Tiny Placental Ruptures Send HIV From Mother to Child
HIV is likely passed from mother to child through tiny tears in the placenta that occur during labor, researchers here reported.
So-called “microtransfusions” allow the mother’s HIV-laden blood to infect the infant, according to epidemiologist Steven Meshnick, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of North Carolina.
Stress Lingers in Pocket of Brain
There may be a reason why some people need a drink or a run after a hard day at the office. The reason resides in the ventral right prefrontal cortex of the brain.
That’s the part of the brain that when activated under stress stays active long after the stressful stimulus is over, researchers here reported today. So it’s hard to just dump the stress and relax.
Chocolate Makers Fortify Cocoa Snacks for Health
The candy-maker that markets Snickers, Dove bars, and M&M’s is going “heart healthy” with specially fortified cocoa treats.
But don’t call them candy bars, insist the confection word police at Mars, Inc. They are flavonol- and sterol-rich snacks.
Lack of Hugs Can Change Children’s Neurobiology
Children raised in the uncaring environment of some eastern European orphanages ended up with a long-lasting deficit in two hormones involved in forming social bonds, reported researchers here.
In other words, nurture—or the lack of it—can trump nature when it comes to the ability to form social bonds, according to Seth Pollack, Ph.D., and assistant professor of psychology and of psychiatry and pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin.
U.S. bans some of Canada’s poultry because of bird flu
Following the discovery of a non lethal strain of the bird flu virus in a duck in British Columbia, the United States has placed an interim ban on poultry from the area.
According to Elizabeth Whiting, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Agriculture department, the U.S. will continue to accept exports from the rest of Canada.
Two Anticoagulant Therapies for Treating Acute Coronary Syndromes
High-risk patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) treated with an early revascularization strategy and enoxaparin or unfractionated heparin at the time of hospitalization for ACS had similar outcomes at one year, including remaining at substantial risk for adverse cardiovascular events, according to a study in the November 23/30 issue of JAMA.
Patients with non–ST-segment elevation (NSTE - a certain pattern on an electrocardiogram) acute coronary syndromes (ACS) comprise a spectrum of risk for adverse cardiac events, according to background information in the article. In the Superior Yield of the New Strategy of Enoxaparin, Revascularization, and Glycoprotein IIb/IIIa Inhibitors (SYNERGY) trial, patients at high risk for recurrent ischemic cardiac events were randomly assigned to receive the anticoagulants low-molecular-weight heparin (enoxaparin) or unfractionated heparin.
Were Drugs or Disease the Muse Behind These Famous Artists?
If our modern clinical chemistry, toxicology, immunology, and infectious disease labs had existed during the 16th to early-19th centuries, the world might have missed out on the work of some of the world’s most creative painters, sculptors and poets, hints a paper recently published in November 2005 issue of the Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.
According to Paul Wolf, M.D., Professor of Pathology at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine, artists ranging from Renaissance sculptors Benvenuto Cellini and Michelangelo to Romantic poets Coleridge and Keats, may have been creatively driven by the effects of their disease or the drugs and chemicals they ingested.
Study Confirms Physical Toll of Stressful Events
The death of a child. Divorce. An assault. Loss of a job. These and other highly stressful events can take a toll on physical health and mortality many years later, according to a University of Michigan study published in the current issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.
And life-altering events like these are especially likely to happen to people with low levels of education and income, the study found.
World AIDS Day
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) joins organizations across the globe in recognizing December 1 as World AIDS Day, with its international theme of “Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise.” VA is keeping the promise by caring for veterans with HIV/AIDS and those at risk for the disease, carrying out research, and sharing its collective expertise with veterans, health care providers, and the public at large via a new VA HIV Web site, at http://www.hiv.va.gov.
VA is the nation’s largest single provider of health care to those infected with HIV, providing medical services to about 20,000 veteran HIV patients each year. VA investigators are involved in more than 300 HIV/AIDS-related research projects, from basic studies on how HIV affects the body to clinical trials and assessments of health services delivery. The new Web site http://www.hiv.va.gov, launched in collaboration with the Center for HIV Information at the University of California, San Francisco, provides comprehensive information on HIV/AIDS.
