Comstock/Thinkstock(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) -- Sacramento and Solano County officials have been working swiftly in the past few days to contain possible tuberculosis cases in 35 babies who were exposed to the disease when housed in two hospital neonatal intensive care units, The Huffington Post reports.
 
Sacramento County Officials as well as hospital officials have been attempting to contact the parents of all the babies exposed. At such a young age, babies are especially vulnerable to the infectious disease.
 
The carrier of the disease has been located, and is currently isolated and being treated. The individual was not aware of their condition at the time. Hospital officials have cited privacy laws as the reason for the lack of disclosure on the individual’s identity, according to the Huffington Post.
 
Hospital and county officials were able to pinpoint the carrier through attendance records, according to the Sacramento Bee.
 
Sacramento County Health Officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye told the Sacramento Bee that the risk of contacting tuberculosis through this case is “minimal,” and “from the medical evidence we have received so far, we believe the risk of infection with tuberculosis in this particular case is low.”
 
Tuberculosis is an infectious disease, spread through the air, and generally attacks the lungs. It induces cough fits, chest pains and can even cause the person sick to cough up blood. Coughing, sneezing, talking to someone next to you, or even singing to your baby can be ways to spread the disease.
 
For more general information about tuberculosis, visit the Center of Disease Control and Prevention website at www.cdc.gov/tb/.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- The senator who spurred the Government Accountability Office to investigate the startling numbers of foster children being put on powerful, mind-altering drugs is calling on the Obama administration to follow through on its vow to find solutions to the issue.

“This is a deeply disturbing problem that demands immediate attention,” Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., wrote in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius provided exclusively to 20/20. "…Unless our Medicaid policies properly reflect best medical practices, the result will be damaging to the program’s financial bottom line but, more importantly, to the health and welfare of our nation’s foster care children.” (See the full letter here.)

As 20/20 and World News reported during ABC News’ own extensive investigation of the medication of foster children late last year, the GAO found that doctors prescribe psychotropic medications to foster children at a rate of up to 13 times that of children in the general population. The GAO investigation was launched at the request of the Senate Federal Financial Management Subcommittee, which is chaired by Carper.

[Watch 20/20′s full report on overmedication in the foster care system here.]

A spokesman for the Health and Human Services Department said that the agency received the letter Tuesday and will be responding as soon as possible.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Hemera/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- While neurologists have known that a high-fat and very low-carb diet, known as a ketogenic diet, reduces seizures in epileptic patients who are resistant to medical therapy, the “why” to it all has always been a mystery.

But today, some scientists say they may have found the answer. Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School said seizures might be linked to a protein that changes metabolism in the brain, which is why patients respond so well to the ketogenic diet.

Epilepsy is a brain disorder in which a person has repeated seizures, or convulsions, over time. The seizures represent episodes of disturbed brain activity and cause changes in attention and behavior, according to the National Institutes of Health. The condition affects about 3 million Americans and 50 million people worldwide, according to the Epilepsy Foundation.

The ketogenic diet mimics aspects of starvation by forcing the body to burn fats instead of carbohydrates. The diet produces ketones in the body, organic compounds that form when the body uses fat, instead of glucose, as a source of energy. An elevated level of ketone bodies in the blood reduces the frequency of epileptic seizures.

The study, published in the journal Neuron and conducted in genetically-altered mice, found that the effect of the ketogenic diet on epilepsy can be mimicked using a much more specific and non-dietary approach by manipulating a particular protein in mice, said Gary Yellen, a professor of neurobiology at Harvard Medical School and co-author of the study.

“This points toward potential new ways of treating epilepsy in patients for whom current drugs are not effective,” said Yellen.

Yellen said that while the connection between epilepsy and diet has remained unclear for nearly 100 years, he has seen children’s lives change drastically after changes in their food intake. In the past, some patients have also seen improvement when they cut nearly all sugar from their diets.

Experimenting in mice, the researchers found they could mimic the effects of the diet by altering a specific protein, known as BAD. Seizures decreased in the mice.

