Drug Addict Paid To Get Vasectomy

Barbara Harris is a good woman. She and her husband John adopted four children from the same mother, a woman who was addicted to crack and who gave birth to addicted children. That’s what’s spurred her on to start the charity Project Prevention, which pays drug addicts to get sterilized to prevent this kind of situation from occurring. The project has sterilized 3500 people in the United States, but the program has run into controversy in Great Britain, where Project Prevention paid a drug addict 200 pounds to get a vasectomy.

Ms. Harris says her time raising drug-addicted babies is what spurred her to start Project Prevention. “I got very angry about the damage that these drugs do to these children,’ she told BBC London’s Inside Out program. “It was unbelievable. Isaiah could not sleep, he couldn’t eat, his eyes were big, noise bothered him, light bothered him. It broke my heart. I was angry at the mum, And then my anger turned a little bit to where why did we allow her to do that? I’ve been called everything. I’ve been spat on. Typically I just say to my critics: ‘If you believe these women should continue to take drugs and have children, then step up in line and adopt their babies.’ It’s that simple.”

Of course, the most valid criticism of the program is that the money went straight into the guy’s veins after the legal high of the vasectomy painkillers wears off, but really. That’s not always a bad thing. If we can prevent him from going out and having a bunch of kids, then it’s a net gain for society.

Via : popfi

Diet Consisting of Multiple Foods Beneficial for Health

According to a recently conducted study, the risk of suffering from heart diseases and other conditions like the Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes could be drastically reduced by following a few simple steps. The few simple steps, involve around the consumption of food rich in anti-oxidants and wholegrains.

Scientists in the study have discovered that there is a decline of 33% in cholesterol and 10% in blood pressure, if a person consumes a diet consisting of diverse categories of foods. It has been found in the study that multiple foods are more beneficial to health rather than just single types of foods.

A professor of multi-nutrition, Inger Björk from the Lund University, while talking about the results of the study has stated that the conclusion of the research had exceeded the expectations of the research team. She added that such results had never been observed in previous studies and that the new results would further influence the society to adopt more preventive efforts against diseases.

While talking to the Daily Express, Angela Dowden, a nutritionist, stated that it is possible that only one of the foods could be beneficial in bringing down excesses. However, it is more probable that the additive affects of other foods was just as important to reduce risks.

The study has been conducted by a team of researchers at the Lund University in Sweden.

Via : topnews

New Pill Has the Potential to Halt the Advance of AMD

Researchers have recently found that the drug fenretinide halts the advance of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), an eye condition for which there is no cure.

AMD comes in ‘wet’ and ‘dry’ forms, the former being less common but treatable. Researchers targeted the more prevalent dry AMD, which is caused by the deterioration and death of cells in the macula. By destroying the part of the retina used to see straight ahead, the disease creates a black spot in the centre of the patient’s vision, effectively blinding them.

Researchers found that one pill of fenretinide per day halted visual deterioration after a year. The drug, which is derived from vitamin A, protects healthy cells, but does not stop the destruction of cells that are already damaged.

An estimated 300,000 people suffer from the disease in Great Britain alone. Although the drug is still in its preliminary stages of research, it gives hope to millions of people at risk of going blind as they get older.

Dr. Jason Slakter at New York University’s School of Medicine says that the drug was not intended to give a final answer. “It was designed to see if there was a biological effect and if the drug was working in the way we’d expect and to find out if it was well tolerated by patients.”

If subsequent trials are successful, fenretinide could become available within 5 years.

Via : topnews

Vitamin A Pill Could Protect Millions From Going Blind

Researchers have discovered a vitamin A based drug that could prevent millions from going blind as they age. During old age trials, researchers behind the drug fenretinide, found the treatment halted the advance of age-related macular degeneration, the most common cause of blindness, and for which there is no cure, currently.

They targeted dry AMD, the most prevalent form of the condition caused by the deterioration and death of cells in the macula, a part of the retina used for seeing straight ahead. Creating a black spot in the centre of their vision, the disease causes many sufferers to lose their sight.

As well, it makes everyday tasks like reading, driving and watching television impossible to carry out.

While, it is possible to treat the wet form of the disease that is not so common, there is nothing that can be done for the majority of patients.

American researchers in their study of fenretinide derived from vitamin A to be found in carrots, and designed to tackle arthritis, originally, gave a fenretinide pill or a placebo to 250 men and women with dry AMD, participating in the study, every day.

After a year, the highest dose drug halted visual deterioration, and while it could not do anything about damaged cells that were dying, it was able to protect health cells from deteriorating.

