Because Americans are getting heavier at an earlier age and failing to lose the extra pounds for longer, researchers now believe that chronic illness and life expectancy will be worse than previously estimated.
The study authors report that one in five people born between 1966 and 1985 became obese -- a step above merely overweight -- when they were between 20 and 29 years old.
By contrast, those who were born from 1946 to 1955 didn't reach the level of obesity until they were in their 30s. And those who were born between 1936 and 1945 didn't get to that weight category until their 40s, according to the report published in the April 12 issue of the International Journal of Obesity.
"Many people have heard that Americans are getting heavier. But it's very important to understand who the obesity epidemic is affecting," study lead author Dr. Joyce Lee, a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of Michigan Mott Children's Hospital, said in a news release. "Our research indicates that higher numbers of young and middle-age American adults are becoming obese at younger and younger ages."
In the new federally funded study, the researchers found that blacks and women are especially hard hit by obesity when compared to past generations.
"Black Americans already experience a higher burden of obesity-related diseases, and the obesity trends will likely magnify those racial disparities in health," Lee noted in the news release.
New Medical & Public Health Search Engine!
Monday, April 19, 2010
Friday, April 16, 2010
Autism bowel disease not a real condition?
A new autism disease identified in a flawed paper linking a common children's vaccine to autism, may not exist, new research says.
A dozen years ago, British surgeon Andrew Wakefield and colleagues published a study in the journal Lancet on a new bowel disease and proposed a connection between autism and the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella.
The study was widely discredited, 10 of Wakefield's co-authors renounced its conclusions and the Lancet retracted the paper in February. The research set off a health scare, and vaccination rates in Britain dropped so low measles outbreaks returned.
In research published Friday in the medical journal BMJ, reporter Brian Deer examines if the illness described by Wakefield and colleagues — autistic enterocolitis, a bowel disease found in autistic people — actually exists.
In 1996, Wakefield was hired by a lawyer to find a new syndrome of bowel and brain disease to help launch a lawsuit against drug companies that made the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, according to BMJ article.
According to reports from London's Royal Free Hospital, eight of the 11 children included in Wakefield's original study had normal bowels. But in the Lancet study, 11 of the 12 were said to have a swollen bowel, which was said to be proof of a new gastrointestinal disease affecting autistic children.
In 2005, Wakefield started a clinic in Texas to research and treat the syndrome.
The original biopsy slides from the children in the Lancet study are no longer available. Deer asked independent experts to examine hospital reports on the biopsies, who failed to find any distinctive inflammation that would qualify as a new disease.
In an accompanying editorial, Sir Nicholas Wright from the Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, said "any firm conclusion would be inadvisable." He said several studies have shown a link between inflamed bowels and autism, but too little evidence exists to prove there is a new illness.
In January, Britain's General Medical Council ruled Wakefield had acted unethically. He and the two colleagues who have not renounced the study face being stripped of their right to practice medicine in Britain.
A dozen years ago, British surgeon Andrew Wakefield and colleagues published a study in the journal Lancet on a new bowel disease and proposed a connection between autism and the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella.
The study was widely discredited, 10 of Wakefield's co-authors renounced its conclusions and the Lancet retracted the paper in February. The research set off a health scare, and vaccination rates in Britain dropped so low measles outbreaks returned.
In research published Friday in the medical journal BMJ, reporter Brian Deer examines if the illness described by Wakefield and colleagues — autistic enterocolitis, a bowel disease found in autistic people — actually exists.
In 1996, Wakefield was hired by a lawyer to find a new syndrome of bowel and brain disease to help launch a lawsuit against drug companies that made the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, according to BMJ article.
According to reports from London's Royal Free Hospital, eight of the 11 children included in Wakefield's original study had normal bowels. But in the Lancet study, 11 of the 12 were said to have a swollen bowel, which was said to be proof of a new gastrointestinal disease affecting autistic children.
In 2005, Wakefield started a clinic in Texas to research and treat the syndrome.
The original biopsy slides from the children in the Lancet study are no longer available. Deer asked independent experts to examine hospital reports on the biopsies, who failed to find any distinctive inflammation that would qualify as a new disease.
In an accompanying editorial, Sir Nicholas Wright from the Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, said "any firm conclusion would be inadvisable." He said several studies have shown a link between inflamed bowels and autism, but too little evidence exists to prove there is a new illness.
