Health News Briefs

[Guest guest]

KIDS GET MEDICAL PROTECTION WITH NEW PROGRAM

There's a new plan in town to protect kids with special health

conditions. MedicAlert Foundation of Los Angeles has launched MedicAlert

Kidsmart. The service helps parents, school nurses, health care providers

and emergency workers to know how to react to a specific child's needs in an

emergency. The objective of membership in the non-profit group is to help

kids with food allergies, asthma, diabetes, autism and other conditions in

medical emergencies. MedicAlert's 24-hour Emergency Response Center and the

emblem worn on the wrist are used to identify kids and reunite them with

their families if they are lost or in an emergency. The emblem carries a

unique identification number, not the member's name, so a child's privacy is

protected. " Our new campaign may seem a bit of a departure for those who

associate MedicAlert with older adults, " said chief executive officer

Glazebrook, " but it's actually consistent with our heritage. The very first

MedicAlert member was the young daughter of our founders, and a large

segment of our current membership is under 18. We're determined to protect

any child who might have a need, which today means just about everyone. "

SCIENTISTS DETERMINE STRUCTURE OF DENGUE FEVER VIRUS

Scientists at the California Institute of Technology and Purdue

University have determined the structure of the virus that causes dengue

fever. The advance could lead to improved strategies for devising a vaccine

to protect against the illness that causes 20,000 deaths each year.

Reporting in the journal Cell, Caltech biology professor Strauss, lead

author Kuhn of Purdue and Rossman and Baker of

Purdue describe the structure of the virus they obtained with a cryoelectron

microscope. The electron-density map shows the inner RNA core of the virus

and the spherical layers that cover it. This is the first time the structure

of one of the flaviviruses has been described, Strauss said. Flaviviruses

include the yellow fever, West Nile, tick-borne encephalitis and Japanese

encephalitis viruses. Dengue fever is a mosquito-spread disease first

isolated in the 1940s. A worldwide health problem, the disease is found

throughout Latin America, the Caribbeans, Southeast Asia and India, and is

currently at epidemic levels in Hawaii.

BRAIN DEFECTS FOUND IN SCHIZOPHRENIA PATIENTS

Researchers have found people with schizophrenia have brain regions with

far less gray matter than do their identical twins and the population at

large. The University of California, Los Angeles, researchers used a novel

three-dimensional mapping technique in the study, said Tyrone Cannon,

Staglin Family Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry and Biobehavioral

Sciences and Human Genetics. The affected brain regions are those that

integrate, interpret and organize information, the authors said in the

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. " We are all bombarded with

information, but we can organize it and create coherence, " Cannon said.

" Typically, we shut a lot of things out. Schizophrenia patients, however,

have fewer connections in regions of the brain that synthesize all of the

sounds we receive and information we process. They have great difficulty

sorting out information and lack the ability to selectively focus and

organize knowledge. We have found that while schizophrenia patients appear

not to have fewer neurons in the brain, the neurons make weaker connections

in regions that synthesize information. The reduction in gray matter is

highly concentrated to these critical convergence areas. "

PREVENTING POISONINGS

This is National Poison Prevention Week. Rose Ann Soloway, associate

director of the American Association of Poison Control Centers says 500,000

children were exposed to a medication poisoning last year alone. That's more

than the combined number of kinds injured in U.S. playgrounds and in car

accidents in a year. More than one in three exposures to poisons of children

under age six involved a medication. That's more than exposures to household

cleaning solutions, pesticides and plants combined. Three billion

prescriptions were written last year, so it is more importrant that ever to

be especially careful about children's potential exposure to medicines that

could harm them, Soloway said. Some of the most dangerous substances cited

in accidental poison exposure cases in children included common adult

medications for diabetes, cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure

that are found in thousands of homes. Soloway cautioned there are

similarities between numerous medications and common foods. " With more

medications in the home than ever before, it's more important than ever to

educate anyone who cares for a child, whether it's a parent or grandparent,

on the dangers of medication poisonings and how to prevent them, " Soloway

said.

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Copyright 2002 by United Press International.

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