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Thursday, August 30, 2012
Healer Charged in 16 HIV Infections
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
German circumcision ban 'dangerous': Jewish group
A court ruling in Germany banning circumcision is 'extraordinarily dangerous' and should be clarified by the government before the end of the year, a rabbi from a top Jewish rights group said Wednesday.
'We are very concerned that Europe becomes a place where circumcision is made illegal or denigrated,' Abraham Cooper from the Simon Wiesenthal Centre told reporters after meeting the German justice minister over the issue.
'That would be extraordinary dangerous and injurious for the Jewish community,' he added.
Cooper said he was satisfied after his meeting with Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger and said he expected the government to introduce legislation protecting the rite 'before the end of the year'.
Members of parliament signed up to a cross-party motion in July calling on the government to draw up legislation that 'ensures that the circumcision of boys carried out to medically professional standards and without undue pain is fundamentally permissible'.
In a ruling published in June, a court in the western German city of Cologne ruled that circumcision on religious grounds was tantamount to grievous bodily harm and therefore illegal.
The ruling prompted outrage and Jewish and Muslim community leaders joined forces to condemn it in the strongest possible terms, seeing a threat to the freedom of religion in Germany.
Diplomats have acknowledged privately that the ruling has proved 'disastrous' to Germany's international image, particularly in light of its Nazi past.
Chancellor Angela Merkel is reported to have said that the ruling risked making Germany a 'laughing stock'.
Turkey's Europe Minister Egemen Bagis wrote in an opinion article in Tuesday's edition of the Sueddeutsche Zeitung that the ruling was in danger of threatening religious freedom in Germany.
Israeli President Shimon Peres has also weighed into the controversy, telling his German counterpart in a letter last week that circumcision is 'at the core of Jewish identity'.
Cooper said: 'It's true on economic areas, when Germany sneezes, Europe catches a cold.'
'On this issue we want to make sure that it won't spread.'
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'We are very concerned that Europe becomes a place where circumcision is made illegal or denigrated,' Abraham Cooper from the Simon Wiesenthal Centre told reporters after meeting the German justice minister over the issue.
'That would be extraordinary dangerous and injurious for the Jewish community,' he added.
Cooper said he was satisfied after his meeting with Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger and said he expected the government to introduce legislation protecting the rite 'before the end of the year'.
Members of parliament signed up to a cross-party motion in July calling on the government to draw up legislation that 'ensures that the circumcision of boys carried out to medically professional standards and without undue pain is fundamentally permissible'.
In a ruling published in June, a court in the western German city of Cologne ruled that circumcision on religious grounds was tantamount to grievous bodily harm and therefore illegal.
The ruling prompted outrage and Jewish and Muslim community leaders joined forces to condemn it in the strongest possible terms, seeing a threat to the freedom of religion in Germany.
Diplomats have acknowledged privately that the ruling has proved 'disastrous' to Germany's international image, particularly in light of its Nazi past.
Chancellor Angela Merkel is reported to have said that the ruling risked making Germany a 'laughing stock'.
Turkey's Europe Minister Egemen Bagis wrote in an opinion article in Tuesday's edition of the Sueddeutsche Zeitung that the ruling was in danger of threatening religious freedom in Germany.
Israeli President Shimon Peres has also weighed into the controversy, telling his German counterpart in a letter last week that circumcision is 'at the core of Jewish identity'.
Cooper said: 'It's true on economic areas, when Germany sneezes, Europe catches a cold.'
'On this issue we want to make sure that it won't spread.'
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIP ADVICE.
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
US approves new once-a-day pill to treat HIV
A new pill to treat HIV infection -- combining two previously approved drugs plus two new ones -- has been approved for adults living with the virus that causes AIDS, US regulators said Monday.
The single daily dose of Stribild provides a complete treatment regimen for HIV infection, the US Food and Drug Administration said in a statement, and is meant for people who have not already received treatment with other HIV drugs.
'Through continued research and drug development, treatment for those infected with HIV has evolved from multi-pill regimens to single-pill regimens,' said Edward Cox, director of the Office of Antimicrobial Products in the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.
'New combination HIV drugs like Stribild help simplify treatment regimens.'
The new pill, previously called Quad, is made by Gilead Sciences in California and 'should be available to patients by the end of the week,' company spokeswoman Erin Rau told AFP.
The company said it tested the pill in two double-blind clinical trials of more than 1,400 patients.
Results showed that Stribild performed as well or better than two other treatment combinations, and brought virus readings down to undetectable levels in around nine of 10 patients after 48 weeks.
'Therapies that address the individual needs of patients are critical to enhancing adherence and increasing the potential for treatment success,' Gilead chief John Martin said in a company statement.
But some advocates say the new pill is priced far too high.
'We wanted to see (a price of) no more than the current drug,' said Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, referring to Gilead's previously approved three-in-one pill, Atripla. But he said the price will be about a third higher than the three-pill combo.
The new drug 'is not a significant improvement over existing therapies,' Weinstein told AFP, adding the cost will 'severely limit access' to the new medication.
Gilead is charging wholesalers $28,500 a year for the drug, but said it will provide discounts to state assistance programs and has created a patient financial-assistance program, Rau said.
This is Gilead's third single-tablet anti-HIV combination therapy, the company noted, adding it is still seeking approval for the newest offering in Australia, Canada and the European Union.
To get the drug to HIV patients in the developing world, where millions lack access to effective treatment options, generic versions are being developed -- with permission and help from Gilead -- by a number of Indian manufacturers and the Medicines Patent Pool, a non-profit that helps facilitate generic drug-making.
The drug combines Truvada -- another Gilead offering approved in 2004, that combines emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate to fight an enzyme that HIV needs to replicate -- with elvitegravir, another enzyme-fighting drug, and cobicistat, which enhances the effects of elvitegravir.
The FDA said further study is required to determine the quad-drug's safety for women and children, how resistance may develop, and whether the drug interacts with other drugs.
Stribild will also be required to carry a label warning patients and health care providers the drug can cause fatal side effects, including severe liver problems, and a build-up of lactic acid in the blood. The FDA said the label is also required for many other HIV-fighting drugs.
But Gilead said that during the studies, 'most adverse effects were mild to moderate.' The FDA said patients commonly experienced nausea and diarrhea.
The drug also weakened bones and caused or worsened kidney problems -- both of which will be mentioned in a warning on the drug's label.
Truvada was previously approved as a treatment for people infected with HIV to be used in combination with other antiretroviral drugs.
In July, it was also approved for use by healthy at-risk adults to prevent HIV, the first-ever daily pill approved for that purpose.
This year, the FDA also approved the first rapid HIV test that can be bought without a prescription and taken at home.
nss/vlk
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The single daily dose of Stribild provides a complete treatment regimen for HIV infection, the US Food and Drug Administration said in a statement, and is meant for people who have not already received treatment with other HIV drugs.
'Through continued research and drug development, treatment for those infected with HIV has evolved from multi-pill regimens to single-pill regimens,' said Edward Cox, director of the Office of Antimicrobial Products in the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.
'New combination HIV drugs like Stribild help simplify treatment regimens.'
The new pill, previously called Quad, is made by Gilead Sciences in California and 'should be available to patients by the end of the week,' company spokeswoman Erin Rau told AFP.
The company said it tested the pill in two double-blind clinical trials of more than 1,400 patients.
Results showed that Stribild performed as well or better than two other treatment combinations, and brought virus readings down to undetectable levels in around nine of 10 patients after 48 weeks.
'Therapies that address the individual needs of patients are critical to enhancing adherence and increasing the potential for treatment success,' Gilead chief John Martin said in a company statement.
But some advocates say the new pill is priced far too high.
'We wanted to see (a price of) no more than the current drug,' said Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, referring to Gilead's previously approved three-in-one pill, Atripla. But he said the price will be about a third higher than the three-pill combo.
The new drug 'is not a significant improvement over existing therapies,' Weinstein told AFP, adding the cost will 'severely limit access' to the new medication.
Gilead is charging wholesalers $28,500 a year for the drug, but said it will provide discounts to state assistance programs and has created a patient financial-assistance program, Rau said.
This is Gilead's third single-tablet anti-HIV combination therapy, the company noted, adding it is still seeking approval for the newest offering in Australia, Canada and the European Union.
To get the drug to HIV patients in the developing world, where millions lack access to effective treatment options, generic versions are being developed -- with permission and help from Gilead -- by a number of Indian manufacturers and the Medicines Patent Pool, a non-profit that helps facilitate generic drug-making.
The drug combines Truvada -- another Gilead offering approved in 2004, that combines emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate to fight an enzyme that HIV needs to replicate -- with elvitegravir, another enzyme-fighting drug, and cobicistat, which enhances the effects of elvitegravir.
The FDA said further study is required to determine the quad-drug's safety for women and children, how resistance may develop, and whether the drug interacts with other drugs.
Stribild will also be required to carry a label warning patients and health care providers the drug can cause fatal side effects, including severe liver problems, and a build-up of lactic acid in the blood. The FDA said the label is also required for many other HIV-fighting drugs.
But Gilead said that during the studies, 'most adverse effects were mild to moderate.' The FDA said patients commonly experienced nausea and diarrhea.
The drug also weakened bones and caused or worsened kidney problems -- both of which will be mentioned in a warning on the drug's label.
Truvada was previously approved as a treatment for people infected with HIV to be used in combination with other antiretroviral drugs.
In July, it was also approved for use by healthy at-risk adults to prevent HIV, the first-ever daily pill approved for that purpose.
This year, the FDA also approved the first rapid HIV test that can be bought without a prescription and taken at home.
nss/vlk
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIP ADVICE.
Monday, August 27, 2012
FDA approves Gilead's four-drug HIV treatment
(Reuters) - U.S. health regulators on Monday approved Gilead Sciences Inc's four-drug combination pill treatment for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
The four drugs in one pill, which was formerly called the Quad and widely considered one of Gilead's more important future growth drivers, will be sold under the brand name Stribild, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said.
Stribild, a once-daily treatment, contains two previously approved HIV medicines and two new drugs.
The older medicines, emtricitabine and tenofovir, are currently sold by Gilead in its combination pill Truvada, which was approved in 2004. The newer drugs are elvitegravir and cobicistat.
'Through continued research and drug development, treatment for those infected with HIV has evolved from multi-pill regimens to single-pill regimens,' Edward Cox, director of the Office of Antimicrobial Products at the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a statement. 'New combination HIV drugs like Stribild help simplify treatment regimens.'
As a condition of approval, Gilead will be required to conduct additional studies to help further characterize the drug's safety in women and children, how resistance develops to Stribild, and the possibility of interactions between Stribild and other drugs, the FDA said.
(Reporting by Bill Berkrot; Editing by Bernard Orr)
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIP ADVICE.
The four drugs in one pill, which was formerly called the Quad and widely considered one of Gilead's more important future growth drivers, will be sold under the brand name Stribild, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said.
Stribild, a once-daily treatment, contains two previously approved HIV medicines and two new drugs.
The older medicines, emtricitabine and tenofovir, are currently sold by Gilead in its combination pill Truvada, which was approved in 2004. The newer drugs are elvitegravir and cobicistat.
'Through continued research and drug development, treatment for those infected with HIV has evolved from multi-pill regimens to single-pill regimens,' Edward Cox, director of the Office of Antimicrobial Products at the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a statement. 'New combination HIV drugs like Stribild help simplify treatment regimens.'
As a condition of approval, Gilead will be required to conduct additional studies to help further characterize the drug's safety in women and children, how resistance develops to Stribild, and the possibility of interactions between Stribild and other drugs, the FDA said.
(Reporting by Bill Berkrot; Editing by Bernard Orr)
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIP ADVICE.
Docs Strengthen Stance on Circumcision
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Circumcision Benefits Outweigh Risks, Doctors Say
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Sunday, August 26, 2012
Circumcision pluses outweigh risks: Pediatricians
CHICAGO (AP) - The nation's most influential pediatricians group says the health benefits of circumcision in newborn boys outweigh any risks and insurance companies should pay for it.
In its latest policy statement on circumcision, a procedure that has been declining nationwide, the American Academy of Pediatrics moves closer to an endorsement but says the decision should be up to parents.
'It's not a verdict from on high,' said policy co-author Dr. Andrew Freedman. 'There's not a one-size-fits-all-answer.' But from a medical standpoint, circumcision's benefits in reducing risk of disease outweigh its small risks, said Freedman, a pediatric urologist in Los Angeles.
Recent research bolstering evidence that circumcision reduces chances of infection with HIV and other sexually spread diseases, urinary tract infections and penis cancer influenced the academy to update their 13-year-old policy.
Their old stance said potential medical benefits were not sufficient to warrant recommending routinely circumcising newborn boys. The new one says, 'The benefits of newborn male circumcision justify access to this procedure for those families who choose it.' The academy also says pain relief stronger than a sugar-coated pacifier is essential, usually an injection to numb the area.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Convention has estimated circumcision costs range from about $200 to $600 nationwide. Coverage varies among insurers and several states have stopped Medicaid funding for circumcisions.
The new policy was published online Monday in Pediatrics. It comes amid ongoing debate over whether circumcision is medically necessary or a cosmetic procedure that critics say amounts to genital mutilation. Activists favoring a circumcision ban made headway in putting it to a vote last year in San Francisco but a judge later knocked the measure off the city ballot, ruling that regulating medical procedures is up to the state, not city officials.
In Germany, Jewish and Muslim leaders have protested a regional court ruling in June that said circumcision amounts to bodily harm.
Meantime, a recent study projected that declining U.S. circumcision rates could add more than $4 billion in health care costs in coming years because of increased illness and infections.
Circumcision involves removing foreskin at the tip of the penis. The procedure can reduce germs that can grow underneath the foreskin, and complications, including bleeding and infection, are rare, the academy says.
Despite the U.S. decline, about half of baby boys nationwide still undergo circumcision, or roughly 1 million each year. The country's overall rate is much higher than in other developed nations, but U.S. rates vary by region and are higher in areas where it is a cultural or religious tradition, including among Jews and Muslims.
