Children Viewing Adult-targeted TV May Become Sexually Active Earlier In Life

Early onset of sexual activity among teens may relate to the amount of adult content children were exposed to during their childhood, according to a new study released by Children's Hospital Boston. Based on a longitudinal study tracking children from age six to eighteen, researchers found that the younger children are exposed to content intended for adults in television and movies, the earlier they become sexually active during adolescence. The findings are being presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies meetings on Monday, May 4 in Baltimore.

"Television and movies are among the leading sources of information about sex and relationships for adolescents," says Hernan Delgado, MD, fellow in the Division of Adolescent/Young Adult Medicine at Children's Hospital Boston and lead author of the study. "Our research shows that their sexual attitudes and expectations are influenced much earlier in life."

The study consisted of 754 participants, 365 males and 389 females, who were tracked during two stages in life: first during childhood, and again five years later when their ages ranged from 12 to 18-years-old. At each stage, the television programs and movies viewed, and the amount of time spent watching them over a sample weekday and weekend day were logged. The program titles were used to determine what content was intended for adults. The participants' onset of sexual activity was then tracked during the second stage.

According to the findings, when the youngest children in the sample--ages 6 to 8-years-old--were exposed to adult-targeted television and movies, they were more likely to have sex earlier when compared those who watched less adult-targeted content. The study found that for every hour the youngest group of children watched adult-targeted content over the two sample days, their chances of having sex during early adolescence increased by 33 percent. Meanwhile, the reverse was not found to be true that is, becoming sexually active in adolescence did not subsequently increase youth's viewing of adult-targeted television and movies.

"Adult entertainment often deals with issues and challenges that adults face, including the complexities of sexual relationships. Children have neither the life experience nor the brain development to fully differentiate between a reality they are moving toward and a fiction meant solely to entertain," adds David Bickham, PhD, staff scientist in the Center on Media and Child Health and co-author of the study. "Children learn from media, and when they watch media with sexual references and innuendos, our research suggests they are more likely to engage in sexual activity earlier in life."

The researchers encourage parents to follow current American Academy of Pediatrics viewing guidelines such as no television in the bedroom, no more than 1 to 2 hours of screen time a day, and to co-view television programs and have an open dialogue about its content with your children. They also suggest that--while the results demonstrate a longitudinal relationship--more research needs be done to understand how media influences children's growing awareness of human relationships and sexual behavior.

"Adolescent sexual behaviors may be influenced at a younger age, but this is just one area we studied," adds Dr. Delgado. "We showed how adult media impacts children into adolescence, yet there are a number of other themes in adult television shows and movies, like violence and language, whose influence also needs to be tracked from childhood to adolescence."

Read More

How Do Our Attitudes About Beauty Change As We Age?

What people find beautiful about themselves may be different than what they find appealing in another person. That's just one finding from a recent consumer survey conducted on the BeautyforLife website (a joint venture of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.) Visitors were asked "What aspect of physical beauty do you find most appealing in another person?" In their 20s, 30s, and 40s, respondents look for a fit, well proportioned body; youthful skin ranked at the top for respondents in the 50s and 60s.

When considering "Which part of your body are you most concerned about?" respondents ranked their abdomen/hips number one in their 30s. But surprisingly, respondents listed the face, not their body, as the most popular choice in the 20s, 40s, 50s and 60s. "It is always important to understand what our patients are most concerned about at different stages of their lives. We want to be equipped to help our patients make the right decisions to maintain their beauty at every age-no matter which type of cosmetic medical procedure they are interested in." said ASAPS President Renato Saltz, MD. Additional results were revealed when answering "Which part of your body are you most concerned about?" While respondents primarily chose their face, significantly more respondents are concerned about their abdomen/hips than their breasts (chest)-with the disparity increasing throughout the decades: 1. 30s - 37% chose abdomen/hips as their top concern while only 18% chose breasts 2. 40s - 32% selected abdomen/hips and only 10% breast 3. 50s - 25% chose abdomen/hips compared to 7% breast 4. 60s - 23% indicated concern about their abdomen/hips, while only 7% selected breast Community members were also asked to consider "The most important reason to maintain your physical appearance." "To boost self-confidence" was the top choice across all decades, with "To attract potential partners" a close second for the 20s.

