11:01 p.m. CST, February 22, 2012

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Alcoholism not uncommon among surgeons

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – About 15 percent of surgeonshave alcohol abuse or dependency problems, a rate that issomewhat higher than the rest of the population, according to anew survey. The researchers also found that surgeons who showedsigns of alcoholism were 45 percent more likely to admit thatthey had a major medical error in the past three months.

U.S. advisers back experimental obesity pill

SILVER SPRING, Maryland (Reuters) – Experimental obesitydrug Qnexa won the backing of U.S. health advisors onWednesday, raising hopes for approval of the first prescriptionweight-loss pill in 13 years. Vivus Inc’s Qnexa wasone of three promising obesity drugs rejected by the U.S. Foodand Drug Administration in the past two years over safetyconcerns.

Gay spouse given health benefits in U.S. court case

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Wednesday ruledthe Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional and said a federal

NATCHEZ — With a dark smudge across their foreheads, many Miss-Lou residents entered into a season of reflection and prayer Wednesday.

Ash Wednesday, 46 days before Easter, begins the Lenten season for many western Christians, and in churches across the Miss-Lou, worshippers filed through the nave to have a cross made of ashes smeared on their forehead, the minister saying, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you will return.”

Lent is a 40-day period of fasting and prayer observed by Catholics, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Methodists and other Christian groups that follow a liturgical calendar.

It begins 46 days before Easter because fasting is not observed on Sundays.

LAUREN WOOD / THE NATCHEZ DEMOCRAT — Larry and Annette Holder sing along with the Alcorn State University concert choir, above in balcony, near the beginning of the Ash Wednesday service Wednesday evening at First Presbyterian Church of Natchez.

For Natchez Catholic Darlene Christian, the imposition of ashes serves as a starting point to especially meditate on the reality that Jesus Christ was crucified and died for her sins, she said.

It’s also an act of humility.

“It is our symbol of humbling ourselves to God,” Christian said.

Even though Ash Wednesday has not historically been a Presbyterian practice, the Rev. Noelle Read, co-pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Natchez, said the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has in recent decades reclaimed the Christian liturgical heritage as something important to the Christian life.

Lent is a part of that heritage, and Wednesday FPC had a service for the imposition of ashes.

“It is a reminder of our frailty, a preparation for Easter, a time of reflection, of remembrance of the work of Christ,” Read said.

Ash Wednesday seems to be one of the biggest days of the Christian year, and many lay people seem to especially look forward to it, said retired Episcopal priest the Rev. Sam Tomlinson. Tomlinson served as celebrant at Church of the Good Shepherd in Vidalia Wednesday.

“The Bible says we bear the image of the man of dust — that is Adam — and we will bear the image of the man of Heaven, that is Christ,” Tomlinson said.

“As much as we run away from death and are afraid of death, we welcome the chance of just facing it. That is one of the attractions of Ash Wednesday.”

Ruth McWilliams, program coordinator at St. Mary Basilica, said the ashes serve to remind Christians of their total dependence on God.

“We come into this world by God’s grace with nothing and we go back to our creator with nothing,” McWilliams said.

“(The ashes) are a symbol, a reminder, of our creation and our need of God at all times.”

But the ashes are also a statement about what comes at the end of Lent — Easter.

“They are a symbol to the world of our Christianity and our faith in resurrection,” McWilliams said.

NATCHEZ — With a dark smudge across their foreheads, many Miss-Lou residents entered into a season of reflection and prayer Wednesday.

Ash Wednesday, 46 days before Easter, begins the Lenten season for many western Christians, and in churches across the Miss-Lou, worshippers filed through the nave to have a cross made of ashes smeared on their forehead, the minister saying, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you will return.”

Lent is a 40-day period of fasting and prayer observed by Catholics, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Methodists and other Christian groups that follow a liturgical calendar.

It begins 46 days before Easter because fasting is not observed on Sundays.

LAUREN WOOD / THE NATCHEZ DEMOCRAT — Larry and Annette Holder sing along with the Alcorn State University concert choir, above in balcony, near the beginning of the Ash Wednesday service Wednesday evening at First Presbyterian Church of Natchez.

For Natchez Catholic Darlene Christian, the imposition of ashes serves as a starting point to especially meditate on the reality that Jesus Christ was crucified and died for her sins, she said.

It’s also an act of humility.

“It is our symbol of humbling ourselves to God,” Christian said.

Even though Ash Wednesday has not historically been a Presbyterian practice, the Rev. Noelle Read, co-pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Natchez, said the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has in recent decades reclaimed the Christian liturgical heritage as something important to the Christian life.

