Today's Top Stories - January 24, 2003

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Posted January 24, 2004:

►January 22, 2004 - Panel Says Zoloft and Cousins Don't Increase Suicide Risk (requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times - "Adding to the debate over using antidepressant drugs for depressed teenagers and children, a group of prominent researchers issued a report yesterday saying that Zoloft and similar medicines did not increase children's suicide risk...The group, drawn from members of the American College of Neuro- psychopharmacology, also found that the drugs were effective in treating children's depression...Critics pointed to weaknesses in the report...Critics of the medicines noted that 9 of the 10 task force members had significant financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry, although such ties are common among prominent researchers. The panel said no industry money financed the report."

Comment: Give me a break.  9 out of 10 have financial ties but "no industry money financed the report".  What do they think we are, stupid?

►January 22, 2004 - Scientific, Lay Press Starting to Label Autism "Epidemic" - Schafer Autism Report

►January 22, 2004 - Little interest shown for small pox vaccines - The small pox inoculation is coming up small among first responders, according to the Montgomery County health department. - The Mercury

►January 2004 - Down syndrome and epilepsy: a nutritional connection? - journal article (Med Hypotheses)

►January 2004 - MMR And Nurseries - BBC Radio - "Day nurseries may be considering excluding children if they haven't had the MMR vaccine. Some parents whose children are not yet old enough for the vaccine are worried that mixing with children who are not immunised may be putting their babies at risk. The director of public health in the North West, John Ashton, and Magda Taylor from the Informed Parent helpline discuss parents are right to consider immunisation as a factor when choosing childcare."

►January 23, 2004 - UI scientists study effects of alcohol on immune system - The Daily Iowan - "In ongoing efforts to study the effects of chronic alcoholism on the human immune system, which makes users more susceptible to infectious diseases, UI Hospitals and Clinics scientists have conducted the first successful experiments in the country using mice for research involving long-term alcohol use."

►January 23, 2004 - Zim anti-polio vaccines dwindle - The Zimbabwe Independent - "STOCKS of anti-polio vaccine BCG have begun to dwindle at a number of government-run medical centres in the country which has forced the government to scout for international bidders to supply the medicine, it emerged this week."

Comment:  The problem is, BCG is the anti-TB vaccine.

►January 25, 2004 - Irish grant to fund new MMR vaccine refuels safety fears - Sunday Herald, UK - "The Irish government has given a leading scientist around £482,000 to develop a safer measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) jab...The grant to a head virologist at Trinity College Dublin has prompted claims that confidence in the controversial vaccine, which has been linked to bowel disease and autism in some children, is waning at the highest level."

►January 23, 2004 - Pfizer sets aside $403m for possible settlement - 4th-quarter charge is aimed at closure in drug fraud cases - The Boston Globe - "If Pfizer settles the criminal and civil cases for close to that amount, it would be one of the largest settlements for drug fraud in US history. In June, drug maker AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals agreed to pay $355 million to resolve criminal and civil allegations that the company inflated the price of its prostate cancer drug and bribed doctors to prescribe it."

►January 25, 2004 - The slow unfolding of Hepatitis C - www.paktribune.com - "People infected with hepatitis C through blood transfusions they received shortly after being born had remarkably slow disease progression after 35 years, says an Italian study in the January issue of Hepatology ."

►January 24, 2004 - "Let food be thy medicine..." - editor's choice - journal article (BMJ)

►January 24, 2004 - Parents convicted of killing to have their cases reviewed  - journal article (BMJ) - "Major changes in England and Wales relating to the handling of cases in which mothers are suspected of killing their babies were announced this week by the Court of Appeal and the attorney general...Hundreds of parents convicted of killing their babies are to have their cases urgently reviewed, said the attorney general after the appeal court called for an end to the prosecution of parents when experts' opinions on the cause of death differ."

►January 24, 2004 - Whistleblower vows to fight on  - journal article (BMJ) - "A Canadian haematologist at the centre of a cause célèbre over academic freedom and research funded by a drug company vowed this week to continue her crusade after failing in her attempt to challenge the European marketing authorisation granted for the thalassaemia drug deferiprone."

►January 24, 2004 - New infectious diseases will continue to emerge  - journal article (BMJ) - "Dozens of new infectious diseases are likely to emerge over the next 25 years unless humans acquire an ecological perspective on infectious diseases rather than seeing microbes as simply an invading entity that should be blindly attacked with antibiotics or used as a tool for biological warfare, a conference was told last week."

Comment:  Note that there was no mention of possible problems with using vaccines  to "blindly attack" microbes.  This is particularly telling in light of the recent admission that 'the virus has to change to escape that immunity...' in reference to the development of antibodies to a particular virus.