In the 30s and 40s, the second-most popular choice shifted to "To increase professional opportunities," which remained the number two choice in the 50s, but by a much smaller percentage. In the 60s, increasing professional opportunities fell to third behind "To help make friends." "The survey on the BeautyforLife website has provided interesting data about patients' attitudes, motivation and perception. Our goal is to provide useful tools for prospective patients to help them first decide if a cosmetic medicine procedure is right for them and then to provide information on how to choose an appropriate provider," said Dr. Richard D'Amico, past president of ASPS. Another question asked members to contemplate "The most important factor in maintaining beauty." While adherence to a healthy diet, regular exercise and skin care were popular choices, approximately one in five members felt that a cosmetic medical procedure was most important in the 50s and 60s.

This survey was conducted by The American Society of Plastic Surgeons and the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, via their Beauty for Life program-a series of patient education tools, including the interactive website http://www.beautyforlife.com/ -designed to help people look and feel their best throughout their lives. More detailed survey results are available at by contacting the organizations.

Read More

True Tales of Military Medicine: One Sunday in March

Since it’s Veteran’s Day, I thought it would be a good time to share one of my more memorable days in the Air Force Medical Corps. While this story does not deal with battlefield medicine, it does highlight some of the differences between civilian and military medicine.
It was the first Sunday in March. I was deployed to a small air base in the Middle East with the 820th RED HORSE, a group of construction engineers. We were halfway through a six-month deployment designed to improve the local infrastructure and air fields. I was the only physician assigned to RED HORSE (though there was another doc who took care of the rest of the base). I had two excellent medics working under me, and we had been able to keep the injuries and sicknesses to a minimum despite the construction crews working round the clock, seven days a week.
It had been a quiet Sunday morning in the medical tent so far. I was finishing the medical portion of our weekly situation report and thinking about that night’s midnight meal. Sunday was the one night a week the mess hall made waffles. This far from home, good food was always welcome and the waffles they made were unbelievably good. A sudden call over the radio broke my reverie.
“Man down at the checkpoint!” the radio blared. “Trapped under a concrete-”
I grabbed my kit and was out the door before the sentence had finished. The checkpoint was about ¾ of a mile away over desert terrain and I was running full tilt. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a pickup crossing the sand in the same direction. Our vice-commander was driving and heading the same place I was. He slowed down and I jumped in the cab and we sped off to the checkpoint.
Once we got there, the source of the call was clear. A concrete road barrier had fallen over, trapping the entire right leg of John, one of our younger troops. As we arrived, a group of soldiers had managed to lift off the heavy block. A quick exam showed that his leg looked intact though the ankle was clearly pointing in the wrong direction. About this time the ambulance pulled up and Jesse, my senior medic, hopped out. After a second quick exam, we got John splinted, strapped onto a stretcher and loaded in the back of the ambulance. Jesse and I climbed in back with him while the driver got in front and we raced off.
Like many Arab nations, the country where we were stationed had several vastly different levels of hospitals. There were the lower quality hospitals that anyone, national or foreign-national, could visit. Next, there were the military hospitals. They had a much higher quality of care and that’s where we were headed. Finally, there were the elite hospitals only open to the aristocracy. We weren’t allowed to use these except in the direst emergencies, and even then we had to get permission.
The ambulance driver was relatively new at the job, so hadn’t yet realized that pure speed is not always the best choice. As Jesse, John, and I were tossed around the back of the ambulance, I wished that I had had the foresight to bring along some pain medicine for John.
We arrived at the hospital and John was whisked inside. I followed along while Jesse went back to update our commander. John was placed on an exam table and the Emergency Room doctor examined him. He called for x-rays. John was clearly in a great deal of pain, but refused to admit it. It took several doses of morphine before he was able to relax enough to get a good series of x-rays. The films showed quite a bit of damage: a tri-malleolar fracture, comminuted tib/fib fractures and a pelvic fracture. Remarkably, the femur was intact and the pelvis only had the single fracture — which is somewhat unusual.
The Emergency Department care at the local military hospital was good, but not up to American standards. The exam had focused only on the clearly injured parts of John’s right leg. Cautiously, I suggested that we perform a thorough inspection and we soon found several areas of skin severely damaged by the crushing concrete block. Because of the crush injury, there were concerns about a possible compartment syndrome and an IV was placed and run wide open.
