Health Highlights: June 18, 2004

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

Glaxo to Post Drug Trial Results on Web

Drug giant GlaxoSmithKline PLC announced Friday that it will post the results of all its drug trials on the Internet.

The company, facing a fraud lawsuit by the New York State attorney general for allegedly withholding important clinical trial data, said it wasn't certain when drug trial information would be available on the Web. It should be available within six months.

"I think this is the right thing to do. We think more transparency is better," Glaxo chairman and chief executive J.P. Garnier told the Associated Press.

"We don't want to be accused of anything about the way we deal with trials. I think it too important a subject," Garnier said.

He added that the decision to post the information on the Web wasn't related to the lawsuit, and that Glaxo had considered the issue for months. It decided to announce the Web site in response to an American Medical Association (AMA) resolution this week, the AP reported.

That resolution called on the U.S. government to create a public clinical drug trial registry that posted unfavorable results, as well as positive results.

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Hundreds in Virginia to be Tested for TB

Tests are planned for nearly 500 people exposed to a Chesapeake General Hospital nurse who died of tuberculosis last weekend.

And more people in the eastern Virginia city may need to be tested because there are indications that the nurse, Deborah Byrd Chrysostomides, may have had symptoms of active TB earlier than health officials previously thought, the Virginian-Pilot reported.

The 500 people currently scheduled for testing, which begins next week, were exposed to the nurse between October and April.

So far, four hospital workers and three of Chrysostomides's family members have tested positive for TB bacteria. None of them have tested positive for the contagious active form of the disease.

A health official said that prolonged, close contact with someone with active TB is needed in order to be infected. Less than 10 percent of people who test positive for TB develop the serious active form of the disease.

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Hospital Superbug Deaths Could Double in 5 Years

Deaths caused by the hospital superbug methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) could double over the next five years, British experts warn in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

The researchers say that MRSA is becoming increasingly resistant to the antibiotic vancomycin. It was previously believed that only one strain of MRSA was resistant to the antibiotic. But the U.K. researchers said they found that all five major MRSA strains show signs of resistance to vancomycin.

They studied MRSA in the U.K., United States, France, Japan, Poland, Sweden, Norway, and China.

"With increasing vancomycin resistance, we are going to see a significant increase in mortality," Dr. Mark Enright of the University of Bath, the research leader, told BBC News Online.

"If we lose vancomycin completely as a treatment, we could see a doubling in deaths over the next five years," he warned.

A U.K. health official noted that other antibiotics can be used to treat MRSA that's resistant to vancomycin.

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FDA Scientists Disputed Plan B Decision

Internal U.S. Food and Drug Administration documents show that its own top scientists disagreed with the stated reasons given by the FDA for its rejection of an application to make the emergency contraceptive Plan B available without a prescription.

The scientists charged that the reasoning used to justify the decision was unfounded, the Washington Post reported.

In particular, the scientists disputed the FDA suggestion that there was not enough information to assess how easier access to the emergency contraceptive might affect the sexual behavior of teenagers.

This was the primary reason given by the FDA to explain its refusal of the application, which was announced May 6.

An FDA spokesperson told the Post that the agency would not comment on internal documents that were part of the decision-making process.

Following the decision, many critics accused the FDA of caving in to political pressure from social conservatives who opposed easier access to the emergency contraceptive.

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Rickets Resurges in Canada

Rickets, a serious childhood disease in which children's bones soften and break, is making an alarming comeback in Canada, according to the Canadian Paediatric Society.

At least 84 children in Canada have been diagnosed with the disease in the past two years, according to a study released Thursday at the society's annual meeting. Rickets virtually disappeared from the country more than a generation ago, the Globe and Mail of Toronto reported.

These 84 cases are just the "tip of the iceberg," warned Dr. Leanne Ward, a pediatric endocrinologist at Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa.

The study says this resurgence of rickets is caused mainly by two measures meant to improve and protect children's health: breast-feeding and the use of sunscreen.

Rickets is caused by vitamin D deficiency. By blocking the sun, sunscreen interferes with the natural formation of vitamin D by the body. Breast milk, while rich in many nutrients, does not contain adequate vitamin D, the Globe and Mail reported.

All breast-fed babies should receive a daily supplement of vitamin D, and nursing mothers should also take a vitamin D supplement, the study authors recommended.

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Merck Supports Drug Trial Registry

Merck & Co. Inc., one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies, supports the concept of a U.S. government-run database to provide public information about clinical drug trials.

The company revealed its position on the issue in an interview Thursday with the New York Times. This is the first significant indication of drug industry support for this kind of database.

Recently, both the American Medical Association and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors called for a clinical trial registry that would include both positive and negative trial results.

Currently, drug companies do not have to release negative drug trial results.

Two other major drugmakers told the Times that they were not prepared to take a position on the matter. The drug industry's major trade group said it was too early to make a comment because it had not seen specific proposals for a trial registry.