FDA Changes its Story on BPA After More Tests
January 19, 2010
Washington Post
by Lyndsey Layton
The Food and Drug Administration has reversed its position on the safety of Bisphenol A, a chemical found in plastic bottles, soda cans, food containers and thousands of consumer goods, saying it now has concerns about health risks.
Growing scientific evidence has linked the chemical to a host of problems, including cancer, sexual dysfunction and heart disease. Federal officials said they are particularly concerned about BPA’s effect on the development of fetuses, infants and young children.
“We have some concern, which leads us to recommend reasonable steps the public can take to reduce exposure to BPA,” said Joshua Sharfstein, FDA’s deputy commissioner, in a conference call to reporters Friday.
Regulators stopped short of banning the compound or even requiring manufacturers to label products containing BPA, saying that current data are not clear enough to support a legal crackdown. FDA officials also said they were hamstrung from dealing quickly with BPA by an outdated regulatory framework.
Sharfstein said the agency is conducting “targeted” studies of BPA, part of a two-year, $30 million effort by the administration to answer key questions about the chemical that will help determine what action, if any, is necessary to protect public health. The Obama administration pledged to take a “fresh look” at the chemical.
BPA, used to harden plastics, is so prevalent that more than 90 percent of the U.S. population has traces of it in its urine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers have found that BPA leaches from containers into food and beverages, even at cold temperatures.
The FDA’s announcement came after extensive talks between federal agencies and the White House about the best approach to an issue that has become a significant concern for consumers and the chemical industry.
One administration official privy to the talks said the FDA is in a quandary. “They have new evidence that makes them worried, but they don’t have enough proof to justify pulling the stuff, so what do you do?” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “You want to warn people, but you don’t want to create panic.”
The FDA had long maintained that BPA is safe, relying largely on two studies funded by the chemical industry. The agency was faulted by its own panel of independent science advisers in 2008, which said its position on BPA was scientifically flawed because it ignored more than 100 published studies by government scientists and university laboratories that raised health concerns about BPA. Recent data found health effects even at low doses of BPA — lower than the levels considered safe by the FDA.
Beware of H1N1 Phishing Scam
December 2, 2009
FierceGovernmentIT
by Judi
It’s becoming the oldest trick in the book. Hackers send out what looks like legitimate email when it’s not. The Centers for Disease Control just became its latest victim.
The email looked like it came from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention inviting you to create a profile for an H1N1 vaccine program. Sounds like a good idea, right? Not really. It’s a malware scam, according to security provider AppRiver.
A link in the email then goes to a fake CDC page where the visitor is assigned a temporary ID and a link to a vaccination profile that actually is an executable file containing a copy of the Kryptik Trojan targeting Windows. If installed, the Trojan will create a security-free gateway on the system, allowing additional malware to be downloaded and installed without your authorization.
In addition, a remote hacker will be able to take control of your computer, stealing your data from your computer, including details like your credit card information and website passwords.
AppRiver says it is seeing the fake CDC emails at a rate of nearly 18,000 messages per minute, reaching more than 1 million in the first hour alone.
Fake government emails are becoming a huge problem, many IT experts say. And there is no easy way for the government or consumers to fight off hackers masquerading as legitimate government communications. The federal government, however, has an obligation to stop these fakes when they find them and derail the hackers who are pretending to be official.
Two Thirds of Chickens Carry Bacteria
November 30, 2009
ABC News
by Anne-Marie Dorning
The bad news from a new study is that two thirds of store-bought chicken was found to be contaminated with potentially harmful bacteria. The good news is that, believe it or not, the numbers are better than two years ago, when eight out of 10 chickens were found to contain pathogens like salmonella and campylobacter.
The study, to be published in the upcoming issue of Consumer Reports, tested 382 broiler chickens bought from 100 stores around the country. Some brand-name chickens — Tyson and Foster Farms — fared poorly, with salmonella and campylobacter found in more than 80 percent of the samples. Perdue chickens did a little better — 56 percent of chickens tested were found to be free of both pathogens. According to the study, organic “air-chilled” broilers seemed to be a consumer’s best bet because 60 percent of those chickens checked in bacteria-free.
Estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say more than a million people have salmonella poisoning every year from a variety of causes. About 25,000 people get so sick they seek treatment at a hospital and about 500 people die every year. Symptoms of an infection generally show up 5-7 days after contamination and can include diarrhea, stomach cramping and fever.
The news that everyday store-bought chickens can be contaminated with harmful bacteria drew a loud “ewww” from several moms shopping for chickens at a local supermarket in Ashland, Mass.
Linda Epstein said she was looking for a broiler chicken to feed her family of four because “it’s easy to make and my fussy kids will actually eat chicken.”
Epstein said she had “no idea” that campylobacter and salmonella could be present in such a high percentage of chickens. “It really kind of makes me sick to my stomach just thinking about it,” she said.
Consumer Reports: Chicken Laced with Bacteria
As you might imagine, those words are not music to the ears of the major chicken distributors.
Tyson Foods provided a statement to ABCNews.com calling into question the testing methods of Consumer Reports. “We have confidence in the safety of our chicken but not in the testing by Consumer Reports. Since the Consumer Reports study only confirms the presence of bacteria and not the number it is not a true indication of the safety of our products&the small sample size is also a concern.”
A statement also detailed the company’s efforts to increase the safety of its poultry operations which include “the use of antimicrobial rinses, similar to those used in mouthwashes, as well as organic acids.”
The National Chicken Council released a statement that said, “Chicken is safe. Like all fresh foods, raw chickens may have some microorganisms present, but these are destroyed by the heat of normal cooking.”
But the problem with food-borne bacteria is not just in the cooking. Often an infection can occur because of unsafe washing and handling practices in the kitchen.
Swine Flu Contracted by Cat
November 4, 2009
USA Today
The U.S. Department of Agriculture and Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine confirmed that a 13-year-old cat whose owners had experienced flu-like symptoms contracted H1N1 (swine) flu.
“This may be the first instance where we have documentation that transmission occurred involving cats or dogs,” CDC spokesman Tom Skinner told the Associated Press.
The cat’s symptoms included:
Lethargy
Difficulty breathing
Loss of appetite
Though influenza is known to cross species, we’ve seen that less with this strain, though it’s been confirmed in birds and ferrets. In fact, many veterinarians have been telling clients that transmission from humans to cats and dogs or vice versa is beyond unlikely. This cat changes that.
To protect your pets, experts suggest taking the same precautions you would to prevent spreading the flu to other people, including getting the vaccine, wearing a mask, keeping some distance and washing your hands.
Bioterrorism Vaccine in Soldiers Causing Illness
November 03, 2009
NaturalNews
by: David Gutierrez, staff writer
Approximately 200 soldiers have suffered from serious and even life-threatening complications from the government-mandated smallpox vaccine, and one has even died.
Starting in 2002, fears over a bioterrorist attack have led the U.S. government to require that all of its military servicepeople receive vaccination against a variety of diseases before deployment, including anthrax and smallpox. An estimated 1.7 million have been vaccinated against smallpox since then. Yet in a number of cases, the vaccine has led to severe complications such as inflammations of the brain or heart. In 2003, two expert panels concluded that Army Specialist Rachel Ray died in part due to complications from the deployment vaccines that she had been given.
“The reality is, we’re never going to have zero risk on a vaccine,” said Dr. Michael Kilpatrick of the Military Health System. “There’s always going to be that individual that has some untoward event that would occur.”
Awareness of the risks over the vaccine has prevented the government from requiring vaccination of civilians.
One potential side effect is infection with the virus used in the vaccine, a condition known as progressive vaccinia. Back when smallpox vaccination was widespread, the infection had a 15 percent fatality rate.
In a recent case, Lance Cpl. Cory Belken began to suffer from a persistent headache and unusual sleepiness one week after receiving the smallpox vaccine. He was diagnosed with acute myelogenous, which was destroying his circulatory system, and was immediately placed on chemotherapy.
The cancer treatment destroyed his immune system, leading to progressive vaccinia and no fewer than two infections with antibiotic-resistant bacteria. He broke out in a rash, had spreading vaccinia lesions all over his body, became delirious with a fever of 104.6 degrees, and began to suffer from organ failure.
Treating Belken required 30 times the dose of Vaccinia Immune Globulin that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has previously assumed would be needed for a single person.
Belken’s family said that the leukemia would have been enough for their family to deal with, without vaccine complications on top of it.
“I think it’s a big chance they’re taking giving them the shots,” his mother said.
Children Unknowingly Exposed to TB by Doctor
November 3,2009
NaturalNews
by David Gutierrez, staff writer
A doctor-in-training unknowingly exposed hundreds of patients, including children and infants, to tuberculosis (TB), the Chicago Public Health Department has announced.
A 26-year-old pediatric resident from Northwestern University has been diagnosed with active tuberculosis, raising the possibility that she might have infected patients at the three hospitals where she had worked between November and March — Northwestern, Children’s Memorial and Evanston.
“She did have some time when she was contagious at those three institutions,” said the health department’s chief medical officer, Susan Gerber. “We are researching the different days and different places that she has been during the time that she would have been contagious.”
TB is a highly contagious bacterial disease that can be fatal if left untreated. People may carry the bacteria for long periods of time without developing the active form of the disease and becoming contagious. Symptoms of active infection include coughing, chills, fever, night sweats and weight loss.
A person with an active infection can pass the disease to others simply by coughing near them or having a conversation with them. According to infectious disease specialist Carlos Perez-Valdez of the National Jewish Hospital in Denver, however, unless the doctor was actually coughing while in the same room as patients, “there would be a very low risk” of infecting them.
While infected with TB, the resident worked with at least 300 adult co-workers and 150 children and infant patients — including 17 newborns — at Children’s Memorial Hospital. She is also believed to have exposed 80 patients at the Evanston Hospital infant care unit.
It generally takes extended contact to infect another person with TB, but children, infants and pregnant women are considered especially vulnerable to the disease.
The doctor’s disease appears to be responding well to treatment, suggesting that it is not a drug-resistant strain.
Drug-resistant tuberculosis is considered a major emerging global public health threat.
CDC Study Links 2 Antibiotics to Birth Defects
November 2, 2009
Associated Press
by Carla K. Johnson
Researchers studying antibiotics in pregnancy have found a surprising link between common drugs used to treat urinary infections and birth defects. Reassuringly, the most-used antibiotics in early pregnancy — penicillins — appear to be the safest.
Bacterial infections themselves can cause problems for the fetus if left unchecked, experts said, so pregnant women shouldn’t avoid antibiotics entirely. Instead, women should discuss antibiotics choices with their doctors.
The new study is the first large analysis of antibiotic use in pregnancy. It found that mothers of babies with birth defects were more likely than mothers with healthy babies to report taking two types of antibiotics during pregnancy: sulfa drugs (brand names include Thiosulfil Forte and Bactrim) and urinary germicides called nitrofurantoins (brand names include Furadantin and Macrobid).
It was the first time an association had been seen between urinary tract treatments and birth defects, said lead author Krista Crider, a geneticist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which funded the research. “Additional studies are going to need to be done to confirm these findings.”
Used for many decades, the antibiotics in question predate the Food and Drug Administration and its requirements for rigorous safety testing. The FDA now grades all drugs for safety to the fetus based on available research, but rigorous studies are so lacking in many cases, that no antibiotics get the highest grade of “A.”
Sulfa drugs are the oldest antibiotics and some animal studies have found harm during pregnancy. Nitrofurantoins previously have been viewed by doctors as safe to treat urinary tract infections during pregnancy.
The study, appearing in November’s Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, may cause doctors to change the drugs they choose to treat pregnant women with infections. The findings were released Monday.
Dr. Susan Mehnert-Kay, a family practice doctor in Tulsa, Okla., who has written about diagnosing and managing urinary tract infections, said the research is “very interesting” and would cause her to reconsider antibiotic choices in early pregnancy.
The study is important because it looked at drugs that have been used for decades without large studies of their safety in pregnant women, said Dr. Michael Katz of the March of Dimes.
“Some physicians are not as attuned to this as they ought to be, so patients have the right to ask questions,” Katz said.
The researchers analyzed data from more than 13,000 mothers whose infants had birth defects and nearly 5,000 women who lived in the same regions with healthy babies.
The women were interviewed by phone from six weeks to two years after their pregnancies. Those who remembered taking antibiotics during the month before conception through the first three months of pregnancy were identified as exposed to antibiotics.
The women’s memories could have been faulty, a substantial weakness of the study, which the authors acknowledged. About one-third of the women who took antibiotics couldn’t remember the specific type of drug they took.
It’s also unclear whether the birth defects were caused by the drugs or by the underlying infections being treated, Crider said.
Birth defects linked to sulfa drugs included rare brain and heart problems, and shortened limbs. Those linked to nitrofurantoins (ny-troh-fyoor-AN’-toyns) included heart problems and cleft palate. The drugs seemed to double or triple the risk, depending on the defect.
“These defects are rare. Even with a threefold increase in risk, the risk for the individual is still quite low,” Crider said.
Katz of the March of Dimes said anencephaly, a fatal brain problem linked to sulfas, affects about 1 in 10,000 births in the United States. Cleft palate occurs about 20 per 10,000 births.
Crider said the findings give doctors another opportunity to caution against overuse of antibiotics. Viral illnesses like colds and flus shouldn’t be treated with antibiotics, she said.
Women in 10 states, including California, Texas and New York, were interviewed as part of the National Birth Defects Prevention Study.
The FDA recommends that pregnant women discuss medications with their doctors, said FDA spokeswoman Sandy Walsh. The agency has proposed changes to prescription drug labeling that would require more complete information for women of childbearing age, pregnant women and those who breastfeed, Walsh said.
Beef Recall: E. Coli Kills Two
November 2,2009
Reuters
* CDC says total of 28 cases, 16 hospitalizations
* All but three cases are in U.S. Northeast
* Illness connected to recall of Fairbank Farms beef (Details on New York death; paragraphs 1, 3, 8 new)
An outbreak of food-borne illness, linked to dangerous bacteria in ground beef, sickened 28 people and may have caused two deaths in the U.S. Northeast, health officials said on Monday.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said all but three of the illnesses were in the Northeast and 18 were in the six New England states. A common strain of E. coli bacteria was involved so tests were under way to see if all of the reported cases have the same cause.
State officials said a death in New Hampshire was linked to the ground beef that is being recalled by Fairbank Farms of Ashville, New York. The New York State Health Department said a death in the Albany area from E. coli O157:H7 bacteria was being investigated to see if it is linked.
New Hampshire officials did not release information about the death in their state. The death in New York state last month involved an adult with underlying medical conditions, said the CDC. Two people were hospitalized in New Hampshire.
Fairbank Farms announced the recall on Saturday of 545,699 lbs (248,450 kg) of fresh ground beef products. The beef was produced in mid-September and probably was labeled for sale by the end of the month, said USDA.
The Agriculture Department, which oversees meat safety, said an investigation led it to conclude “there is an association between the fresh ground beef products and illnesses in Connecticut, Maine and Massachusetts.” USDA worked with state and federal officials in examining a cluster of E. coli O157:H7 illnesses.
A potentially deadly bacteria, E. coli can cause bloody diarrhea, dehydration and, in severe cases, kidney failure. The very young, the elderly and people with weak immune systems are the most susceptible to foodborne illness.
USDA said it would examine Fairbank Farms’ food safety plan this week.
A string of food-borne safety scares led the U.S. House of Representatives to pass legislation this summer to require more inspections and oversight of food manufacturers and would give the government new authority to order recalls.
The Fairbank Farms beef went to retailers including Trader Joe’s, Price Chopper, Lancaster and Wild Harvest, Shaw’s, a unit of Supervalu, BJ’s, Ford Brothers and Giant, a unit of Ahold , in eight states — Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
CDC: Swine Flu Infects 5.7 Million in First Wave
October 29, 2009
Bloomberg
By Jason Gale
Swine flu may have infected as many as 5.7 million people in an initial wave that swept across the U.S. earlier this year, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Harvard School of Public Health said.The number of swine flu patients in the U.S. in spring may have been up to 140 times greater than the reported number of confirmed cases, according to a study published in the CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases yesterday. A model used by the researchers to extrapolate total cases suggests 1.8 million to 5.7 million infections occurred from April to July.
More than 414,945 people worldwide have caught the new H1N1 strain since the first influenza pandemic virus in 41 years was discovered in Mexico and the U.S. in April, according to World Health Organization data. The tally is “significantly lower than the actual number of cases that have occurred,” the Geneva-based WHO says, because many countries have stopped counting individual cases, particularly of milder illness.
“Relying on laboratory-confirmed cases limits the ability to understand the full impact and severity of the epidemic, especially when severe cases are more likely to be recognized,” Carrie Reed and colleagues at the CDC and Harvard’s Marc Lipsitch wrote. “Health systems and infrastructure may be unprepared in the short-term if plans are based on a number of confirmed cases.”
The fast-moving pandemic spread to 177 countries in four months, yet causes little more than a fever and a cough in the majority of cases. Flu activity is now widespread in 46 U.S., states in a second, fall wave, the CDC said on Oct. 23.
Visits to doctors for influenza-like illness are “increasing steeply and are now higher than what is seen at the peak of many regular flu seasons,” the agency in Atlanta said.
14,000 Hospitalizations
Using their so-called multiplier model, Reed and colleagues estimated that every reported case of pandemic H1N1 flu may represent 79 total cases, for a median estimate of 3 million symptomatic cases and 14,000 hospitalizations in the U.S.
They calculated that the total number of hospitalized H1N1 patients may be about 2.7 times higher than reported. While they didn’t use the model to estimate mortality during the first four months of the pandemic, the researchers said that if deaths and hospitalizations are underreported to the same extent, about 800 fatal cases might have occurred. That compares with 302 laboratory-confirmed fatalities nationwide through July 23.
CDC Downplays Vaccine Risks
October 12, 2009 by JP
Filed under Government
October 12, 2009
MyWay
By Associated Press
A top U.S. health official says the risks from not getting the swine flu vaccine are greater than any potential risks associated with the vaccine.
Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says she’s surprised by all the misinformation going around about the new vaccine. She says a good safety record from past vaccines bodes well for the swine flu vaccine now becoming available.
Schuchat says there’s no problem associated with getting shots for both the swine flu and seasonal flu on the same day. But health officials recommend a three-week period between receiving the nasal versions of the vaccines.
Schuchat says vaccines remain the best way to protect children and adults from both strains of flu.
She appeared Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Click here for the full report.
