Your Health

By Alice Park

GOOD NEWS

NEEDLE-FREE SHOTS It's not the flu season yet, but it never hurts to be prepared. Protection from the pesky influenza virus may soon come from a simple squirt in the nostrils. Adults using a novel spray vaccine containing a crippled form of the virus had fewer sick days and took less medication than those who toughed it out without shots. Alas, it may be two years before the spray is available in doctor's offices.

AIDING INFANTS Babies of HIV-positive mothers face a 30% chance of contracting the virus during delivery. With the inexpensive and commonly used antiviral drug nevirapine, however, only about 13% of newborns become infected. That's better than a short course of costly AZT and requires just one pill for the mother during labor and a few drops for the baby within three days of birth. It should be a boon to the Third World, where mother-infant transmissions keep AIDS rampant.

BAD NEWS

VACCINE WARNING The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has called on doctors to stop giving a vaccine against rotavirus, the leading cause of severe diarrhea in infants--at least until its safety is confirmed. The vaccine may have caused a serious intestinal blockage in some 20 babies. To report problems, call (800) 822-7967.

ACHING WRISTS That bane of typists and others who spend long hours at the keyboard, carpal-tunnel syndrome, seems to be more common than originally thought. As many as 1 in 5 people who complain of tingling in their hands may have the ailment. The condition, which is a form of repetitive-stress injury, frequently occurs when the same motion is repeated over and over, compressing a nerve in the wrist, with all the painful consequences.

--By Alice Park

Sources--Good News: JAMA (7/14/99), National Institutes of Health. Bad News: MMWR (7/16/99), JAMA (7/14/99)