Venezuela's Congress set to debate a ban on baby formula and bottles in move some mothers see as a governmental overreach.

CARACAS, VENEZUELA (JUNE 17, 2013) (REUTERS) -  Venezuela's Congress is slated to discuss legislation on Tuesday (June 18) that would prohibit bottle feeding of infants to try to encourage breast-feeding and reduce the use of baby formula, according to ruling Socialist Party officials.

The proposed legislation would also prohibit advertising of bottles and baby formula similar to bans on running ads for cigarettes and would bar the use of bottles for babies younger than six months in health centres.

"We have to promote breast-feeding and I am in full agreement, but I don't think it is necessary to sanction it. I also think there needs to be flexibility because there are mothers who can't or don't want to. How can you make them?" one mother, Eva Uzcategui said.

The bill's supporters say it would strengthen the bond between mother and child that has been jeopardized by "transnational companies" selling formula.

Mothers using bottles or people distributing the bottles or formula could face heavy fines if the bill is passed by Congress, where President Nicolas Maduro's Socialist Party has a majority.

"I don't think it is the right way because unfortunately there are mothers who cannot breast-feed and you can't restrain them and force them to have a prescription in order to get formula and then a bottle, because if there is an emergency you don't have the formula on hand. This isn't the way to go about it," another mother, Maria Alejandra Abreu said.

Monzon said, however, that exceptions would be allowed, such as in the case of the death of a mother, or for women with limited breast milk production, as determined by the health ministry.

Such legislation would likely raise the ire of opposition sympathizers who say the government of the late President Hugo Chavez excessively extended the reach of the state into the lives of private citizens.

Maduro, a Chavez ally, was elected in April after his mentor's death from cancer, has vowed to extend his predecessor's 14-year self-styled revolution that enjoyed strong support among the country's poor.

Doctors at the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, Kansas use a drop of sterile superglue to save a three-week-old baby suffering from a rare aneurysm.

KANSAS CITY, KANSAS, UNITED STATES (JUNE 7, 2013) (UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS HOSPITAL) -  When baby Ashlyn Julian suffered a rare infant brain aneurysm that caused her to bleed in two places, doctors at the University of Kansas Hospitalsuccessfully used superglue to stop the bleeding and save her life in an emergency surgery on Wednesday (June 5).

"She has an aneurysm and it's already hemorrhaged, and that's just frightening," Gina recalled.

Ashlyn had suffered from a stroke and bled from two places after having an aneurysm in the brain, a rare condition for babies under 28 days with only 17 reported cases since 1949, according to the hospital.

According to a hospital video, Endovascular Neurosurgeon Dr. Koji Ebersole did not want to cut into Ashlyn's brain, as every drop of blood is crucial in infants. Also, the condition in babies this age is so rare that tiny tools do not exist to perform the surgery.

The decision was made to use a sterile drop of superglue to fix the aneurysm.

Dr. Alan Reeves, an interventional neuroradiologist, placed a catheter in the baby's body, entering at the hip, and then Ebersole was able to drop in the superglue.

Two days later, Ashlyn's parents spoke of their relief.

"It was like a huge weight, a huge weight lifted," the baby's father Jared said.

"Absolutely, it's like you can actually breathe finally for the first time in a week," her mom added.

As Ashlyn's brain was not fully developed, Ebersole expects the baby to make a full recovery, according to a press release from the hospital.

Actor Michael Douglas has drawn people’s attention to oral sex as a cause of cancer in a recent newspaper interview.

Human papillomaviruses, also known as HPVs are a group of more than 150 related viruses. Most can be easily spread through direct skin-to-skin contact during vaginal, anal, and oral sex. It is understood HPV-16 is primarily responsible for oral cancer cases.

This animation explains how the HPV virus infects the human body.

SOURCES:

The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/jun/02/michael-douglas-liberace-cancer-cunnilingus

SF Gate

http://www.sfgate.com/news/medical/article/Michael-Douglas-Oral-sex-can-cause-throat-cancer-4570831.php

USA Today

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2013/06/03/hpv-causes-a-growing-number-of-oral-cancers/2383013/

Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/03/michael-douglas-hpv-oral-sex-cancer_n_3377980.html

Oral Cancer Foundation

http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org/hpv/

Microscopy U

http://www.microscopyu.com/staticgallery/dicphasecontrast/cheekcellspc.html

After more than two years of conflict, Syria's health and sanitation facilities are in a desperately poor state, leading to unhealthy living conditions and the spread of disease.

