Capsules

> Artfully arranged on a plate, sashimi, a Japanese raw-fish dish, is a treat to the eye as well as the palate. But this and other raw-fish dishes now becoming popular in the U.S. may also be a potential health hazard. The U.S. Public Health Service's Center for Disease Control in Atlanta warns that raw fish may contain Anisakidae, marine worms that can cause fever and abdominal problems in humans. According to the CDC, one California man pulled one of the worms out of his throat ten days after dining on sashimi prepared from raw white sea bass. A California boy coughed up one of the parasites a few days after eating homemade ceviche, a dish of raw red snapper marinated in lemon or lime juice. Their unnerving experience could have been avoided entirely. Both freezing and cooking kill Anisakidae.

> Erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP) is an uncommon condition; in the entire U.S. there are no more than a thousand known victims. But those who have this metabolic abnormality must lead highly sheltered lives; sunlight causes their skin to swell or break out in blisters. Some victims develop gallstones. In the past, victims of EPP have had to avoid direct sunlight as much as possible, covering up or staying indoors entirely during the summer months. Now they have an alternative. A team of researchers headed by Dr. Micheline M. Mathews-Roth of Harvard Medical School has found that betacarotene, a substance that occurs naturally in green and yellow vegetables (including carrots), can mitigate the symptoms of photosensitivity. Fifty-three EPP patients were treated daily with synthetic beta-carotene (now being manufactured as a prescription drug by Roche Laboratories of Nutley, N.J., under the name Solatene). Of the group, 46 were sufficiently improved to triple the amount of time they were able to spend in the sun.

> Opponents of greater Government involvement in medical care often argue that legislation to cover the cost of catastrophic illness would add enormously to the amount the nation spends on hospital, doctor and other health bills. A new study by the Cambridge, Mass., consulting firm of Arthur D. Little, Inc., suggests that they are wrong. Working under a contract from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare's Health Resources Administration, the think-tank researchers reviewed the records of the 1.3 million Americans now covered for catastrophic illness under the Federal Employees Health Benefit Act. They then projected their findings onto the 184 million Americans below the age of 65 who would be covered under a bill introduced by Louisiana's Senator Russell Long. Their conclusion: the costs in 1975 would come to $1.94 billion. That would add only 2% to the $90 billion Americans and their Government spend on health.

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