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Totalitarian Medical Health Control Plan - Sooner than you Think

http://www.progressiveconvergence.com/index.htm 

United Nations Codex Alimentarius – A threat to your vitamin supplements?

Codex Alimentarius is an international standard-setting body dealing with how to safely process and store food products, avoiding hazards to our health. For about ten years, the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses has been mulling over a guideline for vitamin and mineral supplements, originally proposed by the German delegation to this committee, presumably to eliminate dangers from these additions of vital nutrients to our nutrition. 

So far so good, but what dangers exactly are we talking about? When statistical evidence indicates that food supplements are by far the safest category of products in existence, why do we need regulations?

Could it be that pharmaceutical drugs, recently shown to be a leading cause of death in the Western world, are losing ground, that the pharmaceutical business is on its way out? If so, might it just be that the proponents of pharmaceutical drug "treatment" of disease could be leaning on legislators to eliminate what they perceive to be the cause of their woes - the natural way to health by proper nutrition?

How ever that may be, Paul Taylor has examined the question of Codex Alimentarius and the threat this international legislative body's deliberations may pose to our health by "regulating" supplements of vital nutrients in a most restrictive way.

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Mad Cow

Average number of people who die in the U.S. from Flu every year = 36,000

Source: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol10no11/04-0469.htm 

Sex difference in aspirin effect - BBC

YOUR PAPERS, PLEASE ...
Electronic medical-records plan raises fears
Privacy advocates missing from feds' recommendation panel


WND - Sept 17/05 - A federal panel selected to make recommendations to the government about how best to convert paper medical records to electronic format is being criticized for having no privacy advocates as commissioners. 

Instead, the critics say, the 16-member panel is comprised strictly of industry representatives and government officials – a sign, they believe indicates a potentially harmful inattention to patient privacy. 

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Green Tea Compound Stops Alzheimer's in Mice



WEDNESDAY, Sept. 21/05 - (HealthDay News) -- An ingredient in green tea has prevented Alzheimer's disease-like brain damage in mice, researchers report.


The compound, called epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), decreased production of the protein beta-amyloid, which accumulates in the brains of Alzheimer's patients and causes nerve damage and memory loss.


"The findings suggest that a concentrated component of green tea can decrease brain beta-amyloid plaque formation," senior researcher Dr. Jun Tan, director of the Neuroimmunology Laboratory at the the University of South Florida's Silver Child Development Center, said in a prepared statement.


Reporting in the Sept. 21 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, the research team worked with mice genetically programmed to develop a disease mimicking human Alzheimer's.


The mice received daily injections of EGCG for several months and showed as much as a 54 percent reduction in the formation of brain-clogging beta-amyloid plaques. It appears that EGCG prevents the initial process that leads to beta-amyloid formation in brain cells, the researchers said.



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Estrogen Not Effective After Menopause 

By LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer 
Mon Sep 26



CHICAGO - Ap - Sept 26/05 - Estrogen pills have little effect on older women's quality of life, fresh evidence from a landmark study shows in yet another blow to the myth that most women need the hormones to feel better after menopause. 

More than 10,000 women with an average age of 63 were asked about their general health, mental, physical and social functioning, energy level and emotional health before and a year after they started taking either estrogen or dummy pills.

Some scores dipped and others increased slightly, but there was little overall difference between the groups, which each included more than 5,000 women. Women taking estrogen reported slightly fewer sleep problems but slightly worse social functioning than those on dummy pills, but the differences were minimal. Overall quality-of-life scores were high for both groups.

Participants were part of the government's Women's Health Initiative, which did a long-running study on the risks and benefits of hormones.

Use plummeted after results in 2002 linked estrogen-progestin pills sold as Prempro with an increased risk for heart attacks, breast cancer and strokes in postmenopausal women.

Several doctors said the conclusions cannot be generalized to apply to younger women.

On the Net: archinternmed.com

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Study: Flu Shot Not As Effective in Elderly

By EMMA ROSS, AP Medical Writer 

Sept 21/05-



LONDON - Sep 21/05 - A new analysis of 40 years of research provides more evidence that flu shots are not as effective in the elderly as commonly believed. But health officials said older people should still be vaccinated. 


The research, done by an international collaboration of scientists known as the Cochrane Review Group, found the vaccine is only about 28 percent effective when given to people over 65. Older people are particularly vulnerable to influenza.

The findings are similar to those of a study done by U.S. National Institutes of Health that found flu shots for the elderly in the United States had not saved lives.

However, the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the findings, published Thursday on the Web site of the Lancet medical journal, do not change their recommendation that elderly people get the shots.

"There are a number of studies published that report on varying degrees of effectiveness. But there are also a lot of studies that point to the fact that the vaccines are effective in preventing the serious complications that lead to hospitalizations and death, and that's an important note that we should never lose sight of," said Tom Skinner, a CDC spokesman.


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Pushing the "Cure" Where a Big Cancer Story Went Wrong


by Michael Shapiro 

Shapiro teaches magazine writing at Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism.

There is no story more tantalizing to tell or read than the one that suggests that we can, perhaps, cheat death.

So it was on Sunday, May 3, when The New York Times ran what quickly became one of the more talked about stories in recent memory. Played above the fold on page one, it opened with barely contained elation: "Within a year, if all goes well, the first cancer patient will be injected with two new drugs that can eradicate any type of cancer, with no obvious side effects and no drug resistance -- in mice."

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'Human remains link' to BSE (MAD COW) cases 
By Paul Rincon 
BBC News science reporter 



The origins of BSE remain murky 

BBC - Sept 1/05 - The first cases of BSE or "mad cow disease" could have been caused by animal feed contaminated with human remains, says a controversial theory. 

Some raw materials for fertiliser and feed imported from South Asia in the 60s and 70s contained human bones and soft tissue, the Lancet reports. 

Bone collectors could have picked up the remains of corpses deposited in the Ganges river to sell for export. 

If infected with prion diseases, they could have been the source for BSE. 

I don't think anyone has thought about the very rare but very important risk posed by the corpse of someone who has died from a version of CJD 

Professor Alan Colchester, University of Kent 

But the theory has been greeted with scepticism by several experts on Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE). 

The authors admit their evidence stops short of proving their case, but argue that their theory is plausible enough to warrant further investigation. 

The appearance of a form of CJD in humans, known as variant CJD or vCJD, has been linked to the BSE outbreak and is blamed for hundreds of deaths. 

Prions, the abnormal proteins that cause CJD and vCJD in humans, BSE in cows and scrapie in sheep, are remarkably resistant to both natural decay and sterilisation procedures. 

Funerary practices 

The UK imported hundreds of thousands of tonnes of whole bones, crushed bones and carcass parts in the 1960s and 1970s to make fertiliser as well as meat and bone meal feed. 

Nearly 50% came from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, where gathering large bones and carcasses from the countryside and from rivers is an established local trade. 

Hindu funerary practices require that human remains are disposed of in a river, preferably the Ganges. Although the body should ideally be burned, many people cannot afford enough wood for a full cremation, the report's authors claim. 

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One-Third of Major Medical Studies Inaccurate or Exaggerated


Mercola.com - July 05 - It's often the case that with every new medical "breakthrough" that comes along, there are two or three more to discount it. Now a new review has proven this phenomenon: About one-third of all major studies from the last 15 years were subsequently shown to be inaccurate or overblown. Two recent examples of this worth mentioning are: 


1. The initial finding that hormone-replacement therapy reduced older women's heart disease risk (a larger trial later found that HRT actually raised cardiovascular and cancer risk) 

2. The promise of vitamin E in preventing heart attack (it may not) 

Journal of the American Medical Association July 13, 2005

Source Here

US : Lawmakers Want to Delay Meat Labeling

WASHINGTON - May 16/05 - AP-  Labels telling consumers where their meat comes from must be in place beginning next year, but lawmakers took action Monday that could delay the labels for months. 

