Cuban scientists discover new drugs for fighting heart diseases, parasites

Cuban scientists discover new drugs for fighting heart diseases, parasites
Cuban researchers have discovered substances that can reverse the side effects of drugs used to fight heart diseases and parasites, the country's Juventud Rebelde newspaper reported Tuesday.
The chemicals were derived from tiadiazines, based on their potential anti-parasite properties and the diversification of heterocyclical systems with pharmaceutical properties, the newspaper quoted Hortensia Rodriguez, head of Havana University's Organic Synthesis Laboratory, as saying.
After studying new agents which could be more effective against dangerous parasites, the researchers then sought compounds with novel molecular structures, using methods with a minimal environmental impact, the newspaper said.
Heart diseases and acute parasitic infections are among the world's most serious diseases.

Global Fund approves over 1 bln dlrs in new grants to fight disease

Global Fund approves over 1 bln dlrs in new grants to fight disease
Former UN secretary general and Global Fund Replenishment Chair Kofi Annan addresses the closing press in September 2007. The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria on Monday said it has approved 73 new grants worth more than 1.1 billion dollars (757 million euros) in developing countries over the next two years.(AFP/File/John MacDougall )GENEVA (AFP) - The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria on Monday said it has approved 73 new grants worth more than 1.1 billion dollars (757 million euros) in developing countries over the next two years.
The Fund, a public-private partnership set up by the then United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan in 2002, approved the grants during a board meeting in Kunming, China, it said in a statement.
The new grants mean the Fund's budget is now 32 percent higher than the 846 million dollars initially forecast for 2007.
AIDS projects make up 48 percent of the total, malaria 42 percent and TB 10 percent, the Fund said.
Two thirds of the projects (66 percent) are in Africa, 13 percent in Asia, 13 percent in the Middle East and 5 percent in Latin America, it added.
"This is the largest funding round in the Global Fund's history. The board is pleased with the strength and high level of ambition of the new grants and is looking forward to scaling up in the fight against the three diseases," said board chair Rajat Gupta.
For malaria, some 62 percent of the proposals were approved and 19 countries will benefit from the new packages.
The Global Fund has said it needs between 12 and 18 billion dollars to fund its existing programmes and initiate new ones between 2008 and 2010.

U.S. sets record in sexual disease cases

U.S. sets record in sexual disease cases
ATLANTA - More than 1 million cases of chlamydia were reported in the United States last year — the most ever reported for a sexually transmitted disease, federal health officials said Tuesday.
Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said they think better and more intensive screening accounts for much of the increase, but added that chlamydia was not the only sexually transmitted disease on the rise.
Gonorrhea rates are jumping again after hitting a record low, and an increasing number of cases are caused by a "superbug" version resistant to common antibiotics.
Syphilis is rising, too. The rate of congenital syphilis — which can deform or kill babies — rose for the first time in 15 years.
"Hopefully we will not see this turn into a trend," said Dr. Khalil Ghanem, an infectious diseases specialist at Johns Hopkins University's School of medicine.
The CDC releases a report each year on chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis, three diseases caused by sexually transmitted bacteria.
Chlamydia is the most common. Nearly 1,031,000 cases were reported last year, up from 976,000 the year before.
The count broke the single-year record for reported cases of a sexually transmitted disease, which was 1,013,436 cases of gonorrhea, set in 1978.
Putting those numbers into rates, there were about 348 cases of chlamydia per 100,000 people in 2006, up 5.6 percent from the 329 per 100,000 rate in 2005.
Since 1993, the CDC has recommended annual screening in sexually active women ages 15 to 25. Meanwhile, urine and swab tests for the bacteria are getting better and are used more often, for men as well as women, said Dr. John M. Douglas Jr., director of the CDC's Division of Sexually Transmitted Disease Prevention.
About three-quarters of women infected with chlamydia have no symptoms. Left untreated, the infection can spread and ultimately can lead to infertility. It's easily treated if caught early.
Health officials believe as many as 2.8 million new cases may actually be occurring each year, he added.
Chlamydia infection rates are more than seven times higher in black women then whites, and more than twice as high in black women than Hispanics. But it's a risk women of all races should consider, CDC officials said.
"If (health care) providers think young women in their practice don't have chlamydia, they should think again," said Dr. Stuart Berman, a CDC epidemiologist.
The gonorrhea story is somewhat different.
In 2004, the nation's gonorrhea rate fell to 112.4 cases per 100,000 people in 2004, the lowest level since the government started tracking cases in 1941.
But since then, health officials have seen two consecutive years of increases. The 2006 rate — about 121 per 100,000 — represents a 5.5 percent increase from 2005.
Health officials don't know exactly how many superbug cases there were among the more than 358,000 gonorrhea cases reported in 2006. But a surveillance project of 28 cities found that 14 percent were resistant to ciprofloxacin and other medicines in the fluoroquinolones class of antibiotics.Similar samples found that 9 percent were resistant to those antibiotics in 2005, and 7 percent were resistant in 2004. The appearance of the superbug has been previously reported, and the CDC is April advised doctors to stop using those drugs against gonorrhea.Douglas said it doesn't look like the superbugs are the reason for gonorrhea's escalating numbers overall, but they're not sure what is driving the increase.Other doctors are worried. The superbug gonorrhea has been on the rise not only in California and Hawaii, where the problem has been most noticeable, but also in the South and parts of the Midwest."Suddenly we're starting to see the spread," Ghanem said.Syphilis, a potentially deadly disease that first shows up as genital sores, has become relatively rare in the United States. About 9,800 cases of the most contagious forms or syphilis were reported in 2006, up from about 8,700 in 2005.The rate rose from 2.9 cases per 100,000 people to 3.3, a 14 percent increase.For congenital syphilis, in which babies get syphilis from their mothers, the rate rose only slightly from the previous year to 8.5 cases per 100,000 live births.___On the Net:The CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/std/stats

