10
Thursday, October 8, 1987 / University Daily Kansan
Nation/World
Study says virus maycause birth defects
The Associated Press
NEW YORK - Children in day care centers may be giving their mothers an invisible infection that can cause pregnant women to bear mentally retarded children, according to a study reported yesterday.
The infection thus poses a risk to women with children who become pregnant again and is probably to blame for 1,000 to 2,000 cases of retardation and other birth defects a year, said the author of the new study, Dr. Stuart Adler of the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond.
In a two-year study of 104 children in a day care center in Richmond, Alder found that 38 of them, mostly under the age of 3, got the infection
caused by a virus called cytomegalovirus.
Of the mothers of those 38 children, 18 were immune to the virus through a previous infection, and six of them, or one-third, got the infection from their children, an infection rate that Adler said was extremely high.
Adler reported his findings yesterday at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. In the general population, only 1 to 5 percent of the population is infected each year, he said.
In general, day care centers are known to be places where infections spread easily because of the large number of small children in the same place.
Adler noted that infection rates with cytomegalovirus varied in different regions, but he said he thought the problem of cytomegalovirus infection in pregnant mothers was not limited to Richmond.
"We think it's a national problem," he said, noting that similar results have been found in Alabama.
The virus produces no visible illness in normal children or adults, Adler said, although it can cause problems in people whose immune systems are damaged as a result of cancer or AIDS.
In normal individuals, the infection can be detected only through laboratory tests. Thus there is no way for either children or mothers to avoid contact with those who are infected
or to know when they are infected themselves.
"There is not much that can be done," Adler said. Between 30 percent and 70 percent of all adults have already had the infection, making them immune to further infections of virus, he said.
Mass screening to identify mothers who are not immune is not feasible, he said. The only hope lies in developing a vaccine to prevent the disease, which researchers are trying to do now.
Although the virus is not normally associated with disease, its consequences during pregnancy can be devastating, he said.
"A mother who gets infected during the first half of pregnancy has
between a one in 10 and a one in 20 chance of having a child damaged by the infection, usually mentally retarded," he said.
Cytomegalovirus is extremely common in the Third World, where children are universally infected before reaching age 2, Adler said. Paradoxically, the disease does not lead to birth defects in any appreciable numbers there because women of childbearing age virtually all become immune to the virus as young children.
The principal mode of transmission of the virus among children and their parents is not known, Adler said. The possibilities include contact with saliva, contamination of shared toys or transmission by hands.
Depression in children may be genetic, new study says
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Depression tends to strike children of a depressed parent earlier than it does other youngsters, according to a study presented yesterday that suggests a genetic link for the illness in very young children.
"We're putting our bets on the prepubertal depression as the one we would study most" in searching for genetic causes, said Mrina Weissman of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
The study focused on 220 children, aged 6 to 23, she told a science reporters' conference sponsored by the American Medical Association for Children's Medical Center. It included 125 children of 65 depressed parents and 95 children of 35 parents who had never been psychiatrically ill.
When tested for depression, the depressed children of a depressed parent showed an average age of onset of about 13 years. That was compared to 17 years for depressed children whose parents did not suffer from depression.
The time of the onset was about the same for boys and girls.
In addition, researchers found some cases of pre-pubertal depression, which starts before age 12, in children of depressed parents, but no such cases in children of normal parents.
Symptoms were similar in the two groups of children, leaving the earlier age of onset as the main distinctions. In the second group, the two groups, Weissman said.
As in previous studies, the new work found that children of a depressed parent were at heightened risk for depression, anxiety disorder, and other psychiatric problems. For depression, the risk was about doubled.
Such findings have led researchers to suspect a genetic influence on depression, but Weissman said that researchers did not know how such tendencies might be transmitted. Families also share cultures, diet, stress and social interactions, she said
genes to bipolar depression, in which depression alternates with elevated mood states.
Depression as defined in the study was more than just feeling blue. It means a loss of interest in activities, plus recurring spells of such symptoms as poor appetite, insomnia, loss of energy, feelings of worthlessness and reoccurring thoughts of death.