The research offers promise of a treatment for the disease, even though it is still in its preliminary stage, offering hope to the 300,000 Britons suffering from the disease. If, further trials are successful the drug could become available within 5 years.

Macular degeneration affects millions worldwide, and the numbers of those suffering from it in the UK could treble to one million as the population ages, within 25 years.

Via : visitbulgaria

Vitamin A drug 'could save eyesight'

Doctors believe that fenretinide can halt the advance of macular degeneration - a disease for which there is currently no cure.

Researchers have discovered that the drug can help stop "dry" AMD which is caused by the destruction of cells in macula, the part of the retina which allows you to see straight ahead.

"Dry" AMD is the most prevalent form of the disease and leaves a black spot in sufferers' vision.

In a US study Fenretinide, which is derived from vitamin A, was given to 250 people with "dry" AMD. It was found to halt the deterioration of eyesight by protecting healthy cells but not stopping the destruction of of cells that were already damaged.

It gives hope to the 300,000 Britons who suffer from the disease.

Dr Jason Slakter, of New York University School of Medicine, said: "There are currently no effective treatments for dry AMN and the need for finding one is grave.

"Our study wasn't designed to give a final answer. It was designed to see if there was a biological effect and if the drug was working in the way we'd expect and to find out if it was well tolerated by patients.

"I think we answered all of these points favourably."

If further trials are succesful the drug could become available within 5 years.

Via : telegraph

Three in 100 people have food allergies, study says

Nearly 3 out of 100 Americans have a food allergy, according to a new study believed to be the largest one conducted on food allergies.

The study of 8,200 people of all ages was conducted by Johns Hopkins Children's Center, the National Institutes of Health and other institutions. NIH funded the study. It found more than 2.5 percent of the population, or 7.5 million people, have at least one food allergy.

The most common allergy is peanuts antibodies, the proteins made by the immune system in response to allergens. Others big allergens were allergic to shrimp, eggs, milk. Many people had more than one allergy.

The use of antibodies allowed the researchers to see only those with actual disease and not a risk for allergies.

The findings are published in the October issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and are based on blood samples and interviews.

In general, allergies were most common in children 5 and younger, followed by those 6 to 19. Black people were more likely to have allergies, as were men. The researchers also looked for links to asthma, eczema and hay fever, and found a allergies were more common in those with asthma.

“Our findings confirm a long-suspected interplay between food allergies and asthma, and that people with one of the conditions are at higher risk for the other,” says investigator Dr. Robert Wood, director of Allergy and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center.

He said many children develop a food allergy first and later get asthma and then hay fever.

Via : weblogs.baltimoresun

Newer flu vaccine as effective as traditional one

A flu vaccine made through a speedier production method appears to be as safe and effective as one produced in the traditional way, a study suggests.

The conventional flu vaccine is produced using chicken eggs to grow the virus, a slow process that makes it hard to quickly boost production in response to a pandemic, such as the swine flu outbreak of 2009.

The new study looked at the effectiveness of a newer flu vaccine that is produced using dog kidney cells, rather than eggs. It is already approved in Europe under the name of Optaflu.

Such cell-culture technology is seen as a somewhat faster and more flexible means of vaccine production, and some companies, as well as public health officials, are interested in increasing its use in producing the yearly flu vaccine.

Because different strains of the flu virus circulate each flu season, vaccine makers have to alter the composition of the shot each year. Experts try to predict which strains are likely to predominate in the upcoming season, and manufacturers produce that year's vaccine based on those recommendations.

Sometimes, as in the case of the 2009 swine flu pandemic, an unexpected strain is identified after the seasonal vaccine has been produced. A more efficient means of production could allow vaccine makers to better respond to such outbreaks.

The Optaflu vaccine was approved as a seasonal flu vaccine by the European Union in 2007, and in the U.S., Optaflu maker Novartis received nearly $500 million from the federal government to help build a North Carolina facility to produce the vaccine. Optaflu is not yet approved in the U.S., however.

For the new study, published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, researchers tested the vaccine's effectiveness among 11,400 healthy adults younger than 50 from the U.S., Finland and Poland.

Past studies of young to elderly adults had found that the Optaflu vaccine appeared safe and produced an antibody response comparable to that triggered by conventional flu vaccination. The current trial is the first to test the vaccine's actual efficacy against infection, lead researcher Dr. Sharon Frey, of Saint Louis University Medical School, told Reuters Health.

Frey and her colleagues randomly assigned the volunteers to receive the Optaflu vaccine, a standard egg-based flu shot or a placebo shot during the 2007-2008 flu season. Both vaccines are made by Novartis, which funded the study.

