Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
Another Manufacturer Warns of Defibrillator Problems
St. Jude Medical Inc. is warning doctors and patients that some of its older implantable defibrillators may suddenly lose power if exposed to significant levels of environmental radiation, the Associated Press reported. Excessive environmental radiation occurs naturally, caused by decay in the earth's core.
Defibrillators are small devices that send electric jolts to the heart when the organ begins beating irregularly. St. Jude, headquartered in St. Paul, Minn., said the affected devices -- the Photon DR, Photon Micro VR/DR, and the Atlas VR/DR -- may soon be recalled by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. An FDA spokesman was not available for comment, the wire service said.
Testing has indicated that about 60 of the 36,000 devices produced by St. Jude may be affected, the AP said. The problem lies with a faulty memory chip. The company has advised doctors to remove the device if they find it has been automatically reset because of a power drain.
In June, another defibrillator manufacturer, Guidant Corp. of Indianapoplis recalled 88,000 heart defibrillators, also because of electrical defects. The FDA is investigating whether Guidant deliberately withheld knowledge of the defects, HealthDay has reported.
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India Encephalitis Death Toll Now at 1,038
Fifteen more people in northern India have been killed by Japanese encephalitis, as a health official Sunday expressed surprise that the recent outbreak, which had appeared to be winding down, was spreading again.
The outbreak has killed 1,038 people, mostly children, in the impoverished northern states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, according to government figures cited by the Associated Press. An estimated 300 deaths have also been reported in neighboring Nepal.
The mosquito-borne disease is preventable by vaccinations, but many medical facilities in the area lack money and staff, the AP said.
"Cases are now being reported from newer areas," said O.P. Singh, Uttar Pradesh's director general of health services.
Reported cases had been dropping with the end of the rainy season, and officials thought the outbreak was coming under control, the news service said.
"It is baffling, as new cases are being reported from the western part of the state (Uttar Pradesh)," Singh said, adding that a team of specialists has been sent to the area to study the problem.
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Politics Trumping Science in 'Plan B' Decision: Ex-FDA Consultant
Politics is overriding science in delaying approval of the "Plan B" contraceptive for over-the-counter sales in the United States, said Dr. Frank Davidoff, who cited the issue as his reason for resigning as consultant to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee.
Davidoff, editor emeritus of the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, resigned in September after the FDA said it was indefinitely delaying a decision on over-the-counter sales of Plan B, an emergency, morning-after contraception, the Associated Press reported.
The FDA announcement was made despite recommendations from scientists that Plan B is safe. Many U.S. religious conservatives oppose the drug.
"There wasn't any observable scientific or procedural reason for (the FDA) to first decline and then further delay the decision. I had to make the inference this was a decision that was made on the basis of political pressure, and it seemed to me that was unacceptable," Davidoff told the AP.
He's the second person to publicly resign over the Plan B issue. In late August, Susan Wood, the top FDA's top women's health official, also resigned in protest over the agency's handling of Plan B.
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Lab Tests Confirm E. Coli in Prepackaged Lettuce
Laboratory tests found E. coli bacteria in two bags of Dole prepackaged lettuce, says the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The two bags that were tested had the same "best if used by" date as bags of Dole prepackaged lettuce suspected as the cause of an E. coli outbreak in Minnesota.
"As far as we know, this is the first time a laboratory has been able to isolate E. coli from lettuce in an outbreak," Kevin Elfering, the USDA's dairy, food and meat inspection director, told the Associated Press.
"This is the proverbial 'smoking gun' that we try to identify in every outbreak we investigate," Elfering said.
The Minnesota outbreak has resulted in 17 confirmed cases of E. coli and eight people have had to be hospitalized. One person developed a severe complication that can lead to kidney failure, the AP reported.
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More Americans Are Becoming Active: CDC
Physical inactivity -- a risk factor for heart disease, osteoporosis, and diabetes -- has fallen an average of 0.6 percent per year during the past 11 years as more Americans find that it's wise to exercise, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
In 2004, the percentage of survey recipients who declared themselves "inactive" had fallen to decade-low rates of 21 percent of men and 26 percent of women, the CDC said in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
While the trend is improving, too many people are still inactive, the agency said. Among people age 70 and older, 30 percent said they didn't exercise. In addition to being at high risk for the chronic diseases mentioned above, inactive older adults are also at greater risk of disability, loss of muscle mass, and falling, the CDC said.
Both the agency and the American College of Sports Medicine recommend 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise, such as brisk walking, on most, and preferably all, days of the week. Regular exercise, even if begun in a person's later years, can offer significant health benefits, the CDC said.
