Category: Health

{Researchers have published a study that shows college students combining caffeinated drinks with booze don’t realize how intoxicated they really are.}

In a study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, researchers at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan have concluded that mixing alcohol and energy drinks poses a serious public health risk, especially among college students. “We found that college students tended to drink more heavily, become more intoxicated, and have more negative drinking consequences on days they used both energy drinks and alcohol, compared to days they only used alcohol,” said Megan Patrick, a research assistant professor and co-author of the study.

According to the study, students who either drank alcohol and energy drinks on the same day or who combined the two at the same time wound up spending more time drinking – thus consuming more alcohol – than they would have without the caffeinated drinks. The result of spending more hours drinking raised users’ blood alcohol levels to higher peaks. But because of the stimulant effects of the energy drinks, the users reported that they felt less drunk than they actually were. “This can have serious potential health impacts, for example if people don’t realize how intoxicated they actually are and decide to drive home,” Patrick said.

But a similar study conducted by the Department of Community Health at the Boston University School of Public Health found that it wasn’t necessarily the combination of alcohol and caffeine that posed a risk, but the profile of the drinkers themselves that led to negative consequences. “It appears that the consumption of caffeinated alcoholic beverages has a direct effect on increasing risk by masking intoxication and making it easier for youth to consume more alcohol,” said Dr. Michael Siegel, one of the authors of the Boston University’s study. “It also appears that consumption of alcohol with caffeine may itself be a marker for youth who engage in riskier behavior.”

Thefix.com

{{“Focus, Partner, Achieve: An AIDS-free Generation.”
World AIDS Day 2014 }}

World AIDS Day is an opportunity to reflect on the many successes and challenges faced by the global community in the fight against HIV and AIDS. We remember the lives lost, celebrate the lives saved, and pay tribute to the individuals and organizations working tirelessly to bring an end to HIV/AIDS. Nearly 35 years into the global AIDS epidemic, it is important to reflect on how far we have come in Rwanda and renew our efforts to reach the goal of an AIDS-free generation.

Today the U.S. Government’s official theme for World AIDS 2014 is Focus, Partner, Achieve: An AIDS-free generation. To get ahead of the epidemic we need to focus on a strategy to deliver the highest impact interventions in the right place, at the right time, and among the most vulnerable populations. The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is the largest commitment by any nation to combat a single disease.

The United States is Rwanda’s largest bilateral donor, but what is not known is that the majority of these funds go to support initiatives in the area of health and HIV/AIDS.

Since 2003 our close partnership has seen remarkable progress toward achieving an AIDS-free generation in Rwanda. To date the U.S. Government has committed more than $700 million to support Rwanda’s HIV/AIDS response. In 2014, 80 percent of Rwanda’s HIV-positive population requiring anti-retroviral treatment (ART) receives this critical lifesaving medication, and the United States through PEPFAR has provided support for over 82,000 of the 139,000 men, women and children on treatment. Over the past year, PEPFAR has directly supported over 60,000 orphans, vulnerable children and their families with needed education, health and other services. PEPFAR’s efforts with the Ministry of Health and other partners to prevent the transmission of HIV from mothers to newborns have allowed more than 90 percent of all HIV-positive mothers to receive ART, greatly increasing the likelihood that their babies will be born HIV-free. We have been extraordinarily successful. But we have more work to do.

No one entity alone can create an AIDS-free generation. In Rwanda this means increasing and strengthening our collaborations with the Ministry of Health, the Global Fund, the United Nations and other partners, including civil society and the faith-based community. It also means ensuring that services are provided to those key populations that need them without stigma or discrimination.

We measure our successes by results –– lives saved and new infections averted. Our programs will be evaluated by how well we work together to target and tailor our efforts toward controlling the epidemic in Rwanda. This means stronger collaboration and coordination than ever before to ensure that our investments are used efficiently and effectively, achieve maximal impact, and bring Rwanda closer to sustaining its own response.

