►March 3, 2004 - Old
Diseases Fall Off Public Health Radar; Complacency Allows Malaria, TB To
Flourish - USA Today via
www.intelihealth.com - "Microbial killers such as drug-resistant malaria,
tuberculosis, HIV and syphilis continue to ravage the world. Health experts say
they know how to prevent and treat these diseases, but first they need to
overcome a different kind of public health enemy: complacency...Public attention
in the past two years has focused on new diseases, such as SARS, and new
threats, such as bioterrorism, but scientists here at the International
Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases say the lack of attention to older
diseases is allowing them to flourish."
►March 3, 2004 -
Groups Urging No Antibiotics for Earaches - AP via The Herald-Sun - "Parents
of cranky children with ear infections be warned: Antibiotics may no longer be
what the doctor orders. Two leading medical groups are expected to recommend
this spring that doctors stop treating most ear infections in children with
antibiotics, federal health officials said Tuesday...The
move contradicts years of pediatric practice and is expected to disappoint weary
parents of whimpering, infected toddlers...About half of all antibiotics
prescribed to preschool children are for treating ear infections. Health
officials believe if they can reduce child antibiotic use for such infections,
they can stop the rise of antibiotic-resistant germs created by overuse of the
drugs...'It will mark a dramatic change in
appropriate antibiotic use,' said Dr. Richard Besser, acting chief of the
meningitis and special pathogens branch of the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention."
►March 1, 2004 -
CDC Searches for Cause to Mystery Deaths - AP via Yahoo! - "In
a project resembling something out of the X Files, federal health officials say
the causes of a quarter of the deaths that have stumped coroners in recent years
appear to be from ordinary, treatable conditions."
►March 1, 2004 -
Chronic
Fatigue, Irritable Bowel Mistaken For Celiac Disease - Celiac Disease Often
Considered Child's Ailment -
www.wbalchannel.com
►February 29, 2004 -
Trapped In A World Of Hurt - 50 Million Americans Have Chronic Pain, And So
Far Doctors Can't Offer Much Relief (requires registration) - The Hartford
Courant via www.ctnow.com
►February 29, 2004 -
Tragedy saves
twin, motivates his parents - The Modesto Bee - "RSV is something most of us
can shrug off as a common cold: a shot of Nyquil, a box of Kleenex and a few
nights of discomfort...Many babies get it, too, from shopping carts and from
being around others with colds. But for infants in the high-risk category, it
can be deadly. For them, RSV can have the same impact as double-pneumonia would
on an adult." ►February 27, 2004 -
Drugs limit deadly side effects of graft-versus-host disease - Could make
bone marrow transplants an option for more cancer patients - University of Michigan Health System via
www.eurekalert.org
►February 28, 2004 -
Weighing in when junior tips the scales - Children today are not just
getting fatter, they're getting fatter faster than previous generations. As
Alanna Mitchell reports, there are ways a parent can deal successfully with this
troubling trend - The Globe and Mail
►February 26, 2004 - Doubt
cast on free radical theory - Scientists have questioned a widely accepted
theory for a cause of diseases such as cancer and arthritis. - BBC
►February 11,
2004 -
Induction of lupus autoantibodies by adjuvants - BioMedNet - "The
ability to induce lupus autoantibodies is shared by several hydrocarbons and is
not unique to pristane. It correlates with stimulation of the production of
IL-12 and other cytokines, suggesting a relationship with a hydrocarbon's
adjuvanticity. The potential to induce autoimmunity may complicate the use of
oil adjuvants in human and veterinary vaccines."
Comment: Lupus
has been reported as a vaccine-associated reaction at least
137 times
to
VAERS and has been reported in the medical
literature as well. (The list of articles in the literature includes only
systemic lupus erythematosus,
i.e., SLE)
►February 19, 2004 -
After Bird Flu, Dengue (requires registration) - editorial - The Jakarta
Post - "Doctors' confirmation on Tuesday of suspicions a new, previously unknown
sub-variant of the dengue virus is responsible for a virulent outbreak accross
the country adds to the graveness of a situation already rated "extraordinary"
by the government. This is all the more so because the Asian bird flu has yet to
be brought fully under control...What led the government -- in this case, the
Ministry of Health -- to issue the "extraordinary situation" rating was the
dengue death rate, which by mid-month reached more than 1 percent of the number
of patients treated. Dengue cases during the past few weeks were more than twice
the number recorded over the same period last year."
Comment: Are people
becoming less capable of fighting off these illnesses? If so, why is that?
►February 17, 2004 - Low
Antibody Levels Tied to Virus in Elderly - Reuters Heath via Yahoo! - "Frail
elderly individuals with low antibody levels to respiratory syncytial virus
(RSV) are at heightened risk for severe RSV disease, new research suggests. An
RSV vaccine might therefore benefit the elderly population."
