Medical Health

Exercise and healthy diet slow memory loss

2005-09-12T15:24:00.000+07:00

DUBLIN (Reuters) - An active lifestyle and a healthy, fish-rich diet are not only good for your heart, they may also help tackle the memory loss associated with old age, two leading neuroscientists said on Wednesday. As people live longer, finding ways of halting the decline in mental agility is becoming increasingly important, said Professor Ian Robertson, director of the Institute of Neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin. "The biggest threat to being able to function well and properly is our brains," he told journalists at the British Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Dublin. "There is very strong evidence, particularly in the over-50s, that the degree to which you maintain your mental faculties depends on a handful of quite simple environmental factors," he said, having identified seven key areas. Those who remained physically fit, avoided high stress levels and enjoyed a rich and varied social life are better equipped to stay alert as they age. Mental stimulation, learning new things and simply thinking young also help. A new survey compiled for the University of Kent and the charity Age Concern showed ageism was rife in Britain where people, on average, see youth as ending at 49 and old age beginning at 65. But Robertson said such attitudes were not helpful given the number of 80-year-olds who remain "sharp as pins." "If you start to think of yourself as old when you are 60, which is no longer justified, you will behave old," he said. GOOD FOR YOUR BRAINS Research conducted by his Trinity College colleague Professor Marina Lynch showed healthy eating was another key requirement for staying on the ball, according to Robertson. Lynch said new research showed fish oils may reduce the cell inflammation that triggers a decline in memory. "Studies have identified the anti-inflammatory properties as well as the restorative qualities of omega-3," she said of the essential fatty acid found in supplements like cod liver oil and fatty fish such as mackerel, salmon and tuna. Already believed to protect the brain against the damage caused by Alzheimer's disease, omega-3 has also been linked with maintaining healthy hearts and joints. Lynch said the biggest surprise of the latest discovery was that omega-3 appeared not only to replace anti-inflammatories that dwindle with age but also to stem a corresponding rise in chemicals that cause the cell inflammation in the first place. "These effects seem to cobble together to restore the ability of people to maintain memory as they grow older," she said, pointing to a study by the University of Aberdeen showing a diet rich in fatty fish slowed the brain's aging process.

Europeans launch vaccines scheme

2005-09-12T15:23:00.000+07:00

LONDON (Reuters) - European countries launched a scheme on Friday to provide $4 billion in life-saving vaccines to millions of poor children, but critics said the project was flawed and much more money was needed to address the problem. British finance minister Gordon Brown said the scheme, the International Finance Facility for Immunization (IFFIm), would save the lives of some five million children over the next 10 years and another five million thereafter. "It is a demonstration of the determination of world leaders to meet the Millennium Development Goals on infant mortality," he told a news conference, referring to United Nations targets to cut child mortality by two thirds by 2015. The program is a pilot for a broader International Finance Facility (IFF), which Brown hopes to launch to raise larger amounts of money for development aid. But aid agencies and lobby groups said the scheme, which aims to give poor countries money now by issuing bonds which rely on the aid commitments of rich countries as collateral, might simply store up problems for the future. "Our concern is that because the IFF is a way of borrowing money from international financial markets, in years to come we're going to end up using aid money to pay off the interest to financiers rather than helping the poor," said Peter Hardstaff of the campaign group the World Development Movement. Other critics have said the scheme will have little impact without the participation of the United States, and that $4 billion is a drop in the ocean in a world in which 10 million children die each year from preventable diseases. Brown is pushing the Group of Seven rich countries and the European Union for the much wider finance facility he says could double aid to the poorest countries to $100 billion a year. But the plan has run into opposition, particularly from the United States. Brown launched the more modest scheme with his counterparts from France, Italy, Spain and Sweden. He said the Europeans were encouraging other countries, including China and Brazil, to sign up. Britain has pledged 35 percent of the resources required to raise the $4 billion, which is equivalent to $130 million a year. France has pledged 25 percent or $100 million a year and Italy, Spain and Sweden will announce their contributions later. Italian Economy Minister Domenico Siniscalco acknowledged the scheme was a way of "borrowing from the future" but denied it was a gimmick, telling the news conference in London it was based on "very sound finance." He recalled his own childhood in post-war Italy, saying vaccination programs there had had a significant impact within just a few years. Lee Jong-Wook, director-general of the World Health Organization, also backed the scheme. "When I first heard about it, frankly I thought it was a crazy idea and would never fly," he said. "I was wrong and I'm very glad I was wrong." A spokeswoman for Goldman Sachs said the investment bank was acting as an unpaid adviser to the UK Treasury on the scheme. She said it was also advising the Vaccine Fund, the financing arm of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization which promotes vaccination. But a Treasury source said a decision on who would administer the scheme was some way off. "There is a competitive tender in progress to see who will run the IFFIm and a decision will be taken by the winner of that process as to which financial institutions will be involved," the source said.

Clinton Foundation to provide free drugs to China's HIV/AIDS children

2005-09-12T15:22:00.000+07:00

BEIJING (AFP) - Former US president Bill Clinton's AIDS foundation has committed to providing free anti-HIV/AIDS drugs to infected children in China, foundation officials said Sunday. "It hasn't been publicly announced but it has been made known to officials in China. We're willing to provide drugs for as many kids as needed," Aaron Pattillo, a drug procurement specialist for the Clinton Foundation, told AFP. In June the foundation begun treating an initial 200 HIV-positive children identified by the government as being in need of the drugs. Treatment will now be expanded to some 2,000 patients, said Jessica Haberer, a Beijing-based research advisor for the Clinton Foundation. "We don't know the actual number of kids who need the drugs, but we'll treat up to 2,000 and we're actually going to work with the government to try and identify more kids and if there are more, we will not leave them uncared for," Haberer said. "I'm sure there are many many more kids who need the drugs." Most of the children identified contracted HIV from their parents, many of whom were poor farmers in central China who became infected after selling blood in the 1990s. Other youngsters were infected from blood transfusions. China, which for years ignored the plight of the infected farmers, has in recent years begun providing patients with free anti-HIV/AIDS drugs manufactured domestically. However, its pharmaceutical companies do not make drugs suitable for child victims. China admits it has more than 840,000 HIV/AIDS patients, but international and domestic independent health organizations estimate there are many more. The Clinton Foundation is working with Chinese health authorities to help it obtain second line anti-HIV/AIDS drugs to treat adult patients who are resistant to first line treatment. The two foundation officials were speaking after a ceremony in Beijing hosted by Clinton to celebrate a programme set up by his foundation to train Chinese doctors in the United States so they in turn can treat HIV/AIDS patients in rural areas and train local doctors. Clinton Sunday praised the progress made by China, but said "there's much more to do". One problem he highlighted was the disparity in health care services between China's urban and rural areas. "Most of the expertise in dealing with HIV/AIDS is found in urban areas ... but most HIV/AIDS patients are in rural areas," Clinton said.

Reaching out to aid the elderly, frail

2005-09-12T15:19:00.000+07:00

Nursing homes and other facilities in the Houston area are opening their doors to hundreds of Louisiana's most vulnerable storm victims: the elderly, the frail and the mentally impaired who can't care for themselves.

More than 1,000 Hurricane Katrina victims have been admitted to nursing homes throughout Texas, according to the state's Department of Aging and Disability Services. In the Houston area, more than 400 are receiving nursing home care.

Health care professionals also have been working nonstop at the Reliant Astrodome and the George R. Brown Convention Center to identify people requiring special attention.

Dr. Carmel Bitondo Dyer, chief of geriatrics for the Harris County Hospital District, said a team has been screening seniors at the Astrodome to make sure they receive medical care and necessary services.

Many, she said, can't advocate for themselves because they are confused and disoriented in their new surroundings. Many also came without their medication and have health problems.

"It's very hard in that environment if you are a frail senior," said Dyer, also an associate professor at Baylor College of Medicine. "We have to consider them as vulnerable and in need of protection as children."

Maria Quintero, a psychologist and an assistant deputy director with the Mental Health and Mental Retardation Authority of Harris County, said a team of professionals also are identifying people with developmental disabilities who need specialized care.

"As people are identified, we assist them," she said, adding that two people with mental retardation so far have been placed in the Richmond State School.

Lynne Cleveland, board chairman for the MHMRA of Harris County, said part of the problem has been identifying people with special needs whose families have scattered to smaller shelters or private locations — away from the centralized health care teams set up to assist them.

Kept in quiet area

At the convention center, people with mental and developmental disabilities have been kept in a quiet, curtained-off area so they are not over-stimulated by the shelter's noise and confusion.

After staying with more than 20 other family members in a hotel and later in two shelters, Julian Hatcher, who has cerebral palsy and can't communicate except for small gestures, was finally getting the help he needed at the convention center.

"He's not coping too well," said his aunt, Veronica Young, motioning to the 22-year-old's fidgeting arms and creased forehead. "Like right now, he's restless."

Officials are hoping to place the family in an apartment within the next few days.

While mental illnesses and disabilities vary widely, "a crisis like this has the potential of exacerbating someone's illness," said Betsy Schwartz, executive director for the Mental Health Association of Greater Houston.

Advocates involved with the community partnership Care for Elders also worried that the constant noise and disruptions at the large shelters were causing many older people to suffer sleep deprivation and other problems.

Volunteers patrolled the floor of the Astrodome on the lookout for at-risk elderly people. Jan Edwards, director of case management for Sheltering Arms, recalls one woman who was taken to the clinic and put on intravenous fluids after a nurse found her lying on her cot, completely dehydrated.

"If this nurse had not found her and recognized what was going on with her, the lady would have been just peacefully lying there, and she probably would have died," Edwards said.

Throughout the area, nursing homes with available beds have been accepting elderly residents who were either evacuated from nursing homes in the New Orleans area or arrived in Houston needing specialized care.

Nursing home administrators say the residents run the gamut from private payers to Medicaid-funded, and they don't expect a problem getting reimbursed.

University Of Chicago Researchers Find Human Brain Still Evolving

2005-09-12T15:17:00.000+07:00

Human evolution, University of Chicago researchers report, is still under way in what has become our most important organ: the brain. In two related papers, published in the September 9, 2005, issue of Science, they show that two genes linked to brain size are rapidly evolving in humans. "Our studies indicate that the trend that is the defining characteristic of human evolution--the growth of brain size and complexity--is likely still going on," said lead researcher for both papers Bruce Lahn, PhD, assistant professor of human genetics at the University of Chicago and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. "Meanwhile, our environment and the skills we need to survive in it are changing faster then we ever imagined. I would expect the human brain, which has done well by us so far, will continue to adapt to those changes." Evolution, Lahn said, doesn't occur at the species level. Rather, some individuals first acquire a specific genetic mutation; and because that variant confers on those who bear it a greater likelihood of survival, it then spreads in the population. "We're seeing two examples of such a spread in progress," he said. "In each case, it's a spread of a new genetic variant in a gene that controls brain size. This variant is clearly favored by natural selection." Lahn previously showed that there was accelerated evolution in humans among numerous genes, including microcephalin and abnormal spindle-like microcephaly-associated (ASPM). Both of these genes regulate brain size, and therefore "were good candidates to look for signatures of selection. We indeed found such signatures when we compared humans to other species," he said. "As a natural extension of that, we asked, could it be that selection on these genes is still ongoing in humans?" In the two Science papers, the researchers looked at variations of microcephalin and ASPM within modern humans. They found evidence that the two genes have continued to evolve. For each gene, one class of variants has arisen recently and has been spreading rapidly because it is favored by selection. For microcephalin, the new variant class emerged about 37,000 years ago and now shows up in about 70 percent of present-day humans. For ASPM, the new variant class arose about 5,800 years ago and now shows up in approximately 30 percent of today's humans. These time windows are extraordinarily short in evolutionary terms, indicating that the new variants were subject to very intense selection pressure that drove up their frequencies in a very brief period of time--both well after the emergence of modern humans about 200,000 years ago. Each variant emerged around the same time as the advent of "cultural" behaviors. The microcephalin variant appears along with the emergence of such traits as art and music, religious practices, and sophisticated tool-making techniques--which date back to about 50,000 years ago. The ASPM variant coincides with the oldest-known civilization, Mesopotamia, which dates back to 7000 BC. "Microcephalin," the authors wrote in one of the papers, "has continued its trend of adaptive evolution beyond the emergence of anatomically modern humans. If selection indeed acted on a brain-related phenotype, there could be several possibilities, including brain size, cognition, personality, motor control or susceptibility to neurological/psychiatric diseases." "The next step is to find out what biological difference imparted by this genetic difference causes selection to favor that variation over the others," Lahn said. Both microcephalin and ASPM have numerous genetic variations. The authors show that certain variants are subject to very strong positive selection over others. To determine the variation frequency of the two genes, the researchers surveyed more than 1,000 individuals representing 59 ethnic populations worldwide. For each gene, the scientists identified a large number of haplotypes, or variant copies. They found that one class of haplotypes, called haplogroup D, shows two distinct characteristics. First, they are very young. Because not enough evolutionary time has passed since the first copy of these variants appeared for them to diversify, all the haplogroup D variants are nearly identical. Second, despite recent emergence they have spread rapidly. "In a very short period of time, this class of variants arose from a single copy to many copies. That implies that this must have happened because of positive selection," Lahn said, pointing out that it's statistically unlikely for a haplogroup this young to have such high frequency due merely to random genetic drift. The team also observed geographic differences. For haplogroup D of ASPM, they found that it occurs more frequently in Europeans and surrounding populations including, North Africans, Middle Easterners, and South Asians, and at a lower incidence in East Asians, New World Indians and sub-Saharan Africans. For microcephalin, the researchers found that haplogroup D is more abundant in populations outside of sub-Saharan Africa. The biochemical functions of these two genes are not fully understood. There is, however, some information as to what they do. Mutations that render either gene completely nonfunctional in humans cause microcephaly, a medical condition in which the brain is much smaller than normal. In many cases there are often no other abnormalities, which indicates that these two genes play an important role in brain size. A series of studies suggest that there is some correlation between brain size and intelligence, but with some exceptions. Although, on average, a man's brain is 3 to 4 percent larger than a woman's, both sexes score similarly on IQ tests. Lahn also points out that "brain size is very heritable. Bad nutrition is typically not a factor; the brain is very privileged within the body." The researchers emphasize that very little is known about the impact of these variants. They may not have anything to do with cognition or intelligence. "Just because these genes are still evolving, doesn't necessarily mean they make you any smarter," Lahn said. "We've evolved genes for selfishness, violence, cruelty--all of which are in place because they may make survival easier. But in today's society, they're certainly not condoned." Lahn and colleagues stress these studies only examine two genes, and that the genetic variations within a population are often almost as great as the differences between groups. "If we look at multiple genes, the ethnic variations--such as the ones we found--are likely to be counterbalanced by other differences," Lahn said. "It just happens that we looked at two genes for which the variants favored by selection have a higher frequency in some populations, such as Europeans. It might be that for the next two brain size genes we find, the variants favored by selection will have a higher frequency in Asians or Africans." Scientists know of about a half dozen other genes that are primarily linked to brain size and several others that may also play a role in regulating brain size. According to Lahn, these are all primary candidates for learning more about human evolution. HHMI funded both of these studies. First author for the ASPM paper is Nitzan Mekel-Bobrov, and first author for the microcephalin paper is Patrick Evans, both of whom are graduate students in Lahn's lab.

Encephalitis Kills Another 55 in India

2005-09-12T15:16:00.000+07:00

LUCKNOW, India -- Nearly 650 people, mostly children, have died from an outbreak of Japanese encephalitis in northern India after 55 more people perished over the weekend, officials said Sunday.

Hospitals in India's largest state, Uttar Pradesh, were struggling to cope with the influx of patients suffering from the mosquito-borne disease. Another 87 people were hospitalized during the weekend, bringing the number of patients to more than 3,040, said O.P. Singh, the state's director general of health services.

But the number of new infections has declined in recent days, Singh said. With 55 deaths since Friday night, the overall death toll reached 649.

No new deaths have been reported in neighboring Nepal, where the disease has killed 172 people since April. Some Nepali victims were being treated in India, officials said.

Japanese encephalitis causes high fever and vomiting, and can sometimes lead to coma and death. Children are most susceptible to the disease, and many of the dead in the outbreak have been under age 15.

The disease can be prevented by vaccinations, but state health authorities say they don't have enough money for an immunization program.

The latest outbreak first struck in Gorakhpur, a town 250 kilometers (155 miles) southeast of Lucknow, the state's capital, and later spread to 24 of 70 state districts.

Authorities expect the outbreak to ebb by the end of the monsoon season later this month.

Bats may have been source of SARS: study

2005-09-12T15:14:00.000+07:00

Bats found in Hong Kong carry a virus very similar to the severe acute respiratory syndrome or SARS virus and might be able to spread it, Chinese researchers reported on Friday. They said the horseshoe bats, valued both as food and for their use in Chinese medicine, should be handled with great care. They may have helped spread the virus among different species of animals, the researchers said. SARS first emerged in China in 2002 and in 2003 spread around the world via jet, killing more than 700 people and infecting around 8,000. It is caused by a new virus called SARS coronavirus. Coronaviruses are common in people and animals and usually cause nothing more serious than a cold. But SARS was different. "The isolation of SARS-coronavirus from caged animals, including Himalayan palm civets and a raccoon dog, from wild live markets in mainland China suggested that these animals are the reservoir for the origin of the SARS epidemic," Kwok-yung Yuen of the University of Hong Kong and colleagues wrote in their report, published in the Proceedings of the national Academy of Sciences. "However, several lines of evidence suggested that the civet may have served only as an amplification host for SARS virus and provided the environment for major genetic variations permitting efficient animal-to human and human-to-human transmissions," they added. So they studied wild animals in the Hong Kong countryside that may have come into contact with civets. They found a coronavirus similar to SARS in nearly 40 percent of wild Chinese horseshoe bats they examined. Genetic analysis of the bat SARS virus showed it was closely related to the human SARS coronavirus. The researchers could not determine how the bats were originally infected or whether bats were responsible for transmitting the SARS coronavirus to other mammals including the civets. But because bat feces are used in Chinese traditional medicine, and bat meat is considered a delicacy in parts of Asia, the researchers suggest caution in handling them "Interestingly, the nearest wildlife market previously found to have animals with SARS in Shenzhen is only 10 miles away from the locations with bats harboring bat-SARS in (Hong Kong)," the researchers wrote.

Still water breeding bacteria

2005-09-11T18:07:00.000+07:00

Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain and the Gulf of Mexico shoreline near it — both target receptacles for sewage-infested stormwaters swirling around New Orleans — will probably suffer fish kills and other environmental damage and not return to normal for at least six months, experts said Wednesday.

"My gut feeling is that when it's placed into Lake Pontchartrain and there's sufficient amount of time, it will dilute and the natural systems will come back to some kind of equilibrium and balance," said Ted Cleveland, a civil engineer and hydrologist who teaches at the University of Houston.

"(But) in the short term, it won't be a good place to be for much of anything," Cleveland said.

Bacteria in the foul floodwaters were tied to three deaths Wednesday, the work of one organism familiar to Texas fishermen and coastal residents throughout the nation.

Sewage and other waste that has stood for days without movement has elevated levels of bacteria such as Vibrio vulnificuls, a flesh-eating, water-borne pathogen related to the bacterium that causes cholera and is common in marine communities.

"Its presence can change quite dramatically after a storm," Cleveland said.

Tests conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency found fecal matter that was 10 times higher than normal, according to Stephen L. Johnson, the EPA's administrator, fueling bacteria growth.

And debris lingering in storm-affected areas is creating a food source for bacteria, accelerating its spread.

"You're giving it food, and you're giving it conditions to grow real well," Cleveland said.

Vibrio, as it is known among medical workers and fishermen, can cause death in a matter of days if not treated. A year ago, seven people in Texas died from the bacteria.

Dr. Herbert DuPont, director of infectious diseases at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston, said the disease potential is great.

"When you have standing water in an area without proper sanitation, with runoff of pesticides, runoff of sewage, it's heated up by the sun, it's going to grow everything," he said. "It's terribly unsanitary."

"You don't want to harvest any oysters anywhere near New Orleans," DuPont said.

