Omega 3 Supplements Don’t Help With Depression: Review

FRIDAY, Nov. 6, 2015 (HealthDay News) — There’s little evidence that taking omega-3 fatty acid supplements helps treat depression, researchers report.

Some studies have suggested that these fish oil supplements may benefit people with major depression.

But in a review published Nov. 5 in the Cochrane Library, researchers disagreed after analyzing 26 studies that included more than 1,400 people with depression.

“We found a small-to-modest positive effect of omega-3 fatty acids compared to placebo, but the size of this effect is unlikely to be meaningful to people with depression, and we considered the evidence to be of low or very low quality,” lead author Katherine Appleton, of Bournemouth University in the U.K., said in a journal news release.

“At present, we just don’t have enough high quality evidence to determine the effects of omega-3 fatty acids as a treatment for major depressive disorder. It’s important that people who suffer from depression are aware of this, so that they can make more informed choices about treatment,” Appleton concluded.

In the review, the symptom scores among those who took the supplements were slightly lower than for those who took a placebo. But, the difference was small and there were significant limitations in the studies that could have affected the results, according to the review authors.

Omega-3 fatty acids, which occur naturally in fatty fish such as tuna, other seafood and some nuts and seeds, are believed to be important for good health. Omega-3 fatty acid supplements are widely available as over-the-counter products and have become increasingly popular over the past decade.

More information

The U.S. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health has more about omega-3 fatty acids.

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Could Brain Stimulation Be a Way to Weight Loss?

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, Nov. 6, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Electrical stimulation of the brain might hold potential as a weapon against obesity, a small study suggests.

The U.S. National Institutes of Health study found that stimulating the brain’s prefrontal cortex caused people to eat less, consume fewer calories from soda and fat, and lose more weight.

“Brain stimulation appears to be a useful tool for modifying activity of the prefrontal cortex, indicating the importance of mental processes in the development and treatment of obesity,” said lead researcher Marci Gluck. She is an investigator at the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

Gluck said previous studies from her lab found lower levels of brain activity in the left prefrontal cortex of obese people after a meal, compared with lean people.

This brain region has been linked to behavioral regulation, taste and reward, she said.

“It is possible that disruption of this area in people who are obese might impair regulation of eating behavior and food choice, so this region might be a potential target for intervention in obesity,” Gluck said.

However, a preventive health expert said thinking that brain stimulation might be a viable treatment for obesity is “absurd.”

“I find the notion that as a culture we might be willing to continue spending money on junk foods that make us overeat, get fat, and get sick, and then spend more money on electrical jolts to our brains to help us resist that junk food alarming and absurd,” said Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center.

For the study, nine obese volunteers were randomly assigned to either three sessions of brain stimulation or phony stimulation over nine days. Immediately after each session, the study participants had unrestricted access to food and beverages in vending machines.

The same experiment was repeated over another nine days. There were no significant differences in side effects reported by either group.

The findings could lead to new treatment options, Gluck said.

“Unfortunately, there aren’t any gold standard brain-based interventions for obesity and weight loss, but we hope that findings from our study will encourage further research in this area,” she said.

The stimulator used is a small, portable device with sponge electrodes.

“If future studies show promising results, this technique could be used outside of a medical setting,” Gluck said. “Just as the light box became a home intervention for treating seasonal affective disorder, this device could potentially be used at home to treat weight-related disorders.”

The findings of this “proof of concept” were presented Wednesday in Los Angeles at Obesity Week, a meeting hosted by the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery and the Obesity Society. The study was also published in the Nov. 4 online edition of the journal Obesity.

Currently, the researchers have a larger study in progress, Gluck said.

Katz said the idea that electrical stimulation of brain regions can influence food intake and weight is interesting, but not surprising.

“All decisions and perceptions are products of the mind, which are in turn products of the brain. Decisions about food are among them,” said Katz, who is also president of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.

But Katz believes that changing your lifestyle by eating a healthful diet and keeping physically active is the way to reduce obesity.

“While there may be rare applications of this technology, I would encourage those seeing any kind of public health solution here to change their minds,” Katz said.

More information

For more on obesity, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Race Gap in Life Expectancy Is Narrowing: U.S. Study

By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, Nov. 6, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Black Americans are catching up to whites in life expectancy — largely due to declining rates of death from heart disease, cancer and HIV, a new federal government study finds.

