News in brief - Nov. 27, 2006

Just when you thought it was safe to eat the salad - Support important for young cancer survivors - Viruses may complicate ear infection treatment - SARS, avian flu expert named to lead WHO

Just when you thought it was safe to eat the salad

This time it's the tomatoes rather than the spinach and Salmonella typhimurium not Escherichia coli.

The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Nov. 3 that fresh tomatoes consumed in restaurants sickened 183 people in 21 states in the nation's latest food-connected disease outbreak.

The tomatoes were eaten in a variety of restaurants, nearly all of them east of the Mississippi, said Christopher Braden, MD, chief of the CDC's outbreak response and surveillance unit. Although the agency is continuing to work to determine the origin of the contaminated tomatoes, the outbreak is apparently over, he said. The last case was reported on Oct. 13.

Support important for young cancer survivors

Adolescents and young adult cancer patients rate support from family, friends and, especially, other cancer survivors, as high priority health care needs, according to a study in the Dec. 15 Cancer. The study also found that 15- to 29-year-old cancer survivors prefer to be treated by doctors who are sensitive to their age-specific needs.

Adequate health insurance and ongoing surveillance and assessment of long-term effects of treatment were other needs specific to this age group.

Despite dramatic improvements in childhood cancer survival rates, studies show the incidence of cancer in adolescents and young adults has risen higher than in children and older adult patients, said the researchers.

Viruses may complicate ear infection treatment

A significant portion of children's ear infections are both bacterial and viral in nature, and the presence of a virus may interfere with the effectiveness of antibiotics, according to a study and accompanying editorial published in the Dec. 1 Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Researchers analyzed middle ear fluid samples from 79 children with acute otitis media and tympanostomy tubes, finding that 92% of these infections were associated with bacteria. In 70%, the source was viral, and 66% of the total number of cases appeared linked to both. The authors suggest the fact a virus is playing a role may be a factor in a poor treatment response to antibiotics.

"Based on this and previous research, it is possible that viruses cause a considerable proportion of clinical treatment failures. Thus, in these cases a new antibiotic is not necessarily the best choice," said Dr. Aino Ruohola, lead author and a researcher at Turku University Hospital in Turku, Finland.

Several medical societies, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians, recommend against antibiotics for mild ear infections.

SARS, avian flu expert named to lead WHO

Dr. Margaret Chan, the World Health Organization's assistant director-general of communicable disease and the former director of health for Hong Kong, was named Nov. 9 to be director-general of the organization by the World Health Assembly.

She follows the footsteps of Dr. Lee Jong-wook, MPH, who died in May -- three years into his five-year term.

Dr. Chan is most known for her work in dealing with the first human outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza in Hong Kong in 1997, which involved ordering the slaughter of all the city's poultry. She also led the response to severe acute respiratory syndrome. She first joined the agency in 2003 as the director of its Dept. of Protection of the Human Environment.

"I am confident she will ensure WHO's role as the premier global health agency, guided by scientific excellence and well-prepared to meet the many challenges it faces," said Mike Leavitt, secretary of the Dept. of Health and Human Services.