Humans may live on pig organs, for a change not eating them

2005-09-11T18:06:00.000+07:00

Xenotransplants may become a common way of getting a new lease on life for humans as transplant expert Dr Anthony Warrens of the Imperial College, prophesied clinical trials of replacing faulty human organs with that of animals in five years from now, beginning in all probability with the organs of the pig like the kidney. Speaking at the BA Festival of Science at Trinity College, Dublin Dr Warrens suggested that advances in science were sweeping away the biggest obstacle to safe organ transplants, which is the human autoimmune rejection of objects seen as foreign to the human body. Though attempts to breed "safer" pigs have met with little success and patients given animal tissue would still depend on heavy doses of immuno-depressants, scientists suggest of the possibility of tricking the immune system into failing to recognize foreign tissue. One of the recent developments in this direction is try and breed pigs lacking "gal epitope", a sugar that the human antibodies target, while another is to ape the body’s process whereby it learns to inactivate tissues that may self-destructive. The lab research using both methods have proven to be successful for transplants of pig kidney in lab animals for over two and half months which Dr. Warren opines “is a great advance on the previous life expectancy which could be measured in hours”. However, even in this research, some test animals died of other causes than organ rejection, leading the scientists to be optimistic yet cautious about “clearing the immunological hurdles in the way of implementing the clinical practice of xenotransplantation". But another problem they all agree about is the potential of pig viruses to spread to humans, which they say is a “tiny risk” given the huge shortage of donated usable human organs. Dr.Warrens highlighted that so severe was the shortage that for every donated organ there were at least five people in waiting. However, what makes pigs the most likely source for the initial transplants is their size and physiology being very similar to humans. Dr. Warren also suggested an ethical basis for this choice, as there is “widespread acceptance as ethically proper to rear and then kill large numbers of pigs for food”. Yet the possibility would also mean that the human patients receiving the initial transplants would also serve like guinea pigs for the success of the procedures, with their life being intrusively monitored daily until their bodies last out. But what say, if what is good for the palate may also be good for the human insides.

Most babies reunited with parents

2005-09-11T18:05:00.000+07:00

BATON ROUGE (AP) — Barren Snell lies in the quiet hospital ward, a tiny spark of life burning brightly despite his perilous beginning.

Born two months early, Barren was still hospitalized when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans. He and 120 other infants in the city's hospitals were evacuated through floodwaters and around downed trees and power lines to the neonatal intensive care unit at Woman's Hospital in Baton Rouge.

Along the way, Barren was separated from his mother.

"They were patients, and the patients were evacuated," said Jodi Conachen, public relations manager for the hospital. "Their mothers weren't patients, so they were separated."

Reuniting the babies with their families kept social worker Susan Eaton and others busy this week. Names and phone numbers for the parents were in the babies' medical records, but the numbers were in New Orleans, where phone service was long gone.

"In many cases the parents called us once they got where they were going," Eaton said. "As the moms got settled, they started searching."

One by one moms and dads — some of whom had fled as far away as Utah — were matched with the babies.

All except Barren.

His mother, Talissa Snell, 25, his father, and all three of his siblings remain missing. But officials finally located his aunt, Donna Smith, in Galveston, Texas, where she and her family had evacuated.

"The oldest daughter was with her father," a tearful Smith said. "My sister and the other children were going to ride out the storm in New Orleans. We haven't heard from her since."

Smith is trying to gain custody of Barren so she can take him once he is ready to leave the hospital. The 3-month-old baby, who has been fed through a tube since birth, is learning to suck on a nipple so he can nurse from a bottle and be discharged.

"Finding him was a miracle," Smith said. "I'm just praying for one more miracle. I hope I can find my sister and the rest of her family."

The babies began arriving at the Baton Rouge hospital last week as floodwaters rose in New Orleans. Dr. Steven Spedale, chief of neonatology, said they came by ambulance, car and helicopter. "They came every way except boat," he said.

Armed guards sometimes accompanied the convoys because of shootings in the city.

As their families wait for them, the babies lie in tiny beds. Pink paper cutouts in the shape of the hurricane, complete with the eye, swirl above them. They read: "We weathered the storm, Hurricane Katrina, 2005."

"All they have to do is lie there and grow," said nurse Melanie Perkins. "We feed them, love them, take care of them. They are truly safe now."

Women may beat risks of breast cancer by leading more stressful lives

2005-09-11T18:04:00.000+07:00

Stress that has so far been named as the cause of many human problems may actually not be so much of a bane for women, as a new study suggests that a high-stress life may actually reduce a woman’s risk of falling victim to breast cancer by 40 per cent. A Danish study has outlined that daily stress has an inhibiting effect on the production of estrogen - a key hormone named to be responsible for the development of breast cancer. Dr. Naja Rod Nielsen of the National Institute of Public Health, Copenhagen, who along with her colleagues authored the report after closely monitoring more than 6,500 women over 18-years said her team was equally "surprised" by the results. Adding that while prior studies on the impact of specific events like bereavement were found to correlate with increased risks, she said “This study was dealing with a very different type of stress (and) looked at women who perceived their lifestyle to be stressful on a daily basis". Dr. Nielsen’s very plausible explanation for the 40 percent lesser incidence of breast cancer, among those who considered their lives as stressful, was that such everyday exposure had considerably reduced their estrogen production. The relationship between stress and estrogen, though insofar only studied in animals may now benefit from more research on its human effects, even as Dr. Nielsen’s team seeks to decipher the correlation between stress and other estrogen-linked disorders. Dr. Nielsen believes that while the results may back up her team’s findings, she suggested that she would not “recommend stress as a preventative measure” as changing the hormonal balances may not be “healthy” and could precipitate heart disease over the long term. The study differentiated women on the basis of routinely experienced stress, such as tension, impatience, anxiety or sleeplessness into low, medium and high stress living categories. Of the over 6500 women studied about 251 had a first-time breast cancer diagnosis in the 18 years, with a higher incidence amongst women who led low stress lives. Taking due consideration of factors such as fertility or menopause they found for every increase in stress on a six-point scale, women’s likelihood of developing breast cancer reduced by 8 per cent. However, given that the study did not take consideration of the strong risk factor of family history for the development of the disease, cancer-related organizations are still looking for further evaluation on the impact of stress. Dr Sarah Rawlings of Breakthrough Breast Cancer while suggesting that the study did little to draw further conclusions given the difficulty to “untangle from other factors” the impact of stress on breast cancer risks and the differing personal views of stress by women. She added, “However, maintaining a healthy, balanced lifestyle is important - we know that high stress levels can lead to unhealthy behavior, which may alter your risk of breast cancer and other diseases". Another woman doctor Dr Emma Pennery from Breast Cancer Care said, "We know from talking to women with breast cancer that some of them believe stress to be a contributory factor”. But given that the medical fraternity already is aware that "high endogenous concentrations of estrogen” are a known risk factor for breast cancer, this new study only goes to say any factor that impairs estrogen synthesis helps women lower risks.

Smoking 'harms key lung enzyme'

2005-09-11T18:02:00.000+07:00

Smoking appears to reduce a key enzyme in the lungs which helps regulate blood pressure, research suggests.

The researchers used sophisticated scans and a chemical tracer to show levels of the enzyme monoamine oxidase were 50% lower in the lungs of smokers.

It is thought that reduced levels of the enzyme could impair lung function, as well as blood pressure control.

The study, by the US government's Brookhaven National Laboratory, appears in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

Lead researcher Dr Joanna Fowler said: "The effects of smoking on human health are enormous; yet, little is known about the pharmacologic effects of smoking on the human body apart from the effects of nicotine."

The researchers analysed monoamine oxidase (MAO A) levels in the body's of nine smokers and nine non-smokers.

The scans revealed that levels of the enzyme were similar in all of the peripheral organs of both groups - except the lungs.

Analysis also revealed that smokers' lungs held onto the tracer chemical much longer than non-smokers, and the delivery of tracer into the arterial blood supply was much lower for smokers, particularly for the first few minutes after being injected.

This finding could imply that smokers and non-smokers respond differently to other substances that enter the body via the bloodstream - including therapeutic drugs, anaesthetics and abused substances.

Dr Fowler said: "The role played by MAO in other conditions associated with smoking may also be significant and deserves further investigation, considering the differences observed in the enzyme level between smokers and non-smokers."

Another piece in jigsaw

Dr John Moore-Gillon, president of the British Lung Foundation, said: "It is a very interesting piece of research, which provides another piece in the jigsaw.

"We already know that smoking is enormously harmful to many different body systems, and this might help to show how it is damaging to blood pressure."

Dr Moore-Gillon said it was already known that nicotine constricted the blood vessels - and thus tended to raise blood pressure.

He said smoking was also known to damage the balance of different enzymes responsible for maintaining the tissues of the lung in a healthy state.

Smoking also damaged the lining of the lungs, causing them to secrete excessive amounts of mucus which could lead to chronic bronchitis.

In addition, damage to the ability of cells to multiply and repair themselves could lead to lung cancer, he said.

Judy O'Sullivan, a cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation said: "While this study is small in size, it adds weight to the existing and overwhelming evidence that smokers are risking their health and even their lives by continuing with their deadly habit.

"We cannot emphasise enough the need for smokers to stop smoking to protect themselves from premature death and disability."

Embryo with two mothers approved

2005-09-11T18:01:00.000+07:00

UK scientists have won permission to create a human embryo that will have genetic material from two mothers.

The Newcastle University team will transfer genetic material created when an egg and sperm fuse into another woman's egg.

The groundbreaking work aims to prevent mothers from passing certain genetic diseases on to their unborn babies.

Such diseases arise from DNA found outside the nucleus, and thus inherited separately from DNA in the nucleus.

Mitochondrial diseases

They are collectively called mitochondrial diseases.

Mitochondria are small complex structures, which exist in every cell of the body, except red blood cells. They are responsible for producing the energy that we need to grow and live.

One unique feature of mitochondria is that they have their own DNA - mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited from the mother only.

If this DNA is faulty, a mitochondrial diseases occurs. At present, no treatment for mitochondrial diseases exists.

Studies in mice show it is possible to prevent the transmission of mitochondrial disease by moving the pronuclei - the genetic material which will go on to form a nucleus - from a fertilised egg containing bad mitochondria and putting it into another fertilised egg which only contains good mitochondria.

Professor Doug Turnbull, professor of neurology at Newcastle University, and Dr Mary Herbert, scientific director of Newcastle Fertility Centre at the city's Centre for Life, now plan to do the same in humans.

US scientists at the Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Science of St Barnabas, New Jersey, reported back in 2001 that they had successfully done similar, giving rise to 15 healthy children who appeared to be free of their mothers' disease.

Safety check

Instead of transplanting the pronuclei, these researchers injected another woman's ooplasm - the substance inside the cell that contains the mitochondrial DNA and bathes the nucleus - into the egg cell of the mother with faulty mitochondrial DNA.

The UK research, permitted by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and funded by the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, will check that transplanting the pro-nuclei works and is safe.

The resulting egg would never be allowed to develop into a baby.

But even if it did, the offspring would still resemble their mother and father because the mitochondrial DNA does not dictate things like hair colour.

The researchers stress that this research is only the very first step in a very difficult process, which they hope will lead to techniques that might prevent the transmission of mitochondrial DNA disease.

About one in 5,000 children and adults are at risk of developing a mitochondrial disease.

The HFEA does not have any regard for public consultation and the views of the public

Josephine Quintavalle from Comment on Reproductive Ethics

The group of conditions Professor Turnbull's team will look at is called mitochondrial myopathy.

These cause muscle weakness and wasting, making it difficult for those who have it to move normally - some may need to use a wheelchair.

The Muscular Dystrophy Campaign said it was delighted that the HFEA had given approval for the research project.

Head of research Dr David Harrison said: "The innovative approach being tested by Professor Turnbull may lead to a treatment for mitochondrial myopathies, a group of conditions that dramatically affect quality and length of life."

The public are currently being consulted about their opinions on laws governing embryo research such as this.

Some believe it is dangerous and unethical to do human cloning work.

Debate

Josephine Quintavalle from Comment on Reproductive Ethics said she was horrified.

"This shows once again that the HFEA does not have any regard for public consultation and the views of the public.

"It is undesirable to create children in this way. It will shock the world. This is playing around with early human life."

Professor Turnbull said they were not radically altering an embryo's DNA.

"We are simply changing the energy source."

Professor Azim Surani, professor of physiology and reproduction at Cambridge University, said: "I see few ethical problems as we are dealing with the embryo at a very early stage where the cells haven't even started to divide yet."

Dr Andy Miah, ethicist at Paisley University, said: "Many of the more controversial ethical concerns arise only if we project into the future and imagine that a child were to be born, as a result of this kind of procedure.

"Even if a child were born with 'two mothers', I doubt very much that we should be concerned about its welfare any more than we are concerned about the welfare of all children."

Arafat's Death Remains a Mystery

2005-09-11T18:00:00.000+07:00

JERUSALEM -- Newly revealed medical records have failed to solve the mystery of Yasser Arafat's death, although they do cast doubt on popular conspiracy theories about poisoning or rumors of AIDS. But the main question _ what led to the massive stroke that killed the longtime Palestinian leader _ may never be answered.

While Arafat's death has led to an improvement in Israeli-Palestinian relations, ongoing doubts about whether foul play killed him remain a sticking point.

Arafat, 75, died Nov. 11, 2004, in a French military hospital near Paris after a sudden, rapid decline in his health. Arafat's wife, Suha, refused an autopsy and Palestinian leaders have never given a definitive cause of death.

Two Israeli journalists obtained Arafat's medical records from a senior Palestinian official and turned over the information to The New York Times. One of the journalists, Israel Radio reporter Avi Isacharoff, then shared the records with The Associated Press, which, like the Times, put the information to medical experts.

French doctors who treated Arafat concluded he died of a "massive brain hemorrhage" after suffering intestinal inflammation, jaundice and a blood condition known as disseminated intravascular coagulation, or DIC.

But the records are inconclusive about what brought about DIC, which has numerous causes ranging from infections to colitis to liver disease.

"Consultation with experts and laboratory tests could not help to find a cause that would explain ... the group of syndromes," the French doctors wrote. The report makes no mention of poisoning or AIDS.

Arafat was rushed to the Percy Military Training Hospital outside Paris after falling violently ill at his West Bank compound in Ramallah, where Israel had confined him for the last three years of his life. He had been in poor health for several years.

The French report criticized Arafat's living conditions, noting he lived "in confinement for three years" and "had no exposure to the sun during that time." One set of doctors said Arafat did not eat well and had poor hygiene, although other doctors said his diet was sufficient.

Hospital director Dr. Jean-Paul Burlaton refused to discuss Arafat's medical records. "We did our job at the appropriate time and so we have no comment to make," he told the AP.

Since Arafat's death, rumors have swirled throughout the Middle East that Arafat died from either AIDS or poisoning. Many Palestinian officials insist that Israeli agents somehow poisoned him.

Dr. Ashraf al-Kurdi, Arafat's personal physician, asserted Arafat had the AIDS virus in his blood. "It was given to him to cover up the poison," he told the AP. Al-Kurdi, however, did not say how the AIDS virus or poison might have entered Arafat's body. He did not join the French doctors and would not say whether he had seen their records.

Three New Human Cases of West Nile in Jefferson County

2005-09-11T17:59:00.000+07:00

According to the Texas Department of State Health Services website, there are three new confirmed human cases of the West Nile Virus in Jefferson County. The state department does not release which cities their positive human cases come from and both Jefferson County Mosquito Control and Hometown News has not been able to pinpoint these cities. Orange County Mosquito Control District was informed by the state earlier this year it is investigating a suspected human case of the West Nile Virus in their county. They say the person who contracted the virus is from the Pinehurst area and was released from a local hospital to recover at home. Mosquito Control Director Lee Chastant says an elderly person in Port Arthur also contracted the virus earlier this year. DSHS has confirmed 21 human cases of neuroinvasive West Nile in 11 Texas counties in 2005. There has been one death (in El Paso County) from West Nile in Texas this year. There have been no human deaths as reported by other news agencies, according to the state. The West Nile virus has been detected this year in humans, birds, mosquitoes or horses in 32 Texas counties. In 2004 West Nile was detected in 101 Texas counties. There were 119 human cases from 40 counties, including eight deaths. In 2003 West Nile was detected in 190 counties. There were 439 human cases from 86 counties, including 38 deaths. In 2002 West Nile was detected in 213 counties. There were 202 human cases from 37 counties, including 13 deaths. Since the virus was first found in Texas in 2002, West Nile has been detected in humans, birds, mosquitoes or horses in 230 of the state`s 254 counties. Neuroinvasive refers to meningitis or encephalitis. West Nile virus infections usually are mild with flu-like symptoms including fever, headache, sore throat, body aches and fatigue. Symptoms of more severe West Nile infections are headache, high fever, stiff neck, disorientation, tremors, convulsions, muscle weakness, coma and paralysis.

Human brain still evolving: scientists

2005-09-11T17:58:00.000+07:00

The brain, the most important organ of human, is still under way of evolution, scientists reported on Thursday.

Earlier fossil record and genetic studies had clearly show that the evolution of higher cognition began sometime after the chimp and human lines split, some 5 million to 6 million years ago, and continued at least until the rise of Homo sapiens (modern humans) 200,000 years ago.

But two genes linked to brain size are rapidly evolving in humans, indicating that the evolution of the human brain may not have stopped after Homo sapiens first came on the scene, said the researchers at the University of Chicago. Their two related papers were published in the Sept. 9 issue of Science.

"Our studies indicate that the trend that is the defining characteristic of human evolution--the growth of brain size and complexity--is likely still going on," said lead researcher Bruce Lahn, an assistant professor at the University of Chicago.

"Meanwhile, our environment and the skills we need to survive in it are changing faster then we ever imagined. I would expect the human brain, which has done well by us so far, will continue to adapt to those changes."

Evolution doesn't occur at the species level. Rather, some individuals first acquire a specific genetic mutation, and because that variant confers on those who bear it a greater likelihood of survival, it then spreads in the population, according to Lahn.

Lahn previously showed that there was accelerated evolution in humans among numerous genes, including microcephalin and abnormal spindle-like microcephaly-associated (ASPM). Both of these genes regulate brain size.

In the new study, the researchers investigated variations of microcephalin and ASPM within modern humans. They surveyed gene samples of more than 1,000 individuals representing 59 ethnic populations worldwide to determine the variation frequency of the two genes.

They found evidence that the two genes have continued to evolve, and for each gene, one class of variants has arisen recently and has been spreading rapidly because it is favored by selection.

For microcephalin, the new variant class emerged about 37,000 years ago and now shows up in about 70 percent of present-day humans. For ASPM, the new variant class arose about 5,800 years ago and now shows up in approximately 30 percent of today's humans.

These time windows are extraordinarily short in evolutionary terms, indicating that the new variants were subject to very intense selection pressure that drove up their frequencies in a very brief period of time--both well after the emergence of modern humans about 200,000 years ago.

Each variant emerged around the same time as the advent of " cultural" behaviors, said the researchers.

The microcephalin variant appears along with the emergence of such traits as art and music, religious practices, and sophisticated tool-making techniques, which date back to about 50, 000 years ago. The ASPM variant coincides with the oldest-known civilization, Mesopotamia, which dates back to 7,000 BC.

"Microcephalin has continued its trend of adaptive evolution beyond the emergence of anatomically modern humans. If selection indeed acted on a brain-related phenotype, there could be several possibilities, including brain size, cognition, personality, motor control or susceptibility to neurological/psychiatric diseases," their one paper said.

Encephalitis Kills Another 53 in India

2005-09-11T17:57:00.000+07:00

LUCKNOW, India -- The death toll from an outbreak of Japanese encephalitis in northern India reached 594, officials said Thursday, as another 53 people died overnight. Authorities struggled to find money for pesticides that could stop the spread of the mosquito-borne disease.

Hospitals in India's largest state, Uttar Pradesh, are struggling to cope with the influx of patients suffering from the disease.

Another 123 people were hospitalized in state-run institutions overnight, bringing the total number of reported infections to 2,400, hundreds of whom remain in hospitals, said Vijay Shankar Nigam of the state's health department.

But he said the number of people infected since the outbreak began in early August is likely higher. "We are not keeping track of patients coming to private hospitals," he said.

With 53 deaths overnight, Nigam said, the overall death toll reached 594.

No new deaths have been reported in neighboring Nepal, where the disease has killed 172 people since April. Some Nepali victims are being treated in India, Indian officials say.

Japanese encephalitis is the leading cause of viral encephalitis in Asia, and causes high fever and vomiting, and can sometimes lead to coma and death. It is spread by mosquitos that breed in ponds and puddles left by the region's annual June-September monsoon rains.

Children are most susceptible to the disease, and many of the dead in this outbreak have been under age 15.

The disease can be prevented by vaccinations, but state health authorities say they don't have enough money for an immunization program.

Lack of funding is also hampering efforts to stop the disease from spreading.

"We do not have money to purchase diesel and pay workers ... We have asked for the state government's help," said O. P. Singh, the state's top health official. Diesel is mixed with insecticides that are sprayed to kill the insects.

The latest outbreak first struck in Gorakhpur, a town 155 miles southeast of Lucknow, the state's capital, and later spread to 24 of 70 districts in the state.

Authorities expect the outbreak to ebb by the end of monsoon season later this month.

