Quote/Unquote

Experts predict devastating worldwide flu outbreak
You may have already had the flu this year, but is what’s coming next going to be far worse than any flu most of us have ever known? The fear is, yes. December 2006. A worldwide flu outbreak, a pandemic, comes to Houston. Hospitals overflow with victims. Reliant Park gets shipments of tents and prepares to set up a makeshift hospital. Far-fetched? “Will it happen next year? I don’t know. Ten years from now? I don’t know that either,” said Dr. Stanley Lemon, UTMB. “But will it happen? The answer is, ‘Yes’.” Dr. Lemon with UTMB in Galveston co-edited a just-published book, “The Threat of Pandemic Influenza.” The threat is a new strain of flu already found half a world away. “This virus is particularly scary because it’s jumped a number of times from birds to humans in Southeast Asia,” Dr. Lemon said. The scenario is scarier still because 75 percent of those who have gotten sick with it in Thailand and Vietnam have died.—Dave Fehling, reporting April 7, 2005, for KHOU-TV (CBS) Ch. 11 (245,684 impressions)

Air traffic controllers’ stress linked to hypertension risk
A new study suggests that how air traffic controllers handle stress can affect whether they are at risk of developing high blood pressure later in life. According to Dr. Robert M. Rose of the University of Texas Medical Branch and colleagues, the study is the first “to report that cardiovascular reactivity to work stress may be a long-term predictor of incident hypertension.”—Becky Hamm, writing October 1, 2004, on Medical News Today

Study: Shorter rehab stays may put patients in danger
In the latest suggestion that cutting health care costs can be hazardous to one’s health, discharging patients more quickly from rehabilitation hospitals may put them at greater risk of dying earlier, according to local researchers. The study found that from 1994 to 2001, the average in-hospital stay of patients rehabilitating from strokes, broken bones and other disabling conditions dropped 40 percent while the death rate rose nearly 4 percent. “We can’t say shorter stays are causing increased mortality rates, but there is a relationship,” said Dr. Kenneth Ottenbacher, a registered occupational therapist at UTMB and the study’s principal investigator. “It warrants further study.”—Todd Ackerman, writing October 13, 2004, in the Houston Chronicle (circulation 554,783)

Positive attitude delays aging
The University of Texas Medical Branch found people with an upbeat view of life were less likely than pessimists to show signs of frailty. The researchers say their findings suggest psychosocial factors—as well as genes and physical health—play a role in how quickly we age. Their work is published in the journal Psychology and Aging. Lead researcher Dr. Glenn Ostir told BBC News Online: “I believe that there is a connection between mind and body—and that our thoughts and attitudes/emotions affect physical functioning, and overall health, whether through direct mechanisms, such as immune function, or indirect mechanisms, such as social support networks.”
—reported October 12, 2004, on the BBC News (2,092,800 impressions)

When parent has a bad day, the child may have one too
Had a blue Monday? Don’t be surprised if your child misbehaves on Tuesday. A new study finds that the day after a mom acts angry or sad in front of her kids, they’re more likely to be defiant and inattentive. The best way to stop a chain reaction? “Admit that you’re cranky or having a bad day, and then explain how you’re going to deal with it,” says Dr. Susan Rosenthal, a pediatric psychologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.—Jeannette Moninger, writing December 7, 2004, in the Detroit News (circulation 233,085)

Pursuing the placebo effect: What exactly is it?
The phenomenon [of patients doing almost as well taking a sugar pill as a prescription drug] is often attributed to the power of expectation. In other words, if a patient thinks he or she will get well, then it is more likely that he or she will. “We have a very difficult time appreciating the importance of trust and expectation and all the things that go with the placebo effect and integrating it into our overall understanding of therapeutics,” said Dr. James Goodwin, the George and Cynthia Mitchell Distinguished Chair in Geriatric Medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, who has studied the use of placebo in medical practice. “Any research that brings this powerful effect into something that scientific medicine can better appreciate is good.”—written December 20, 2004, in the American Medical News (circulation 250,000)

UTMB researcher hopes to cool cedar fever
Some people sneeze at the mere mention of cedar fever, the Central Texas winter allergy that seems to have largely disappeared for another year. Not Dr. Randall Goldblum. He’s studying the menace to develop a vaccine that’s easier to use and more effective than multiple allergy injections that bring some people relief. He expects his work to take less than a decade. “Mountain cedar is such a potent pollen,” said Goldblum, a professor of pediatric health at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. “With exposure for three to four years, a fair proportion of people do become sensitized to it, and they may not be allergic to anything else.” Working with Baylor University botanist Robert Adams, Goldblum is looking for a tree that makes pollen that won’t bind to the allergic antibodies produced by a sufferer’s immune system. He would use that pollen to make a vaccine. His lab has figured out the three-dimensional molecular structure of a cedar pollen protein to use as a road map. Allergists have long offered multiple injections of pure, sterile cedar extract, started three months before cedar fever season and averaging about 28 injections, to eliminate many of the allergy’s symptoms. Goldblum would like to do better. “It’s probably not likely to work with a single injection,” he said. “But hopefully a small number. Five to seven, maybe.”—Dick Stanley, writing February 11, 2005, in the Austin American-Statesman (circulation 239,402)

Medical, ethical questions largely decided, experts say
For all the political controversy over whether Terri Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state and should be allowed to die, neurologists and ethicists said yesterday that the case presents few scientific and legal ambiguities…The brain-damaged woman will never regain the conscious awareness she lost 15 years ago, medical experts said, and decades of case law have already dealt with the legal issues raised by people in her condition. “It’s uncanny but misleading,” said William Winslade, who has studied how to distinguish patients in a persistent vegetative state from those suffering from other conditions at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. “Family members…will interpret random eye movements as something is happening. That has to be the case with Terri Schiavo. A truckload of physicians have concluded she is in a persistent vegetative state.”—Shankar Vedantam and Rick Weiss, writing March 22, 2005, in the Washington Post (circulation 778,416)

Nation failing to curb spread of STDs among young people
One out of two sexually active young people will contract a sexually transmitted disease (STD) by the time they turn 25. This and other startling findings were released today in the American Social Health Association’s (ASHA) report, “State of the Nation 2005: Challenges Facing STD Prevention in Youth.” The report details how the nation is failing to prevent the spread of STDs among America’s young people. According to the report, another key challenge in STD prevention among youth is the lack of access to medical care. “It is crucial that we reduce the obstacles adolescents have in seeking health care,” said Dr. Susan Rosenthal, director of the Division of Adolescent and Behavioral Health and professor of Pediatrics at the University of Texas Medical Branch and a consultant for the report. “If adolescents don’t receive care, we lose the opportunity to provide guidance and counseling.”—reported April 5, 2005, on Yahoo! News