While the research must first be replicated in humans, Yellen said, in the long run, scientists should be able to target this pathway pharmacologically.

“Because the ketogenic diet can be so broadly effective against many types of epilepsy that are not well-treated by existing medications, tapping into its mechanism may be valuable for treating many epilepsy patients,” he said.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Hemera/Thinkstock(SAN FRANCISCO) -- Replacing dead or dysfunctional nerve cells with new, healthy ones derived from stem cells eases chronic pain in mice, a new study found.

Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco coaxed mouse embryonic stem cells into becoming mature nerve cells that could bridge gaps in the circuitry that triggers neuropathic pain.

“One of the major causes of neuropathic pain is the loss of inhibitory control at the level of the spinal cord because of nerve loss or dysfunction,” said study author Allan Basbaum, chairman of UCSF’s department of anatomy. “The idea was to replace or repopulate the spinal cord cells that provide that inhibition.”

The same stem cells, “destined to become inhibitory neurons” that dampen the signals that cause pain, were previously shown to improve symptoms in a mouse model of epilepsy, Basbaum said. “The question was whether we could take the exact same cells and put them in the spinal cord.”

Before injecting the cells into the spinal cords of mice with neuropathic pain, the researchers labeled them with a fluorescent tracer to track the connections they made.

“We were able to show how these cells integrate beautifully,” Basbaum said, describing the way the transplanted cells looked and behaved like the mouse’s own.

Not only did the cells set up shop in the spinal cord, sending and receiving signals through a complex network of neurons, they also eased the neuropathic pain.

“In four weeks, the animal’s condition completely disappeared,” Basbaum said, adding that transplanted “control” cells that lacked the inhibitory properties of the stem-cell-derived neurons failed to ease the pain.

“The clinical significance is that we think we’re actually modifying the disease, not just treating the symptoms,” Basbaum said, adding that drugs currently used to ease neuropathic pain fail to treat the underlying problem. “Instead of taking a drug to suppress the pain, we’re trying to normalize the circuit that was damaged by the disease or the injury. The cells repopulate, they integrate, and basically they treat the disease.”

The findings, while preliminary, give hope to 100 million Americans who suffer from chronic pain, according to a 2011 report from the Institute of Medicine.

But before the technique can be tested in humans, the researchers have to see if human embryonic stem cells have the same ability to ease pain without causing side effects in mice.

“Will they take? Will they integrate? Will they treat the condition?” Basbaum said. “If they do, we could start asking whether they could treat neuropathic pain in humans.”

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Stockbyte/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- While women devour fiction books like the racy Fifty Shades of Grey, a major publisher is betting that more men will at long last take up reading via an eBook series that will launch June 5 -- Fiction for Men.

The collection -- a collaboration between Esquire magazine and Open Road Integrated Media -- is meant to be funny and action-driven.

"Each story is about something that men can relate to," Esquire's editor-in-chief David Granger wrote in an email to ABC News.  "One of the stories -- about a drug deal gone bad -- is surprising and exciting and violent and taps into one of the parts of life that many men dread: f***ing up in an irreparable way."

The theme of another is basketball and "the inevitability of aging;" and the third is about a boy deciding to "take on some of the trappings of manhood," according to Granger.

The first volume will highlight short stories by authors Aaron Gwyn, Luis Alberto Urrea and Jess Walter and Esquire will offer up new fiction every month.

Granger said he has no idea if this new testosterone-laden "dude lit" will tap into the new lucrative eBook market.

"This is an experiment," he said.  "I see how rabidly men, as well as women, consume the works of writers like Michael Connelly and Lee Child and James Lee Burke and I know there is a market for well-crafted, plot-driven stories."

According to several national surveys, only one-third of all American readers are males, and fiction is not their genre of choice.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(HAIFA, Israel) -- People who suffer from heart failure could someday be able to use their own skin stem cells to regenerate their damaged heart tissue, according to a new Israeli study.

