In a daring experiment in Europe, scientists used mosquitoes as flying needles to deliver a "vaccine" of live malaria parasites through their bites. The results were astounding: Everyone in the vaccine group acquired immunity to malaria; everyone in a non-vaccinated comparison group did not, and developed malaria when exposed to the parasites later.

The study was only a small proof-of-principle test, and its approach is not practical on a large scale. However, it shows that scientists may finally be on the right track to developing an effective vaccine against one of mankind's top killers. A vaccine that uses modified live parasites just entered human testing.

"Malaria vaccines are moving from the laboratory into the real world," Dr. Carlos Campbell wrote in an editorial accompanying the study in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine. He works for PATH, the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health, a Seattle-based global health foundation.

The new study "reminds us that the whole malaria parasite is the most potent immunizing" agent, even though it is harder to develop a vaccine this way and other leading candidates take a different approach, he wrote.

Malaria kills nearly a million people each year, mostly children under 5 and especially in Africa. Infected mosquitoes inject immature malaria parasites into the skin when they bite; these travel to the liver where they mature and multiply. From there, they enter the bloodstream and attack red blood cells — the phase that makes people sick.

People can develop immunity to malaria if exposed to it many times. The drug chloroquine can kill parasites in the final bloodstream phase, when they are most dangerous.

Scientists tried to take advantage of these two factors, by using chloroquine to protect people while gradually exposing them to malaria parasites and letting immunity develop.

They assigned 10 volunteers to a "vaccine" group and five others to a comparison group. All were given chloroquine for three months, and exposed once a month to about a dozen mosquitoes — malaria-infected ones in the vaccine group and non-infected mosquitoes in the comparison group.

That was to allow the "vaccine" effect to develop. Next came a test to see if it was working.

All 15 stopped taking chloroquine. Two months later, all were bitten by malaria-infected mosquitoes. None of the 10 in the vaccine group developed parasites in their bloodstreams; all five in the comparison group did.

The study was done in a lab at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and was funded by two foundations and a French government grant.

"This is not a vaccine" as in a commercial product, but a way to show how whole parasites can be used like a vaccine to protect against disease, said one of the Dutch researchers, Dr. Robert Sauerwein.

"It's more of an in-depth study of the immune factors that might be able to generate a very protective type of response," said Dr. John Treanor, a vaccine specialist at the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, N.Y., who had no role in the study.

The concept already is in commercial development. A company in Rockville, Md. — Sanaria Inc. — is testing a vaccine using whole parasites that have been irradiated to weaken them, hopefully keeping them in an immature stage in the liver to generate immunity but not cause illness.

Two other reports in the New England Journal show that resistance is growing to artemisinin, the main drug used against malaria in the many areas where chloroquine is no longer effective. Studies in Thailand and Cambodia found the malaria parasite is less susceptible to artemisinin, underscoring the urgent need to develop a vaccine.

Original Post: yahoo.com

International cancer experts have moved tanning beds and ultraviolet radiation into the top cancer risk category deeming both to be definite causes of cancer.

For years, scientists have described tanning beds and ultraviolet radiation as "probable carcinogens."

A new analysis of about 20 studies concludes the risk of skin cancer jumps by 75 percent when people start using tanning beds before age 30.

Experts also found that all types of ultraviolet radiation caused worrying mutations in mice, proof the radiation is carcinogenic. Previously, only one type of ultraviolet radiation was thought to be lethal.

The new classification means tanning beds and ultraviolet radiation are definite causes of cancer, alongside tobacco, the hepatitis B virus and chimney sweeping, among others.

The research was published online in the medical journal Lancet Oncology on Wednesday by experts at the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, the cancer arm of the World Health Organization.

"People need to be reminded of the risks of sunbeds," said Vincent Cogliano, one of the cancer researchers. "We hope the prevailing culture will change so teens don't think they need to use sunbeds to get a tan."

Cogliano said the classification means experts are confident that tanning beds cause cancer, but he noted they may not be as potent as other carcinogens like tobacco or arsenic.

Most lights used in tanning beds give off mainly ultraviolet radiation, which cause skin and eye cancer. As use of tanning beds has increased among people under 30, doctors have seen a parallel rise in the numbers of young people with skin cancer, though most types of skin cancer are benign.

According to the studies reviewed by Cogliano and colleagues, using tanning beds caused about a 20 percent increased relative risk of developing melanoma, the deadliest kind of skin cancer.

Cogliano said it was impossible to know how many benign skin cancers might be caused by tanning beds, because of complicating factors like exposure to regular sunlight. He and colleagues examined data from more than 7,000 melanoma cases and found a strong association between tanning bed use and the disease. He compared the link to that found between tobacco and lung cancer.

In Britain, melanoma is now the leading cancer diagnosed in women in their 20s. Normally, skin cancer rates are highest in people over 75. According to a British study from 2003, about 100 people every year die of melanoma attributable to tanning beds.

