Waterborne infectious diseases could soon be consigned to history
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Waterborne infectious diseases, which bring death and illness to millions of people around the world, could largely be consigned to history by 2015 if global health partnerships integrate their programmes, according to Alan Fenwick writing in Science.
Professor Fenwick, from Imperial College London, argues that up to seven neglected tropical diseases including river blindness could be brought under control, with infection by some eliminated entirely, if existing programmes increase their coverage.
In Africa some 500 million people need treatment to control diseases such as disfiguring elephantiasis (lymphatic filariasis), river blindness (onchocerciasis), schistosomiasis, intestinal worms and the blinding eye infection trachoma.
Gut Tissue is Major Reservoir Harboring AIDS
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FINDINGS: UCLA researchers have found the human gut to be a major reservoir harboring the HIV virus - holding almost twice as much as a person’s blood. In addition, the virus stored in the gut does not decay or reduce over time, as is also the case with blood-related reservoirs. It is well-known that peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and lymph nodes are principal reservoirs harboring the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The role of gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT) in this setting, however, had not been properly evaluated until now. Researchers from the Center for Prevention Research and the UCLA AIDS Institute at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, in collaboration with the AIDS Research Alliance in West Hollywood, Calif., collaborated on this research.
Herpes infections decline: study
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The proportion of Americans with the herpes virus has declined, due perhaps to a curb in promiscuity among young people following earlier jumps in rates of infection, researchers said on Tuesday.
While U.S. infection rates have declined 19 percent among 14- to 49-year-olds since the early 1990s, genital herpes is still being spread. Herpes infections increase susceptibility to the deadly virus that causes AIDS.
The decline of herpes infections among adolescents and young adults “provides biological evidence supporting findings from behavioral surveys that sexual risk behaviors decreased in adolescents,” said the study published in this week’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Low vitamin D linked to seniors’ risk of falling
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Older men and women with vitamin D deficiency are more likely to fall multiple times in the course of a year than their peers with adequate vitamin D levels, researchers in The Netherlands have found.
Vitamin D may be best known for its role, along with calcium, in maintaining bone health. However, vitamin D is also important for muscle mass and strength, and compromised muscle function may explain the fall risk seen in this study, according to the researchers.
The findings suggest that older adults should be sure to get adequate vitamin D from food and multivitamins, lead study author Dr. Marieke B. Snijder, of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, told Reuters Health.
Herceptin cancer drug wins final British go-ahead
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Britain’s cost-effectiveness watchdog issued final guidance on Wednesday recommending that Herceptin should be used in early breast cancer and be paid for by the state health service.
The move by the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) clears the way for the drug to be prescribed on the National Health Service for women with aggressive HER2 breast cancer following surgery.
NICE had given a preliminary green light to the Roche medicine in June but that decision was challenged by Newbury and Community Primary Care Trust, delaying final approval. In the event, the trust’s appeal was not upheld.
Intermittent icing best for relief of sprain pain
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Holding an ice pack on a sprained ankle for no more than 10 minutes at a time is more effective for easing pain than icing for a longer stretch of time, researchers report.
However, the either approach was effective for reducing swelling and improving joint function, the team found.
Ice is one of the standard treatments for reducing pain and swelling after an ankle injury, but there is little scientific evidence for the best approach to using this treatment—or even whether it works—Dr. C. M. Bleakley of the University of Ulster in Jordanstown, Northern Ireland, and colleagues report in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Merck moves forward with Vioxx successor
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Drugmaker Merck & Co. on Wednesday gave preliminary results of a study of its investigational painkiller Arcoxia, the planned successor to Vioxx, which was pulled off the market in 2004 after being linked to stroke and heart attack.
Merck said the study, comparing Arcoxia with the anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac, found the “relative risk” of certain cardiovascular events was similar.
The incidence of patients withdrawing from the study due to side effects related to high blood pressure, edema and congestive heart failure was significantly higher for Arcoxia than for diclofenac, it said.
