A team of Canadian scientists using a lotion which glows under ultraviolet light have shown that up to a third of patient toilets are not properly cleaned. Their findings also show that spores from the nasty bacteria Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) linger in the loo even when it has been thoroughly wiped down.
Michelle Alfa and a team of scientists from Manitoba, Canada investigated the spread of so-called superbugs in hospitals. Hospital patients are thought to catch bugs like vancomycin resistant Enterococci (VRE), methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and C. difficile because they are not eradicated from the hospital environment. These bugs may be transferred between patients through cross-contamination in the bathroom.
"Various studies have looked at the most effective cleaning agents, but none of these studies considered whether housekeeping staff were actually cleaning the toilets properly," says Alfa. "It is impossible to assess the effectiveness of any action against these bacteria unless you can be sure that cleaners comply with protocols."
Health & Wellness
Gardasil. It is a first of its kind vaccine designed to prevent cervical cancer and approved by the Food and Drug Administration on June 8, 2006 for use in females aged 9 to 26. Within weeks the vaccine was unanimously approved by the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices for 11 and 12- year old girls. What followed was a cascade of calls by legislators around the country, including in Florida, pushing for this new to the market vaccine to be mandated for scores of young girls.
"This is a real danger zone, " says Dr. Diane Harper.
Why might you care about what she says? Dr. Harper is one of the world's top experts on the Human Papilloma virus, HPV, which can lead to cervical cancer. In fact, she's one of the leading scientists the pharmaceutical industries turned to for help to conduct clinical trials - including those that led to approval by the US Food and Drug Administration of Gardasil - and the recommendations that followed.
"This is a real danger zone, " says Dr. Diane Harper.
Why might you care about what she says? Dr. Harper is one of the world's top experts on the Human Papilloma virus, HPV, which can lead to cervical cancer. In fact, she's one of the leading scientists the pharmaceutical industries turned to for help to conduct clinical trials - including those that led to approval by the US Food and Drug Administration of Gardasil - and the recommendations that followed.
Environmental and farm worker groups have now sued the Bush administration for allowing the continued use of four pesticides. They claim that the government brushed aside its own evidence that the chemicals are toxic to workers, children, and animals.
The suit challenged the Environmental Protection Agency's 2006 decision to reauthorize the four pesticides used on fruit and vegetable fields in California.
The suit challenged the Environmental Protection Agency's 2006 decision to reauthorize the four pesticides used on fruit and vegetable fields in California.
A Central Michigan University study has determined that many college students have sleep patterns that could have detrimental effects on their daily performance.
Tarrytown, N.Y. - Cooking, like farming, for all its down-home community spirit, is essentially a solitary craft. But lately it's feeling more like a lonely burden. Finding guilt-free food for our menus - food that's clean, green and humane - is about as easy as securing a housing loan. And we're suddenly paying more - 75 percent more in the last six years - to stock our pantries. Around the world, from Cairo to Port-au-Prince, increases in food prices have governments facing riots born of shortages and hunger. It's enough to make you want to toss in the toque.
Human identity, the idea that defines each and every one of us, could be facing an unprecedented crisis.
It is a crisis that would threaten long-held notions of who we are, what we do and how we behave. It goes right to the heart - or the head - of us all.
This crisis could reshape how we interact with each other, alter what makes us happy, and modify our capacity for reaching our full potential as individuals.
It is a crisis that would threaten long-held notions of who we are, what we do and how we behave. It goes right to the heart - or the head - of us all.
This crisis could reshape how we interact with each other, alter what makes us happy, and modify our capacity for reaching our full potential as individuals.
The elderly are cared for by their adult children regardless of their marital status. In a unique study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, researchers found British adult children help their elderly parents according to current need (i.e. health) rather than past behaviour. This contrasts with other countries such as the US, where parents with a history of divorce see less of their children and receive less help from them.
So in the UK a parent that is living alone is more likely to receive help from children than parents with partners. Children also give more help as the parent ages. For every extra year of the parent's age, he/she is 9% more likely to receive help from children not living at the same address. And parents with health problems are 75% more likely than those without health problems to be helped by their children. Curiously, divorced parents get more help from children than if they are widowed, but both groups receive more help than if they still have a partner. And it helps to have more children. Parents with more children receive more support; however, step children give step parents less support.
So in the UK a parent that is living alone is more likely to receive help from children than parents with partners. Children also give more help as the parent ages. For every extra year of the parent's age, he/she is 9% more likely to receive help from children not living at the same address. And parents with health problems are 75% more likely than those without health problems to be helped by their children. Curiously, divorced parents get more help from children than if they are widowed, but both groups receive more help than if they still have a partner. And it helps to have more children. Parents with more children receive more support; however, step children give step parents less support.
Tough sanctions are being proposed for parents who refuse routine vaccinations, such as MMR.
In an article for the Fabian Society, leading public health expert Sir Sandy Macara called for child benefit to be linked with vaccination uptake.
And Labour MP Mary Creagh said children should have to prove they are vaccinated before they start school to improve uptake of MMR.
The Department of Health said vaccination was voluntary.
In an article for the Fabian Society, leading public health expert Sir Sandy Macara called for child benefit to be linked with vaccination uptake.
And Labour MP Mary Creagh said children should have to prove they are vaccinated before they start school to improve uptake of MMR.
The Department of Health said vaccination was voluntary.
|
| ©BBC |
|
| ©Unknown |
| The poll found cocaine users are likely to have more sexual partners |
More than 50% of young people in Liverpool admit to having taken cocaine, a new report claims. The finding is part of research that shows an "epidemic" of drug use, with respondents saying they take drugs and drinking to enhance their sex lives.
Researchers from Liverpool John Moores University surveyed youngsters from nine European cities in their study.
At least 29 people have died of Hepatitis E and over 1,384 have contracted the virus in five sub-counties in Kitgum district, the LC5 chairman has said.
"We have registered 61 new cases in Madi-Opei, 29 in Agoro, 31 in Paluga, five in Mucwini and seven in Padibe. Four people died last week," John Komakech Ogwok said.
"Hepatitis E is more severe among pregnant mothers. It is transmitted through contaminated water and poor sanitation, just like cholera," the commissioner of health, Dr. Sam Okware, said.
"We have registered 61 new cases in Madi-Opei, 29 in Agoro, 31 in Paluga, five in Mucwini and seven in Padibe. Four people died last week," John Komakech Ogwok said.
"Hepatitis E is more severe among pregnant mothers. It is transmitted through contaminated water and poor sanitation, just like cholera," the commissioner of health, Dr. Sam Okware, said.
Comment: This article is classic propaganda: full of loaded statements, misleading wording, and flat out lies. The suggestion that those parents who opt out of vaccinations because they are concerned for their children's wellbeing, are 'Blasé' about it, is clearly ridiculous.
The bottom line is, this is a proposal to deny a child access to both money and schooling, unless they take 'voluntary' vaccinations that carry severe health risks.
It seems that our governments are obsessed on forcing us to take these vaccinations, whether we want them ore not. Why? The stated altruistic motives just do not wash, when considered in light of the destructive self-interest that dominates government policy.
Start with: Signs Supplement: The Flu Threat