The United States and PEPFAR are committed to a continued partnership with Rwanda to achieve an AIDS-free generation with enduring results. Focusing on the three guiding pillars of accountability, transparency, and impact will ensure that our collective investment achieves HIV epidemic control.

We are close to controlling the epidemic, globally, but especially in Rwanda. The strong partnership between PEPFAR and Rwanda is what will get us there. By pushing ahead together, an AIDS-free generation is within our reach.

IN THE supermarket, it’s paper or plastic. In many public rest rooms, it’s paper towels or electric hand dryers — and a new study from England adds to a body of research suggesting that paper towels may be the healthier choice.

The study shows that as they remove moisture from users’ hands, the dryers spew bacteria into the air and onto people.

Well, that blows.

Conventional (warm air) and high-velocity (jet air) dryers alike spread bacteria into the air, according to the study. Airborne germ counts near warm-air dryers were found to be 4.5 times higher than the counts near paper towel dispensers, and the counts near jet air dryers were a whopping 27 times higher.

It doesn’t take a lot to figure out what’s probably going on here. As study leader Prof. Mark Wilcox, professor of medical microbiology at the University of Leeds, told The Huffington Post in an email:

“While jet air dryers are good at hand drying, they achieve this by using air velocities of about 400 miles an hour … Unfortunately, this means that the dispersed water droplets (containing more or less bacteria/viruses depending on how hands were washed and how contaminated they were in the first place) will be fired longer distances and some will remain suspended in the air for many minutes (possibly hours).”

The hidden dirty truth about hand dryers

Hand dryer, you lied to us. You told us you were OK. Source: Supplied
For the study, the researchers contaminated people’s hands with harmless Lactobacillis bacteria that normally aren’t found in bathrooms. Then they measured levels of the bacteria in the air at distances of up to two meters away from the dryer after the people had dried their hands.

Wilcox said he had no proof that germs spread by dryers could cause illness but added that the findings suggest this “could happen. I believe that the results of our work mean that electric dryers should ideally not be installed in settings where microbe transmission is a greater risk, e.g.hospitals, cruise ships, etc.”

That sounds a lot like the conclusion of a 2012 study comparing paper towels and hand dryers, which read in part: “From a hygiene standpoint, paper towels are superior to air dryers; therefore, paper towels should be recommended for use in locations in which hygiene is paramount, such as hospitals and clinics.”

Of course, how you dry your hands makes little difference if you’re not washing them in the first place. And according to a 2013 study, only 5 per cent of people wash up properly after using the bathroom.

And some are saying the new hand dryer study is all wet.

“This research was commissioned by the paper towel industry and it’s flawed,” a spokesperson for dryer maker Dyson told The Telegraph.

Wilcox acknowledged that the study was funded by the European Tissue Symposium, an association of tissue paper producers. But the group “played no part in the results analysis,” he said, adding that he had no ties to ETS other than the financial support for the study.

The study was published in the Journal of Hospital Infection and presented at a recent meeting of the Healthcare Infection Society in Lyon, France.

Huffington Post

{Rwanda’s Minister of Health Dr. Agnes Binagwaho has sacked 9 nurses and one doctor at Kabgayi Hospital due to lack of commitment in their work.}

The Minister also closed a private hospital that had been operating without qualified staff.

Binagwaho was visiting Muhanga District on 27th November 2014.

The sacked nurses wrongly prescribed medicine to children living with HIV/AIDS which put them into critical conditions.

Meanwhile Binagwaho said “Some progress has been made but there is still a lot be done”

Binagwaho has called on Kabgayi hospital staff to strive for excellence and bear in mind that there is “Zero tolerance for poor performance.”