►January 25, 2004 - Rush to produce bird flu vaccines - The Sunday Mail

►December 2003 - Prescription Drugs - OxyContin Abuse and Diversion and Efforts to Address the Problem (pdf) - GAO

►January 23, 2004 - Trials 'do not benefit patients' - There is little proof that taking part in clinical trials alone is enough to improve outcomes for cancer patients, research has found.  - BBC

►January 22, 2004 - Future looks bright for Mariposa School - The Cary News - "The Mariposa School, for children with autism, was in danger of closing its doors in 2002. But the school is still open, making a difference and planning to expand...The school has 15 students enrolled in the building and its staff consults with six other children. Cindy Peters, executive director, said that Mariposa has been fortunate to have the support of many people. When the school was running low on funds in 2002, doing everything possible to publicize it helped pull Mariposa out of trouble."

►January 23, 2004 - WHO Expert: Bird Flu's Rapidly Changing Genetic Makeup Likely Behind Its Rapid Spread - AP via www.intelihealth.com

►January 24, 2004 - Rx for Growth - Merck is moving to bolster its pipeline and forge alliances. Its stock looks cheap (requires subscription) - The Wall Street Journal -"Although rivals like GlaxoSmithKline are working on similar vaccines, Rubin thinks Merck might get there early. She says the product could be especially big if it were required for admissions from middle-school through college, as other vaccinations are already. In fact, some analysts put potential annual sales at $4 billion."

Comment:  Nothing like forcing a product on consumers to spell big sales for a company!

►January 23, 2004 - Human Bird Flu Cases Confirmed in Thailand - Reuters - "But the World Health Organization was clearly alarmed...It said in a statement the near simultaneous bird flu outbreaks in Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and now Thailand and Cambodia were 'historically unprecedented' and it was worried a new, virulent strain of influenza could sweep around the world.  

Comment:  The experts have long been concerned about a flu pandemic which it is expected would be caused by cross-species transfer of flu.  Wonder why more concern hasn't been aroused about the potential problems re: contamination of vaccines with avian viruses.

►January 21, 2004 - Colo. last in giving kids shots - Data: Whooping-cough rate triple U.S. average - The Denver Post

►January 21, 2004 - Colorado whooping cough rate soars; poor vaccination rate blamed - AP via www.9news.com - "Colorado children are nearly three times more likely to get whooping cough than children nationwide, and the state's poor vaccination rate is to blame, experts said...'We've got a serious problem in Colorado,' said Dr. James Todd, chief epidemiologist at The Children's Hospital in Denver. 'There is a correlation between low vaccine rates and actual disease.'...Only 62.7 percent of Colorado children got timely vaccinations for whooping cough and other childhood diseases in 2002, the lowest rate in the nation, federal authorities said last summer."

Comment:  Not everyone agrees with this assessment.  For more on this, read a letter from NVIC rep, Cindy Loveland, to the governor of Colorado.

►January 23, 2004 - Pediatrician John Cohen - www.thebostonchannel.com - "Should parents worry about giving children the MMR vaccine because of worry over autism?...The fact of the matter is that the study was done years ago and was actually recanted by the doctor that did it. The MMR vaccine is safe and doesn't cause autism and people should pay attention to their doctors."

Comment:  This issue has hardly been settled.  To get a taste of some of what has been happening, click here.

►January 22, 2004 - Long illness takes life of CB 8's Katz - Times Ledger via FreshMeadowsTimes.com via www.zwire.com - "Katz, who lived in Jamaica Estates, was a community leader and a fifth- and sixth-grade teacher at PS 131 for 25 years before she retired in 1991. Three years later she developed Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a rare neurological disease that causes impermanent paralysis, after taking a flu shot."

►January 24, 2004 - Thais Infected With Bird Flu; Virus Spreads (requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times - "Human cases of avian influenza, contracted from birds, have turned up in a second Asian country, Thailand, showing the virus has spread in recent weeks. The announcement, made by the Thai government on Friday, has deepened fears of a global epidemic if the virus combines with another that can be transmitted from person to person."

►January 24, 2004 - Study Links Some Hair Dyes to Kind of Cancer (requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times - "Scientists have found more evidence for a possible link between non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and long-term use of dark hair dye. A study of more than 1,300 women in Connecticut shows that those who began coloring their hair before 1980 increased their chance of developing the disease by 40 percent."

►January 24, 2004 - Shots Have Healthy Repercussions Smallpox Vaccination Effort Helped Officials Learn How To Prepare For Disaster, Doctors Say - The Hartford Courant - "A year ago today, with the impending war with Iraq as a backdrop, three Connecticut doctors rolled up their sleeves and kicked off the nation's smallpox vaccination program...Anxiety about a smallpox attack and the vaccination program itself have almost disappeared. In retrospect, say those who were involved, it wasn't the vaccination effort that was important but the act of preparing for disaster."

 

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