Over six months, 42 Optaflu recipients — or 1.1 percent of the group — reported flu-like symptoms and had a flu infection confirmed by objective testing. That figure was 1.3 percent in the conventional-vaccine group and 3.6 percent in the placebo group.

Overall, the cell-based vaccine was 84 percent effective against the three flu strains included in the shot, versus the placebo; the conventional vaccine was 78 percent effective.

When it came to all circulating flu strains for the season, both vaccines, predictably, were less effective: the cell-based shot was 69 percent effective, compared with the placebo, and the conventional vaccine 63 percent.

Side effects were similar in the two vaccine groups, according to the researchers. The most common problem — pain at the injection site — was reported by 30 percent of Optaflu recipients, 24 percent of the egg-based vaccine group and 10 percent of the placebo group.

Between 7 percent and 15 percent of all vaccine recipients reported short-lived headaches, fatigue or muscle soreness.

The findings offer "further reassurance of the safety and efficacy" of cell-based flu vaccines, writes Dr. David Bernstein, in an editorial published with the study.

"It appears that (the vaccines) will be useful and should begin to make up part of the vaccine supply shortly," writes Bernstein, director of the division of infectious diseases at Cincinnati Children's Hospital.

Frey said that a cell-based flu vaccine has advantages other than more efficient production. It is safe for people with egg allergies, she noted, and it does not contain the preservative thimerosal; while a proposed link between thimerosal in vaccines and autism risk has been discredited by many studies, public concerns remain.

In his editorial, Bernstein agrees that cell-based flu vaccines would offer a number of advantages over conventional ones.

He also, however, points to some disadvantages and barriers that will have to be considered going forward — including the general lack of experience in using the production system, the need to build expensive new manufacturing facilities, and the need for further study to ensure that cell-based flu vaccines are free of contaminants.

Via : mnn

Swine/H1N1 Flu resurfaces in Southern Africa

The southern African nation of Zimbabwe’s health infrastructure has come under the spotlight after a new outbreak of the deadly influenza H1N1, commonly known as swine flu, was detected in all 10 administrative provinces.

At the remote southern district of Tsholotso, Zimbabwe, about 70 kms away from Maitengwe, Botswana, 300 cases involving mostly school children have been reported. And of the seven preliminary tests done to date, two people have tested positive.

Dr Portia Manangazira of the Epidemiology and Disease Control Unit in the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare of Zimbabwe, Saturday October 16 said the flu bug might be a combination of H1N1 (swine flu) and H3N2 (common cold flu).

“There is a spread of a combination of H1N1 and H3N2 countrywide but cases of common cold flu are usually reported between May and September,” said Dr Manangazira.

It takes one to two days for the symptoms to appear and the flu lasts one to two weeks.

“We do not have laboratory samples and we base our surveys on signs and symptoms to give medication. We are still using the same drug oseltamivir, which treats both swine and cold flu to treat this bug,” she said.

The symptoms of the flu bug are runny nose, sneezing, sore throat which may lead to loss of voice, reddening of the eyes, general body ache, loss of appetite and headaches.

The outbreak has raised concerns as Zimbabwe’s public health system slowly recovers from almost a decade of neglect following a collapse of the the country’s economy.

The District Administrator for Tsholotsho District, Themba Mayo, who is also the chairperson of the District Civil Protection Unit, said the suspected cases have been recorded in eight wards in the district.

“We have recorded about 300 cases of the suspected virus in about eight wards so far. Most of the cases are schoolchildren. So far the hospital has carried out tests on seven of these and the preliminary findings point towards a possible outbreak of the H1N1 influenza virus as two have so far come out positive,” said Mr Moyo.

By midday Saturday, several Non-governmental organizations including Plan International and Medecins Sans Frontiers had dispatched teams of health workers to the affected areas.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in humans the symptoms of the 2009 H1N1 virus are similar to those of influenza and of influenza-like illness in general.

Last year, the country was on high alert following a few recorded cases of people who had contracted the virus outside Zimbabwe.

The first case was of an unidentified man who flew into the country from London, and the second of a schoolboy who had gone to South Africa for a sports tournament.

Via : afrik-news

B.C. flu vaccine program expanded

Health officials in B.C. are expanding the annual free flu vaccine program to include two new groups this year, as they prepare to start offering the new vaccine on Monday.

Provincial Health officer Dr. Perry Kendall says the vaccine will once again be free for people at high risk of complications from the flu, such as seniors, children and those with certain health problems.

