New mosquito patch in fight against malaria and West Nile virus

A new mosquito-beating patch is being developed in California that, if successfully rolled out in Africa, could help prevent illnesses such as malaria, West Nile virus and dengue fever.
The Kite patch adheres to clothing, much like a sticker, and uses FDA-approved, non-toxic compounds that block a mosquito's ability to track humans for 48 hours.
The sticker was created by a team based in Riverside, CA, after 7 years of research and development by Olfactor Laboratories, Inc. and the University of California, Riverside.
The company behind the patch, ieCrowd, employed designers to make it withstand tough conditions. The product website for the sticker claims it is "perfectly suited for children in Uganda, professional athletes, families on the soccer field, outdoor enthusiasts, and workers in the suburbs of Manila."
Since mosquitos track humans through carbon dioxide release, the company notes that the Kite should work on all types of mosquitos, citing preliminary field trials that show the patch's effectiveness on many different species of mosquitos.
Though the patch should not replace mosquito nets at night in high-risk areas, the patch is being promoted as a replacement for sprays or lotions currently on the market.

Malaria is a global problem

Humans become infected with malaria when a mosquito carrying the parasite transfers it to the bloodstream through a bite in the skin.

The Kite adheres to clothing like a sticker. For up to 48 hours it can block mosquitos' ability to track humans via carbon dioxide.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), around 219 million people had malaria in 2010 and 660,000 of these people died. Africa was hit the hardest, with 91% of all malaria deaths happening on that continent.
In the US, there are around 1,500 cases of malaria each year, most of which involve people who have traveled to Africa and South Asia.
Symptoms of malaria infection includefever, chills and flu-like illness. If left untreated, sufferers of malaria can eventually die from complications.
The direct costs of malaria - those relating to illness, treatment and premature death - are around $12 billion each year, according to the makers of the Kite. The company claims that costs relating to lost economic growth "are many times more."

Prevention is key for mosquito-borne illnesses

While malaria kills a large number of people each year, it is easily preventable. We know where it comes from (mosquitoes) and we know how to avoid these insects (using nets and repellants).
Grey Frandsen, the project lead and chief marketing officer at ieCrowd, is a surviver of malaria himself. He says:

"We want this small patch to change people's lives. We're designing Kite to deliver everyone protection from mosquitoes, no matter where they are in the world.
It will provide a new level of protection for children in Uganda, for young families in South Africa, and hikers in Seattle or Wyoming or Florida seeking a safer, socially-responsible solution.
We built Kite to be simple and affordable - a small colorful sticker that will appeal to children and adults and survive the rigors of extreme climates, play time, or outdoor recreation."

The company recently launched a crowdfunding campaign to help their first roll out of the potentially life-saving product in Uganda. They will continue to test the patch there, where communities have the highest need for a solution.
A recent study showed that malaria-carrying mosquitos are more strongly attracted to the smell of humans, which is why a patch that blocks their ability to find us in the first place could be an effective weapon against malaria.

US life expectancy varies from state to state

Forget about football teams, the new state rivalry is all about life expectancy. A report from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) breaks down healthy life-expectancy (HLE) by state. Hawaii dominates the list, while Southern states fall short.
The report uses data about mortality, morbidity and health status to estimate the expected number of years lived in good health for people, beginning at age 65. These types of estimates are used around the world to predict future health service needs and to identify trends or inequalities in each country.
Until now, very few studies for the US have broken down healthy life expectancy for each state.

Life expectancy varies by sex and race

For males, HLE estimates at 65 years ranged from a low in Mississippi of 10.1 years, to a high in Hawaii of 15 years. But for females, those numbers were 11.4 years in Mississippi and 17.3 years in Hawaii.
According to the report, healthy years lived beyond age 65 were:

• Greater for females than for males, and
• The difference ranged from 0.7 years in Louisiana, to 3.1 years in the Dakotas.

Healthy life expectancy for males and females in years from age 65, by state, 2007-2009. Source: CDC

In terms of information by race, the study admits that "HLE estimates for Hispanics, Asians, and American Indians/Alaska Natives were not presented because sufficient reliable data were not available at the state level."
The report does, however, analyze the state-by-state numbers for both blacks and whites, and it reveals that HLE was greater for whites than blacks in almost every state, with the exceptions of Nevada and New Mexico. Iowa had the largest difference in HLE between whites and blacks at 7.8 years.