House members writing a farm spending bill voted to postpone country-of-origin labeling for meat, which is supposed to go into effect in September 2006. Congress initially ordered the labeling into effect in 2004, but the lawmakers, bowing to pressure from meatpackers and food processors, voted to delay it until 2006.

"This just buys a little more time," said Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-Texas, chairman of the agriculture subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee.

"It would be a nightmare to implement for producers across the country," Bonilla said. "It would also expose retailers to a tremendous amount of liability." [???]

The White House wants to repeal labeling for meat,  [???] and the House Agriculture Committee chairman, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (news, bio, voting record), R-Va., introduced a bill earlier this month that would repeal the mandatory labeling system and replace it with a voluntary one.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte  (540) 432-2391 or  (202) 225-5431 

The subcommittee voted Monday to prevent the Agriculture Department from spending money this year to put labeling rules in place, a tactic that would postpone the labeling for months. The full committee must approve the bill before sending it to the House floor.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said 35 other countries, including Canada, Mexico and European countries, already require labels for meat.

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Deadly flu samples still missing 

BBC - Ap/05 - Samples of a potentially lethal flu strain sent to Lebanon and Mexico did not reach the respective laboratories, the World Health Organization says. 
The WHO said it was trying to trace the samples, which were sent by a US testing organisation. 

The samples are of Asian flu, which killed between one and four million people in 1957 but disappeared by 1968. 

More than 3,700 laboratories in 18 countries received the testing kits and have been racing to destroy the virus. 

The WHO says the virus could "easily cause an influenza epidemic" if not handled properly. 

All but five of the countries outside US that received the kits say they have now destroyed them. 

Full Story Here

Medical / Pharmaceutical  Books that May be of use to you (Amazon links)

Dangerous Doses : How Counterfeiters Are Contaminating America's Drug Supply 

The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It

The $800 Million Pill : The Truth behind the Cost of New Drugs 

The Big Fix: How the Pharmaceutical Industry Rips Off American Consumers 

On The Take: How Medicine's Complicity with Big Business Can Endanger Your Health 

Overdosed America : The Broken Promise of American Medicine 

How Health Care in America Became Big Business--and Bad Medicine

Health Against Wealth: Hmos and the Breakdown of Medical Trust

Making a Killing: Hmos and the Threat to Your Health 

Revealed: how an abortion puts the next baby at risk
By Michael Day


Telegraph - UK - May 15/05 - Having an abortion almost doubles a woman's risk of giving birth dangerously early in a later pregnancy, according to research that will provoke fresh debate over the most controversial of all medical procedures.

A  study of 2,837 births - the first to investigate the link between terminations and extremely premature births - found that mothers who had previously had an abortion were 1.7 times more likely to give birth to a baby at less than 28 weeks' gestation. Many babies born this early die soon after birth, and a large number who survive suffer serious disability.


Peter Bowen-Simpkins: 'termination may have late complications' 

The research leader, Dr Caroline Moreau, an epidemiologist, said the results of the study, which appear in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, provided conclusive evidence of a link between induced abortion and subsequent pre-term births.

Last night anti-abortion campaigners seized on the evidence to demand that all women seeking a termination be warned, routinely, that they are jeopardising the well-being of future babies. A series of earlier, smaller studies had failed to provide clear evidence of a link and so women currently opting for an abortion are not warned of the risk.

Dr Moreau said: "Clearly there is a link. The results suggest that induced abortion can damage the cervix in some way that makes a premature birth more likely in subsequent pregnancies."

Her study compared the medical histories of 2,219 women with babies born at less than 34 weeks with another 618 who had given birth at full term. Overall, women who had had an abortion were 40 per cent more likely to have a very pre-term delivery (less than 33 weeks) than those without such a history. The risk of an extremely premature baby - one born at less than 28 weeks - was raised even more sharply, by 70 per cent. Abortion appeared to increase the risk of most major causes of premature birth, including premature rupture of membranes, incorrect position of the foetus on the placenta and spontaneous early labour. 

Full Story Here

http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/05/15/nabort15.xml 

European Court of Justice Advocate General Leendert Geelhoed said the EU health foods directive infringed guidelines in his opinion.

But he said he was not opposed to the legislation in principle - opening the way for officials to redraw it.

The court has to make a final decision on the rules, which critics say will ban thousands of health foods.

Judges do not have to agree with the advocate general, although in the majority of cases they do.

The case was brought by industry groups the British Health Food Manufacturers Association (HFMA), National Association of Health Stores (NAHS) and Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) ahead of the law change in August.

The Food Supplements Directive, approved by EU governments in 2002, is designed to tighten controls on the growing market in products sold under the health food heading - natural remedies, vitamin supplements and mineral plant extracts.

Under the new rules, only vitamins and minerals on an approved list can be used in supplements. There will also be restrictions on the upper limits of vitamin doses.

The industry had argued the legislation threatened 5,000 products, containing more than 200 nutrients, including some vitamin C products.

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BBC - Nov 03- The actress Jenny Seagrove and the National Association of Health Food Stores are challenging a legal ban on an ancient herbal remedy.

They are applying for a judicial review of the ban which has made it an offence to import or sell Kava-kava.

The herb, a natural tranquilliser, was banned on January 13 after it was linked to deaths from liver failure.

Miss Seagrove argues there is no legal right to forbid her to use a herb which helps her to relax and sleep.

Rhodri Thompson QC, appearing for both Miss Seagrove and the association at the High Court in London, said Miss Seagrove "strongly resented" the ban which prevents her from using the remedy to cope with the problem of sleeplessness.

"Both my clients strongly resent this interference with their freedom of choice and freedom to trade," he said.

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Totalitarian Medical Health Control Plan - Sooner than you Think

http://www.progressiveconvergence.com/index.htm 

Web site lets patients shop around for hospital

Ap 3/05 - Knight Ridder/Tribune - People now can compare the quality of care at more than 4,200 hospitals nationwide through a new government Web site.

HospitalCompare.hhs.gov  provides side-by-side, hospital-versus-hospital comparisons on 17 measures: eight related to heart-attack care, four to care for heart failure and five related to pneumonia care.

For instance, the Web site, which launched Friday, shows the percentage of a hospital's heart-attack patients who, among other treatments, receive aspirin or beta-blockers on arrival and discharge. It also gives the percentage of heart-attack patients who get a thrombolytic agent--a drug to treat blood clots--within 30 minutes of arrival.

For heart-failure patients, the site details, among other things, the percentage who receive an ACE inhibitor--a medicine frequently used to treat heart failure--and the percentage of those who get instructions to help manage their conditions when they're discharged.

Hospital accrediting agencies use such indicators to determine whether a hospital is delivering good basic practice. They add up to an impression that's easily compared with those of other hospitals. 

Story Here

www.HospitalCompare.hhs.gov      www.HospitalCompare.hhs.gov

BBC - Mar 03 - Ambulance crews in the Bristol and Bath areas have been given a phrasebook which asks questions in 31 different languages.

Paramedics can point to a question such as "Does it hurt here?" and patients can then indicate "Yes" or "No".

The multi-lingual emergency phrasebook called Positively Diverse flips open at the back to reveal a short message in 31 different languages.

Once the crew has identified the patient's preferred language, they can then go to the relevant section and point to up to 21 clinical questions.

Sign language

The English translation for their own reference is alongside.

Avon Ambulance Service NHS Trust says the book, part of a national initiative by the Ambulance Service Association, will help its staff meet the needs of the increasing black and minority ethnic communities.

