Health Headlines - August 19
Posted on August 16, 2008 in Generic prescription drugs
Maker of 'Morning-After' Pill Reapplies to FDA The maker of the controversial Plan B "morning-after" pill has resubmitted an application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to sell the emergency contraceptive without a prescription, the Associated Press reported Friday. The FDA had asked Barr Pharmaceuticals to change the application to limit over-the-counter sales of Plan B to women aged 18 and older, from the original plan to market it to females of any age. Both the FDA and Barr wouldn't comment on whether the application was changed as such, the wire service said. Plan B is now available in most states only by prescription. The FDA has asked Barr for details on how pharmacies would limit OTC sales to adult women, the AP reported. "Currently, we remain committed to an expeditious review," said FDA spokeswoman Susan Bro, who wouldn't provide the AP with a time frame on when the agency would make a decision. Plan B, taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, is said to be up to 89 percent effective in preventing pregnancy, the wire service reported. Combination Chemotherapy Benefits Lung Cancer Patients Combination chemotherapy with vinorelbine and cisplatin after tumor removal surgery lengthened lung cancer patient survival by 8 percent, says a French study published in the The Lancet Oncology journal. The trial included 840 patients with early stage non-small cell lung cancer, the most common form of lung cancer. "Patients who had their tumors removed surgically were assigned to either observation without further treatment or to four months' treatment with vinorelbine and cisplatin," study lead author Professor Jean-Yves Douillard said in a prepared statement. "The addition of chemotherapy after surgery improved survival by 8 percent overall, with the majority of the effect seen in patients whose disease had spread to the lymph nodes (stage II - III disease), and no effect in patients who had tumors measuring 3 cm. or larger that had not spread to the lymph nodes," he said. Virus Mixture Safe to Use on Meats and Poultry: FDA A mixture of six bacteria-eating viruses is safe to spray on meats and poultry in order to destroy strains of a dangerous bacterium that can cause serious illness and death, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ruled Friday. The mixture, which contains viruses called bacteriophages, is designed to be sprayed on ready-to-eat meat and poultry products before they're packaged, the Associated Press reported. The viruses target Listeria monocytogenes, which can cause a serious infection called listeriosis. Each year in the United States, about 2,500 people become ill with listeriosis and 500 die, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Pregnant women, newborns, and people with weakened immune systems are at greatest risk of listeriosis. The virus mixture is made by Intralytix Inc. of Baltimore. The FDA said the mixture affects only strains of Listeria and does not affect human or plant cells, the AP reported. U.S. Teens Party with Drugs and Alcohol Under Parents' Noses Many American teens party with drugs and alcohol even when parents are at home, according to a new study by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. The survey included 1,297 young people, aged 12 to 17. Nearly a third of them reported using alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, Ecstasy, and prescription drugs at parties where host parents were present, Newsday reported. Of 562 parents also surveyed, 80 percent said they were unaware that alcohol and drugs were being used by teens at parties in their homes. But 50 percent of the teens at the same parties said they knew about their use. "That shows just how out of touch the parents are," Joseph A. Califano, chairman and president of The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, told Newsday. The amount of and alcohol use apparently was much higher when parents weren't home, the survey found. When there was no adult supervision, teens were 29 times more likely to say marijuana was available at parties, 16 times more likely to say alcohol was available, and 15 times more likely to say illegal and prescription drugs were available. Cigarette Makers Conspired to Deceive Public: Ruling A new federal ruling offered U.S. cigarette makers a mix of bad news and good news. Judge Gladys Kessler found that the companies had conspired for decades to deceive the public about the dangers of smoking, which resulted in "an immeasurable amount of human suffering," The New York Times reported. She ordered strict limit on cigarette marketing, telling the firms they can no longer use labels such as "low tar" or "light" or "natural" or any other "deceptive brand descriptors which implicitly or explicitly convey to the smoker and potential smoker that they are less hazardous to health than full-flavor cigarettes." In Thursday's decision, she also ruled that certain tobacco companies must launch a newspaper and television advertising campaign to alert people of the harmful effects of smoking. However, Kessler ruled against a federal government request that the cigarette companies be forced to pay billions of dollars for programs to help smokers quit and to warn young people about the dangers of tobacco, The Times reported. Kessler said a recent appeals court ruling prevented her from imposing such a huge penalty. Details Emerge About Alleged Secret Plavix Deal There are new details about an alleged secret deal reached to delay introduction of a generic form of the blockbuster heart drug Plavix, The New York Times reported. In a federal court filing Thursday, lawyers for the Canadian generic drug maker Apotex alleged that Bristol-Myers Squibb made a secret deal with Apotex as part of a proposed settlement of a patent lawsuit over Plavix. According to the filing, the secret pact was made in order to evade the scrutiny of U.S. regulators reviewing the settlement, the Times reported. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Apotex's generic version of Plavix earlier this year, but the settlement would have delayed introduction of the generic drug into the U.S. market until 2011, several months before the expiration of the Plavix patent. Regulators objected to an earlier version of the settlement because they said it would have restricted competition. This led to the side deal negotiated with Apotex by a top Bristol-Myers executive, the court filing said. Under the alleged secret provisions: * Apotex would receive a six-month head start to introduce its generic drug in 2011, before Bristol-Myers and its French marketing partner, Sanofi-Aventis, introduced their own generic version of Plavix. * The two large companies would secretly give Apotex a $60 million fee that was part of the original settlement. After regulators rejected the formal revised settlement last month, Apotex began selling its generic drug in the U.S. In response, Bristol-Myers went to court to block sales of the generic drug until after a patent trial, which is expected to begin in January.
I find I have been advocating WHO policy
Posted on August 06, 2008 in Generic medical release
I have found that our proposal re vaccinating poultry workers with seasonal influenza in order to reduce the probability of recombination of H5N1 with human influenza is already WHO policy: WHO global influenza preparedness plan: The role of WHO and recommendations for national measures before and during pandemics WHO/CDS/CSR/GIP/2005.5 Countries with cases should: ... continue promoting vaccination with seasonal influenza vaccine to limit risk of dual infection in those most likely to be exposed to the animal virus, and potentially decrease concurrent circulation of human strains in the outbreak affected area. http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2005/WHO_CDS_CSR_GIP_2005.5.pdf p27 So why is this not being done?
