January 18, 2008
Nepal radio breaks taboos to fight HIV/AIDS
KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Ignoring social taboos in this conservative nation, a Nepali radio program on safe sex is spreading awareness against HIV/AIDS and offers life-saving advice to young people who are vulnerable to the disease.
Confined only to a few towns six years ago, "Chatting with my best friend," a youth-friendly program about serious day-to-day issues like sexual health and HIV/AIDS, has expanded to cover much of this mountainous nation.
Many Nepalis are now glued to the weekly, hour-long program.
"Initially we got letters complaining against the discussions on use of condoms, sex or sexual organs," Binayak Aryal, a producer for the program, said.
He said social attitudes had now changed since the program began in 2001 and it is now aired through 35 hugely popular FM stations as well as the state-run Radio Nepal.
"Now there is a change. Even parents and school teachers advise the young people to listen to the program about sexual health."
Nepal, one of Asia's poorest countries where millions live in remote villages, has long had a conservative attitude to sex. For example, homosexuality is taboo and "unnatural sex," as it is termed by the law, can fetch up to one year in jail.
Hosts of the hour-long program chat about how injecting drugs and unsafe sex cause HIV and seek to promote the use of condoms for safety in a youth-friendly language.
"It also imparts life skills to the youth dealing with emotion, stress and communicating issues that can't be discussed with parents," said Nirmal Rijal, Nepal unit chief of the San Francisco-based aid group, Equal Access, which produces the program with UNICEF support.
According to official estimates about 70,000 of the Himalayan nation's 26.4 million people are living with HIV.
Many of them have no access to information about the disease and do not talk about their problems openly in families for fear of being stigmatized in the majority-Hindu nation.
"Any problem or issue can't be solved by pushing it under the carpet," Rijal said.
"Without talking, these issues remain a taboo. It is something that needs to be discussed."
Rijal said his agency received about 1,500 letters every month from listeners who openly write about their problems and ask for remedies.
One anonymous listener, who had tested HIV positive, wanted to know whether he should conceal the disease or make it public and how, according to Rijal.
"It talks about different options and ways to communicate their problems but offers no clear-cut solutions," he said of the program.
"The final decision about what to do is up to them."
Some listeners agreed.
"Initially it was embarrassing to listen to the program in the family. But now I think it is okay because it discusses some of the problems we face in practical life," said Srijana Khatiwada, 27, a university graduate.
Posted by ronnie at 08:12 AM | Comments (0)
December 21, 2007
Sex Ed Does Delay Teen Sex: CDC
THURSDAY, Dec. 20 (HealthDay News) -- Sex education programs do work to help discourage many teens from becoming sexually active before age 15, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Formal programs -- such as those presented in schools and church groups -- did appear to delay onset of sexual activity. For example, teen girls in the nationally representative sample were 59 percent less likely to start having sex before age 15 if they had received sex education, while teen boys were 71 percent less likely, the study found.
"We were obviously hoping to find that sex education is effective. We're glad to see the strong associations," said lead author Trisha Mueller, a CDC epidemiologist. She emphasized that in order to be successful, sex education should take place before young people become sexually active.
Mueller's team also learned that teen boys who attended school were almost three times more likely to use contraception if they had attended a sex education program, compared to those who had not.
However, attendance at a sex education class did not seem to impact girls' use of birth control, the survey found.
The survey did not differentiate between programs that emphasized abstinence and those that educated about contraception. Instead, researchers focused only on whether the teens had ever attended any sex education program in a formal setting, such as school or church.
The study was expected to be published in the January issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health.
According to earlier, 2005 data available from the CDC, 47 percent of high school students said they had already had sex. Of those who were currently involved in a sexual relationship, one-third said they were not using a condom.
Curious about the effectiveness of sexual education on these behaviors, Mueller and colleagues examined data from more than 2,000 teen boys and girls between 15 and 19 years of age who participated in the door-to-door 2002 National Survey of Family Growth.
"Formal sex education is beneficial for youth who are considered to be at-risk," noted Mueller, who cited as an example the 88 percent reduced risk of initiation sex before age 15 among urban black females who had received any sex education. Urban black teen girls who were still in school at the time of the survey had a 91 percent reduced risk of initiation sex before age 15, the survey found.
The research also showed that boys living in single-parent households were more likely to delay sex past age 15 if they had attended a sex education class.
Mueller and her team were interested in teen sexual decision-making before and after the age of 15, because the federal governments' Healthy People 2010 initiative treats 15 as a dividing line. Healthy People 2010 sets a wide array of health goals for states and communities to achieve over the first decade of this century. One of its objectives: to reduce the number of teens under age 15 who are having sex for the first time.
"First and foremost, the report makes clear that the timing of sex education is quite important. That is, providing sex education to young people at an early age seems quite important in helping delay sexual activity," said Bill Albert, deputy director of the Washington, D.C.-based National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.
The researchers said the study could not explain why sex education might have a stronger effect in delaying sex among teen boys and black girls, but Albert offered an explanation.