Previous studies found younger people who regularly use tanning beds are eight times more likely to get melanoma than people who have never used them. In the past, WHO warned people younger than 18 to stay away from tanning beds.

The American Cancer Society advises people to try bronzing or self-tanning creams instead of tanning beds.

Original Post: www.lancet.com

High blood pressure is picked up less often in people who smoke, despite them being at higher risk of heart disease, research suggests.

A study of more than 20,000 men and women in England found smokers were less likely to be aware that they had high blood pressure than non-smokers.

The University College London team said spotting the condition was particularly important in those who smoke.

Being diagnosed can also prompt people to quit, heart experts said.

Smoking and high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, are both key causes of early death, the researchers wrote in the European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation.

National guidelines advocate that doctors encourage those with high blood pressure to stop smoking and that greater effort should be made to look for signs of the condition in those who smoke.

The study, which took data from the Health Survey for England in 2003 and 2006, found improvements over time in the proportion of people who knew they had high blood pressure.

But it was being detected less frequently in people who smoked compared with those who did not, or those who used to smoke but had quit.

Among those smokers who had been diagnosed with the condition, they were more likely to have been told by a health professional to stop smoking than those who did not know they had hypertension, and were more likely to have quit.

Weight

One reason for the lack of diagnosis could be that smokers in the study tended to be thinner than those who did not smoke.

The researchers, who were funded by Cancer Research UK, said that GPs may be more likely to test blood pressure in people who were overweight.

Since 2004, GPs have been paid an incentive to test blood pressure and to record whether someone is a smoker.

Study author Dr Jennifer Mindell said it was disappointing to find smokers with high blood pressure were not being diagnosed.

"It's important to pick up high blood pressure in everybody but it's particularly important in somebody who already has a higher than average risk of heart disease or stroke, including those who smoke.

"And anything that gives people additional motivation to quit must be a good thing.

"It is a reminder for GPs that measuring blood pressure in smokers, even if they are thin, is important."

June Davison, a cardiac nurse from the British Heart Foundation, said: "It is crucial that smokers are aware of their blood pressure as smoking and high blood pressure are among the most common risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

"This study also highlights that if smokers are made aware of their high blood pressure, it can increase their motivation to stop smoking.

She added that smokers over the age of 40 should go for a health check where their blood pressure will be measured and advice on quitting smoking can be given.

Pregnant women, health care workers and children six months and older should be placed at the front of the line for swine flu vaccinations this fall, a government panel recommended Wednesday.

The panel also said those first vaccinated should include parents and other caregivers of infants; non-elderly adults who have high-risk medical conditions; and young adults ages 19 to 24.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted to set vaccination priorities for those groups Wednesday during a meeting in Atlanta. The panel's recommendations are usually adopted by federal health officials.

The recommendations are designed to address potential limits in vaccine availability this fall if there is heavy demand and limited supplies.

The government estimates that about 120 million swine flu vaccine doses will be available to the public by late October. Roughly 160 million people are in the priority groups considered most vulnerable to infection or most at risk for severe disease.

Although the number recommended to get doses exceeds the projected supply, health officials don't think everyone will run out and get vaccinated. Traditionally, less than half of the people recommended to get seasonal flu shots get them. Only about 15 percent of pregnant women get seasonal flu vaccinations.

If there is ample vaccine, vaccinations also would be recommended for all non-elderly adults, the panel also voted. And if there's still plenty of vaccine, the swine flu shots and spray doses should be offered to people 65 and older. Fewer illnesses have been reported in the elderly, who appear to have higher levels of immunity to the virus, health experts say.

However, the elderly should be pushed to get shots against seasonal flu, which is a significant health risk to older adults.

Panel members say they hope swine flu vaccinations will be opened up quickly. "The only sin is vaccine left in the refrigerator," said Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University flu expert, in a comment to the panel.

The panel also said if vaccine is scarce, the government could require that a much tighter group be at the front of the vaccination line, numbering about 40 million. That would include pregnant women and household contacts of small children, just like in the general priority recommendation. But the others would be children ages 6 months through 4 years, children with chronic medical conditions and only health care and emergency services workers who have direct contact with patients.

It's a worst-case scenario that officials aren't expecting, but they wanted to have a plan for it just in case, said officials with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the federal agency that reviews the panel's recommendations.

The range of recommendations reflects how hard it is to plan for swine flu, officials said. Some health officials have compared the exercise to predicting a hurricane. The storm — or virus — is itself unpredictable; it could grow more dangerous or suddenly weaken. The availability of lifesaving supplies or vaccine can also affect survival.

"It's better to prepare and have the storm fizzle than to be sitting there with no way off the island when the tsunami rolls in," said Kristine Sheedy, a CDC communications specialist.