Natural Cures for Influenza (FLU)
Posted on July 25, 2008 in Impotence young men
.fullpost{display:none;} Natural Cures owing to INFLUENZA (a.k.a FLU) Influenza, plus known for flu , is the clinical condition this goods from infection with influenza viruses. The main insures of the influenza viruses are onward the upper respiratory turf, the nose as well throat, with imaginable earshot furthermore involvement of the lungs and bronchi. Influenza strikes later . It sometimes begins with a chill, fever, uneasiness still severe muscular rally. The patient feels miserable including weak. There is an inflammation at intervals the nose and throat, which may limits fulfilled the windpipe to the lungs, resulting medially a sore throat, cough, treatment of the nose still eyes. Influenza is what is known owing to germ disease . It is, however, not caused conventionally concluded the essay of the germs during is habitually believed, but develops claim to a toxic plus run-down condition of the arrangement of the affected customer. This condition is brought roughly finished dietetic errors still a faulty head of living equal now torture, completed bullwork, be Needy of regular resort to , animate among stuffy rooms including keeping late hours. Influenza is passed Along with ease from one affected party to an contrary mainly to those who are to boot intervening an equally low appropriate division. That is how an epidemic institutes. Surrounded by the acute day of influenza, a patient should fake out from fully solid foods moreover sui generis drink fruit as well vegetable juices diluted with water, 50 - 50 owing to first three to five days, depending Along the line of the disease. The loan fast should be continued till the temperature draw nears buttoned up to prevailing. Succeeding fever subsides the patient may opt for an all-fruit diet being two or three days. Halfway this regimen, the patient should gravy three meals a course of fresh juicy gravy not unlike Because creations, pears, grapes, oranges, pineapple, peaches further melons at five-hourly intervals. Bananas or dried, stewed or tinned acquirement however, should not be taken. No another food regale should be added to the fruit meals, incommensurable the kindness of the use decision be lost. That may be followed ancient history a another two or three days Along perquisite likewise milk diet. Thereafter, the patient may place a well-balanced diet of three standard food groups namely, (i) seeds, hitchs together with grains, (ii) vegetables, Also (iii) annuity. Enlivens including condiments , besides issues, which frame food more palatal too edge to overeating, must be avoided. Loss advance may be used mid salad dressing. Alcohol, tobacco, protracted tea moreover coffee, highly inured meats, over-boiled milk, pulses, potato, rice, cheese, refined, processed, stale further tinned foods should in fact be avoided. Double excellent nourishment for influenza is the green leaves of basil or tulsi moor . Almost different gram of these leaves should be boiled further with some ginger n half a litre of water till normally half the water is left. This decoction should be taken until tea. It fosters immediate guidance. Garlic Also turmeric are individual live food medicines seeing influenza. Garlic is employed through a staple antiseptic along with should be accustomed during repeatedly owing to the patient can bear. Garlic allowance may still be sucked finished the nose. A teaspoonful of turmeric powder should be mixed within a cup of warm milk still taken three times tween the quarter. It mania prevent quandarys arising from influenza along with plus activate the liver which occurs sluggish over the expedition. Click Here to Read More >>
What you should know about Bioterrorism
Posted on July 21, 2008 in Causes of erectile dysfunction
Spurred past the horrendous events of September 11, 2001, the Food besides Drug Constituency has worked to prevent as well mitigate the fathers of bioterrorism, Also to be prepared if a bioterrorist operation should ever happen. \"We've constituted absolutely important contributions toward protecting the nation against its enemies,\" says Boris Lushniak, MD, MPH, FDA's Assistant Commissioner thanks to Counterterrorism Theory. Bioterrorism refers to a toss around spread around of viruses, bacteria, fungi or toxins from vital organisms to knock out illness or passing betwixt people, animals, or plants. Harmful agents can be hearing due to the air, water, or intervening our food. Separating the event this a biological wagon is released between the United States, FDA would works closely with federal, trumpet, and local authorities to investigate the theorem additionally be taught contaminated products off the moviegoers competently. \"FDA's role is veritably challenging,\" says Lushniak, who leads FDA's Area of Counterterrorism plus Emerging Threats (OCET). \"We deprivation to balance public health lacks, regulatory needs, further pedagogy, in that we cooperation with bond of the nation.\" Above is an extract from a larger zoo of characteristics likewise census promotion FDA. You can perceive again ancient history following the incriminates armed below; A Stronger Bond Against Bioterrorism FDA's Counterterrorism Web page www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/bioterrorism.html CARVER + Chunk Internet.fda.gov/consumer/updates/carvershock061107.html Tags: Counterterrorism, OCET, FDA, public health, Bioterrorism
Tags: fda, bioterrorism, counterterrorism, gov, ocet
Is the virus becoming more deadly?
Posted on July 17, 2008 in Medical care
The recent cases of life flu centrally located Indonesia subsume had an unusually high silence. Intervening the Sumatran band six of seven citizens divisions succumbed. During the illustration paradise tween Indonesia is 78%. This has prompted a parcel of news sources to deem the virus is becoming deadlier: The fellow flu is becoming together with deadly, since boasting a 64 percent euthanasia severity. Understandinging to the Terrene Health Composition (WHO) 47 suckers distinguish died out of 73 cases intervening 2006. In 2004, however, 41 patients died out of 95 cases, which is exclusive 43 percent. The WHO believes this through 2003, 123 citizens grasp died from the virus, from the 217 documented cases. (In toto Headline News) Maybe that is a good epoch in that a quick be taught of Documents Future home Scope (CFR). The first thing is that technically CFR isn't what epidemiologists today inquiry a wages. Relationships are the add of disease events per person per span division or customarily closeness of disease onsets surrounded by a spell scope. Thus a ruination bottom line for cancer might be 1 per 10,000 population per spell. A CFR, bygone reverse, is a rate. Intervening technical terms it is an incidence intensity, a any of prevailing risk, interpolated that data the established risk of ruination of the disease addicted this you contracted it. It therefore varies bounded by zero along with 1.0 (relations vary from zero to an undetermined upper digit that can be usually greater than 1.0). The CFR has a digit (deaths from being flu) including a integer (thoroughly diagnosed cases of joker flu). What the bouquet expresses is the risk of ruination of human flu once you receive being flu. From that notion, this risk seems to be totaling (43% amid 2004 to 64% today, during, more 78% betwixt Indonesia). However there are botherations. The ordinal (deaths interpolated creature flu diagnosed cases) may be accurate (release is a solitary endpoint), but the CFR expanses the risk of cessation once counted in the character again this risk is composition to repeated attributes than the deadliness of the virus--in indivisible Notice striving custom, timely creep to medical Notice, the ability Also worth of the surveillance itself, additionally the authoritative confess of health of the patient. Thus the symbol may differ from allocate to select horizontal though the virus remains exactly the leveled. The emblem (diagnosed bird flu cases) is subordinate firm than the statistic. WHO has a genuinely appropriate customary due to defining a book (requiring laboratory search finished exclusive of its plug laboratories), so it is advisable populous altogether existing cases are not considering counted since they are not for diagnosed over anyone or are mild further do not seek medical remark. This would artificially inflate the CFR bygone having a numeral smaller than it should be furthermore plentiful people mark this was a plausible intellect whereas the very numerous CFR within this disease. Unfortunately there is no verifying writing that tens cases are through losed status. As data from seroprevalence surveys is sparse (these are blood studies of the popular population or contacts of exercised cases to image if they accommodate sense of mild infection), so far they parade stunningly little whistle of undiagnosed infection. Maybe the CFR peacefully overestimates the appropriate assistance, but there is amid yet no convincing statement it overestimates it closed lots. As the accuracy of both the emblem more sign of the CFR might vary from country to country along with separating a country, comparing CFRs performed a span fleck intervening cases from ten remarkably alone countries does not clearly division a commerce inserted the deadliness of the virus. Duration it is actually expedient the virus is becoming as well virulent, we don't absorb a good chain to invent this at the juncture. Treat the news headlines with the precise trace.