In January, Britain's General Medical Council ruled Wakefield had acted unethically. He and the two colleagues who have not renounced the study face being stripped of their right to practice medicine in Britain.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Researchers find annual Chlamydia screening may not be enough for some to prevent Pelvic Inflammatory disease
Once-a-year screening for chlamydia isn't likely to protect women from developing pelvic inflammatory disease, researchers say.
A new study has found that most cases of pelvic inflammatory disease occur in women who didn't have chlamydia infection when they were screened, which suggests they may have become infected later.
Chlamydia is the most common sexually transmitted infection in Europe and the United States. An estimated 3 million new infections are diagnosed annually, and because there are often no symptoms, many cases remain undiagnosed, according to background information provided in a news release about the study. Undiagnosed chlamydia infection may lead to pelvic inflammatory disease.
The study included 2,529 sexually active females, aged 16 to 27, who completed questionnaires and provided vaginal swabs to check for chlamydia. Some of the swabs (1,254) were tested immediately while others (1,265) were tested after a year.
Chlamydia was found in 68 (5.4 percent) of the women who were screened at the start of the study and in 75 (5.9 percent) of those screened a year later. During the study period, pelvic inflammatory disease developed in 15 (1.3 percent) of the women who were screened immediately and in 23 (1.9 percent) of those who were screened after one year.
The majority of cases of pelvic inflammatory disease (79 percent) were among women who tested negative for chlamydia at their initial screening, the study authors found. This suggests that, among high-risk people, frequent testing for chlamydia may be more effective at preventing pelvic inflammatory disease than annual screening, said Dr. Pippa Oakeshott, of the University of London, and colleagues.
Public campaigns should emphasize the need for screening whenever a woman has a new sexual partner, the study authors recommended in the report published online April 9 in BMJ.
"It is disappointing but not surprising that this study could not provide a clear answer as to whether screening is effective in reducing the incidence of pelvic inflammatory disease," Jessica Sheringham, of University College London, wrote in an editorial accompanying the study.
A new study has found that most cases of pelvic inflammatory disease occur in women who didn't have chlamydia infection when they were screened, which suggests they may have become infected later.
Chlamydia is the most common sexually transmitted infection in Europe and the United States. An estimated 3 million new infections are diagnosed annually, and because there are often no symptoms, many cases remain undiagnosed, according to background information provided in a news release about the study. Undiagnosed chlamydia infection may lead to pelvic inflammatory disease.
The study included 2,529 sexually active females, aged 16 to 27, who completed questionnaires and provided vaginal swabs to check for chlamydia. Some of the swabs (1,254) were tested immediately while others (1,265) were tested after a year.
Chlamydia was found in 68 (5.4 percent) of the women who were screened at the start of the study and in 75 (5.9 percent) of those screened a year later. During the study period, pelvic inflammatory disease developed in 15 (1.3 percent) of the women who were screened immediately and in 23 (1.9 percent) of those who were screened after one year.
The majority of cases of pelvic inflammatory disease (79 percent) were among women who tested negative for chlamydia at their initial screening, the study authors found. This suggests that, among high-risk people, frequent testing for chlamydia may be more effective at preventing pelvic inflammatory disease than annual screening, said Dr. Pippa Oakeshott, of the University of London, and colleagues.
Public campaigns should emphasize the need for screening whenever a woman has a new sexual partner, the study authors recommended in the report published online April 9 in BMJ.
"It is disappointing but not surprising that this study could not provide a clear answer as to whether screening is effective in reducing the incidence of pelvic inflammatory disease," Jessica Sheringham, of University College London, wrote in an editorial accompanying the study.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
POLISH PRESIDENT DIES IN PLANE CRASH!
Polish President Lech Kaczynski and some of the country's highest military and civilian leaders died on Saturday when the presidential plane crashed as it came in for a landing in thick fog in western Russia, killing ~97 people, officials said.
Russian and Polish officials said there were no survivors on the 26-year-old Tupolev, which was taking the president, his wife and staff to events marking the 70th anniversary of the massacre in Katyn forest of thousands of Polish officers by Soviet secret police.
The crash devastated the upper echelons of Poland's political and military establishments. On board were the army chief of staff, the navy chief commander, and heads of the air and land forces. Also killed were the national bank president, deputy foreign minister, army chaplain, head of the National Security Office, deputy parliament speaker, Olympic Committee head, civil rights commissioner and at least two presidential aides and three lawmakers, the Polish foreign ministry said.