Pfizer's Insulin inhaler gets expert panel recommendation

2005-09-11T17:55:00.000+07:00

NEW YORK: Diabetics will soon have an insulin inhaler as Pfizer Inc.'s inhaled insulin powder has been recommended by an experts' panel for U.S. FDA approval. The panel ruled 7-2 that the product could substitute some of the injections diabetics need to control blood sugar. The product, Exubera, could command an annual sales of $2 billion plus when the 18 million U.S. diabetics would have access to it replacing the insulin shots. Pfizer is developing the drug in collaboration with French pharma major Sanofi-Aventis and Nektar Therapeutics, a small company that invented the insulin formulation and the inhaler. The advisory panel, in its recommendation, said Exubera can be prescribed for adults with Type 1 diabetes or Type 2 diabetes. It is a short-acting form of insulin taken before meals. Some patients would be required to take long-acting insulin -- by injection. The panel's acting chairman and endocrinologist Dr Paul Woolf, who voted against the recommendation, warned that the inhaler cannot replace the needle and syringe. He said he is not convinced that patients would get adequate training in how to use the inhaler properly. Another panelist, Dr James Stoller, who also voted against the recommendation, said many diabetics could have undiagnosed lung problems, and the use of Exubera could aggravate these. He called for more data on the effects on lung diseases. The FDA will now consider the recommendation. While it is not required to accept the recommendation, normally it does not go against it. There have been doubts among the medical fraternity that inhalation of the drug could affect function of the lungs. While on clinical trials, there were instances of decrease in lung capacity in the initial weeks of treatment in some cases. The changes were found to reverse when the drug was stopped. Pfizer has said Exubera cannot be used by smokers and the drug was linked in trials to more cases of severe asthma as smoking interfered with the lungs' ability to absorb Exubera. There are other companies like Eli Lily (with Alkermes), MannKind and Kos Pharmaceuticals working on insulin inhalers. Lilly and Alkermes may not be able to market the product not earlier than 2008, giving Pfizer a clear edge. However, its device is known to be small unlike Exubera, which is larger and has to use compressed air. Lily and Novo Nordisk make other forms of delivery devices like insulin pens and Pfizer will have clear competition here, feel analysts. Medtronic is another firm, which has a pocket-size device that provides a continuous supply of insulin through an implanted catheter.

Keeping ageing brains on top form

2005-09-08T16:49:00.000+07:00

Older people should get out there and get the heart pumping if they want to stay sharp of mind, scientists say.

Studies of the ageing brain have shown mental decline is not inevitable and there are plenty of activities people can do to keep it together "up top".

A healthy diet, aerobic exercise and mental stimulation all helped to keep the mind young, researchers emphasised at a conference in Dublin.

In contrast, prolonged stress and social isolation act to age the brain.

"Neuroscience researchers have made important discoveries that will help keep our brains functioning optimally," Professor Ian Robertson told the British Association's Festival of Science which this year is being held in the Irish capital.

Wonder drug

Professor Robertson, dean of research at the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, highlighted aerobic exercise as a vital contributor to maintaining brain function as the body ages.

He noted one study in which over-60s who exercised over a three-year period exhibited none of the usual mental decline in that time.

In another study, test subjects obtained mental improvements after just four months of a moderate aerobic training programme.

There are several explanations for the link between fitness of body and mind, according to Professor Robertson.

Exercise increases production of key brain chemicals which encourage the growth of brain and nerve cells and the development of new neural connections.

It also promotes the growth of blood vessels which nourish and sustain existing structures.

"For the over-50s, exercise is a sort of wonder-drug that makes you more mentally agile, less forgetful and delays the loss of sharpness that would otherwise happen," Professor Robertson said.

Brain growth

Continued learning and mental stimulation are also key to retaining ability, according to the scientist, because they "literally grow your brain."

Studies in both humans and animals have shown that brains which are more active develop a richer and more densely connected network of brain cells.

According to Professor Robertson, this brain strengthening may be one factor causing dementia to be less prevalent among people who have spent more time learning.

Advocating a "use it or lose it" approach, the scientist stressed that the decline in mental sharpness usually seen in people over the age of 65 is not inevitable, and can be stopped or even reversed by mental exercise.

In a recent study of nearly 3000 people aged 65 to 94, those given 10 hours of training in memory, problem-solving, and decision-making tasks over the course of several weeks showed marked and lasting increases in cognitive ability.

"Booster" training sessions received a year later resulted in further improvements in mental function which persisted for over a year.

The gained mental ability was equivalent to that which is typically lost by older people over a 7-14 year period.

"The training on average took about a decade off the cognitive age of these volunteers," Professor Robertson explained.

West Nile cases nearly double

2005-09-08T16:44:00.000+07:00

Confirmed human West Nile virus cases nearly doubled the past week, and infected animals or mosquitoes were found in two additional counties. People should continue to protect themselves by wearing long sleeves and pants in the evening hours and using mosquito repellents that contain DEET or Picaridin, public health administrators caution. Between Aug. 31 and Sept. 7, eight new human cases were diagnosed, said Lisa Wyman, Utah Department of Health, bringing the total to 19 infections, including a Salt Lake County resident who showed no symptoms and was found to carry the infection during routine screening of a blood donation. The new human cases are in the same counties where cases were earlier diagnosed in people: Duchesne, Utah, Uintah and Salt Lake counties. The latter has only one case, in addition to the virus found in the blood. Health officials have long said that human counts are undercounts because only a small percentage of those infected get sick enough to see a doctor and even those who do might not be given confirmatory blood tests. Iron and Emery County are being added to the list of counties where West Nile virus has been found in dead birds, sentinel chickens, mosquitoes, horses or humans. In all, 13 counties have virus activity. So far, the official count stands at 30 infected horses, eight dead birds, 64 mosquito pools and 50 sentinel chickens. With the exception of mosquito pools, those numbers far outstrip what was detected in the state last year. As the days are getting shorter, the time from dusk to dawn is actually growing. Only after the first hard freeze will threat of the virus pass, said Stephen McDonald, a health department spokesman. Even then, numbers are likely to climb somewhat because the incubation period between infection and symptoms is two to 14 days.

Study cites the dangers of clot-busters before surgery

2005-09-08T16:42:00.000+07:00

BEIJING, Sep. 8 (Xinhuanet)-- The common practice of giving heart attack patients a clot-busting drug within hours of planned angioplasty could be dangerous, a study suggests.

Many doctors give the clot-dissolver hoping it will make the artery-widening operation more successful.

But in a study of more than 1,600 people, those who were given a clot-busting drug before angioplasty were nearly 40% more likely to die in the next month than those who got angioplasty alone.

The study, presented Tuesday at the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology, showed that 6% who were given the clot-buster TNKase before angioplasty died vs. 4% who got angioplasty alone.

Experts told the conference in Stockholm the findings were expected to prompt many doctors around the world to stop using the strategy, at least for now. Enditem

Medical records deepen Arafat death mystery - NY Times

2005-09-08T16:41:00.000+07:00

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - French medical records show it is highly unlikely that poisoning or AIDS caused the death of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in a Paris hospital last year, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

The newspaper, in a report from Jerusalem, said it obtained the records and they showed Arafat died of a stroke that resulted from a bleeding disorder caused by an unknown ailment.

An independent review of the records, The New York Times said, showed that despite extensive testing, Arafat's doctors could not determine the underlying disease that killed him.

Arafat died on Nov. 11 at the age of 75 after being rushed from his West Bank compound to a French military hospital.

Arafat's gaunt appearance as he emerged from his headquarters and was taken to a helicopter on the start of his final journey to France led to speculation he was suffering from AIDS.

But The New York Times said independent experts who reviewed the medical records at its request determined that the course of Arafat's illness and pattern of his symptoms made AIDS highly unlikely.

"They also suggest that poisoning was highly unlikely,", the newspaper added, although senior Palestinian officials continue to allege he was indeed poisoned.

According to the New York Times, a senior Palestinian official, who it did not name, gave the medical records to two Israeli journalists who agreed to share them in collaboration with the U.S. newspaper, which did its own investigation.

The newspaper said Arafat did not receive antibiotics until 15 days after the onset of his illness, which was originally diagnosed as a flu. By the time he reached France, it added, it was probably too late to save him.

Some 10 days after Arafat's death, his nephew, current Palestinian Foreign Minister Nasser al-Kidwa, said medical records he received from the French Defence Ministry showed no trace of known poisons in the late Palestinian leader.

But in his comments last year, Kidwa refused to rule out foul play, noting the 558-page medical report gave no clear diagnosis of what caused his uncle's death.

French doctors have refused to publish Arafat's medical records, citing strict privacy laws.

Arafat's aides had quoted doctors as saying he had weight loss and a low count of platelets, which help the blood to clot. They later said he had gone into a coma, suffered a brain haemorrhage and lost the use of his vital organs one by one.

FDA cites issues with inhaled insulin

2005-09-08T16:39:00.000+07:00

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Regulators want an advisory panel to scrutinize Pfizer's inhaled powder form of insulin and its effect on lung function and hypoglycemia, or abnormal blood sugar, according to documents released Wednesday.

Another of the "central issues" related to the product, called Exubera, is whether it can be used as an alternative to short-acting insulin, Food and Drug Administration staff said.

Q&A: Contaminated Waters in New Orleans

2005-09-08T16:37:00.000+07:00

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has ordered that any residents still in New Orleans be forcibly removed, citing the risks of toxic floodwaters in the inundated city. NPR Environmental Reporter Elizabeth Shogren and Health Editor Joe Neel provide an update on the environmental and health risks posed by polluted waters in New Orleans.

Q: What kind of contaminants are in the floodwaters, and where did they come from?

There's a wide assortment of pollutants in the water. There is a lot of raw sewage, because treatment plants have not been working, which means the water has bacteria such as E. coli that can cause disease. There are a lot of petroleum products in the water, because Louisiana has a large oil industry. Some large spills have been reported -- one from an oil refinery, another from a production facility. Countless smaller oil spills came from submerged cars, lawnmowers and generators.

Q: Do we know for sure what pollutants are in the water?

Some pollutants are known, such as the bacteria and the oil spills. State and federal officials and scientists have been sampling the water. Results from those tests are expected to come in over the next few days. So a wider portrait of the contaminants should soon be available.

Q: What kind of immediate health risks could result from polluted floodwaters?

Officials say that gastrointestinal problems such as diarrhea and skin problems are possible. Some skin problems being seen appear to be related to allergic reactions to the chemical soup that's in the floodwaters.

Federal health officials advise rescue workers and anyone left in hurricane-damaged areas to wash their hands frequently. They urge people with wounds or cuts that were exposed to dirty water to seek immediate medical attention.

The CDC says at least three people -- apparently evacuees -- have died from Vibrio vulnificus, a waterborne bacteria that's in the same family as the pathogen that causes cholera. Vibrio vulnificus is common in waters off the Gulf of Mexico. The circumstances cited by the CDC -- that the dead were elderly people with compromised immune systems -- suggests that their illnesses were a result of the flooding. The CDC's Julie Gerberding says these cases should not be considered an outbreak.

Q: There have been reports of dead bodies floating in the floodwaters in New Orleans. Does this pose an infectious disease threat?

The CDC and other public health authorities say that decomposing bodies do not cause disease.

Q: As workers try to drain New Orleans, the floodwaters that covered the city are being pumped into Lake Pontchartrain. What are the risks to human health in the city once the waters recede?

Scientists said that the biggest risk that rescue and cleanup workers in New Orleans will face is heavy metals, PCBs and other contaminants that will be left behind in the sludge once the water recedes. Workers will have to wear protective clothing and masks.

Q: What about the risks to wildlife and the environment?

A: The water being pumped out of New Orleans is going into Lake Ponchartrain. Because of the raw sewage and other biological material in it, it will be very heavy in nutrients. Scientists say this likely will cause fish kills, because that water will lack the oxygen that fish and other creatures need to survive. But state officials say they hope that over time, the lake will be able to cure itself, and then fish and other wildlife will be restored.

New test can predict breast cancer's spread

2005-09-08T02:20:00.000+07:00

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new test that looks at immune cells in the lymph nodes may be the best way to predict whether breast cancer has spread and will be likely to recur, doctors said on Monday. Currently, the best way to predict whether breast cancer is likely to come back is to search for tumor cells in the lymph nodes near the breast. But Dr. Peter Lee and colleagues at the Stanford University School of Medicine say that perhaps examining the immune cells in those lymph nodes might be a better way to predict the cancer's spread. Patients whose tests suggest an aggressive cancer could receive extra treatment to try to kill any stray tumor cells. "Immune changes in the lymph node almost perfectly predict clinical outcome, much better than any other prognostic factor that is available today," Lee said in a statement. Writing in the journal Public Library of Science-Medicine, Lee and colleagues said they tested lymph node tissue samples from 77 breast cancer patients taken more than five years ago. All of these patients had had cancer that had spread out of the breast. Within five years, 33 of the 77 patients had their cancer return. Immune cells are known to sometimes destroy cancer cells -- they keep cancer constantly under control in most normal healthy people. But Lee was tying to find out what goes wrong when the immune system fails to control cancer. Lee's team looked for tumor cells and for three major types of immune cells: cytotoxic T cells, helper T cells and dendritic cells. Lymph nodes that had been invaded by tumor cells showed dramatic decreases in helper T cells and dendritic cells. They also had fewer cytotoxic T cells, Lee found. "Then we found something more interesting and puzzling," Lee said. Even in some lymph nodes that had only a few tumor cells, or no tumor cells, the immune cell balance was off. For the most part, this imbalance in immune cells was seen in the 33 women whose breast cancer came back before five years, Lee's team found. "It was a surprise to find immune changes in lymph nodes with no detectable tumor cells," said Lee. Perhaps tumor cells secrete some substance that prepares the lymph node for invasion, he said. "Even before it actually invades the node, it actually causes the node to change," he added. The women whose lymph nodes had a normal immune cell balance had an 85 to 90 percent chance of being disease-free after five years. The group with an "unfavorable" immune profile had less than a 15 percent chance, Lee's team reported. Lee hopes to develop a simple test that could help determine which women could benefit from more aggressive therapy, and which could be spared undergoing costly and toxic treatments unnecessarily.

Amid the chaos, a New Orleans clinic survives

2005-09-08T02:19:00.000+07:00

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Its roof is leaking and its patients may have nowhere to go when they are discharged, but the Ochsner Clinic in New Orleans is still operating. The survival of the Ochsner, a non-profit, 478-bed hospital, is a rare beam of hope in the city devastated by Hurricane Katrina and the flood that followed when levees holding back Lake Pontchartrain broke a week ago. It also proves that the low-lying city is not a complete loss, despite the continuing flood, mass evacuation and deaths of probably thousands of people. "It is a catastrophe but one that I am confident we can come back from, if we can keep our employees here," said Dr. Pat Quinlan, chief executive of the Ochsner Clinic Foundation, parent of the main hospital and network of 24 clinics. "What happened during the chaos was that everyone had to fend for themselves," Quinlan said in a telephone interview. "We were effective at that." The Ochsner flagship, a hospital on the border between suburban Jefferson Parish and New Orleans proper, battened down the hatches as Katrina approached. Many of its patients could not be moved -- some were on ventilators, for instance. They were forced to ride out the storm, Quinlan said. "It wasn't flawless," he said. "We had a number of broken windows." The roof was torn in places. "So it was pretty scary," he said. "We lost power and we had people going up and down the stairs and no air conditioning. We had a full house; we had about 400 patients." All told, the hospital was sheltering 2,200 people, Quinlan said, including patients, 1,200 employees and family members or guests of the patients in an attached hotel. SOME LUCK, LOTS OF PLANNING "I also want to stress that we were lucky," he said. The hospital is near a bend in the Mississippi River, and no nearby levees broke. "It is a high point," Quinlan said. "We almost get nosebleeds because we are three-and-a-half feet (one meter) above sea level." But solid planning also helped, he said. "We have a well so we have been able to get plenty of water," he said. Generators provided power. "We had a week's worth of supplies, so we were packed to the gills," he said. He had provided for employees to sleep at the clinic so they would be available. They worked in stifling conditions to keep communications open, kitchens running and the floors clean. Armed guards helped staff feel secure through reports of looting elsewhere. While thousands of refugees crowded the Louisiana Superdome, some of the frail and elderly by numerous reports dying as they begged for help, 18-wheel trucks rolled up to supply the Ochsner. Quinlan said he had worked out ahead of time with hospital supply companies what would be needed and when, and they had worked out various routes to get them in. "What you have seen is a failure of logistics. The public and many people who perhaps you think would know more simply don't understand the staggering challenge of moving large numbers of people and material," said Quinlan, whose own family evacuated to San Antonio, Texas. "You just don't dial it up." The hospital has taken in as many extra patients as it can and is housing those who are discharged until they can safely get home, or find new homes if theirs are destroyed.

Global drive to combat AIDS, other deadly ailments, falls short

2005-09-08T02:18:00.000+07:00

LONDON (AFP) - A campaign to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria fell 3.4 billion dollars short of its goal of raising 7.1 billion dollars during a donors conference in London chaired by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. "I see this as a substantial step in the right direction but that funding gap... has got to be filled," Richard Feachem, the director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, told a press conference. The Geneva-based Global Fund said it had sought to raise 7.1 billion dollars (5.7 billion euros) but only received 3.7 billion dollars in pledges at the meeting in London. "The pledges made here today will go a long way towards ensuring the longer-term sustainability of the Global Fund," Annan said in a written statement. The amount committed by international donors could pay for existing projects but "hardly leaves any room for new grants," said Doctor Peter Piot, executive director of the UN Programme on HIV/AIDS. At the meeting, France pledged 640 million dollars (525 million euros) for 2006-2007, the United States 600 million dollars, Japan 500 million dollars and Britain 200 million dollars. But fund officials expressed hope that the European Union would pledge more funds after a budget approval process, and the US Congress would vote through 300 million dollars more later this year for the programme. "I look forward to the day when I won't have to go round with my begging bowl," said Feachem, pointing out that stable financing was vital for patients receiving treatment. A new airline ticket tax proposed by France and an international financing mechanism put forward by Britain would help secure long-term, sustainable finance, he added. "The funding gap will definitely have a devastating effect in the communities I represent," said Anandi Yuvaraj, a Global Fund board member who lobbies for people living with HIV/AIDS. The contribution from the United States fell far short of that country's promise to provide a third of funding Yuvaraj said, adding that other developed countries such as Australia should also provide more. "We have a long way yet to go and we have to keep up the pressure if we are to vanquish these three terrible diseases," said British Development Secretary Hilary Benn. Tuberculosis, AIDS and malaria kill six million people every year, Benn said as a small group of protesters waved banners outside the conference saying that an estimated 35,616 people had died from the three diseases during the meeting. The Global Fund, which was set up in 2002, has so far committed 3.7 billion dollars to over 300 programmes against the diseases in 127 countries, fund officials said. Fund grants have supported HIV/AIDS treatment for 220,000 people, tuberculosis treatment for 600,000 people and insecticide-treated bed nets to prevent malaria to three million families.

Case of Texas Girl With Cancer Gets Review

2005-09-08T02:16:00.000+07:00

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - Two independent doctors who specialize in Hodgkin's disease will review the medical records of a 13-year-old girl at the center of a battle over her cancer treatment. Juvenile Court Judge Carl Lewis agreed to the review Tuesday in a hearing on the custody of Katie Wernecke, who has been in the care of state Child Protective Services since June. Under the agreement, if the doctors say high-dose chemotherapy followed by radiation is needed, the family will withdraw their objections. The hearing was continued until Friday to allow the doctors time to review the medical records obtained by the family. The specialists agreed to offer opinions on the course of treatment by then. Attorney Thomas Stuckey, representing CPS, told Lewis earlier that Katie had been refusing medical care by pulling out catheters and refusing to follow medical directions. "This is very serious," Stuckey said. "If she does not have this treatment she will die." Linda Rhodes-Schauer, an attorney representing Katie, said the teen wanted to stop treatment and be returned to her family. Rhodes-Schauer said Katie's father had told her that one in 10 patients does not survive high-dose chemotherapy. "I'm here telling you, judge, she wants to go home," Rhodes-Schauer said. Lewis ordered Katie into state custody in June after doctors and social workers said the Werneckes were endangering their daughter's life by refusing radiation treatment for Hodgkin's disease, a cancer of the lymphatic system. The Werneckes believed chemotherapy had killed the tumor in her chest and they felt radiation treatment would do more harm than good. But at a hearing in June, doctors presented medical scans showing that the cancer had returned. Lewis ruled then that Katie would remain in CPS custody as she underwent further cancer treatment. Stuckey blamed Katie's defiance on her father, Ed Wernecke, and asked Lewis on Tuesday to cut off all communication between the girl and her family. Lewis said he was not inclined to do so. Lewis talked to the girl by phone Tuesday from his chambers. "She expressed that she just wanted everything explained to her," he said. "She's a little afraid and that's a lot to handle." ___ On the Net: http://www.prayforkatie.blogspot.com

Scanners Help Determine What Pleases Women

2005-09-08T02:09:00.000+07:00

SAN FRANCISCO - Drug companies make $2.5 billion a year selling Viagra, Cialis and Levitra to help men enjoy sex. Since more women suffer from sexual dysfunction than men, developing a drug that could double those sales would seem to be a no-brainer.

