April 2014 | GCXZ

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

'Superbugs' that can overpower antibiotics are spreading: WHO

By Kate Kelland

LONDON, April 30 Wed Apr 30, 2014 7:37am EDT

LONDON, April 30 (Reuters) - The spread of deadly superbugs that evade even the most powerful antibiotics is no longer a prediction but is happening right now across the world, United Nations officials said on Wednesday.

Antibiotic resistance has the potential to affect anyone, of any age, in any country, the U.N.'s World Health Organisation (WHO) said in a report. It is now a major threat to public health, of which "the implications will be devastating".

"The world is headed for a post-antibiotic era, in which common infections and minor injuries which have been treatable for decades can once again kill," said Keiji Fukuda, the WHOâ€™s assistant director-general for health security.

In its first global report on antibiotic resistance, with data from 114 countries, the WHO said superbugs able to evade event the hardest-hitting antibiotics - a class of drugs called carbapenems - has now been found in all regions of the world.

Drug resistance is driven by the misuse and overuse of antibiotics, which encourages bacteria to develop new ways of overcoming them.

Only a handful of new antibiotics have been developed and brought to market in the past few decades, and it is a race against time to find more as bacterial infections increasingly evolve into "superbugs" resistant to even the most powerful last-resort medicines reserved for extreme cases.

One of the best known superbugs, MRSA, is alone estimated to kill around 19,000 people every year in the United States - far more than HIV and AIDS - and a similar number in Europe.

THE DRUGS DON'T WORK

The WHO said in some countries, because of resistance, carbapenems now do not work in more than half of people with common hospital-acquired infections caused by a bacteria called K. pneumoniae, such as pneumonia, blood infections, and infections in newborn babies and intensive-care patients.

Resistance to one of the most widely used antibiotics for treating urinary tract infections caused by E. coli -medicines called fluoroquinolones - is also very widespread, it said.

In the 1980s, when these drugs were first introduced, resistance was virtually zero, according to the WHO report. But now there are countries in many parts of the world where the drugs are ineffective in more than half of patients.

"Unless we take significant actions to improve efforts to prevent infections and also change how we produce, prescribe and use antibiotics, the world will lose more and more of these global public health goods and the implications will be devastating, "Fukuda said in a statement.

Laura Piddock, director of Antibiotic Action campaign group and a professor of microbiology at Britain's Birmingham University, said the world needed to respond as it did to the AIDS crisis of the 1980s.

"Defeating drug resistance will require political will, commitment from all stakeholders and considerable investment in research, surveillance and stewardship programs," she said.

Jennifer Cohn of the international medical charity MÃ©decins Sans FrontiÃ¨res agreed with the WHO's assessment and confirmed the problem had spread to many corners of the world.

"We see horrendous rates of antibiotic resistance wherever we look in our field operations, including children admitted to nutritional centers in Niger, and people in our surgical and trauma units in Syria," she said.

(Editing by Angus MacSwan)

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How to tidy and take cuttings of dianthus

3. To plant your cuttiings, fill a pot with a gritty mix of compost, and strip anything from each stem that will be below compost level, so it doesn't rot, as well as a few of the side shoots.

_{Sarah tidying up a cutting}

4. Poeple often say to enclose cuttings in a plastic bag or misting propogator, and to use hormone rooting powder, but you don't need to with dianthus - the cuttings are so easy to root. Simply place several cuttings in a pot, place on a warm windowsill and water. They'll root within a month.

_{Taking root: you can place several cuttings in one pot}

Watch: How to sow and grow tomatoes

Watch:How to grow dahlias

Watch: How to grow hollyhocks

Reader offers:

Perpetual flowering Dianthus - Buy the collection of all 30 (6 of each variety) for just £22.47 - Half price

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Buy Dianthus from the Telegraph Gardenshop.

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Gardening calendar: pick lilac and plant rosemary

2 Lift and divide narcissus

Attend to your narcissus in the grass or borders, dividing older clumps and replanting them in groups of three to five bulbs to the same level.

Dead-head, but don't do that traditional thing when tidying daffodils of tying their leaves in knots. Leave the foliage as it is to die back completely and help ensure good flowering next year.

3 Organise self-sown plants

Have a scout around the garden for self-sown annual cut-flower seedlings, such as Bupleurum, Euphorbia oblongata, Calendulas and Ammi majus - and, in a sheltered spot, half-hardies, such as Cosmos, Amaranthus, and Antirrhinums. They should be appearing where you had plants last year. Transplanted when small, these will happily settle into a new position. You'll often find enough to create a good row in a cutting patch and will save the need for sowing. Move them with as much root and soil as you can and water them in well to their new position.

4 High stakes time

_{Helianthus: add to your staking list (ALAMY)}

Take this opportunity to stake jack-in-the-beanstalk perennial plants such as Helianthus 'Lemon Queen' and Crambe cordifolia, as well as tall-growing annuals, such as cornflowers and Ammi. For the perennials, we use a circle of canes with string (or flexi-tie) stretched taught in between. For the annuals in the cutting garden, we stretch clematis netting or pea netting between vertical hazel posts spaced 6ft 6in (2m) apart. The annuals grow up through the grid and the netting quickly becomes invisible, but provides enough support.

5 Control those pests

With the weather warming up, it's time to order biological control for the greenhouse. It'll mean you're ready for action at the first sign of whitefly and ensure that your tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines and chillies remain pest-free for summer cropping.

6 Mound-layer herb plants

_{Sage satellites: mound-layering can help develop daughter plants (ALAMY)}

Try this with mature plants, such as sage, lavender and thyme. Bury a middle section of a branch of each plant to encourage it to produce roots along its buried stems. In a few months, you can then snip the branch and move the daughter satellite to a new position.

7 Revel in the scent of lilac

Lilac is in full flower now in most parts of the country. People are superstitious about bringing it into the house, but don't be. You'll miss out on one of the best garden scents. To make the flowers last as long as possible, strip most of the larger leaves and sear the stem end in boiling water for 30 seconds. A vase should then last at least a week, filling your room with perfume.

8 Deadhead and top-dress early tulips

_{If your tulips are past their best, it's time to get deadheading (ALAMY)}

This is particularly beneficial for 'Purissima', 'Orange Emperor' and Darwin Hybrids such as 'Ivory Floradale'. It will encourage them to grow well until their leaves die right back, photosynthesising enough to store starch in the bulb for a good show next year.

9 Plant rosemary now...

If you don't have any rosemary in your garden, now is a good time to plant it, as it is coming to the end of its flowering season. Choose a named variety, such as 'Miss Jessopp's Upright', with tall, straight stems, brilliant for flower arranging, or R. officinalis 'Prostratus', which cascades, looking beautiful over a retaining wall or steps.