Why the state-by-state difference in life expectancy?

While the CDC says it is not possible to flesh out why some states have a higher or lower HLE, the report does, however, suggest that several factors can influence health status later in life:

Safe and healthy living environments

Healthy behaviors, such as getting exercise and not smoking

Receiving proper clinical preventive services, such as vaccines, screenings and blood pressure checks)

Having access to good health care when needed.

As a general trend, HLE rates from 2007-2009 were lowest in the Southeast, with higher rates dotted in the Southwest, Northeast, Northwest, Florida and Hawaii. Source: CDC

Knowing which regions are falling behind the health care curve is an important component of improving overall health care in the country. A recent study revealed that the US has fallen behind other wealthy nations on health, which is why understanding these health trends is so vital.

Anti-Smoking Ads Increase The Chances Of Quitting

Education through anti-smoking media via television, radio, or billboards, magazines, and newspapers, has greatly increased the chances of current smokers quitting, according to a new report released by the CDC in honor of World No Tobacco Day today.
The finding was included as part of this week's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) and was found to be true in 14 out of 17 countries studied.

The CDC examined data from 17 countries that took part in the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS). They looked at the relationship between awareness of antismoking messages and intent on smoking cessation.

Odds ratios were adjusted for demographic characteristics, awareness of tobacco ads, and awareness of warning labels on cigarette packages.

Results showed that in nine of 17 nations, intent to quit was greatly linked to awareness of antismoking messages in a single media channel compared with no awareness. In 14 nations, intent to quit was notably linked to awareness of messages in multiple channels compared to no awareness.

Antismoking messages in mass media channels can aid in the reduction of tobacco intake by urging smokers to think about quitting and could be more effective in more than one channel.

Of the total 265,564 participants, 50,209 of them reported they were current smokers. In all nations, these participants picked up on antismoking information during the last 30 days in all four of the media channels.

Over half of the subjects noticed antismoking campaigns in at least one of the four media channels in all nations. Additionally, more picked up on antismoking messages from television than any other type of media channel.

Among participants, 10,439 said they planned to quit. Other significant findings included:

• In five of 17 nations the participants intending to quit were >30%
• The number of subjects who noticed a warning label in the last 30 days was high in all nations, ranging from 70.7% in India to 97.9% in Romania
• Wide variance was seen in the percentage of subjects who noticed any type of pro tobacco marketing in the last 30 days with 0% in three countries (Egypt, Thailand, and Vietnam) and 87.3% in Indonesia.

Efforts like the CDC's Tips from Former Smokers, tobacco education ad campaigns are necessary to counter the $1 million an hour that is used on pro tobacco marketing in the U.S.

The Tips campaign has triggered a considerable jump in calls to 1-800-QUIT-NOW begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 1-800-QUIT-NOW FREE end_of_the_skype_highlighting , a quit-line number, as well as visits to the CDC's website. Both provide smokers free help for quitting.

Mosquito Repellent DEET Is Becoming Less Effective

Mosquitos are now able to ignore the scent of the insect repellent DEET three hours after being exposed to it.
The finding, published in PLoS One, suggests that even though historically, insects have been strongly repelled by the scent of DEET, other studies by Dr.James Logan reveal that some mosquitoes and flies carry a genetic alteration in their aroma receptors rendering them insensitive to the smell.

DEET is one of the most successful protectors against mosquito bites that can transmit deadly diseases, such as:

• West Nile Virus
• Malaria
• Dengue fever
• Encephalitis
• Yellow fever

Products that have DEET come in many different forms including liquids, sprays, lotions, wristbands. DEET has been in use by the public since 1957.

In this latest study, Dr. Logan and his peers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine discovered a response in mosquitoes that occurred due to short-term changes (not genetic ones).

The investigators examined changes in responses to DEET in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes - which are well known for biting during the day and transmit deadly diseases, such as yellow fever and dengue fever.

They discovered that a slight exposure to DEET was enough to make some mosquitoes less sensitive to the repellent.

Three hours following exposure, the mosquitoes were put off seeking out attractants like human skin and heat even though they had been previously exposed to DEET.

The investigators also saw that this ineffectiveness of the odor could be linked to a fall in the sensitivity of smell receptors on the mosquito's antennae after an earlier exposure.