Although initial signs pointed to an accident with no indication of foul play, the death of a Polish president and much of the Polish state and defense establishment in Russia en route to commemorating one of the saddest events in Poland's long, complicated history with Russia, was laden with tragic irony.
Reflecting the grave sensibilities of the crash to relations between the two countries, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin personally assumed charge of the investigation. He was due in Smolensk later Saturday, where he would meet Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who was flying in from Warsaw.
"This is unbelievable — this tragic, cursed Katyn," Kaczynski's predecessor, Aleksander Kwasniewski, said on TVN24 television.
It is "a cursed place, horrible symbolism," he said. "It's hard to believe. You get chills down your spine."
Andrei Yevseyenkov, spokesman for the Smolensk regional government, said Russian dispatchers asked the crew to divert from the military airport in North Smolensk and land instead in Minsk, the capital of neighboring Belarus, or in Moscow because of the fog.
While traffic controllers generally have the final word in whether it is safe for a plane to land, they can and do leave it to the pilots' discretion.
Air Force Gen. Alexander Alyoshin confirmed that the pilot disregarded instructions to fly to another airfield.
"But they continued landing, and it ended, unfortunately, with a tragedy," the Interfax news agency quoted Alyoshin as saying. He added that the pilot makes the final decision about whether to land.
Russia's Emergency Minister Sergei Shoigu said there were 97 dead. His ministry said 88 of whom were part of the Polish state delegation. Poland's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Piotr Paszkowski, said there were 89 people on the passenger list but one person had not shown up for the roughly 1 1/2-hour flight from Warsaw's main airport.
Some of the people on board were relatives of those slain in the Katyn massacre. Also among the victims was Anna Walentynowicz, whose firing in August 1980 from the Lenin Shipyards in Gdansk sparked a workers' strike that spurred the eventual creation of the Solidarity freedom movement. She went on to be a prominent member.
"This is a great tragedy, a great shock to us all," former president and Solidarity leader Lech Walesa said.
The deaths were not expected to directly affect the functioning of Polish government: Poland's president is commander in chief of its armed forces but the position's domestic duties are chiefly symbolic. Most top government ministers were not aboard the plane.
According to the Aviation Safety Network, there have been 66 crashes involving Tu-154s in the past four decades, including six in the past five years. The Russian carrier Aeroflot recently withdrew its Tu-154 fleet from service, largely because the planes do not meet international noise restrictions and use too much fuel.
The aircraft was the workhorse of East Bloc civil aviation in the 1970s and 1980s, and many of the crashes have been attributed to the chaos that ensued after the breakup of the Soviet Unio
Poland has long discussed replacing the planes that carry the country's leaders but said they lacked the funds.
The presidential plane was fully overhauled in December, the general director of the Aviakor aviation maintenance plant in Samara, Russia told Rossiya-24. The plant repaired the plane's three engines, retrofitted electronic and navigation equipment and updated the interior, Alexei Gusev said. He said there could be no doubts that the plane was flightworthy.
The plane tilted to the left before crashing, eyewitness Slawomir Sliwinski told state news channel Rossiya-24. He said there were two loud explosions when the aircraft hit the ground.
Rossiya-24 showed footage from the crash site, with pieces of the plane scattered widely amid leafless trees and small fires burning in woods shrouded with fog. A tail fin with the red and white national colors of Poland stuck up from the debris.
Polish-Russian relations had been improving of late after being poisoned for decades over the Katyn massacre of some 22,000 Polish officers.
Russia never has formally apologized for the murders but Putin's decision to attend a memorial ceremony earlier this week in the forest near Katyn was seen as a gesture of goodwill toward reconciliation. Kaczynski wasn't invited to that event. Putin, as prime minister, had invited his Polish counterpart, Tusk.
Putin and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev both called Tusk to express their condolences and they promised to work closely with Poland in investigating the crash. Tusk said they had been the first to offer condolences.
"On this difficult day the people of Russia stand with the Polish people," Medvedev said, according to the Kremlin press service.
Putin told Tusk that he would keep him fully briefed on the investigation, his spokesman said.
Rossiya-24 showed hundreds of people around the Katyn monument, many holding Polish flags, some weeping.
Poland's parliament speaker, the acting president, declared a week of national mourning. Tusk called for two minutes of silence at noon (1000GMT) Sunday.
