'System needed to prevent zoonotic diseases in South Asia'

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'System needed to prevent zoonotic diseases in South Asia'

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'System needed to prevent zoonotic diseases in South Asia'

Posted: 04 Aug 2012 05:50 PM PDT

( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) New Delhi, Aug 4 - Countries in South Asia need to put in place systems and processes to help prevent the trans-border spread of zoonotic diseases, that are transmitted from animals to humans, say experts. At a meeting held here with delegates from four member countries of India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan, One Health Alliance of South Asia - pointed out some of the regional challenges they were facing in tackling spread of zoonotic diseases. These include limited resources, local skills and expertise, inadequate dialogue among regional countries, absence of established coordinating mechanism for joint activities, and political barriers, said a statement. According to Jonathan H. Epstein, a disease ecologist and EcoHealth Alliance's associate vice president and member of OHASA Steering Committee: The world can ill afford to witness the outbreak of another set of diseases in the next ten years, but that is precisely what will happen if we do not set in place systems and processes that can help us combat the interactions that take place between humans and animals that allows pathogens to cross the species barrier. He explained that OHASA's strategic plan for 2012-14 would focus on emerging and endemic zoonotic diseases, that constitute trans-boundary health issues in member countries, the statement said. The July 31-Aug 1 steering committee meeting of OHASA held in New Delhi was organized by Public Health Foundation of India - and the EcoHealth Alliance, USA. Ramanan Laxminarayan, vice president -, PHFI said the white paper brought out at the end of the meeting has emerged as a draft road map which can be followed by member countries. With a clear mandate that fixes roles and responsibilities between countries and organisations, it will help prioritise on health issues and identify pathogens specific to the country in question. Manish Kakkar, senior public health specialist, PHFI, highlighted the urgency for such a...

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President asks Mizoram to activate Chakma health centre

Posted: 03 Aug 2012 06:54 PM PDT

( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Aizawl, Aug 3 - The president's secretariat has asked the Mizoram government to activate a primary health centre, constructed 20 years ago in Mizoram's Chakma tribal-inhabited region but non-operational since then, an NGO said Friday. The action was taken in response to a memorandum submitted to President Pranab Mukherjee by the Mizoram Chakma Development Forum -, an NGO looking after the Chakma tribals' welfare. MCDF president Hemanta Larma said in a statement that the president's secretariat asked Mizoram Chief Secretary Vanhela Pachuau to take action to open the health centre at the earliest. The Mizoram government had constructed the 20-bedded primary health centre in 1992 at Borpansury village bordering Bangladesh in Mizoram's Chakma region, 200 km east of Aizawl. Since then it has been lying vacant. After lying abandoned for 20 years, the state government spent about Rs.1 crore to rebuild the only health centre in the area in 2010. Since then, no doctors or any other medical staffs have been posted in the centre and it is still lying in a state of disuse, Larma added. MCDF general secretary Paritosh Chakma said: Lack of healthcare is a cause of great difficulty, hardship and pain to the 12,000 tribals in the area. Several people die of preventable diseases every year. The poor health service is compounded by bad road connectivity, forcing people to take a 10-hour mountainous road journey to Aizawl to seek any medical help, he said. The MCDF said they were forced to move the president after a series of letters, agitations and appeals to Mizoram government led to no positive response.

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People with allergies may have lower risk of brain tumors