Variables with the swine flu virus can range from whether it mutates into a form that is more deadly, spreads more efficiently, or is better at fighting off current antiviral medications.

Variables with the vaccine include potential production problems. Production of the vaccine will be a prodigious feat: The government has already purchased 195 million doses for the coming fall and winter, which far eclipses the 125 million or so doses generally produced for seasonal flu vaccine.

Four vaccine manufacturers are wrapping up seasonal flu vaccine production and have begun production of swine flu vaccine. But another company, Sanofi Pasteur, has been more delayed and may not finish seasonal vaccine production until September, a company spokeswoman said. Sanofi is among the largest producers of flu vaccine, so those delays could have a significant ripple effect.

Packaging, distribution and other steps can take a month or more. For those reasons, the government's best guess at the moment is 40 million doses will be available in September and 120 million by around mid-October.

Health officials are pushing for the work to done quickly. There are also clinical trials taking place over the next few months to check the vaccine's safety and effectiveness, but it's possible the government will begin a public vaccination campaign before that work is complete, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, who oversees the CDC's flu vaccination programs.

Why the rush? Vaccines work when given to a patient before they're exposed to the vaccine-targeting virus, and cases may explode not long after kids get back in school, CDC officials said.

Another reason for not waiting for testing data: Health officials are thinking of the swine flu vaccine as a variation of seasonal flu vaccine, which comes out annually and does not undergo the kind of safety and effectiveness testing that new drugs and other new vaccines do.

First identified in April, swine flu has likely infected more than 1 million Americans, the CDCbelieves, with many of those suffering mild cases never reported. There have been 302 deaths and nearly 44,000 laboratory-identified cases, according to CDC numbers released last week.

It's not clear whether the virus in its current form is much worse than seasonal flu in terms of overall threat to the U.S. population, but it is causing more severe illness in some younger adults and children. It has a dangerous genetic characteristic that allows it to infect the lower lungs, whereas seasonal flu tends to infect the upper respiratory tract, CDC officials said.

Original Post: yahoo.com

Organic food has no nutritional or health benefits over ordinary food, according to a major study published Wednesday.

Researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine said consumers were paying higher prices for organic food because of its perceived health benefits, creating a global organic market worth an estimated $48 billion in 2007.

A systematic review of 162 scientific papers published in the scientific literature over the last 50 years, however, found there was no significant difference.

"A small number of differences in nutrient content were found to exist between organically and conventionally produced foodstuffs, but these are unlikely to be of any public health relevance," said Alan Dangour, one of the report's authors.

"Our review indicates that there is currently no evidence to support the selection of organically over conventionally produced foods on the basis of nutritional superiority."

The results of research, which was commissioned by the British government's Food Standards Agency, were published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Sales of organic food have fallen in some markets, including Britain, as recession has led consumers to cut back on purchases.

The Soil Association said in April that growth in sales of organic products in Britain slowed to just 1.7 percent in 2008, well below the average annual growth rate of 26 percent over the last decade, following a plunge in demand at the end of the year.

Original Post: Yahoo.com

Liver transplantation is an attractive modality for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and also for some cholangiocarcinomas, with careful patient selection.

Liver transplantation for cancer (HCC and cholangiocarcinoma) is controversial topic that has been evolving over the last decade, a Professor of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Co-director of the Liver Cancer Center at the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute, in Pittsburgh said.

Liver transplant for HCC

The rationale supporting liver transplantation for HCC is strong. Approximately 70% to 90% of tumors arise in the setting of cirrhosis, and the cirrhotic liver has poor hepatic reserve to tolerate a major resection. Additionally, HCC rumors are often multifocal and are underestimated by current computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. Recurrence rates exceed 50% even five years after resection.

Transplant is an appealing modality as it removes the cancer and the precancerous conditions, i.e., cirrhosis that leads to HCC so why not transplant all patients. For one reason, there is a critical shortage of organ donors. The number of patients on the UNOS (United Network for Organ Sharing) wait list for liver transplantation is now over 16,500.

Liver transplantation can cure HCC in the appropriate setting. Data from UNOS and the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network between 2000 and 2002 showed survival from deceased donor transplantation to be 88% at one year, 80% at three years and 75% at five years. However, not all patients with HCC benefit. Survival correlates with tumor stage, which means that liver transplantation works best for early-stage HCC.

Current transplantation policy maintains that the appropriate candidates are:

• Patients with cirrhosis and any Child-Pugh score (A, B or C)

• Patients with stage II HCC who have one tumor that is 5 cm or less in diameter or three tumors that are all less than 3 cm; or

• Patients who do not have gross vascular invasion or metastases.

But are we too restrictive? What about pushing the limit transplanting patients with tumors 6 to 7 cm in size without macro-vascular invasion? Should we deny a potentially curative operation to a patient based on a centimeter? This is controversial, and some centers have pushed for expanding the size criteria.

