Category: Health

{This virus has been found to be the 7th leading cause of death in the world above diseases like HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.}

According to a report published in The Lancet, hepatitis is causing more deaths and sufferings when compared to other diseases.

The researchers came to this conclusion after examining data from the Global Burden of Disease study. The researchers tracked how much illness and disability viral hepatitis caused from 1990 to 2013.

The researchers found that Hepatitis A, B, C, D and E were responsible for 1.45 million deaths in 2013. This is an increase from 890,000 deaths recorded in 1990.

“This is the most comprehensive analysis to date of the global burden of viral hepatitis. And it reveals startling findings – showing the death toll from this condition is now 1.45 million,” said senior author Dr Graham Cooke, a researcher at Imperial College London’s Department of Medicine.

“Whereas deaths from many infectious diseases – such as TB and malaria – have dropped since 1990, viral hepatitis deaths have risen.”

According to the report, nearly all deaths and disability came from Hepatitis B and C. They are both transmitted via exposure to contaminated blood and often lead to chronic liver problems.

{Researchers confirm in real-world settings that these combined prevention strategies work}

Increasing the number of men who undergo circumcision and increasing the rates at which women with HIV are given antiretroviral therapy (ART) were associated with significant declines in the number of new male HIV infections in rural Ugandan communities, new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health research suggests.

The research, published July 12 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), is believed to be the first to show that two promising prevention methods that were successful in tightly controlled clinical trial settings have real-world effects. The findings suggest that further scale-up of these programs throughout sub-Saharan Africa could slow the HIV epidemic in the region.

“The biology of these two prevention strategies has been proven, but the big question was whether these strategies could have an impact on the number of new HIV infections in communities still struggling to control the spread of the disease,” says study leader Xiangrong Kong, PhD, an associate scientist in the departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Bloomberg School. “Before our study, there was no empirical data to show the effects of scaling up these two interventions in real-world settings. It’s important to know whether prevention is working and this is evidence that strongly suggests that African nations should redouble their efforts to scale up these programs.”

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) estimates there are roughly 25.8 million people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2014, approximately 41 percent were on ART, though coverage rates vary widely. The World Health Organization estimates that between 2007 and 2015, more than 10 million men had been circumcised in 14 priority countries in this region. Given the findings of the new study, these circumcisions should have a dramatic impact on new HIV infections going forward.

For the study, Kong and her colleagues used data collected from surveys between 1999 and 2013 in 45 communities in rural Rakai District in south-central Uganda, which included data on community-level ART coverage, male circumcision coverage, sociodemographics, sexual behaviors, HIV prevalence and rates of new HIV infections. They looked at three distinct periods: prior to the availability of ART and circumcision (1999-2004), during early availability of ART and circumcision and during full program scale up of both (2007-2013).

Over the study period, the median community coverage of male circumcision increased from 19 percent to 39 percent and median ART coverage increased from 0 percent to 21 percent in males and from 0 percent to 23 percent in females. The World Health Organization’s target is for 80 percent of men in sub-Saharan Africa to be circumcised.

The researchers found that in communities where more than 40 percent of men had been circumcised, the rate of new infections among men was reduced by 39 percent as compared to those communities where 10 percent or fewer men had been circumcised. They also found that in communities where more than 20 percent of HIV-infected women were taking ART, there was a 23 percent reduction in rates of new HIV infections in men, as compared to communities where 20 percent or fewer of the HIV-infected women were taking the medications. No reduction was seen in HIV rates among women, but Kong says that may come going forward as male ART use increases.

Studies have shown that male circumcision provides direct protection against male HIV acquisition by removing the foreskin, which is rich in HIV target cells. Convincing adult men to be circumcised is not an easy sell, Kong says, but results like these can go a long way toward expanding coverage in communities.

Kong says that low ART coverage observed in their study could be a result of WHO’s guidelines for how early to start antiretroviral treatment. During much of the study period, only people with evidence of impaired immunity in their blood were given the treatment. Now that it is understood that ART is vital not just as a treatment but as a preventive measure in that it reduces how contagious someone is, guidelines recommend that it be prescribed upon diagnosis, irrespective of evidence of immune impairment.

Scaling up these prevention strategies isn’t cheap, Kong concedes, but studies have shown that doing these two strategies together can be more cost-effective. Still, she says, international resources for treatment and prevention have remained flat since 2008. In the meantime, public health awareness programs need to be boosted to get more people tested and treated and get men into circumcision programs.

“We still have a long way to go in curbing the HIV epidemic in Africa,” she says. “People need to adopt these strategies, and we need to have sustainable funding to support these efforts.”

