Researcher backs lowered AIDS estimates
Thu, 22 Nov 2007 13:23:33 GMT
By MIN LEE, Associated Press Writer
HONG KONG - China's recently lowered AIDS estimates are probably accurate since they are in line with other countries which have scaled back their numbers because of a change in the way data are collated, a leading AIDS researcher said Thursday.
China's leaders had denied AIDS was a problem in the past, leading some to doubt the country's most recent figures, which sharply lowered the estimated number of people living with the disease.
But David Ho, a well-known AIDS researcher who also runs a public awareness and prevention program in mainland China, said the new figures reflected a change in methodology used by the United Nations and the World Health Organization.
In 2004, China scaled back the estimated number of people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, from nearly 1 million people to 840,000, and then further lowered the estimate to 650,000 in 2005.
"I have no basis to say whether the official AIDS estimates are right or not, but I feel that it is consistent with what the calculations are showing for the world," Ho said in a speech at the University of Hong Kong.
Worldwide, the estimated number of people infected with HIV fell from almost 40 million last year to about 33.2 million this year, global health officials said Tuesday.
Ho said the international organizations reduced their estimates by giving more weight to samples from low-risk instead of high-risk groups.
Previous estimates were based largely on the numbers of infected pregnant women at prenatal clinics, as well as projections of the AIDS rates for certain high-risk groups such as drug users to the entire population. Officials said those estimates were flawed and are now incorporating more data such as national household surveys.
In recent years, officials in China have confronted the disease more openly, promising anonymous testing, free treatment for the poor and a ban on discrimination against people with the virus.
China's traditional hotspots for AIDS are the central Henan province, where tainted blood helped spread the disease, and southwestern Yunnan province, where drug-use transmission is common.
Ho, however, urged officials to pay more attention to sexual transmission of the disease, which health experts have warned could cause a huge spike in numbers as infected sex workers pass the virus to clients who then pass it to their wives.
"I think we have to look out for that burgeoning epidemic," he said.
The U.N. has praised China's progress, but said authorities need to reach more patients and overcome a lack of cooperation from some government officials.
Ho has been researching AIDS for nearly 25 years and helped set up the Aaron Diamond AIDS research center at Rockefeller University in New York.
His research into how HIV replicates led to development of anti-retroviral treatment, which has drastically reduced mortality rates associated with AIDS since 1996.
His China AIDS Institute is a joint venture between Chinese and U.S. organizations to help address the disease in China.
Seasons eating Food gifts more popular
Fri, 23 Nov 2007 07:41:06 GMT
By M.L. JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer
MONROE, Wis. - Hundreds of tiny blocks of chocolate cake and cream ramble down the conveyor at The Swiss Colony. A waterfall of chocolate splashes over them before a bakery worker drizzles more chocolate on top.
The catalog company's bakery produces nearly 54 million petits fours per year, with most sold during the Christmas season. It claims to be the nation's largest producer of the tiny French pastries, which are one of its best-selling items.
While Americans are spending less overall on presents, sales of food gifts grew almost 50 percent to nearly $16 billion from 2004 to 2006, according to Packaged Facts, a division of Rockville, Md.-based MarketResearch.com. About one-third of consumers shop for food gifts during the winter holidays, it said.
Researchers and shoppers say food has the same one-size-fits-all appeal as gift cards, but with the added allure of giving friends and family something they wouldn't normally buy for themselves.
While shopping for family in other parts of the country, people may not know what clothes or electronics to get, but food "is a universal gift," said Kenneth J. Sousa, who teaches e-marketing at Bryant University in Rhode Island.
Debbe Geiger, 43, of Cary, N.C., said she is giving a variety of food gifts this year after her nephew sent her Omaha Steaks' bacon-wrapped filet mignon last year.
"I thought he pegged me well," she said, explaining that she enjoyed the steaks but was too practical to buy them for herself.
Food gift companies can do as much as 75 percent of their business during the winter holidays.
