Thousands of families that allege vaccines caused their children's autism are preparing for their day in court, which could bring them vindication and compensation.
Since 1999, more than 4,800 families have filed claims with the government alleging their children developed autism as a result of routine vaccinations. Most contend that a preservative called thimerosal is to blame for the impaired social interaction typical of the disorder.
Previously, large scientific studies have found no association between autism and vaccines containing thimerosal.
But many parents say their children's symptoms did not show up until after their children received the vaccines, required by many states for admission to school. If they prevail in the courts, the families are entitled to compensation from a multibillion-dollar trust fund.
The first of what eventually could be nine test cases from those claims is the subject of the hearing opening Monday in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Three special masters appointed by the court will preside over the hearing, expected to last through June 29.
The court is being asked to decide whether there is a link between autism and childhood vaccines. If it finds one exists, the families could be eligible for compensation under the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund, a program established by Congress to ensure an adequate supply of vaccines by safeguarding manufacturers from lawsuits. Under the program, people injured by vaccines receive compensation through a special trust fund.
Autism is characterized by impaired social interaction. Those affected often have trouble communicating, and they exhibit unusual or severely limited activities and interests. Classic symptoms of mercury poisoning include anxiety, fatigue and abnormal irritation, as well as cognitive and motor dysfunction.
Monday's case addresses the theory that the cause of autism is the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine in combination with other vaccines containing thimerosal. The preservative, about 50 percent mercury by weight, is no longer found in routine childhood vaccines but is used in some flu shots.
In July 1999, the U.S. government asked vaccine manufacturers to eliminate or reduce, as expeditiously as possible, the mercury content of their vaccines to avoid any possibility of infants who receive vaccines being exposed to more mercury than is recommended by federal guidelines.
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On the Net:
U.S. Court of Federal Claims: http://www.uscfc.uscourts.gov
Eighteen big hospitals in northeastern China have been using fake human albumin, or plasma protein, to treat patients, state television reported in the latest food and medicine scandal to hit the country.
In regular checks made by the food and drug administration in Jilin province, seven of 36 batches of the albumin, fed into the bloodstream by drip, contained zero protein.
"There was no protein component," Xu Fei, deputy chief of Jilin food and drug inspection department, told China Central Television. "It will not have the benefit it should have. We can say it is an out-and-out fake product."
Experts said that use of the fake drip could put lives at risk for those already seriously ill.
Eighteen hospitals and 39 drug trading companies were found to be using the fake human albumin, which led to huge profits because of its low production cost.
The State Food and Drug Administration said the Jilin probe was part of a wider, national crackdown on fake human albumin, a concentrate of plasma proteins used to treat shock from blood loss, burns and low protein levels in the body.
"After several months of hard work, the project to bring order to the human albumin (market) has now achieved results," it said in a statement on its Web site (www.sda.gov.cn).
"Jilin, Shanxi, Qinghai, Hubei, Shandong, Liaoning, Chongqing and Xinjiang have investigated a series of fake albumin cases, and have effectively cleaned up the market," the statement added, referring to the parts of China where the probe focused on.
It did not say if anyone had died or fallen ill from using the fake products, and provided details of the crackdown only for Jilin.
There, it said, an underground network selling the fake plasma had been smashed.
Some of the hospitals called by Reuters were not immediately available for comment.
Billions of dollars worth of counterfeit and substandard goods, from fake liquor and medicines to luxury handbags, are produced every year in China.
In the most recent scandal, U.S. consumers were alarmed by a spate of pet deaths blamed on tainted wheat gluten and rice protein exported from China, as well as reports of toxins and disease in other Chinese exports.
A Chinese-made medicine ingredient also killed at least 100 people in Panama, according to a report in the New York Times.
In one of the most highly publicized scandals, China revealed in 2004 that at least 13 babies had died from malnutrition in the eastern province of Anhui after being fed fake baby formula.
Nearly 200,000 people die each year in China from improper use of legitimate drugs, according to Jin Shiming, a committee member of the Guangdong Provincial Science and Technological Association.
Developing countries in Southeast Asia need to use tough laws in their fight against dengue, a leading expert said, so that homes and building sites do not provide breeding grounds for disease-carrying mosquitoes.