It also has a section on the use of sign language.

The phrasebook will complement an existing scheme called the Language Line, which puts ambulance staff in touch with a pool of interpreters fluent in a range of languages.

Paramedic Neville Levy, a member of the Trust's black and minority ethnic staff support group, said: "The multi-lingual phrasebook is an excellent initiative which will enable us to communicate with non-English speaking patients

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Phrasebook helps injured foreign seamen

Written in English and another 11 languages, the manual will enable medical staff to ask seafarers basic personal data such as their name and last port of call.

It has been put together by the Mission to Seafarers, in conjunction with the Merchant Navy Welfare Board's Humber committee.

Goole chaplain David Whateley said: "The idea is to get books to the people who will be the first on the scene of an accident.

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Schiavo Case Impact: Spurring Statehouse Debate

Ap 3/05  -AP - We don't want to get into the politics of the right or the left or whomever," said Michael Donnelly at the Disability Rights Center of Kansas. "This isn't about politics, this is about how we value or don't value the lives people with disabilities have." 

His group had been working for years to revisit the issue, and came together with several conservative legislators to move the bill forward. Elsewhere, the National Right to Life Committee has produced model legislation and is working with legislators in several states. 

Legislation has also been introduced in Alabama, Hawaii, Louisiana, Minnesota and South Dakota. The Louisiana bill is called the "Human Dignity Act"; Alabama's is the "Starvation and Dehydration Prevention Act." 

Many measures predate recent weeks of attention to Schiavo, though some drew their inspiration directly from the agonized public debate over the 41-year-old woman's death — like one in Missouri introduced last Thursday, the day Schiavo died. 

"I was gripped by what I was watching and couldn't believe the state of Florida would let this woman die in this manner," said GOP state Rep. Cynthia Davis. Her bill would bar anyone from directing that artificial food and water be withheld or withdrawn without a specific written directive from the patient. 

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Terri Schiavo case Update Page

A review in The Lancet by researchers at the Aga Khan University in Pakistan said poor hygiene in labour wards and after birth was to blame.

Up to 70% of neonatal infections are resistant to antibiotic treatment, they suggest.

The researchers say fear of infection may deter people from using hospitals.

Neonatal deaths account for over one-third of all child mortality across the world

Infections during pregnancy and after birth are estimated to kill 1.6 million babies in developing countries each year.

Three-quarters of these deaths are in southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

The researchers say that evidence from studies in various countries which they examined suggested hospitals used unhygienic practices, increasing the risk of babies developing infections.

In some cases, babies were forced to share three to a cot, and only one or two nurses were available to cover 60-bed wards.

Deaths

The team looked at 62 studies carried out in Asia, Africa and Latin America

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The World Health Organization says the disease, which has particularly affected children under five years old, is from the Ebola family.

The symptoms, similar to Ebola, include vomiting, bloody discharge and fever.

The nature of the outbreak was discovered after blood samples were sent to the US for analysis.

The Marburg disease, which was first recognised in 1967, affects humans and primates.

Fled hospital

Mr Van Dunem said 101 cases of the illness had been reported in a hospital in the city of Uige.

Ninety-three people have died and two have left the hospital without being properly discharged, he told reporters

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Health Care in Japan: Japan's schooling for scandal (BBC)

The World Health Organization guidance said young people who get burnt from exposure to UV have a greater risk of skin cancer as adults.

Research has made a direct link between the use of sunbeds and cancer. There are 132,000 cases of the most dangerous form of skin cancer globally each year.

The WHO said it was issuing its warning now as many people began to think about developing a tan as summer approached

The WHO warns some sunbeds can emit levels of ultraviolet (UV) radiation which are many times stronger than the mid-day summer sun in most countries.

The highest skin cancer rates are found mainly in places where people are fairest-skinned and where it is seen as socially desirable to have a tan, such as Australia, New Zealand, North America and northern Europe.

An estimated 66,000 people die each year from the most dangerous skin cancer, malignant melanoma, and other forms of the disease.

In Norway and Sweden, the annual incidence rate for skin cancer has tripled in the last 45 years, while, in the US, the rate has doubled in the last 30 years.

In the UK, there are around 70,000 cases of skin cancer diagnosed each year.

A rise in the use of sunbeds, combined with the fashion for a tan, are considered to be the prime reasons behind the increase in skin cancers.

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Spread of skin cancer predicted

MONDAY, March 21/05 (HealthDay News) -- New "plain language" food labeling requirements in the United States, which take effect less than a year from now, will reduce allergic reactions in people who have potentially life-threatening food allergies. But there may be another, unintentional result for those who suffer from food allergies.

If food manufacturers follow the labeling law to the letter, trace amounts of some heretofore unlisted food allergens will be posted, causing more diet restriction than ever before.

The impending label changes will also probably reduce consumers' need to contact food manufacturers and generally make life simpler for the 11 million Americans who suffer from food allergies.

"The labeling law will give us more information, so even a 7-year-old can read labels," said Anne Munoz-Furlong, co-author of a study being presented Tuesday at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology in San Antonio.

The study was funded by the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN), the organization that Munoz-Furlong founded.

The new law will require manufacturers to use plain, common language on the presence of any of the eight major food allergens (milk, egg, peanut, tree nut, fish, shellfish, wheat and soy). Companies will also be required to indicate any major food allergens used in spices, flavorings, additives and colorings, categories which had previously been exempt.

The Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act ( FALCPA), passed by Congress, will take effect in January 2006. The regulation is intended to make life easier and simpler for people who suffer food allergies, some of which can be fatal. For these individuals, accurately reading a label can be a matter of life and death.

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Health Care in England - The Perils of State Medicine

'I was ignored for hours'

BBC News Online talks to one patient who was seen within the four-hour target, but who says he then waited for around six hours in A&E (Accidents & Emergencies) before a doctor told him he needed to have his appendix removed.

Story Here

Half the casualty units in England told the British Medical Association pressure to meet targets meant patients were moved inappropriately.

Some 40% also admitted patients were discharged from A&E before they had been properly assessed or stabilised.

But the government said the survey painted a "distorted picture".

The government had set down a target which said that, by the end of December last year, 97% of patients should be seen, treated and discharged from A&E within four hours of being admitted.

Half failed to meet the target

Full Story Here

BBC - Mar 14/05 - "But without those things, and the resources to do that, we wouldn't be able to meet the targets at all."

However, Mr Shalley said that there were some occasions where patients needed to stay in A&E for longer, and there was just no way the four hour target could be met in those cases.

"Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet. If a patient does need to stay in A&E for longer than four hours, they do. It's fine.

"It may be that there are no beds in the intensive care unit. Or they need a lot tests, or a patient may need to be resuscitated. It can all take time."

He said having just a few patients in a day who needed to stay for longer meant it was extremely difficult to meet the four-hour target.

"In a department such as ours, if you get five or six patients who breach the target in a day, it is very difficult for us to meet our target of dealing with 98% of patients within the four hours.

"That does put pressure on your working practices, especially when the clock ticking down."

Full Story Here

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Terri Schiavo Case Terri Schiavo Case Terri Schiavo Case

Source: htp://www.terrisfight.net/

Terri Schiavo case Update Page

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Women: Medical issues in Prisons 

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Mar 16/05 - Certain herbal supplements show promise for treating children's colds, skin allergies and sleep problems, according to a new research review.

On the other hand, the study found, some of the most popular botanical products, including echinacea, garlic and cranberry supplements, do not have the evidence to back them up.

But even with herbs that have some supporting evidence, parents should be careful about giving the products to their children, cautioned Dr. Gail Mahady, a researcher at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the study's lead author.

"They need to recognize that treatment of any disease with an herbal medicine is really drug therapy, not dietary supplementation," she told Reuters Health.