AZAZ VILLAGE, ALEPPO, SYRIA  (VIDEO OBTAINED BY REUTERS) -  As Syria's civil war stretches beyond two years, the living condition of Syrians continues to deteriorate.

Syria is also suffering severe shortages of drugs and medicines, according to theWorld Health Organisation.

Many of the main drug-makers in the war-torn country have closed down, leading to a reduction in the availability of medicines for the rising number of casualties and those with chronic conditions.

A pharmacist interviewed in Aleppo, the city which has seen some of the heaviest fighting in the Syrian conflict, said the area was suffering from poor health care.

"This area suffers from bad medical care, there are many patients, many of them suffer from serious diseases, and there aren't enough doctors around, most of them went abroad, we have serious cases such as diabetes, blood pressure, cancer and tuberculosis, and lately there has been an increase in the spread of skin diseases," said Ali al-Hamwi.

Ninety percent of Syria's pharmaceutical plants are located in rural Aleppo, Homsand Damascus provinces and they have suffered substantial damage from the fighting.

Many pharmacies now only supply limited goods such as over-the-counter pain killers and basic first aid.

Al-Hamwi also pointed to the spread of leishmaniasis, a disease caused by a parasite transmitted by a tiny sandfly that can lead to severe scarring, often on the face.

"In Aleppo and it's countryside there is a thing that can be easily transmitted by sandfly, this phenomenon is increasing because it is also being transmitted through the groundwater, and it spreads through the whole body, we spoke to doctors about this, and we discovered that throwing corpses in the rivers is one of the reasons that are leading to this, and also because of the lack of healthcare in the area," he said.

In March, Syrian opposition campaigners said at least 20 bodies of young men shot by security forces were found in a small waterway running through the contested city of Aleppo.

It was the largest number of bodies lifted in a single day from what became known as "the river of martyrs", after 65 bodies turned up in late January. Several bodies a day have been appearing in the river since, according to several activists in the city.

The supervisor of Azaz Municipal council, Abo Fouad, said the area needed more resources to help improve the conditions.

"We need the equipment and the tools to clean the area from garbage, Azaz is full of garbage, and we also need trucks to carry the dumps away, there is also a shortage of workers in the area and we need pesticides to avoid the spread of diseases," he said.

Syria's vast and under-funded public health system was already struggling when protesters took the streets to demand democratic rights in March 2011.

President Bashar al-Assad - a trained eye doctor - sent forces to crush the revolt and two years later a civil war has left more than 80,000 dead.

 YAOUNDE AND DZENG VILLAGE, CAMEROON/ UNKNOWN LOCATION, TANZANIA/ SAN FRANCISCO, UNITED STATES ( UNEP / FAO) -

   One bag of larvae please!

In some parts of the world, these little critters, which come from the palm weevil beetle are the snack of choice.

"They nourish the body, they are not too fatty but have lots of good ingredients. if you eat these all the time, you will rarely get sick."

Now, a new report by the United Nations says eating insects like the beetle could be the answer to fighting world hunger.

Insects contain the same amount of protein and minerals as other meats and healthy fats that doctors recommend as part of a balanced diet.

They're also great for local economies.

In the forests around the village of Dzeng, it's grasshopper season and women are busy collecting the jumpy insects, which they will sell at market.

While they have been doing this for many years, population growth and forest fires have led to some species becoming virtually extinct.

Afton Halloran works with the Edible Insects program run by the U.N.

She says insect breeding and conservation is vital to boosting global food security.

 Afton Halloran, Consultant for the Edible Insects program run by theFood and Agricultural Organisation, saying:

"Farming insects has a huge global potential for both animal feed and food production. We are already seeing producers creating animal feed from insects and research. And development is occurring around the world in order incorporate insects into menus and processed foods. Although it is unrealistic to see families in the West eating insects for their Sunday lunch within the next decade, the potential of insects is huge and we hope that slowly but surely this potential will be realized."

