Month: January 2014

Guinea Rushes to Curb Measles Outbreak

Health authorities in Guinea are scrambling to contain a measles outbreak that has killed one child, infected 37 others and spread to half of the country’s 33 districts.

More than 400 suspected cases, nearly all of them in children under 10 years old, have been registered. A vaccination campaign targeting over 1.6 million children is to be launched in the coming weeks.

“We have moved from three affected districts in Conakry before the end of last year to the whole city now being affected. Five more districts out of Conakry are also affected. It means that it could spread throughout the country,” said Felix Ackebo, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) deputy representative for Guinea.

“One of the causes is the nature of the disease. The other is the social/political instability. Many bilateral donors stopped support, awaiting the holding of legislative elections. The whole health system has been weakened. The government was restricted on what it could purchase, and this affected [availability of] vaccines and other important drugs. Many of the basic social services have suffered from this pause in investment,” Ackebo told IRIN. “In the past, we have been obliged to buy measles vaccines and others because the government could not.”

Only 37 percent of Guinean children are fully vaccinated, according to the 2012 Demographic Health Survey. The country’s last measles epidemic, in 2009, infected 4,755 people and killed 10.

Keita Sakoba, head of disease prevention at the Ministry of Health, said that the current stock of measles vaccine, meant for routine immunization, was insufficient for the vaccination drive. He explained that the outbreak was likely due to the accumulation of unvaccinated children.

“We will launch a vaccination campaign in the 15 affected districts and carry out targeted immunizations in districts neighbouring the affected ones,” Sakoba said.

Source: All Africa

Man dies after 8 hours in ER waiting room

Reports have emerged that a man died in a hospital waiting room in New York City more than eight hours after he sought emergency care.

According to multiple reports, 30-year-old John Verrier entered the emergency room of St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx at around 10 p.m. on Jan. 12 complaining about a rash. He was found dead in the waiting room about 6:40 a.m. the next day when a guard failed to wake him up.

St. Barnabas Hospital spokesperson Steve Clark confirmed the timeline around Verrier’s death.

“Probably this scenario in this shape and form has happened in any big hospital in New York City,” he said.

When Verrier arrived at St. Barnabas, he had his vitals taken in the triage area and was told to wait in the waiting room until his name was called to see a doctor, according to Clark. At 12:35 p.m., his name was called for the first time, but Verrier did not respond. That night, his name was called two more times to see the doctor, but the patient did not acknowledge his name was being called.

“People have personal responsibility when your name is called, you have to get up and see the doctor,” Clark said.

It was determined through employee accounts and security footage that Verrier was alive at least until 3:45 a.m. A security guard woke him up after he had fallen asleep, and he had been recorded walking around the waiting room.

The cause of death for Verrier has yet to be determined, pending a medical examiners report.

The case has been investigated internally, and the hospital said it was determined that officials had done everything according to protocol.

“This could have happened anywhere outside in the cold,” said Clark.

He couldn’t confirm the reason Verrier was asking to see a doctor, citing patient confidentiality laws. He did say that Verrier was called for as soon possible, after more pressing cases were attended to.

“It was a busy night, waiting 2 hours and 30 minutes is not that long a time considering what his complaint was,” Clark said.

He added that on many cold nights in New York City, many people use the hospital as shelter and stay in the waiting room to keep warm. People aren’t allowed to loiter or sleep in the facilities, however. In order to stay inside the hospital, the patients have to come in with a medical complaint. Many of the times, the issue they present with is just a ruse in order not to be kicked out, he said.

He emphasized that this scenario may or may not relate to Verrier’s case, but could explain why some people spend time sitting in a waiting room without entering the hospital, even if their name was called multiple times.

“People come in with no desire to see the doctor,” he said.

An anonymous St. Barnabas Hospital emergency room employee told WABC that despite Verrier’s name being called three times, he had not been checked on personally. The employee added he or she believed Verrier died because there was “not enough staff to take care of the number of patients we see each day.”

Clark dismissed the comments, saying that the hospital did not think staff numbers played a role in this scenario.

“It is a tragedy that a young man died, yet following an internal review, it was concluded that all hospital guidelines were met,” the hospital said.

According to a ProPublica report, the average person in New York spends 2 hours and 35 minutes waiting in the emergency room to see a doctor, and about 1 percent leave without being seen. The report determined that St. Barnabas patients waited 5 hours and 6 minutes on average before seeing a doctor, and 18 percent left without being seen.

Source: fox news

Marijuana Use During Pregnancy Affects Babies’ Brain

Using marijuana during pregnancy could affect a baby’s brain development by interfering with how brain cells are wired, a new study in mice and human tissue suggests.