Psychologist Ronald Goldman, director of an anti-circumcision group, the Circumcision Resource Center, said studies show circumcision causes loss of sexual satisfaction - a claim the academy said is not supported by the research it reviewed - and can be psychologically harming. Goldman contends medical studies showing benefits are flawed and that the academy's new position is 'out of step' with medical groups in other developed countries.
The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists took part in the research review that led to the new policy and has endorsed it. Circumcisions in hospitals are typically performed by obstetricians or pediatricians.
The CDC also participated in the review, and will consider the academy's updated policy in preparing its own recommendations, a CDC spokesman said. The agency has a fact sheet summarizing circumcision's potential health benefits and risks but no formal guidelines.
The American Medical Association and American Academy of Family Physicians have neutral policies similar to the pediatrics academy's previous position.
Philadelphia social worker Shannon Coyne examined medical research on circumcision before her son was born last September and had a tough time making a decision. She learned that a relative's boy needed reconstructive surgery after a botched circumcision, and that another's son who wasn't circumcised developed urinary infections.
Coyne said she and her husband ultimately decided against circumcision, because she didn't want her baby to have what she considers cosmetic surgery without being able to consent.
Her advice to other parents is 'just make an informed decision. Do your research, be open-minded.'
Some 18 states have eliminated Medicaid coverage for circumcision, a trend that could contribute to rising health care costs to treat infections if circumcision rates continue to decline, according to a study published Aug. 20 in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
Dr. Aaron Tobian, a Johns Hopkins University assistant professor who co-authored the study, said the academy's updated policy 'is a very good step.'
___
Online:
American Academy of Pediatrics: http://www.aap.org
CDC: http://1.usa.gov/hJiQj
___
AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIPS ADVICE.
In its latest policy statement on circumcision, a procedure that has been declining nationwide, the American Academy of Pediatrics moves closer to an endorsement but says the decision should be up to parents.
'It's not a verdict from on high,' said policy co-author Dr. Andrew Freedman. 'There's not a one-size-fits-all-answer.' But from a medical standpoint, circumcision's benefits in reducing risk of disease outweigh its small risks, said Freedman, a pediatric urologist in Los Angeles.
Recent research bolstering evidence that circumcision reduces chances of infection with HIV and other sexually spread diseases, urinary tract infections and penis cancer influenced the academy to update their 13-year-old policy.
Their old stance said potential medical benefits were not sufficient to warrant recommending routinely circumcising newborn boys. The new one says, 'The benefits of newborn male circumcision justify access to this procedure for those families who choose it.' The academy also says pain relief stronger than a sugar-coated pacifier is essential, usually an injection to numb the area.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Convention has estimated circumcision costs range from about $200 to $600 nationwide. Coverage varies among insurers and several states have stopped Medicaid funding for circumcisions.
The new policy was published online Monday in Pediatrics. It comes amid ongoing debate over whether circumcision is medically necessary or a cosmetic procedure that critics say amounts to genital mutilation. Activists favoring a circumcision ban made headway in putting it to a vote last year in San Francisco but a judge later knocked the measure off the city ballot, ruling that regulating medical procedures is up to the state, not city officials.
In Germany, Jewish and Muslim leaders have protested a regional court ruling in June that said circumcision amounts to bodily harm.
Meantime, a recent study projected that declining U.S. circumcision rates could add more than $4 billion in health care costs in coming years because of increased illness and infections.
Circumcision involves removing foreskin at the tip of the penis. The procedure can reduce germs that can grow underneath the foreskin, and complications, including bleeding and infection, are rare, the academy says.
Despite the U.S. decline, about half of baby boys nationwide still undergo circumcision, or roughly 1 million each year. The country's overall rate is much higher than in other developed nations, but U.S. rates vary by region and are higher in areas where it is a cultural or religious tradition, including among Jews and Muslims.
Psychologist Ronald Goldman, director of an anti-circumcision group, the Circumcision Resource Center, said studies show circumcision causes loss of sexual satisfaction - a claim the academy said is not supported by the research it reviewed - and can be psychologically harming. Goldman contends medical studies showing benefits are flawed and that the academy's new position is 'out of step' with medical groups in other developed countries.
The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists took part in the research review that led to the new policy and has endorsed it. Circumcisions in hospitals are typically performed by obstetricians or pediatricians.
The CDC also participated in the review, and will consider the academy's updated policy in preparing its own recommendations, a CDC spokesman said. The agency has a fact sheet summarizing circumcision's potential health benefits and risks but no formal guidelines.
The American Medical Association and American Academy of Family Physicians have neutral policies similar to the pediatrics academy's previous position.
Philadelphia social worker Shannon Coyne examined medical research on circumcision before her son was born last September and had a tough time making a decision. She learned that a relative's boy needed reconstructive surgery after a botched circumcision, and that another's son who wasn't circumcised developed urinary infections.
Coyne said she and her husband ultimately decided against circumcision, because she didn't want her baby to have what she considers cosmetic surgery without being able to consent.
Her advice to other parents is 'just make an informed decision. Do your research, be open-minded.'
Some 18 states have eliminated Medicaid coverage for circumcision, a trend that could contribute to rising health care costs to treat infections if circumcision rates continue to decline, according to a study published Aug. 20 in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
Dr. Aaron Tobian, a Johns Hopkins University assistant professor who co-authored the study, said the academy's updated policy 'is a very good step.'
___
Online:
American Academy of Pediatrics: http://www.aap.org
CDC: http://1.usa.gov/hJiQj
___
AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIPS ADVICE.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Syphilis scare prompts call to halt US porn shoots
Reports of several cases of syphilis among porn actors in California has prompted a trade group to call for a temporary halt to shooting in the lucrative US adult film industry.
The Free Speech Coalition, which brings together porn film producers, has advocated a 'temporary moratorium on production until the risk to performers in the industry has been properly assessed and all performers have been tested.'
Once treated with antibiotics, infected actors will be able to resume work within 10 days, it added in a statement on its website, saying that testing was ongoing.
Last week, health officials in Los Angeles County announced they were investigating an increase in syphilis cases in the porn industry -- at least five in the previous week.
On Tuesday, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), which wants mandatory condom use by porn actors, said 'reliable sources' suggest there could be as many as nine industry-related syphilis cases, 'a number that will likely grow.'
AHF, active in the fight against AIDS, is hoping California voters will approve a proposal on November 6 that would require the use of condoms during porn film shoots. The city of Los Angeles adopted such language in January.
The X-rated movie industry temporarily halted filming last year after an actor tested positive for HIV.
According to Film LA, about five percent of the 45,500 film shoots authorized annually in the city are for porn films.
This news article is brought to you by SEXUAL HEALTH NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
The Free Speech Coalition, which brings together porn film producers, has advocated a 'temporary moratorium on production until the risk to performers in the industry has been properly assessed and all performers have been tested.'
Once treated with antibiotics, infected actors will be able to resume work within 10 days, it added in a statement on its website, saying that testing was ongoing.
Last week, health officials in Los Angeles County announced they were investigating an increase in syphilis cases in the porn industry -- at least five in the previous week.
On Tuesday, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), which wants mandatory condom use by porn actors, said 'reliable sources' suggest there could be as many as nine industry-related syphilis cases, 'a number that will likely grow.'
AHF, active in the fight against AIDS, is hoping California voters will approve a proposal on November 6 that would require the use of condoms during porn film shoots. The city of Los Angeles adopted such language in January.
The X-rated movie industry temporarily halted filming last year after an actor tested positive for HIV.
According to Film LA, about five percent of the 45,500 film shoots authorized annually in the city are for porn films.
This news article is brought to you by SEXUAL HEALTH NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
New AIDS-like disease in Asians, not contagious
Researchers have identified a mysterious new disease that has left scores of people in Asia and some in the United States with AIDS-like symptoms even though they are not infected with HIV.
The patients' immune systems become damaged, leaving them unable to fend off germs as healthy people do. What triggers this isn't known, but the disease does not seem to be contagious.
This is another kind of acquired immune deficiency that is not inherited and occurs in adults, but doesn't spread the way AIDS does through a virus, said Dr. Sarah Browne, a scientist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
She helped lead the study with researchers in Thailand and Taiwan where most of the cases have been found since 2004. Their report is in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.
'This is absolutely fascinating. I've seen probably at least three patients in the last 10 years or so' who might have had this, said Dr. Dennis Maki, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
It's still possible that an infection of some sort could trigger the disease, even though the disease itself doesn't seem to spread person-to-person, he said.
The disease develops around age 50 on average but does not run in families, which makes it unlikely that a single gene is responsible, Browne said. Some patients have died of overwhelming infections, including some Asians now living in the U.S., although Browne could not estimate how many.
Kim Nguyen, 62, a seamstress from Vietnam who has lived in Tennessee since 1975, was gravely ill when she sought help for a persistent fever, infections throughout her bones and other bizarre symptoms in 2009. She had been sick off and on for several years and had visited Vietnam in 1995 and again in early 2009.
'She was wasting away from this systemic infection' that at first seemed like tuberculosis but wasn't, said Dr. Carlton Hays Jr., a family physician at the Jackson Clinic in Jackson, Tenn. 'She's a small woman to begin with, but when I first saw her, her weight was 91 pounds, and she lost down to 69 pounds.'
Nguyen (pronounced 'when') was referred to specialists at the National Institutes of Health who had been tracking similar cases. She spent nearly a year at an NIH hospital in Bethesda, Md., and is there now for monitoring and further treatment.
'I feel great now,' she said Wednesday. But when she was sick, 'I felt dizzy, headaches, almost fell down,' she said. 'I could not eat anything.'
AIDS is a specific disease, and it stands for acquired immune deficiency syndrome. That means the immune system becomes impaired during someone's lifetime, rather than from inherited gene defects like the 'bubble babies' who are born unable to fight off germs.
The virus that causes AIDS - HIV - destroys T-cells, key soldiers of the immune system that fight germs. The new disease doesn't affect those cells, but causes a different kind of damage. Browne's study of more than 200 people in Taiwan and Thailand found that most of those with the disease make substances called autoantibodies that block interferon-gamma, a chemical signal that helps the body clear infections.
Blocking that signal leaves people like those with AIDS - vulnerable to viruses, fungal infections and parasites, but especially micobacteria, a group of germs similar to tuberculosis that can cause severe lung damage. Researchers are calling this new disease an 'adult-onset' immunodeficiency syndrome because it develops later in life and they don't know why or how.
'Fundamentally, we do not know what's causing them to make these antibodies,' Browne said.
Antibiotics aren't always effective, so doctors have tried a variety of other approaches, including a cancer drug that helps suppress production of antibodies. The disease quiets in some patients once the infections are tamed, but the faulty immune system is likely a chronic condition, researchers believe.
The fact that nearly all the patients so far have been Asian or Asian-born people living elsewhere suggests that genetic factors and something in the environment such as an infection may trigger the disease, researchers conclude.
The first cases turned up in 2004 and Browne's study enrolled about 100 people in six months.
'We know there are many others out there,' including many cases mistaken as tuberculosis in some countries, she said.
___
Follow Marilynn Marchione at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP
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The patients' immune systems become damaged, leaving them unable to fend off germs as healthy people do. What triggers this isn't known, but the disease does not seem to be contagious.
This is another kind of acquired immune deficiency that is not inherited and occurs in adults, but doesn't spread the way AIDS does through a virus, said Dr. Sarah Browne, a scientist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
She helped lead the study with researchers in Thailand and Taiwan where most of the cases have been found since 2004. Their report is in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.
'This is absolutely fascinating. I've seen probably at least three patients in the last 10 years or so' who might have had this, said Dr. Dennis Maki, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
It's still possible that an infection of some sort could trigger the disease, even though the disease itself doesn't seem to spread person-to-person, he said.
The disease develops around age 50 on average but does not run in families, which makes it unlikely that a single gene is responsible, Browne said. Some patients have died of overwhelming infections, including some Asians now living in the U.S., although Browne could not estimate how many.
Kim Nguyen, 62, a seamstress from Vietnam who has lived in Tennessee since 1975, was gravely ill when she sought help for a persistent fever, infections throughout her bones and other bizarre symptoms in 2009. She had been sick off and on for several years and had visited Vietnam in 1995 and again in early 2009.
'She was wasting away from this systemic infection' that at first seemed like tuberculosis but wasn't, said Dr. Carlton Hays Jr., a family physician at the Jackson Clinic in Jackson, Tenn. 'She's a small woman to begin with, but when I first saw her, her weight was 91 pounds, and she lost down to 69 pounds.'
Nguyen (pronounced 'when') was referred to specialists at the National Institutes of Health who had been tracking similar cases. She spent nearly a year at an NIH hospital in Bethesda, Md., and is there now for monitoring and further treatment.
'I feel great now,' she said Wednesday. But when she was sick, 'I felt dizzy, headaches, almost fell down,' she said. 'I could not eat anything.'
AIDS is a specific disease, and it stands for acquired immune deficiency syndrome. That means the immune system becomes impaired during someone's lifetime, rather than from inherited gene defects like the 'bubble babies' who are born unable to fight off germs.
The virus that causes AIDS - HIV - destroys T-cells, key soldiers of the immune system that fight germs. The new disease doesn't affect those cells, but causes a different kind of damage. Browne's study of more than 200 people in Taiwan and Thailand found that most of those with the disease make substances called autoantibodies that block interferon-gamma, a chemical signal that helps the body clear infections.
Blocking that signal leaves people like those with AIDS - vulnerable to viruses, fungal infections and parasites, but especially micobacteria, a group of germs similar to tuberculosis that can cause severe lung damage. Researchers are calling this new disease an 'adult-onset' immunodeficiency syndrome because it develops later in life and they don't know why or how.
'Fundamentally, we do not know what's causing them to make these antibodies,' Browne said.
Antibiotics aren't always effective, so doctors have tried a variety of other approaches, including a cancer drug that helps suppress production of antibodies. The disease quiets in some patients once the infections are tamed, but the faulty immune system is likely a chronic condition, researchers believe.
