News

It's time to learn your airborne allergens! Home-based environmental interventions can improve the health of inner-city children who suffer moderate or severe asthma, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health. Findings of research on a study group of children 5 to 11 years old-sponsored by NIAID and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and published in the November issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology-show that home-based environmental intervention decreases allergen levels in the home and reduce the severity of asthma symptoms. As for the cost of such a program, the data show that, first, the price tag would be substantially lower if these interventions were implemented in a community setting and, second, they are as cost-effective as many drug interventions.

New products for 2005

This year's roundup looks at innovations in wound care, hand sanitizers, otoscopy, and vision screening. It also considers helpful online resources?and takes a peek into a virtual time capsule of technology.

Among children, rotavirus remains a leading cause of gastroenteritis and, globally, of death. Here's the latest on treatment and prevention, including vaccines in the offing.

The mother of a 3-year-old boy has brought him to the clinic for you to evaluate thinning of his scalp hair over the past month. She reports that the hair loss is occurring "all over" his scalp and that she has not noticed him scratching his scalp or pulling his hair. He was hospitalized four months ago for a rotavirus infection.

Eye on Washington

Health spending for 2006 uncertain, cesarean rate is up nationally, Hepatitis A vaccination now for all children.

Among children, rotavirus remains a leading cause of gastroenteritis and, globally, of death. Here's the latest on treatment and prevention, including vaccines in the offing.

The National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) at the National Institutes of Health and Scholastic, the global children's publishing and media company, have joined forces to distribute information about the damaging health effects of methamphetamine to nearly 2 million middle- and high-school students and their teachers. The effects of the drug will be covered in an article in the fall issues of Scholastic Classroom Magazines' Junior Scholastic, Science World, CHOICES, SCOPE, ACTION, and UPFRONT during the 2005-2006 school year.

The FDA in September approved the supplemental new drug application of NovoLog, a rapid acting form of insulin for the control of hyperglycemia in patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Manufactured by Novo Nordisk Inc., NovoLog can be administered immediately before a meal.

The rate of melanoma among children and young adults rose dramatically between 1973 and 2001, according to a study in a recent issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology. "Between the years 1973 and 2001, the incidence of pediatric melanoma increased 2.9% per year and 46% per year of age," says John Strouse, MD, a pediatric oncologist and instructor in pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University and author of the article.

A study of adolescents who lack part of chromosome 22 could lead to identification of a gene suspected of a role in schizophrenia. Findings of that study appear in the November 2005 issue of Nature Neuroscience.Although youths with the 22q11.2 chromosomal deletion syndrome already have a nearly 30-fold higher-than-normal risk of schizophrenia, those who have one of two common sequence versions of the suspect gene are more prone to cognitive decline, psychosis, and frontal-lobe tissue loss by late adolescence. The genetic variant appears to make symptoms of the deletion syndrome worse by chronically boosting the chemical messenger dopamine to an excessive level in the prefrontal cortex during development.