Saturday, July 30, 2011

Nigeria parents risk jail for skipping polio drops

11:05 AM samizares
Parents who do not allow their children to be vaccinated against polio now risk jail time for defying a government order aimed at ensuring that the disease is eradicated from Africa's most populous nation, authorities said Friday.
Tajuddeen Gambo, the permanent secretary of the Kano state health ministry, told The Associated Press that Nigeria has a law that punishes parents who refuse their children access to health care.
"Polio immunization is part of health care," Gambo said.
Kano state is located at the heart of Nigeria's impoverished and Muslim-dominated north where polio vaccines have been met with resistance by a minority of people, but health officers say that minority is enough to compromise the entire door-to-door campaign.
"When they come to my house, I will tell them there are no children in this house," says a 45-year-old politician in the village of Dungurawa, just outside the city of Kano. "If they insist, I will not let them in." He said he was skeptical about government concern with polio alone. "What about the other diseases?"
Separately, a 50-year-old farmer said he had sent his children to their grandparents in another state so that they would be skipped. He believes the vaccine "brings evil."
Just over a week ago, UNICEF announced at a meeting held with northern traditional and religious leaders that 20 new polio cases had been found this year in Nigeria's north and that two of them were in Kano state.
This came after Nigeria had seen a marked reduction in cases over the past few years from 338 cases in 2009 to a recorded 21 cases of polio in 2010.
Several local and international partners have collaborated to address the issue of noncompliant communities who reject the vaccine for various religious, political, and practical reasons.
Tommi Laulajainen, the UNICEF chief of communications for polio efforts in Nigeria, explains that it takes four rounds of drops for children to be completely out of danger.
"Sometimes, we have to convince the caregivers why they should allow something to be dropped in their children's mouths so many times," he said.
Laulajainen said that noncompliance is probably the least prominent reason why children are not vaccinated, but it becomes a problem in a situation where the goal is a polio-free society.
"We have to make sure we capture every single child," he said. "Because if one child is not protected against polio, he or she can get the virus and spread it very quickly to other children in the community."
He said a collaboration with religious leaders has been particularly fruitful over the years and that health workers have used a variety of communication tools such as drama, radio, street theater, towncriers and strong visuals to remind parents that polio will keep lurking until it's wiped out.
"There are so few cases in Nigeria now, so it's possible that caregivers feel, 'it's no threat to my child' or 'I've never seen or heard a case,'" he said.

Read more »
Posted in:

Tamoxifen Gives 15-Year Br*ast Cancer Protection

10:54 AM samizares
Study Shows 1/3 Lower Death Risk From Br*ast Cancer 15 Years After Tamoxifen Treatment
Five years of tamoxifen treatment -- with or without chemotherapy -- cuts a woman's 15-year risk of br*ast cancer death by about a third.

The reassuring finding comes from analysis of long-term data on 21,457 women with br*ast cancer enrolled in clinical trials of tamoxifen.

"Substantially reduced mortality rates for br*ast cancer continue well beyond year 10, as a delayed effect of the greatly reduced [br*ast cancer] recurrence rates during years 0 to 9 [after about five years of tamoxifen therapy]," report Christina Davies, MD, and colleagues in the international Early Br*ast Cancer Trialists' Collaborative Group (EBCTCG).

One reason br*ast cancer is so deadly is that it often comes back after what a woman had hoped would be curative treatment. Tamoxifen reduces this risk.

This means many women's br*ast cancers are cured, suggest Stephen K. Chia, MD, of the University of British Columbia and Antonio C. Wolff, MD, of Johns Hopkins University, in an editorial accompanying the EBCTCG report in the July 29 online issue of The Lancet.

"Five years of tamoxifen can prevent a high proportion of recurrences and potentially cure many patients, rather than simply delay an inevitable event," Chia and Wolff note.

Tamoxifen works only on the most common form of br*ast cancer: the form that needs the female hormone estrogen in order to grow. These cancers carry proteins, called receptors, that bind estrogen. Tamoxifen makes it impossible for these receptors to bind estrogen.

Importantly, the EBCTCG study shows that tamoxifen works even on br*ast cancers that carry only small numbers of estrogen receptors.

"Therefore, another crucial message from this [study] is the need for accurate and sensitive [tests] ... to detect even low concentrations of estrogen receptor and thus further identify potential candidates for ... tamoxifen treatment," Chia and Wolff suggest.

Newer drugs, called aromatase inhibitors, also block estrogen. But these drugs don't work in premenopausal women. Moreover, it's still not known how long their benefits last.

"Access to accurate estrogen-receptor testing, and to tamoxifen (a relatively inexpensive drug) or other endocrine therapies is a public health imperative for all women with br*ast cancer," Chia and Wolff conclude.
Adapted from WebMD.