The fact that nearly all the patients so far have been Asian or Asian-born people living elsewhere suggests that genetic factors and something in the environment such as an infection may trigger the disease, researchers conclude.
The first cases turned up in 2004 and Browne's study enrolled about 100 people in six months.
'We know there are many others out there,' including many cases mistaken as tuberculosis in some countries, she said.
___
Follow Marilynn Marchione at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP
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Tuesday, August 21, 2012
More cases of syphilis in porn found by LA inquiry
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Four more cases of syphilis have been found in an investigation of an outbreak among porn performers, bringing the total to nine, and the discovery of more cases is likely, Los Angeles County's top health official said Tuesday.
Five cases were reported last week, causing a trade group for the multi-billion dollar industry to call for a halt in filming to prevent the spread of disease.
'It's not surprising in the adult film industry that we would have transmission of all sexually transmitted diseases because they're having unprotected sex, oftentimes with multiple actors,' said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
The current number of syphilis cases in the most recent outbreak 'will grow,' said Fielding, adding that an ongoing investigation is expected to uncover more cases. The latest discoveries were made through testing of the sexual partners of the earlier cases found, he said.
All those infected are also in the industry, but it remains unclear whether they contracted the illness on- or off-set, he said.
The Free Speech Coalition called for a nationwide filming moratorium this weekend, telling performers to get tested for syphilis and to get penicillin shots before returning to sets. After performers get the shots, they can go back to work within 10 days, said FSC spokeswoman Joanne Cachapero.
Last year, 819 cases of syphilis were reported throughout Los Angeles County, said Fielding. While the number of cases in the porn community may seem small by comparison, Fielding said, 'I doubt that the rate of sexually transmitted disease is higher anywhere else.'
Fielding said the county health department is alerting providers that work frequently with porn performers, which are largely located in the San Fernando Valley, to be on the lookout for an increase in syphilis cases.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, syphilis is transmitted through direct contact with syphilis sores, which mainly occur on the external genitals, vagina, anus or inside the rectum.
A single shot of penicillin can cure a person who has had syphilis for less than a year, according to the CDC. Additional doses are necessary for people who have had the STD for a longer period.
The current self-imposed moratorium on porn shoots isn't the first time the industry has stepped in following news of ill performers.
In 2011, major porn producers stopped filming for nearly a week after an adult film performer tested positive for HIV, which causes AIDS. The Free Speech Coalition said the case was later determined to have been a false report.
In 2010, porn actor Derrick Burts was diagnosed as HIV-positive, and his case was confirmed, briefly halting production.
In 2004, at least five performers tested positive for HIV, prompting another brief self-imposed moratorium.
___
Shaya Tayefe Mohajer can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/APShaya
This news article is brought to you by WOMEN'S BLOG - where latest news are our top priority.
Five cases were reported last week, causing a trade group for the multi-billion dollar industry to call for a halt in filming to prevent the spread of disease.
'It's not surprising in the adult film industry that we would have transmission of all sexually transmitted diseases because they're having unprotected sex, oftentimes with multiple actors,' said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
The current number of syphilis cases in the most recent outbreak 'will grow,' said Fielding, adding that an ongoing investigation is expected to uncover more cases. The latest discoveries were made through testing of the sexual partners of the earlier cases found, he said.
All those infected are also in the industry, but it remains unclear whether they contracted the illness on- or off-set, he said.
The Free Speech Coalition called for a nationwide filming moratorium this weekend, telling performers to get tested for syphilis and to get penicillin shots before returning to sets. After performers get the shots, they can go back to work within 10 days, said FSC spokeswoman Joanne Cachapero.
Last year, 819 cases of syphilis were reported throughout Los Angeles County, said Fielding. While the number of cases in the porn community may seem small by comparison, Fielding said, 'I doubt that the rate of sexually transmitted disease is higher anywhere else.'
Fielding said the county health department is alerting providers that work frequently with porn performers, which are largely located in the San Fernando Valley, to be on the lookout for an increase in syphilis cases.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, syphilis is transmitted through direct contact with syphilis sores, which mainly occur on the external genitals, vagina, anus or inside the rectum.
A single shot of penicillin can cure a person who has had syphilis for less than a year, according to the CDC. Additional doses are necessary for people who have had the STD for a longer period.
The current self-imposed moratorium on porn shoots isn't the first time the industry has stepped in following news of ill performers.
In 2011, major porn producers stopped filming for nearly a week after an adult film performer tested positive for HIV, which causes AIDS. The Free Speech Coalition said the case was later determined to have been a false report.
In 2010, porn actor Derrick Burts was diagnosed as HIV-positive, and his case was confirmed, briefly halting production.
In 2004, at least five performers tested positive for HIV, prompting another brief self-imposed moratorium.
___
Shaya Tayefe Mohajer can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/APShaya
This news article is brought to you by WOMEN'S BLOG - where latest news are our top priority.
Porn film production on hold after Los Angeles syphilis case
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A porn industry trade group has announced a U.S. moratorium on production of adult sex films after at least one Los Angeles actor tested positive for syphilis, adding to the pressure on porn producers to require the use of condoms on sets.
The actors can return to work in 10 days after taking antibiotics and doctors have recommended treating all adult film actors as a precaution, the Los Angeles-based Free Speech Coalition said in a statement on its website late on Monday.
It added that filming had been halted since the weekend.
'Clearly our industry's priority is the health and well-being of our performers,' Diane Duke, the executive director of the Free Speech Coalition, said in the statement.
Porn producers in the Los Angeles area, which is the heart of the U.S. adult film industry and home to an estimated 1,000 performers, are under pressure to ensure condom use on sets to prevent the spread of the AIDS virus and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Existing California workplace laws already mandate the use of condoms by porn performers, but critics say that statute is not specifically aimed at the industry and is widely flouted.
A Los Angeles ballot initiative in November will ask voters to require the county health department to require condom use by adult film performers.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said in a statement on Monday that it was 'investigating recent reports of possible cases of syphilis in the adult film industry.'
It was unclear exactly how many porn actors have tested positive for syphilis. The Free Speech Coalition said on its website that a single performer had tested positive for the disease.
But Peter Kerndt, the director of the county's sexually transmitted disease programs, told the Los Angeles Times in an article posted on its website on Friday that his agency had received reports of at least five possible cases.
Sarah Kissel, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Health, declined on Tuesday to say how many cases had been reported to the county.
The nonprofit AIDS Healthcare Foundation has led a campaign to involve local officials in regulating the use of condoms in the adult film industry. In January, it succeeded in persuading Los Angeles city officials to adopt a condom requirement for porn performers. The city is still determining how to enforce the policy, but it will not cover studio sound stages.
A ballot initiative in November, which resulted from a signature-gathering drive by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, would require county health officials to impose a more far-reaching requirement for condoms on porn sets, and that would apply to shoots in studio sound stages.
The Free Speech Coalition last year called for a temporary moratorium on filming after a performer tested positive for HIV. The actor was later found to not have the virus.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Paul Simao)
This news article is brought to you by MUSIC UNITED 1 - where latest news are our top priority.
The actors can return to work in 10 days after taking antibiotics and doctors have recommended treating all adult film actors as a precaution, the Los Angeles-based Free Speech Coalition said in a statement on its website late on Monday.
It added that filming had been halted since the weekend.
'Clearly our industry's priority is the health and well-being of our performers,' Diane Duke, the executive director of the Free Speech Coalition, said in the statement.
Porn producers in the Los Angeles area, which is the heart of the U.S. adult film industry and home to an estimated 1,000 performers, are under pressure to ensure condom use on sets to prevent the spread of the AIDS virus and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Existing California workplace laws already mandate the use of condoms by porn performers, but critics say that statute is not specifically aimed at the industry and is widely flouted.
A Los Angeles ballot initiative in November will ask voters to require the county health department to require condom use by adult film performers.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said in a statement on Monday that it was 'investigating recent reports of possible cases of syphilis in the adult film industry.'
It was unclear exactly how many porn actors have tested positive for syphilis. The Free Speech Coalition said on its website that a single performer had tested positive for the disease.
But Peter Kerndt, the director of the county's sexually transmitted disease programs, told the Los Angeles Times in an article posted on its website on Friday that his agency had received reports of at least five possible cases.
Sarah Kissel, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Health, declined on Tuesday to say how many cases had been reported to the county.
The nonprofit AIDS Healthcare Foundation has led a campaign to involve local officials in regulating the use of condoms in the adult film industry. In January, it succeeded in persuading Los Angeles city officials to adopt a condom requirement for porn performers. The city is still determining how to enforce the policy, but it will not cover studio sound stages.
A ballot initiative in November, which resulted from a signature-gathering drive by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, would require county health officials to impose a more far-reaching requirement for condoms on porn sets, and that would apply to shoots in studio sound stages.
The Free Speech Coalition last year called for a temporary moratorium on filming after a performer tested positive for HIV. The actor was later found to not have the virus.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Paul Simao)
This news article is brought to you by MUSIC UNITED 1 - where latest news are our top priority.
Porn Actor Tests Positive for Syphilis
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Monday, August 20, 2012
Porn group: filming to halt during syphilis probe
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A pornography trade group has called for a nationwide filming moratorium while performers are tested for syphilis and Los Angeles County public health officials investigate a possible outbreak of the sexually transmitted disease.
One performer has tested positive, and the performer's sexual partners are being notified, according to Joanne Cachapero, a spokeswoman for the Free Speech Coalition.
The voluntary, temporary moratorium on production is expected to shutter a multi-billion dollar industry 'until the risk to performers in the industry has been properly assessed and all performers have been tested,' the trade association said in a statement.
On Friday, the Los Angeles County Public Health Department announced an investigation into at least five possible cases of syphilis that were reported last week.
Cachapero said the group is calling on all performers, more than 1,000, to be tested. Because the illness can be difficult to detect, the trade group's medical experts have ordered preventative shots of antibiotics for performers. After performers get the shots, they can go back to work within 10 days, Cachapero said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, syphilis is transmitted through direct contact with syphilis sores, which mainly occur on the external genitals, vagina, anus or inside the rectum. The disease can be transmitted through a variety of sex acts.
A single shot of penicillin can cure a person who has had syphilis for less than a year, according to the CDC. Additional doses are necessary for people who have had the STD for a longer period.
County public health spokeswoman Sarah Kissell acknowledged the investigation Monday but declined an interview seeking details of its scope or an update of its findings.
The porn industry has held self-imposed moratoriums following news of diseased performers before.
In 2011, major porn producers stopped filming for nearly a week after an adult film performer tested positive for HIV, which causes AIDS. The Free Speech Coalition said the case was later determined to have been a false report.
In late 2010, porn actor Derrick Burts was diagnosed as HIV-positive, and his case was confirmed, briefly halting production.
In 2004, at least five performers tested positive for HIV, prompting another brief self-imposed moratorium.
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, an advocacy group that has called for the use of condoms in all pornography, said Monday that the industry is incapable of policing itself and protecting its performers.
The group is backing a November ballot measure that will allow Los Angeles county voters to mandate the use of condoms during pornography shoots.
The Free Speech Coalition opposes the measure, saying the industry is a tight-knit community that has been proactive in testing and protecting the welfare of performers.
___
Shaya Tayefe Mohajer can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/APShaya .
This news article is brought to you by FREE ROMANTIC DATING SITE BLOG - where latest news are our top priority.
One performer has tested positive, and the performer's sexual partners are being notified, according to Joanne Cachapero, a spokeswoman for the Free Speech Coalition.
The voluntary, temporary moratorium on production is expected to shutter a multi-billion dollar industry 'until the risk to performers in the industry has been properly assessed and all performers have been tested,' the trade association said in a statement.
On Friday, the Los Angeles County Public Health Department announced an investigation into at least five possible cases of syphilis that were reported last week.
Cachapero said the group is calling on all performers, more than 1,000, to be tested. Because the illness can be difficult to detect, the trade group's medical experts have ordered preventative shots of antibiotics for performers. After performers get the shots, they can go back to work within 10 days, Cachapero said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, syphilis is transmitted through direct contact with syphilis sores, which mainly occur on the external genitals, vagina, anus or inside the rectum. The disease can be transmitted through a variety of sex acts.
A single shot of penicillin can cure a person who has had syphilis for less than a year, according to the CDC. Additional doses are necessary for people who have had the STD for a longer period.
County public health spokeswoman Sarah Kissell acknowledged the investigation Monday but declined an interview seeking details of its scope or an update of its findings.
The porn industry has held self-imposed moratoriums following news of diseased performers before.
In 2011, major porn producers stopped filming for nearly a week after an adult film performer tested positive for HIV, which causes AIDS. The Free Speech Coalition said the case was later determined to have been a false report.
In late 2010, porn actor Derrick Burts was diagnosed as HIV-positive, and his case was confirmed, briefly halting production.
In 2004, at least five performers tested positive for HIV, prompting another brief self-imposed moratorium.
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, an advocacy group that has called for the use of condoms in all pornography, said Monday that the industry is incapable of policing itself and protecting its performers.
The group is backing a November ballot measure that will allow Los Angeles county voters to mandate the use of condoms during pornography shoots.
The Free Speech Coalition opposes the measure, saying the industry is a tight-knit community that has been proactive in testing and protecting the welfare of performers.
___
Shaya Tayefe Mohajer can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/APShaya .
This news article is brought to you by FREE ROMANTIC DATING SITE BLOG - where latest news are our top priority.
Porn group wants filing halt during syphilis probe
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A pornography trade group is calling for a nationwide filming moratorium while officials in Los Angeles investigate a syphilis outbreak and performers get tested for the disease.
Free Speech Coalition spokeswoman Joanne Cachapero said Monday that one performer has tested positive for and the performer's sexual partners are being notified.
The Los Angeles County Public Health Department announced an investigation into at least five possible cases the sexually transmitted disease last week.
The self-imposed moratorium shutters a multi-billion industry whose major producers are based in Los Angeles county's San Fernando Valley.
County health officials acknowledged the investigation Monday but declined an interview seeking details of its scope or an update of its findings.
___
Shaya Tayefe Mohajer can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/APShaya .
