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2007-9-3 23:43:27 |
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Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay: Castro in 'Grave' Condition: Newspaper Report Cuban leader Fidel Castro is in "grave" condition, according to a Spanish newspaper report Tuesday. The Associated Press reported that El Pais newspaper said Castro, 80, has had at least three failed operations and complications from an intestinal infection and that he faces "a very grave prognosis." The Cuban government has released little information about Fidel Castro since he had emergency intestinal surgery in July and temporarily ceded power to his brother Raul. Some U.S. doctors believed he was suffering from diverticular disease, which can cause bleeding in the lower intestine, especially in people over 60. In severe cases, emergency surgery may be required. The Spanish newspaper reported that its sources said Castro had suffered a bout of the disease. "In the summer, the Cuban leader bled abundantly in the intestine,'' El Pais reported. "His condition, moreover, was aggravated because the infection spread and caused peritonitis, the inflammation of the membrane that covers the digestive organs.'' In December, the newspaper added, Castro had an abdominal wound that was leaking more than a pint of fluids a day, causing '''a severe loss of nutrients.'' The Cuban leader was being fed intravenously, the report said. The report could not be immediately confirmed, according to the AP. A Cuban diplomat in Madrid said the report was a lie. ----- Canadian Pharmacists Seek Ban on Export of Drugs to U.S. Canadian pharmacists want their government to forbid the export of prescription drugs to the United States, the Globe and Mail reported. The demand is a response to a U.S. Congress bill that would make it legal for American pharmacies and wholesalers to import approved prescription drugs from Canada and certain other countries, where the drugs cost less than they do in the United States. The bill would also allow individual Americans to buy drugs for their own use from Canadian pharmacies. In a letter to Canada's health minister, four organizations representing pharmacists and drug distributors said the U.S. bill could have a catastrophic impact on Canadian drug supplies, the Globe and Mail reported. "This American legislative proposal poses an imminent and serious threat to the security and integrity of Canada's drug supply, and hence a serious and genuine threat to the health and well-being of Canadians," the letter said. The letter called for "an immediate ban on the export, both bulk and retail, of prescription drugs from Canada." ----- Japan Confirms H5N1 Bird Flu Outbreak The dangerous H5N1 bird flu virus has been confirmed as the cause of an outbreak on a poultry farm in southern Japan, according to the country's agriculture ministry. About 3,900 chickens died on a farm in the Miyazaki prefecture (state) over the weekend. More than 8,000 birds were then slaughtered in an attempt to control the outbreak and all the dead birds were incinerated, Agence France Presse reported. "The examination conducted at the National Institute of Animal Health confirmed that the bird flu virus detected in Miyazaki prefecture was the H5N1 strain," said a statement from the agriculture ministry. Eleven other poultry farms within a 10-kilometer radius of the affected farm have been banned from shipping any chickens or eggs, AFP reported. Hong Kong has banned all poultry imports from Japan. No human infections have been reported in this latest outbreak in Japan. Since it first appeared in 2003, the H5N1 virus has killed more about 160 people worldwide. Most of those human infections have been the result of direct contact with infected birds. However, experts fear that the virus may mutate into a form that's easily transmitted between humans. ----- Chicken Eggs Contain Proteins Used in Anti-Cancer Drugs Genetically modified chickens that can lay eggs containing proteins used to make anti-cancer drugs have been developed by scientists at the Roslin Institute in the U.K. The scientists say they've produced five generations of chickens (about 500) that can produce useful levels of these proteins in egg whites, BBC News reported. The research, described in this week's issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could help make a number of drugs easier and less expensive to produce. "One of the characteristics of lots of medical treatments these days is that they're very expensive," Prof. Harry Griffin, director of the Roslin Institute, told BBC News. "The idea of producing the proteins involved in treatments in flocks of laying hens means they can produce in bulk, they can produce cheaply and, indeed, the raw material for this production system is quite literally chicken feed," Griffin said. However, much more research is needed before this method of protein production for medicine could possibly be fully developed, BBC News reported. ----- NY Hospital Eyes First U.S. Uterus Transplant Doctors at a New York City hospital are moving closer to offering the United States' first uterus transplant, the Associated Press reported. The procedure would be for women who can't have children because they have a defective womb, had their uterus removed because of disease, or were born without a uterus. The world's only uterus transplant was conducted in Saudi Arabia in 2000. The transplanted womb, from a live donor, had to be removed three months later because of a blood clot. The doctors at New York Downtown Hospital plan to use wombs from dead donors and to remove the wombs after a recipient gives birth so that she doesn't have to take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of her life, the AP reported. The hospital's ethics board has conditionally approved the plan for a womb transplant and the doctors have started screening potential transplant recipients. However, the hospital's president said a womb transplant is not expected "any time in the near future." A number of experts say much more research needs to be done into this kind of transplant before it's conducted on humans, the AP reported. ----- World's First Test Tube Baby Gives Birth The world's first test tube baby -- 28-year-old Louise Brown of England -- gave birth to her first child in late December, the Associated Press reported Monday. The baby boy, Cameron John Mullinder, weighed just under 6 pounds when he was born Dec. 20 in Bristol. He was conceived naturally. Louise Brown was born July 25, 1978. Three years ago she married Wesley Mullinder. Louise Brown isn't the first test tube baby to give birth. That distinction was claimed by her sister Natalie in 1999, the AP reported. Louise Brown was conceived by what was then ground-breaking in-vitro fertilization (IVF), which is now a common procedure. The likelihood of an infertile couple having a baby through IVF is now about one in five, about the same odds of natural conception by a fertile couple. |
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