Researchers said the study can only show what the trend is, and not the reasons for it. But it’s likely that better access to medical treatments has played a role, they added.

Americans’ life expectancy at birth has risen steadily over the last century, reaching an all-time high of 79 years in 2013. The life expectancy for black people, however, has always lagged behind that of whites, according to the researchers.

That gap still exists. But it is narrowing — shrinking from a six-year difference in 1999 to a less than four-year difference in 2013, the study found.

And it appears that blacks are living longer because their death rates from heart disease, cancer, HIV and accidents are dropping, the new research found.

“Those causes of death are going down for everyone. But they’re going down faster for African Americans,” said lead researcher Kenneth Kochanek, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.

“The next step,” Kochanek said, “is to figure out why. It could be access to health care, it could be lifestyle improvements. We can’t tell from our data.”

Diane Sperling Lauderdale, an epidemiologist at the University of Chicago, agreed that the reasons are unclear.

“You can’t know if there’s been a change in the number of people getting these diseases, or changes in the treatment,” said Lauderdale, who studies health care inequalities.

But, she added, the past decade has seen advances in therapies for heart disease, various cancers and HIV. “So, I think it’s likely that there’s been improved access to those therapies [for blacks],” Lauderdale said.

There is research to support that notion. Last year, a study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that across U.S. hospitals, racial disparities in access to recommended treatments narrowed or disappeared between 2005 and 2010.

For example, many more minorities were getting angioplasty within 90 minutes of arriving at the hospital with heart attack symptoms.

For the current study, the CDC team used death certificate data to track national trends in mortality between 1999 and 2013.

The researchers found that for black people, life expectancy at birth rose from age 71 in 1999, to 75.5 by 2013. By comparison, white peoples’ life expectancy increased from age 77 to 79.

When the researchers dug deeper into causes of death, they found that black men were seeing larger declines in deaths from HIV, cancer, heart disease and accidental injuries, versus white men. Among black women, deaths from heart disease, cancer and HIV dropped at a faster rate.

The decline in heart disease deaths was the single biggest contributor to improved life expectancy for black people, and especially for black women.

“That was really striking,” Kochanek said. “Everyone knows that heart disease deaths have been going down in the U.S. But it looks like there’s been a big impact for African Americans.”

The news was not all good, however. Black people saw faster increases in rates of death from certain other diseases — including Alzheimer’s disease, aortic aneurysm, high blood pressure and complications related to pregnancy, the study found.

Lauderdale noted another limitation of the study — it included deaths at any age. So it’s not clear whether black people of all ages, or only certain age groups, are seeing improvements, she said.

More information

The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more on health disparities.

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4 Butt-Lifting Exercises That Aren’t Squats

In the 90’s and 2000’s, it was all about the washboard stomach. But over the last few years, that has shifted. These days, we all want a lifted, strong booty!

Strong glutes are not only great for vanity’s sake, but they also help support your core and protect your back from injury.

The problem: time and time again, I hear from people with bad knees complaining that all the best butt-lifters are too hard on their knees. Are they condemned to life with a flat behind?

No!

RELATED: 3 Common Knee Surgeries, Explained

Knee pain, whether from osteoarthritis or an earlier injury, is one of the most common reasons that people shy away from working out in general. While this problem can limit you in the gym, it definitely doesn’t have to keep you out. In fact, exercise happens to be one of the best ways to combat knee pain. And strengthening your glutes can help prevent it from getting worse: By strengthening the muscles in your legs and butt while using good form, your knees will have better support and therefore won’t take on as much strain as they would otherwise.

Try these 4 glute exercises that will save your knees from pain, while giving you the “boost” you’ve been looking for.

As always, check with a doctor before starting any new workout program. If you’re dealing with sharp pains, please see a doctor or physical therapist immediately.

Froggy

Lie face down on a Swiss ball with your heels together and knees slightly bent outwards. From here, lift your legs up so your thighs hovering the ball and squeeze your glutes together. Hold for 2 seconds, and then bring your legs back down. Repeat for 15-20 reps

Photo: Jennifer Cohen

Clamshell

Place a resistance band around both legs, just above your knees and lie down on your right side, using your right elbow to prop your head up, while keeping your heels together and knees bent at about a 45 degree angle. Leave your right leg planted on the floor while you lift your left leg up and back down. Go nice and slow and focus on your glute as you move through the exercise. Repeat for 15-20 reps before moving to your left side. If you want to increase the intensity, you can use a thicker band to make this move more difficult.