Liver transplantation for cholangiocarcinoma

Cholangiocarcinoma (adenocarcinoma of the bile ducts) can be hard to diagnose and even harder to treat. It preferentially grows along the length of the common bile duct, often involving the periductal lymphatics, and commonly metastasizes to the lymph nodes.

For hilar cholangiocarcinoma (tumor above the cystic duct), surgical resection is the treatment of choice in the absence of associated primary sclerosing cholangitis (PCS). However, approximately 10% of patients with cholangiocarcinoma have undying PSC, and the results of resection in this setting are dismal. Furthermore, cholangiocarcinoma in the setting of PSC is frequently multicentric, and is often associated with underlying liver disease with eventual cirrhosis and portal hypertension.

This scenario led transplant centers to consider liver transplantation for hilar cholangiocarcinoma; however, the results were disappointing, with three-year survival rates less than 3%. The situation improved with the inclusion of neoadjuvant chemoradiation, which was based on the concept that the growth of hilar cholangiocarcinoma is locoregional.

Neoadjuvant chemoradiation for cholang-iocarcinoma was introduced by the transplant team at the University of Nebraska in the late 1993 by the multidisciplinary team at Mayo Clinic protocol, which begins treatment with external beam radiation therapy, followed by protracted venous infusion of fluorouracil (5-FU) and brachytherapy (Iridium), and then abdominal exploration for staging with endoscopic ultrasound and finally capecitabine for two or three weeks until the final option of liver transplantation. The five-year survival rates for patients undergoing liver transplantation at Mayo Clinic after completing the neoadjuvant cholangiocarcinoma treatment protocol are excellent, at approximately 70%.

According to an associate professor of surgery at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Chief of Liver Transplantation with the Mayo Clinic Transplant Center in Rochester, Minn., of 90 patients who underwent transplantation according to the Mayo Clinic protocol between 1993 and 2007, five-year survival was 71% and disease-free survival was 65%. For 15 patients, disease recurred after the transplant, with a mean time to recurrence of 25 months. Current eligibility for the Mayo Clinic protocol based on the presence of an unresectable tumor above the cystic duct or a resectable cholangiocarcinoma arising in the PSC; radial dimension of the tumor should be 3 cm or less, intra- or extrahepatic metastases should not be present and there should be no history of prior radiation therapy or transperitioneal biopsy.

Combined chemoradiation therapy and liver transplantation achieves excellent results for highly selected patients with early-stage hilar cholangiocarcinoma; five-year patient survival after transplantation with this protocol 71%, and exceeds the results reported with resection for hilar cholangiocarcinoma. These results approach the survival after transplantation for chronic liver disease and HCC. Operative staging is essential, as positive findings preclude transplant in about 20% of patients.

Original Post: Philippine Star

It is no secret that an addiction to cigarettes is one of the toughest habits to break. While there are some people who can quit by the strength of will power alone, the vast majority of the smoking population requires the assistance of cessation aids and numerous attempts before quitting cigarettes for good. But with medical reports and statistics piling up over the years detailing the dangers of nicotine, the need to stop smoking has become more of a trend than smoking ever was.

According to some figures, there are still over 1.1 billion people in the world who smoke cigarettes. In the United States alone, nearly 20 percent of the population still claims an affinity for cigarettes, though that number has decreased by more than half since 1965. But as society puts more of a focus on healthy living and positive lifestyle choices, in addition to entire cities across America outlawing smoking in public places, people are finding the motivation to quit the habit.

Quitting cigarettes requires more than will power for most people, though. The addiction to tobacco is not only physical but mental and emotional. Smoking a cigarette becomes part of life for the addicted, and many need to completely readjust their lifestyles in order to successfully kick the habit.

The first order of business to quitting the habit is to set a date for the last cigarette, which allows the person to get rid of extra packs of cigarettes, lighters, and ashtrays, as well as begin cleaning clothes, blankets, curtains, and any other household items that retain the smell of smoke. It is important to begin the first day of non-smoking with a fresh environment and little to no remnants of the smoking lifestyle.

Setting the date also allows the person to stock up on items that may help during the first 72 hours, when nicotine still resides in the body and the cravings for a cigarette will be the strongest. A person may choose to stock up on items like nicotine gum or patches to gradually let the body know that the process has begun. It also may be helpful to gather items that will help the oral fixation, such as straws or toothpicks, chewing gum, candy or lollipops, and snack items like carrots, celery sticks, and grapes. It may also be helpful to buy extra mouthwash and dental hygiene items to keep the mouth smelling and feeling fresh.

In addition to sharing the plan with family, friends, coworkers, and neighbors, it can also be helpful to start a journal. While it will be helpful to lean on everyone involved in daily life for encouragement and support, a log of thoughts and feelings may help put the process in perspective, especially if the journal focuses on the motivations for quitting.