Duane J. Gubler, director of Asia-Pacific Institute of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases, said Singapore's use of inspections and fines had helped reduce the incidence of dengue in the city-state and set an example for other countries.
If every country in the region could control mosquitoes like Singapore has, I doubt you will see a problem," Gubler said in a phone interview from Hawaii, where he is based.
Fumigation of mosquito breeding grounds and public co-operation are both key to reducing dengue, he said.
Dengue is endemic in several countries in the region including Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar.
Singapore conducts spot checks of construction sites and homes, and contractors and residents can be punished if any mosquito larvae are found on the premises, with fines ranging from S$100 ($66) to S$20,000 ($13,100).
The city-state also conducts public health programs to ensure that people do not allow water to collect in places where mosquitoes can breed.
This has cut the incidence of homes where mosquitoes were found to less than 2 percent from 60 percent in the 1960s.
Gubler, 68, who has advised the World Health Organization (WHO) on dengue for about 25 years, has had dengue three times himself. On one occasion, he contracted the disease after a lab experiment in which he tried to get an infected mosquito to suck blood from a monkey, but was instead bitten himself.
Gubler said most Asian governments only set aside a "pittance" to tackle dengue, saying "these countries have not taken dengue seriously."
While Singapore has the best anti-dengue program in the world along with Cuba, according to Gubler, the city-state has still not managed to stamp put dengue.
Gubler, who has advised Singapore's anti-dengue efforts since 2005, said that as people travel more frequently and more widely, they are more likely to spread the disease across borders.
The number of dengue cases in Singapore this month is nearly three times the number in the same period a year ago, according to the government, which says warmer weather is partly to blame.
Between May 13 and May 19, the city-state reported 210 dengue cases, the highest weekly figure this year, but below the weekly record of 714 cases which was reported in September in 2005.
Dengue occurs mainly in the tropics and is transmitted by the female Aedes aegypti mosquito. The virus spreads across borders when infected travelers are bitten by local mosquitoes that go on to bite someone else.
The disease affects about 50 million people around the world every year, according to WHO. There are no vaccines for dengue, which has flu-like symptoms such as fever and pain in the joints, and can be fatal.
New research does not support the general belief that obesity increases bone mass and is therefore good for bone health. A study, in which investigators corrected for the mechanical loading effect of increasing body weight, suggests the opposite.
Our study found that increasing body fat mass decreases bone mass, for people of similar weight," Dr. Hong-Wen Deng from University of Missouri-Kansas City told Reuters Health. "Therefore, increasing obesity (fat mass) is not good for bone health.
The finding is "important," Deng and colleagues say, because it suggests that interventions or treatments aimed at reducing obesity may increase bone mass and thus protect against osteoporosis.
Past studies on the relationship between obesity and osteoporosis did not control for the "mechanical loading effects" of a person's total body weight on bone mass, the investigators note in a report published this month.
Deng's team reevaluated the relationship between obesity and osteoporosis taking into account mechanical loading effects of total body weight on bone mass in more than 6,400 healthy adults.
According to the investigators, when the mechanical loading effect of body weight on bone mass was adjusted for, fat mass was negatively associated with bone mass; that is, in general, the greater the fat mass, the lower the bone mass.
The results of their study, the researchers say, also "reaffirm the beneficial effects of appropriate weight-bearing and mechanical loading on a healthy skeletal system."
SOURCE: The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, May 2007.
Americans should bulk up on whole grains like oatmeal, barley and brown rice to help lower their risk of clogged arteries, heart attacks and strokes, according to researchers.
In a review of seven major studies, the researchers found that higher whole grain intake was consistently linked to a lower risk of heart disease and stroke. On average, adults who ate 2.5 servings of whole grains per day were nearly one-quarter less likely to develop cardiovascular disease than their peers who rarely consumed whole grains.
Whole grains are believed to benefit the heart in a number of ways. The fiber and other nutrients in whole grains may help lower cholesterol, blood sugar and insulin levels, as well as improve blood vessel functioning and reduce inflammation in the circulatory system.
Yet surveys show that few Americans get the recommended three servings of whole grains per day, according to the authors of the new study. More than 40 percent of U.S. adults say they eat no whole grains.
"Many consumers and health professionals are unaware of the health benefits of whole grains," lead study author Dr. Philip B. Mellen, of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, said in a statement.
