Sexually transmitted HPV remains mystery

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 22:19:25 GMT
By MARTHA IRVINE, AP National Writer
Nearly every working day, Dr. Elizabeth Poynor encounters anxious young women who come to her New York City office with an HPV diagnosis. The human papillomavirus is the most prevalent sexually transmitted diseases — so common that researchers estimate most people will have some form of it in their lifetime. Young adults are especially at risk because they tend to be the most sexually active group.
And yet Poynor finds that most of her young patients — even if they've heard of a new vaccine aimed at preventing the worst kinds of HPV — know little about the virus and the harm it can do.

Many women find themselves scrambling to understand HPV after a routine Pap smear determines they have it. And that, Poynor and others say, creates angst that could be avoided with more education.

"This is a very common problem, period," Poynor, a gynecological oncologist in private practice, says of HPV. "That's the first thing I try to tell my patients, to put their minds at ease and to potentially take away some of the stigma that a sexually transmitted disease might carry."

The reasons that HPV is so little known are many. Poynor thinks it's been overshadowed by higher-profile STDs, such as http://www.cdc.gov/std/HPV/STDFact-HPV.htm
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Martha Irvine is a national writer specializing in coverage of people in their 20s and younger. She can be reached at mirvineap.org

Report Binge drinking rises at colleges

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 22:16:05 GMT
By JUSTIN POPE, AP Education Writer
Substance abuse on college campuses is nothing new, but it is taking a more extreme and dangerous form, with higher rates of frequent binge drinking and prescription drug abuse, and more negative consequences for students such as arrests and risky sexual behavior.
That's the portrait painted by a new, comprehensive report tying together a range of recent research on college substance abuse, supplemented with some of its own new survey data.

The report by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, argues substance abuse isn't an inevitable rite of passage for young adults. Rather, it argues a particular culture of excessive consumption has flourished on college campuses, and calls on educators to take bolder stands against students and alumni to combat it.

"If they make this a priority they can do something about it," said Joseph Califano, chairman and president of the center, who among other steps called on colleges and the http://www.casacolumbia.org

FDA biotech knockoffs earn lower status

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 22:44:52 GMT
By ANDREW BRIDGES, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Copycat versions of pricey biotech drugs may be relegated to a status below that of generic versions of traditional chemical drugs, the head of the http://www.fda.gov/

N.Y. newborns potentially exposed to TB

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 22:21:30 GMT
By KAREN MATTHEWS, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK - Hundreds of patients including newborn babies may have been exposed to tuberculosis by an infected hospital employee, city health officials said Thursday. The employee, whose identity was not disclosed, was diagnosed with active TB on Jan. 30, said Andrew Tucker, a spokesman for the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
The department was notified of the case at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx and has identified about 700 people who may have been exposed to TB, Tucker said. Of those, 532 were patients at St. Barnabas, including 238 infants.

St. Barnabas and the health department have reached out by mail and phone to 571 people, the hospital said. To date, 260, including 138 infants, have been tested for TB. Of those, three adults tested positive for exposure to TB, but no one has developed active TB, the hospital said.

TB is caused by a bacteria that usually attacks the lungs. It can be fatal if not treated properly. It is spread through the air from one person to another. Symptoms of TB infection include coughing, fatigue, loss of appetite, weight loss and coughing up blood.

The infected employee worked in the neonatal intensive care unit, the well-baby nursery, the maternity ward and the psychiatric ward.

Patients and staff members who were in any of those areas between Nov. 1 and Jan. 24, the last time the infected worker was in the hospital, are advised to call St. Barnabas at 718-960-3624.

The TB strain that the employee was diagnosed with is not the virulent drug-resistant type, but the fact that newborns were potentially exposed is cause for concern, officials said.

"Because their immune systems are not fully developed, newborns who are exposed to TB are at high risk of developing active TB," said Dr. Sonal Munsiff, the health department's assistant commissioner for TB control.

Munsiff said that even if they test negative for TB exposure, newborns who may have come in contact with the infected St. Barnabas employee should be placed on antibiotics as a precaution and then tested again at about 6 months of age.

After being treated for TB, the infected employee has tested negative for the disease but has not yet returned to work, said Fred Winters, a spokesman for St. Barnabas.