Researchers studied marijuana’s effects on mice and brain tissue from human fetuses, and found that the active ingredient in marijuana, THC, interferes with the formation of connections between nerve cells in the cerebral cortex, the part of the brain responsible for higher thinking skills and forming memories.

“Our advice is that [pregnant] mothers should avoid marijuana,”said neuroscientist Tibor Harkany of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, and the Medical University of Vienna, in Austria, who led a study detailed today (Jan. 27) in the EMBO Journal. [11 Facts Every Parent Should Know About Their Baby’s Brain]

Harkany added that the effects of prenatal marijuana exposure could even last into adulthood. The drug could have direct effects, or it could sensitize the brain to future drug exposure or neuropsychiatric illnesses.

Pot during pregnancy

Previous studies have found that exposure to marijuana during pregnancy can increase a child’s risk of having cognitive deficits or psychiatric disorders.

While it is not exactly clear how marijuana may affect the fetal brain at a molecular level, it seems the brain may be particularly sensitive to THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol) during early development, when neurons are forming critical connections. Any drug that interferes with this development could be detrimental to the child, Harkany said.

In the study, Harkany and his colleagues tested marijuana’s effects in three ways: They grew brain cells from mice in the presence of THC, they injected pregnant mice with THC, and they studied the brains of electively aborted human fetuses whose mothers had used marijuana during pregnancy.

The researchers identified a specific protein in nerve cells, called Superior Cervical Ganglion 10 (SCG10), which is essential for normal brain wiring. They found lower levels of this protein in the brains of both human and mouse fetuses exposed to THC compared with individuals who weren’t exposed to THC, suggesting that marijuana exposure has a specific effect on the developing brain.

Marijuana and brain development

“Prenatal cannabis disrupts synapses [nerve connections] critical for higher order executive and cognitive function,” study researcher Yasmin Hurd, a neuroscientist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, told LiveScience in an email.

An increasing number of women of childbearing age are using marijuana, and this group should be made aware of the potential impact on the brain development of their children, she said.

Harkany added that pregnant women should avoid using marijuana use for medical purposes.

Previous long-term studies have shown that children exposed to marijuana in the womb may have an increased risk of showing cognitive effects, seeking out drugs, or having attention deficit disorder, anxiety or depression, according to the study.

Harkany and his colleagues didn’t study the effects of marijuana use prior to pregnancy, but he said the drug is cleared from the body in a period days, not months, and using it prior to conception is more likely to affect the likelihood of becoming pregnant than the fetus itself.

So far, Harkany said, no studies have compared the effect of marijuana to that of other drugs, such as alcohol, on fetal brain development.

Source: huffington post

Yoga May Reduce Fatigue in Breast Cancer Survivors

breast cancer

Yoga may help breast cancer survivors beat the debilitating fatigue and sleep problems that often follow toxic treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation, a new study shows.

Fatigue can be a big challenge for cancer survivors.

“Even some years out from breast cancer treatment, anywhere from 30 to 40 percent of women report substantial levels of fatigue,” said study author Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at Ohio State University in Columbus.

That may be due, in large part, to disrupted sleep. As many as 60 percent of cancer survivors say they have trouble sleeping, she noted, a rate that’s two to three times higher than their cancer-free peers.

The end result is that many cancer survivors end up trying to drag themselves through their days.

“And it’s a nasty downward spiral where increasing fatigue means less activity and less activity means increasing fatigue, so that over time less and less translates into greater frailty and decline,” Kiecolt-Glaser said.

Kiecolt-Glaser, who studies the health effects of stress, wanted to see if it was possible to stop that cycle.

She and her colleagues, including her husband and research collaborator, Ronald Glaser, recruited 200 women aged 27 to 76 who were new to yoga and had finished treatment for breast cancer within the last three years. They had to be at least two months past their last treatment and otherwise healthy to participate.

The women were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The first group practiced the gentle, flowing poses of Hatha yoga for two 90-minute sessions each week for three months. The second group was placed on a waiting list.

Before and after the study, all the women answered detailed questions about their energy and vitality, mental health, the kind of support they felt they were getting from friends and family, their sleep, how active they were and even their diet. Researchers also performed blood tests to measure markers of inflammation.

The differences weren’t immediately apparent. After three months of practice, women in the yoga group reported that they had more vitality and were sleeping better, compared to the group that was waiting to take the class.

And after their group sessions ended, most who were taking yoga gradually stopped practicing. Their physical activity went back to the level it was when they signed up for the study. Despite that, they continued to improve.