►February 17, 2004 - A
Critical Piece of the CF Puzzle - Newsday - "More than 50 years after cystic
fibrosis was first identified as a disease, Harvard scientists have found a key
puzzle piece - an imbalance of fatty acids - that may lead someday to a novel
treatment for the lethal disease...Dr. Steven Freedman, an associate professor
of medicine at the Harvard Medical School, discovered cystic fibrosis patients
have much higher levels of arachidonic acid and depletions of docosahexaenoic
acid. AA and DHA at normal levels keep cell membranes healthy. The study
appeared recently in the New England Journal of Medicine."
►February 17, 2004 -
Obstructive pulmonary disease is on rise, No. 4 cause of death - The New
York Times via Mercury News - "Chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease is a progressive, irreversible decline in lung
function that afflicts 35 million Americans, gradually robbing them of the
ability to take in oxygen and remove carbon dioxide from their blood. Nearly
half the people who have the disease do not yet know it. Although the disorder
cannot be cured, if it is diagnosed early enough and properly treated,
deterioration in lung function can be slowed...The disease can be detected with
a simple, non-invasive breathing test."
►February 2004 -
The Child With Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura: Is Pharmacotherapy or
Watchful Waiting the Best Initial Management?: A Panel Discussion From the 2002
Meeting of the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology - journal
article (Journal of Pediatric
Hematology/Oncology)
Comment: Click
here to
see the 70 "thrombocytopenic" reactions reported to VAERS. Note also that
a relationship between the MMR vaccine and thrombocytopenic purpura has been
reported in the medical literature.
January 26 - February 8, 2004 (2 weeks combined
due to illness)
►February 5, 2004 - New
MS research shows remarkable findings - McGill University via
www.eurekalert.org - ""'We have
identified a key enzyme that triggers MS-like disease in an animal model,' says
MUHC neuroscientist and Professor of Medicine at McGill University, Dr. Sam
David. 'We also show that blocking this enzyme has a remarkable effect in
preventing disease and relapses.'"
►February 6, 2004 -
Dramatic Results Against Stroke - Test Shows Device Can Arrest Damage by
Removing Blood Clots From Victims - (requires registration) - Washington Post
►January 28, 2004 - Some
Migraines Linked to Brain Disease - Reuters via The New York Times -
"Researchers have identified brain lesions in some victims of migraines, a
finding that could indicate that those severe headaches can be a symptom of
progressive brain-damaging disease, a new study says...The research, which has
possible implications for treatment, involved 295 Dutch adults 30 to 60 years
old, some of whom had migraines along with vision problems while the others had
migraines without any such problems. They were compared with 140 similar people
who were migraine-free."
►January 13, 2004 - Scientists
restore crucial myelin in brains of mice - University of Rochester Medical Center
via www.eurekalert.org - "Scientists
for the first time have restored a crucial substance known as myelin in a
widespread area of an animal's brain, opening the door toward new ways to
improve treatment of an assortment of "demyelinating" diseases as well as the
side effects of such common conditions as high blood pressure and heart
disease."
►January 12, 2004 - Possible
Relief For Fibromyalgia Sufferers
- Study Shows Mystery Of Disease Lies In
Brain, Not Muscles - www.cbs2chicago.com
- "'We have found out that in patients with
fibromyalgia, norepinephrine and serotonin are reduced in these patients,' Dr.
Cutler said...And that reduction -- in theory -- makes the body more sensitive
to pain. That's why Dr. Cutler is investigating a drug that raises the levels of
both neurotransmitters, hoping it can help those with the disease."
►December 27, 2003 -
New weapon against
asthma -Scientists have identified a
new class of drug which could dramatically boost the weaponry against asthma -
BBC
►January 2, 2004 - Virus
Seen in Muscle from Chronic Fatigue Patients - Journal of Medical
Virology via Reuters Health - "A persistent enterovirus infection in
muscles may be to blame for some cases of chronic fatigue syndrome (sometimes
called fibromyalgia) and others with chronic inflammatory muscle disease, a
French team reports...They detected genetic material (specifically RNA) from
enteroviruses in 20 percent of muscle biopsies from patients with chronic
inflammatory muscle diseases and 13 percent of patients with fibromyalgia/chronic
fatigue syndrome, but not from healthy volunteers...The findings favor a
persistent infection involving defective viral replication as a cause of these
conditions."
DISCLAIMER: All
information, data, and material contained, presented, or provided here is for
general information purposes only and is not to be construed as reflecting the
knowledge or opinions of the publisher, and is not to be construed or intended
as providing medical or legal advice. The decision whether or not to vaccinate
is an important and complex issue and should be made by you, and you alone, in
consultation with your health care provider.
"A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth."
-- Albert Einstein, letter to a friend, 1901
"I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves, and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education."
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to William C. Jarvis, September 28, 1820
"What's the point of vaccination if it doesn't protect you from the unvaccinated?"
-- Sandy Gottstein
"Who gets to decide what the greater good is and how many will be sacrificed to it?"