In Medicine

Gardasil study examines costs

An expensive vaccine aimed at preventing cervical cancer is cost- effective for young teens, but not for women in their 20s, a report says.

The vaccine against the HPV virus was licensed in 2006 for use in girls and women ages 9 to 26. Health officials recommend it for girls at age 11 or 12, and some doctors offer it to women in their 20s in “catch-up” vaccination campaigns.

Merck & Co. makes the Gardasil vaccine, which is given in three doses over six months and costs about $375.

The government-funded study found the HPV vaccine is very cost- effective when given to girls at age 12, but raises questions about the value of pushing for vaccinating adults.

Two researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health did the study, and the results are being published in today’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Arsenic tied to Type 2 diabetes

A new analysis of government data is the first to link low-level arsenic exposure, possibly from drinking water, with Type 2 diabetes, researchers say.

The study’s limitations make more research necessary. And public water systems were on their way to meeting tougher U.S. arsenic standards as the data were collected.

Still, the analysis of 788 adults’ medical tests found a nearly fourfold increase in the risk of diabetes in people with low arsenic concentrations in their urine compared to people with even lower levels.

Previous research outside the United States has linked high levels of arsenic in drinking water with diabetes. It’s the link at low levels that’s new.

The findings appeared in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association.

Stem cells help make blood cells

Scientists have found an efficient way to make red blood cells from human embryonic stem cells, a possible step toward making transfusion supplies in the laboratory.

The promise of a virtually limitless supply is tantalizing because of blood donor shortages and disappointments in creating blood substitutes.

Red blood cells are a key component of blood because they carry oxygen throughout the body.

The research, published by the journal Blood, was reported by scientists at Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, Mass., the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

The researchers said the cells they made behaved like natural red blood cells in lab tests, and that their process could be used in large-scale production. The results suggest that embryonic stem cells could someday supply type O-negative “universal donor” red cells for transfusion, they wrote.

U.S. backs first Huntington’s drug

Federal regulators have cleared the first treatment approved in the United States for Huntington’s disease.

The medication, called Xenazine, will not cure the condition – and it has some potentially serious side effects, such as raising the risk of suicidal behavior.

However, it does provide relief for a major disabling symptom of Huntington’s: the jerky, involuntary movements known by the medical term chorea.

Originally published by Associated Press .

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