Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
New Tick-Borne Disease Identified
Scientists have identified a new tick-borne disease that may be infecting thousands of Americans a year, but it's not clear if the disease can cause serious long-term damage.
The newly-discovered disease is caused by a spirochete bacterium called Borrelia miyamotoi, a distant relative of Borrelia burgdorferi, the spirochete that causes Lyme disease, The New York Times reported.
Each year, about 3,000 Americans are infected with B. miyamotoi through tick bites, the researchers estimated. About 25,000 Americans get Lyme disease each year. There is no diagnostic test for B. miyamotoi in the United States.
It appears that the newly-identified disease can be cured using the same short course of antibiotics used to treat people with Lyme disease, The Times reported.
Untreated Lyme disease can cause serious long-term health problems, but it's not yet known if the newly-discovered disease has the same effect, the researchers said.
The study will be published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.
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Listeria Outbreak Linked to Colorado Cantaloupes: CDC
Colorado cantaloupes have been identified as the source of listeria outbreak that's killed four people in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday.
One person has died in Colorado, one in Oklahoma and two in New Mexico. The CDC is in the process of determining whether two other deaths in New Mexico are also linked to the outbreak, a state health official said, CBS News and the Associated Press reported.
So far, 35 people in 10 states have been sickened in the outbreak, according to the CDC. Most of the illnesses have occurred in Colorado (12), followed by Oklahoma (6) and New Mexico (5).
Federal officials have traced the outbreak to cantaloupes from Jensen Fruit Farms in Holly, Colo. The company has recalled its Rocky Ford-brand cantaloupes, CBS/AP reported.
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Bone Drug OK'd for Cancer Patients on Hormone Therapy
The injectable bone-strengthening drug Prolia has received expanded U.S. approval for use in patients undergoing hormone therapy to treat breast and prostate cancer.
The new use for the drug (generic name denosumab) is meant to reduce the risk of bone fractures in prostate cancer patients undergoing androgen-deprivation therapies and breast cancer patients taking drugs that stop estrogen production, Bloomberg News reported.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration decision was announced Monday by California-based Amgen Inc. Prolia received FDA approval for treating osteoporosis in 2010.
"Bone loss and fractures are recognized adverse effects of hormone ablation therapies but we have not had an approved treatment option to prevent these problems for our patients," Dr. Matthew Smith, director of the Genitourinary Malignancies Program at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center in Boston, said in an Amgen news release, Bloomberg reported.
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Whooping Cough Shots Protect for Only a Few Years: Study
The protection offered by the whooping cough vaccine decreases after about three years, according to a preliminary study.
Researchers looked at children in a California county and found that the risk of developing whooping cough was as much as 20 times higher among those who were given the recommended series of vaccinations three or more years earlier. Those who'd received the vaccine more recently were well protected, the Associated Press reported.
The results were presented Monday at an infectious diseases conference in Chicago.
The findings appear to support school rules requiring students to get the whooping cough vaccination periodically, the AP reported. California had a large increase in whooping cough cases last year and this fall schools in the state turned away thousands of students who weren't up to date on their shots.
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Source: http://www.medicinenet.com/guide.asp?s=rss&a=149580&k=Womens_Health_General
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