Porn Actor's Positive HIV Test Follows Condom Ruling

A porn actor's positive HIV test, which prompted an industrywide shutdown, comes less than a week after a federal judge rejected the porn industry's claim that a measure mandating condoms in pornography production was unconstitutional.

The Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act, or Measure B, passed by popular vote in Los Angeles County last November.

Read about the porn industry's opposition to Measure B here.

"There is no indication of on-set transmission," Diane Duke, CEO of the Free Speech Coalition, said in a statement. The Free Speech Coalition is the adult film industry trade group that runs mandatory STD testing for actors every 14 or 28 days. If they aren't tested, they can't perform.

"Because of the rigorous APHSS [Adult Production Health and Safety Services] protocols, the situation was accessed [sic] quickly and – most importantly – action was taken to ensure the protocols were followed," Duke said.

The Free Speech Coalition has said that its rigorous industry testing eliminates the need for condoms during vaginal and anal sex. It says the Los Angeles County porn industry hasn't had a performer test positive for HIV since 2004, and that performer didn't contract the virus from the porn community.

Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of California, Los Angeles, spoke at a news conference in support of Measure B following its passage last November. He said recent surveys and studies found that adult performers are eight to 15 times more likely to contract an STD than anyone else.

The positive HIV test also comes less than a month after another performer's false positive syphilis test created an industrywide scare, and less than two weeks after porn star Lisa Ann took to Twitter to say that she was outraged that a performer tested positive for hepatitis C and planned to work anyway.

Christian Mann, the general manager of Evil Angel Productions, which played a role in creating the sexual health database, said he had a great deal of empathy for the performer who tested positive for HIV. Although he called it a "perfect storm" of bad news, he said words like "epidemic" and "outbreak" aren't appropriate.

"I still take the point of view that we are likely in the know as a result of adult industry testing protocols," Mann said. "There's nothing that indicates that the transmission came from within the industry."

He said the industry leaders would likely know "pretty quickly" whether the performer became infected with HIV on a porn set because Adult Production Health and Safety Services is testing everyone she's worked with since even before the performer's most recent negative test, which was in July.

Several other scares have shut down the porn industry in recent years.

In August 2012, a performer tested positive for syphilis, and the industry underwent a similar temporary shutdown.

Read about the syphilis outbreak here.

In September 2011, another patient tested positive for HIV, resulting in an industry shutdown, but a follow-up test a week later revealed that it was a false positive.

Read more about the false positive test here.

Source : http://abcnews.go.com/Health/porn-actors-positive-hiv-test-condom-controversy/story?id=20040301

Porn Stars at Center of HIV Scare Speak Out

A porn industry trade group has confirmed that adult film star Cameron Bay tested positive for HIV. It was not a false positive, as was the case in 2011 when another HIV positive test temporarily shut down the porn industry.

Bay released a statement through the Free Speech Coalition, the industry trade group that mandates regular STD testing for performers:

"As difficult as this news is for me today, I am hopeful that no other performers have been affected," she said in the statement. "I plan on doing everything possible to assist the medical professionals and my fellow performers. Following that, my long-term plan is to take care of myself and my health."

Read about what the HIV diagnosis means for the porn industry.

Bay's agent, Mark Schechter, said she is "obviously distraught" at the diagnosis but was cooperating with testing organizations to make sure all her partners are notified and tested.

"Cameron has been a model citizen acting responsibly at this most difficult time," Schechter said through the Free Speech Coalition. "Her courage should be lauded."

Several media outlets have also reported that Sydney Leathers, made famous for coming forward as disgraced Congressman and now New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner's latest sexting partner, was exposed to HIV while making the adult movie "Weiner and Me," because her co-star filmed with Bay.

However, Leathers' representatives told ABCNews.com that this is false.

Although Free Speech Coalition has said it is testing Bay's partners, and testing is almost complete, Leathers was not contacted, her representative said. When she reached out to Free Speech Coalition after reading the news, it told her she was not connected to Bay and did not need a new HIV test.

Still, Leathers has undergone three HIV tests since making "Weiner and Me," her representative said. They were all negative.

Read about the porn industry's opposition to Measure B here.

Source : http://abcnews.go.com/Health/porn-stars-center-hiv-scare-speak/story?id=20050118

Tens of thousands of cancer patients visiting GP multiple times before referral

The survey of patients at 155 NHS trusts also asked patients how they ranked the care they received, with 31 trusts receiving worse scores than last year.

Another 31 trusts had made significant progress since last year, 40 had made smaller improvements and there was little change at a further 50 trusts, the report found.

Overall 88 per cent of patients ranked their care as either "good" or "excellent" in the survey which was carried out late last year.

Sean Duffy, NHS England national clinical director for cancer, said he was "disappointed" that scores had dropped at 31 trusts, claiming the decline had been "marginal" but there was "more work to do".

He added: "Whilst the results of this survey are very encouraging, every patient deserves the best experience they can have of care and that is what we shall be working on for the future.

"I am heartened to see that so many patients had a good experience of their care."

Ciaran Devane, chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Support, said the results were "positive" but added that it was "strange" some trusts should fail to make progress or even provide worse care when others were able to improve.

"Macmillan's analysis shows that the treatment of hospital staff is intrinsically linked to this. Happy staff means happy patients," he said.

"Conversely, where staff suffer high levels of discrimination or harassment, cancer patients are up to 18 times more likely to receive poor care. That is really worrying, and comes down to leadership."

Mark Flannagan, chief executive of Beating Bowel Cancer, said: "It's disappointing to see that, for bowel cancer patients seeing a GP, almost a third of them had to visit the GP more than twice before being referred to hospital.

"We're concerned that this figure hasn't improved since last year and we need to understand why. Bowel cancer is very treatable if caught early, so we'd like to see incentives for GPs for early diagnosis and penalties for late diagnosis."

Source : http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/568612/s/3098d1b5/sc/8/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Chealth0Chealthnews0C10A2764690CTens0Eof0Ethousands0Eof0Ecancer0Epatients0Evisiting0EGP0Emultiple0Etimes0Ebefore0Ereferral0Bhtml/story01.htm

Daydreamers at greater risk of insomnia

People who sleep well are able to selectively activate and deactivate regions of the brain used for "working memory" when trying to complete complex tasks, but primary insomniacs struggle to block out irrelevant thoughts.

Researchers from the University of California compared brain scans of 25 patients against 25 healthy sleepers, and found that while both were equally competent at completing tasks involving working memory, those with primary insomnia could not "dial down" parts of the brain which are activated when the mind wanders.

Dr Sean Drummond, who published his team's findings in the Sleep journal, explained: "People with insomnia not only have trouble sleeping at night, but their brains are not functioning as efficiently during the day.

"We found that insomnia subjects did not properly turn on brain regions critical to a working memory task and did not turn off 'mind-wandering' brain regions irrelevant to the task.

"It is not surprising that someone with insomnia would feel like they are working harder to do the same job as a healthy sleeper."

Source : http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/568612/s/309b89ed/sc/14/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Chealth0Chealthnews0C10A2772520CDaydreamers0Eat0Egreater0Erisk0Eof0Einsomnia0Bhtml/story01.htm

NFL Set to Pay More Than $750M to Settle Lawsuits

The NFL agreed to pay more than three-quarters of a billion dollars to settle lawsuits from thousands of former players who developed dementia or other concussion-related brain disorders they say were caused by the very on-field violence that fueled the game's rise to popularity and profit.

The class-action settlement, unprecedented in sports, was announced Thursday after two months of court-ordered mediation and is subject to approval by a federal judge. It came exactly a week before the first game of the 2013 season, removing a major legal and financial threat hanging over the sport.

U.S. District Judge Anita B. Brody in Philadelphia is expected to rule on the settlement in two to three months but said it "holds the prospect of avoiding lengthy, expensive and uncertain litigation, and of enhancing the game of football."

More than 4,500 former players, some of them suffering from depression or dementia, accused the NFL of concealing the long-term dangers of concussions and rushing injured players back onto the field, while glorifying and profiting from the bone-crushing hits that were often glorified in slow motion on NFL Films.