10 ... or take some cuttings

If you already have rosemary in the garden, take some cuttings. You can never have too much rosemary and it will thrive in very poor soil, in a sunny sheltered corner. Earlier in the year, the growth tips are so new they droop quickly, but by now, with a greater woodiness to the stem, they root easily in a gritty mix of compost, watered from the bottom.

Buy plants, tools and accessories from the Telegraph Gardenshop.

Source : http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/564649/s/39eb0c19/sc/36/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Cgardening0Chowtogrow0C10A7957750CGardening0Ecalendar0Epick0Elilac0Eand0Eplant0Erosemary0Bhtml/story01.htm

Abu Dhabi's Louvre displays treasures at the Paris one

By Johnny Cotton

PARIS Wed Apr 30, 2014 1:17pm EDT

French President Francois Hollande (C), Sheikh Sultan Bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan (2ndL), president of the Abou Dhabi authority for tourism and culture, French architect Jean Nouvel (3rdR), and French Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti (2ndR) look at a model of the new Abu Dhabi Louvre Museum as they visit the exhibition ''Birth of a museum'', at the Louvre museum in Paris April 29, 2014.

Credit: Reuters/Alain Jocard/Pool

PARIS (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi hopes eventually to lure tourists to its own branch of the Louvre museum, but pending its opening in 2015 some of its treasures have gone on display at the place that inspired it - the Louvre in Paris.

Â Â Â "Birth of a Museum: Louvre Abu Dhabi" is a presentation of works from across the globe, part of the Abu Dhabi museum's permanent collection which has been built up with the help of advisers from the Paris Louvre.

Highlights include a gold bracelet decorated with lion heads crafted in Iran nearly 3,000 years ago, a Virgin and child painting by Giovanni Bellini and paintings by Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse.

Backers hope the pieces, once returned to Abu Dhabi, will help create a cultural hub in the Gulf Arab state.

Â Â Â There they will bask under a giant dome by architect Jean Nouvel in a 64,000-square-meter (690,000-square-feet) museum, one of three museums planned on an island near the center of Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. They form part of a wider plan to boost the tourist credentials of a country heavily dependent on oil.

Although the deal to open a Gulf branch of the Louvre originally sparked some concern that France was signing away its cultural heritage, such worries were brushed aside as French President Francois Hollande inaugurated the exhibition in Paris on Tuesday.

Â Â Â "For France, the Louvre museum in Abu Dhabi is an exceptional building site," Hollande told the project's backers, including a delegation from the UAE.

"It's the biggest cultural project that we're undertaking abroad. It's also the most symbolic manifestation of the tight partnership which binds us to the United Arab Emirates."

Â Â Â Exhibition curator Vincent Pomarede told Reuters the idea was to create a diverse collection in which the visitor could trace artistic developments across cultures and centuries.

Â Â Â "Their project is global," Pomarede said of the museum set for a December 2015 opening. "The name of the Louvre is a mark of quality for them, a mark of high standards of professionalism in the teams who work there and the collections housed there."

Despite the comparatively conservative culture that prevails in the UAE, Pomarede said French teams had not encountered resistance when recommending the purchase of works of diverse religious art or nudes from antiquity.

Â Â Â "The question of censorship in the wider sense came up in our very first meeting with them," Pomarede said.

Â Â Â "Their response was very clear ... 'We want to make a universal museum, so we want there to be an exchange between different civilizations and cultures so obviously there can be no censorship.' And we never had any."

CULTURAL TIES

Â Â Â The Louvre is the world's most visited museum, attracting up to 10 million visitors annually, and the United Arab Emirates agreed to pay 400-million-euros ($553 million) over 30 years to house a branch in a deal signed with the French government in 2007.

The deal will further strengthen ties between the two countries. The UAE is France's largest trading partner in the Middle East, according to the foreign ministry, absorbing a third of French exports to the region.

Abu Dhabi also hosts France's only military and naval base outside of Africa, and the only French-speaking university in the Gulf, a campus of Paris's Sorbonne university.

Conversely, the UAE ploughed some 2 billion euros into France during 2010, primarily in real estate, making it the top investor from the Gulf Arab region, latest data shows.

The Louvre agreement includes sharing expertise in the acquisition of works of art and curatorship, as well as training and apprenticeships for future Emirati curators.

Â Â Â The exhibition in Paris, which runs through July 28, was shown almost in its current form in the UAE in April last year. ($1 = 0.7237 euros)

(Additional reporting by John Irish; Editing by Alexandria Sage, Michael Roddy and Susan Fenton)

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Source : http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/lifestyle/~3/255LcLkhh0U/story01.htm

World Cup tourists face sky-high prices in Brazil

By Walter Brandimarte

RIO DEIRO Wed Apr 30, 2014 11:53am EDT

A man arranges beach chairs at his stall at Ipanema beach in Rio de Janeiro April 29, 2014. REUTERS/Pilar Olivares

1 of 2. A man arranges beach chairs at his stall at Ipanema beach in Rio de Janeiro April 29, 2014.

Credit: Reuters/Pilar Olivares

RIO DEIRO (Reuters) - Tourists visiting Brazil for the World Cup are advised to pack a bathing suit, sunscreen, and a whole lot of cash.

Home to some of the world's most expensive restaurants and hotels, and with some prices rising more as the opening match approaches, Brazil will shock those visitors whose idea of a tropical paradise is paying $1 for a beachside beer.

Instead, Brazil is often the land of the $10 caipirinha (the sugar cane-based local drink of choice), the $100 risotto and the $1,000-a-night hotel room, prices fueled by many of the same imbalances and government policies that have restrained economic growth in recent years.

Even by European and U.S. standards, prices for basic items are often staggering.

In Sao Paulo, a bustling business hub that is surrounded by some of the country's largest coffee farms, an espresso often costs twice as much as in Lisbon, says Paulo Duarte, a pharmaceutical consultant who splits time between both cities.

"It's absurd," Duarte said. "We're talking about one country that produces coffee and another that imports it."

High prices are nothing new in Brazil. The country has a long history of economic instability and runaway inflation, which topped 2,400 percent a year as recently as 1993.

Inflation these days is much more manageable, running at about 6 percent a year, though that is still high by international standards. Sao Paulo, for example, is the most expensive city in the Americas and the 19th most expensive in the world, ahead of New York and London, according to a recent survey by the Mercer consulting firm. Rio is among the world's 30 most expensive cities.

One reason prices are so steep is because the cost of doing business is so high, thanks to a mind-boggling mix of taxes, import tariffs, bureaucracy and poor infrastructure that can make Brazil a difficult place to operate.

