Meningitis Vaccine Suggested

Incoming college freshmen should consider getting vaccinated against bacterial meningitis, an extremely rare but potentially fatal infection, a federal health advisory panel recommended Wednesday. The current vaccine is effective against most strains of meningococcal meningitis that circulate in the United States.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices reported earlier this year that college freshmen living in dormitories were three times as likely as other students to contract meningitis because they live in close proximity to so many people. Additionally, college students are likely to engage in one or more behaviors that can compromise their immune systems, including sleep deprivation, smoking and binge drinking.

About 3,000 cases of meningitis occur in the United States each year, with about 10% to 15% of them proving fatal. Initial symptoms include high fever, headache, stiff neck, nausea, vomiting, confusion and sleepiness.

Even among college students, the disease is rare, striking only 1.4 of 100,000 students. The rate rises to 3.8 cases per 100,000 freshmen living in dormitories.

The vaccine, developed by the military, has reduced the incidence of meningitis among recruits by 90% since it was introduced in 1971.

Drug Combination Can Slow Lung Fibrosis

A combination of the steroid prednisolone and interferon gamma-1b can significantly retard the progression of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a disabling lung disease that affects about 43,000 Americans annually and kills half its victims within five years. There is no cure for the disease, and treatment with steroids alone has not proved very effective.

Dr. Rolf Ziesche and his colleagues at the University of Vienna Medical School studied 18 patients with the disease. Half received prednisolone only, and half received the combination therapy.

The team reported in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine that the patients receiving only prednisolone had an average decrease in lung capacity of 4 percentage points (from 66% to 62% of normal) over the 12 months of the study, while those receiving combination therapy had an increase of 9 percentage points (from 70% to 79%). After 12 months, only one of the three patients on combination therapy who had required supplemental oxygen at the beginning of the study still needed it. In the control group, in contrast, the number needing supplemental oxygen doubled from two to four.

Ecstasy Increases Birth Defect Risk

Women who take the illicit drug ecstasy (MDMA) during pregnancy run a higher risk of having malformed babies, according to researchers from the U.K. National Teratology Information Service. Researchers have been concerned about the drug’s impact on fetal development because, like other amphetamines, ecstasy causes birth defects in mice. Dr. Patricia R. McElhatton and her colleagues studied 136 pregnancies during which mothers had taken the drug.

They reported in Saturday’s Lancet that only 78 infants were born alive, with the rest having been aborted or miscarried. Among those who went full-term, 12 had congenital abnormalities, a 15.4% rate that is much higher than the national average of 2% to 3%. Two of the infants had congenital heart disease.

Some Antidepressants Linked to Bleeding

A class of antidepression drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, can triple the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding, according to Spanish researchers. The risk is even greater if the patients are also taking aspirin or other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, they said.

Dr. Francisco Jose de Abajo and colleagues from the Spanish government’s drug regulatory agency studied 1,651 people who had suffered from gastrointestinal bleeding and compared them with 10,000 people with no such bleeding. They reported in Saturday’s British Medical Journal that 3.1% of those with bleeding were taking SSRIs, compared with only 1% of those with no bleeding.

Even though the relative risk tripled, they noted, the absolute risk of bleeding remained small. Only about one person in 8,000 taking the antidepressants suffered such an effect.

Soy Foods Can Now Carry Heart Labels

Beginning Tuesday, foods containing soy protein can be labeled to indicate that soy helps reduce the risk of heart disease, according to a Food and Drug Administration ruling issued last week. Foods that may be eligible for the claim include soy beverages, tofu, tempeh, soy-based meat alternatives and possibly some baked goods, the FDA said.

In order to qualify for the claim, foods must contain 6.25 grams of soy protein per serving, one-fourth of the 25 grams of soy protein daily that studies have shown is needed to show a significant cholesterol-lowering effect. An ounce is a little more than 25 grams.

Recent studies have demonstrated that a diet containing 25 grams of soy protein daily can lower levels of total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL), the so-called bad cholesterol. Higher levels of both are associated with an increased risk of heart disease.

Migraines in Women Up During the ‘80s

The number of women affected by disabling migraine headaches increased by 56% during the 1980s, presumably as a result of stress, dieting and increased recognition of migraine symptoms, according to researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Dr. Jerry Swanson and his colleagues studied medical records of people living in Olmstead County in southeastern Minnesota.

They reported in Friday’s Neurology that the greatest increase occurred among women ages 20 to 29. The number of new migraines diagnosed among such women rose from 600 cases per 100,000 women per year in the early 1980s to nearly 1,000 per 100,000 later in the decade. Among men in the same age group in the same period, the number of new cases rose from 200 per 100,000 to 250 per 100,000.

Drug That Enhances L-dopa Approved

A new drug for Parkinson’s disease that prolongs the activity of L-dopa was approved by the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday. The drug is called entacapone--trade-named Comtan--and it is a member of a new class of drugs called COMT inhibitors. COMT is an enzyme that breaks down L-dopa in the brain, and blocking its activity prolongs the effective life of the drug.

Clinical trials on more than 700 patients have shown that Comtan helped improve motor function in patients displaying a deteriorating response to L-dopa and carbidopa, particularly on important activities of daily living such as speaking, writing, walking and dressing.

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Medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II can be reached at thomas.maugh@latimes.com.