RELATED: Pin It: Tracy Anderson Butt Workout

Photo: Jennifer Cohen

Donkey kick

With a resistance band wrapped around both legs, just above your knees, place both hands and knees onto the floor. Make sure your back is flat, knees are aligned with your hips and your hands are in line with your shoulders. From here, lift your left leg into the air as your press your heel towards the sky. Keep your knee bent and go only as high as you can without allowing your back to arch. Lower back down and repeat for a total of 15-20 reps. When you’ve finished with that leg, repeat on the other side.

Photo: Jennifer Cohen

Glute bridge with band

Lie on your back with your knees bent and a resistance band wrapped around both legs, just above your knees. Press through your heels to lift your hips up into the air. While you’re still in this position, keep your feet planted as you press your knees outwards against the resistance band and then bring them back in to center. Lower your hips back down to the ground and repeat for 15-20 repetitions.

RELATED: Total Body Makeover Workout

Photo: Jennifer Cohen

Looking for more ways to get your workout in without pain? Try this Super-Simple Strength Routine to Soothe Your Aching Back

Jennifer Cohen is a leading fitness authority, TV personality, entrepreneur and best-selling author of the new book, Strong is the New Skinny. With her signature, straight-talking approach to wellness, Jennifer was the featured trainer on The CW’s Shedding for the Wedding, mentoring the contestants’ to lose hundreds of pounds before their big day, and she appears regularly on NBC’s Today Show, Extra, The Doctors and Good Morning America. Connect with Jennifer on Facebook, Twitter, G+ and on Pinterest.

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Like to Bike? This Could Save Your Life

Getty Images

“Those people are crazy!” the bus driver exclaimed. I was en route to a doctor appointment in New York City, and a helmet-less rider on a Citi Bike had just darted in front of us, narrowly avoiding getting hit.

“I rarely see those Citi Bike riders wearing helmets,” I said.

“I don’t know why,” the driver said. “It’s dangerous out there.”

I regularly wonder whether the un-helmeted people who use Citi Bikes—the New York bike sharing program—have a death wish. More likely, they’re probably thinking they “only” have a few blocks to go and they’ll be fine. Yet in the course of those few blocks, they’ll likely encounter buses, trucks, swerving taxis, and overly aggressive drivers.

A few sobering stats: The number of bicyclists killed in motor vehicle accidents increased by 16% between 2010 and 2012, per the most recent Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) report on bicyclist fatalities. Experts note that the rise correlates with an increase in bicycling commuters. In addition, 48,000 “pedalcyclists” (including bicyclists, tricyclists, and unicyclists) were injured in motor vehicle traffic accidents in 2013, per the U.S. Department of Transportation.

RELATED: Chic Gear for Every Biking Style

Six states—California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Michigan, and Texas—represented 54 percent of all bicyclist fatalities, and the vast majority were urban accidents. In 2012, at least two thirds of bicyclists who died were not wearing helmets. 

Currently, 29 states have no bicycle helmet laws, per the GHSA (21 have laws for younger bicyclists, generally below 16). But if you’re biking—whether in the obstacle-course streets of a city or the relatively calm ones of a suburb—you shouldn’t need a law to protect your life. In other words, use your head and maybe it won’t get smashed up. If you know that you’re going to be jumping on a bike one or more times on a work day, take a helmet. If you’re doing an impromptu ride, consider a good old taxi or public transportation.

Some safety motivation: these 5 stylish yet protective helmets. Because when it comes to guarding your noggin, the hat hair is worth it:

Casual commuter

Photo: courtesy of Giant Bicycles

If you’re so obsessed with riding your bike to work that you can’t remember the last time you bought a metro card, the Liv Civita Helmet ($50; giant-bicycles.com) is for you. The sleek, modernistic design looks super chic, and the inside webbing creates a secure fit for when you’re cruising down the bike lane.

RELATED: Bike Your Way to a Better Body

Mood shifter

Photo: courtesy of Yakkay

Matching your helmet to your outfit is a breeze with the Yakkay Helmet ($75; yakkay.com). The rounded, brimless shape is sleek enough on its own, but you can also top it with one of their eight cool hat covers.

