Health Highlights: Dec. 28, 2011

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments,
compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

Clot After Long Flight May Have Killed Rapper
Heavy D

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office says that the death last month
of rap musician Heavy D at age 44 was caused by a clot in his lung that
likely formed during a long flight from London to L.A., the Los Angeles
Times
reports.

The condition, formally called pulmonary embolism, can arise when a
clot forms in the legs during long periods of inactivity. The clot can
then travel to the lungs where it can prove lethal if not treated right
away.

The rap star, whose real name was Dwight Arrington Myers, collapsed
outside his home in Beverly Hills on Nov. 8 and died later at Cedars-Sinai
Medical Center.

Speaking with the Times, Dr. Matthew Butteri, an internist at UC
Irvine Medical Center, said a pulmonary embolism is “the equivalent of a
heart attack. Just like when you have a blockage in your coronary arteries
and you have a heart attack. Well, this is an infraction in your lungs, so
it’s really a lung attack because the blood clot is preventing getting
oxygen to critical lung tissue.” He recommended that people take short
walks or perform in-flight exercises while on long-haul flights, to reduce
their risk.

——

No Link Between HPV Vaccine, Promiscuity for
Girls: Study

A new survey appears to discount the notion that receiving a vaccine
against the human papillomavirus (HPV) will raise rates of promiscuity
among girls aged 15 to 19.

The vaccine is meant to counter strains of sexually transmitted HPV
that are thought to be responsible for most cases of cervical cancer. But
some have worried that the shot might encourage young girls to become
sexually active.

The new survey, published in the January issue of The American
Journal of Preventive Medicine
, found no such link, The New York
Times
reported. The study also found that sexually active girls who’d
received the shot were also more likely to consistently use condoms
compared to unvaccinated sexually active girls.

“This is all preliminary data, but it shows no association between HPV
vaccination and sexual risk,” lead author Nicole C. Liddon of the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told the Times. “So it
should to some degree assuage any concerns that HPV vaccination would lead
to increased sexual activity,” she said.

According to the report, by the end of 2008, 30 percent of females ages
15 to 19, and 16 percent of females ages 20 to 24 had gotten at least one
dose of the HPV vaccine.

2nd Study Linking Retrovirus to Chronic
Fatigue Syndrome Is Retracted

Yet another study linking retroviral infections to chronic fatigue
syndrome has been called into question, with the findings of a 2010 study
retracted on Monday.

Last week, a study published in Science a year earlier was
retracted by the editors of that journal. That research found a possible
association between the illness and a mouse leukemia retrovirus known as
XMRV. This second study, published in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences
, was withdrawn by its authors, according to The
New York Times
.

Although the 2010 study had confirmed the findings of the 2009
research, other scientists had been unable to arrive at the same
conclusion. Some had said that laboratory materials were contaminated
during the course of their work.

Respected researchers from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the
U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Harvard Medical School were
all involved in the 2010 study. Randy Schekman, former editor-in-chief of
PNAS, told the Times that the journal had been
“encouraging” the authors to reconsider their findings in light of
subsequent research.

In the retraction, the authors wrote, “It is our current view that the
association of murine gamma retroviruses with [chronic fatigue syndrome]
has not withstood the test of time or of independent verification and that
this association is now tenuous.”

Meanwhile, results expected in March from a large-scale NIH study
should help decide definitively whether chronic fatigue syndrome is
related to these retroviruses, the Times reported.

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