Health Report

THE GOOD NEWS

-- Lean means long-lived. A 27-year study of 19,297 Harvard graduates revealed that men who weighed 20% less than average for their height and age had the lowest rate of death among the weight classifications surveyed. By contrast, for those men 20% heavier than average, the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease was 2.5 times that of men closer to their desirable weight.

-- Women who have their Fallopian tubes tied to prevent pregnancy lower by 67% their risk of contracting ovarian cancer. The new finding raises hopes that tubal sterilization can reduce mortality from ovarian cancer, which kills 12,000 American women each year.

THE BAD NEWS

-- Whooping cough afflicts ever more Americans because doctors and parents have become complacent about vaccination programs for the old-fashioned- seeming malady. So far this year 5,457 cases of the spasmodic cough have been reported -- the highest number since 1967. The disease can last several weeks, but it is easily preventable by vaccination.

-- A dramatic increase in the number of drug-resistant cases of tuberculosis has caused the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to call for forcible isolation of TB patients who are unwilling or unable to follow treatment programs. In New York City nearly one-third of TB patients are infected with drug-resistant strains.