Vaccines block Zika in mice, boosting hopes for human jab

The Zika virus is mainly spread via the bite of the Aedes aegypti mosquito

New research in lab animals, including Zika vaccines successfully tested on mice, boosted hopes Tuesday for a jab to shield humans against the brain-damaging virus.

Two prototype vaccines tested on lab mice “provided complete protection against the Zika virus” with just a single shot, reported the first team.

“These findings certainly raise optimism that the development of a safe and effective vaccine against Zika virus for humans may be successful,” said Dan Barouch, director of the Harvard Medical School’s Center for Virology and Vaccine Research, who co-authored a paper in Nature.

His optimism was echoed in a separate study into Zika infection in rhesus macaques — close genetic relatives of humans and well-matched animal models for medical testing.

In a study in sister journal Nature Communications, a US-based team said they managed for the first time to infect lab monkeys with the Zika virus.

And they found that a single infection, mostly symptom-free as in humans, provided “complete protection” against later Zika exposure.

“This is a key finding because it means that a vaccine could be quite effective against the virus,” said study co-author Dawn Dudley of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“It also indicates that people who are already infected with Zika virus are not susceptible to future infection, for example during a future pregnancy.”

Pregnancy fears deepen

Benign in most people, Zika has been linked to a form of severe brain damage called microcephaly in babies, and to rare adult-onset neurological problems such as Guillain-Barre Syndrome, which can result in paralysis and death.

In an outbreak that started last year, about 1.5 million people have been infected with Zika in Brazil, and more than 1,600 babies born with abnormally small heads and brains.

On the downside, Dudley’s team found that the virus persisted as much as two months longer in pregnant monkeys as non-pregnant ones, who were generally virus-free within 10 days after infection.

One hypothesis was that the foetuses themselves are infected, and remain so for much longer than adults.

“(M)y concern for Zika virus in pregnancy is much higher now than it was six months ago,” Dudley said of the discovery.

The macaque babies have yet to be born.

There is no cure or vaccine for Zika, but the World Health Organization said in April that more than 60 companies and research institutions were working on drug candidates — including 18 vaccines targeting women of childbearing age.

Barouch said the two vaccines his team tested worked against two strains of the Zika virus, including one from the Brazil outbreak.

This was the first report of complete Zika protection in an animal model, he claimed, and “a step forward in the development of a Zika virus vaccine.” It was unclear, though, how long the immunity lasts.

At least one other vaccine, developed by US biotech firm Inovio Pharmaceuticals, prompts animals to produce virus-attacking Zika antibodies, but this was not necessarily the same as full protection, Barouch explained.

Inovio recently received approval to conduct a Phase I safety trial in humans.

Outside experts welcomed the studies but highlighted a number of unknowns.

“DNA vaccines that work in mice have a sorry history of not working in humans,” Peter Openshaw, president of the British Society for Immunology, cautioned via the Science Media Centre.

Crucially, it was not clear if the vaccines also produced antibodies against other viruses in the Zika family, such as dengue, which could cross-react with the Zika antibodies to dangerously enhance infection, commentators said.

Dengue is endemic in Brazil. It usually causes flu-like symptoms, but about one percent of patients develop a haemorrhagic fever which claims some 22,000 lives every year.

Before human trials can begin, the vaccines will have to be tested on other Zika strains in mice, and then in monkeys, said the experts.

Canned food linked to hormone-disrupting chemical exposure

By: IANS | Washington | Published:June 30, 2016 12:18 pm

The study also finds that different foods have different amounts of BPA contamination, and particular kinds of canned food are associated with higher urinary BPA concentrations. (Source: File Photo)

A new study has confirmed the link between eating canned food and increased exposure to a chemical linked to diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other health effects.

The study, by researchers at Stanford and Johns Hopkins universities, with a first-of-its-kind sample including thousands of people of various ages, and geographic and socioeconomic backgrounds, highlights the challenges consumers face in trying to limit their exposure to the chemical Bisphenol A (BPA), Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday.

Published in the recent issue of Environmental Research, the study of 7,669 participants, 6 years and older with 24-hour dietary recall information and urinary BPA concentrations from year 2003 through 2008 establishes the link that the more canned food consumed, the higher the BPA, confirming canned food’s outsized influence on exposure to BPA.

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“I could eat three cans of peaches, and you could eat one can of cream of mushroom soup and have a greater exposure to BPA,” said lead author Jennifer Hartle, a postdoctoral researcher at the Stanford Prevention Research Centre.

According to the study, the consumption of one canned food to none was found to be associated with 24 per cent higher urinary BPA concentrations; and the consumption of two or more canned foods to none was associated with 54 per cent higher urinary BPA concentrations.

BPA is a compound used to make, among other things, resins that coat the inside of food cans and jar lids. Previous research has focused on analysing levels of BPA in canned products and measuring BPA exposure within groups of fewer than 75 people.

The new study also finds that different foods have different amounts of BPA contamination, and particular kinds of canned food are associated with higher urinary BPA concentrations. The worst offenders, in descending order: canned soup, canned pasta, canned vegetables and fruit.

The state of California has listed BPA as a female reproductive toxicant, and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has restricted its use in some products, such as baby bottles, sippy cups and liquid infant formula canned linings.

However, the FDA said the federal agency is still working to “answer key questions and clarify uncertainties about BPA”.

Vietnamese woman has bullet removed from body 45 years after war

Nguyen Thi Cat holds the rusty bullet that has been removed from her body. Cat’s husband said the bullet hit her chest one day in 1971 during the war when she was cleaning the backyard at her home in Kien Giang Province. Photo: Dinh Tuyen/Thanh Nien

Doctors in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho have removed a bullet lodged in a 61-year-old woman’s body since 1971. 

Nguyen Thi Cat, 67, was admitted to Can Tho General Hospital last week with severe abdominal pain. 

Surgeons removed a rusty bullet of four centimeters long and one centimeters in diameter after a three-hour procedure on Tuesday. 

Cat’s husband said the bullet hit her chest one day in 1971 during the war when she was cleaning the backyard at her home in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang.

She was rushed to a hospital unconscious and was pronounced dead.

But she woke up when her family was bringing her home for funeral. They rushed her back to the hospital. 

Once again, doctors confirmed she had died. 

The family brought her body home, and somehow she started breathing again. 

A doctor at Can Tho General Hospital shows the bullet that has been in 67-year-old Nguyen Thi Cat’s body for 45 years. Photo: Dinh Tuyen/Thanh Nien

“Since then, she has been healthy,” the husband said.

Her family said everybody in the family has almost forgotten about the bullet. Cat said she told some doctors about the bullet, but they all believed it would be very risky to remove it. 

But earlier this month, Cat began to have severe abdominal pain and could no longer walk. 

The family took her to the hospital in Can Tho just in time, doctors said. She has recovered from the surgery. 

HCMC hospitals struggle since they don't use IT efficiently: experts

Patients wait to be examined at Binh Dan Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Khanh An

Ho Chi Minh City’s public hospitals need to make better use of information technology to improve their services since a patient has to wait for 10 hours on average to be examined, experts said at a conference in the city Saturday.

Vu Anh Tuan, general secretary of the HCMC Computer Association, said most hospitals do not use information technology efficiently.

“Vietnam’s medical system needs effective IT use to better manage patients’ records, reduce the waiting time and improve examination and treatment services,” he said.

Tang Chi Thuong, deputy director of the city health department, said, “Cloud is not widely used.”

