HIV Screening for One and All; Wal-Mart Rolls Out $4 Prescriptions; The Risk vs. Benefit of Prostate Drugs; ADHD May Get an Early Jump-Start
HIV Screening for One and All
Next time you visit the doctor, don't be surprised if he or she asks to do an HIV test. Everyone ages 13 to 64 should be screened as part of routine medical care, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week. People at high risk should be retested at least annually. In the past, screening was recommended only for those at high risk of contracting the virus that causes AIDS, including injection drug users and people with multiple sex partners.
Why the change? As many as 25 percent of the estimated 1 million Americans who are HIV positive don't realize it, and people who are unaware of their status account for more than half of all new sexually transmitted HIV infections. And nearly 40 percent of people who are diagnosed with HIV develop AIDS within a year. "There's a tremendous problem with late diagnosis and the difficulties people have with advanced immunosuppression," says CDC Director Julie Gerberding. Under the guidelines, patients no longer have to receive counseling or consent to the test in writing. But people should be given basic information about HIV before being tested, says the CDC. Some advocacy groups are concerned about counseling's diminished role. "We want to make sure people know why they're being tested and engage them in discussions about their risky behaviors," says Rebecca Haag, executive director of the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts.
Wal-Mart Rolls Out $4 Prescriptions
Attention Wal-Mart shoppers: Buying prescription drugs is about to get cheaper in Tampa Bay, Fla. Under a new program, Wal-Mart customers in that area will be able to buy nearly 300 generic drugs for just $4 for a 30-day supply. Wal-Mart said it plans to offer the deal to all Floridians and in other states next year. Patients will pay the low rate for many common medications to treat allergies, cholesterol, high blood pressure, and diabetes, as well as some antibiotics and antidepressants-and it's available to both insured and uninsured patients. Customers must buy their prescriptions in person at one of 65 Tampa Bay-area Wal-Marts, Neighborhood Market, or Sam's Club pharmacies. Alas, mail order prescriptions won't be accepted. - M.A.
The Risk vs. Benefit of Prostate Drugs
The drugs used to treat prostate cancer may actually increase men's odds of developing diabetes and heart disease or suffering a heart attack, according to a new study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The study followed more than 70,000 elderly men with local or regional prostate cancer for an average 4.5 years and found that men who received the drugs were 44 percent more likely to develop diabetes, 16 percent more likely to develop heart disease, and 11 percent more likely to have a heart attack.
The drugs block production of testosterone and have been proved effective in men with metastatic cancer. But the benefit for men with less advanced prostate cancer is unclear, says Nancy Keating, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and the study's lead author. Prostate cancer is often slow growing in men, and many now receiving the treatment might never see their cancer worsen. - M.A.
ADHD May Get an Early Jump-Start
Nearly a third of the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder cases in kids may be linked to lead exposure or prenatal tobacco smoke. The findings, published last week in Environmental Health Perspectives, are based on examinations and blood tests of 4,704 children ages 4 to 15 and interviews with their parents. The study confirms previous research that implicated prenatal tobacco exposure as a risk factor for ADHD and also provides more comprehensive evidence that lead can be a driver. The study "moves us closer to identifying two major causal risk factors for ADHD," says Bruce Lanphear, director of the Cincinnati Children's Environmental Health Center at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and senior researcher on the study. - Sarah Baldauf
This story appears in the October 2, 2006 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.