At the six-month mark, the women practicing yoga reported about 60 percent less fatigue than the women on the waiting list, and their measures of inflammation were 13 percent to 20 percent lower.

The longer they practiced yoga, the greater their improvements, Kiecolt-Glaser said.

Source: webmd

12 foods that naturally whiten your teeth

We’ve all been told to avoid red wine, dark berries, and black coffee in our quests for pearly whites, but what about foods that actually brighten your smile? Try these natural solutions for a brilliant beam

Strawberries

They may be bright red, but malic acid, a chief component of this summery fruit, acts as a natural astringent to remove surface tooth discoloration, says Dr. Irwin Smigel, president of the American Society for Dental Aesthetics. Fresh, juicy strawberries taste great in any meal—salads, desserts, cereal—and are widely available at farmers markets this time of year, so getting your daily dose is both simple and delicious

 

Seeds and nuts

Chewing these lightly abrasive, hard foods rubs plaque and stains off the surface of teeth, says Dr. Matthew Messina, a spokesperson for the American Dental Association. Pop a few almonds for a mid-afternoon snack—they’re full of protein, healthy fats, and the crunch you need to get pearly whites.

Onions

Although they may not be the ideal pre-date snack, the notoriously bad-for-breath alliums could be beneficial to teeth. Because they’re colorless, they won’t cause surface stains, says Messina, adding that after eating them you’re more likely to brush—which is a surefire way to get whiter teeth.

Apples

The loud crunch you hear when you bite into this hard fruit may be annoying, but it’s also good for your choppers. Apples’ crispiness strengthens gums, and their high water content increases saliva production, dispersing and neutralizing colonies of bacteria that lead to bad breath and plaque, says Smigel.

 

Baking soda

Take a toothpaste break and try brushing with this common ingredient. Baking soda is a base, like bleach, notes Messina, and the “soda”—which is actually a form of salt—in this pantry staple is a mild abrasive that works to scrub off plaque and surface stains.

Celery and carrots

The same high water content that makes these veggies great for your waistline and your health also helps them whiten your teeth by stimulating saliva production, which aids in washing away food debris and strengthening gums, according to Smigel.

Broccoli

Unlike beets and cranberries, this crunchy vegetable doesn’t stay stuck to teeth, so it won’t cause unsightly surface stains, says Messina. Throw some raw broccoli into your lunch—the florets will scrub the surface of teeth, giving them a brief and natural midday

Cheese

Hard cheese, like the little blocks you get on those delicious appetizer trays, is full of calcium, which strengthens teeth and gums, explains Smigel. Plus, most cheeses are near colorless, meaning they won’t stain your teeth. So go ahead, order that cheese plate.

Oranges

This bright fruit contains citrus, an acid that can wear away tooth enamel if ingested in large doses, making teeth whiter—but at a cost, says Messina. So while we don’t recommend gulping down bags of oranges in the spirit of a bright smile, a juicy helping once in a while is good for your pearly whites, and thanks to loads of vitamin C, your overall health too.

Water

Drink lots of water to keep your mouth hydrated and your smile bright, advises Smigel, who recommends sipping and swishing between glasses of wine and when eating dark, pigmented foods to prevent staining. However, while water reduces the acidity in your mouth and the resulting damage to your enamel, Dr. Smigel warns against imbibing too much

Pears

Smigel recommends munching on a pear to neutralize pesky odor-causing and staining bacteria colonies on teeth. Increased saliva production brought on by this sweet, delicious fruit also washes away food debris, leaving teeth clean and sparkling.

Source: yahoo shopping

Women should drink plenty of water in winter to keep cystitis at bay

Experts have warned that taking lesser amount of water during winters can give rise to major health problems such as cystitis or urinary tract infection, especially in women.

“Women are prone to cystitis because of their shorter urinary tract as compared to men. Women of all ages can acquire such infections but it is more with women who have just been married and women approaching menopause,” Malvika Sabharwal, head of department of gynaecologist and obstetrician, Nova Speciality Hospitals, was quoted as saying to IANS.

With women having higher risk of cystitis (eight times) than men, doctors recommend drinking at least 12 glasses of water a day to help flush out the infection and dilute the urine.

Up to 15 percent of women have cystitis each year and half of them have had cystitis at least once in their life.

“Women suffering from tuberculosis, diabetes mellitus, those who are pregnant and those who are sexually active are more vulnerable to cystitis,” added Sabharwal.

Doctors also stress that pregnant women should take special care not to keep their bladder empty.

“Pregnant women should try not to drink too much caffeine or acidic drinks such as orange juice as these can irritate the bladder. They should never keep their bladder empty as it can create an environment for bacteria to multiply,” Archana Dhawan Bajaj, gynaecologist and obstetrician at Nurture Clinic, told IANS.

