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DoD May Restart Anthrax Shots United Press International December 16, 2004 WASHINGTON - Several months after a federal court ruled against the Department of Defense's mandatory anthrax vaccination program, the DOD has requested an emergency ruling so it can continue to give the controversial vaccine to soldiers. The authorization request was made in a letter from Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz to outgoing Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson. "I have determined there is a significant potential for a military emergency involving a heightened risk to the United States military forces of an attack with anthrax," said Wolfowitz...

It started at birth with head-to-toe eczema. Then Noah Smith began throwing up his baby formula and losing weight. His parents knew something was really wrong about a year ago when he stopped eating altogether. At first doctors thought that Noah, 2, of Irwin, Westmoreland County, had gastroesophageal reflux disease, or chronic heartburn. But a closer look inside his digestive system revealed that Noah suffers from a new, allergy-linked disorder that Pittsburgh doctors have started to diagnose at alarming rates in the past several years. The disease is called eosinophilic (pronounced ee-OH-sin-oh-filic) esophagitis -- commonly called EE -- and it...

   LONDON - Being born by Caesarean section may increase a baby’s risk of suffering from food allergies and diarrhea in the first year of life, German doctors said on Thursday.

Buy me some peanuts and cracker jack ... This familiar line from the baseball anthem "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" doesn't have the same happy meaning for Timothy Haverkamp that it does for most fans. Timothy, a first-grader from Ada Elementary, is allergic to peanuts. "He was allergic to everything when he was little. His brother is allergic to peanuts, too," Jane Haverkamp, Timothy's mother, said. "He never had a life-threatening emergency with peanuts, but we don't keep any at home." Timothy attended Wednesday's West Michigan Whitecaps game without fear of an attack. The team hosted its second...

The increasing use of antibiotics to treat disease may be responsible for the rising rates of asthma and allergies. By upsetting the body's normal balance of gut microbes, antibiotics may prevent our immune system from distinguishing between harmless chemicals and real attacks. "The microbial gut flora is an arm of the immune system," says Gary Huffnagle at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbour. His research group has provided the first experimental evidence in mice that upsetting the gut flora can provoke an allergic response. Asthma has increased by around 160 per cent globally in the last 20 years. Currently...

Heinz Recalls Pesto Sauce With Labels That Don't List Nuts Among Ingredients The Associated Press Published: Feb 20, 2004 PITTSBURGH (AP) - H.J. Heinz Co. is recalling tens of thousands of jars of Classico brand pesto sauce because the label does not list pine nuts as an ingredient. People with an allergy to nuts could suffer a life-threatening reaction if they ate the sauce. Several thousand cases of the sauce were made over a two-day period in December and were probably distributed nationally, Heinz said Friday. The recall affects 10-ounce jars of Traditional Basil Pesto Sauce and Spread with UPC...

A young Ocean Beach woman survived a severe allergic reaction that had University of California, San Diego Regional Burn Center staff scrambling to save her life, 10News reported. By all accounts, Sarah Yeargain, (pictured, left), shouldn't be alive. But she is and some are calling it a medical miracle. Three weeks ago, the skin on Yeargain's body began sloughing off. Dr. Daniel Lozano, from the UCSD Regional Burn Center, said, "She lost skin in her entire body. It's rather dramatic to really see this coming off in sheets." Even the membrane covering her internal organs -- her eyes, mouth, and...

High school now a balloon-free zone Oak Park campus learns to live without latex, as it prepares for a student with a dangerous allergy By Jodi S. Cohen Tribune staff reporter Published November 8, 2003 It was a simple delivery of flowers and balloons, but the bouquet was turned away at the door of Oak Park and River Forest High School. The school's snub was the first reaction to a violation of a new ban on latex products--from medical gloves to Band-Aids, swim caps, gym equipment and even birthday balloons--to prepare for a freshman with a life-threatening latex allergy who...

Growing Up with Cats Good for Allergies Mon Nov 3, 4:42 PM ET NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Allowing cats to be in a child's bedroom, starting in the first year of life, may prevent the later development of allergic asthma and hay fever, new research suggests. Although many reports have shown an anti-asthma effect for early cat exposure, others have actually tied such exposure to an increased risk of asthma. These seemingly contradictory findings may relate to the timing and amount of exposure. In the current study, Dr. Rudiger von Kries, from the Institute for Social Pediatrics and Adolescent...

It was a simple delivery of flowers and balloons, but the bouquet was turned away at the door of Oak Park and River Forest High School. The school's snub was the first reaction to a violation of a new ban on latex products--from medical gloves to Band-Aids, swim caps, gym equipment and even birthday balloons--to prepare for a freshman with a life-threatening latex allergy who will enroll in fall 2004. Oak Park officials already have discarded the latex gloves used in the health department, cafeteria and science labs, and balloons were banned on school property at the start of this...

A hypoallergenic grass genetically modified to lack two common hay-fever allergens is set to enter field trials in the US. The researchers behind the GM grass hope it will help shift public opinion around the world in favour of GM crops. "The beauty of this grass is that it will benefit the wider public not just the primary producer," says German Spangenberg of the Plant Biotechnology Centre at La Trobe University in Melbourne. Perennial and Italian ryegrasses, the types Spangenberg and his team have genetically modified, are sown for lawns and pasture around the world and account for 70 per...

<p>WASHINGTON - Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said yesterday he does not plan to be inoculated with the smallpox vaccine and recommends that other Cabinet members not request the inoculation either.</p> <p>"I do not believe it is necessary or should be taking place," he said.</p>