"Football has been my life and football has been kind to me," said former Dallas Cowboys running back Tony Dorsett, one of at least 10 members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame who filed suit since 2011. "But when I signed up for this, I didn't know some of the repercussions. I did know I could get injured, but I didn't know about my head or the trauma or the things that could happen to me later on in life."

The settlement applies to all 18,000 past NFL players and spouses of those who are deceased — a group that could total more than 20,000 — and will cost the league $765 million, the vast majority of which would go to compensate athletes with certain neurological ailments, plus plaintiffs' attorney fees. It sets aside $75 million for medical exams and $10 million for medical research.

Individual payouts would be capped at $5 million for men with Alzheimer's disease; $4 million for those diagnosed after their deaths with a brain condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy; and $3 million for players with dementia, said lead plaintiffs' lawyer Christopher Seeger.

The settlement does not include an admission from the NFL that it hid information from players about head injuries. Commissioner Roger Goodell told pro football's lawyers to "do the right thing for the game and the men who played it," according to a statement by the league.

Goodell was not made available for comment.

The NFL has annual revenue of about $9 billion.

In addition to Dorsett, the plaintiffs include Super Bowl-winning quarterback Jim McMahon, who suffers from dementia; former running back Kevin Turner, who has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease; and the family of All-Pro selection Junior Seau, who committed suicide last year.

Turner, who played for the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles, predicted that most of his peers would support the settlement.

"Chances are ... I won't make it to 50 or 60," said Turner, now 44. "I have money now to put back for my children to go to college and for a little something to be there financially."

Source : http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/judge-nfl-players-settle-concussion-lawsuits-20107371

NFL Agrees to Pay $765M to Settle Concussion Suits

The NFL agreed to pay more than three-quarters of a billion dollars to settle lawsuits from thousands of former players who developed dementia or other concussion-related brain disorders they say were caused by the very on-field violence that fueled the game's rise to popularity and profit.

The class-action settlement, unprecedented in sports, was announced Thursday after two months of court-ordered mediation and is subject to approval by a federal judge. It came exactly a week before the first game of the 2013 season, removing a major legal and financial threat hanging over the sport.

U.S. District Judge Anita B. Brody in Philadelphia is expected to rule on the settlement in two to three months but said it "holds the prospect of avoiding lengthy, expensive and uncertain litigation, and of enhancing the game of football."

More than 4,500 former players, some of them suffering from depression or dementia, accused the NFL of concealing the long-term dangers of concussions and rushing injured players back onto the field, while glorifying and profiting from the bone-crushing hits that were often glorified in slow motion on NFL Films.

"Football has been my life and football has been kind to me," said former Dallas Cowboys running back Tony Dorsett, one of at least 10 members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame who filed suit since 2011. "But when I signed up for this, I didn't know some of the repercussions. I did know I could get injured, but I didn't know about my head or the trauma or the things that could happen to me later on in life."

The settlement applies to all 18,000 past NFL players and spouses of those who are deceased — a group that could total more than 20,000 — and will cost the league $765 million, the vast majority of which would go to compensate athletes with certain neurological ailments, plus plaintiffs' attorney fees. It sets aside $75 million for medical exams and $10 million for medical research.

Individual payouts would be capped at $5 million for men with Alzheimer's disease; $4 million for those diagnosed after their deaths with a brain condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy; and $3 million for players with dementia, said lead plaintiffs' lawyer Christopher Seeger.

The settlement does not include an admission from the NFL that it hid information from players about head injuries. Commissioner Roger Goodell told pro football's lawyers to "do the right thing for the game and the men who played it," according to a statement by the league.

Goodell was not made available for comment.

The NFL has annual revenue of about $9 billion.

In addition to Dorsett, the plaintiffs include Super Bowl-winning quarterback Jim McMahon, who suffers from dementia; former running back Kevin Turner, who has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease; and the family of All-Pro selection Junior Seau, who committed suicide last year.

Turner, who played for the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles, predicted that most of his peers would support the settlement.

"Chances are ... I won't make it to 50 or 60," said Turner, now 44. "I have money now to put back for my children to go to college and for a little something to be there financially."

Source : http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/judge-nfl-players-settle-concussion-lawsuits-20107371

Porn Actor's Positive HIV Test Follows Condom Ruling

A porn actor's positive HIV test, which prompted an industrywide shutdown, comes less than a week after a federal judge rejected the porn industry's claim that a measure mandating condoms in pornography production was unconstitutional.

The Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act, or Measure B, passed by popular vote in Los Angeles County last November.

Read about the porn industry's opposition to Measure B here.

"There is no indication of on-set transmission," Diane Duke, CEO of the Free Speech Coalition, said in a statement. The Free Speech Coalition is the adult film industry trade group that runs mandatory STD testing for actors every 14 or 28 days. If they aren't tested, they can't perform.

"Because of the rigorous APHSS [Adult Production Health and Safety Services] protocols, the situation was accessed [sic] quickly and – most importantly – action was taken to ensure the protocols were followed," Duke said.

The Free Speech Coalition has said that its rigorous industry testing eliminates the need for condoms during vaginal and anal sex. It says the Los Angeles County porn industry hasn't had a performer test positive for HIV since 2004, and that performer didn't contract the virus from the porn community.

Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of California, Los Angeles, spoke at a news conference in support of Measure B following its passage last November. He said recent surveys and studies found that adult performers are eight to 15 times more likely to contract an STD than anyone else.

The positive HIV test also comes less than a month after another performer's false positive syphilis test created an industrywide scare, and less than two weeks after porn star Lisa Ann took to Twitter to say that she was outraged that a performer tested positive for hepatitis C and planned to work anyway.

Christian Mann, the general manager of Evil Angel Productions, which played a role in creating the sexual health database, said he had a great deal of empathy for the performer who tested positive for HIV. Although he called it a "perfect storm" of bad news, he said words like "epidemic" and "outbreak" aren't appropriate.

"I still take the point of view that we are likely in the know as a result of adult industry testing protocols," Mann said. "There's nothing that indicates that the transmission came from within the industry."

He said the industry leaders would likely know "pretty quickly" whether the performer became infected with HIV on a porn set because Adult Production Health and Safety Services is testing everyone she's worked with since even before the performer's most recent negative test, which was in July.

Several other scares have shut down the porn industry in recent years.

In August 2012, a performer tested positive for syphilis, and the industry underwent a similar temporary shutdown.

Read about the syphilis outbreak here.

In September 2011, another patient tested positive for HIV, resulting in an industry shutdown, but a follow-up test a week later revealed that it was a false positive.

Read more about the false positive test here.

Source : http://abcnews.go.com/Health/porn-actors-positive-hiv-test-condom-controversy/story?id=20040301

Porn Stars at Center of HIV Scare Speak Out

A porn industry trade group has confirmed that adult film star Cameron Bay tested positive for HIV. It was not a false positive, as was the case in 2011 when another HIV positive test temporarily shut down the porn industry.

Bay released a statement through the Free Speech Coalition, the industry trade group that mandates regular STD testing for performers:

"As difficult as this news is for me today, I am hopeful that no other performers have been affected," she said in the statement. "I plan on doing everything possible to assist the medical professionals and my fellow performers. Following that, my long-term plan is to take care of myself and my health."

Read about what the HIV diagnosis means for the porn industry.

Bay's agent, Mark Schechter, said she is "obviously distraught" at the diagnosis but was cooperating with testing organizations to make sure all her partners are notified and tested.

"Cameron has been a model citizen acting responsibly at this most difficult time," Schechter said through the Free Speech Coalition. "Her courage should be lauded."

Several media outlets have also reported that Sydney Leathers, made famous for coming forward as disgraced Congressman and now New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner's latest sexting partner, was exposed to HIV while making the adult movie "Weiner and Me," because her co-star filmed with Bay.

However, Leathers' representatives told ABCNews.com that this is false.