Obesity paradox seen in people with heart disease

Obesity paradox seen in people with heart disease
Subway riders walk through the turnstiles while leaving the U.S. Open in New York September 4, 2007. The 'obesity paradox' -- an unexpected decrease in illness and death with increasing body weight or BMI, which has been described in people with heart failure and in patients having angioplasty -- exists in people with high blood pressure and diseased heart arteries as well, new study findings show. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The "obesity paradox" -- anunexpected decrease in illness and death with increasing bodyweight or BMI, which has been described in people with heartfailure and in patients having angioplasty -- exists in peoplewith high blood pressure and diseased heart arteries as well,new study findings show.
In the study, researchers found that overweight and obeseadults with high blood pressure and coronary artery disease hada lower risk of heart attack, stroke or death, compared withtheir normal-weight counterparts.
The reasons for the apparent protective effect of increasedBMI in these populations "are unclear," note Dr. Seth Uretskyfrom St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in New York City andcolleagues in the American Journal of Medicine.
They investigated the effect of overweight and obesity onheart-related outcomes in 22,576 people with treated high bloodpressure and coronary artery disease who participated in alarge study.
Compared to normal-weight subjects with a BMI between 20and 25, the risk of death, heart attack, or stroke was lower insubjects who were overweight (BMI 25 to 30), and in those withclass I obesity (BMI 30 to 35) and class II-III obesity (BMI 35or greater).
"This 'obesity paradox' occurred in men and women acrossall age groups, even though blood pressure was bettercontrolled in normal-weight patients," the investigators note.
In a commentary, Dr. Carl J. Lavie and colleagues of theOchsner Medical Center, New Orleans caution that while improvedoutcomes appear to be consistently associated with increasedBMI, "one should not conclude that weight reduction isdetrimental in overweight populations."
Results of numerous studies, they point out, clearlysupport the benefits of "purposeful weight reduction" in obesepatients with heart disease, despite the obesity paradox.
"As we continue to investigate the obesity paradox incardiovascular disease ... we should remember the old proverb,"Only one thing is certain - that is nothing is certain," Lavieand colleagues advise.
SOURCE: American Journal of Medicine, October 2007.

Heart disease looming threat for US obese teens: study

Heart disease looming threat for US obese teens: study
An overweight teenager. The epidemic of obesity among US teenagers could lead to double digit increases in cases of heart disease and heart-disease related deaths by 2035, according to a new study.(AFP/File/Ronaldo Schemidt)CHICAGO (AFP) - The epidemic of obesity among US teenagers could lead to double digit increases in cases of heart disease and heart-disease related deaths by 2035, according to a new study.
In a paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers said today's epidemic was setting the scene for tomorrow's public health crisis, one that doctors will not be able to head off with traditional blood pressure and cholesterol-lowering drugs.
"Today's adolescents are the young adults of tomorrow, young adults who would ordinarily be working, raising their families, and not worried about heart disease until they are much older," said Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, assistant professor in medicine, epidemiology and biostatistics at University of California at San Francisco.
"Our study suggests that more of these young adults will have heart disease when they are 30-35 years old, resulting in more hospitalizations, medical procedures, need for chronic medications, missed work days and shortened life expectancy."
Using computer modeling, the researchers projected that up to 37 percent of men and 44 percent of women who will be 35 in the year 2020 will be obese, based on the numbers of teenagers who were overweight in 2000.
These young adults are expected to have more heart attacks, more chronic chest pain and more premature deaths before they reach age 50 than previous generations.
The researchers said the lifestyle-driven disaster could increase the number of people with heart disease 16 percent over today's levels by 2035. That's an additional 100,000 cases.
The increase in obesity-related heart disease deaths could shoot up by as much as 19 percent, according to the projections in the study published Wednesday.
"We must recall that we all tend to gain weight as we age, so overweight in adolescents means even higher weights later on," said Lee Goldman, senior author of the paper and dean of Columbia University Medical Center in New York.
"Although the general findings of our analysis are not surprising, we were struck by the sheer magnitude of the impact of adolescent obesity and, as a result, how important it is as a public health priority."
Some nine million US adolescents are overweight, according to the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Childhood obesity rates have tripled since the 1970s, and studies show that 80 percent of overweight adolescents become obese adults.
The findings also suggested that aggressive drug treatment would reduce but not eliminate the projected cardiac complications.