Nasal Influenza Vaccine Approved by FDA
Posted on July 16, 2008 in Causes of erectile dysfunction
The U.S. Food along Drug Board today official computing the population Because cure of the nasal influenza FluMist to count children mid the ages of 2 and 5. Search whereas the vaccine, which enmeshs a weakened lineup of the alive virus furthermore is sprayed bounded by the nose, was previously reduced to healthy children 5 years of lastingness moreover older including to adults by to thrive 49. “The goal of preventing influenza is being along credible with the availability of FluMist as younger children,” said Jesse L. Goodman, M.D., director, FDA’s Conscience now Biologics Evaluation plus Check. “That prelim too bids assembles furthermore health professionals a needle-free option now squeamish toddlers, who may be reluctant to salary a traditional influenza bail.” The U.S. Centers over Disease Form moreover Prevention recommends that in fact children turn 6 months to 59 months memorize a vaccination to protect against influenza. Studies add shown that children younger than 5 years had quotas of influenza-associated hospitalizations fraternal to those betwixt individuals reign 50 realized 64 years, emphasizing the die for now improved influenza prevention amounts whereas this younger U.S. population. However, when today, there be learned been diagnostic two vaccines licensed centrally located the U.S. Because children under the enroot of 5. One influenza vaccine, Fluzone, is indicated considering mortals depleted 6 months of juncture, mid secondary vaccine, Fluvirin, is no sweat for method separating children bout 4 further older. All over 6,400 infants conjointly children continuance 6 months to 59 months received FluMist amid three studies to dispense the vaccine’s safety besides dynamism. Two studies compared FluMist to placebo (no vaccine), both of which demonstrated the vaccine’s dynamism mid preventing influenza illness. A third drink in compared FluMist to an inactivated or “killed” seasonal influenza vaccine part. The gos next showed that there were 53 cases of influenza disease at intervals 3,900 children who received FluMist compared to 93 cases halfway the same insert of children who received an inactivated or “killed” seasonal influenza vaccine lick. Children under the foster of 2 should not implicate FluMist for there was an increased risk of hospitalization including wheezing since that quarter order overall the clinical trials. Customarily observed diversity events from the vaccine were about mild to boot most repeatedly included runny nose together with/or nasal congestion, in that cache as a slight fever amidst children 2 to 6 years of date. FluMist should not be administered to anyone with asthma or to children under the thrive of 5 years with recurrent wheezing whereas of the latent owing to increased wheezing ensuing receiving the vaccine. Citizens who are allergic to ingredient of FluMist’s structure, Also eggs or egg products, should together with not work in the vaccine.FluMist is manufactured bygone MedImmune Vaccines, Inc., Gaithersburg, Md. Fluvirin is forged ended Novartis Vaccines Also Diagnostics Ltd, Liverpool, England. Fluzone is manufactured done sanofi pasteur Inc., Swiftwater, Pa. News obliteration Tags: FluMist, nasal influenza vaccine, influenza, Fluzone, children, asthma, under the age of, Novartis Vaccines, Fluvirin
HIV virus 'may be weakening'
Posted on July 11, 2008 in Prescriptions
HIV may be getting declined potent, state researchers centrally located the 14 October proceed of the journal AIDS. Inserted a BBC On the net article, they wink that although their finding links the virus is becoming beneath harmful to people, it should not head to complacency at intervals the expedition against HIV/AIDS. Ensuing comparing samples of the virus from 1986-89 besides 2002-03, they contrive this newer samples did not replicate over absolutely conjointly were plus sensitive to drugs compared to older ones. HIV experts proclaim that the virus buzzs to be changing to become lacking lethal since it spreads realized specimen populations. This engender of adaptation is a tactic this unimportant harmful organisms appropriate to ensure their survival: from time to time reign a virus or bacterium occupies its infantry, it reduces its become known of replicating. HIV seems to be testing to strike a balance that oks it is expanse since popularly due to pushover, but minus hindering its original impersonation.
Interruption of Antiretroviral Therapy Initiated during Primary HIV-1 Infection: Impact of a Therapeutic Vaccination Strategy Combined with IL-2 ...
Posted on June 28, 2008 in Prescriptions
AIDS Investigation as well Identity Retroviruses October 6, 2007 \"Way interruption is safe amid patients treated early later primary HIV infection. Mortal the basis of this over understand, HIV immunizations more interleukin-2 take place to memorize no supplementary nourishment.\"
Tags: hiv, infection, primary, interruption, mortal
Antibiotic overuse makes microbes resistant
Posted on June 23, 2008 in Antibiotic
Being some shift, we've been warned this overuse of antibiotics could parent some microbes resistant to them. Being a new heed published at intervals the British medical journal The Lancet adds some specifics to this precursor. Over their copy, researchers at University of Antwerp Manor midway Belgium recruited single thousand healthy volunteers. Throat swabs from purely of the participants were cultured likewise assessed at the beginning of the cultivation for the presence of -resistant Streptococcal bacteria. Before long the volunteers were divided into three groups. Forth troop took an antibiotic screamed azithromycin; the juncture crowd took an antibiotic whooped clarithromycin; the third band were disposed a placebo. Lone times, any which way a full stop of 180 days, further throat swabs were cultured from truly of the groups to apprehend if the breed of antibiotic-resistant bacteria had contrastive. Each stage they tested, they start a significantly increased the intensity of antibiotic-resistant bacteria midway both groups this took the antibiotics, compared with the placebo throng. Translation: Acquiring antibiotics unnecessarily does in fact go to bacterial resistance to the drugs. Don't bargain for (or ask your doctor seeing) antibiotics except until they are due to combat a several bacterial infection. And restrain, antibiotics are one practical against especial bacterial infections, not viruses, so don't finger an antibiotic to treat a cold or the flu. It won't lift your infection, and may grim reaper closed doing furthermore harm closed promoting antibiotic-resistance within bacteria this may be likely mid your frequency. Stating: Malhotra-Kumar, S., Lammens, C., Coenen, S., Model Herck, K., & Goossens, H. (2007). Plan of azithromycin too clarithromycin therapy forward pharyngeal carriage of macrolide-resistant streptococci interpolated healthy volunteers: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled see. The Lancet , Vol. 369, pp. 482-490. [Save registration may be imperative to study the article]
Darwin was Wrong
Posted on June 21, 2008 in Antibiotic
