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Subject: health Fri, Jun 12 1992
Date: Fri, 12 Jun 92 05:19:42 EDT
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06-12 0000
DECISIONLINE: Health
USA TODAY Update
June 12-14, 1992
Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network
    
PROGRAMS PREVENT RETARDATION:
   Mental retardation in poor children can be reduced up to 50% 
through intensive education and health programs begun in infancy, 
says a study to be released Friday. Findings show "we can make a 
difference," says study co-author Craig T. Ramey of the University 
of Alabama, Birmingham. They studied more than 1,000 children.
(For more, see special Education package below.)
    
GENE THERAPY HAS PROMISE:
   A technique that kills brain tumors in rats shows promise for 
treating otherwise incurable brain cancer in humans. Researchers 
at the National Institutes of Health used the gene-therapy 
technique to cure 11 of 14 rats, says a report in Friday's issue 
of Science. They're so encouraged that they plan to start human 
trials by late summer.
    
SURGEONS ARE WAITING FOR OK:
   Surgeons at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders 
and Stroke are awaiting approval to try a new gene-therapy 
technique on 20 people with brain cancer who have no other hope. 
But, says Dr. Zvi Ram, "We have no way of predicting how effective 
this will be. We don't want to create false hope."
    
PROSTATE CANCER CLAIMS MORE:
   The number of men, particularly black men, who die from 
prostate cancer continued to rise from 1980 to 1988, says a 
Centers for Disease Control report out Thursday. Deaths among 
black men increased 5.7%, compared with 2.5% among white men. 
Blacks have fewer cancer screenings and less access to more 
expensive and sophisticated tests and treatment, says CDC's Ron 
Aubert.
    
HEALTH-CARE CRISIS HITS BLACKS:
   The health-care crisis is especially hard on blacks, said 
speakers Thursday at a conference sponsored by the Joint Center 
for Political and Economic Studies. Examples: Black Americans' 
average lifespan is 69 years, six years less than whites'; and 
black infants are twice as likely as white infants to die before 
their first birthdays.
    
BAPTISTS CONDEMN GIVING CONDOMS:
   Citing what they termed the "dangerous myth of safe sex" in the 
age of AIDS, Southern Baptists condemned the distribution of 
condoms in schools Thursday, the final day of the their three-day 
annual meeting. Several urban school systems have begun passing 
out condoms, primarily as a way of reducing the risk of AIDS 
transmission.
    
TRANSPLANT PATIENT AWAKE:
   A British girl who went to Pittsburgh for a potentially 
life-saving organ transplant was awake, alert and off her 
respirator Thursday after receiving a new liver and small 
intestine Wednesday. Well-wishers around the world raised $645,000 
to fund treatment for Laura Davies, 4.
    
PRISONERS WITH AIDS SPEAK OUT:
   The 173 inmates at Limestone Correctional Facility in Athens, 
Ala., who are HIV-positive or have AIDS vowed to go on a hunger 
strike Monday if conditions don't improve. They complained in a 
letter to state Prison Commissioner Morris Thigpen that they are 
housed "like animals being held for slaughter."
    
CHARLESTON TO GET NEW FACILITY:
   Officials in Charleston, W. Va., are hoping to start building a 
$25.6 million facility on July 1 to replace Weston State Hospital. 
Gov. Gaston Caperton told Judge A. Andrew MacQueen - who'll rule 
on whether to replace the hospital or move patients to a community 
setting - that each day of delay costs the state in payments to 
bond holders.
    
SPECIAL PACKAGE ON EDUCATION:
    
IQ SCORES WERE HIGHER:
   The IQ scores of children nurtured with intensive education and 
health programs from infancy to age 3 averaged 20 points higher 
than a control group in a study co-authored by Craig T. Ramey of 
the University of Alabama, Birmingham. Ninety-five percent of 
those in early intervention scored in the normal IQ range, 
compared to 49% in the control group.
    
5 DAYS PER WEEK SPENT AT CENTER:
   Early intervention in the study included five days a week in a 
child development center. The research was sponsored by the 
National Health:Education Consortium, a coalition of private and 
federal agencies including the U.S. Department of Education and 
the National Institute of Child and Human Development.
    
FINDS SIMILAR IN OTHER STUDY:
   Ramey conducted another study that involved 86 youngsters. The 
results were similar. Those in that early intervention group 
scored an average of 10 IQ points higher than the control group. 
And 23% in the intervention group had IQ scores less than 75; 47% 
of the control group did. An IQ score of at least 85 is "normal"; 
70 or below is considered mentally retarded.
(End of package.)
    
Health Editor: Ed Kelleher. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA 
TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates 
federal law.
    

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