Although Free Speech Coalition has said it is testing Bay's partners, and testing is almost complete, Leathers was not contacted, her representative said. When she reached out to Free Speech Coalition after reading the news, it told her she was not connected to Bay and did not need a new HIV test.

Still, Leathers has undergone three HIV tests since making "Weiner and Me," her representative said. They were all negative.

Read about the porn industry's opposition to Measure B here.

Source : http://abcnews.go.com/Health/porn-stars-center-hiv-scare-speak/story?id=20050118

Porn Actor's Positive HIV Test Follows Condom Ruling

A porn actor's positive HIV test, which prompted an industrywide shutdown, comes less than a week after a federal judge rejected the porn industry's claim that a measure mandating condoms in pornography production was unconstitutional.

The Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act, or Measure B, passed by popular vote in Los Angeles County last November.

Read about the porn industry's opposition to Measure B here.

"There is no indication of on-set transmission," Diane Duke, CEO of the Free Speech Coalition, said in a statement. The Free Speech Coalition is the adult film industry trade group that runs mandatory STD testing for actors every 14 or 28 days. If they aren't tested, they can't perform.

"Because of the rigorous APHSS [Adult Production Health and Safety Services] protocols, the situation was accessed [sic] quickly and – most importantly – action was taken to ensure the protocols were followed," Duke said.

The Free Speech Coalition has said that its rigorous industry testing eliminates the need for condoms during vaginal and anal sex. It says the Los Angeles County porn industry hasn't had a performer test positive for HIV since 2004, and that performer didn't contract the virus from the porn community.

Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of California, Los Angeles, spoke at a news conference in support of Measure B following its passage last November. He said recent surveys and studies found that adult performers are eight to 15 times more likely to contract an STD than anyone else.

The positive HIV test also comes less than a month after another performer's false positive syphilis test created an industrywide scare, and less than two weeks after porn star Lisa Ann took to Twitter to say that she was outraged that a performer tested positive for hepatitis C and planned to work anyway.

Christian Mann, the general manager of Evil Angel Productions, which played a role in creating the sexual health database, said he had a great deal of empathy for the performer who tested positive for HIV. Although he called it a "perfect storm" of bad news, he said words like "epidemic" and "outbreak" aren't appropriate.

"I still take the point of view that we are likely in the know as a result of adult industry testing protocols," Mann said. "There's nothing that indicates that the transmission came from within the industry."

He said the industry leaders would likely know "pretty quickly" whether the performer became infected with HIV on a porn set because Adult Production Health and Safety Services is testing everyone she's worked with since even before the performer's most recent negative test, which was in July.

Several other scares have shut down the porn industry in recent years.

In August 2012, a performer tested positive for syphilis, and the industry underwent a similar temporary shutdown.

Read about the syphilis outbreak here.

In September 2011, another patient tested positive for HIV, resulting in an industry shutdown, but a follow-up test a week later revealed that it was a false positive.

Read more about the false positive test here.

Source : http://abcnews.go.com/Health/porn-actors-positive-hiv-test-condom-controversy/story?id=20040301

Porn Stars at Center of HIV Scare Speak Out

A porn industry trade group has confirmed that adult film star Cameron Bay tested positive for HIV. It was not a false positive, as was the case in 2011 when another HIV positive test temporarily shut down the porn industry.

Bay released a statement through the Free Speech Coalition, the industry trade group that mandates regular STD testing for performers:

"As difficult as this news is for me today, I am hopeful that no other performers have been affected," she said in the statement. "I plan on doing everything possible to assist the medical professionals and my fellow performers. Following that, my long-term plan is to take care of myself and my health."

Read about what the HIV diagnosis means for the porn industry.

Bay's agent, Mark Schechter, said she is "obviously distraught" at the diagnosis but was cooperating with testing organizations to make sure all her partners are notified and tested.

"Cameron has been a model citizen acting responsibly at this most difficult time," Schechter said through the Free Speech Coalition. "Her courage should be lauded."

Several media outlets have also reported that Sydney Leathers, made famous for coming forward as disgraced Congressman and now New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner's latest sexting partner, was exposed to HIV while making the adult movie "Weiner and Me," because her co-star filmed with Bay.

However, Leathers' representatives told ABCNews.com that this is false.

Although Free Speech Coalition has said it is testing Bay's partners, and testing is almost complete, Leathers was not contacted, her representative said. When she reached out to Free Speech Coalition after reading the news, it told her she was not connected to Bay and did not need a new HIV test.

Still, Leathers has undergone three HIV tests since making "Weiner and Me," her representative said. They were all negative.

Read about the porn industry's opposition to Measure B here.

Source : http://abcnews.go.com/Health/porn-stars-center-hiv-scare-speak/story?id=20050118

Porn Actor's Positive HIV Test Follows Condom Ruling

A porn actor's positive HIV test, which prompted an industrywide shutdown, comes less than a week after a federal judge rejected the porn industry's claim that a measure mandating condoms in pornography production was unconstitutional.

The Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act, or Measure B, passed by popular vote in Los Angeles County last November.

Read about the porn industry's opposition to Measure B here.

"There is no indication of on-set transmission," Diane Duke, CEO of the Free Speech Coalition, said in a statement. The Free Speech Coalition is the adult film industry trade group that runs mandatory STD testing for actors every 14 or 28 days. If they aren't tested, they can't perform.

"Because of the rigorous APHSS [Adult Production Health and Safety Services] protocols, the situation was accessed [sic] quickly and – most importantly – action was taken to ensure the protocols were followed," Duke said.

The Free Speech Coalition has said that its rigorous industry testing eliminates the need for condoms during vaginal and anal sex. It says the Los Angeles County porn industry hasn't had a performer test positive for HIV since 2004, and that performer didn't contract the virus from the porn community.

Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of California, Los Angeles, spoke at a news conference in support of Measure B following its passage last November. He said recent surveys and studies found that adult performers are eight to 15 times more likely to contract an STD than anyone else.

The positive HIV test also comes less than a month after another performer's false positive syphilis test created an industrywide scare, and less than two weeks after porn star Lisa Ann took to Twitter to say that she was outraged that a performer tested positive for hepatitis C and planned to work anyway.

Christian Mann, the general manager of Evil Angel Productions, which played a role in creating the sexual health database, said he had a great deal of empathy for the performer who tested positive for HIV. Although he called it a "perfect storm" of bad news, he said words like "epidemic" and "outbreak" aren't appropriate.

"I still take the point of view that we are likely in the know as a result of adult industry testing protocols," Mann said. "There's nothing that indicates that the transmission came from within the industry."

He said the industry leaders would likely know "pretty quickly" whether the performer became infected with HIV on a porn set because Adult Production Health and Safety Services is testing everyone she's worked with since even before the performer's most recent negative test, which was in July.

Several other scares have shut down the porn industry in recent years.

In August 2012, a performer tested positive for syphilis, and the industry underwent a similar temporary shutdown.

Read about the syphilis outbreak here.

In September 2011, another patient tested positive for HIV, resulting in an industry shutdown, but a follow-up test a week later revealed that it was a false positive.

Read more about the false positive test here.

Source : http://abcnews.go.com/Health/porn-actors-positive-hiv-test-condom-controversy/story?id=20040301

Porn Stars at Center of HIV Scare Speak Out

A porn industry trade group has confirmed that adult film star Cameron Bay tested positive for HIV. It was not a false positive, as was the case in 2011 when another HIV positive test temporarily shut down the porn industry.

Bay released a statement through the Free Speech Coalition, the industry trade group that mandates regular STD testing for performers:

"As difficult as this news is for me today, I am hopeful that no other performers have been affected," she said in the statement. "I plan on doing everything possible to assist the medical professionals and my fellow performers. Following that, my long-term plan is to take care of myself and my health."

Read about what the HIV diagnosis means for the porn industry.

Bay's agent, Mark Schechter, said she is "obviously distraught" at the diagnosis but was cooperating with testing organizations to make sure all her partners are notified and tested.