"It is the case that declines in sexual activity among teen boys, as opposed to girls, and African-American teen girls, as opposed to other racial/ethnic groups, have been much more dramatic over the past decade. This may, in part, explain why the effect of sex education seems stronger. It may also be that concern about HIV/AIDs may be particularly strong among these two groups," said Albert.
However, certain sub-populations of teens deserve further research, said Mueller. The data suggested that both rural, white teen girls and white or Hispanic teen girls who had dropped out of school might be more likely to have sex before age 15 if they had sex education, but Mueller said the number of people in those groups in the study was so small that the results could be a statistical fluke.
"They were kind of opposite findings," said Mueller, who acknowledged that "some subgroups may not benefit from sex ed the same way as the larger group of teens."
This research comes in the wake of data released Dec. 5 by the CDC showing that the annual rate of births to teens has increased for the first time in 14 years. Between 2005 and 2006, the birth rate for girls 15 to 19 rose 3 percent -- from 40.5 births per 1,000 in 2005 to 41.9 per 1,000 in 2006.
Considering both studies, Albert said, "The early wins may have been won. Future efforts may well have to be more intense, focused, and creative if the nation is to make continued progress in reducing teen pregnancy and childbearing. Put another way, yesterday's way of doing business will no longer suffice."
Posted by ronnie at 11:03 AM | Comments (0)
November 26, 2007
U.S. Chlamydia Infections Hit All-Time High
TUESDAY, Nov. 13 (HealthDay News) -- The number of Americans newly infected with a sexually transmitted disease (STD) continues to rise, federal health officials reported Tuesday, with one infection in particular -- chlamydia - hitting a record million-plus reported new cases annually.
Numbers from 2006 show that cases of chlamydia, as well as gonorrhea and syphilis, continued to increase in the United States for the second year in a row, according to a new report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The 1,030,911 new cases in 2006 for chlamydia, which can cause pelvic inflammatory disease in women as well as infertility, mark "an all-time high" for the disease in the United States, said Dr. John M. Douglas Jr., director of the Division of Sexually Transmitted Disease Prevention at the CDC's National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention.
The CDC now estimates that there are 19 million new cases of STDs diagnosed in the United States each year. Almost half of these occur among people 15 to 24 years of age, and they cost the health care system an estimated at $14.7 billion annually.
"STDs pose a serious and ongoing threat to millions of Americans," said Douglas during a teleconference on Tuesday.
"Young women, racial and ethnic populations, and men who have sex with men are particularly hard-hit by these diseases," Douglas said. "STDs can have serious health consequences, particularly if they are undiagnosed and left untreated"
In women, chlamydia and gonorrhea can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease and infertility. Syphilis can cause neuralgic damage and fatal infections in babies, Douglas added. In addition, all three of these diseases increase the risk for transmitting and developing HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, he said.
"This is a hidden epidemic that most people are not aware of -- how many STDs are out there -- the risk that they run and the need for getting regular testing and treatment and having their partners treated," Dr. Stuart Berman, chief of the Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch in the Division of STD Prevention at CDC, said during the teleconference.
"We'd like to see these rates going down," Berman added. "That they are not going down says there should be greater awareness by the public and maybe a little more attention paid both by the public and their providers."
The data are included in the new CDC report: Trends in Reportable Sexually Transmitted Diseases in the United States, 2006.
Chlamydia is the most common reportable infectious disease in the United States, according to the report, with more than a million cases reported in 2006. In 2006, the national rate of reported chlamydia was 347.8 cases per 100,000 people. That's an increase of 5.6 percent from 2005, officials said.
Young women 15 to 19 had the highest chlamydia rate, Douglas said. "The CDC recommends that all women under 26 be screened for chlamydia annually," he added.
The increase appears to be due to more screening and the use of more sensitive tests. But the CDC doesn't rule out an actual increase in infections, Douglas noted.
Gonorrhea is the second most commonly reported infectious disease in the United States, with 358,366 cases reported in 2006, the report found. The rate for gonorrhea in 2006 was 120.9 cases per 100,000 people -- that's a 5.5 increase since 2005, and the second year in which a bump in new cases was seen, he said.
The highest rates of gonorrhea were observed in the South, Douglas said, but they also increased in the West. In addition, gonorrhea is becoming resistant to some antibiotics, he said. For that reason, the CDC no longer recommends drugs called fluoroquinolones for treating the disease, he said.
The increase in cases of gonorrhea is disheartening, because it comes after a 74 percent drop in reported cases between 1975 and 1997, the CDC noted.
Both gonorrhea and chlamydia are underreported and underdiagnosed, the experts said. "Approximately twice as many new infections are estimated to occur each year as are reported," according to the CDC.
Since reaching a record low in 2000, the rate of new syphilis cases has been on the rise. From 2005 to 2006, the rate of syphilis increased 13.8 percent, to 3.3 cases per 100,000 people. In 2006, there were 9,756 cases of syphilis reported, up from 8,724 in 2006, Douglas said.
The increase in the number of cases between 2005 and 2006 was largely driven by men who have sex with men, according to the CDC. "In 2006, 64 percent of cases were among men who have sex with men," Douglas said.