{In a report appearing in the July 12 issue of JAMA, an HIV/AIDS theme issue, Huldrych F. Gunthard, M.D., of University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland, and colleagues with the International Antiviral Society-USA panel, updated recommendations for the use of antiretroviral therapy in adults with established HIV infection, including when to start treatment, initial regimens, and changing regimens, along with recommendations for using antiretroviral drugs for preventing HIV among those at risk, including preexposure and postexposure prevention.}

There have been substantial advances in the use of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) for the treatment and prevention of HIV infection since the last version of these recommendations in 2014, warranting an update to the recommendations. A panel of experts in HIV research and patient care convened by the International Antiviral Society-USA reviewed data published in peer-reviewed journals, presented by regulatory agencies, or presented as conference abstracts at peer-reviewed scientific conferences since the 2014 report, for new data or evidence that would change previous recommendations or their ratings. Comprehensive literature searches were conducted. Recommendations were by consensus, and each recommendation was rated by strength and quality of the evidence.

Recommendations

Newer data support the widely accepted recommendation that antiretroviral therapy should be started in all individuals with HIV infection with detectable viremia regardless of CD4 cell count. Recommended optimal initial regimens for most patients are 2 nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) plus an integrase strand transfer inhibitor (InSTI). Other effective regimens include nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors or boosted protease inhibitors with 2 NRTIs. Recommendations for special populations and in the settings of opportunistic infections and concomitant conditions are provided.

Reasons for switching therapy include convenience, tolerability, simplification, anticipation of potential new drug interactions, pregnancy or plans for pregnancy, elimination of food restrictions, virologic failure, or drug toxicities. Laboratory assessments are recommended before treatment, and monitoring during treatment is recommended to assess response, adverse effects, and adherence. Approaches are recommended to improve linkage to and retention in care are provided. Daily tenofovir disoproxil fumarate/emtricitabine is recommended for use as preexposure prophylaxis to prevent HIV infection in persons at high risk. When indicated, postexposure prophylaxis should be started as soon as possible after exposure.

“Antiretroviral agents remain the cornerstone of HIV treatment and prevention. All HIV-infected individuals with detectable plasma virus should receive treatment, with recommended initial regimens consisting of an InSTI plus 2 NRTIs. Preexposure prophylaxis should be considered as part of an HIV prevention strategy for at-risk individuals. When used effectively, currently available ARVs can sustain HIV suppression and can prevent new HIV infection. With these treatment regimens, survival rates among HIV-infected adults who are retained in care can approach those of uninfected adults,” the authors conclude.

Editorial: Antiretrovirals for HIV Treatment and Prevention — The Challenges of Success

“The current IAS-USA guidelines reflect the hard-won success of 35 years of clinical research,” write Kenneth H. Mayer, M.D., and Douglas S. Krakower, M.D., of Fenway Health, Boston, in an accompanying editorial.

“Although challenges remain to optimize the cascade of care and to prevent new infections, and an aging epidemic will present new challenges, these concerns reflect the successes of highly effective antiretroviral therapy. Historians may wonder whether the pace of discovery in the early days of the epidemic could have been accelerated, but no one can doubt the signal accomplishments of biobehavioral research and community engagement in forging a common strategy to deal with this global pandemic, one that continues to pose new challenges.”

{University of Warwick research indicates that eating more fruit and vegetables can substantially increase people’s later happiness levels.}

To be published shortly in the American Journal of Public Health, the study is one of the first major scientific attempts to explore psychological well-being beyond the traditional finding that fruit and vegetables can reduce risk of cancer and heart attacks.

Happiness benefits were detected for each extra daily portion of fruit and vegetables up to 8 portions per day.

The researchers concluded that people who changed from almost no fruit and veg to eight portions of fruit and veg a day would experience an increase in life satisfaction equivalent to moving from unemployment to employment. The well-being improvements occurred within 24 months.

{{Cancer}}

The study followed more than 12,000 randomly selected people.These subjects kept food diaries and had their psychological well-being measured. The authors found large positive psychological benefits within two years of an improved diet.

Professor Andrew Oswald said: “Eating fruit and vegetables apparently boosts our happiness far more quickly than it improves human health. People’s motivation to eat healthy food is weakened by the fact that physical-health benefits, such as protecting against cancer, accrue decades later. However, well-being improvements from increased consumption of fruit and vegetables are closer to immediate.”

The work is a collaboration between the University of Warwick, England and the University of Queensland, Australia. The researchers found that happiness increased incrementally for each extra daily portion of fruit and vegetables up to eight portions per day. The study involved an examination of longitudinal food diaries of 12,385 randomly sampled Australian adults over 2007, 2009, and 2013 in the Household, Income, and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey. The authors adjusted the effects on incident changes in happiness and life satisfaction for people’s changing incomes and personal circumstances.

