U.S. Urges Rapid Response Plan for Potential Bird Flu Pandemic
The World Health Organization (WHO) should immediately convene a small expert panel to devise a rapid response to a potential avian flu pandemic, the United States proposed Tuesday.
The U.S. said this panel should also create a plan to improve worldwide influenza surveillance. Both tasks should be completed by January so they can be considered by the WHO's executive board, the Associated Press reported.
"We must go beyond generalized planning and well-intentioned expressions of cooperation. Now is the time to speak and act with specificity," Stewart Simonson, assistant secretary of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, told experts meeting at WHO's Geneva, Switzerland, headquarters.
He said the U.S. believes the international community must take immediate action to increase bird flu surveillance, especially in Asia, Africa and Latin America, the AP reported.
In other news, Vietnam reported Tuesday that another person had been killed by bird flu. The man's death brings Vietnam's bird flu death toll to 42, the highest of any country.
Swiss drug maker Roche said it has stopped selling the antiretroviral drug Tamiflu in China and has turned supplies of the drug in that country over to the Chinese government. Roche said it believed the government could best handle rapid distribution of Tamiflu -- one of the few drugs believed to be effective against bird flu -- in the event of a pandemic, the AP reported.
In Japan, officials announced Tuesday that 170,00 more chickens will be killed in an area north of Tokyo where a bird flu virus from the H5 family was detected.
The World Bank said Monday that it has created a $500 million loan program to assist Southeast Asian nations trying to contain bird flu outbreaks. The loan program will be presented next week to the bank's board for approval, The New York Times reported.
The loan money would be provided quickly to countries that ask for it, a World Bank spokesperson said. The program was announced in Geneva at the first major international coordination meeting on bird flu.
The European Union also announced Monday that it's donating $35 million to help Asian countries combat bird flu.
Happy Marriage Offers Flu Protection
Marital bliss may help protect you against flu, says a British study that also found that people who are recently divorced or bereaved may be more susceptible to flu.
University of Birmingham researchers studied the effect that stress can have on a person's immune response to a flu shot. That response is considered a good marker of the body's ability to fend off a flu virus. Higher levels of antibodies in the blood indicate that the body is better primed to combat infection, BBC News reported.
The study of 180 people over age 65 found that happily married people had much higher levels of antibodies in the blood than other people. People whose partners had died in the year prior to flu vaccination had lower antibody levels than people who hadn't suffered bereavement.
"We know that those aged over 65 are more at risk of the impact of flu. But this research shows that within that group, those that have been recently bereaved, or those that are single, divorced or widowed are more at risk than those who are in a happy marriage," lead researcher Dr. Anna Phillips said.
Nikon Recalls Camera Battery Packs
Nikon Inc. has issued a worldwide recall of about 710,000 rechargeable camera battery packs -- including about 200,000 in the United States -- that can shortcircuit, overheat and possibly melt, posing a burn hazard to consumers.
The lithium ion battery packs -- with model number EN-EL3 -- were included as power sources for Nikon's digital SLR D100, D70 and D50 cameras and were also sold separately for about $50. There have been four reports of problems with the batteries but no reports of injuries.
Consumers with an EN-EL3 battery pack should check Nikon's Web site to determine if their battery pack is included in the recall. If so, consumers should stop using the battery pack and contact Nikon for a free replacement.
For more information, contact Nikon at 1-800-645-6678 or go to Nikon's Web site (http://www.nikonusa.com).
Tryptophan Suppresses Overactive Immune System
A substance called tryptophan, found in turkeys and a number of other foods, can suppress an overactive immune system and may point the way to new treatments for autoimmune disorders, according to new research.
Stanford University scientists found that a breakdown product -- kynuerenines -- produced in the body by tryptophan drastically reduced inflammation and reversed paralysis in mice with form of multiple sclerosis (MS), The New York Times reported.
The research was published in the current issue of the journal Science.
"I have always been a skeptic regarding the interaction of diet and immunity. But now I'm getting smacked on the head by my own research," study leader Dr. Lawrence Steinman, chairman of Stanford's immunology program, told The Times.
The findings are "very interesting and quite encouraging," autoimmune disorder expert Dr. Marc Feldman, professor of medicine at Imperial College London, told The Times. He said the next step is to determine if this kind of treatment is safe for people.
U.S. Emergency Departments Can't Handle Disasters: Experts
Many U.S. trauma centers and emergency departments are already at their capability limits and wouldn't be able to deal with a flu pandemic, terrorist attack or other types of disasters.
That's the conclusion of health experts like Larry Gage, president of the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems, who told the Associated Press,"Trauma centers are never more than a couple of minor incidents from being overwhelmed."
"Across the country, the level of crowding at emergency departments has reached levels that are unprecedented in America's history," Dr. Kathleen Clem, chief of emergency medicine at Duke University Medical Center, said.
Experts note that trauma and emergency services are money losers. It costs a lot of money to maintain a 24-hour staff of specialized health workers, and many patients who use the services don't have health insurance. That's why many hospitals no longer offer trauma and emergency care, which places more pressure on hospitals that still offer those services, experts say.
Emergency doctors are demanding more support from the federal government and are in favor of a bill that would increase Medicare payments to emergency doctors and hospitals by 10 percent, the AP reported.
However, that bill so far has only two sponsors.
Food Fact:
The perfect food?
Here are five good reasons it just might be lentils. 1) Lentils, a fine source of plant protein, don't take hours to cook, unlike other dried beans. 2) Lentils are rich in soluble fiber, which helps control blood cholesterol. 3) Lentils provide some calcium, iron and other trace minerals. 4) Lentils are one of the best sources for folic acid, a B vitamin critical for preventing neural tube defects. 5) Lentils may protect against some types of cancers and lower heart disease risk.
Fitness Tip of the day:
Boost "good" cholesterol.
Here's one of the best arguments for daily aerobic exercise. Medical trials suggest that a daily dose of walking, biking, jogging, or swimming helps reduce the risk of heart disease, especially if that increased activity helps you lose weight. Research shows such exercise is the best way to raise HDLs, the "good" cholesterol that helps carry harmful fats out of your system.
FAQ of the day:
Why are my hips and thighs so big?
The hormones that maintain a woman's fat reserves for pregnancy and lactation also help determine where fat is stored. Despite what you see in magazines, a so-called "pear" shape is perfectly normal for a healthy woman. In fact, the female distribution of body fat in the hips and thighs has been associated with lower risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension and breast cancer. Women who tend to have more of a male distribution of body fat, with fat stored around the waist, are at higher risk for these diseases.
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