Health Highlights: Feb. 27, 2005

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

Oscar Winners Outlive Their Peers

A Canadian researcher has come to the conclusion that those recognized by their peers Sunday for stellar performances on film will get more than a career boost; they will also outlive the competition by nearly four years.

Dr. Donald Redelmeier, a professor of medicine at the University of Toronto, told the Associated Press the news is even better for actors who win more than one Oscar during their career because they live an average of six years longer. Katherine Hepburn was proof of that theory, having won four Oscars and living to the ripe old age of 96, the wire service noted.

The study looked at all 762 actors and actresses who were ever nominated for an Academy Award in a leading or supporting role. For each nominee, the researchers picked an actor of the same gender and age who appeared in the same film as the nominee. On average, Oscar winners lived to he age of 79.7 years, while non-winners made it to 75.8 years.

An extra average of 3.9 years of life is no small matter, Redelmeier told the AP, noting that if all cancer patients in North America were cured, average life expectancy would grow by only 3.5 years.

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Global Anti-Smoking Pact Takes Effect

An international treaty that would buttress efforts to curb smoking worldwide went into force Sunday, but only 57 countries out of the original 168 that first signed the pact have actually ratified it, the Associated Press reported.

The United States and China are two nations that have yet to take the step that would make the treaty provisions enforceable in those countries. Those who ratify the treaty, known as the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, would have to ban tobacco advertising within five years, put tougher health warnings on cigarettes and limit the use of such language as "low-tar" and light, according to the AP.

One expert who helped craft the treaty hailed it as a first step, but noted it would have to have be toughened in certain areas with additional agreements in specific areas.

"The framework without protocols is toothless," Dr. Derek Yach, now a professor of global health at Yale University, told the AP. "Yet even preliminary work on these is over a year from even being discussed, let alone planned for."

Smoking is a killer that claims 5 million lives around the globe each year; the world has an estimated 1.2 billion smokers and health surveys show smoking rates among teens are 20 percent, according to the wire service.

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New York Suburb Man Diagnosed With Rare STD

The Nassau County Department of Health confirmed Saturday that a man in that municipality has been diagnosed with a rare sexually transmitted disease, the first case in the county and the seventh in the country.

The Associated Press reported that the man has Lymphogranuloma Venerum (LGV), a form of chlamydia; the symptoms include rectal pain and bleeding, and sores. The disease can also increase the risk of HIV transmission but can be treated with antibiotics if caught early, the AP reported.

Two men in New York City were diagnosed with LGV in early February. All three men are HIV-positive, and had multiple partners among other men, the wire service said. Three cases have been reported in San Francisco, and another has been identified in Atlanta.

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Blacks Losing in the Battle Against HIV Infection

While the rate of HIV infection has reached a plateau among whites in the United States, that rate has doubled among blacks in the last decade, according to the Associated Press.

Government scientists said Friday that stark difference throws a spotlight on the ever-widening racial gap in the epidemic. The findings were released Friday at the 126th Annual Retrovirus Conference in Boston, the AP reported.

"It''s incredibly disappointing," Terje Anderson, director of the National Association of People With AIDS, told the wire service. "We just have a burgeoning epidemic in the African-American community that is not being dealt with effectively."

Scientists chalked the high HIV infection rate among blacks up to factors such as drug addiction, poverty and poor access to health care. Federal researchers compared 1988-1994 figures to statistics from 1999-2002.

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Pope in Hospital for Long Haul, Expert Says

John Paul II will be in the hospital for the long haul, a Rome University doctor told the daily La Stampa.

"No one would dream of taking him out of the hospital (now)," said Giancarlo Cianfrone, an ear, nose and throat specialist. "The recovery won''t be brief."

The pope does not have pneumonia and is breathing on his own, the Vatican said in a statement Friday, a day after he had surgery on his windpipe to help him breathe easier.

For the second time in less than a month, the 84-year-old pontiff was rushed to a hospital early Thursday to treat respiratory problems stemming from an earlier case of the flu. Late Thursday afternoon, he underwent a tracheotomy -- a surgical procedure to cut a small breathing hole in his neck.

The pope -- who suffers from Parkinson''s disease and serious hip and knee ailments -- required hospitalization from breathing problems similar to those that sent him to the same hospital Feb. 1 for 10 days, the AP reported.

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FDA Painkiller Panel Had Drug Industry Ties

Almost a third of the members of a government advisory panel that recommended allowing the blockbuster arthritis drugs Celebrex, Bextra and Vioxx to remain on the market have consulted for pharmaceutical firms, The New York Times reported Friday.

Ten of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel''s 32 members had such ties, the newspaper said, citing disclosures in medical journals and other public records. The 10 members voted 9 to 1 to keep the Pfizer drug Bextra on the market, and 9 to 1 to allow the Merck drug Vioxx, which was pulled from store shelves last fall, to return to the market, the Times said. Had those members not voted, the newspaper reported, the two drugs would not have won committee endorsement.

The 10 members didn''t sway the panel''s recommendation to keep the Pfizer drug Celebrex on the market, the newspaper said. All three drugs known as cox-2 inhibitors are under scrutiny for possible links to cardiovascular problems.

Meanwhile, an FDA spokeswoman told Bloomberg News that the agency screened all panelists before the hearings for possible conflicts of interest.

Eight of the 10 panel members said in interviews that their past relationships with drug companies didn''t influence their votes, the newspaper said. The other two did not respond to requests for interviews.