Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments,
compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
New Smallpox Vaccine Nears Final
Test
A new, possibly safer smallpox vaccine is about to undergo a final test
that, if successful, would make the vaccine available for widespread use.
The new vaccine, dubbed ACAM 1000, uses a clone of the smallpox virus and could reduce the risk of encephalitis, a major side effect of the existing smallpox vaccine, HealthDay reports.
The new vaccine was developed by Acambis, Inc., a Massachusetts
biotechnology company. About 150 million doses of the new vaccine have
already been produced and are being stored by the U.S. federal government. Plans are being made for a Phase III clinical trial, the final stage required before U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval.
In related news, an American study found that the older smallpox vaccine may protect people for much longer than previously thought.
The study of 18 people who received the smallpox vaccine before the U.S. vaccination program ended in 1978 found that the majority of them still have some degree of protection against smallpox.
That may mean that a terrorist attack with smallpox may not be as
devastating as feared, due to pre-existing immunity in a large number of
people who were vaccinated when they were children, HealthDay
reports.
Both reports appear in the September issue of the journal Nature
Medicine.
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France's Surgeon-General Resigns Over Heat Wave Death Toll
The mounting death toll in France caused by the heat wave that engulfed western Europe has forced the resignation of France's surgeon-general.
Lucien Abenhaim resigned a few hours after the French health minister
confirmed that as many as 5,000 people in France may have died during the record-breaking heat wave over the last two weeks.
The surgeon-general has been the target of criticism by people who said his office failed to sound the alarm as streams of dead people were brought to hospitals and mortuaries, BBC News Online reports.
The heat wave has now eased in most areas of Europe. But in parts of
France and Spain, it's been followed by violent storms the downed power lines and toppled trees.
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Psychiatric Hospitals Grapple with Smoking
Issue
Psychiatric hospitals in California are trying to smoke out solutions on how to provide employees with smoke-free working conditions while allowing patients to continue smoking.
The problem is especially challenging because many of the patients are heavy smokers. And there's emerging scientific evidence that smoking may help calm patients with major psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, The New York Times reports.
Some studies indicate that nicotine appears to reduce anxiety and the
negative side effects of antipsychotic drugs while increasing a patient's ability to concentrate.
Some California psychiatric hospitals have chosen to compromise, allowing patients to smoke on outdoor patios or in well-ventilated smoking rooms. Others are considering, or have already implemented, total bans on smoking.
Advocates for the mentally ill oppose such measures. They say a complete ban on smoking is too harsh a move for critically ill psychiatric patients, the Times reports.
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NYC Sees Spike in Post-Blackout Diarrhea
New York City's Department of Health says it's investigating a post-blackout surge in emergency room visits for diarrhea, though no link between the two has firmly been established.
"While we do not know the specific cause of this spike in diarrheal illnesses, it is possible that it was caused by spoiled food eaten at home or elsewhere. This underscores the need to make sure that food that spoiled during the [Aug. 14] power outage is not consumed and is thrown out if there is any doubt as to its safety," the department says in a statement.
It suggests discarding any perishable food item that may have been without refrigeration at more than 40 degrees Fahrenheit for more than two hours.
Health officials suggest evaluating each food product separately to determine if it's safe to eat, and throwing any item out if there's doubt that it may have spoiled. You should never taste food to see if it's bad, the department warns.
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Virus Found in Many Breast Cancer Patients
Forty percent of women with breast cancer have tested positive for a newly discovered virus, suggesting a link between the two, reports BBC News Online.
Moreover, the HHMMTV virus was detected in only 2 percent of women without the disease, report Australian scientists at Sydney's University of New South Wales and Prince of Wales Hospital.
And there is evidence that men who develop breast cancer may also harbor the virus, according to the BBC report. The germ was detected in half of male breast cancer tissues sampled.
The scientists, who published their findings in the Journal of Clinical Cancer Research, say the virus may be a human form of the germ that is believed to cause 95 percent of breast cancer in mice.
The researchers caution that their findings are preliminary and do not prove that the virus actually causes breast cancer.
