Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of The HealthDay Service:
Human Genome Map Complete
An international group of scientists said Monday that they've finished mapping the human genetic code to an accuracy of 99.99 percent, a milestone that heralds a new period of medical and biological research and understanding.
The completed human genome sequence is now available on computer databases to scientists around the world. Those databases are getting more than 120,000 visits a day, the Associated Press reports.
Dr. Francis Collins, head of the U.S. National Human Genome Research
Institute, told the AP that the completed human genetic code is
a "gift to all of humankind."
The medical benefits of the project will touch every phase of medicine and treatment of disease in the coming centuries, he predicts.
The human genome contains about 3.12 billion pairs of chemicals that form between 35,000 and 40,000 genes. Because every human is unique, scientists don't believe they can map the human genetic code to 100 percent accuracy.
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Asthma Vaccine Shows Promise
An asthma vaccine that reduces sensitivity to substances that trigger asthma attacks shows promise, say scientists testing the vaccine at the
National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, England.
The vaccine is meant to protect people with asthma by desensitizing them to allergens -- such as animal fur or dust -- that cause them to suffer an asthma attack. That's achieved by injecting them with minute amounts of the offending substance, BBC News Online reports.
This basic approach is not new, but has previously been dangerous because it carried the risk of causing a serious asthma attack.
The British scientists believe they've created a safe vaccine by modifying the protein allergens -- the basic ingredients of the vaccine. They divided the protein allergens into smaller units.
These smaller units are less likely to cause a serious asthma attack. But they're still large enough to be recognized by the immune system, which is essential in reducing sensitivity to asthma triggers, the scientists say.
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China Calls SARS Outbreak 'Grave'
In an unusually frank admission, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is calling the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in his country "grave," the Associated Press reports.
Monday's announcement by the Chinese leader departs from earlier assurances from Beijing that the SARS outbreak was being brought under control. And it coincided with a Ministry of Health announcement, in a daily update to the World Health Organization, that 47 more cases had been reported from the north-central province of Shanxi Sunday.
The province had reported 32 cases last week, which worried health experts because the epidemic was thought to be centered in the southern province of Guangdong, The New York Times reports.
Four more deaths in China were revealed Monday, and Hong Kong reported another seven fatalities, the highest daily toll since SARS broke out there in March. The new deaths bring the global death toll to 144, the World Health Organization (WHO) says. The illness has now stricken more than 3,000 people in 20 countries.
In Canada, the worst-hit nation outside Asia, health officials reported that a laboratory in British Columbia has completed the first genetic sequencing of the coronavirus, which is considered a leading contender for causing SARS, the AP reports. It reportedly took scientists six-straight 24-hour days to complete the task.
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Safety Agency Recalls Music Toys
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has recalled about 32,000 Fiddlestick Instruments because they pose a potential choking hazard to young children, the agency says.
The instruments are being recalled by Kindermusik International of Brown Summit, N.C. Fiddlesticks are wooden rhythm instruments about 7 inches long and 1 inch in diameter.
They have a hollow middle that contains steel balls meant to create a shaker sound. The ends of the instrument are capped with wooden plugs. These plugs can come loose, allowing the steel balls to spill out of the instrument. Both the caps and the steel balls pose a choking hazard, the CSPC says.
Fiddlesticks were primarily sold as part of a music instructional kit.
Those kits were sold in the United States and Canada from December 2002 to January 2003.
Consumers should stop their children from using the Fiddlesticks and return the instruments to Kindermusik. The product will be replaced with either a redesigned Fiddlestick or an instrument of comparable value, the agency says.
For more information, phone Kindermusik at 1-800-628-5687 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday. You can also visit the Kindermusik Web site.
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Kennel Cough Puts Bite on Dog Tracks
A virulent strain of kennel cough is making animals sick at dog tracks and kennels from Florida to New England, reports Florida's Sun-Sentinel newspaper.
The illness, which only affects dogs, causes whooping cough-like symptoms and is highly contagious. The outbreak is thought to have begun in Florida within the last couple of months, and has recently been diagnosed in Rhode Island and Connecticut.
Dogs that race are particularly susceptible, since they travel to a host of races and share cramped quarters with hundreds of other dogs.
The illness causes the dog to vomit and become lethargic. Left untreated, it can progress to fatal pneumonia.
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U.S Probes Medical Research, Deaths at VA Hospitals
The U.S. government has ordered a review of medical research at 115 veterans' hospitals and has also halted some research after investigators found serious violations of federal rules, including some that may have contributed to patient deaths.
The New York Times reports the Department of Veterans Affairs was investigating the deaths of patients in research projects at VA hospitals in Detroit, Albany, N.Y., and Fargo, N.D. The department also said it had found "serious noncompliance" with federal rules at VA hospitals in Pittsburgh; Providence, R.I.; Martinez, Calif.; and Long Beach, Calif, and detected problems at hospitals in Northampton, Mass., and Portland, Ore.
The newspaper says the new director of the veterans research program, Dr. Nelda P. Wray, ordered the review last month after learning of cases in which researchers falsified data and did not tell patients about the risks of experimental treatments. The department spends almost $1 billion a year on about 15,000 studies involving 150,000 patients, which are supposedly monitored by ethics committees.
Among the disclosures: one participant in a clinical trial at the Detroit VA hospital died after a huge overdose of a prescription drug; a criminal investigation was probing fabrication of data by two researchers at the Albany VA hospital that may have contributed to at least one death there; and clinical research at the VA hospital in Fargo was halted after one patient died and 22 suffered adverse reactions to drugs in research projects.