Doc punished for Lyme disease treatment

HARTFORD, Conn. - A New Haven pediatrician who has been praised by patients but criticized by the medical establishment for the way he treats Lyme disease was reprimanded, fined $10,000 and placed on two years probation by state regulators Tuesday.
The Connecticut Medical Examining Board voted unanimously to impose the sanctions after concluding that Dr. Charles Ray Jones violated care standards by diagnosing Lyme disease in a boy and his sister and prescribing antibiotics based on a phone conversation with their mother, months before he examined them in May 2004.
The board also found that Jones broke standards by failing to reconsider his diagnoses of the children after lab tests came up negative for the tick-borne disease, which can cause painful arthritis, meningitis and other serious illnesses if not treated promptly.
Board members further concluded that Jones was wrong to prescribe antibiotics for nearly a year without repeat exams and without any arrangement with another doctor, because the children lived in Nevada, to monitor for any side effects of long-term antibiotic therapy.
Hartford lawyer Elliott Pollack, who is representing the 77-year-old Jones, said he will appeal the board's decision.
"This board has made a very serious error without sufficient evidence and contrary to compelling evidence," Pollack said, adding that the board's ruling was "a classic example of government treading where it's not ready to tread."
He said the board's decision would cause a "chilling effect," because many doctors will now be worried about regulators questioning the way they treat their patients.
Pollack compared Jones with the many "nonconformists" who were ostracized by the medical community before having their innovations validated.
Jones, who says he has treated more than 10,000 children with Lyme disease, insists long-term courses of antibiotics are the best remedy.
He also believes many doctors fail to diagnose Lyme disease when their patients actually have it, because their patients don't have what the medical establishment says are the telltale symptoms, including a rash and achy joints. Jones says less than 10 percent of Lyme patients actually have the rash when they go to the doctor.
The misdiagnoses are causing unnecessary suffering, Jones and his supporters contend.
But two major medical associations released guidelines in the past year that found no good evidence that long-term antibiotics help lingering symptoms. They also warned that serious side effects and formation of drug-resistant super germs can result from long-term use of antibiotics.
Another problem is no test can confirm whether someone has active Lyme disease. The main tests used are ones that confirm the presence of infection-fighting antibodies, which often take weeks to form but linger long after Lyme is gone.
Jones says many tests are unreliable and too many doctors stop considering Lyme disease diagnoses if tests come back negative.
At a hearing at the state Legislative Office Building on Tuesday, Pollack told the Medical Examining Board that Jones did not formally diagnose or treat the Nevada children until after he examined them.
He said the children, who were not named, are now doing well.
"When is the last time this board punished a physician for curing patients?" Pollack asked the board.
Dr. David Goldenberg, a member of the Medical Examining Board, strongly took issue with many of Pollack's contentions."Your argument has more holes in it than a watering can," Goldenberg said.Goldenberg said the board was not trying to set new standards for treating Lyme disease."It's obvious to me that the standard of care was breached not one, but many times — the old standard of care," he said.As to Pollack comparing Jones to the "nonconformists," Goldenberg said history is probably filled with thousands of doctors who were wrong and mistreated their patients with experimental care.The board voted shortly after Goldenberg's remarks. After the hearing, Jones' patients and his supporters expressed their anger."I wouldn't be here right now if he hadn't been here to help me," said Meredith Lyon, 18, of Wenham, Mass. "I think what happened today is absolutely criminal."Lyon said she began seeing Jones when she was 8 or 9 years old, and nearly all her Lyme disease symptoms are gone. Her mother, Kay Lyon, said other pediatricians failed to diagnose the disease and told her Meredith would die because of brain lesions.Before seeing Jones, Meredith missed school and spent time in a psychiatric hospital because of hallucinations and suicidal thoughts, Kay Lyon said.Jones said that despite his age, he keeps a full-time practice in New Haven focusing on Lyme disease."If I don't do it, who will?" he said.He said he was "not happy" with the examining board's decision, which also requires him to hire another doctor to review his patient files."It's not over by any means," Jones said. "This is going to be challenged."

Canada confirms new mad cow disease case

OTTAWA, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) confirmed Tuesday a new case of mad cow disease in Alberta province.
The carcass of the 13 year-old animal is under control, and no part of it entered the human food or animal feed systems, the CFIA said in a news release.
This is Canada's 11th reported case of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, since 2003.
The infected animal was identified by a national monitoring program that tests cattle at Canadian farms.
The infected animal was born before 1997, when Canada imposed a ban on the use of certain animal parts in animal feeds.
The CFIA is conducting an investigation to identify the animal's herdmates at the time of birth and the ways it might have become infected.
Mad cow disease, which attacks the central nervous system, is thought to be spread mainly in contaminated feed, when animals consume the meat of infected animals. It attacks an animal through hard-to-destroy protein forms called prions, which can multiply in the brain, reducing it to a spongy wreck.