"Cameron has been a model citizen acting responsibly at this most difficult time," Schechter said through the Free Speech Coalition. "Her courage should be lauded."

Several media outlets have also reported that Sydney Leathers, made famous for coming forward as disgraced Congressman and now New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner's latest sexting partner, was exposed to HIV while making the adult movie "Weiner and Me," because her co-star filmed with Bay.

However, Leathers' representatives told ABCNews.com that this is false.

Although Free Speech Coalition has said it is testing Bay's partners, and testing is almost complete, Leathers was not contacted, her representative said. When she reached out to Free Speech Coalition after reading the news, it told her she was not connected to Bay and did not need a new HIV test.

Still, Leathers has undergone three HIV tests since making "Weiner and Me," her representative said. They were all negative.

Read about the porn industry's opposition to Measure B here.

Source : http://abcnews.go.com/Health/porn-stars-center-hiv-scare-speak/story?id=20050118

Porn Stars at Center of HIV Scare Speak Out

A porn industry trade group has confirmed that adult film star Cameron Bay tested positive for HIV. It was not a false positive, as was the case in 2011 when another HIV positive test temporarily shut down the porn industry.

Bay released a statement through the Free Speech Coalition, the industry trade group that mandates regular STD testing for performers:

"As difficult as this news is for me today, I am hopeful that no other performers have been affected," she said in the statement. "I plan on doing everything possible to assist the medical professionals and my fellow performers. Following that, my long-term plan is to take care of myself and my health."

Read about what the HIV diagnosis means for the porn industry.

Bay's agent, Mark Schechter, said she is "obviously distraught" at the diagnosis but was cooperating with testing organizations to make sure all her partners are notified and tested.

"Cameron has been a model citizen acting responsibly at this most difficult time," Schechter said through the Free Speech Coalition. "Her courage should be lauded."

Several media outlets have also reported that Sydney Leathers, made famous for coming forward as disgraced Congressman and now New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner's latest sexting partner, was exposed to HIV while making the adult movie "Weiner and Me," because her co-star filmed with Bay.

However, Leathers' representatives told ABCNews.com that this is false.

Although Free Speech Coalition has said it is testing Bay's partners, and testing is almost complete, Leathers was not contacted, her representative said. When she reached out to Free Speech Coalition after reading the news, it told her she was not connected to Bay and did not need a new HIV test.

Still, Leathers has undergone three HIV tests since making "Weiner and Me," her representative said. They were all negative.

Read about the porn industry's opposition to Measure B here.

Source : http://abcnews.go.com/Health/porn-stars-center-hiv-scare-speak/story?id=20050118

In Facebook's first pay vote, tough love from an old friend

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's co-founder and chief executive introduces 'Home' a Facebook app suite that integrates with Android during a Facebook press event in Menlo Park, California, April 4, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Robert Galbraith

By Ross Kerber

Wed Aug 28, 2013 1:52pm EDT

(Reuters) - Some of Mark Zuckerberg's mutual fund backers delivered a tough message on compensation for the leaders of Facebook Inc.

Fidelity Investments, led by its $98 billion Contrafund, was among those voting against the pay of the social media company's top leaders in a nonbinding contest at its annual meeting in June, its first since going public.

Securities filings show other funds voting against the pay included Legg Mason Capital Management Value Trust and Franklin Resources' Franklin Growth Fund.

While the funds' exact objection was not spelled out, one reason could be perks. Facebook Chief Executive Zuckerberg was paid $1.99 million in 2012, according to its proxy filing, much less than other executives, like Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, who received $26.2 million.

Yet ISS, the influential proxy adviser to institutional shareholders, recommended votes "against" the compensation. It questioned practices such as stock awards and the $1.2 million spent on Zuckerberg's personal use of aircraft in 2012.

Although shareholders backed Facebook's executive pay by a wide margin, the ballots cast by Fidelity - Facebook's largest outside shareholder and a longtime investor - show how dynamics have changed for Facebook now that it is a publicly traded firm, said Edward Hauder, a senior adviser at Exequity LLP, a Chicago-based executive compensation consulting firm.

Mutual fund managers, like Contrafund's William Danoff, may remain fans of the social media darling as an investment. But fund votes are generally controlled by separate departments that bring a cold policy analysis to proxy voting.

"It's just business," said Hauder.

A Facebook spokesman declined to comment.

The votes at Facebook are just one sample from a trove of material filed by asset managers this month.

Although big mutual fund firms dominate shareholder lists across the S&P 500, fund executives rarely discuss how they voted in particular proxy contests - making their annual filings a rare look under the hood.

At the same time, corporate shareholder meetings have heated up due both to shareholder discontent after the financial crisis and activist investors and labor groups conducting more aggressive campaigns. For instance, activists had urged a measure to require an independent chairman at JPMorgan Chase Co. which was not approved.

Filings for Fidelity's Contrafund and another well-known vehicle, Magellan, showed they voted against that measure, which would have split the roles of current chair and chief executive Jamie Dimon.

Activists also campaigned against the chairman of Occidental Petroleum Corp., Ray Irani, who did not win a majority of votes and stepped down from its board. BlackRock Inc.'s representative, Global Allocation Fund, voted against Irani and against the shareholder resolution at JPMorgan, but it also opposed three JPMorgan directors.

Fidelity spokesman Vincent Loporchio said the company would not comment on particular votes and said its funds vote according to company policy. As posted on the firm's website, the policy holds that Fidelity funds will "generally vote for proposals to ratify executive compensation unless such compensation appears misaligned with shareholder interests or otherwise problematic," taking into account factors such as whether a company has an independent compensation committee.

At its June 11 meeting, Facebook shareholders voted in favor of its compensation by 5.7 billion votes to 404 million votes.

Federal rules require large corporations to hold the non-binding "Say on Pay" votes, whose frequency is determined by shareholders. Facebook had recommended the votes be held once every three years.

As with the vote on pay itself, Facebook's position prevailed, with 5.6 billion votes in favor of voting once every three years, 14.9 million votes in favor of having the votes held once every two years, and 533.8 million votes in favor of an annual vote.

The Fidelity funds favored holding the vote annually.

(Editing by Linda Stern; Editing by Dan Grebler)

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Source : http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/lifestyle/~3/tklGOoR5H1k/story01.htm

Highest-paid U.S. CEOs are often fired or fined: study

By Nadia Damouni

NEW YORK | Wed Aug 28, 2013 2:12pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - About 40 percent of the highest-paid CEOs in the United States over the past 20 years eventually ended up being fired, paying fraud-related fines or settlements, or accepting government bailout money, according to a study released on Wednesday.

The report by the Institute for Policy Studies, a left-leaning think tank, said that chief executives for large companies received about 354 times as much pay as the average American worker in 2012. That gap has soared since 1993, when CEOs for big companies received about 195 times as much.

But the best-paying companies do not necessarily receive the best performance from their CEOs, the report said.

For example, Enron's Kenneth Lay was one of the 25 highest-paid chief executives for four years, before his company collapsed in an accounting fraud in 2001. In May 2006, a Houston federal jury found Lay guilty of fraud and conspiracy. His death two months later led to his conviction being thrown out.

The think tank looked at the 25 best-paid CEOs for each of the last 20 years. There were 241 executives on the list in total, because many appeared for multiple years. That means that the 40 percent average includes many chief executives who have appeared on the lists several times.

To be sure, all of the biggest financial services companies during the 2008 financial crisis received bailouts, whether they wanted them or not. But many chief executives on the list, including Lehman Brothers' Dick Fuld, were at the helm when their company either went under or accepted a government rescue package. Fuld received $466.3 million of compensation from 2001 through 2007, the report said. Fuld was not immediately available for comment.

The 2010 Dodd-Frank Act took steps to encourage more rational pay levels. The law, for example, requires all financial companies to disclose the ratio between the CEO's pay and median annual compensation for employees. But a number of the mandates have yet to be finalized by regulators, said Sarah Anderson, who co-authored the think tank's report.