In addition, the rate of syphilis increased among women from 0.9 to 1.0 per 100,000. There was also a small increase in cases of syphilis transmitted from mothers to newborns, from 8.3 per 100,000 in 2005 to 8.5 per 100,000 in 2006, the CDC reported.
The racial disparity in who is most affected by STDs continues. Black Americans are more than eight times more likely to have chlamydia. In fact, 46 percent of all new cases are among blacks, Douglas said.
"The racial disparities in the diagnosis of gonorrhea are stark," Douglas said. Blacks are 18 times more likely to get gonorrhea compared with whites. The rate of gonorrhea increased 8.3 percent from 2005 to 2006, and blacks account for 69 percent of all new cases.
The rates of syphilis are also higher among blacks, who were six times more likely than whites to develop the disease. Between 2005 and 2006, the rate of syphilis among blacks increased 16.5 percent. The biggest increase was seen among black men, the CDC noted.
In 2006, the rate of syphilis among black women was 16 times higher than among white women. In 2006, 43.2 case of syphilis occurred among black Americans and 34.8 percent were among whites, Douglas noted.
One expert believes sex education programs, along with condom use, could go a long way to reducing the country's STD incidence.
"Most people will be stunned to learn that STDs affect nearly 20 million Americans each year," said Dr. David Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine. "This is an entirely preventable plague," he added.
Consistent use of condoms would prevent almost all cases of STDs, along with HIV and unintended pregnancies, Katz added.
And sex education programs do not promote sexual activity, Katz added.
"They do prevent disease," he said.
Posted by ronnie at 01:26 PM | Comments (0)
November 23, 2007
Herbal sex pills pose hidden dangers
LOS ANGELES - Many of the pills marketed as safe herbal alternatives to Viagra and other prescription sex medications pose a hidden danger: For men on common heart and blood-pressure drugs, popping one could lead to a stroke, or even death.
"All-natural" products with names like Stamina-RX and Vigor-25 promise an apothecary's delight of rare Asian ingredients, but many work because they contain unregulated versions of the very pharmaceuticals they are supposed to replace.
That dirty secret represents a special danger for the millions of men who take nitrates — drugs prescribed to lower blood pressure and regulate heart disease. When mixed, nitrates and impotency pharmaceuticals can slow blood flow catastrophically, leading to a heart attack or stroke.
An Associated Press investigation shows that spiked herbal impotency pills are emerging as a major public health concern that officials haven't figured out how to track, much less tame.
Emergency rooms and poison control hot lines are starting to log more incidents of the long-ignored phenomenon. Sales of "natural sexual enhancers" are booming — rising to nearly $400 million last year. And dangerous knockoffs abound.
At greatest risk are the estimated 5.5 million American men who take nitrates — generally older and more likely to need help with erectile dysfunction.
The all-natural message can be appealing to such men, warned by their doctors and ubiquitous TV commercials not to take Viagra, Cialis or Levitra.
James Neal-Kababick, director of Oregon-based Flora Research Laboratories, said about 90 percent of the hundreds of samples he has analyzed contained forms of patented pharmaceuticals — some with doses more than twice that of prescription erectile dysfunction medicine. Other testers report similar results, particularly among pills that promise immediate results.
While no deaths have been reported, the AP found records of emergency room visits attributed to all-natural sex pills in Georgia, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Diego and elsewhere.
An elderly man in a retirement community north of Los Angeles took an in-the-mail sample and landed in the hospital for four days. A Michigan man sued the maker of Spontane-ES, blaming it for the stroke he suffered 20 minutes after taking a freebie that was advertised as "extremely safe." Tim Fulmer, a lawyer representing Spontane-ES, said the pill did not contain any pharmaceutical and was not responsible for the stroke.
Mark B. Mycyk, a Chicago emergency room doctor who directs Northwestern University's clinical toxicology research program, said he is seeing increasing numbers of patients who unwittingly took prescription-strength doses of the alternatives, a trend he attributes to ease of purchase on the Internet and the desperation of vulnerable men. He said he wouldn't be surprised if there'd been undetected deaths from bad herbal pills.
Some herbal labels warn off users with heart or blood-pressure problems if they have taken their medicine within six hours; some doctors say 24 hours or more would be safer.
The AP often couldn't determine from records whether incidents reported to tracking systems of the federal Food and Drug Administration and state poison control centers involved mixing herbal alternatives with nitrates.
Some men in their 30s who went to emergency rooms after taking herbal sex pills were presumably otherwise healthy, but they showed the transitory side effects of the active ingredients in regulated impotency pharmaceuticals, such as difficulty seeing clearly or severe headaches, records show.
While public health officials don't know the extent of the problem, they agree that incidents are vastly underreported, with national tracking systems capturing perhaps as little as 1 percent of them. Victims may be embarrassed, and doctors rarely ask about supplements.
Since 2001, sales of supplements marketed as natural sexual enhancers have risen $100 million, to $398 million last year, including herbal mixtures, according to estimates by Nutrition Business Journal. Some legitimate herbal mixtures claim to work gradually over weeks; it's the herbals marketed for immediate trysts that often are the problem.
Tight budgets, weak regulations and other priorities limit the FDA's ability to police the products, often promoted via blasts of e-mail spam and fly-by-night Web sites.