“Burning sensation while urinating, frequent need to urinate but passing only small amounts or no urine, having pain in the lower back, dark smelly urine and even fever are the symptoms of cystitis,” adds Dhawan.

Blood can also pass along with urine but that can be detected only when the urine is tested.

“So to detect the severity of the infection, a simple microscopic culture of the urine has to be done,” Amita Shah, consultant gyanecologist, Columbia Asia Hospital, Gurgaon, told IANS.

However, doctors also advice microscopic urine examination once every three to six months.

“The treatment for cystitis includes addressing each episode promptly with a short course of antibiotics and sometimes, a regular dose of antibiotics for the long-term. However, if untreated, the infection can go from the bladder to the kidney,” added Shah.

To treat cystitis, doctors also advise daily doses of cranberry juices.

As preventive measures, doctors stress on maintaining hygiene.

“Self-hygiene is important and more important is that the washroom should also be cleaned and sanitised,” added Shah.

Source: News track India

Drug-resistant TB spreading fast in Russia

scientists have found that tuberculosis strains in Russia carry mutations that not only make them resistant to antibiotics but also help them spread more effectively.

The latest study of TB cases in Russia indicates that rampant drug resistance may not be the only explanation for the TB rise in the region – biological factors also play a major role in it.

Researchers at Queen Mary University of London analysed 1,000 genomes from different TB isolates – the largest whole-genome study of a single bacterial species so far.

This enabled the team to identify previously unknown mutations linked to antibiotic resistance, as well as “compensatory mutations” that improve the ability of drug-resistant TB to spread.

Nearly half of the TB isolates were multi-drug resistant, which means that they were impervious to the two common first-line antibiotics that cure most TB infections.

Sixteen percent of these isolates also harboured mutations that made them impervious to “second-line” drugs.

These infections are more expensive to treat and patients who receive ineffective drugs are more likely to spread TB, said the research published in the journal Nature Genetics.

TB, which is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, exploded in Russia and other former Soviet nations in the early 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and its health system.

“It certainly adds an extra layer of worry, because one had assumed if you could solve ‘programmatic’ weaknesses, you would solve the problem of the drug-resistant TB,” stressed Francis Drobniewski, a microbiologist at Queen Mary University.

“Although we know the general story of TB drug resistance in Russia, these new findings are still shocking,” added Christopher Dye, an epidemiologist at the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Geneva.

According to Megan Murray, an epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, the worst scenario is that the organisms are developing resistance, compensating for it, and evolving into something that’s new and different, that’s much less treatable.

Source: Sify

 

Healthy lifestyle to improve oral health in diabetics

Diabetics, who are at a higher risk of suffering from oral health problems, can avoid these by adopting a healthy lifestyle.

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have helped a large group of diabetics to markedly improve their oral health through health coaching.

“Diabetics are at a higher risk of suffering oral health issues like periodontitis and caries and other problems like dry mouth, fungal infections and poor wound healing,” said Ayse Basak Cinar, assistant professor at department of odontology at the university.

In all, 186 patients with type 2 diabetes participated in the study done in Turkey – the first in the world – to demonstrate the role of health coaching in improving dental health.

The patients with diabetes were divided into two groups.

One group was given traditional health information, for example a brochure on good dental hygiene.

The other group was offered motivational health coaching in the form of 3-6 sessions over a six-month period, focusing on diet, stress management and dental care, said the research published in the journal Clinical Oral Investigations.

“In patients who were given personal health coaching, biological markers for periodontitis – also known as loose teeth disease – were reduced by as much as 50 percent over a six-month period,” the research noted.

“The patients in the trial group saw a significant decline in long-range blood sugar levels, whereas figures for the control group were unchanged,” said.

“Health coaching is a resource-intensive intervention. However, dishing out brochures to patients with diabetes and thinking that this would help is also a costly approach for the society,” he added.

Source; Business standard

New drug may stop spread of breast cancer

Researchers have identified a new compound that completely halts the spread of metastatic breast cancer in mice.

The vast majority of deaths from cancer result from its progressive spread to vital organs such as the brain and lungs – a process known as metastasis.

In a recent series of studies researchers identified a previously unknown critical role for a potential cancer causing gene, Bcl3, in metastatic breast cancer.

“We showed that suppressing this gene reduced the spread of cancer by more than 80 per cent,” said Dr Richard Clarkson from Cardiff University’s European Cancer Stem Cell Research Institute.

“Our next goal was to then find a way to suppress Bcl3 pharmacologically. Despite great improvements in therapy of early stage breast cancer, the current therapeutic options for patients with late stage metastatic disease are limited.

