Utah records more sunburns than Arizona

The CDC does deal with other things then TB. Today the CDC released statistics for sunburns among Americans in 1999, 2003 and 2004. The percentage of sunburned adults rose from 31.8% (1999) to 33.7% (2004).

What is truly amazing, the state with the fewest reported sunburns is Arizona!! Either sunscreen is plentiful or it is so hot that people don’t go outside. The highest rates of sunburn were reported in Utah for the year of 2004. I guess Mormons burn easily.

All joking around, 45,625 cases of melanoma were diagnosed in the United States in 2003. Of those over 7,800 of those diagnosed died from melanoma.

Read the full Center for disease Control’s published study.

International HPV study

The evidence that Gardasil works continues to mount. Emory University will be releasing a new study that includes 20,583 women ages 15 to 26 from Europe, Latin America and Asia. The study shows the efficacy rate is 99 percent.  can’t do much better then that.

I provided a link to Eureka.

I added a news link dated May 9, 2007 that does a very good job explaining the benefit of Gardasil.

If I get a direct link to the study I will add it.

“We spend about 3 billion dollars each year to find and treat these pre-cancerous stages caused by some type of HPV.”

Moms are stressed

A new study reveals that mothers who lack emotional support are three times the risk of mental health problems.

Follow the Reuters article here. Links to CNN.

Mothers of small children are known to face a substantial risk of mental health problems and their mental health has a “strong influence” on their child’s health and development, the researchers note.

The changing psychiatrists office

The psychiatrists couch may soon be gone?? Well, not that soon. Technology is going to change psychiatry for sure. last week I wrote a post that uses magnetic waves to stimulate neurotransmitters in the synapse. Continuing on that theme, is this article from TechReview.com. The article touches on a few new technologies that will someday (in the not so distant future) help psychiatrists and patients.

Follow this link th the Tech Review article.

“Psychiatrists don’t do procedures; they do talk therapy and write scripts,” says Mark Bausinger, chief financial officer of Neuronetics, a medical-device company based in Malvern, PA, that is developing a noninvasive treatment device. “So this is really going to change the way they work.”

Hep B

A recent survey of adult chronic hepatitis B patients found the following:

— 36 percent of respondents mistakenly thought the virus could be spread through sharing utensils.

– 80 percent were aware of the long-term consequences of the hepatitis B virus.

– Half of the respondents erroneously believed a cure
existed for the chronic virus, though about 60 percent had been in
treatment for about a year.

– 31 percent said they knew specific names of hepatitis B virus tests, but only half knew what the tests measured.

The study, based on responses from 301 adult chronic hepatitis B patients on anti-viral therapy, found 24 percent were on interferon treatment. Most of these patients were males between the ages of 31 and 50, with about half being of Asian descent.

Improved memory

Tea, chocolate and grapes can improve your memory.  This is according to The Journal of Neuroscience.  In the study, mice that were given a compound found in certain foods called epicatechin.  The mice that were exposed to epicatechin performed better in certain memory tasks compared to the mice that had none of the compound.
Follow the link to CBSNews for further reading.

NFL veterans and dementia

It looks like NFL veterans are having unusually higher rates of dementia then the population.  It is not surprising, given the amount of trauma these guys go through.  Given the level of violence increasing in the game,  I imagine that the rates will continue to climb.
Given the intensity of violence in the NFL. This is sad to say, but, I believe that sometime in the near future a player will be killed on the field due to some type of trauma.  It will most likely be head and neck.
To read the AP article, follow this link.

Head of China food and drug unit sentenced to death

The ex-head of China’s equvielent to the food and drug administration has been sentenced to death. Mr. Zheng Xiaoyu was detained in February, well before the melamine-pet food scandal. Some feel that China haded down this sentence to show the world that it is handling it’s recent scandals of tainted food and phony drugs.
There is a good article in the New York Times that goes into much more detail. Follow the link here.

China’s regulators are also coming under scrutiny after diethylene glycol, a toxic chemical sometimes used in antifreeze, ended up in cough syrup and toothpaste in Latin America. In Panama, more than 100 people died last year after consuming cough medicine laced with diethylene glycol, which was shipped from China mislabeled as a harmless syrup

CDC transcript on drug resistant TB

Please be careful when you read media reports on the recent case of drug resistant TB. The CDC has released transcripts of the press conferences regarding the case. I would suggest you read those. The sense of panic that is stirred by the media is relentless at times.

Normally, when someone has tuberculosis, we influence them through a covenant of trust so that they don’t put themselves in situations where they could potentially expose others. In this case, the patient had compelling personal reasons for traveling and made the decision to go ahead and meet those personal responsibilities.

We recognized, after the patient had left the jurisdiction, that thetuberculosis organism was extremely drug resistant and we felt that itwas important at that point in time to take our responsibility toprotect the public to the ultimate limit and issue a federal order of isolation under the Public Health Service Act that gives us statutory responsibility for issuing quarantine orders.

Obama offers universal health care

Late last week Hillary Clinton unveiled her health care plans. This week it is Barak Obama’s turn. Obama is offering a complete overhaul of the health care system, which calls for universal health care.

The plan would retain the private insurance system with the addition of injecting money for expanding services. I would like to see the details for this. Also, Obama’s plan would implement a sliding scale for those that can not cover costs.

The political ramblings are ratcheting up a notch. Obam’s plan is quiet confusing when reading it. You be the judge.

“My plan begins by covering every American. If you already have health insurance, the only thing that will change for you under this plan is that the amount of money you will spend on premiums will be less,” Obama said. “If you are one of 45 million Americans who don’t have health insurance, you will after this plan becomes law.”