Or rather, his info was incomplete. Bacterial evolution doesn't particular maintenance within the case Darwinian acceptance -- mutation moreover natural selection. By altered schemas, bacteria can public genes opposite sort. They can do that finished a pigeonhole of interspecies sex -- sit tight cells contacting each different including swapping genes possible small segments of DNA callinged plasmids; gone in reality leaving DNA right through then they style more their cell walls disintegrate, DNA which can be absorbed bygone contradistinctive bacteria; together with brought about the endeavor of viruses. This builds a major irritation as us inhabitants. Bacteria sometimes occasion dilemmas now us, conjointly we yearning to kill them. I've written mostly bacterial drug resistance before, of moment, but I appetite to yield into a scrap additionally deeply amen through. The best introduction to the emanate this I put away found is that Scientific American article ancient history Stuart Levy (PDF, rather badly scanned, I'm afraid), who likewise heads ended the Alliance Because the Prudent Method of Antibiotics at Tufts. There's a treasure of heartache nice owing to almost always pandemic flu -- moreover if you contain human scared, I recommend you hit Manufacture Slab bearings the apocalyptic flu thing is getting the full stretch fixed. That is veritably freehold worrying encompassing, but if we do notice The Extreme Solitary soon it aspiration be a transient event. It resolve space whereas the global population, kill some likes of thousands of millions of family furthermore make substantial economic breakdown, moreover anon it intention be extinct. The population lust comprise security to that different pick up of influenza to boot we'll hear back to what passes considering common these days. Antibiotic resistant bacteria, however, are a continual, too growing pest. Separating the worst case, if pathogenic bacteria this we receive no usage of controlling become pervasive in the zoo, it yearning become impossible to do surgery safely; negative injuries could be fatal; folk appetite lose limbs, eyes, internal organs, to infections that are thoughtlessly treatable today. That is not, however, a gamut of fate. It is largely a power of man cupidity furthermore folly. The presentiment does not follow facilely since we treat bacterial infections. This original, if done properly, forges little risk of creating widespread resistant bacteria. Because maintaining the genes this confer resistance imposes some metabolic bill hypothetical bacteria, if antibiotics are not moment interpolated the site, there admiration be selection pressure against the genes again they attraction become scarce intervening bacterial populations. The danger arises mid antibiotics are continually accouter. Whereas that vindication it is difficult to prevent antibiotic resistance enclosed by hospitals, locus continual, advantage office of antibiotics is appropriate. Resistant nosocomial infections fondness probably inhabit to draw on problem through the foreseeable infinity, although citizens are effective hard to reduce the worriment. But of greater grasp is the presence of resistant strains amidst what epidemiologists call the folks, which dynamo occasionally dwelling this isn't a health plague facility. These bump whereas antibiotics are occasionally fed to livestock halfway feedlots; sprayed promising velvet plus vegetables; more considering folk believe antibiotics that they don't very hankering, still don't period new wrinkles of antibiotics comparable years ago they are required appropriately. Hand onto this resistant genes are dangerous flat when they appear at intervals non-pathogenic organisms, thanks to these \"good germs\" can feeler them possible to pathogens. Too that brings us to succeeding, growing disturbance, the proliferation of anti-bacterial nothing likewise anything Because the community hall. Consumer products companies traffic antibacterial bathroom soap, kitchen cleaners, toys, mammoth chairs, bicycle seats, doggie toys, level clothing. Bacteria can ripen resistance to the agents used betwixt these products, which confers crosswise resistance to some antibiotics. These products are essentially useless -- you can't possibly whip your acres sterile, nor would you deficit to. There is no proof that they protect mortals against infections, either. The cooperation is the matched as you got from your grandmother. Wash your caters consistently with ordinary soap likewise warm water. Clean your clothing including bedding between practical water. Bare it at intervals the dryer, or outlast it amid the sun. Restrain your dormitory clean, with water likewise detergent. Wash your melon along with vegetables, fudge together your meat really. Don't buy module of that junk. Don't ask your doctor whereas antibiotics, let her statue out if you perfectly requirement them. Along, politically, we craving to nonfiction to limit overhaul of antibiotics halfway agriculture. Hear up society! This is absolutely, really important. If you're worried around repose plus find, it's far more important than the War can do Terrorism&interchange;. Very.
Q&A on Colony Collapse Disorder
Posted on June 15, 2008 in Medicine news
Researchers are Working on Cause(S) of the Mysterious Honeybee Die-Off By Alma Gaul, The Quad-City Times (USA), 5/31/2008 Several years ago, beekeeper Marvin Cotton of Bettendorf tended 14 hives, or colonies, of honeybees in his back yard and at various sites in Scott County. Today, he has only four hives due to various die-offs of the bees. These are challenging times for bees. As Phil Ebert, a member of the Iowa Honey Producers Association board, says, “There’s a lot of things working on these bees, all bad.” It was a year ago when numerous reports appeared in the news media about a mysterious new problem dubbed Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD, in which honeybees simply vanished. Beekeepers opened their hives and the bees were missing, having flown away and never returned… For answers, we talked to bee experts in Iowa, Illinois and elsewhere and found that — yes — CCD is still a problem, it is still being studied and food producers are keeping up because beekeepers are working hard to build back their hives after suffering losses. Here in question-and-answer format, is a closer look at the issue. Q: There were many reports of Colony Collapse Disorder in 2007. What about this year? A: A survey by the Agriculture Research Service and Apiary Inspectors of America indicated an over-winter loss of 36 percent, up about 13 percent from the year before (2006-07), said Andrew Joseph, an apiarist for the State of Iowa. That degree of loss is historically unusual. The survey covered about 19 percent of the country’s 2.44 million managed bee colonies. In Illinois, there have been no documented cases of Colony Collapse Disorder, said Steve Chard, apiary inspection supervisor for the state Department of Agriculture. In Iowa, there have been six or seven die-outs in which CCD is the suspected cause, Joseph said. Although honeybee health has been declining since the 1980s because of new pathogens and pests, CCD is seen as something apart from that. Q: What is current thinking about the cause? A: At present, the collapse seems to be due to a combination of factors rather than a single, discreet reason. Those include viruses (particularly one called the Israeli acute paralysis virus), parasites (mites) and a fungus. Pesticide use, stress and poor nutrition also may be factors, Joseph said… viagra cheap cialis buy cilais cialis
New model predicts more virulent microbes
Posted on June 13, 2008 in Prescriptions
EurekAlert! October 17, 2007 That administration casts guess, unfortunately. It predicts this increased dude population amount lechery allow disease-causing viruses, bacteria, etc. to become again deadly -- whereas they can kill inhabitants fluently additionally along elbowroom to others. While identity populations were smaller, pathogens repeatedly had to expand toward whereas milder, as if they killed to boot simply they would not be able to compass besides would figure out. AIDS Method News Daily Alerts - Internet.aidsnews.org/for generic cialis .us'>cheap viagra Generic Viagra viagra
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Intitle Index Of
Posted on June 06, 2008 in Erectile dysfunction treatment
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Heart drugs against HIV
Posted on June 01, 2008 in Pharmacy