Yet the pharmaceutical industry has failed women miserably — there isn't a single sexual dysfunction drug on the market that can help them. Pfizer Inc. last year abandoned an eight-year Viagra study involving 3,000 women, conceding that its famous blue pill only works for men.

"I hate to say it, but women are much more complex than men," said Beverly Whipple, the sex researcher who co-wrote "The G-Spot."

Viagra and its two competitors are rather blunt instruments — they work simply, by increasing blood flow down below. Women who take the drugs tend to experience the same physical effect, but this alone rarely satisfies them.

"You are not going to make a product by looking at what works in men and apply it to women," said Amy Allina, program director at the National Women's Health Network in Washington D.C. "That does reflect, in part, a lack of knowledge of what is underlying women's sexual problems."

The latest research — being done by academics, rather than commercial drug companies — suggests a neurological solution is needed. Because when it comes to achieving orgasms, women are more affected by mood, self-esteem and other issues of the psyche than men.

While Pfizer and other pharmaceutical titans have abandoned the pursuit of a Viagra for females as too complicated, a growing number of university researchers are reporting progress with the help of brain scanners and other technology.

Yes, they're watching women's brains while they have orgasms. And they're coming to some interesting conclusions.

For example, by studying paralyzed women who can still experience orgasm, they discovered that for women, the vagus nerve appears to be quite important, and therefore may be a promising target for drugs. This nerve — which is outside the spinal cord — carries information to areas of the brain that control mood.

"We basically found the areas of the brains that are activated in orgasm in women," said Barry Komisaruk, who worked with Whipple on this research, which is being funded by the federal government and the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation.

Brain scans measure the blood flow of research volunteers, whose heads are strapped tightly down inside the noisy machines. When brain cells start firing in a part of the brain that governs a particular emotion or activity, they need more oxygen, which is carried by the blood. During a brain scan, active regions of the brain can be seen lighting up on a computer monitor.

The scans reveal something else about women — during orgasms, the pain centers in their brains shut down, and pleasure centers — the same ones that become active when people ingest cocaine — light up.

But a big problem with these scans — done through magnetic resonance imaging — is that no machine yet built is designed to simultaneously monitor both the brain and the body. And even if they could, the images' clarity would be muddied by "background noise" such as hand movements.

That's why Komisaruk is currently studying the brains of women who can self-stimulate purely through thought — an apparently rare attribute that eliminates the noise — as he seeks to find out exactly what makes women tick during sex.

"The strange thing is that everyone knows that it all happens between the ears and not between the legs," said Gert Holstege, a leading sexual researcher at Groningen University in The Netherlands.

In June, Holstege published one of the first studies that mapped brain activity during orgasm for men and women, who were stimulated by their partners.

Among other results, Holstege found that the part of the brain thought to control fear and anxiety — the amygdala — deactivated during orgasm for both women and men.

He acknowledged that his data for men is a little suspect — however — because they don't orgasm long enough to take a proper brain scan.

Brain scanning technology has been available for close to 20 years, but is only now being used to study sex. Researchers attribute the delay to several factors, including managerial skepticism and government reluctance to fund much of the work.

"In the United States people are little more reserved when it comes to sex than in the Netherlands," said Holstege. He said that his U.S. colleagues told him they'd be afraid to propose such a project to their own bosses.

Sex research using brain scans is only just getting started, and scientists warn that any potential new drugs — or even better diagnoses of sexual dysfunction — are years away.

Still, many researchers — including those at the Kinsey Institute for Research, Sex, Gender and Reproduction at Indiana University — see brain scans as an important tool.

"We tried to come to conclusions about the brain through all kinds of detours," said Erick Janssen, a Kinsey researcher. "This is a much more direct way to do it."

On the Net:

Kinsey Institute: http://www.indiana.edu/kinsey/

Komisaruk lab: http://psychology.rutgers.edu/brk/

Sex life begins at 40 for British women

2005-09-08T02:08:00.000+07:00

LONDON (AFP) - Three-quarters of British women over 40 reckon sex is better now than it was in their 20s.

A survey found that 77 percent enjoyed sex more in their 40s -- and rather than slowing down, 45 percent had a greater sexual appetite than when younger.

The survey of 2,000 women across Britain was for Health Plus magazine, which is targeted at women over 40.

The magazine's editor said mature women were having far more fun than "binge-drinking, bed-hopping" younger counterparts.

Sixty-nine percent of the women surveyed felt more sexually adventurous than ever before and 66 percent felt more confident about their bodies than in their younger days.

The survey brought bad news for would-be toy-boys, with just 33 percent of women over 40 preferring a younger man, compared to 51 percent going for someone their own age.

"Older women are tired of people thinking sex is only for 16 to 39-year-olds, with the possible exception of (British model and actress) Liz Hurley or other celebrities who wear Versace and pout a lot," said Colette Harris, editor of Health Plus magazine.

"The truth is, 40-plus women know how to enjoy passion with their partner.

"They are far more sexually confident than when they were younger, know what gives them pleasure and have far better sex lives than binge-drinking, bed-hopping 20-somethings."

Ten million Thais risk health problems from being overweight

2005-09-08T02:06:00.000+07:00

BANGKOK (AFP) - Up to 10 million Thais could face health problems from being overweight, a deputy health minister warned.

"There are about 13.0 percent of the population, or 10 million people, who could become overweight or fat, which is a real concern," Anuthin Charnveerakul said Sunday in a statement publishing the results of a major health survey.

The poll of 41 million Thais aged between 13 and 59 -- the largest of its kind in five years -- found 49.0 percent or 20.1 million people were underweight while 12.0 percent or 4.9 million people were overweight.

A further 39.0 percent of people polled or 15 million people were considered of "average weight", while women were more likely to develop overweight-related health problems than men, a health ministry statement said.

Those aged 40-49 were especially at risk over health problems from being overweight, as such people gained weight easier than older age groups and did little or no exercise, the statement said.

The health ministry gave no details of when the survey was performed or how.

A campaign to trim the waistlines of 82 overweight Bangkok traffic cops was last month declared a success as the officers shed a total of 567.6 kilos (1,251 pounds), or an average 6.8 kilos each.

The men signed up for the program in June to avoid being shifted to desk jobs as punishment.

Alzheimer's clue in animal words

2005-09-08T02:02:00.000+07:00

A quick word test may allow simpler, earlier diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study.

UK researchers have found that patients in the early stages of the disease consistently forgot words they learned later and used less in life.

Word tests which identify this pattern of vocabulary loss may therefore provide a new way to screen patients.

Early diagnosis of Alzheimer's is important to maximise the benefit of currently available treatments.

Two tests

The study, conducted by Andy Ellis of the University of York and his collaborators at the Universities of Hull and Aberdeen, characterised shrinking vocabulary in the early stages of the disease.

The researchers asked 96 Alzheimer's patients and 40 healthy people of similar age to list all the animals they could in one minute. In a second minute, the test subjects were asked to list types of fruit.

While the healthy subjects were able to list 20-25 words, on average, those suffering from Alzheimer's could list only 10-15, indicating a constriction of their active vocabulary.

The lost words tended to be those learned later in childhood and encountered less frequently in everyday life.

Clear distinction

Common words like "dog" and "cat" were generally learned before the age of five, said Professor Ellis, and were listed by both groups.

In contrast, "giraffe" and "zebra", usually learned later in life and less frequently used, were seen to drop out of the vocabulary of the Alzheimer's sufferers.

The pattern of vocabulary loss was so consistent that it was possible for researchers to correctly identify the healthy and ill test subjects on the basis of their word lists alone.

It is this, says Professor Ellis, which may allow development of improved diagnostic screening for Alzheimer's.

Early intervention

"What we're going to try to explore is the possibility that a very simple task - generating words from categories - might alert GPs to the fact that something is beginning to go wrong," he told the British Association's Festival of Science, which is being held this year in Ireland.

The word task involves a slightly different part of the brain than those probed by currently used memory tests, according to Professor Ellis, and so may provide an alternative, possibly earlier, indication of the illness.

"It may be that the reason why this test is sensitive to the condition is because it requires the functioning of areas of the brain which are affected early in the development of Alzheimer's disease," he explained.

Because the drugs which are beneficial in treating Alzheimer's work best when they are administered early in the illness, there may be considerable benefit in the new test.

Future screening

The word task may also be valuable because its interpretation could be tuned to account for natural variation in vocabulary among people.

"People with a high vocabulary will often detect that they are having problems," explained Professor Ellis, "but if you give them a standardised test they perform above average."

The novelist Iris Murdoch was able to complete her last novel while in the early stages of Alzheimer's, but a vocabulary analysis of the book published in the journal Brain last year revealed a loss of more obscure words similar to that identified by Professor Ellis and his colleagues.

If it is possible to generate simple and reliable cognitive tests, says Professor Ellis, annual screening for Alzheimer's may become desirable as the population ages. According to a UN study, nearly 35% of the population of developed countries will be over 60 by 2050.

WHO urges responsible use of antimalarial medicines

2005-09-08T02:01:00.000+07:00

Sept 5, 2005 (Geneva) — In a new report published today, “Susceptibility of Plasmodium Falciparum to Antimalarial Drugs,” the World Health Organization (WHO) warns that as more and more people gain access to these life-saving malaria medicines-which combine a drug derived from the plant Artemisia annua with a second, synthetic drug-it is vital that countries closely monitor their effectiveness.

More than 50 governments have followed WHO’s recommendations on malaria treatment and adopted artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs), the most effective antimalarial drugs available today. This has enhanced prospects for reducing the burden of the disease worldwide.

Drugs derived from the plant Artemisia annua must be used as ACTs in combination with a second drug, and not alone. Otherwise, the medicines could lose their potency over time due to the development of resistance. This has already happened with other antimalarial drugs in the past. “It is crucial that these medicines be used correctly,” said Dr Pascal Ringwald, a medical officer in WHO’s Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Department and principal author of the new report on global monitoring of antimalarial drugs.

To avert resistance, WHO is calling on countries to use only WHO-approved ACTs (an artemisinin-based drug combined with amodiaquine, lumefantrine, mefloquine or sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine) of high quality, since drugs of low potency can promote resistance. The organization also advises that all people taking antimalarials should be educated about the importance of finishing their medication courses, since incomplete treatment is another cause of resistance. Any change in efficacy of antimalarial drugs should prompt an appropriate update in a country’s treatment policy.

The danger of resistance stems from the malaria parasite’s ability to evade the lethal action of drugs. Because malaria parasites are genetically highly diverse, some strains can escape drugs unharmed and pass along their resistance to progeny. As sensitive organisms die off, resistant strains may come to dominate, and over time an antimalarial drug can lose its ability to cure infection.

Resistance is more likely to occur when only one drug is used. Combining an artemisinin-based medicine with another antimalarial drug, as WHO recommends, sharply reduces the risk.

“To date no treatment failures due to artemisinin drug resistance have been documented, but we are watching the situation very attentively,” Dr Ringwald said.

The report recounts the emergence of resistance to the former mainstays of malaria treatment, such as chloroquine, in most regions of the world, and the ways countries have changed their national policies to keep ahead of the advancing resistance. It also outlines new standardized methods developed by WHO for monitoring antimalarial drug efficacy and emerging resistance patterns worldwide.

“We have the means to enhance the lifespan of ACTs. In addition, we must move forward energetically on research to develop new antimalarial medicines,” said Dr Fatoumata Nafo-Traoré, Director of WHO’s RBM Department.

Kids mimic parents' smoking, drinking behaviors: study

2005-09-08T02:00:00.000+07:00

BEIJING, Sep. 6 (Xinhuanet)-- Children as young as 2 years old are more likely to be influenced by their parents' smoking and drinking habits, a novel study has shown.

In a study of 2- to 6-year-olds, children pretending to "shop" for groceries for a hungry doll were four times more likely to choose cigarettes if their parents smoked and three times more likely to pick wine or beer if their parents drank at least once a month.

Of the 120 children in the study, 28 percent bought cigarettes and 62 percent purchased alcohol among the average of 17 products chosen.

A 4-year-old girl chose Barbie-sized tobacco in the pretend store and said: "I need this for my man. A man needs cigarettes."

Parents who watched from behind a one-way mirror were surprised by their children's choices, said study co-author Madeline Dalton of Dartmouth Medical School.

"It's a very humbling experience to be a parent and see your children mimic your behaviors," she said.

The study suggests that prevention efforts should target younger children, Dalton said. It was published Monday in the September issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

Researchers observing the children's play found that the ones who watched PG-13 or R-rated movies also were more likely to choose alcohol for Barbie.

Parents should be careful about the movies their children watch, said Craig Anderson, who studies media violence at Iowa State University. "Kids are basically little learning machines. Whatever the content is in front of them, they're going to pick it up," Anderson said.Enditem

Positive thinking a pain reliever

2005-09-08T01:58:00.000+07:00

US experts say they have strong scientific proof that mind over matter works for relieving pain.

Positive thinking was as powerful as a shot of morphine for relieving pain and reduced activity in parts of the brain that process pain information.

The Wake Forest University researchers say their findings show that by merely expecting pain to be less it will be less.

Their work is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Positive thinking

Dr Robert Coghill and his team studied 10 normal, healthy volunteers who had a heat simulator applied to their legs while their brains were being scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

The heat simulator was used to produce pain and fMRI was used to map brain activity.

Before subjects underwent brain imaging, they learned to expect mild, moderate, or severe painful heat stimuli following different signals. None of the stimuli were hot enough to cause burns or damage the skin.

During brain imaging, a small percentage of the severe stimuli were incorrectly signalled as moderate stimuli to create expectations of decreased pain.

All 10 volunteers reported less pain when they expected lower levels of pain.

These expectations reduced reports of pain by more than 28% - similar to an analgesic dose of the potent painkiller morphine.

At the same time, activity in areas of the brain important to both sensory and emotional processing of pain decreased. These areas included the primary somatosensory cortex, the insular cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex.

More than just pills

Dr Coghill explained: "Pain is not solely the result of signals coming from an injured body region.

"Pain needs to be treated with more than just pills. The brain can powerfully shape pain, and we need to exploit its power."

He said the findings underscored the potential of cognitive therapy for the treatment of pain.

Dr Ed Keogh, a psychologist and pain researcher from the University of Bath, said: "For some time now we have known that psychological factors such as expectations play a role in the perception and experience of pain.

"This work is intriguing as it aims to identify specific brain regions linked to both the pain experience and expectations associated with pain.

"By empirically demonstrating such links, such research adds weight to the notion that how we think can effect what we feel. This is turn may have important implications for the way in which we prepare people for potentially painful events such as going to the dentist, childbirth or an operation."

Dr Beverly Collette, president of the British Pain Society, said: "Most people who work in pain clinics use cognitive therapy to help people manage their pain better.

"This study goes some way to explaining the positive impact of these psychological techniques in chronic pain states. "

Smoking 'can make you go blind'

2005-09-08T01:57:00.000+07:00

Experts are warning that smokers are twice as likely to lose their sight as they get older than non-smokers.

They say many people are probably unaware of the link between the habit and an eye condition called age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

But research found lots of smokers would give up or cut down if they thought it could save their eyes.

The AMD Alliance UK and Royal National Institute of the Blind are now calling for warnings on cigarette packets.

RNIB spokesperson Steve Winyard said: "The message is simple - do not take up smoking and if you do, stop."

He also warned people to get their eyes tested regularly, so any problems can be picked up early.

How the disease works

AMD is usually found in people over the age of 50.

The illness affects the central part of the retina, the light-sensitive membrane lining the inner eyeball which is connected to the brain by the optic nerve.

Around 54,000 people in the UK have got problems in with their eyes as a result of smoking.

Study: Angioplasty, Drug Don't Mix

2005-09-08T01:56:00.000+07:00

The common practice of giving heart attack patients a clot-busting drug within hours of planned angioplasty could be dangerous, an important new study suggests. Many doctors give the clot-dissolver hoping it will make the artery-widening operation more successful, but major research presented Tuesday at the annual conference of the European Society of Cardiology found that more patients died in the month following the procedure if they were given the drug. Experts said the findings are expected to prompt many doctors around the world to stop using the strategy, at least for now. "A great clinical trial is one that provides a clear-cut answer to the question that is being asked, is one that raises new questions and is one that influences the practice of medicine. (This study) certainly meets all these three criteria," said Dr. William Wijns, a prominent leader in the field of angioplasty who was not connected with the research. There are two main options for treating heart attack victims — a clot dissolving drug or angioplasty, where doctors thread a wire through the blood vessels to get at the blood clot that caused the heart attack. The wire mechanically breaks up the clot. Doctors then inflate a balloon to squash plaque against the wall of the artery and implant a tiny mesh tube at the site of a blockage to permanently prop the artery open. Angioplasty is considered the more effective option as long as it is done by experienced doctors in well-equipped hospitals. However, most community hospitals do not have such expertise. In those places, patients are either treated with a clot-busting drug or transferred to a nearby hospital that can perform the angioplasty within three hours.

Second West Nile Death Reported In Illinois

2005-09-08T01:55:00.000+07:00

CHICAGO (AP) -- An 85-year-old Lake County man is the second person to die from West Nile disease in Illinois this year. Lake County's health department says the man died Monday after being hospitalized on August 26th. Authorities did not release the victim's name. Last week, state health officials said a 92-year-old Cook County woman died after being hospitalized for West Nile neuroinvasive disease. The Illinois Department of Public Health Tuesday also confirmed four more cases of West Nile disease in Cook County. That brought its count of the total number of known cases in Illinois this year to 93. Mosquitoes transmit the West Nile virus. Most people infected have no clinical symptoms of illness. Others may become ill three to 14 days after being bitten by an infected mosquito.

Massachusetts reports two deaths linked to EEE virus

2005-09-08T01:52:00.000+07:00

BOSTON (AP) -- A 5-year-old girl from Halifax and an 83-year-old man from Kingston have died after being diagnosed with the mosquito-borne eastern equine encephalitis, bringing the number of human EEE cases in Massachusetts this year to three.

The girl became ill Aug. 26, and died Sept. 4, public health officials said. Lab tests later identified the disease, although the results of a final test are pending. The man became ill on Aug. 21 and died five days later. Tests confirmed the disease a week after he died.

Last week, the health department announced that a 63-year-old Duxbury woman had contracted the state's first human case of the disease this summer. The dangerous virus also turned up in four New Hampshire residents in recent weeks; none have died.

The Duxbury woman was the first case diagnosed and reported, but she became ill on Aug. 26 after the man from Kingston had already developed symptoms. She continues to be hospitalized in serious condition.

Last year, there were four human cases of EEE confirmed in Massachusetts, two of them fatal.

Public health officials said residents can take steps to protect themselves from the disease.

"It's critical that residents protect themselves from mosquito bites," said Dr. Al DeMaria, Department of Public Health Director of Communicable Disease Control. "Mosquitoes will be biting, until the first frost."

As of last week, the state had tested around 120,000 mosquitos for EEE, and only 15 of those insects tested positive for the virus.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has also confirmed reports of EEE in two horses, one in Haverhill and one in Wrentham. This season both EEE virus and West Nile virus have been detected in mosquitoes and birds in a number of communities across the state.

EEE can be transmitted to humans through mosquito bites, and August and September are typically the months when it emerges in humans. Symptoms range from mild flu-like illness to inflammation of the brain, coma and death.

The disease kills around 35 percent of the people who contract it, according to the Centers for Disease Control, making it one of the more serious mosquito-borne diseases in the United States. Some 35 percent of those who survive it have mild to severe neurological problems.

There have only been about 200 confirmed cases in the U.S. since 1964, according to the CDC. Massachusetts is among the states that has the largest number of cases; others are Florida, Georgia, and New Jersey. There is no licensed vaccine for humans

Water Pollution a Concern in New Orleans

2005-09-08T01:51:00.000+07:00

WASHINGTON -- Four people may have died of a waterborne bacterial infection circulating in Hurricane Katrina's flood waters, and health officials took steps Tuesday to stem spread of a diarrhea-causing virus among refugees in Houston's Astrodome.

