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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The AIDS virus has hideouts deep in the immune system that today's drugs can't reach. Now scientists finally have discovered how HIV builds one of those fortresses - and they're exploring whether a drug already used to fight a parasite in developing countries just might hold a key to break in.

Researchers have long struggled unsuccessfully to attack what they call reservoirs of dormant HIV, and the new work is in very early stages.

But University of Rochester scientists say it may be fairly straightforward to attack one of these reservoirs, blood cells called macrophages that HIV hijacks and turns into viral hideaways.

The new discovery shows the exact steps that HIV takes to do that - and found that some existing drugs, including a long-used treatment for leishmaniasis called miltefosine, can block the main step and thus cause these cells to self-destruct.

"It's a very smart virus," said lead researcher Dr. Baek Kim. "They have to have a very good fence to protect their house for a long time. ... Get rid of the fence, and now their house is gone."

Today's drugs have turned HIV from a quick death sentence into, for many, a chronic infection. Yet those drugs don't eliminate HIV because they can't reach the two known pools of cells where the virus can lie dormant, ever ready to resurface.

So-called memory T cells form one such pool. As the name implies, these are the cells that ensure if you get, say, measles as a child, you're forever immune. They live for years, even decades, making them a logical HIV hideout, and one that scientists have repeatedly sought to dismantle to no avail.

Macrophages, another type of immune cell, form the second pool. They roam the body looking for invaders like bacteria to gobble up. If they get harmed, such as becoming infected by a virus, they're supposed to commit suicide. But HIV instead keeps them alive long past their normal lifespan.

"Up to now, nobody has really thought about how to eliminate the macrophage reservoir," said Dr. Kuan-Teh Jeang, an HIV specialist at the National Institutes of Health. "The imagination now has turned toward, 'How do we eliminate reservoirs?' ... The best way to address our problem is to simply kill those cells."

The Rochester team found that HIV produces a protein that turns on a particular cell-survival pathway. After a multistep process, it ultimately activates an enzyme called Akt that in turn prevents cell suicide, the researchers reported Thursday online in the journal Retrovirology.

That was good news, Kim said, because the Akt pathway is a culprit in certain cancers - meaning oncologists have been trying to target it for some time. So Kim put human HIV-infected macrophages in lab dishes and started adding drugs known to block the Akt pathway, to see if any killed the cells.

He had luck: Miltefosine and a cousin named perifosine both rapidly killed the macrophages, thus depriving HIV of this hideout.

Perifosine is currently being studied as a possible cancer drug. But miltefosine is known to be safe through its use in leishmaniasis patients. So Kim's goal is to rapidly study the already available miltefosine in animals, to see if it truly targets infected macrophages well enough to then test in HIV patients.

"The evidence they show is in fact pretty good," said NIH's Jeang, who says the next step should be a test of miltefosine in monkeys infected with SIV, the monkey version of the AIDS virus.

© 2008 The Associated Press.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Doctors can cut the risk of cerebral palsy in half for very premature babies by giving their mothers magnesium sulfate just before they give birth, new research shows.

The mineral compound, also known as Epsom salts, is already used to treat preganancy-related high blood pressure and to stop early labor. Doctors should consider giving it to women about to deliver an extremely preterm infant, said one of the researchers, Dr. John Thorp of the University of North Carolina.

"It's cheap. It's readily available. It doesn't harm anybody. I think it will be widely adopted," said Thorp.

The research was led by Dr. Dwight Rouse at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and was presented Thursday at a meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in Dallas.

Cerebral palsy is a serious complication of premature birth. It's caused by damage to the part of the brain that controls movement and results in poor muscle control and coordination.

Thorp said it isn't clear how magnesium sulfate works, but it is thought to open up blood vessels in the newborn's brain.

In the government-funded study, researchers gave an infusion of magnesium sulfate to women about to give birth to a premature baby to see if it would reduce the risk of cerebral palsy. Enrolled in the study were 2,241 women who were 24 to 31 weeks pregnant. Infants born before 37 weeks are considered premature.

Most of the women were in early labor because their water broke. They were given either the compound or a fake solution. The infants were examined for signs of cerebral palsy at birth and over the next two years.

Of the babies who survived, moderate or severe cerebral palsy occurred in about 2 percent of those in the treatment group compared to about 4 percent of those whose mothers didn't get the compound.

The number of infants who died was about the same in both groups.

"Cerebral palsy is not a terribly common outcome in preterm infants but when it does happen, it's devastating," said Dr. Judy Aschner, chief of neonatology at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, who was not involved in the study.

She said doctors will want to see the details on side effects when the study is published before making any changes in the care of mothers in preterm labor. Magnesium sulfate acts like a sedative and can make moms and infants groggy and sleepy, she said.

"This is a really important study and potentially one that could change general practice," Aschner said.

In another study presented at the conference, researchers found that women who take folic acid for at least a year before they become pregnant may reduce their chances of early premature birth by 50 to 70 percent. Taking folic acid is already recommended for women of childbearing age to prevent birth defects to the brain and spinal cord, such as spina bifada.

"Here we have an added reason to motivate women to take it and to take it early in their lives," said Dr. Alan Fleischman, medical director of the March of Dimes. The group was giving the research an award at the Dallas meeting.

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On the Net:

March of Dimes: http://www.marchofdimes.com

© 2008 The Associated Press.

TOKYO (AP) -- Ten Japanese were sickened, including a child who fell into a coma, after eating Chinese-made dumplings contaminated with insecticide, police and health officials said Wednesday.

Three people in western Hyogo prefecture (state) and seven in Chiba prefecture near Tokyo suffered severe abdominal pains, vomiting and diarrhea after eating the frozen dumplings imported from China by a Japanese company, the Health Ministry said.

A 5-year-old girl in Chiba regained consciousness after falling into a coma, and her mother, two brothers and a sister were in serious condition, Chiba police official Masaru Hiratsu said.

Investigators found traces of an organic phosphorus insecticide called methamidophos in the dumplings, their containers and the patients' vomit, the ministry said in a statement. Authorities were attempting to determine the source of contamination.

The ministry ordered the dumplings' importer and distributor, JT Foods Co. Ltd. - an affiliate of Japan's largest tobacco company - to recall the product.

The dumplings were imported in November from Chinese manufacturer Hebei Foodstuffs Import & Export Group Tianyang Food Processing, the ministry said.

In Beijing, telephones were not answered at the General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, which oversees the safety of China's exports. The agency's Web site made no mention of the incident.

Japan's minister in charge of food safety, Fumio Kishida, said the incident prompted "grave concerns" and vowed to take urgent measures, though he did not elaborate.

JT Foods distributed 13 tons of dumplings each in Chiba and Hyogo, the ministry said.

JT Foods voluntarily began recalling the dumplings and 22 other products imported from the Chinese company and dispatched officials to investigate the Chinese plant, JT spokeswoman Yukiko Seto said.

China's exports have come under intense scrutiny in the past year after a number of potentially deadly chemicals were found in goods including toothpaste, toys, pet food and seafood.

China's government launched a four-month campaign last August to improve the quality of Chinese products and restore international confidence in its goods. Officials termed the campaign a success.

© 2008 The Associated Press.

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- The European Commission proposed simplified food labels Wednesday highlighting fat, sugar and salt contents in an attempt to contain the spread of obesity and junk food in the 27-nation EU.

Under the proposals, six content elements will have to appear on packages: energy, total fat, saturated fat, carbohydrates, sugar and salts.

The labels, which must be clear enough so consumers can make quick decisions, will also indicate what percentage of advisable daily intake they represent.

"Consumers have to be able to make the right choice. They need the right information to plan their diet," EU Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou said. "The ultimate target is a healthy nutrition."

The proposals exclude beer, wine and spirits, even though they can have a dramatic impact on health. Kyprianou said it would take another five years to produce a report on how the alcohol industry should regulate its labeling.

So-called alcopops, which mix fruit juice and soft drinks with alcohol, are included partly because they target the key market of teenage consumers.

The proposals will now be taken up by the European Parliament and must win approval from member nations before they can be turned into law.

All packaged foodstuffs from outside the European Union would have to meet the labeling criteria. In the U.S., food labels list serving size, calories and nutrient information, including fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrate and protein content.

Current labeling systems in the EU, some going back 30 years, are considered too perplexing or downright illegible for the consumer. Essential information on how to have a healthier diet often gets lost among the clutter of information.

"Confusing, overloaded or misleading labels can be more of a hindrance than a help to the consumer," said Kyprianou.