An hour or so later, the local orthopedic resident came down and looked over John. He was clearly excited about the chance to operate and called his attending physician. The attending said that he’d come down and look at John, but it would take a few hours. The resident sauntered off and I settled down with John to wait. Frankly, I hadn’t been too impressed with the resident. His bedside manner was poor and his exam skills abysmal. I had concerns over a possible compartment syndrome, but the resident brushed them aside pointing out that John still had good capillary refill. While it’s true that capillary refill is compromised in compartment syndrome, it is one of the last signs to appear, and by the time it does appear the damage may be too severe to repair.
John and I had several long talks over the next few hours. He was in good spirits but was upset that he wouldn’t be able to finish his assigned mission. I did my best to cheer him up. More importantly, I made sure that he was properly taken care of. The Emergency Room staff seemed to forget he was there, so I made it my job to be the “squeaky wheel” and get him his IV fluids and pain medicine.
Finally the orthopedic attending arrived and decided that this hospital was not equipped to deal with such a severe set of fractures. The best hospital was a two hour drive away. I had serious reservations about transporting John for two hours in the back of a bumpy ambulance to the hospital I knew nothing about. I called the other physician on base and we decided our best option was to call for a Med Evac to take John to the US Army hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. I was concerned about his pelvic fracture as well as the poor local quality of medical care. An unstable pelvic fracture can cause a significant amount of bleeding, and while this one appeared stable, I wasn’t entirely convinced it would remain that way. I felt that US military medicine was John’s best option. I called the base and alerted our commander. He agreed.
After nearly ten hours cooped up in the local hospital, I was overjoyed to see our Air Force ambulance pull up. As we loaded John in the back, Jesse handed me a bag he had picked up from the only McDonald’s in the nation. It was a cold hamburger and fries, but at this point I was glad for any kind of food.
I had already updated Jesse on the plans by phone earlier and he had done a good job organizing the Med Evac. The plane was supposed to arrive at our airstrip at midnight. As we pulled onto base and were being searched at the vehicle search area, my phone rang. It was Doug, my other medic.
“James just tried to commit suicide,” he said.
James was one of our electricians who had come to me about two weeks into the deployment and told me that he may have made a mistake when he stopped taking his Prozac. He was a fairly depressed and anxious person who had been put on the anti-depressant while back in the US. It worked well enough that he decided he was “all better” so decided not to bring it along on deployment. I ordered some more from home for him, but that was a six-week shipment, and then it takes Prozac about four weeks to kick in. All the medics and I had done our best to help him, and I thought he had been doing much better. Apparently he had received some bad news from home and that pushed him over the edge. He ran into the command tent (where Doug was working on the computer), ripped off his wedding ring, threw it on the ground and stated that he was going to go kill himself by grabbing hold of some live wires. Knowing he was an electrician, Doug figured he meant business. Doug and the vice-commander tackled him and took him to our medical tent.
After Doug updated me on James, I called our commander back. I updated him on the latest situation and told him that we needed to ship James out as well. We simply didn’t have the manpower required to have someone watch over James at all times and there were no mental health facilities in the area. The Colonel listened to what I said and ultimately agreed. When the Med Evac came, it would take James as well as John to Germany.
It was now 2200. The medical tent was crowded. On one cot lay James under suicide precautions. That meant no shoelaces, no belt and one of the senior electricians was at his bedside watching over him. About ever half hour, we’d give him another injection of a milligram or two of Valium to keep him calmed down. On the other side of the tent strapped to the other cot was John. About every half hour, we’d give him another injection of a milligram or two of morphine to take care of his pain. It took us most of the next ninety minutes to fill out the proper paperwork and get all the minor details of the evacuation arranged.
When it was nearly midnight, we loaded them both in the back of the ambulance and headed out to the airstrip. Shortly after we arrived, a Med Evac C-130 landed. We pulled up to where it had finished taxiing. We handed the patients over and watched as the crew securely tucked them in. In a few minutes, the C-130 had taken off again. We jumped back in the ambulance and headed back to our tent. We cleaned everything up, inventoried the controlled substances, and then headed off to the mess hall. Sadly, we were too late. They had served the last waffle ten minutes before.