"The Dodd-Frank Act was signed three years ago, and it is time for these very modest reforms in that legislation to be rigorously implemented," Anderson told Reuters.

"We see CEO-worker pay ratio disclosure as an important step forward toward corporate compensation common sense," the report said.

(Reporting by Nadia Damouni; editing by Dan Wilchins and Matthew Lewis)

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Source : http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/lifestyle/~3/MH6ZwM_nhz0/story01.htm

BRCA1 mutation not linked to worse cancer survival

By Kathryn Doyle

NEW YORK | Wed Aug 28, 2013 2:00pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Gene mutations known to increase a woman's risk of getting breast cancer do not appear to also worsen her chance of survival after a diagnosis, a new study suggests.

The findings should be reassuring to women with breast cancer, as carrying the BRCA1 mutations is "not a death sentence," provided patients get good treatment, Dr. Pamela Goodwin, an oncologist from the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, said.

The study backs up earlier reports showing BRCA1 mutations do not predict cancer survival, researchers said.

What is new is that women with the mutations seemed to benefit much more from ovary removal surgery than those without BRCA1 mutations, senior author Dr. Steven Narod of Women's College Research Institute in Toronto, said.

He and his colleagues tested more than 3,300 Polish women younger than 50 years old with recently diagnosed breast cancer for three specific mutations in the BRCA1 gene, starting in 1996.

Of those women, 233 tested positive for so-called founder mutations in BRCA1.

Founder mutations are a handful of specific changes repeatedly found among people of a particular ethnicity or from a particular region, which presumably date back hundreds of years to a single individual, Dr. Ellen Warner, a breast cancer researcher at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center in Toronto, told Reuters Health in an email.

The researchers found 81 percent of women with a BRCA1 mutation lived for at least 10 years after their diagnosis, similar to the 82 percent survival rate among mutation-free women.

Lymph node status - whether cancerous cells were found in lymph nodes under the arm at diagnosis - was a much better predictor of survival. Women with positive lymph node status were three times more likely to die over the same period than those whose cancer had not spread to the nodes.

Among women carrying the BRCA1 mutations, those who had surgery to remove their ovaries, called oophorectomy, were 70 percent less likely to die during the study than mutation carriers who did not have surgery.

Most of those surgeries were done after women were diagnosed with breast cancer.

Women without BRCA1 mutations, on the other hand, did not appear to benefit from ovary removal, according to results published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

One in 300 to one in 500 women has a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation. According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), a woman's chance of getting breast cancer increases from 12 to between 45 and 65 percent if she carries one of those mutations.

Goodwin, who wasn't part of the study team but published similar results last year, advocates genetic testing for women with at least a 10 percent chance of being a mutation carrier based on their medical and family histories. That is the standard in most countries, she said.

"It's not clear that everyone (with breast cancer) should be tested at diagnosis," Goodwin said. "A 70-year-old woman with no family history should probably not be tested for the mutation."

Narod said the results of the study suggest all women diagnosed with breast cancer before age 50 should be tested for BRCA1 mutations, and those who are carriers should have their ovaries removed within three months.

For women with a BRCA mutation, the risk of ovarian cancer also increases, from 1.4 percent to between 11 and 39 percent, according to the NCI.

Goodwin cautioned that in the case of this study, women who lived long enough to have an oophorectomy may have had more treatable breast cancers to begin with. It's possible they wouldn't have had as many cancer recurrences or early deaths regardless of the surgery, she said.

"I suspect there may be some benefit, but I'm not sure it's a full 70 percent reduction in risk," she said.

SOURCE: bit.ly/1aO8D82 Journal of Clinical Oncology, online August 12, 2013.

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Source : http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/healthNews/~3/smeYIWqxvo4/story01.htm

Scientists discover key to normal memory lapses in seniors

By Sharon Begley

NEW YORK | Wed Aug 28, 2013 2:24pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Scientists have good news for all the older adults who occasionally forget why they walked into a room - and panic that they are getting Alzheimer's disease.

Not only is age-related memory loss a syndrome in its own right and completely unrelated to that dread disease, but unlike Alzheimer's it may be reversible or even preventable, researchers led by a Nobel laureate said in a study published on Wednesday.

Using human brains that had been donated to science as well as the brains of lab mice, the study for the first time pinpointed the molecular defects that cause cognitive aging.

In an unusual ray of hope for a field that has had almost nothing to offer older adults whose memory is failing, the study's authors conclude that drugs, foods or even behaviors might be identified that affect those molecular mechanisms, helping to restore memory.

Any such interventions would represent a significant advance over the paltry offerings science has come up with so far to prevent memory decline, such as advice to keep cognitively active and healthy - which helps some people, but not all, and has only a flimsy scientific foundation. By identifying the "where did I park the car?" molecule, the discovery could also kick-start the mostly moribund efforts to develop drugs to slow or roll back the memory lapses that accompany normal aging.

"This is a lovely set of studies," said Molly Wagster of the National Institute on Aging, an expert on normal age-related memory decline who was not involved in the new study. "They provide clues to the underlying mechanism of age-related memory decline and will, hopefully, move us down the road toward targeted therapeutics."

About 40 percent of Americans age 85 and older say they experience some memory loss, a 2009 survey by the Pew Research Center found, as did 27 percent of those 75 to 84 and 20 percent of those ages 65 to 74.

BRAIN BANK

The researchers began with eight brains from the New York Brain Bank at Columbia University donated by people aged 33 to 88 who were free of brain disease when they died. They extracted two structures in the hippocampus, a vital cog in the brain's memory machinery: the dentate gyrus, a boomerang-shaped region whose function declines with age but is not affected by Alzheimer's, and the entorhinal cortex, which is largely unaffected by aging but is where Alzheimer's first takes hold, killing neurons.

The scientists then measured which genes had been active in each structure, and found one suspicious difference: 17 genes in the dentate gyrus became more active, or less, as the age of the brain increased.

The most significant change was that the gene for a protein called RbAp48 had essentially retired: The gene's activity tailed off dramatically the older a brain got. As a result, old brains had about half the RbAp48 of young brains, the scientists report online in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

The scientists then sampled 10 more healthy human brains, ranging from 41 to 89 years at the time of death. Once again, the amount of RbAp48 protein declined with age in the dentate gyrus. They next confirmed that RbAp48 protein was also less abundant in the dentate gyrus of old mice compared to young ones.

For the final step, the scientists had to nail down whether the missing protein caused age-related memory loss. They genetically engineered mice whose RbAp48 genes were disabled. Result: The young mice had memories as poor as animals four times their age (the mouse equivalent of late middle age), and they had terrible trouble navigating a water maze or differentiating objects they had seen before from novel ones.

Crucially, the scientists also did the reverse experiment, engineering mice so their brains had extra doses of RbAp48. The mice's memories returned to the flower of youth.

"With RbAp48, we were able to reverse age-related memory loss in the mice," said Columbia's Dr Eric Kandel, who shared the 2000 Nobel Prize in medicine for discoveries of the molecular basis of memory and led the research. "Unlike in Alzheimer's, there is no significant cell death in age-related memory loss, which gives us hope it can be prevented or reversed."

Exactly how RbAp48 does that is not clear. The protein acts as a sort of genetic master key: By causing chromosomes to loosen their hold on the molecular spool they are wound around like thread, it allows genes to be turned on. Among the activated genes, Kandel explained, are those involved in forming memories.

The emerging picture is that levels of RbAp48 decline with age, allowing chromosomes to maintain a death grip on their spools. Memory genes remain dormant, and you can't remember that you promised your spouse you would make dinner.

The researchers plan to see what social and dietary factors might boost RbAp48 in mice, said Kandel, who will be 84 in November. Pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, physical and cognitive exercise are all candidates, said Columbia's Dr Scott Small, co-senior author of the study.

Testing such interventions in mice should be more useful to humans than tests of drugs for Alzheimer's, he said. RbAp48 "is different," Small said. "Alzheimer's does not occur naturally in the mouse. Here, we've caused age-related memory loss in the mouse, and we've shown it to be relevant to human aging."