The deaths appear to have been caused by Vibrio vulnificus, a germ common in warm Gulf Coast waters that's usually spread by eating contaminated food but that can penetrate open wounds, too. The deaths _ one a hurricane refugee evacuated to Texas, the other three in Mississippi _ were attributed to wound infections, said Tom Skinner, spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which received the reports from officials in the two states.

The reports underscore advice issued by federal health officials Tuesday: Rescue workers and anyone left in hurricane-ravaged areas should try to limit direct skin contact with flood waters; seek immediate medical attention if they have cuts or other wounds exposed to the dirty water; and wash their hands frequently.

Officials in Houston's Astrodome handed out alcohol-based hand sanitizers Tuesday to help prevent spread of norovirus, an easily spread cause of diarrhea and vomiting. Officials isolated some refugees with the illness, made infamous by recent cruise-ship outbreaks, although they couldn't provide an exact count. There is no treatment except to keep sufferers hydrated; it normally lasts a few days.

There are no large outbreaks yet attributed to the hurricane, but infection control within shelters housing thousands of evacuees is a top priority, said Dr. Julie Gerberding, CDC's director.

Wounds infected by submersion in New Orleans floodwaters tainted with raw sewage and other bacteria are common, however. Gerberding said Tuesday that another concern is whether those waters also were contaminated with toxic chemicals from hurricane damage to nearby factories.

The Environmental Protection Agency began testing what is in the water, with the first results expected by week's end.

That's a key question for a new federal task force of medical and environmental authorities who began setting up Tuesday at Kindred Hospital in New Orleans, to monitor for disease outbreaks and "begin to make judgments about when New Orleans is safe to reinhabit," said Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt.

Drinking water safety also is an issue in much of Mississippi and Louisiana and parts of Alabama, and the EPA sent a mobile laboratory to Mississippi Tuesday to help assess that. More than 1,000 drinking water systems in the three states were affected by the hurricane.

CDC's Gerberding sought to put to rest concern about disease from exposure to dead bodies in the flooding _ the corpses aren't infectious _ or from agents not typically seen in this country, such as cholera.

Instead, doctors are being urged to watch for more likely causes of diarrheal illnesses: E. coli bacteria; the easy-to-spread noroviruses that, while seldom life-threatening, can cause days of misery; or Vibrio vulnificus, cholera-like bacteria that every year kill more than a dozen Gulf Coast residents. The deaths reported Tuesday were among elderly people or those with weak immune systems, CDC's Skinner said.

But infection isn't the biggest medical challenge, Gerberding said. Instead, it's how to care for thousands of people with chronic diseases like diabetes or kidney failure, many of them elderly patients who depend on numerous medications daily.

In Tupelo, Miss., for instance, city doctors brought sacks full of prescription drug samples to the Good Samaritan Clinic, where volunteer doctors are treating about 100 evacuees a day almost exclusively for chronic conditions, said Dr. J. Edward Hill, one of the volunteers and president of the American Medical Association.

Cocktail effect of doctors' hours

2005-09-08T01:49:00.000+07:00

A study has shown how important the reduction of junior doctors' hours has been, equating the effect of long shifts to drinking a few cocktails.

US researchers found 90-hour weeks impaired performance in the same way as alcohol.

UK doctors now work 56-hour weeks but, in the past, working weeks of up to 90 hours were common.

The Journal of the American Medical Association study said it was important to ensure doctors had adequate rest.

It is known that both sleep deprivation and alcohol consumption can impair a person's reaction time, attention, judgment, control and driving ability.

Fatigue reduction strategies

The researchers from Brown University and the University of Michigan analysed 34 trainee doctors.

They were tested before and after working a month of 44-hour weeks in clinics with no night-shifts.

Tests were carried out before and after they consumed three vodka and tonics within 30 minutes.

In the second session, they were tested on the day after a night-shift at the end of a month of 90-hour weeks on wards or in the intensive care unit, including night-shifts every fourth or fifth night without having had an alcoholic drink.

Similar impairments were seen in the doctors' vigilance, attention, and driving skills in standardised tests after the shorter working weeks plus a few drinks - when they had a blood alcohol count of 0.04% (half the legal limit in most US states and all of the UK) - and after 90-hour weeks with no alcohol.

Sleep diaries and automated wristbands, which responded to movement, were used to assess how much rest the doctors had.

Those who worked longer weeks had significantly less sleep per night than those working the lighter shifts - even when they were not on duty overnight.

Shift patterns

Todd Arnedt, a sleep psychologist at the University of Michigan Medical School, said: "This adds to the growing evidence that sleep deprivation among medical residents [junior doctors] significantly impairs their ability to perform, although it is important to note that we did not assess performance on specific medical tasks.

"Our study, like others before it, does raise concerns about the performance of sleep deprived physicians-in-training and suggests that strategies aimed at reducing fatigue-related impairments are likely necessary."

Dr Arnedt added: "We need to continue to find simple, practical, and effective strategies that hospitals and senior doctors can take to reduce sleep deprivation among residents."

Since the study was carried out, the US has introduced new rules to limit the average working week to 80 hours, and maximum shift-length of 24 hours.

Doctors in the UK work an average of 56 hours each week.

But the British Medical Association warns doctors can spend longer at the hospital site because of the way their shift patterns are designed, meaning they might not get the rest they need before going back on to the wards.

Dr Mike Peters, Head of the BMA's Doctors for Doctors Unit, said: "Excessive working hours are bad news for doctors and patients.

"It is difficult for over-tired, stressed and burnt out doctors to give patients the quality of care they need."

A Department of Health spokesperson said: "We believe that junior doctors' working patterns should strike a sensible balance between services designed around patients and services which support doctors' working lives and their training."

Americans get most of their antioxidants from their coffee

2005-09-01T11:37:00.000+07:00

Researchers in the U.S. say the American coffee drinking habit is not such a bad thing as coffee is a good source of antioxidants.

The study found that coffee, is high in antioxidants and compounds such as vitamins that fight damage to cells and to DNA.

This is probably just as well as the study also found that Americans are not eating enough fruits and vegetables, the main sources of antioxidants as well as fiber and other nutrients that dietitians, scientists and doctors recommend.

Joe Vinson of the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania and colleagues studied the antioxidant content of more than 100 different food items, including vegetables, fruits, nuts, spices, oils and common drinks.

They then examined a U.S. Department of Agriculture database on how much Americans eat of each type of food item.

Vinson says that Americans get far more of their antioxidants from coffee than any other dietary source.

Vinson, who presented his findings to a meeting of the American Chemical Society in Washington, says this does not mean that coffee was necessarily the best source of antioxidants.

But unfortunately, the average American is still not eating enough fruits and vegetables, which are better from an overall nutritional point of view, due to their higher content of vitamins, minerals and fiber.

Apparently dates, cranberries and red grapes have high concentrations of antioxidants, but Americans do not eat much of these foods.

Vinson found black tea was the second-leading source of antioxidants in the U.S. diet, with bananas, dry beans and corn placed third, fourth and fifth.

Bush Urges Seniors to Learn About Medicare Drug Benefit; Many Have Yet to Enroll Since Jan. 1

2005-09-01T11:32:00.000+07:00

President Bush, focusing on a domestic issue amid rising criticism about the Iraq war, urged a skeptical public Monday to at least learn about the new prescription drug benefit for Medicare recipients _ if not enroll in it.

"I fully understand, and our government fully understands, that many seniors don't want to change. And, that they're not interested in change," said Bush, seeking to bolster enthusiasm for the benefit program that takes effect Jan. 1.

"You don't have to change if you don't want to," he said. "But at least be open-minded enough to listen" to new options under the program.

While keeping tabs on Hurricane Katrina in the nation's Gulf Coast, the president was spending the day pitching the benefit program in back-to-back appearances in Arizona and Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., alongside pharmacists and future benefit recipients.

Later, he was traveling to San Diego, where he planned to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II with a speech Tuesday in which he also would reference the Iraq war.

The events were held hundreds of miles from his ranch in Crawford, Texas, where Iraq war critics have dogged him since he arrived there in early August. First lady Laura Bush was traveling with him.

At a community recreation center in this border state, the president assured Arizona residents that the federal government and Congress were hearing their concerns about illegal immigration and were working hard on the issue. But, he said: "There's more we can do."

"We have an obligation to enforce the border," Bush said. He said he will work with Gov. Janet Napolitano and other border governors to secure the border and told his audience that "it's important for the people of this state to understand, your voices are being heard in Washington, D.C."

On Medicare, the president called the benefit program "a fantastic opportunity."

"This plan will cut your drug plan by half. You need to look at it. You need to look at what's available," Bush said.

The president made his remarks as the Department of Health and Human Services announced that the government will be able to offer people the choice of at least one plan in each state, except Alaska, that offers some benefit for a monthly premium under $20. The department said plans also will be available with no deductible.

"We're going to help people get a good fit," Medicare chief Mark McClellan told reporters traveling on Air Force One.

Medicare recipients must apply for the drug program in addition to their regular coverage, and enrollment starts Nov. 15. Next year, about 43 million beneficiaries will be able to choose from two or more private plans that offer drug coverage.

Enrollees will pay a monthly premium averaging about $32, but the amount will vary among regions, and millions of poor people will pay nothing. Beneficiaries will also have a $250 deductible, meaning they will have to pay that amount for their prescriptions before the drug plan covers expenses. Again, millions of poor beneficiaries will not have any deductible.

Congress approved the benefit as part of a Medicare overhaul law pushed by Bush in 2003 to help seniors cope with skyrocketing drug costs. But critics, mainly Democrats, argue that the benefit program is too complex and doesn't cover enough drugs.

Lukewarm public interest in the program, just months before it takes effect, prompted administration officials and outside groups to launch publicity efforts over the past few months. Congress allocated about $300 million to an awareness campaign. And more than 40 groups have formed a coalition to urge people to sign up for the program,

Those efforts may be paying off. A Kaiser Family Foundation survey released last week found for the first time that people were as likely to have a favorable view of the plan as to have an unfavorable view. Still, the survey found that more people do not plan to enroll than do.

Asthma patients struggle with financial bills

2005-09-01T11:31:00.000+07:00

DALLASTOWN, Pa. — The slipcovered furniture in the Smith family's small, crowded living room is secondhand. The paint on the ceiling is peeling.

The kitchen counter offers a clue to why home improvement takes a backseat. There sit small baskets holding an array of asthma inhalers, peak-flow meters to measure breath volume, nasal sprays and other daily supplies needed in this home where asthma and allergies are a looming presence.

Laura Smith, 42, has asthma so severe that she has been hospitalized about a dozen times, most recently in April. She wears a medical-alert bracelet because her breathing can suddenly shut down.

The children, Emily, 10, and Collin, 7, have milder forms of asthma, complicated by allergies. They always carry their inhalers along with a written management plan that lists their medications. Their father, Ron, 42, although spared asthma, is plagued by allergies.

The family has made accommodations. They've pulled up carpets, and they carefully choose the days they can safely be active outside. "On hot, humid days, I can't take (the kids) to the park," Laura Smith says.

Central Texas emergency workers go to Louisiana

2005-09-01T11:30:00.000+07:00

Emergency Medical Technicians from Central Texas are helping medical patients from Louisiana get to hospitals outside the state.

The volunteers helped some of Hurricane Katrina's youngest victims.

There was a flurry of activity at a Baton Rouge general aviation facility Wednesday. Airplanes and helicopters came in and out all day long delivering medical teams or patients that needed to be moved.

Paramedics from a Houston hospital were called in to transport some precious cargo by Lear jet. The premature babies were brought in by helicopters from New Orleans' hospitals. Many of them were still in incubators.

Other patients were brought in to be transported by EMS ground crews.

"I just saw it on the news and I knew I wanted to do something to help. And I was just waiting for the opportunity that my supervisor was going to call and say, 'Come and help,' "Jake Stinson of American Medical Response said.

Olive oil has power to relieve pain

2005-09-01T11:29:00.000+07:00

BEIJING, Sep. 1 (Xinhuanet)-- Virgin olive oil has the same power to kill pain as widely used painkiller, researchers have found.

Paul A. S. Breslin from the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia and colleagues report in the Sept. 1 issue of Nature this week that olive oil contains a newly-found compound, oleocanthal, which suppresses the same pain pathway as non steroidal anti-inflammatory agents, such as ibuprofen, although the two chemicals are not related.

Tests show that it inhibits cox-1 and cox-2, molecules associated with pain and inflammation, just as ibuprofen does.

"Our findings raise the possibility that long-term consumption of oleocanthal may help to protect against some diseases by virtue of its ibuprofen-like COX-inhibiting activity," said Breslin.

"The Mediterranean diet, of which olive oil is a central component, has long been associated with numerous health benefits, including decreased risk of stroke, heart disease, breast cancer, lung cancer, and some dementias." he said.

The researchers calculate that a 50 gram daily dose of olive oil is equivalent to about 10 per cent of the ibuprofen dose recommended for adult pain relief.

Breslin said that the new finding offers another reason for people to adopt the Mediterranean diet, which is rich in fish, unsaturated fat, fresh vegetables -- and olive oil.

"You could take a baby aspirin every day, but the Mediterranean diet offers the same health benefits," he said. Enditem

FDA approves new supplier for flu shots

2005-09-01T11:27:00.000+07:00

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government approved a new flu shot Wednesday, clearing a third U.S. supplier even as doctors await word of just how much vaccine will be available this year.

The Food and Drug Administration approved Fluarix to immunize adults 18 and older. The shots are made in Germany by a subsidiary of GlaxoSmithKline. The company expects to supply 8 million doses to the U.S. market this flu season, a spokesman said.

The government hasn't yet predicted just how much flu vaccine the nation will have this fall, after last year's surprise shortage when British regulators shut down a U.S. supplier, Chiron Corp., because of the discovery of contaminated vaccine.

Sanofi-Pasteur remains the nation's leading flu shot provider, with an estimated 50 million to 60 million doses planned for this fall.

Some 3 million doses of a nasal-spray vaccine that's for use only by healthy people, MedImmune Inc.'s FluMist, also are anticipated.

Glaxo long has supplied flu vaccine for other countries, but Wednesday's FDA clearance licenses the company for sale here for the first time. The FDA granted that license under a special fast-track approval system that will require Glaxo to do follow-up studies verifying that the level of protective antibodies its brand of shots produced in recipients does translate into true flu protection.

"Having more manufacturers of influenza vaccine licensed in the U.S., and having more vaccine dosages, is critical to public health," said Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt.

Also Wednesday, Chiron announced that it had passed one step -- an inspection of its factory in Britain -- toward again winning FDA approval to sell flu shots here, but it still has more work to do with no guarantee of clearance before flu vaccination begins in October.

Because of the uncertainty about supplies, federal health officials already are planning to urge the elderly and others most at risk from the flu to be the first vaccinated. High-risk people include those 65 or older, nursing home residents, anyone with a chronic condition such as heart or lung disease, babies and toddlers ages 6 to 23 months, pregnant women and health providers who care for high-risk patients.

If there's plenty of vaccine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will tell healthier people to roll up their sleeves, too.

Chimp's gene map shows what makes humans different

2005-09-01T11:26:00.000+07:00

BEIJING, Sep. 1 (Xinhuanet)-- The question that what sets humans apart from other animals has been settled by scientists who have mapped the complete chimp genome and compared it to the human gene map.

Differences in the sequence of four chemical "letters" that spell out the genetic codes, or genomes, of chimp (Pan troglodytes) and man (Homo sapiens) could account for the very human abilities to write novels or fly to the Mars.

"As our closest relatives, they (chimpanzees) tell us special things about what it means to be a primate and, ultimately, what it means to be a human at the DNA level," Dr. Francis Collins, head of the National Human Genome Research Institute, which funded the studies, told a news conference.

The comparisons of the two genomes, published on Wednesday in the journal Nature by 67 researchers in the Chimpanzee Sequencing and Analysis Consortium, provide clear confirmation of the common and recent evolutionary origin of humans and chimpanzees, as first predicted by Charles Darwin in 1871.

Dr. Robert Waterston, one of the leaders of the international research team, from the University of Washington in Seattle and colleagues sequenced the DNA of a chimpanzee named Clint, who died last year of heart failure at the relatively young age for a chimp of 24, but two colonies of his cells have been preserved for future study.

They compared it to the human genome sequence and did a letter-by-letter comparison of the DNA base pairs -- the A, C, T and G nucleotides that make up both the human and chimp genetic codes.

Out of 3 billion base pairs that make up both the human and the chimpanzee genomes, only 40 million differ between human and chimp, they found.

"Within those 40 million differences are clearly the genetic bases of what makes us human." said Dr. Waterston.

Genes usually code for proteins, the molecules that build and operate a body, and many key differences are expected to be found in genetic code that controls where proteins are made, how and in what quantities.

The chimpanzee is only the fourth mammal to have its genome sequence completed, after humans, rats and mice, though a draft is available for the dog. Of these species, humans and chimps are by far the most similar. The differences between them are ten times fewer than those between mice and rats, and sixty times fewer than those between humans and mice.

But, added Collins, the study did not address philosophical or religious questions.

"It may very well not tell us about other aspects of humanity, such as how do we tell right and wrong," Collins said. Enditem

Blood Flow to Brain May Be Clue to Certain Dementias

2005-08-31T20:27:00.000+07:00

The amount of blood flowing into the brain may play a larger role in the development of dementia than previously believed, according to a study in the September issue of the journal Radiology. Researchers from Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to examine the brains of elderly patients with and without dementia related to Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease. As expected, MR images showed that the patients with late-onset dementia had more brain damage compared with young adults and with seniors who had optimal cognitive function. But researchers found that the late-onset dementia group also had a much lower rate of blood flow to the brain than the other two groups. "Our findings not only support the hypothesis that vascular factors contribute to dementia in the elderly, they are highly suggestive that a diminished cerebral blood flow indeed causes brain damage," said Aart Spilt, M.D., a Leiden radiology resident and lead author of the study. "This gives us a clue to the genesis of dementia." Dementia is a loss of cognitive functions, such as thinking, remembering and reasoning, that interferes with normal activities. Although many conditions can produce these symptoms, Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia. Some patients with Parkinson's disease also develop dementia. In the Dutch study, researchers examined 17 patients with late-onset dementia (dementia occurring after age 75), another 16 seniors of the same age with optimal cognitive function and 15 healthy younger individuals. Researchers used MRI to measure cerebral blood flow and the extent of structural brain damage in each person and then compared the results of the three groups.

China, US cooperate in AIDS fight

2005-08-31T20:26:00.000+07:00

BALTIMORE - Chinese health officials plan to announce an AIDS cooperation partnership with a U.S. institute, a measure that takes aim at combating what health officials fear will be a tenfold surge in HIV infection in China over the next five years, AP reported.

The partnership between the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the University of Maryland's Institute of Human Virology — founded by one of the co-discoverers of the virus — covers collaboration on clinical trials, technical assistance and development of better and faster tests and vaccines, institute officials said.

The step comes as United Nations health officials warned in June that Asia's AIDS problem could rival sub-Saharan Africa if quick action is not taken to stem new infections.

There are 5.1 million people with the virus in India, second only to South Africa with 5.3 million infections, according to UNAIDS estimates for 2003. About 840,000 people in China have the virus, according to the Chinese Ministry of Health, but the UN has warned that number could grow to 10 million by 2010 if the epidemic is left unchecked.

The Maryland institute, which combines laboratory research, epidemiology and clinical research in an effort to get new discoveries to the neediest, can help the Chinese develop strategies and help teach physicians about diagnosis and management of the disease, among other issues, said Richard Gallo, the institute's founder-director.

Other research will focus on the history of the disease in China and a study of traditional Chinese medicines for possible treatment.

The signing ceremony was planned for Monday, the first day of IHV's annual international AIDS meeting in Baltimore and was expected to include Gallo, China CDC Director Wang Yu and Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele.

While the Chinese CDC already sends researchers to the institute for training, the new agreement is expected to boost bilateral cooperation and allow American researchers to benefit from China's centuries old medical experience.

"This is more than just missionary work," Gallo said. "I think we have a real chance of getting help from China."

Under the program, institute researchers could also have greater access to non-human primates — which are more strictly controlled in the United States. They would also have access to tens of thousands of people for trials, said Gallo.

This partnership is the newest measure in the Chinese government's growing determination in recent years to fight the virus.

"In the mid-90s to late-90s, we know that the government recognized it as a problem, but they did not put enough priority on it," said Shao Yiming, chief expert for the National Center for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention, part of the Chinese CDC. "There was talking, but not real action."

One area where Maryland's Institute of Human Virology can help is with the organization of a nationwide campaign for prevention, testing and treatment of HIV and AIDS, Shao said. The government has increased funding to about $100 million (euro81.3 million) last year, so the challenge is implementing such an effort across a country with 1.3 billion people, Shao said.