Among the herbs that Mahady and her co-investigators found promising was Andrographis paniculata, a plant long used in traditional Chinese and Indian medicine for treating the common cold, flu and other infections. In one clinical trial, children given the herb daily for three months had roughly half as many colds during the third month as children given a placebo.

Other herbs with at least some research evidence to support them included evening primrose oil, valerian root and ivy leaf, according to findings published in the Journal of Pediatrics.

Many herbal products have not been well studied, particularly for use among children. But the new review shows there are botanicals on the market that may well aid in childhood illness, according to Mahady.

Those are the products that researchers should be "actively investigating," she said.

Evening primrose oil is derived from an American wildflower and is rich in essential fatty acids. Three clinical trials have looked at the botanical's effectiveness for children's atopic eczema, an allergic condition that causes patches of skin to become inflamed, dry and extremely itchy. Overall, according to Mahady and her colleagues, the research suggests evening primrose oil may help with the condition.

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Deadly malaria infects half a billion

Mar 10/05- The Guardian - More than half a billion people - nearly double previous estimates - were infected by the deadliest form of malaria in 2002, scientists reveal in a report out today.

They calculate that one in three in the world - a total of 2.2 billion people - are at risk from the mosquito-borne parasite Plasmodium falciparum.

The discovery that malaria is far more prevalent than anyone had realised is a jolt to public health chiefs the world over. The disease claims 1 million lives a year in sub-Saharan Africa alone, most of them children under five.

Of the four malaria parasites, Plasmodium falciparum is by far the most dangerous, especially to the undernourished, weak or very young. It is prevalent throughout the tropics, and has developed resistance to successive drugs.

Health experts said the new figures were alarming. "There is much more malaria than has previously been estimated in Asia, than we recognised before," said Joe Lines of London's School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

In 1998 the World Health Organisation put the global incidence of malaria at 273m cases. But that was an estimate, with no reliable data available.

New research published in Nature from Bob Snow, of the Kenya Medical Research Institute in Nairobi, and the Centre for Tropical Medicine at the University of Oxford, calculates that in 2002 there were around 515m cases worldwide. In Africa in that year, there were 365m cases: 1m new infections every day.

Full Story Here

More food withdrawn in Sudan 1 alert

Mar 9/05 - More than 40 further processed foods were added yesterday to the Food Standards Agency's list of products being withdrawn because they are contaminated with the illegal Sudan 1 red dye.

The latest list of companies who received Worcester sauce containing traces of the dye from the Premier Foods factory and...

Sudan 1 is a dye derived from petrochemicals usually used to colour solvents and boot polish.

It is banned in food because it is a suspected genotoxin and human carcinogen.

It was detected last month in chilli powder imported from India and used by Premier Foods in its Worcester sauce.

The FSA spokeswoman said it would examine why it had taken manufacturers so long to identify where the adulterated products had ended up, but the agency had no other outstanding trails to trace.

Full Story Here

MRSA Superbug battle criticised by scientist

ITN - UK - Feb 8/05 - The Government's attempts to tackle the MRSA superbug have been criticised by a leading scientist.

Dr Mark Enright said efforts to raise basic standards of hospital hygiene were likely to have a limited effect on MRSA infection rates.

He claimed proven measures for reducing MRSA infection rates had been overlooked as a result.

Dr Enright, from the University of Bath, said more extreme action - such as isolating patients with MRSA infections - should be adopted if the Government was serious about bringing the MRSA epidemic in the UK to an end.

He said he believed these measures were overlooked, despite the scientific evidence that support them, because of the associated increase in costs and potential impact on the controversial topic of waiting lists.

"There ought to be fewer MRSA infections in clean hospitals yet surprisingly there is little scientific evidence for this," said Dr Enright, an expert on the evolution and epidemiology of MRSA and a Royal Society Research Fellow.

"The UK has the second highest rate of MRSA infection in Europe, yet higher rates are reported in the USA and Japan, countries not generally perceived as having failing hospital hygiene regimes.

Story Here

Researchers from Nottingham, Kent and Edinburgh tested four systems which all failed to issue safety warnings.

None warned that aspirin should not be given to an eight-year-old - even though its use is banned in under-12s.

NHS safety experts said they would look into the issues raised by the British Medical Journal study.

The researchers drew up 18 scenarios where the systems should have brought up warnings when doctors tried to prescribe.

In addition to allowing aspirin to be prescribed for a child, three out of the four systems allowed methotrexate - a chemotherapy drug - to be prescribed for a pregnant woman.

Aspirin use in children is linked to Reye's Syndrome, a rare disease that attacks the brain and liver.

Chemotherapy drugs should not be given to pregnant women as they could harm the unborn child.

All four permitted Microgynon, a combined contraceptive pill, to be prescribed for a patient with a history of deep-veined thrombosis, even though the Pill can increase the risk of developing a blood clot.

The researchers also checked whether the systems detected if a doctor had mistakenly entered a drug with a similar name to the one which should have been prescribed. None of the four did.

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Well since you ALREADY Know about it, We'll come clean and Admit it !

BBC - Feb 17/05 - The spread of the deadly bird flu virus may have been underestimated because of a misunderstanding of how it affects the body, British scientists have said.

Oxford University experts studying deaths in Vietnam suggest the disease can attack all parts of the body, not just the lungs as had been thought. [thought by who ? Who had thought that ???]

They told the New England Journal of Medicine they also believe humans could pass the virus on to each other.

So far, there have been 42 bird flu deaths, all in Asian countries.

But the Oxford University scientists say their findings suggests the number of cases of human infection with the virus may have been under-estimated.

The World Health Organization said it would change its definition of what constituted a bird flu infection.

So far, the WHO says there have been 55 confirmed cases of bird flu in humans, and 42 deaths.

However, experts believe millions could be at risk if the virus acquires the ability to jump from person to person by combining with a form of human flu to make a new, mutated, version.

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BBC - Jan 28/05 - The researchers from the Thai Ministry of Public Health warn it is likely there will be more cases where the virus is passed from human to human.

Professor John Oxford, a leading UK expert, said the virus had broken down the "final door" which prevented it being spread between people.

The study is published in the New England Journal of Medicine

In 2004, avian flu infected at least 44 people in eight south Asian countries, killing 32.

Until the late 1990s, it had not been thought that the virus strain - H5N1 - could spread to humans.

Once it did, scientists began to fear it could then be spread between people.

In a "worst-case scenario", they suggested the virus could combine with a human flu virus if people were simultaneously infected with both.

If the viruses then exchanged genes, a new, highly infective virus could be created and be passed from person to person.

It is not thought that this happened in the Thai case, but experts say the fact that the evidence strongly suggests human-to-human transmission of the basic virus is worrying.

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Painkiller Kills more than Pain

Charities criticised the move saying it left many patients with very few options of effective pain relief.

Suicide risk

The MHRA is sending letters to GPs informing them of the decision.

Data shows fatal overdoses due to co-proxamol are the second most frequent means of suicide with prescribed drugs in England and Wales, accounting for up to 400 deaths each year.

The risk of death associated with co-proxamol overdose seems to be higher than for either tricyclic antidepressants or paracetamol.

The drug is a combination analgesic containing paracetamol and the opioid dextropropoxyphene and is available only with a prescription.

But some say co-proxamol is no better than full strength paracetamol at relieving pain and is known to be very toxic in overdose.

For this reason, the Committee on Safety of Medicines, an independent expert body that advises the government on medicines, was asked to look at the risks and benefits of co-proxamol.

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Cancer killing millions in Europe

 

Research published in the Annals of Oncology estimates there were more than 1.7 million cancer deaths in Europe in 2004 and another 2.9 million new cases.