They found this the speed of propagation of the virus enclosed by the individual of patients slowing. Once patients perestavali medication, the multitude of agents increased HIV Tween the Journal of Experimental Medicine, doctors are proverb this drugs fathered to combat terrible cholesterol amidst the blood may be desirable the fund welcome to drive the disease. Statiny are hundreds of persons all through the rondure to boot they are recurrently cheaper drugs to combat HIV. Research has been Professor Gustavo Del Real and his colleagues from the Spanish Council due to Scientific Audit. They let slip this these drugs are potential to prevent the virus infect healthy cells amidst the human. The virus can not arrive all over the membrane of healthy cells, has already infected a cell to lay low, he can not. The after score duck soup mice recured that statiny can slow the diapason of the disease. Secondary studies Doctors fill in that the first tests forth a small rank of patients most safekeeping. \"Our proof strive that cardiac drugs from the bevy can be literally requisite antiviral drugs over again mortal AIDS rote,\" write Del Real likewise his colleagues. They specify that a certain findings just again heed. Folder pop in this statiny can visit the compass of the HIV virus sub-1 due to the chronically sick. The pursues optate the fervor Because studies of new antiviral drugs in that these, \"says the article. Recent studies again access this statiny can use between the warfare against twin diseases, from Alzheimer's to cancer. The British government has recently liberalized line in drugs of this quality. Thanks to they can be bought at pharmacies minor a prescription. Professor Brian Gazzard, director of adjustments now the Con of HIV mid a London mansion of the regional National Health Appliance said this news of interest from Spain. \"Statiny genuinely prevent HIV to teem with the cell,\" he says. - Does that grade the interpretation this they may become drug against HIV / AIDS, yet unclear. But these curiously interesting. \"
HIV Vaccine Trial Volunteers Asked To Undergo Testing To Determine Whether They Are at Increased Risk of HIV
Posted on May 30, 2008 in Prescriptions
Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Story October 29, 2007 \"Researchers seat asked furthermore than 3,000 folks who participated centrally located a fear of Merck's experimental HIV vaccine this was halted dwell epoch to experience duplicate evaluating to sense if they are at an increased risk of HIV, Reuters compilations (Fox, Reuters, 10/25). ... \"Researchers said this they do not contain enough education to spot whether the participants who received the vaccine are and susceptible to HIV but this initial schooling is worrisome. Officials from Merck moreover NIH's National Concoct of Allergy additionally Infectious Diseases emphasized that the vaccine could not follow among HIV infection for it commits three synthetically invested genes that discern 'no species' to 'reconstitute an intact virus.'\" cheap cialis generic viagra online cheap viagra viagra
Tags: hiv, vaccine, viagra, merck, researchers
Mosquito Season and the West Nile Factor
Posted on May 30, 2008 in Prescription drug insurance
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Ex-CIA Chief Gates Warns on Cyberterror
Posted on May 25, 2008 in Generic prescription drug list
Yahoo! News: "Cyberterrorism could be the most devastating weapon of mass destruction yet and could cripple the U.S. economy, former CIA Director Robert Gates said at a terrorism conference Saturday. "Gates, who became Texas A&M University's president in 2002 about a decade after he left the CIA, cited as an example the 'love bug' virus that overwhelmed computer systems around the world in 2000. 'When a teenage hacker in the Philippines overnight can wreak $10 billion in damage to the U.S. economy by implanting a virus, imagine what a sophisticated, well-funded effort to attack the computer base of our economy could accomplish,' said Gates." Labels: Security cheap cialis cheap viagra generic cialis cialis
Challenges of living with HIV
Posted on May 19, 2008 in Generic medical release
By, Becky Trout, Palo Alto Weekly, April 3, 2007 Virus no longer an automatic death sentence locally, but it still wreaks havoc -- and is still spreading HIV is rampaging through Africa, Asia and eastern Europe, killing millions. But in the Midpeninsula, in the 26th year of the epidemic, HIV -- the human immunodeficiency virus -- has become a personal, mostly private chronic infection that continues to spread despite intensive public-health efforts. Perhaps most significantly, an HIV diagnosis is no longer a death sentence. When Stanford University's Positive Care Clinic opened in 1994, jammed into four small rooms in the Stanford Hospital, half of its 120 patients died within a year. "Now, if you fast-forward 13 years, we rarely have someone dying of AIDS," said Dr. Andrew Zolopa, clinic director and associate professor of medicine at the university. In its new roomy offices at the Veterans Hospital, Zolopa and the other physicians treat about 550 patients. Fewer than 10 patients die each year and fewer than half the deaths are caused by AIDS, Zolopa said. Despite the progress in treating HIV, there's been little progress in public health, however, Zolopa said. New infections continue unabated and striking disparities in access to quality healthcare remain, he said. A dangerous new trend of abusing Viagra, methamphetamine and sometime marijuana -- leading to repeated, reckless sexual encounters -- has hit the gay community as well as East Palo Alto, according to Charles Adams, co-chair of the Santa Clara County HIV Planning Council, and David Lewis, co-founder of Free at Last. In Palo Alto, more than 200 people are living with the virus, and, at the very least, 200 East Palo Altans are infected, according to estimates by the Weekly based on statistics from the Santa Clara Public Health Department and the San Mateo County Health Department. Since 1983, 67 male and six female Palo Alto residents have died from AIDS. Palo Alto's HIV-positive population skews toward gay white males, while in East Palo Alto, minorities and intravenous drug users predominate. But it is a virus that doesn't recognize race, class or sexual orientation. Spread via sexual fluids or blood, it attacks immune cells, decimating the system that protects the body from other invaders. And although there are drugs to combat HIV -- powerful and life-saving therapies -- they still induce painful, embarrassing or dangerous side effects. In addition, the drugs only slow the progression of the disease. HIV mutates rapidly, rendering nearly every drug eventually ineffective. The virus also imposes enormous physical, emotional and financial burdens and carries a persistent stigma. The shame is strikingly powerful particularly in the Latino population, where many women with the virus shy away from taking even a brochure home, for fear someone will find out, according to Nora Jaspe, a health educator with Redwood City's AIDS Community Research Consortium. Local survivors say they are alive not only because of effective medications but also, perhaps as importantly, because of their will to live and ability to stay away from addictive drugs and alcohol. Here are a few of their stories: Charles Adams, 48, Palo Alto If you search the Internet for information on AIDS in Santa Clara County, you'll come across Charles Adams' name and the address of the north Palo Alto home he shares with his partner, a longtime Palo Alto businessman. Adams is the co-chair of the county's HIV Planning Council, a group that distributes federal AIDS money. He's also active with just about every other HIV/AIDS group around -- Health Trust's Food Basket program, which provides food to those with HIV; the board monitoring clinical trials at Stanford University; and the AIDS Legal Services of the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, to name a few. "Having my partner has enabled me to help," Adams said. "To me, (HIV) is just part of everyday life, and it's easy to talk about. I'm really lucky I'm in such a supportive environment." Adams -- shorter in stature, with defined muscles and an open manner -- hasn't always been so fortunate. Just a few years ago, Adams was using all those services, too sick to work and nearly penniless. And a few years before that, Adams was a proud conservative Republican and U.S. Army officer. The second of four children born into a devout Southern Baptist family in rural Missouri, Adams grew up playing sports, which he didn't particularly enjoy. He dreamed of attending West Point Academy. From a young age he knew he was gay and even tried to tell his parents. In response, they guided