Researchers took stem cells from the skin of two patients with heart failure and genetically programmed them to become new heart muscle cells.  They then transplanted the new cells into healthy rats and found that the cells integrated with cardiac tissue that already existed.

The study, published in European Heart Journal, marks the first time ever that scientists could use skin cells from people with heart failure and transform damaged heart tissue this way.

The newly generated cells turned out to be similar to embryonic stem cells, which can potentially be programmed to grow into any type of cell.

"What is new and exciting about our research is that we have shown that it's possible to take skin cells from an elderly patient with advanced heart failure and end up with his own beating cells in a laboratory dish that are healthy and young -- the equivalent to the stage of his heart cells when he was just born," Dr. Lior Gepstein, lead researcher and a senior clinical electrophysiologist at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Israel, said in a news release.

The findings open up the possibility, the authors wrote, that people can use their own skin cells to repair their damaged hearts, which could prevent the problems associated with using embryonic stem cells.

"This approach has a number of attractive features," said Dr. Tom Povsic, an interventional cardiologist at Duke University Medical Center.  "We can get the cells that you start with from the patient himself or herself.  It avoids the ethical dilemma associated with embryonic stem cells and it removes the possibility of rejection of foreign stem cells by the immune system."  Povsic was not involved with the Israeli study.

Another advantage of using skin cells is that other types of cells taken from patients themselves, such as bone marrow cells, could potentially lead to the development of unhealthy tissue.

"If a patient is already sick with heart disease, one of the reasons it may develop is that stem cells weren't able to repair the heart the way they should," Povsic added.  Skin cells, he explained, are generally healthy.

"It is very exciting and very interesting, but we are far away from taking this to patients," said Dr. Marrick Kukin, director of the Heart Failure Program at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital who was also not involved in the Israeli study.

Kukin explained that the study only involved two patients, and the cells were transplanted into healthy rat hearts that showed no signs of heart failure.

"Will it work in heart muscle that's dead?  Also, how many cells are needed to get an effect in the human heart, and how will they grow the cells to get the critical mass needed," he asked.

There are still a number of major experimental steps that need to take place before trying out this type of therapy in humans, Kukin added.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Robyn Wishna/Cornell Food and Brand Lab(NEW YORK) -- Once you pop open a stack of potato chips, it can sometimes be hard to stop until you suddenly realize you are scraping the bottom of the can.  Now, new research suggests that inserting colored potato chips might actually help curb your appetite -- and the findings could have implications for other snacks, too.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell University gave students one of two types of Lays' Stackable potato chips.  The first group was given a stack of chips with red dyed, edible potato chips that were interspersed at several different intervals, suggesting serving sizes anywhere from five to 14 chips.  The other group was given the traditional stack of potato chips with no edible dividers.

What the researchers found was that inserting colored potato chips at regular intervals in the stacks caused people to eat fewer chips overall.  In fact, the group with the edible serving size dividers reduced their potato chip consumption by 50 percent.  The results appear in the May issue of the Journal of Health Psychology.

"The colored chip did all the work," says Paul Rozin, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and one of the authors of the study.  "This study showed that segmenting foods gets people to eat less."

"People tend to eat what you put in front of them.  If you put less in front of them and give them a signal, they will take it," he says.

Barbara Rolls, professor of nutritional sciences at Penn State and author of the Ultimate Volumetrics Diet, had similar observations.  In a separate study, she and her colleagues found that giving men and women bigger bags of potato chips caused them to eat more.  This increase in snack consumption, interestingly, did not translate into the participants eating less at dinner time.

So, is portion control the answer to why over one-third of Americans are obese today?

The answer may just be that simple.  Rozin compared the American and French diet with some interesting findings.  The French, he found, tend to eat smaller portions.

"Even the portions at McDonald's and the pizza parlors are smaller in France compared to America," Rozin says.  "The idea in France is not eating as much as you can but eating as much good food as you can."

Rozin and his colleagues also found that the French tend to eat more slowly than Americans and savor each bite.  In the United States, food is more on the run, and people do not realize how much they are actually consuming.