"The contemporary world has not seen such a tragedy," he said.
In Warsaw, Tusk also called an extraordinary meeting of his Cabinet and the national flag was lowered to half-staff at the presidential palace, where several thousand people gathered to lay flowers and light candles. Black ribbons appeared in some windows in the capital.
Kaczynski, 60, was the twin brother of Poland's opposition leader, former Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski. Kaczynski's wife, Maria, was an economist. They had a daughter, Marta, and two granddaughters.
Lech Kaczynski became president in December 2005 after defeating Tusk in that year's presidential vote.
The nationalist conservative had said he would seek a second term in presidential elections this fall. He was expected to face an uphill struggle against Parliament speaker Bronislaw Komorowski, the candidate of Tusk's governing Civic Platform party.
The constitution says the parliament speaker announce early elections within 14 days of the president's death. The vote must be held within another 60 days.
Poland, a nation of 38 million people, is by far the largest of the 10 formerly communist countries that have joined the European Union in recent years.
Last year, Poland was the only EU nation to avoid recession and posted economic growth of 1.7 percent.
It has become a firm U.S. ally in the region since the fall of communism — a stance that crosses party lines.
The country sent troops to the U.S.-led war in Iraq and recently boosted its contingent in Afghanistan to some 2,600 soldiers.
U.S. Patriot missiles are expected to be deployed in Poland this year. That was a Polish condition for a 2008 deal — backed by both Kaczynski and Tusk — to host long-range missile defense interceptors.
The deal, which was struck by the Bush administration, angered Russia and was later reconfigured under President Barack Obama's administration.
Under the Obama plan, Poland would host a different type of missile defense interceptors as part of a more mobile system and at a later date, probably not until 2018.
Kaczynski is the first serving Polish leader to die since exiled World War II-era leader Gen. Wladyslaw Sikorski in a plane crash off Gibraltar in 1943.
In the village of Gorzno, in northern Poland, the streets were largely empty as people stayed home to watch television.
"It is very symbolic that they were flying to pay homage to so many murdered Poles," said resident Waleria Gess, 73.
"I worry because so many clever and decent people were killed," said high school student Pawel Kwas, 17. "I am afraid we may have problems in the future to find equally talented politicians."
Russian and Polish officials said there were no survivors on the 26-year-old Tupolev, which was taking the president, his wife and staff to events marking the 70th anniversary of the massacre in Katyn forest of thousands of Polish officers by Soviet secret police.
The crash devastated the upper echelons of Poland's political and military establishments. On board were the army chief of staff, the navy chief commander, and heads of the air and land forces. Also killed were the national bank president, deputy foreign minister, army chaplain, head of the National Security Office, deputy parliament speaker, Olympic Committee head, civil rights commissioner and at least two presidential aides and three lawmakers, the Polish foreign ministry said.
Although initial signs pointed to an accident with no indication of foul play, the death of a Polish president and much of the Polish state and defense establishment in Russia en route to commemorating one of the saddest events in Poland's long, complicated history with Russia, was laden with tragic irony.
Reflecting the grave sensibilities of the crash to relations between the two countries, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin personally assumed charge of the investigation. He was due in Smolensk later Saturday, where he would meet Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who was flying in from Warsaw.
"This is unbelievable — this tragic, cursed Katyn," Kaczynski's predecessor, Aleksander Kwasniewski, said on TVN24 television.
It is "a cursed place, horrible symbolism," he said. "It's hard to believe. You get chills down your spine."
Andrei Yevseyenkov, spokesman for the Smolensk regional government, said Russian dispatchers asked the crew to divert from the military airport in North Smolensk and land instead in Minsk, the capital of neighboring Belarus, or in Moscow because of the fog.
While traffic controllers generally have the final word in whether it is safe for a plane to land, they can and do leave it to the pilots' discretion.
Air Force Gen. Alexander Alyoshin confirmed that the pilot disregarded instructions to fly to another airfield.
"But they continued landing, and it ended, unfortunately, with a tragedy," the Interfax news agency quoted Alyoshin as saying. He added that the pilot makes the final decision about whether to land.
Russia's Emergency Minister Sergei Shoigu said there were 97 dead. His ministry said 88 of whom were part of the Polish state delegation. Poland's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Piotr Paszkowski, said there were 89 people on the passenger list but one person had not shown up for the roughly 1 1/2-hour flight from Warsaw's main airport.