Lent is a part of that heritage, and Wednesday FPC had a service for the imposition of ashes.

“It is a reminder of our frailty, a preparation for Easter, a time of reflection, of remembrance of the work of Christ,” Read said.

Ash Wednesday seems to be one of the biggest days of the Christian year, and many lay people seem to especially look forward to it, said retired Episcopal priest the Rev. Sam Tomlinson. Tomlinson served as celebrant at Church of the Good Shepherd in Vidalia Wednesday.

“The Bible says we bear the image of the man of dust — that is Adam — and we will bear the image of the man of Heaven, that is Christ,” Tomlinson said.

“As much as we run away from death and are afraid of death, we welcome the chance of just facing it. That is one of the attractions of Ash Wednesday.”

Ruth McWilliams, program coordinator at St. Mary Basilica, said the ashes serve to remind Christians of their total dependence on God.

“We come into this world by God’s grace with nothing and we go back to our creator with nothing,” McWilliams said.

“(The ashes) are a symbol, a reminder, of our creation and our need of God at all times.”

But the ashes are also a statement about what comes at the end of Lent — Easter.

“They are a symbol to the world of our Christianity and our faith in resurrection,” McWilliams said.

A hearse carrying Whitney Houston’s body arrives at Fairview Cemetery in Westfield, N.J.

Whitney Houston fans expressed shock and outrage Wednesday after the National Enquirer printed an image of the iconic singer in an open casket on its cover.

The morbid photo, purportedly taken inside the family’s private viewing at the Whigham Funeral Home in Newark, N.J., last Friday, shows Houston’s body lying in her half-opened, polished bronze casket.

It shows the dead pop star wearing what looks like a purple dress along with a brooch pinned to her chest and an earing sparkling in her ear.

The headline claims she was buried wearing $500,000 worth of jewels and gold slippers on her feet.

Facebook and Twitter users lashed out at the tabloid, calling the move trashy and shameful.

“MADD at who ever sold Whitney Houston’s pic of her in a casket,” reality star Evelyn Lozada, from VH1′s “Basketball Wives,” wrote on Twitter.

“Whoever sold the photo of Whitney Houston in her coffin to the National Enquirer is a vile, twisted, evil and unscrupulous sub-human,” London-based fan Christiana Mbakwe tweeted.

Even celebrity blogger Perez Hilton called it a “tasteless, insensitive, morbid thing to do” on his eponymous website.

Of course, the death photo is hardly without precedent. The National Enquirer famously ran a photo of Elvis in his coffin in 1977.

ndillon@nydailynews.com

This year, instead of giving up the usual temptations for Lent — candy, sweets and pop — interior design junior Amanda Devera is striving for more.

“They’re my weakness,” she said. “But I think this year, I decided to not give something up … and (instead) go to church more.”

Devera is one of many students who observed Ash Wednesday yesterday, which marks the beginning of Lent. Episcopalians, Roman Catholics and Lutherans observe the 40-day period, excluding Sundays, before Easter, and often give up a favorite item as a form of penitence.

Devera attended one of six ceremonies held at St. John Catholic Church and Student Center, 327 M.A.C. Ave., to observe Ash Wednesday.

During the 3 p.m. service, as voices rang through the center’s vaulted ceilings, more than 450 attendees were marked with ash crosses on their foreheads.

Pastor Mark Inglot said the ash ceremony is performed using the ashes of burned palms, which were used on Palm Sunday.

As one of many wearing the sign of the cross on her forehead, medical student Tina Gwinn said for her, Ash Wednesday services are nothing new, as she has been going for at least 20 years.

Gwinn said she feels attending Ash Wednesday is part of recognizing her Catholic beliefs.

“It means upholding your faith and following what you were brought up to be,” she said.

Inglot said he notices a dramatic increase in attendance at the church’s services on Ash Wednesday, especially by students.

“What happens here at Ash Wednesday as a student parish is absolutely remarkable,” he said. “It gives me hope for the future.”

Pastor Dave Dressel of Martin Luther Chapel, 444 Abbot Road, which also held Ash Wednesday services, said the ashes represent important ideas in the Bible.

“In Scripture, it talks about people using dust and ashes on themselves as a symbol of their own repentance and sinfulness before God,” he said. “(The ashes are) a symbol that we will die, and that’s just part of our human nature that we‘re limited like that.”

The chapel also held a service for students at the MSU Alumni Memorial Chapel, with more than 50 in attendance.

“Oftentimes, younger people don’t think as much about their mortality,” he said. “Usually (because they know) there’s a whole life ahead of them.”