This news article is brought to you by SAVING MONEY BLOG - where latest news are our top priority.
Free Speech Coalition spokeswoman Joanne Cachapero said Monday that one performer has tested positive for and the performer's sexual partners are being notified.
The Los Angeles County Public Health Department announced an investigation into at least five possible cases the sexually transmitted disease last week.
The self-imposed moratorium shutters a multi-billion industry whose major producers are based in Los Angeles county's San Fernando Valley.
County health officials acknowledged the investigation Monday but declined an interview seeking details of its scope or an update of its findings.
___
Shaya Tayefe Mohajer can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/APShaya .
This news article is brought to you by SAVING MONEY BLOG - where latest news are our top priority.
As circumcision rates drop, costs increase: study
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - As gaps in insurance coverage lead to fewer male babies being circumcised in the United States, related health costs could end up increasing by millions of dollars every year, a new study suggests.
Using a model based on studies of the long-term health effects of circumcision, researchers predicted that the rate of urinary tract infections in male babies would more than double - and the rate of HIV infections in men increase by 12 percent - if only one in ten male newborns was circumcised nationwide.
More than half of U.S. baby boys are circumcised today, but a drop to one in ten is not entirely unlikely given that it's in line with rates of circumcision in Europe, where the procedure is rarely covered by insurance, according to Dr. Aaron Tobian and his colleagues from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Yet it is concerning, researchers said.
'The medical benefits of male circumcision are extremely clear,' said Tobian - including reduced rates of HIV, penile cancer and herpes.
Still, Medicaid programs in more and more states have been cutting funding for the procedure, he told Reuters Health, which means fewer parents are opting to have their sons circumcised.
For the new study, Tobian's team wanted to predict the future implications for health costs in the U.S. if those cuts continue.
Each circumcision costs Medicaid or private insurers about $250 to $300, Tobian said. Still, the researchers predicted that each 'forgone' circumcision would add a net $313 in costs, given the extra doctor's appointments, medication and other treatment for men who would contract HIV or human papillomavirus (HPV), for example, as a result of being uncircumcised.
With a drop from the current circumcision rate of about 55 percent of baby boys born in the U.S. to 10 percent, there would be almost 5,000 extra HIV cases in men, 57,000 extra HPV infections and another 27,000 newborn UTIs among about four million babies, they calculated.
Related costs would add up to more than $4.4 billion for babies born over a decade-long span, the researchers reported Monday in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
Most of the data for the new model came from research done in Africa. But it's reasonable to assume those findings would apply to men in the U.S. as well, according to Helen Weiss, an epidemiologist who has studied circumcision at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
Foreskin is rich in HIV target cells, she told Reuters Health. Therefore a man without foreskin is less likely to contract HIV and some other sexually transmitted infections.
It's not clear whether circumcised men are also less likely to pass on the diseases to a partner if they are infected, said Weiss, who wasn't involved in the new study.
'But obviously at the population level, women are less likely to acquire it if there's less HIV in the male population,' she added.
Less transmission of HPV also means women are at lower risk of cervical cancer, which is closely tied to the virus.
Weiss agreed that male newborn circumcision is 'a very cost-effective intervention.' It typically hasn't been popular in the UK and the rest of Europe outside of Muslim and Jewish families who circumcise their sons for religious reasons, she added.
She said evidence from the past five years especially supports the long-term health benefits of circumcision - which itself comes with a very low risk of infection in newborns.
'We seem to be finding more and more things that circumcision protects against,' Weiss said. 'If anything you would expect coverage of circumcision to be also increasing.'
Yet in recent years, 18 states have eliminated funding for circumcision for their residents on Medicaid, the government insurance program for the poor.
'The state governments think we can save a few bucks (by dropping circumcision coverage), but it ends up costing them more in the long run,' Tobian said.
The American Academy of Pediatrics' most recent statement on the issue, reaffirmed in 2005, said there is not enough evidence to recommend routine male newborn circumcision. But a new draft of that statement is set to be published next week, the AAP confirmed.
There are also ethical questions about whether it's okay to perform circumcision on a newborn boy who is obviously too young to consent, researchers noted. But as boys get older, the procedure becomes more complicated and expensive.
Tobian said both Medicaid and private insurers should cover circumcision, allowing all economic barriers to be eliminated, so the decision for or against it can be made based on discussions between parents and doctors.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/KEGTVv Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, online August 20, 2012.
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIP ADVICE.
Using a model based on studies of the long-term health effects of circumcision, researchers predicted that the rate of urinary tract infections in male babies would more than double - and the rate of HIV infections in men increase by 12 percent - if only one in ten male newborns was circumcised nationwide.
More than half of U.S. baby boys are circumcised today, but a drop to one in ten is not entirely unlikely given that it's in line with rates of circumcision in Europe, where the procedure is rarely covered by insurance, according to Dr. Aaron Tobian and his colleagues from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Yet it is concerning, researchers said.
'The medical benefits of male circumcision are extremely clear,' said Tobian - including reduced rates of HIV, penile cancer and herpes.
Still, Medicaid programs in more and more states have been cutting funding for the procedure, he told Reuters Health, which means fewer parents are opting to have their sons circumcised.
For the new study, Tobian's team wanted to predict the future implications for health costs in the U.S. if those cuts continue.
Each circumcision costs Medicaid or private insurers about $250 to $300, Tobian said. Still, the researchers predicted that each 'forgone' circumcision would add a net $313 in costs, given the extra doctor's appointments, medication and other treatment for men who would contract HIV or human papillomavirus (HPV), for example, as a result of being uncircumcised.
With a drop from the current circumcision rate of about 55 percent of baby boys born in the U.S. to 10 percent, there would be almost 5,000 extra HIV cases in men, 57,000 extra HPV infections and another 27,000 newborn UTIs among about four million babies, they calculated.
Related costs would add up to more than $4.4 billion for babies born over a decade-long span, the researchers reported Monday in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
Most of the data for the new model came from research done in Africa. But it's reasonable to assume those findings would apply to men in the U.S. as well, according to Helen Weiss, an epidemiologist who has studied circumcision at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
Foreskin is rich in HIV target cells, she told Reuters Health. Therefore a man without foreskin is less likely to contract HIV and some other sexually transmitted infections.
It's not clear whether circumcised men are also less likely to pass on the diseases to a partner if they are infected, said Weiss, who wasn't involved in the new study.
'But obviously at the population level, women are less likely to acquire it if there's less HIV in the male population,' she added.
Less transmission of HPV also means women are at lower risk of cervical cancer, which is closely tied to the virus.
Weiss agreed that male newborn circumcision is 'a very cost-effective intervention.' It typically hasn't been popular in the UK and the rest of Europe outside of Muslim and Jewish families who circumcise their sons for religious reasons, she added.
She said evidence from the past five years especially supports the long-term health benefits of circumcision - which itself comes with a very low risk of infection in newborns.
'We seem to be finding more and more things that circumcision protects against,' Weiss said. 'If anything you would expect coverage of circumcision to be also increasing.'
Yet in recent years, 18 states have eliminated funding for circumcision for their residents on Medicaid, the government insurance program for the poor.
'The state governments think we can save a few bucks (by dropping circumcision coverage), but it ends up costing them more in the long run,' Tobian said.
The American Academy of Pediatrics' most recent statement on the issue, reaffirmed in 2005, said there is not enough evidence to recommend routine male newborn circumcision. But a new draft of that statement is set to be published next week, the AAP confirmed.
There are also ethical questions about whether it's okay to perform circumcision on a newborn boy who is obviously too young to consent, researchers noted. But as boys get older, the procedure becomes more complicated and expensive.
Tobian said both Medicaid and private insurers should cover circumcision, allowing all economic barriers to be eliminated, so the decision for or against it can be made based on discussions between parents and doctors.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/KEGTVv Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, online August 20, 2012.
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIP ADVICE.
Planned Parenthood launches U.S. breast health initiative
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Planned Parenthood, a target of U.S. conservatives opposed to its abortion and birth control services, said on Monday it will use $3 million in donations to launch an initiative to fight breast cancer with expanded screenings and education.
The donations poured into Planned Parenthood earlier this year in response to a short-lived decision by breast cancer charity Susan G. Komen for the Cure to cut off grant money to the women's health network.
The initiative will add to basic screenings at Planned Parenthood clinics by funding ultrasounds, biopsies and other follow-up services. One-third of the money is to help pay for more diagnostic tests.
It also will provide new educational resources for women under age 40, an outreach program for Hispanic women, and a new screening tool for the network's doctors and nurses.
About 230,000 U.S. women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, with death rates higher among younger women and Hispanics. Planned Parenthood said it provided about 750,000 breast exams in 2011.
Planned Parenthood received the $3 million influx of donations in four days earlier this year as 77,000 supporters rushed to protect the group after the Komen foundation said it would cut off nearly all of its $700,000 in annual grant money used to fund breast cancer screenings.
Komen's decision triggered an uproar among its own supporters that forced the breast cancer charity to reverse the change.
Komen insiders said later that the foundation had acted under pressure from anti-abortion activists opposed to Planned Parenthood.
'We were overwhelmed with support from people all across the country who wanted to be sure that women could still get breast cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood,' the organization's president, Cecile Richards, said in a statement.
'We've spent the last few months developing an expanded program that plays to our strengths while addressing the biggest barriers to care.'
Since the controversy, Richards said Planned Parenthood has maintained close ties with most of the local Komen affiliates with which it initially had strong relations.
'In some communities, we've actually established relationships where we really didn't have them before,' she said.
The group said it has also forged new relationships with organizations including LIVESTRONG, a nonprofit group founded by champion cyclist Lance Armstrong that helps people diagnosed with cancer navigate complexities of the U.S. healthcare system.
(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Vicki Allen)
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIPS ADVICE.
The donations poured into Planned Parenthood earlier this year in response to a short-lived decision by breast cancer charity Susan G. Komen for the Cure to cut off grant money to the women's health network.
The initiative will add to basic screenings at Planned Parenthood clinics by funding ultrasounds, biopsies and other follow-up services. One-third of the money is to help pay for more diagnostic tests.
It also will provide new educational resources for women under age 40, an outreach program for Hispanic women, and a new screening tool for the network's doctors and nurses.
About 230,000 U.S. women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, with death rates higher among younger women and Hispanics. Planned Parenthood said it provided about 750,000 breast exams in 2011.
Planned Parenthood received the $3 million influx of donations in four days earlier this year as 77,000 supporters rushed to protect the group after the Komen foundation said it would cut off nearly all of its $700,000 in annual grant money used to fund breast cancer screenings.
Komen's decision triggered an uproar among its own supporters that forced the breast cancer charity to reverse the change.
Komen insiders said later that the foundation had acted under pressure from anti-abortion activists opposed to Planned Parenthood.
'We were overwhelmed with support from people all across the country who wanted to be sure that women could still get breast cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood,' the organization's president, Cecile Richards, said in a statement.
'We've spent the last few months developing an expanded program that plays to our strengths while addressing the biggest barriers to care.'
Since the controversy, Richards said Planned Parenthood has maintained close ties with most of the local Komen affiliates with which it initially had strong relations.
'In some communities, we've actually established relationships where we really didn't have them before,' she said.
The group said it has also forged new relationships with organizations including LIVESTRONG, a nonprofit group founded by champion cyclist Lance Armstrong that helps people diagnosed with cancer navigate complexities of the U.S. healthcare system.
(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Vicki Allen)
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIPS ADVICE.
Planned Parenthood launches new U.S. breast health initiative
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Planned Parenthood, a target of U.S. conservatives opposed to its abortion and birth control services, said on Monday it would use $3 million in donations to launch an initiative to fight breast cancer with expanded screenings and education.
The donations poured into Planned Parenthood earlier this year in response to the decision by breast cancer charity Susan G. Komen for the Cure to cut off grant money to the women's health network.
The initiative will add to basic screenings at Planned Parenthood clinics by funding ultrasounds, biopsies and other follow-up services. It will also provide new educational resources for women under age 40, an outreach program for Hispanic women, and a new screening tool for the network's doctors and nurses.
The $3 million flooded Planned Parenthood's coffers in four days earlier this year as 77,000 supporters rushed to protect the group after the Komen foundation said it would cut off nearly all of its $700,000 in annual grant money used to fund breast cancer screenings.
Komen's decision triggered an uproar among its own supporters that forced the breast cancer charity to reverse the change.
Komen insiders said later that the foundation had acted under pressure from anti-abortion activists opposed to Planned Parenthood.
'We were overwhelmed with support from people all across the country who wanted to be sure that women could still get breast cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood,' the organization's president, Cecile Richards, said in a statement.
'We've spent the last few months developing an expanded program that plays to our strengths while addressing the biggest barriers to care,' Richards, of Planned Parenthood, said.
(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Vicki Allen)
This news article is brought to you by SPACE AND ASTRONOMY NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
The donations poured into Planned Parenthood earlier this year in response to the decision by breast cancer charity Susan G. Komen for the Cure to cut off grant money to the women's health network.
The initiative will add to basic screenings at Planned Parenthood clinics by funding ultrasounds, biopsies and other follow-up services. It will also provide new educational resources for women under age 40, an outreach program for Hispanic women, and a new screening tool for the network's doctors and nurses.
The $3 million flooded Planned Parenthood's coffers in four days earlier this year as 77,000 supporters rushed to protect the group after the Komen foundation said it would cut off nearly all of its $700,000 in annual grant money used to fund breast cancer screenings.
Komen's decision triggered an uproar among its own supporters that forced the breast cancer charity to reverse the change.
Komen insiders said later that the foundation had acted under pressure from anti-abortion activists opposed to Planned Parenthood.
'We were overwhelmed with support from people all across the country who wanted to be sure that women could still get breast cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood,' the organization's president, Cecile Richards, said in a statement.
'We've spent the last few months developing an expanded program that plays to our strengths while addressing the biggest barriers to care,' Richards, of Planned Parenthood, said.