Some may also be confused about what exactly constitutes a whole grain. Whole grains contain three components: bran and germ, which are rich in fiber and nutrients, and an endosperm, which contains starch and protein. Highly processed grains, like white bread or snack foods made from white flour, are stripped of the bran and germ.
In contrast, whole grains -- such as oats, barley, whole wheat, brown rice and quinoa -- retain more of the nutrient-dense bran and germ.
Based on these latest findings, Mellen and his colleagues think health professionals should "redouble" their efforts to get people to eat more whole grains.
They report the results in the online edition of the journal Nutrition, Metabolism & Cardiovascular Diseases.
For the study, the researchers pooled data from seven major studies involving more than 285,000 men and women who were followed for 6 to 15 years. Overall, those who ate the most whole grains were less likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke, or die of cardiovascular causes.
This was true when other health factors, like overall diet, exercise, weight and smoking habits, were taken into account.
"Years ago, scientists hypothesized that the higher rates of chronic diseases we have in the West, including heart disease, are due, in part, to a diet full of processed foods," Mellen said.
This idea has been born out, he added, in the lower rates of obesity, high cholesterol and heart problems seen in people who opt for whole grains.
SOURCE: Nutrition, Metabolism & Cardiovascular Diseases, online May 9, 2007.
Labels on all alcoholic drinks in Britain are to carry health warnings by the end of next year, the government announced on Monday.
Under an agreement between the government and the drinks industry, the new labels will include details on how many alcoholic units each drink contains and the recommended safe drinking levels for men and women.
Binge drinking, consuming 10 or more units in one session for men and seven or more for women, is a major public health concern in Britain. More than 7.1 million English people are hazardous or harmful drinkers, according to official figures.
This landmark, voluntary agreement will help people calculate, at a glance, how much they are drinking and whether they are staying within sensible drinking guidelines," said Public Health Minister Caroline Flint.
"We want to make it as simple as possible for people to keep an eye on how much they are drinking and help them take the responsibility for lessening the impact excess alcohol can have on their health."
Although most people were aware of recommended daily guidelines, only 13 per cent kept a check on the number of units they drank, the government said. It said 75 per cent of the public backed the new labels.
The Department of Health said it also wanted the labeling to include recommendations for pregnant women. Last Friday, it issued new advice advising pregnant women and those trying to conceive to drink no alcohol at all.
Britain's health departments recommend men do not regularly exceed 3-4 units daily and women 2-3 units daily.
A unit of alcohol is 10 ml of pure alcohol which means that a pint of ordinary strength lager or a 175 ml glass of red or white wine each contain two units of alcohol.
"This is yet another practical demonstration of retailers' responsible attitude to selling alcohol," said British Retail Consortium Director General Kevin Hawkins.
"They have been actively involved in the development of this label and the concise and simple way it sets out information gives consumers an easy way to make informed decisions about how they enjoy alcohol.
If you have allergies or asthma, you need to plan ahead when you travel this summer in order to minimize situations that may trigger an attack and ruin your vacation, says the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI).
The academy offers the following advice:
* Before embarking on a long road trip, turn on the car's air conditioner or heater and open the windows for at least 10 minutes before you get in the car. This will help clear out dust mites or molds that may be in the car's climate control system.
* If you have pollen or mold allergies, close the car windows and use the air conditioning while you travel.
* You can reduce your exposure to air pollution by traveling early in the morning or in the evening, when air quality is better and there's less heavy traffic.
* Try to get allergy-proof rooms at hotels. If you're sensitive to molds, get a sunny, dry room away from indoor pools.
* If you have food allergies, be extremely cautious about eating airline or restaurant food, which may not list the ingredients. Always carry injectable epinephrine is case you have a severe allergic reaction.
* If you're going on a long vacation, consider seeing an allergist/immunologist for a pre-trip physical.
* Air travel can cause significant pain for people with sinusitis, or a sinus or ear infection. If possible, delay flying. If you suffer severe sinus or ear pain while flying, take a short-acting oral decongestant or use a nasal spray decongestant about an hour before takeoff.
* The air in planes can be very dry, so use saline nasal spray once every hour to keep you nasal membranes moist.
* When packing for a trip, be sure to include all necessary medications. Bring more than you think you'll need and store them in their original containers.
More information
The U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences has more about asthma and allergy prevention.