“We will not accommodate poor performance, you need to improve,” Minister Binagwaho reminds staff at Kagbyayi hospital

Binagwaho has immediately appointed the new hospital director and nurses to replace the non performers

{Studies have shown peppermint oil to be fairly effective at relieving irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a collection of symptoms that includes abdominal pain and cramping, bloating, constipation and diarrhea that affects 5 to 20 percent of the population.}

At the mention of peppermint, candy canes and ice cream comes to mind. But did you know that peppermint is also an age-old herbal medicine that has been used to treat a wide range of abdominal woes? The oil extracted from the peppermint plant contains a host of compounds, but the most abundant and perhaps the most pharmacologically important is menthol.
Studies have shown peppermint oil to be fairly effective at relieving irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a collection of symptoms that includes abdominal pain and cramping, bloating, constipation and diarrhea that affects 5 to 20 percent of the population. One explanation is that the oil—especially the menthol—blocks calcium channels, which has the effect of relaxing the “smooth” muscles in the walls of the intestines. Recently, Alex Ford, a McMaster University researcher, concluded that instead of popular over-the counter drugs, peppermint oil should be the first line of defense against IBS.

Peppermint can temporarily allay itching caused by insect bites, eczema and other lesions, including the rash of poison ivy. Peppermint tea can be used as a mouthwash for babies with thrush (yeast in the mouth) or for reducing nausea and vomiting during pregnancy, especially for women who want to avoid stronger medications.

Peppermint’s essential oil—menthol—is also an ingredient in many conventional over-the-counter products, including toothpaste, mouthwash, chewing gum, breath mints, chewing tobacco substitutes, cough lozenges and various muscle pain ointments. Menthol stimulates the nerves that sense cold, creating that familiar cooling sensation, and inhibits those that react to painful stimuli, temporarily relieving the pain of muscles and organs that are cramped and in spasm. Your mouth also has some of these nerves, which is why products containing menthol “taste” cool. And, even though the effect doesn’t last long, sometimes even a brief reprieve from a hacking cough or aching muscle can work wonders.

Menthol has also been shown helpful in subduing many disease-producing bacteria, fungi and viruses, but because stronger antimicrobials are available, is usually not the first choice in treating serious infections. “Most of the (effective) species are really from the family Lamiaceae, or mint family,” Pavel Kloucek, a scientist at the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, told Discovery News. Kloucek and his team have recently identified two other mint family members—Mentha villosa and Faassen’s catnip—along with another non-mint herb, bluebeard, as also have bacteria-busting abilities. Moreover, essential oils for horseradish, garlic, hyssop, basil, marjoram, oregano, winter savory and three types of thyme also showed potent antimicrobial activity.

The researchers made the discovery while testing the essential oils to determine how well they could, in vapor form, kill the bacteria responsible for Listeria, Staph, E. coli, Salmonella infections, and more. They are hopeful that peppermint oil and others may soon be wafted in vapor form over food to inhibit bacterial growth. Plant essential oils are lipophilic, meaning that they gravitate towards fat, Kloucek explained. “And luckily, in the cell membrane of bacteria, there is plenty of fat, which serves as a seal. Essential oils are attracted to this fat and, as their molecules squeeze in between the fat molecules, they cause leakage of the membrane.” This leakage causes a meltdown that can eventually kill the bacteria.

Health News

{Residents in Kaniga Sector of Gicumbi District will no longer have to travel long distances looking for health care services due to the Health Post recently inaugurated in the sector.}

The Health Post was constructed by locals with the Support of One Family Health Foundation.

Residents used to travel Eight Kilometers to get Health care services at Murindi Health centre.

The official launch of the Kaniga health post was attended by residents, local officials, and representatives of One Family Health Foundation as well as the Governor of the Northern Province Bosenibamwe Aimé among other officials.

The one Family Health country representative, Maggie Chirwa said that the inaugurated health post was constructed in line with the decentralization of health services among local communities.

She said the post is the 90th among the health posts constructed in 9 districts, but, added Chirwa, there is a plan of constructing about 500 Health posts in the whole country.

This was also stressed by Patrick Bigirimana, Finance& Adiministration Accountant at one family health Rwanda.

He said the inaugurated Health Post is among 18 Health Posts constructed in Gicumbi District.

One Family Health Foundation also provided the Health Post with health specialists, medicaments, mobile phones for exchange of information as well as many types of equipment to ensure the good quality of services rendered to the beneficiaries.

