Danielle George - All Headline News Staff Reporter

New York (AHN)- Researcher D.r Charles Rice from the Infectious Diseases Unit at Rockefeller University told the journal Science how in a separate set of experiments they were able to use the lab-grown virus to cultivate hepatitis C

Christina Ficara - All Headline News Staff Reporter

A Rhode Island woman is thought to have caught the lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) from her hamster shortly before her unrelated death last month

A therapy that promises to melt fat away with the help of a syringe has not yet been proven a safe and effective alternative to liposuction, according to a new report. The report, by a committee of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), points to a lack of research data and standardized techniques for the treatment, known as mesotherapy. Mesotherapy breaks down pockets of fat that dwell anywhere from the jaw line to the waistline to the hips. It involves a series of injections into the problem area, with the ingredients of those injections varying from case to case. A mixture of various drugs, plant extracts and other substances may be used. One of the most common ingredients is phosphatidylcholine, or lecithin - a waxy substance found in the cells of plants and animals. Lecithin is added to food and other products as an emulsifier, which means it helps mix fats with liquid. The product may act similarly when used in mesotherapy, emulsifying body fat and allowing natural enzymes to break it down. But whether and how mesotherapy works is still unclear, according to the ASPS report. Other important questions, including the possible effects of the procedure on the liver and other organs, remain unanswered, the authors report in the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Mesotherapy is also expensive, with charges as high as $1,500 per treated area and practitioners generally recommend three to six rounds of injections over time. Research is ongoing and has shown slight promise in its results equaling that of current liposuction procedures. The main question mark is whether or not mesotherapy has long-term success. The procedure is called mesotherapy because injections are made into the mesoderm, the layer of fat and connective tissue under the skin. The method was developed by a French physician in the 1950s for the treatment of disorders of the blood vessels and lymphatic system. More recently, it has become a popular non-surgical alternative to liposuction in Europe and South America. Advocates say mesotherapy is far safer than the surgery, which, like all invasive procedures, carries some serious risks-including infection, blood clotting and, rarely, death. A major gap with mesotherapy, however, is the lack of standardization in the formulations and dosages used, and of guidelines stating, for instance, which patients are good candidates. It's also unclear where the body fat ends up after it's purportedly melted by mesotherapy. In the U.S., the individual components used in mesotherapy must be approved by the Food and Drug Administration, but their use in the context of mesotherapy has not been shown safe and effective. And the FDA has never approved a drug specifically for the body-contouring procedure

Pfizer Inc. suspended sales and marketing of its arthritis drug Bextra at the request of U.S. and European drug regulators, who said the risks outweigh the drug's benefits. U.S. regulators also asked that Pfizer include a black box warning -- the strongest possible -- on the package insert for its painkiller Celebrex. "For now, patients should stop taking Bextra and contact their physicians about appropriate treatment options," Pfizer said in a statement Thursday. Pfizer said it planned further discussions with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about the possibility of returning Bextra to the market. In December, the FDA asked doctors to limit prescribing Celebrex and Bextra following indications the drugs may increase the risk of heart attack and stroke. Celebrex, Bextra, and Merck & Co.'s Vioxx, are part of a class of painkillers called COX-2 inhibitors, which are designed to avoid the gastric bleeding associated with older drugs like aspirin. Merck withdrew Vioxx last September after a study showed it doubled the risk of heart attack and stroke compared with a placebo in patients who took it for at least 18 months. The FDA also said in a news release that it would "carefully review" any proposal by Merck & Co. to resume sales of its arthritis drug Vioxx. Bextra had sales in 2004 of $1.3 billion, while sales of Celebrex were $3.3 billion. New prescriptions for Celebrex had plunged in December after the company released data showing the drug may increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes. An advisory panel to the FDA in February concluded that all three medicines posed some level of heart risk, but added Vioxx was safe enough to return to the U.S. market. Most members felt all three drugs should have black box warnings