Competition is fierce, said John Baumann, president of Swiss Colony.
"All you have to do is go on the Internet and look up 'cheese gift' or 'sausage gift' or 'food gift' or 'food items' and there are literally thousands of different shopping options are going to pop up," he said.
Food gift companies also compete with other manufacturers with catalogs or an Internet presence.
"The average consumer does not necessarily believe they have to get a food gift," Baumann said.
The most successful companies offer uncommon products that people are willing to pay both a premium price and the cost of shipping to get, said Domenick Celentano, who teaches entrepreneurial studies at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey. Most people wouldn't ship basic foods such as bread, but they will pay extra to get a layered raspberry and chocolate cheesecake.
"When you get out of the major metropolitan areas, it's difficult — if not impossible — to find some of the items like those you'd see at Swiss Colony," Celentano said.
The company started by shipping sausage and cheese in the 1920s. But as specialty grocers made those items more common, the bulk of its food business shifted to hard-to-make candies and layered cakes.
One of its specialties is petits fours — miniature layered cakes first served by the French uppercrust during in the 1800s. In the U.S., they are usually only served at wedding receptions or other special occasions because of the time and cost of making them, said Gary Welling, who directs the International Baking and Pastry Institute at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island.
"They're not your everyday eating," Welling said.
They are Erin Patterson's favorite holiday treats. The Milwaukee lawyer's father is a parochial school principal who often gets several boxes of Swiss Colony petits fours as Christmas gifts from parents.
When Patterson and her four siblings were young, her mother saved the boxes until Christmas Eve, when the children would gorge on pastries, egg nog and soda. Her family still indulges on the holidays, but now they pair petits fours with drinks and shrimp cocktail.
"I love the Swiss Colony," said Patterson, 27.
Food gift companies bank on family tradition. Medford, Oregon-based Harry & David started shipping Comice pears, which it sells as the trademarked Royal Riviera pears, in the 1930s. They are still its top seller, executive vice president Bill Ihle said.
The company aims for "the customer saying, 'Gee, I remember this from mom and dad's house. I remember this from grandmom's house,'" Ihle said.
Caryn Mauser, 45, of Kenosha, began sending her family Harry & David gift baskets that include the pears two years ago after her mother sent her a gift from the company.
"For that particular gift, I knew they would all like it," she said. "I had no doubt."
Faced with shopping for her sister, brother-in-law and niece this year, she said she'll probably send them another basket.
"That's part of it, too," she said. "I don't have to decide what to get each of them. They all enjoy that."
Gail Glover, 44, of Port Crane, N.Y., sends her family in South Africa food baskets from Woolworths, a retailer based in Cape Town. She and her 13-year-old son spend several weeks picking out items from the online catalog.
"It's giving him some 'Grandparent' time, even though we are miles away," she wrote in an e-mail. It also "beats the heck out of mailing packages. It works out to be a lot cheaper and so much more convenient!"
___
On the Net:
Swiss Colony: http://www.swisscolony.com
Harry & David: http://www.harryanddavid.com
Omaha Steaks: http://www.omahasteaks.com
Figis: http://www.figis.com
Woolworths: http://www.woolworths.co.za
Rift Valley Fever kills 164 in Sudan
Thu, 22 Nov 2007 18:50:06 GMT
GENEVA - An outbreak of Rift Valley Fever in Sudan has killed 164 people, the World Health Organization said Thursday.
Rift Valley Fever is normally a mild disease in humans with a fatality rate of around one percent. But in patients who develop the hemorrhagic fever form, the fatality rate is around 50 percent, according to the U.N. health agency.
More than 221 people caught the virus over the last two weeks, bringing the total number of cases to 451, including those who died.
Most of the cases occurred in White Nile, Sinnar, and Gezira states in eastern Sudan, WHO said. Around two dozen cases were reported in Khartoum State, where three died.
WHO officials were alerted to the outbreak on Oct. 18, but only determined the exact nature of the disease in early November, according to the agency.