Authors of the new report say barriers to enjoying insect dishes are psychological - in a blind test carried out by researchers, nine out of 10 people preferred meatballs made from meat and mealworms to those made entirely of meat.

A spokesman for the World Health Organization says it is necessary to understand how people get infected with a new strain of coronavirus in order to control the current outbreak.

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (MAY 13, 2013) (WHO HANDOUT) -  A new strain of coronavirus (nCoV) found last year has killed at least 18 people in the Middle East and Europe.

Spokesman Gregory Hartl said on Monday (May 13) it was important to understand exactly how people contract the virus.

"We need to understand, urgently, how people contract this virus. We don't need to know the origin of the virus, which is not the same thing. But we need to understand what interactions with the virus cause a human to become infected. There seem to be - for the moment, we see men much more affected than women. We don't understand exactly why this is the case. We also think that perhaps underlying medical conditions or weaknesses might play a role, we need to understand this. And above all, we need to know what actions of people bring them into the contact with this virus and where. How do they get infected. Only once we know that can we stop these interactions from occurring and can we hope to control this outbreak."

Ali Mohamed Zaki, an Egyptian virologist, identified the new virus last June in a patient at the hospital where he was working in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

More recently, there has been a cluster of cases in a hospital in Hofuf in Saudi Arabia's Eastern province, as well as a case of transmission between two patients sharing a hospital room in France.

An Egyptian doctor, whose discovery of a deadly new SARS-like virus cost him his job in Saudi Arabia, says he fears it could spread as new research shows it can transmitted amongst humans.

CAIRO, EGYPT (MAY 12, 2013) (REUTERS) - The Egyptian doctor who discovered a new SARS-like disease has said he fears the virus could spread outside Gulf Arab countries via travellers and migrant workers.

On Sunday (May 12), the World Health Organisation said it seemed likely the virus could be passed between humans, but only after prolonged contact.

Ali Mohamed Zaki, an Egyptian virologist who diagnosed the disease in Saudi Arabia last year, also said it looked like the virus was mutating to spread more easily, citing the fact that no one in his hospital had caught the disease during the first case.

Speaking at his clinic in Cairo's Heliopolis neighbourhood, Dr. Zaki said that the virus's presence in the Arabian Gulf posed particular dangers for its possible spread.

A total of 34 cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed worldwide by blood tests, with the largest cluster of infections in Saudi Arabia, home to the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina, which draw millions of pilgrims a year.

"The problem is that it's in the [Arabian] Gulf area. Because in the Gulf area there are many workers and many persons who visit the Gulf area and go back to their country, so the spread will be possible if the virus becomes adapted to transmission from man to man, the spread will be possible," he said.

Zaki also said it was still unclear whether the virus would become deadlier as it moved more easily between people but said authorities should prepare for the worst case scenario and apply standard infection controls like isolating patients.

Dr. Zaki said the high mortality rate is particularly worrying, but that the data needs to be carefully analysed.

"There is about, till now, 30 cases with about 18 deaths. You can calculate it, it's nearly about 60 percent. The fatality is about 60 percent but there may be many cases asymptomatic or mild which need investigation by serological techniques," he said.

An outbreak of SARS in 2003 killed 775 people as it swept across the world after emerging in Asia.

But Dr. Zaki said doctors and authorities are in a better position to deal with an outbreak than they were with SARS because this virus had been identified relatively early, prior to the outbreak of an epidemic.

"We are in a better situation now than in SARS [Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome]. We have a diagnostic tool in our hand, we have, I think everything is ready and some people are working on the antiviral treatment, but, as I told you, the main thing is infection control. And I think we are in a better situation than before, than with the SARS," he said.

Zaki first encountered the coronavirus in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in mid-June when a 60-year-old Saudi Arabian man was admitted with coughing, fever and severe chest symptoms to the hospital where he was working.

He and the Saudi Arabian Health Ministry tested the patient's sputum and blood samples for diseases including influenza, H1N1 and swine flu, all of which were negative.