Economists have a name for that: "Custo Brasil," or "Brazil Cost." It can make goods manufactured 30 percent more expensive than those produced abroad, according to a study by the industry federation of Rio de Janeiro.

Making matters worse, production costs have climbed in recent years with rising wages and energy prices, while government policies aimed at bolstering household consumption have driven up prices at the cash register.

Even for tourists with some money to burn, creative solutions are often called for.

Dimitar Bogdanov and Simeon Vassilev, a Hungarian couple who visited Rio de Janeiro for the first time early this year, paid the equivalent of $100 for a risotto at one of the city's chic restaurants. But they decided to alternate their big nights out with simpler spots, and managed to spend "only" $30 at a per-kilo buffet place where you pay by the weight of your serving.

"Some things are way overpriced but some others are cheap compared to Europe," Bogdanov said, recommending that tourists splurge on Brazil's famous rubber flip-flops, which can retail for $24 overseas but cost as little as $8 here.

GET READY TO PAY

Sometimes, though, there's no getting around the problem - especially when it comes to the World Cup.

The average hotel cost for the night of the final on July 13 in Rio is 816 reais ($371), according to Trivago, a website that compares prices on over 190 booking websites. One two-star bed and breakfast in Copacabana is charging 2,000 reais ($909) for a cramped, poorly furnished room for that one night.

In Sao Paulo, visitors will pay an average of 621 reais ($282) for lodging on June 12, when Brazil plays Croatia in the opening game.

A one-way flight between the two cities - which are only 269 miles (433 km) apart - takes 50 minutes and costs 549 reais to 1,130 reais ($250-$514), booked on short notice on an average weekday. By comparison, an 80-minute flight between New York and Washington under the same conditions costs as little as $167.

Both sets of costs have their roots in economic problems.

Encouraged by strong housing demand and an abundance of subsidized credit, construction companies in recent years focused mainly on building homes. That left many cities with a growing deficit of hotel rooms, industry experts say.

Similarly, Brazil's success in boosting its middle class caused domestic air traffic to double over the past five years, while little investment was made in infrastructure. At least five of the 12 World Cup host cities won't complete the airport expansion projects they promised for the tournament.

But there may be one saving grace.

Brazil's problems have at least translated into some relief for foreign tourists. The Brazilian real has lost about 11 percent of its value against the dollar during the past year, making the country's high prices a little more palatable for tourists with hard currency.

($1 = 2.2 Brazilian reais)

(Editing by Brian Winter and Kieran Murray)

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Source : http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/lifestyle/~3/N5mcXPbVYis/story01.htm

Exercising in the heat? Cool down for better performance

By Kathryn Doyle

NEW YORK Wed Apr 30, 2014 12:05pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Using cold water, ice baths or ice vests before or during a workout in the heat helps athletes perform better, according to a new review.

One way to think about it, said study author Dr. Thijs M H Eijsvogels, would be that cooling techniques may reduce the amount of energy the body needs to use to stay cool, leaving more energy for the exercise itself.

â€œMore blood will be available for oxygen transportation to the exercising muscles, which enables a better performance,â€ he told Reuters Health by email. â€œThus less energy and effort is spilled for heat dissipating mechanisms.â€

Eijsvogels, of the physiology department at Radboud University Medical Center in The Netherlands, and his colleagues included 28 studies in their review of prior research on cooling techniques.

All the studies focused on methods used by male athletes when temperatures were above 86 degrees Fahrenheit, and 20 of those looked at â€œprecoolingâ€ techniques used before the workout began.

Before exercise, the athletes used methods like wearing a cooling vest or cooling packs, immersing themselves in cold water, drinking cold water or an ice slurry, or a combination of these.

During exercise, the methods were the same with the exception of dunking in a cold pool.

Overall, using cooling techniques before or during exercise improved performance and combining the two worked best, according to the results published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

The most effective methods were the ice vest during exercise and a combination of all the techniques before exercise.

On average, athletes who used cooling techniques performed almost seven percent better than those who did not, which could mean the difference between winning and losing, Eijsvogels said.

â€œRemember that in many elite sports the difference between a first and fourth place is marginal, so improving your performance with 6.7 percent due to the application of appropriateÂ coolingÂ techniques can have a large impact on the race result,â€ he said.

Even average athletes would notice a difference, said Dr. Paul Laursen, physiology manager at High Performance Sport New Zealand in Auckland.

â€œIf performance matters to you, then itâ€™s worth the effort,â€ Laursen told Reuters Health by email. He was not involved in the review.

The authors caution that most of the studies they analyzed were very small, including an average of nine people, and there may have been other studies finding less of an effect or no effect that were not published, which would skew their result.

Exercise increases core temperature, which can hurt performance. The review found that precooling decreased peak core body temperatures from 102.4 degrees Fahrenheit to 100.6 degrees.

â€œIn general, the exercise-induced increase in core body temperature could lead to the development of heat-related illnesses, such as heat stroke,â€ Eijsvogels said. Cooling strategies may potentially do more than just improve performance, they may also reduce the risk of heat-related illnesses, he said.

Currently only some elite athletes use cooling techniques, mostly for sports like racing, cycling, motor cross racing, soccer and field hockey, he said. Ice vests are heavy to wear during a workout, and most casual exercisers donâ€™t have access to ice slurry during a race, he said.

But he advocates wider use of the techniques beyond elite athletes, and novel developments inÂ coolingÂ fabric and gadgets might change this in the near future, he said.

â€œThe take home message is that you want to know what youâ€™re doing beforehand â€" test things out first that make sense based on the science, and once youâ€™re confident that these will work for you, have a go in real competition,â€ Laursen said.

SOURCE: bit.ly/1kn2YbL British Journal of Sports Medicine, online April 19, 2014.

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The superbugs we should all fear

WHO officials have warned of a crisis that is threatening to turn these common infections, which are currently easily treated with a short course of drugs, into major killers again.

Staphyococcus aureus (MRSA) - skin infections, wound infections, bloodstream infections, arthritis

Streptococcus pneumoniae - skin infections, sore throats, pneumonia, meningitis, bronchitis, conjunctivitis

Nontyphoidal Salmonella - diarrhoea

Shigella species - diarrhoea and dysentry

Neisseria gonorrhoeae - gonorrhoea

Source : http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/568612/s/39ee1da2/sc/14/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Chealth0Chealthnews0C10A7991310CThe0Esuperbugs0Ewe0Eshould0Eall0Efear0Bhtml/story01.htm

Caesarean section does not reduce fertility

Among low-risk first-time mothers, 224,024, or 21.4%, were delivered by Caesarean section, with fewer than 4% having an elective caesarean section, or one planned in advance.