Some of the people on board were relatives of those slain in the Katyn massacre. Also among the victims was Anna Walentynowicz, whose firing in August 1980 from the Lenin Shipyards in Gdansk sparked a workers' strike that spurred the eventual creation of the Solidarity freedom movement. She went on to be a prominent member.
"This is a great tragedy, a great shock to us all," former president and Solidarity leader Lech Walesa said.
The deaths were not expected to directly affect the functioning of Polish government: Poland's president is commander in chief of its armed forces but the position's domestic duties are chiefly symbolic. Most top government ministers were not aboard the plane.
According to the Aviation Safety Network, there have been 66 crashes involving Tu-154s in the past four decades, including six in the past five years. The Russian carrier Aeroflot recently withdrew its Tu-154 fleet from service, largely because the planes do not meet international noise restrictions and use too much fuel.
The aircraft was the workhorse of East Bloc civil aviation in the 1970s and 1980s, and many of the crashes have been attributed to the chaos that ensued after the breakup of the Soviet Unio
Poland has long discussed replacing the planes that carry the country's leaders but said they lacked the funds.
The presidential plane was fully overhauled in December, the general director of the Aviakor aviation maintenance plant in Samara, Russia told Rossiya-24. The plant repaired the plane's three engines, retrofitted electronic and navigation equipment and updated the interior, Alexei Gusev said. He said there could be no doubts that the plane was flightworthy.
The plane tilted to the left before crashing, eyewitness Slawomir Sliwinski told state news channel Rossiya-24. He said there were two loud explosions when the aircraft hit the ground.
Rossiya-24 showed footage from the crash site, with pieces of the plane scattered widely amid leafless trees and small fires burning in woods shrouded with fog. A tail fin with the red and white national colors of Poland stuck up from the debris.
Polish-Russian relations had been improving of late after being poisoned for decades over the Katyn massacre of some 22,000 Polish officers.
Russia never has formally apologized for the murders but Putin's decision to attend a memorial ceremony earlier this week in the forest near Katyn was seen as a gesture of goodwill toward reconciliation. Kaczynski wasn't invited to that event. Putin, as prime minister, had invited his Polish counterpart, Tusk.
Putin and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev both called Tusk to express their condolences and they promised to work closely with Poland in investigating the crash. Tusk said they had been the first to offer condolences.
"On this difficult day the people of Russia stand with the Polish people," Medvedev said, according to the Kremlin press service.
Putin told Tusk that he would keep him fully briefed on the investigation, his spokesman said.
Rossiya-24 showed hundreds of people around the Katyn monument, many holding Polish flags, some weeping.
Poland's parliament speaker, the acting president, declared a week of national mourning. Tusk called for two minutes of silence at noon (1000GMT) Sunday.
"The contemporary world has not seen such a tragedy," he said.
In Warsaw, Tusk also called an extraordinary meeting of his Cabinet and the national flag was lowered to half-staff at the presidential palace, where several thousand people gathered to lay flowers and light candles. Black ribbons appeared in some windows in the capital.
Kaczynski, 60, was the twin brother of Poland's opposition leader, former Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski. Kaczynski's wife, Maria, was an economist. They had a daughter, Marta, and two granddaughters.
Lech Kaczynski became president in December 2005 after defeating Tusk in that year's presidential vote.
The nationalist conservative had said he would seek a second term in presidential elections this fall. He was expected to face an uphill struggle against Parliament speaker Bronislaw Komorowski, the candidate of Tusk's governing Civic Platform party.
The constitution says the parliament speaker announce early elections within 14 days of the president's death. The vote must be held within another 60 days.
Poland, a nation of 38 million people, is by far the largest of the 10 formerly communist countries that have joined the European Union in recent years.
Last year, Poland was the only EU nation to avoid recession and posted economic growth of 1.7 percent.
It has become a firm U.S. ally in the region since the fall of communism — a stance that crosses party lines.
The country sent troops to the U.S.-led war in Iraq and recently boosted its contingent in Afghanistan to some 2,600 soldiers.
U.S. Patriot missiles are expected to be deployed in Poland this year. That was a Polish condition for a 2008 deal — backed by both Kaczynski and Tusk — to host long-range missile defense interceptors.
The deal, which was struck by the Bush administration, angered Russia and was later reconfigured under President Barack Obama's administration.
