Categories
Cardiovascular
Diagnostics
Endocrinology
Health Insurance
Medical Devices
Mental Health
Nutrition
Oncology
Public Health
Sexual Health
Popular Articles
Burdock Root

Proposed House Amendment Would Impact Needle Exchange Programs In Washington, D.C.
A proposed amendment to Washington, D.C."s federal appropriation for 2010 "would prohibit the city from using federal funds to distribute needles for the "injection of illegal drugs ò€¦ within 1,000 feet of a public or private day care center, elementary school, vocational school, secondary school, college, junior college, university, public swimming pool, park, playground, video arcade or youth center,"" the Washington Post reports. Local HIV/AIDS advocates "are concerned that [the] proposed amendment ò€¦ would drastically reduce public funding for needle exchange programs and take away a weapon in the fight against HIV and AIDS," according to the Post. A companion bill in the Senate does not contain language prohibiting the use of federal dollars for needle exchange programs. "Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) urged her colleagues to fight the amendment which is before the full House this afternoon," the article states. The district has provided $700,000 in the past year to four non-profit organizations for needle exchange programs (Fears, 7/16).
generic viagra online
British Dental Association Reaction To Publication Of Earnings And Expenses Statistics
Statistics released yesterday by the NHS Information Centre reflect a year when dentists were working hard to make the new dental contract of 2006 work, according to the British Dental Association (BDA). The Dental Earnings and Expenses, England and Wales, 2007/08 report, which considers the earnings of dentists who undertook NHS work in England or Wales in the second year of the new contract, paints a picture of earnings settling after a transitional year in 2006/07.
News of the day
In Achilles Tendon Rupture Surgery May Not Be Necessary
The two ends of a ruptured Achilles tendon are often stitched together before the leg is put in plaster, in order to reduce the risk of the tendon rupturing again. However, a thesis from the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, now suggests that surgery may be unnecessary. Patients who do not undergo surgery have just as good a chance of recovery.
Sexual Health

TB -- Hiding In Plain Sight

Current research suggests that Mycobacterium tuberculosis can evade the immune response. The related report by Rahman et al, "Compartmentalization of immune responses in human tuberculosis: few CD8+ effector T cells but elevated levels of FoxP3+ regulatory T cells in the granulomatous lesions," appears in the June 2009 issue of The American Journal of Pathology. More than two million people worldwide die from tuberculosis infection every year. Due in part to inappropriate antibiotic usage, there are a rising number (0.5 million in 2007) of cases of multidrug-resistant (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR-TB) tuberculosis. New therapies are needed to treat these dangerous infections. Immune responses to tuberculosis rarely result in complete eradication of the infection. Instead, TB-infected immune cells promote the generation of chronic inflammation and the formation of granulomas, which are areas where the bacteria are contained but not destroyed. A group led by Dr. Susanna Grundstrom Brighenti at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden therefore examined the immune response in patients infected with tuberculosis. This is the first study describing the immunoregulatory mechanism associated with the development of clinical disease at the site of infection in human TB. They found that while the immune cells responsible for killing the tuberculosis bacteria surrounded the granuloma, these cells had low levels of the molecules necessary to kill the TB. Instead, granulomas had high numbers of regulatory immune cells. These regulatory cells suppress the immune response, resulting in the survival of the tuberculosis bacteria and perhaps contributing to persistent long-term infection. This study by Rahman et al "provide[s] evidence that the adaptive immune response in establishment of clinical TB [is] skewed towards a suppressive or regulatory phenotype that may inhibit proper immune activation and down-regulate the host response at the local site of infection. Compartmentalization of the immune response in human TB could be part of the reason why infection is never completely eradicated but instead develops into a chronic disease." In future studies, Dr. Grundstrom Brighenti and colleagues plan to "pursue new strategies developed to enhance cell-mediated immune responses that are known to provide protective immunity in patients with TB. Such an approach may involve targeting of certain subpopulations of immune cells with anti-inflammatory or immunoregulatory properties." This work was supported by grants from the Swedish Society for Medical Research (SSMF), the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF), Sida/SAREC, the Swedish Research Council (VR), the Swedish Heart and Lung Foundation (HLF) and the National Board of Health and Wealth fare. Rahman S, Gudetta B, Fink J, Granath A, Ashenafi S, Aseffa A, Derbew M, Svensson M, Andersson J, Grundstrom Brighenti: Compartmentalization of immune responses in human tuberculosis: few CD8+ effector T cells but elevated levels of FoxP3+ regulatory T cells in the granulomatous lesions. Am J Pathol 2009 174: 2211-2224 Angela Colmone American Journal of Pathology


Add your comment:
Name:
Site address: http://
Your message:
Enter today\\\\'s date, 2 digits
(spam protection):

© Copyright 2009