Brazil to subsidize birth control pills
Mon, 28 May 2007 18:02:21 GMTBy STAN LEHMAN, Associated Press Writer
SAO PAULO, Brazil - President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced a new program Monday to sharply decrease unwanted pregnancies in Latin America's largest nation by subsidizing birth control pills.
Less than a month after Pope Benedict XVI criticized government-backed birth control measures during a visit to Brazil, Silva said the plan will give poor Brazilians "the same right that the wealthy have to plan the number of children they want."
Brazil already hands out free condoms and birth control pills at government-run pharmacies across Latin America's largest nation.
But many poor people in the nation of 190 million don't go to those pharmacies, so the government decided to offer the pills at significantly reduced prices at 3,500 private drug stores, said Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporao.
The number of drug stores offering the subsidized pills should rise to 10,000 by the end of this year, Temporao said. When the 100 million real program is fully under way, the government will be handing out 50 million packages of birth control pills each year.
Each government-subsidized package — with enough pills to last a month — will cost 0.40 Brazilian reals . They now retail for 5 reals to 50 reals .
The Health Ministry said it does not plan to subsidize condoms at private drug stores, but Brazil already has an anti- AIDS program that provides millions of free condoms annually, often just before the debauchery seen during the nation's Carnival celebrations.
Temporao also announced the government also plans to increase the number of free vasectomies performed at state hospitals.
During his visit to Brazil May 9-13, Benedict repeatedly railed against legalized contraception as a threat to "the future of the peoples" of Latin America.
But advocates for women's rights applauded Silva's decision, saying it was long overdue in the world's largest Roman Catholic country, though some worried whether the government would follow through.
"Too often, Brazil makes really wonderful laws that remain on paper because there is no political will," said Mary Luci Faria, who coordinates city government programs for women in Sao Paulo.
Faria said the program could reduce the 800,000 illegal abortions that Brazilian women have each year.
About 4,000 women die from the back-office procedures annually, making it the fourth leading cause of maternal death in Brazil after hypertension, hemorrhages and infections.
Benedict also harshly criticized abortion during his visit, just weeks after Mexico City lawmakers legalized it.
While abortion is illegal in most situations in Brazil, Silva said shortly before the pope's visit that it should be considered as a public health issue, and Temporao wants a national referendum on the issue.
Polls show Brazilians overwhelmingly oppose changing abortion laws, but advocates for women attending Silva's speech on birth control said they were glad the president took a stand on the theme with the pope. While Silva says he personally opposes abortion, he favors a national debate on the issue.
"The Church has no right to interfere with what a woman decides to do with her body or her health," said Dr. Eleonora Menicucci, a professor of preventive medicine at the Federal University of Sao Paulo's medical school.
Army adds lifesaving to basic training
Mon, 28 May 2007 08:37:16 GMTBy MICHAEL FELBERBAUM, Associated Press Writer
RICHMOND, Va. - The Army will begin teaching combat lifesaving instruction during basic training to enable soldiers to give critical medical care to wounded comrades on the battlefield.
The service's five basic training bases will begin teaching combat lifesaver training by June 15, including instruction on starting an IV and helping soldiers breathe through a tube, Army officials said. The bases train up to 180,000 soldiers annually, including National Guard and Reserve components.
Officials said medical care given immediately after injuries like gunshot wounds and those caused by improvised explosive devices could mean the difference between life and death. Simple lifesaving techniques could cut down on long-term injuries and deaths, they said.
"The most critical 10 minutes in a soldier's care in combat is the first 10 minutes," said Col. Kevin A. Shwedo, director of operations, plans and training for the Army Accessions Command, which oversees training. "We've focused on the skills that would give us the greatest opportunity to evacuate an individual to a higher degree of health care."
Previously, a limited number of soldiers in each unit were trained on advanced lifesaving procedures and most soldiers only received basic first aid techniques, like bandaging and performing CPR.
"You won't have to wait as long to find the one combat lifesaver you had trained," said Shwedo, whose command is based at Fort Monroe in Hampton.
More in-depth medical training can make the difference between bringing back a patient and bringing back a corpse, said Col. Patricia R. Hastings, director of the Army's Department of Combat Medic Training based at Fort Sam Houston in Texas.
"First aid is just not good enough anymore," she said.
Soldiers at Fort Sill in Oklahoma and Fort Knox in Kentucky already have begun the training.
Col. Annie Baker, commander of 434th Field Artillery Brigade at Fort Sill, said after only 10 days at basic training, soldiers there started the combat lifesaver certification course, which includes sticking needles into each other to learn how to establish an IV.
"We've had some soldiers that have been very timid and concerned — because people don't like shots — but not one soldier has not participated," Baker said. "Some looked a little peaked going in there, but between the medics and the drill sergeants coaching and mentoring, they've gotten through it."
Spc. John Hanson, who was a paramedic before he began training at Fort Sill, said it is important to learn the skills, even if it means getting "poked by a complete stranger or someone you've only lived with for a couple of weeks."
"We're used to getting shot at and people getting hurt," said the 29-year-old from Arlington, S.D. "With more of us knowing how to help our buddies, maybe it will make for a more successful outcome."
The new skill training is comprised of about one week of the soldiers' nine-week training program, and follows only rifle marksmanship and physical training in the time devoted to it.
