Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
Thousands of Men Warned About Faulty PSA Tests
Thousands of men in central Pennsylvania have been told that their blood tests for prostate cancer may have been inaccurate.
Pinnacle Health of Harrisburg sent letters to 7,500 men to alert them that a faulty chemical in their prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests led to results showing higher levels of PSA than were actually present, ABC News reported.
Significantly elevated PSA levels may be a sign of prostate cancer and often lead to prostate biopsies. The faulty tests were used at Pinnacle from May 2012 to June 26, 2013.
It’s likely that the Pinnacle Health patients are just the tip of the iceberg, because all lots of the “IMMULITE” PSA tests were recalled June 27 by Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics. The company shipped the faulty tests to labs from February 2012 through May 2013, ABC News reported.
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Porn Industry Halted After Actor’s Positive HIV Test
The U.S. porn industry has temporarily halted production of adult films after an actor tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
The performer wasn’t named and officials didn’t reveal when the positive test was recorded, CBS News/Associated Press reported.
The actor’s sex partners are undergoing tests by doctors with Adult Production Health and Safety Services, which works with the porn industry.
“The moratorium will be lifted once the risk of transmission has been eliminated,” Diane Duke, executive director of the industry trade group the Free Speech Coalition, told the AP in an email. The actor is not believed to have been infected on a film set, she added.
Last year, the porn industry briefly ceased filming after nearly a dozen performers were infected with syphilis. An HIV scare in 2011 also halted production, but filming resumed when a re-test showed the actor did not have HIV, CBS News/AP reported.
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