| Top : 2007 : 2007_01_15 |
Japan starts incinerating chickensMon, 15 Jan 2007 13:35:08 GMTBy KOZO MIZOGUCHI, Associated Press Writer TOKYO - Japanese authorities on Monday began incinerating more than 10,000 chickens that have either died of bird flu at a southern Japanese poultry farm recently or culled there, officials said. Separately, the Environment Ministry said that there were no signs of wild birds indicating a possible link to a pathogenic strain of the bird flu virus in last week's outbreak of the disease. About 4,000 chickens died at a farm in the town of Kiyotake in Japan's southern prefecture of Miyazaki last week, and local officials late Saturday said that the virus belonged to the broad H5 family. Over the weekend, another 8,000 chickens at the firm were culled to prevent the spread of the nation's latest outbreak of the bird flu. Japanese agricultural officials have confirmed that the virus is a broad H5 family. The H5 subtype is a highly pathogenic form of the virus among poultry, but is not necessarily fatal to humans. Experts at the National Institute of Animal Health near Tokyo are still conducting close examination on samples to determine whether the virus was the H5N1 strain, said Makoto Takahashi, a Miyazaki prefectural official. Meanwhile, a group of Environment Ministry officials have conducted on-spot examination on droppings from wild birds found around the affected farm, but found "nothing unusual," said ministry official Yoshifumi Kubo. A total of 31 kinds of birds, including 16 kinds of migratory birds like blue herons and wild ducks, were confirmed in an area of a 3-kilometer radius of the affected farm, Kubo said. Kubo said the farm is surrounded by farm land and housing areas and that there are no large ponds or rivers nearby inhabitable for wild birds. Monday evening, prefectural officials began incinerating the dead chickens or those culled at the farm, and packed in plastic bags, Takahashi said. The government has banned shipments of eggs and 330,000 chickens at 16 poultry farms within a 6.2-mile radius of the farm. The compound of the farm involved has been disinfected following the outbreak of the disease. Since 2003, the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus has killed 157 people worldwide, according to the WHO. Japan has confirmed one human case involving the H5N1 virus but reported no human deaths. Japan's most recent H5N1 outbreak occurred in Kyoto in 2004. Miyazaki, about 560 miles southwest of Tokyo, is the country's largest poultry producing region. Thai officials find bird flu in ducksMon, 15 Jan 2007 10:58:29 GMTBANGKOK, Thailand - A new outbreak of virulent bird flu was found in ducks in northern Thailand, officials said Monday, the first such case in six months. The outbreak of the H5N1 virus was confirmed by laboratory tests after the deaths of more than 100 ducks were reported in Phitsanulok province, said Manet Runluang, an official at the Public Health Ministry's Department of Communicable Disease Control. "We have found the H5N1 virus in the ducks and we have ordered around 2,100 ducks in the area to be killed," said Nirand Uaebumrungsut, a veterinarian with the Agriculture Ministry's Department of Livestock Development. He added the area has many wild and free-range ducks and the department has been gathering birds from within a three-mile radius of the outbreak to be slaughtered. Thailand's Public Health Ministry ordered the communicable disease control department to increase measures to curb the outbreak and prevent its potential spread to humans, said Health Minister Mongkol Na Songkhla. "Although we have not found a case in many months, we have asked governmental health organizations to help monitor cases of flu, coughs and pneumonia, especially among people who have come into contact with birds," Mongkol said. Health experts advise special caution about flu during winter months, when people are more susceptible to infections. Since it began ravaging Asia's poultry in late 2003, the H5N1 bird flu virus has spread to the Middle East and Africa and killed at least 159 people around the world, according to the World Health Organization. There have been 17 human deaths in Thailand. Most of those killed have been infected by sick birds, but WHO fears the virus could mutate into a form that easily spreads among humans, possibly sparking a pandemic. Birth set for couple who saved embryosMon, 15 Jan 2007 06:11:59 GMTBy JANET McCONNAUGHEY, Associated Press Writer COVINGTON, La. - Glen and Rebekah Markham are a bit taken aback by the worldwide publicity surrounding their child, scheduled to arrive by Caesarean section on Tuesday. News outlets from as far away as Singapore are enthralled with the story of officers using flat-bottomed boats to rescue the child's frozen embryo from a sweltering hospital in the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The couple expected that maybe the story would show up in a local newspaper, and provide a page for the baby's scrapbook. "We never expected this much attention," Rebekah Markham said Sunday. The publicity has put them back in touch with childhood friends and neighbors. It's also made it harder to get ready for the baby — preparations further hampered by the fact that Glen Markham can't lift much of anything just now, or even install the baby car seat. Markham, a New Orleans police officer, has been on disability since Dec. 3 when he wrenched his back wrestling a wanted man to the ground. "We haven't even picked out a name yet," Rebekah Markham said. That's not because there's a shortage of suggestions. They've ruled out Katrina, but friends and co-workers have suggested storm-related names, including Harry Cane for a boy and Cat Five for a girl. Her husband's choices include Duke and Nitro. "I said, 'I think that is a wrestler,'" Rebekah Markham said. "Nitro could be liquid nitrogen, because that's what saved him," Glen Markham said. "For a girl, I like Breeze." When the storm hit, Glen Markham was assigned to the west bank of New Orleans, which didn't flood. Most of his time in the next weeks was spent preventing looting and catching looters. But the five frozen embryos that held the couple's chance to give their son, Witt, a brother or sister were at a hospital in eastern New Orleans, which got some of the worst flooding. Weeks after the storm, Rebekah Markham was afraid her embryos were gone. The embryos were among 1,400 frozen in canisters of liquid nitrogen at a hospital that housed one of the two labs for The Fertility Institute, the clinic which helped the Markhams create Witt. The canisters can keep their contents frozen for weeks — but they're designed for use in an air-conditioned room, not a building where temperatures were soaring into the 100s during a hot September without any electricity. Dr. Belinda "Sissy" Sartor helped lead a rescue expedition with officers