Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
FDA Clears First Nasal Flu Vaccine
People with a fear of hypodermic needles got a proverbial shot in the arm late Tuesday when the first inhaled flu vaccine to be marketed in the United States was approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
The agency said FluMist is safe and effective in preventing influenza A and B in people from ages 5 to 49. Children up to age 8 need two doses at least six weeks apart, while older people need a single dose, the FDA said.
But since the vaccine is made from a weakened live virus, people considered at highest risk of getting a severe case of the flu -- the elderly, young children, and those with immune (e.g. AIDS) and respiratory (eg. asthma) diseases -- should not take the inhaled vaccine, the agency warned. These people are urged to get the injected vaccine instead.
FluMist, produced by MedImmune Vaccines Inc., was tested on more than 20,000 people, including more than 10,000 children ages 5 to 17. The vaccine was 87 percent effective among the children tested, the FDA said.
Prominent side effects included nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat, and cough. As is the case with the standard flu shot, the nasal vaccine should not be taken by people allergic to eggs.
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SARS Could Reappear, WHO Chief Warns
Though SARS appears to have been "stopped in its tracks," the potentially fatal respiratory disease probably will never be completely wiped out and could easily reappear, the chief of the World Health Organization says.
Gro Harlem Brundtland, the WHO's director general, is meeting with more than 1,000 global health experts and researchers in Malaysia to plot a future course against the pneumonia-like disease, which has killed 800 people worldwide and sickened more than 8,400 -- mostly in Asia.
Veterinary experts attending the meeting say if sophisticated tests confirm that severe acute respiratory syndrome has been harbored in game animals for centuries and was only recently spread to humans who eat them, it's doubtful the disease will ever been eliminated, reports the Associated Press.
In the United States, meanwhile, North Carolina health officials have placed about 40 people in quarantine as they await autopsy results to see if a man who died Friday succumbed to SARS.
The man, James Reed, worked in the same building as another man with a confirmed case of SARS who contracted the disease while visiting a relative in a Toronto health-care facility, CBC News Online reports.
Reed died of heart failure and pneumonia. His initial tests for SARS were negative. The autopsy results are expected sometime this week.
More than 30 health-care workers came into contact with Reed when he was admitted to a hospital in critical condition.
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AMA: Drug Sales Reps Shouldn't Watch Patient Exams
Drug company sales representatives should not be allowed to sit in on patient exams unless consent and privacy issues can be resolved, says a new
American Medical Association (AMA) policy.
Doctors sometimes receive hundreds of dollars a day in return for allowing a pharmaceutical sales representative to watch as the doctor conducts medical exams on patients. The practice is called "shadowing."
One drug salesperson told the AMA that some doctors never asked patients for their permission to allow her to sit in on the exams, the Associated Press reports.
An AMA trustee said he can't imagine why a pharmaceutical sales representative would need to view patient medical examinations.
Drug companies say shadowing is educational and enables their sales staffs to better understand doctors' jobs, the AP reports. Critics of the practice charge it's just another method drug companies use to influence doctors' prescribing habits.
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Movie Theater Seats Packed with Cat
Allergens
Sitting through an insufferably bad film may not be the only discomfort asthma sufferers face when they go to out to the movies.
Those cinema seats may be packed with allergens from cat fur that can trigger asthma attacks, a Belgian study says.
Researchers tested movie theater seats and found they contained high levels of cat allergens, believed to have been deposited there along with fur from the clothes of cat owners, BBC News Online reports.
The study, presented at the annual meeting of the European Academy of
Allergology and Clinical Immunology in Paris, supports earlier studies that found both cinema and aircraft seats were laden with high levels of cat allergens.
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Japanese Soup May Cut Breast Cancer Risk
Eating the Japanese delicacy miso soup could significantly reduce a woman's risk of contracting breast cancer, according to Japanese cancer researchers cited by BBC News Online.
But to feel the full effects of the soup, a common staple in Japan, a person would have to eat three bowls or more a day, the researchers say.
The soup contains fermented soy paste, seaweed, bean curd and vegetables. Past research has shown the soy-rich foods appear to block the cancer-causing effects of the female hormone estrogen.
The scientists at Japan's National Cancer Center monitored the eating habits of 21,852 women, ages 40 to 59, for more than a decade. People who ate three bowls or more of the miso soup reduced their risk of getting breast cancer by about 40 percent, compared to those who had a single bowl each day.
Still, the study leaders warn that more research is needed, especially given the soup's high salt content, the BBC report concludes.
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Gene Influences Preference for Mornings or Evenings: Study
A gene called Period 3 seems to be a factor in whether a person is at his or her best late at night or early in the morning, says a study by researchers at the University of Surrey in England, BBC News Online reports.
The Period 3 gene, one that's involved in regulating the body's internal clock, comes in short and long versions.
People with an extreme preference for evenings are more likely to have the short version of the gene, while those who strongly prefer early mornings are more likely to have the long version, the news service reports.
For their study, the researchers did tests on nearly 500 people. Their DNA was analyzed and the results were compared to questionnaires that asked the subjects if they were evening or morning people.
The findings appear in the current issue of the journal Sleep.