Residents of Kaniga sector have commended the post saying that they will no longer travel long distances carrying their sick ones to the Murindi Health Centre which locates in 8 Km from Kaniga sector.

Speaking to IGIHE, Mukamana Devota, one of the residents in Kaniga sector said “We had a problem to go to Mulindi for treatments. A patient leaves her home in the morning and reaches at Mulindi by 12 O’clock. It was so sad when you think about how the sufferer traveled such long distances. This Health post is nearer than ever. We will no longer have to go far for medical services.”

The total amount of money spent to Kaniga Health Post is Rwf 7 million for buildings and Rwf 4 million for equipments.

{Maybe you are among the people who wish to lose weight and don’t know how to slim down. This is only a problem for people who are not part of “YOU 2.0” initiated by Waka Academy. WAKA Academy is part of WAKA Fitness that focuses on fitness and health education for anyone passionate and ambitious about his or her health and lifestyle}

WAKA Academy’s first initiative was YOU 2.0, which is a 12 week program that required full commitment and dedication to transform your entire lifestyle.

Those who have already participated in this program have their story to tell.
Before joining the Program, Aline and Pearl weighed 92.3 kg and 112Kg respectively.
After finding that their weight was affecting not only their health but also their lifestyle,,Aline and Pearl decided to join You 2.0 Program.

Once they started the YOU 2.0 program they began a gradual health and fitness transformation.
According to both Aline and Pearl, “our health was not good, we felt really heavy and the eating habits were really terrible and working out was such a burden, we didn’t like going to the gym.”.

.

“Our goal was to be healthy and change all unhealthy habits in order to achieve our goal. We wanted to lose weight and maintain the weight loss. We wanted to learn healthy habits, know what to eat and how to exercise properly” Aline and Pearl explain.

Both of them wanted to lose about 20 kilos in 12 weeks, but after they met with their respective trainers they were told that losing that much weigh in such a short time would not be healthy and they had a plan of losing 1-2 kgs per week maximum.

Today, Aline and Pearl weigh 79 kg and 91kgs respectively.

“After YOU 2.0 we felt a big change in our lives, we learned the difference between good foods and bad foods, we also learned about efficient workouts that are short but effective which made working out less tedious and more fun. We are lighter and physically fit, [our] clothes fit better and we had to get rid of some.”

WAKA Fitness selected the six participants in the inaugural YOU 2.0 class through an application process that required applicants to submit a motivation statement and identify what they were hoping to achieve. At the end of the 12 week period, all of the participants experienced astonishing results – lower weight, improved health and an overall change in lifestyle.
In their future plan, Aline’s goal is to be 67 kgs.

She says “I believe I will be closer to my ideal weight and keep up the spirit of healthy eating and exercise.”

To Pearl’s fitness goal is to become stronger and learn new exercises and maintain the healthy lifestyle they have adopted since they started YOU 2.O

“A lot of our eating habits have changed and we look at food differently, and enjoy working out more. As regards to fitness we would like to get stronger and also improve our cardio and we have enjoyed the boot camp class it really keeps your heart rate up. “Pearl said.

YOU 2.0 was led by WAKA Fitness nutritional experts and personal trainers and consisted of a minimum of 5 personal trainings per week and weekly guidance on and assessments of the diet and food intake.

Aline and Pearl commended Thomas’s, one of the WAKA Fitness dieticians/personal trainers, training throughout the whole program. They both believe that the program can help many who are experiencing the same problems.

“Thomas was our trainer for the 12 weeks in the YOU 2.0 program and with his guidance and encouragement we were able to beat the odds and he truly believed in us and we want to thank him and the people who started this wonderful program itself Dennis and Jeannetta. We are so grateful to them for starting such an amazing program and we believe it will continue to change the lives of others who were struggling like us, ” concluded Aline and Pearl.

Date: 17TH Monday November 2014

Preterm Birth Now Leading Global Killer of Young Children

Almost 350,000 African Children Die from Preterm Birth Complications

$250 Million for Researchers on Preterm Birth Announced on World Prematurity Day

For the first time in history, the complications of preterm birth outrank all other causes as the world’s number one killer of young children.