(Reporting by Sharon Begley; Editing by Julie Steenhuysen and Prudence Crowther)

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Source : http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/healthNews/~3/jOG-dBvJ7A8/story01.htm

'Legal high' deaths soar to highest number on record

Mephedrone, or miaow miaow, was made illegal in 2010.

The ONS figures covering England and Wales also showed a significant rise in the number of people killed after inhaling helium.

There were 58 deaths involving the gas last year, up from 12 in 2008, and many were linked with suicides, according to the ONS report.

In all, 891 women died from drug poisoning - including legal and illegal drugs - which was a rise of 880 the previous year.

In the same period the number of male deaths fell 4 per cent to 1,706.

The number of deaths involving heroin or morphine fell slightly in 2012 to 579 deaths, but these remained the substances most commonly involved in drug poisoning deaths, the ONS said.

The 30 to 39 age group saw the most deaths from drug misuse, and the North West had highest mortality rate by area.

Source : http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/568612/s/3081a7f9/sc/2/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Cnews0Cuknews0Ccrime0C10A2717980CLegal0Ehigh0Edeaths0Esoar0Eto0Ehighest0Enumber0Eon0Erecord0Bhtml/story01.htm

Patients overpay by £200m at private hospitals - regulator

The report, which has taken a year to compile, has identified the main culprits as HCA, BMI, Spire, Ramsay, and Nuffield. These companies account for 70pc of the UK's £5.5bn private healthcare market between them. They could now be forced to sell off up to 20 hospitals to level the playing field.

The Commission also found evidence of cabal-like behaviour in the industry, with many of the private hospital groups running dubious "incentive schemes" to encourage consultants to send patients to particular private hospitals, regardless of clinical need.

"We've seen the existence of a range of incentives which encourage medical professionals to choose facilities on grounds other than price and quality—and we struggle to believe these can be in the interests of patients," said Mr Witcomb

The Commission said up to 20 hospitals will now have to be sold as part of an initiative to stimulate competition.

However, it said that there were still high barriers to entry for new hospital providers because of the costs associated with setting up a new hospital, and the flat demand for private healthcare services in recent years.

To stimulate competition, healthcare providers will be banned from offering incentives "in cash or kind" to doctors and consultants for using their facilities. Measures will also be introduced to prevent so-called "tying and bundling", where hospitals with a monopoly in certain areas use their market power to bully insurers into letting them raise their prices.

HCA has hit back at the CC's over-charging allegations by claiming that 102pc of its profits are reinvested into technology and complex care. "Huge investment by HCA has converted [its hospitals] into world-class centres that patients around the world seek out every day," said HCA International director Keith Biddlestone,

This report is set to cause a lot of financial pain for the healthcare providers in question, beyond the sale of a few hospitals. Paul Saper, CEO of health consultancy LCS International, explained that the traditionally high barriers to entry in this market have affected the valuations of these companies. "If no one can just open up around the corner, people come to the conclusion that they should pay a premium for these businesses. By allowing more competition, that opinion will change pretty quickly."

Source : http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/568612/s/307efedf/sc/30/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Cfinance0Cnewsbysector0Cpharmaceuticalsandchemicals0C10A270A4270CPatients0Eoverpay0Eby0E20A0Am0Eat0Eprivate0Ehospitals0Eregulator0Bhtml/story01.htm

Porn Actor's Positive HIV Test Follows Condom Ruling

A porn actor's positive HIV test, which prompted an industrywide shutdown, comes less than a week after a federal judge rejected the porn industry's claim that a measure mandating condoms in pornography production was unconstitutional.

The Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act, or Measure B, passed by popular vote in Los Angeles County last November.

Read about the porn industry's opposition to Measure B here.

"There is no indication of on-set transmission," Diane Duke, CEO of the Free Speech Coalition, said in a statement. The Free Speech Coalition is the adult film industry trade group that runs mandatory STD testing for actors every 14 or 28 days. If they aren't tested, they can't perform.

"Because of the rigorous APHSS [Adult Production Health and Safety Services] protocols, the situation was accessed [sic] quickly and – most importantly – action was taken to ensure the protocols were followed," Duke said.

The Free Speech Coalition has said that its rigorous industry testing eliminates the need for condoms during vaginal and anal sex. It says the Los Angeles County porn industry hasn't had a performer test positive for HIV since 2004, and that performer didn't contract the virus from the porn community.

Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of California, Los Angeles, spoke at a news conference in support of Measure B following its passage last November. He said recent surveys and studies found that adult performers are eight to 15 times more likely to contract an STD than anyone else.

The positive HIV test also comes less than a month after another performer's false positive syphilis test created an industrywide scare, and less than two weeks after porn star Lisa Ann took to Twitter to say that she was outraged that a performer tested positive for hepatitis C and planned to work anyway.

Christian Mann, the general manager of Evil Angel Productions, which played a role in creating the sexual health database, said he had a great deal of empathy for the performer who tested positive for HIV. Although he called it a "perfect storm" of bad news, he said words like "epidemic" and "outbreak" aren't appropriate.

"I still take the point of view that we are likely in the know as a result of adult industry testing protocols," Mann said. "There's nothing that indicates that the transmission came from within the industry."

He said the industry leaders would likely know "pretty quickly" whether the performer became infected with HIV on a porn set because Adult Production Health and Safety Services is testing everyone she's worked with since even before the performer's most recent negative test, which was in July.

Several other scares have shut down the porn industry in recent years.

In August 2012, a performer tested positive for syphilis, and the industry underwent a similar temporary shutdown.

Read about the syphilis outbreak here.

In September 2011, another patient tested positive for HIV, resulting in an industry shutdown, but a follow-up test a week later revealed that it was a false positive.

Read more about the false positive test here.

Source : http://abcnews.go.com/Health/porn-actors-positive-hiv-test-condom-controversy/story?id=20040301

Porn Stars at Center of HIV Scare Speak Out

A porn industry trade group has confirmed that adult film star Cameron Bay tested positive for HIV. It was not a false positive, as was the case in 2011 when another HIV positive test temporarily shut down the porn industry.

Bay released a statement through the Free Speech Coalition, the industry trade group that mandates regular STD testing for performers:

"As difficult as this news is for me today, I am hopeful that no other performers have been affected," she said in the statement. "I plan on doing everything possible to assist the medical professionals and my fellow performers. Following that, my long-term plan is to take care of myself and my health."

Read about what the HIV diagnosis means for the porn industry.

Bay's agent, Mark Schechter, said she is "obviously distraught" at the diagnosis but was cooperating with testing organizations to make sure all her partners are notified and tested.

"Cameron has been a model citizen acting responsibly at this most difficult time," Schechter said through the Free Speech Coalition. "Her courage should be lauded."

Several media outlets have also reported that Sydney Leathers, made famous for coming forward as disgraced Congressman and now New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner's latest sexting partner, was exposed to HIV while making the adult movie "Weiner and Me," because her co-star filmed with Bay.

However, Leathers' representatives told ABCNews.com that this is false.

Although Free Speech Coalition has said it is testing Bay's partners, and testing is almost complete, Leathers was not contacted, her representative said. When she reached out to Free Speech Coalition after reading the news, it told her she was not connected to Bay and did not need a new HIV test.

Still, Leathers has undergone three HIV tests since making "Weiner and Me," her representative said. They were all negative.

Read about the porn industry's opposition to Measure B here.

Source : http://abcnews.go.com/Health/porn-stars-center-hiv-scare-speak/story?id=20050118

Porn Actor's Positive HIV Test Follows Condom Ruling

A porn actor's positive HIV test, which prompted an industrywide shutdown, comes less than a week after a federal judge rejected the porn industry's claim that a measure mandating condoms in pornography production was unconstitutional.

The Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act, or Measure B, passed by popular vote in Los Angeles County last November.

Read about the porn industry's opposition to Measure B here.

"There is no indication of on-set transmission," Diane Duke, CEO of the Free Speech Coalition, said in a statement. The Free Speech Coalition is the adult film industry trade group that runs mandatory STD testing for actors every 14 or 28 days. If they aren't tested, they can't perform.