"The Internet poses many enforcement challenges," said Dr. Linda Silvers, who leads an FDA team that targets fraudulent health products sold online. "A Web site can look sophisticated and legitimate, but actually be an illegal operation."
In many cases, the ingredients used to alter herbal pills come from Asia, particularly China, where the sexual enhancers are cooked up in labs at the beginning of a winding supply chain. The FDA has placed pills by two manufacturers in China and one from Malaysia on an import watch list.
Pills like Cialis generally retail at pharmacies for between $13 and $20, while herbals can cost less than $1, up to about $5.
Many health insurance plans provide limited coverage for prescription sex pills, especially for those with health-related difficulties. Few over-the-counter treatments are covered, and herbals aren't likely to be among them, in part because they're classified as foods not pharmaceuticals, said Mohit M. Ghose, spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans, which represents major health insurers.
Spiked pills have turned up in Thailand, Taiwan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the United Kingdom and the United States, according to testing done by Pfizer Inc., the New York-based pharmaceutical giant that developed Viagra. The company said that 69 percent of 3,400 supplements it purchased in China contained sildenafil citrate, the main ingredient in Viagra. Pfizer didn't check for the patented ingredients of its rivals.
Under U.S. law, because such pills are "dietary supplements," they're far less regulated than pharmaceuticals and face few barriers to market. Viagra, by contrast, underwent years of testing before it was publicly available.
While herbal alternatives often contain exact copies of the patented drugs, some makers tweak the molecules to keep the effect of the original pharmaceutical while avoiding the scrutiny of the FDA and outside testing labs.
Federal officials have only recently stepped up investigations and prosecutions, and in any case, the FDA's recall power is limited. Last week, in response to safety concerns about imported toothpaste, dog food and toys, President Bush recommended that the FDA be authorized to order mandatory recalls of dangerous products.
Currently, recalls are voluntary, and even if the agency determines that a product poses a "significant health risk," a firm may refuse to cooperate. Plus, recalled products are widely offered on the Internet and pills are hard to round up.
Before a product called Nasutra was recalled a year ago by its manufacturer, the FDA had received a 30-year-old man's report of a raging headache and an erection that wouldn't go down. Following the recall, a 32-year-old man reported having spontaneous nose bleeds after taking the pill, records show.
E-mails requesting comment from Nasutra LLC, the company that voluntarily recalled the product in September 2006, were not returned. The FDA says the firm is located in Los Angeles; there is no listed phone number in the region.
During the past year, the FDA has orchestrated eight recalls of "herbal" pills that contained the ingredients found in Viagra, Cialis or Levitra, or their unregulated chemical cousins. Many of the firms were based around Los Angeles, their offices ranging from an unsigned door in a grungy hall on the fringe of downtown to a gated complex near Beverly Hills.
One recall involved a pill called Liviro3.
The current owner of the drug's marketing and distributing firm said that after he tried the product, he quit his job at a car dealership and bought the brand name and stock of several thousand pills in 2004 for $450,000. In January, he said, FDA agents seized his stockpile after an agency lab found that Liviro3 contained tadalafil, the main ingredient in Cialis. The man told the AP he'd had no idea the pills were drug-laced.
One prosecution involved V. Vigor Corp., the Long Island-based maker of Vigor-25. While the product was advertised as containing Asian ginseng, lycium fruit and Chinese yam rhizome, FDA testing indicated that the pills contained Viagra.
Company executive Michael Peng had agreed to stop selling Vigor-25 following an FDA agent's visit in late 2004, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. But between then and his arrest in September, at least 4.5 million pills were packaged for distribution, the affidavit said. According to prosecutors, Peng thought he could evade tests simply by switching from the sildenafil citrate he imported from China to Levitra's active ingredient, vardenafil — a shipment of which U.S. Customs intercepted from Thailand.
Peng, who said through his attorney that he was "unaware that there was anything other than natural supplements" in Vigor-25, faces a charge of misbranding — in this instance, claiming that a pharmaceutical is a dietary supplement.
Two other pills, Spontane-ES and Stamina-RX, were made by companies run by Jared Wheat, who's facing federal charges in Atlanta that he peddled knockoff pharmaceuticals cooked in a Central American lab. Prosecutors tried to keep Wheat from posting bail by asserting that he contemplated killing an FDA investigator and bribing a prosecutor.
Fulmer rejected those assertions, which did not lead to charges, saying Wheat is hardworking and nonviolent. Fulmer said Wheat's two businesses are legitimate and continue to be successful.
Posted by ronnie at 01:23 PM | Comments (0)
October 30, 2007
High Dose Radiation for Prostate Cancer Won't Raise Sexual Dysfunction
TUESDAY, Oct. 30 (HealthDay News) -- Among prostate cancer patients undergoing a high-tech form of radiation therapy, exposure to a higher amount of radiation over a shorter time span poses no added risk for impaired sexual function, new research reveals.
"For men getting a high dose of radiation in a shorter amount of time than is typical -- meaning getting higher doses per day for fewer days -- a loss of sexual function is the chronic side effect that concerns most," noted study co-author Dr. Eric Horwitz, a clinical director in the department of radiation oncology at Fox Chase Medical Center in Philadelphia.