Courtesy: Scott

Read More

New 'Molecular Condom' Meant To Prevent AIDS In Women

University of Utah scientists developed a new kind of "molecular condom" to protect women from AIDS in Africa and other impoverished areas. Before sex, women would insert a vaginal gel that turns semisolid in the presence of semen, trapping AIDS virus particles in a microscopic mesh so they can't infect vaginal cells. "The first step in the complicated process of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) infection in a woman is the virus diffusing from semen to vaginal tissue. We want to stop that first step," says Patrick Kiser, an associate professor of bioengineering at the University of Utah's College of Engineering. "We have created the first vaginal gel designed to prevent movement of the AIDS virus. This is unique. There's nothing like it." "We did it to develop technologies that can enable women to protect themselves against HIV without approval of their partner," he adds. "This is important - particularly in resource-poor areas of the world like sub-Sahara Africa and south Asia where, in some age groups, as many as 60 percent of women already are infected with HIV. In these places, women often are not empowered to force their partners to wear a condom.
" A study testing the behavior of the new gel and showing how it traps AIDS-causing HIV particles will be published online later this week in the journal Advanced Functional Materials. Kiser is the senior author. "Due to cultural and socioeconomic factors, women often are unable to negotiate the use of protection with their partner," says Julie Jay, the study's first author and a University of Utah doctoral candidate in pharmaceutics and pharmaceutical chemistry. So the researchers developed a vaginal gel that a woman could insert a few hours before sex and "could detect the presence of semen and provide a protective barrier between the vaginal tissue and HIV," Jay says. "We wanted to build a gel that would stop HIV from interacting with vaginal tissue." Kiser estimates that if all goes well, human tests of the gel would start in three to five years, and the gel would reach the market in several more years. He and Jay want to incorporate an antiviral drug into the gel so it both blocks HIV movement and prevents the virus from replicating.
A Rocky Road to Microbicides against AIDS
The effort to develop microbicides - intravaginal gels, rings and films - to prevent transmission of the AIDS virus has been halting. The few that have reached human clinical trials in Africa failed to prevent HIV transmission - either because they carried antiviral drugs that were not long-lived or strong enough, or because patients failed to use them. Some experimental microbicides increased the risk, possibly by irritating vaginal tissue and attracting immune cells that are targeted by the virus. In 2006, Kiser and colleagues published a study on their development of another "molecular condom" to be applied vaginally as a liquid, turn into a gel coating at body temperature, then, in the presence of semen, turn liquid and release an anti-HIV drug. Unfortunately, few antiviral drugs bind to and attack HIV in semen. And in Africa, high air temperatures prevent the gel from turning liquid so it could coat the vagina evenly, Kiser says. The new "molecular condom" gel in the current study works in the opposite way. Like the old version, it changes in response to changes in pH - acidity or alkalinity - in the vagina caused by the introduction of semen during sex.
But unlike the old gel, which became liquid at the higher (less acidic) pH of semen, the new "molecular condom" becomes a semisolid at the pH of semen, forming a mesh of "crosslinked" molecules. The new gel is applied as a gel, and then becomes more solid and impenetrable as changes in pH alter the strength of the bond between the gel's two key components, both of which are polymers, or long, chain-like molecules made of many smaller, repeating units: PBA, or phenylboronic acid, and SHA, or salicylhydroxamic acid. Slowing and Blocking the AIDS Virus Kiser's team first published a study about the invention of the polymers and their behavior in 2007. A patent is pending on the invention. The chemical bonds between the two polymers constantly attach and detach at normal, acidic vaginal pHs of about 4.8, allowing the gel to flow, Kiser says. But at a pH of 7.6 - the slightly alkaline condition when semen enters the vagina - the PBA and SHA polymers "crosslink" and stick tightly together, he adds. Part of the new study characterized the flow of the gel.
"It flows at a vaginal pH, and the flow becomes slower and slower as pH increases, and it begins to act more solid at the pH of semen," Jay says. HIV moves slowly within the gel, even when the gel is at lower pHs (higher acidity) and still flowing, but the virus is blocked at higher pHs caused by the entry of semen into the vagina. The crosslinked polymers form a mesh that is smaller than microscopic, and instead is nanoscopic - on the scale of atoms and molecules - with a mesh size of a mere 30 to 50 nanometers - or 30 to 50 billionths of a meter. (A meter is about 39 inches.) By comparison, an HIV particle is about 100 nanometers wide, sperm measure about 5 to 10 microns (5,000 to 10,000 nanometers) in cross section, and the width of a human hair is roughly 100 microns (100,000 nanometers). Kiser says the gel should block other viruses and sperm, thus could work as a contraceptive and possibly prevent infection by herpes viruses and human papillomavirus (HPV), a major cause of cervical cancer. The gel also could help prevent AIDS by blocking movement of immune system cells that try to combat infectious agents but instead get hijacked by the AIDS virus. During the study, coauthors from Northwestern University in Chicago used a sophisticated microscope to track how fast HIV particles marked with fluorescent dye moved when they were caught in the gel, and how the speed varied with changes in pH. The researchers compared movement of HIV particles with latex particles, which revealed that under somewhat acidic conditions, the HIV particles are slowed down in part because their surfaces react chemically with the polymers. By adding an anti-AIDS drug such as tenofovir to the gel, "the virus would have two barriers to get through: the polymer barrier and then the drug barrier," Kiser says. Unlike an antiviral used with the old gel, tenofovir would not attack HIV directly, but protect immune cells in the vagina from infection. Kiser says that after sex, the vagina gradually becomes acidic again, and any residual HIV particles would be inactivated both by acidity and an antiviral drug within the remaining gel, which still impedes HIV to some extent at normal vaginal acidity.
Kiser and Jay conducted the study with four other University of Utah researchers: bioengineering undergraduates Kristofer Langheinrich and Melissa Hanson, bioengineering graduate student Todd Johnson, and bioengineering researcher Meredith Clark. Other coauthors were from the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago: Thomas Hope, Shetha Shukair and Gianguido Cianci. The study was funded by National Institutes of Health. Kiser's research team is continuing the effort to develop microbicides to prevent AIDS thanks to a $100,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Upcoming work includes assessing the HIV-prevention potential of other polymers, testing the safety of the new gel on vaginal cells, and studying how well the new gel blocks the transport of HIV into samples of human vaginal and penile tissue from hysterectomies and circumcisions, respectively.