"Because of the rigorous APHSS [Adult Production Health and Safety Services] protocols, the situation was accessed [sic] quickly and – most importantly – action was taken to ensure the protocols were followed," Duke said.

The Free Speech Coalition has said that its rigorous industry testing eliminates the need for condoms during vaginal and anal sex. It says the Los Angeles County porn industry hasn't had a performer test positive for HIV since 2004, and that performer didn't contract the virus from the porn community.

Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of California, Los Angeles, spoke at a news conference in support of Measure B following its passage last November. He said recent surveys and studies found that adult performers are eight to 15 times more likely to contract an STD than anyone else.

The positive HIV test also comes less than a month after another performer's false positive syphilis test created an industrywide scare, and less than two weeks after porn star Lisa Ann took to Twitter to say that she was outraged that a performer tested positive for hepatitis C and planned to work anyway.

Christian Mann, the general manager of Evil Angel Productions, which played a role in creating the sexual health database, said he had a great deal of empathy for the performer who tested positive for HIV. Although he called it a "perfect storm" of bad news, he said words like "epidemic" and "outbreak" aren't appropriate.

"I still take the point of view that we are likely in the know as a result of adult industry testing protocols," Mann said. "There's nothing that indicates that the transmission came from within the industry."

He said the industry leaders would likely know "pretty quickly" whether the performer became infected with HIV on a porn set because Adult Production Health and Safety Services is testing everyone she's worked with since even before the performer's most recent negative test, which was in July.

Several other scares have shut down the porn industry in recent years.

In August 2012, a performer tested positive for syphilis, and the industry underwent a similar temporary shutdown.

Read about the syphilis outbreak here.

In September 2011, another patient tested positive for HIV, resulting in an industry shutdown, but a follow-up test a week later revealed that it was a false positive.

Read more about the false positive test here.

Source : http://abcnews.go.com/Health/porn-actors-positive-hiv-test-condom-controversy/story?id=20040301

Porn Stars at Center of HIV Scare Speak Out

A porn industry trade group has confirmed that adult film star Cameron Bay tested positive for HIV. It was not a false positive, as was the case in 2011 when another HIV positive test temporarily shut down the porn industry.

Bay released a statement through the Free Speech Coalition, the industry trade group that mandates regular STD testing for performers:

"As difficult as this news is for me today, I am hopeful that no other performers have been affected," she said in the statement. "I plan on doing everything possible to assist the medical professionals and my fellow performers. Following that, my long-term plan is to take care of myself and my health."

Read about what the HIV diagnosis means for the porn industry.

Bay's agent, Mark Schechter, said she is "obviously distraught" at the diagnosis but was cooperating with testing organizations to make sure all her partners are notified and tested.

"Cameron has been a model citizen acting responsibly at this most difficult time," Schechter said through the Free Speech Coalition. "Her courage should be lauded."

Several media outlets have also reported that Sydney Leathers, made famous for coming forward as disgraced Congressman and now New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner's latest sexting partner, was exposed to HIV while making the adult movie "Weiner and Me," because her co-star filmed with Bay.

However, Leathers' representatives told ABCNews.com that this is false.

Although Free Speech Coalition has said it is testing Bay's partners, and testing is almost complete, Leathers was not contacted, her representative said. When she reached out to Free Speech Coalition after reading the news, it told her she was not connected to Bay and did not need a new HIV test.

Still, Leathers has undergone three HIV tests since making "Weiner and Me," her representative said. They were all negative.

Read about the porn industry's opposition to Measure B here.

Source : http://abcnews.go.com/Health/porn-stars-center-hiv-scare-speak/story?id=20050118

Career first, children later: Taiwan women put their eggs on ice

1 of 9. An employee demonstrates the process to extract eggs in a lab at the e-Stork Reproductive Center in Hsinchu, northern Taiwan, August 8, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Pichi Chuang

HSINCHU, Taiwan | Tue Aug 27, 2013 12:29am EDT

HSINCHU, Taiwan (Reuters) - Caught between traditional expectations and career pressures, working women in Taiwan are increasingly opting to freeze their eggs at fertility clinics as they postpone marriage and motherhood.

Women play a big part in Taiwan's workforce, trailing only New Zealand and Australia for female employment among 14 countries in Asia, a recent report by MasterCard showed.

A slowdown in the economy has made job security an even more pressing priority. That has been a factor in pushing the East Asian island's average marriage age to 30 these days, from 24 in the 1980s, and in driving the interest in egg freezing.

"I was not sure when my ovaries would start degenerating but I was sure that I would probably marry late and I was sure that I wanted to become a mother," said Linn Kuo, 34, who chose to freeze her eggs three years ago.

Kuo, a manager at Cisco System Taiwan Ltd, has a well-paid job that allows her to work from home. While her career has had a smooth trajectory, Kuo said she has not been as lucky in her love live.

After her mother died, she realized the importance of having the support of children in later life.

"I already had my conclusion," she said. "So I did some research and decided to freeze my eggs."

Lai Hsing-hua, the clinic director at e-Stork Reproduction Center in the city of Hsinchu, said he realized the need for egg-freezing services when many patients asked for egg donors after a late marriage.

"We thought if they had frozen their eggs earlier, maybe they wouldn't need to use donated eggs," he said. "That's why we combined in-vitro fertilization with the idea of prevention - prevent them from using others' eggs after their fertility has deteriorated."

The clinic now gets more than 100 phone calls a month asking about egg freezing.

Five years ago, it did just 20 of the procedures. It handled more than 70 cases in 2011, more than 50 last year and already more than 40 in the first six months of this year.

The technology has matured and the embryo now has a high survival rate with egg freezing, Lai said. The service costs around 80,000 Taiwan dollars ($2,680) and the whole process of retrieving the egg takes about 20 minutes.

Chen Fen-ling, a professor of social work at National Taipei University, said societal pressures were causing women to delay marrying and starting a family.

"Married women are like candles burning at both ends," she said. "We say that women work two jobs. They make money with a daytime job but, when they go back home, they take care of their children and parents-in-law. This pressure often makes women hesitate when making the decision about marriage."

Those realities about career, marriage and motherhood are reflected in a woefully low birthrate. Taiwan is tied with Hong Kong in third-last place globally in terms of the average number of children born per woman, just above Macau and Singapore, the CIA World Factbook says.

(This story was refiled to amend reference to Taiwan in third paragraph)

(Reporting by Christine Lu; Editing by John O'Callaghan)

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Source : http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/lifestyle/~3/Dl7b9LGZ3RA/story01.htm

My perfect weekend: Felix Francis, writer

I only start to panic when the number of days until the deadline is less than the number of thousand words I have left to do, and in that case I find that escaping to our house in Devon for a few weekends, where there's no television or post, helps tremendously. It's on the Yealm estuary and we've just bought a little boat which we like to potter around in. Drifting in with the tide on a lovely summer's evening can make a pretty perfect weekend and also restores productivity.

My mother [Mary, who died in 2000 aged 76] and father had a unique way of working on their books together; she was his researcher, learning to fly for one book or program a computer for another. To a lesser extent, Debbie and I do this too. Debbie will read what I've written out loud to me on a daily basis and that's how I know whether the rhythm of the sentences – something that I learnt from my mother – is right. If Debbie has to read something twice to get the correct intonation then it needs more work. Some critics have said rather disparagingly that my books are "just easy reading", but I can tell you I work very hard to make them that way. I like nothing better than someone telling me they stayed up until 5am with one of my books.

I've always found that handing in the finished draft of a book and waiting for a verdict is the most desperately nerve-racking process, far worse than getting exam results. Thankfully it seems to be going well so far and I'm very proud to be carrying on what my parents achieved for so long. There's one particular tradition I like to keep up: the late Queen Mother was famously a great fan of my father's books and I still deliver a first edition of each to the side entrance at Buckingham Palace. All I can say is that I've had positive feedback.

