Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:
Repealing Motorcycle Helmet Laws Leads to More Deaths
Motorcyclist death rates increased an average of 12.2 percent in U.S. states that repealed universal helmet laws in the past decade, while the death rate in states with universal helmet laws was 11.1 percent lower than in states with no helmet laws, according to a national study.
Death rates in states with partial helmet laws weren't statistically different from rates in states with no helmet laws, said researchers from the University of Missouri Truman School of Public Affairs and the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, United Press International reported.
The study was published in the American Journal of Public Health.
Since 1975, when most states mandated the use of motorcycle helmets, more than 100,000 motorcycle riders have died in the United States. Currently, about 20 states have universal laws that require all riders to wear helmets, while 26 states have partial helmet laws, usually only for young riders, UPI reported.
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Young Men More Likely to Misinterpret Friendly Behavior
Young men are more likely than women to interpret friendly facial expressions and body gestures as signs of sexual interest, says a study by Indiana University and Yale researchers.
They showed images of friendly people to 280 college-age men and women and found that 12 percent of the males and 8.7 percent of the females incorrectly believed the people in the images were "sexually interested," CBC News reported.
There was even more confusion when the volunteers were shown images of sexually interested people -- 37.8 of the men and 31.9 percent of the women said the images represented friendly members of the opposite sex.
The researchers said they don't believe the differences noted in the study are due to men oversexualizing situations. They suggested that women's greater emotional range may make them more adept at interpreting non-verbal cues, CBC News reported.
The study was published in the April issue of the journal Psychological Science.
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New Strain of Deadly Water-Borne Disease Discovered in Peru
Scientists have identified a new strain of deadly water-borne disease in the Peruvian Amazon and say it may be responsible for up to 40 percent of the region's cases of a disease called leptospirosis, which can have a fatality rate as high as 20 percent to 25 percent.
Leptospirosis, which can cause jaundice, kidney failure, lung hemorrhage and other problems, affects tens of millions of people a year and is most common in tropical regions.
Joseph Vinetz, of the University of California, San Diego's Division of Infectious Diseases, and colleagues discovered the new strain while examining patients in the Iquitos region of Peru, Agence France-Presse reported.
Of 881 patients, 41 percent had antibodies that reacted only to this new strain of bacteria. The findings were published in the Public Library of Science journal Neglected Tropical Diseases.
"This observation is relevant to other regions of the world where leptospirosis is likely to be common, because it's necessary to identify the right strain of leptospirosis in order to make the correct diagnosis," Vinetz said, AFP reported.
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Many Drugs Can Cause Eye Problems: Report
There are 62 drugs that can cause eye problems, and patients and doctors need to be aware of the risk, Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group, says in a new posting on its WorstPills.org Web site.
The eye is made up of numerous types
of cells and drugs can affect each type of cell. The 62 drugs can cause a number of eye problems, including cataracts, glaucoma, optic nerve diseases, retinal abnormalities, eyelid and conjunctival diseases, and eye surgery complications, says the Public Citizen posting, which summarizes an article published in Drug Safety.
While many doctors and patients are aware of the adverse effects drugs can have on other parts of the body, potential risks to the eyes are often not considered, Public Citizen said.
Drugs that can cause eye problems include: chloroquine and hydroxycholoroquine, used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, amoebae and malaria; the antibiotic linezolid; ethambutol, used to treat tuberculosis; corticosteroids; alpha-1 blockers; botulinum toxin (Botoxz); morphine; and drugs in the anticholinergic and adrenergic categories, Public Citizen said.
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CDC Said to Ignore Scientist's Pleas About Formaldehyde Threat
Officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ignored urgent requests to warn Gulf Coast hurricane victims about formaldehyde dangers in federal government-issued trailers, says a top CDC scientist.
At a House Science and Technology subcommittee hearing Tuesday, Christopher De Rosa also said his bosses told him last year not to write e-mails about his warnings of a "pending public health catastrophe" that could be caused by formaldehyde in the trailers, the Associated Press reported.
Formaldehyde, which can cause respiratory problems, has been classified as a carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and a probable carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The House of Representatives subcommittee is looking into how the CDC and other agencies dealt with complaints about formaldehyde levels in the trailers issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Democrats have accused FEMA of manipulating scientific research to minimize the potential dangers, and charge that the CDC helped FEMA mislead people living in the trailers, the AP reported.
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Transplant Patients Develop Cancer
Four U.S. transplant patients developed cancer after receiving organs last year from a 15-year-old boy with undiagnosed lymphoma. Two of the patients have since died of the same type of cancer, and the two other recipients are undergoing chemotherapy.
The donor was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis. However, a month after his death, officials at Stony Brook University Medical Center in New York told his parents that he actually died of a rare lymphoma, Newsday reported.
Stony Brook and New York University Medical Center -- which received two of the donor's organs -- were cleared in a recently concluded investigation by the New York state Department of Health.
Since the incident, NYU and the University of Minnesota -- which also received one of the donor's organs -- have changed their policies and now require stronger proof of bacterial meningitis in donors, Newsday reported.
The case was the subject of an article in the American Journal of Transplantation.