There is no treatment for the disease, which is spread to humans mostly through contact with the blood and organs of infected animals or from bites of infected mosquitoes.
WHO has said Sudanese officials were quick to alert the international community about the disease, which is essential to containing the outbreak and helping those affected.
Since 1930, when the virus was first isolated during an investigation into an epidemic among sheep on a farm in the Rift Valley of Kenya, there have been outbreaks in sub-Saharan and North Africa.
If you overeat get back on track fast
Thu, 22 Nov 2007 03:24:51 GMT
By CHERYL WITTENAUER, Associated Press Writer
ST. LOUIS - This shouldn't come as a surprise: Thanksgiving is not the green light to a six-week indulgence that precedes the waddle back to the gym Jan. 2.
Experts advise Americans not to throw good habits out the window on Turkey Day and into the holiday season. Instead, choose carefully, eat slowly, and savor.
"It's normal and expected that most of us are going to overeat over the holidays," said St. Louis dietitian Diane Zych.
For most healthy people "it's a blip on the screen," she said. "But for people who struggle with their weight, it's a very dangerous time, it can really throw them off target."
The holiday season that starts with Thanksgiving and ends with New Year's is a slippery slope, said Barry Popkin, who directs the University of North Carolina Interdisciplinary Obesity Center. He said studies have shown that seasonal weight gain can be significant — up to 10 pounds.
"A pound you can't remove is a pound for life," he said.
For all but the very health-conscious person who exercises a lot, the extra pounds that come from excess calories are not likely to melt away, Popkin said. He recommends enjoying pie and turkey with lots of water while cutting back on alcohol and other high-caloric drinks.
"Beyond that, if you eat a huge amount of food, work it off and walk it off, walk around the block," he said.
It would take 27 minutes of walking to burn the 97 calories in an 8-ounce serving of cola. A really fast mile would burn 125 calories, Popkin notes.
But that barely dents the 2,000 to 3,000 calories in an average Thanksgiving meal.
Three ounces of white turkey meat is only 130 calories, but a serving of sweet potato casserole is 330 calories; stuffing is 107; a slice of pumpkin pie is more than 300, while a piece of pecan pie is 500 calories.
On previous Thanksgivings, Patty Wade, 61, would have helped herself to a piece of that pecan pie, along with a large serving of corn casserole and potatoes. But things are different this year.
Wade, a senior analyst for a St. Louis hospital, has lost 55 pounds since March, and doesn't plan to regain any of it despite dealing with three Thanksgiving celebrations and four family birthdays this month.
Now, she restricts herself to a reasonable portion of meat, vegetables without high-calorie sauces, and a few bites of dessert. She's bringing dessert to Thursday's feast, a "really good yellow cake that doesn't require icing."
Dr. Robert Kushner, professor of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, recommends having a plan of action like Wade's, and visualizing the meal beforehand.
He suggests deciding ahead of time what can and cannot be eaten, eating while sitting rather than standing and talking, and from a plate not off a tray to keep things in proportion.
Take small bites and eat slowly. And, don't get stuck in guilt if you've eaten too much.
"Feeling guilty just leads to 'I blew my diet, so I won't start again until January,'" he said. "That's the worse thing you can do."
For Amy Lottes, her plan includes a three-hour walk when she takes her kids to the Saint Louis Zoo on Thanksgiving. Exercise and portion control have helped the St. Louis-area mom keep off the 20 pounds she lost four years ago with the help of a nutritionist and personal trainer.
This Thanksgiving, the 41-year-old will forfeit dessert and second helpings and have a second glass of wine instead.
Personal trainer Gina Pona-Norton said it's important to stay active — not just busy — over the holidays. And don't deprive yourself, just use moderation.
"If you get off track, get back on as soon as possible," she said. "If you have a bad Thursday, Friday is the day of eating perfect. Let it go. Let Thanksgiving go."