And for the first time this year the morbidly obese — people with a body mass index above 40 — and aboriginal people on and off reserve will also get the vaccine for free, said Kendall.

"Aboriginal people were in some parts of Canada at higher risk for H1N1, and we held discussions with our First Nations health council and they felt it would be appropriate to offer influenza vaccine to all aboriginal people, so we have made that decision to do that in British Columbia as well," said Kendall.

Last year's flu season was unusual because of the H1N1 pandemic, and that has made it difficult to predict how serious the virus will be this year, but this year's vaccine protects against three strains, said Kendall.

"It contains an antigen against the pandemic H1N1. It contains antigen against the H3n2 and against a B influenza," he said.

Via : cbc

Woman dies of H1N1 virus

A 26-year-old Qatari woman has died from H1N1 flu virus, the Supreme Council of Health announced yesterday.

Her death brings the total number of H1N1 victims in Qatar to 11 since the first case in August last year.
The last death from the virus was on January 10.

The latest victim, who was 29 months pregnant, was admitted to Hamad Hospital on October 10, suffering from acute pneumonia and high fever. She was treated as a suspected H1N1 case.

Public Health director Dr Mohamed al-Thani said the twins she was bearing had been rescued and were under close observation now.

Dr Mohamed al-Thani called on residents to comply with the preventive measures against H1N1 as declared by the Supreme Council of Health.

He stressed that anyone having flu symptoms should immediately visit the nearest Primary Health Centre.
H1N1 symptoms include fever, cough and runny nose .

He also stressed the importance of seasonal flu shots, especially by the most vulnerable groups such as pregnant women, pilgrims, children, people suffering from chronic diseases and the aged.

The flu shots are available at the Vaccination Section at Abu Hamour Centre.

Via : biomedme

Frozen vegetables recalled amid fears of glass fragments

On late Saturday evening, the Tennessee-based Pictsweet Co. in Bells, one of the largest frozen vegetable suppliers in the United States announced a voluntary recall of certain packages of frozen vegetables after it came to their knowledge that some of them may contain glass fragments.

According to the company, the recall is focused on 24000 pounds of packages that contain green peas, carrots and mixed vegetables.

The products were distributed to Walmart locations nationwide and to Kroger stores in the southeast United States under the Great Value brand.

Recall, a precautionary measure
No injuries have been reported due to the glass pieces in the frozen vegetables and the recall notification is being issued out of caution.

Pictsweet Co. is taking precautionary measures and warning consumers not to purchase the product and to stop using whatever supplies they have since the possibility of injury is high if the food items are ingested.

The enterprise is also urging the public to return the affected frozen packs to the place of purchase. The products can be returned for a complete refund made.

In addition, for consumer queries, the company has set up a toll free consumer hot line at 1-800-367-7412, extension 417 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. central daylight time, Monday through Friday.

According to the company, the recall is focused on 24000 pounds of packages that contain green peas, carrots and mixed vegetables that were distributed to Wal-Mart locations nationwide and to Kroger stores in the southeast United States.

Via : themoneytimes

Glass fragments spark frozen vegetable recall at Walmart & Kroger

A word of warning to consumers that have been out buying the store-brand vegetables that were manufactured by Pictsweet Co. in Bells, Tennessee.

It was announced on Friday that these store-brand vegetables, like the Great Value brand from Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) contain glass fragments. Other stores mentioned in the recall included all Kroger Stores (NYSE:KR) in the southeast of the United States.

If you are wondering whether you were one of the unlucky people to purchase one of these packages of frozen vegetables you can refer to the information below. If you find any of the UPC codes below, return your product for a full refund to your place of purchase.

While this is a voluntary recall by Pictsweet Company, they recommend that you do not eat any of the frozen vegetables and immediately return your purchase for your safety.

This is at least the 4th time, this year, consumer products have been recalled due to glass fragments inside of a product.

The voluntary recall covers the following items:

– Kroger 12-ounce Green Peas (UPC 11110 89736). Production Codes of 1440BU, 1440BV, 1440BW, and 1600BD.

– Kroger 12-ounce Peas and Carrots (UPC 11110 89741). Production Codes of 1960BD and 1960BE.

– Great Value 12-ounce Steamable Sweet Peas (UPC 78742 08369). Best by dates of July 20, 2012; July 21, 2012.

– Great Value 12-ounce Steamable Mixed Vegetables (UPC 78742 08026). Best by date of July 15, 2012.

Consumers with questions may contact Pictsweet toll-free at 1-800-367-7412, extension 417, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Daylight Time, Monday through Friday.

Via : usaliveheadlines