Category: news-perspectives

A test for human papilloma virus (HPV) can be used instead of a Pap smear as the first regular test a woman receives for cervical cancer. That’s the decision announced April 24 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. HPV is the cause of nearly all cases of cervical cancer. The test, called cobas, is made by Roche Molecular Systems Inc. It was approved in 2011 to be used along with a Pap smear. Women age 30 or older can get Pap smears less often if an HPV test shows they are not infected. The Pap, an older test, involves removing cells from the cervix. They are examined under a microscope for signs of cervical cancer or abnormal cells that can become cancer. The new FDA decision means the HPV test can be used first for women age 26 or older. The test maker recommends a further test called colposcopy for women who test positive for HPV strains 16 or 18.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced its first proposed regulations for electronic cigarettes. They include a ban on sales to minors. But the FDA decided not to ban e-cigarette advertising, online sales or flavored products at this time. The new proposed rules also would provide the first federal rules covering cigars, pipe tobacco, nicotine gels and water-pipe (hookah) tobacco. E-cigarettes would be available to adults age 18 or older. People would have to show an ID to make the purchase. Vending machine sales would be allowed only in places that do not allow minors. Manufacturers of products that were not on the market by February 25, 2007, will have to apply for an FDA review. The industry and the public will have 75 days to comment on the proposed rules. Then the FDA will review those comments and issue final rules.

Marijuana use may increase heart problems in young adults, especially if they are already at risk, authors of a small study say. The study was based on reports to a drug-abuse surveillance program in France. Doctors are required to report drug-abuse cases linked with serious health problems. Researchers looked at data for 2006 through 2010. In those years, 35 reported cases involved heart or blood vessel problems among marijuana users. The average age was 34. Nine of the 35 died. Nearly half had high blood pressure, high cholesterol or some other factor that increased their risk of heart disease. During the study years, heart disease cases rose from 1.1% to 3.6% of all reported problems in marijuana users. The cases included 20 heart attacks or symptoms indicating a strong risk of immediate heart attack.

People with diabetes may have potentially dangerous heart rhythm changes if their blood sugar drops very low at night, a new study finds. The findings may help to explain other research that has shown links between very low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) and sudden death, especially at night. The new study included 25 people with type 2 diabetes. All of them had heart disease or a high risk of developing it. All had been taking insulin for their diabetes for at least 4 years. Everyone wore devices for 5 days to continuously monitor their blood sugar and heart activity. Overall, people in the group had hypoglycemia for 134 hours during the 5 days. When this occurred at night, people were 8 times as likely to have a slow heart beat called bradycardia as they were when blood sugar was normal. Abnormal heart rhythms also were more likely to occur at night if blood sugar was low.

In a study of 250 teenagers, most got less sleep than they needed. Teens in the study were from low- and middle-income families. They wore a device called an actigraph to measure their sleep for one week. They also kept sleep diaries. They recorded an average of 6.8 hours a night during the week. This rose to 8.7 hours a night during the weekend. But the actigraphs showed they actually slept less. The average nightly total was 6 hours during the week and 7.4 hours during the weekend. Black and male students slept less. The actigraphs showed that blacks and males also tended to wake or shift into a less-deep stage of sleep more often. This is called fragmented sleep. In their diaries, female students were more likely to report poor sleep quality. They also were more likely to say they felt sleepy in the daytime.

The “super bug” known as MRSA isn’t just in hospitals, prisons and locker rooms. A new study shows that it could be in your home, too. MRSA stands for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. These staph bacteria are hard to kill because they resist most antibiotics. MRSA once was found mainly in hospitals and nursing homes. But in recent years it has spread to the community. Some people have been infected in close quarters, such as prisons and locker rooms. The new study focused on 161 New York City residents infected with MRSA. Researchers compared the genetic makeup of MRSA from these people with a group who were not sick. They also tested other household members and social contacts of both groups. Finally, they tested surfaces in people’s homes. They found that the homes of people with MRSA were “major reservoirs” of a MRSA strain called USA300.

Though salmonella rates fell, cases of food poisoning overall have remained steady in recent years, U.S. health officials say. The new report comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It includes cases in 10 states. The CDC’s reporting system confirmed 19,000 cases of foodborne illness in these states in 2013. About 4,200 people required a hospital stay. Eighty people died. Salmonella alone caused 38% of the confirmed cases. Campylobacter was close behind, with 35% of the cases. Salmonella bacteria caused 15 cases per 100,000 people. That’s down 9% from 2010-2012. The CDC hopes to cut the rate to 11.4 by 2020. Campylobacter rates have been stable for the last 5 years. Vibrio bacteria are a lesser known cause of illness.

Americans with diabetes are much less likely to develop further health problems than they were 20 years ago, a new study finds. But the actual number of people with diabetes has more than tripled. The study used data from several national surveys and databases. It found that the number of people with diabetes jumped from 6.5 million in 1990 to 20.7 million in 2010. About 95% of the cases were type 2 diabetes. This type is closely related to obesity. Diabetics are 6 times as likely to develop kidney disease as people without the disease. They are 10 times as likely to have an amputation. But rates of these and other health problems among diabetics have dropped dramatically since 1990, the study found. Heart attack rates declined nearly 70%. Deaths from extremely high blood sugar dropped 65%. Rates of amputation (leg or foot) and stroke fell about 50% each.

People with sleep apnea are more likely to develop high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke. But a new study finds that this common breathing disorder could also increase their risk of developing osteoporosis, a bone-thinning disease. The study took place in Taiwan. Researchers examined the medical records of close to 1,400 people diagnosed with sleep apnea from 2000 to 2008. Over the next 6 years, they kept track of how many in this group were diagnosed with osteoporosis compared to a group of over 20,000 who did not have sleep apnea. Those with sleep apnea were 2.7 times more likely to get osteoporosis. The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. HealthDay News reported on it April 15.

The number of pregnant women in the United States being prescribed narcotic pain medicines has grown, says a new study. This is happening even though the risks to a developing fetus are unknown. Researchers looked at the pharmacy records of 1.1 million pregnant women receiving Medicaid. Between 2000 and 2007, the number of women filling a prescription for these drugs rose from 18.5% to almost 23%. Codeine and hydrocodone were most often prescribed. The prescription rates varied from 9.5% to 41.6% depending on the state. Another study published online in the journal Anesthesiology in February found similar results. The pregnant women in that study had private health insurance. The journal Obstetrics & Gynecology published the new study. HealthDay News and the New York Times wrote about it.