Dr Logan, medical entomologist and Chief Scientific Officer for the Arthropod Control Product Test Centre, said:

"We think that the mosquitoes are habituating to the repellent, similar to a phenomenon seen with the human sense of smell also. However, the human olfactory system is very different from a mosquito's so the mechanism involved in this case is likely to be very different.

Our study shows that the effects of this exposure last up to three hours. We will be doing further research to determine how long the effect lasts. This doesn't mean that we should stop using repellents - on the contrary, DEET is a very good repellent, and is still recommended for use in high risk areas. However, we are keeping a close eye on how mosquitoes can overcome the repellent and ways in which we can combat this."

In 2008, a new class of bug repellent was found to be effective for three times longer than DEET, which is the quality standard of all repellents.

New Measles Cases Highest In 18 Years, England

New cases of measles have reached their highest level in 18 years in the England and Wales, many of them young adults and teenagers who were not immunized after the fraudulent 1998 MMR scare. Health authorities say that many young people and children have had to be taken to hospital.
According to the HPA (Health Protection Agency), there were 2,016 confirmed cases in England and Wales last year, the highest total for one year since 1994.

In 2012, there were prolonged outbreaks in Merseyside and Sussex, as well as several minor outbreaks among travelling communities across the country.

Eighty-seven percent of the 7,392 measles cases reported in the EU (European Union) up to the end of November 2012 came from Romania, Spain, Italy, France and the UK.

Head of immunization at the HPA, Dr Mary Ramsay, said:

"Coverage of MMR is now at historically high levels but measles is highly infectious and can spread easily among communities that are poorly vaccinated, and can affect anyone who is susceptible, including toddlers in whom vaccination has been delayed. Older children who were not vaccinated at the routine age, who may now be teenagers, are at particular risk of becoming exposed, while at school for example.

Measles continues to circulate in several European countries that are popular with holidaymakers. Measles is a highly infectious disease so the only way to prevent outbreaks is to make sure the UK has good uptake of the MMR vaccine, and that when cases are reported, immediate public health action is taken to target unvaccinated individuals in the vicinity as soon as possible."

Dr. Ramsay explained that many people are not aware that measles can strike people today, can cause severe disease and even death; they see it as a disease of the past. Parents need to make sure that their children are immunized against rubella, mumps and measles with two doses of the MMR vaccine.

UK health authorities are urging parents whose kids have not been vaccinated to see their GP (general practitioner, primary care physician) to get immunized. Unvaccinated adults should also see their doctor.

Dr. Ramsay said "If you are unsure whether you or your child has had two doses of the vaccine, speak to your GP who will have a record."

The following signs and symptoms are common in people with measles:

• Flu-like symptoms
• Fever
• Photophobia (sensitivity to light)
• Red eyes
• Gray-white spots in the throat and mouth
• Within a few days a red-brown spotty rash appears on the skin, which usually starts off behind the ears, makes its way around the head and neck, and then spreads to the legs and the rest of the body.

USA - 2011 saw highest number of measles cases in 15 years

In April 2012, the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) informed that in 2011 there were more reported cases of measles in the United States than in any of the previous 15 years. Most cases involved foreigners visiting the country or Americans who became infected abroad.

However, the total, at 222 is dwarfed by the current figures coming out of the European Union. One third of all the measles cases in the USA in 2011 had to be hospitalized - however, there were no deaths from the disease that year.

Husbands Who Share Housework Have Less Sex

Husbands who help out with household chores have less sex than men in so-called "traditional" marriages where housework is done exclusively by the wife, researchers from the USA and Spain reported in the journal American Sociological Review.
In faithful relationships, the wife whose husband is involved in housework obviously has less sex too, the authors added.

This latest study contradicts most previous ones, which tended to imply that married men generally have more sex in exchange for doing housework. However, those studies did not take into account which chores the husbands did.

The researchers, all sociologists, said that their study demonstrated that sex is not a bargaining chip in marriage. Rather, it is associated with the kinds of chores each partner completes.

Married couples reported greater sexual frequency if the women did the cooking, cleaning and shopping and the men did the gardening, electrics and plumbing, car maintenance and paid the bills.

Co-author Julie Brines, professor of sociology at the University of Washington, said:

"The results show that gender still organizes quite a bit of everyday life in marriage. In particular, it seems that the gender identities husbands and wives express through the chores they do also help structure sexual behavior."

