Health Highlights: Feb. 2, 2003

Health Highlights: Feb. 2, 2003

source: Health Scout News

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of The HealthScout News Service:

Public Warned to Stay Clear of Shuttle Debris

Authorities are warning people to keep away from the fragments of the doomed space shuttle Columbia because they could be contaminated with toxic materials.

“The fuel, the propellant, all can be very abrasive,” Gene Perry, an engineer who worked on early space station plans put together at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., told the Associated Press.

Perry said potentially dangerous materials could include liquid oxygen from the shuttle’s fuel system or liquid nitrogen, which is used to inflate a shuttle’s tires.

Liquid nitrogen could combine with oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere to create nitrous oxide, a gas that, if inhaled, can be fatal. Also, both liquid oxygen and liquid nitrogen are extremely caustic and can severely burn skin, Perry told the news service.

Texas health officials said they were expecting details from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on what toxic materials were on board the Columbia.

Pieces of Columbia remained scattered over Texas and Louisiana today.

The shuttle, with a crew of seven, disintegrated 39 miles above Texas yesterday morning as it was returning to Earth after a 16-day mission.

NASA officials said the cause of the disaster was not immediately known.

NASA has appointed an independent panel to investigate the disaster. Early speculation has centered on potential damage to the spacecraft’s left wing and protective thermal tiles, according to the AP. Pieces of insulation appeared to strike the wing during liftoff on Jan. 16, the start of Columbia’s mission. But several NASA officials said Saturday they did not think the insulation was connected with yesterday’s disaster. The agency did say the first sign of trouble Saturday was the loss of temperature sensors in the left wing’s hydraulic system, the AP reports.

The shuttle was traveling at an altitude of 207,000 feet at 12,500 mph when Mission Control lost contact with the crew. Administration officials in Washington, D.C., said there were no signs to indicate terrorism, and the shuttle was beyond the range of surface-to-air missiles, the AP says.

Several north Texas residents said they heard a “big bang” at approximately 9 a.m. Eastern Standard Time Saturday, about the same time NASA officials lost communication with the crew. The shuttle was scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 9:16, according to the AP.

The shuttle’s crew included six Americans as well as the first Israeli astronaut, Ilan Ramon, a colonel in Israel’s air force who had flown missions in two wars, the AP says.

The disaster came 17 years and 4 days after the space shuttle Challenger exploded, killing its crew of seven, which included school teacher Christa McAuliffe.

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Cruise Ship Passengers Felled by Stomach Bug

A cruise ship with more than 200 passengers suffering from a gastrointestinal illness similar to that caused by the Norwalk virus arrived in Honolulu yesterday.

The passengers were treated by the ship’s doctor, and none required hospitalization, the Honolulu Advertiser reports.

The ship, the Sun Princess, left Los Angeles Jan. 25 and within several days, 223 passengers and 24 crew members — about 11 percent of those on board — became ill, the newspaper says.

More than 1,500 people, most aboard cruise ships that travel the Caribbean, have been stricken with Norwalk or Norwalk-like viruses in recent months. Symptoms include diarrhea, stomach pain and vomiting for up to two days, the newspaper reports.

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Bush Proposes Major Medicaid Revisions

States would get broad powers to overhaul how the federal Medicaid program is administered within their borders, under a proposal put forward by President Bush.

The plan, which would offer additional federal money to states that choose to join in, would maintain comprehensive health care benefits for welfare recipients, low-income residents and children, The New York Times reports. However, it would give states the ability to trim certain offerings, such as prescription drug benefits and some programs for the elderly.

Currently, states need federal permission to make adjustments to Medicaid, which offers health insurance to an estimated 45 million Americans.

Administration officials believe the proposal will prove attractive to cash-strapped states. Leading Democrats, including Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, are critical of the plan.

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Secondhand Smoke, Lead Levels Drop for Some

Levels of secondhand smoke and lead present in many Americans’ bodies have dropped significantly since they were last measured about a decade ago. But readings are still too high in a considerable portion of the population, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported Friday.

In 1999 and 2000, 2.2 percent of children ages 1 to 5 had elevated levels of lead, compared with 4.4 percent in the early 1990s. And amounts of cotinine, a product of nicotine after it enters the body, dropped by 75 percent in nonsmoking adults and by 58 percent in children compared with earlier readings, CBS News reports.

But cotinine levels measured twice as high in blacks as in whites or Mexican-Americans, the CDC said. Also, children’s levels were double those of adults, which CDC officials say may be because the last decade’s public health efforts focused primarily on reducing smoke in adult areas.

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Unique Psoriasis Treatment Approved

Biogen’s Amevive, the first biologic drug of its kind, has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to treat moderate to severe psoriasis.

Psoriasis is an autoimmune disease in which overactive skin cells multiply at 10 times the normal rate. Excess cells then pile up at the skin’s surface, causing red, scaly patches that can be painful and disfiguring. These patches typically form on the joints, limbs and scalp, but they can appear anywhere on the body.

Some 4.5 million Americans have the disease, and about 1.5 million suffer from its moderate-to-severe form, in which topical creams or ointments are often ineffective, according to HealthScoutNews.

Biologic drugs are engineered from proteins produced by living cells. Amevive — tested by 1,000 participants in clinical trials in the United States, Europe, and Canada — suppresses the overactive immune cells in the skin. But doctors must monitor patients closely, since the immune-suppressing drug could increase a user’s risk of contracting certain cancers and infections, Biogen says.

Common side effects include dizziness, cough, nausea, and injection site pain or inflammation. The drug is taken over 12 weeks, though the company says many participants in clinical trials remained in remission for several months. Biogen says it’s evaluating the drug’s long-term effectiveness.

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