All types of caesarean section were associated with a reduced subsequent birth rate, compared with those who had vaginal deliveries, but the size of the reduction varied among different groups of women.

The smallest reduction was for an elective caesarean section for a breech baby – one in feet-first position – where a woman had no other complications during pregnancy.

The largest was for women having an elective caesarean section for medical reasons.

Dr Tahir Mahmood, from the office for research and clinical audit at the RCOG and co-author of the paper, which is published in the journal Human Reproduction, said: "The possible effect of caesarean section on subsequent fertility is important as the age of first-time mothers continue to rise, along with the rates of caesarean section.

"This is the largest cohort study to date looking at the association between mode of delivery and fertility, and to minimise the risk of bias we focused on low-risk pregnancies.

"By carefully distinguishing between different complications of pregnancy, we have found that having a caesarean section as a first-time mother leads to only a very small effect on subsequent fertility.

"The circumstances behind the procedure may have a bigger impact and may explain the reduction in fertility apparent in previous studies."

Previous studies have reported that delivery by Caesarean is associated with fewer subsequent pregnancies and babies, as well as longer intervals between pregnancies.

A study published in 2004 by researchers from the University of Dundee found that women who had their first child by Caesarean were more likely to report having problems conceiving again compared to women who had a vaginal delivery using instruments such as forceps.

Louise Silverton, director for midwifery at the Royal College of Midwives (RCM), said: "The fact that the effects on fertility may be minimal should go some way to reassure those women for whom a Caesarean is needed and who may want another child in the future.

"However, even though there is less effect on fertility than was assumed, this does not negate the other negative effects of Caesarean sections. The wider issue here is to ensure that women are aware of the consequences that can arise as a result of having an unnecessary Caesarean section.

"There is increasing evidence about the negative implications for women and their babies of having a caesarean section. This is a major surgical operation that has the potential for increased complications every time a woman has the procedure carried out. A decision to have a caesarean section should not be taken lightly by women or doctors.

"As a consequence we should continue to try to reduce the number of Caesarean sections amongst first-time mothers. We should also continue to encourage women who can, to consider a vaginal birth for the next and subsequent pregnancies.

"One of the ways this can be done is by promoting and providing more midwife-led care where woman are less likely to have a caesarean section and other interventions."

Source : http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/568612/s/39ee1da6/sc/14/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Chealth0Chealthnews0C10A7990A460CCaesarean0Esection0Edoes0Enot0Ereduce0Efertility0Bhtml/story01.htm

Bear Grylls: my volunteer hero, the Duchess of Cambridge

Looking back, I am so grateful to a few volunteers in my local Scouts who took time, when I was young, to teach me some basic survival skills. Today there are some 100,000 volunteers who give up their time through the Scouts to enrich and change the lives of young people. Without such volunteers I would not have had the opportunity to get started in the adventure world.

One of these 100,000 is my volunteering hero. Not only is she probably the most famous lady in the world, she is also a new mother, a wife and a duchess, with a schedule that is insanely busy. Yet still she makes time in her life to volunteer as a Cub Scout leader. She is HRH the Duchess of Cambridge.

During the time she lived in north Wales, she would help out a couple of times a term with her local Cub Scouts. She would run games, leader activities and even threw a party on the beach for the young girls and boys in her pack. Despite her travels and commitments, she still adjusted her diary to make time regularly to help young people grow and develop.

That's what volunteer heroes do. They give their time to touch and better other people's lives. Like the 70,000 young people who have taken part in National Citizen Service since it started in 2011. Together they have given more than 1.5 million hours of their time to community initiatives, making these young people not only inspirational role models but also ideal volunteer leaders for organisations such as the Scouts.

*Adventurer, writer and television presenter Bear Grylls is Chief Scout and an ambassador for National Citizen Service

*Do you know an individual whose volunteering changes lives? As part of our Lend a Hand campaign, The Daily Telegraph wants to find the Volunteer of the Year. You can make your nominations by emailing lendahand@telegraph.co.uk

Read more: Cristina Odone's volunteer hero

Read more: Geoff Parling's volunteer hero

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Eden Hall: a happy home for horse and human

They married and for 10 years ran a riding school in the Algarve, where Henry passed on to Sylvia all he knew about advanced riding. In 1979, they decamped back to Henry's family home in Suffolk with 20 statuesque Lusitano horses, a ready-made riding school, in tow.

_{Proud owner: Sylvia Loch}

Henry died, very suddenly, in 1982, when their daughter, Allegra, was eight weeks old. "It was a huge shock, but I had a baby to look after, and the question of what to do with the horses," Sylvia says. "I think they were Henry's parting gift to me – he taught me all I needed to know to make a living on my own. I decided to find a home with enough land for the horses, and write it all down."

Eden Hall was that place. Despite originally thinking the grounds of the country house were too big to manage, Sylvia found comfort in the quiet. She moved back to Scotland, transformed the stable yard, put in a manège and arena so that she could continue to teach, and spent "two cathartic years" gutting and reverting the west wing, the original part of the house which had fallen into disrepair – and housed chickens and pigs – back into a home.

Over the years that followed she wrote six books and made DVDs about the art of dressage and classical riding, drawing strength from her surroundings. "I could still see Henry on his horse in my mind's eye, and that allowed me to write – this was the perfect place," she says. "It has been a truly happy home for horse and human."

The market for equestrian properties is divided into social and professional buyers, "both looking for the best facilities possible", and is strong where they are all present and correct, says Rupert Sweeting, head of Knight Frank's country department. Eden Hall ticks his "musts" checklist for any eventer/show jumper or dressage rider, which includes "large airy stables and a barn for ease of mucking out and feeding, and an Olympic-size manège; it should have free-draining land and excellent communications, like a motorway junction, yet be quiet to enable riding out, and hills, ideal for building up fitness levels".

_{The combination of the grand and homely at Eden Hall}

Sylvia married again, and seven-bedroom Eden Hall has, over the years, hosted countless visitors, who love the opportunity to go out and ride. "Friends love it here; it's quite grand but very homely, and the main rooms all open off a central hall so it's wonderful for parties."

While torn about moving, Sylvia now needs to downsize, and hopes to pass the reins to a horse-loving family. "The fact that the property has had a successful previous occupant means that the right facilities are there, and it is up to the buyer to prove they have the ability to go with it," Sweeting says.