The study also found that children of depressed parents had more school problems and more of a need for special classes for reading or attention problems, despite no significant difference in IQ.
Both depressed and normal parents reported far fewer psychiatric problems in their children than the children themselves reported, particularly for depression and substance abuse. Weissman said.
Even normal parents tend not to know what is going on in the lives of their children, she said.
Weissman's study appears in the October issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.
Scientists use map to battle diseases
The Associated Press
BOSTON — Scientists said yesterday that they had drawn a map that helped pinpoint human genes, an accomplishment that will speed the search for the genetic causes of many common inherited ailments.
The genetic map was described by researchers from Collaborative Research, a biotechnology firm in Bedford, Mass., and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, both in Cambridge.
Another map has been developed independently by Ray White of the University of Utah. Some details of both maps were described to scientists in September as a genetics workshop in Parts.
Such maps pinpoint specific sites spaced along the chromosomes that hold more than 100,000 genes, which contain the body's hereditary blueprints. The maps
mark genes that play crucial roles in human development.
Experts said the maps would make it possible to identify the genetic components of many common diseases, including heart disease and cancer that may result from two or more genes.
Dr. David Bostein of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the authors of the Collaborative study and a pioneer in the search for genetic markers, called the development a milestone.
"I think it's a great achievement," said one of the nation's most distinguished geneticists. Dr. Aaron Johnston of Johns Hopkins University.
The map will aid the search for prenatal tests for serious inherited disorders and could improve the understanding of disease-causing genes so that their unwanted effects can be treated, he said.
"It's no longer a hit or miss process to the degree it was before," he said.
Fattest man in the world starts diet
The Associated Press
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — Nobody knows how much he weighs — it could be 1,100 pounds, it could be 1,200 — but it's less than it was two weeks ago. Walter Hudson is on a diet, and he's already four inches thinner at the knees.
Hudson, 42, is so wide he can't go from one room to another, and he hasn't been outside in 17 years. He is far heavier than the heaviest man listed in the Guinness Book of World Records, who is less than 900 pounds.
But his bizarre plight came to light only recently, when he became stuck in his bedroom doorway and had to call the police, fire and medical workers.
Hudson received calls from exercise expert Richard Simmons, Overeaters Anonymous and Dick Gregory, the one-time comedian who runs a weight-loss clinic in the Bahamas.
Hudson, who has a 103-inch waist,
said he used to eat Thanksgiving-
sized meals daily and would have
three or four ham steaks and six
large bottles of soda for breakfast or
lunch.
Gregory has taken on Hudson and hopes to help him lose more than 80 percent of his body weight, down to 190 pounds.
Under Gregory's plan, Hudson's breakfast is a pear, an apple and a banana. Lunch is a big salad, and dinner is steamed vegetables and 8 ounces of fish or chicken. And he has a bowl of yogurt for dinner day, mixed with a diet powder supplied by Gregory that is meant to reduce hunger.
He said the expected rapid weight loss will make Hudson feel feverish.
"He will actually think he's on fire. We'll have to ice him down," Gregory said. "He'll get itching inside his body like you get after an operation. His leg will pop open, and we'll have to drain it. It's going to get ugly. He's going to get ugly."
Previous studies have also linked
The Trend Setter in Lawrence
HEY! That guy looks like Ollie North!
If you look like Ollie North, Fawn Hall, Dick Vitale, Norm Stewart, or another celebrity, the Late Night look-a-like contest could be your big break!
If you are interested in entering the look-a-like contest, meet at Anschutz Pavilion, in costume, at 9:30 p.m. on October 14 for prejudging by The University Daily KANSAN staff. Ten semifinalists will be selected and the top four look-a-likes will be chosen by the audience during half-time of the Late Night basketball scrimmage. Prizes are provided courtesy of Braniff airlines, BrandsMart, and Pizza Hut.
So put on your best and get all your friends to come out and cheer you on! Admission is free. Doors open at 9:30 p.m.
Late Night with Larry Brown 12:01 a.m., October 15, 1987
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