Lead author, Sabino Kornrich, warned that men should not assume from these findings that they should not become involved in traditionally female household tasks, such as shopping, cleaning or cooking. "Men who refuse to help around the house could increase conflict in their marriage and lower their wives' marital satisfaction."

The researchers gathered and examined data from a national survey of approximately 4,500 heterosexual married couples in the USA who took part in the National Survey of Families and Households. The survey, the largest to measure sexual frequency among married couples, included data from 1992 to 1994.

Brines does not believe that the division of household chores - which in this study did not include child care - and sex have changed much since 1994.

"Traditional female tasks" include shopping, cleaning, looking after the kids, and cooking

According to the study, husbands and wives spent an average of 34 hours each week on traditionally female chores. The men's average age was 46, and the women's 44. The couples spent an extra 17 hours each week on "men's work".

On average, the males were involved in about one-fifth of traditionally female chores, and slightly more than half of male-type work. The researchers found that women tend to be more involved with helping out in traditionally male chores, than men do with female tasks.

The couples reported having sex approximately five times, on average, during the four weeks before the survey. In marriages where the woman carried out all the traditionally female tasks, the couples had sex 1.6 times as often, compared to couples where the man was involved in all the female chores.

Brines says she is not surprised that there was more sex among the traditional couples. "If anything surprised us, it was how robust the connection was between a traditional division of housework and sexual frequency." Brines is an expert in family and household dynamics.

The following possible explanations for their findings were ruled out by the researchers:

• Male coercive behavior played no role, because women reported similar satisfaction levels in their sex lives in both types of households (traditional or "modern")
  
• In two-income households, the difference in sexual frequency was still driven by male behavior regarding traditional female chores. Also, the wife's income had no impact on sexual frequency.
  
• The following had no impact on sexual frequency - gender ideology, religion, and happiness in marriage.

Brines said:

"Marriage today isn't what it was 30 or 40 years ago, but there are some things that remain important. Sex and housework are still key aspects of sharing a life, and both are related to marital satisfaction and how spouses express their gender identity."

Recovery from Workload Influenced by Housework and Leisure Activity Balance

How rapidly and effectively male and female spouses recover from the burdens of work is probably influenced by a balance of housework time and leisure time, a study by experts from the University of Southern California reported in the Journal of Family Psychology.

Over half of all married couples in the USA are two-income households. The authors wondered whether the winner was the one who had the most help with the housework.

They found that what seems to be good for the male partner was bad for the female, but what is good for the female does not have enough of an impact on the male.

In another study involving 17,000 people in 28 countries, researchers from George Mason University found that married men did less housework than live-in boyfriends. The study was published in the Journal of Family Issues.

Special Issue On Disaster Preparedness: Southern Medical Journal

Surveys suggest that while most US physicians are willing to play a role in responding to natural and manmade disasters, most do not feel adequately prepared to fulfill that role. Toward helping physicians and health care systems understand and fulfill their obligation to provide medical care in disasters, the January Southern Medical Journal* is a special issue on disaster medicine and physician preparedness. The official journal of the Southern Medical Association, the SMJ is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

The special issue includes 22 reviews and original papers on preparing for the medical response to disasters and catastrophic events. Dr. G. Richard Holt, Editor-in-Chief of the Southern Medical Journal, writes: "I take the position that it is a professional and an ethical responsibility to potential patients and society for physicians to engage in sufficient self-learning that would provide them with at least an acceptable level of clinical preparation to meet the demands of caring for victims of a disaster in their town, city, county, or state."

'Lessons Learned' from Experts in Disaster Preparedness

The articles were prepared by experts in the medical response to disasters - including those with real-life experience with patient care in disaster situations. The special issue is freely available on the journal website.**

Adding authoritative commentary in the special issue is Dr. Harold Timboe, a leading expert in disaster preparedness and medical response. A retired US Army Major General, Dr. Timboe's experience includes coordinating the health response to the September 11 terrorist attack on the Pentagon and leading a team of volunteer physicians and nurses on a US Navy hospital ship responding to the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia. He writes, "Each of us in our own specialty, subcomponent of our local health system, and building to the aggregate capabilities at the community, regional, state, and national levels contribute to a growing sense of confidence in our overall preparedness."

The special issue opens with a section on physician preparedness, emphasizing the need for doctors to play an active role in planning and supporting the response to catastrophic events. By being prepared, physicians can help to mitigate the impact of disasters in their community.