Read More

The Date

During my second year of medical school I decided to make more an effort to be social. To that end, I had decided to attend the annual medical school Halloween party. It was held at the VFW in one of the smaller St. Louis suburbs (Each of our parties seemed to be held at a different VFW. Allegedly we made such a mess that we were never allowed back at the previous ones).
I had thrown together a costume at the last minute and dressed as Willie Nelson. I bought a cheap red wig and braided it into long ponytails. I dusted it with some gray and white paint to add some age. I trimmed the ends of the braids to get enough hair to make a matching beard which I attached with spirit gum. With some cardboard and aluminum foil I made a huge belt buckle. With my cowboy boots, a horrid plaid shirt and a baseball cap that I had scrawled “Farm Aid” on, my costume was complete.
The VFW was hopping. A DJ was playing some decent dance music and there was an open bar. Everywhere you looked there were medical students in cheap costumes and a slightly maniacal look in there eyes.
I was standing in the fairly long line for the bar and had just made it to the front of the line. A girl dressed as a hippy came up and asked if I could grab her a beer. Being the gentleman that I am, I grabbed one for both of us. I handed her the beer and we spent the next hour or so talking. Her name was Lisa and she was a nurse at the university hospital. She and her nursing friends made it a point of attending most of the medical school parties.
As her friends dragged her off to another party, I realized that I should have gotten her number. I asked the bartender for a pen and some paper and he found an ancient pencil I could use. I ran out the door of the VFW after her to get her number and bumped into her coming back in to give me her number. Phone numbers were exchanged and things were looking good.
A few days later, some friends of mine decided to attend The Nightmare Before Christmas. They asked if I wanted to go. I agreed and thought that this seemed to be the perfect excuse to ask Lisa out. I called her up and she agreed, saying that she had heard it was a good movie. She gave me her address and I told her I’d pick her up in couple of hours.
I showered, shaved and got dressed. I didn’t want to be too dressy or too informal so I decided on the medical students informal uniform: dockers and a button down shirt. I put on my one nice pair of shoes and went outside to clean the car. I pulled up to the dumpster next to the apartment building so I could quickly clean it out. When I’m busy at work or school, junk tends to accumulate in my car (lecture notes, mail, magazines, medical journals, etc.), and I needed to empty it out so I could make a good impression. I opened the passenger side door of my old Tercel and started throwing out the accumulation a handful at a time.
Then I heard a very distinctive “ching” sound and realized that I had just thrown my car keys in the dumpster. Damn! Luckily the container was mostly empty, but I still had to jump in after them, wade across the dumpster and sift through about a foot of trash until I found them.
I ran up to my apartment to quickly change clothes and wash up. I was already running late, so I just grabbed the nearest pair of shoes and ran back to my car. I only had the one pair of good shoes, so I ended up in a slightly beat up pair of athletic shoes. I headed across town to the (much nicer than mine) apartment complex where she lived. Driving up and down the streets, I simply could not find her apartment. After about ten minutes of looking, I talked to a passerby and discovered that she lived not in apartment 1430, but in apartment 1430 ½, around the back of the main building.
I knocked on the door of the building.
“Come on in!” she yelled. “I’m almost ready.”
I opened the door and her dog, a giant Samoyed, made a lunge at me. I dodged and spun, but he kept coming after me.
“Prince! Stop that!” She shouted at the dog, but the giggle she added at the end didn’t suggest any real discipline. By now, he had stopped chasing me and seemed to have decided that I looked like a fire hydrant. He closed in, sniffed, and then raised his hind leg.
“I’ll wait for you outside.” I hurriedly said as I slipped out the door and away from Prince. Lisa came outside a minute later, nicely dressed in skirt and blouse. She smiled at me, but I swear I saw the smile falter a little bit when she got a look at my shoes.
We hopped in my little Toyota and headed to the theater. We made it just as the movie was starting but luckily my friends had saved us some good seats.
Five minutes after the movie started, her cell phone rang. She grabbed it and started a whispered conversation with one of her nurse pals. After receiving some dirty glares from the people around us in the theater, she headed to the back of the theater to finish her conversation. In a few minutes, she plopped back down in her seat. Just then, her phone rang again and once more she retreats to the back of the theater. This process of phone call migration continued for the rest of the movie.
After the movie, my friends were heading over to Cyrano’s where they served this absolutely sinful creampuff with ice cream and fudge sauce dessert that was famous across town. I asked Lisa if she wanted to go, knowing that nobody said no to a dessert at Cyrano’s, but she declined. She added in an aggrieved tone that she needed to go back home and feed her dog.
I drove her home and parked in front of her building. I got out of the car and walked over to the passenger side of the car to let her out. She hadn’t waited for me, however, and was already striding to her door. “‘Night,” she called out as she walked in her apartment and (I assume) securely locked her door.
I think it’s safe to say that that remains my worst date ever. I’ve never been entirely certain what went wrong. I have a few guesses. First, I suspect that she found me more attractive dressed as Willie Nelson. Second, I have a strong suspicion that she preferred more affluence in her dates, apparently forgetting that the vast majority of medical students (including me) live below the poverty line. Plus, I think the shoes may have done me in.
Epilogue: Two years later as I was starting my final year of medical school, I stopped by the “Welcome New Students” reception thrown by the school at a local bar. I grabbed a Bud Light and met up with one of my friends. We saw another friend of ours and headed over to talk to him. He was chatting with this bevy of cute girls and he introduced us to them. The last one, of course, was Lisa. She fixed me with a chilly stare and, with the icicles dripping from her words, said, “We’ve met.” I could only laugh.

