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 Wed, Jul 15 1992 Date: Wed, 15 Jul 92 05:08:08 EDT Message-ID: 07-15 0000 DECISIONLINE: Health USA TODAY Update July 15, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network NICOTINE PATCHES UNDER SCRUTINY: A Food and Drug Administration committee decided Tuesday that there's not enough evidence to warrant more prominent warnings on nicotine patches. Consumer watchdog Public Citizen had asked for more visible notices that the patches be used only in a quit-smoking program and patients not smoke when wearing one. (For more, see special Patch package below.) AIDS MARCH DRAWS 10,000: Nearly 10,000 people participated in an AIDS march Tuesday in New York City. The message: AIDS is not a problem that concerns only gay men and drug abusers or, for that matter, only people with AIDS; when roughly 1 million people get infected with a deadly virus, more than 220,000 get fatally ill and more than 140,000 die, their families and friends suffer - and everyone ought to care. AIDS CONFERENCE STARTS SUNDAY: The Eighth International Conference on AIDS starts Sunday in Amsterdam. Activists at the meeting - which will attract more than 9,000 AIDS experts, including more than 3,200 from the USA - promise to raise a ruckus over inattention to women with AIDS, the high cost of some AIDS treatments and the U.S. immigration law, which restricts travel and immigration by HIV-infected people. DEMOCRATS PUSH HEALTH CARE: Democrats vowed Monday to make the lack of affordable health care a leading campaign issue against President George Bush and a top priority in Bill Clinton's administration. Democratic researchers said 37 million Americans cannot afford or get health insurance. Pre-natal care is unavailable to one in four pregnant women. DROWSY DRIVING CAN LEAD TO JAIL: Taking antihistamines while you're driving cannot only make you sleepy but also can land you in jail in 34 states, according to August's Good Housekeeping. And the fines can run as high as $5,000, with one year jail sentences in Alabama, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee and Virginia. SLUGGISH ECONOMY GOOD FOR SOME: The sluggish economy has slowed the rise of medical care costs, which rose just 0.4% in June from May, says the Bureau of Labor Statistics in its report on consumer prices. It was the smallest monthly increase since November 1988. Medical-care costs rose 7.5% the last 12 months, the bureau says. That's the slowest annual rate of growth since 1988 if it finished the year at that rate. FREE HEALTHCARE ADVICE OFERED: The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations is offering a series of brochures. There are five available - about hospitals, home care, ambulatory care, long-term care, or mental health care. Send a self-addressed business envelope, with two stamps, to "Helping You Choose ...," Joint Commission, One Renaissance Blvd., Oakbrook Terace, IL 60181. WHITES SMOKE MORE: Students are trying cigarette smoking in great numbers. A Department of Health and Human Services study shows seven in 10 high school students said they had tried cigarette smoking; 13% said they smoked frequently. The study shows whites smoke more than any other race; 15% of whites smoke frequently, compared to nearly 7% of Hispanics and 3% of blacks. DELEGATES TO RUN MOBILE UNIT: Several Vermont delegates to the Democratic National Convention will take a mobile medical unit for children to Harlem, N.Y., on Wednesday afternoon to raise public awareness on the need for health care. Doctors and other medical officers of the New York Children's Health Project will spend three hours promoting 100 Percent Health Care. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON PATCH: PATCH-WEARERS HAVE ATTACK: A Massachusetts hospital reported that five nicotine patch-wearing patients had suffered heart attacks after smoking. Overall, 33 people worldwide have reported heart problems while wearing the patch and smoking. About three million people have used or are using the nicotine-secreting patches in attempts to quit smoking. NO DATA SEEN: No scientific trials have found that wearing the patch and smoking results in adverse reactions, whereas it's well-documented that smokers suffer more heart risks. "We intuitively say it (smoking with a patch on) is wrong, but I don't see any data," says Dr. Theodore Cicero, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis. MARKETERS OPPOSE CHANGES: Patch marketers opposed the changes because they would have had to display the warnings within a box on printed information included with the drug. Prescription drugs with these "boxed warnings" cannot be advertised on TV. The warnings are currently in the information patients get. (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. 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