A complete change in daily routine might be necessary. If smoking with coffee in the morning was a habit, there may be a need to start the day with water or juice instead. If smoking after meals was the norm, it might be helpful to immediately go for a walk after meals. Some form of exercise should be integrated into daily life as well, since the body will be craving some form of adrenaline that could be found in the healthy feeling that exercise provides.

After the first few days or weeks, it can be motivational to figure out the amount of money saved from not buying cigarettes and use it to buy something fun. Whether it is something that can aid the new, healthy lifestyle or simply something rewarding, it can further prove that cigarettes were more than a physical threat to one’s life but a financial strain as well.

The most important thing to keep in mind when quitting cigarettes is that the person has more control than the cigarette or the tobacco in it. Self-control is an asset, and remembering that you are in control of your life is the key to quitting. The assistance of others and cessation aids may be integral to success, but ultimately it is the person that is in control of habits and lifestyle choices. But if it so happens that a cigarette works its way into the person’s hands and he or she falls off the wagon, there is no reason to give up the process entirely. One mistake does not ruin the plan, and resuming the quitting process should be automatic.

It took time to become addicted to smoking, and it may take time to quit the habit. But your body, mind, pets, friends, and family will be forever grateful if the process of quitting is successful.

Asthma is one of the most common ailments of young childhood - rates among children under age 5 have risen 160% from 1980 to 1994 in the U.S. But while the list of triggers that set off bouts of wheezing and shortness of breath (allergies, pollution or strenuous exercise, for example) are well known, it's still not clear exactly how the various factors that cause asthma - including genes, environment and exposure to pollution - contribute to children's chances of developing the disease.

Now researchers at the University of Southern California say they have a clearer understanding. In their study of nearly 2,500 non-asthmatic children ages 5 to 9 who lived in the area, researchers found that the level of stress reported by the children's parents had a significant impact on the kids' susceptibility to other common contributors to asthma - namely exposure to pollution from traffic and secondhand smoke. Scientists found that children whose parents described themselves as stressed and anxious were 50% more likely to develop asthma than kids with non-stressed parents - at least when these youngsters were also exposed to pollution in a high-traffic, urban setting.

Parental stress alone did not increase the children's risk of asthma, but the combination of living in a household with high stress levels and being exposed to pollutants from traffic in the environment was sufficient to trigger the disease. The study found similar results with exposure to tobacco smoke.

Studying a combination of factors can help explain why some kids are more likely to develop asthma than others, says Rob McConnell, lead author of the study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Childhood asthma is a complex disease and probably has many contributing causes," he says. "This study provides another clue as to what might be causing it."

The results also shed light on how risk factors like stress can increase the vulnerability of the respiratory system to environmental pollution or allergens. Because asthma involves inflammation in the airways in response to particulates that enter from the air, a separate factor that also increases the body's inflammatory response - like stress - can help create especially fertile conditions for asthma to develop. So a child who feels anxiety in response to parental stress, for example, may already have inflammation in his airways, which makes him more likely to develop asthma because of exposure to environmental pollutants.

"The message to take away is that various factors overlap to create asthma," says Dr. Leonard Bielroy, an allergy, asthma and immunology specialist in Springfield, N.J., who has studied some of the condition's intersecting risk factors. "And whether those factors are psychological or physical, the more they overlap, the greater the chance of developing asthma."

While McConnell and his group did not specifically measure stress levels in the study's participants - it's difficult to get a reliable reading in such a large number of youngsters quickly - other studies have shown that parental stress translates directly with more-anxious kids. McConnell hopes that these findings will spur additional studies to investigate why, for example, asthma rates tend to be higher among lower socioeconomic groups. "There are a lot of potential reasons why poverty might be associated with asthma," he says, including that poorer families tend to live in more highly polluted, densely packed urban areas.

But there might also be a psychological contribution, which his study has highlighted. "It's not poverty itself but something about poverty that increases the risk of asthma, and we are suggesting that stress is another exposure we ought to think about."

Original Post: news.yahoo.com

The projection from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is based on the influenza pandemic in 1957, when almost 70,000 people in the United States died from the flu.

"Our planning assumptions for a severe pandemic were that up to 40 percent of the workforce might be affected and not able to work, either because they were ill or because they needed to stay home to care for an ill family member," Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said Friday in a press conference.

But even if the new H1N1 virus never reaches that proportion, it is expected to gain strength come fall.

"We had a 6 to 8 percent attack rate just during the spring months," Schuchat said. "We think that in a longer winter season, attack rates would be two to three times as high as that," she said.

A public health campaign and a vaccination program, which will probably begin in October, could reduce the impact of the H1N1 swine flu, she said.

"We think we can limit, somewhat, the illness and severe complications of that kind of virus circulation with updated guidance and, of course, with the efforts we are making towards the development of a vaccine," Schuchat said.