(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Vicki Allen)
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Wednesday, August 15, 2012
California Syphilis Cases Spiked by 18 Percent in 2011
The California Department of Public Health (CDHP) released its latest sexually transmitted disease (STD) statistics. Cases of syphilis have risen from 2,064 to 2,448 in 2011. Other STDs are on the rise as well.
Which other STDs are on the rise?
Cases of syphilis are most prevalent among white patients. Although the numbers of cases of gonorrhea are lower than the 2007 high of 31,191, last year's 27,455 reported diagnoses are well above the 26,842 cases diagnosed in 2010. This disease disproportionately affects black patients. Chlamydia, too, is on the increase. Whereas in 2010 there were 155,340 reported cases, by 2011 this figure had increased to 164,591 confirmed diagnoses. Cases of Chlamydia affect primarily the state's Hispanic population (49,418 cases).
Why is this trend worrisome?
A 2011 study by the CDHP showed that there is a correlation between STDs and HIV/AIDS prevalence. Infection with syphilis in males in particular was accompanied with HIV or AIDS diagnoses, the study found. "Given that HIV/AIDS and STDs share behavioral risk factors, this figure reiterates the importance of disease PCSI efforts when attempting to reduce morbidity," the researchers warned.
Do California schools teach sex health education?
As outlined by the California Department of Education (CDE), California public schools are not required by law to teach sex education, which includes facts about STDs. Schools do have the obligation to teach HIV/AIDS prevention in middle school and high school. While it is not required, surveys showed that at least 96 percent of California school districts have adopted a comprehensive sex health curriculum. By law, school districts teaching sex health must make the education "accessible for English language learner students and students with disabilities," the CDE specifies.
Are there possible problems associated with California's sexual health education?
The ACLU of Northern California highlights that there is not one standardized curriculum that is in use. Although the CDE has set forth a framework of guidelines -- for example, sex education must be medically accurate and unbiased -- the purchase of curricula is up to school boards and school districts. ACLU researchers have found that this has led to a patchwork of sex health education programs, some of which are less than effective.
What do officials say?
"The longer people have these infections without being treated the more likely it is they are going to develop a complication that will have both health and financial costs," a Sexually Transmitted Disease Control Branch spokesperson told the Los Angeles Times. Officials underscore the need for targeted sex health education outside of public school settings, but also note that plenty of programs have been eliminated due to budget constraints.
Sylvia Cochran is a Los Angeles area resident with a firm finger on the pulse of California politics. Talk radio junkie, community volunteer and politically independent, she scrutinizes the good and the bad from both sides of the political aisle.
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Friday, August 10, 2012
CDC Issues New Guidelines to Ward Off Gonorrhea Superbug
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidelines on Friday outlining how doctors should treat the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea. The guidelines are an update to a similar document that the CDC issued in 2010, in light of the fact that the agency has discovered that the disease is becoming more difficult to treat.
The CDC's new guidelines for the treatment of gonorrhea specifically advise doctors to stop treating the disease with the antibiotic cefixime as their first course of action. Cefixime is one of the last remaining antibiotics that are still effective in treating the disease. As such, the CDC is now recommending a cocktail of other drugs be used to treat the infection before resorting to cefixime.
Here is some of the key information regarding the CDC's new guidelines and gonorrhea's increased drug resistance.
* Jonathan Zenilman, who works for Johns Hopkins, told NPR on Thursday that gonorrhea infections used to be able to be treated by a whole host of common antibiotics, including penicillin and tetracycline.
* The use of these common antibiotics to treat a wide-ranging list of infections, along with the disease's ability to mutate rapidly, has slowly rendered them ineffective in treating gonorrhea, according to Zenilman.
* A report by WebMD back in June stated that gonorrhea started becoming resistant to common antibiotics like penicillin or tetracycline in the 1980's.
* There are now only two antibiotics that can still effectively fight gonorrhea--cefixime and ceftriaxone.
* The CDC's new guidelines now recommend that doctors begin treating a patient's gonorrhea infection with a single injection of ceftriaxone, in combination with the more common antibiotics doxycycline or azithromycin in pill form.
* By advising doctors to use a single injectable dose of ceftriaxone along with more common antibiotics, scientists at the CDC are hoping to delay the moment when both ceftriaxone and cefixime also become ineffective, according to USA Today.
* The director of the CDC's Sexually Transmitted Disease Prevention division, Gail Bolan, called the CDC's new treatment guidelines a "critical preemptive strike to preserve the last effective treatment option," as quoted by Reuters.
* The first known failure of ceftriaxone and cefixime to successfully treat a case of gonorrhea reportedly occurred in Japan in 2003. In 2009, a so-called gonorrhea "superbug" was found there as well. It has been subsequently found at least once in Spain and France, but not yet in the U.S., according to USA Today.
Vanessa Evans is a musician and freelance writer based in Michigan, with a lifelong interest in health and nutrition issues.
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The CDC's new guidelines for the treatment of gonorrhea specifically advise doctors to stop treating the disease with the antibiotic cefixime as their first course of action. Cefixime is one of the last remaining antibiotics that are still effective in treating the disease. As such, the CDC is now recommending a cocktail of other drugs be used to treat the infection before resorting to cefixime.
Here is some of the key information regarding the CDC's new guidelines and gonorrhea's increased drug resistance.
* Jonathan Zenilman, who works for Johns Hopkins, told NPR on Thursday that gonorrhea infections used to be able to be treated by a whole host of common antibiotics, including penicillin and tetracycline.
* The use of these common antibiotics to treat a wide-ranging list of infections, along with the disease's ability to mutate rapidly, has slowly rendered them ineffective in treating gonorrhea, according to Zenilman.
* A report by WebMD back in June stated that gonorrhea started becoming resistant to common antibiotics like penicillin or tetracycline in the 1980's.
* There are now only two antibiotics that can still effectively fight gonorrhea--cefixime and ceftriaxone.
* The CDC's new guidelines now recommend that doctors begin treating a patient's gonorrhea infection with a single injection of ceftriaxone, in combination with the more common antibiotics doxycycline or azithromycin in pill form.
* By advising doctors to use a single injectable dose of ceftriaxone along with more common antibiotics, scientists at the CDC are hoping to delay the moment when both ceftriaxone and cefixime also become ineffective, according to USA Today.
* The director of the CDC's Sexually Transmitted Disease Prevention division, Gail Bolan, called the CDC's new treatment guidelines a "critical preemptive strike to preserve the last effective treatment option," as quoted by Reuters.
* The first known failure of ceftriaxone and cefixime to successfully treat a case of gonorrhea reportedly occurred in Japan in 2003. In 2009, a so-called gonorrhea "superbug" was found there as well. It has been subsequently found at least once in Spain and France, but not yet in the U.S., according to USA Today.
Vanessa Evans is a musician and freelance writer based in Michigan, with a lifelong interest in health and nutrition issues.
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIPS ADVICE.
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Only one gonorrhea drug left for routine cases: CDC
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Health officials are urging doctors to stop using a key antibiotic to treat routine cases of gonorrhea due to signs of bacterial resistance, leaving one treatment left for the sexually transmitted disease.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday it no longer recommends the use of cefixime, marketed under the brand name Suprax by Lupin Ltd, because it is becoming less effective. That leaves the injectable generic antibiotic ceftriaxone, used in combination with another antibiotic, as the last treatment option.
'The change in antibiotic treatment guidelines we are making today is a critical pre-emptive strike to preserve the last effective treatment option,' said Dr. Gail Bolan, director of the CDC's Sexually Transmitted Disease Prevention division.
'This will not solve the problem of drug-resistant gonorrhea once and for all, but it may buy us time to allow researchers and drug developers to develop new treatments,' Bolan told reporters in a telephone briefing.
Until new treatments reach the market, experts say the best way to reduce the risk of drug-resistant gonorrhea is to rapidly diagnose the disease and fight it with combinations of two or more types of antibiotics at the same time.
This technique is used in the treatment of some other infections like tuberculosis in an attempt to make it more difficult for the bacteria to learn how to overcome the drugs.
SUPERBUG STRAINS
If left untreated, gonorrhea can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy, stillbirths, severe eye infections in babies and infertility in both men and women.
In the United States, there are approximately 300,000 reported cases of gonorrhea each year, but because infected people often have no symptoms, the actual number of cases is likely closer to 700,000, Bolan said.
So-called 'superbug' drug-resistant strains of gonorrhea accounted for almost one in 10 cases of sexually transmitted disease in Europe in 2010, more than double the rate of the year before, health officials from the Stockholm-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said in June.
Dr. Robert Kirkcaldy of the CDC said there have so far been no U.S. cases of 'untreatable' gonorrhea, in which the germ resists all known treatments, but U.S. laboratory data suggest resistance is beginning to emerge.
The guidelines also recommend that healthcare providers closely monitor their patients for treatment failure, and retest patients with persistent symptoms with a culture-based gonorrhea test, which can identify antibiotic-resistant infections.
Doctors said cefixime may be needed as an alternative treatment option in some cases. If ceftriaxone is not readily available, providers may prescribe a dual therapy of cefixime plus one of two other antibiotics: azithromycin or doxycycline.
In addition to closely monitoring for resistance nationally, CDC said it is working with the World Health Organization to monitor for emerging resistance on the global level.
The agency is also collaborating with the National Institutes of Health to test new combinations of existing drugs.
(Additional reporting by Kate Kelland in London; Editng by Michele Gershberg)
This article is brought to you by DATING ADVICE.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday it no longer recommends the use of cefixime, marketed under the brand name Suprax by Lupin Ltd, because it is becoming less effective. That leaves the injectable generic antibiotic ceftriaxone, used in combination with another antibiotic, as the last treatment option.
'The change in antibiotic treatment guidelines we are making today is a critical pre-emptive strike to preserve the last effective treatment option,' said Dr. Gail Bolan, director of the CDC's Sexually Transmitted Disease Prevention division.
'This will not solve the problem of drug-resistant gonorrhea once and for all, but it may buy us time to allow researchers and drug developers to develop new treatments,' Bolan told reporters in a telephone briefing.
Until new treatments reach the market, experts say the best way to reduce the risk of drug-resistant gonorrhea is to rapidly diagnose the disease and fight it with combinations of two or more types of antibiotics at the same time.
This technique is used in the treatment of some other infections like tuberculosis in an attempt to make it more difficult for the bacteria to learn how to overcome the drugs.
SUPERBUG STRAINS
If left untreated, gonorrhea can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy, stillbirths, severe eye infections in babies and infertility in both men and women.
In the United States, there are approximately 300,000 reported cases of gonorrhea each year, but because infected people often have no symptoms, the actual number of cases is likely closer to 700,000, Bolan said.
So-called 'superbug' drug-resistant strains of gonorrhea accounted for almost one in 10 cases of sexually transmitted disease in Europe in 2010, more than double the rate of the year before, health officials from the Stockholm-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said in June.
Dr. Robert Kirkcaldy of the CDC said there have so far been no U.S. cases of 'untreatable' gonorrhea, in which the germ resists all known treatments, but U.S. laboratory data suggest resistance is beginning to emerge.
The guidelines also recommend that healthcare providers closely monitor their patients for treatment failure, and retest patients with persistent symptoms with a culture-based gonorrhea test, which can identify antibiotic-resistant infections.
Doctors said cefixime may be needed as an alternative treatment option in some cases. If ceftriaxone is not readily available, providers may prescribe a dual therapy of cefixime plus one of two other antibiotics: azithromycin or doxycycline.
In addition to closely monitoring for resistance nationally, CDC said it is working with the World Health Organization to monitor for emerging resistance on the global level.
The agency is also collaborating with the National Institutes of Health to test new combinations of existing drugs.
(Additional reporting by Kate Kelland in London; Editng by Michele Gershberg)
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Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Clinton signs new deal to fight AIDS in South Africa
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday signed a new deal supporting efforts to fight AIDS in South Africa, which has the world's biggest population of people with HIV.
'South Africa and the entire region has a brighter and healthier and more secure future,' she said while visiting a clinic in the Cape Town township of Delft.
'Even as we take a moment to say 'well done', we cannot make the mistake of thinking that our job is done,' she said. 'The disease is still very dangerous.'
The United States has spent $3.2 billion since 2004 supporting South Africa's fight against AIDS. The new five-year agreement gives South Africa's government more control over the spending.
'Some people may hear 'South Africa is in the lead' and think that it means that the US is bowing out,' Clinton said. 'Let me say this clearly: the US is not going anywhere.'
'The partnership is changing for the better,' she said. 'Our goal is no new patients -- zero.'
The agreement highlights South Africa's shift from an international pariah on AIDS, under former president Thabo Mbeki, who refused to believe the scientific evidence that AIDS is caused by a virus -- to a celebrated one.
Now the country runs the world's largest AIDS treatment programme, with more than 1.3 million people receiving drugs, out of a total infected population of 5.6 million.
The rate of newborns catching the disease from their mothers during childbirth has fallen from 8 percent in 2008 to 2.7 percent last year.
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'South Africa and the entire region has a brighter and healthier and more secure future,' she said while visiting a clinic in the Cape Town township of Delft.
'Even as we take a moment to say 'well done', we cannot make the mistake of thinking that our job is done,' she said. 'The disease is still very dangerous.'
The United States has spent $3.2 billion since 2004 supporting South Africa's fight against AIDS. The new five-year agreement gives South Africa's government more control over the spending.
'Some people may hear 'South Africa is in the lead' and think that it means that the US is bowing out,' Clinton said. 'Let me say this clearly: the US is not going anywhere.'
'The partnership is changing for the better,' she said. 'Our goal is no new patients -- zero.'
The agreement highlights South Africa's shift from an international pariah on AIDS, under former president Thabo Mbeki, who refused to believe the scientific evidence that AIDS is caused by a virus -- to a celebrated one.
Now the country runs the world's largest AIDS treatment programme, with more than 1.3 million people receiving drugs, out of a total infected population of 5.6 million.
The rate of newborns catching the disease from their mothers during childbirth has fallen from 8 percent in 2008 to 2.7 percent last year.