*Eden Hall, Roxburghshire, a registered agricultural holding, is for sale at £1.1 million (Knight Frank; 0131 222 9600)

FOR SALE: A HOME FOR HORSE-LOVERS

Black Horse Farm, Wickhambrook, Suffolk

£850,000

A picturesque, four-bedroom equestrian property situated between Newmarket and Bury St Edmunds with a Grade II listed thatched cottage, a range of stable buildings (currently providing 18 loose boxes, with scope for improvement) and post and rail paddocks and a horse walker. About 20.6 acres in total. (Jackson-Stops & Staff; 01638 662231, Jackson-Stops.co.uk)

Source : http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/564649/s/39e81b07/sc/10/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Cproperty0Cbuyingsellingandmoving0C10A7930A380CEden0EHall0Ea0Ehappy0Ehome0Efor0Ehorse0Eand0Ehuman0Bhtml/story01.htm

American author Solomon wins Britain's Wellcome prize

By Michael Roddy

LONDON Tue Apr 29, 2014 4:18pm EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - American psychologist and writer Andrew Solomon won the 2014 Wellcome Book Prize on Tuesday for his "Far From the Tree: a dozen kinds of love" about raising unusual children ranging from prodigies to those suffering from autism and dyslexia.

The prize, which is given to a book centered on medicine and health, is in its fifth year and carries a 30,000-pound ($50,500) cash award.

Describing Solomon's book, 10 years in the making, as a "monumental work", a statement from the prize jury said it "tells the stories of parents who not only learn to deal with their exceptional children but also find profound meaning in doing so".

Drawing on interviews with more than 300 families, the book covers subjects including deafness, dwarfism, Down's syndrome, autism, schizophrenia, prodigies, children born of rape, children convicted of crime and transgender people.

"Solomon has already been widely praised for his depth of research, his writerly flair and his range of address," poet and writer Andrew Motion, the head of the judging panel, said in the statement, adding that the book is "a profound reflection on the family, and on the influence of medicine and science".

"It's also a book that is driven powerfully by an appeal to personal experience - by Solomon's recollections of growing up as a gay man, and by his exploration of the difficulties and opportunities this created for him," Motion said.

"Taken all together, these things make it an exceptionally distinguished winner: startlingly intelligent, generously compassionate, memorably insightful, and courageous."

Solomon said he was honored and congratulated the Wellcome Book Prize for choosing a work that wrestles with some of the thorny issues of medical and social progress.

"There sometimes seems to be an opposition between the social progress that allows us to accept the range of human difference and the medical progress that allows us to cure and eliminate many such differences," Solomon said.

"My book is about the extraordinary stories of love and compassion that unfold around this duality. For such work to be recognized by a prize that is specifically focused on medicine and health indicates the increasing openness to the nuanced questions of what constitutes health, and what the appropriate parameters are for medicine."

($1 = 0.5936 British Pounds)

(Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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

J&J suspends sale of device used in fibroid surgery - WSJ

Tue Apr 29, 2014 11:01pm EDT

(Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson suspended sale of devices used in fibroid surgery amid concerns about their potential to spread a rare but deadly cancer, the Wall Street Journal reported.

J&J was halting world-wide sale, distribution and promotion of the tools called power morcellators but not permanently pulling them from the market, the Journal said.

The action follows a Food and Drug Administration advisory on April 17 that discouraged doctors from using laparoscopic power morcellators to remove fibroids â€" common but often painful uterine growths â€" because of a risk of worsening an often-hidden cancer.

In a letter to customers, J&J wrote that it is waiting for the regulator and the medical community to further clarify the role of morcellation in fibroid treatment, the newspaper said.

Morcellators typically use long, tube-shaped blades to cut and remove tissue through tiny incisions, helping patients avoid open abdominal surgery associated with longer scars and recovery.

J&J spokeswoman Sheri Woodruff did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment outside regular U.S. business hours.

(Reporting by Supriya Kurane and Arnab Sen in Bangalore; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)

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Source : http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/healthNews/~3/m3RRfDrxYI4/story01.htm

SeaWorld says San Diego killer whale is pregnant

By Sharon Bernstein

SACRAMENTO Calif. Tue Apr 29, 2014 10:37pm EDT

An Orca killer whale is seen underwater at the animal theme park SeaWorld in San Diego, California March 19, 2014.

Credit: Reuters/Mike Blake

SACRAMENTO Calif. (Reuters) - A killer whale at SeaWorld is pregnant, the San Diego theme park said Tuesday, a development welcomed by the company but decried by animal rights activists trying to outlaw the breeding of captive orcas and "Shamu" shows that feature them doing tricks.

The news of the pregnancy comes weeks after California lawmakers effectively killed a closely watched bill that would have banned SeaWorld from continuing its breeding program and from using killer whales to perform tricks at its California park.

"The calf's birth is expected in December," said spokesman Dave Koontz. Killer whales have a 17 1/2 month gestation period.

The baby would be the sixth at SeaWorld's San Diego park, and the 32nd at parks owned by the company since 1985, Koontz said. It would be the first calf borne by Kalia, a 9 1/2-year-old killer whale born at the park and still living with her own mother Kasatka.

Animal rights activists, some of whom have speculated for months that Kalia might be pregnant, were outraged at the announcement, saying that the mother-to-be is too young to have been impregnated.

"SeaWorld routinely breeds its females too young," said Naomi Rose, an orca biologist who has been active in trying to ban the breeding program and the shows. "In the wild, killer whale females donâ€™t have their first calf until they are around 12 to 14 years of age."

SeaWorld's orca breeding and entertainment programs have come under close scrutiny in recent months following the release of the documentary "Blackfish," which tells the story of an orca that killed a trainer at the company's park in Orlando, Florida, in 2010.

The movie quotes former SeaWorld trainers who say that orcas, which have highly evolved social structures and use sophisticated calls to communicate, do not thrive in captivity and can become dangerous.

SeaWorld has responded angrily to the film, calling it animal rights propaganda and saying its contention that orcas do not fare well under its care are false.

Koontz said the breeding program enriches the lives of the whales "by allowing them to experience, interact with and help raise another member of their pod." Kalia, he said, was artificially inseminated but also had relations with a male whale, Ulises.

The company also pointed to the research it does on marine mammals, and the rescue efforts it has mounted to save whales and other animals who are injured or harmed at sea.

(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Ken Wills)

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Source : http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/lifestyle/~3/46F2d2d3BGI/story01.htm

Exclusive: Sanofi explores $7 billion-plus drug divestiture - sources

Chris Viehbacher, Chief Executive Officer of Sanofi, poses for the media before the company's 2012 annual results presentation in Paris February 7, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Jacky Naegelen

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

Andrew Solomon wins Wellcome Book Prize 2014

Academic and journalist Andrew Solomon has been announced as the winner of this year's Wellcome Book Prize for Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity. The book, for which Solomon interviewed more than 300 families over the course of a decade, explores the unique parent-child relationship and how it is affected by "difference" such as deafness, autism or homosexuality.