Of the estimated 6.3 million deaths of children under the age of five in 2013 worldwide, complications from preterm births accounted for nearly 1.1 million deaths, according to new findings published in The Lancet by a research team coordinated by Robert Black, M.D., of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, together with World Health Organization and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

Specifically, direct complications from preterm births globally accounted for 965,000 deaths during the first 28 days of life, with an additional 125,000 deaths between the ages of one month and five years. Other main causes for young child deaths include pneumonia, which killed 935,000 children under-five, and childbirth complications, which caused 720,000 deaths (662,000 in the neonatal period, most on the first day of life, and 58,000 in the post-neonatal period).

Rwanda, the tiny central African nation the size of Maryland, has achieved impressive performances in the reduction of infant mortality, including neonatal mortality.

“This conference comes at the right point in time when our objectives are aligned to furthermore reduce infant mortality and move steps closer to the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals,” said Agnes Binagwaho, Rwanda’s health minister
“This marks a turning of the tide, a transition from infections to neonatal conditions, especially those related to premature births, and this will require entirely different medical and public health approaches,” says Joy Lawn, M.D., Ph.D., of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, a member of the research team and a long-term advisor to Save the Children. “The success we’ve seen in the ongoing fight against infectious diseases demonstrates that we can also be successful if we invest in prevention and care for preterm birth.”

Groundbreaking research to discover why preterm births occur is now underway. These unprecedented efforts, backed by $250 million in new funding, involve more than 200 researchers and are expected to identify ways to prevent or alleviate this global health problem within three to five years, saving countless infant lives.

{{Prematurity Major Problem in Africa}}

In Africa, 350,000 children under five die from complications of preterm birth annually. Countries with the highest numbers are: Nigeria (98,300), Democratic Republic of the Congo (40,600), Ethiopia (24,400), Angola (16.000), Kenya (13,300), Uganda (12,500), and Mali (10,800).

The 10 African countries with the highest percentage of under-five deaths resulting from preterm birth complications are: Mauritius, 27.2 percent; Botswana, 22.9 percent; Algeria, 19.9 percent; Namibia, 19.1 percent; Cabo Verde, 18.6 percent; Mauritania, 17.0 percent; Zimbabwe and Côte d’Ivoire, 16.4 percent; Gabon, 16.2 percent; Congo, 15.5 percent

Some of the highest rates of preterm morality are in West Africa, particularly in the countries currently being decimated by Ebola, where the risk will now be even higher given the challenges faced in those countries, notably Sierra Leone and Liberia.

The 10 countries globally with the highest percentage of under-five deaths directly resulting from preterm birth complications are: Macedonia, 51.0 percent; Slovenia, 47.5 percent; Denmark, 43.0 percent; Serbia, 39.8 percent; the United Kingdom, 38.7 percent; Hungary, 37.4 percent; Slovakia, 34.9 percent; Poland, 34.8 percent; Republic of Korea and Switzerland, 32.7 percent. All of these exceed the global average of 17.4 percent of under-five deaths, partly because of success in reducing infectious diseases.

In the U.S., 28.1 percent of under-five deaths are from direct complications due to preterm birth, which translates to 8,100 deaths of children under-five. The U.S. ranks 141th worst on the list of 162 countries, followed by Oman, Georgia, Egypt, Canada, Germany and Qatar.

{{The Epidemic of Prematurity}}

Since 2000, the worldwide mortality rate of children under-five has declined dramatically from 76 to 46 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2013. This is an annual reduction rate of 3.9 percent. Almost half of the overall reduction is a result of the massive progress made against deaths from pneumonia, diarrhea, measles, HIV and tetanus. In contrast, preterm mortality rates have declined at only 2.0 percent annually based on WHO global mortality rate for preterm birth in 2000 and 2013.

