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News -02-23-03 Vaccine for AIDS Works (USA Today News - Sternberg) "Nearly two decades after the discovery of the AIDS virus, researchers Monday report for the first time that an AIDS vaccine can prevent infection but with sharply different success rates depending on race." "The first full-scale human trial of the vaccine, AIDSVAX, indicates that although the vaccine failed to protect whites and Hispanics, it appears to be effective in Asians and blacks. Blacks account for half of all new infections in the USA, federal statistics show." "Although the vaccine failed to provide protection overall, it was 78.3% effective in blacks and 68% effective in Asians." 2-03 01-16-03 Bush for Malpractice Caps (CBS) "President Bush renewed his proposal Thursday for nationwide limits on jury awards in injury cases: no more than $250,000 for pain and suffering and a similar cap on punitive damages." "Without the proposed limits, Mr. Bush said, 'excessive jury awards will continue to drive up insurance costs, will put good doctors out of business or run them out of your community and will hurt communities like Scranton, Pa. That's a fact.' " Some senators disagreed: " 'These proposed changes in law would deprive seriously injured patients of fair compensation and do nothing to guarantee that doctors could obtain malpractice insurance at a fair price,' said a letter sent to Mr. Bush Wednesday by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and three other Democratic senators.” " 'The truth is the insurance industry has done poorly in the market and is simply passing those costs on to doctors and patients,' [Senator] Edwards said. 'Evidence from 30 years shows that the things President Bush is proposing will do nothing to reduce the premiums that doctors pay.' " "Edwards called for stopping frivolous lawsuits and cracking down on the small percentage of doctors responsible for the majority of malpractice cases." 1-03 05-21-03 Florida Court Supports Tobacco Industry (Washington Times - Wilson) "A Florida appeals court erased a record $145 billion award against the tobacco industry yesterday, ruling that thousands of Florida smokers could not group themselves together for a class-action attack on cigarette makers." "The action came on the same day that more than 190 countries approved the first international treaty against smoking, including an advertising ban, aimed at kicking the global habit that kills nearly 5 million people a year." 06-26-03 Best Disease Prevention Found (Independent) A new polypill has been invented that is expected to be on the market within two years. "The polypill would contain aspirin to prevent blood clots, a statin to lower cholesterol, three blood-pressure lowering agents at half the standard dose and folic acid to lower homocysteine, which causes furring of the arteries. If given to everyone aged over 55, one in three people would gain from the treatment, surviving for an extra 12 years on average without a heart attack or stroke." " 'It would be acceptably safe and with widespread use would have a greater impact on the prevention of disease in the Western world than any other single intervention,' the authors say in the BMJ." 6-03 07-01-03 Obesity: Food Giant to Change Ways (Independent) Amid growing concern about the threat of fat-related lawsuits, the world's second biggest food manufacturer is to cut back on the fat and sugar content of most of its products and reduce the size of the portions." "Kraft...announced yesterday that it would overhaul its range of products around the world to make them less unhealthy. Many other food manufacturers are expected to follow suit - to avoid the risk of being sued by overweight consumers in the way that tobacco companies have been sued by smokers." 7-03 08-27-03 U.S. Drops Opposition to Cheap Drugs in Third World (Independent - Gumbel) "After two years of disputes the World Trade Organisation was poised to rubber stamp a deal, previously rejected by the United States, ensuring that poorer nations can import affordable generic drugs." 8-03 09-05-03 Small Children Die from Poverty (WashTimes.com) "The World Health Organization (WHO) says nearly 11 million children under age 5 die each year from easily preventable and cheaply cured diseases — including pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria and complications during the first year of life." "It costs just 2 cents for a six-month supply of vitamin A supplement, 15 cents for a five-day course of antibiotics to treat pneumonia and $15 to immunize a child against the six main childhood diseases, according to the U.S. Coalition for Child Survival."  "A bed net, treated to kill and repel malarial mosquitoes, costs less than $10." "The United States spent $1.7 billion on global health, education and population programs in 2001, according to rough calculations based on figures from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. France was the second-biggest spender, with $1.1 billion in aid, followed by Germany at $1 billion and Japan at nearly $800 million." " 'The child survival effort has lost its focus,' the Lancet article said, with 'levels of attention and effort directed at preventing the small proportion of child deaths due to AIDS with a new, complex and expensive intervention ... outstripping the efforts to save millions of children every year with a few cents' worth [of basic treatments]. This must change.' " "The World Health Organization reports that AIDS causes about 3 percent of child deaths. Deaths related to complications during the first month of life — often malnutrition — account for 23 percent, respiratory diseases (largely pneumonia) for 19 percent, diarrhea 13 percent and malaria 9 percent." 9-03 09-17-03 Bush and Bono Clash on AIDS Expenditures (CBS News) "Mr. Bush signed the Global AIDS Act in May that authorized $3 billion to fund global AIDS programs for 2004, but Congress has allocated only $2 billion. Both the president and members of Congress say developing countries wouldn't be able to make use of the extra money." "Bono said he's very angry but he's trying to calm down and get the president to open "America's wallet." 9-03 10-09-03 Cancer - Striking New Treatment (CBC News) "A major Canadian-led study has been stopped early because the drug being tested showed "striking" results in preventing breast cancer survivors from having a recurrence." In the study, women taking letrozole (also known as femara) had half as many recurrences of cancer as those women on a placebo." 10-03 11-25-03 Congress Approves Remake of Medicare (Bloomberg.com) "The U.S. Senate voted 54-44 to approve Medicare's biggest expansion in history, a bill designed to help the elderly pay for medicines and test competition between private and federal health insurance." "The legislation would help 41 million elderly and disabled Americans pay for prescriptions at pharmacies, expanding sales for drugmakers including Pfizer Inc. and Merck & Co." 11-03 11-25-03 Setback in War on Hunger (CNN News) "World hunger is growing again after a steady fall in the first half of the 1990s, according to the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization." 11-03 11-28-03 More Hungry This Year (CBS News) "...for the third year in a row, the number of hungry Americans has been rising. The government now says 35 million Americans don't know where their next meal is going to come from, and that number includes 13 million children." 11-03 12-01-03 AIDS - World Losing Battle with AIDS (BBC News) "The American Health Secretary, Tommy Thompson, has warned that the world is losing the fight against Aids." "Speaking in Zambia on World Aids Day, Mr Thompson called on the international community to intensify its efforts to combat the disease." "To mark the day, the United Nations unveiled ambitious plans to supply three million HIV sufferers with the drugs they need by the end of 2005." "An estimated 40 million people are now infected with HIV around the world." 12-03 12-01-03 Virtual Colonoscopy as Effective as Traditional Screening (Washington Post - Stein) "A 'virtual' colonoscopy catches pre-cancerous growths as reliably as the conventional physical exam, offering a less invasive way to avoid one of the top cancer killers, researchers reported today." "Colon cancer strikes an estimated 105,500 Americans each year and kills more than 57,000, making it the second leading cancer killer after lung cancer. But if caught early, colon cancer is highly curable. As a result, doctors recommend regular colonoscopies." 12-03 12-13-03 Colorectal Cancer - Vitamin D Protects Against (CNN News) "A diet rich in vitamin D appears to protect people from developing potentially cancerous growths in the colon, a study of more than 3,100 veterans found." 12-03 12-30-03 USDA Bans "Downer" Cows for Meat (USAToday.com) "Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman Tuesday announced a list of new restrictions to further enhance the safety of the American beef supply, including a meatpacking ban on the use of sick 'downer' cattle like the one discovered last week with mad cow disease." "She also announced bans against the use of small intestines and head and spinal tissue from older cattle in the U.S. food chain, as well as changes in slaughterhouse techniques with the aim of preventing accidental contamination of meat with cow nerve tissue. Mad cow disease is spread through such brain and spinal cord tissue." 12-03