Vaccine trials, already underway in Australia, are expected to begin in the United States next week, Schuchat said.

U.S. officials hope to have 160 million doses of injectable swine flu vaccine on hand by October, with more doses coming in the form of a nasal spray -- if trials of experimental vaccines are successful.

To determine who should receive the vaccine first, the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will meet Wednesday.

In the Southern Hemisphere, where it is winter now, seasonal flu and the new H1N1 swine flu continue to spread, Schuchat said.

The good news is that "specimens we have collected have not changed. They are still the same strain we are seeing here, meaning that the vaccine we are working on is directed against the strain that is still active both here in the U.S. and in Southern Hemisphere countries," she said.

Also, the CDC, in this week's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, cited four children in Texas who developed neurological complications from encephalitis, associated with the H1N1 flu. Two of them also had seizures, but all recovered and had no lasting neurological effects after leaving the hospital.

"This is a reminder that seizure, encephalitis and other neurologic complications can occur in the setting of influenza," she said.

Although less severe in summer, the H1N1 swine flu continues to spread, especially in summer camps and schools, Schuchat said.

Reacting to reports that some camps are giving children the antiviral drug Tamiflu in hopes of preventing the virus, Schuchat advised against this. Camps should follow the CDC's guidelines on protecting campers from the flu, she said.

Giving antiviral medications in hopes of providing a general immunity can increase the odds that the virus will become resistant to the drugs, Schuchat said. To date, five cases of the H1N1 flu have proved resistant to Tamiflu, she noted. So far, this resistant strain has not been passed on to anyone else, she said.

The CDC also reported Friday that there have been 43,771 confirmed cases of H1N1 infection and 302 deaths in the United States, although officials believe more than 1 million Americans have been stricken with swine flu. The reason for the disparity: The virus continues to produce mild symptoms and patients typically recover quickly. This was the final CDC report of case numbers, Schuchat said, noting in the future it will document swine flu trends.

Original Post: www.healthday.com

Research in mouse embryos found that the Sox17 gene "acts like a toggle or binary switch that sets off a cascade of genetic events," the study's senior investigator, James Wells, a researcher in the developmental biology division at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, said in a hospital news release.

"In normal embryonic development, when you have an undecided cell, if Sox17 goes one way, the cell becomes part of the biliary system," Wells explained. "If it goes the other way, the cell becomes part of the pancreas."

The discovery could prove important in guiding embryonic stem cells to become pancreatic beta cells, which scientists believe could be used to treat or cure type 1 diabetes. The disease occurs when insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas are attacked by the immune system.

"With this study showing that turning one gene on or off in a mouse embryo instructs a cell to become pancreatic or biliary, now we'll see if that same gene, Sox17, can be used to direct an embryonic stem cell to become a biliary cell instead of a pancreatic cell," said Wells, who is also an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. "This might be used one day to replace a diseased pancreas or bile duct in people."

Original Post: yahoo.com

People in developed countries like the United States are treated with HIV drugs soon after diagnosis, typically when their immune system shows signs of failing.

Doctors measure this by counting the number of immune cells called CD4 T-cells in the blood. In developed countries, HIV treatment usually begins when CD4 numbers drop below 350.

Many developing countries follow 2006 World Health Organization standards, which call for treatment when CD4 drops below 200 or when people start to develop complications from AIDS.

"While those standards accommodate the limited resources and short supply of medications in many settings, the greater prevalence of tuberculosis and other opportunistic infections in places like South Africa argue for earlier treatment initiation," Dr. Rochelle Walensky of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, whose study appears in the Annals of Internal Medicine, said in a statement.

Walensky used a computer model to calculate the cost of waiting to give HIV drugs over the next five years. She found starting treatment earlier would not only save lives but would be more cost-effective than delaying treatment, saving $1,200 for every year of life saved.

A Canadian study last year found cocktails of HIV drugs can help patients live an average of 13 years longer -- if they are lucky enough to get them.

Nearly 3 million people in the developing world now get HIV drugs -- about 70 percent of those who need them, according to the United Nations.

Makers include GlaxoSmithKline, Gilead Sciences Inc, Roche, Pfizer, Merck Inc, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Abbott Laboratories.

AIDS is caused by the fatal and incurable human immunodeficiency virus and is transmitted mostly through sex. It has killed 25 million people since it was identified in the early 1980s and infects an estimated 33 million.

GAY SEX TRANSMISSION

Most cases are in Africa, and most are transmitted during sex between a man and a woman.

But in some West African countries, HIV infection is 10 times more prevalent among men who have sex with men than in the general male population, British researchers have found.

A study reported in the Lancet medical journal by a team led by Dr. Adrian Smith of the University of Oxford suggests that the role of gay sex in the transmission of the virus that causes AIDS has been overlooked in Africa.