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIPS ADVICE.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
U.S. hands more control to South Africa in its AIDS fight
PRETORIA (Reuters) - The United States and South Africa are to sign an agreement on funding for an anti-AIDS campaign that is symbolic of Pretoria's shift from being a pariah to a global player in fighting the disease.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during a visit to South Africa that Pretoria will begin taking more of the responsibilities for its HIV/AIDS program, part of a broader effort to overhaul the U.S. global plan for AIDS relief launched under former President George W. Bush.
'South Africa is taking the lead, and I want publicly to commend your minister of health and his associates who are widely being given great admiration around the world for the success of their efforts,' Clinton told a news conference.
The United States limited access to HIV/AIDS funding to the government of former President Thabo Mbeki, whose administration was ridiculed for denying there was a link between HIV and AIDS while prescribing meaningless treatments such as beet root instead of internationally proven medicines.
President Jacob Zuma, who took office in 2009, put policies in line with global research, strengthened campaigns to provide nationwide the anti-retroviral drugs that control HIV and has slowed an infection rate that ranks among the world's highest.
On Wednesday, Clinton is expected to sign a deal to rework South Africa's programs under what is known as 'The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief' (PEPFAR), allowing the government to better use the funding in its fight against the virus.
U.S. officials said South Africa will be the first PEPFAR country to begin to 'nationalize' its program, but others would be expected to follow as their capacities increase and the United States seeks to more effectively target its overseas assistance in an atmosphere of budget austerity at home.
The United States has spent $3.2 billion since 2004 on anti-AIDS programs in South Africa, where 5.7 million people are infected - or close to 18 percent of the adult population.
It has budgeted $460 million for South Africa under PEPFAR in 2013, but U.S. officials say that amount is expected to gradually drop in the coming five years.
'South Africa over the next decade will be committing more of its own public health funds to deal with people with HIV,' a senior U.S. official travelling with Clinton's party said.
South Africa says about 1.7 million are now on treatment and the rate of mother-to-child transmission has dropped from 8 percent in 2008 to 2.7 per cent in 2011.
But complicating the situation is a high incidence of HIV/AIDS among workers in the mining sector, which employs about 500,000 people living and working in cramped conditions that facilitate the spread of tuberculosis, a disease marching in step with HIV.
Drug resistant TB strains are spreading among miners, who have infection rates about three times higher than the general population, according to South African officials.
The disease is further spread when foreign-born miners - tens of thousands from Lesotho, Swaziland and other neighboring countries working in South Africa's mines - return home.
(Additional reporting by Andrew Quinn; Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during a visit to South Africa that Pretoria will begin taking more of the responsibilities for its HIV/AIDS program, part of a broader effort to overhaul the U.S. global plan for AIDS relief launched under former President George W. Bush.
'South Africa is taking the lead, and I want publicly to commend your minister of health and his associates who are widely being given great admiration around the world for the success of their efforts,' Clinton told a news conference.
The United States limited access to HIV/AIDS funding to the government of former President Thabo Mbeki, whose administration was ridiculed for denying there was a link between HIV and AIDS while prescribing meaningless treatments such as beet root instead of internationally proven medicines.
President Jacob Zuma, who took office in 2009, put policies in line with global research, strengthened campaigns to provide nationwide the anti-retroviral drugs that control HIV and has slowed an infection rate that ranks among the world's highest.
On Wednesday, Clinton is expected to sign a deal to rework South Africa's programs under what is known as 'The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief' (PEPFAR), allowing the government to better use the funding in its fight against the virus.
U.S. officials said South Africa will be the first PEPFAR country to begin to 'nationalize' its program, but others would be expected to follow as their capacities increase and the United States seeks to more effectively target its overseas assistance in an atmosphere of budget austerity at home.
The United States has spent $3.2 billion since 2004 on anti-AIDS programs in South Africa, where 5.7 million people are infected - or close to 18 percent of the adult population.
It has budgeted $460 million for South Africa under PEPFAR in 2013, but U.S. officials say that amount is expected to gradually drop in the coming five years.
'South Africa over the next decade will be committing more of its own public health funds to deal with people with HIV,' a senior U.S. official travelling with Clinton's party said.
South Africa says about 1.7 million are now on treatment and the rate of mother-to-child transmission has dropped from 8 percent in 2008 to 2.7 per cent in 2011.
But complicating the situation is a high incidence of HIV/AIDS among workers in the mining sector, which employs about 500,000 people living and working in cramped conditions that facilitate the spread of tuberculosis, a disease marching in step with HIV.
Drug resistant TB strains are spreading among miners, who have infection rates about three times higher than the general population, according to South African officials.
The disease is further spread when foreign-born miners - tens of thousands from Lesotho, Swaziland and other neighboring countries working in South Africa's mines - return home.
(Additional reporting by Andrew Quinn; Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
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Insight: African alcohol binge raises pressure for crackdown
WORCESTER, South Africa (Reuters) - On a bitterly cold Saturday afternoon in Worcester, a forlorn rural community near South Africa's southern tip, the queue at the liquor store is the longest in town.
It's a scene constantly repeated across South Africa and a number of other nations on the continent: the prelude to a weekend of binge drinking.
After years of turning a blind eye to alcohol abuse, politicians from South Africa to Kenya and Zambia are under pressure to tackle a problem that is adding to Africa's burden of HIV, birth defects, road accidents and violent crime.
Africa has the world's highest proportion of binge drinkers, even though its large populations of Muslims and evangelical Christians generally abstain from alcohol. As incomes rise, it has become a boom market for international brewers and distillers whose sales are often flagging in the wealthy world.
'It's true that most people in Africa don't drink for cultural, religious and economic reasons but those who drink, drink a lot,' said Dr Vladimir Poznyak of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Geneva.
If governments finally crack down effectively, companies such as SABMiller, Diageo Plc and Heineken NV may find Africa no longer allows the spectacular sales growth they have achieved there in recent years.
The drinks firms say Africans are better off consuming their products than popular but sometimes lethal home concoctions.
However, the effects in Worcester of drinkers rapidly consuming dangerous - sometimes even fatal - quantities of alcohol are obvious. The liquor store queue snakes past a drunken man crumpled on the ground in a pool of vomit and in the evening drinkers cram into Worcester's numerous run-down bars.
'They drink and drink and drink. They don't stop when it is necessary to stop drinking liquor,' said Berita Jones, a police captain in the town of about 130,000.
'Worcester's crime is almost entirely alcohol-related,' said Jones, whose time is spent checking that its 166 licensed bars outlets comply with the law, and making regular raids of its more than 300 shebeens, or informal taverns.
UNQUENCHABLE THIRST
Home to some of the world's fastest growing economies, Africa's thirst for beer and spirits is almost unquenchable: analysts estimate beer volumes rose around 7 percent last year. Excluding the mature South African market, growth reached more than 10 percent.
Drinks companies want to keep up the momentum. SABMiller is investing up to $2.5 billion over the next five years to build and renovate breweries on the continent. Rival Diageo's African sales have risen by an average 15 percent in each of the last five years, and now account for 14 percent of the group's total.
But some public health officials say regulation of alcohol consumption and education about its abuse have failed to keep pace. 'In parallel to this increase in commercial alcohol availability, the infrastructure and regulation for effective alcohol control have no strong tradition in many African countries,' said Poznyak.
NEW LAWS
On average an African drinks about 6.15 liters of pure alcohol each year, about half of what a European consumes. However, more than 25 percent of Africans are binge drinkers, the highest proportion in the world, according to a WHO report.
Most African countries already have laws that prohibit underage drinking and drink driving, but critics say these are poorly enforced and often completely ignored.
South Africa is crafting a new law to restrict alcohol advertising, raise the minimum drinking age to 21 from 18 and get tougher on drink driving, Minister of Social Development Bathabile Dlamini has said.
The bill would also propose warning labels on alcohol containers, raising taxes and stricter licensing laws for alcohol outlets, said a government official who declined to be identified because the bill has not yet been made public.
The bill will be discussed in South Africa's cabinet in the next few weeks before its release for public comment, the official said.
In Kenya authorities are also looking to raise the legal drinking age to 21 from 18, following on from a 2010 law that banned alcohol sales in grocery stores and in bars before 5 p.m.
The Mututho law, named after the legislator who crafted it, John Mututho, is credited for a 90 percent drop in alcohol-related deaths in Kenya.
'Even when we say we have succeeded up to that level, we are also saying we have failed 10 percent, so the age of drinking will be 21. We are amending the law,' Mututho said.
Earlier this year, Zambia banned the manufacture and sale of spirits in relatively cheap small plastic sachets, which it blamed for increasing alcohol abuse by young people. Zambia's health department secretary told Reuters that alcohol-related road accidents and health problems are increasingly a concern.
In Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation and a huge beer market, alcohol regulation does exist but critics say it is loosely enforced.
Adeline Osakwe, deputy director at the Nigeria Food and Drug Administration, said the country ensures consumers are aware of alcohol content through product labeling. It also regulates alcohol advertising.
'For TV commercials, as long as it will not lead people to abuse alcohol, we give approvals,' Osakwe said.
HOME-BREW TO HEINEKEN
For years poor Africans were limited to home-brew sorghum or maize beer, sometimes made with dangerous ingredients such as battery acid to increase the potency.
Commercial alcohol is now widely available in most African states and premium brands such as Johnny Walker whisky or Heineken beer are increasingly in reach of the average drinker.
Rising incomes have also encouraged conspicuous consumption of premium brands. Even in Worcester's gritty nightclubs, some tables are weighed down by bottles of pricey spirits such Scotch whiskies Chivas Regal and Glenfiddich.
Drinks companies say commercially produced alcohol is safer than home-brews. 'The alternative is that lower income people who wish to consume liquor will buy illicit and potentially dangerous alcohol,' said Vincent Maphai, executive director of Corporate Affairs at SABMiller's South African unit.
SABMiller is already offering lower priced beer in order to win over drinkers from the home-brew market, which it says is about four times the $11 billion commercial market.
Higher alcohol taxes, which the South African bill is likely to impose, risk of pushing the poor back to potentially lethal home-brews. Nevertheless, public health officials say governments need to do more to warn about the dangers of alcohol abuse.
BIRTH DEFECTS
Even several months into pregnancy, Johannesburg resident Martha regularly drank until she passed out. She never worried about the effect until her son was born with a hole in his heart. 'I would have stopped if I knew that it would harm my baby like this,' said Martha, who declined to give her family name.
Her son, now 12 years old, was diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome, an incurable birth defect that has left him with the brain and body of a four-year old.
South Africa has the highest reported number of children with such birth defects: about 122 out of every 1,000 are born with the syndrome, compared with about 8 per 1,000 in the United States, according to South Africa's Foundation for Alcohol Related Research.
But experts say many Africans, like Martha, don't get proper education about the dangers of alcohol, especially in rural areas where access to hospitals and clinics is limited.
Alcohol also heightens the danger on a continent where driving is already perilous. Kenya's Kenyatta National Hospital treats up to 40 victims of road accidents, mostly caused by drunk drivers and pedestrians, on some Saturday nights.
But with little to do beyond drinking for entertainment in many parts of rural Africa, health officials face a tough battle.
'In spite of all economic benefits that increased investments in alcohol production and sales can bring, the health of the population should be properly protected and this should be a priority,' the WHO's Poznyak said. 'Health is the best investment, also from an economic point of view, in any society.' ($1 = 0.6401 British pounds)
(Additional reporting by Duncan Miriri in Nairobi, Chris Mfula in Lusaka, Chijioke Ohuocha in Lagos; editing by David Dolan and David Stamp)
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It's a scene constantly repeated across South Africa and a number of other nations on the continent: the prelude to a weekend of binge drinking.
After years of turning a blind eye to alcohol abuse, politicians from South Africa to Kenya and Zambia are under pressure to tackle a problem that is adding to Africa's burden of HIV, birth defects, road accidents and violent crime.
Africa has the world's highest proportion of binge drinkers, even though its large populations of Muslims and evangelical Christians generally abstain from alcohol. As incomes rise, it has become a boom market for international brewers and distillers whose sales are often flagging in the wealthy world.
'It's true that most people in Africa don't drink for cultural, religious and economic reasons but those who drink, drink a lot,' said Dr Vladimir Poznyak of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Geneva.
If governments finally crack down effectively, companies such as SABMiller, Diageo Plc and Heineken NV may find Africa no longer allows the spectacular sales growth they have achieved there in recent years.
The drinks firms say Africans are better off consuming their products than popular but sometimes lethal home concoctions.
However, the effects in Worcester of drinkers rapidly consuming dangerous - sometimes even fatal - quantities of alcohol are obvious. The liquor store queue snakes past a drunken man crumpled on the ground in a pool of vomit and in the evening drinkers cram into Worcester's numerous run-down bars.
'They drink and drink and drink. They don't stop when it is necessary to stop drinking liquor,' said Berita Jones, a police captain in the town of about 130,000.
'Worcester's crime is almost entirely alcohol-related,' said Jones, whose time is spent checking that its 166 licensed bars outlets comply with the law, and making regular raids of its more than 300 shebeens, or informal taverns.
UNQUENCHABLE THIRST
Home to some of the world's fastest growing economies, Africa's thirst for beer and spirits is almost unquenchable: analysts estimate beer volumes rose around 7 percent last year. Excluding the mature South African market, growth reached more than 10 percent.
Drinks companies want to keep up the momentum. SABMiller is investing up to $2.5 billion over the next five years to build and renovate breweries on the continent. Rival Diageo's African sales have risen by an average 15 percent in each of the last five years, and now account for 14 percent of the group's total.
But some public health officials say regulation of alcohol consumption and education about its abuse have failed to keep pace. 'In parallel to this increase in commercial alcohol availability, the infrastructure and regulation for effective alcohol control have no strong tradition in many African countries,' said Poznyak.
NEW LAWS
On average an African drinks about 6.15 liters of pure alcohol each year, about half of what a European consumes. However, more than 25 percent of Africans are binge drinkers, the highest proportion in the world, according to a WHO report.
Most African countries already have laws that prohibit underage drinking and drink driving, but critics say these are poorly enforced and often completely ignored.
