AIDS group fears annual HIV costs may hit $35 bln
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The International HIV/AIDS Alliance warned on Saturday that the annual cost of tackling the HIV epidemic could balloon to $35 billion by 2030 if governments fail to invest in efficient, targeted and cost-effective prevention measures.
The Alliance said the AIDS virus, which already infects around 33.4 million people across the world, was a “costly time-bomb” for families, governments and donors.
“For every two people who get treatment, five others get infected. At this rate, spending for HIV will rise from $13 billion now to between $19 and $35 billion in just 20 years time,” Alvaro Bermejo, executive director of the Alliance, said in a statement.
Your doctor’s notes, with the click of a mouse
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After your next appointment, would you want to read everything your doctor wrote about you and your health?
Researchers are betting that you would - or at least that if you tried it, you would like it. They’re testing out a new system that lets patients see the doctor’s notes from their primary care visit via the internet.
“The whole idea here is to improve (and) expand the dialogue between patients and physicians,” Jan Walker, an instructor at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and one of the study’s lead researchers, told Reuters Health.
Doctors often don’t report impaired colleagues
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One out of three doctors didn’t report colleagues they believed were “impaired or incompetent” to authorities, a survey released today found. Slightly more—36 percent—didn’t completely agree that it was their responsibility to report these colleagues in every case.
The definition of impaired or incompetent can range from doctors with drug addictions to those that aren’t up-to-date on the best way of treating some conditions.
The American Medical Association (AMA) has a policy stating that doctors are ethically bound to report colleagues they believe are unfit to practice.
UK health shake-up puts doctors in charge of funds
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Britain’s new coalition government, seeking to cut a record budget deficit, announced a radical shake-up of its sprawling health service on Monday.
The reorganisation of the world’s largest public healthcare system will see family doctors take charge of the lion’s share of a 110 billion pound ($165 billion) healthcare budget.
Losing out will be thousands of managers in the National Health Service (NHS) whose jobs will be cut to slash bureaucracy and save money.
Dogs may help collar Chagas disease
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Chagas disease, for example, is caused by a parasite that roams with only limited control among the rural poor in Latin America. The main vector for the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi is the triatomine insect, or “kissing bug,” which thrives in the nooks and crannies of mud-brick dwellings. The bug sucks the blood of mammals, helping T. cruzi move between wildlife, cats, dogs and humans.
“Dogs tend to lie on porches or other areas easily accessible to the bugs,” says disease ecologist Uriel Kitron, chair of environmental studies at Emory University. “And when a dog is malnourished and its immune system isn’t great, they are even more at risk.”
Kitron has been researching Chagas disease in remote communities of northern Argentina for the past 10 years. “One of our most significant findings is the importance of dogs in both the spread of the disease, and the potential to help control it,” he says, explaining that dogs can make good sentinels for health officials monitoring T. cruzi transmission.
‘TIMely’ intervention for asthma
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Asthma can be a severely debilitating disease. Its increasing prevalence and the fact that most treatments do not control severe asthma well has stimulated intensive research into genetic susceptibility to asthma in the hope that the information gleaned will lead to new therapeutics. One gene identified as a asthma susceptibility gene is TIM1 and now, a team of researchers, led by Paul Rennert, at Biogen Idec Inc., Cambridge, has generated data in a humanized mouse model of asthma that suggest that targeting TIM-1 protein might have therapeutic benefit in the treatment of patients with asthma. Specifically, the team found that an antibody that bound to a defined region of the TIM-1 protein (a cleft formed within the IgV domain) had therapeutic activity in the humanized mouse model of experimental asthma, ameliorating inflammation and airway hyperresponsiveness.
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TITLE: Antagonism of TIM-1 blocks the development of disease in a humanized mouse model of allergic asthma
Mental health a growing concern after Gulf spill
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Gulf Coast native Kindra Arnesen is so anxious about the effects of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill she is packing up her family and leaving town.
“Stress? Dude my clothes are falling off me (because of weight loss). The level of stress here is tremendous. My husband has aged 10 years in two months,” Arnesen said on Friday as she loaded possessions into a van outside her trailer home in Venice.
Fears are growing of an increase in stress-related illness and mental health problems from the BP spill. Anecdotal evidence abounds but mental health officials say they lack data about the scale and scope of suffering.
New surgery improves outcomes for severe flat foot deformity
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A surgery developed at Hospital for Special Surgery can improve patient outcomes in individuals with severe adult flat foot deformity, a problem that is increasingly being seen in hospitals across the country. Patients who undergo the new surgery have better long-term outcome and mobility than those who undergo traditional surgery. The paper will be presented at the annual meeting of the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS, abstract 348) in National Harbor, Md., on July 8.
“Before this study, we were not sure whether you could salvage patients with flat foot and ankle deformity and correct their ankle as well as their foot deformity,” said Jonathan Deland, M.D., chief of the Department of Foot and Ankle Surgery at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS). “Now we know that with this technique you can save the ankle, and it provides a correction of the deformity even at nine years after surgery.” Dr. Deland developed the surgery and is senior author of the study.
