Your Health: Jun. 15, 1998

GOOD NEWS FOR EARS

Have a child with an ear infection? Five days on antibiotics instead of the customary 10 may be all that’s needed to clear up uncomplicated cases. A new study that looked at 20 years of data on 3,000 kids concludes that with either regimen, pain and fever usually subside within three days, and the odds of a relapse are about the same.

BAD NEWS FOR KIDS’ ARTERIES

Old folks aren’t the only ones who get hardening of the arteries. A study released last week found that at least 60% of children and young adults have early atherosclerotic damage. The problem is severest among those with other risk factors–including controllable ones like obesity and high cholesterol.

GOOD NEWS ON HEPATITIS

The FDA last week approved a combination of potent antiviral drugs for chronic hepatitis C, the deadly liver disease that afflicts 4 million Americans. The therapy is six months of interferon injections plus oral doses of the drug ribavirin.There are serious side effects, such as birth defects, but the treatment reduces the hepatitis virus to undetectable levels in 45% of patients, vs. only 5% of those on standard therapy.

BAD NEWS FOR SMOKERS

Snuff it out already! If the threat of lung cancer and heart disease isn’t reason enough, listen to this: less than a pack a day can increase your risk of hearing loss. Smoking may damage the arteries that supply blood to the inner ear.

–By Janice M. Horowitz

Sources: Journal of the American Medical Association; New England Journal of Medicine; FDA; Journal of the American Medical Association