The city with more than 10 million inhabitants has a total of 113 hospitals with nearly 34,400 beds.

“A medical network that provides healthcare services for millions of people needs an advanced information technology system for better treatment,” Thuong said.

According to a survey by the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group, city hospitals examine and treat 40 million people annually.

On average, a patient has to wait around 10 hours for being examined and a doctor sees around 90 patients a day.

A Few Servings Of Walnuts Weekly Benefits Older Americans, Says New Study

Eat more walnuts and age better, says a new study that was published in the Journal of Nutrition. The study advises that by consuming between one and two servings of walnuts per week, approximately ¼ cup per serving, older Americans may be able to reduce the risk of developing physical impairments later on in life, giving them a higher quality of life and more independence.

The study was certain to point out that a well-balanced diet is still the key to living a healthy life at all stages. This includes limiting sugary beverages and foods, consuming low-fat foods and foods that have healthy fats, and moderating the intake of alcoholic beverages. The best relationship between independence and food at a later stage in life, according to the study, was the weekly consumption of fruits such as apples, oranges and pears, and romaine or leaf lettuce, as well as walnuts.

To conduct the study, the researching team examined data from 54,762 women over 30 years. It compared dietary habits to physical impairment in older Americans to deduce the final results. It found that by using the Alternative Healthy Eating Index to contrast the ratio of good foods versus bad foods and physical ability later in life that these foods were the most beneficial in helping to assure physical motility.

Unlike many other nuts, walnuts contain 13 grams of polyunsaturated fat per ounce ingested, and also contain omega-3 fatty acids and alpha-linolenic acid. These unique traits are what researchers think help contribute to a healthier lifestyle when included as part of a weekly diet.

It’s noteworthy to state that this study was focused on women, and they were only asked to report their dietary intake via questionnaires. So the margin of error could be higher than that of a conventional study, especially when taking into account that no men were included in the study.

It’s been long known that walnuts are good for you. They make for a delicious snack and may be able to help you preserve physical function later in life. At least you have a candid reason to go nuts over walnuts now.

Visit NowItCounts.com, The Destination for Americans 50+ for stories that matter to you covering financial, health, beauty, style, travel, news, lifestyle, food, entertainment and sports, and just cool stuff to know!

Work starts on $270 mln oncology hospital in Ho Chi Minh City

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (2nd L), former Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung (2nd R) and HCMC’s Party chief Dinh La Thang (R) attend the ground-breaking ceremony for Ho Chi Minh City’s second Oncology Hospital in District 9 on June 26, 2016. Photo credit: Phuoc Tuan/Zing

Construction work began on Sunday at Ho Chi Minh City’s second Oncology Hospital, which is designed to have 1,000 beds.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, former Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and Ho Chi Minh City’s Party chief Dinh La Thang attended the ground-breaking ceremony.

The hospital, which will cover 55,594 square meters in District 9’s Tan Phu Ward, has a total investment of nearly VND6 trillion (US$270 million) funded from the state budget.

The 10-story hospital will include an outpatient clinic and inpatient, radiotherapy and chemotherapy sections. It is expected to help reduce overload for the current Oncology Hospital in Binh Thanh District once it is open in the last quarter of 2017.

Vietnam logs around 150,000 new cases of cancer annually, more than half of which prove fatal, according to figures released by the World Health Organization in late 2014.

China tightens controls on paid-for internet search ads

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s internet regulator said on Saturday that search engines should tighten management of paid-for ads in search results, making clear which results are paid-for and limiting their numbers.

The Chinese government already exercises widespread controls over the internet and has sought to codify that policy in law.

Chinese regulators last month imposed limits on the number of lucrative healthcare adverts carried by Baidu Inc following the death of a student who underwent an experimental cancer treatment which he found using China’s biggest internet search engine.

Wei Zexi, 21, died in April of a rare form of cancer, and the case sparked widespread public anger.

The Cyberspace Administration of China said search engines should investigate the “aptitude” of clients offering paid-for ads, set a clear upper limit on such ads and clearly distinguish which are paid-for ads and which come from “natural searches”.

“Internet search providers should earnestly accept corporate responsibility toward society, and strengthen their own management in accordance with the law and rules, to provide objective, fair and authoritative search results to users,” it said.

Users have been particularly concerned with medical ads, which are a threat to people’s health, the regulator added.

Baidu said in a statement that it was committed to providing the best search experience and will fully comply with the law.

“Baidu will work closely with government agencies, internet users and the community to uphold a healthy internet environment, and strive to provide objective, impartial, and authoritative search results to our users,” it said.

Search engines also have other problems, the regulator said.

“Some search results contain rumors, obscenities, pornography, violence, murder, terrorism and other illegal information,” it said.

“Some search results lack objectivity and fairness, go against corporate morals and standards, misleading and influencing people’s judgment.”

Officials say internet restrictions, including the blocking of popular foreign sites like Google and Facebook, are needed to ensure security in the face of rising threats, such as terrorism.

Foreign governments and business groups have pointed to restrictions on the internet as a broader trade issue.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Michael Perry)

Girls returned to correct parents 4 years after Vietnam hospital staff mistake

Thanh Hoa Obstetrics Hospital where two baby girls were given to wrong parents four years ago. Photo: Le Hoang/VnExpress

Two couples in Da Nang city and Thanh Hoa Province who thought they have been living happily with their own infant daughters for the last four years discovered recently that their babies had been switched in the hospital after delivery.

They both had daughters through a C-section at Thanh Hoa Obstetrics Hospital on October 6, 2012, and one couple moved to Da Nang.

The Da Nang couple said they sought a DNA test as they realized that the more their daughter grew up the less she looked like either of them.

The test results confirmed their suspicion and so they traveled back to the Thanh Hoa hospital early this month.

They looked up all baby girls born the same day and, with the hospital’s documents and DNA samples, found their real daughter was living with the Thanh Hoa couple.

Both families agreed to swap their daughters.

They said the children have not shown any adverse psychological signs in the few days since the switch.

A hospital spokesperson admitted to news website VnExpress that medical staff had mistakenly changed the babies four years ago.

The hospital is negotiating with the families over compensation.

The province health department has begun an investigation to identify the persons responsible.

Vietnam tests 2 Philippine beverages for lead

C2 beverage being produced at a URC factory. Photo: Thien Huong

The Vietnam Food Administration has collected samples of two Philippine beverage brands sold by URC Hanoi Company to test for lead after rumors about their alleged poor quality went viral on the Internet recently.

Nguyen Thanh Phong, director of the agency, said he has sought early results of the tests on green tea C2 and energy drink Rong Do made by Universal Robina Corporation because it is “a hot issue on social networks.”

Rumors have been circulating since May 7 that C2 and Rong Do contained high levels of lead, Tuoi Tre newspaper reported.

Interestingly, a sample of citric acid, commonly used as an acidity regulator in beverages, taken from the company was found to have lead content of 0.84 mg/kg against the permitted limit of 0.5 mg/kg.

URC Hanoi had requested the National Institute for Food Control to test a batch produced in July 2015, Tuoi Tre reported.

But the newspaper provided no further details about when the tests were done or why the authorities did not take cognizance of the test results to test the drinks.

Phong said it was unclear if URC Hanoi had used the citric acid from the batch in its products.

It is also not known why URS, which had itself produced the citric acid, wanted it tested.

This year the Ministry of Health is also set to test products made by Coca-Cola Vietnam, Suntory PepsiCo Vietnam Beverage and Wonderfarm.

