Health Report: Oct. 25, 1993

THE GOOD NEWS

-- Using a genetically altered common virus as a vehicle, researchers have successfully ferried healthy genes into the diseased nose cells of three people suffering from cystic fibrosis. Once they had infiltrated, the healthy genes restored missing cell functions and reversed the abnormality that causes the disease. The next step is to apply this technique to diseased lung cells. Cystic fibrosis is the country's most common fatal inherited disease.

-- It's true -- sunscreen does provide measurable protection from the harmful effects of the sun. An Australian study showed that people who use SPF 17 sunblock develop fewer precancerous lesions and are more likely to have existing lesions heal than people who used no sunscreen at all.

THE BAD NEWS

-- Women cannot count on doses of the hormone estrogen to provide lasting prevention of bone loss after menopause.

A recent study showed that women over 75 suffered roughly the same incidence of bone fractures due to osteoporosis whether or not they had ever received estrogen.

-- Tuberculosis, once nearly eradicated, is killing 500,000 Africans a year, according to the World Health Organization, and it may kill 30 million more people worldwide during the next decade. The emergence of drug-resistant strains of the disease and the spread of AIDS have both hampered efforts by health agencies to slow the renewed spread of the consumptive illness. The weakened bodies of AIDS sufferers provide a convenient host for the TB bacillus.

Sources -- GOOD: Cell; New England Journal of Medicine. BAD: New England Journal of Medicine; WHO