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On the Net:
Army Training and Doctrine Command: http://www.tradoc.army.mil/
Stun gun use on mentally ill questioned
Mon, 28 May 2007 05:28:16 GMTHOUSTON - Advocates for the mentally ill are questioning Houston police officers' use of stun guns on suspects with mental problems, many of whom were unarmed and then never charged with a crime.
Since officers started carrying Tasers in December 2004, nearly 130 people known or suspected to be mentally ill were shocked by officers responding to calls, according to a Houston Chronicle review of more than 1,000 incidents involving the stun gun.
The department also had its first Taser-related death recently that involved a mentally ill man, the newspaper reported Sunday.
Often, police knew they were responding to calls involving people with mental health issues but rarely called officers who are specially trained to deal with the mentally ill, according to police records.
"Using a Taser is easy," said Arlene Kelly, who became an outspoken advocate for the mentally ill after her daughter was shot and killed by a Houston police officer in 1999. "There's no waiting. There's no need to be patient with someone who may not understand orders. The Taser has represented a step backward in how police deal with the mentally ill."
Some of those stunned had committed violent crimes, threatened others or harmed themselves. But most were people who failed to follow officers' orders in the fog of their mental confusion, records show.
Police Chief Harold Hurtt said the use of Tasers has prevented dangerous situations from becoming deadly.
"Crisis-intervention training is a critical part of our approach to the mentally ill, and our officers are well aware of the necessity to use the minimum force necessary," Hurtt said.
The newspaper found that most of the mentally ill people shocked by police were not armed and fewer than one in four were later convicted of a crime.
One case involved a 63-year-old man who needed a metal walker to move around. Another involved Carol Ann Vickery, a 49-year-old woman with a history of bipolar disorder who disrupted a local convenience store. When police arrived, she picked up a can of soda as if to throw it. Police responded with three 50,000-volt shocks from a Taser.
"She may have gotten excited, but two male officers should be able to defuse a situation with one woman without pulling out a Taser," said Vickery's husband of 10 years, Tim Byus. "In this case, it's clear they did not try."
Some dispatchers fail to identify people experiencing mental problems and send untrained officers to those calls, said Lt. Michael Lee, who is in charge of the department's crisis-intervention team that was developed in 1999 to train officers how to calm people with mental illness.
Other circumstances do not allow officers to wait for support, he said.
"Most officers are using Tasers to prevent a situation from escalating, and that can happen very quickly," Lee said. "Sometimes de-escalation techniques just don't work."
The crisis-intervention team had 600 patrol officers and more than 100 officers in other divisions, but the force has since been depleted by retirement, transfers and other strains. Its ranks have dropped to 410 officers, less than 20 percent of those on patrol.
Onelimbed med student to graduate UCLA
Mon, 28 May 2007 06:20:03 GMTLOS ANGELES - A woman who lost both legs and an arm as a child is poised to become a doctor for children.
Kellie Lim, who became a triple amputee at age 8 because of bacterial meningitis, is to graduate from UCLA's medical school on Friday, and she plans to focus on childhood allergies and infectious disease.
The Michigan native, 26, does not use a prosthetic arm and manages to perform most medical procedures — including giving injections and taking blood — with one arm. She walks on a pair of prosthetic legs.
"Just having that experience of being someone so sick and how devastating that can be — not just for me but for my family too — gives me a perspective that other people don't necessarily have," Lim said.
Raised by a blind mother in suburban Detroit, Lim went through years of wheelchairs and painful therapy after toxic shock from the meningitis claimed her limbs and three fingertips on her remaining hand.
Lim recently saw her childhood medical file, and learned that doctors had given her an 85 percent chance of dying of the meningitis. Just five months after the amputations, Lim returned to a normal school. Born right-handed, she learned to write and work with her left.
"I hate failing," she said. "It's one of those things that's so ingrained in me."
Lim's teachers and fellow students said she exudes a calm that makes them and her patients forget her physical circumstances.
"She has an aura of competence about her that you don't worry," said Dr. Elijah Wasson, one of Lim's supervisors. "At first you notice her hand is not there. But after about five minutes, she is so comfortable and so competent that you take her at face value."
Lim will begin a residency program at the UCLA Medical Center.
Obesity bad for the bones
Mon, 28 May 2007 14:49:50 GMTBy Megan Rauscher
NEW YORK - New research does not support the general belief that obesity increases bone mass and is therefore good for bone health. A study, in which investigators corrected for the mechanical loading effect of increasing body weight, suggests the opposite.
&;Our study found that increasing body fat mass decreases bone mass, for people of similar weight,&; Dr. Hong-Wen Deng from University of Missouri-Kansas City told Reuters Health. &;Therefore, increasing obesity is not good for bone health.&;
The finding is &;important,&; Deng and colleagues say, because it suggests that interventions or treatments aimed at reducing obesity may increase bone mass and thus protect against osteoporosis.
Past studies on the relationship between obesity and osteoporosis did not control for the &;mechanical loading effects&; of a person's total body weight on bone mass, the investigators note in a report published this month.
Deng's team reevaluated the relationship between obesity and osteoporosis taking into account mechanical loading effects of total body weight on bone mass in more than 6,400 healthy adults.
According to the investigators, when the mechanical loading effect of body weight on bone mass was adjusted for, fat mass was negatively associated with bone mass; that is, in general, the greater the fat mass, the lower the bone mass.
The results of their study, the researchers say, also &;reaffirm the beneficial effects of appropriate weight-bearing and mechanical loading on a healthy skeletal system.&;
SOURCE: The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, May 2007.