Breathe easy

Photo: courtesy of Zappos

When you’re biking to meet friends for dinner, or heading to work, the last thing you want is to show up dripping with sweat. Enter the Bern Melrose Helmet ($90; zappos.com). Super lightweight, and covered with slots for ventilation, you’ll feel nice and breezy as you go.

Pack and go

Photo: courtesy of Closca

Okay, you made it to your destination and locked up your bike, but you’re left carrying around a clunky helmet. Now what? Enter the awesome, collapsable Closca Fuga Helmet ($100; closca.com), which can shrink to over 50% it’s full size.

RELATED: Pippa Middleton is Biking HOW Many Miles Per Day?

Loud and proud

Photo: courtesy of Amazon

Stand out in style with the hilariously fun Nutcase Street Sport Helmet ($64; amazon.com), like this fruity one. They’re built tough, adjust for a perfect fit, and they even have a magnetic buckle closure that won’t clip your skin. It’s the best way to protect your melon.

 

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5 Things You Didn’t Know About Appendicitis

Photo: Getty Images

The Daily Show wasn’t quite “daily” this week after the show’s new host Trevor Noah was sidelined by an emergency appendectomy Wednesday morning. Thankfully, Noah’s surgery was complication-free, and the show will go on tonight night as usual (so expect an opening monologue filled with jokes about hospital gowns).

Chances are, Trevor Noah’s appendectomy is not the first you’ve heard of. You probably have a friend who’s had to have their appendix out, but do you happen to know what appendicitis actually is? Or what your appendix does, for that matter?

Yeah, we thought so. Here are some things to know about this seemingly unnecessary organ and why it seems to cause so much trouble.

The basics

Appendicitis is simply an inflammation of the appendix, a thin, worm-shaped pouch attached to the large intestine. Telltale symptoms include belly-button pain and right-side abdominal pain. But while the movies make it seem like the symptoms are excruciating and therefore obvious, it’s actually often the opposite, as many people don’t feel the pain in the same place, depending on where their appendix sits.

Some people have an appendix that points backward instead of forward in the body, so the symptoms present in a different location, Eugene Shapiro, MD, deputy director of the Investigative Medicine Program at Yale University previously explained to Health, making the diagnosis even harder.

Other symptoms include fever, nausea and vomiting, and bloating. If you have any of these, the best advice is to see your doctor ASAP.

RELATED: 9 Symptoms of Appendicitis You Must Know

Pain that stops isn’t always a good thing

Sometimes people do have the telltale pain, but then the appendix ruptures and the pain is relieved so they think they’re fine, Dr. Shapiro adds. When it ruptures, fluids can seep into the abdomen and cause an infection called peritonitis, which can be life-threatening. A ruptured appendix requires immediate surgery to remove the tissue and clean the abdominal cavity to prevent that.

Lesson: if you experience symptoms at all, you should see your doctor whether you start to feel better or not.

Appendicitis tends to skew young

People between the ages of 10 and 30 are the most common sufferers. But it may be becoming more common in older people. According to a 2012 study in the Journal of Surgical Research, the annual rate of appendicitis in all Americans went up from 7.62 cases for every 10,000 people, to 9.38 between 1993 and 2008. And for those between 30 and 69-years-old, the number of cases increased by 6.3%. The researchers found it was more common in men.

RELATED: Quick Cures for Your Tummy Troubles

Surprise! The appendix is actually useful

For years, doctors weren’t sure if the appendix had any real purpose. They thought perhaps it was a piece of the intestine that was leftover from earlier stages in the course of our evolution. But researchers are now finding that it might have some use.

In a 2007 study in the Journal of Theroetical Biology, researchers proposed that the appendix is a “safe house” for friendly micro-organisms, meaning it’s a place where these bacteria can grow and hang out. Then, if needed, they can re-populate the colon “in the event that the contents of the intestinal tract are purged following exposure to a pathogen.” In other words, if an illness causes a big die-off in your gut, your appendix might be able to help get your flora growing again.

You might not need surgery

While surgery has long been the main treatment for appendicitis, a recent study from the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that antibiotics might be able to save most sufferers from going under the knife.

How? Turns out there are actually two types of appendicitis: one that’s more serious and always requires surgery, and a milder form that can be treated with antibiotics. This milder form is much more common, making up about 80 percent of cases, the researchers estimated.  A CT scan can reveal which type you have, allowing doctors to make the call.