Although Devera said she has lacked the motivation and time to attend church before, she said she’s sticking firm to her goal.

“Now that I know a bunch of people who go here that go to school too, I’ll probably (be) more likely to drag them with me … so I won’t forget to do it,” she said.

Possibly related:
More in City:

This year, instead of giving up the usual temptations for Lent — candy, sweets and pop — interior design junior Amanda Devera is striving for more.

“They’re my weakness,” she said. “But I think this year, I decided to not give something up … and (instead) go to church more.”

Devera is one of many students who observed Ash Wednesday yesterday, which marks the beginning of Lent. Episcopalians, Roman Catholics and Lutherans observe the 40-day period, excluding Sundays, before Easter, and often give up a favorite item as a form of penitence.

Devera attended one of six ceremonies held at St. John Catholic Church and Student Center, 327 M.A.C. Ave., to observe Ash Wednesday.

During the 3 p.m. service, as voices rang through the center’s vaulted ceilings, more than 450 attendees were marked with ash crosses on their foreheads.

Pastor Mark Inglot said the ash ceremony is performed using the ashes of burned palms, which were used on Palm Sunday.

As one of many wearing the sign of the cross on her forehead, medical student Tina Gwinn said for her, Ash Wednesday services are nothing new, as she has been going for at least 20 years.

Gwinn said she feels attending Ash Wednesday is part of recognizing her Catholic beliefs.

“It means upholding your faith and following what you were brought up to be,” she said.

Inglot said he notices a dramatic increase in attendance at the church’s services on Ash Wednesday, especially by students.

“What happens here at Ash Wednesday as a student parish is absolutely remarkable,” he said. “It gives me hope for the future.”

Pastor Dave Dressel of Martin Luther Chapel, 444 Abbot Road, which also held Ash Wednesday services, said the ashes represent important ideas in the Bible.

“In Scripture, it talks about people using dust and ashes on themselves as a symbol of their own repentance and sinfulness before God,” he said. “(The ashes are) a symbol that we will die, and that’s just part of our human nature that we‘re limited like that.”

The chapel also held a service for students at the MSU Alumni Memorial Chapel, with more than 50 in attendance.

“Oftentimes, younger people don’t think as much about their mortality,” he said. “Usually (because they know) there’s a whole life ahead of them.”

Although Devera said she has lacked the motivation and time to attend church before, she said she’s sticking firm to her goal.

“Now that I know a bunch of people who go here that go to school too, I’ll probably (be) more likely to drag them with me … so I won’t forget to do it,” she said.

Possibly related:
More in City:

By Anna Edney

(Updates with after-market trading in fifth paragraph.)

Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) — Vivus Inc.’s weight-loss pill Qnexa won the backing of a U.S. advisory panel as the company seeks to gain approval for the first new obesity drug in 13 years. The shares doubled in late trading.

Advisers to the Food and Drug Administration voted 20-2 today that Qnexa’s benefits outweigh its risks at a meeting at agency headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland. The FDA isn’t required to follow the panel’s recommendation. The agency is due to decide on the drug, which it rejected in 2010, by April 17.

Qnexa is one of three medications vying for the first U.S. approval of a prescription weight-loss treatment since Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG’s Xenical in 1999. The FDA plans to have advisers discuss in March the possibility of requiring heart-risk studies for all weight-loss drugs. Panel members discussed whether Vivus should conduct such a study before or after approval.

“Of all the obesity drugs, this one has the highest efficacy in terms of weight loss, so that shifts the balance in terms of requiring a post-approval study rather than a pre- approval study,” said Sanjay Kaul, a cardiology professor in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA Cedar Sinai Medical Center and a panel member.

Vivus surged $10.55 to $21.10 at 6:58 p.m. New York time. Trading in the stock was halted during the day before the FDA panel vote.

Heart Risk Concerns

Regulators raised concerns that Qnexa may contribute to a greater risk of heart ailments and birth defects. The medicine combines the appetite suppressant phentermine with topiramate, an antiseizure and migraine drug. The Mountain View, California- based company has proposed a post-approval trial to assess Qnexa in reducing major heart complications in obese, at-risk patients. The trial would involve 11,300 patients and take four and a-half years.

Analysts say the drug, if approved, may generate $448 million in sales in 2015.

Topiramate is the active ingredient in Johnson & Johnson’s Topamax. The anticonvulsant is also associated with confusion, difficulty with concentration and memory loss.

Vivus’ analysis of heart risks for Qnexa was “somewhat reassuring,” though the significance of an observed increase in heart rate was “uncertain,” FDA staff said Feb. 17 in a report.

More than one-third of U.S. adults are obese, and another third are overweight, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The obesity rate among adults has more than doubled since 1980 to 72 million people.

Obesity Risks

Obesity raises the risks of diabetes, heart attacks and stroke, and costs the U.S. economy an estimated $147 billion a year in medical expenses and lost productivity, according to the Atlanta-based CDC.

Orexigen Therapeutics Inc., based in La Jolla, California, and San Diego-based Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. also are seeking approval for their obesity medicines, which the FDA refused to approve without more data on safety risks.

Vivus examined medical claims data and found five oral clefts in a group of 1,740 children whose mothers had taken topiramate alone in the first trimester of pregnancy, for a prevalence rate of 0.29 percent, the company said Dec. 21 in a statement. That compared with a rate of 0.16 percent in the group whose mothers had taken antiseizure drugs, including topiramate, before pregnancy.

Study Results

Vivus plans to finish the results in the third quarter of this year, after the April 17 deadline for the FDA to decide whether to approve the drug. The risk of oral clefts hasn’t been fully answered by the interim data, FDA staff said.

The FDA asked Vivus in January to remove wording from Qnexa’s proposed prescribing label advising women with the potential to become pregnant against taking it. The FDA staff said in the Feb. 17 report severely restricting Qnexa isn’t practical because topiramate also treats other serious conditions.

Panel members suggested the FDA should consider restricting topiramate used for seizures and migraines for women of childbearing age.

“I just can’t get my mind around why it would be different,” said Lamont Weide, chief of diabetes and endocrinology at the Truman Medical Centers Diabetes Center in Kansas City and a member of the panel.

Russell Katz, director of FDA’s neurology products division, said the agency hasn’t considered restricting the drug because there aren’t many options for migraine prevention.

Vivus has suggested restricting distribution of Qnexa to less than 10 large mail-order pharmacies with pharmacists trained in dispensing the drug, Barbara Troupin, senior director of global medical affairs at the company, said.

In addition to Roche’s Xenical, London-based GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s Alli, a half-dose version of Xenical’s active ingredient, won FDA clearance in 2007 as the first diet drug available without a prescription.

–Editors: Andrew Pollack, Angela Zimm

To contact the reporter on this story: Anna Edney in Washington at aedney@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Adriel Bettelheim at abettelheim@bloomberg.net

ROME (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI rode on a motorized cart in an Ash Wednesday procession, forsaking the traditional short walk between two Rome churches as the 84-year-old pontiff tries to conserve his energy.

click image to enlarge

The Rev. Francis Morin places ashes on a person’s forehead during an Ash Wednesday mass held over the lunch hour at St. Mary Church in Augusta. Ash Wednesday is the beginning of the Christian time of Lent, the forty days leading up to Easter Sunday. This year Western Christian churches will celebrate Easter on April 8 while the Orthodox churches have it the following Sunday April 15.

Staff photo by Joe Phelan

The pope wore an ermine-trimmed crimson cape to protect him from the chilly, early evening air as he stood in the cart during the brief procession atop the Aventine Hill, between St. Anselmo Church and the Basilica of Santa Sabina. The white vehicle resembled a kind of mini popemobile he uses on trips and to get around the vast expanse of St. Peter’s Square.

But Benedict walked briskly and unassisted into and out of the basilica, where he led a solemn service to mark the start of the Lenten season of penitence, including the placement of ashes on the forehead of faithful. He wore purple-colored vestments as he celebrated Mass in the ancient basilica.

Benedict has been using a different wheeled platform to navigate the long aisle of St. Peter’s Basilica to reduce wear and tear.

In his homily, he noted that Ash Wednesday is a “day of penitence and fasting.” Lent helps spiritually prepare Roman Catholics for Easter, which this year falls on April 8.

Benedict rubbed ashes on the foreheads of some faithful, as they approached him one by one, to symbolize mortality. 

Officials in Washington broke ground Wednesday on the National Museum of African American History and Culture, a project that is “long overdue,” said Columbus philanthropist Robert Wright.

Wright was appointed by former President George H.W. Bush to a committee to push for the creation of a national black history museum and was present at the museum’s groundbreaking.

“It’s long overdue because the story of African Americans coming to this country needs to be told,” said Wright, an optometrist who started a small military logistics business and ultimately sold it to a major defense contractor. He is also chairman of the Columbus Office of Crime Prevention.

Wright said the $1.5 billion museum will be on the National Mall, and will be part of the Smithsonian Institution.