Posted: 03 Aug 2012 05:00 AM PDT

( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) COLUMBUS, Ohio - New research adds to the growing body of evidence suggesting that there's a link between allergies and reduced risk of a serious type of cancer that starts in the brain. This study suggests the reduced risk is stronger among women than men, although men with certain allergy profiles also have a lower tumor risk. The study also strengthens scientists' belief that something about having allergies or a related factor lowers the risk for this cancer. Because these tumors, called glioma, have the potential to suppress the immune system to allow them to grow, researchers have never been sure whether allergies reduce cancer risk or if, before diagnosis, these tumors interfere with the hypersensitive immune response to allergens. Scientists conducting this study were able to analyze stored blood samples that were taken from patients decades before they were diagnosed with glioma. Men and women whose blood samples contained allergy-related antibodies had an almost 50 percent lower risk of developing glioma 20 years later compared to people without signs of allergies. This is our most important finding, said Judith Schwartzbaum, associate professor of epidemiology at Ohio State University and lead author of the study. The longer before glioma diagnosis that the effect of allergies is present, the less likely it is that the tumor is suppressing allergies. Seeing this association so long before tumor diagnosis suggests that antibodies or some aspect of allergy is reducing tumor risk. It could be that in allergic people, higher levels of circulating antibodies may stimulate the immune system, and that could lower the risk of glioma, said Schwartzbaum, also an investigator in Ohio State's Comprehensive Cancer Center. Absence of allergy is the strongest risk factor identified so far for this brain tumor, and there is still more to understand about how this association works. Many previous studies of the link between allergies...

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Students with strong hearts and lungs may make better grades, study finds

Posted: 03 Aug 2012 05:00 AM PDT

( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) ORLANDO, Fla. -- Having a healthy heart and lungs may be one of the most important factors for middle school students to make good grades in math and reading, according to findings presented at the American Psychological Association's 120th Annual Convention. Cardiorespiratory fitness was the only factor that we consistently found to have an impact on both boys' and girls' grades on reading and math tests, said study co-author Trent A. Petrie, PhD, professor of psychology and director of the Center for Sport Psychology at the University of North Texas. This provides more evidence that schools need to re-examine any policies that have limited students' involvement in physical education classes. The researchers gathered data at five Texas middle schools from 1,211 students, of whom 54 percent were female with an average age of about 12. Overall, the group was 57 percent white. Among the boys, the breakdown was 57.2 percent white, 24.2 percent Mexican-American, 9.1 percent African American, 1.1 percent Asian-American and 1.2 percent American Indian. For the girls, 58.6 percent were white, 23.4 percent were Mexican-American, 9.2 percent were African-American, 2.3 percent Asian-American and 0.6 percent were American Indian. While previous studies have found links between being physically fit and improved academic performance, this study also examined several other potential influences, including self-esteem and social support. It also took into account the students' socioeconomic status and their self-reported academic ability, Petrie said. In addition to cardiorespiratory fitness, social support was related to better reading scores among boys, according to the study. It defined social support as reliable help from family and friends to solve problems or deal with emotions. For girls, having a larger body mass index was the only factor other than cardiorespiratory fitness that predicted better reading scores. For boys and girls,...

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Psychology of possibilities can enhance health, happiness, research says

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 05:00 AM PDT

( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) ORLANDO, Fla. -- First-time mothers who pay attention to their emotional and physical changes during their pregnancy may feel better and have healthier newborns than new mothers who don't, according to research to be presented at American Psychological Association's 120th Annual Convention. These findings continue more than 40 years of research that has made clear that whether you are mindless or mindful makes a big difference in every aspect of your health and well-being -- from competence to longevity, Ellen Langer, professor of psychology at Harvard University and a pioneer in researching mindfulness, said in an interview. Langer is a past recipient of APA's Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest. For Langer's recent study, researchers trained women pregnant with their first child in mindfulness with instructions to notice subtle changes in their feelings and physical sensations each day, she said. When compared with two other groups of first-time pregnant mothers who did not have the mindfulness training, these women reported more well-being and positive feelings and less emotional distress. They had higher self-esteem and life satisfaction during this period of their pregnancy and up to at least a month after birth, Langer said. And this also had a positive impact on their deliveries and overall health of the newborns. Teaching mindfulness through attention to variability may be helpful for many disorders, including asthma, depression and learning disabilities, to name a few, according to Langer. Noticing even subtle fluctuations in how you feel can counter mindlessness, or the illusion of stability. We tend to hold things still in our minds, despite the fact that all the while they are changing. If we open up our minds, a world of possibility presents itself, she said. Author of the popular books Mindfulness, The Power of Mindful Learning, On Becoming an Artist: Reinventing...

