The Springfield News-Leader from Springfield, Missouri • Page 6

6A News-Leader Friday, September 27, 1996 Page edited by Jan Peterson; call 836-1199 after 5 p.m. HEALTH Federal panel rejects new anti-obesity drug The Associated Press If they look this good on paper, imagine how good they'll look onyou. The world's most exciting jewelry has just arrived at Helzberg Diamonds. More than a hundred dazzling new designs. So hurry in to Helzberg Diamonds today, because jewelry this beautiful will be gone before you know it.

said Dr. Robert Kreisberg of the Baptist Health System in Birmingham, a member of the Food and Drug Administration's scientific advisory panel. The panel, nevertheless, voted 54 because the company didn't prove that the weight loss outweighed a side effect a small but worrisome rise in blood pressure. A study of 480 patients found 39 percent who took the optimum dose of sibutramine for a year lost 5 percent of their body weight. Only 20 percent of patients could lose that much weight with diet alone.

But the patients averaged a rise in blood pressure of two or three points and some patients saw a jump of as many as 10 points. For people whose blood pressure already is too high or who have heart disease or certain other illnesses, even two or three points could hurt, said Dr. John Flack, a hypertension expert at Wake Forest University. BETHESDA, Md. The first in a new class of obesity drugs works, but there are too many questions about its safety to give it to the thousands of Americans clamoring for it, the government's scientific advisers decided Thursday.

The rejection of Knoll Pharmaceutical's sibutramine disappointed obese patients who had hoped for an alternative to another drug now available, but which on rare occasions produces a potentially fatal side effect. The two drugs are the only ones that can be taken long term to help suppress appetite. "We really wanted an alternative to Redux," said Lynn McAfee of the Council on Size Weight Discrimination, a consumer advocacy group. She said sibutramine's side effects "can at least be monitored and controlled, unlike Redux." Sibutramine "is mildly effective" at helping Americans shed pounds, ffil $89 3 Carat Total Gem Weight latxreated Sapphire Diamond Ring with marquise and "magic-set" heart-shaped lab-created sapphires two diamonds in lOKgold Type A-Wuhan flu virus can be deadly to elderly The Associated Press A $489 1 Carat Total Weight Diamond Anniversary Band with four rows of baguette diamonds in 10K gold The good news is that the current flu vaccine counteracts all three. Flu contributes to the deaths of about 20,000 people a year in the United States.

A strain similar to Wuhan caused 38 percent of all cases of the flu in the United States last year. If the elderly or others who are chronically ill get the harsh Wuhan strain, they are more likely to get pneumonia or other life-threatening illnesses, Arden said. The CDC recommends vaccinations for people 65 and older, people in nursing homes, children with asthma and anyone with a chronic illness. ATLANTA It's ah, ah, ahchoo flu season again, and a more dangerous strain of the virus than those seen last year will be circulating this time. The Type A-Wuhan virus, which can lead to deadly complications in the elderly, is the most dangerous of three viruses expected around the nation.

The others are Type A-Texas and Type the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. How bad the flu season will be is hard to predict, said Nancy Arden of the CDC's National Center for Infectious Diseases. But she warned: "The more viruses like Wuhan, the more people die." 1 1 tt.f $199 16 Carat Total Gem Weight Oval Sapphire Diamond Bracelet in 10K gold New FDA rules facilitate emergency-room research The Associated Press $399 1 Carat Total Weight Diamond Fashion Bracelet with baguette and round diamonds in 10K gold both the FDA and NIH. They allow doctors who have prior approval from their hospitals to do emergency research on people in life-threatening situations. One of the first such experiments using the new rules a test of artificial blood in trauma patients is scheduled to begin this fall at several as-yet-unchosen hospitals.

"Wehopewegetsomebetterthera-pies," as a result of these waivers of patients' consent, said FDA Deputy Commissioner Mary Pendergast. To be eligible, researchers first must inform the community of their planned experiment and gauge community reaction before a hospital allows them to begin. Once that happens, eligible patients must be in a life-threatening situation that does not have satisfactory approved treatment, and there must be no feasible way for the doctor to get consent from the patient or next of kin. Once the experiment is done, doctors must tell the community how it fared. WASHINGTON The Food and Drug Administration issued rules Thursday to make it easier to test experimental drugs on patients who are unconscious or so critically ill that they cannot first give their consent For years, emergency room doctors riavecomplainedthattheyhavelittleto treat their most critical patients, because it was too difficult to do the research required to find good treatments for head trauma, heart attack and other severe emergencies.

The FDA previously has allowed doctors to use experimental medicines in last-ditch efforts to save lives, but not in research trials, because Americans are supposed to consent before becoming scientific guinea pigs. The National Institutes of Health, on the other hand, would allow emergency research on unconscious tients, but only if the risks of the experiment were extremely minimal, ruling out more invasive procedures. The new rules will be followed by HELZBERG DIAMONDS Visit Helzberg Diamonds at Battlefield Mall today! 1 Cant may be. 95 to 1.10 Carats. 3 Carats may be 295 to 3-10 Carats.

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