Russian drugs abuse “catastrophic”—police
Drug abuse in Russia has reached “catastrophic” proportions, posing a threat to national security, a top anti-narcotics police officer was quoted as saying on Friday.
Viktor Khvorostyan, head of the Moscow section of the Federal Narcotics Service, said some four percent of the population, or about six million people, are addicts. The average age of teenagers first trying drugs had fallen dramatically, he said.
Silicone breast implants get FDA OK
Silicone gel-filled breast implants won conditional approval to return to the broad U.S. market after a 13-year ban when health officials on Thursday backed a version made by Mentor Corp.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the device maker must satisfy a number of conditions before it receives final approval to sell the implants. FDA officials said they were legally prohibited from making the conditions public.
Mentor said the conditions were “generally consistent” with recommendations from an FDA advisory panel earlier this year.
Britain to double aid to fight killer diseases
Britain will double its donation to a global fund that fights diseases such as AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and it hopes other donors will follow suit, the government said on Friday.
International Development Secretary Hilary Benn said the government will increase its aid from 51 million pounds ($88.68 million) a year to 100 million pounds for 2006 and 2007.
Study confirms drug combo prevents AIDS
Combination treatment with anti-AIDS drugs cut the rate of progression from infection with HIV to AIDS by 86 percent compared to patients not receiving treatment, British researchers said on Friday.
They found that the effectiveness of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), a combination of at least three agents from two drug classes, increased with time.
“Our results indicate that HAART reduced the rate of progression to AIDS by 86 percent and that its effectiveness compared with no treatment increased with time since initiation,” said Dr. Jonathan Sterne, of the University of Bristol, in southwestern England, who headed the research team.
House approves added veterans medical funds
Military veterans’ medical facilities would get a $1.5-billion infusion of cash to help treat those wounded in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan under legislation approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday.
The House voted 410-10 to pass an unrelated spending bill for federal lands and environmental programs that contained the added veterans’ funds.
FDA bans Bayer antibiotic for poultry use
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday banned the use of Baytril, a poultry antibiotic made by Bayer, an unprecedented action aimed at preventing the rise of drug-resistant germs that infect people.
The FDA, which first proposed the ban five years ago, said the use of Baytril in chickens has made it difficult for doctors to treat human patients who have food poisoning. The drug was sometimes used by farmers to treat entire poultry flocks when a few birds showed signs of respiratory disease.
Indonesia drops mass culling plan to fight bird flu
Indonesia will not carry out a planned mass culling of farm animals to combat bird flu virus due to a lack of funds, a minister said on Thursday.
Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono said Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country, would stick to vaccinating healthy animals and only cull those infected by the H5N1 virus.
Senate advances bill to restrict cold medicines
The Senate judiciary committee on Thursday unanimously approved a bill that would limit access to common cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine, an ingredient that can be used to make the highly addictive drug methamphetamine.
The committee sent the “Combat Meth Bill” to the full Senate. A similar bill in the House of Representatives has been referred to a subcommittee for consideration.
