Health Report: Oct. 18, 1993

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THE GOOD NEWS

-- Machinery designed to detect flaws in nuclear warheads will soon be turned to more benign use: finding early signs of breast cancer. Digital X-ray systems developed at Lawrence Livermore weapons lab should spot tiny tumors that the old film-based X-ray machines miss.

-- The number of measles cases in the U.S. plummeted from 27,786 in 1990 to just 2,237 last year. Apparently the epidemic that raged through the preschool population after President Reagan cut funds for immunization has finally run its course.

-- Researchers have devised a fast, cheap and accurate test for the genetic defect that causes fragile X syndrome, the most common inherited form of mental retardation.

THE BAD NEWS

-- U.S. hospitals reported a record number of drug-related emergency-room visits last year, suggesting that heavy drug use is on the rise. The increase in visits: 18% for cocaine, 34% for heroin and 48% for marijuana.

-- Men, at least, have one more reason to eat less fat -- to decrease the chances of prostate cancer. American men who eat red meat as a main dish five or more times a week are 2.6 times more likely to suffer advanced prostate cancer than men who eat it once a week or less.

-- An experimental aids drug called L-697,661 that showed promise in test-tube studies has failed in six-week clinical trials. The aids virus simply developed resistant strains and kept on multiplying.

Sources -- GOOD: U.S. Dept. of Energy; Amer. Health Foundation; J.A.M.A. BAD: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services; Journal of the Nat'l. Cancer Inst..; New England Journal of Med.