Under the Obama plan, Poland would host a different type of missile defense interceptors as part of a more mobile system and at a later date, probably not until 2018.
Kaczynski is the first serving Polish leader to die since exiled World War II-era leader Gen. Wladyslaw Sikorski in a plane crash off Gibraltar in 1943.
In the village of Gorzno, in northern Poland, the streets were largely empty as people stayed home to watch television.
"It is very symbolic that they were flying to pay homage to so many murdered Poles," said resident Waleria Gess, 73.
"I worry because so many clever and decent people were killed," said high school student Pawel Kwas, 17. "I am afraid we may have problems in the future to find equally talented politicians."
E. Coli outbreak in Washington
A deadly strain of E. coli spread from child to child at a Washington state day care, killing one and sickening three others despite what health officials determined were appropriate hygienic practices.
The four children were hospitalized, and Elizabeth Winter of the Washington state Department of Early Learning said her department was notified Friday that one of them, a 4-year-old boy, had died.
Fletch Family Daycare — a tidy single-story yellow rambler on a large lot in Vancouver, Wash. — is closed.
The other three children have been released, said Dr. Alan Melnick, health officer with the Clark County, Wash., health department. He declined to provide any further details on the child who died.
Melnick said the department learned of the first hospitalization involving the E. coli O157:H7 bacteria strain on March 19.
Health officials determined that the business' hygienic practices were acceptable, but closed it down in April 2 when it became apparent that E. coli was spreading from person to person, Melnick said in an interview with Portland's KGW-TV.
"We believe we have it confined," Melnick told reporters Friday.
Winter said the center, near Portland and operated by Dianne and Larry Fletch, has been open since 1990 and no complaints have been filed against it. Lately, it has been caring for about 22 children.
"This is a very difficult time for the family who has suffered such an incredible loss," the Fletches said in a statement Friday. "It is also a difficult time for our day care families and the children who were his friends. It is an especially difficult time for us as day care providers."
The statement said the day care has worked closely with the health department to put measures in place to control the spread of the illness.
The Fletches did not immediately return phone messages from The Associated Press seeking additional comment.
E. coli is a common and ordinarily harmless bacteria, but certain strains can cause abdominal cramps, fever, bloody diarrhea, kidney failure, blindness, paralysis and death.
The strain involved in this case, E. coli O157:H7, is best known for its role in large outbreaks traced to ground beef or produce.
However, person-to-person transmission can be a problem in day-care settings or nursing homes without sufficiently thorough hand washing after toilet use or diaper changing. In some cases, especially in young children, infection can lead to life-threatening complications.
Investigators have not pinpointed a precise source of the outbreak, but Melnick said the infection was spread from person to person.
Health investigators have tested the 22 children, as well as four adults, Melnick said. Seven additional people, a mix of staff and children, showed no symptoms but had E. coli in their stool, he said.
Symptoms can take as long as 10 days to appear after exposure so the health department is checking with staff and the children's families daily.
Melnick said the day care will remain closed until affected staff show no presence of the bacteria on two consecutive tests. Children who tested positive will have to meet the same criteria before being allowed to attend any day care or school, he said.
The four children were hospitalized, and Elizabeth Winter of the Washington state Department of Early Learning said her department was notified Friday that one of them, a 4-year-old boy, had died.
Fletch Family Daycare — a tidy single-story yellow rambler on a large lot in Vancouver, Wash. — is closed.
The other three children have been released, said Dr. Alan Melnick, health officer with the Clark County, Wash., health department. He declined to provide any further details on the child who died.
Melnick said the department learned of the first hospitalization involving the E. coli O157:H7 bacteria strain on March 19.
Health officials determined that the business' hygienic practices were acceptable, but closed it down in April 2 when it became apparent that E. coli was spreading from person to person, Melnick said in an interview with Portland's KGW-TV.
"We believe we have it confined," Melnick told reporters Friday.
Winter said the center, near Portland and operated by Dianne and Larry Fletch, has been open since 1990 and no complaints have been filed against it. Lately, it has been caring for about 22 children.
"This is a very difficult time for the family who has suffered such an incredible loss," the Fletches said in a statement Friday. "It is also a difficult time for our day care families and the children who were his friends. It is an especially difficult time for us as day care providers."
The statement said the day care has worked closely with the health department to put measures in place to control the spread of the illness.
