Health Report

By Janice M. Horowitz

THE GOOD NEWS

ANOTHER BOON FOR THE BREAST Just weeks after tamoxifen was shown to prevent breast cancer, early reports raise hope that another drug, raloxifene, may do the same--without increasing the risk of uterine cancer.

SOME NERVE! Preliminary research indicates special eyedrops containing nerve-growth factors may be able to heal severe corneal ulcers within weeks. Untreated, the ulcers, often caused by chemical burns or herpes, may lead to blindness.

THE SKINNY New insight into scleroderma, a puzzling and life-threatening skin disease: a study suggests fetal cells that linger in the mother after she gives birth may somehow trigger the disease.

Sources: New York Times; New England Journal of Medicine (2 & 3)

THE BAD NEWS

RETHINKING THINNERS Anticoagulants are commonly given within 24 hours of a stroke to limit brain damage. But do they help? After three months, most patients who took them were no better off than those who didn't.

OCCUPATIONAL HAZARD Your job may pose a risk--for your child. Kids whose mothers worked in the chemical industry for five years before pregnancy may be three times as likely to develop a brain tumor. If fathers did, the risk doubles.

EAST EUROPEAN AIDS The number of East Europeans with AIDS has skyrocketed from 30,000 in 1994 to nearly 200,000 today. One reason: rampant IV-drug use.

Sources: Journal of the A.M.A.; Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine; United Nations

--By Janice M. Horowitz