Solomon's entry saw off five other shortlisted books to take the £30,000 prize, awarded for the best new work of fiction or non-fiction in the medical and health genre. Sir Andrew Motion, who chaired the judging panel, said the decision was unanimous, adding: "The book took him ten years to write, and the benefits of his patience and thoughtfulness are evident everywhere."

REVIEW: Far From the Tree, by Andrew Solomon

Motion presented Solomon with his prize money and a trophy, consisting of multiple sheets of glass depicting MRI scans, at a ceremony at the Wellcome Collection in London on Thursday night.

Solomon dedicated the award to the families whose stories feature in the book: "I accept this prize on their behalf, with admiration for the human spirit that allowed so many of them to end up grateful for lives they would once have done anything to avoid."

Source : http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/568612/s/39e4b717/sc/38/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Cculture0Cbooks0Cbookprizes0C10A79660A10CAndrew0ESolomon0Ewins0EWellcome0EBook0EPrize0E20A140Bhtml/story01.htm

GP out of hours services put patients at risk

In one service it was found that doctors had been employed without criminal records checks and references had not been looked at..

Another inspection found medicines kept in a fridge at unsafe temperatures that had not been spotted by staff meaning patients who had received them had to be contacted.

A third inspection found controlled drugs were not kept securely.

The inspection report for South Essex Emergency Doctors Service, based at Thurrock Community Hospital and Basildon Hospital: "The service needs to improve the way in which it recruits doctors to ensure that its staffing arrangements enable safe delivery of care.

"The provider had not carried out criminal records bureau (CRB) or disclosure and barring service (DBS) checks on doctors employed by SEEDS who were not members of the cooperative.

"Nor had it obtained references for any of the doctors not already known to the cooperative. This meant there was a risk that unsuitable doctors might be employed by the service to deliver patient care."

The inspection of M-Doc Limited, which covers Bedfordshire found a faulty fridge had not been spotted by staff meaning delicate drugs were exposed to temperature ranging from freezing to 26 degrees.

The report said: "When we alerted one of the directors of the service to the problem they immediately began the task of identifying which patients had been given medicines from the fridge and assessing the risk to their health.

"M-Doc told us that they would record this incident as a serious adverse event and learn lessons from it. We understand that a new fridge was obtained the day after our inspection."

An inspection of PELC Ltd provides out-of-hours cover for over 1.1 million patients registered to GP surgeries in Waltham Forest, Redbridge, Havering, Barking & Dagenham and West Essex found medicines and prescription pads were not secure.

The service was told to make urgent improvements.

The report said: "We saw boxes of medicines that had been prepared for distribution to the primary care centres and GPs' visiting bags. These were not sealed with tamper proof tape, and were not stored in the available lockable cupboards.

"This increased the risk of unauthorised people having access to medicines. We brought this to the provider's attention, who later confirmed all the boxes had been moved into the lockable cupboards.

"We saw that although controlled drugs were stored securely, entries in the controlled drugs register were incomplete.

"This meant that controlled drugs may not be properly accounted for, which increased the risk of controlled drugs being misappropriated."

Chief Inspector of General Practice, Professor Steve Field said: "These inspections mark the first phases in the changes that we are making to inspections of primary medical services, the results of these first inspections show that some services are serving their communities well but others still have some work to do."

"We'll take what we have learned from these first inspections to help us develop and improve the process; they have been particularly helpful in shaping our thinking on ratings, which we will start to give to out and in hours GP services from October this year. We will also publish a full report on all out-of-hours inspections undertaken in this first wave of inspections later in the summer."

Jamie Reed,Shadow Health Minister, said: "Patients will be concerned to hear about these failings. The reports risk driving even more patients to turn to A&E out of fear, when hospitals have already had their worst year in a decade.

"This is indisputable proof that NHS services are going downhill on David Cameron's watch.

"He wasted billions on a reorganisation that nobody wanted and placed NHS finances on a knife-edge. Under this Government, care problems are becoming more likely, not less.

"Ministers must get a grip – patients deserve reliable alternatives to A&E."

Jeremy Hunt, Health Secretary, said: "Labour made the disastrous decision to abolish expert led inspections which we have now reversed. Inevitably when you impose a more rigorous inspection regime you uncover more problems but it is in the best interests of patients to acknowledge where there is poor care instead of trying to cover it up."

Source : http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/568612/s/39e74e0b/sc/36/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Chealth0Chealthnews0C10A7961440CGP0Eout0Eof0Ehours0Eservices0Eput0Epatients0Eat0Erisk0Bhtml/story01.htm

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

GP services have reached crisis point warns BMA

Applicants for GP training are at their lowest point since 2009, it was warned and adverts for GP partners are going unanswered.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chairman of the BMA's GP committee said: "General practice is under unprecedented pressure from a combination of escalating patient demand, especially from an ageing population, and falling funding.

"At the same time more and more care is being transferred into the community without the resources that GPs need to deliver it effectively. A recent BMA survey showed that GPs were struggling with their existing workload, with six in ten considering early retirement because of the problems facing general practice.

"In this environment, it is clear we need to to prevent the loss of GPs from our workforce by recruiting more GPs and other staff to cope with the increasing pressures that GP practices are facing."

A Department of Health spokesman: "The number of Full Time Equivalent GPs — which is what matters to patient care – has increased by 420 since 2012 and we expect GP numbers to continue to grow faster than the population.

"At the moment 40 per cent of trainee doctors become GPs but in the future, 50 per cent of them will do. This is a clear, long-term commitment and will lead to many more GPs.

"We recognise GPs are hard-pressed and as part of ambitious changes to the GP contract we will free them up from unnecessary red tape to devote more time to patients."

A spokesman for Health Education England, the body responsible for medical training and workforce planning, said: "The GP recruitment process is still ongoing and it would be misleading to provide any figures until this is complete.

"Our Mandate requirement is to provide 3,250 GP training places by 2015 and we are making good progress towards that."

Source : http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/568612/s/39e4168b/sc/1/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Chealth0Chealthnews0C10A7959160CGP0Eservices0Ehave0Ereached0Ecrisis0Epoint0Ewarns0EBMA0Bhtml/story01.htm

Sunday, April 27, 2014

HIV Turns 30 Today

It's been 30 years since scientists announced the cause of AIDS: a shifty retrovirus that would come to be known as HIV.

More than 1,750 Americans had already died from the rare infections and cancers caused by the human immunodeficiency virus, health officials said at the time, and another 2,300 people were living with AIDS.

"The probable cause of AIDS has been found," Health and Human Services Secretary Margaret Heckler said in the April 23, 1984 press conference alongside scientist Dr. Robert Gallo of the National Cancer Institute. "Not only has the agent been identified but a new process has been developed to mass produce this virus."