Food giants wanted more voluntary commitments and less mandatory information on the front of packages while consumer groups wanted the EU to go further in specifying content. "There will be some criticism from both sides," Kyprianou said.

The CIAA food and drinks industry association immediately rejected the proposals as unmanageable and confusing.

It said in a statement that by putting six elements on the front of packs, it "completely ignores the need of consumers for simple information."

The CIAA is in the process of introducing a voluntary scheme of ingredient labeling and said that by 2010 the major food producers will apply it.

The EU's BEUC consumer protection group said it wanted more nutrients included on the front of the pack and color coding to highlight levels of safety.

"Some improvements are clearly needed," BEUC Director General Monique Goyens said.

Key to Kyprianou's proposals are measures to increase the health of European consumers. He has warned that more than half of all adults in the bloc are overweight or obese, and estimated that some 22 million children are overweight.

Bad diets based on fatty and sweet ingredients combined with physical laziness account for six of the seven top factors leading to bad health among the EU's 495 million citizens. At least with better labeling, consumers will be able to better plan their diets, Kyprianou said.

© 2008 The Associated Press.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- Doctors and nurses on the go often skip soap and water in favor of an alcohol-based hand gel, thinking the quick-acting goo will kill bacteria on their hands and curb the spread of infection. It turns out that's not enough.

In a Nebraska hospital, medical workers nearly doubled their use of the alcohol-based gel, but their generally cleaner hands had no bearing on the rate of infections among patients.

The doctor who studied the problem pointed to many villains: Rings and fingernails that are too long and hard to clean, poor handling of catheters and treatment areas that aren't sanitized.

"Hand hygiene is still important, but it's not a panacea," said Dr. Mark Rupp, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. He led the study at the adjoining Nebraska Medical Center.

The results of his study appear to contradict hospital guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that say better hand hygiene - through frequent washing or use of hand gels - has been shown to cut the spread of hospital infections.

The spread of infection-causing germs in U.S. hospitals is a huge health problem, accounting for an estimated 1.7 million infections and 99,000 deaths each year, according to the CDC. These include drug-resistant staph, urinary tract infections and ventilator-associated pneumonia, among others.

"There are many factors that influence the development of hospital-acquired infections. It would be naive to think that a single, simple intervention would fix this problem," Rupp said.

His study appears in the January issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.

Research has shown alcohol-based hand gels are more effective, faster and easier to use than soap and water. The findings of the new study were based on 300 hours of hand hygiene observations of nurses and doctors in two comparable intensive care units over a two-year period.

More gel dispensers were put in the units, and usage rose from 37 percent to 68 percent in one unit and from 38 percent to 69 percent in the other. Compliance for hand washing of any kind in most hospitals is estimated to be about 40 percent, according to experts, although some hospitals do better.

Every two months, bacteria samples were taken from health workers' hands, which were found to be cleaner when using the alcohol gel.

The infection rates in both ICUs were "relatively low," the study said. And researchers found "no significant relationship" between rates of hand gel use and infections among patients. In fact, in one unit the infection rate rose when the hand gel was widely available and its use promoted.

Rupp found the results surprising. However, he said hospital-borne infections cannot be stopped by better hand hygiene alone because infections aren't limited to person-to-person contact.

He suggested hand gels be combined with other measures, such as better cleaning of hospital units, proper insertion and maintenance of catheters, and doctors prescribing antibiotics only when necessary so more drug-resistant bacteria don't pop up.

He also said hospital workers shouldn't wear rings and should trim their fingernails even more than the CDC recommendation of no longer than a quarter of an inch. Rupp said bacteria showed up when nails extended just beyond the fingertip.

Mike Bell, who deals with infection control at the CDC, said that while he didn't agree that hand gels do little to reduce infection, Rupp was right to say they were just one part of the solution.

"If they don't do everything else right, having clean hands is not enough," he said.

Both Bell and Dr. David Hooper of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston suggested that Rupp's study would have shown a reduction in infections if it was conducted over a longer period.

Hooper said the compliance rate for hand hygiene at Massachusetts General has been about 90 percent for the past several years. The number of drug-resistant staph cases was cut in half and continues to decline, he said.

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On the Net:

University of Nebraska Medical Center: http://www.unmc.edu/

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: http://www.cdc.gov/

Massachusetts General Hospital: http://www.massgeneral.org/

© 2008 The Associated Press.