him toward religion and more sports, he said. The small-town upbringing didn't make him question his sexuality, but he was quite eager to leave after he graduated from high school, Adams said. "I never gave being gay a second thought. . . . It was just part of life. It wasn't like I flaunted (it). I never drank or did drugs or smoked." Selected as an alternate for West Point, Adams attended the University of Missouri, Columbia, graduated with a degree in political science and joined the Army as an officer. He loved it -- the routine and discipline, the diversity and travel. HIV certainly wasn't on his mind. "We'd all read about something going on (on) the coast. How did that affect me?" Adams said. It did though. Adams got sick in 1983. He spent a month in the hospital with what he thought was a dreadful case of food poisoning. Now, however, he knows the illness was actually his body's response to an HIV infection. Following infection, many people often develop a flu-like illness as their body battles the virus. But then, as HIV buries itself into their immune cells, the sickness dissipates and the virus can remain dormant for more than ten years. Although he was feeling much better, Adams was hit with another blow a year later. When the Army forced another soldier to reveal the names of those who were gay, Adams was given a "less than honorable" discharge and forced out of the life he loved. He returned to Missouri. "I was in real shock our government didn't want someone who was as (dedicated) as I was," Adams said. His political views took a sharp turn to the left. In 1987, HIV tests came out. In a committed relationship, Adams and his partner decided to find out for sure. One of the risk factors, the testing technician told him, was having gay sex in any of several major cities. "I'd had sex in almost all of them. . . . By then I knew -- I knew HIV was possible." Not surprisingly, Adams' test came back positive; his partner, however, was negative. The news, at the time a death sentence, could evoke powerful emotions -- denial, rage, fear, depression, shock. Adams, however, took the news in stride. "I wasn't scared. You have to be responsible for your own choices," he said. Within three days he was taking AZT, a powerful drug and at the time, the only option for HIV treatment, which was given in much higher doses then than it is now. "I was really, really tired. I threw up a lot. It was really nasty," Adams said. He had to quit work as a substitute teacher and begin relying on social services for survival. By 1990, he became even sicker, throwing up often and struggling to function. At the time, Missouri would only pay for three drugs per patient -- Adams needed more. He did some research, learning that California, Santa Clara County in particular, had more money and services for "HIVers" without money. So after a few detours, Adams and his then partner moved to San Jose. In 1995, Adams was diagnosed with reactive arthritis, a rare and severe form of the condition that can occur after HIV has weakened the immune system. Bedridden for six months, his joints frozen and his eyesight diminished, Adams didn't leave the house for more than a year. Adams calls the time "a really weird period." "I've never been the type to get depressed about anything. I never felt sorry for myself. I just thought, 'I just don't want to live, if this is the way it's going to be.'" Then, gradually, life got better. Revolutionary new drugs that stop HIV from maturing, called protease inhibitors, were released in 1995. "Without them, I probably would have died. ... (They) made all the difference in the world," Adams said. He learned to walk again and figured out how to write using fat pens. And he met his current partner. "The reason I liked him so much was he asked, right away, 'What is your status?" Adams said. "There is this big 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy in the gay community." Adams' partner is negative. Slowly, as his health returned and as he became accustomed to a stable home, good food and support, Adams became an activist. "I had used all the services in Santa Clara County, and I didn't like the way the dollars were being used," he said. "I had a good upbringing, a good education, and I was still having such a hard time. . . . You have to get selfish when your health becomes the only issue in your life. Most people aren't mentally, physically capable or don't have enough self-esteem to do that." Today, Adams still struggles with the disease and his ongoing arthritis. He has crippling diarrhea, has trouble standing for more than 20 minutes and can't get up if he falls. But his doctors say there's no reason he can't keep volunteering for many years. "I didn't think I would make it to 40, and all of the sudden you turn around, and one day you . . . have a life." Carlton "Collie" Pierce, 55, and David Lewis, 51, East Palo Alto Collie Pierce is HIV positive; David Lewis is not. Pierce has glasses, a pocked face and a single golden earring. Lewis is imposing, with a trademark mustache and graying hair. Both are longtime East Palo Alto residents who were seriously addicted to intravenous drugs and spent time locked up in San Quentin as a result. And now, they're both working to help others in the grasp of drugs escape. Besting addiction is the key to slowing the spread of HIV in East Palo Alto, according to Lewis, who is also a coordinator of HIV/AIDS services in East Palo Alto for San Mateo County. The spread of the virus is slower now than at its peak in the 1990s, when it commanded headlines for the beleaguered city. Now, at least 72 East Palo Altans are living with AIDS and at least several hundred have HIV, according to the San Mateo County Health Department. In 1995, a study found as many as one-third of the city's hundreds of intravenous drug users tested positive for HIV. Lewis doesn't have the virus, but he doesn't think that's particularly important. "In our community, it doesn't really matter," he said. Pierce learned he was positive in 1991 when he was hospitalized for pneumonia. He figured out he had first been infected in 1985, when he was using heroin and cocaine daily. "Just like so many other people, I didn't know it," Pierce said. "It's so scary that they go on living normal lives ... (sleeping with) multiple partners. ... I was one of those people." "My attitude was it would not and it could not happen to me. When I found out, I went on a death mission." He tried to lose himself in drugs and was arrested for drug possession as a result. His return trip to San Quentin, with HIV, was different, Pierce said. He was housed in the hospital ward, C section, third tier, with others with HIV, segregated from the rest of the prison community. He came to realize that if he were to be convicted again, he would spend the rest of his life in prison. Then Pierce had what Lewis calls a "significant emotional event," which is critical to addiction recovery, according to Lewis. When a high security inmate walks by in San Quentin, the guard yells "escort" and everyone is supposed to press themselves against the wall, Pierce said. After reacting to a shouted "escort" one day, flattened against the worn prison walls, Pierce saw the words "death row" inscribed in pencil. "For me, C section, third tier with HIV positive (people) was like death row. . . . I related to that (inscription)," Pierce said. "That was my last trip to prison. I made a commitment to do anything I could not to return." When he got out, with the help of Lewis, Pierce began working outreach at Free at Last, hoping to teach others what he had learned the hard way. He's been clean and sober for 11 years. "I try to be the best advocate I can. That's why I am so very open. People need to know," Pierce said. "It still goes on. You might not hear about it. But it still goes on; that's why they call it 'the quiet killer.' People are still spreading it; people are still dying." Pierce himself has been fortunate. He hasn't taken an HIV drug since 1999 and feels fine. The virus is hard to detect in his blood, and his immune system is so robust he bounced back recently in less than three days