 

 

Studies of pregnant mice with Zika cement microcephaly link

An edes aegypti mosquito is seen inside a test tube as part of a research on preventing the spread of the Zika virus and other mosquito-borne diseases at a control and prevention center in Guadalupe, neighbouring Monterrey, Mexico, March 8, 2016. Photo: Reuters/Daniel Becerril/File Photo

Studies from three different teams of scientists offered proof on Wednesday that Zika can reach and destroy brain cells in the fetuses of pregnant mice, findings that solidify the link between the mosquito-borne virus and birth defects.

In February, the World Health Organization declared Zika a global health emergency based on its association with thousands of cases in Brazil of microcephaly, a birth defect marked by small head size that can cause severe developmental problems.

Scientists have been scrambling to understand how a mosquito-borne virus that generally causes mild symptoms in adults could do so much such damage to a developing fetus.

The studies in pregnant mice, published in the journals Nature, Cell and Cell Stem Cell, showed Zika invading brain cells in fetal mice, demonstrating convincingly that Zika can attack fetal brain tissue and cause injury.

There are no vaccines or medicines for Zika infections. Experts say the new findings will pave the way toward testing vaccines and treatments in mice before trying them on humans.

Normally, mice do not develop Zika infections, so each of the research teams developed different ways to cause pregnant mice to pass the virus to their offspring.

In the Nature paper, researchers infected two commonly available strains of laboratory mice with extremely high doses of Zika cultivated from a Brazilian patient from Paraiba, a state at the center of Brazil’s Zika outbreak.

Their study showed that the Brazilian strain can get through the placenta and inhibit the growth of fetal mice, even causing signs of microcephaly.

The research, led by Alysson Muotri of the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Patricia Beltrao Braga of the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, also showed the virus could infect clusters of brain cells in lab dishes, disrupting growth or causing cells to die.

Dr. Derek Gatherer, a biomedical and life sciences expert at Lancaster University in Britain, said the study “adds to the weight of evidence that Zika virus is the cause of the apparent spike in microcephaly and other birth defects observed in Brazil,” and suggests that other countries with Zika transmission may see similar spikes.

Significant abnormalities

Separate experiments by Dr. Michael Diamond of Washington University in St. Louis and a team of Chinese researchers also showed Zika was capable of damaging fetal brain cells.

Diamond’s experiments, published in Cell, involved mice with compromised immune systems. In one, the team bred mice with genetically weakened immune systems. When exposed to Zika, the virus killed most fetuses within a week, and those that survived had significant abnormalities, including severely stunted growth.

In these mice, the researchers saw genetic material from the Zika virus in the mouse placentas that was 1,000 times greater than in the blood of the mothers, suggesting the virus had been growing in the placenta.

In the second model, normal pregnant mice were given an antibody that blocked their immune response. When exposed to Zika, the fetal mice survived, but their growth was stunted, and viral genetic material was present in their heads and bodies.

In the third study, in Cell Stem Cell, Chinese researchers directly injected Zika into the brains of fetal mice in utero.

When these mice were born, they showed characteristic features of microcephaly, according to collaborators Zhiheng Xu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Cheng-Feng Qin of the Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology.

After the mice were injected during the equivalent of the second trimester in humans, the fetal brains shrank as the amount of virus increased.

Diamond said the mouse experiments will be useful for testing new vaccines and drugs.

“Now, we can begin to see whether vaccines can prevent transmission of the Zika virus to the fetus,” Diamond said.

U.S. health officials have concluded that Zika infections in pregnant women can cause microcephaly. The WHO has said there is strong scientific consensus that Zika can also cause Guillain-Barre, a rare neurological syndrome that causes temporary paralysis in adults.

 

Vietnam food agency rejects claims it took bribes to clear Philippine beverages

Green tea C2 sold at a supermarket in Hanoi. Latest tests have found the product is safe. Photo: Ngoc Thang/Thanh Nien

The National Institute for Food Control has rejected accusations that it took bribes and compromised tests on two Philippine beverage products, asking the police to investigate the case. 

“We are willing to cooperate with relevant agencies to find out the motives of those behind these rumors,” said Le Thi Hong Hao, director of the agency, run by the Ministry of Health.

Earlier some posts on social media cited an “insider” accusing two officers from the institute of receiving VND1 billion (US$44,730) from URC Vietnam, a unit of Philippine producer Universal Robina, to modify test results for its green tea C2 and energy drink Rong Do. 

The products were cleared even after they had been found to have higher lead content than the permitted limit of 0.05 mg/l, according to the posts. 

The National Institute for Food Control has confirmed that the products meet safety standards. 

In a separate move, the Vietnam Food Administration (VFA) on May 13 also announced that in 10 random samples of C2 and Rong Do, the levels of lead were all within the normal range.

Nguyen Thanh Phong, VFA director, said health inspectors will check two URC facilities in Vietnam.

After delay, calorie counts to hit U.S. restaurant menus in 2017

A meal of a ”Monster”-sized A.1. Peppercorn burger, Bottomless Steak Fries, and Monster Salted Caramel Milkshake is seen at a Red Robin restaurant in Foxboro, Massachusetts July 30, 2014. Photo: Reuters/Dominick Reuter

U.S. restaurant owners will have an extra five months to post the calorie counts of the food they sell under a new federal deadline of May 5, 2017.

The national calorie disclosure rule is part of the Affordable Care Act of 2010, also known as Obamacare and aims to help consumers battle the bulge since Americans eat and drink about one-third of their calories away from home.

The regulation requires calories to be listed on menus and menu boards at restaurants and other food retail establishments with 20 or more locations. In most cases, they also apply to vending machine operators with 20 or more units.

The postponement from the previous Dec. 1 deadline was contained in final guidance from the Food and Drug Administration released on May 5.

The rule’s start date has been so delayed that early critics, such as McDonald’s Corp, have been displaying such information for years in compliance with rules set by California, New York City and other jurisdictions.

“I’m hopeful that the date will stick,” said Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a long-time proponent.

Lobbyists for Domino’s Pizza Inc, convenience stores and supermarkets helped push back the previous federal deadline, and the U.S. House of Representatives in February passed legislation aimed at the weakening rule.

Tackling the American obesity epidemic has been a signature issue for the White House and first lady Michelle Obama.

The White House publicly opposed the House bill saying it “would undercut the objective of providing clear, consistent calorie information to consumers.” But, it stopped short of issuing a formal veto threat.

Wootan and other experts said that the Senate version of the opposition bill is expected to stall.

 

Nutrition system that helps brain development

 

Dr. Hoang Ho Thong Nhat – Nutrition expert from Nutifood

Parents always want their kids to be intelligent and healthy. However, not all parents fully understand when to start providing their children with a good nutrition system, as well as how and for how long they should do so.

Baby’s nervous system starts developing in the first weeks of pregnancy, and is growing fast from the 8th week. A newborn’s brain weighs about a fourth of that of an adult’s. At 1 years of age, a baby’s brain weighs 70-75 percent that of an adult’s, 80 percent at 2, and reaches almost the same weight as an adult’s at the age of 6. The period between early pregnancy and 6 years of age is, therefore, the golden time for brain development.

Mothers should add more nutrients which are good for brain such as DHA, ARA, Choline ALA, Taurin, Tryptophan, lutein, iron, folic acid, and iodine by having diverse meals, balancing all the nutritional components, consuming sufficient energy, and using products with nutritional supplements, to help children become more intelligent and set up a good foundation for future.