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Multiple husbands serve as child support and life insurance in some cultures says MU researcher

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 05:00 AM PDT

( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Marrying multiple husbands at the same time, or polyandry, creates a safety net for women in some cultures, according to a recent study by a University of Missouri researcher. Extra husbands ensure that women's children are cared for even if their fathers die or disappear. Although polyandry is taboo and illegal in the United States, certain legal structures, such as child support payments and life insurance, fill the same role for American women that multiple husbands do in other cultures. In America, we don't meet many of the criteria that tend to define polyandrous cultures, said Kathrine Starkweather, doctoral student in MU's Department of Anthropology in the College of Arts and Science. However, some aspects of American life mirror polyandrous societies. Child support payments provide for offspring when one parent is absent. Life insurance allows Americans to provide for dependents in the event of death, just as secondary husbands support a deceased husband's children in polyandrous societies. Starkweather and her co-author, Raymond Hames, professor of anthropology at the University of Nebraska, examined 52 cultures with traditions of polyandry from all continents except Europe. They found that similar conditions seemed to influence cultures toward polyandry. Males frequently outnumbered females in these cultures, as a result of high mortality prior to adulthood. Although males out-numbered females, they also were more likely to die in warfare or hunting and fishing accidents or to be absent for other economic reasons. Polyandrous cultures also tended to be small scale and egalitarian. In approximately half of the cultures studied, the other husbands were closely related to the first husband, a practice with economic repercussions. In previously studied polyandrous cultures, especially those of Nepal, Tibet and India, inheritance traditions called for land to be divided evenly among male offspring after a parent's passing....

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Biologists to meet with members of Congress

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 05:00 AM PDT

( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Washington, DC -- The American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) is pleased to announce the start of the 4th Annual Biological Sciences Congressional District Visits event. This nationwide initiative helps individual biologists and research centers meet with lawmakers while they are in their district for the August congressional recess. Scientists participating in the event are able to discuss the importance of life sciences research with the individuals responsible for casting the votes that shape the nation's science policy. Scientists are constantly generating new data and testing hypotheses of relevance to decisions being made by policymakers, and it is important that we take advantage of opportunities to meet and discuss our activities with them at every opportunity, said Dr. Larry Page, President of the Natural Science Collections Alliance, a 2012 sponsor of the event. The more information that is available to policymakers, the better their decisions are likely to be and the more positive the economic and environmental impacts of those decisions. The 4th Annual Biological Sciences Congressional District Visits event occurs during the month of August. Participating scientists and research facilities will meet with their members of Congress and their staff to show them first-hand the people, equipment, and processes involved with modern scientific research. It is exciting to see the growing interest in this effort from members of the scientific community, said AIBS Director of Public Policy Dr. Robert Gropp. This year a number of leading scientific societies and organizations have joined us to sponsor and participate in this important event. In addition to AIBS, sponsors of the 2012 event are the Long-Term Ecological Research Network, Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, and Natural Science Collections Alliance. Gropp further said, Federal lawmakers are in the midst of discussions to set the...

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Notre Dame research into oaks helps us understand climate change

