Your Health

By Janice M. Horowitz

GOOD NEWS

FLU FIGHT Though much of the nation was in the grip of a heat wave last week, the fever, aches and pain of the flu season will be here in no time. And so will relief. The FDA has approved Relenza, an inhaled anti-influenza drug that can cut the duration of symptoms by one to two days. Relenza, unlike other flu fighters, works against both type A and type B strains. Patients must start taking it soon after feeling ill and then twice daily for five days.

STOKING THE STORK Just as the first test-tube baby comes of age--Louise Brown turned 21 in July--there's a major advance in in-vitro fertilization. Waiting four days instead of three before transferring an embryo from the lab dish to the mother's womb can increase the odds of the implantation's success. The new technique is called blastocyst transfer.

BAD NEWS

RESISTANCE REDUX It's happening again. The newest class of antibiotics, called fluoroquinolones, may be losing its punch. A huge study in Canada concludes that 5% of S. pneumoniae bacteria--a common bug responsible for pneumonia and meningitis--may be resistant to fluoroquinolones. Doctors had hoped that because fluoroquinolones, unlike previous antibiotics, are synthetic, bacteria wouldn't be able to outsmart them.

DEPRIVED HEARTS If you're 65 or older and have a heart attack, you may not get care fast enough--or at all. Researchers report that about half of elderly heart-attack patients receive neither angioplasty--where blocked arteries are Roto-Rootered open--nor clot-dissolving drugs within six hours of arriving at the hospital. The upshot: they are twice as likely to die within a year compared with those who are treated quickly.

--By Janice M. Horowitz

Sources--Good News: FDA, Fertility and Sterility (8/99); Bad News: Journal of the American Medical Association (7/28/99); New England Journal of Medicine (7/29/99)