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Health Highlights: Jan. 12, 2006(HealthDay Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay: Brain Scan Shows Some Improvement in Israel's Sharon A brain scan Thursday showed signs of some improvement in Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's brain. The remnants of blood from his major stroke have been absorbed, Hadassah Hospital officials said. As a result of the brain scan findings, doctors removed a tube they had inserted into Sharon's skull to relieve pressure on his brain, the Associated Press reported. Sharon remains in critical but stable condition as he begins his second week in a coma. In recent days, he has moved his hands and right leg in response to pain stimuli and his heart rhythm is normal. It could be days or weeks before doctors can assess the amount of damage to Sharon's brain. In other developments, the Israeli media and some experts are questioning the decision to give Sharon blood thinners after he suffered a smaller stroke on Dec. 18. There are suggestions this may have contributed to the massive brain hemorrhage Sharon suffered last week, the AP reported. Sharon has cerebral amyloid angiopathy, a disease of the brain blood vessels that could make him particularly susceptible to hemorrhaging, the news service said. ----- Database Details Illnesses That Threaten Travelers A new database provides a comprehensive overview of the illnesses most likely to afflict travelers who visit different regions of the world. GeoSentinel includes the records of 17,353 ill travelers treated from 1996 to 2004 at 30 travel medicine clinics on six continents. The travelers had visited 230 developing nations and many did not display any sign of illness for a long time after they had returned home, the Associated Press reported. More than one-third became sick at least a month after they had returned home and 10 percent only became ill more than six months after their trip. Many of the patients suffered lingering diarrhea caused by parasite infections. This form of diarrhea is now more common than bacterial diarrhea. Dengue fever has become more prominent than malaria in many developing nations, and tick bite-related infections are a major concern in sub-Saharan Africa, the AP reported. GeoSentinel shares its information with health agencies so they can update travel recommendations and warnings. The database can also help guide doctors trying to diagnose sick patients who've just returned from a developing country. ----- Only One-Third of Americans Prepare Meals From Scratch While 75 percent of Americans eat dinner at home, only 33 percent prepare their meals from scratch, says an article in the current issue of the magazine Food Technology. The article also said that restaurant take-out is more popular than in- restaurant dining and that coffee is now the leading consumed breakfast food -- by 53 percent of Americans. In 2005, the average American ate 80 meals at restaurants, a decrease of 18 percent from 1985. Over that same period, restaurant take-home meals increased 72 percent to 57 meals per year. The article also said that 42 percent of adults purchase supermarket take-out food each month, an increase of 12 percent over the past two years. Other trends: Vegetable consumption is falling but fresh fruit is on the rebound after 14 years of decline. Fresh fruit is the leading snack for children ages 2 to 12. Italian food remains the most popular ethnic food, but Mexican is moving up fast. There are more Chinese restaurants in the United States than McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger Kings combined. ----- Attitudes Toward Overweight People Changing: U.S. Survey Being fat isn't as much of a social problem as it used to be in the United States. Over the past 20 years, the percentage of Americans who consider overweight people to be less attractive declined from 55 percent to 24 percent, says a survey by the market research firm NDP Group. The survey of 1,900 people also found other indications that people have more relaxed attitudes about weight and diet, the Associated Press reported. In 2005, 26 percent of people said they're trying to "avoid snacking entirely," compared with 45 percent in 1985. The survey also found that 75 percent of people surveyed last year said they had low-fat, no-fat, or reduced fat products during the previous two weeks, compared with 86 percent of respondents in 1999. In 1989, salads as a main course accounted for 10 percent of all restaurant meals. That dropped to 5.5 percent in 2005. However, the recent survey did find that many Americans do want to shed pounds. The new survey found that 61 percent of respondents said they'd like to lose 20 pounds, compared to 54 percent in 1985, the AP reported. The 2005 survey also found that obese girls and boys were half as likely to date as their normal weight peers. The findings will be published in February in the journal Rationality and Society. ----- Scientist Apologizes for Stem Cell Research Scandal Disgraced South Korean stem cell researcher Hwang Woo-Suk apologized Thursday but insisted that junior researchers were really to blame for fake findings published last year in the journal Science. Hwang said the human embryonic stem cell research was doctored without his knowledge and called for an investigation into the matter, the Washington Post reported. "I sincerely apologize to the nation and the international community for using erroneous data in the papers," Hwang told a news conference in Seoul. "I was responsible for going over the data thoroughly, and if I had done so, we would have been able to avoid this huge crisis." His apology comes two days after an academic panel at Seoul National University, where most of Hwang's team did its research, concluded that claims of extracting stem cells from cloned human embryos were faked. The research had been hailed as a breakthrough and gave hope to millions of people with incurable diseases. On Wednesday, the president of Seoul National University apologized for the scandal, calling it a "blemish on the whole scientific community, as well as our country" and a "criminal act in academia," the Post reported. ----- $1.5 Billion Needed to Fight Bird Flu: U.N. In order to fight bird flu and prepare for a possible human pandemic, international groups and poor nations need about $1.5 billion, according to the United Nations coordinator on avian and human influenza. Dr. David Nabarro said he was hopeful that countries will donate more than $1 billion next week in Beijing at the first international donors' conference to finance efforts to fight bird flu, the Associated Press reported. "Fingers-crossed, it's going to be a good-sized pledge. I think most of the countries are aware of the seriousness and the need to move money to poor countries," Nabarro said at a news conference Wednesday. The $1.5 billion figure he cited would only fund the start of efforts to fight bird flu and much more would be needed in the event of human pandemic, Nabarro said. Since 2003, bird flu has infected domestic bird flocks in 16 countries and 78 people have died of the disease. |