So, if you come down with a sharp pain in the belly button, fret not, you may get to keep your appendix after all. Here’s hoping Trevor Noah does fine without his.

RELATED: 18 Reasons Why Your Stomach Hurts

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Don’t Even Talk About It: ‘Food Words’ Can Make You Overeat

THURSDAY, Nov. 5, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Certain food words can interact with stress and genetics to trigger unhealthy eating, two new studies suggest.

The findings were presented this week at Obesity Week, a meeting in Los Angeles hosted by the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery and The Obesity Society.

One study included 17 obese people and 12 normal-weight people whose brain activity was monitored while they looked at words describing high- and low-calorie foods.

“Our study found that individuals with obesity had a stronger response to words associated with high-calorie foods — such as chocolate spread and chicken wings — in a widespread neural circuit spanning multiple areas of the brain,” study leader Susan Carnell said in Obesity Society news release.

Stress made the obese participants more likely to want high-calorie foods.

“When we subjected individuals to a combined social and physiological stressor, both individuals with obesity and those of normal weight showed slightly altered responses to high-calorie food words, but only those with obesity ate more at a subsequent meal,” said Carnell. She is an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.

She said this suggests that obese people respond to food cues differently than lean people, which could lead them to eat more.

In the second study, Carnell and colleagues found a link between responses to food words and obesity risk in teens with genetic variants that increase the risk of obesity.

“Our study provides additional insight into how these particular obesity-associated genetic variants may be working — by increasing appetite and food intake,” study research coordinator Leora Benson said in the news release.

The findings could lead to new ways to combat obesity, the researchers said.

“It may be possible to train our brains to react differently to certain food cues,” Obesity Society spokesman Martin Binks said in the news release.

“This research is a step toward better understanding how food words — relatively minimal food cues — may influence food consumption and how other common experiences like stress may interact with associated food cues to influence eating behavior. These types of studies may eventually lead to more effective behavioral strategies,” he said.

Studies presented at meetings are not subject to the same scrutiny given to published research and are generally considered preliminary.

More information

The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has more about obesity prevention.

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Rule Changes Might Lead to More Lung Transplants for Kids

THURSDAY, Nov. 5, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Twice as many young people in the United States could get lung transplants if donor lungs were available from a wider geographic area, a new study contends.

“Children are dying while waiting for an organ. Geography should be one less barrier to pediatric patients receiving a potentially lifesaving transplant,” said senior study author Dr. Maryam Valapour. She is a senior lung investigator at the Cleveland Clinic’s Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients and director of Lung Transplant Outcomes.

Currently, donor lungs are first offered to transplant candidates near the donor hospital. If there are no local candidates, the lungs are offered beyond the local area in 500-mile radius increments. Child candidates are given priority for child donor lungs within a 1,000-mile radius of the donor hospital, followed by teens and then adults. Teen candidates get priority for teen donor lungs, followed by children and then adults, the researchers explained.

Using data from almost 6,000 lung and 141 heart-lung candidates listed for transplant between July 2009 and June 2011, the researchers created computer models of alternative allocation of lungs from child donors.

Two scenarios led to significantly more lung transplants for children. One focused on broader geographic sharing of teen and child donor lungs by offering teen donor lungs to teens, then to children from the local region up to a 1,000-mile radius before offering them to local adults.

This scenario also offers child donor lungs to child candidates and then to adolescents within a 1,000-mile radius before adults are considered. This model more than doubled the number of teen transplants, to 461 adolescent transplants per 100 patient-years on the waiting list, compared with 206 under current rules, the computer model showed.

The other model gave priority to children over teens for lungs from teen donors, and widened children’s access to teen donor lungs from the local region to a 1,000-mile radius. This change led to the potential for 388 teen transplants per 100 patient-years on the waiting list, and likely increased transplant rates for children, the researchers said.

“We believe these changes will give young patients more access to transplants and will result in organs getting to the sickest patients first,” Valapour said in a clinic news release.

Adult transplant rates were not affected by either model, according to the study published Nov. 2 in the American Journal of Transplantation.

The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network is reviewing the simulations and will choose one to be the new national policy for allocating children’s lungs for transplantation.

More information

The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has more about lung transplantation.