Interestingly, the French eat higher fat diets than Americans but they have lower rates of cardiovascular disease and higher life expectancy.  Rozin explains that this is called the "French paradox."  The French do not go to the gym as much as Americans but they are overall more active and control their portion sizes.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Photodisc/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- Moms and cancer survivors parked their strollers in front of the U.S. Capitol Tuesday as part of the “Stroller Brigade” to demand that Congress take action to help regulate toxic chemicals that are found in everyday items used by children.

The group called on Congress to pass N.J. Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s Safe Chemicals Act, a bill to overhaul old laws governing toxic chemicals.

“As a consumer I am woefully unequipped to protect my family,” said Polly Schlaff, whose son was born with a urological birth defect caused by prenatal exposure to environmental estrogen. “Worse yet, because of the utter failure of federal laws, I must rely on the chemical industry to protect my family from the hidden dangers of the more than 800,000 chemicals they produce and manufacture.”

Out of 800,000 chemicals in the nation, only 200 have been reviewed for safety. Five percent of pediatric cancers are caused by exposure of toxic chemicals, while 10 percent of neurological disorders and 30 percent of childhood asthma cases are associated with hazardous chemicals from hundreds of everyday products, including detergents, household cleaners and baby bottles.

The Lautenberg bill would require chemical makers to prove their products are safe before they end up in children’s bodies.

“Our current law allows too many untested chemicals on the market,” Lautenberg said at the rally Tuesday. “We want to have a responsible oversight and regulation of the chemical industry giving the EPA the authority...so that chemical companies will be required to tell what is in the chemical and what testing has been done.”

Lautenberg is pushing for a vote on his bill in the Senate Environment and Public Works committee, and if it gets out of that committee, it could go to the full Senate for a vote.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Hemera/Thinkstock(LOS ANGELES) -- “I support big tobacco because they killed my wife. And that’s one less mouth to feed.”

That’s a line from a new parody commercial set to be shown during the Dancing With the Stars finale Tuesday night, put together by advocates in California who are trying to get voters to approve of a proposition that would raise a tobacco tax by a dollar to fund cancer research.

The anti-tobacco crowd says “big tobacco” will spend up to $60 million to persuade voters to oppose the tax, compared with about $3 million spent to get the proposition approved. Lance Armstrong heads the effort.

Watch the parody ad here.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Hemera/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Sleep apnea may prove to be a treatable cause of high blood pressure, according to research released Tuesday that suggests wearing a special breathing mask at night may protect apnea patients from the hypertension.

Most people think of obstructive sleep apnea as a snoring disorder. Although many sufferers snore, apnea is characterized by short episodes in which the patient's upper airway narrows or closes, reducing the flow of oxygen to the body and brain. Those episodes, which can number hundreds in a night, not only disrupt nighttime sleep but may reduce daytime alertness and over time stress the body. For the past 15 to 20 years, doctors have thought that these episodes send blood pressure upward and put patients at risk of heart attack and stroke.

Doctors most often treat sleep apnea by having their patients use devices that employ a technique called continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP, which delivers mild air pressure through a nasal mask, to keep their airways open throughout sleep.

Two studies released Tuesday in JAMA suggest that CPAP may reduce the risk of hypertension among apnea patients.

Dr. Ferran Barbe and his colleagues at the Institut de Biomedia Recerca in Lleida, Spain, studied the effects of CPAP treatment on hypertension and risk of heart attack and stroke among 723 apnea sufferers who didn't have daytime sleepiness. They divided the patients into two groups, one that wore CPAP masks while sleeping and an observation-only group. In the course of more than two years, patients who used CPAP machines at least 4 hours a night did better, but the study didn't show a statistically significant reduction in cardiovascular problems.

However, a related study in the same issue found a stronger benefit. Dr. Jose M. Marin, a respiratory specialist, led an observational study that followed 1,889 patients without hypertension who underwent evaluations for abnormal nighttime breathing at a sleep center in Zaragoza, Spain. They subsequently came in for annual blood pressure checks.

