News in brief - Feb. 21, 2011

3 cholera cases reported in New York - People with allergies less prone to brain tumors, study says

3 cholera cases reported in New York

Three adults in New York City were diagnosed with cholera after returning from a trip to the Dominican Republic, where they attended the same wedding the weekend of Jan. 22, according to the city's Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene. None of the individuals was hospitalized, and all have recovered.

It's unlikely the disease spread to anyone else, since the cholera bacteria is spread through contaminated water and food, officials said.

"This happens in places with inadequate water treatment and poor sanitation," said Erin Hughes, a department spokeswoman. "New York City's water is clean and safe."

The cases follow recent outbreaks in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. U.S. cholera cases are rare and typically are imported by travelers. In December 2010, for example, Florida health officials reported five cholera cases in people who had traveled to Haiti.

People with allergies less prone to brain tumors, study says

Individuals with allergies are less likely to develop low- and high-grade gliomas. And the more allergies one has, the less the risk of developing a glioma, says a new study in the February issue of Cancer, Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, journal of the American Assn. for Cancer Research.

University of Illinois at Chicago researchers evaluated data from 419 brain cancer patients and 612 cancer-free patients from Duke University Health System in North Carolina and NorthShore University HealthSystem in Illinois. They found glioma patients were significantly less likely to report allergies compared with cancer-free patients.

"Our study confirms that there is a relationship between the immune system of allergy sufferers and glioma risk," said Bridget McCarthy, PhD, research associate professor of epidemiology at the UIC School of Public Health.

No difference in glioma risk was found for patients based on age, how many years since their allergy diagnosis or antihistamine use, the study said (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21300619).

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