Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

Platelet Donation Restrictions Shelved By Panel

Personal donations of platelets shouldn’t be limited, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel has ruled, the Associated Press reported Friday.

The federal proposal, which first surfaced as part of a tightening of donation guidelines, suggested limiting each person to 24 pints a year. Platelets — the component in blood that makes clotting possible — are scarce in the United States because they only last five days after they are collected, the AP said. For some, including certain cancer patients, regular transfusions are necessary because they can’t make their own platelets.

The current guidelines limit platelet donors to 24 times a year, which would average roughly 72 pints, the wire service reported. The new proposal set off a firestorm among donation centers, which argued that healthy donors can quickly replace lost platelets, the wire service said. The FDA advisory panel apparently agreed. The full agency doesn’t have to follow a panel’s recommendations, but usually does.

The seo tips panel did recommend that if people donate two to three pints at one time, they shouldn’t donate again for at least a week, the AP reported. During donation, platelets are removed through a process called apheresis, where the blood is drawn through one arm, put into a centrifuge to remove the platelets, and the remaining blood is returned to the donor through the other arm.

—–

Polio Drugs Should Be Developed, Council Says

Drugs to combat polio should be developed to protect against any outbreaks that might occur once worldwide vaccination programs have ended, a committee of the National Research Council suggested.

The Associated Press reported Friday that the committee was concerned that, despite the fact that the number of polio cases worldwide has plummeted from 355,000 in 1988 to 784 in 2003, if the disease is indeed eliminated in the next few years people will stop getting vaccinated. The World Health Organization plans to keep using the current vaccine for three years after the disease is eradicated. The current oral vaccine uses a weakened polio virus, although the injected vaccine used more often in the United States uses a dead virus, the wire service said.

“The development of one or more antiviral drugs against poliovirus, although expensive, serves as an insurance policy that provides an additional means of reacting to repeated outbreaks due to continued circulation of vaccine-derived strains, should they occur,” the committee concluded.

—–

Teens Think ‘Alcopops’ Are ‘Fun and Cool’

Many California teens think that drinking fizzy and fruity alcoholic beverages called “alcopops” is fun and cool and that they won’t get drunk, according to comments collected from more than 300 young people from around the state.

The teens are bombarded with ads that glamorize alcopops, which include products such as Smirnoff Ice and Mike’s Hard Lemonade. Here are some of the comments the teens made about alcopops:

• “It’s a drink you can control without passing out. You feel comfortable drinking them.”
• “Most alcopops are very popular because it doesn’t have any effect and it’s like a soft drink.”
• “The more you see it, the more obligated you feel to taste it. If it tastes good, you will want more.”
• “People in the ads are always cool and sober, they aren’t drunk or acting stupid.”

The findings were released Friday by the Center for Applied Research Solutions, in conjunction with a public hearing by the California Senate Select Co