{{Western diet}}

The study has policy implications, particularly in the developed world where the typical citizen eats an unhealthy diet. The findings could be used by health professionals to persuade people to consume more fruits and vegetables.

Dr Redzo Mujcic, research fellow at the University of Queensland, said: “Perhaps our results will be more effective than traditional messages in convincing people to have a healthy diet. There is a psychological payoff now from fruit and vegetables — not just a lower health risk decades later.”

The authors found that alterations in fruit and vegetable intake were predictive of later alterations in happiness and satisfaction with life. They took into account many other influences, including changes in people’s incomes and life circumstances. One part of the study examined information from the Australian Go for 2&5 Campaign. The campaign was run in some Australian states which have promoted the consumption of two portions of fruit and five portions of vegetables each day.

{{Antioxidants}}

The academics think it may be possible eventually to link this study to current research into antioxidants which suggests a connection between optimism and carotenoid in the blood. However they argue that further research is needed in this area.

{Children who are thumb-suckers or nail-biters are less likely to develop allergic sensitivities, research has found. And, if they have both ‘bad habits’, they are even less likely to be allergic to such things as house dust mites, grass, cats, dogs, horses or airborne fungi. The finding emerges from the long-running Dunedin Multidisciplinary Study, which has followed the progress of 1,037 participants born in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1972-1973 into adulthood.}

Children who are thumb-suckers or nail-biters are less likely to develop allergic sensitivities, new research has found.

And, if they have both ‘bad habits’, they are even less likely to be allergic to such things as house dust mites, grass, cats, dogs, horses or airborne fungi.

The research, published in the journal Pediatrics, was completed by researchers of New Zealand’s Dunedin School of Medicine, assisted by professor Malcolm Sears of McMaster University’s Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, and formerly from Dunedin.

“Our findings are consistent with the hygiene theory that early exposure to dirt or germs reduces the risk of developing allergies,” said Sears, who is also a researcher for the Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health at McMaster and St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton. “While we don’t recommend that these habits should be encouraged, there does appear to be a positive side to these habits.”

The researchers were testing the idea that the common childhood habits of thumb-sucking and nail-biting would increase microbial exposures, affecting the immune system and reducing the development of allergic reactions also known as atopic sensitization.

The habits of thumb-sucking and nail-biting were measured in a longitudinal birth cohort of more than 1,000 New Zealand children at ages 5, 7, 9 and 11; and atopic sensitization was measured by skin-prick testing at 13 and 32 years old.

The researchers found 31 per cent of children were frequent thumb suckers or nail biters.

Among all children at 13 years old, 45% showed atopic sensitization, but among those with one oral habit, only 40% had allergies. Among those with both habits, only 31% had allergies. This trend was sustained into adulthood, and showed no difference depending on smoking in the household, ownership of cats or dogs; or exposure to house dust mites.

However, the study did not find associations between the oral habits and development of asthma or hay fever.

{Your diet plays a huge role in how many years you spend on earth so if you want a longer life, you need to start paying more attention to your diet.}

Here are 9 foods that have been linked to longevity

{{1. Berries }}

Strawberries and blueberries have powerful antioxidants that help you live long by staving off life-threatening diseases.

{{2. Salmon }}

Salmon is rich in omega-3 fatty acid which helps reduce your risk of heart disease, making you live longer.

{{3. Avocado }}

Avocado helps you live longer by reducing your bad cholesterol while also raising your good HDL cholesterol.

{{4. Leafy greens }}

Leafy greens should be an essential component of your diet daily if you want to live long. According to a study, middle-aged people who eat leafy greens daily were half as likely to die within four years when compared to people who don’t eat leafy greens.

{{5. Nuts }}

Nuts are packed with heart-healthy fats, minerals, protein, vitamins and fibre. Ensure you add nuts to your diet if you want to live longer.

{{6. Water }}

How much water do you drink daily? Staying hydrated is really important as it helps reduce the risk for blood clots. Water is also necessary for the smooth functioning of the body and helps you look younger.

{{7. Garlic }}

I know you might frown to see garlic in the list due to the breath it leaves you with. Garlic helps halt the formation of carcinogenic compounds in the body.

{{8. Whole grains }}

A study found that women who ate lots of whole grains had 31 percent lower risk of dying from causes other than cancer or heart disease when compared with women who ate little whole grains.

{{9. Green tea}}

Have you had a cup of green tea today? Research has found that green tea lowers the risk of heart disease and several types of cancer.