We understand that by taking smart actions today, you are laying the foundation for tomorrow’s success. Nuti IQ Gold with IQ-Complex formula, developed by NutiFood’s nutrition experts for children, contains enhanced nutrients such as DHA, Lutein, Taurin, Choline and other essential nutrients to help your baby enhance brain development. Additionally, IQ-Complex formula helps children gain weight and height, improves nutrient absorption and prevents constipation.

Surgeon suspended after incorrect surgery

A surgeon in northern Vietnam has been suspended after he operated on the wrong arm of 6-year-old boy last week.

The operation at Hospital 115 of Nghe An Province on Jun. 17 had been intended to remove metal rods which had been placed inside the child’s right wrist after he broke it in February.

The boy’s parents said they were shocked to notice that both his wrists were in bandage after the operation.

Pham Van Dung, Vice Director of Hospital 115 of Nghe An Province, admitted that a medical mix-up had happened.

He said Dr. Tuan, the surgeon, “had not double-checked” before the operation, and only realized the mistake after he had cut to open up the wrist and could not find the metal rods.

The boy was later brought to Viet Duc Hospital in Hanoi for a thorough check-up. Dung said his hospital would pay any expense incurred. 

He said the hospital leaders apologized to the boy and his family for the mistake.

A full examination of the circumstances has been mounted and further punishments will be considered against Dr. Tuan and the surgical team, Dung said.

The Ministry of Health has also asked the Health Department of Nghe An Province to look into the incident.

Smokers may try to quit 30 times before it sticks

 A cigarette end is seen on a pavement in Seville, southern Spain May 31, 2016. Photo: Reuters/Marcelo del Pozo

Though conventional wisdom says it takes five to seven attempts for most smokers to quit, those estimates may be very low, a recent study suggests.

Based on data for more than 1,200 adult smokers in Canada, the real average number of quit attempts before succeeding may be closer to 30.

“For so long we’ve been talking about five to seven attempts to quit,” said lead author Dr. Michael Chaiton of the school of public health at the University of Toronto in Canada. “For us (the numbers) were a lot higher.”

The lower estimate comes from a few past studies that were based on the lifetime recollections of people who successfully quit, but they didn’t include attempts by people who had not yet succeeded, Chaiton and colleagues note in the journal BMJ Open.

For their study, the researchers analyzed data from 1,277 people in the Ontario Tobacco Survey who were followed for up to three years. When the study began in 2005, participants reported how many times they recalled ever making a serious attempt to quit smoking, and at each six-month follow-up they reported how many serious quit attempts they had made over the past six months.

A quit attempt was deemed a success when a participant went at least one year without a cigarette.

The researchers used these responses and four different statistical models to estimate how many times the average smoker attempts to quit before succeeding. The most unbiased model suggested an average of 30 quit attempts per smoker.

That’s much higher than people tended to report in the previous studies when asked about all their quit attempts since starting smoking, the study team writes.

“People are very bad at remembering over their whole lifetimes,” Chaiton told Reuters Health. “The second problem is we were only asking people who have been successful at quitting.”

The new study may be a better representation of what most smokers go through over time, but it does only describe their situation rather than predict what will happen to an individual smoker who tries to quit, he cautioned.

“This doesn’t mean you hit a magic number and then you can quit,” Chaiton said. “There are many people who are able to and do quit on their first attempt or in the first few.

“There are people who are good at many things, some are good at quitting smoking,” he added.

Quitting smoking is often a long-term process with many attempts, he said.

“When we talk about trying to reduce the number of smokers, if we try and do that by focusing on one quit attempt at a time we’re not going to be very successful,” Chaiton said.

A range of smoking cessation medications, policies like smoke-free spaces and plain-pack warnings can all help some smokers quit, he said.

“The main impact of this article is that clinicians should reassure smokers that, just because they have failed 10 times, does not mean they will never quit,” said Dr. John Hughes of the University of Vermont School of Medicine in Burlington.

“However, the problem with taking, say, 20 times to quit, is that this may take 10 years and it’s not only important to quit but it’s important to quit while you are younger,” said Hughes, who was not part of the new study.

“So it’s important for those who failed several times to seek treatment to increase odds of quitting and we have lots of medication and counseling treatments that work,” Hughes told Reuters Health by email.

 

Silent heart attacks strike more men but kill more women

Nearly half of all heart attacks may be silent, occurring without any symptoms like chest pain, shortness of breath and cold sweats, a U.S. study suggests.

Silent heart attacks, discovered during exams by cardiologists, were more common in men, researchers found. (Symptomatic heart attacks are more common in men, too.)

But in the ensuing years, women with silent heart attacks were 58 percent more likely to die compared to women with no heart attacks, whereas the mortality rate for men with a silent heart attack was only 23 percent higher than for men without a heart attack.

Overall, silent heart attacks were associated with a roughly tripled risk of dying from heart disease and a 34 percent increased risk of dying from any cause.

With silent heart attacks, people typically don’t seek medical advice because they don’t realize anything is wrong, said lead study author Dr. Zhu-Ming Zhang of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

“There could be many reasons for people not realizing they are having a heart attack,” Zhang added by email.

To assess the prevalence of silent heart attacks, Zhang and colleagues studied nearly 9,500 middle-aged adults.

Half the participants were followed for more than 13 years. During that time, 317 people had silent heart attacks and another 386 had heart attacks with classic symptoms that are easier to spot.

Out of 1,833 deaths from all causes during the study period, 189 were tied to heart issues, researchers report in the journal Circulation.

The relatively young age of participants may have influenced the gender disparity in deaths from silent heart attacks, said Dr. Laxmi Mehta, director of the women’s cardiovascular health program at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

“We know rates of heart attacks in young women are lower than in young men,” Mehta, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.

“The death rates may be higher in women due to underuse of guideline-derived medical therapies and lower referral rates to cardiac rehab in women,” Mehta added.

There were no significant differences between blacks and whites, however.

One limitation of the study is that researchers lacked data on other races and ethnicities, the authors note. It’s also possible that they underestimated the number of silent heart attacks because these episodes can be difficult to detect after the fact.

Other studies have also found women are more likely to have silent heart attacks than men, noted Dr. Leslie Cho, head of preventive cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.

“No one really knows why people have silent (heart attacks), however, when patients are further probed, they have atypical symptoms which they thought were not related to the heart but turned out to be a (heart attack),” Cho, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.

Because silent heart attacks are by definition very hard to detect, it’s crucial that people take any symptoms of discomfort seriously, whether it’s slight pain in the chest or jaw or difficulty breathing or heartburn, said Dr. Sheila Sahni, chief fellow in cardiology at the Ronald Reagan University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center.

Too often, patients downplay symptoms and fail to seek help.

“When it comes to matters of the heart, time equals muscle,” Sahni, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.

“When you feel something out of the ordinary, get it checked out,” Sahni added. “It’s better to be wrong than to find out a few days later you suffered a silent heart attack.”

SOURCE: bit.ly/1XIhahI Circulation, online May 16, 2016.

In Zika-struck Puerto Rico, trouble delivering donated contraceptives

By: Reuters | New York | Published:June 21, 2016 1:28 pm

Reports say around 1, 38,000 women in Puerto Rico are at risk of unintended pregnancy, based on historical trends and a lack of access to contraceptives. (Source: Reuters file photo)

Only a small fraction of contraceptives donated in Puerto Rico to prevent Zika-related birth defects are expected to get to the women who need them this month, public health officials told reporters.

