Health Highlights: Feb. 24, 2005

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

Surgical Procedure Helps Pope Breathe Easier

Doctors performed a tracheotomy on Pope John Paul II to allow the 84-year-old pontiff, hospitalized with respiratory problems, to breathe easier, the Vatican confirmed late Thursday.

The procedure involved cutting a small hole in his throat and inserting a breathing tube. According to an Associated Press account, a Vatican statement said the procedure lasted about 30 minutes.

The pontiff will be spending the night in the hospital, a spokesman said, while outside medical experts said the tracheotomy could well require a longer stay.

Before the tracheotomy, which the pope approved, experts had said John Paul might have pneumonia. But a spokesman''s statement made no reference to pneumonia, saying the pope suffered a narrowing of his larynx, the wire service reported.

John Paul''s return to the hospital Thursday morning with fever and congestion probably was caused by new complications from the earlier bout with the flu or a flu-like illness, experts told the AP.

It''s common for flu patients to acquire a bacterial infection such as pneumonia or bronchitis; it''s also possible that the pope never had the flu, but another germ that caused flu-like symptoms, the experts said.

The pontiff, frail and already weakened from Parkinson''s disease, showed signs of respiratory problems on Wednesday afternoon and was admitted to Rome''s Gemelli hospital Thursday morning.

Experts said his Parkinson''s condition and slumped posture would make it difficult for his lungs to rid themselves of pneumonia bacteria, in part by impairing his ability to cough, the AP reported.

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Worcestershire Sauce Recall Expands to 15 Countries

The global alert over an illegal cancer-causing dye found in a British company''s Worcestershire sauce has spread to 15 nations on two continents, the Guardian newspaper reported Thursday. The recall was first announced late last week.

British food companies, meanwhile, conceded that the adulterated chili powder used to make the sauce had been used in foods sent to hospitals and schools, the newspaper said.

British government authorities added 25 new sauces, soups and ready-to-eat foods Thursday to the list of contaminated foods, which now exceeds more than 400 products, the Guardian reported.

Food companies in the United States, Canada, Ireland, France, Denmark, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Switzerland are among the 186 firms listed by Britain''s Premier Foods as buyers of its sauce. It''s still unclear who is responsible for the adulteration of the sauce, the newspaper said.

A full list of the recalled products is available at http://www.food.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/2005/feb/sudan2402.

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New Mexico Has High Incidence of Hypothermia: CDC

While it''s not big news that Alaska once again lead the 50 states in hypothermia-related deaths in 2002, the normally temperate state of New Mexico had the second-highest incidence that year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed Thursday in its weekly Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).

Cases of hypothermia, a dangerous reduction in a person''s body temperature, can occur in southern states like New Mexico and Arizona when unsuspecting residents don''t prepare for rapid temperature change, the agency said. States with the greatest death rates from hypothermia in 2002 were Alaska (3.0 percent), New Mexico (0.9), North Dakota (0.9) and Montana (0.8).

A national total of 646 people died from the condition in 2002, the agency said. The elderly are at greater risk because of lower metabolic rates and because they don''t perceive cold temperatures as well as younger people, the CDC report said.

Early hypothermia symptoms include shivering, numbness, fatigue, poor coordination, and slurred speech.

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U.S. Readying Bird Flu Vaccine

The U.S. government has stored two million doses of avian flu vaccine for possible emergency use and is testing whether the inoculation holds its potency, the Associated Press reported Thursday.

Meanwhile, United Nations officials meeting in Vietnam issued a dire warning Thursday that the Asian bird flu outbreak posed the "gravest possible danger" of growing to a global pandemic, the wire service reported.

Avian flu has stricken millions of poultry in eight Asian nations, and has caused at least 45 human deaths in the past year. World health experts fear the deadly H5N1 strain will mutate into a form that can be passed easily from person to person, rendering human flu vaccines ineffective against the lethal germ.

The experts meeting in Vietnam said the world''s industrialized nations needed to contribute at least $100 million to fund global surveillance and vaccination efforts, the Agence-France Presse news service reported. Only $18 million of multilateral investment was made last year, AFP reported.

Delegations from more than 20 countries and organizations are meeting in Ho Chi Minh City. The meeting is set to end on Friday.

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Cholera Vaccine Works on People With HIV

An oral cholera vaccine appears to work effectively in HIV-infected people, according to new research reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.

People who have the virus that causes AIDS have weakened immune systems and are more prone to getting cholera, a highly infectious disease that causes potentially lethal cases of diarrhea. Cholera outbreaks are common in developing nations where the prevalence of AIDS also is high, according to a report by the Voice of America.

Researchers administered the cholera vaccine to 172 people in the African nation of Mozambique -- where up to 30 percent of the population has the AIDS virus -- in January 2004. When a cholera outbreak emerged in mid-2004, 78 percent of the test group didn''t contract the disease, the Voice of America said.

In an accompanying editorial, the journal''s editor-in-chief, Dr. Jeffrey Drazen, said victims of the recent Asian tsunami also could benefit from the cholera vaccine in the event of an outbreak, the radio service reported.

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Baby Swings May Prompt Dog Attacks

Your family dog may be prone to attacking your infant if you rock the youngster to sleep in a mechanical swing, a Maryland state coroner warns.

The back-and-forth motion of the swing may trigger the dog''s instinct to chase prey, said Dr. Albert Chu, who told scientists meeting in New Orleans this week of two such infant deaths in Maryland over the past four years. The incidents involved a 2-week-old boy in 2003 and a 3-month-old boy in 1999.

The Associated Press reported an additional death of an 18-month-old Florida girl in the year 2000.

The AP reported that not every animal expert interviewed is convinced that the swings triggered the attacks. But experts said, in any event, pets could be trained to ignore the swings before they are actually used by infants.

"Put the swing up, leave it on without a baby in it until the dog or cat totally ignores it," veteran dog trainer Catherine Mills told the AP.