South Africa is crafting a new law to restrict alcohol advertising, raise the minimum drinking age to 21 from 18 and get tougher on drink driving, Minister of Social Development Bathabile Dlamini has said.
The bill would also propose warning labels on alcohol containers, raising taxes and stricter licensing laws for alcohol outlets, said a government official who declined to be identified because the bill has not yet been made public.
The bill will be discussed in South Africa's cabinet in the next few weeks before its release for public comment, the official said.
In Kenya authorities are also looking to raise the legal drinking age to 21 from 18, following on from a 2010 law that banned alcohol sales in grocery stores and in bars before 5 p.m.
The Mututho law, named after the legislator who crafted it, John Mututho, is credited for a 90 percent drop in alcohol-related deaths in Kenya.
'Even when we say we have succeeded up to that level, we are also saying we have failed 10 percent, so the age of drinking will be 21. We are amending the law,' Mututho said.
Earlier this year, Zambia banned the manufacture and sale of spirits in relatively cheap small plastic sachets, which it blamed for increasing alcohol abuse by young people. Zambia's health department secretary told Reuters that alcohol-related road accidents and health problems are increasingly a concern.
In Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation and a huge beer market, alcohol regulation does exist but critics say it is loosely enforced.
Adeline Osakwe, deputy director at the Nigeria Food and Drug Administration, said the country ensures consumers are aware of alcohol content through product labeling. It also regulates alcohol advertising.
'For TV commercials, as long as it will not lead people to abuse alcohol, we give approvals,' Osakwe said.
HOME-BREW TO HEINEKEN
For years poor Africans were limited to home-brew sorghum or maize beer, sometimes made with dangerous ingredients such as battery acid to increase the potency.
Commercial alcohol is now widely available in most African states and premium brands such as Johnny Walker whisky or Heineken beer are increasingly in reach of the average drinker.
Rising incomes have also encouraged conspicuous consumption of premium brands. Even in Worcester's gritty nightclubs, some tables are weighed down by bottles of pricey spirits such Scotch whiskies Chivas Regal and Glenfiddich.
Drinks companies say commercially produced alcohol is safer than home-brews. 'The alternative is that lower income people who wish to consume liquor will buy illicit and potentially dangerous alcohol,' said Vincent Maphai, executive director of Corporate Affairs at SABMiller's South African unit.
SABMiller is already offering lower priced beer in order to win over drinkers from the home-brew market, which it says is about four times the $11 billion commercial market.
Higher alcohol taxes, which the South African bill is likely to impose, risk of pushing the poor back to potentially lethal home-brews. Nevertheless, public health officials say governments need to do more to warn about the dangers of alcohol abuse.
BIRTH DEFECTS
Even several months into pregnancy, Johannesburg resident Martha regularly drank until she passed out. She never worried about the effect until her son was born with a hole in his heart. 'I would have stopped if I knew that it would harm my baby like this,' said Martha, who declined to give her family name.
Her son, now 12 years old, was diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome, an incurable birth defect that has left him with the brain and body of a four-year old.
South Africa has the highest reported number of children with such birth defects: about 122 out of every 1,000 are born with the syndrome, compared with about 8 per 1,000 in the United States, according to South Africa's Foundation for Alcohol Related Research.
But experts say many Africans, like Martha, don't get proper education about the dangers of alcohol, especially in rural areas where access to hospitals and clinics is limited.
Alcohol also heightens the danger on a continent where driving is already perilous. Kenya's Kenyatta National Hospital treats up to 40 victims of road accidents, mostly caused by drunk drivers and pedestrians, on some Saturday nights.
But with little to do beyond drinking for entertainment in many parts of rural Africa, health officials face a tough battle.
'In spite of all economic benefits that increased investments in alcohol production and sales can bring, the health of the population should be properly protected and this should be a priority,' the WHO's Poznyak said. 'Health is the best investment, also from an economic point of view, in any society.' ($1 = 0.6401 British pounds)
(Additional reporting by Duncan Miriri in Nairobi, Chris Mfula in Lusaka, Chijioke Ohuocha in Lagos; editing by David Dolan and David Stamp)
This news article is brought to you by MOVIE CRITIC NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
Kangaroo condoms get a hop on London organizers
LONDON (Reuters) - London Olympic organizers are investigating how a bucket of Australian-tagged condoms found its way into the athletes' village without official consent.
Australian BMX cyclist Caroline Buchanan tweeted a photograph from the athletes' village of a container of condoms with a placard reading 'Kangaroos condoms, for the gland downunder' with the picture of a boxing kangaroo.
She joked that the container seemed to back up rumors that the athletes' village becomes a hot bed of activity as thousands of competitors complete their events and celebrate after years of working to get to the Olympics.
'Haha, the rumors are true. Olympic village,' tweeted Buchanan, whose BMX contest starts on Wednesday.
Barcelona started the trend of supplying free condoms to athletes when the Spanish city held the Olympics in 1992, with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) endorsing the move to help AIDS awareness and prevention. The handouts came with health information.
The London Olympic organizers, LOCOG, have provided 150,000 free condoms in dispensers for the 10,800 athletes at the Games. They are supplied by Durex, part of British consumer goods group Reckitt Benckiser, which paid for the supply rights.
A LOCOG spokeswoman said they were trying to find out who distributed the so-called Kangaroo condoms, with the container shown to hold condoms from Durex rivals Ansell Ltd, an Australian company and Pasante, a private British company.
She said athletes and officials were allowed to bring products into the village for their personal use.
'We will look into this and ask that they are not handed out to other athletes because Durex are our supplier,' said the spokeswoman.
Organizers tightly control which brands can be promoted at the Games, striking sponsorship deals with a limited number of companies and trying to stop non-sponsors from getting free publicity on the back of the Olympics.
A spokeswoman for Ansell said her company knew nothing about the issue and it could well be a prank.
'We have had no official participation or association with the Olympics at all,' she said.
Lawrence Boon, managing director of Pasante, said his company had no involvement with the distribution of condoms in the athletes' village and he suspected it was a prank by the Australian team.
'We have no association with the Olympics but we did launch a gold condom this year for champions,' said Boon.
'With such high teenage pregnancy and STD rates, we try to make people carry condoms by making them fun and interesting.'
A Durex spokeswoman said Durex was 'proud to be supplying free condoms for the Olympics Games' but declined to elaborate further.
The number of condoms supplied at London tops the 100,000 made available to athletes in Beijing four years ago.
In Sydney in 2000, organizers took delight in having to order 20,000 more condoms after the initial allocation of 70,000 ran out.
(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith)
This news article is brought to you by DATING AND RELATIONSHIP ADVICE - where latest news are our top priority.
Australian BMX cyclist Caroline Buchanan tweeted a photograph from the athletes' village of a container of condoms with a placard reading 'Kangaroos condoms, for the gland downunder' with the picture of a boxing kangaroo.
She joked that the container seemed to back up rumors that the athletes' village becomes a hot bed of activity as thousands of competitors complete their events and celebrate after years of working to get to the Olympics.
'Haha, the rumors are true. Olympic village,' tweeted Buchanan, whose BMX contest starts on Wednesday.
Barcelona started the trend of supplying free condoms to athletes when the Spanish city held the Olympics in 1992, with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) endorsing the move to help AIDS awareness and prevention. The handouts came with health information.
The London Olympic organizers, LOCOG, have provided 150,000 free condoms in dispensers for the 10,800 athletes at the Games. They are supplied by Durex, part of British consumer goods group Reckitt Benckiser, which paid for the supply rights.
A LOCOG spokeswoman said they were trying to find out who distributed the so-called Kangaroo condoms, with the container shown to hold condoms from Durex rivals Ansell Ltd, an Australian company and Pasante, a private British company.
She said athletes and officials were allowed to bring products into the village for their personal use.
'We will look into this and ask that they are not handed out to other athletes because Durex are our supplier,' said the spokeswoman.
Organizers tightly control which brands can be promoted at the Games, striking sponsorship deals with a limited number of companies and trying to stop non-sponsors from getting free publicity on the back of the Olympics.
A spokeswoman for Ansell said her company knew nothing about the issue and it could well be a prank.
'We have had no official participation or association with the Olympics at all,' she said.
Lawrence Boon, managing director of Pasante, said his company had no involvement with the distribution of condoms in the athletes' village and he suspected it was a prank by the Australian team.
'We have no association with the Olympics but we did launch a gold condom this year for champions,' said Boon.
'With such high teenage pregnancy and STD rates, we try to make people carry condoms by making them fun and interesting.'
A Durex spokeswoman said Durex was 'proud to be supplying free condoms for the Olympics Games' but declined to elaborate further.
The number of condoms supplied at London tops the 100,000 made available to athletes in Beijing four years ago.
In Sydney in 2000, organizers took delight in having to order 20,000 more condoms after the initial allocation of 70,000 ran out.
(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith)
This news article is brought to you by DATING AND RELATIONSHIP ADVICE - where latest news are our top priority.
Boy eyes offer after Pa. school changes HIV policy
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - A 9th-grader from the Philadelphia area was considering an admissions offer by a private boarding school after it announced a new policy to treat HIV-positive applicants the same as others.
A lawyer for the boy, whose pending lawsuit against the Milton Hershey School alleges violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, said Monday he was considering the offer.
School president Anthony Colistra issued a statement that defended the school's previous decisions regarding the HIV-positive teenager, using the same pseudonym for him as does his federal lawsuit, Abraham Smith. He said the admissions offer, and an apology, were issued to him last month.
'Although we believed that our decisions regarding Abraham Smith's application were appropriate, we acknowledge that the application of federal law to our unique residential setting was a novel and difficult issue,' Colistra said. 'The U.S. Department of Justice recently advised us that it disagrees with how we evaluated the risks and applied the law. We have decided to accept this guidance.'
The boy's lawyer, Ronda Goldfein, said the school's actions did not end the lawsuit, and that the offer of admission for the coming year was being assessed by her client.
'We're certainly delighted that the school understands their obligations under the law and intends to follow them,' Goldfein said. 'This case is not settled. This is one very important piece of it.'
The most recent activity in the lawsuit, filed late last year in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, occurred last week when the judge scheduled a pretrial conference for September.
'We couldn't be happier that they're doing the right thing, but if you turn a blind eye to a law, you're responsible for the harm caused while you were turning that blind eye,' Goldfein said.
Colistra said the private boarding school also is developing training on HIV-related issues for its employees and students.
In Washington, Justice Department spokeswoman Nanda Chitre welcomed the school's decision and noted that federal law protects people with HIV from discrimination.
Milton Hershey School officials previously said the boy was denied admission because a chronic communicable disease would pose a threat to the health and safety of the students.
The school for lower income and socially disadvantaged students is financed by a trust that holds the controlling interest in candy manufacturing giant The Hershey Co.
___
Associated Press writer Frederic J. Frommer in Washington contributed to this report.
This news article is brought to you by TECHNOLOGY NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
A lawyer for the boy, whose pending lawsuit against the Milton Hershey School alleges violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, said Monday he was considering the offer.
School president Anthony Colistra issued a statement that defended the school's previous decisions regarding the HIV-positive teenager, using the same pseudonym for him as does his federal lawsuit, Abraham Smith. He said the admissions offer, and an apology, were issued to him last month.
'Although we believed that our decisions regarding Abraham Smith's application were appropriate, we acknowledge that the application of federal law to our unique residential setting was a novel and difficult issue,' Colistra said. 'The U.S. Department of Justice recently advised us that it disagrees with how we evaluated the risks and applied the law. We have decided to accept this guidance.'
The boy's lawyer, Ronda Goldfein, said the school's actions did not end the lawsuit, and that the offer of admission for the coming year was being assessed by her client.
'We're certainly delighted that the school understands their obligations under the law and intends to follow them,' Goldfein said. 'This case is not settled. This is one very important piece of it.'
The most recent activity in the lawsuit, filed late last year in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, occurred last week when the judge scheduled a pretrial conference for September.
'We couldn't be happier that they're doing the right thing, but if you turn a blind eye to a law, you're responsible for the harm caused while you were turning that blind eye,' Goldfein said.
Colistra said the private boarding school also is developing training on HIV-related issues for its employees and students.
In Washington, Justice Department spokeswoman Nanda Chitre welcomed the school's decision and noted that federal law protects people with HIV from discrimination.
Milton Hershey School officials previously said the boy was denied admission because a chronic communicable disease would pose a threat to the health and safety of the students.
The school for lower income and socially disadvantaged students is financed by a trust that holds the controlling interest in candy manufacturing giant The Hershey Co.
___
Associated Press writer Frederic J. Frommer in Washington contributed to this report.
This news article is brought to you by TECHNOLOGY NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
Monday, August 6, 2012
Malawi to test 250,000 people for HIV in one week
Malawi on Monday launched a week-long campaign to test 250,000 people for HIV in what health authorities called a crucial intervention in a country ravaged by AIDS.
People will take tests in 810 sites in the southern African nation's 28 districts.
The week would give Malawians 'a chance to access anti-retroviral therapy if found HIV positive,' said deputy health minister Halima Daudi at the launch in tourist town Mangochi at the southern tip of Lake Malawi, a region with high infection rates.
'The campaign is being launched on a broad and large scale to allow all Malawians to know their status and become eligible to benefit from rapidly expanding opportunities for prevention, treatment, care and support services,' she said.
Daudi took HIV tests together with other politicians at the launch, which will especially target youth who make up half the population.
One in ten of the 14 million Malawians are infected with HIV, and officials say over 60,000 people are infected every month.
The country has so far enrolled 300,000 people for free AIDS drugs, up from 5,000 in 2004.
This news article is brought to you by GAMING NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
People will take tests in 810 sites in the southern African nation's 28 districts.
The week would give Malawians 'a chance to access anti-retroviral therapy if found HIV positive,' said deputy health minister Halima Daudi at the launch in tourist town Mangochi at the southern tip of Lake Malawi, a region with high infection rates.
'The campaign is being launched on a broad and large scale to allow all Malawians to know their status and become eligible to benefit from rapidly expanding opportunities for prevention, treatment, care and support services,' she said.