The Fletches did not immediately return phone messages from The Associated Press seeking additional comment.
E. coli is a common and ordinarily harmless bacteria, but certain strains can cause abdominal cramps, fever, bloody diarrhea, kidney failure, blindness, paralysis and death.
The strain involved in this case, E. coli O157:H7, is best known for its role in large outbreaks traced to ground beef or produce.
However, person-to-person transmission can be a problem in day-care settings or nursing homes without sufficiently thorough hand washing after toilet use or diaper changing. In some cases, especially in young children, infection can lead to life-threatening complications.
Investigators have not pinpointed a precise source of the outbreak, but Melnick said the infection was spread from person to person.
Health investigators have tested the 22 children, as well as four adults, Melnick said. Seven additional people, a mix of staff and children, showed no symptoms but had E. coli in their stool, he said.
Symptoms can take as long as 10 days to appear after exposure so the health department is checking with staff and the children's families daily.
Melnick said the day care will remain closed until affected staff show no presence of the bacteria on two consecutive tests. Children who tested positive will have to meet the same criteria before being allowed to attend any day care or school, he said.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Stem Cells to fight HIV?
Researchers are studying a new approach that arms the immune system with
an intrinsic defence against HIV.
While speaking at the Society for General Microbiology's spring meeting in
Edinburgh, Professor Ben Berkhout explained how this new approach could
dramatically improve the quality of life and life expectancy for HIV
sufferers in whom antiviral drugs are no longer effective.
In the absence of an effective vaccine, daily administration of
anti-retroviral drugs is the most effective treatment for HIV. However,
low patient compliance rates combined with the virus's ability to easily
mutate has led to the emergence of drug-resistant strains that are
difficult to treat.
Professor Berkhout from the University of Amsterdam is investigating a
novel gene therapy that has long-lasting effects even after a single
treatment. It involves delivering antiviral DNA to the patients' own
immune cells that arms them against viral infection. "This therapy would
offer an alternative for HIV-infected patients that can no longer be
treated with regular antivirals," he suggested.
The therapy involves extracting and purifying blood stem cells from the
patient's bone marrow. Antiviral DNA is transferred to the cells in the
laboratory, after which the cells are re-injected into the body. The DNA
encodes tiny molecules called small RNAs that are the mirror image of key
viral genes used by HIV to cause disease. The small RNAs float around
inside the immune cell until they encounter viral genes which they can
stick to like Velcro(tm). This mechanism, called 'RNA interference' can
block the production of key viral components from these genes.
Transferring the antiviral DNA to stem cells would help to restore a large
part of the patient's immune system. "Stem cells are the continually
dividing 'master copy' cells from which all other immune cells are
derived. By engineering the stem cells, the antiviral DNA is inherited by
all the immune cells that are born from it," explained Professor Berkhout.
an intrinsic defence against HIV.
While speaking at the Society for General Microbiology's spring meeting in
Edinburgh, Professor Ben Berkhout explained how this new approach could
dramatically improve the quality of life and life expectancy for HIV
sufferers in whom antiviral drugs are no longer effective.
In the absence of an effective vaccine, daily administration of
anti-retroviral drugs is the most effective treatment for HIV. However,
low patient compliance rates combined with the virus's ability to easily
mutate has led to the emergence of drug-resistant strains that are
difficult to treat.
Professor Berkhout from the University of Amsterdam is investigating a
novel gene therapy that has long-lasting effects even after a single
treatment. It involves delivering antiviral DNA to the patients' own
immune cells that arms them against viral infection. "This therapy would
offer an alternative for HIV-infected patients that can no longer be
treated with regular antivirals," he suggested.
The therapy involves extracting and purifying blood stem cells from the
patient's bone marrow. Antiviral DNA is transferred to the cells in the
laboratory, after which the cells are re-injected into the body. The DNA
encodes tiny molecules called small RNAs that are the mirror image of key
viral genes used by HIV to cause disease. The small RNAs float around
inside the immune cell until they encounter viral genes which they can
stick to like Velcro(tm). This mechanism, called 'RNA interference' can
block the production of key viral components from these genes.
Transferring the antiviral DNA to stem cells would help to restore a large
part of the patient's immune system. "Stem cells are the continually
dividing 'master copy' cells from which all other immune cells are
derived. By engineering the stem cells, the antiviral DNA is inherited by
all the immune cells that are born from it," explained Professor Berkhout.
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