Here are some of the latest health and medical news
developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
Leukemia Claims Life Of 11-Year-Old 'Lion King' Actress
An 11-year-old girl who starred on Broadway in "The Lion King"
died from leukemia Monday afternoon.
Shannon Tavarez, who played the young lion Nala in the hit
musical, died at Cohen Children's Medical Center in Hyde Park, Long
Island, said Katharina Harf, co-founder of the bone marrow donor
center DKMS, the
Associated Press reported.
A perfect bone marrow match for Tavarez could not be found, even
though a massive publicity campaign resulted in the registration of
10,000 potential donors. As an alternative, Tavarez underwent an
umbilical cord blood transplant in August.
Her illness forced Tavarez to quit "The Lion King" in April. She
had shared the role of Nala with another girl and performed four
shows a week for six months, the
AP reported.
-----
Baby Born To 10-Year-Old Girl In Spain
A baby born to a 10-year-old girl in southern Spain is in good
health, but officials are deciding whether to allow the mother and
her family to retain custody of the newborn.
The father of the baby, born last week in the city of Jerez de
la Frontera, is also a minor, said Micaela Navarro, the social
affairs minister in Andalusia, the
Associated Press reported.
The mother of the baby is of Romanian origin, according to
Spanish newspapers. Medical personnel who attended the girl said
her mother told them that giving birth at such a young age is
common in their country, the daily
Diario de Jerez reported.
Because they're still growing, young girls are at higher risk
for problems during pregnancy, according to medical experts, the
AP reported.
-----
Discovery May Lead To New Antiviral Drugs
An important discovery may lead to the development of new
antiviral drugs to treat illnesses such as the common cold and
gastroenteritis, say U.K. scientists.
It's long been thought that immune system antibodies could only
combat viral infections by blocking or attacking viruses when they
were outside cells. But the Medical Research Council team found
that antibodies can enter cells and fight viruses from within,
BBC News reported.
"Doctors have plenty of antibiotics to fight bacterial infections but few antiviral drugs," said study author Dr. Leo James. "Although these are early days, and we don't yet know whether all viruses are cleared by this mechanism, we are excited that our discoveries may open multiple avenues for developing new antiviral drugs."
The scientists emphasized that it will take years of research
and testing to develop new antiviral treatments,
BBC News reported.
The study appears in the journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
-----
Alcohol Bigger Threat Than Cocaine or Heroin: Study
A new study concludes that alcohol is more dangerous overall
than illegal drugs such as crack cocaine and heroin.
British researchers evaluated the dangers that a number of
substances -- including alcohol, marijuana, ecstasy, heroin and
cocaine -- posed to individuals and society as a whole, the
Associated Press reported.
Heroin, crack cocaine and methamphetamine (crystal meth) were
found to be most dangerous to individuals. Alcohol, heroin and
crack cocaine cause the most damage to society as a whole, the
researchers said.
Overall, alcohol was the most dangerous, followed by heroin and
crack cocaine. Marijuana, ecstasy and LSD scored lower in terms of
overall harm.
The study, funded by Britain's Center for Crime and Justice
Studies, was published online Monday in
The Lancet, the
AP reported.
-----