With more than 12 years of follow-up, Marin's study suggested that apnea patients who used a CPAP didn't develop hypertension as much as patients with untreated OSA, those who refused treatment or those who don't wear a CPAP as prescribed. The greater the adherence to prescribed nightly CPAP use, the more protective the treatment.

Dr. Viren Somers, a sleep apnea and heart disease researcher at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., cautioned that the results of the two studies are suggestive "but not definitive that CPAP is protective of the cardiovascular system."

He said the conclusion that better adherence to CPAP use is protective also "has to be taken with a pinch of salt -- because the fact that someone uses CPAP more frequently and more conscientiously may mean they do other things, maybe take their medicines or do other things we don't measure that will improve their cardiovascular risk," said Somers, a professor of cardiovascular diseases.

Barbe's finding that those patients who adhered to therapy had a decreased incidence of hypertension "is in my opinion quite powerful and supports the relationship found in the Marin study," said Dr. James Rowley, medical director of the Sleep Disorders Center at the Detroit Receiving Hospital in Detroit and faculty member at Wayne State University. "The Marin study in particular was a more 'real-world' study and had a longer follow-up period so is in my opinion strongly supports the statement that OSA is associated with increased risk of hypertension."

The two studies provide more evidence for the benefits of CPAP therapy in reducing hypertension and its potential in preventing it among people with obstructive sleep apnea, Drs. Vishesh Kapur and Edward Weaver, both of the University of Washington in Seattle, wrote in an accompanying editorial.

"Treatment may not only reduce blood pressure (although modestly on average), but if confirmed by future studies, also may prevent hypertension in at-risk patients. Thus, OSA deserves attention in patients with or at risk of developing hypertension as a potentially treatable cause of hypertension as well as other clinically important outcomes."

However, they said additional clinical trials were needed to determine the amount of CPAP therapy necessary to achieve a beneficial effect, and to evaluate other sleep apnea treatments.

Because so many apnea patients complain that they cannot tolerate wearing a mask throughout the night, Somers said that industry is "trying to develop new ways of delivering positive airway pressure that are more tolerable." He said the idea is for the machines to deliver constant air flow throughout the night, increasing the pressure when it's needed. That way, the treatment "will be primarily instituted" when breathing is blocked, "and when you're breathing quietly and happily, you don't need it."

The sleep apnea pipeline includes new technology being developed to address some of the neurologic issues that underlie disrupted breathing to reduce apnea episodes. One approach now being tested involves stimulating nerves that control how the body keeps the airways open, Somers said.

Rowley said that for now, none of the other treatments used for OSA, including surgery, some oral appliances that reposition the jaw, CPAP masks, or even devices in the pipeline "have been studied for long-term outcomes of OSA, particularly cardiovascular disease. Most of the data is short-term and relates to subjective symptoms such as sleepiness and quality of life."

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- Twins conceived in Florida from the frozen sperm of their father who died 18 months before their birth are not entitled to survivors benefits, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday.

The twins’ mother, Karen Capato, became pregnant through in vitro fertilization after the death of her husband, Robert Capato, from cancer in 2002. The Social Security Administration rejected her claim for Social Security survivors benefits, a decision upheld by the Supreme Court in a 9-0 vote.

“Tragic circumstances gave rise to this case,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote.

But the Social Security Act Congress passed in 1935, she wrote, calls for resolution of Karen Capato’s application for child’s insurance benefits to come under state law. “We cannot replace that reference by creating a uniform federal rule the statute’s text scarcely supports.”

Under Florida law, a child may inherit property from a deceased parent only if the child was conceived during the parent’s lifetime.

Ginsburg’s ruling interprets the Social Security Act, signed 77 years ago, for an era in which sperm and eggs can be frozen and stored indefinitely.

“The technology that made the twins’ conception and birth possible, it is safe to say, was not contemplated by Congress,” she wrote.

The first “test tube baby,” Louise Brown, was born in 1978.

