Health news 11-23-05

C.D.C. Proposes New Rules in Effort to Prevent Disease Outbreak

By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN

Published: November 23, 2005

Federal officials yesterday proposed the first significant changes in quarantine rules in 25 years in an effort to broaden the definition of reportable illnesses, to centralize their reporting to the federal government and to require the airline and shipping industries to keep passenger manifests electronically for 60 days.

http://tinyurl.com/83anp

With Cancer, Treatment Is Only Part of the Picture

More than 10 million people in the United States are cancer survivors, and their numbers increase daily. Many are considered cured. Some are still in treatment and one day may - or may not - be counted among the cured. Others are living with advanced disease.But nearly all have similar needs:

•A need to know about and cope with the physical and emotional consequences of cancer and its treatment, including current challenges to quality of life and delayed health effects.

•A need to know when to worry and when not to worry about symptoms that could signal a recurrence or a new cancer.

•A need for reliable information and assistance on matters like diet, exercise and smoking cessation that may improve survival chances.

•A need to deal with employment and insurance problems related to their medical histories.

Such needs inspired a panel of the National Academies this month to call for major improvements in follow-up care for cancer patients, who are too often left to struggle on their own with serious cancer-related matters.

http://tinyurl.com/ddkh6

Survey finds toys dangerous to kids

Makers accused of disregarding safety

WASHINGTON -- Though decades of effort have made toys safer, children still choke on balloons, get strangled by yo-yo water balls and suffer hearing damage from loud playthings, a watchdog group warned Tuesday in its annual toy safety survey.

The U.S. Public Interest Research Group's 20th survey noted that the Consumer Product Safety Commission reported the deaths of 16 children in toy-related incidents last year, along with another 210,000 emergency room visits. Choking on small parts, balls and balloons remains a leading cause of death and injury in kids younger than 15.

http://tinyurl.com/9lk9a

Breast-Feeding May Lower Mom's Risk of Diabetes 

By Serena Gordon

HealthDay Reporter 

TUESDAY, Nov. 22 (HealthDay News) -- Breast-feeding your baby can cut your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, new research shows.  "We found that breast-feeding is really good for mothers. Each year she breast-feeds cuts the risk of type 2 diabetes by 15 percent," said study author, Dr. Alison Stuebe, a clinical fellow in maternal fetal medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and an instructor at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

http://tinyurl.com/afvwd

When Parasites Go Pop!

By Meagan White
ScienceNOW Daily News
22 November 2005

Lathering up with topical creams before each swim may no longer be necessary to prevent schistosomiasis, a water-borne parasitic infection that kills an estimated 800,000 people a year. A mix of red cedarwood oil and surfactant--a compound that makes oil spread evenly on the water surface--can kill schistosome larvae by making them swell and explode, according to a new study.

Schistosomiasis, also known as bilharzia, infects 200 million people in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Repeated infections can cause severe and eventually deadly damage to the liver, intestines, lungs, bladder, and the brain.

http://tinyurl.com/9fsb6

Mortality among very low-birthweight infants higher at minority-serving hospitals

BACKGROUND: Neonatal mortality rates--that is, mortality in the first 28 days--in the United States fell significantly between 1940 and 2000 from 28.8 deaths per live birth to 4.6 deaths. Yet ethnic and racial disparities have persisted or increased during that time. Deaths among very low-birthweight infants (VLBW) account for more than half the infant deaths in the United States. The researchers sought to determine whether there is a correlation between mortality among VLBW infants and quality of care. The research was based on data from 74,000 infants at 332 hospitals across the nation.

FINDINGS: The researchers found that infant mortality for black and white infants born at minority-serving hospitals, defined as hospitals where 35 percent of VLBW infants are black, was significantly higher than for black and white infants born at hospitals where fewer than 15 percent of these infants are black. These findings suggest that minority-serving hospitals provide lower quality care to VLBW infants than do other hospitals.

IMPACT: "There's a known disparity between blacks and whites in infant mortality," said Dr. Leo Morales, associate professor of general internal medicine and health services research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and the lead researcher. "This study points to a possible explanation for that disparity--namely that hospitals where the majority of black infants are born do not provide the same quality of care as hospitals where the majority of White infants are born." The next step is to investigate the reasons for the disparity, such as financial status, physician and nursing staffing and other hospital characteristics.

AUTHORS: Other researchers on this study in addition to Morales are Douglas Staiger of Dartmouth College and the National Bureau of Economic Research; Jeffrey D. Horbar of the University of Vermont and the Vermont Oxford Network; Joseph Carpenter, Vermont Oxford Network; Michael Kenny of the University of Vermont; Jeffrey Geppert, National Bureau of Economic Research, and Jeannette Rogowski, RAND Corp.

http://tinyurl.com/983zv