One positive was a fall in the fourth most common variety - stomach cancer.

Lung cancer remains the biggest killer - followed by bowel and breast - and doctors back more moves to cut smoking.

The latest figures have been produced by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

They estimated that 54% of the new cases (1,534,700) and 56% of deaths (962,600) were among men.

The 25 EU countries accounted for 2 million of these new cases and 1.2 million of these deaths in Europe.

Professor Peter Boyle, IARC director, said: "It is clear that despite a fall in stomach cancer rates and some progress in screening and treatment, cancer remains an important public health problem throughout Europe.

"To make great progress quickly it is evident that we need to make a concerted attack on the big killers."

Smoking

Overall, lung cancer was the commonest form of cancer diagnosed (13.2%) and of cancer death (20%). The vast majority of cases were linked to smoking.

Bowel cancer was almost equally common (13%), but accounted for a smaller proportion of deaths (11.9%).

Breast cancer was by far the most common form of the disease among women, accounting for 27.4% of all cases, and 17.4% of deaths.

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Researchers at the University of Liverpool assessed 18,820 people admitted to two hospitals in Merseyside between November 2001 and April 2002.

They found that one in 16 had been admitted because of an adverse reaction to drugs such as aspirin. Some 28 died.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, they said nationally the number of deaths could top 10,000 a year.

The vast majority of people on medication do not suffer side-effects.

Millions of people take medicines every year without experiencing any problems.

Adverse reaction

The researchers found that 1,225 people were admitted to these two hospitals over the six-month period because of an adverse drug reaction.

Many were taking aspirin or other painkillers, known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.

Others were taking blood-thinning drugs like warfarin or diuretics to reduce the amount of water in the body.

The most common reaction to these drugs was internal bleeding in the stomach.

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Jan 28/05 - BBC - Scientists have said a woman who died of bird flu probably contracted the disease from her daughter.

The researchers from the Thai Ministry of Public Health warn it is likely there will be more cases where the virus is passed from human to human.

Professor John Oxford, a leading UK expert, said the virus had broken down the "final door" which prevented it being spread between people.

The study is published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

In 2004, avian flu infected at last 44 people in eight south Asian countries, killing 32.

Until the late 1990s, it had not been thought that the virus strain - H5N1 - could spread to humans.

Once it did, scientists began to fear it could then be spread between people.

In a "worst-case scenario", they suggested the virus could combine with a human flu virus if people were simultaneously infected with both.

If the viruses then exchanged genes, a new, highly infective virus could be created and be passed from person to person.

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Major Policy Change: CDC Recommends HIV Drugs for All Exposed

ATLANTA - Jan 20 -AP-  In a major policy shift, the government recommended for the first time Thursday that people exposed to the AIDS virus from rapes, accidents or occasional drug use or unsafe sex receive drug cocktails that can keep them from becoming infected.

Previously, federal health officials recommended emergency drug treatment only for health-care workers accidentally stuck with a needle, splashed in the eye with blood, or exposed in some other way on the job. That recommendation was first made in 1996.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expanded its guidelines to rape victims and many others Thursday. It said treatment should start no more than 72 hours after a person has been exposed to the virus, and the drugs should be used by patients for 28 days.

It is a major shift away from a policy that some doctors had called unconscionable and that put the United States years behind much of Europe and other nations.

"The severity of the HIV epidemic dictates we use all available tools to reduce infection," said Dr. Ronald Valdiserri of the CDC.

He stressed that emergency drug treatment is a "safety net," not a substitute for abstinence, monogamy, and the use of condoms and sterile needles.

"It is clearly not a `morning-after pill,'" he said.

People accidentally exposed to the AIDS virus are usually given a three-drug combination that includes AZT and 3TC.

In tests on primates, drug cocktails prevented infection with the monkey version of HIV 100 percent of the time if given within 24 hours of exposure to the virus, and 52 percent of the time if administered within 72 hours, said Dr. Charles Gonzalez, assistant professor of medicine at New York University School of Medicine and a member of the New York State AIDS Institute medical guidelines board.

However, there is no data from clinical trials on how effective the drugs are in stemming HIV infection in people.

The new guidelines do not bind the U.S. government to pay for the treatment regimen through Medicare or Medicaid, and no federal money has been allocated to help doctors and health departments carry out the recommendations.

European countries, Australia and Brazil have long had guidelines calling for the use of HIV drugs to prevent infection in rape victims. Without a national policy in the United States, New York, California, Massachusetts and Rhode Island and cities such as San Francisco and Boston came up with their own such guidelines.

"It's unconscionable they didn't have a policy for rape victims. It's just ludicrous. They knew they were well behind the curve," Gonzalez said. 

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Contamination of airplane water has worsened, EPA says

DALLAS - (KRT) - Jan 19/05 - Bacteria are still showing up in the running water aboard the nation's airliners, even though carriers promised to flush and disinfect their water systems every few months.

In fact, the results are looking worse.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday that coliform showed up in 17.2 percent of 169 randomly tested passenger aircraft, up from 12.7 percent of 158 planes in August and September.

The EPA cautioned passengers with compromised immune systems to drink only canned or bottled beverages when they fly. Travelers also might stay away from tea or coffee, unless they're made with bottled water.

"There have been no results of mass illnesses or any kind of an outbreak," said Cynthia Bergman, an EPA spokeswoman.

But, she said, the "results confirm the presence of bacteria at levels warranting continued EPA scrutiny."

The tests were done on water from galley water taps and lavatory faucets on planes at 12 U.S. airports.

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Pregant Woman didn't like being used as a "guinea pig" ?

Family Sues for Woman Over AIDS Drug

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Dec 29/04 -  The family of a pregnant woman who died while taking an experimental AIDS drugs to protect her baby from getting the disease is suing the doctors, drug makers and hospitals involved in the study for $10 million.

Joyce Ann Hafford's mother and sister allege in the suit filed Tuesday that doctors continued to give Hafford the drug regimen despite signs of liver failure. The suit also claims doctors didn't warn the 33-year-old HIV (news - web sites)-positive woman of the trial's dangers.

"She trusted doctors to treat her, and they failed her," said Rubbie King, Hafford's sister.

A spokeswoman at Regional Medical Center in Memphis, where Hafford was treated, said hospital policy prevented them from commenting on the suit.

Family members said they did not learn the National Institutes of Health (news - web sites) had concluded the drug therapy most likely caused Hafford's death until The Associated Press obtained copies of the case file this month.

For the past year, family members believed Hafford died from AIDS complications.

NIH officials quickly suspected the drug regimen because it included nevirapine, an antiretroviral AIDS drug known to cause liver problems. Hafford's death in August 2003, less than 72 hours after her son Sterling was born prematurely, halted the federal government research program of nevirapine. 

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SARS--a politically correct response

Coalition Soldiers & Depleted Uranium Side Effects

Cannabis "increases risk of psychosis"

LONDON (Reuters) - Dec 1/04 - Teenagers and young adults who frequently use cannabis are increasing their risk of suffering from psychotic symptoms such as bizarre behaviour and delusions later in life, Dutch scientists say.

Young people with a family history, or pre-existing susceptibility to mental instability, are particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of the drug.

"Cannabis does not act in the same fashion on psychosis risk for everybody. There is a group that is particularly susceptible," Professor Jim van Os, of Maastricht University in the Netherlands, told a news conference on Wednesday.

He and his colleagues studied 2,437 young people aged 14-24 and identified those with a predisposition for psychosis. They also questioned them about their cannabis use and followed them up for four years.

"The results show that in the group without vulnerability to psychosis, there was a small effect of cannabis on the onset of psychotic symptoms four years later," Van Os said.

