Category: news-perspectives

Fewer U.S. children get rotavirus infections these days, a study has found. Researchers gave credit to a new vaccine. Rotavirus causes diarrhea. Most cases occur in winter. Some are severe and need hospital care. Data for the study came from 33 laboratories. Researchers looked at the years 2000 through 2006. Then they looked at 2007 and 2008, after the vaccine was introduced. The rotavirus season started 15 weeks later in the years after the vaccine. Total cases also dropped by two-thirds, tests showed. The study was published online July 6 by the journal Pediatrics.

About 50 million Americans have had H1N1 (swine) flu, health officials said December 10. That’s about 1 out of 6. Deaths have totaled about 10,000, the officials said. The new estimates came from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). They cover the months of April through mid-November. In that period, nearly 200,000 people were hospitalized with swine flu, the report said. That’s about the same number as for an entire typical winter flu season. Unlike seasonal flu, older adults have not been the people most affected. About 3 out of 4 deaths were adults ages 18 through 64, the CDC said. The Associated Press wrote about the report.

Watching TV and videos does not improve babies’ brain development, a new study finds. The study included 872 children. At age 6 months, they were given tests of language and motor skills. They also took tests at age 3. Their mothers were asked about how much TV the children watched at ages 6 months, 1 year and 2 years. The average was about 1.2 hours a day. Researchers adjusted the data because of differences in the parents’ education, income and other factors. They found that watching more TV as babies had no effect on kids’ test scores at age 3. The study appeared in the journal Pediatrics. HealthDay News and Reuters news service wrote about it March 2.

Computed tomography (CT) scans of the heart are becoming more popular. The scans also are called CT angiograms. Like an angiogram, they allow an inside view of blood vessels. But the test is not invasive. Advocates say it can find heart disease in people with no symptoms. But critics say there’s no proof it improves care or saves lives, the New York Times reported June 30. The test also is costly and exposes the patient to many times the radiation of a regular X-ray. Experts told the Times that this test is an example of the growth of new technology before its benefits have been proven.

The U.S. Senate has taken up a bill to expand an insurance program for children in working families. The House passed the bill January 14. The expansion will be funded by an increase in the tax on cigarettes. President Bush vetoed a similar bill twice. If the Senate passes it, President Barack Obama is expected to sign it. He also pledged January 12 to establish a national system to put medical records on computer. The Associated Press reported on both of these developments.

Counseling from doctors can help to reduce children’s exposure to violence and guns, a study found. Just before well-child visits, parents answered a survey. Questions dealt with discipline, media use, and home storage of guns. Then doctors talked about the survey. They advised parents to put cable locks on any guns kept at home. They advised using timeouts instead of spanking. They said kids should have a two-hour daily limit on media use. Parents were surveyed again one month and six months later. More of them reported use of gun locks and media limits. Timeout use did not change. The study was published July 7 in the journal Pediatrics.

Women with certain gene differences may be less likely to benefit from a breast cancer drug, a study finds. The genes affect the action of an enzyme called CYP2D6. This enzyme converts the drug tamoxifen into a form that combats breast cancer. But the process doesn’t work well in women who have variations in some genes. Researchers used records of 1,325 women with breast cancer who had received gene tests. All of the women took tamoxifen. In the next nine years, cancer was much more likely to come back in women whose genes kept the body from making good use of the drug. Cancer returned in 29% of these women. This compares with 14.9% of women whose bodies used tamoxifen well. The study was in the Journal of the American Medical Association. HealthDay News wrote about it October 6.

At least 114 U.S. children have died of swine flu since April, the Associated Press reported October 30. Nineteen of those deaths occurred in the last week, U.S. health officials said. That’s the largest one-week total so far, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said. The CDC said more medicine for children will soon be available. The CDC released the drug Tamiflu from a government stockpile. There have been spot shortages of the children’s dose of this medicine.

Regular exercise, such as walking, won’t harm people with heart failure, a study concludes. In fact, it may help. The study included 2,331 people with heart failure. They were randomly divided into groups. One group received 36 exercise sessions. Then, they were told to exercise five times a week. The other group received their usual care. Over the next 21/2 years, people who exercised were 15% less likely to have a hospital stay for a heart-related problem. They also felt better. People who exercised more had better results. The study was in the Journal of the American Medical Association. HealthDay News wrote about it April 7.

People who get multiple treatments, or long-term help, are more likely to succeed in quitting smoking, two studies suggest. The studies appeared April 7 in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. In one study, 750 people who wanted to quit were randomly assigned to different treatments. One group received either a nicotine patch or buproprion, a depression drug. The other groups used the patch or buproprion. They also received either two or six counseling calls. The group with the most counseling had the most success in quitting. The second study included 127 smokers who also had heart or lung disease. They were randomly assigned to treatment groups. One group received nicotine patches. The other got patches, a nicotine inhaler and buproprion. Quit rates were nearly twice as high in the second group.