Courtesy: Scott

Read More

H1N1 Vaccine Will Be Approved, Ready For Use By September

By September, the first H1N1 (swine) flu vaccines will be approved and ready for use, WHO director of the Initiative for Vaccine Research Marie-Paule Kieny said Thursday, Reuters reports. Kieny also expressed optimism that "vaccine production yields were improving, following a disappointing start that triggered some worries about supplies," the news service writes.
By early next month, Kieny said scientists will have the results of the first H1N1 vaccine clinical trials, which aim to determine "how many doses of the new vaccine will be required to provide sufficient protection against the virus," the Los Angeles Times' blog "Booster Shots" reports. "Preliminary studies have suggested that the antigen being used does not provoke as strong a response as that in the seasonal flu vaccine, and that it may be necessary to use two doses -- which would halve the total number of people who could be immunized" (Maugh, 8/6).
Reuters reports that "[o]nce initial clinical trial results are in, regulators will be able to approve the vaccines from next month and the first countries are expected to start mass vaccination programmes, Kieny added" (Lynn/Hirschler, 8/6).
Obama Will Discuss H1N1 With Mexican President, Canadian Prime Minister
In related news, President Obama is scheduled to meet with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Guadalajara, Mexico, Sunday and Monday to discuss ways to deal with the anticipated resurgence of H1N1 this fall, Reuters reports in a separate story. The leaders are expected to issue a joint statement about their collaborative efforts to limit the severity of H1N1, White House Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan said.
"I think everybody recognizes that H1N1 is going to be a challenge for all of us and there are people who are going to get sick in the fall and die. People have been dying over the past number of months from H1N1," Brennan said (Holland, 8/6).