Zaki then sent samples to a laboratory in the Netherlands and, while waiting for the results, ran another test for the coronavirus family, which came up positive.

In September, Zaki posted his findings on ProMED, a website used by doctors to monitor diseases, which alerted doctors in London who had a patient with similar symptoms.

Dr. Zaki has said that he was terminated from his job in Saudi Arabia because of his decision to make the virus public.

By last September he had returned to Egypt, where he now has a post at Ain Shams University.

But Dr. Zaki stands by his decision, and says his research has made Saudi Arabiaand the Gulf safer.

"This diagnosis has a very good impact on every Saudi citizen. Now there is a diagnostic tool, anyone can be diagnosed by laboratorial method, they can be protected. As I told you if there is infection control measures, the number of cases will be minimal, the number of morbidity will be minimal. And I think it's a very good impact on every Saudi, on everyone in the Gulf and even all over the globe. Some of the scientists sent me an email, he told me that, 'you did, Dr. Ali you did a favour for the globe.' I lost actually my job at Saudi Arabia but it's nothing for me compared to the benefit of everyone," he said.

Zaki has declined to predict how long it would take for the virus to mutate to a more transmissible form, but said it might behave like SARS, which took months to reach that stage.

Would you like fries with that? United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation(FAO) is pushing an initiative to increase the production of edible insects to supplement diets in areas where malnutrition is rife and as a measure to combat obesity in the West.

 YAOUNDE, CAMEROON (RECENT) (UNITED NATIONS FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANISATION (FAO) HANDOUT) -  What's for dinner? If the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation FAO has a say, insects.

According to the UN agency some two billion people, a third of the world's population, consume edible insects.

Globally more than 1,900 species of insects are eaten, including grasshoppers, termites and flies. They are enjoyed mainly in Africa and Asia,

In Yaounde, Cameroon insects ranging from termites and grasshoppers to larvae of the palm weevil beetle are on offer according to the season.

Many in the Cameroonian capital swear on the edible insects' benefits.

"I eat insects like this because they provide nutrition, they nourish the body, they are not too fatty but have lots of good ingredients. If you eat these all the time, you will rarely get sick," said local man Steve Abada.

In a report on edible insects published on Monday, FAO and Wageningen University say encouraging insect consumption could also offer environmental and economic benefits.

Insect farming is likely to be less land-dependent than traditional livestock farming and produce less greenhouse gases, they found. It would also provide business opportunities for poor people, especially women, who are often responsible for collecting insects in rural communities.

According to FAO a woman may collect four plastic water bottles full of grasshoppers a day in high season, which she can sell for around 15 euros.

Women have an important role in promoting insect consumption as they are often responsible for feeding their families, FAO said.

"Insects are good because, when we no longer have produce in our fields, they give us a means to live as we prepare the insects to eat. And also, we can sell them. So, they really provide for us," said Philomene Enama from Dzeng village inCameroon as she prepared a meal of grasshoppers together with other women from the village.

While most western cultures still view insect consumption with distaste, things may be changing, says Eva Muller from the Forestry Department of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome.

Muller said some restaurants in Europe were starting to offer insect-based dishes, presenting them to customers as special treats.

And with obesity figures shooting up, insects could help towards a healthier diet in western cultures, Muller added.

"Tastes change, no? We have seen that with sushi. Twenty years ago nobody would've eaten sushi because it's raw fish and now everybody likes it. So, tastes can change and we've already seen insects showing up in restaurants in some of the capitals in Europe and they are offered as something like a speciality. So, in the longer term I think insects could also be eaten in western countries and why this would be good? Well, we know that the population is growing and there is going to be an increased demand for food and protein in general and insects offer one option of providing this protein. And in western cultures where we have a huge problem of obesity and overweight, insects are a very nutritious element that could provide a healthy diet," she said.

Worldwide obesity has nearly doubled since 1980 to about 500 million people and keeps increasing, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), which lists the United States among the countries with the highest obesity rates.

The related costs to public health and the economy are skyrocketing, and analysts expect the fight against obesity to be a major investment trend in coming years.

Discontent stirs amongst the Catholic community in Kenya as advertisements and billboards sensationally read; "Good Catholics Use Condoms." Catholic leaders say the message goes against the teachings of Christ.