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 05:00 AM PDT

( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Jeanne Romero-Severson, associate professor of biological sciences at the University of Notre Dame, and her collaborators, are tracking the evolution of the live oaks of eastern North America, seeking to understand how the trees adapted to climate change during glacial periods. When the ice advanced, the oaks retreated. When the ice retreated the oaks advanced, spreading from tropical to temperate zones, up from Central America and Mexico into the Piedmont Carolinas. The researchers expect the study of live oak migrations and phylogeny will provide clues to the success of the oaks that range up into northern Ontario in Canada. Oaks originated in southeast Asia before the continents split and migrated both east and west, but North America has far more species than other regions. Researchers have long suspected that repeated climate challenges might have led to this diversity. Previous studies have shown that the live oaks that live in Mexico cannot survive the Carolina winters. This shows that there are genetic differences between the southern live oaks and their northern descendants. In Mexico, live oaks do not experience repeated cycles of freezing and thawing, Romero-Severson says. Are the live oak species that now live further north different species because of this cold tolerance? What about the live oak species that span the tropical-temperate divide? It is logical to assume there is a genetic basis for the ability to survive in those cold temperatures. With four groups of researchers working together, we can tease out how it was that oaks were able to adapt to the climate as they moved north. What were the genetic changes they underwent? Romero-Severson focuses on genetics and genomics of the oaks. Andrew Hipp of the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Ill., is studying their morphological differences; Paul Manos of Duke University is studying their systematics (family trees based on DNA markers); and Jeannine Cavender-Bares of the...

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Breast cancer charity under fire for overstating the benefits of screening

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 05:00 AM PDT

( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Professors Lisa Schwartz and Steven Woloshin of the Center for Medicine and the Media at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice argue that last year's breast cancer awareness month campaign by Susan G Komen for the Cure overstates the benefit of mammography and ignores harms altogether. Their views are published on bmj.com today as part of an occasional series highlighting the exaggerations, distortions, and selective reporting that make some news stories, advertising, and medical journal articles not so. A growing and increasingly accepted body of evidence shows that although screening may reduce a woman's chance of dying from breast cancer by a small amount, it also causes major harms, say the authors. Yet Komen's public advertising campaign gives women no sense that screening is a close call. Instead it states that the key to surviving breast cancer is for women to get screened because early detection saves lives. The 5-year survival rate for breast cancer when caught early is 98%. When it's not? 23%. This benefit of mammography looks so big that it is hard to imagine why any woman would forgo screening. But the authors explain that comparing survival between screened and unscreened women is hopelessly biased. For example, imagine a group of 100 women who received diagnoses of breast cancer because they felt a breast lump at age 67, all of whom die at age 70. Five year survival for this group is 0%. Now imagine the women were screened, given their diagnosis three years earlier, at age 64, but still die at age 70. Five year survival is now 100%, even though no one lived a second longer. Overdiagnosis (the detection of cancers that will not kill or even cause symptoms during a patient's lifetime) also distorts survival statistics because the numbers now include people who have a diagnosis of cancer but who, by definition, survive the cancer, the authors add. If there were an Oscar for misleading...

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Close to the bone

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 05:00 AM PDT

( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) A genetic screening approach to studying bone disease has found nine new genes associated with bone health and suggests a new way to discover genes that may be implicated in human skeletal diseases. A collaborative study of the mineral content, strength and flexibility of bones has found clues to the cause of bone disorders such as osteoporosis, osteogenesis imperfecta, and high bone density syndromes. The study, which brings together specialist skills in mouse gene deletion and bone measurement to assess the strength of bones in 100 mutant mouse lines, is the largest reported screen of its type for genes that regulate bone health. All nine of the new genes discovered had not previously been implicated in skeletal disorders and were discovered by randomly screening different strains of mice engineered such that a single gene had been inactivated in their genome. Chronic diseases such as osteoporosis represent a global healthcare burden but little is known about their genetic basis. Osteoporosis is the most common of skeletal disorders, affecting hundreds of millions of people worldwide at a cost of billions of pounds each year. Although it is known there is a strong genetic component to this disease, few of the genes that control bone structure and density are known. We are developing new ways of finding genes that are essential for normal development of the skeleton, and which maintain the structure and integrity of bone during adulthood. These genes will provide new understanding of the mechanisms responsible for bone diseases and may ultimately lead to the development of new treatments, explains Professor Graham Williams, senior author from Imperial College London. We collaborated with outstanding colleagues at the Sanger Institute and several Universities. Our studies span many areas of expertise and we have developed a detailed and specific rapid-throughput system to screen bones from mice that lack a single gene. This...

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