Health Highlights: May 15, 2008

• Multi-Drug Approach Needed in Bird Flu Pandemic: Study
• Meningitis B Vaccine Shows Promise
• Vitamin D May Prevent Prostate Cancer: Study
• Few U.S. Adults Proficient at Managing Health Care: Report
• New Guidelines Urge Careful Monitoring of Heart Device Patients
• Former Supreme Court Justice Pleas for Alzheimer's Research
• More Americans Taking Drugs for Chronic Health Problems

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

Multi-Drug Approach Needed in Bird Flu Pandemic: Study

No single drug alone would be adequate to treat all people who would become infected during a worldwide flu pandemic, and nations need to stockpile more than one type of drug, say scientists at the National Institute for Medical Research in Great Britain.

They analyzed samples of H5N1 bird flu that had infected humans and found a mutation that made it resistant to the anti-viral drug Tamiflu. However, the mutation didn't protect the virus from another drug called Relenza, BBC News reported.

The study appears in the journal Nature.

"In order not to be outflanked by the virus, it will be necessary to have stocks of both existing drugs," said research team leader Dr. Steve Gamblin, BBC News reported. "There is a huge imperative to develop further drugs and it is likely a future pandemic will need to be tackled using a three- or four-pronged approach, much as we tackle HIV today."

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Meningitis B Vaccine Shows Promise

Preliminary clinical trials of a vaccine against meningitis B yielded "encouraging" results, according to drug maker Novartis.

Doses of the vaccine were given to 150 British infants at two, four, six and 12 months. One month after the third dose, the children's immune response against three strains of meningitis B was 89 percent, 98 percent and 93 percent. After the fourth dose, the immune response was 100 percent, 98 percent and 93 percent, BBC News reported.

"These initial results... show that the vaccine induces an immune response against strains containing the vaccine components. The next step is to find how broad these responses are against other strains that cause disease," said Dr. Andrew Pollard, head of the Oxford Vaccine Group at the University of Oxford. Pollard helped run the study.

This could be a major advance in combating meningitis, Professor David Salisbury, director of immunization, U.K. Department of Health, told BBC News.

"We have vaccinations against three of the four causes of bacterial meningitis. The one we have been waiting for is meningitis B. It has been a challenge for the past 20 years," Salisbury said. "This could be the beginning of getting a solution for meningitis B. The challenge has been to find a vaccine that works across different strains of the disease."

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Vitamin D May Prevent Prostate Cancer: Study

Vitamin D may be able to prevent prostate cancer, according to University of Rochester Medical Center researchers who found that the vitamin increases the activity of the gene G6PD and its production of an enzyme called glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase.

Increased activity of this enzyme clears cells of free radicals that can damage DNA and lead to cancer, United Press International reported.

The researchers used 1,25-hydroxylvitamin D3, the most powerful and active form of vitamin D in the human body. The study is published in the International Journal of Cancer.

"If you reduce DNA damage, you reduce the risk of cancer or aging," study leader Yi-Fen Lee said in a prepared statement, UPI reported.

"Our study adds one more beneficial effect of taking a vitamin D supplement. Taking a supplement is especially important for senior citizens and others who might have less circulation of vitamin D, and for people who live and work in areas where there is less sunshine," Lee said.

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Few U.S. Adults Proficient at Managing Health Care

Only 12 percent of the 228 million adults in the United States have the health literacy skills to manage their own health care proficiently, according to the latest News and Numbers report from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research.