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

FDA Pessimistic About Salvaging Flu Shots

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration admitted Friday that the chances of salvaging any flu vaccine from a factory in Britain are slim at best.

Dr. Lester M. Crawford, the agency's acting commissioner, told a Congressional panel that U.S. regulators visiting Britain said they had little hope of clearing any of the vaccine made there by Chiron Corp., which was supposed to manufacture as many as 48 million doses for the upcoming flu season.

"It's not possible to say if any of them are salvageable at this point. I have to present to you a pessimistic point of view," the Associated Press quoted Crawford as saying.

Crawford also told the House Government Reform Committee that the FDA would most likely have made the same move as British authorities did when they suspended Chiron's license and halted all shipment of vaccine. That decision, prompted by concerns of a bacterial contamination in the lot, cut in half the number of flu vaccines that will be available in the United States this flu season.

Experts told the panel that the sudden shortage makes clear that the current system of making vaccines is fragile. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that manufacturers are concerned about a lack of a profit incentive, according to the AP account.

"We need to help with incentives," Fauci said.

Meanwhile, British health officials said their U.S. counterparts were informed in mid-September that problems at Chiron's manufacturing plant in Liverpool could disrupt influenza vaccine supplies to the United States, the Washington Post reported Saturday.

U.S. health officials said last week they were stunned by the news that British regulators had suspended Chiron's license to produce the vaccine.

In a related matter, the maker of a costlier nasal-spray vaccine says it will produce another 1 million doses to help ease the shortfall, the Baltimore Sun reported.

MedImmune Inc. said it already has 1.1 million doses ready for distribution and has enough frozen vaccine to fill another 1 million doses that could be ready by November, the newspaper reported.

MedImmune sold only 10 percent of the 4 million doses it had prepared for last year's season, and had expected similar numbers this year.

And, USA Today reported, the British regulators' action against Chiron has had almost immediate impact in the United States. A survey of 150 local health departments in California found that half had no vaccine at all, and 85 percent have been forced to cancel or delay flu-shot clinics.

And an operator of flu clinics nationwide has received less than half of the 2 million doses it ordered from Chiron's competitor, Aventis Pasteur, which supplies the United States with about 50 percent of its flu vaccine. Aventis said it has had to ration and reallocate much of its inventory to meet the growing demand, USA Today reported.

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Sleep Position May Contribute to Heart Problems

Can your sleeping position heighten your risk of heart problems? New research suggests the answer may be yes.

For the first time, researchers have evaluated whether changing sleeping positions alters blood pressure. The risk of heart disease increases in people who experience high blood pressure or extreme dips in blood pressure during the night and in people whose blood pressure falls when they stand up suddenly, according to the researchers.

The researchers monitored blood pressure in 271 men with an average age of 50 who did not have cardiovascular disease and weren't taking medicine to control high blood pressure. The researchers first took measurements while the men were lying on their backs, then after they had rolled onto their stomachs.

Average systolic blood pressure fell significantly from 130 millimeters of mercury (mmHg) to 125 mmHg in response to lying on the stomach. Twenty-five of the men (9.2 percent) experienced a more dramatic drop (more than a 15 mmHg) in systolic blood pressure. The researchers are urging more study into whether blood pressure changes in response to sleep position might be a possible cause of "cardiovascular events" during sleep.

The study results were presented Sunday at the American Heart Association's 58th annual high blood pressure conference, held in Chicago.

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Low-Salt Diet Benefits High Blood Pressure Patients

For the first time in humans, researchers have shown that eating a low-salt diet can protect the arteries against stiffening in people with high blood pressure that doesn't respond to drug therapy, a new study finds.

Researchers evaluated 120 people with resistant hypertension and determined that 34 had aldosteronism -- high levels of aldosterone (a hormone secreted by the adrenal glands that affects blood pressure and salt balance), but low plasma renin activity. Renin is an enzyme released by the kidney to help control the body's salt and fluid balance and blood pressure, the researchers said.

Using ultrasound, the researchers measured the diameter of the brachial artery in the upper arm. The ability of an artery to relax and expand in response to increases in blood flow is a sign of a flexible artery with a healthy inner lining, called endothelium. In the 34 patients, the researchers found that the 10 who were eating a low-salt diet had significantly more flexible arteries than the 24 eating a high-salt diet. Five patients who consumed very little salt had the best test results.

The findings were presented Saturday at the American Heart Association's 58th annual high blood pressure conference, in Chicago.

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San Francisco Launches Novel STD Notification Program

San Francisco health officials have unveiled a new program designed to help gay men infected with a sexually transmitted disease to tell their sex partners about their condition.

The e-mail-based program is called InSPOT -- Internet Notification Service for Partners or Tricks -- and it's believed to be the first of its kind in the country, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Health officials have been e-mailing people exposed to a sexual disease for some time, typically from a list provided by the patient. But InSPOT allows the infected individual to make the notification himself.

Officials said the service comes in response to a recent increase in sexually transmitted diseases among gay men.

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Atlanta Hospital Patient Doesn't Have Mad Cow Disease

Emory University Hospital officials said a brain surgery patient does not have the human version of mad cow disease. But the patient does have a rare, fatal disorder that resembles mad cow, the Associated Press reported Sunday.

Officials at the Atlanta hospital said last week that preliminary tests on the unidentified patient indicated a diagnosis of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. They warned that at least 500 other patients could have been exposed to the disease if they came into contact with surgical instruments used on the patient.

But medical Director Robert B. Smith III said additional laboratory tests "confirmed that this is not the disease commonly called 'mad cow disease.' "

Last Updated: Oct-11-2004