"But we found that sexual function wasn't any worse than when patients got radiation in the conventional high-dose way," he said.
Horwitz and lead author Mark Buyyounouski, also at Fox Chase, were expected to present their team's findings at the annual meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, in Los Angeles.
The finding comes on the heels of work conducted at Fox Chase last year. That study indicated that high-dose radiation should be considered the first line of attack in combating prostate cancer, given that it appears to be the most effective way to limit the disease's spread.
The team focused on a form of radiation therapy called intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). According to the American Cancer Society, IMRT is a cutting-edge, 3-D form of high-dose radiation therapy. The treatment is delivered by a computer-controlled machine that moves around the patient to target diseased tissue while avoiding healthy tissue, thereby allowing for the safer use of higher doses of radiation.
In the current study, Horwitz and his colleagues tracked the IMRT radiation treatment outcomes of 155 men diagnosed with intermediate to high-risk prostate cancer.
Half the men were assigned to receive 2 Gray (Gy -- a measurement of radiation) in 38 sessions spread over seven and a half weeks.
The other half were exposed to 2.7 Gy in 26 sessions spread over just five weeks.
All the patients then completed questionnaires regarding treatment side effects six months, 12 months, and 24 months following radiation.
Older age, as well as poor sexual function prior to radiation, did increase the risk for sexual impairment after radiation treatment, the researchers said. However, they report no appreciable difference in sexual function between the men receiving the shorter course/higher dose regimen or the more conventional regimen.
"The key to curing more prostate cancer is to give higher does of radiation," observed Horwitz. "And over the last few years, more and more men have been getting higher dose radiation, because the radiation oncology community knows that dose matters and that low dose radiation is just not effective compared to high dose. And this study shows that we have the ability to give these high doses in different ways, and in all these ways, men do very well."
Horwitz said he and his colleagues plan to take the current research to the next level.
"We will build on this experience and go with even higher doses," he said, "to see how that impacts not only sexual function but urinary and bowel function as well."
Dr. Peter T. Scardino is chairman of the department of urology and head of the Prostate Cancer Program at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He described the finding as a small but important step toward developing shorter course/higher dose radiation therapies.
"This is the trend nowadays," said Scardino. "This is where this is going: toward a time when perhaps we will be giving radiation therapies all in a single day."
"Animal studies have already indicated that you may be able to achieve as much or more with a single dose of radiation than with a protracted course," Scardino noted. "So, the big question is, are you going to find more complications as a result of this kind of a shift in dosage? Now, cutting back from seven and a half weeks to five weeks is a slight move in this direction, but they found no difference in sexual side effects, and that's valuable. And I certainly think we'll be seeing a lot more research in this area."
Posted by ronnie at 01:24 PM | Comments (0)
October 11, 2007
Ageing boomers warned over sexual secrecy
SYDNEY (AFP) - Ageing baby boomers risk seeing their sex lives end with a whimper not a bang if they are not prepared to speak about problems associated with growing older, a conference in Australia heard Tuesday.
Members of the generation famous for spearheading the freedoms of the sexual revolution remained sexually active well into their later years, the Australasian Sexual Health Conference was told.
But a discreet silence around their sexuality was inhibiting discussion of sexual problems, said University of Sydney academic Patricia Weerakoon.
"The risk is that when problems arise, they may develop in secret and be concealed by embarrassment, generating misery and fear and suffering," she said.
The conference at the Gold Coast tourist strip near Brisbane heard that sexual activity rates for Australia's ageing population were estimated to mirror those reported in a recently in the United States.
That study showed that 73 percent of 57-64 year-olds were sexually active, dropping to 53 percent between 65-74 and 26 percent between 75-85.
"Baby boomers should also be encouraged to explore the myriad meanings of sexuality and physical and emotional intimacy, rather than strive for that perfect intercourse experience or the increasingly elusive orgasm," said Weerakoon.
Posted by ronnie at 01:24 PM | Comments (0)
September 17, 2007
Sexually transmitted wart virus ups mouth cancers
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Men should be vaccinated against a sexually transmitted wart virus to protect them against a type of mouth and throat cancer, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
They said the rate of oropharyngeal cancers -- mostly cancers of the tonsil and base of tongue -- appears to be rising in certain populations and the human papilloma virus or HPV transmitted by oral sex is likely to blame.
New vaccines that target HPV may help turn the trend around, the researchers reported in this week's issue of the journal Cancer. The vaccines are recommended for young women in Europe and the United States.
But young men should be offered the vaccines too, said Dr. Erich Sturgis and Paul Cinciripini of the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
"(We) encourage the rapid study of the efficacy and safety of these vaccines in males and, if successful, the recommendation of vaccination of young adult and adolescent males," Sturgis and Cinciripini wrote.
There are several strains of HPV, which cause ordinary warts but also genital warts. These in turn can cause cancer in some cases. The researchers looked at various studies and concluded that HPV 16 was especially likely to be linked with certain cancers of the tonsil and base of tongue.
Smoking is a well known risk factor but rates of these cancer are staying fairly steady, despite declines in tobacco use.
