Your Health: Oct. 4, 1999

GOOD NEWS

BRAT PACK Hang in there, parents. That naughty child of yours may turn into an angel--eventually. A study of more than 1,000 inner-city boys concludes that there's a nearly 90% chance that young boys who bully or engage in other aggressive behavior will grow out of it by late adolescence. Moreover, contrary to the worries of many Ritalin-weary moms and dads, boys who are hyperactive but not particularly aggressive aren't likely to become violent later in life.

FROZEN FERTILITY For the first time, doctors appear to have restored the fertility of a prematurely menopausal woman by reimplanting ovarian tissue removed--and frozen--years before. While the woman, a 30-year-old ballerina, has yet to try to conceive, one important first step has occurred: she ovulated and had a period. The still experimental technique, developed by an Anglo-American team, may help women undergoing sterility-causing chemotherapy to preserve their fertility--and just may extend the childbearing years beyond menopause.

BAD NEWS

ANT ATTACK It was like a Hitchcock movie, but it was real life. Last week scientists reported that fire ants--so named because their sting feels like a hot poker--swarmed Mississippi nursing homes, attacking and killing two patients. The elderly patients were bedridden and couldn't escape the invaders. But healthy folks who live in infested areas--such as the Southeast and parts of California--are also vulnerable to attacks. If you see the creatures indoors, immediately exterminate them with pesticide before they close in.

AIDS ALERT Doctors have come to expect that patients undergoing long-term treatment for AIDS may develop a drug-resistant strain of HIV. Now a report finds that at least 16% of newly infected patients are also resistant to one or more of the drugs in the new AIDS cocktails, making the quest for additional drugs all the more important.

--By Janice M. Horowitz

Sources--Good News: Child Development (9/99), American Society of Reproductive Medicine meeting; Bad News: Annals of Internal Medicine (9/21/99), Journal of the American Medical Association (9/22/99)