The donations – tens of thousands of intrauterine devices and birth control pill packs – came from major healthcare companies as the virus spreads rapidly through the island.

The delivery delays illustrate the struggles of Puerto Rico’s healthcare system, which is faltering amid the commonwealth’s financial crisis.

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Hundreds of thousands of residents are expected to be infected in the coming months by the mosquito-borne Zika virus. Infections in pregnant women can cause microcephaly, a rare birth defect that can lead to severe developmental problems.

Many local doctors do not have the expertise to insert IUDs, and have not stocked them because of their high cost to patients.

The CDC Foundation, the US public health agency’s philanthropic arm that received the donations, said it needs $20 million for training and follow-up services to get the contraceptives to women.

“We have people who would love to have them available,” said Dr. Carmen D. Zorrilla, professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine. She is encouraging patients to wait at least a year to get pregnant.

As many as 138,000 women on the island are at risk of unintended pregnancy, based on historical trends and a lack of access to contraceptives, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Bayer AG, Allergan, Medicines360, Upstream USA and Merck have together contributed about 60,000 IUDs and 80,000 packs of birth control pills in recent weeks. The CDC estimates that about a quarter of Puerto Rico’s 3.5 million people could be infected with the virus.

Dr. Judith Monroe, President and CEO of the CDC Foundation, said the organization has trained about two dozen doctors and raised about $1.7 million in cash, enough to provide 700 women free services starting in June. It needs to raise an additional $20 million to train and pay medical professionals who will provide the services.

In the meantime, the companies are still holding the donated devices and pills while the CDC Foundation lines up a licensed distributor in Puerto Rico.

Also read | US: Zika spreading quickly in Puerto Rico, says health officials

At the behest of the CDC, the nonprofit in February began soliciting private sector donations for Puerto Rico, Monroe said in an interview. Raising extra money for contraceptive distribution was challenging as would-be donors may not yet grasp the urgency of the situation in Puerto Rico.

“We have an opportunity to be innovative,” she said, referring to increasing access to “family planning across Puerto Rico, services that have not been there before on this scale.”

DOCTORS UNDER FINANCIAL STRESS

Money is essential to train and pay medical professionals, many of whom are barely surviving because of the island’s financial crisis and historically low reimbursement rates from the US government’s Medicaid insurance program for the poor, which covers nearly half of residents.

“It is hard, close to impossible to ask doctors to take anything else from their pockets,” said Dr. Nabal Jose Bracero, who chairs the Puerto Rico section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. “Things are very, very rough.”

The current Zika outbreak was first detected last year in Brazil and has been linked to more than 1,400 cases of microcephaly. It has since spread to at least 39 countries and territories in the Americas. In Puerto Rico, at least 1,726 cases of Zika infection have been confirmed, including in 191 pregnant women, according to the Puerto Rico health department.

Zika is expected to arrive in the continental United States in the coming weeks as the weather warms. CDC officials expect that Puerto Rico will be hit harder given the prevalence of mosquitoes that carry the Zika virus on the island and a lack of infrastructure to protect against the insect bites.

Health care donors say they are now urgently focused contraceptive distribution.

“We are working with the CDC Foundation on the distribution arrangements to ensure that product gets to Puerto Rico as quickly as possible,” said Gavin Corcoran, Chief Medical Officer at Allergan.

Bayer, Allergan and Medicines360 also have begun training a few dozen medical professionals to use their IUD devices, which need to be inserted and removed by a person with expertise to avoid potentially serious complications.

Despite the difficulties of distribution, Bracero said health professional in Puerto Rico are grateful for the contraceptive donations.

“It’s overwhelming,” he said, “one of the good things to come out of the horrible situation.”

Parkinson disease may be getting more common

Parkinson disease may have become more common over the past 30 years, at least according to a study in one Minnesota county.

“This is the first evidence that shows an increasing trend of Parkinson incidence, confirmation is needed,” said Dr. Honglei Chen of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Triangle Park, North Carolina, who wrote an editorial accompanying the new results.

Parkinson disease takes decades to develop, so it can be difficult to identify reasons for the trend and a number of factors may play a role, Chen said.

“However, if the trend is confirmed, one may speculate roles of environmental or other non-genetic factors,” he told Reuters Health by email.

Senior author Dr. Walter A. Rocca of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and his coauthors studied trends in Parkinson disease and symptoms like resting tremors, rigidity, impaired reflexes and slowness of movement in Olmsted County, Minnesota, between 1976 and 2005.

During that time, 906 patients developed symptoms seen in Parkinson disease (a condition known as parkinsonism) and 464 developed Parkinson disease. Half of people were over age 73 at onset.

For men, parkinsonism incidence increased from 39 to 56 cases per 100,000 people per year between the 1976-1985 decade and the 1996-2005 decade. Parkinson disease cases also increased from 18 to 30 cases per 100,000 people per year.

The increasing trend was driven by men over age 70. There was no increasing trend for women over the 30-year period, as reported in JAMA Neurology.

It’s possible that doctors are just getting better at diagnosing Parkinson disease as time goes on, Chen said, but that wouldn’t explain the differing trends by sex.

“There is a long history and ongoing debate about a paradoxical finding that smokers are less likely to have Parkinson disease,” Chen said. He noted that smoking rates declined during the period of the study.

“Cigarette smoking has numerous adverse health effects, but its inverse association with Parkinson disease was observed in almost every epidemiological study,” Chen added.

Nicotine seems to be beneficial for animals in parkinsonism studies, he said.

“On the other hand, some scientists are still concerned that this observation was due to non-biological reasons, for example, individuals at risk for Parkinson disease are less likely to start smoking early in life, or if they started, they are more likely to quit,” Chen said.

People need not be concerned about this potential trend until it’s been confirmed by multiple additional studies, he said.

U.S. House approves $622 million to combat Zika virus

A woman walks past a giant fake mosquito placed on top of a bus shelter as part of an awareness campaign about the Zika virus in Chicago, Illinois, United States, May 16, 2016. Photo: Reuters/Jim Young

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday to provide $622.1 million to control the spread of the Zika virus, far below President Barack Obama’s request and lower than Senate legislation.

The bill passed the Republican-controlled House 241 to 184, largely along party lines, and sets up a confrontation with both the Republican-majority Senate and the Democratic Obama administration.

The White House has threatened to veto the House bill, saying it was “woefully inadequate.” The Obama administration has requested $1.9 billion.

On Tuesday, the Senate cleared the way for expected approval by the chamber on Thursday of $1.1 billion to fight the mosquito-borne Zika virus, which has been linked to birth defects.

Unlike the Senate legislation, the House bill requires that the $622.1 million be fully offset with spending cuts elsewhere.

Many conservative Republicans in the House refuse to approve Zika funds that would add to federal budget deficits, while Democrats and some Senate Republicans favor treating the problem as an emergency that would not have to be financed with spending cuts.

House Republicans argue their bill, when coupled with $589 million the Obama administration already shifted to Zika from unused funds to battle Ebola, would provide enough money through Sept. 30, the end of this fiscal year.

It was unclear how long it might take the Senate and House to work out their differences once they pass their respective bills.

U.S. health officials have concluded that Zika infections in pregnant women can cause microcephaly, a birth defect marked by small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems in babies.