The museum would be “all-inclusive,” Wright said, telling black history from slavery up to the election of Barack Obama, the nation’s first black president. Some exhibits will eventually include a Jim Crow-era segregated railroad car and galleries devoted to military and sports history.

“Nothing will be eliminated, overlooked or left out,” he said.

The museum’s groundbreaking also marks the start of a public fundraising campaign. About $100 million has been raised in private funds, including $5 million gifts from businesses like Wal-Mart, Boeing and Target. Aflac, a Columbus-based insurance company, was the first corporate citizen donor and gave $1 million to the museum in June 2005. Wright sits on the Aflac board of directors.

“We felt it was important to lead the way in contributing to this cause,” said Laura Kane, spokeswoman for Aflac. “The museum will serve as a great way to spotlight American history and highlight the African-American experience.”

The museum is scheduled to be finished in 2015.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Muscogee County School Board chairwoman Cathy Williams calls it a scheme to divert public money to private schools with no accountability.

If so, then the Georgia House of Representatives took a step toward making that scheme public policy on Wednesday when it passed legislation to put a state constitutional charter schools amendment on the ballot for voter approval.

Proponents want a constitutional amendment to set up state-designated charter schools now because the Georgia Supreme Court last May ruled that under the state constitution, the Georgia Charter Schools Commission was illegal.

The resolution aimed at restoring state charter schools passed the House by a vote of 123-48 Wednesday. It now goes to the state Senate.

Constitutional amendments require a two-thirds’ majority. A previous vote in the House failed.

Local board members like Williams fear state-designated charter schools will divert taxpayer funding to entities that are not accountable to the voters. The schools establish their own governance that is not subject to state open meetings laws, unlike local school boards, she said.

Republican state Rep. Richard Smith of Columbus said education is not strictly up to local school boards: It’s a “partnership” between those boards and the state government, which appropriates $7 billion a year to it.

“You know, we develop policies up here that impact every school system, whether it has to do with teachers’ pay, whether it has to do with classroom size, whether it has to do with practically everything that happens,” he said. “You wouldn’t write somebody a check for $7 billion and not have any say-so.”

State-created charter schools are conceived by local communities, with parents who are committed to creating schools for their children, so they do have local control, he said.

“If the community wants it, the parents want it, and they’re willing to make the commitment to it, why should the school board deny it?” he asked.

He said legislators became frustrated with local boards that repeatedly rejected charter school applications, prompting lawmakers to shift approval to the state, before the Supreme Court rejected that.

The state concept is unlike a charter school arrangement currently in place that allows local school boards to approve charter schools within their public school systems, subjecting them to board oversight.

The proposal the House approved is to set up schools outside those local systems and provide their funding directly from the state government.

State Rep. Debbie Buckner, a Democrat from Talbot County’s Junction City, said the latter provision is of little reassurance to her, because funding comes from the taxpayers whether it flows through the state or through a local school board.

“All of the money is taxpayer money,” she said. “You may be taking money from one hand and giving it to the other, but still taxpayers are going to end up paying for two different school systems. I don’t know why we aren’t investing in the school system we have and demanding excellence there.”

Williams said Muscogee County currently has board-approved charter elementary schools at Clubview, Reese Road and Wynnton. The schools are excused from some regulations to give them greater flexibility in achieving their goals.

The difference between charter and magnet schools is that magnets offer specialized courses in a particular field of study.

Charter schools focus on a theme that weaves through the curriculum. In the case of Wynnton, it’s fine arts. Were the school doing a theater production of “The Wizard of Oz,” students might learn a science lesson by investigating the physics of a tornado picking up a house, Williams said.

“When you’re looking at these private charters, you’re talking about a very different animal,” Williams said, but it’s still an animal that would feed at the public trough.

Beyond those schools receiving taxpayer support, “we don’t know how they’re going to fund them,” she said. Only so much money’s available, particularly after repeated state budget cuts, she said.

State Rep. Calvin Smyre, a Columbus Democrat, expressed the same concern. He supports the local board-approved charter school concept, and has favored it since the 1990s, he said.

“But to have the state create charter schools, and have the locals to pay for it? I just think that’s a bit much of a reach,” he said.

Said Williams: “The pie is only so big. It’s not like they’re growing the pie or finding new funding mechanisms. Where is the money going to come from? They haven’t said, ‘This is how we’re going to fund it, and this is how the funds can be used.’ All it is doing is just saying, ‘We are going to allow the state of Georgia to open private schools and fund them.’”

Of the funding mechanism, Smith said: “That’s going to be another piece of legislation, but this would be funded by the state. It would not take any money away from the local school districts where a charter school is formed. It will not impact the budget that particular school system gets.”