"But this risk was four times bigger in individuals who had a personal vulnerability to psychosis."

Van Os said the study also showed the odds of experiencing symptoms of psychosis were higher for people who smoked cannabis more frequently.

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The Potential Dangers of Sucralose: Reader Testimonials

The Dangers of Chlorine and Issues With Sucralose

12 Questions You Need to Have Answered Before You Eat Splenda

The Potential Dangers of Sucralose

(Note: You may have to close the pop-up for the free newsletter that appears at this link/site)

Facts about Eli Lilly and Company

How we recognise faces from birth

BBC- Dec 6/04 - Scientists believe they have worked out exactly how we recognise a face when we see it.

Experts have known for some time that there is something special about faces that draws us to look at them, even after the first few hours of birth.

A brain region called the fusiform face area (FFA) has been pinpointed as key.

Now a team at Massachusetts Institute of Technology say in the journal Neuron that they have figured out how the FFA processes this visual information. 

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How your face could open doors

The Decline and Fall of Health Care in Canada


November 20, 2003

Health care in Canada is dying. Those who would save it misdiagnose its terminal illness. Using the paradigm of "feed a fever, starve a cold", those wishing to save health care in Canada treat it like it has a fever. They want to feed it, give it copious quantities of money in hopes that it will regain its strength and return to its former glory. The trouble is they’re wrong. No amount of money alone will ever return the Canadian health care system to its former self.

There are three major reasons why Canadian health care in its current form is terminal. The first is that it’s free. Anything that is free is also of no value and can thus be misused or otherwise abused. Have you ever been to a function where there was an open bar? Have you noticed all the half-empty glasses standing around, as people who lose track of their drinks merely go back to the bar for a new one? Compare this with a cash bar and you will see the difference right away. When people are paying for their drinks, they tend to keep track of them and finish them off to the last drop.

So it is with health care. It’s an open bar where no one is expected to keep up with their drinks and if one person has three or four drinks on the go, that’s okay because, after all the tab is being picked up by someone else. Hence you see people going to the doctor for every triviality one can imagine. A common cold, a headache, a vague feeling of discontent and we’re calling our family doctor in hopes that he will fix us up. Besides, it’s free, so it doesn’t matter. 

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Motorcycle Noise Poses Hearing Risk

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 8 (HealthDayNews) -- Your hearing may be at risk if you were born to be wild.

In an informal survey of 33 motorcycles, University of Florida audiologists found that nearly half of them produced sounds above 100 decibels when throttled up -- equivalent in intensity to a loud rock concert or a chainsaw. The survey is part of an ongoing effort to identify recreational activities that may pose a risk to hearing, including noise levels experienced by motorcyclists, the researchers said.

The audiologists noted that the sample was small and not representative of all makes and models and those motorcycles with exhaust systems modified to make them louder. So formal research is needed to measure noise levels under typical riding conditions and to determine whether these early survey findings can be generalized to a larger number of bikes, they added.

Exposure to noise at 100 decibels is safe for only 15 minutes and permanent hearing loss can occur with prolonged exposure to noise levels of 85 decibels or higher, says the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

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GPs get new anti-depressant rules

BBC- Dec 6/04 -Doctors have been issued with new guidance on the prescribing of antidepressants.

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Child warning on anti-depressants

Anti-depressant advice 'misleading' - BBC Reports

Long flights raise risk of strokes, warn doctors
By Michael Day and Judy Hobson
28/03/2004

UK - Telegraph - Thousands of long-haul airline passengers could be at risk of a stroke because of cramped seating conditions, doctors have warned.

The problem caused by restriction of movement - particularly in economy class - is already being blamed for deep vein thrombosis (DVT) which has caused a number of deaths.

George Geroulakos, a consultant vascular surgeon at Ealing Hospital, London, discovered the further health threat after seeing a 49-year-old man who had suffered a serious stroke in London last year, two days after arriving on a 19-hour flight from Alaska. The man is now permanently disabled and unable to speak. Mr Geroulakos has since found 12 similar cases in medical studies. The cause, he believes, is blood clotting caused by airline passengers' restricted movement.

"There could be millions of people who are at increased risk of stroke linked to economy-class syndrome, but who aren't aware of it," he said. Mr Geroulakos, who is now urging doctors throughout the world to check for evidence of recent long-distance travel when they examine stroke victims, said those at risk of "economy-class strokes" were people with a small hole in their heart that had failed to close during childhood. This could be a quarter of the population.

Everyone is born with a gap between the upper heart chambers called the patent foramen ovale. In most people it closes naturally within a few days of birth. In 20 to 30 per cent of people, however, it fails to seal completely. Most of those affected are unaware of it because it is not large enough to cause any heart problems.

Mr Geroulakos believes that some of these people might be at risk of stroke if blood clots that can form in the legs during long flights slip through the hole in the heart and find their way to the brain.

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Health Concerns in Nanotechnology 

March 29, 2004

By BARNABY J. FEDER 

Buckyballs, a spherical form of carbon discovered in 1985 and an important material in the new field of nanotechnology, can cause extensive brain damage in fish, according to research presented yesterday at a national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Anaheim, Calif. 

Eva Oberd Ërster, an environmental toxicologist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, said the buckyballs also altered the behavior of genes in liver cells of the juvenile largemouth bass she studied. 

Buckyballs are part of a group of materials called fullerenes for their structural resemblance to the geodesic domes designed by Buckminster Fuller. Synthetically produced buckyballs, along with more recently created fullerenes like carbon nanotubes, have played a major role in igniting interest in nanotechnology, the field in which researchers manipulate materials with dimensions measured in nanometers. A nanometer is a billionth of a meter - tens of thousands of times thinner than a human hair. 

The new carbon molecules have been studied for numerous potential uses in advanced computer processors, lubricants, fuel cells and drug delivery systems. 

But yesterday's report is the latest of several that raise questions about the potential health and environmental effects of synthetic nanoscale materials. Other researchers, including Dr. Oberd Ërster's father, Ganter Oberd Ërster, a professor of environmental medicine at the University of Rochester, have shown that such particles can enter the brain. The fish studies, however, were the first to indicate destruction of lipid cells, the most common form of brain tissue. 

Dr. Oberdˆrster of S.M.U. said that the results underscored the need to learn more about how buckyballs and other nanoscale materials are absorbed, how they might damage organisms and what levels of exposure represent hazards. But she rejected arguments made by some nanotechnology critics that the limited toxicological research to date justified a moratorium on the development and sale of the new materials. 

"This is a yellow light, not a red one," Dr. Oberd Ërster said in a telephone interview last week. 

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U.S. Urges U.N. to Ban All Human Cloning

Oct 22/04

UNITED NATIONS - Countries opposed to all forms of human cloning — the United States among them — warned on Friday that cloning to create stem cells for research could lead to the exploitation of women, and they urged U.N. members to vote to ban it.

U.S. Special Adviser Susan Moore joined Kenya and Nigeria in arguing that if therapeutic cloning were permitted for medical research, it could create a market for the sale of human eggs, a market in which poor women could be exploited.

"The international community must act now ... to send a clear message that human cloning is an affront to human dignity that cannot be tolerated," Moore said.

The speakers were among some 25 who addressed the U.N. General Assembly's legal committee on the second of two days of debate. The committee is considering two competing resolutions.

Costa Rica's draft calls for a treaty banning all cloning, and Belgium's draft calls for a treaty banning the cloning of babies but allowing countries to decide on using embryos for research, which many scientists believe may lead to new treatments for diseases. No date has been set for a vote.

Ittiporn Boonpracong, minister counselor in Thailand's U.N. mission, said the international community has reached consensus on the need to ban reproductive human cloning and should move ahead with it.