"That doesn't mean that (Chinese health workers) are not technically good enough, they're just not so experienced with managing a national campaign at this level," he said. "We need an operational team, which is not in place on a large scale."

The institute is also working on a commercial expansion of this partnership with a three-way collaboration with the China CDC and CK Life Sciences, a Hong Kong-based pharmaceutical company, which they hope to sign sometime later this year, Gallo said.

Regulators say members of herd pose no threat to cattle industry

2005-08-31T20:25:00.001+07:00

WASHINGTON - Regulators tracking down cattle raised with a Texas cow known to have been infected with mad cow disease have found no other cases of the brain-wasting ailment.

And after reviewing records about the infected animal's feed, regulators have become more convinced the 12-year-old cow contracted the disease before tighter feed restrictions designed to stop the spread of the disease were imposed in 1997.

Since determining in June that a cream-colored Brahma cow had been infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy — commonly known as mad cow — regulators have been trying to find all the other cattle raised with that animal on an unidentified Texas ranch.

On Tuesday, the Agriculture Department and the Food and Drug Administration announced they have wrapped up that search, concluding the other herd members posed no threat to American livestock.

The investigation, said USDA Chief Veterinarian John Clifford, "shows there was no widespread problem associated with the ... herd."

Working with their Texas counterparts, inspectors tested 67 animals on the farm where the infected cow had been raised. All tested negative for the disease.

But another 200 cows had been sold. USDA officials determined that 143 had been sent to slaughter, while two were found alive. Finding the others proved more problematic.

Thirty-four of the cows are "presumed dead," another is known dead, and 20 others were deemed "untraceable."

Regulators also went looking for two calves born to the infected cow within two years of its death.

They knew where those offspring had been sent, but they didn't know exactly which animals they were.

So officials tracked another 213 calves looking for those two animals.

Because of such difficulties in tracking herd mates, the USDA is trying to develop an animal identification system that would enable regulators to pinpoint potentially affected animals within 48 hours of the diagnose of the disease.

"This investigation would have taken far less than two months if we had the National Animal Identification System in place," U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said Tuesday.

Animals typically contract mad cow disease by eating contaminated feed. In 1997, regulators imposed rules to ban the use of mammalian protein in feed for cows and sheep.

The FDA and the Texas Feed and Fertilizer Control Service combed through existing feed records to try to determine whether the cow might have eaten contaminated feed sometime after that ban went into effect.

While inspectors found one feed containing an unidentified animal protein, they concluded the cow probably contracted the ailment from eating feed made using mammalian protein prior to the 1997 ban.

Craig Culp, a spokesman for the Washington-based Center for Food Safety, hailed regulators for taking these steps to investigate the mad cow case.

While Culp does not believe their efforts will be enough to "allay all the fears the public might have about Texas beef or that made cow in general," he is encouraged that officials "appear to be taking the situation much more seriously than they have in the past."

Public health system shaken

2005-08-31T20:25:00.000+07:00

Authorities along the hurricane-stricken Gulf Coast faced the collapse of the public health system Tuesday with water supplies sporadic, electricity shut off, hospitals closing and the threat of more injuries and infectious diseases.

Officials also warned against imminent problems, including encounters with snakes, alligators and other wildlife displaced by the flooding, and the need to minister to the mental health needs of survivors who have lost nearly all their possessions.

The biggest problem they face is that modern medicine requires large amounts of electricity, and there was very little available Tuesday — and for the foreseeable future.

At least 10 hospitals in New Orleans were using generator-supplied electricity, and several have already closed. Tulane University Medical Center said its emergency generator was in danger of being drowned by still-rising floodwaters, and all of its remaining patients were transferred to the Superdome, which is already housing at least 10,000 tourists and newly homeless.

Mobile poses no cancer risk

2005-08-31T20:24:00.000+07:00

BEIJING, Aug. 31 (Xinhuanet)-- Ten years of using a mobile phone regularly will not likely result in brain cancer, researchers said on Tuesday.

The study, published in the online version of The British Journal of Cancer, studied 678 people with acoustic neuroma and compared their use of mobile phones over a 10-year period with a group of 3,553 people who had not developed the condition.

Researchers found no link between the risk of developing a tumour and the number of years for which mobile phones had been used.

But amid public concern about a possible link, the scientists who conducted the largest study so far on the subject said they could not rule out a higher risk over a longer period.

"The results of our study suggest there is no substantial risk in the first decade after starting use," said Anthony Swerdlow of the Institute of Cancer Research.

"Whether there are longer-term risks remains unknown, reflecting the fact that this is a relatively recent technology." he said.

Professor Peter Rigby, chief executive of the charity Cancer Research UK, said the latest study is a great step towards resolving the issue of whether mobile phones cause brain cancer. "Mobile phone have only been used widely over the past decade so we won't know the long-term effects for many years," Professor Rigby said.

"However, it's important researchers continue to monitor phone users over coming years as mobiles are still a relatively new invention," said Julie Sharp with the same institute. Enditem

Stress 'does not cut IVF success'

2005-08-26T17:18:00.000+07:00

Being stressed about IVF treatment does not reduce a woman's chance of it being successful, a study suggests.

Many women having fertility treatment feel anxious about the outcome.

But Swedish researchers surveyed 166 women a month before they underwent IVF treatment and found no link between their stress and the eventual outcome.

Writing in Human Reproduction, they said they hoped their findings would comfort women, and even help reduce their stress levels.

Previous studies examining the effect of stress on IVF have reached conflicting conclusions.

The team from the University of Gothenburg carried out a predictive study to look at the effect.

One hundred and sixty-six women completed a recognised health questionnaire to evaluate their psychological state a month before undergoing their first cycle of IVF treatment.

Participants completed another just prior to their eggs being retrieved for the IVF procedure.

'Reassurance'

A total of 139 women had viable embryos available for transfer - 58 conceived and 81 did not.

When researchers looked back at the pre-treatment questionnaires, they found the results did not differ between those who became pregnant and those who did not.

There was also no difference on an additional test which had been given to patients prior to IVF, that was designed specifically to assess 14 emotions often expressed by infertility patients.

Dr Lisbeth Anderheim, of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Sahlgrenska University, who led the research, said: "We can use these findings to reassure women and this information should, in itself, help to reduce their stress and worry levels."

She said it was possible patients were keeping worries to themselves because they had great expectations and were giving answers that were more positive than they felt.

It may also have been valuable to question patients at the point the embryos were transferred, which is known to be a time of heightened tension, she said.

But Dr Anderheim said the fact that it was impossible to establish a link in a prospective study between stress and the chances of conceiving via IVF was encouraging.

"During IVF treatment patients frequently ask about the relationship between psychological stress and outcome and often express worries that their own stress might have a negative influence, so the fact that our prospective study did not indicate any relationship is reassuring.

"This is a positive message we can give our patients to help decrease their stress at this time."

Dr Allan Pacey, senior lecturer in andrology at the University of Sheffield, said: "Undergoing IVF is stressful enough. It is reassuring to know that a couples' stress levels are not going to lower their chances of success."

But a spokeswoman for Infertility Network UK said: "Stress may not be a significant factor in the outcome of treatment, but it is a very real factor throughout the infertility process and affects every part of a couples life. "We often find that couples will only speak of their anxieties to each other or others who have experienced similar problems. "Infertility Network UK gives them the opportunity to speak to others through our helplines, local groups and chatrooms and forums."

Campaign for tougher anti-smoking laws stepped up

2005-08-26T17:16:00.000+07:00

The British Medical Association (BMA) has stepped up it's campaign for tougher anti-smoking laws with a blunt warning to the health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, that her current plans are a virtual death sentence for some bar staff.

The doctors have criticised proposals to delay a ban on smoking in pubs and clubs until 2008 and to provide a permanent exemption for drinks-only establishments that do not serve prepared food.

According to Vivienne Nathanson, the BMA's head of science and ethics, each year of delay condemns around 50 hospitality workers to die as a result of exposure to second-hand smoke while at work.

This she says is totally unacceptable and completely unnecessary.

Nathanson argues that the exemption for drinks-only bars was arbitrary, inequitable and not supported by the health evidence.

"Secondhand smoke kills", she says whether or not there are pies with the pints.

Her comments came as the BMA submitted its response to government plans to legislate for a partial smoking ban in England and Wales.

Health secretary Hewitt has continued to support a compromise plan devised before the general election by her predecessor, John Reid, in order to achieve a ban on smoking in most enclosed public places by 2007.

Reid believed there was not enough public support for an outright ban in pubs and clubs, fearing that Labour might suffer at the polls.

Although Hewitt has subtly altered the government's position by telling the doctors and other anti-smoking campaigners to do all they can to win over public opinion, whether she thinks they have done enough is unclear.

It is expected her intentions will be revealed after consultations on the legislation, and to coincide with the launch of a government campaign in September.

Previous campaigns have focused on the risks to children and teenagers, but it appears the forthcoming one will stress the effect of passive smoking on the health of adults.

The BMA is ready to accuse Hewitt of inconsistency if the smoking ban is not imposed without exemptions.

Dr Nathanson says doctors are passionate about the issue because they see the devastation secondhand smoke causes.

Apparently over 1,700 doctors have contacted their MPs calling on them to urge the government in Westminster to rethink its proposals.

Ireland, Scotland, Italy and New Zealand have recently introduced legislation to ban smoking in all enclosed workplaces, without delays or exemptions for the licensed trade.

The BMA says the majority of people support smoke-free policies, and is calling for the Welsh assembly to be given the powers it is seeking to impose tougher anti-smoking legislation in Wales.

In New York, Ireland and other cities and countries that have gone smoke-free, the policies have not harmed business, and are popular.

A Department of Health spokeswoman says the government's proposals would make the vast majority of workplaces smoke free, saving thousands of lives in England, reducing deaths from cancer, heart disease and other conditions that smoking causes.

She says public opinion was crucial to decisions and showed that the public were far less supportive of measures to make all bars and pubs smoke free.

India encephalitis toll hits 175

2005-08-26T17:15:00.000+07:00

The number of deaths from an outbreak of Japanese encephalitis in India's Uttar Pradesh state has risen to at least 175.

Officials fear the death toll may be much higher as fatalities in rural areas often go unreported.

They say there is an acute shortage of vaccine in the northern state.

In the past few weeks more than 500 people, mostly children, have been treated for the disease, which occurs regularly during India's monsoon.

Encephalitis, a mosquito-borne disease, has killed 8,000 people in Uttar Pradesh since 1978.

Hospital overcrowding

The BBC's Ram Dutt Tripathi in Lucknow says the official figures may be under-estimates as Gorakhpur district, 250km (165 miles) east of state capital Lucknow, has itself reported 167 deaths.

Most of the victims are very poor people from rural areas, says Dr TN Dhole, professor of microbiology in Lucknow's Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Medical Institute.

Senior officials have travelled to the area to supervise relief operations.

Doctors said children between the age of six months to 15 years were worst-affected.

Dr KP Kushwaha, a paediatrician from Gorakhpur, said up to 50 new sufferers were arriving every day.

He said there were no beds available in the hospital and even the corridors were full.

Japanese encephalitis, which causes high fever, vomiting and can leave patients comatose, usually hits the state at the end of August but this time it struck in July.

The disease has recurred annually in eastern regions of the state since about 1980.

Uttar Pradesh needs 50m vaccines every year, according to state health officials.

But the Kasauli-based Central Institute is only able to supply 200,000, they say.

HHS uses 'grass-roots approach' to tout new Medicare drug plan

2005-08-26T17:14:00.000+07:00

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt visited Houston on Tuesday to rally efforts to promote the Medicare prescription-drug coverage that will be available for seniors beginning Jan. 1.

Leavitt, who spoke at the Windsor Village United Methodist Church, said the inclusion of prescription-drug coverage represents the most significant change in Medicare since it was started 40 years ago.

Before his meeting at the church, Leavitt said that Medicare, in the past, was willing to pay $100,000 for a heart operation but would not pay the cost of prescription drugs to prevent a heart attack. With the upcoming changes, he said, such medications will be covered.

"It's not just about prescription drugs," he said. "It's about changing the way America views health care. In the past, we've seen health care primarily as something we get when we are sick. ... This is an effort to prevent illness, to keep people healthy."

Seniors, beginning Nov. 15, will be able to sign up for drug coverage after choosing one of a number of private insurance plans. Most seniors will pay a monthly premium, although the fee may be partially waived for low-income seniors.

Leavitt said the federal government is relying on local community groups and medical professionals to help raise awareness about the changes. "Our approach," he said, "is a grass-roots approach."

The state's commissioner of health, Dr. Eduardo Sanchez, accompanied Leavitt, saying he sees the new drug coverage as a major benefit for seniors.

Diagnosis A 'Big' Headache For Doc

2005-08-26T17:13:00.000+07:00

As doctors warn more patients that they should lose weight, the advice has backfired on one doctor with a woman filing a complaint with the state saying he was hurtful, not helpful.

Rochester, NH -- Dr. Terry Bennett says he tells obese patients their weight is bad for their health and their love lives, but the lecture drove one patient to complain to the state. "I told a fat woman she was obese," Bennett says. "I tried to get her attention. I told her, 'You need to get on a program, join a group of like-minded people and peel off the weight that is going to kill you.' " He says he wrote a letter of apology to the woman when he found out she was offended. Her complaint, filed about a year ago, was initially investigated by a panel of the New Hampshire Board of Medicine, which recommended that Bennett be sent a confidential letter of concern. The board rejected the suggestion in December and asked the attorney general's office to investigate. Bennett rejected that office's proposal that he attend a medical education course and acknowledge that he made a mistake.

World slow to face bird flu threat

2005-08-26T17:11:00.000+07:00

Plans for a global response to a mass outbreak of bird flu in humans are taking shape, but are far from complete.

Public health experts and epidemiologists are issuing shrill warnings about the dangers a pandemic would pose to human health around the world.

Any confirmation that the H5N1 bird flu virus has become capable of human-to-human transmission will send the World Health Organisation's pandemic alert level, currently at Level 3, soaring towards the highest state of danger, Level 6.

Air travel could be among the first casualties of a global panic as governments try to prevent the disease spreading.

"There may be some small restrictions imposed in the early days of a pandemic," Dick Thompson of the WHO told the BBC News website.

"But they will fail, because infected people will not yet be showing symptoms."

While emergency services in many countries train regularly to cope with major terror attacks, convincing national governments to draw up and implement expensive plans for disease containment is proving hard work.

Just 40 governments around the world have submitted plans for dealing with a pandemic to the WHO.

The majority of those are wealthy western nations - not the Asian countries where the H5N1 avian influenza virus has taken hold and killed 57 people.

Asian epicentre

The detection of bird flu in Russia has jolted European nations towards action, fearful that migration patterns could spread the virus westwards.

Tamsin Rose, secretary general of the European Public Health Alliance, which represents 115 European NGOs in Brussels, fears that a lack of planning could undermine efforts to contain the virus.

"There needs to be clear guidance on what civil society needs to do," she told the BBC News website.

"Which key workers are needed to help out? Will schools be closed and turned into triage centres? How ready are we for this effort? We can't see our members getting ready for this."

Indeed, experts trying to forecast the outbreak of a human pandemic are still focusing on south-east Asia, not Europe or north America.

In a recent simulation designed to assess the likelihood of containing an outbreak in that region, scientists concluded that the bird flu virus could be contained by rapid identification of the source of infection, combined with quick and intensive distribution of anti-viral drugs.

An international stockpile of anti-viral drugs should be established to enable rapid distribution in the event of an outbreak, the study said.

The findings, published in the journal Nature at the start of August, were broadly welcomed by the WHO.

In response, pharmaceutical giant Roche has pledged to make three million courses of its anti-viral drug Tamiflu available to the organisation.

Distributing them effectively is another matter. Thus far, agreement extends to a "promise" from Roche to ship the drugs to an international airport near the outbreak.

'Pandemic inevitable'

On the ground, mankind's fight against a potentially deadly virus will fall into the hands of highly skilled volunteers.

With little manpower of its own, the WHO operates a worldwide volunteer known as the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network.

Small teams of epidemiologists, database managers, intensive care staff and other experts can quickly be deployed to try to control an outbreak.

After the initial "firefighting", though, responsibility must rest with national governments. If a pandemic develops, the WHO warns, relying on volunteers will be pointless.

Secondary clusters of infection are unlikely to receive anti-viral drugs from any international stockpile, and governments will have to rely on their own supplies.

In any case, those drugs already developed are unlikely to be entirely equipped to quell an outbreak of a mutated form of H5N1. An effective vaccine could take six months to develop once any new strain is identified.

"We keep encouraging countries to develop a plan because a pandemic is inevitable," Dick Thompson said, warning that between two million and seven million people around the world could die.

Tamsin Rose of EPHA is less circumspect.

"Millions and millions would die, and a pandemic would change society as we know it," she said. "And no-one seems prepared."

Mozambique Moves to Save "AIDS Fetuses"

2005-08-26T17:10:00.000+07:00

MAPUTO, Mozambique, August 23, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Already fighting a high HIV prevalence, Mozambique has moved in cooperation with world bodies to nip the deadly virus in the bud by trying to prevent its transmission from HIV-positive pregnant mothers to fetuses.

“We are trying here in Mozambique an effective US-tested drug that prevented mother-to-fetus transmission during the first three months of pregnancy,” Dr. Wafa El-Sadr, chief of the Infectious Disease Department in Columbia University, told IslamOnline.net Tuesday, August 23.

Egyptian-born Sadr said this antiretroviral drug reduces transmission rate by 50 percent.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there is a 15–30% risk of transmission of HIV from mother to child during pregnancy, labor and delivery.

Studies have shown that antiretroviral drugs, cesarean delivery and formula feeding reduce the chance of transmission of HIV from mother to child.

AIDS-stricken Africa

Sadr said the government of the United States has allocated $20 million annually for five years to fight AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) in the southeastern African country and eight other countries in AIDS-plagued Africa.

“Part of our Mozambique project is to establish specialized hospitals and medical centers to check up locals and provide different treatment regimens to the infected,” Sadr added.

Africa has been hit harder by the HIV virus than any other continent.

More than 17 million Africans have died from AIDS and another 25 million are HIV positive, approximately 1.9 million of whom are children, according to the Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

Sub-Saharan Africa is home to more than 60% of all people worldwide living with HIV.

Official estimates indicate that some 16 percent of Mozambique's 19 million people are HIV positive.

Mozambique is the third African country with high HIV prevalence after Swaziland and South Africa.

Parents lose right-to-life appeal

2005-08-26T17:09:00.000+07:00

The parents of a brain-damaged baby have failed to overturn a court order that rules she should be allowed to die if she stops breathing.

Darren and Debbie Wyatt, from Portsmouth, presented a letter at the Court of Appeal from doctors saying Charlotte has made remarkable progress.

The 22-month-old has serious lung, brain and kidney damage.

Doctors at St Mary's Hospital, in Portsmouth, won the legal right not to resuscitate her last October.

Mr and Mrs Wyatt's solicitor, Richard Stein, said: "They are pleased that the court recognised Charlotte's continued improvement.

"The doctor called her improvement remarkable and one of the judges called it astonishing.

"We have the hearing in the autumn when all the evidence will be heard before the court and we are very optimistic that at that point the declaration will be dismissed."

Despite Mr and Mrs Wyatt losing their appeal on Thursday, the three judges at the Court of Appeal said that a review of the case - originally scheduled for October - should be brought forward to look again at the order.

'No error of law'

Mr Justice Hedley, who granted the original order, had said he did not believe "any further aggressive treatment, even if necessary to prolong her life, is in her best interests".

Charlotte's parents challenged that decision in April but failed, leading to the latest appeal.

On Thursday, after a full-day hearing, Lords Justices Laws, Wall and Lloyd ruled that Mr Justice Hedley had "made no error of law" and rejected the Wyatt's appeal.

On the steps of the High Court in London, Pat Forsythe, Portsmouth Hospital Trust spokeswoman, said: "It is not a case of winning or losing.

'Signs of improvement'

"Our doctors and nurses, who have spent so much time caring for Charlotte, share the pleasure of her parents that she has some sense of sight, some sense of hearing and that she is showing signs of improvement with her breathing.

"However, Portsmouth Hospital Trust is content that the Court of Appeal today has upheld the right of our clinicians not to ventilate Charlotte if they judge it would not be in her best interests.

"We would assure her parents, the courts and the public as a whole that indeed our doctors and nurses will continue to give Charlotte the best possible quality of care for the foreseeable future."

Scientists probe anti-ageing gene

2005-08-26T17:07:00.000+07:00

Scientists in the United States have discovered a gene that can keep mice alive for 30% longer than normal.

They say the gene has a key role to play in many of the processes related to ageing.

Because humans have a very similar version of the gene, the hope is that it will show a way to improve our declining years.

The gene studied in the new research is called Klotho, named after a minor Greek goddess who spins life's thread.