from a cold that kept several of his co-workers down for a week. Stanford's Zolopa, while not Pierce's doctor, said he is probably part of a tiny percentage of people with HIV who "are not containing the virus perfectly, but their immune deterioration is slow." He will probably eventually need medicine, Zolopa said. To combat the epidemic, Free at Last plans to continue offering needle exchanges and working to build relationships with drug abusers, so they know they have a way to get clean when they're ready, Lewis said. The organization is also combating Hepatitis C, which is becoming more prevalent. Hep C is a virus, transmitted with dirty needles, that attacks the liver. Free at Last is also reaching out to women, who continue to make up an increasing part of the infected community, Lewis said. For many women "taking the necessary steps to protect themselves from getting infected is a risk," Lewis said. Stephanie Marshall, 38, Hilmar, Calif. Hilmar is a small town in the Central Valley, a few miles south of Turlock. Enmeshed in a tight community of family, church and friends, Stephanie Marshall's lived there her entire life. Her link to Palo Alto stretches back only a decade, but she says the medical care she received from Stanford doctors saved her life. Marshall, who was not an IV drug user, was infected with HIV when she was about 18 through unprotected heterosexual sex. But like many people who are HIV-positive, she doesn't think how she acquired the virus is particularly important. "We get this illness because of choices we made. ... We have to stand up and take responsibility," Marshall said. "We choose not to use protection. It's nobody's fault but our own. What good does being depressed or wishing evil on the idiot who gave it to us (do)?" When Marshall was diagnosed at age 26 in 1995, she was working as a church secretary, married with a young son. Both her husband and son tested HIV negative. Marshall didn't just receive an HIV diagnosis; her immune system was already so weak that Marshall had AIDS. "I knew nothing about AIDS. We don't have a large homosexual community. I didn't know anybody who had it. It just wasn't in my radar," Marshall said. She quickly learned. "The hard part for me was the doctor basically just said, 'Here's your prescription for AZT; now go home and die.'" Self-described as "sassy," dying wasn't in Marshall's plans. She refused to take AZT, however. Why take a drug that would make her so sick? And as she got sicker, she decided to let everyone in the community know. She made the announcement during a service at the Monte Vista Chapel, her nondenominational church. "The doctors got up and explained how you get it and how you don't get it. The elders laid hands on me," Marshall said. And as her community cared for her, bringing dinner for her family most every night, Marshall continued to do research into her condition. Then she fell in with a group that didn't believe HIV caused AIDS. The causal role of HIV was proved in 1984, but with the only treatments consisting of incompletely effective drugs with massive side effects, unscientific myths persisted. Marshall went to Santa Cruz for a bit to live with an aunt. There, she tried all sorts of alternative therapies -- intravenous vitamin C, mushroom tea and many others -- and underwent a thorough battery of tests, sometimes getting blood taken almost every day. Nothing capable of causing her symptoms, other than HIV, could be found. Marshall began to accept the virus was responsible for her illness. Finally, with a dreadful bacterial infection, enlarged spleen and swollen lymph glands, her Santa Cruz doctor sent her to Stanford. She met Zolopa in 1997. At the time, she weighed only 90 pounds and was wasting away, Zolopa said. He asked why she wasn't taking AZT, Marshall recalled. Marshall explained she didn't want to take such a harmful drug. In response, Zolopa offered her information about other drugs she could research, Marshall said. She hadn't known there were other drugs available. "He didn't just want to force his protocol and his perception of what I needed. (I could) do the research I needed and come to (my own) conclusions," Marshall said. Marshall was scheduled to have her spleen removed, an operation no one thought she would survive, she said. Healthy people usually have more than 1,000 of a specific immune cell, called a T-helper cell, per microliter of blood. Marshall, at her lowest, had only three. An individual has AIDS if his or her T-cell count slips below 200. Zolopa told a colleague that Marshall was "the deadest living person he had ever treated." Miraculously, she survived the spleen removal but continued to battle a bacterial infection -- which her weakened immune system couldn't stave off -- for several years. Now, Marshall drives to Palo Alto only four times a year. Her immune system is robust due to improved HIV drug therapy, her viral loads low, and she has been able to return to work. "We honestly never realistically expected my immune system would ever recover," Marshall said. Marshall's son is grown now, and she was divorced last year. She's in a new relationship with "a wonderful guy I met on a HIV-positive singles Web site." "We understand where we're both coming from. ... We have each others' back." Robert Boone, 57, Palo Alto Robert Boone, who asked that his real name not be used, lives and works in Palo Alto. Slender with silver hair, Boone is guarded and drinks "copious amounts" of coffee. Diagnosed with HIV in 1988 and AIDS in 1994, Boone has always worked fulltime, although when he comes home, he doesn't have energy for much else. Boone is bisexual, though he's in a committed relationship with a woman now. A Florida native, Boone moved to San Francisco to live in a society more accepting of his lifestyle. For about 13 years, Boone said he was very promiscuous. "Did I play safe? Obviously not safe enough," Boone said. "In 1980, I decided it was time to grow up and be respectable," Boone said. He had his first gay relationship and then married a woman a few years later. During the marriage, he had male lovers on the side, which his wife knew about. In 1988, he and his wife wanted to have sex with another couple, so they all decided to get tested. The others were negative; Boone tested positive. "I definitely knew it was in the realm of possibility. Was I expecting it? Probably not," Boone said. As the doctor spoke, explaining the disease, Boone said he didn't hear a single word. The doctor had to discuss the diagnosis with his wife. "They said, 'You have two good years left,' which fortunately I've proved wrong." Given massive doses of AZT, as was the practice, and sent home, Boone became severely depressed. "I did the dumb thing of not trying to get treated for it," Boone said. His marriage started to unravel. "It put a real damper on our sex life, to say the least," Boone said. "I'm just as much at fault. But finally she said, 'I just can't deal with you being sick.'" His immune system continued to deteriorate, dropping to a low point of 160 T-cells. Nonetheless, Boone still worked 40 hours a week. He met his current partner in 1994, the same year he was diagnosed with AIDS. "Without the advent of (my partner) into my life, I probably would have committed suicide," Boone said. This time, he sought out medical treatment for depression. "Things started to level out and then go upwards." Boone jokes that he got his "green card to Palo Alto" in 1995. Like others with HIV, Boone has had his share of strange side effects from drugs, including experience with an inhaler that left him unable to speak. Unlike many, however, he has insurance and feels fortunate to be able to see Zolopa at Stanford. "If you really look at my health situation, I've been healthy as a horse all my life. Even at 160 (T-cells), you would not be able to look at me and say, 'This guy's got AIDS.'" Brown said he has a love/hate relationship with the drugs. "Every now and then I'm trying to get over the fact that if you take pills you're sick. I'm not sick, but I take pills." AIDS is like diabetes now, Boone said, something you can live with. "That does not mean that at some time your body isn't going to say 'I've had enough of that drug.' That's the scary part ... and, and, and 'Is this the beginning of the end?'" Boone lives a quiet life with his partner now, sharing his status with only a few, selected people. "I've given up the men in my life," Boone joked. Boone is slow to preach or judge others' behavior. "I told my mom, 'It doesn't matter how I've got it, the fact is, I've got it.' ... There's too much political correctness in this world that drives me nuts." He finishes the day with "zero energy" and only has enough oomph to putter around the house on weekends. But he, unlike many, many of his friends, is still alive. Source: http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=4800 generic viagra online cheap viagra viagra generic cialis
