Possibility of virus linked to obesity grabs attention

Mention the dreaded word virus and readers or listeners perk up.  Then say virus as a possible cause of obesity and that grabs worldwide attention and major play in most U.S. newspapers, radio and TV news, and health and science publications.

That was a key news item yesterday, competing for print space or broadcast airtime with the space shuttle landing and Hurricane Dean.

But Grumpy Editor finds there was some hocus-pocus to the revelation that lab tests showed exposure to adenovirus-36 (Ad-36), which causes respiratory and eye infections, also causes stem cells to develop into fat cells.

Lead researcher Dr. Magdalena Pasarica, an obesity researcher with the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, who presented the information Monday at the American Chemical Society meeting in Boston, cautioned that it's not yet been proven that Ad-36 actually causes obesity.

But most stories in print or on air never got that far.

In cautious Great Britain, BBC mentioned United Kingdom experts said the idea of obesity as an infectious illness was unlikely.

With that data under the belt, hungry readers/listeners can shuffle off to a buffet with less worry.