The new process led to a blood test that could "identify AIDS victims with 100 percent certainty," Heckler said. At least 80 Americans had already died from HIV-tainted blood transfusions since AIDS cases emerged in 1981.

The Castro During the AIDS Epidemic

The ability to produce large quantities of the virus also raised hopes for a vaccine, which government officials said could take at least two years to design.

"If a man thinks that he has eight months to a year to live and you tell him that it's going to be two or three years before the vaccine comes out, you know, it doesn't give him a hell of a lot to hold onto," Bob Cecchi, assistant director of the New York City-based organization Gay Men's Health Crisis, said at the time.

Researchers today are still trying to find a vaccine to prevent HIV, but advances in treating the infection have led to a steep decline in AIDS deaths. An estimated 1,148,200 Americans are living with HIV, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2010, more than 636,000 Americans had died from AIDS since 1981.

Source : http://abcnews.go.com/Health/hiv-turns-30-today/story?id=23439218

HIV Turns 30 Today

It's been 30 years since scientists announced the cause of AIDS: a shifty retrovirus that would come to be known as HIV.

The Castro During the AIDS Epidemic

The ability to produce large quantities of the virus also raised hopes for a vaccine, which government officials said could take at least two years to design.

Source : http://abcnews.go.com/Health/hiv-turns-30-today/story?id=23439218

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Anthony Seldon: I have done all I can for Wellington, but not for Joanna

We met at Oxford in the Seventies, when I was directing plays, and she was renowned for her extraordinary intellect: her tutor, Professor Marilyn Butler, described her as the brightest student she had ever known. With our three children grown up and in their twenties, we have learnt to value each other and the times we spend together more deeply. I admire our children's strength and love, which make them so positive with her. A high point came two weekends ago at the London Marathon, where our elder daughter's boyfriend proposed to her 200 metres from the finish line – a moment of joy for Joanna before she had to return to hospital two days later.

Joanna's illness has been a principal factor in the announcement this week that I will be leaving Wellington College next year. The relentless nature of the job prevents me spending time with Joanna and the children, and I now want to be with them more than the running of a giant school like Wellington allows.

The school has 1,060 13- to 18-year-olds, the great majority of them boarders. To look after so many young people – all with their ambitions, individual characters and concerns – is far from easy. Most of the time they behave impeccably and merit the trust we place in them. It is when things go awry, when the phone rings in the middle of the night, that you know what being a head really means.

I oversee six schools in our group, including Wellington Academy, the state school we sponsor in Wiltshire. My BlackBerry is never more than two feet away 365 days a year. The job demands constant vigilance. Since Joanna's diagnosis, I have worked ever harder, feeling guilty that I am not running Wellington properly, and have taken up running marathons in aid of her cancer charity.

I am leaving also because I believe I have done all that I can, and a fresh figure is needed to take the school forward. The school is heavily in demand. The results next year will put us in the Top 25 in Britain, and an inspection report last term gave us the top rating in every aspect. I do not want to be one of those leaders who stays on too long.

When I became Master eight years ago, one of my aims was returning Wellington to its historic place as one of Britain's great schools. I wanted, further, to offer a vision of what schooling can be. So, with total governor backing, we introduced the International Baccalaureate as an alternative to A-level and GCSE, developed our own "eight intelligences" model, instituted wellbeing and character education, became a teaching school, opened schools abroad, ran left-field conferences and education festivals, and developed innovative learning, teaching and partnership programmes. The independent sector has been slow to reform – yet doing so, and building lasting bridges with the state sector, are the best ways of guaranteeing its survival and success in the 21st century.

Leaving Wellington will be a massive wrench. Heading a boarding school is far more than a job: it is a whole way of life. I go to sleep thinking about the job and wake up early in the morning to the sounds of school life still thinking about it. Our children have lived in head's houses at the heart of each school and grew to accept having children and adults at breakfast, lunch and dinner. We always sought to fill the houses with the life of the school, with a never-ending succession of visiting speakers and events to enrich the young. More than anything I will miss these young people, the 100 and more lunches and dinners I have every year with them at the Master's Lodge, cheering them on in matches, directing plays, attending concerts, teaching and spending time talking to them. They are constantly fascinating, energising and life-enhancing. My biggest desire for them has been for them to go on and do good in the world, and to find meaning in their lives.

I always said I would leave Wellington when I felt the teachers were becoming friends. I love their company, and the intellect, warmth and humanity they bring to the school. The big events I will miss too, for no one does grand like Wellington. Speech Day sees 5,000 in the Big Top enthralled by the pupils' singing, dancing, drama and ensemble performances; our Field Gun teams at the British Military Tournament; the many bespoke traditions, including the Be The Duke game of tag; the annual Kingsley's race for all the community, which finishes running through Swan Lake; and Maniacs, the daily swim in the outdoor pool each morning in the summer term. Few things are as sweet as watching the great sporting set pieces: today the 1st XI cricketers are playing Eton on Turf.

We will miss the community the most, unlike anything else outside, perhaps, the military and diplomatic missions abroad. One wife has sewn a special bag to carry Joanna's drip; another bakes cakes to suit her special diet; colleagues and parents rally around and help with the shopping, and walked our dog, Trevor, until he had to be given away last month.

Next year sees the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. Joanna is completing her book on the death of the Duke of Wellington in 1852 and the foundation of Wellington College by Queen Victoria seven years later. I hope too to see her novels and short stories published. She is a far better writer than me, and reads exquisitely too, most recently at lectures on my new books on public schools and the Great War, and the British embassy in Washington.

Deep down I have always had a sense of what the future would bring. No longer. I promised Joanna after my book on Gordon Brown that I would not write another on a prime minister. Ever forgiving, she has allowed me to write on David Cameron. She knows how much I have loved talking to people over the past 20 years about the inner life of Downing Street, and I hope the perspective has made me a better Head and a stronger and more rounded person. Whether it will give me the strength for what lies ahead, we shall see.

Certainly I found it far from easy this week telling the staff about my departure and the news of Joanna, even though I joked to the pupils that I was leaving for Manchester United. We know we have both had immensely fortunate and privileged lives, whatever may happen in the future. Our faith has deepened. I feel nothing but gratitude and hope.

Source : http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/568612/s/39c5c393/sc/36/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Cnews0Cfeatures0C10A7881450CAnthony0ESeldon0EI0Ehave0Edone0Eall0EI0Ecan0Efor0EWellington0Ebut0Enot0Efor0EJoanna0Bhtml/story01.htm

Friday, April 25, 2014

HIV Turns 30 Today

It's been 30 years since scientists announced the cause of AIDS: a shifty retrovirus that would come to be known as HIV.

