Health Highlights: March 10, 2006

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

Teens Think ''Alcopops'' Are ''Fun and Cool''

Many California teens think that drinking fizzy and fruity alcoholic beverages called "alcopops" is fun and cool and that they won''t get drunk, according to comments collected from more than 300 young people from around the state.

The teens are bombarded with ads that glamorize alcopops, which include products such as Smirnoff Ice and Mike''s Hard Lemonade. Here are some of the comments the teens made about aclopops:

• "It''s a drink you can control without passing out. You feel comfortable drinking them."
• "Most alcopops are very popular because it doesn''t have any effect and it''s like a soft drink."
• "The more you see it, the more obligated you feel to taste it. If it tastes good, you will want more."
• "People in the ads are always cool and sober, they aren''t drunk or acting stupid."

The findings were released Friday by the Center for Applied Research Solutions, in conjunction with a public hearing by the California Senate Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families, which heard submissions about the negative effects that underage drinking has on communities.

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Physicians'' Letter Condemns U.S. Force-Feeding of Prisoners

A letter condemning the United States for force-feeding prisoners on hunger strike at the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has been signed by more than 250 medical experts from seven nations. The letter appears in the new issue of The Lancet medical journal.

The letter says doctors at the prison must respect hunger-striking inmates'' rights to refuse treatment and that physicians who use restraints and force-feeding on prisoners should be punished by their professional organizations, BBC News reported.

"We urge the U.S. government to ensure that detainees are assessed by independent physicians and that techniques such as force-feeding and restraint chairs are abandoned," said the letter, signed by doctors from Australia, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The letter urged the American Medical Association to take disciplinary action against any of its members known to have violated the World Medical Association''s prohibition against force-feeding, BBC News reported.

Inmates at the prison have said prisoners on hunger strike were restrained in chairs and force-fed through tubes inserted in their noses.

The United Nations and human-rights groups have urged the United States to close the Guantanamo Bay facility, where about 500 terror suspects are being held without trial.

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Measles Death Toll Cut by 48 Percent

The number of people killed by measles around the world has declined by 48 percent since the late 1990s, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children''s Fund (UNICEF).

The global measles death toll went from 871,000 in 1999 to 454,00 in 2004. The largest reduction was in sub-Sahara Africa, where measles cases and deaths declined by 60 percent, BBC News reported.

The two organizations, which pledged in 2001 to cut measles deaths in half by 2005, say that vaccination programs are the reason for the success.

Under an umbrella organization called the Measles Initiative, a number of groups targeted their prevention efforts in 47 countries that account for 98 percent of measles deaths. Between 1999 and 2005, nearly 500 million children received measles vaccinations, BBC News reported.

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FDA Documents Raise New Questions About ''Morning-After Pill''

Newly released internal documents suggest that senior U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials worked behind the scenes to sabotage an application to allow over-the-counter (OTC) sales of the Plan B emergency contraceptive, also known as the "morning-after pill."

The documents, obtained by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and released Thursday, reveal that in February 2004, FDA policymakers said there was no problem in permitting Plan B to be sold without a prescription to women of all ages, Knight Ridder Newspapers reported.

However, 18 months later, then-FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford said concerns about selling Plan B to younger teens led the agency to block over-the-counter sales of the contraceptive.

In a letter to acting FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach, Waxman charged that the FDA "created a regulatory ''Catch 22'' to justify the predetermined political decision to block over-the-counter sales of Plan B," the news group reported.

"In essence, the agency was well aware of the regulatory questions that would arise when it suggested age restrictions, but simply did not resolve them in a timely manner," Waxman wrote in the letter, which was released Thursday.

An FDA spokeswoman said the agency was reviewing the matter, Knight Ridder said.

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Tysabri Could Be Back on U.S. Market by June

The controversial multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri could be available again in the United States by June and in Europe in the second half of 2006, Biogen Idec CEO Jim Mullen said Thursday during a presentation to investors at a health-care conference in Boston, MarketWatch reported.

Tysabri was pulled from the market in early 2005 after it was linked with a rare, deadly brain infection called progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML). On Wednesday, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted to allow the drug back on the market. A final FDA ruling is expected by the end of March.

The exact timing of the drug''s re-launch depends on Biogen''s implementation of a risk-management plan that meets FDA approval, MarketWatch reported.

The company''s proposed plan includes mandatory registration of all Tysabri users in a database that would be used to track the patients for adverse reactions for several years.

Under the plan, Tysabri would only be administered at registered infusion centers and the drug would carry a black-box warning about its link with PML. The warning would advise doctors to monitor patients for signs of the disease.

Biogen also proposes distributing educational materials to patients and doctors, outlining the risks and benefits of Tysabri. Patients would be asked to sign a form stating they understand the risks of taking the drug.

"We''re not going to hide that PML is a problem with this drug. But we''re also not going to hide its strong efficacy profile. Nothing will be secret," Burt Adelman, Biogen''s executive vice president for development, told the conference.

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Study Looks at Stem Cell Treatment for Childhood Brain Disease

The first U.S. clinical trial using fetal neural stem cells to treat infants and children with a rare and fatal brain condition called Batten disease is set to begin at Oregon Health & Science University.

Batten disease is a genetic disorder that causes blindness, loss of speech, and paralysis before patients die.

The stem cells, taken from fetal tissues, not developing embryos, will be injected into the children''s brains to determine if the treatment is safe and if it can halt progression of the disease, the Associated Press reported.

Last Updated: March 10, 2006