The gene certainly seems to do that.

Mice - and people - with defective forms of the gene appear to age prematurely.

Now researchers have shown that by boosting the activity of the gene, they can extend the natural lives of male mice from two to three years.

The effect is not quite so strong in female mice.

Downsides

"It could be one of the significant steps for developing anti-ageing therapy," Dr Makoto Kuro-o, assistant professor of pathology at the University of Texas' Southwestern Medical Center and senior author of the study, told Science magazine.

Klotho seems to delay many of the effects of old age, like the weakening of bones, clogging of the arteries and loss of muscle fitness.

This is important for those researching the causes of ageing, whose intention is not so much to prolong life as to improve the quality of our final years.

But there may be downsides with Klotho.

The long-lived mice in the new experiments tend to be less fertile.

And the gene may also predispose people to diabetes.

The trick for researchers will be to find ways of getting the life-enhancing results of Klotho while avoiding the drawbacks.

Medics attack use of homeopathy

2005-08-26T17:06:00.000+07:00

A leading medical journal has made a damning attack on homeopathy, saying it is no better than dummy drugs.

The Lancet says the time for more studies is over and doctors should be bold and honest with patients about homeopathy's "lack of benefit".

A Swiss-UK review of 110 trials found no convincing evidence the treatment worked any better than a placebo.

Advocates of homeopathy maintained the therapy, which works on the principle of treating like with like, does work.

Continuing dispute

Someone with an allergy, for example, who was using homeopathic medicines would attempt to beat it with an ultra-diluted dose of an agent that would cause the same symptoms.

The row over homeopathy has been raging for years.

In 2002, American illusionist James Randi offered $1m to anyone able to prove, under observed conditions in a laboratory, that homeopathic remedies can really cure people.

To date, no-one has passed the preliminary tests.

In the UK, homeopathy is available on the NHS. Some argue that it should be more widely available, while others believe it should not be offered at all.

In 2000, the UK Parliamentary Select Committee on Science and Technology issued a report on complementary and alternative medicine.

It reported that "any therapy that makes specific claims for being able to treat specific conditions should have evidence of being able to do this above and beyond the placebo effect".

According to Professor Matthias Egger, from the University of Berne, and Swiss colleagues from Zurich University and a UK team at the University of Bristol, homeopathy has no such evidence.

They compared 110 trials that looked at the effects of homeopathy versus placebo with 110 trials of conventional medicines for the same medical disorders or diseases.

This included trials for the treatment of asthma, allergies and muscular problems, some large and some small.

For both homeopathy and conventional medicines, the smaller trials of lower quality showed more beneficial treatment effects than the larger trials.

However, when they looked at only the larger, high-quality trials, they found no convincing evidence that homeopathy worked any better than placebo.

Professor Egger said: "We acknowledge to prove a negative is impossible.

"But good large studies of homeopathy do not show a difference between the placebo and the homeopathic remedy, whereas in the case of conventional medicines you still see an effect."

He said some people do report feeling better after having homeopathy. He believes this is down to the whole experience of the therapy, with the homeopath spending a lot of time and attention on the individual.

"It has nothing to do with what is in the little white pill," he said.

'Research bias'

However, the Lancet also reports that a draft report on homeopathy by the World Health Organization says the majority of peer-reviewed scientific papers published over the past 40 years have demonstrated that homeopathy is superior to placebo in placebo-controlled trials.

Furthermore, it says that homeopathy is equivalent to conventional medicines in the treatment of illnesses, both in humans and animals.

Professor Edzard Ernst, professor of complementary medicine at the Peninsula Medical School in Exeter, said the draft WHO report seemed overtly biased and that all of the trials cited happened to be positive.

"They are not the most rigorous ones, not the most recent," he said.

A spokeswoman from the Society of Homeopaths said: "Many previous studies have demonstrated that homeopathy has an effect over and above placebo.

"It has been established beyond doubt and accepted by many researchers, that the placebo-controlled randomised controlled trial is not a fitting research tool with which to test homeopathy."

Early-term fetuses don't feel pain: report

2005-08-26T17:04:00.000+07:00

CHICAGO — A review of medical evidence has found that fetuses likely don't feel pain until the final months of pregnancy, a powerful challenge to abortion opponents who hope that discussions about fetal pain will make women think twice about ending pregnancies.

Critics angrily disputed the findings and claimed the report is biased.

"They have literally stuck their hands into a hornet's nest,'' said Dr. Kanwaljeet Anand, a fetal pain researcher at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, who believes fetuses as young as 20 weeks old feel pain. "This is going to inflame a lot of scientists who are very, very concerned and are far more knowledgeable in this area than the authors appear to be. This is not the last word -- definitely not.''

The review by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco comes as advocates are pushing for fetal pain laws aimed at curtailing abortion. Proposed federal legislation would require doctors to provide fetal pain information to women seeking abortions when fetuses are at least 20 weeks old, and to offer women fetal anesthesia at that stage of the pregnancy. A handful of states have enacted similar measures.

But the report, appearing in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, says that offering fetal pain relief during abortions in the fifth or sixth months of pregnancy is misguided and might result in unacceptable health risks to women.

Dr. Nancy Chescheir, chairman of obstetrics and gynecology at Vanderbilt University and a board director at the Society of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, said the article "will help to develop some consensus'' on when fetuses feel pain. "To date, there hasn't been any.''

The researchers reviewed dozens of studies and medical reports and said the data indicate that fetuses likely are incapable of feeling pain until around the seventh month of pregnancy, when they are about 28 weeks old.

While brain structures involved in feeling pain begin forming much earlier, research indicates they likely do not function until the pregnancy's final stages, said the report's senior author, UCSF obstetric anesthesiologist Dr. Mark Rosen.

Based on the evidence, discussions of fetal pain for abortions performed before the end of the second trimester should not be mandatory, the researchers said.

The authors include the administrator of a UCSF abortion clinic, but the researchers dispute the claim that the report is biased.

Dr. Catherine DeAngelis, JAMA's editor-in-chief, said the decision to publish the review was not politically motivated.

"Oh, please,'' DeAngelis said. "If I had a political agenda, I wouldn't pick fetal pain.''

JAMA does not publish "politically motivated science. We publish data-based, evidence-based science,'' DeAngelis said.

The measure pending in Congress would affect about 18,000 U.S. abortions a year performed in the fifth month of pregnancy or later, said Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee. He said the review is slanted.

But Rosen said the researchers "tried to review the literature in an unbiased fashion. This was a multidisciplinary effort by experts on anesthesia, neuroanatomy, obstetrics and neonatal development.''

Rosen also said that administering anesthesia or painkillers to the fetus could pose health risks to the mother.

When doctors operate on fetuses to correct defects before birth, general anesthesia is given to the mother primarily to immobilize the fetus and to make the uterus relax, Rosen said. Anesthesia during fetal surgery increases the mother's risks for breathing problems and bleeding from a relaxed uterus, the researchers said.

Rosen said those risks are medically acceptable when the goal is to save the fetus but there's not enough evidence to show any benefit from fetus-directed anesthesia during an abortion.

Administering anesthesia directly to the fetus is also sometimes done but generally to reduce the release of potentially harmful fetal stress hormones, Rosen said. There is little research on its effects, the authors said.

Anand, the researcher from Arkansas, said the authors excluded or minimized evidence suggesting fetal pain sensation begins in the second trimester and wrongly assume that fetuses' brains sense pain in the same way as adult brains.

While Anand has testified as an expert witness for the government in court cases opposing some late-term abortions, he said he is not anti-abortion and that his views are based on years of fetal pain research.

The Graffiti Connection To Obesity

2005-08-23T19:51:00.000+07:00

HEALTHY LIVING — British researchers say people who live in city areas with lots of graffiti are more likely to be obese.

The study found people who lived in areas with little green space, with a lot of graffiti and litter were less likely to be physically active, and more likely to be obese. Researchers found people who lived in areas with high levels of greenery, were much more likely to be physically active.

The study is published in the British Medical Journal.

Poll backs total smoking ban

2005-08-23T19:49:00.000+07:00

The majority say new laws should apply without exception, according to the survey for Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and Cancer Research UK.

A complete ban was supported by 73 per cent of the 1,000 people questioned ahead of the Health Improvement and Protection Bill, due to be laid before Parliament in November.

The Government is currently proposing to exempt pubs that do not serve prepared food and private membership clubs from the smokefree legislation.

The poll also shows that 85 per cent of people would visit bars and pubs as often or even more often if they were smokefree by law.

ASH director Deborah Arnott said: "The public wants action to end second-hand smoke at work. It now kills more than 600 people at work every year three times the number of deaths from industrial accidents. And it causes many thousands of asthma attacks and episodes of illness.

"The pointless and damaging exemptions for pubs and clubs must be dropped from the final Bill. Smokefree legislation must be comprehensive if it is to be successful."

The hospitality industry has nothing to fear from a ban, campaigners claim.

Cancer Research UK's chief executive Professor Alex Markham said: "The vast majority of people say they would still visit pubs if they were smokefree.

"This is supported by the experiences of places such as Ireland and New York, where there is clear evidence that going smokefree does not damage profits."

Drug interfering with viral genetics shows promise in treatment of SARS

2005-08-23T19:48:00.000+07:00

WASHINGTON - A paper that has been published in the September issue of the journal Nature Medicine, says that researchers have developed a new drug that appears to be effective against the deadly Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS in early stages. A team of international researchers including scientists from U.S., China and Germany claim that this new drug was effective in treating monkeys infected with the SARS virus. In the article in the journal, the researchers have described that they were able to treat the monkeys by developing a drug that interfered with the normal function of the chemical messengers within the virus. The particular method described in the paper involves an experimental treatment called as "small interfering RNAs" or siRNAs. These protocols are being developed by a Maryland-based biotech company Intradigm Corp. Patrick Lu of Intradigm and his colleagues from China and Germany have developed two siRNAs, which were found to combat the power of two vital genes in the SARS virus called as Spike and ORF1b23. The researchers tested these siRNAs in 20 monkeys infected with SARS. A group of monkeys was given the anti-SARS siRNAs through their nose while the control group was given a siRNA that was ineffective against the virus. Researchers found that the typical symptoms of the disease, which include fever and sore throat, decreased in intensity after a few days of therapy. They also claim that detectable fragments of the virus were found in less than 25 percent of the monkeys undergoing treatment. "The prophylactic treatment group had the lowest temperature (38.7degC), close to the normal body temperature of Rhesus monkey (38.5degC). All animals displayed a loss of appetite and some became agitated and aggressive," the researchers wrote in the journal. Later on when the monkeys were sacrificed, researchers found that the treatment group had fewer infected lung cells than those in the control group. The researchers conclude that the treatment could be safely applied in humans. However, other scientists have their own doubts about its effectiveness. The first time that SARS came to international notice was in November 2002. Subsequently, 8,000 people worldwide were infected with the virus and it proved fatal for 800 people. The SARS virus technically is a 3-C-like protease and has so far eluded treatment as well as an attempt to develop vaccines. The above-mentioned study is the first one to show promise in that it is for the first time that the importance of RNA in its treatment has been highlighted. Ribose nucleic acid or RNA is the genetic counterpart of DNA (the life molecule) that carries out the work on the instructions of the DNA. There are three types of RNA, which perform various roles in protein synthesis in the body. By interfering with this function, researchers hope that they can render the SARS virus ineffective.

Health experts anticipate human West Nile cases in Ore.

2005-08-23T19:47:00.000+07:00

MEDFORD, Ore. -- State health officials recommend extra caution against mosquitoes for the rest of the year after West Nile virus was detected in the Medford area. State testing last week confirmed the virus was present in two groups of mosquitoes collected along the Rogue River near White City, just north of Medford. Jackson County health workers found three more groups of infected mosquitoes from the same area and one from a housing development near Central Point, said Eugene Papineau, manager of Jackson County's Vector Control District. He is waiting for the state lab to also confirm the tests for those mosquitoes. Meanwhile, health officials recommend precautions, including plenty of mosquito repellent, long-sleeved shirts and ensuring window screens are snug and in good condition. Several Jackson County residents have been tested after reporting West Nile symptoms this summer, said Gary Stevens, the county's environmental health program manager. Those tests have been negative so far, but "we expect a positive at any time," Stevens said. Dr. Emilio DeBess, Oregon public health veterinarian, said eight birds and three horses have been infected with the virus in Oregon this summer. The disease is transmitted by mosquitoes but affects both animals and humans. The tests showing West Nile virus present in mosquitoes in southern Oregon means humans are likely next to be infected, DeBess said. "I can promise you that we're going to see cases in a couple of weeks," DeBess said. West Nile infections rarely cause serious problems in people. Up to 80 percent of those infected may have no symptoms. Most of the rest get an ailment similar to the flu. But severe cases can inflame the brain or its lining and occasionally be fatal. In 2004, doctors found five people infected with West Nile virus in Oregon, and one resident who was infected in another state. Three of the five felt sick, and all recovered. The virus also was found in 23 birds and 32 horses last year, according to state health statistics. Most of the human and animal cases came from Malheur and Jackson counties. State health officials had worried 2005 would bring many more human infections, a pattern seen in other states dealing with a second year of the virus. But the weather made for a late start to Oregon's mosquito season and a mild West Nile season so far. DeBess expects that the season will end a couple of weeks later than usual, in late September.

China reports new pig disease death

2005-08-23T19:45:00.000+07:00

The new death and three separate infections were reported in Guangdong province, where two cases were reported in early August, even as the China Daily praised government efforts to confine the bacterial disease to southwestern Sichuan.

"Although the losses are hard to bear, at least the disease was confined to a single province and has not triggered a major crisis," the newspaper said in a commentary.

Hong Kong Health Minister York Chow was due to fly to Beijing later on Tuesday for urgent talks on improving food safety amid a series of health scares.

News of his trip came just hours after Hong Kong said a 79-year-old woman had contracted the pig-borne disease and after more samples of fish from mainland China tested positive for a suspected cancer-causing chemical.

Most of the victims of the pig disease, caused by the Streptococcus suis bacterium, became sick after slaughtering, handling or eating infected swine.

No cases among pigs had been found in Guangdong, Xinhua news agency said, adding health and agriculture departments were taking emergency measures to prevent the disease from spreading.

Hong Kong has already banned pork imports from parts of China. The city has also seen five human cases of the disease.

The outbreak of the pig disease first surfaced in Sichuan, China's top pork-producing region, in June but was not mentioned in Chinese media until almost a month later.

But the China Daily hailed the handling of the pig disease as a marked improvement from the response to the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak, which was initially covered up and went to infect nearly 8,500 people worldwide and kill about 800.

"The SARS nightmare is history -- along with the old closed door methods," the China Daily said.

At least four officials have been sacked for trying to cover up the trail of dead pigs early in the outbreak, which made more than 200 people in the area sick.

Streptoccocus suis is endemic in most pig-rearing countries, although human infections are rare. Chinese state media has said no human-to-human infections have been found in Sichuan, but the death toll from the disease was considered unusually high.

Ovarian cancer symptoms reported much earlier than diagnosis: study

2005-08-23T19:44:00.000+07:00

A study by University of California at Davis School of Medicine in Sacramento has found that many ovarian cancer patients had alerted their doctors about the symptoms almost a year before they were diagnosed with the malignancy but were not made to undergo the correct tests. Under the study, researchers reviewed the medical records of 1,985 women who were suffering from ovarian cancer, 6,024 from breast cancer, and 10,941 Medicare-enrolled elderly women who were cancer-free. They found that as many as 40 per cent of the women who later developed ovarian cancers reported symptoms like abdominal pain and swelling between 36 to 4 months earlier than their diagnosis. “Our findings suggest that ovarian cancer could be diagnosed earlier in some patients whose diagnosis is currently delayed by at least four months because physicians order abdominal imaging or perform gastrointestinal procedures before they order a test more likely to diagnose ovarian cancer, such as pelvic imaging and/or CA125,” said Dr Lloyd Smith, the lead author of the study. Diagnosis in the case of ovarian cancer is difficult and the disease goes unnoticed for a long time. It also spreads rapidly and so early diagnosis is crucial. The study found that only about 25 per cent of ovarian cancer patients had been assigned diagnostic pelvic imaging or CA125 serum tests in the 36 to 4 months period before their cancer was discovered. A majority of the women were subjected to abdominal imaging or diagnostic gastrointestinal studies, which are the less accurate methods of diagnosing the malignant disease. According to the study, about 54 per cent of ovarian cancer patients were made to undergo pelvic imaging or CA125 serum tests about three months before they were diagnosed with ovarian cancer. The American Cancer Society has said that over 22,000 women in the United States would be diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2005 and over 16,000 would succumb to it. The study’s report, titled Ovarian Cancer: Can We Make the Clinical Diagnosis Earlier has been published in the journal Cancer.

Fetal skin cells heal burns

2005-08-22T00:51:00.000+07:00

The application of a small number of fetal cells can heal the wounds of young burn victims, researchers in Switzerland report. The new procedure can produce a speedier and more complete recovery than traditional skin grafts, they say. The source of the healing cells may prove controversial in countries such as the United States, however, as they came from an aborted fetus. Doctors typically treat deep second- and third-degree burns with skin grafting. In this two-step surgical procedure a patch of skin is removed from one area of the body and transplanted to cover the wound. This can be effective, but often leaves the patient with a scar and may take months to heal. Patrick Hohlfeld of the University Hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland, and his team decided to explore the potential of fetal skin cells in grafts. Fetuses have long been known to have remarkable regenerative abilities. Hohlfeld says he expected the skin cells to act as a graft. But the cells seemed to confer restorative powers to the burnt skin, allowing the damaged tissue to heal itself. The team doesn't know exactly how the skin cells had this effect. But Hohlfeld thinks the technique could work for adult burns, as well as other wounds. "We have not tested this healing process in older patients, but there is no reason to think otherwise," he says. Rapid repair The team obtained the fetal cells from a woman whose pregnancy was terminated at 14 weeks. They allowed the cells to divide in the laboratory, and then seeded them onto a bed of collagen - an important protein for skin elasticity - and incubated them for two days. This procedure can source several million 100-cm2 patches for transplant from a single fetal biopsy, they say. Eight burn victims, ranging in age from 14 months to 9 years, underwent treatment. Hohlfeld and his colleagues placed tiny swatches of cells onto the burn wounds and covered the area with gauze. The treated wounds took an average of 15 days to heal, the team reports in The Lancet¹. "The nurses couldn't believe the speed at which these burns healed," Hohlfeld says. Other forms of treating similar burns frequently take up to six times as long. The remarkable flexibility of the skin mended with the fetal cells meant that the patients recovered full movement of their hands and fingers, the authors add. The result not only gave the patients nearly perfect skin, but also spared them the trauma of having a graft taken from elsewhere on their body, Hohlfeld adds

Advance made in stem-cell debate

2005-08-22T00:50:00.000+07:00

A team of Texas and British researchers says it has produced large amounts of embryoniclike stem cells from umbilical cord blood, potentially ending the ethical debate affecting stem-cell research -- the need to kill human embryos. The international researchers said the cells -- called cord-blood-derived-embryoniclike stem cells, or CBEs -- have the ability to turn into any kind of body tissue, like embryonic stem cells do, and can be mass-produced using technology derived from NASA. "It looks very promising," said Dr. Randall Urban, an endocrinologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. He stressed more research has to be done. In a report published in the August issue of the journal Cell Proliferation, Dr. Urban and researchers at Kingston University in England described how they turned the CBEs into human liver tissue. Scientists believe the ability to replicate tissue could lead to the development of ways to replace organs as well as treat life-threatening diseases such as diabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, which have been the focus of stem-cell research. "It will be important if it's true, and I hope it's true," Charles Jennings, executive director of Harvard University's Stem-Cell Institute, said yesterday. But he said "many questions" need to be answered. Those questions, he and other scientists said, include whether CBEs will function properly and what their life span will be. Politically, the team's findings offer hope to pro-life opponents of using federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research, which requires the destruction of human embryos. They say such research has been hyped and is far from proven. They've regularly called for more umbilical-cord-blood research. In 2001, President Bush set a policy limiting federal funding to research on a group of embryonic stem-cell lines already in existence at that time -- estimated to be 78 lines -- a move many scientists argue has stifled the search for cures. Dr. Urban said he sees a need for both adult and embryonic stem-cell research, but recognizes the objections of the pro-life community. In contrast, he said, "cord blood is normally discarded tissue" after birth, so there are no ethical concerns. In addition to the moral questions surrounding their use, embryonic stem cells are rare. The Texas and British researchers point out that cord blood is an attractive source for stem cells, given that 100 million babies globally are born each year, 4 million in the United States alone. The researchers' findings come less than a month after Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist surprised Capitol Hill by endorsing a bill to make more embryonic stem-cell research eligible for federal funding, breaking with Mr. Bush, who has said he would veto the legislation. Mr. Frist, a physician, expressed qualified support for House-passed legislation that allows federal funding for an unspecified number of new lines of stem cells derived from embryos left over at in vitro fertilization clinics. Senate action on the stem-cell issue is still being worked out. David Prentice, senior fellow for life sciences for the Family Research Council, which advocates cord-blood and other adult stem-cell research that does not require destruction of embryos, said the research sounds "real exciting." Mr. Prentice said it is especially interesting because it comes just two weeks after scientists at the University of Pittsburgh announced they have discovered a type of cell in the human placenta that also shares the ability of embryonic stem cells to regenerate a wide variety of tissue. Publication in a medical or scientific journal is the usual forum to announce a medical discovery. But publication of the Pittsburgh research has been delayed while the university sought patent protection for its discovery.