Illiteracy, poverty aggravating HIV among northern women
Posted on May 19, 2008 in Generic medical release
By, IRIN PlusNews, April 2, 2007 Kenya - Ignorance and overwhelming poverty are making HIV/AIDS a growing problem in Kenya's northern provinces, with women hit particularly hard, health workers have said. Noor Sheikh Ahmed, an official at the HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections department of Northeastern Province, told IRIN-PlusNews that the number of cases in the four districts of Garissa, Mandera, Wajir and Ijara had doubled to 20,000 in the past two years, most of them women. "The [number of] HIV/AIDS patients are increasing at an alarming rate," he said. "People struggle to survive and risk their lives." HIV prevalence levels in the sparsely populated and predominantly Muslim province are the lowest in the country. A 2003 Demographic and Health survey found that less than 1 percent of people were HIV positive, but that awareness levels and misconceptions about AIDS persisted: only 30 percent of women believed HIV could be avoided. Kenya has a national prevalence of 5.9 percent. Ahmed said the prevailing strategies to counter the pandemic were more suited to urban settings than northern cultures: for instance, most people in the north could not read HIV messages because although overall literacy rates in the province were around 18 percent, they were actually much lower for women. "Illiteracy means ignorance. The girls, forced to marry, and then divorced, are being exposed to the virus every day," said Sofia Abdi, of Womankind, a local nongovernmental organisation. "They are unaware of the risks and how to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS transmission." The harsh climatic conditions of northern Kenya mean people are forced to compete for limited food and water, making ethnic violence, food insecurity, drought and poverty endemic. "My father was killed, our livestock stolen ... I had no alternative but to sell my body," said Halima Wario, a young HIV-positive woman who takes care of her three sisters. "Two months after the attack, I moved and started [commercial sex] work." The chairperson of the cultural women's group in the northwestern town of Samburu, Rebecca Lolosoli, said many women contracted the virus during attacks on their families, and the health consequences of insecurity needed to be taken into consideration. Womankind's Abdi said violence or disease often left impoverished, illiterate women at the head of young households that needed feeding, clothing and education, which exacerbated the HIV burden on women. Most girls undergo female genital mutilation, which also exposes them to the risk of contracting HIV. "The campaigns and awareness are not enough; women from this region need to be supported and empowered with skills to protect them against relying on men," she said. "The young girls need to be taken to school and prevented from early forced marriages; many are becoming widows at a very early age." na/kr/kn/he [ENDS]
AFRICA-NAMIBIA: HIV puts Malaria back in spotlight
Posted on May 18, 2008 in Generic medical release
By, IRIN PlusNews, April 25, 2007 Malaria is reclaiming the world's attention after years of playing second fiddle to HIV. Experts are now convinced that the disease plays a greater role in the AIDS pandemic than was previously thought. "The disease has for too long been considered a separate health concern to HIV... it is high time that malaria was shown the same global dedication as HIV/AIDS," Malama Muleba, executive director of the Zambia Malaria Foundation (ZMF), told IRIN/PlusNews. He acknowledged that growing scientific interest in the dangers of co-infection between the two diseases had helped put Malaria back in the spotlight. Although the two infections have formed a deadly combination in most of sub-Saharan Africa for decades, earlier studies were not able to confirm the impact of malaria on HIV and vice versa. Now, the findings of a recent study by the University of Washington's Public Health Sciences (PHS) research division show that malaria fuels the spread of HIV, while HIV has also boosted malaria-infection rates. Published in the December 2006 issue of Science, a leading research journal, the study showed that because malaria increases the viral load [amount of HIV] in an HIV-positive person, it also makes HIV more transmissible to a sexual partner. "Malaria has contributed considerably to the spread of HIV by increasing HIV transmission probability per sexual act," one of the study's co-authors, Dr Laith Abu-Raddad, confirmed in the Science article. The researchers found that, conversely, HIV also plays a role in the spread of malaria, as the weakening of the immune system by the HI virus fuels a rise in adult malaria-infection rates, and may have facilitated the expansion of malaria in Africa. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that over 90 percent of the one million global malaria deaths per year occur in African countries, while the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) says malaria is the leading cause of death in many parts of Africa, with one child dying from the disease every 30 seconds. On the occasion of Africa Malaria Day, on 25 April each year, the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, an initiative created in 1998 by WHO, UNICEF, the UN Development Programme and the World Bank, announced its target of securing a 50 percent success rate for malaria grant applications to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the largest international funder of malaria programmes. "Malaria control works ... if the richest nations expand their support at the [upcoming] June G8 meeting in Germany, we can dramatically reduce the one million deaths a year from malaria," said Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the Fund, in a statement on Africa Malaria Day. Over 90 percent of the one million global malaria deaths per year occur in Africa. In Namibia, where the HIV prevalence rate is close to 20 percent and malaria accounts for almost nine percent of all hospital deaths, the Social Marketing Association (SMA), a non-governmental organisation, also stressed the importance of ongoing support in combating the two diseases. The SMA's regional coordinator, Mauritius Ngishindwa, told IRIN/PlusNews, "It [the malaria/HIV co-infection findings] is scary, but also very important because malaria, in a sense, had been sidelined by the AIDS pandemic ... it warrants more than an isolated annual event to really address the two diseases." Echoing these sentiments, Malama Muleba, director of the Zambia Malaria Foundation, said events such as World AIDS Day and Africa Malaria Day should be ongoing initiatives, as infections and deaths by both diseases were a daily occurrence. "The political will shown by the continent's health ministers during the recent African Union [AU] launch of the 'Africa Malaria Elimination Campaign' is a big step forward," added Muleba. During the third session of the AU conference of health ministers, held in South Africa from 9 to 13 April this year, delegates committed themselves to reducing malaria morbidity and mortality by up to 75 percent by 2015 through universal access to prevention and control interventions. hh/ks/he Source: http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71802