However, he said Thailand believes each member state should decide for itself whether to ban therapeutic cloning or to permit it under strict regulations.

Sweden's U.N. ambassador, Anders Liden, also said it should be up to each country to decide whether to ban or to regulate other forms of cloning.

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Coffee drinking associated with reduced risk

Sept 28/04 (Yahoo News)

A 26-year-old Thai woman who died of acute pneumonia on 20 September was a “probable” case of human-to-human transmission of the H5N1 bird flu virus, the Thai Ministry of Public Health confirmed on Tuesday.

All 40 previously confirmed human cases of the virus since 2003 were apparently caught from sick birds. But the World Health Organization fears the virus could cause a lethal pandemic if it gains the ability to pass easily from person to person.

The Thai ministry's statement stressed that the probable case of human-to-human transmission followed prolonged, close contact between the woman and her sick daughter, who also died from bird flu. The virus did not show an ability to spread easily, as human flu does, which is required for a pandemic.

But research on the virus’s recent evolution shows it has become steadily better at replicating in mammals in the past few years. It may now be learning to spread between them.

Researchers: Cats Can Spread Bird Flu

WASHINGTON -(Sep 3/04) - Cats not only can catch the deadly bird flu but can spread it to other felines, Dutch researchers said in a report Thursday that raises important questions about the pets' role in outbreaks.

So far, cats have not been implicated in the spread of avian flu to people, said Dr. Klaus Stohr, the World Health Organization's influenza chief.

There are two potential reasons, he said. "One is nobody looked. The other is they don't play a role" because infected cats do not shed nearly as much virus as do infected poultry, Stohr said.

Bird flu has caused recurring outbreaks in recent years and has killed 27 people in Asia this year. Until now, human infections have been traced to direct contact with infected poultry or poultry waste, and millions of chickens and other fowl have been slaughtered in attempts to stem the disease.

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West Nile Symptoms Can Last a Year or More

Fri Aug 20 /04


NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Convalescence after West Nile virus (news - web sites) infection can be protracted, particularly for older adults, researchers in New York have found. Physical, cognitive and functional impairments often last more than 18 months after the initial illness. 

These findings reinforce the need for local governments in affected areas to institute widespread public health measures to safeguard against West Nile virus transmission," Dr. Denis Nash, of the New York Academy of Medicine, and associates write in the medical journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Nash's team interviewed 40 patients, ranging in age from 16 to 90 years, at 6, 12, and 18 months after they were diagnosed with West Nile in 1999.

At 12 months, only 37 percent of the subjects were considered fully recovered. Younger age was the only significant factor linked to recovery, while the severity of illness or whether it involved brain inflammation did not affect recovery.

Eighteen months after infection more than 40 percent reported difficulties with walking, muscle weakness, fatigue or insomnia, the researchers report, and 30 percent were still experiencing memory loss, confusion, depression and irritability. Functional ability seemed to reach a plateau, with no improvement after 12 months.

source: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=571&ncid=571&e=1&u=/nm/20040820/hl_nm/westnile_convalescence_dc_1 

The Dawning Age of "Silver Tech"
Networked devices that keep tabs on at-risk elderly patients living at home could soon provide better care -- and cut costs


July 7/04 - At the end of June, 11 pairs of elderly adults from Portland, Ore., and from Las Vegas became lab rats. A team from the world's largest semiconductor maker, Intel descended on their homes and stuck special chips and sensors onto their chairs and beds. The sensors were then connected wirelessly to a laptop, which was loaded with solitaire, but was there to play a much more serious role in this game. 

Over the next three to six months, the laptop will notify the retirees' caregivers and Intel researchers whether the seniors, who suffer from cognitive decline, have stayed in bed at night, have gone to the bathroom, and visited the kitchen. The idea is for the caregivers to know just when they need to intervene. The sensor network could, potentially, allow the seniors to live independently longer in their own homes, says Eric Dishman, manager of the proactive health research group at Intel. And that's something both these folks and their health-care providers want.

Welcom to the dawn of the "silver tech age," when chipmakers, software developers, medical-device manufacturers, and network suppliers focus their smarts and growth plans on helping the elderly where they live. Until now, most efforts have been aimed at improving care within hospitals and doctors' offices. Now the focus is shifting to the home -- and for good reason. Surveys show that 95% of older adults want to live in their own home for as long as possible.

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Pollutants cause huge rise in brain diseases

Scientists alarmed as number of cases triples in 20 years

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UK: There's Prozac in the drinking water

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California sues makers of lead-tainted Mexican candy

Associated Press 
Last Updated July 9, 2004

Attorney General Bill Lockyer asked a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to block sales of the sweets until they include warnings as required by California's Proposition 65. The initiative, approved by voters in 1986, requires warning labels on anything that potentially could cause cancer or birth defects, and contains stricter guidelines than state or federal health standards.

Tests conducted by the state Department of Health Services show the candies contain potentially harmful levels of lead. All the candy is made in Mexico except for one company

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USDA and HHS Strengthen Safeguards Against Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy

DNA lab retesting raises questions in eight more case

Houston - Jul 08/04 - An independent laboratory has exhausted the retesting and review process of evidence in a 1993 burglary case without being able to compile a DNA profile of the man who pleaded guilty to the crime, according to an assistant Harris County prosecutor.

Additionally, evidence in seven of 25 of the most recent retested cases originally processed by the troubled Houston Police Department DNA laboratory must undergo additional testing or review

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MOBILE PHONES 'REDUCE FERTILITY' 

Startling new research into mobile phones claims they may reduce a man's sperm count by up to 30%. 

The study is the first to indicate that male fertility may be damaged by the radiation give off by the handsets.

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Superbugs resist "last resort" antibiotics 


18 June/04 

NewScientist.com news service 

Hospital superbugs with resistance to a "last resort" antibiotic have emerged independently in at least eight different countries, reveals a new study.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a major problem worldwide. It is highly resistant to most antibiotics, with the exception of vancomycin, which could be relied upon to kill the superbug.

An MRSA bug with increased resistance to vancomycin was discovered in 1997. But until now this resistance was thought to be emerging in only one type of MRSA.

"The results of our study show that the problem is much more serious than was previously thought," says Mark Enright, at the University of Bath, UK, who led the study.

"It's only a matter of time, perhaps just years, before bacteria that cannot be killed by vancomycin develop in some areas," he says. "There have already been three cases of this in the US, but we believe these will become more common."

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British Scientists to Clone and Kill Unborn Humans for Diabetes Research

June 15, 2004

London, England - LifeNews -- A team of British scientists is threatening to launch a highly controversial human cloning experiment in the name of diabetes research.

The move is being roundly condemned by a number of ethicists and pro-life groups, who say it is wrong to destroy human life to advance questionable research.

The researchers want to clone embryos in order to harvest their stem cells for diabetes patients.

The leader of the experiment, Dr. Miodrag Stojkovic of the Institute of Human Genetics at Newcastle University, told the Observer newspaper, "We are focusing on diabetes, but believe our work could lead to cures for other diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Our intention is not to create cloned humans."

However, a number of bioethicists have condemned such practices, noting that experiments which employ cloned embryos run the risk of turning human beings into commodities that can be discarded at will.

Also, embryonic stem cells have shown little promise in treating diseases. Adult stem cell research, which does not involve the destruction of human embryos, has proven far more effective.

A number of British public officials are outraged at the prospect of research involving human clones.

"This is the start of a slippery slope," Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe told the British press. "It is unnecessary to use embryo stem cells when many scientists believe stem cells taken from adults could be used

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Depleted Uranium Shells - WHO Report

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)

First time: Patients given artificial blood

October, 2003  [Old news, but not Outdated]

The product is a powder which can be stored for years, say scientists at Stockholm's Karolinska Hospital.

