Boy dies of bird flu, sisters ill in Turkey

Ankara, Turkey - A 14-year-old farm boy who died after developing pneumonia-like symptoms has tested positive for bird flu, Turkey’s health minister said Wednesday. If confirmed, it would be the first human death from the ailment outside of eastern Asia.

One of the boy’s sisters who is hospitalized and in serious condition also tested positive for bird flu, Health Minister Recep Akdag said. Another sister also is thought to have bird flu, he said.

Akdag did not say if the boy had died of the deadly H5N1 strain, but he said samples were being sent to European labs for further tests. Authorities are closely monitoring H5N1, for fear it could mutate into a form easily passed between humans and spark a pandemic.

Loopholes raise risk of mad cow, critics say

Washington - Researchers and the nation’s No. 1 burger seller say the government is not fully protecting animals or people from mad cow disease.

Stronger steps are needed to keep infection from entering the food chain for cattle, the critics wrote in comments to the Food and Drug Administration.

The group includes McDonald’s Corp., seven scientists and experts, and pharmaceutical supplier Serologicals Corp.

The government proposed new safeguards two months ago, but researchers said that effort “falls woefully short” and would continue to let cattle eat potentially infected feed, the primary way mad cow disease is spread.

The primary firewall against mad cow disease is a ban on using cattle remains in cattle feed, which the U.S. put in place in 1997. However, the feed ban has loopholes that create potential pathways for mad cow disease. For example, using restaurant plate waste is allowed in cattle feed.

The Food and Drug Administration proposed in October to tighten the rules, but critics said glaring loopholes would remain.

The critics said their biggest concern is that tissue from dead animals would be allowed in the feed chain if brains and spinal cords have been removed. Brains and spinal cords are tissues that can carry mad cow disease.

The most effective safeguards, they said, would be to:

“Ban from animal feed all tissues considered “specified risk materials” by the Agriculture Department, which requires that such materials be removed from meat that people eat. This includes tissues beyond the brain and spinal cord, such as eyes or part of the small intestine.

“Ban the use of dead cattle in animal feed.

“Close loopholes allowing plate waste, poultry litter and blood to be fed back to cattle.

Vaccines shown to prevent rotavirus

Trenton, N.J. - Two new vaccines appear safe and effective against rotavirus, a major diarrheal killer of young children in poor countries, two huge studies show.

The impressive results prompted two government doctors to call for making routine immunization “a global priority.”

Rotavirus, which causes diarrhea and dehydration, leads to more than 2 million hospitalizations and half a million deaths a year, mostly in developing countries. In the United States, the virus sickens about 2.7 million children younger than 5, sends up to 70,000 to the hospital and causes 20 to 70 deaths each year.

The studies, each including about 60,000 children, were reported in today’s New England Journal of Medicine.

The two studies found each vaccine prevented at least 98 percent of severe cases of gastroenteritis, or intestinal inflammation.