“There is therefore a clear unmet clinical need to identify new drugs to reverse or at least to slow down disease progression,” he added.

Clarkson and his team joined up with researchers Dr Andrea Brancale and Dr Andrew Westwell from the Cardiff University School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, to develop small chemical inhibitors of the Bcl3 gene.

Computer aided modelling of how the Bcl3 gene functions inside the cell allowed the group to identify a pocket on the surface of Bcl3 essential for its function.
By screening a virtual compound library for chemicals that could fit inside this pocket, using state-of-the-art computer software, they identified a drug candidate that potently inhibits Bcl3.

The compound was then trialled on mice with metastatic disease. The resulting effect was that the drug completely inhibited the development of the mice’s metastatic tumours.
Researchers are now working to conduct clinical trials of the compound. The aim is to develop a therapeutic agent capable of blocking metastatic disease in breast cancer and a variety of tumour types.

Source: Business Standard

Laugh your way to good health

Laughter is the best medicine, is an age-old saying, and about 10,000 laughter clubs in India are a testimony to the fact that the therapy works.

A combination of group laughter exercises with yoga breathing, which allows people to laugh without cracking jokes, should be performed for at least 15 to 20 minutes, says Hasya yoga guru Jiten Kohi.

“The good chemical changes in the body can happen only if you spend time on it. The effects won’t be great if you finish your asanas quickly,” Kohi said.

“Such asanas are good for depressed people or those who lead stressful lives,” he added.

Rahul Chandhok, senior consultant psychiatrist at Gurgaon’s Fortis Hospital, pointed out that while work pressure has always been there, other factors like commuting and traffic are adding to the woes of people.

“In the metros one needs to commute for long hours; therefore, people are unable to give time to their families or even take out time for themselves. This causes stress,” Chandhok said.

Another reason is that everyone is competing with everyone for everything. In big cities, day-to-day life is getting more and more hectic and target, desire and deadline driven and the fight against stress overload multiplies.

“People end up comparing themselves to others, they want something that is way beyond their reach. All this causes stress,” Chandhok said.

“Unlike big cities, the smaller ones are at an advantage as far as distance is concerned. People don’t take long to commute from home to the workplace. But, yes, there are comparison factors that cause stress,” he added.

Kohi formed Hasya Yoga Kendra in 2000 because he felt that laughter – the healthiest gesture in people’s lives – is missing.

“As people grow up, they forget to laugh. Nowadays they just exercise. Don’t take it as exercise and laugh like a child. Take things lightly without pressurising your brain. This way you will be less stressful and that will help to stay fit in some way,” said Kohi.

His team holds around 52 yoga classes per day in areas like Model Town, Kalkaji and Janakpuri in the capital, apart from monthly sessions in Tihar Jail, in schools and at corporate houses.

With 300 centres in the country in places like Lucknow, Mumbai, Jaipur and Indore, Kohi gets better response in tier-II cities.

“People in small towns are more interested. Thousands of them turn up in the morning. In metropolitan cities, people lead busy lives; so maybe there are people who are able to join us in parks,” said Kohi, who believes it’s best to do asanas early morning in view of the relatively fresh air.

Apart from other recreational activities, laughter exercises help in improving the well-being of people.

“If you laugh wholeheartedly, your facial muscles will gain benefits and there will be a feeling of well-being, especially when you do such exercises in a group. Your body releases chemicals that help to relieve stress,” Ravindra Gupta, consultant in internal medicine at Gurgaon’s Columbia Asia Hospital, said.

However, he clarified that laughter can de-stress, but it can’t cure ailments.

“It can’t treat ailments. It can reduce blood pressure to some extent, but medication is required,” said Gupta.

Echoing this, Madan Kataria, founder of Laughter Yoga International, says laughter-based exercises help the immune system.

“When you laugh, the stress level goes down and you don’t easily fall sick,” said Kataria, who started his institution with his wife Madhuri in 1995 in Mumbai.

“In people with blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes, we have noticed a 50 percent improvement in their health due to laughter exercises. I am not saying it completely cures diseases, but there is reduction in medication,” he explained.

Kataria said there are around 10,000 laughter clubs in India and the demand is increasing in other parts of the world too.

“They are present in around 72 countries like Japan, Germany and US,” he said.

Chandhok said that yoga or meditation or laughter sessions are important for a healthy life, but medical treatment is equally vital.

“Treatment is essential. Complete it and then continue with these healthy activities,” he said.

So, step out and have a hearty laugh…..ha, ha, ha, ha!

Source: Times of India