The World Health Organization has said there is strong scientific consensus that Zika can also cause Guillain-Barre, a rare neurological syndrome that causes temporary paralysis in adults.

Last year, Brazil began detecting an increase in microcephaly, and the virus has been spreading rapidly in the Americas, with new cases now being reported in warm climates in southern U.S. states including Florida.

The Obama administration says it needs the emergency funds to help state and local governments eradicate mosquitoes that spread the virus and to develop a vaccine.

 

Philippine beverage firm URC ordered to recall products in Vietnam over lead scandal

Three batches of beverage products made by URC Vietnam will have to be withdrawn from the market, officials said Friday. File photo

The Ministry of Health has ordered a recall of three batches of products made by URC Vietnam, a unit of the Philippine producer Universal Robina, after tests found higher lead content than permitted limits.

URC Vietnam will have to pull all affected products from a batch of green tea C2 manufactured on February 2 and two batches of energy drink Rong Do on November 10 and February 19, Nguyen Van Nhien, chief inspector from the ministry, said Friday.

Nhien also announced latest test results showing that the products from these batches have lead content from 0.053 to 0.085 mg/l, above the permitted limit of 0.05 mg/l.

Further investigations are ongoing, he said, adding that the latest tests were conducted during several checks by health inspectors at two URC facilities in Vietnam.

The National Institute for Food Control (NIFC), another agency managed by the ministry, earlier rejected accusations that it took bribes and compromised tests on the two beverage products in question.

“We are willing to cooperate with relevant agencies to find out the motives of those behind these rumors,” said Le Thi Hong Hao, director of the agency.

Earlier some posts on social media cited an “insider” accusing two officers from the institute of receiving VND1 billion (US$44,730) from URC Vietnam to modify test results for C2 and Rong Do. 

The products were cleared even after they had been found to have higher lead content than the permitted limit of 0.05 mg/l, according to the posts. 

NIFC later confirmed that the products met safety standards. 

In a separate move, the Vietnam Food Administration (VFA) on May 13 also announced that in 10 random samples of C2 and Rong Do, the levels of lead were all within the normal range.

Vietnam orders Philippine beverage firm URC to recall more products

URC Vietnam has been ordered to recall five batches of products since May 20, 2016. File photo

The Ministry of Health on Tuesday ordered a recall of more beverage products made by URC Vietnam, a unit of Philippine producer Universal Robina, amid an expanding food safety scandal that has affected three other batches. 

The company will have to pull all products from a batch of green tea C2 manufactured on January 11 and a batch of energy drink Rong Do on January 14, after tests found that they have higher lead content than permitted limits, said Nguyen Van Nhien, chief inspector from the ministry.

It is not immediately clear how many bottles are affected this time. 

Nhien also announced latest test results showing that the products from these two batches have lead content from 0.21 to 0.46 mg/l, or between four and nine times above the limit of 0.05 mg/l.

On Friday, the ministry ordered URC Vietnam to recall three other batches.

During a meeting with the Philippine company on Tuesday, health officials also demanded URC managers take the order seriously and thoroughly report on the recall process.

There have been conflicting test results in the prolonged case.

The National Institute for Food Control (NIFC), another agency managed by the ministry, has recently rejected accusations that it took bribes and compromised tests on the two beverage products in question.

Earlier some posts on social media cited an “insider” accusing two officers from the institute of receiving VND1 billion (US$44,730) from URC Vietnam to modify test results for C2 and Rong Do. The products were cleared even after they had been found to have higher lead content than the permitted limit of 0.05 mg/l, according to the posts.

NIFC later confirmed that the products met safety standards.

Embrace yoga to age gracefully, say experts

Updated: June 20, 2016 2:07 pm

Yoga can improve blood flow in the body and increase oxygen supply to body cells. (Express Photo by Jaipal Singh)

Yoga won’t give you immortality but this ancient discipline of bringing union between the body, mind and spirit can definitely help you fight age – both physical and mental, say health and wellness experts.

“In my practise in India and abroad I have seen several cases where my clients have gotten better by regular yoga, pranayam and meditation,” said Preeti Rao, Health, Lifestyle and Wellness Consultant at Max Healthcare here.

Regular yoga practise can help fight chronic lifestyle diseases like hypertension, hormonal imbalances, diabetes, reproductory disorders, and respiratory and cardiovascular related health concerns. Besides people with obesity, anxiety, constipation and digestive disorders can benefit significantly from practising yoga, according to the experts.

“From diabetes to high blood pressure, high cholesterol to heart problems, yoga can help you combat many such health issues that usually develop over the years. Also, arthritis is one of the most common problems among elderly people and yoga is a great way to tone it down and help the body become more active and flexible,” said Nidhi Arora, physiotherapist at AktivOrtho, an orthopaedic, neurological and gynaecological rehabilitation centre here.

Founded by German orthopaedic specialist Gerd Mueller, AktivOrtho now has several centres in New Delhi and Gurgaon.

“Individuals prone to osteoporosis or are already suffering from the problem can gain a lot from yoga as a daily life discipline which increases bone density and growth. To keep a watch over increase in weight as well, yoga proves to be very helpful,” Arora noted.

Yoga can improve blood flow in the body and increase oxygen supply to body cells. It helps improve balance which tends to become weak as one ages, acclaimed fitness expert and nutritionist Sonia Bajaj said.

What’s more, the benefits of yoga transcends physical fitness alone.

“Yoga is not limited to yog or physical exercise,” Rao said.

Scholarly studies and research in this area have strongly documented how yoga helps in improving cognitive abilities.

“Pranayama helps one to attain a better balance between the right and left-brain bringing more balance between emotional and rational thinking. Meditation facilitates a process of introspection, and brings more clarity and focus in one’s life. Regular yoga also improves memory,” Rao noted.

“A regular yoga practise even for just 20-30 minutes daily that is simple and involves varied breathing exercises and mediation is what I would recommend to remain sharp, alert and for a balanced life,” she added.

A recent study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease found that a three-month course of Kundalini yoga and Kirtan Kriya meditation practice helped minimise the cognitive and emotional problems that often precede Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, brain disorders that impair the memory.

Kirtan Kriya, which involves chanting, hand movements and visualisation of light, has been practised for hundreds of years in India as a way to prevent cognitive decline in older adults.

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Yoga and meditation was even more effective than the memory enhancement exercises that have been considered the gold standard for managing mild cognitive impairment, the findings showed.

“Historically and anecdotally, yoga has been thought to be beneficial in ageing well, but this is the scientific demonstration of that benefit,” lead author of the study Harris Eyre, doctoral candidate at the University of Adelaide in Australia, said.

“If you or your relatives are trying to improve your memory or offset the risk for developing memory loss or dementia, a regular practice of yoga and meditation could be a simple, safe and low-cost solution to improving your brain fitness,” Helen Lavretsky, the study’s senior author and professor in residence in the department of psychiatry, University of California-Los Angeles, suggested.

“Yoga forms like asana, pranayama and a regular devotion towards meditation are such strong tools that they are bound to invigorate the brain, help enhance the power of the mind and stimulate the nervous system as well. Yoga should be taken seriously as results from it are long-lasting and life-changing for sure,” Arora noted.

However, with many different types of yoga being practised today, it is important for you to find out with the help of experts which type of yoga meets your needs, she said.

Early exposure to traffic pollution may affect lungs later

A resident rides an electric bicycle across a street amid heavy smog as vehicles wait for a traffic light next to a statue of pandas, a landmark of the Wangjing area in Beijing, China, December 1, 2015. Photo: Reuters/China Daily

Infants exposed to higher levels of vehicular air pollution more often have problems later on in the small airways near the edges of their lungs, according to a new study.

