Health Highlights: Oct. 10, 2005

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

U.S. Urges Nations to Stockpile Flu Meds

The world''s nations should increase production and reserves of antiviral drugs and flu vaccines in preparation for a possible bird flu pandemic, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said Monday.

Leavitt, meeting with officials from the Southeast Asian nations of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, was visiting the epicenter of the lethal HN51 strain of bird flu outbreak that scientists warn is likely to mutate and pose a threat to millions of people worldwide. So far, it has largely been confined to birds, although an estimated 65 people have died.

"If avian flu shows human-to-human sustained transmission anywhere, there is danger everywhere," the Bloomberg news service quoted Leavitt as saying at a press conference in Bangkok. "We in the U.S. do not have sufficient capacity to manufacture vaccines for our own populations. Nations all over the world need to be thinking about this because it would be difficult for any one nation to produce the vaccines needed for their own population."

President Bush has asked six drug companies to cooperate to produce the needed medicines, the news service reported.

Although the virus had been confined largely to bird flocks in Southeast Asia, in August the strain was detected among migratory birds in Russia. And newly discovered bird flu outbreaks, though unconfirmed as the HN51 strain, were reported over the weekend in Turkey and Romania, the Associated Press reported.

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Gene That Regulates Inflammation Identified

Texas researchers have discovered a gene that regulates inflammation, and its activities could contribute to a host of conditions, including cancer, heart disease, obesity, and Alzheimer''s disease, the Daily Mail of London reported Monday.

The SEPS1 gene on chromosome 15 produces a protein that when impaired, leads to inflammation, said researchers at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio.

"Practically every common disease involves an inflammation component," said research leader Dr. John Blangero. "The discovery of a new player in the inflammation [process] opens up many potential avenues for intervention on a broad range of health issues."

The findings involved studies of more than 1,000 people in Wisconsin and San Antonio. The results, which emerged from an initial investigation into the causes of obesity, appear in the Oct. 9 issue of the journal Nature Genetics.

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Test Vaccine Helps Prolong Life of Skin Cancer Patients: Study

The Oncophage cancer vaccine extended the survival of advanced skin cancer patients by about eight months compared to standard treatment, according to preliminary phase III trial results released Monday by Biotech company Antigenics Inc.

However, the company noted that the results have yet to achieve statistical significance, the Associated Press reported. A final analysis of the data from the trial won''t be completed until early 2006.

The Oncophage vaccine is a personalized treatment that utilizes tissue from a malignant tumor to instruct a patient''s immune system to attack the cancer, the AP reported.

This study included 322 people with advanced skin cancer that had spread to other areas of the body. The patients received either Oncophage or standard therapies, including chemotherapy, surgery, biological agents, or a combination of those treatments.

The patients who received Onchophage lived an average of 20.9 months, compared to an average of 12.8 months for patients who received standard treatment, the AP reported.

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SUVs Should Have Warnings About Danger to Pedestrians: Report

Not only are sport utility vehicles (SUVs) an environmental hazard, they also pose a serious threat to pedestrians and should carry a health warning to that effect, says an article in the British Medical Journal.

Dr. Ciaran Simms and Professor Desmond O''Neill of Trinity College Dublin, Ireland noted pedestrians are more likely to suffer serious injuries or to be killed when they''re hit by an SUV than when they''re struck by a car, the Daily Mail newspaper reported.

"SUV bonnets (hoods) are higher than those of cars and this results in more severe primary impact on the critical central body regions of the upper leg and pelvis," the authors wrote.

Compared to cars, SUV collisions with pedestrians also result in twice the number of injuries to vulnerable areas such as the head, thorax and abdomen, the researchers said.

"Addressing this threat requires an integrated approach from public health and transportation and road safety agencies (including vehicle designers)," they recommended.

Those measures should include collecting data on SUVs involved in crashes and increasing public awareness by alerting consumers about the increased risk to pedestrians posed by SUVs, the Daily Mail reported.

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India Encephalitis Death Toll Now at 1,038

Fifteen more people in northern India have been killed by Japanese encephalitis, as a health official Sunday expressed surprise that the recent outbreak, which had appeared to be winding down, was spreading again.

The outbreak has killed 1,038 people, mostly children, in the impoverished northern states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, according to government figures cited by the Associated Press. An estimated 300 deaths have also been reported in neighboring Nepal.

The mosquito-borne disease is preventable by vaccinations, but many medical facilities in the area lack money and staff, the AP said.

"Cases are now being reported from newer areas," said O.P. Singh, Uttar Pradesh''s director general of health services.

Reported cases had been dropping with the end of the rainy season, and officials thought the outbreak was coming under control, the news service said.

"It is baffling, as new cases are being reported from the western part of the state (Uttar Pradesh)," Singh said, adding that a team of specialists has been sent to the area to study the problem.

Last Updated: Oct. 11, 2005