from the Louisiana State Police and the Illinois Conservation Police, who were brought in because they had flat-bottomed boats. The officers plan to send the Markhams baby presents, said Illinois Conservation Police Lt. Eric Bumgarner. The Markhams' relief at learning the embryos were safe was far more than just knowing they wouldn't have to pay another $12,000 for a second round of in-vitro fertilization. "We see our little boy — we see what the potential of those little embryos is," Rebekah Markham said. "It meant more to us than a few cells frozen in a hospital." Witt is all boy, all energy, all 2-year-old. His favorite word is "No!" Close behind is "tractor" — his green plastic battery-powered model, on which he zips around the yard, between 40-foot-tall trees. At 2, he doesn't understand that he's about to get a lot of competition for his parents' attention. It will be good for him, the Markhams said. They said they'll probably have him choose the new baby's name — putting their top picks into a hat, and having Witt pull out one for a boy and one for a girl. Medicaid plan would cut rural fundingSun, 14 Jan 2007 10:49:31 GMTBy KEVIN FREKING, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Many rural hospitals and nursing homes would get fewer federal dollars under a proposal to save Medicaid almost $4 billion over the next five years. The change would have "a significant economic impact on a substantial number" of health care providers, the Bush administration acknowledges. At issue are financing arrangements between states and local governments. These deals tend to increase Washington's share of spending in Medicaid, the joint state-federal program covering 55 million poor and disabled people, even when a state's share is unchanged or drops. The federal share of the program ranges from 50 percent to 76 percent, depending upon the state. Poor states receive a greater federal share. In many states, financing arrangements between health care providers and the state result in the federal government paying more than the law says it should. Dennis Smith, director of the federal Center for Medicaid and State Operations, said the proposed rule made public late Friday would put a crimp on that practice. "This is about the match rate, and states have demonstrated they're willing to fund their share of the program," Smith said in an interview Saturday. "It's just that for many years previous to us, they were not paying their share." The Kaiser Family Foundation, which conducts health care research, said some of these arrangements have helped states maintain important services, such as nursing home care, during tough economic times. The proposed rule says that Medicaid payments to health care providers operated by local governments such as counties cannot exceed costs. The rule says health care providers — not a state or local government — must get all of the reimbursement they are entitled to get when they treat a Medicaid patient. "We expect this rule to have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities, specifically health care providers that are operated by units of government," the proposed rule says. According to federal data, there are 1,153 hospitals operated by local governments or hospital districts; 822 nursing homes with such ownership; and 113 intermediate care centers for the mentally retarded. In general, the facilities not affected by the proposal tend to be more in urban, more affluent areas. The Health and Human Services Department did not estimate how many of those facilities would be affected by the rule. Smith, however, sought to play down the economic effect, saying he did not believe the rule would have a dramatic impact on providers. He framed the savings, estimated at $3.9 billion over five years, in the context of the $200 billion that the federal government spends annually on Medicaid. Smith cited an example of improper financing: A hospital gets paid $100 — half from Washington and half from the state — but then gives $10 back to the state and the state spends the money as it wants. Smith said the federal government is saying that the true cost of the procedure should have only been $90, shaving Washington's true match to $45. The http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MedicaidGenInfo/08_MedicaidRegulations.asp UK college wins cash for obesity gumMon, 15 Jan 2007 00:42:51 GMTBy Ben Hirschler LONDON - An experimental anti-obesity drug which could one day be given as a chewing gum is among three projects to win funding under a new scheme from the Wellcome Trust. The world's second-largest medical research charity, Wellcome said on Monday it had awarded a research grant to Imperial College London for the work under its 91 million pounds Seeding Drug Discovery scheme -- the largest fund of its kind outside the United States. Other projects eligible for first-round grants are a new drug for fighting cancer being worked on at Bristol University and a medicine against the MRSA superbug from Oxford-based biotech firm Prolysis. The two university groups and biotech company will each get between 2.3 million and 3.5 million pounds to help them fund research to the point where big drugmakers or venture capitalists have an incentive to step in. Ted Bianco, Wellcome's director of technology transfer, said the goal was to bridge a funding gap between micro grants available under government schemes and the larger, later-stage investments provided by capital markets. Venture capitalists, in particular, have become wary of funding risky early stage research since the bursting of the technology bubble at the start of the decade. "The core of this initiative is getting more players involved in the business of drug discovery," Bianco told reporters. Wellcome's investment is charitable, but the organization will share in any wealth created as a result of its funding, he added. APPETITE-SUPPRESSANT Professor Steve Bloom of Imperial College said the cash would allow his team to progress their idea for a new appetite-suppressant based on the natural gut hormone pancreatic polypeptide . Bloom, who has been working on the project for some years, is convinced PP will not have the side effects found with other obesity drugs, including Sanofi-Aventis's Acomplia. But he has so far failed to find a commercial backer because the medicine is a large protein and cannot be made into a pill. He believes an easy-to-use, insulin-pen-type injection could be available in five to eight years, and in the long term the drug could be put into a chewing gum and absorbed in the mouth. Alternatively, it might be sprayed up the nose. The Bristol University work on cancer is based on a new way of switching off one of the key mechanisms that leads to the development and growth of tumour cells, while Prolysis is working on a drug that blocks a protein needed for MRSA bacteria to divide. |