Medicine: Capsules: Jul. 19, 1982

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MALARIA HOPE

With the advent of DDT in 1939, scientists foresaw an end to malaria. They were wrong. Though the insecticide had a huge impact, the malaria-carrying Anopheles mosquito became resistant to DDT, as it has to subsequent insecticides. The world's malaria count now stands at a record 400 million cases. But there is a new hope. University of California, Riverside, Entomologists Brian Federici and Mir Mulla have developed a high-power insecticide from Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (or BTI), a type of bacteria that is lethal to mosquitoes in nature. Unlike DDT, it is environmentally safe, and mosquitoes show no signs of becoming resistant to it. Though tests of BTI in malaria-endemic areas are just getting under way, officials at the World Health Organization are enthusiastic. It has been tested in Africa against the blackfly, carrier of widespread river blindness, and the results, says a WHO spokesman, are "superb."

ACID MILK

Milk has long been used to soothe acid stomach and ulcer pain. But researchers at the University of California, San Diego, say the practice may sometimes do more harm than good. Their study compared the amounts of stomach acid produced by drinking Coca-Cola, Tab, 7-Up, coffee, tea, Sanka, Kava, beer and milk. All proved potent stimulators of gastric acid, but milk and beer led the pack. Equally surprising, 7-Up produced about as much acid as caffeinated beverages. Concludes Researcher Katherine McArthur: "I certainly wouldn't advise drinking milk to calm an upset stomach or as an important part of ulcer therapy."

VIDEO SPASMS

Mary-Anne, 17, had been playing video games daily for more than two years. One day, she tried one called Dark Warrior. It flashed lights in a rapid pattern, and Mary-Anne fell to the ground, gripped by a seizure. Although she had no history of attacks, doctors diagnosed video game epilepsy. The case, described last month in the British Medical Journal, followed an earlier report of a grand-mal seizure suffered by a seemingly normal 17-year-old boy while playing Astro Fighter. According to Neurologist Jerome Engel, secretary of the American Epilepsy Society, "Rhythmic light stimulation can sometimes synchronize the firing of nerve cells in the brain, causing a seizure. Instead of firing individually, like fingers playing notes on the piano, many fire at once—like the banging of dissonant chords." Such attacks are rare, and sensitivities vary with the individual. So someone affected by Space Invader might be perfectly safe playing Pac-Man.