It is made from donated supplies of real blood, which normally has a shelf-life of just 42 days.

The powder can then be mixed into liquid form when needed, and used immediately regardless of the patient's blood type.

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Copper 'vital to development' for Babies

They have found that the left side of the brain alone appears to take responsibility for decoding the literal meaning of emotional messages.

But it seems that the brain's right hemisphere plays a role in assessing the tone in which the message is delivered - a concept known technically as prosody.

The findings are based on measuring how fast blood flows to the tissues of the brain.

A greater velocity implies more activity in that area of the brain because brain cells, when active, require an increased supply of oxygen and glucose, both of which are carried in the blood.

A team from Ghent University in Belgium used a technique called transcranial doppler ultrasonography to measure blood flow velocity in the brain's left and right middle cerebral arteries.

Meaning and tone

The researchers asked 36 participants, hooked up to ultrasound monitors, to identify the emotion conveyed in dozens of pre-recorded sentences.

The volunteers were asked either to focus on the actual meaning of the words, or on the emotion conveyed by how they were spoken.

Each sentences had just one of four basic emotional meanings (happy, sad, angry or afraid) or was neutral (see box).

Actors spoke the sentences with either an emotional or neutral tone.

As they listened to the sentences, participants pointed to the appropriate emotion on a card listing them, using both fingers to minimize setting off one side of the brain only.

Blood flow

The researchers found that when participants were asked to focus on the meaning of what was said blood flow velocity went up significantly on the left side of the brain.

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Congo Ebola outbreak confirmed

Feb 18/03 - BBC - The government of Congo-Brazzaville has now confirmed that it is the deadly Ebola virus which has claimed the lives of 64 people, in the north of the country near the border with Gabon.

The World Health Organisation in Congo says it is hopeful that international aid to fight the spread of the virus will now be forthcoming.

For the past four weeks the number of dead in the districts of Kelle and Mbomo has continued to climb daily, as the Ministry of Health and World Health Organisation have struggled to contain what they suspected was an outbreak of Ebola.

Confirmation came late last night, after blood samples from residents of Kelle were analysed in a Libreville laboratory, one of fewer than 10 in the world able to test for Ebola.

Appeal

Emergency teams of medical workers and Ebola experts from the WHO are already in place in the outbreak zone.

The government closed down the region to travel on Thursday and Gabon has shut its nearby border.

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BBC - Jan 16/02 - Twenty-five people have now died from the deadly Ebola virus in Gabon and neighbouring Congo.

Mekambo, a jungle town about 750 kilometres (465 miles) east of the capital Libreville is now under quarantine.

An independent Member of Parliament for the Makokou constituency, which includes Mekambo, has accused the government of not doing enough to help those affected.

Michael Moussa told the BBC that the authorities had promised to alleviate the suffering of the villagers in the "Ebola-contaminated area".

No food

The villagers have been told not to go hunting in case they spread the virus to the rest of the population.

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Working Greatly increases risk to pregnancy

"Good News": If you're already Dying, then the government will pay you:

Start-up for hepatitis C payout

Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm said people affected could register their details from today with the Skipton Fund, which will manage the scheme.

It was set up after agreement by all UK health ministers.

Up to £20,000 will be paid to sufferers with a further £25,000 when they reach an advanced stage of the condition.

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Aids passed on through Tainted Blood Transfusion

HIV haemophiliacs: 'Too easy to forget'

2 December, 2003

He is among over 1,200 British haemophiliacs given HIV-infected blood products in the 1980s - some of the early and unexpected victims of the global Aids epidemic.

Fewer than 400 of them are still alive.

Robert, 37, was 18 months old when he was diagnosed with haemophilia. His parents had been unaware the genetic condition was in their family. "I'm a mutant," he jokes.

Throughout his childhood and teens he was injected three times a week with the blood product Factor 8 to make his blood clot properly.

The risk of HIV infection through donated blood was recognised in 1983, following the deaths of haemophiliacs in the US.

There have since been many calls for a public inquiry into how infected blood came to be used. All donated products in Britain have been tested since 1985 - but this came too late for Robert.

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Brazil police 'expose blood scam'

20 May, 2004

It is alleged that civil servants were among those who profited from the purchase of blood supplies imported from abroad throughout the 1990s.

On Wednesday 14 people were arrested in three Brazilian cities.

The darkly named Operation Vampire has revealed fraud said by the Brazilian government to total $ 637 million.

The money was allegedly siphoned off by civil servants and others involved in the state purchase of blood supplies used to treat haemophilia.

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Scotland: Fury as Executive 'buckles' under Genetically Modified pressure - GM Food to be grown in Scotland
(Mar 10 -04)

Key points

• GM crops may be growing in Scotland by next year
• Opposition MSPs unite in protest 
• Accusations of pressure from Westminster

Key quote "The Executive accept that Scotland should not have and does not want GM crops, yet they refuse to use the powers they have to block them. That’s a bizarre decision." - Roseanna Cunningham, deputy leader of the SNP 

Story in full GENETICALLY modified crops could be grown in Scotland as early as next spring, the Scottish Executive confirmed yesterday. 

Full Story: http://news.scotsman.com/paperboy.cfm?id=276632004 

MAD COW 2004: Five CJD deaths in north N.J. in 15 months

Mad Cow: vCJD and BSE - the link

BBC - Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease is an untreatable and invariably fatal disease in humans which is similar to BSE in cattle and scrapie in sheep.

The diseases are together called "spongiform encephalopathies", because they all reduce the brain to the same spongy appearance, with gaps appearing within the tissue.

The type of CJD associated with BSE in cattle is termed "variant CJD", and is distinctively different from standard CJD - which emerges in between 25 and 60 UK adults each year, normally in people aged over 55.

Variant CJD began to emerge and be diagnosed in the mid-1990s - there have been 73 confirmed cases so far, with just under a dozen probable cases which have yet to be confirmed, either because the patient is still alive, or because the post mortem has yet to take place. 

It seems to be capable of developing in much younger people than standard CJD.

While death from standard CJD happens approximately six months after diagnosis, it generally takes much longer - up to 18 months - for a patient with vCJD to die. 

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Mad Cow Contagion: Optical equipment banned over CJD fear 

BBC - Opticians have been banned from using optical equipment on more than one person following fears that it could aid the spread of the human equivalent of mad cow disease, variant CJD (v-CJD).

There is a theoretical risk that v-CJD can be spread by contact with infected eye or central nervous system tissue.

The ban, announced on Thursday by the Department of Health, will apply to optical equipment that comes into direct contact with patients' eyes.

It follows a precautionary ban on the re-use of trial contact lenses announced in June.

The measure, which could cost the optical industry millons of pounds, follows advice from government experts on the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC), who are monitoring the spread of BSE. 

Fall 2004: BSE cattle ban to be phased out

BSE 'link to different CJD types'

CJD - will there be an epidemic?

vCJD test 'could hit blood donations'

Thousands warned over vCJD risk: Contaminated Blood

Living CJD victims diagnosed

Chicken checked for BSE

Scientific integrity and the gospel of Christ
 

Eurocare Environmental Services left human remains, including placentas, in unrefrigerated lorries in car parks and at other sites for up to five months.

In a written statement, a company spokesman said there were lessons to be learnt from the case.

"Eurocare fully acknowledges that certain regulations were breached

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Household chores halve women's endometrial cancer risk

(March 30/04)

Washington, Mar 30 (ANI): Here's yet another reason for women and teenaged girls to become more physically active - reduction of their risk of developing the most common gynaecologic malignancy, endometrial cancer.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and its Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center have reported that regular exercise as well as routine activities such as walking for the transpo