Measles

Measles

Doctors in Portsmouth have echoed national concerns about the threat to local children from any measles outbreak.

The Health Protection Agency, which monitors the disease across the country, has reported over 300 cases so far this year - more than the total number for 2010. Parents are being urged to ensure that their children are immunised by having both doses of the MMR vaccine as soon as they scheduled - at 12 months and three and a half years. 

Several European countries are experiencing more severe outbreaks than Britain and parents are being advised to speak to their GP if they are planning a family holiday with young children, particularly in France or Germany. 

Earlier this year Portsmouth saw its first case since at least 2005 - with records unavailable previous years. Because vaccination levels in the city are lower than the level recommended by the World Health Organisation Dr Paul Edmondson-Jones, Director of Public Health for NHS Portsmouth, fears it could only be a matter of time before a larger outbreak locally:

"Measles is a very infectious disease, and most of the cases have occurred in children  and young people who have not had the vaccine. It can be very serious and lead to life threatening complications. In some cases children can die as a result of the complications"

Matt Pickerill NHS Portsmouth's development manager for health protection backs the MMR vaccine: "The vaccine protects against measles, mumps and rubella. It is very important for children to have it. In the past some parents have been concerned about an article that claimed the vaccine was linked to autism. This has been proved not to be the case.

"If for whatever reason your child has missed the vaccine at the usual time it is still possible get it from your GP surgery. Young adults who may have missed the vaccine as infants should also check their vaccination record, particularly if they are travelling or at university."

Cystic Fibrosis

There's still no cure for cystic fibrosis, but scientists think they may be homing in on new treatments for the deadly hereditary disease - thanks to new research that pinpoints the mutant genes responsible for severe CF.
Researchers studied DNA from almost 3,500 cystic fibrosis patients, searching for mutant genes shared by those with the most severe forms of severe cystic fibrosis. They found what they were looking for on chromosomes 11 and 20 - two of the 46 chromosomes that make up the human genome.
"We already know which gene causes CF, but to a large extent that gene does not by itself explain how severe the condition will be," study author Dr. Garry Cutting, professor of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Institute for Genetic Medicine, said in a written statement. "Now we've discovered new genes that influence the course of disease and may enable prediction of disease severity and, most importantly, customization of treatments for patients" who have the worrisome genes.

Worrisome, indeed. Cystic fibrosis causes scarring through the body, especially the lungs and the pancreas. Symptoms include belly pain, coughing, bloating, constipation, and nausea. Cutting said most cystic fibrosis patients born today are unlikely to live past their mid-thirties - with some succumbing before they reach their teens and others living into their fifties.
The goal, Cutting said, is to find treatments that will enable people with severe cystic fibrosis live as long as those with milder forms of the disease.  "And this is the first step."

HCG Diet

After years of yo-yo dieting, Linda Prinster was done.
"Any more attempts at weight loss would just put on more weight a little at a time from going up and down," Prinster said.
But when she heard about HCG, something sounded different.
HCG is a hormone produced during pregnancy. In the 1950s, one doctor noticed weight loss in patients using the hormone. He published his findings as the HCG weight loss plan.
Prinster began taking the hormone to amazing results.
"I lost 20 pounds in 30 days, which for me was unbelievable," Prinster explained.
Her success prompted Prinster to found the weight loss center "Pounds and Inches Away."
There are no meals prepared there or workout machines in place, just homeopathic HCG drops and a scale. A simple approach, that so far seems to be working for hundreds of local dieters.
"For most people, it's the best thing they've ever done besides finding their spouse and kids," Prinster said.
Betty Smotherman is one of those people.
On the plan, participants eat large amounts of high-fat foods before going on a 500 calorie-a-day diet.
"500 calories without HCG is a miserable experience, miserable. With HCG, it's usually very different from that," Smotherman said. "I was never hungry when I had the HCG in my system, I didn't have the cravings anymore."
If it seems hard to imagine what 500 calories a day looks like, it's coffee or tea for breakfast, then over the course of the day, two pieces of fruit, two vegetables and two four ounce servings of meat.
After 40 days on the drug, it's assumed your metabolism has increased, and it's back to a normal eating routine.
"It's very unusual for somebody not to be able to eat a healthy 1,500 calories and maintain it," Prinster said.
For each before-and-after success story, there's a skeptic.
Dr. Sam Klein is a professor of medicine and nutritional science at Washington University. Klein says the drug can cause heart problems and increased blood pressure, and most of the weight lost comes from fluids.
"I would not suggest taking that to help people lose weight," Klein said. "Of course if you eat 500 calories a day, you'll lose weight. The question is does HCG allow you to stick to that diet more effectively than not taking HCG and the randomized controlled trials, all the scientific data suggests that's not the case."
Believers in the diet believe the results speak for themselves.
"I don't try to explain much about how electricity works behind a wall. I know the switch works," Prinster said. "What it does for a woman when she's going to have a baby, it makes it possible to build a baby without harming the mother. So if it can do that, I can't imagine why it can't help me lose weight."

Klein said there are a few studies that show some correlation between the hormone and weight loss, but they're limited.
Smotherman believes in the product so much, she now works for Pounds and Inches Away.
While her weight loss results are indisputable, the effectiveness of HCG long-term -- still is.
"It really reflects our desperation to find effective methods to really treat obesity and help people lose weight," Klein explained. "And until we really develop better drugs, better effective therapies to help people lose weight, we'll be reaching for any kind of hope."

Sexually Transmitted Diseases

The latest data shows that for the second year in a row, the Baton Rouge metropolitan area ranked second in the nation in the rate of AIDS cases. New Orleans ranked ninth.
Nationally, Louisiana ranked fifth highest in AIDS case rates and 12th in the number of AIDS cases diagnosed in 2009, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2009 HIV Surveillance Report.Louisiana has a significant problem with sexually transmitted diseases. The group affected -- and infected -- most are young people, ages 15 through 24.
Louisiana, in 2009, had the third-highest chlamydia case rate; the second-highest gonorrhea case rate -- twice as high as the national rate; and the highest rate of primary and secondary syphilis, according to the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals.
In Louisiana, people from ages 15 through 24 -- even though this age group makes up only 15 percent of Louisiana's population -- represented 71 percent of chlamydia cases, 63 percent of gonorrhea cases and 38 percent of syphilis cases.
This should sound the alarm to all young people who are sexually active, as well as every parent, guardian, physician, psychologist and educator. There is nothing normal about sexually active young people who appear to be ignorant of the dangers of unprotected sex, or simply in denial. Obviously, we have failed to educate this group sufficiently. The reality should push us past any debate about the need for age-appropriate sex education in public classrooms.
Every young person who has contracted one of the sexually transmitted diseases mentioned above also has run the risk of contracting HIV.

As of March 31, a total of 31,161 HIV/AIDS cases have been reported in Louisiana, including 317 pediatric cases, according to the Louisiana HIV/AIDS Surveillance Quarterly Report. Other details from the report include:
» The cumulative number of deaths among persons diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, reported to the Louisiana Office of Public Health through March 31, is 12,800 including 103 deaths among pediatric cases.
» A total of 18,540 persons are living with HIV/AIDS in Louisiana; of these individuals, 10,141 (55 percent) have an AIDS diagnosis.
» The primary risk factor for new HIV diagnoses in Louisiana is sexual transmission, heterosexual or homosexual. The secondary factor is injection drug use.
This tells us that young people and adults do not understand the dangers of unprotected sex. That must change.