Adult acquired flat foot deformity is basically a severe type of flat foot that develops for unknown reasons in individuals who have had flat feet all their life. It is more prevalent in women and those who are overweight, and it usually develops in individuals in their 40s and 50s. In stage I of the deformity, the tendon that runs along the inside of the ankle begins to degenerate. In stage II, the arch starts to fail, and a person develops a more severe case of flat foot. As the arch continues to collapse and the flat foot becomes more pronounced, mobility becomes difficult, and the foot becomes stiff, which is considered stage III.
Researchers Discover New Way Diseases Develop
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Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have identified a previously unknown mechanism by which cells direct gene expression, the process by which information from a gene is used to direct the physical and behavioral development of individuals. The research, which may help scientists gain insight into how muscle and heart diseases develop, is published in the July 8th issue of Nature.
Using a combined approach of structural and molecular biology, a team of researchers led by Ming-Ming Zhou, PhD, Professor and Chair, Structural and Chemical Biology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, determined that the molecular interactions between proteins are very different than previously thought, and that they play an essential role in the initiation of gene transcription of muscle and the heart. Gene transcription is the first step to gene expression, a cellular process that occurs in response to physiological and environmental stimuli, and is dictated by chemical modifications of the DNA and histones, which are the proteins responsible for packaging the DNA.
US cancer death rates continue drop: report
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U.S. cancer death rates are falling, with big decreases in major killers such as colon and lung cancer, the American Cancer Society said on Wednesday.
The improvement was due a decline in smoking, better treatment and earlier detection, it said.
The group predicted 1,529,560 new cancer cases in the United States in 2010 and 569,490 deaths.
Pricey lung disease drugs have no benefit: study
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Recommendations for expensive treatments made for a genetic disorder called alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency should be withdrawn because the drugs have no benefit, scientists said on Wednesday.
The disorder causes chronic lung disease and researchers who reviewed data from two trials on 140 patients with it found no evidence that alpha-1 antitrypsin medicines do any good.
Based on this evidence, the researchers said the treatment, which costs up to $150,000 a year in the United States, should not be recommended by doctors and advocacy groups.
Viagra-popping seniors lead the pack for STDs
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Even if you’re past your prime and have a hard time getting an erection, you might still need to worry about unprotected sex, according to U.S. doctors.
In fact, they report in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the rate of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in older men taking erectile dysfunction drugs like Viagra is twice as high as in their non-medicated peers.
In both groups, however, the numbers are swelling. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were more than six new cases of STDs per 10,000 men over 40 in 2008, up almost 50 percent since 1996.
Protein Must Exist in Specific Brain Cells to Prevent Diet-Induced Obesity
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A protein found in cells throughout the body must be present in a specific set of neurons in the brain to prevent weight gain after chronic feeding on high-calorie meals, new findings from UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers suggest.
Nicknamed the “longevity” protein because of its apparent role in mediating the effects of dietary restriction on life span, SIRT1 has been studied as a potential target for anti-aging drugs. Prior research also has shown that this metabolic sensor protein in peripheral tissues plays an important role in regulating metabolism, but its physiological relevance in brain neurons remained unclear.
“This is the first study to show that SIRT1 in hypothalamic neurons, specifically POMC neurons, is required for preventing diet-induced obesity and maintaining normal body weight,” said Dr. Roberto Coppari, assistant professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern and senior author of the mouse study, available online and in the July 7 issue of Cell Metabolism.
Doctors See Trend in Summer Injuries Among Children
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It is a time most families look forward to every year – summertime. For parents, the warm summer months are often filled with family vacations and cookouts. For kids, it is a chance to play outdoors and enjoy a few months without homework. However, doctors at Nationwide Children’s Hospital have recently noticed a trend in injuries that occur in children during the summer months that are both predictable and preventable.
With the long school days in the past, most kids become more active during the summer and often have more free time. Kathy Nuss, MD, associate medical director of Trauma Services at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, and a team of doctors, have narrowed down a list of the most common mechanisms of injuries that cause children to end up in hospitals during the summer months.
• Falls – Falls are constantly topping the list of summer injuries. While objects such as trampolines have proven to be dangerous, many injuries arise from things that parents may assume are much safer.
Food body sets rules for bagged salad, melamine use
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An international food safety body set new rules on Tuesday on preparing bagged salads and said the chemical melamine that tainted Chinese milk is acceptable only in tiny amounts in infant formula and food.
The Codex Alimentarius Commission decided at its meeting in Geneva that animal manure should not be used to fertilize lettuce and other fresh vegetables sold “ready to eat” to avoid dangerous diseases.
Contaminated water must also be kept away from bagged produce that is not heat-treated, the Codex experts said, fixing new benchmarks that could change production and harvesting norms across the world.