UKOdd Summary
Thu, 22 Nov 2007 21:19:10 GMT
Geronimo's rifle, Wyatt Earp's shotgun auctioned
SAN FRANCISCO -
A Springfield rifle owned by the
famed Apache warrior Geronimo fetched $100,000
during an auction of Wild West guns and weapons that brought in
more than $1 million. Lawman Wyatt Earp's double-barrelled
shotgun garnered $65,500, while a sabre attributed to U.S. Army
cavalry commander George Custer sold for $20,315 at the Bonhams
& Butterfields auction on Tuesday.
Cows' ear hair and other waste hit taxpayers
BERLIN - The German government wasted some 1.9
billion euros last year on everything from
defective brushes made of cows' ear hair to new seats for army
trucks that are not roadworthy, auditors said on Thursday. The
examples were cited in the Federal Audit Office's 2007 annual
review of government spending, which found a lack of oversight
in 85 percent of 40,000 cases it investigated.
Ancient sea scorpion was bigger than a human
LONDON - Scientists have found the fossilised
claw of a 2.5-metre sea scorpion, a nightmarish
creature living before the age of dinosaurs. The discovery of
the 390-million-year-old specimen in a German quarry suggests
prehistoric spiders, insects and crabs were much larger than
previously thought, researchers at Bristol University said on
Wednesday.
China cools protests over ant aphrodisiac scheme
BEIJING - Chinese officials have sought to head
off fresh confrontation after thousands of investors in the
northeast protested to demand help getting money back from a
get-rich-quick scheme raising ants to make an aphrodisiac
tonic. Several thousand irate investors from across Liaoning, a
rustbelt province striving to attract investment, demonstrated
around provincial government offices in the capital, Shenyang,
in past days.
1920s biscuit tin and contents fetch mouth watering price
LONDON - A rare 1920s biscuit tin and its
original contents were auctioned for 15,600 pounds in London on
Wednesday. The Sports Coupe car-shaped tin went for more than
five times the pre-sale estimate, Bonhams auction house said.
Australia PM's house for &;sale&; in election prank
CANBERRA - The spectacular harbourside Sydney
residence of Australian Prime Minister John Howard was offered
for sale on Thursday in a prank ahead of a national election
tipped to sweep the veteran conservative from power.
&;Impressive waterfront views! Poised on the top of a hill and
the envy of many onlookers. This two-storey house is a
residence of power,&; said a spoof advertisement on newspaper
real estate Web site domain.com.au.
Thousands protest over China ant aphrodisiac scheme
BEIJING - Thousands of people in north-eastern
China have protested on the streets and surrounded government
offices demanding help recovering money from a get-rich-quick
scheme to raise ants to make an aphrodisiac tonic. Hundreds of
anti-riot troops and police in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning
province, were deployed to stop protesters reaching the
provincial government and Communist Party headquarters,
residents said on Wednesday.
Malaysian sues Britain over ethnic Indians' woes
KUALA LUMPUR - An ethnic Indian in Malaysia is
using an audacious strategy to highlight the plight of his
mostly impoverished community by suing Britain, the country's
former colonial ruler, for $4 trillion .
The Malaysian government dismisses the case as baseless, but
lawyer Waytha Moorthy is determined to pursue it, even vowing
to appeal to the Queen to appoint lawyers for the Indian
community, which he says is too poor to find its own.
Stowaway piglet survives loo roll ordeal
LONDON - A piglet nicknamed Andrex is recovering
after being found in the back of a lorry full of toilet paper
at a supermarket. The animal, thought to be two or three weeks
old, was discovered in a delivery at a Tesco store in Ilkeston,
Derbyshire.
Fallen Savoy royals seek damages over Italy exile
ROME - The son and grandson of Italy's last king
are seeking damages from the country for sending the men of the
once illustrious House of Savoy into exile after World War Two
when Italians voted to end the monarchy. The family's lawyers,
in a letter to the government, are arguing that the exile of
male heirs was a violation of their human rights, under
European Union rules.