Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.health From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: health Mon, Jun 15 1992 Date: Mon, 15 Jun 92 05:41:48 EDT Message-ID: 06-15 0000 DECISIONLINE: Health USA TODAY Update June 15, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network VACCINE FIGHTS LYME DISEASE: A genetically engineered vaccine delivers a double-whammy against Lyme disease, raising hopes for both a vaccine to protect humans and the eventual reduction of the bacteria that causes it. The vaccine was found to protect mice against the disease while also knocking it out of the ticks that carry it, says a report in the current Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (For more, see special Lyme package below.) FTC TO RESTRICT WEIGHT LOSS ADS: Commercial weight loss programs will soon have to back up claims made in advertising with hard data to meet new Federal Trade Commission ad standards. Barry Cutler of the FTC says if a program says, for example, that once the weight is off the person will be able to keep it off, they'll have to prove it. Critics say too many diet ads base their claims on anecdotes, not scientific studies. CLAIMS WILL HAVE TO BE PROVED: Forthcoming standards for claims made by commercial weight loss programs in their ads will be similar to those for medically supervised liquid diets, says Barry Cutler of the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC has told Optifast, Medifast and Ultrafast to stop advertising about safety and long-term success unless claims could be proved, and make clear that many people regain weight. LAWYER SAYS FIRMS ARE AT FAULT: Steven Phillips, a New York lawyer who represents 37 plaintiffs in a case involving repetitive stress injuries, said computer firms ignored evidence that the spaces between keys are excessive, forcing people to twist their wrists while typing. To avoid RSI, experts recommend that computer users keep their forearms parallel to the floor and that the top of computer screens be at eye level. DRUGS TO BE SOLD BY SEARS: Allscrips Pharmaceuticals says it will begin selling prescription drugs by mail in the Sears fall catalog and a Sears specialty catalog for health care. The 10,000 drugs offered will be geared toward maintenance medications for chronic health problems such as high blood pressure and heart disease, says James Zilka, Allscrips chief financial officer. DAY CARE TO BE DISCUSSED: Major health groups begin a meeting Monday to discuss the health problems of children in day care programs. "Day care outside the home has changed the patterns of disease," says David Addiss, Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta. CDC and a dozen other groups meet through Wednesday for the first International Conference on Child Day Care Health. WIRELESS HEART BEING DEVELOPED: A wireless artificial heart has kept a calf alive for 2 1:2 months, encouraging researchers' hopes of implanting the device in humans in the next decade. It was developed at the Pennsylvania State Medical Center in Hershey. Other electric heart models require wires poking through the patients' skin and tethered to a battery pack. PROCEDURE HELPS STUDY ALZHEIMER'S: Researchers have developed a way to study Alzheimer's disease in the lab without using a living animal. They combine brain tissue from dead Alzheimer's patients and synthethic peptide, which is found in brains of Alzheimer's sufferers. Researchers have been able to mimic the peptide's accumulation in the brain, they report in Monday's Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. INFO ON BABY SUNPROOFING OUT: The Skin Cancer Foundation is offering a free brochure on how to protect babies from the damaging effect of the sun. It includes information on how to choose and apply the right sunscreen. To receive a copy of "Sunproofing Your Baby," write to: The Skin Cancer Foundation, Box 561, Department SP, New York, N.Y. 10156. CORRECTION: A item in Friday's Health decisionline should have given the increase in death rates from prostate cancer from 1980 to 1988 as 7.5% among white men, 5.9% among black men. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON LYME: OSPA PROTEIN WORKS ON MICE: Researchers have found that a protein called OspA protects mice against Lyme disease while also knocking it out of the ticks that carry it. The next step, says researcher Erol Fikrig of Yale University School of Medicine, is clinical trials to see if the same procedure would be effective in humans. If so, he predicts a vaccine could be available in fewer than five years. VACCINE COULD WIPE OUT DISEASE: Lyme disease, which is spread by tiny deer ticks, is the most common tick-borne illness reported in the country. It causes severe symptoms of arthritis, but doctors say early treatment with antibiotics is usually effective. New research "suggests that if you're able to vaccinate animals, you may be able to ... diminish the disease in natural environments," says Fikrig. 30 MICE ARE INOCULATED: In a study reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of researchers from Yale and Harvard inoculated 30 mice with OspA and 26 with a placebo, then placed ticks infected with the bacteria that causes Lyme disease on all mice. After two weeks, blood samples showed the vaccinated mice were free of the bacteria, while half in the control group were infected. ANTIBODIES KILL THE BACTERIA: When the ticks were examined, researchers found that none of those that fed on the vaccinated mice carried the bacteria, while 29 of the 40 ticks exposed to the control group remained infected. When ticks fed on the inoculated mice, Fikrig says, they ingested the antibodies that protected the mice. "It's likely the antibodies kill the (bacteria) in the ticks," he says. (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. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM