ST. PAUL, Minn., Jan. 17 (UPI) —

A Minnesota doctor who took out the wrong kidney from a cancer patient has been indefinitely suspended from performing surgery in hospitals.

The Minnesota Board of Medical Practice announced the penalty Friday against Dr. Erol T. Uke of Edina, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. Uke was also reprimanded.

A few months after the disastrous kidney surgery in 2008, Uke, a urologist, did a biopsy on a patient’s pancreas when it should have been done on the kidney.

Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park, where Uke removed the wrong kidney, has since made changes in its procedures to reduce the risk of similar mistakes. Uke told state investigators he was distracted by his beeper and other patients and did not read the radiologist’s notes.

A report says the patient, left with one cancerous kidney, went through another operation in an attempt to remove the tumor while saving the kidney.

AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 16 (UPI) —

A student at a high school in Austin, Texas, is being treated for contagious tuberculosis, local health officials say.

The Austin/Travis County health and Human Services Department said in addition to the student at Lyndon B. Johnson High School, nine other students at the Austin school were found to be carrying the germ responsible for the disease, the Austin American-Statesman reported Friday.

Dr. Philip Huang, the health department medical director, said the tuberculosis bacteria was found via skin tests, but the nine students do not have the actual disease. The students infected with latent TB are not contagious and have not fallen ill.

People with latent illness have a 10 percent chance of developing active TB if they don’t take any preventive treatment, Huang said.

Officials said the student diagnosed with contagious tuberculosis is recovering from the disease at home. The male student’s name and age were not released.

The American-Statesman said an individual with contagious tuberculosis can spread the disease by speaking or coughing, discharging germs that can be breathed in by other individuals.

NEW YORK, Jan. 16 (UPI) —

Skin-lightening creams can mean severe side effects for people who misuse them or buy counterfeit products, U.S. dermatologists said.

People of African and Hispanic descent, among others, obtain the creams from dermatologists or buy them over-the-counter in beauty shops, ethnic groceries and online, The New York Times reported Saturday.

The creams, with names like Hyprogel and Fair & White, can cause acne when misused and weaken skin, dermatologists said. Mercury, which can damage the nervous system, has been found in counterfeit products.

There is a strong demand for the creams, said dermatologist Erin Gilbert of the Downstate Medical Center in New York’s Brooklyn borough. Gilbert said she and her colleagues see cases of severe side effects from the creams each week.

Many users believe lighter skin will elevate their standing in society, said Evelyn Nakano Glenn, who teachers gender studies at the University of California-Berkeley.

It’s not some fantasy, Glenn said. There is prejudice against dark-skinned people, especially women in the so-called marriage market.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 (UPI) —

U.S. regulators say they have some concern about the safety of Bisphenol A, a chemical widely used in food and beverage containers.

The Food and Drug Administration Deputy Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein said the agency will carry out a study of possible health risks of BPA, The Washington Post reported.

We have some concern, which leads us to recommend reasonable steps the public can take to reduce exposure to BPA, Sharfstein told reporters in a conference call Friday.

research has suggested a link between BPA to cancer, sexual dysfunction, heart disease and other health problems. U.S. health officials have expressed concern about the chemical’s possible impact on fetal development as well as on infants and children, the Post said.

Regulators have said data currently do not indicate the need to ban the chemical. Sharfstein said the FDA studies will be part of a two-year, $30 million project intended to determine whether government action is required to address possible health concerns related to BPA.

The chemical is used to harden plastics but researchers have concluded it leaches from food and beverage containers into their contents. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has concluded traces of BPA are present in the urine of 90 percent of the U.S. population.

ATLANTA, Jan. 15 (UPI) —

No states reported widespread influenza activity in the latest reporting period but nine states reported regional influenza activity, U.S. officials said.

The weekly flu surveillance report — completed during flu season by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — says for the week ending Jan. 9 the proportion of outpatient visits for influenza-like illness was 1.9 percent, which is below the national baseline of 2.3 percent. Only one of the 10 regions — Region 9: Arizona, California, Guam, Hawaii, Nevada — reported influenza-like illness above the region-specific baseline.

Regional influenza activity was reported by Alabama, Georgia, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York and Virginia.

Local influenza activity was reported by the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Washington.

Sporadic influenza activity was reported by Guam, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

The U.S. Virgin Islands, Nebraska and Wyoming reported no influenza activity.

Influenza B viruses co-circulated at low levels with H1N1 viruses.

MONTREAL, Jan. 15 (UPI) —

Canadian researchers found 56 percent of young adults in a new sexual relationship were infected with human papillomavirus.

Eduardo Franco, director of McGill University’s Cancer Epidemiology Unit, and colleagues from McGill and Universite de Montreal/Centre Hospitalier de l’Universite de Montreal said of the 56 percent who were infected with HPV, 44 percent were infected with an HPV type that causes cancer.

The study, published in Epidemiology and Sexually Transmitted Diseases, found if one partner was infected with HPV, the other partner’s chance of also being infected with the same HPV type increased more than 50 times.

These results build on our knowledge that HPV infection is very common among young adults, and underline the importance of prevention programs for HPV-associated diseases such as cervical cancer screening and HPV vaccination, project coordinator Dr. Ann Burchell said in a statement.

Our results also suggest that HPV is an easy virus to get and to transmit. Our estimates of the HPV transmission probability will be of use to other researchers who use modeling to project the public health and economic impact of HPV vaccination strategies.

SYDNEY, Jan. 15 (UPI) —

Falls, a leading cause of death and disability in the elderly, may be reduced by vitamin D supplementation in nursing homes, Australian researchers say.

Lead researcher Ian Cameron of the Sydney Medical School said older people living in nursing facilities or admitted to a hospital are at higher risk for falls than those living at home. Hip fractures, which can be deadly, occur in nursing facilities at a rate 10 times greater than elsewhere.

Cameron and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis of 41 studies involving 25,422 older people, mostly women. Five studies tested the effects of giving vitamin D to patients in nursing facilities, where it was found to be an effective measure for preventing falls, although researchers are not sure why.

The researchers found multifactorial interventions — which often incorporated exercise, medication or environmental factors including appropriate equipment — reduced the risk of falls in hospitals. In nursing homes, the effects of multifactorial interventions were not significant overall.

However, the researchers concluded multifactorial interventions provided by multidisciplinary teams in these facilities may reduce the rate and risk of falls.

In our review, we saw limited evidence that these combined interventions work, but we could more confidently recommend them if they were delivered by a multidisciplinary team, Cameron said.

The findings are published in the Cochrane Review.

FORT WASHINGTON, Pa., Jan. 15 (UPI) —

The recall of Tylenol Arthritis Pain Caplets has expanded to some lots of Tylenol, Motrin, Benadryl, Rolaids and St. Joseph’s aspirin, U.S. officials said.

In consultation with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, McNeil Consumer healthcare, is voluntarily recalling certain lots of popular over-the-counter products in the Americas, the United Arab Emirates and Fiji.

The company initiated the recall after an investigation of consumer reports of an unusual moldy, musty, or mildew-like odor that, in a small number of cases, was associated with temporary and non-serious gastrointestinal events including nausea, stomach pain, vomiting, or diarrhea, a statement by McNeil Consumer healthcare said.

McNeil Consumer healthcare has determined that the reported smell is caused by the presence of trace amounts of the chemical 2,4,6-tribromoanisole, which can result from the breakdown of a chemical that is sometimes applied to wood used to build wood pallets that transport and store product packaging materials.

The health effects of this chemical have not been well studied but no serious events have been documented in the medical literature, the statement said.

For information on how to return or dispose of the product, consumers should check the Web site mcneilproductrecall.com or call 1-888-222-6036 Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. EST and Saturday-Sunday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST. Consumers who have medical concerns or questions should contact their healthcare provider. Adverse reactions may also be reported to the FDA’s MedWatch Program by fax at 1-800-FDA-0178, or on the MedWatch Web site at fda.gov/medwatch.

ATLANTA, Jan. 15 (UPI) —

Federal health officials estimate about 7,880 to 16,460 people died in the United States related to the H1N1 virus from April to Dec. 12 last year.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta released a statement Friday that said the CDC estimates that 830 to 1,730 children and teens ages 0-17 died in the United States of H1N1-related illness, 6,090 to 12,720 ages 18-64 died and 960 to 2,010 age 65 and older died, the statement said.

CDC estimates that 39 million to 80 million cases of H1N1 occurred between April and Dec. 12. Between 173,000 and 362,000 H1N1-related hospitalizations occurred between April and Dec. 12, the CDC said.

We have taken all the various sources of data and surveillance systems to help understand how much the H1N1 disease burden is out there — these are estimates using many sources of data and we are very confident with these numbers and these numbers are consistent with other sources of information, Dr. Beth Bell of the CDC told United Press International.

The laboratory confirmed H1N1 illness and deaths — which are much lower — are under reported for a number of reasons including many people do not get treated by a doctor, many do not get hospitalized, many do not get tested for H1N1 and the rapid test for H1N1 is not always accurate.