{There may be more than 100 million people with diabetes globally than previously thought, a landmark paper now outlines.The prevalence of global diabetes has been seriously underestimated by at least 25 per cent, the paper suggests.}

A landmark paper led by Monash University with partners in the UK and US suggests there may be more than 100 million people with diabetes globally than previously thought.

The prevalence of global diabetes has been seriously underestimated by at least 25 per cent, according to the paper published in Nature Reviews.

In 2015, the official International Diabetes Federation (IDF) estimated the number of people with diabetes was 415 million, however the actual number may be as high as 520 million, according to the new paper by Monash Professor of Diabetes, Paul Zimmet, and co-authors from the UK and the US; all leading global figures in diabetes epidemiology research.

The research team argues that the organisations on which public health policy makers rely (including the World Health Organisation, the IDF and the Global Burden of Disease and Noncommunicable Disease Risk Factor Collaborations) have used different and sometimes inappropriate methods and tests to determine diabetes mortality and prevalence.

Professor Zimmet said: “The way the global data on diabetes has been collected has been inconsistent and not of the standard needed for public health planning to address what is now one of the largest chronic disease epidemics in human history. Over 12 per cent of global health expenditure is directed to diabetes treatment.

“There are major and serious gaps in our knowledge of the burden of diabetes, particularly in developing countries which will have significant unforeseen impacts on national health care systems,” he said.

“However, also in Australia, the number of people with diabetes and prediabetes, especially in Indigenous communities, has also been underestimated.

“As the fasting blood sugar has been used as the diagnostic test for these conditions in the Australian 2012-2013 National Health Survey, it is almost certain that the true burden of disease has been underestimated. The resources needed as identified in the Australian 2015 National Diabetes Strategy will therefore be inadequate,” he said.

Professor Zimmet said the cause of the serious underestimate of the diabetes burden is due to a number of factors including the actual lack of national data on diabetes in many countries — particularly developing countries — and the methods of testing for diabetes used in many countries. The paper recommends an alternative blood glucose test for both fasting and at two hours after a glucose drink test to provide a more accurate set of data.

“While the WHO recommends a blood glucose test both fasting and at two hours after a glucose drink, only the fasting glucose is used in many instances resulting in an underestimate of at least 25 per cent in the number of new cases of diabetes,” Professor Zimmet said.

The authors recommend a second test, a glucose challenge, be conducted after the two hour fasting as a way to confirm the actual likelihood a patient has or will develop diabetes. An alternative test, HbA1c (glycated haemoglobin) is now being recommended by WHO and the American Diabetes Association to circumvent the two hour test. Research is still underway to ensure it does the same job.

According to co-author Professor Sir George Alberti, a former President of the IDF and the Royal College of Physicians (London), accurate data is crucial.

“Accurate data on the burden of diabetes is required so that countries can identify current and future healthcare priorities to estimate direct and indirect economic and societal costs of the disease and to allocate appropriate healthcare resources and expenditures for healthcare delivery,” Professor Alberti said.

{Recent research has shown that skipping foods high in cholesterol isn’t just enough if you want to eat for a healthy heart.}

If you want to maintain a healthy heart, you need to skip the foods in this list asap. Check them out below

{{1. Margarine }}

If you still use margarine, then you need to quit because margarine is known to contain unhealthy trans fatty acids which aren’t good for your heart. If you want a healthy heart, you should quit using margarine.

{{2. Soda }}

Taking a can or two of soda might feel refreshing after a stressful day at work but the sugars loaded into your soda drink cause inflammation and raise blood sugar levels. Soda drinks are not good for your heart as they put stress on your artery walls.

{{3. Bacon }}

Bacon have been linked to increased levels of harmful gut bacteria. Several researchers have pointed to the fact that bacon is bad for heart.

{{4. Hot dogs }}

You should keep your hot dog intake low as several studies have found that heavily processed meats like hot dogs, sausage are loaded with additives which have been linked to increase risk of heart disease.

{{5. Refined carbohydrates }}

Bread, salad dressing, pasta and ketchup are commonly loaded with sugar and refined carbs which increase your risk of heart disease. Reduce intake of refined carbs for the sake of your heart

{Scientists have discovered the reason some women are infertile.The scientists blame a mysterious virus for making many women struggle to have a baby.}

According to the researchers from the University of Ferrara in Italy, most women who are struggling to have a baby were infected with HHV-6A, a chicken pox-like bug that is spread through saliva.

The virus prevents women from getting pregnant by lurking in the lining of the womb, thereby affecting proteins that help prepare the body for pregnancy.

The researchers noted that HHV-6A infection might be the cause of many causes of unexplained infertility in women.

Despite being discovered 30 years ago, little is known about this virus that causes infertility in women.

The researchers however noted that treating the bug could restore women’s fertility.

The study was published in the journal Plos One .