Obesity crisis in the concrete jungles

2005-08-22T00:47:00.000+07:00

People living in concrete jungles surrounded by graffiti are more likely to be obese than those from more green and pleasant areas, a study has showed.

The alarming research will increase concern over the disappearance of school playing fields and local parks.

Evidence also suggests that high levels of "incivilities" - such as litter and graffiti - are linked to poor health.

Researchers from the Medical Research Council set out to discover whether living in less pleasant areas really was linked to higher levels of obesity among adults.

The team, writing on bmj.com, analysed data from a large housing and health survey carried out in 2002-03 in eight European countries - France, Germany, Slovakia, Hungary, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland and Lithuania.

The researchers wanted to test the theory that living in pleasant areas with lots of green spaces and less rubbish might encourage people to take more exercise and reduce their risk of obesity.

Graffiti and litter

So the team assessed the local environment in the cities studied, taking into account factors such as graffiti, litter and dog mess as well as levels of vegetation and greenery visible in the area.

The researchers found that people living in greener areas were three times more likely to be physically active than those living in less green places.

Their likelihood of being overweight or obese was also about 40 per cent less.

But in contrast, those people living in areas with high amounts of litter and graffiti and less greenery were 50 per cent less likely to be physically active.

Their likelihood of being overweight or obese was also 50 per cent higher.

"Higher levels of greenery and lower levels of graffiti and litter in residential environments are associated with being physically active and not being overweight or obese," the researchers said.

"In efforts to promote physical activity and reduce weight, attention should be paid to environmental facilitators and barriers as well as individual factors."

Weight loss cuts cancer risk in young women

2005-08-22T00:46:00.000+07:00

Young women who are genetically susceptible to breast cancer may lower their risk of developing the disease by losing weight, the results of a new study indicate.

Some women carry a mutation in either one of the breast cancer susceptibility genes, BRCA1 or BRCA2. This increases their risk of developing the disease.

As body weight is also associated with the risk, a team of researchers set out to investigate whether there was an association between changes in body weight and this genetic susceptibility.

The researchers looked at over 2,000 women, all of whom carried a mutation in either their BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene.

They found that among those aged 18 - 30, a weight loss of at least 10lbs was associated with a decreased risk of developing breast cancer later on. The greatest benefit was seen in women with a faulty BRCA1 gene.

Furthermore among the BRCA1 group, those who had at least two children and who experienced a weight gain of more than 10lbs between the ages of 18 and 30, were at an increased risk of developing the disease later on.

The study found that changes in weight between the ages of 30 and 40 did not appear to influence the risk of developing the disease later on however.

"The results from this study suggest that weight loss in early adult life (18 - 30) protects against early-onset BRCA-associated breast cancers. Weight gain should also be avoided, particularly among BRCA1 mutation carriers who elect to have at least two pregnancies", the researchers said.

Details of this study are published in the journal, Breast Cancer Research.

Seneca Lake State Park Sprayground closed after 1,800 people become ill

2005-08-22T00:44:00.000+07:00

Seneca Lake State Park in upstate New York Spray Park was contaminated with the cryptosporidiosis parasite and has caused nearly 1,800 people to become ill.

The New York State Department of Health has been investigating the illness outbreak and traced the roots to the 11,000 square – foot Sprayground’s water holding tanks. The cryptosporidiosis is a parasite that has a strong protective shell that can survive chlorine disinfectants. If a person becomes infected by this parasite, it can take up to a week for the symptoms to occur and can last up to two weeks. The symptoms are usually diarrhea; some will experience dehydration, stomach cramps, weight loss, fever, nausea and vomiting.

The State Parks Department has closed the Sprayground and expects the attraction to be closed the rest of the year.

This parasite is contagious and anyone that has been infected should not go swimming to prevent spreading the parasite. It is also recommended that you should stay at home if you are sick and wash your hands well.

Drugs Seeping Into More Schools

2005-08-22T00:43:00.000+07:00

More teens are saying there are drugs in their schools, and those who have access to them are more likely to try them, said a Columbia University survey released Thursday.

Washington, DC -- 28% of middle-school-student respondents reported that drugs are used, kept or sold at their schools, a 47% jump since 2002, according to the 10th annual teen survey by Columbia's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse. The number of high schoolers saying drugs are at their schools rose 41% in the last three years, to 62%, the survey said. Twelve- to 17-year-olds who report that there are drugs in their schools are three times likelier to try marijuana and twice as likely to drink alcohol than teens who say their schools are drug free, the survey showed. "Availability is the mother of use," said Joseph Califano Jr., the center's president. "We really are putting an enormous number of 12- to 17-year-olds at great risk." Most of the teens surveyed, 58%, said the legality of cigarettes has no effect on their decision to smoke or abstain, and 48% said the fact that marijuana is illegal doesn't affect whether they use or don't use the drug. Meanwhile, the survey found teens who viewed drugs as morally wrong were significantly less likely to try them, as were those who felt their parents would be "extremely upset" to discover drug use.

New West Nile virus cases emerge in Manitoba

2005-08-20T20:24:00.000+07:00

Manitobans are being been told to remain wary, after several new suspected human cases of West Nile virus emerged in the province.

Five new cases announced Thursday bring to 12 the total number of Manitobans who have tested positive for the virus so far this year.

Three have been hospitalized after they were diagnosed as probable cases of the more severe West Nile virus neurological syndrome.

Another three cases have been classified as probable cases of the less severe West Nile non-neurological syndrome, while the other six suspected cases are still under investigation.

The new cases were announced the same day the province stopped the controversial chemical fogging program it had ordered for Winnipeg and some surrounding municipalities.

"Culex mosquitoes are still out there," Winnipeg Regional Health Authority Medical Officer of Health Margaret Fast said of the species known to transmit the virus. "The numbers are lower than previously but still significant."

In fact, even though they are still higher than previous years, city trap counts for culex tarsalis mosquitoes are at approximately the level of a week earlier.

The mosquito population may have appeared to dwindle recently, not because they've gone, but because they've been in hiding.

As Winnipeg entomologist Taz Stuart told CTV News, mosquitoes don't like to fly when the temperature dips.

"When the temperature cools below 15-13 degrees they don't fly," he said.

That means the virus-carrying mosquitoes that would normally be flying either very early or very late are now flying throughout the day.

As such, health authorities say precautions typically recommended for dawn and dusk must be taken at all times, including:

reducing the amount of time spent outdoors whenever mosquitoes are active,
using appropriate mosquito repellent, and
wearing light-coloured, loose-fitting clothing.

But many Winnipeggers told CTV News West Nile worries are far from their minds.

"Really, to be honest with you, I don't give it much thought," one man told CTV News Winnipeg. "I'm not concerned about it," another woman said.

But the flying pests could be top of mind again within a week, when a new generation of mosquitoes are expected to hatch in Winnipeg. Health officials have already said if the population swells sufficiently, pesticide fogging could resume in Winnipeg.

The provincial capital has been battling a large mosquito population this year, after a rain-soaked spring and summer created lots of standing water in which the insects could breed.

West Nile virus has since been identified in birds and mosquitoes in at least 28 communities throughout the province.

About 80 per cent of people who contract West Nile show no symptoms -- and may never even know they were infected.

In the less than one per cent of patients who become seriously ill, however, the infection can prove fatal.

People over the age of 55, as well as those who have weakened immune systems are at higher risk of serious complications.

Outbreak closes spray park: Residents urged to call health departments as intestinal illness strikes dozens

2005-08-20T20:23:00.000+07:00

GENEVA — Twelve-year-old Mary Miller and her family knew something was wrong Monday afternoon when kids were ordered out of Seneca Lake State Park’s sprayground.

But, they didn’t learn until they were at the state park again yesterday that a parasite had apparently been making dozens of visitors ill.

After roughly 40 spray park visitors reported gastrointestinal symptoms over the last three weeks — and one from Wayne County tested positive for cryptosporidium — the state Health Department and the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation temporarily closed it down, turning off the water jets and putting yellow caution tape up to keep people away.

They hope to be able to reopen the park but don’t know when they’ll be able to.

State parks spokeswoman Wendy Gibson said “We don’t want to take any chances with our patrons.”

The number of those infected had grown to more than 100 by late Tuesday afternoon.

“Oh, my, that’s bizarre,” said Miller’s mother, Yvette Newton of DeRuyter in Madison County, when she learned about the outbreak. “I’ve never heard of that happening.”

Cryptosporidiosis is caused by a microscopic parasite and spreads easily, Health Department officials said. Symptoms include diarrhea, abdominal cramping, nausea, vomiting, fever, headache and loss of appetite.

The parasite is shed in the feces of infected humans and animals, and it makes others sick when it gets into food or drink they consume. Between 400 and 500 cases occur in the state each year. The Health Department is treating the outbreak as an anomaly, saying it has never occurred at this site before.

County health offices in Ontario, Seneca, Wayne and Monroe are also involved in the investigation into the cause of the outbreak. Gibson said they are testing the spray park water to see if there is something wrong with it.

It is recommended that you call your county Health Department if you have been at the spray park since July 31 and have become ill. Call 539-1920 in Seneca County, (585) 396-4343 in Ontario County, 946-5749 in Wayne and (585) 274-6068 in Monroe County.

Citing confidentiality, officials are not releasing the name of the Wayne County resident who tested positive for the parasite. Laurie Michielson, director of the Wayne County Public Health Department, said it was found in the person’s stool after a physician’s exam and lab work was completed.

The doctor, as required, reported it to the county, Michielson said.

As word of the outbreak spread, local county health departments have received a number of phone calls from residents wanting to learn more about the illness. State Health Department spokesman Jeffery Hammond said people can avoid getting sick by taking some simple precautions, such as thoroughly washing their hands and not swallowing lake or river water.

Tuesday afternoon, Miller, her grandparents, 11-year-old brother, Kyle, and 10-year-old sister, Nadine, were back at the state park and said they had wondered if the shutdown was caused by drainage problems resulting from the spray park’s rubberized surface that “was bubbling up” under their feet.

Gibson said that possibility is being looked into.

Earlier this month, park officials were trying to figure out what was causing the 4-year-old spray park’s new rubberized surface to crumble again and tear in spots.

In May, the original surface was ripped up because it was bubbling, breaking into piles and crumbling into the drainage system. A different surface was then installed.

The $300,000 spray park — the first of its kind in the state park system — opened in 2001 to rave reviews from visitors. It was credited with increasing park attendance by roughly 80,000 people during its first year.

With this summer’s unusually high temperatures, the park has been busy with kids trying to cool off. On Tuesday, only the three disappointed Miller children — who had returned, hoping it had reopened — sat in lawn chairs near the spray park, instead of running and playing under the various sprinklers and water jets.

The spray park visit was planned as their only summer outing with their grandparents.

“Bad luck, I guess,” Miller said.

Encephalitis Kills 100 Children in India

2005-08-20T20:20:00.000+07:00

LUCKNOW, India -- Mosquito-borne Japanese encephalitis spread to new areas of India's most populous state on Saturday as the death toll from the preventable disease rose to 100 amid a shortage of funds to pay for vaccinations, officials said.

At least 28 more children were reported sick in the Hardoi, Bahraich and Hardoi districts of northern Uttar Pradesh state, and at least 100 children have died from the disease in the last 10 days, state officials said.

Vaccination protects against the disease, which often hits children, but state health authorities say there isn't enough money to immunize all children in encephalitis-prone areas.

"We do not have the funds. We had a target to vaccinate 7 million children up to the age of 10, but we could vaccinate only 200,000 children," said Dr. Sudan Singh, who manages the government-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College hospital in Gorakhpur.

The government is now seeking the help of UNICEF and the World Health Organization to help meet the target, he said.

Encephalitis kills dozens of people each year in Uttar Pradesh, India's largest state, where health services are poor. According to official estimates, about 3,500 people have died of encephalitis in the state over the past 25 years.

Symptoms of the disease start with a very high fever, followed by seizures, vomiting, then vomiting of blood. Eventually, victims can fall into a coma. Behavioral changes and delirium also often occur.

More than 200 children have been hospitalized in the state, many of them in serious condition, Mathur said.

The state government decided to provide free treatment to the sick children because most of them belonged to poor families, said Neera Yadav, the top state government official, after visiting the two government hospitals in Gorakhpur on Friday.

India.Arie featured with Ashley Judd in AIDS documentary on VH1

2005-08-20T20:18:00.000+07:00

NEW YORK (AP) - India.Arie is hoping viewers will be moved to action after watching VH1's upcoming documentary, Tracking the Monster, in which she and actress Ashley Judd visit separate African countries grappling with the plight of AIDS.

"It's what the power of this piece is, because I intellectually heard the numbers and knew that Africa was being devastated, but when you see it, you only need to see a portion of it and then multiply it in your mind," the singer said after a private screening of the film on Tuesday. "Seeing it just made it much more real."

While Judd visited the island of Madagascar and talked with women in prostitution about safe sex, India.Arie went to poverty-stricken sections of Kenya and met with people infected with AIDS or the HIV-virus and comforted children orphaned by the disease.

In one heartbreaking scene, India.Arie asks a 14-year-old girl if she could have anything in the world, what would she want. The girl, an orphan, tells the singer she wants to come home with her, and bursts into tears.

"She was the same age as my sister," the 29-year-old said. "I was not only feeling for her but also feeling that there were millions of girls like her. I can't take home a million girls, I can't take home one. What would I do with a teenage daughter? ... It's a profound conflict, because I really could bring her home but I couldn't."

The singer says she's frustrated the continent hasn't received more help in its fight against AIDS: "It's not fair to me. It's not fair that people ignore AIDS in Africa because it's Africa. It's not fair. If it was eastern Europe or the lighter the ethnic group, I think the more help they would get."

The experience inspired India.Arie to write songs about her experience. Some of them will be featured on her new, dual-album project; one album will be released in the fall and another a few months later.

India.Arie thinks the new material may lead people to criticize her for being too idealistic, but she doesn't care.

"I've given up the whole fear of being called earnest because I am earnest and my music is earnest at times, and that's OK," she said. The songs that I've written about Africa, and AIDS and HIV and about the power of humanitarian love, those songs, I'm gonna sing them because I know that it's real."

VH1 is premiering Tracking the Monster on Tuesday at 8 p.m. The 90-minute documentary will air without commercials.

First Ever Surgery to Remove Tumor Saves Unborn Child

2005-08-20T20:15:00.000+07:00

Houston, TX (LifeNews.com) -- A surgery performed on an unborn child that is the first of its kind has saved the baby's life. Just three weeks before his due date, a tumor took over two-thirds of his chest, cramping his lungs so much that they would not have been able to expand after his birth and his stomach would fill with fluid as his heart failed.

But Dr. Oluyinka Olutoye was able to perform a surgery on Garrett Jorgensen, who is now three weeks old that saved his life.

Olutoye, a pediatric surgeon known affectionately as "Dr. O" at the Texas Center for Fetal Surgery, performed the surgery on July 29 when Jorgensen was seven pounds. Garrett's mother Ellen was sedated and two teams of doctors separately monitored both mother and child during it.

During the procedure, doctors delivered Garrett's head and right arm so they could gain access to his chest.

"While still attached to the mom, still getting oxygen through the placenta, we were then able to operate on this mass," Olutoye said about trying to remove the tumor.

Doctors pulled the mass outside of Garrett's lungs, according to an Associated Press report, so he would have enough room to breathe. He was then separated form his mother and taken to another room to complete the surgery.

"It was a pretty substantial endeavor," Olutoye told AP from Texas Children's Hospital where Garrett is being monitored. "This is a very new tumor that we do not understand the biology, so we are going to be following Garrett for a very, very long time to see how that plays out."

The Houston surgery center for unborn children opened last year and is similar to others located in San Francisco, Boston and Philadelphia.

"It is just incredible to think doctors can do that," Ellen Jorgensen told AP of the surgery which saved her son's life.

"We didn't do it the easy way the first time, definitely not. But once you have been pregnant all this time -- you have done everything that you are supposed to and find out, 'Oh, well he might not make it,' -- you have got to do what you can."

Texas jury in first Vioxx trial awards $253 million

2005-08-20T10:51:00.000+07:00

ANGLETON, Texas (Reuters) - A Texas jury on Friday found drug maker Merck & Co. Inc. negligent in the death of a man who took its popular painkiller Vioxx and awarded his widow $253 million in the first of thousands of Vioxx lawsuits to go to trial. The stunning verdict was certain to be greatly reduced under Texas law, but Merck's stock fell sharply as investors feared it could set a precedent for more than 4,200 lawsuits charging that the company hid the drug's health risks. Merck pulled Vioxx off the market in September 2004, saying its long-term usage could double users' risks of heart attack or stroke. Merck shares fell $2.35, or 7.73 percent, to $28.06 and put a damper on the Dow, which ended up just 4.3 points to 10559.23. The case filed by widow Carol Ernst charged that Vioxx had caused her husband, Robert Ernst, a 59-year-old marathoner who took the drug for eight months, to die of a heart attack in 2001. Merck disputed the accusation, saying an irregular heartbeat and clogged arteries killed Ernst, not Vioxx. But the 12-member jury in Texas state court voted 10-2 that Merck should pay $24 million to Carol Ernst for mental anguish and loss of companionship and $229 million in punitive damages. Merck attorney Jonathan Skidmore said the company would appeal the decision, but estimated that even if it is upheld the punitive damages would be trimmed to less than $2 million. Texas law limits punitive awards to two times economic damage -- in this case $450,000 -- plus up to another $750,000. There is no financial limit for loss of companionship and mental anguish. At the reading of the verdict in the six-week-long trial, the courtroom erupted in an uproar and Ernst broke into tears. Her lawyer, Mark Lanier, leaped up and shouted "Amen." "They knew and could see what the truth was," she told reporters. "He (Robert Ernst) wouldn't have taken that pill everyday if he knew the risks." Lanier urged Merck to settle the pending Vioxx lawsuits, not fight them. He vowed to file more lawsuits against Merck and "pound them again." "Merck, you need to address this, you need to be responsible, you need to be accountable. You can't just use your money and your resources and run. At some point, the running stops," he said. Merck general counsel Kenneth Frazier said the company would fight on, not settle. "There are other Vioxx cases coming to trial, and we will vigorously defend them one by one over the coming years," he said. Skidmore said Merck's appeal would be based on, among other things, scientific arguments. "There is no reliable scientific evidence that shows Vioxx causes cardiac arrhythmia," he said. Juror Derick Chizer, 43, said the jury, which deliberated almost two days, knew their award probably would be cut, but felt Merck needed a jolt to change its ways. "That was a message to them," he said. Another juror, Stacy Smith, 21, said she was shocked at evidence that showed the company knew the dangers of Vioxx long before they took it off the market. "That was the main thing that stuck out to me - they knew and they still put it out anyway," she said. The arthritis drug had been taken by about 20 million people at the time of its recall and contributed more than $2.5 billion in sales for Merck in 2003, about 10 percent of the company's total revenue. Vioxx is the trade name for rofecoxib, part of a class of drugs called NSAIDs. A type of painkiller known as a COX-2 inhibitor, it was touted as a pain and inflammation reliever that did not cause ulcers or gastrointestinal bleeding, a side effect of many NSAIDs. Due to the pending lawsuits, Merck said at the end of last year it had set aside $675 million to help cover legal costs. Another Vioxx trial is set to begin September 12 in New Jersey, where Merck is based. Wall Street analysts, who have been closely watching the case in Angleton, a small town about 40 miles south of Houston, say Merck's legal woes will last for years and liability in all the cases could run into billions of dollars. "It will cost them at least $1 billion a year for the next 10 years," said John LeCroy, an analyst at Natexis Bleichroeder. Lawyer Jerry Reisman, a class action attorney in Garden City, New York, said the case also may prompt many more lawsuits. "If the Ernst family is successful in this suit, Merck will find others piling on and joining class action suits," he said. "This case can send shock waves through the pharmaceutical industry."