The reason: vaccines, bed nets for malaria, antibiotics, antimalarial and HIV treatment have received major investments. However, these have had a small impact on deaths resulting from preterm birth complications. Compounding the problem is the fact that the global prematurity rate of more than one in ten babies, or 15.1 million being born too soon, has continued to increase.

“Some 7,600 newborns die daily,” explains Andres de Francisco, M.D., of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH), a coalition of more than 600 partners. “We have an epidemic of preterm and newborn deaths that represents one of the greatest health challenges of the 21st century. Two-thirds of these deaths could be prevented without intensive care.”

Prematurity is moving higher up on the global agenda. In addition to new research to solve the problem, global health partners are intensifying joint efforts to advocate for investment and policy approaches to reduce preterm birth and improve newborn health. A key moment in this effort is World Prematurity Day (WPD).
{{
World Prematurity Day}}

More than 200 countries, non-government organizations, UN agencies, medical and health organizations will participate this year in the Fourth World Prematurity Day on Monday, November 17th. More than 60 countries have planned special events that focus on prematurity and premature babies.

Last year’s WPD activities reached 1.4 billion people via radio, TV, print, Internet and social media. Of that, the global public service announcements featuring Celine Dion and Thalia reached more than a billion people on CNN International and CNN en Español. The partners of WPD also hosted a 24-hour Twitter relay that involved nearly 30 million people. WPD reached another 7.3 million people via Facebook through a collection of more than 3,000 personal family stories about prematurity.

National parent groups affiliated with the European Foundation for the Care of Newborn Infants and the US-based NGO March of Dimes lit some of the world’s most famous buildings and landmarks purple, the representative color of WPD: Empire State Building (New York), Niagara Falls (New York/Canada), Brandenburg Gate (Germany), Peace Bridge (New York/Canada), Belfast City Hall (Ireland), First Direct Arena (England), CN Tower (Canada), Singapore Flyer, National Museum (Poland), Bratislava Castle (Slovakia), El Moro (Mexico City), the Bosphorus Bridge (Turkey), General Motors Headquarters (Detroit), and the Las Vegas Strip (Nevada).
WPD is part of the Every Women Every Child initiative. This umbrella initiative, spearheaded by the UN Secretary-General, was created to rapidly advance the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5, to reduce under-five child and maternal mortality by two-thirds and three-fourths respectively.

“On World Prematurity Day, I urge all partners to recognize the vital importance of addressing prematurity as we strive to improve women’s and children’s health,” says United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.

“Intensifying our focus on prematurity will sustain gains in child survival, accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals, and help lay the groundwork for ending all preventable deaths of women and children by 2030. The Every Woman Every Child movement is working with all stakeholders to end this tragic and preventable reality.”

The Every Woman Every Child movement was launched four years ago and has grown to include 300 partners and 400 financial, policy and service delivery commitments, such as training midwives. In total, $27.3 billion has already been disbursed, according to PMNCH.

“Adding to the successful Every Woman Every Child movement, WHO and partners have been working on two complementary approaches: the Every Newborn Action Plan (ENAP), led by WHO and UNICEF and adopted by 194 countries at the World Health Assembly this year, and Ending Preventable Maternal Mortality (EPMM),” says Flavia Bustreo, M.D., WHO’s Assistant Director-General for Family, Women’s and Children’s Health. “ENAP and EPMM have articulated strategies and set targets to improve maternal and child health in the post-MDG era and both have attracted unprecedented commitments from countries and development partners.”

ENAP has attracted some 40 commitments from a broad range of donors and partners, including the Islamic Development Bank, the Norwegian Government, Johnson & Johnson and Phillips. India and Nigeria have already launched their own ENAP programs.

{{New Research Initiatives to Address Premature Birth}}

Four major research initiatives, with some $250 million in funding, are now underway. Researchers seek to discover the unknown causes of prematurity and find effective ways to prevent or delay preterm births. Precisely what events trigger the start of labor at full-term, let alone preterm labor, remain a mystery. More than half of preterm births occur spontaneously.