Read more »
Posted in: ,

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Cellphones don't increase cancer risk in kids, study says

5:15 PM samizares
Using cellphones doesn't increase children's cancer risk, according to a new study, the latest in a series of papers that find no link between the phones and brain tumors.
Scientists say the study is important, because it is the first of its kind to focus on children.
The study's authors compared the cellphone habits of nearly 1,000 children in Western Europe, including 352 with brain tumors and 646 without. Kids who used cellphones were no more likely to develop a brain tumor than others, according to the study of children ages 7 to 19, published online Wednesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Scientists have been eagerly awaiting these results, says Martha Linet, a doctor with the National Cancer Institute who wasn't involved in the study. "It's very reassuring," Linet says.

Researchers, led by Denis Aydin of the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, looked at their data in several ways, searching for possible trends with long-term use. They found no increase in brain tumors among children who had used cellphones for five years or more, according to the study, funded by European health agencies.

Some scientists and consumers have been concerned about cellphones' health effects, especially on developing children, because cellphones emit energy close to the brain.
In the study, Aydin and colleagues note that radio frequency electromagnetic fields created by cellphones penetrate deeper into children's brains than adults' brains, mainly because kids' skulls are smaller, the study says. Recent studies have suggested that small children's brains absorb about twice as much mobile phone energy as adults' brains.
But authors also point out that this energy — unlike the radiation given off by X-rays or CT scans — isn't strong enough to damage DNA, cause mutations and lead to cancer. And while many people are concerned about cellphones, no one has ever come up with a way to explain how the devices might cause cancer, Linet says.
If cellphones caused brain tumors, researchers might expect to find those tumors on the side of the head where kids hold their phones. In the new study, however, children had the lowest risk of tumors in the part of the brain exposed to the most cellphone energy, write scientists John Boice and Robert Tarone in an accompanying editorial. They note that there has been no increase in brain tumors — among kids or adults — since cellphones came into widespread use in the 1990s. In their editorial, they note that there were 285 million cellphone subscribers in 2009 in the USA alone. If cellphones really did cause brain tumors, doctors would likely have noticed this by now, they write.
But the study also produced some mixed signals.
In a subset of children, researchers found a higher risk of brain tumors in children whose cellphone subscriptions had begun more than 2.8 years ago.
Overall, however, parents should find these results reassuring, says pediatrician Rachel Vreeman, of the Indiana University School of Medicine, who summarizes recent cellphone research in her book, Don't Cross Your Eyes… They'll Get Stuck That Way!: And 75 Other Health Myths Debunked.
"This is a good piece of evidence that parents don't need to be panicked about cellphones and cancer," Vreeman says.
Concerns about cellphones were renewed last month, when a branch of the World Health Organization, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, reversed its previous position. In the past, the agency had said there was "no conclusive evidence" linking cellphones to brain tumors. Now, the agency classifies cellphones as "possibly carcinogenic" based on "limited evidence," acknowledging that the few links between cellphones and cancer could be due to chance.
The "possibly carcinogenic" category includes a number of staples of everyday life, however, such as coffee, pickles and styrofoam, Vreeman says.
"Scientific evidence has overwhelmingly indicated that wireless devices do not pose a public health risk for adults or children," said John Walls of CTIA-The Wireless Association, in a statement.
Consumers who remain concerned can take a number of steps to reduce their exposure to cellphone energy, such as using a hands-free device or a speakerphone, the American Cancer Society says.(www.todaysgist.com)

Read more »
Posted in: ,

Brain Injuries Increase Risk of Stroke

4:18 PM samizares
People who have had a traumatic brain injury face a tenfold increase in the risk of having a stroke within three months, according to a new study.

Traumatic brain injury occurs when a blow or jolt to the head causes changes in a person’s normal brain function. It can result from injuries such as falls, vehicle accidents, and violence.

Although previous research has shown that traumatic brain injury can be associated with the future development of epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease, and psychiatric conditions, this the first study to link it to the future risk of stroke.

 The study appears in the July 28 online issue of Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Read more »
Posted in: ,

Strokes During Pregnancy, Childbirth on the Rise

4:13 PM samizares
Strokes during pregnancy and after childbirth have increased at what one CDC researcher calls an alarming rate.

Elena V. Kuklina, MD, PhD, a CDC epidemiologist, and colleagues compared stroke rates during pregnancy, during childbirth, and after childbirth. They used a national database that included discharge information from 1,000 hospitals.

The researchers compared the pregnancy-related stroke rates in the years 1994-1995 and 2006-2007.

"What we found was there was approximately a 50% increase in all stroke," she says. Pregnancy-related strokes totaled about 4,000 in 1994-1995, or about 2,000 each year. In 2006-2007, they totaled about 6,000, or 3,000 annually.

The number of deliveries in the two periods was comparable, she says.