In one study cited by Sturgis and Cinciripini, Dr. Maura Gillison of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and colleagues studied 100 patients with oral or throat cancer and compared them to 200 healthy people. They found those who had six or more oral sex partners had a high risk of the cancer.
They found evidence of HPV-16 in 72 percent of the tumors.
U.S. health officials estimate that more than a quarter of U.S. girls and women aged 14 to 59 are infected with HPV.
Two vaccines protect people against HPV infection -- Merck and Co's. Gardasil and GlaxoSmithKline's Cervarix. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended vaccination for 30 million women and girls aged 11 to 26 to prevent cervical cancer, which kills about 300,000 women worldwide each year.
Head and neck cancers, which include cancers of the larynx, nose and nasal passages, mouth, pharynx, and salivary glands, are three times more common in men than women, and 45,000 new cases are expected in 2007 in the United States alone.
Posted by ronnie at 09:11 AM | Comments (0)
August 21, 2007
Female Cancer Survivors Lack Frank Sex Talk From Docs
FRIDAY, July 27 (HealthDay News) -- Three out of four women treated for genital tract cancer feel their doctors should initiate more conversations about the cancer's impact on their sexual health, new research finds.
"We found that these women valued sexuality and participated in sexual relationships and activities at a rate similar to women who had not been through cancer treatment, but they were not adequately prepared for the sexual issues that their cancer or its treatment introduced," study author Dr. Stacy Lindau said in a prepared statement. The sexual problems included pain and limited lubrication.
Two out of three women whose reproductive and sexual organs were severely compromised by the treatment also reported that their doctors never brought up sex, according to the study.
Writing in the August issue of Gynecologic Oncology, University of Chicago Medical Center researchers expressed concern that if doctors are not discussing the impact of medical treatment on sexuality under these circumstances, sexual health was even less likely to be discussed in other situations, particularly with older women. Previous studies have shown that patients are themselves reluctant to bring up sexual issues.
The research team surveyed 219 women aged 40 to 50 years old who had been treated for a rare form of vaginal or cervical cancer. The women were all members of a registry for people who might have been exposed to synthetic hormones while in their mother's womb. Most of the women had been treated with surgery or radiation therapy when they were in their late teens or 20s and had survived more than two decades after their diagnosis. The researchers then compared the responses from these women with race- and age-matched controls selected from a 1992 national study on sexual norms.
The cancer survivors reported more sexual problems and four times more health problems that interfered with sex all or most of the time, but they were just as likely to be married as the comparison group. Fifty percent of the survivors reported three or more sexual problems, compared to 15 percent of their peers. They were also seven times more likely to feel pain during intercourse and three times more likely to have difficulty lubricating.
More than one out of three survivors complained about the scars from their treatment as well as frequent bladder infections and incontinence.
Those of the survivors who reported a conversation with their physician about the sexual impact of treatment were the women who were more likely to have three or more sexual problems at the same time.
Posted by ronnie at 12:24 PM | Comments (0)
July 19, 2007
Don't trust your man, minister tells women
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian men cannot be trusted in their sexual behavior and are fuelling the country's HIV epidemic, a female government minister said Monday, slamming the country's "hypocrisy" about sex.
Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhury said Indian women should protect themselves from HIV/AIDS by keeping condoms as their straying husbands may bring the virus home after visiting other women.
"You cannot trust men or your husbands, with apologies to the men present here," Chowdhury told the inaugural meeting of the National Women Forum of Indian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (INP+), attended by a few men.
"If you believe that men will be careful, then you can forget about protecting yourself."
India has around 2.5 million people living with HIV/AIDS -- the world's third highest caseload after South Africa and Nigeria -- with about 40 percent of those infected being women.
Activists and officials say many women have been infected after their husbands visited prostitutes. Most wives have little power to negotiate safe sex with their husbands in a largely patriarchal and conservative society, they add.
Chowdhury, one of India's most outspoken ministers, said this needed to change.
"We are so embarrassed to ask about condoms. Women need to get condoms to protect themselves, let the men be suspicious," she said.
"Men will not buy a condom when they come staggering home while drunk," she added, evoking laughter and giggles.
This month India launched a $2.8 billion plan to fight AIDS over five years, a more than fivefold jump in spending over the preceding plan, with a strong focus on condom promotion.
Under the plan, India aims to push usage from 2.1 billion condoms this year to 3.5 billion by 2012.
"We are hypocrites. We have a 1 billion population and don't want to talk about sex," Chowdhury told reporters, referring to the refusal of some state governments to implement sex education ostensibly for going against Indian culture.
Posted by ronnie at 12:15 PM | Comments (0)
June 13, 2007
Drink and drugs 'fuel sexual health crisis'
LONDON (AFP) - Strong links between alcohol, drugs and risky sexual behaviour are providing fuel for a "sexual health crisis" in Britain, a government advisory body report said Friday.Sexual health among the young has deteriorated seriously in the last 12 years, and media coverage of celebrities' hard-partying lifestyles may make the problem worse, the Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and
HIV said.The study is the latest indictment of childhood in Britain. In February,
UNICEF placed it bottom of league table of wealthy countries for child wellbeing and found that more under 15s had had sex than in any other country."Young people, from their early teens, are defining a lifestyle that involves alcohol, drugs and sex," said the group's chair, Baroness Joyce Gould.