My memories of my father are very precious to me and one of my most treasured possessions is the 1948 Mk IV Jaguar he used to own. It was the car he drove to and from the Grand National in 1956, when he lost on Devon Loch, and I remember being in it when I was little. He sold it when I was seven, and a couple of years ago its owner contacted me to see if I'd buy it. We negotiated for two years on the price, but driving it home for the first time I felt very close to my father. It was sad he didn't live to know I'd got it back.

My other great passion when I'm not working is sport. I'm an MCC member and I had my absolute perfect weekend a few weeks ago at Lord's, watching England stuff the Australians. I have a debenture seat at Twickenham too: I love going there on a weekend and having a picnic in the car park with friends before watching a match. I'd rather watch bad cricket than good football, though.

I don't often treat them as such, but I like the idea of Sundays being different. I won't take a day off writing for them, but I might work in the morning and then go to the pub for Sunday lunch. The trouble is that writing is a very sober occupation and I do love my red wine. If things are really going badly, a couple of bottles of wine and a late-night session discussing it with Debbie can sometimes be very fruitful, but generally what I write, if anything, on Sunday afternoons, tends to be utter rubbish.

In short

Herbal tea or stiff drink?

That is so easy – a stiff drink. Whoever invented herbal tea should be made to watch endless episodes of EastEnders.

What are you listening to?

I'm not really up to date but give me most things from the Seventies. The Les Misérables soundtrack is what I play really loudly in the car.

Last meal?

Steak au poivre or possibly chicken madras.

Who do you most admire?

Yuri Gagarin and Neil Armstrong.

Earliest memory?

Collecting the bread at the local village shop with my father. Fabulous.

My favourite things

My wife and family

My dogs

A wonderful photo of my parents in about 1998: it's how I remember them

The book I've just finished, and my whole body of work, really

Redcliffe Hotel in Paignton, Devon

'Dick Francis's Refusal' by Felix Francis (Michael Joseph) is on offer at £16.99 + £1.35 p & p (RRP £18.99). To order call 0844 871 1514 or visit Telegraph Books

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Commuter spy: some things never change

We were visiting the old boy and his wife up near Pickering, by the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. It was a lovely day – OK, there was a bit of drizzle, but this was Yorkshire – and seeing the handsome locomotives gliding in was a balm for the soul, jaded as I was by months of commuting on those awful, cramped, stuffy modern trains. The children stood on the railway bridge as it passed underneath, filled with hilarity at being plunged into a cloud of steam.

The day darkened, however, when I went to buy the tickets. My father and his wife, as "wrinklies", qualified for a £16 ticket each. Steep, but not quite beyond the pale. However, a "family ticket" cost £38, meaning that I had to shell out an eye-watering total of £70 for a pleasure trip on the railway. As I handed over the dough, I muttered a "plus ça change". "What's that, love?" smiled the woman at the ticket office.

No matter. This was a holiday. We took our seats in one of those delightful, wood-panelled, old-fashioned compartments and waited for the train to depart. There was something of a delay; when you're on child time, one minute of delay is equivalent to 10 minutes in adult time, and things got a little bit fractious. So when the train huffed out of the station, it was a relief.

We settled down, watching the fields scud by, looking for cows. Then we entered a tunnel, and were plunged into blackness. I don't know if this was normal in the age of steam, or if the lights were broken, but you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. One child was greatly amused by this, and the other was greatly upset; in the darkness, I couldn't tell which was which.

Stifling clouds of smoke began to fill the carriage. "In the old days," came my father's voice, "we used to make sure we closed the windows before going into a tunnel."

"You did, did you?" I said, gagging. "Thank God we've got you with us."

By the time we left the tunnel, we were almost apoplectic. Everybody was coughing, and the floor was covered with grime. My son, who had removed his shoes and socks – as is his wont – had feet as black as a miner's. I became aware of this when I traced the origin of the footprints on my trousers.

The journey was greatly delayed. The first leg took over an hour, meaning that we had no time to explore at the other end; we had to reboard the train to go back the other way.

I won't bore you with the details. Suffice to say that by the time we got back to Pickering, I was feeling rather more kindly towards the electric train.

Email:commuterspy@telegraph.co.uk. Twitter: @CommuterSpy

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Modern Etiquette: Baby shower courtesy in the digital age

A pregnant woman touches her stomach as people practice yoga on the morning of the summer solstice in New York's Times Square June 20, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton

By Anna Post

Burlington, Vermont | Mon Aug 26, 2013 5:26pm EDT

Burlington, Vermont (Reuters) - Baby showers bring to mind much oohing and awing (obligatory or genuine) as piles of pink- or blue-themed gifts are opened.

While it's true that the point of a baby shower is to give new parents gifts that will help them be prepared for their new bundle of joy, they are also about sharing the excitement a new baby brings with family and friends.

Whenever guests are expected to bring a gift, those expectations can start to become the center of attention, instead of the event the gifts are celebrating.

Here are a few ways to help keep the focus where it belongs: on the thrill and anticipation of a wonderful new baby.

While new parents don't throw their own shower (it's too much of a direct ask for presents), anyone else can host.

And though many people might associate baby showers with a group of women seated in a circle around a mom-to-be, it's fine to throw a shower for any expecting or new parentâ€"single mom or dad, or gay or straight couples togetherâ€"and the guest list can be co-ed.

This is also the case for parents who adopt, though if the adoption is for an older child, don't use baby-themed invitations. It's also a good idea to include the child's name and age on the invitation.

Keep shower guests to close friends and family.

Though a gift is expected if a guest attends, guests should only be invited to help celebrate the upcoming arrival, not for the gift they bring. If a guest is invited to a shower but can't attend, there is no obligation to send a gift, though they certainly may if they want to.

Include registry information on a separate slip of paper with the invitation, or better yet, provide it to guests who reply they will be coming. It is splitting hairs, but it keeps the focus on the guest being invited to celebrate and not just on their gift.

It's okay to have a shower for a second or third child. Originally this was frowned on, the idea being that parents would have what they need from their first child.

But in some cases it's been many years since the last child was born, or the first child was a girl and now the parents are expecting a boy.

For parents who are relatively well equipped, shower hosts might consider themes that focus on restocking basic items, or treats for mom and dad, such as a night of babysitting, coupons for take-out, massages, or movie tickets.

Office showers are a nice way for colleagues to help celebrate and acknowledge parents-to-be. Usually there is cake and a card signed by the group, often accompanied by a group present.

Employee guests to an office shower aren't expected to bring gifts; instead, the group gets together for a group gift, usually funded by an office collection.

It's important that no one be excluded from or pressured into participating. Instead, the person in charge should inform everyone that there's an envelope at his or her desk, and to make contributions there anonymously. Never go desk-to-desk asking colleagues to pony up on the spot.

The person in charge might check in with the parent-to-be to discover what they need, and to see if their partner might be available to join the party.

Traditional etiquette says that if you thanked someone for a gift in person, there is no need to send a handwritten note. This is still true, but shower gifts have always been and continue to be an exception.

Be sure to send a prompt handwritten thank-you note to each guest who gave you a gift. It's never okay for the shower host to ask guests to write their address on blank envelopes to save the parent-to-be the effort.

Notes, including the envelopes, should be personal start to finish. Some hosts will excuse the practice by using them to draw door prizes or as a way to gather mailing addresses for the expectant parent in an age of email.

Door prizes don't make up for laziness, and an address book would work just as well to collect mailing addresses, so these excuses don't make up for the tackiness of outsourcing the task of thanking guests to the guests themselves.

And a final grace note for parents: After your newborn arrives, be sure to share the news personally with anyone who attended a baby shower for you.

(Anna Post is a spokeswoman for The Emily Post Institute, a U.S.-based organization founded in 1946 that addresses societal concerns including business and wedding etiquette and raising polite children. Her latest book "Emily Posts's Etiquette, 18th edition" is out now. The opinions expressed are her own. The Emily Post Institute's website is www.emilypost.com)

(Editing by Paul Casciato)

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