Kuklina says rising rates of high blood pressure, as well as other factors, are to blame.(www.todaysgist.com)

The study is published in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Read more »
Posted in: ,

Overdose of Acetaminophen causes liver failure-J&J Cuts Maximum Tylenol Dose

3:32 PM samizares
Johnson & Johnson said, July 28, 2011, that it's reducing the
 maximum daily dose of its Extra Strength Tylenol 
pain reliever to lower risk of accidental overdose.

Johnson & Johnson said Thursday that it's reducing the maximum daily dose of its Extra Strength Tylenol pain reliever to lower risk of accidental overdose from acetaminophen, its active ingredient and the top cause of liver failure.

The company's McNeil Consumer Healthcare Division said the change affects Extra Strength Tylenol sold in the U.S. — one of many products in short supply in stores due to a string of recalls.

Starting sometime this fall, labels on Extra Strength Tylenol packages will now list the maximum daily dose as six pills, or a total of 3,000 milligrams, down from eight pills a day, or 4,000 milligrams. Beginning next year, McNeil will also reduce the maximum daily dose for its Regular Strength Tylenol and other adult pain relievers containing acetaminophen, the most widely used pain killer in the country.

Besides Tylenol, acetaminophen is the active ingredient in the prescription painkillers Percocet and Vicodin and in some nonprescription pain relievers, including NyQuil and some Sudafed products. It's found in thousands of medicines taken for headaches, fever, sore throats and chronic pain.

But people taking multiple medicines at once don't always realize how much acetaminophen they are ingesting, partly because prescription drug labels often list it under the abbreviation "APAP."

Two years ago, a panel of advisers to the Food and Drug Administration called for sweeping restrictions to prevent accidental fatal overdoses of acetaminophen.

"Acetaminophen is safe when used as directed," Dr. Edwin Kuffner, McNeil's head of over-the-counter medical affairs, said in a statement.

Excessive use of acetaminophen can cause liver damage. In the U.S., it's blamed for about 200 fatal overdoses and sends 56,000 people to the emergency room each year.
Extra Strength Tylenol is manufactured at a J&J factory in Las Piedras, Puerto Rico, where production has been decreased for months because the FDA, concerned about manufacturing and quality problems, is requiring additional reviews and approvals before medicines can be shipped. J&J said shipments of Extra Strength Tylenol should ramp up in the latter part of this year and throughout next year.(www.todaysgist.com)


Read more »
Posted in: ,

A surgical clamp left inside a man's belly for 37 years ago

2:59 PM samizares
Misplaced Surgical Clamp Gives Man 37-Year Stomachache.
A Chinese man has finally got to the bottom of his enduring, decades-old stomachache -- a surgical clamp left inside his belly 37 years ago, Shanghai Daily reported Thursday.
Medics had failed to remove the 4-inch device after a 1974 operation to treat a stomach ulcer.
The patient, named only as Liu in local reports, had been on pain medication for nearly four decades.
But when he went back to the hospital in central China's Hubei Province on July 17 baffled doctors took an x-ray and immediately spotted the culprit.
The surgical instrument had thankfully caused very little damage and has since been successfully removed, much to Liu's relief, Shanghai Daily said.

Read more »
Posted in: ,

Gastric bypass creates a healthier appetite

2:39 PM samizares
Here's a piece of good news for people who have had a gastric bypass – not only will you eat less, you may also start to eat more healthily.

The most common form of bariatric – anti-obesity – surgery is the "Roux-en-Y" gastric bypass, which involves stapling the stomach so a small pouch is made at the top, which is then connected directly to the small intestine. This bypasses most of the stomach and the duodenum so the patient feels full quicker.

The vertical-banded gastroplasty is an alternative technique which reduces the volume of the stomach without bypassing any part of the intestine, restricting how much the patient can eat at any one time.

After people undergo gastric bypass operations, it is not uncommon for them to report that their eating habits have changed. To investigate these claims, Carel le Roux and colleagues from Imperial College London asked 16 people who had undergone either type of bariatric surgery six years before to fill in a survey about their dietary preferences after the operation.

People who had had a gastric bypass reported eating a lower proportion of fat after surgery than those with a vertical-banded gastroplasty.

Low-fat rats

To find out why this was so, the team carried out either a gastric bypass or a sham operation on 26 rats.

They found the rats with the gastric bypass ate less and regained less weight after recovering from the surgery than the others. In just 10 days after the operation, the gastric bypass rats had, on average, increased the proportion of low-fat food in their diets by a factor of four.

In a separate experiment, researchers gave other post-operative rats sugar water while infusing corn oil directly into their stomachs. This meant that their digestive system encountered fat but the animals had not tasted it. The bypass rats learned to avoid the water nevertheless, but the sham-operated rats did not. This suggests that the preference for low-fat food may have been a result of the bypass rats finding it harder to digest high-fat food after the operation, rather than it somehow affecting their sense of taste.NewScientist

Read more »
Posted in:

 
Design by Samizares Todaysgist