News in brief - April 25, 2005

Warnings about performance drugs - Cervical cancer vaccine backed - Cost of skin disease

Warnings about performance drugs

The American Academy of Pediatricians urged doctors, schools and coaches to discourage young athletes from using dietary substances, prescription medicines and illicit drugs that children and teens might think carry performance-enhancing powers.

Virtually no data are available on the efficacy and safety of these supplements and drugs in young people, said the AAP in a policy statement that appears in the April Pediatrics.

The statement recommends that pediatric health care professionals promote safe physical activity and sports participation by providing or making available sound medical information on exercise physiology, conditioning, nutrition, weight management and injury prevention and by helping to care for sports-related medical conditions and injuries.

The new policy also cautions against the use of scare tactics or the dismissal of the performance-enhancing effects of these substances because this approach could seriously damage the physician's credibility and would likely do little to diminish use.

Cervical cancer vaccine backed

A vaccine against the virus that causes cervical cancer and genital warts could reduce persistent infection and disease by 90%, suggest the results of a randomized trial published online April 6 in The Lancet Oncology. Up to 70% of sexually active women will become infected with human papillomavirus during their lifetime, and the virus causes about 470,000 cases of cervical cancer each year. Although most cases of cervical cancer occur in the developing world, where cervical screening programs have not been implemented, about 35,000 women die from the disease every year in Europe and the United States.

The trial tested the effectiveness of a vaccine that targets the HPV types-associated with 70% of cervical cancers and 90% of genital warts. The investigators assigned 277 women to the vaccine and 275 women to a placebo. They all received three intramuscular injections and were followed for 36 months.

The incidence of persistent infection or disease with HPV types 6, 11, 16 or 18 fell by 90% in those given the vaccine. The vaccine was 100% effective against precancerous cervical lesions and genital warts associated with the four HPV types. There were no serious adverse events, the researchers said.

They suggest that universal HPV vaccination implemented in 10- to 13-year-olds could be most effective.

Cost of skin disease

Skin diseases are far more prevalent than once thought and cost Americans an estimated $37.17 billion annually, according to a study released this month by the American Academy of Dermatology and the Society for Investigative Dermatology.

According to their data, at any given time, one in three people in the United States has a skin condition.

Overall, skin disease is on the rise. It is one of the top 15 groups of medical conditions for which prevalence and health care spending grew the most between 1987 and 2000.

In this study, researchers quantified the 21 most common skin diseases that take the greatest toll and calculated the direct costs of these illnesses in the United States to be more than $26.54 billion, including physician and emergency department visits, prescription and over-the-counter medicines, inpatient hospital care and ambulatory care. Indirect costs totaled $10.2 billion, including missed workdays, lost productivity at work, restricted-activity workdays and lost wages due to premature death.

The two groups, along with other health and patient advocacy organizations, plan to use these findings to advocate for increased federal investments in skin disease research.