 NAIROBI, KENYA (MARCH 09, 2013) (REUTERS) -  Kenya's Catholic Church has called for the banning of adverts and billboards carrying the slogan "Good Catholics Use Condoms".

A Kenyan catholic Bishop Martin Musonde, argues that the stand of the Catholic Church is consistent, they do not support the use of condoms as a contraceptive. The use of contraceptives within the roman catholic church has always been considered to go against the deeply held principle of preserving the unborn child's life.

"We felt is misleading, it sounded like it was from the official catholic church but it wasn't. It was another source, a group that we understand promotes this kind of ideas and more so promotes condom use of course going against the official teaching of the catholic church."

Catholics for Choice (CFC) is a U.S based organization that hopes to encourage the use of condoms among Kenyan Catholics.

Its members say they are appalled by the Catholic Bishops of Kenya's reaction citing UNAIDS figures that state 1.6 million of Kenya's 41.6 million people are living with HIV. A majority of Kenyans have a catholic orientation and the CFC, a prolife movement they say is supported by catholics in Ghana, Ireland, Mexico, the United States and the Philippines, believes condoms would protect catholics against further infection.

Nairobi resident, Bob Oduor, takes the bishop's side.

"I think it's more offensive to the Catholic Church or kind of ridicule. It intended to spread information that is not right, from the word catholic when you see Catholics for choice I think, the word catholic here is not meant to mean the Catholic Church," said Oduor.

Kenyan Catholics attending mass at the Holy Family Basilica Nairobi, said the adverts not only offended catholics it stands against African moral values and derided the message as a insensitive US-import.

"Let the Americans talk for the Americans because they have their own culture, they have their own practices, they have their own values but for us if we are able to retain our morals, we are able to retain our values, we are able even to bring our children and especially youth to value sex," a worshipper Lillian Waweru said

The anti-condom remarks contradict the view of Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI who inferred that condoms were a first step towards the prevention of diseases.

But this does not change the fact that Kenyan bishops and followers of the Catholic faith are not going to accept the concept of condom use among them

Only last month, a TV advert encouraging married women who have extra marital affairs to use condoms as a source of protection was pulled after an outcry from the religious community within the country.

 China-Xenotransplantation -- China succeeds in liver transplant from pig to monkey

 China Central Television (CCTV) - Chinese doctors have managed to transplant a transgenic pig's liver to a monkey, authorities of a hospital in southwest China told a news briefing Wednesday.

"It's been about a day since yesterday's surgery and all the macaque's organs are functioning well. Its blood circulation is also all right. The macaque is in stable condition and the surgery turns out successful," said Dou.

The xenotransplantation, or transplantation between two species, was conducted on Tuesday and it took more than 10 hours before medical experts completed the surgery for the organ recipient -- a Tibetan macaque, which has physiological, biochemical, immune and anatomical characteristics that are quite similar to those of humans.

Hyperacute rejection and blood coagulation system disorder of the recipient are the two biggest problems to overcome for the success of xenotransplantation, Dou explained.

He also said that the transgenic pig's natural antigen genes, which will lead to hyperacute rejection reaction between the macaque blood and the pig liver, have been removed.

He specified that in the surgery, the macaque's liver was kept but its spleen was cut out and replaced with the pig liver. Such operation could avoid hyperacute rejection in the macaque and also keep its blood coagulation system stable.

"Through this surgery, we meant to see how to protect organs with natural antigen genes eliminated and how to reduce the severity of rejection reaction and finally make transplantation successful," Dou said.

"The surgery assures us that the issue of hyperacute rejection can be solved. Meanwhile, we have many sorts of medicines against rejection reaction and they work well. So I think the surgery has laid important theoretical and practical foundation for clinical applications of xenotransplantation in the future," Dou added.

Organs from transgenic pigs are preferred alternatives of human organs, according to Prof. Dou. Medical experts in several countries have ever conducted xenotransplantation but the animals receiving transplanted organs usually lived a very short time. The success of this surgery could possibly provide a solution to the severe shortage of human organs for transplantation surgeries, Prof. Dou said.

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