The finding that early life exposure to air pollutants affects the so-called peripheral airways, “has not been reported before,” said lead author Dr. Erica S. Schultz of the Karolinska Institutet Institute of Environmental Medicine in Stockholm, Sweden.

“The lungs and airways are exposed to different air pollutants throughout life, but as the lungs are not fully developed at birth, young children are considered to be particularly vulnerable to adverse effects,” she said.

Because the effects are small, they may have little impact on healthy people living in areas with little pollution, Schultz and her coauthors write.

But the findings may be relevant in areas with high pollution levels and for people with respiratory conditions.

The researchers studied roughly 2,400 children recruited between 1994 and 1996 in Sweden for whom they had data on air pollution exposure as infants and lung function as teens. In particular, they studied the “resistance” in the teen’s peripheral airways, or how hard it is to get air through those passages.

The researchers focused on nitrogen oxides in vehicle exhaust and particulate matter from road erosion. They used records of road traffic, meteorological conditions and topography to model pollution levels at residential and school addresses for the kids in the first year of life and for the year prior to their 16th birthdays.

As infant exposure to nitrogen oxides increased by 10 micrograms per cubic meter, teen airway resistance also increased. The association was strongest for boys and for those with asthma at age 16.

Pollution exposure at ages 15 and 16 was not related to lung function, however.

The authors reported in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology that particulate matter did not have a significant relationship with airway resistance.

“An increasing amount of studies demonstrate the importance of airway periphery for lung health,” Schultz told Reuters Health by email. “What´s concerning is that the effect from first year of life seem to be long-lasting although we yet don’t know the full clinical implication of this effect.”

Most teens would not feel any symptoms of their reduced lung function as the effect was small, she said.

Stockholm has relatively low air pollution levels, she said. For more polluted cities, the effects may be greater and cause conditions like asthma, heart attacks, strokes and early death.

“From this study, we cannot say that children with asthma or any other respiratory conditions will become worse from current exposure, even though that has been reported from several other studies,” Schultz said.

But policymakers should take traffic air pollution levels into considerations when planning for housing, schools and daycare centers, she said.

SOURCE: bit.ly/20wLuxb Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, online May 7, 2016.

World Bank approves more financing to help Vietnam improve sanitation

The World Bank on Thursday approved US$119 million in additional financing for an ongoing project to respond to key urban development challenges focusing on assuring water supply and wastewater needs in Vietnam.

The new funding for the Vietnam Urban Water Supply and Wastewater Project will mostly be used for a wastewater and drainage subproject for the southern province of Binh Duong, the Washington-based development bank said in a statement.

It will also cover cost overruns due to the appreciation of the US dollar and provide technical support to the Ministry of Construction to prepare a new water supply investment in the Mekong Delta, according to the statement.

Up to 65,872 households with 450,382 people are expected to be connected to clean water sources as a result of the financing, and up to 312,051 urban dwellers will benefit from improved sanitation.

Achim Fock, the World Bank’s acting country director in Vietnam, said in the statement that with the additional financing, achievements under the original project will be “further consolidated and sustained” and more people in Binh Duong will enjoy “better wastewater and drainage services.”

The original project, which was approved by the bank in 2011, sponsored seven water supply and seven wastewater subprojects in 10 provinces, with an average urban population size of 100,000.

Smoking claims over 100 lives every day in Vietnam

Vietnam has planned to increase tobacco tax to cut smoking rate as the country’s smoking population is among the biggest in the world. File photo

Vietnam is among countries where smoking is most widely prevalent, losing more than 100 people a day to the habit and facing a huge financial burden, according to official figures.

Statistics from the Ministry of Health show that the Vietnamese smoking population is among the biggest in the world, with nearly half of the male population aged 15 or more, or more than 15 million people, engaging in the habit. The number of female smokers is small.

As studies have linked tobacco to around 25 diseases due to its high content of toxic chemicals, including 70 carcinogens, the habit has proved deadly and costly in Vietnam.

Smokers spend around US$1 billion a year on tobacco and treatment of related diseases, but yet around 40,000 die every year, and without drastic intervention the number is expected to shoot up to 70,000 by 2030.

A number of anti-smoking campaigns and regulations have helped reduce the number of smokers and passive smokers over the past few years, but the rates remain very high.

According to the ministry, 30 million people, most of them women and children, still have to put up with passive smoking.

The government imposes a 65 percent luxury tax on tobacco and plans to raise it to 70 percent this year and 75 percent in 2019.

But the increases have been criticized by health experts as too modest.

After a heart attack, people more likely to take statins as directed

People may do a better job of following doctors’ orders to take statin drugs – prescribed to protect against cardiac problems – after they wind up hospitalized for a heart attack, a large study suggests.

“Our theory is that the heart attack hospitalization appeared to serve as a teachable moment, or a wake-up call, to patients to do everything possible to prevent another heart attack,” lead study author Dr. Ian Kronish of Columbia University Medical Center said by email.

Millions of people worldwide take statins to help reduce their blood levels of low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, cholesterol – the bad kind that builds up in blood vessels, damages artery walls and can lead to clots and heart attacks.

The researchers studied more than 175,000 people age 65 or older whose doctors had given them prescriptions for statins.

They divided the patients into three groups: 6,600 who were hospitalized for a heart attack between 2007 and 2011, 11,000 who were hospitalized during that period for pneumonia, and 158,000 who weren’t hospitalized at all.

About a third of the heart attack patients had been skipping their statins at least 20 percent of the time. Compared to non-adherent patients who’d been hospitalized for pneumonia, the previously non-adherent heart attack patients were 70 percent more likely to take their pills more regularly after they left the hospital.

The study also looked at what happened to the opposite kind of patients, that is, those who did take their statin medications consistently before a hospital stay for a heart attack or pneumonia.

Overall, about one-third of these people started skipping doses after going home from the hospital.

However, under these circumstances, people hospitalized for heart attacks were about 7 percent less likely to curb statin use after their stay than their peers treated for pneumonia, researchers report in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

But compared with people never hospitalized, these patients were 41 percent more likely to become less consistent in their use of daily statins during the study period.

One limitation of the study is that it used Medicare claims data for drugs and hospital services, which doesn’t always accurately reflect what care patients receive or why, the authors note. Researchers also limited their analysis to patients who survived at least six months after their initial hospitalization, which may have weeded out the sickest people or created a study population with an inflated proportion of people who took their statins regularly.

Still, the results suggest that a heart attack hospitalization may be an opportunity for doctors to assess whether patients are taking statins as prescribed and motivate them to be more consistent in sticking with their drug regimen, the authors conclude.

“The time after a heart attack is a vulnerable period for patients both emotionally and physically,” said Dr. Leslie Cho, head of preventive cardiology at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.

“For patients who were previously non-adherent to taking their statins, they may now realize that it is something that they can do to prevent future heart attacks,” Cho, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.

On the other hand, if people took statins religiously and then had a heart attack, they might get discouraged and decide not to be so vigilant about these pills afterwards, Cho added.

“Patients who have had heart attacks need to recognize that statins actually prevent not only (repeat hospitalizations) but death,” Cho said.