Indian activists plan Coca-Cola, Pepsi blockades
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An Indian environmental group said on Wednesday it would temporarily paralyse the supply of Coca-Cola and Pepsi products in the country after another group said it had found dangerous levels of pesticides in their drinks.
The New Delhi-based Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology said it would blockade trucks of the two drinks companies for five days starting on November 21 as part of its “Quit India” campaign targeting the global giants.
“We will blockade the movement of their trucks to remind these corporations that it’s not just the government they have to convince, but 1.2 billion Indians,” foundation director Vandana Shiva told a press conference.
Heart attack risk raised in people with gout
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Gout, and the high levels of uric acid in the blood that cause the problem, are linked to an increased likelihood of having a heart attack among men at high risk of coronary artery disease, investigators report.
The few studies that have examined the association between gout and heart attack have had inconclusive findings, Dr. Eswar Krishnan, from the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, and his associates note in the journal Arthritis and Rheumatism. They therefore conducted what they hoped to be “a conclusive study” that analyzed data from a large trial.
The study included 12,866 men (average age 46 years old) deemed to be at high risk of coronary “events” based on their smoking status, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure. During follow-up of approximately 6.5 years, 1108 subjects had a heart attack.
Elderly less likely to wake to smoke alarm
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The high-pitched signal typically used in smoke alarms may not wake older adults, according to a study conducted by the Fire Protection Research Foundation. In comparative tests on various alarm sounds, adults aged 65 years and older were much more likely to wake to a mixed-frequency signal than a pure high-frequency signal used in standard US smoke alarms.
Household smoke alarms reduce the chances of dying in a fire by up to 50 percent when present and working properly. However, studies have shown that the elderly do not fully benefit from smoke alarms, particularly during the overnight hours when they are asleep.
According to the National Fire Protection Association, older adults are more than twice as likely to die in a home fire as the average person.
WHO urges control over alcohol use, patient safety
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Consumption of alcohol in Southeast Asia, including predominantly Muslim countries, has nearly doubled in the last decade, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday.
WHO ended a southeast Asian regional meeting in Dhaka on Friday with calls for control over use of alcohol and improving the safety of patients at health centres.
Doctor warns on Everest deaths
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Climbers on Mount Everest need a better understanding of altitude sickness to halt an increase in deaths there, a doctor who climbed the world’s highest peak earlier this year said on Friday.
Andrew Sutherland of the Nuffield Department of Surgery in Oxford, England, said the unofficial death toll on Mount Everest had already reached 15 this year—the highest since 1996 when 16 people died, eight in one night after an unexpected storm.
Writing in the latest edition of the British Medical Journal, Sutherland said climbers often confused fitness with their ability to survive at high altitudes.
Childhood allergy epidemic on the rise worldwide
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Childhood allergies are on the rise around the world, including in many developing countries where asthma, eczema and hay fever are emerging as important public health problems, scientists said on Friday.
Asthma, in particular, is responsible for millions of children missing school, ending up in hospital or even dying.
The underlying cause of the condition is inflammation of the airways but just what triggers the problem and why some people develop asthma and others do not is still poorly understood.
Questionnaire helps estimate melanoma risk
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A detailed questionnaire and a brief examination appear useful in identifying people at high risk of melanoma, researchers report.
The use of these procedures during a routine medical visit can help doctors estimate a patient’s absolute risk of developing melanoma, Dr. Thomas A. Fears told Reuters Health. High-risk individuals could undergo further interventions, such as a complete skin examination, counseling to avoid sun exposure, and regular self-examination.
Fears, at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues studied data from a study involving 718 non-Hispanic white patients with a median age of 49 years who had confirmed melanoma.
Low estrogen levels linked to knee arthritis
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In middle-aged women, low levels of estrogen are associated with the development of knee osteoarthritis, researchers report
“This opens up a new area of investigation that can examine the role and contribution of naturally occurring hormones in the development of osteoarthritis,” lead investigator Dr. MaryFran R. Sowers told Reuters Health.
However, she stressed that this does not mean that doctors “should now prescribe hormone therapy” for their patients with arthritis.