"We need to address why our young people have turned to these behaviours -- behaviours which put them at risk."
The report found that Britain had the highest rate of sexual disease infection (STIs) and teenage pregnancy in Europe.
There has been a "disturbing" increase in STIs -- over the last 12 years, chlamydia and HIV are up 300 percent and syphilis 2,000 percent.
The study found a "strong correlation" between sexually transmitted infections, sex and drug use and added that alcohol "can increase the risk of having unprotected sex."
It also highlighted the impact which advertising and celebrities can have from a young age, citing the "publicity and coverage of sex, drugs and excessive drinking by 'celebrities' and 'pop idols' and by characters in 'soaps,' making it an acceptable lifestyle."
Its authors recommended a more collaborative and less "puritanical" official approach to the issues and said condoms should be more accessible to young people and sex education mandatory in schools.
Factors including young people having parents who were ambitious for them plus a confindante as well as achievement at school were all helpful.
Professor Mark Bellis, head of the Centre for Public Health, Liverpool John Moores University, said in the report that drugs and alcohol were "fuel for a sexual health crisis" but added: "Ambition in young people is a very, very good contraceptive."
Health Minister Caroline Flint said the government would study the report but added that officials were "continually looking at new ways of working to ensure a joined-up approach."
Hhhmmm... people get drunk and then want to fuck. Thats just now being realized?
Posted by ronnie at 09:25 PM | Comments (0)
June 08, 2007
New sex-related infection passes gonorrhea
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A relatively new sexually transmitted infection has surpassed Neisseria gonorrhea in prevalence among young adults in the US, according to a new study.
Mycoplasma genitalium was first identified in the 1980s. It can cause inflammation of the urethra (the urinary passage from the bladder), in men, and inflammation of the cervix and the lining of the uterus in women, possibly leading to infertility. However, it seems many cases of the infection are symptom-free.
In the current study, researchers at the University of Washington, Seattle, tested 1714 women and 1218 men between the ages of 18 and 27 years participating in Wave III of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.
Results of the study are published in the American Journal of Public Health. The investigators found Mycoplasma genitalium infection in 1.0 percent of the participants. In contrast, the prevalence of gonorrhea was 0.4 percent. The prevalence of chlamydia infection was 4.2 percent.
The prevalence of Mycoplasma genitalium infection was 11 times higher among individuals living with a sexual partner, seven times higher among blacks and four times higher among those who use condoms during sex.
None of the genitalium-positive individuals had any discharge.
"Many M. genitalium infections are asymptomatic, like chlamydial infections," principal investigator Dr. Lisa Manhart told Reuters Health. "However, unlike chlamydia, it is probably too soon to recommend widespread screening for M. genitalium."
There are no commercial tests to detect the organism, she explained. Furthermore, she and her colleagues note in their report that it is not clear "whether M. genitalium-infected persons require or benefit from treatment -- and if so, what antimicrobial therapy should be recommended."
SOURCE: American Journal of Public Health, June 2007.
Posted by ronnie at 10:09 AM | Comments (0)
February 07, 2007
Herpes outbreak triggers wrestling ban in Minnesota
CHICAGO (Reuters) - An outbreak of a contagious rash called herpes gladiatorum among Minnesota high school wrestlers led the state to suspend matches and halt contact practices, authorities said on Wednesday.
The eight-day suspension affecting 7,500 wrestlers on 262 teams was the first time a U.S. state's entire high school program in a sport has been shut down, authorities said.
The Minnesota State High School League acted after 24 wrestlers from 10 schools contracted the rash, which was first noticed and spread at a tournament in December.
"I think it's a bold step by our high school league to protect our athletes -- and it's better now than at post-season tournament time," said Scot Davis, the wrestling coach at Owatonna Senior High School, whose wrestling program has one of the best records in the country.
Davis said the suspension should allow infected wrestlers to recover as herpes usually disappears within 10 to 14 days. Any wrestler with the rash is barred from competing.
Herpes gladiatorum -- commonly known as mat herpes because wrestlers are particularly susceptible -- is caused by contact with the same common herpes simplex virus that produces cold sores.
A rash on the face or upper body is sometimes accompanied by itchiness, fever and sore throat, and it can cause blindness if it reaches the eyes. Some victims suffer recurring bouts throughout their lives.
A spokeswoman for the American College of Sports Medicine said it was putting together a public education campaign about how to spot and contain outbreaks.
Posted by ronnie at 04:55 PM | Comments (0)
January 23, 2007
Health Tip: About Gonorrhea
(HealthDay News) -- Gonorrhea is a sexually transmitted bacterial infection. It can be passed from person to person via contact with infected genitals, or by mouth.
Antibiotics are prescribed to treat gonorrhea, the National Women's Health Information Center says. Without treatment, the infection can cause serious complications such as pelvic inflammatory disease, an increased risk of contracting HIV, and infection that spreads to other parts of the body.
Symptoms of gonorrhea in women include painful urination or intercourse, vaginal discharge or irregular bleeding, and heavy periods. Many women have no symptoms.
