Health Highlights: Nov. 10, 2005

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

Seniors Uncertain About New Medicare Drug Plan

Many American seniors are still uncertain about how the new Medicare drug plan will affect them and haven''t decided if they''ll enroll in the program, says a survey released Thursday by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health.

The findings point to the critical need for ongoing education in order to achieve successful implementation of the new Medicare drug plan, which begins enrollment November 15, the researchers said.

The national telephone survey of 802 people ages 65 years and older was conducted between Oct. 13 and Oct. 31, 2005. It found that 61 percent of respondents said they understood the new drug plan "not too well" or "not at all," while 35 percent said they understood it "very" or "somewhat" well.

The survey also found that 43 percent of the respondents said they did not know if they''d enroll in the Medicare drug plan for 2006, 37 percent said they don''t intend to enroll, and 20 percent said they planned to enroll.

Only 5 percent of the seniors correctly identified that they will have more than 20 drug plan choices. When they were told that the government says most people on Medicare will have at least 40 different drug plans to choose from, 73 percent of the respondents said having that many plans "makes it confusing and difficult to pick the best plan."

Twenty-two percent said having that many choices is "helpful and provides an opportunity to choose the best plan."

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U.S. Adult Smoking Rates Continue to Drop

The percentage of American adults who smoke is still declining and there are more adults who''ve successfully kicked the habit than there are current smokers, says a study in this week''s issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention''s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report .

The study estimates that 20.9 percent of American adults (44.5 million) are current smokers, down from 21.9 percent in 2003 and 22.5 percent in 2002. The prevalence of heavy smoking (25 or more cigarettes per day) had declined from 19.1 percent of smokers in 1993 to 12.1 percent of smokers in 2004.

Another study in the same issue of the MMWR said that at least 50 percent of smokers in 36 states or areas have quit smoking. In most states, the majority of adults have never smoked and among those who have smoked, most have quit, the study said.

In four states -- Connecticut, California, Vermont and Utah -- 60 percent or more of smokers have kicked the habit.

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Warning Letters Sent to Marketers of Alternative Hormone Therapies

Two U.S. government agencies have sent warning letters to 16 marketers of alternative hormone therapies about unproven claims that their products treat or prevent cancer, heart disease and osteoporosis.

The Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission letters noted that these dietary supplements and hormone creams are unapproved products that haven''t been found to be safe or effective in treating or preventing serous diseases.

On its website, the FDA listed the 16 companies, which have 15 days to respond, as: All Natural Pain Relief Inc.; Bio-Health; BuyInnovations.com: CHS International Research Ltd.; ComCore 21 Corporation; Greatest Herbs on Earth; HMS Crown, Inc.; Healthworks 2000; Healthy Days, Inc.; Heba Laboratories, LLC; Herbal Fields Supplements; Nutriteam, Inc., One Life USA; Suzanne''s Natural Foods; The Way Up; and Tip Top Vitamins.

Letters were also sent to 34 Web sites promoting alternative hormone therapy.

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China Announces New Bird Flu Outbreaks, Quarantine

Chinese officials announced Thursday that they''ve quarantined 116 people in response to two new bird flu outbreaks that began Sunday on family chicken farms in northeastern Liaoning province, the Associated Press reported.

Despite intensive efforts to contain the bird flu virus in that province, there have been three outbreaks there in less than three weeks. Officials did not clarify how strict the quarantine measures were for the 116 people.

Homes, water wells and streets within two miles of the latest outbreak sites were disinfected. These latest outbreaks in Liaoning raise concerns that phony or poor quality bird flu vaccines for poultry pose a threat to public health. Chinese officials said an unapproved bird flu vaccine was sold in the province, the AP reported.

"This is something we find to be a very unwelcome development," World Health Organization spokesman Peter Cordingley told Hong Kong''s Cable TV. "What we have now, almost certainly we think, is sick chickens who are showing no symptoms, and that is very, very bad. They are silent carriers of the virus."

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Guidant Report Details Heart Device Malfunctions

The Guidant Corporation issued a report Wednesday about how many of its heart devices had malfunctioned in ways that caused them to stop working, The New York Times reported.

The report said that 22 of 33 (72 percent) confirmed malfunctions of the Contak Renewal pacemaker were so severe that they disabled the device. Three patient deaths were associated with those failures.

Of 254 confirmed malfunctions in the Prizm DR 1851 defibrillator, 18 (7 percent) of those malfunctions disabled the device.

Guidant is the target of investigations and lawsuits that charge the company failed to alert doctors about short-circuiting problems that caused critical failures of its heart devices. At least four patients deaths are associated with those heart device failures, the Times reported.

The information contained in the Guidant report is similar to data heart device makers must regularly submit to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. However, the FDA does not routinely make those reports public.

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UCI Turned Down Livers While Patients Died: Report

More than 30 people died over the last two years while waiting for liver transplants at the University of California, Irvine Medical Center while the hospital declined numerous offers of livers that might have saved the patients'' lives, according to a new government report.

For example, between August 2004 and July 2005, UCI received 122 offers of livers but only accepted 12 for transplantation.

UCI said many of the organs were rejected due to poor quality. However, most of the livers turned down by UCI were subsequently accepted by other hospitals and transplanted into their patients, the Los Angeles Times reported.

And even when patients at UCI did receive new livers, their outcomes weren''t as good as they should have been, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services report said. It found that 68.8 percent of patients who received a liver transplant at UCI between January 2002 and June 2004 survived at least a year. The survival rate required for federal certification is 77 percent.

The report indicates that UCI''s liver transplant program has had problems for many years. The report was prompted by a former UCI patient who learned through a lawsuit that the hospital had turned down more than 90 livers that were offered for her. She eventually had a liver transplant at another hospital, the Times reported.

Last Updated: Nov. 10, 2005