Daudi took HIV tests together with other politicians at the launch, which will especially target youth who make up half the population.
One in ten of the 14 million Malawians are infected with HIV, and officials say over 60,000 people are infected every month.
The country has so far enrolled 300,000 people for free AIDS drugs, up from 5,000 in 2004.
This news article is brought to you by GAMING NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
Friday, August 3, 2012
How Elton John redeemed self from 'disgusting' past
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than 20 years ago singer-songwriter Elton John was, by his own admission, living a disgusting life of self-pity and drug abuse. Then he met Ryan White.
White was an American teenager who in 1984 contracted the virus that causes AIDS through a blood transfusion due to his hemophilia. He was expelled from school because of fear of the disease and became a vocal advocate of HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention.
White died in April 1990 at the age of 18, but not before he had blazed a trail that would change the lives of thousands of people, and thousands more who came after his death, including the star piano player who befriended him.
'I used to sit in front of my CD player and listen ... and cry my eyes out, thinking, 'I'm a decent person, why can't I get well? Why can't I get better? I'm living the most disgusting life, I've no values anymore,'' John told Reuters in a recent interview.
'(Now), I'm the luckiest person in the world and it's all because one young boy and his family showed me what they were doing was right and what I was doing was disgusting.'
John recently published his first book, 'Love Is the Cure: On Life, Loss, and the End of AIDS,' which is less autobiography and more an accounting of how far society and medicine have come in dealing with the disease and how far they still have to go.
But the book does recount details of the 65-year-old performer's own life and his addiction to cocaine and alcohol. He said the overall theme is of salvation -- his, as well as that of others whose worlds can be changed with a little compassion.
John has recorded mega-hits like 'Candle in the Wind,' won Grammys, an Oscar and a Tony. But he said White, his mother and sister had a more profound impact on him than musical glory.
NO SELF-ESTEEM
When he first met the Whites, John saw a group of people who should be angry because Ryan White had been ostracized for contracting the disease through a blood transfusion. Yet the teen and his family were just the opposite, giving their time and energy to help others with the disease.
'What was completely chiseled in my soul, was: 'You're leading a terrible life. You are a disgusting person,'' John said of himself. 'I had no self-esteem whatsoever. I looked at Ryan; I looked at me, and the difference was a billion miles.'
So John changed. By his own admission, he got clean and sober and has now been in a 19-year relationship with partner David Furnish, with whom he is raising a son, while continuing to perform around the world.
The British singer also became a vocal advocate for AIDS victims. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Elton John AIDS Foundation, which has raised and donated $275 million to hundreds of projects focusing on those at risk and marginalized in 55 countries.
John was a featured speaker at last month's International AIDS Conference in Washington, where researchers sounded hopeful that a vaccine was within reach.
Thanks to drugs that can control the virus, healthcare providers and people living with AIDS are better-equipped to battle the disease. New infections have fallen by 21 percent since the pandemic's peak in 1997 and advances in prevention promise to cut that rate even more. Still, as many as 34 million people worldwide are infected with the human immunodeficiency virus.
John is quick to say he does not know much about the science or research into HIV/AIDS. What he does know is how it affects people who continue to be stigmatized by it, and how becoming involved helped to redeem him.
'I could drop dead tomorrow and I would die a happy man because I have had my redemption. I can be proud of myself now, and God knows I wasn't in the past, and that's the terrible thing about addiction,' he said.
'Three words changed my life: 'I need help.' ... There are some things in life that you cannot do on your own. It's much better to share and to reach out. I learned that lesson,' John said.
(Writing by Bob Tourtellotte; editing by Matthew Lewis)
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIPS ADVICE.
White was an American teenager who in 1984 contracted the virus that causes AIDS through a blood transfusion due to his hemophilia. He was expelled from school because of fear of the disease and became a vocal advocate of HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention.
White died in April 1990 at the age of 18, but not before he had blazed a trail that would change the lives of thousands of people, and thousands more who came after his death, including the star piano player who befriended him.
'I used to sit in front of my CD player and listen ... and cry my eyes out, thinking, 'I'm a decent person, why can't I get well? Why can't I get better? I'm living the most disgusting life, I've no values anymore,'' John told Reuters in a recent interview.
'(Now), I'm the luckiest person in the world and it's all because one young boy and his family showed me what they were doing was right and what I was doing was disgusting.'
John recently published his first book, 'Love Is the Cure: On Life, Loss, and the End of AIDS,' which is less autobiography and more an accounting of how far society and medicine have come in dealing with the disease and how far they still have to go.
But the book does recount details of the 65-year-old performer's own life and his addiction to cocaine and alcohol. He said the overall theme is of salvation -- his, as well as that of others whose worlds can be changed with a little compassion.
John has recorded mega-hits like 'Candle in the Wind,' won Grammys, an Oscar and a Tony. But he said White, his mother and sister had a more profound impact on him than musical glory.
NO SELF-ESTEEM
When he first met the Whites, John saw a group of people who should be angry because Ryan White had been ostracized for contracting the disease through a blood transfusion. Yet the teen and his family were just the opposite, giving their time and energy to help others with the disease.
'What was completely chiseled in my soul, was: 'You're leading a terrible life. You are a disgusting person,'' John said of himself. 'I had no self-esteem whatsoever. I looked at Ryan; I looked at me, and the difference was a billion miles.'
So John changed. By his own admission, he got clean and sober and has now been in a 19-year relationship with partner David Furnish, with whom he is raising a son, while continuing to perform around the world.
The British singer also became a vocal advocate for AIDS victims. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Elton John AIDS Foundation, which has raised and donated $275 million to hundreds of projects focusing on those at risk and marginalized in 55 countries.
John was a featured speaker at last month's International AIDS Conference in Washington, where researchers sounded hopeful that a vaccine was within reach.
Thanks to drugs that can control the virus, healthcare providers and people living with AIDS are better-equipped to battle the disease. New infections have fallen by 21 percent since the pandemic's peak in 1997 and advances in prevention promise to cut that rate even more. Still, as many as 34 million people worldwide are infected with the human immunodeficiency virus.
John is quick to say he does not know much about the science or research into HIV/AIDS. What he does know is how it affects people who continue to be stigmatized by it, and how becoming involved helped to redeem him.
'I could drop dead tomorrow and I would die a happy man because I have had my redemption. I can be proud of myself now, and God knows I wasn't in the past, and that's the terrible thing about addiction,' he said.
'Three words changed my life: 'I need help.' ... There are some things in life that you cannot do on your own. It's much better to share and to reach out. I learned that lesson,' John said.
(Writing by Bob Tourtellotte; editing by Matthew Lewis)
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIPS ADVICE.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
More U.S. women choosing IUDs for birth control: study
(Reuters) - A growing number of U.S. women appear to be opting for intrauterine devices (IUDs) as their birth control method, with the number more than doubling in just two years in one study.
Researchers, whose findings were published in the journal Fertility & Sterility, said this is good news, since IUDs and contraceptive implants are the most effective forms of reversible birth control.
But in the United States they are still far from popular, with use lagging well behind birth control pills and condoms.
The study found that in 2009, 8.5 percent of U.S. women using birth control chose an IUD or implant, with the large majority going with the IUD. That was up from just under four percent in 2007.
'We saw some pretty notable growth,' said lead researcher Lawrence B. Finer of the Guttmacher Institute in New York, a sexual and productive health organization.
In France and Norway, about one-quarter of women on birth control use IUDs or implants, and in China 41 percent, Finer's team said.
When IUDs first came out, there were concerns - later disproved - that they might raise the risk of pelvic infection and jeopardize women's future fertility. Some doctors in the United States still harbor misconceptions about their safety.
It's not clear what's behind the shift, but a combination of factors are likely at play, Finer told Reuters Health.
One is that medical societies, like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), have endorsed IUDs and implants. Another is that advertisements have probably increased women's awareness of IUDs.
The devices are 'substantially' more effective than the pill or condoms because they do not rely on perfect use, Finer said.
With IUDs, it's estimated that between 0.2 percent and 0.8 percent of women will have an unplanned pregnancy within a year. The rate is just 0.05 percent with a contraceptive implant.
In contrast, the Pill and condoms must be used perfectly to be most effective. With the way people use them, though, the unintended pregnancy rate is about nine percent per year.
With condoms alone, it's between 18 and 21 percent.
Noting that with many couples now putting off having children until their 30s, Finer said more women may want to consider longer-acting birth control.
'Childbearing has shifted to later years. So it makes sense to think long-term,' he added. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/MRSbZO
(Reporting from New York by Amy Norton; Editing by Elaine Lies and Michael Perry)
This news article is brought to you by MOVIE GOSSIP NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
Researchers, whose findings were published in the journal Fertility & Sterility, said this is good news, since IUDs and contraceptive implants are the most effective forms of reversible birth control.
But in the United States they are still far from popular, with use lagging well behind birth control pills and condoms.
The study found that in 2009, 8.5 percent of U.S. women using birth control chose an IUD or implant, with the large majority going with the IUD. That was up from just under four percent in 2007.
'We saw some pretty notable growth,' said lead researcher Lawrence B. Finer of the Guttmacher Institute in New York, a sexual and productive health organization.
In France and Norway, about one-quarter of women on birth control use IUDs or implants, and in China 41 percent, Finer's team said.
When IUDs first came out, there were concerns - later disproved - that they might raise the risk of pelvic infection and jeopardize women's future fertility. Some doctors in the United States still harbor misconceptions about their safety.
It's not clear what's behind the shift, but a combination of factors are likely at play, Finer told Reuters Health.
One is that medical societies, like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), have endorsed IUDs and implants. Another is that advertisements have probably increased women's awareness of IUDs.
The devices are 'substantially' more effective than the pill or condoms because they do not rely on perfect use, Finer said.
With IUDs, it's estimated that between 0.2 percent and 0.8 percent of women will have an unplanned pregnancy within a year. The rate is just 0.05 percent with a contraceptive implant.
In contrast, the Pill and condoms must be used perfectly to be most effective. With the way people use them, though, the unintended pregnancy rate is about nine percent per year.
With condoms alone, it's between 18 and 21 percent.
Noting that with many couples now putting off having children until their 30s, Finer said more women may want to consider longer-acting birth control.
'Childbearing has shifted to later years. So it makes sense to think long-term,' he added. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/MRSbZO
(Reporting from New York by Amy Norton; Editing by Elaine Lies and Michael Perry)
This news article is brought to you by MOVIE GOSSIP NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
Health Department Reports Positive Tests in Dental Practice Investigation
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reported on Wednesday, Aug. 1, that three past patients of Dr. Stephen Stein have tested positive for either HIV, hepatitis B and/or hepatitis C. Here are the details.
* According to a July 12 CDPHE press release, patients who received intravenous medications including sedation under the care of Stein, a dentist with practices in Highlands Ranch and Denver, between September 1999 to June 2011 were asked to be tested for HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C.
* The request for testing came after an investigation by the department revealed that Stein was reusing syringes and needles used to inject medications through patients' IV lines during oral and facial surgery procedures. The needles and syringes were often used for days at a time, CDPHE reported.
* According to CDPHE, the reuse of injection needles has been shown to transmit infections.
* Stein Oral and Facial Surgery was closed in June 2011. Stein is currently not practicing.
* Patients who were previously treated by Stein and tested in mid-July for infections were asked to report positive tests to their county health department or to the state health department.
* According to a July 16 report by Denver's 9News, 8,000 former patients of Stein received letters or were notified through the media of the need to get tested, and hundreds called a state hotline within a matter of days in order to schedule those tests.
* 9News reported that a new syringe and needle costs about 20 cents. If a doctor were to re-use the same needle on 8,000 patients, it would save him about $1,600.
* The Center for Disease Control stated that the risk of getting HIV from a needle with HIV positive blood in it is 0.3 percent, 9News reported.
* The CDPHE's Aug. 1 press release states that the department has identified three people who tested positive for one of the listed infections. Due to patient confidentiality, the type of infections were not revealed.
* The positive tests do not mean that the results are linked to Stein's dental practice, the CDPHE explained. The potential for infections from other sources makes it impossible to determine whether the virus is due to the unsafe injection practices which took place at Stein's office.
* According to the CDPHE's literature on the matter of unsafe injection practices, more than 125,000 people in the U.S. were told to get tested for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV due to the reuse of syringes.
This article is brought to you by DATING ADVICE.
* According to a July 12 CDPHE press release, patients who received intravenous medications including sedation under the care of Stein, a dentist with practices in Highlands Ranch and Denver, between September 1999 to June 2011 were asked to be tested for HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C.
* The request for testing came after an investigation by the department revealed that Stein was reusing syringes and needles used to inject medications through patients' IV lines during oral and facial surgery procedures. The needles and syringes were often used for days at a time, CDPHE reported.
* According to CDPHE, the reuse of injection needles has been shown to transmit infections.
* Stein Oral and Facial Surgery was closed in June 2011. Stein is currently not practicing.
* Patients who were previously treated by Stein and tested in mid-July for infections were asked to report positive tests to their county health department or to the state health department.
* According to a July 16 report by Denver's 9News, 8,000 former patients of Stein received letters or were notified through the media of the need to get tested, and hundreds called a state hotline within a matter of days in order to schedule those tests.
* 9News reported that a new syringe and needle costs about 20 cents. If a doctor were to re-use the same needle on 8,000 patients, it would save him about $1,600.
* The Center for Disease Control stated that the risk of getting HIV from a needle with HIV positive blood in it is 0.3 percent, 9News reported.
* The CDPHE's Aug. 1 press release states that the department has identified three people who tested positive for one of the listed infections. Due to patient confidentiality, the type of infections were not revealed.
* The positive tests do not mean that the results are linked to Stein's dental practice, the CDPHE explained. The potential for infections from other sources makes it impossible to determine whether the virus is due to the unsafe injection practices which took place at Stein's office.
* According to the CDPHE's literature on the matter of unsafe injection practices, more than 125,000 people in the U.S. were told to get tested for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV due to the reuse of syringes.
This article is brought to you by DATING ADVICE.
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