You should speak to your doctor about being tested for the disease if you think your partner may have it.
Posted by ronnie at 09:43 AM | Comments (0)
September 26, 2006
Sexually transmitted diseases on rise among Singapore's teens
SINGAPORE (AFP) - Sexually transmitted diseases including HIV infections are on the rise among Singaporean teenagers as a result of promiscuity and disregard for safe-sex practices.
Official figures showed that patients seeking medical help for sexually-transmitted infections in the 10-19 year age bracket more than doubled to 678 in 2005 from 256 in 2001, the Straits Times reported Saturday.
The age group's share of all such infections rose from 3.8 per cent in 2001 to 6.1 per cent last year, with more of them becoming infected with the HIV virus that often leads to full-blown AIDS.
Between 1985 and 2004, 18 teens were diagnosed as HIV-positive - about one new case every year.
Last year alone, four boys aged between 17 and 19 tested positive for HIV after having sex with men.
The report said counsellors who work with teens report they are now sexually active at a younger age and more are having unprotected sex with multiple partners, but there was also greater awareness of the need for testing.
Theresa Soon, assistant manager of a clinic run by the Department of Sexually-Transmitted Infections Control, told the daily that teens who showed up at the clinic have had an average of four sex partners.
Singapore has about 4.3 million people, a fifth of them foreigners.
Officials have expressed alarm over the growth of HIV infections but the government has rejected widespread promotion of condom use and instead partly blamed the problem on the gay community.
Posted by ronnie at 09:51 AM | Comments (0)
June 21, 2006
Impotence common in men with sleep apnea
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Men with breathing problems during sleep may commonly suffer from erectile dysfunction (ED) as well, a small study suggests. Researchers found that of 30 men with the breathing disorder sleep apnea, 24 (80 percent) also had symptoms of ED.
People with sleep apnea have numerous stops and starts in breathing during the night, with chronic, loud snoring being a hallmark of the condition. The most common form of the disorder is obstructive sleep apnea, in which the soft tissues at the back of the throat temporarily collapse during sleep, blocking the airways.
Over time, oxygen deprivation during the night can harm the cardiovascular system, raising the odds of high blood pressure, stroke and heart disease.
But researchers have also speculated that sleep apnea could contribute to ED, according to the authors of the new study, led by Dr. John P. Mulhall of the Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York, and published in the journal Urology.
For one, it's thought that the erections men naturally have during deep REM sleep help preserve normal erectile function. Men with sleep apnea, however, have continuous sleep interruptions and spend less time in the REM stages.
To study the relationship between sleep apnea and ED, Mulhall and his colleagues assessed 50 men who came to a sleep clinic with possible symptoms of sleep apnea -- which, besides chronic loud snoring may include daytime sleepiness and concentration problems.
Thirty of these men were diagnosed with sleep apnea, 24 of whom were also diagnosed with ED based on a standard questionnaire. And the worse the sleep apnea, the more severe the ED tended to be.
In contrast, only four of the 20 men without sleep apnea were diagnosed with ED.
"Our data suggest that men with sleep apnea syndrome have a significant chance of having ED and that a correlation exists between the severity of sleep apnea and ED," Mulhall and his colleagues conclude.
It's not clear why the two conditions are linked, according to the researchers. Body mass index, which was not assessed in the study, could be one factor, as obesity is the single largest risk factor for sleep apnea, and overweight men also have a greater risk of ED.
Sleep apnea can also lower testosterone levels in the blood, the researchers note, which could contribute to erectile problems.
SOURCE: Urology, May 2006.
Posted by ronnie at 07:43 PM | Comments (0)
May 16, 2006
Jailed women seen to need sexual health services
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Incarcerated women are at "extremely high" risk for sexually transmitted diseases and unplanned pregnancies, a survey conducted in Rhode Island shows. "Reproductive health services must be offered" to this population, say the researchers in the American Journal of Public Health
The majority of the growing number of women who are incarcerated are released within a few days or weeks, when they may again be exposed to STDs and become pregnant unintentionally.
In a survey of 484 incarcerated women, Dr. Jennifer G. Clarke and colleagues at the Rhode Island Hospital in Providence found that more than two-thirds reported inconsistent birth control, 38 percent had multiple sex partners and more than 83 percent had a history of unplanned pregnancy.
Most of the 18- to 35-year-old women surveyed said they would likely have sexual relations with a man within six months of release from prison.
Clarke and colleagues also found that the women were significantly more likely to start using birth control when it is offered to them in the correctional facility. Thirty-nine percent of jailed women started birth control when it was offered before their release, while only 4 percent took advantage of free birth control offered at a community health center after their release.
"Despite an increased need for reproductive health services among incarcerated women who are at risk for STDs and pregnancy, they are often underserved in receipt of reproductive health and family planning services," Clarke and colleagues write.
They want to see programs designed to expand reproductive health services during incarceration. "Such interventions will benefit the women, the criminal justice systems, and the communities to which the women will return," they conclude.
SOURCE: American Journal of Public Health, May 2006.
Posted by ronnie at 12:08 PM | Comments (0)