1. The Global Coalition to Advance Preterm Birth Research (GCAPR) is a new partnership initiated by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the March of Dimes, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Global Alliance to Prevent Prematurity and Stillbirth (GAPPS). Some 16 institutions are now members of the coalition. GCAPR will advance needed research into the field of preterm birth, a blueprint of which was detailed in The Lancet Global Health in December 2013.

2. The March of Dimes has launched a $75 million Campaign to End Premature Birth, a “medical Manhattan Project” to create a specialized network of five research centers conducting team-based research to discover the unknown causes of prematurity. Two of these research programs are well underway. The remaining three will be named by the end of 2014.

“The March of Dimes initiative is looking at the whole spectrum of prematurity,” says Joe Leigh Simpson, M.D., senior vice president for research and global programs at the March of Dimes. “Some 200 scientists from 20 disciplines already are involved in this research effort and those numbers are expected to double by next year.”

3. The University of California at San Francisco’s (UCSF) Preterm Birth Initiative (PTBi) has launched a 10-year global initiative to slow the epidemic of preterm births and improve the health of preterm babies. PTBi is currently in a planning phase to determine where UCSF and its partners can have the greatest impact. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Marc and Lynne Benioff are co-funding this $100 million initiative.

4. The last research effort led by the Global Alliance to Prevent Prematurity and Stillbirth (GAPPS), a program started by Seattle Children’s Hospital, is focusing its research on discovering the causes and mechanisms of prematurity, work that may lead to interventions to prevent it. Seven research projects are underway with more in planning stages. The work has $20 million in funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and a $1.3 million USAID grant.

“To be successful, this has to be a team effort,” says Larry Rand, M.D., director of Perinatal Services at UCSF and co-director of PTBi. “Effective collaboration will accelerate discovery, increase access to interventions that work and optimize the project’s impact on rates of early preterm birth and mortality.”

Prematurity is complex. Thus, research groups are from 20 diverse fields. Besides obstetrics/gynecology, neonatology, genetics, immunology and infectious diseases, the trans-disciplinary initiatives include experts in engineering, statistics, physics, biochemistry and mathematics.

One group is working to identify a pacemaker in the uterus that initiates labor while another seeks to discover the source of the electric signals that initiate labor and discover whether the process is triggered by mother or fetus.

Another group is focused on identifying biomarkers, proteins and molecules in the circulations of both mother and fetus, gene-environment interaction and the maternal microbiome (the total collective of genomes of microorganisms in the mother).

One research team is investigating why Somali women living in the U.S. have very low rates of premature births, while most black women in the U.S. have very high rates of premature birth.

Researchers are studying how poverty, nutrition, pollution, stress and other compounding factors affect preterm birth.

“This unprecedented collaborative effort will yield results in three to five years,” anticipates Dr. Simpson. “I expect the net effect to be greater than the sum of the parts, to be the product of collaboration among the centers.”

{{Helping Premature Babies and Mothers}}

Measures to help premature babies and mothers include an emphasis on family planning, prevention of infections and use of antibiotics, and wider use of Kangaroo Mother Care, a technique that holds the infant skin-to-skin on the mother’s chest to keep the baby warm and make breastfeeding easier.

An international conference on Kangaroo Mother Care is scheduled for the week of November 17th in Rwanda, coinciding with World Prematurity Day. It is estimated that greater use of this simple technique could save as many as 450,000 preterm newborns each year.

Known preventions to reduce risk of premature birth:

• Family planning to improve spacing and avoid pregnancy in women under 17 and over 40.

• Reducing the number of embryos transferred as part of fertility treatment.

• Eliminating C-sections before 39 weeks that are elective and not medically necessary.

Risk factors linked to premature births include obesity and high blood pressure. These also are risk factors for both stillbirths and birth defects.

Major donor countries are also recognizing the growing demand to improve survival rates of preterm babies. Last month, the U.S. Agency for International Development announced a new five-year, $9 million program, called Every Preemie—SCALE, to expand evidence-based and underutilized interventions to improve survival rates among preterm and low birth weight babies in 24 priority countries across Africa and Asia. The program is supported by a partnership among Project Concern International, GAPPS and the American College of Nurse-Midwives.