Read More

Intense, Prolonged Exposure To World Trade Center Attack Associated With New Health Problems Several Years Later

Large number of individuals, such as recovery and rescue workers, nearby residents and office workers, who experienced intense or prolonged exposure to the World Trade Center attack have reported new diagnoses of asthma or posttraumatic stress 5-6 years after the attack, according to a study in the August 5 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on violence and human rights. "The September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center (WTC) killed thousands and exposed hundreds of thousands to horrific events and potentially harmful environmental conditions resulting from the collapsing towers and fires," according to background information in the article. Studies have documented adverse respiratory and mental health conditions associated with direct exposure within 1 to 3 years following the event, however, the longer-term impact on health has been unclear. Robert M. Brackbill, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, and colleagues of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and Columbia University, New York, examined the incidence of two of the most commonly reported health outcomes: asthma and posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms indicative of probable posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among adults 5 to 6 years after the attack.

The researchers used data from the World Trade Center Health Registry, the largest postdisaster exposure registry in U.S. history, which prospectively follows a group that reported a range of WTC disaster - associated exposures on September 11 and during its immediate aftermath. Wave 1 of the study, conducted in 2003-2004, included enrollment of 71,437 adults in four groups: rescue/recovery workers, lower Manhattan residents, lower Manhattan office workers, and passersby; 46,322 adults (68 percent) completed a follow-up wave 2 survey in 2006-2007. The surveys included questions regarding symptoms of asthma following September 11 and event-related PTS symptoms indicative of probable PTSD, assessed using the PTSD Checklist (a self-report symptoms rating scale). The researchers found that overall postevent incidence among those without a prior history of asthma was 10.2 percent, with rescue/recovery workers having higher postevent asthma diagnosis rates than the next highest group, passersby on September 11 (12.2 percent vs. 8.6 percent). For all eligibility groups combined, intense dust cloud exposure was associated with postevent diagnoses of asthma (13.5 percent vs. 8.4 percent for no dust cloud exposure). Thirty-nine percent of all respondents reporting postevent diagnoses of asthma also reported intense dust cloud exposure. "These analyses confirm that intense dust cloud exposure was associated with new asthma diagnoses for each eligibility group, including the 1,913 passersby who only had exposure to the area air and dust on September 11," the authors write.

Among rescue/recovery workers, risk for asthma was highest among those who worked on the pile on September 11, with risk diminishing with later start dates. Asthma risk also was independently associated with some damage to home or office, and risk was highest if there was a heavy coating of dust at home or at the office. Among residents, those who did not evacuate reported higher rates of asthma than those who did. Of the adults without a diagnosis of PTSD before September 11, 23.8 percent screened positive for PTS symptoms indicative of probable PTSD at either wave 1 (14.3 percent) or wave 2 (19.1 percent). At follow-up, the prevalence of PTS symptoms increased in every eligibility group, with the greatest increase occurring among rescue/recovery workers. At the wave 2 follow-up survey, passersby had the highest levels of symptoms (23.2 percent), while residents had the lowest (16.3 percent). Across eligibility groups, passersby had the highest prevalence of chronic PTS symptoms and office workers had the highest prevalence of resolved symptoms while rescue/recovery workers had the highest prevalence of late-onset symptoms. With regard to mental health diagnoses, 13.6 percent of all participants previously free of PTSD reported receiving a PTSD diagnosis from a mental health professional since September 11; 14.0 percent reported receiving a depression diagnosis; and 7.4 percent reported receiving both. Event-related loss of spouse or job was associated with PTS symptoms. Co-occurrence of postevent asthma and PTS symptoms was common in the follow-up survey.

Among enrollees with postevent asthma, 36 percent had PTS symptoms; among enrollees with these symptoms at follow-up, 19 percent reported a new diagnosis of asthma after September 11. The researchers add that applying reported outcome rates from the follow-up survey results to the approximately 409,000 potentially exposed persons, roughly 25,500 adults are estimated to have experienced postevent asthma and 61,000 are estimated to have experienced symptoms indicative of probable PTSD. "Our findings confirm that, after a terrorist attack, mental health conditions can persist if not identified and adequately treated and that a substantial number of exposed persons may develop late-onset symptoms. Our study highlights the need for surveillance, outreach, treatment, and evaluation of efforts for many years following a disaster to prevent and mitigate health consequences," the authors conclude.

Read More

TV And Computer Screen Time May Be Associated With High Blood Pressure In Young Children

Sedentary behaviors such as TV viewing and "screen time" involving computer use, videos and video games appear to be associated with elevated blood pressure in children, independent of body composition, according to a report in the August issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. The recent trend in obesity is a major public health concern and its effect on blood pressure is of particular concern, according to background information in the article.