Tucker said no additional cases of active TB have been discovered.

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On the Net:

New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene: http://www.nyc.gov/health

A brief explanation of HPV

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 17:58:47 GMT
By The Associated Press
• WHAT IS HPV? The human papillomavirus, which includes common warts, exists in more than 100 forms, about 30 of which can be sexually transmitted. The virus is ancient and incredibly common. Most people who have genital HPV show no symptoms and clear the virus on their own, though some strains can cause persistent genital warts and cancer.
• WHO'S AT RISK? Anyone who's sexually active can contract genital HPV, though young adults have been shown to be particularly susceptible because they're more sexually active. Separate studies have found that 45 percent of young women, ages 20 to 24, and half of men, ages 18 to 40, have HPV. While men can develop genital warts — and sometimes HPV-related genital or anal cancers — doctors say cervical cancer in women, caused by high-risk strains of HPV, is much more prevalent. HPV also may affect fertility, and doctors say some treatments for advanced HPV can make it difficult to get or stay pregnant.

• WHAT CAN BE DONE? The new HPV vaccine protects against four high-risk types of the virus that can cause cervical cancer and genital warts. Beyond that, doctors recommend that women get regular Pap smears to check for abnormal cells caused by HPV and have male partners use condoms, though they do not offer 100 percent protection from HPV.

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MSF condemns US drugmaker39s ban in Thailand

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 04:03:13 GMT

BANGKOK - Aid charity Medecins sans Frontieres has condemned a US drugmaker's decision not to sell new medicines in Thailand, which is at loggerheads with Western pharmaceutical giants over generic drugs.
Chicago-based Abbott Laboratories said this week it would not market new drugs in Thailand in protest at the army-backed government's decision to override the patent on Abbott's anti- AIDS drug Kaletra.

The medications withdrawn from the Thai market include a new version of Kaletra, as well as an antibiotic and a painkiller, a senior company official said.

MSF slammed the US giant's decision and argued Thai patients would &;bear the brunt of Abbott's harsh decision.&;

&;Our patients in Thailand, who still use the old version of the medicine, have been waiting for this new version for a very long time,&; David Wilson of MSF in Thailand said in a statement.

&;The drug was registered in the US in October 2005, but still cannot be used in Thailand and many other countries where it is desperately needed. Refusing to sell the drug here is a major betrayal to patients,&; he said.

Abbott, for its part, accused Thailand of breaking patents &;on numerous medicines.&;

The Thai government said less than 10 percent of some 500,000 HIV-positive patients here have access to Abbott's Kaletra.

Under Thailand's generic drug programme, treatment with Kaletra, which currently costs 11,580 baht per month, could drop to 4,000 baht per month, according to MSF.

Thailand approved copycat versions of Kaletra, a second anti-retroviral drug Efavirenz, and the blockbuster heart disease drug Plavix.

A World Trade Organisation deal in 2001 allows nations affected by diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis a temporary exemption from international laws protecting intellectual property rights.

39Worrying39 rise in Type 1 diabetes among British children

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 11:18:18 GMT

LONDON - The number of children under the age of five diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes has risen five-fold over twenty years, a British study said Friday.
Diabetes UK, the charity that funded the study, also found that Type 1 diabetes had doubled in children under the age of 15. There was a 2.3 percent increase in the number of children diagnosed every year.

The charity believes the increase is linked to environmental factors, rather than genetics.

Professor Polly Bingley from Bristol University, which carried out the research for Diabetes UK, said: &;This could either mean that we are being exposed to something new, or that we now have reduced exposure to something that was previously controlling our immune responses.&;

&;We now need to work to identify what these changes might be,&; she added.

Type 1 diabetes develops when the body is unable to produce any insulin and usually appears before the age of 40.

&;The evidence of a steep rise of Type 1 diabetes found in the under-fives indicates that the peak age for diagnosis of the condition in the UK is becoming younger,&; said Simon OÂNeill, Director of Care, Information and Advocacy Services at Diabetes UK.

&;While 10- to 14-year-olds remain the largest group for diagnosis, the rise in cases found in children under five is worrying.&;

The study looked at Oxford's population of 2.6 million people between 1985 and 2004.

