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Subject: health Mon, Aug 17 1992
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 92 04:19:44 EDT
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08-17 0000
DECISIONLINE: Health
USA TODAY Update
Aug. 17, 1992
Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network
    
MYSTERY ILLNESS DISCUSSED:
   Cases of people with weakened immunity but no sign of the AIDS 
virus is still puzzling to researchers. But those who attended a 
Friday meeting at the federal Centers for Disease Control in 
Atlanta say they doubt a new viral epidemic is at hand. 
Researchers have yet to find links suggesting transmission through 
blood or sex among 30 patients reported to CDC.
    
MOST STEPCHILDREN NOT DAMAGED:
   Most children are not psychologically damaged by divorce and 
remarriage, says an ongoing, government-sponsored study. In fact, 
80% do quite well in stepfamilies, researcher James Bray told the 
100th conference of American Psychological Association Saturday.  
"While these kids are at risk for problems, most are doing as well 
as children in nuclear families," says Bray.
(For more, see special Divorce package below.)
    
AIDS TREATMENT APPROVED:
   HemaCare Corp. says it has received approval from the 
California Department of Health to allow patients currently 
receiving a placebo to get its AIDS-fighting treatment. The 
treatment, called Passive Hyperimmune Therapy, consists of 
injecting plasma from healthy HIV-infected patients into AIDS 
patients with severely damaged immune systems.
    
AIDS PUT INTO REMISSION:
   HemaCare Corp.'s  AIDS therapy aims to "transplant" a working 
immune system into an AIDS patient. Six months of testing showed 
large injections of blood cells into HIV-infected patients 
contained the spread of the AIDS virus and enabled the body to 
fight off the early stages of infections. Results showed patients 
with half an immune system can be go into remission, say 
officials.
    
FDA PROBES IMPLANT PROBLEMS:
   Penile implants will get extra Food and Drug Administration 
scrutiny next year. U.S. News and World Report says a Freedom of 
Information Act request found more than 8,000 penile implant 
complaints to the FDA since 1984, making them among the top seven 
complaints. The agency plans to ask manufacturers for proof of 
safety and effectiveness.
    
ANGINA PATCH MAY CREATE HAZARD:
   Paramedics and emergency room doctors should watch out for 
transdermal patches before using electrical shock paddles to 
restart someone's heart. The problem lies in aluminized plastic 
that makes up the patch, which people with heart disease use to 
get a steady dose of nitroglycerin through the skin. Experts say 
an electrical arc can form between patch and paddle.
    
STREP BACTERIA'S GRIP UNLOCKED:
   Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have 
suggested a new way to explain how certain strep bacteria infect 
throat cells. Using Streptococcus pyogenes, the researchers showed 
it used tentacles to attach to throat cells and resist being 
dislodged by the body's defenses - coughing, sneezing, saliva. The 
discovery is a step in preventing millions of strep infections 
each year.
    
FDA MOTION ON BARR TO BE HEARD:
   The Food and Drug Administration's motion for a preliminary 
injunction against Barr Laboratories Inc. will begun being heard 
on Monday. The FDA wants to shut down Barr Laboratories' 
operations, saying the company used contaminated water to process 
antibiotics, distributed mislabeled and defective drugs and mixed 
foreign substances into its drugs.
    
BIRDS BEAR DOWN ON BEEF:
   More people are eating poultry - a healthier alternative to 
beef. The USDA reports people ate an average of 43 pounds of 
poultry per person in 1980. That jumped to 64 pounds in 1990. At 
the same time, beef, lamb and pork eating decreased from 127 
pounds per person in 1980 to 112 pounds in 1990.
    
SPECIAL PACKAGE ON DIVORCE:
    
STUDY `CLARIFIES' OTHER WORK:
   Findings of James Bray, a psychologist with Baylor College of 
Medicine, Houston, will fuel the controversy over the effects of 
divorce on kids. Bray says his work "clarifies" earlier, 
highly-publicized research, done without a control group, that 
found half of children of divorce damaged up to 10 years.
    
FRICTION COMES WITH AGE:
   Bray's work finds more friction in stepfamilies than nuclear 
families and that tensions worsen with time. But "there is more 
negative interaction between parents and children in all families 
as kids move deeper into adolescence." Over four years, Bray 
evaluated 99 nuclear and 99 stepfamilies. The children entered a 
stepfamily between 6 and 8 and were 6 to 14 at the study's start.
    
GIRLS `MORE CONCERNED':
   Among Bray's findings: 90% of kids in intact families were 
doing well psychologically; so were 80% of kids in stepfamilies; 
girls don't have more problems than boys in stepfamilies, but 
girls "seem to react to conflict with more concern"; and couples 
in first marriages and remarried couples both say they're happy; 
but researchers found remarried couples interacted more 
negatively.
(End of package.)
    
Health Editor: Michele Coleman. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of 
USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution 
violates federal law.
    

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