Ginsburg said other states may take a different approach, adding that posthumously conceived children can inherit property in California “if the child is in utero within two years of a parent’s death.”

A bill in the Maryland legislature would allow children born within two years of a biological parent’s death to receive inheritance, as long as the parent consented in writing.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

PRNewsFoto/Roll Global(WASHINGTON) -- A federal judge ruled that the makers of Pom Wonderful pomegranate juice and supplements must stop making claims that its products can treat or prevent heart disease, prostate cancer and erectile dysfunction pending adequate scientific proof of the alleged health benefits.

The ruling came in response to a complaint by the Federal Trade Commission that Pom Wonderful’s manufacturers violated federal law by engaging in deceptive advertising.  In addition to the order that the drink makers stop making false statements, the agency also asked the judge to require that any claims of health benefits be approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

The judge found that several of the advertisements promoting the purported health benefits of several products interpreted by consumers to be true were “false and misleading,” according to the decision.

The judge did find, however, that requiring FDA approval would be “overreaching.”

But the decision also stated that several Pom ads were not deceptive, and “the preponderance of the evidence fails to demonstrate that such advertisements would reasonably be interpreted by consumers as containing such claims.”

Roll Global, the parent company of Pom Wonderful, claimed several victories after the judge handed down his ruling.

“While we are still analyzing the ruling, it is clear that we will be able to continue to promote the health benefits of our safe  food products without having our advertisements, marketing or public relations efforts preapproved by the FDA and without having to rely on double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled studies, the standard required for pharmaceuticals. We consider this not only to be a huge win for us but for the natural food products industry,” Craig Cooper, Pom Wonderful’s chief legal officer, said in a press release.

Cooper also said that the judge found only a few of the company’s ads made misleading claims, and while he disagrees with that finding, he said the company would “make appropriate adjustments if necessary to prevent that impression in the future.”

The order is in effect for the next 20 years.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

ABC News(ATLANTA) -- A Georgia landscaper is battling a flesh-eating disease at the same Augusta hospital as Aimee Copeland, the 24-year-old student who lost her leg to the deadly infection.

Robert Vaughn, 32, contracted necrotizing fasciitis after cutting his thigh while trimming weeds May 4, three days after Aimee Copeland sliced open her calf falling from a homemade zip line near the Little Tallapoosa River.

Vaughn went to a hospital in Cartersville, Ga., where doctors gave him a prescription for antibiotics and recommended he stay for observation, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. But Vaughn, "being the man that I am," went home and watched the painful gash swell from the size of a peanut to that of a grapefruit.

He returned the next day and underwent emergency surgery.

"It was that bad," he told the newspaper, describing how doctors removed some of the infected flesh and sent him to Doctor's Hospital in Augusta for more surgeries. "They told me I was close to death."

It took five surgeries to remove more than two pounds of tissue infected by bacteria that burrowed deep into Vaughn's wound.

"The bacteria produce enzymes that can dissolve muscle deep down," said Dr. William Schaffner, chair of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., and president of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. "And because it's so deep, it can be a sneaky infection that's not immediately appreciated by the patient."

The symptom that should ring alarm bells, according to Schaffner, is "serious, unremitting pain."

"An otherwise healthy individual with a seemingly superficial injury who has severe pain should have a much more thorough evaluation," he said.

Indeed Vaughn said the pain was so bad he "could hardly move," the AJC reported.

Vaughn is expected to undergo skin grafts to replace some of the tissue removed during surgery.

"They have to rebuild my groin area," he told the AJC. "But I'm feeling much better now."

Vaughn was at one point next door to Copeland, who is slowly recovering from the infection that claimed her left leg and threatens to take her right foot and both hands. The two cases occurred 54 miles apart.

Copeland's infection was the work of Aeromonas hydrophila, a bacteria that thrives in warm climates and fresh water like the river where Copeland was zip lining with friends. The bacteria that caused Vaughn's infection is unclear.