To assist professionals in scaling up proven interventions, the March of Dimes and the International Federation of Gynecology & Obstetrics have created a Global Collaborative Network to Prevent Preterm Birth that identifies best practices.
In addition, Survive and Thrive is a public-private partnership that engages U.S. pediatric, Ob/Gyn, and midwifery membership organizations with the private sector and the U.S. Government to collaborate with international and national professional associations and global health scholars to strengthen maternal, newborn, and child health programs. This initiative is working in the three highest burden countries – Ethiopia, India and Nigeria – to improve essential newborn care training including neonatal resuscitation and care for small and sick newborns.

{{KIGALI, Rwanda:}}

Hundreds of delegates from around the world will converge in Rwanda this week for an international conference on maternal and newborn health, organizers said Monday.
The meeting on Kangaroo mother care is organized to coincide with the World Prematurity Day, marked globally on 17 November every year. In Africa, some 350,000 children under five die from complications of preterm birth annually.

The conference to be held in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, is organized by a network of global partners, and aims at bringing together high profile researchers, scientists and medical practitioners to take stock of successes and best practices in improving maternal and newborn health care services.

According to medical experts, Kangaroo care is a method of holding a baby that involves skin-to-skin contact. It is estimated that greater use of this simple technique could save as many as 450,000 preterm newborns each year.

The theme for the weeklong meeting will be “Kangaroo Mother Care: an effective way to improve the survival and the quality of survival of preterm and low birth weight infants: evidences and successes.”

{When it comes to genitalia, the shape, size, location and even quantity varies across the species -snakes and lizards have two penises, while birds and humans have one.}

Now researchers have discovered not only how such external genitalia forms, they have identified why the genitals grow in different regions of the body in different animals.

During tests, a team of geneticists were even able to change the location of where the penis grew by tweaking the signals sent by cells

Snake and lizard genitalia is derived from the same tissue that gives creates hind legs, while mammalian genitalia derives from the tail bud, at the bottom of the trunk.

They may appear in different locations, but they have similar functions and genetics.

Reporting in the journal Nature, researchers from Harvard Medical School’s Department of Genetics, led by Clifford Tabin, found that a particular part of the embryo is responsible for this location difference.

The embryonic cloaca – which eventually develops into the urinary and gut tracts – sends signals that tell nearby cells and tissues to form into external genitalia.

The cloaca’s location determines which tissues receive the signal first.

In snakes and lizards, the cloaca is located closer to the lateral plate mesoderm, the same tissue that makes the paired limbs.

But, in mammals, the cloaca is closer to what’s known as the ‘tail bud’, found at the bottom of the animal’s trunk, or torso.

To confirm these findings, the researchers grafted cloaca tissue next to the limb buds in one group of chicken embryos, and beside the tail buds in a second.

The researchers found that in both cases, cells closer to the grafted cloaca responded to the signals and began forming genitals.

While mammal and reptile genitalia are not the same, in that they are formed from different tissue, Professor Tabin said, they do share a ‘deep homology’ – in that they develop from a similar genetic reaction, and are created by the same molecular signals.

‘Here we see that an evolutionary shift in the source of a signal can result in a situation where functionally analogous structures are carved out of nonhomologous substrate,’ said study author Patrick Tschopp.

‘Moreover, this might help to explain why limbs and genitalia use such similar gene regulatory programs during development.’

In a separate study, researchers from University of Florida marked a variety of cells in a chick embryo with a fluorescent marker. They were then able to follow how those cells developed.

From this, they found the cells that turned into either a penis or a clitoris start out as two groups of cells, found on opposite sides of the embryo.

As the embryo curls and forms, and it changes from a flat sheet to a 3D embryo, the cells meet.

They then form a bud and merge to become a penis.

In snakes and other reptiles, the researchers suggest these buds don’t merge in the same way, so the animals form dual penises.

They added that genitals defects in humans may be caused by the embryo not curling and closing correctly.

Daily Mail