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Many U.S. Women Gain Too Much Weight While Pregnant: Study

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Nov. 5, 2015 (HealthDay News) — A large number of American mothers-to-be gain more weight than is good for them or their baby, federal health officials reported Thursday.

Just 32 percent of pregnant women across the United States gained the recommended amount of weight during their pregnancy, the analysis from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.

The study looked at 2013 data for women delivering full-term, singleton infants in 41 states, New York City and the District of Columbia, and additional 2012 pregnancy risk data for another five states.

While gestational weight gain varied by states, at least 50 percent of pregnant women in 17 states gained above the recommended amount, the report said.

“Eating for two shouldn’t translate to eating without limits,” said the report’s co-author, CDC epidemiologist Andrea Sharma. “It should translate to eating twice as healthy.”

“A large proportion of women enter pregnancy not at a healthy weight,” she added. “Entering pregnancy at a healthy weight is extremely important.”

The number of women gaining too much gestational weight ranged from 54.2 percent in Alaska to 43 percent in Colorado, the researchers said.

The proportion of women who gained less than their recommended amount of weight also varied by state: in 20 states and New York City, 20 percent or more gained less than their recommended limit.

In virtually every state, women who were overweight before their pregnancy had the highest prevalence of excessive weight gain, the study found.

The findings were published in the Nov. 6 issue of the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Sharma said a pregnant woman should know her recommended weight gain to have a benchmark. Gaining too much is a concern because dieting during pregnancy is not recommended, she said.

According to the March of Dimes, the recommended weight gain for women of normal weight is 25 to 35 pounds, for underweight women 28 to 40 pounds, for overweight women 15 to 25 pounds and for obese women 11 to 20 pounds.

“The amount of extra calories needed during pregnancy [per day] is relatively small,” Sharma said. “It’s only about an additional 340 to 450 calories in the second and third trimester only. An apple, a cup of yogurt, a handful of almonds might be about 350 calories.”

Dr. Jennifer Wu is an obstetrician, gynecologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City who was not involved with the study. “This report is disappointing,” she said. “The most concerning fact is that too many women are gaining excessively during pregnancy, and a large percentage of these women are starting pregnancy already overweight or obese.”

Women who put on too much weight during pregnancy are doing harm to themselves and their babies, Wu said.

“Patients who gain excessive weight have a very hard time losing their pregnancy weight, thus increasing the risk for high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease,” she said.

Children of obese mothers are also more likely to be overweight or obese themselves, Wu added.

“You really need to follow the weight gain guidelines during pregnancy,” she said. “I advise my patients to buy a scale and weigh themselves every day.”

Sharma added that women should also remain physically active during pregnancy. “Most women should do 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week,” she said.

More information

For more on weight gain during pregnancy, visit the March of Dimes.

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Scarlet Fever Resurfacing in Some Parts of the World

THURSDAY, Nov. 5, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Scarlet fever, a childhood disease that had been largely relegated to the history books, is reappearing in some parts of the world, researchers warn.

Outbreaks have been reported in the United Kingdom and Asia, said scientists at the Australian Infectious Diseases Center at the University of Queensland.

“We have not yet had an outbreak in Australia, but over the past five years there have been more than 5,000 cases in Hong Kong [a 10-fold increase] and more than 100,000 cases in China,” Mark Walker, a professor in the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, said in a university news release.

“An outbreak in the U.K. has resulted in 12,000 cases since last year,” he added.

The research team used genetic sequencing to investigate the rise in scarlet fever-causing bacteria and its increasing resistance to antibiotics.

The study was published online Nov. 2 in the journal Scientific Reports.

Scarlet fever, which mainly affects children younger than 10, is spread by the same bacteria that cause strep throat, the researchers said.
Symptoms include a red skin rash, sore throat, fever, headache and nausea. Antibiotics are used to treat serious cases.

The findings are “deeply concerning,” said Nouri Ben Zakour, a researcher in the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences.

“We now have a situation which may change the nature of the disease and make it resistant to broad-spectrum treatments normally prescribed for respiratory tract infections, such as in scarlet fever,” she said in the news release.

Untreated, scarlet fever can lead to rheumatic fever, which can permanently damage the heart.

The re-emergence of scarlet fever could be due to a number of factors, and further research is needed to pinpoint them, the study authors said.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about scarlet fever.

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