In Brief: O.C. Supervisors Considering Cuts To Latino Health Access

Breast Cancer Survivors Raise Mortality Rate Consuming High-Fat Dairy

A new study by Kaiser Permanente concluded that individuals diagnosed with breast cancer who continue to consume high-fat dairy products raise their risk of early death even should the disease goes into remission.

Kaiser researchers studied more than 1,800 women about two years after they were diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer.

Altogether, 349 of the women had a recurrence of breast cancer, and 372 died of any cause.

However, those who consumed one or more servings of high-fat dairy products such as cream, whole milk, pudding, ice cream or custard had a 64% higher risk of dying from any cause, and a 49% higher risk of dying from their cancer during followup periods.

“High-fat dairy is generally not recommended as part of a healthy diet," said senior author Bette J. Caan, a research scientist with the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research. "Switching to low-fat dairy is an

easy thing to modify.”

The National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health funded the study, which appeared in the most recent issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Scripps Institute Receives $2 Million Grant

The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla has received a $2 million grant to develop a field test for the parasitic infection Onchocerciasis, or river blindness.

The grant was provided by San Diego-are businessman John Moores. He founded the Worm Institute of Research and Medicine at the Scripps Institute in 2005 with a $4 million grant. 

The disease is spread by flies in river regions of Africa and South America, and is a leading cause of blindness in those regions. Although the disease can be treated with antibiotics and anti-worm drugs, diagnostic testing includes the often painful extraction of skin samples from potential sufferers of the disease.

Researchers home to create a simple urine dipstick test that measures a specific biomarker.

O.C. Supervisors Mulling Huge Cuts To Latino Health Access

The Orange County Board of Supervisors is considering deep cuts to Latino Health Access, a major non-profit in the region renown for its community outreach efforts.

The Supervisors are considering cutting the group's funding by 80%, from $500,000 to $100,000, even though it provided outreach services to more than triple the number of people it was required to serve under its contract with the county. The organization primarily works to provide services in low-income areas of the county such as portions of Santa Ana.

Latino Health Access officials have suggested that several of the Supervisors have objected to the group's name and the use of the Spanish name promotores for the people it employs in order to perform outreach.

Under the proposal, the funding would be reallocated to four other non-profit social service agencies.