Breast-Feeding Linked to Lower Incidence of Fever After Immunizations

-At a pediatric vaccination center in Naples, Italy, mothers of infants scheduled for routine vaccinations were told how to measure and record infant temperature on the evening that the immunization was administered and for the next 3 days.
-On the third day after vaccination, mothers were phoned to determine the incidence of fever.
-Of 460 infants recruited, outcome data were available for 450 (98%). Fever was reported in 30 (25%) of exclusively breast-fed infants, in 48 (31%) of partially breast-fed infants, and in 94 (53%) of infants who were not breast-fed at all.

At the center in Naples, Italy, they have begun giving vaccines to breast fed babies to fight off potential sicknesses. But the vaccines now have a slight side affect, the babies might get a little fever. Once again the study results they got from the pediatric center is the 460 infants recruited, outcome data were available for 450 (98%). Fever was reported in 30 (25%) of exclusively breast-fed infants, in 48 (31%) of partially breast-fed infants, and in 94 (53%) of infants who were not breast-fed at all. At the medical center, one of the study authors said, "Breastfeeding seems to be associated with a reduced risk for fever after immunization, but additional, well organized studies are needed," the study authors conclude. "The design of such studies should include more objective research methods, such as measurements taken by health care professionals at the same time of the day or night, and should evaluate the role of mild intercurrent infections by medical monitoring." The vaccines that they were using at the pediatric center might have contained something that the doctors didn't know about, and maybe hat is why this happened.

By: Luarie Barclay
Title: Breast-Feeding Linked to Lower Incidence of Fever After Immunizations
Sources: Journal
Publication date: May 17, 2010
Date Accessed Info: May 20,2010
URL: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/722036

Boy Dies Afetr Controversial Treatment for Autism

-A 5 year old boy with autism goes into a cardiac arrest and dies because of a controversial treatment.
-This was the childs third treatment at Advanced Integrative Medicine Center in Portersville, Pa.
-This treatment can possibly remove vital minerals from the body and possibly have death in the near future.

The boy, Abubakar Nadama, went into cardiac arrest while undergoing chelation therapy. Chelation is used to remove heavy metals from the blood. It's approved for acute lead poisoning. No form of chelation therapy is approved by the FDA for treating autism. The treatment given to Abubakar was intravenous EDTA -- ethylene diamine tetra-acetic acid. This situation angers autism expert Leslie Rubin, "I say this emphatically: Chelation is a very risky procedure with no proven benefits for children with autism or related conditions," Rubin tells WebMD. But many parents believe their children's autism is caused by mercury from thimerosal, a vaccine preservative. A recent Institute of Medicine (IOM) report explicitly rejects this theory. That report also finds no evidence that chelation helps autism. Says Sallie Bernard, executive director of Safe Minds, "The boy who died was using a form of chelation therapy that is not generally recommended or widely practiced within the autism community trying chelation," Bernard tells WebMD. "It is an unusual circumstance. EDTA is not what most of these parents are doing. It is not what is considered the right form of chelation." This controversy is very crucial and people who are part of the actual procedure of therapy for autism, need to absolutely know if the type of therapy that is being done, is proven to work and have no side effects.

By: Daniel J. DeNoon
Title: Boy Dies Afetr Controversial Treatment for Autism
Sources: SOURCES: The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Aug. 25 and Aug. 26, 2005. Leslie Rubin, MD, Emory and Morehouse universities, Atlanta; president, Institute for the Study of Disadvantage and Disability. Susan Hyman, MD, associate professor of pediatrics, Strong Children's Research Center, University of Rochester, N.Y. Sallie Bernard, executive director, Safe Minds.
Publication Date: August 26, 2005
Date Accessed the Info: May 19,2010
URL: http://www.webmd.com/brain/news/20050826/boy-dies-after-controversial-treatment-for-autism

Well-Trained Immune Cells Keep HIV in Check

The human immune system detects foreign cells with the help of cell-surface proteins called human leukocyte antigens (HLAs). Each person's cells carry a particular set of HLA molecules — the person's HLA type — which bind fragments of virus or bacterial protein and 'present' them to T cells, the immune cells that recognize and attack infected cells. But before T cells are ready to perform their killer function, they are in effect trained on fragments of the body's own proteins — self-peptides — in an organ called the thymus. To 'graduate' from the thymus, a T cell must be able to recognize at least one combination of HLA molecule and self-peptide, which provides the template for its subsequent immune response against a foreign peptide bound to that HLA molecule. T cells that bind to self-peptides very strongly, however, are rejected, as they would attack the body's own cells.

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100505/full/news.2010.219.html

Mitotic Actvity Index IDs High-Risk Node-negative Breast Cancer

-The mitotic activity index has been shown to be an independent prognostic factor for recurrence-free survival in breast cancer.
-It is being used in the Netherlands to select which node-negative patients require adjuvant chemotherapy.
-Dr. van der Wall presented the results of an 8-year follow-up of 586 premenopausal node-negative patients from the Multicenter Mammary Carcinoma Project and found suprising results.

The Dutch Society for Medical Oncology on Adjuvant Chemotherapy recommended that adjuvant chemotherapy be given only to high-risk patients, defined as those women who have an MAI equal to or greater than 10 (in an area of 1.6 mm2). Low-risk patients, defined as those with a tumor size of 1 to 3 cm and an MAI less than 10, are not recommended for adjuvant chemotherapy. The study results that Dr. Van der Wall got from the Free University Hospital was that

Study Results

Dr. van der Wall presented the results of an 8-year follow-up of 586 premenopausal node-negative patients from the Multicenter Mammary Carcinoma Project of the Department of Pathology at the Free University Hospital. The project was designed to prospectively evaluate the prognostic value of various features in 3,479 patients with invasive breast cancer.

None of the 586 patients received adjuvant chemotherapy. Eighty-five patients (14.5%) died of metastatic disease during the follow-up. The deaths were not evenly distributed among patients with low and high MAI, however.

Only 19 (6.1%) of 310 patients with a low MAI (less than 10) died of metastatic disease, compared with 66 (28.3%) of 233 patients with a high MAI (10 or more). The survival of patients with low MAI was comparably high in all subgroups, including patients with different tumor diameters and grades and differences in estrogen-receptor and proges-terone-receptor status.


By: Oncology News International
Title: Mitotic Actvity Index IDs High-Risk Node-negative Breast Cancer
Source: Volume 10, Number 3
Publication date: March 1, 2001
Date Accessed: May 18,2010
URL: http://www.cancernetwork.com/display/article/10165/65883

Bacteria Linked to Feces Found in Nearly Half of Fast Food Soda Fountains

-The Hollins University found that fast food joints were now containing fecal reminance.
-Soda fountains in fast food resturants are now at risk for containing bacteria.
-90 beverages were tested from 30 soda fountains and 48% of them had the bacteria.
-The bacteria is called, coliform bacteria.

According to Tom Laskawy, a team of microbiologists from Hollins University found that 48% of sodas tested from the fast food fountains contain coliform bacteria, which is typically fecal in origin. They tested 90 beverages from 30 soda fountains. Coliform bacteria was detected in 48% of the beverages and 20% had a heterotrophic plate count greater than 500 cfu/ml.. More than 11% of the beverages analyzed contained Escherichia coli [E. Coli] and over 17% contained Chryseobacterium meningosepticum. Some of the other bacterias the students at Hollins University found from the beverages included species of Klebsiella, Staphylococcus, Stenotrophomonas, Candida, and Serratia. Most of the identified bacteria showed resistance to one or more of the 11 antibiotics tested. This is a big deal to the whole entire world because millions and millions of people eat and drink at fast food resturants and they could now possibly get sick from doing nothing harmful or dangerous.

Antioxidant Balance Essential to Bird Health, Reproduction

A balanced diet, exercise and reduced stress not only can lead to a longer life, but also better reproduction, according to a new study by a team of researchers, including one from Arizona State University, on barn swallow nutrition and mating habits.

The study shows that swallows who maintained a positive antioxidant balance over the course of their breeding season were those who produced the most young.

The results of the study are presented in the February 25, 2010 issue of PLoS One, a journal of the Public Library of Science, in the article “Positive carotenoid balance correlates with greater reproductive performance in a wild bird.” The study was led by Rebecca Safran, an assistant professor in ecology and evolutionary biology at University of Colorado in collaboration with Kevin McGraw, an associate professor in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University.
“Our results indicate these top-of-the-line barn swallows are less stressed and have higher functioning immune systems,” added Safran.
In a variety of animals, these carotenoids can have potent free-radical-quenching and immune-boosting activity.

http://asunews.asu.edu/20100225_birdhealth

First Sex Chromosome Gene Involved in Meiosis, Male Infertility Identified

-At the University of Pennsylvania they have discovered an X chromosome gene, which if disrupted, will change males sterile and reduce female fertility.
-The TEX11 gene is located in the X chromosome, and when disrupted it causes azoospermia, mutations in the human TEX11 gene.
-A mutation in the one copy of the TEX11 gene will make disorders such as color blindness and muscular dysthrophy.

I chose this topic for meiosis because I have never heard about anything like this before. At the University of Pennsylvania they have recently discovered something in the X chromosome. This discovery was the TEX11 gene, which is a type of mutation that when activated will cause problems such as azoospermia. it will also cause disorders in the human body such as color blindness and muscular dysthrophy.

New Radiation Treatment for Lung Cancer

March 9, 2009 – Lung cancer is the number one cancer killer for men and women but these statistics may improve considerably, according to doctors at Temple University, who report a new treatment can double the chances of surviving the deadly disease – and without conventional radiation or surgery.
The doctors in Temple’s Radiation Oncology Department have treated only 50 people but say the technique, stereotactic body radiotherapy, or SBRT, not only improves a person’s odds of surviving early stage lung cancer, but may reduce the need for future surgeries.

“This is a big trend in radiation oncology for early stage lung cancer patients who either can’t undergo surgery or refuse it,” says Curtis Miyamoto, M.D., chair and professor of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the School of Medicine.

“With the success of this technique, we’re now questioning whether we’ll even be doing surgeries on these patients in the future.”

Treating lung cancer with conventional radiation is a burdensome process. Patients receive radiation therapy, which kills the cancerous cells and shrinks tumors, five days a week for six to seven weeks. The travel alone can be a hardship for patients not living in the city.

In contrast, SBRT requires only three to eight treatments, not 35. Once malignancy is confirmed through a PET CT scan or biopsy, treatments can begin.

Patients are placed in an immobilizing body frame to reduce movement so that doctors can focus radiation on the tumor while reducing exposure of healthy tissue