Smith's team found that stigma and prejudice may be keeping men in Africa from seeking treatment. Since many of these men also have sex with women, this may be putting many women at risk as well.

They called for more education and funding to fight HIV infection in this group.

Original Post: yahoo.com

A Spanish woman who was the oldest ever to become a new mother died Saturday at the age of 69, according to her family, BBC News reported.

Maria del Carmen Bousada was 66 when she gave birth to twin boys in 2006. She said she received fertility treatments at a California clinic after telling doctors she was 55. A Spanish newspaper said she was diagnosed with cancer shortly after giving birth to sons Christian and Pau, who are now 2 years old.

Bousada had said there was no reason to believe she would not live as long as her mother, who was 101 when she died. Even if she died prematurely, she said, her sons would never be alone, BBC News reported.

"There are lots of young people in our family," Bousada said.

Original Post: HealthDay

Female veterans aren't assured of privacy when they bathe and undergo physical examinations at Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics, federal government auditors say.

No VA facility under review is complying fully with federal privacy regulations, said the Government Accountability Office, the Associated Press reported.

In many VA facilities, gynecological tables face the door. At four hospitals, female patients weren't guaranteed access to private bathing facilities. In two cases, there were no locks on bathing room doors, the GAO investigators found.

Privacy isn't the only issue for female veterans. VA hospitals lack child care and it can be difficult to find diaper-changing tables, the AP reported.

The VA knows that services for women need improvement, but changes are being made to "build the system that will provide care equal to the health care needs of all America's veterans, regardless of gender," said Patricia Hayes, chief consultant of the veterans strategic health care group at the VA.

Original Post: HealthDay

Six male enhancement products made by Nature & Health Co. are being recalled because they contain drug ingredients that aren't declared on their labeling.

The recall includes: LibieXtreme; Y-4ever; Libimax X Liquid; Powermania Liquid; Powermania Capsule and Herbal Disiac, the Associated Press reported.

The undeclared ingredients in the products may interact with nitrates found in some prescription drugs, such as nitroglycerin, and may lower blood pressure to dangerous levels, the company said. The products may also cause side effects, such as flushing and headaches.

No illnesses related to the products have been reported, the AP said.

The United States could find itself short of swine flu vaccine if the virus becomes much more lethal and countries start to scramble for more of the vaccine, experts warn.

They noted that the United States makes only 20 percent of the flu vaccines it uses. The situation is even worse in Britain, which imports all its flu vaccines. Only a few countries are self-sufficient in vaccines.

"This isn't rocket science. If there is more severe disease, countries will want to hang onto the vaccine for their own citizens," Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, told the Associated Press.

Leaders of countries with adequate supplies of swine flu vaccine won't be willing to share with other nations, experts predict.

"Pandemic vaccine will be a valuable and scarce resource, like oil or food during a famine," David Fidler, an Indiana University law professor who has consulted for the World Health Organization, told the AP. "We've seen how countries behave in those situations, and it's not encouraging."

Original Post: HealthDay

The results of a study confirm that girls who undergo radiation for cancer in childhood have an increased long-term risk of developing

When such treatment included a high dose to the ovaries, however, women seemed to be protected against future breast cancer risk.

Radiation is a common, and highly effective, treatment for cancers such as Hodgkin's lymphoma, and adolescents and adults who receive such treatments are known to be at higher risk of developing breast cancer late in life, Dr. Peter D. Inskip of the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues note in their report.

Inskip's team studied 120 women diagnosed with cancer when they were younger than 21 years old, were treated between 1970 and 1986, and survived for at least 5 years.

Those cases were each compared with four women who developed cancer at the same age but did not receive radiation.

Overall, chemotherapy for the initial cancer did not increase the risk of a second cancer. However, the more radiation a woman received as a child, the higher her risk of a later tumor, Inskip and colleagues report in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

However, according to the researchers, the risk associated with radiation treatment of the breasts was "sharply reduced" in women whose treatment of the initial cancer included a high dose of radiation to the ovaries.

Because the women in the study were relatively young, there may still be effects later in life that were not yet seen, the authors point out.

SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Oncology, July 20, 2009.

Original Post: yahoo.com

Certain drugs used to prevent rejection of transplanted kidneys must carry a warning about the risk of serious infections, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday.

The drugs include CellCept (mycophenolate mofetil) and generics, Myfortic (mycophenolic acid), Rapamune (sirolimus), Sandimmune (cyclosporine) and generics, and Neoral (cyclosporine modified) and generics.

The drugs, which already carry the FDA's most serious boxed warning outlining their various risks, must now also mention the increased risk of "opportunistic infections," including activation of dormant viral infections such as one caused by the BK virus, the Dow Jones news service reported.

Infections associated with the immunosuppressive drugs may lead to serious problems, including kidney graft loss, said the FDA. The agency noted that a warning about the increased risk for opportunistic infections already is included in the labeling of the immunosuppressive drug Prograf (tacrolimus).

