A strange vaccine-related phenomenon spotted in Canada at the start of the 2009 flu pandemic may well have been real, a new study suggests.

Researchers, led by Vancouver's Dr. Danuta Skowronski, an influenza expert at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, noticed in the early weeks of the pandemic that people who got a flu shot for the 2008-09 winter seemed to be more likely to get infected with the pandemic virus than people who hadn't received a flu shot.

Five studies done in several provinces showed the same unsettling results. But initially research outside Canada did not, and the effect was dismissed as a "Canadian problem," a problem with the flu vaccine used in Canada.

But a new study suggests the findings were real.

Sacramento, California -- Parents who send their children to private schools in California are much more likely to opt out of immunizations than their public school counterparts, an Associated Press analysis has found, and not even the recent re-emergence of whooping cough has halted the downward trajectory of vaccinations among these students.

The state surveys all schools with at least 10 kindergartners to determine how many have all the recommended immunizations. The AP analyzed that data and found the percentage of children in private schools who forego some or all vaccinations is more than two times greater than in public schools.

More troubling to public health officials is that the number of children entering private schools without all of their shots jumped by 10 percent last year, while the opt-out rate held steady in public schools for the first time since 2004.

Public health officials believe that an immunization rate of at least 90 percent in all communities, including schools, is critical to minimizing the potential for a disease outbreak. About 15 percent of the 1,650 private schools surveyed by the state failed to reach that threshold, compared with 5 percent of public schools.

There were 110 private schools statewide where more than half the kindergartners skipped some or all of their shots, according to AP's analysis, with Highland Hall Waldorf School in Northridge - where 84 percent opted out - topping the list.

Parents cite a variety of reasons for not immunizing their children, among them: religious values, concerns the shots themselves could cause illness and a belief that allowing children to get sick helps them to build a stronger immune system. Likewise, there's no single explanation that accounts for why so many more parents who send their children to private schools apparently share a suspicion of immunizations.

Thanks to an exchange of e-mails on a list that includes journalists Jeanne Lenzer and Shannon Brownlee (whose great work I've previously blogged about), I was directed to an article (subscription required) that I failed to make note of when it came out nearly two years ago. It provides useful background to an issue that has become even more heated this last year, the medical device safety oversight problem (see for example here).

Lenzer and Brownlee looked in depth at the vagus nerve stimulator manufactured by Cyberonics, a device in which a pacemaker-type pack is surgically inserted near the collarbone, and electrodes are wrapped around the vagus nerve in the neck. The device was intended at first for a select population of patients with a particular type of epilepsy that's resistant to all drug treatment. Like many devices and drugs (and in keeping with the Inverse Benefit Law), once having gotten the camel's nose into the tent, Cyberonics is now claiming that the stimulator can be used for a large number of other conditions, notably depression, and perhaps obesity and traumatic brain injury (stay tuned for hair loss and bad breath). All such uses rely on the purported safety of the device, which is what Lenzer and Brownlee zeroed in on.

An international team of scientists have shown at an unprecedented level of detail how cells prioritize the repair of genes containing potentially dangerous damage. The research, published in the journal Nature and involving academics from the University of Bristol, the Institut Jacques-Monod in France and Rockefeller University in the US, studied the action of individual molecules in order to understand how cellular repair pathways are triggered.

The genetic information that forms the "instruction booklet" for cells is encoded in the molecular building blocks of DNA, and can be damaged by mutagens such as ultraviolet light or tobacco smoke, as well as by normal "wear and tear" as the cells age. If left unrepaired, such damage can kill the cells or cause them to change their behaviour and perhaps cause disease.

Cells protect themselves by producing proteins that detect the damaged building blocks, cut them out and replace them with a patch of new DNA. Most cells, including bacteria and humans, contain mechanisms that ensure that the genes that are currently in use are repaired most quickly.

Scotland's drinking water may be partly to blame for the nation's high rates of liver disease, new research suggests. A link has been discovered between water hardness and the risk of damage to the organ by drinking too much alcohol.

The study found softer water, which is plentiful in Scotland and the north of England, increases the risk of alcoholic liver disease (ALD), a major killer.

Experts believe those living in soft-water areas may be more at risk because of lower levels of magnesium. The mineral can help to protect the liver from alcohol.

It is the first time a link between water softness and the disease has been established.

In the UK, hard water is found in the south and east of the country, where the principal rock is limestone. Soft water is found in the north where the rock is millstone grit and ALD rates are consistently higher.

The research may explain why rates of the disease in Scotland are almost double those in England, despite average alcohol consumption being approximately the same.

Last night there were calls for ministers to ditch their alcohol minimum-pricing strategy.

John Duffy, a public health lecturer at Birmingham University and former Scotland Office adviser, said: "I have my doubts over the efficacy and legality of the policy of minimum-pricing of alcohol so if it were proved that there are problems relating to the water supply then we could see liver disease dealt with a different way."