"The clustering of cardiovascular disease risk factors in overweight youth suggests that risks may be immediate and not just indicative of potential future problems," the authors write. Although elevated blood pressure is associated with genetic factors, healthy physical, dietary and sleep habits seem to be relevant contributors to blood pressure levels in children. However, there have not been any clear links between sedentary behavior and elevated blood pressure in children younger than age 9. David Martinez-Gomez, B.Sc., of Iowa State University, Ames, and the Spanish National Research Council, Madrid, Spain, and colleagues examined associations between sedentary behavior and elevated blood pressure in 111 young children (57 boys and 54 girls ages 3 to 8).

Sedentary behavior was determined by an accelerometer generally worn over the right hip and by parental reports stating the average time the children spent watching TV, playing video games, painting, sitting or taking part in other activities with low levels of physical activity each day for seven days. Time watching TV was defined as time spent watching TV, videotapes or DVDs. Computer use was defined as the time spent using a home computer or video game. Researchers defined screen time as the total amount of time each child spent using a TV, video, computer or video game. The children's height, weight, fat mass and systolic (top number) and diastolic (bottom number) blood pressure were also measured. The children's average sedentary time and screen time per day were five hours and 1.5 hours, respectively. Boys spent more time using computers than girls, but there were no significant differences in time spent on other sedentary behaviors. "Sedentary activity was not significantly related to systolic blood pressure or diastolic blood pressure after controlling for age, sex, height and percentage of body fat. However, TV viewing and screen time, but not computer use, were positively associated with both systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure after adjusting for potential confounders," the authors write. "Participants in the lowest tertile [one-third] of TV and screen time had significantly lower levels of systolic and diastolic blood pressure than participants in the upper tertile."

"In conclusion, the results of this study showed that TV viewing and screen time were associated with elevated blood pressure independent of body composition in children," the authors write. "Given that total objective sedentary time was not associated with elevated blood pressure, it appears that other factors, which occur during excessive screen time, should also be considered in the context of sedentary behavior and elevated blood pressure development in children."

Read More

New HIV Virus Found In Gorillas

Scientists who found a new human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in a Cameroonian woman living in Paris, have discovered it is an unusual variant of HIV-1 that could have come from gorillas.

The research that led to the findings was headed by Dr Jean-Christophe Plantier of the University of Rouen in France and is published in the 2 August online issue of Nature Medicine. Drs David Robertson and Jonathan Dickerson from the Faculty of Life Sciences at The University of Manchester, UK, were also involved in the study.

There are three established lineages of HIV-1, known as M, N, and O, which came from chimpanzees, but this new variant appears to be the prototype of a new lineage derived from gorillas and shows no evidence of recombination with the other known lineages, wrote the researchers.
They propose that the new lineage be called HIV-1 group P.
There are 33 million people worldwide living with AIDS which is caused by the HIV-1 virus group M (groups N and O are mainly confined to Cameroon).
HIV is a product of cross-species transmission of Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV) found in chimpanzees, thought to have crossed to humans from eating infected bush meat.
While first recognized in 1980, HIV is thought to have started some 80 years earlier in and around the African country that is now called the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The 62-year old Cameroonian woman at the centre of the study moved to Paris in 2004 and began to have symptoms shortly afterwards. Her blood sample showed discrepancies in her viral load, and further tests revealed she was infected with a new strain of HIV that more closely resembled SIV from gorillas than HIV from humans.
However, before moving to Paris the woman had lived in a semi-urban part of the central west African Republic of Cameroon; she had not come into contact with bush meat or gorillas.
Because of this information and the fact further tests showed that the virus was able to replicate in human cells, the scientists suggest the strain may well appear elsewhere.
Robertson told the media that:
"The discovery of this novel HIV-1 lineage highlights the continuing need to monitor closely for the emergence of new HIV variants."
"This demonstrates that HIV evolution is an ongoing process. The virus can jump from species to species, from primate to primate, and that includes us; pathogens have been with us for millions of years and routinely switch host species," he added.
In the same way as the current swine flu pandemic is showing us, this is another example of how viruses can now move very quickly around the world because nowadays large numbers of humans travel long distances in a short space of time.
Plantier's team in France are part of a network of laboratories that has been monitoring HIV genetic diversity, while the The Manchester Life Sciences team helped with the computer-based evolutionary analysis.

Read More