Original Post: HealthDay

In an effort to reduce the spread of dangerous bacteria in humans, the Obama administration wants to ban routine use of antibiotics in farm animals.

Feeding antibiotics to healthy cattle, pigs and chickens in order to encourage rapid growth should be stopped and farmers should no longer be allowed to use antibiotics in farm animals without the supervision of a veterinarian, Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, principal deputy commissioner of food and drugs, said in written testimony to the House Rules Committee.

He said such routine use of antibiotics in farm animals leads to the development of bacteria that are immune to many treatments, The New York Times reported.

The House hearing was held to discuss a proposed measure to ban the use in animals of seven classes of antibiotics important to human health. It would also limit other antibiotics to therapeutic and some preventive uses in animals.

The measure is supported by the American Medical Association but opposed by farm groups, which means the measure is likely to fail. However, supporters hope the measure will be included in legislation to overhaul the U.S. health system, The Times reported.

Original Post: HealthDay

Curiously, the researchers from the San Francisco VA Medical Center found that most mental health diagnoses were not made in the first year that a veteran entered the VA health-care system, but several years after. This finding supports the recent move to extend VA benefits to five years of free health care, which allows VA doctors the time to detect and treat more mental illness in returning combat veterans, the researchers noted.

"After the start of the Iraq War, there is a growing burden of mental illness, particularly post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), that will require increased allocation of resources for better detection and early intervention to prevent chronic mental illness, which threatens individual veterans, their families and communities," said lead researcher Dr. Karen Seal, an assistant professor of medicine and psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco.

The report is published in the July 16 online edition of the American Journal of Public Health.

For the study, Seal's team collected data on 289,328 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who sought health care at VA medical centers from 2002 to 2008.

Among these returning vets, 106,726 were given mental health care. These included 62,929 diagnosed with PTSD and 50,432 diagnosed with depression. That's nearly 37 percent of veterans, the authors noted.

"When the definition is expanded to include diagnoses of mental health disorders or psychosocial behavioral problems such as homelessness, or both, 43 percent of these veterans received these diagnoses," Seal added.

The diagnoses included 22 percent with PTSD, 17 percent with depression, 7 percent with alcohol use disorder, and 3 percent with drug use disorder. Many vets had several of these problems. In fact, 29 percent of veterans with mental health problems were diagnosed with two different conditions, and 33 percent were diagnosed with three or more, Seal said.

In addition, women had a higher risk for depression, but men had more than twice the risk for drug use problems, the researchers found.

Since the start of the Iraq war, mental health problems increased more than fourfold among active-duty personnel and sevenfold for members of the National Guard or Reserve, Seal said.

Age also played a role in the risk for PTSD, Seal said. While younger active-duty veterans had a higher risk for PTSD, "among Guard and Reserve members, those over 40 were at significantly higher risk for PTSD than their colleagues under 25," she said.

Moreover, active-duty enlisted veterans in the Army rather than other service branches, or who had multiple tours of duty, thus more combat exposure, were at greater risk for PTSD, Seal said. This was not seen in National Guard and Reserve personnel, she noted.

Mark Kaplan, a professor of community health at the School of Community Health at Portland State University in Oregon, noted that the study only covers vets who have received care at the VA, but there are many more with serious mental health problems that are either seeking care privately or not at all, he said.

"This study adds to what we know about this population, however, that's the veterans who seek care at the VA system. But if you look at the total population of veterans from all wars, there are one-third of all veterans who have these problems," Kaplan said.

Doctors who are not connected with the VA but who see veterans need to ask them about any mental health issues they have, Kaplan said. "They need to be aware of the risks associated with veteran status, and in particular those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan," he said.

Kaplan added that it is not uncommon for problems such as PTSD to arise years, even decades, after service. "We don't know the full emotional toll of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan," he said.

Simon A. Rego, associate director of psychology training at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, says that "while the results may be somewhat inflated due to the researchers' inability to assess data on clinical outcomes, potential treatment outside of the VA system, or even subsequent deployments, they are nevertheless, stunning."

The authors found a much higher percentage of veterans enrolling in the VA now than at any other time in history: 41 percent since 2002 versus 10 percent of Vietnam veterans. And, Rego noted, new mental health diagnoses in 2008 were six times higher than in 2002 -- 37 percent versus 6.4 percent.

"An important and often overlooked finding here was that a lack of social support -- being separated, divorced, widowed, etc.-- may pose a serious risk for new post-deployment mental health problems," Rego said.

This underscores the need for ancillary social support services for returning veterans who are unmarried and/or without social support, he said. "All too often we focus on treating the symptoms but fail to address the individual's social context. Based on the data here, a failure to do so could lead to increased risk in developing new mental health problems."

Original Post: yahoo.com