The Castro During the AIDS Epidemic

The ability to produce large quantities of the virus also raised hopes for a vaccine, which government officials said could take at least two years to design.

Source : http://abcnews.go.com/Health/hiv-turns-30-today/story?id=23439218

Alternative health: pregnancy

During her 12 years working as an obstetrician in the NHS, Gowri Motha became increasingly convinced that many of her colleagues were missing the point. "Obstetricians need to look at a pregnant woman in a holistic way, not simply as a uterus and cervix in isolation," she says. "Until then how can you help her to have a normal birth? A woman needs to be well, by which I mean needs a sense of wellness in her body: she isn't stiff, she doesn't have back problems, she isn't bloated – a sign she isn't digesting her food."

Motha, 64, augments her conventional medical expertise with a wide range of complementary disciplines – including reflexology, ayurveda, hypnotherapy and an energetic practice called Creative Healing – to help her clients have the easiest births possible. "Reflexology is key, as most pregnant mothers feel anxiety. Deep reflexology helps the whole body to detox and relax, and aids lymphatic drainage." Creative Healing also targets the lymphatic system, as well as "dealing with the flow of fluids distinct from blood and lymph".

Motha uses Creative Healing not just during pregnancy but also for those trying to become pregnant. "It can treat the flow of the female system and correct most ovulation disturbances. It also supports the spine, which needs to be supple for birth." (Indeed Motha has some clients who come to her with spinal issues alone.) She is strict on diet, too: no sugar, wheat or dairy. "If you don't eat carefully, your birth passage can become swollen, which makes it difficult to give birth." Her mission? To make birth a human experience, not a medical one.

What is it?
The Gentle Birth Method combines alternative disciplines to facilitate an easy natural birth. Some of Motha's work is informed by traditional approaches to pregnancy. This ranges from the nutritional ("In Ghana it was taboo for pregnant women to eat very carbohydrate-rich food") to the physical (a self-administered vaginal-stretching massage, as used in various South American tribes, with ayurvedic oils, both speeds up the birth and guards against tearing).

How did it start?
As one of the people who introduced water births to Britain, Motha found that most women failed to give birth actually in the water; this changed when she used positive visualisation with her patients. She then developed a nutritional approach "to make contractions bearable".

What is it good for?
Motha's clients fall into two main groups: women who are pregnant, and women who are trying to get pregnant. "Stress is the biggest cause of infertility. It produces too much testosterone, inhibiting fertility. Plus, it stimulates the flight-or-fight response, affecting ovulation." Motha also uses Creative Healing to treat patients with back problems.

Who's a believer?
Motha's clients have included models such as Kate Moss and Elle Macpherson.

£120 for 90 minutes; gentlebirthmethod.com

Source : http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/568612/s/39bb710f/sc/14/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Chealth0C10A7831840CAlternative0Ehealth0Epregnancy0Bhtml/story01.htm

Thursday, April 24, 2014

HIV Turns 30 Today

It's been 30 years since scientists announced the cause of AIDS: a shifty retrovirus that would come to be known as HIV.

The Castro During the AIDS Epidemic

The ability to produce large quantities of the virus also raised hopes for a vaccine, which government officials said could take at least two years to design.

Source : http://abcnews.go.com/Health/hiv-turns-30-today/story?id=23439218

UK Doctor: 'I'd Rather Have HIV Than Diabetes'

A U.K. doctor has stirred up controversy after writing an op-ed in the U.K. paper The Spectator where he argued that he'd "rather have HIV than diabetes."

Dr. Max Pemberton, author of "The Doctor Will See You Now" and who works in mental health, wrote the article to highlight how having diabetes, particularly Type 2 diabetes, can be thought of as "worse" than being HIV-positive, which is now often treated as a chronic, and not necessarily fatal, disease.

"The risk of stroke in newly treated type 2 diabetes is more than double that of the general [U.K.] population," Pemberton wrote in his article. "To put it starkly, the latest statistics show that because of Haart (Antiretroviral medications), HIV now no longer reduces your life expectancy, while having type 2 diabetes typically reduces it by ten years. But this isn't an easy thing to say publicly."

Pemberton highlighted facts such as the life expectancy in the U.K. for those with HIV is only minimally lower.

Porn Star Tests Positive For HIV

However, at least one expert says that Pemberton's argument does a disservice to both diabetes and HIV, by arguing that one life-threatening disease is "better" than another.

Dr. Kenneth Mayer, professor of medicine at Harvard University and medical research director at Fenway Health Clinic, which provides primary and specialized HIV/AIDS care, noted the two diseases are very different in how they are acquired and treated.

"My whole point [is it] shouldn't be either or. They're both important," said Mayer. "There may be more people at risk for diabetes [globally], but HIV is transmissible," between people.

Pemberton could not be reached immediately by ABC News for further comment.

One important distinction, experts said, is that Pemberton is speaking as a U.K. citizen. In the United Kingdom, HIV affects far fewer people than in the U.S., with approximately 77,600 people infected in the U.K. versus approximately 1.1 million in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.K. National AIDS Trust.

Born with HIV, Life at 29

However, not every expert completely disagreed with Pemberton's article.

Dr. Joel Gallant, chair of the HIV Medical Association and medical director of specialty services at Southwest Care Center in Santa Fe, N.M., said the statement is not preposterous if you look at how effective HIV/AIDS medications are today in comparison to the treatment options for diabetic patients.

"I wouldn't want anyone to interpret my words as wanting to have HIV. ... We don't know, for example, that a person with HIV, even very well controlled, is going to have the same exact quality of life as someone without it," said Gallant. "Nobody should think of it as a non-issue [but] as chronic diseases go the treatment for this is better than most."

But Mayer said it's important the articles such as Pemberton's don't make people complacent about the status of HIV treatment in this country or globally.

"I'm not very happy with the article. I think comparing two serious illnesses is not very useful," said Mayer, who explained there are still many hurdles towards treating people with HIV in the U.S.

Although Mayer concedes Pemberton's point that medications have made HIV very manageable, he said it has been difficult to effectively diagnose people who have the disease.

Source : http://abcnews.go.com/Health/uk-doctor-id-hiv-diabetes/story?id=23349162

HIV Turns 30 Today

It's been 30 years since scientists announced the cause of AIDS: a shifty retrovirus that would come to be known as HIV.

The Castro During the AIDS Epidemic

The ability to produce large quantities of the virus also raised hopes for a vaccine, which government officials said could take at least two years to design.

Source : http://abcnews.go.com/Health/hiv-turns-30-today/story?id=23439218