Want to ward off urinary infection? Drink cranberry juice daily

By: IANS | New York | Updated: June 16, 2016 12:22 pm

The key to cranberry’s benefit is consuming a glass daily to help avoid the infection altogether. (Photo: Thinkstock)

Drinking a 240 ml glass of cranberry juice per day can help women to keep urinary infection at bay, says a study led by an Indian-origin researcher. The study suggests that cranberries can also aid in decreasing the worldwide use of antibiotics.

Urinary tract infection (UTIs) is an infection in any part of the urinary system, the kidneys, bladder or urethra.

The findings showed that daily consumption of an 8-ounce glass of cranberry juice can reduce symptomatic UTIs by nearly 40 per cent in women with recurrent UTIs.

Also, it will help decrease the antibiotic use associated with treating recurrent UTIs.

“Currently the primary approach to reducing symptomatic events of UTI is the use of chronic antibiotics for suppression, an approach associated with side effects and development of antibiotic resistance,” said Kalpana Gupta, Professor at Boston University in the US.

UTIs are among the most common bacterial infections in women worldwide. Some 150 million UTIs occur annually worldwide, according to the American Urological Association. Up to 60 per cent of all women suffer a UTI in their lifetime and up to 25 per cent experience a recurrence within six months.

Antibiotics are usually the first line of treatment for urinary tract infections, and women who have frequent UTIs may be prescribed low-dose antibiotics.

Unfortunately, chronic overuse of these drugs has increased antibiotic resistance at an alarming rate globally, the researchers said.

Cranberries contain multiple, unique elements and compounds including Type-A PACs (or proanthocyanidins) that prevents bacteria from sticking and causing infection as well as other anti-bacterial properties against E. coli — a type of bacteria commonly found in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and is a major cause of UTI.

“The key to cranberry’s benefit is consuming a glass daily to help avoid the infection altogether. Most people wait to drink cranberry juice until they have a UTI, but once the symptoms start they’ll likely need a course of antibiotics,” added Gupta in the paper published by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

For the study, the team analysed 373 women for 24-weeks at 18 clinical sites throughout the US and France, is the largest clinical trial of its kind examining the effects of cranberry juice consumption on UTIs.

The results revealed that the rate of UTIs decreased significantly among the cranberry drinkers, with just 39 diagnoses during the six-month study compared with 67 in the placebo group.

Vietnam fines Philippine beverage firm URC $260,000 amid lead scandal

URC’s products C2 and Rong Do are at the center of a food safety scandal in Vietnam. File photo

Vietnam’s Ministry of Health on Tuesday announced a fine of more than VND5.8 billion (US$260,000) against Philippine beverage firm URC for producing and selling products with high lead content.

The ministry said URC Vietnam, a unit of Philippine producer Universal Robina, is punished for breaking food safety regulations with a batch of green tea C2 manufactured on February 4, 2016 and a batch of energy drink Rong Do produced on November 10, 2015.

Test results showed that the products from these batches have lead content from 0.053 to 0.085 mg/l, above the permitted limit of 0.05 mg/l.

The company was ordered to recall the batches from the market earlier this month. But a large number of affected bottles worth VND3.9 billion ($174,200) had already been sold and could not be retrieved, according to local media reports.

Inspectors also said two of URC’s warehouses failed to meet food safety regulations, with spoilt products being stored next to those for sale.

The fine announced Tuesday showed that the Ministry of Health chose to stand by its own findings regarding the quality of the company’s bestselling products, following various and conflicting results released by other local testing agencies.

The case, apparently one of the biggest food safety scandals in Vietnam in years, caught the attention of the public and the press after some social media posts accused the Philippine producer of bribing some quality control officers to modify test results and clear their products.

There have also been claims that some journalists from various media outlets chose to ignore the company’s serious violations.

The health ministry has also identified three other batches of URC products with high lead content and ordered a recall. No cash fine has been imposed on these three batches, possibly because the ministry is still trying to determine the exact number of tainted bottles.

Baby dies of bacterial meningitis in Ho Chi Minh City

A five-month-old child died in Ho Chi Minh City late last month, the first victim of bacterial meningitis in the city this year.

The HCMC Hospital for Tropical Diseases said in a statement Wednesday that the baby girl was admitted with high fever and pale skin with blood spots. She died within a few hours and was diagnosed with meningitis caused by the Neisseria meningitis bacterium.

The city’s preventive health department has taken measures to control the spread of the disease in her neighborhood in District 11.

Bacterial meningitis is transmitted through saliva and respiratory droplets and can be fatal within the first day of infection. The disease is most common between six months and three years of age and between 14 and 20.

Typical symptoms include fever, headache and vomiting.

In Vietnam, children are vaccinated against bacterial meningitis from two years.

Growing fears amid medicine shortages in Venezuela

 

 

As Venezuela reels from an economic crisis, medical supplies are running short.

Cancer cell therapies could be approved next year: Juno, Kite Pharma

Preparations of media for cultivating cancer cells, being made in cancer research laboratories at the Old Road Campus research building at Oxford University, in Oxford, Britain May 11, 2016. Photo: Reuters/Peter Nicholls

A new wave of experimental cancer drugs that directly recruit the immune system’s powerful T cells could begin reaching patients next year, according to companies presenting new data at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

In interviews with Reuters, Kite Pharma Inc and Juno Therapeutics Inc both said they could receive initial regulatory approvals next year for a type of immunotherapy treatment known as chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapies.

CAR-T therapies involve a complicated process of extracting immune system T cells from an individual patient, altering their DNA to sharpen their ability to spot and kill cancer cells, and infusing them back into the same patient.

The technique is being tested against a range of different cancer types, but first in blood cancers. Kite aims to file this year for U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of its therapy, KTE-C19, for patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), according to Chief Medical Officer David Chang.

Juno Chief Executive Officer Hans Bishop said adult patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) are now being enrolled in a mid-stage trial of the company’s most advanced product, JCAR015, that “we believe will support accelerated approval.” He said JCAR015 “could be approved as soon as 2017.”

Data presented on Saturday showed that 77 percent of patients with advanced ALL achieved a “complete response,” meaning cancer remission, when treated with chemotherapy followed by Juno’s cell therapy. For the trial patients with minimal disease, 90 percent achieved remission, researchers said.

Twenty-seven percent of patients in the JCAR15 trial experienced a severe inflammatory response to the altered cells, and 15 percent had serious nervous system side effects.

Bishop said Juno has developed an assay to determine which patients are likely to experience risky side effects, but said the company has not yet disclosed the details.

A separate National Institutes of Health early-stage study involving Kite’s CAR-T drug and low-dose chemotherapy included 19 patients with various subtypes of DLBCL. Of those, eight patients achieved remission, five had partial responses, two had stable disease, and four had their cancer get worse. Two trial patients with advanced follicular lymphoma also obtained remissions.

“In the near future, CAR-T cells will likely be a standard therapy for lymphoma,” said lead study author James Kochenderfer, an investigator at the National Cancer Institute.

Some patients treated with the still-experimental therapies have remained cancer free, but the jury is out on whether that will continue, or whether they will need new treatment.

“Some of these responses are amazing in patients who would never have responded to anything,” said ASCO President Dr Julie Vose. “The question is, is it practical? We are now seeing results for more patients, and longer follow up.”

Juno’s Bishop said he is certain that the benefit of CAR-T therapies will be shown to outweigh any risks.

“These are patients that are relapsed and refractory. They are going to die of their disease,” he said. “We can get 90 to 100 percent of them into remission, and a meaningful percentage of them have durable remission.”