Sabtu, 07 Mei 2011

HEALTH NEWS

Philippine city holds mass circumcision for youths


MANILA, Philippines – Hundreds of boys in a Philippine city turned out Saturday for a daylong "circumcision party" to provide a safe, free procedure for a rite of passage that most local males undergo as preteens.
Some boys cried in their mothers' arms while others bit their shirts to stifle sobs as doctors carried out the surgery on dozens of makeshift operating tables inside a sports stadium in Marikina city east of Manila. Outside, other boys lined up to await their turn.
"I'm a big boy now," one boy who had just finished the surgery bragged.
Officials said the event — touted in a press statement as a "circumcision party" — aims to promote safe circumcision and to offer to poor residents free surgery that would otherwise cost at least $40 in private hospitals.
As of mid-afternoon, nearly 1,500 boys aged 9 years and up had been circumcised while many were still waiting in line, city health officer Dr. Alberto Herrera said.
In the Philippines, preadolescent and adolescent boys traditionally are circumcised during summer school break from March to May. In rural areas, the surgery is sometimes performed by non-doctors using crude methods.
The city also hopes to establish a world record for the number of people attending a mass circumcision.
"We applied for the Guinness Book of World Records and we are recording everything so we can send all the data to them and hopefully it will be recognized," Vice Mayor Jose Fabian Cadiz said.
Marikina, the country's shoemaking capital, was recognized by Guinness in 2002 for creating what was then the world's biggest pair of shoes.

Sexually transmitted diseases go up in Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – Alaska has the nation's highest rate of Chlamydia and second-highest rate of gonorrhea as the sexually transmitted diseases spread in rural areas, according to the Alaska Division of Public Health.
A total 6,026 cases of the bacterial disease Chlamydia were reported in Alaska in 2010, a 13 percent rise over the previous year. The Alaska case rate of 849 per 100,000 people is more than twice the national rate of 417, the department said.
Reported cases of gonorrhea totaled 1,273 in 2010, a 23 percent increase and counter to a national trend of reduced gonorrheal infections, the state said. Alaska's rate was 179 per 100,000 people, compared to a national rate of 99.
The high rates partly reflect Alaska's demographics, according to Susan Jones, HIV and sexually transmitted disease program coordinator for the state.
"The burden of Chlamydia and gonorrhea is in the young population," Jones said. "Alaska on average has a young population compared to most states."
The diseases are also prevalent among ethnic minorities. The rural regions of the state with the worst rates of infection have largely Alaska native populations, she said.
Lack of timely treatment in those rural areas adds to the problem, Jones said.
The Alaska Medical Board recently enacted a rule change authorizing doctors to prescribe medicine to sexual partners of infected patients even if those partners are not examined, she said.
Chlamydia infections are rising nationally, though not as dramatically as in Alaska, Jones said.
Sometimes the symptoms are mild or not noticeable. "Probably 85 percent of the people who have chlamydia will never know it," Jones said.
Even without symptoms, Chlamydia can have serious consequences, including pelvic inflammatory disease leading to infertility in women, Jones said.
"It's not a benign infection," she said.

Higher Hepatitis C Virus Infection Rate In Massachusetts Among Teenagers And Young Adults

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection rates among teenagers and young adults are rising significantly in Massachusetts, according to a new CDC report. Experts say it is principally due to needle sharing by illicit drug users. Other states appear to have witnessed a similar trend, the authors added.

The majority of the increase in Massachusetts is occurring among non-Hispanic Caucasian young people. Rates are increasing equally among males and females.

Authorities are describing the increase as a hepatitis C epidemic linked to the sharing of needles.

Between 2002 and 2006 there was a drop in newly reported cases of hepatitis C infections among all age groups. The problem is among individuals aged 15 to 24, the authors explain. In 2002 there were 65 newly reported cases per 100,000 people aged 15 to 24, rising to 113 in 2009. 1,925 new cases in young people were reported to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH), 53% were confirmed and the rest were probable.

Researchers found that:

  • There were 1,196 cases with a reported risk history (of injection drug use)
  • 860 (72%) of them were either using injectable drugs at the time or had done in the past
  • 719 (84%) of them admitted to injecting drugs at some time during the previous 12 months - 615 with heroin and 220 with cocaine (there was some overlap)
  • 445 new cases had a history of taking drugs via the nasal passages
The authors added that other types of exposure, such as tattooing, probably added to the numbers.

Having been in prison was also found to be a risk factor for HCV infection.

The authors say their report strongly indicates a need for better and more intensified HCV prevention efforts, focusing on teenagers and young adults. According to the Institute of Medicine, for a strategy to be successful it has to include a range of comprehensive risk reduction programs that effectively address HCV infection prevention needs of individuals who use illegal drugs.

Providing sterile syringes and drug preparation equipment via syringe exchange services has been shown to reduce infection rates, as have school-based education programs. Drug treatments for young injection drug users need to be widely available.

Hepatitis C

Hepatitis C is an infection that affects the liver and is caused by HCV (hepatitis C virus). Initially the infected individual typically has no symptoms. However, once established, infection can become chronic (long-term) and fibrosis (scarring of the liver) can occur. Eventually this will develop to cirrosis (advanced scarring), which can lead to liver failure or liver cancer.

People become infected by blood-to-blood contact. In about 85% of infections the virus persists in the liver. The standard medication for persistent infection is peginterferon and ribavirin. Over half of all treated patients are cured. If cirrhosis of the liver develops the patient may need a liver transplant - the virus recurs after transplantation.

Approximately 300 million people around the world have hepatitis C. There is no vaccine to protect against HPC virus infection. There are five known hepatitis viruses, A, B, C, D, and E.


Philippine city holds mass circumcision for youths

 

MANILA, Philippines – Hundreds of boys in a Philippine city turned out Saturday for a daylong "circumcision party" to provide a safe, free procedure for a rite of passage that most local males undergo as preteens.
Some boys cried in their mothers' arms while others bit their shirts to stifle sobs as doctors carried out the surgery on dozens of makeshift operating tables inside a sports stadium in Marikina city east of Manila. Outside, other boys lined up to await their turn.
"I'm a big boy now," one boy who had just finished the surgery bragged.
Officials said the event — touted in a press statement as a "circumcision party" — aims to promote safe circumcision and to offer to poor residents free surgery that would otherwise cost at least $40 in private hospitals.
As of mid-afternoon, nearly 1,500 boys aged 9 years and up had been circumcised while many were still waiting in line, city health officer Dr. Alberto Herrera said.
In the Philippines, preadolescent and adolescent boys traditionally are circumcised during summer school break from March to May. In rural areas, the surgery is sometimes performed by non-doctors using crude methods.
The city also hopes to establish a world record for the number of people attending a mass circumcision.
"We applied for the Guinness Book of World Records and we are recording everything so we can send all the data to them and hopefully it will be recognized," Vice Mayor Jose Fabian Cadiz said.
Marikina, the country's shoemaking capital, was recognized by Guinness in 2002 for creating what was then the world's biggest pair of shoes.

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