for this critical government agency. According to the FDA, this would be the largest increase in the agency’s history.

Vaccine Worries May Leave Children at Risk for Infection
Many parents worry about the potential risks of vaccinating young children against a wide range of diseases, and some have declined immunizations. Where a group of parents in a community have not vaccinated their children, outbreaks of disease such whooping cough and measles have been reported. Public health officials are concerned about possible harm to unvaccinated children, since such diseases can be serious are occasionally fatal.
[New England Journal of Medicine, May 7, 2009]
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/360/19/1981


Light Wine Drinkers Live Longer
Epidemiologists have been struggling for years to figure out if modest wine consumption actually has health benefits, and if so, how much is appropriate. A long-term study from the Netherlands suggests an answer. The Zutphen Study questioned men about their food and beverage consumption every few years from 1960 to 2000 and tracked their health history. Those who consumed less than half a glass of wine daily lived about 5 years longer, on average.
[Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, online April 30, 2009]
http://jech.bmj.com/cgi/content/short/jech.2008.082198v1?q=w_jech_ahead_tab

Lifestyle Influences Chance of Type 2 Diabetes
Doctors have assumed that a “healthy lifestyle” could reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes after middle age, but the risk had not been well quantified. A new 10-year-long study of nearly 5,000 people at least 65 years old found that several factors can have a significant impact. Those who did the most physical activity and ate the least saturated fat, trans fat and highly processed carbohydrates were less likely to develop the disease. Maintaining a healthy body weight and waistline, not smoking, and drinking just a little alcohol also contributed. Those who did everything right by these criteria lowered their likelihood of needing treatment for type 2 diabetes by 89 percent.

[Archives of Internal Medicine, Apr. 27, 2009]
http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/169/8/798



And that’s the Health News from The People’s Pharmacy this week!