One dose of chickenpox vaccine may be insufficient to prevent school outbreaks of chickenpox, according to a report in Pediatrics.
In Arkansas, a chickenpox vaccination requirement for entry into kindergarten was introduced in 2000. Nonetheless, a large number of cases of chickenpox still occurred in an elementary school in 2003.
Dr. Sandra L. Snow from the Arkansas Department of Health, Little Rock, investigated the outbreak. Forty-three of 48 students who developed chickenpox had been vaccinated, and the highest rate occurred in a first-grade classroom where all of the students had been vaccinated. Most of the vaccinated patients had a mild disease.
Hyperactivity traced to low birth weight
Premature babies and those with low birth weights are at increased risk of developing the most severe form of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to new research.
In comparing 834 premature and low-birth-weight babies with 20,100 normal ones born from 1980 to 1994, Danish researchers found that those with gestational ages of 34 to 36 weeks had a 70 percent increased risk of the disorder compared with full-term infants, and those born before 34 weeks of gestation had almost triple the risk. Normal gestation is 38 to 42 weeks.
Full-term, low-birth-weight babies were also at risk. Those who were born weighing 3.3 to 5.5 pounds had a 90 percent increased risk of attention disorder, and those with birth weights of 5.5 to 5.7 pounds were one and a half times as likely as heavier infants to develop the illness.
The study appears online in The Archives of Disease in Childhood.
Meditation may be
good for your heart
Transcendental meditation improves blood pressure and insulin resistance in heart patients, a California study says.
Researchers studied 84 patients with coronary artery disease, randomly dividing them into two groups. The first received a 16-week course of health education; the second was enrolled in a course in transcendental meditation. Both groups received conventional medical care and advice.
The participants in the meditation group had significantly lower blood pressure compared with the control group. They also had improved in measures of insulin resistance. The paper appeared in Archives of Internal Medicine.
– NEWS SERVICE REPORTS
