Health Highlights: Nov. 12, 2007

Mar. 23 -- Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

Cities Must Prepare for Nuclear Attack

In the aftermath of a nuclear attack on a U.S. city, loss of medical resources and personnel would prove a major problem in efforts to treat survivors, say researchers who analyzed the effects of theoretical 20- and 550-kiloton nuclear detonations in Los Angeles and Houston.

"After a nuclear attack, the surviving health care community would be faced with an unprecedented burden of care for burn victims. This burden would be compounded by the loss of hospitals, doctors, nurses and other health professionals," study author Cham E. Dallas, director of the Institute for Health Management and Mass Destruction Defense at the University of Georgia, said in a prepared statement.

Dallas and a colleague calculated that a 550-kiloton attack in Los Angeles would result in 786,000 burn victims, with about 185,000 likely to survive. In Houston, a similar attack would cause 257,579 burn casualties, with about 59,000 likely to survive.

The researchers offered four recommendations on how cities can better prepare for a nuclear attack:

• Increase the number of medical personnel trained in burn care, including non-physicians.
• Develop plans for dealing with displaced people who will need shelter, food, water, clothing, basic health care and safety.
• Pre-position secure stockpiles of narcotics for use in mass burn care.
• Create regional mobilization systems, such as air transport, to move medical resources and personnel.

The study appears in the American Medical Association journal Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness.

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Ebola Virus Able to Mutate: Study

The deadly Ebola virus is able to mutate, say French scientists who found that the virus is able to swap genetic material to create new strains. The researchers said this discovery has major implications for attempts to control the virus, Agence France-Presse reported.

The same Zaire species of Ebola (ZEBOV) has accounted for nearly 90 percent of all deaths from hemorrhagic fever since Ebola was discovered in 1976. But this study of samples taken from six gorillas and a chimpanzee killed by the virus in Gabon and the Republic of Congo between 2001 and 2006 identified a new variation of ZEBOV.

Aqua Dots are beads that can be arranged into designs that hold together when the beads are sprayed with water. At least nine children in the United States and three Australian children have been hospitalized after swallowing the beads, the AP reported.

"The Shenzhen factory started to produce the bead toys after its trial products provided to the agent received no objection," the state-run Xinhua News Agency said in a statement to the AP.

The investigation revealed that the toys were coated with harmful 1,4-butanediol -- widely used in plastics and cleaners -- instead of the specified 1,5-pentanediol, a nontoxic compound found in glue. The date-rape drug gammahydroxybutyrate can cause death. Its symptoms include respiratory difficulty, loss of consciousness, seizures, drowsiness and coma.

In 1999, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration declared 1,4-butanediol a class I health hazard because it can cause life-threatening harm, the AP reported.

Aqua Dots were sold in 40 countries, the wire service said.

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U.S. Infant Mortality Rate Still Needs Improvement, Statistics Show

It isn't surprising that the U.S. infant mortality rate continues to drop. But what may be surprising is that even with a lower infant death rate, the United States ranks near the bottom among modernized nations, the Associated Press reports.