Vaughn is the third person to contract flesh-eating disease in Georgia in three weeks. Lana Kuykendall, 36, developed necrotizing fasciitis May 11 after giving birth to twins at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. She is reportedly in critical but stable condition.

Doctors say the cases are rare and unrelated.

To reduce the risk of necrotizing fasciitis, all wounds big and small should be immediately cleaned, treated with antimicrobial ointment and covered with sterile bandages, according to the National Necrotizing Fasciitis Foundation.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson(WASHINGTON) -- Calling all kids who enjoy making healthy lunches with their families. The first lady is giving you a chance to show the country what you can do in the kitchen.

Michelle Obama and Epicurious, in conjunction with the departments of Education and Agriculture, are launching a nationwide recipe challenge to promote healthy lunches. The winners will get an invitation to the White House for the first-ever kids’ “State Dinner.”

“We all want to ensure that our kids are eating nutritious, delicious food at every meal, and as a mom I know that parents are always looking for new ideas to make that happen,” the first lady said in a statement announcing the contest. “With parents and kids all across the country getting creative in the kitchen, I know we’ll find healthy meals that every family will enjoy.  And I can’t wait to try the kids’ creations myself.”

The “Healthy Lunchtime Challenge” invites parents and their children, ages 8-12, to create an original lunchtime recipe that is “healthy, affordable, and tasty.” The recipe contest is open for entries now until June 17.

Participants are encouraged to reference the USDA’s “MyPlate” nutritional guidelines when developing their recipes. “Entries should represent each of the food groups, either in one dish or as parts of a lunch meal, including fruit, veggies, whole grains, protein and low-fat dairy foods,” the contest announcement stated.

Fifty-six adult-child teams — one winner from each of the 50 states, plus the U.S. Territories, D.C., and Puerto Rico — will be flown to the nation’s capital and have the chance to attend the Kids’ “State Dinner” at the White House in August, where a selection of the winning recipes will be served.  Winners will be notified on July 16.

The winning recipes will be published online in an e-cookbook that features nutritional analysis, photos and drawings of the recipes.

The contest is part of the first lady’s “Let’s Move!” initiative to fight childhood obesity.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- A reappraisal of the National Institutes of Health's Women's Health Initiative (WHI) study has found that "the age when women start hormone replacement therapy makes a huge difference," in risk of cancer and heart disease, according to Dr. Robert Langer, lead author of the reassessment, which was published in the journal Climacteric.

Researchers said "mass fear" left millions of women to needlessly suffer from menopause symptoms without the benefits of hormone replacement therapy when researchers of the WHI study found that women who took estrogen were at higher risk of certain cancers and heart disease.

New data showed that the risks only apply to older menopausal women who begin taking the medication late into menopause.

"The balance is towards benefit for women with hot flashes and other reasons to use it who start within 10 years of menopause," said Langer.  "But it's not beneficial for most women who start about 10 years or more into menopause."

Prior to the 2002 study, some research found that the menopausal hormone therapy actually helped to decrease the risk of heart disease, but the 2002 preliminary data found the treatment did not decrease risk and put women at increased risk of some invasive breast cancers and stroke.  Prior to the study results, hormones were one of the most-prescribed drugs in the country.

But the use of estrogen dropped by 71 percent from 2001 to 2009, according to the North American Menopause Society.

Researchers halted the clinical trial altogether three years early in 2002 because of the noted increased risk.

For some women, menopause symptoms are much more than the occasional hot flash.  Depression, low libido, night sweats, panic attacks and vaginal dryness are only a few of the many indications that storm through the body of a menopausal woman.

Symptoms like vaginal dryness and pain on intercourse are more difficult to bring up with a gynecologist than risks of heart disease and breast cancer, said Langer.

"Fears like the risk of breast cancer, or sometimes heart attacks or strokes, surface quickly in those discussions," continued Langer.  "The reporting of the WHI fed those fears to a degree not warranted by the small increase in breast cancer rates that probably only reflected earlier discovery of existing cancers, or by the fact that the heart attack risk and stroke was only seen in women who started more than 10 years after menopause."

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio