7/02 Viagra For Kids Report: CDC Off on Infection Deaths 6-Year-Old Boy Gets Prozac in Mail Multiple Prescriptions Study: Type of knee surgery doesn't work Dairy Queen Introducing Irradiated Beef Minnesota Clinic Warns of Ruined Vaccines Viagra For Kids http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/07/23/health/main516023. shtml LONDON, July 23, 2002 Doctors are giving infants and babies the anti-impotence drug Viagra to save them from a life-threatening lung condition even though it has not been tested on children, a magazine said Tuesday. The drug, produced by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, has already been used to treat a small number of children with pulmonary hypertension in India, the United States, Canada and Britain with promising results. "Critics have expressed serious concern at the fact that no clinical trials have taken place for this use of the drug and at the wide variation in doses used," New Scientist magazine said in its online version. Although the drug is approved for the treatment of impotence, doctors have found that it helps babies suffering from PHT, which affects 28,000 children and 250,000 adults in the United States alone. The magazine said adults with PHT were already being enrolled in clinical trials of the drug. Studies on children could start in the next few months. A spokesman for Pfizer said the company was considering using the drug to treat PHT, but could not comment on any clinical trails. "We are seriously looking into the use of Viagra for PHT," he told Reuters. *** Report: CDC Off on Infection Deaths 103,000 Deaths Linked to Hospital Infections in 2000, 75 Percent Preventable, Newspaper Says http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Living/ap20020721_1080.html The Associated Press About 103,000 deaths were linked to hospital infections in 2000 a figure 14 percent higher than government estimates and nearly 75 percent of the deaths were preventable, the Chicago Tribune reported. The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year calculated 90,000 deaths in 2000 were linked to hospital infections, the fourth leading cause of death in the United States behind heart disease, cancer and strokes. *** 6-Year-Old Boy Gets Prozac in Mail Fri Jul 19, 7:57 PM ET http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=534&ncid=534&e=13 &u=/ap/20020719/ ap_on_he_me/prozac_mailings_2 By THERESA AGOVINO, AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) - A 16-year-old boy was among southern Florida residents who received unsolicited samples of the antidepressant drug Prozac in the mail in a much-criticized and highly unorthodox marketing campaign. "I was livid," said the boy's mother, Sue Grinstead of Palm Beach. "My son knew enough not to take it, but what about the other kids?" A spokesman for the Walgreen Co. drugstore chain, Michael Polzin, confirmed the family's account that a month's supply of Prozac was sent to 16-year-old Michael Grinstead. He said the boy's name was among others sent by a local doctors' office to a Walgreen's in Palm Beach with instructions to send them the drug *** Multiple Prescriptions Fri Jul 12,11:50 PM ET http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=97&ncid=97&e=18&u =/hsn/20020713/ hl_hsn/multiple_prescriptions (HealthScoutNews) -- If you ever wondered why that line at your local pharmacy is always out the door, here's a clue. Seems the use of polypharmacy, which means administering three or more drugs to the same patient, has shot up dramatically, according to the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. When the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Md., reviewed the number of prescriptions written for psychiatry patients, researchers found: * Between 1974 and 1979, only about 3 percent of patients had at least three drugs prescribed. * From 1980 to 1984, the number rose to more than 9 percent. * Between 1985 and 1989, almost 35 percent of discharge patients were given three or more drugs. * And between 1990 and 1995, the number rose to almost 44 percent. **** Study: Type of knee surgery doesn't work http://www.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/conditions/07/10/knee.surgery. reut/index.html Study involved fake operations BOSTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) --Popular surgery designed to help relieve arthritis in the knees is ineffective, according to a study in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine that suggests billions of dollars are being wasted on the procedures. The study found that volunteers who had placebo or "make-believe" surgery on their knees experienced just as much pain relief as patients who had the real operations, which cost about $5,000. Each year, more than 650,000 Americans whose knees are plagued by osteoarthritis -- the wear-and-tear form of arthritis -- undergo one of two operations known as debridement and lavage. Lavage involves the injection of up to 10 liters (2.6 gallons) of fluid in an attempt to flush out material that might be irritating the joint. Debridement includes lavage, but also involves smoothing rough portions of the joint. Both can be done through arthroscopy, with instruments inserted through three small puncture holes. Neither technique has been thoroughly tested, a shortcoming the study was intended to address. A team led by Dr. Bruce Moseley of the Houston Veterans Affairs Medical Center found 180 volunteers with arthritic knees and offered them debridement, lavage, or placebo surgery, in which the surgeon cut the skin but never actually inserted instruments into the knee. Over the next two years, the patients who received the make-believe surgery consistently reported less pain, although the difference between the three groups was too small to be meaningful.... **** Dairy Queen Introducing Irradiated Beef Dairy Queen says it will begin introducing irradiated ground beef in its burgers at several Minneapolis/St.Paul stores this week, reports the Associated Press. The company is among the first of the fast-food giants to sell ground beef that is irradiated, a process that kills harmful food-borne bacteria. Dairy Queen says it will pass out information to customers at affected stores and ask for comments, which it will evaluate after 60 days. The company says franchisees will pay about 5 cents more per pound for the irradiated meat, but won't immediately pass the increase on to customers. ***** Minnesota Clinic Warns of Ruined Vaccines Some 3,400 people who received vaccinations from a Minneapolis clinic may have to be be re-inoculated because the original vaccines were stored in improper temperatures, clinic officials say. The vaccines, administered at several locations by the Park Nicollet Clinic, included polio ( news - web sites), booster shots, hepatitis A and B, and the Prevnar vaccine for infants and toddlers, reports the Associated Press. They are supposed to be stored at 35 to 46 degrees, but the patients received the inoculations on days when temperatures in storage rooms fell below freezing, the AP reports. The problem affected at least nine Park Nicollet clinics in the Minneapolis area. Park Nicollet says it's spending $300,000 to provide replacement shots. A clinic spokesman told the AP that there was no negative in patients receiving a second shot, except for the possible return of a sore arm for a day or two.