Type 1 diabetes is less common than Type 2 diabetes, where the body can't make enough insulin, or when the insulin that is produced does not work properly. In most cases Type 2 diabetes is linked with being overweight.

PlayStation 3 to take on incurable diseases

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 00:55:52 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO - Sony announced on Thursday that its PlayStation 3 video game consoles will be enhanced to join a supercomputing network researching causes of cancer, Alzheimer's and other incurable diseases.
The Japanese electronics titan said a software update that will be available by the end of March will enable users to devote their consoles' idle time to a Stanford University quest for diseases caused by &;misfolded&; proteins.

Such diseases include Parkinson's, mad cow, Alzheimer's, Huntington's and some forms of cancer, according to Stanford associate professor Vijay Pande, leader of the &;FoldingÃ home&; project.

PlayStation 3 console software will let users click on a &;FoldingÃ home&; icon on their television screens to have their machines devote their computing power to medical research whenever games aren't being played.

The program harnesses idle time of Internet-linked home computers to use the combined power to perform in months protein-folding simulations that would take a single machine decades to complete.

Processors in PlayStation 3 computers are approximately 10 times faster than chips in typical personal computers so adding the consoles to the &;folding at home&; network should boost simulation speeds, Sony said.

&;Millions of users have experienced the power of PS3 entertainment; now they can utilize that exceptional computing power to help fight diseases,&; said Sony Computer Entertainment chief technical officer Masayuki Chatani.

&;PCs have been the only option for scientists, but now, they have a new, more powerful tool -- PS3.&;

Sony said it planned to make the gaming consoles compatible with other medical, social, or environmental distributed-computing research efforts.

&;We're thrilled,&; Pande said at a press conference with Sony executives at the Stanford campus in Palo Alto, California.

&;With PS3 now part of our network, we will be able to address questions previously considered impossible to tackle computationally, with the goal of finding cures to some of the world's most life-threatening diseases.&;

In perhaps the most well known distributed-computing project, researchers at the Berkeley campus of the University of California launched SETIÃ home in 1999 to help search for messages beamed from space.

More than five million personal computers in countries around the world are combined in a network that uses excess computing power to study radio telescope signals gathered by the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence .

Sony said it will make PlayStation 3 compatible with a variety of medical, social and environmental research efforts.

Tree bark extract might help treat rare eye cancer

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 05:07:43 GMT
By Julie Steenhuysen
CHICAGO - An extract from the bark of a South American tree might lead to better treatments for a rare but deadly childhood eye cancer called retinoblastoma, U.S. researchers reported on Friday.
Retinoblastoma affects 1 in 15,000 children, causing about 3 percent of all cancers in children. It forms when developing cells in the retina -- the eye's main light sensor -- go haywire and start reproducing out of control.

&;The great majority of the cases exist in the developing world, where it is a fatal disease,&; said Dr. Joan O'Brien of the University of California, San Francisco, who led the study.

The cancer usually develops in children under age 6 and kills within two to four years after diagnosis if not treated.

If detected early and treated with a combination of chemotherapy agents or radiation, 90 to 95 percent of children live. But conventional treatment has significant side effects.

Combination chemotherapy can cause hearing loss, kidney failure and leukemia. Radiation therapy, which is now less commonly used, disfigures the child.

In children who have the cancer in only one eye, the eyeball is sometimes replaced with an implant.

&;We can cure them, but at cost,&; said O'Brien. &;It's important to find a cheap, easily administered, nontoxic therapy.&;

O'Brien and colleagues at UCSF wanted to see whether the tree bark extract beta-lapachone could cause the abnormal cells to commit suicide -- something it has been shown to do in a number of cancer types, including breast and prostate cells.

They tested the extract in the laboratory and found that beta-lapachone significantly blocked rapid cell growth of human tumor cells and that low doses could cause damaged cells to kill themselves in a process called apoptosis, or programmed cell death.

Writing in the journal Eye, the scientists said their findings support other studies of the extract in different human cancers and may lead to an effective treatment.

&;The nice thing about the agent is that it kills at very low doses and it appears to be selective to cancer,&; O'Brien said.

Substances that zero in on cancer are less toxic because they do less harm to healthy cells, O'Brien said. Her lab is now testing the extract in mice with retinoblastoma to look for possible toxic side effects.

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