Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

Americans Head North for Flu Shots

Americans are crossing the northern borders into Canada in search of the elusive flu vaccine, according to media reports.

Several clinics in the Vancouver, B.C., area are offering flu shots to Americans, and their phones are ringing off the hooks with potential customers, the Seattle Times reported Saturday.

"We're definitely welcoming Americans," said Lynn Crosby, an office assistant at the International Travel Health and Vaccination Clinic in Surrey, B.C., about 10 minutes from the border. "We had someone here today from South Carolina, and a woman from New York is flying in tomorrow."

That clinic and a sister clinic in Langley, B.C., are offering flu shots for $20, American or Canadian. Walk-ins are accepted from noon to 5 p.m., Monday-Friday. Some Saturday clinics are planned as well.

Meanwhile, the Washington Times reported, Americans have also been crossing from New York to Ontario, from Maine to New Brunwsick and from Minnesota to Manitoba in search of their shots.

Canada's provincial governments buy vaccine for residents. Doctors also purchase vaccine for their own patients, and Americans can tap into that supply.

The increased border traffic followed this month's announcement of a nationwide shortage created when the British government abruptly closed a leading supplier of flu vaccine to the United States, citing contamination problems. The closure of the Chiron Corp. plant in Liverpool meant roughly 48 million of the 100 million doses of vaccine wouldn't be delivered to the United States this season.

And a new poll found that more than half of Americans with a relative who is at high risk of danger from getting the flu say they're worried about the vaccine shortage.

The survey, commissioned by the Associated Press, found that 42 percent of respondents say that they or a family member is at high risk from the flu. The poll found just over a third either plan to get the flu vaccine this year or have already gotten it, according to the AP. Also, 28 percent say they plan to get the vaccine, and 7 percent say they have already gotten the vaccine this year.

About four in 10, or 42 percent, say they got the flu vaccine last season.

-----

EU Orders Graphic Anti-Smoking Campaign

The European Union has unveiled a new anti-smoking campaign that calls on governments to put horrific and humorous pictures on cigarette packs to deter people from smoking.

Among the 42 pictures is one grisly photo of a man with a cancerous growth on his neck, the Associated Press reported. But most make only indirect allusions to the dangers of smoking, like a picture of a drooping cigarette meant to illustrate how smoking can cause impotence.

The EU wants governments to require cigarette makers to display the photos on their products, hoping the images will have more force than written warnings now on packs of cigarettes, including "smoking kills" or "smoking can lead to a slow and painful death."

"People need to be shocked out of their complacency about tobacco," EU Health Commissioner David Byrne said in Brussels.

EU member states now use 14 written health warnings, which must cover at least a third of the packaging. So far, Ireland and Belgium have indicated they will require cigarette makers to use the photos, which should appear on packs next year. Canada has used similar graphics and warnings on cigarette packs since 2000, and studies indicate there has since been a slight decrease in smoking.

-----

Japan to Resume U.S. Beef Imports

Japan agreed Saturday to resume imports of U.S. beef after a 10-month ban tied to a "mad cow" scare.

Under the pact with Japan, the U.S. Agriculture Department will certify specialty beef exports using no cattle older than 21 months, CBS reported.

"We are well under way with an enhanced surveillance system to detect any BSE in our cattle herd," said the USDA, which added it had tested more than 92,000 animals, all negative.

The disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, has been found to harm humans who eat the diseased meat, though the pathology is restricted to animals' brains and spinal cords.

In the United States, a single cow in Washington State, which had been imported from Canada, showed signs of the disease in December 2003, and many nations immediately blocked U.S. beef.

-----

Calif. Tot Gets 'Piggyback' Heart Transplant

A California girl about to turn 2 has become the youngest person in the United States ever to receive a "piggyback" heart transplant, a procedure that involved implanting a second heart into her chest.

The surgery took place at Stanford University's Lucile Packard Children's Hospital on September 16, when Camila Gonzalez was just 22 months old, according to an Associated Press report. The hospital just held a news conference highlighting the rare surgery now that the South Lake Tahoe toddler is well enough to call it a success.

Camila suffers from cardiomyopathy, a heart muscle disease that had caused the blood pressure in her lungs to build to five times normal levels. A conventional heart transplant wasn't an option because the new heart would have failed under such great pressure. Her doctors also abandoned the idea of a heart-lung transplant because they would have had to wait longer to secure both organs.

It took a medical team about four hours to add and connect Camila's second heart, said Dr. Bruce Reitz, chair of cardiothoracic surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine. Although such transplants aren't performed often, Camila's doctors say she will be able to have a normal life with two hearts, each of which maintains its own distinct rhythm.

Of the eight children who received a second heart between 1997 and 2001, five are still alive and doing well.

-----

Europeans to Check Safety of All Arthritis Drugs

Regulators in Europe announced plans Friday to investigate the safety of an entire class of arthritis drugs called cox-2 inhibitors after one was taken off the shelves last month.

The European Medicines Evaluation Agency, on a request from the European Commission, said it planned to "look at all aspects of cardiovascular safety of the COX-2 inhibitors" in light of the withdrawal of Vioxx, which studies linked to a higher risk of heart attack and stroke. Vioxx's maker, Merck and Co., announced the withdrawal in late September after the company's own studies found safety problems.

The investigation is "a precautionary measure," the agency said in an official statement. "The objective of this review is to assess whether there is a need to make changes to existing marketing authorizations, including labeling throughout the whole of the European Union and whether additional studies are needed."

The investigation will include the best-selling cox-2 inhibitor, Celebrex, as well as Bextra and others not available in the United States. Cox-2 inhibitors are stomach-friendly painkillers.

The agency investigated this class of drugs a year ago, but plans to move forward with data that have since become available.

Last Updated: Oct-24-2004