As many as half of all women could be suffering from sleep apnea, if a study published in an August edition of the European Respiratory Journal is any indication.

As part of the research, experts from Umeå University and Uppsala University, both in Sweden, recruited a random population sample of 400 women, had them complete a questionnaire and monitored them while they were sleeping, Reuters reporter Kerry Grens said on Friday.

Of those women, "half experienced at least five episodes an hour when they stopped breathing for longer than 10 seconds, the minimum definition of sleep apnea," Grens noted.

"Among women with hypertension or who were obese - two risk factors for sleep apnea - the numbers were even higher, reaching 80 to 84%of women."

According to Anthony Bond of the Daily Mail, lead author Dr. Karl Franklin, a professor at Umea University, and colleagues selected 400 female subjects, ages 20 to 70, from a population sample of 10,000 people. Each of them were fitted with sensors that measured their heart rate, eye movement, leg movement, blood oxygen levels, brain waves, and air flow.

City authorities in Durban have issued a warning to customers who bought an over-the-counter skincare product after eight people were hospitalised.

The Daily News reported that officials were now looking for other customers of the ayurvedic product Skintocare, which is imported from India and available from homeopaths and health shops.

Durban officials found the product contained high levels of lead.

Most of the patients were teenage girls and taking the product in capsule form for treatment of acne and skin blemishes.

Product is toxic

"The product overall is toxic to many organs in the body, including the heart, nervous system and bones. In severe cases, after a long period of ingestion, it leads to seizures, comas and sudden death," said Tim Houston from the eThekwini Municipality's health unit.

Some of the consumers were tracked down by the unit, using a distribution list from the importer of the product.

Manufacturer Bacfo Pharmaceuticals has recalled the product but residual products may still be on the market.

Shops have been ordered to remove the product from shelves. People who have been using the product have been told to see their doctor immediately.

Symptoms of lead poisoning are non-specific and people could have toxic levels in their blood and not even know about it.

Every activity in the brain involves the transfer of signals between neurons. Frequently, as many as one thousand signals rain down on a single neuron simultaneously. To ensure that precise signals are delivered, the brain possesses a sophisticated inhibitory system. Stefan Remy and colleagues at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases and the University Bonn have illuminated how this system works.

"The system acts like a filter, only letting the most important impulses pass," explains Remy. "This produces the targeted neuronal patterns that are indispensible for long-term memory storage."

How does this refined control system work? How can inhibitory signals produce precise output signals? This was the question investigated by Remy and his colleagues. Scientists have known for some time that this inhibitory system is crucial for the learning process. For instance, newest research has shown that this system breaks down in Alzheimer's patients. Remy and his team investigated the nerve cells of the hippocampus, a region of the brain that plays a crucial role in memory formation.

I first heard about a new Stanford "study" downplaying the value of organics when this blog headline cried out from my inbox: "Expensive organic food isn't healthier and no safer than produce grown with pesticides, finds biggest study of its kind."

What?

Does the actual study say this?

No, but authors of the study - "Are Organic Foods Safer or Healthier Than Conventional Alternatives? A Systematic Review" - surely are responsible for its misinterpretation and more. Their study actually reports that ¨Consumption of organic foods may reduce exposure to pesticide residues and antibiotic-resistant bacteria."

The authors' tentative wording - "may reduce" - belies their own data: The report's opening statement says the tested organic produce carried a 30 percent lower risk of exposure to pesticide residues. And, the report itself also says that "detectable pesticide residues were found in 7% of organic produce samples...and 38% of conventional produce samples." Isn't that's a greater than 80% exposure reduction?

In any case, the Stanford report's unorthodox measure "makes little practical or clinical sense," notes Charles Benbrook - formerly Executive Director, Board on Agriculture of the National Academy of Sciences: What people "should be concerned about [is]... not just the number of [pesticide] residues they are exposed to" but the "health risk they face." Benbrook notes "a 94% reduction in health risk" from pesticides when eating organic foods.

Women carrying a mutation in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes (which control the suppression of breast and ovarian cancer) who have undergone diagnostic radiation to the chest before the age of 30 are more likely to develop breast cancer than those who carry the gene mutation but who have not been exposed, a study published on bmj.com today reveals.

The BMJ published a commentary in August which argued that a breast cancer charity was using misleading statistics to persuade women to undergo mammography, concluding that charities should stop generating false hope and that women need and deserve the facts instead.

Exposure to radiation is an established risk factor for breast cancer in the general population. Some studies have suggested that women with a mutated BRCA1/2 gene may have increased radiation sensitivity because BRCA1 and BRCA2 are the genes involved in the repair of DNA breaks, which can be caused by radiation. The benefit from mammographic screening in young BRCA1/2 mutation carriers may therefore not outweigh the radiation risk. Some countries have even gone as far as recommending that women avoid mammographic screening before the age of 30 but results of studies have been inconsistent.