A section on healthcare system preparedness emphasizes measures to plan disaster-response measures on the local and regional level. Contributions include informative experiences with drills and simulations to build and assess preparedness for catastrophic events.

The concluding section on patient care preparedness discusses disaster preparation and response for specific patient populations and types of care - including mental health aspects of disasters and the importance of psychiatric consultation. Professionals involved in responding to Katrina and other recent Gulf Coast hurricanes and to the 2011 tornado in Joplin, Mo., share lessons learned in preparing for future disasters.

Other topics of special interest include:

• A description and evaluation of a one-day, competency-based emergency preparedness curriculum, which effectively enhances trainees' skills and confidence in providing patient care in a disaster
• An introduction to the concept of "complete self-sufficiency planning," outlining a comprehensive approach to designing and constructing hospitals to withstand and remain functional during disasters
• Insights into the unique health challenges facing older adults involved in disaster situations, focusing on mobilizing resources to improve health outcomes and recovery

Dr. Timboe encourages all physicians to familiarize themselves with resources on disaster response and responsibilities and to consider which aspects are most relevant to their training and experience. He concludes, "We hope this duty never calls, but if it does, we will demonstrate our readiness - the moral ethics of our profession, duty to the public good, and commitment to serve others require our utmost diligence."

Cancer Screening Rates Have Fallen In US

Despite evidence that earlier diagnosis and improved treatment increases survival, rates of people seeking preventive cancer screening have fallen in the US in the last ten years. Failure of leading bodies to agree screening guidelines, plus reductions in workers with insurance cover could be among reasons for the decline, suggest researchers from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
They write about their NIH-funded study in a paper published 27 December in the online open-access journal Frontiers in Cancer Epidemiology.

In the US, although numbers of cancer survivors have gone up as a result of improved diagnosis and treatment, cancer is still one of the most prominent chronic diseases that in 2011 killed more than 570,000 people.

Alongside a fall in rates of advanced cancer diagnoses in the US in the last ten years, has been an increase in the number of cancer survivors returning to work. The researchers suggest, in their background information, that keeping to a cancer screening schedule could be an important factor (as this helps detect secondary tumors early and reduce potentially limiting side effects).

However, their analysis reveals that although cancer survivors tend to show much higher rates of screening adherence, their numbers too have started falling off in the last three years.

Lead author Tainya Clarke, a research associate in the School's Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, says in a statement:

"There is a great need for increased cancer prevention efforts in the US, especially for screening as it is considered one of the most important preventive behaviors and helps decrease the burden of this disease on society in terms of quality of life, the number of lives lost and insurance costs."

"But despite this, our research has shown that adherence rates for cancer screenings have generally declined with severe implications for the health outlook of our society," she adds.

In January 2012, a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) showed that the percentage of people screened for cancer in the US remains below national targets for 2020, with rates lower among Asian and Hispanic Americans than other groups.

The NIH Study Also Looks at Workforce

For this latest study, Clarke and colleagues examined cancer screening adherence rates of the general public and cancer survivors and compared them to government-recommended "Healthy People" screening goals.

They looked at screening rates for colorectal, prostate, breast and cervical cancers. Not only did they compare rates between the general population and cancer survivors, but they also looked at rates among workers.

The data on screening rates came from National Health Interview Surveys conducted between 1997 and 2010 that in total covered nearly 174,400 people aged 18 and over. These annual surveys randomly sample the US population by household, and collect demographic and health information, including cancer history and cancer-related health behaviors such as cancer screening.

The Results

When they analyzed the data, Clarke and colleagues found that the general population did not meet the government's "Healthy People" screening goals for any type of cancer, apart from colorectal cancer (for this cancer, 54% of the general population underwent screening: the government's 2010 goal is 50%).

But among cancer survivors, who have a higher risk for cancer, the pattern was quite different. Their screening rates, for all types of cancer except cervical (this fell to 78% over the last ten years), exceeded the government goals.

However, the researchers also noticed a decline in the number of cancer survivors who went for cancer screening in the last three years.

Disparities Among Workers

The NIH Survey results also enabled the researchers to include data on working adult Americans with and without a history of cancer: including more than 7,500 with a history of cancer (representing 3.8 million working cancer survivors), and over 119,300 workers with no history of cancer (representing more than 100 million).

They found that among survivors, white collar workers on the whole had higher cancer screening rates than blue collar workers.

Clarke says this was a key finding that she hopes will lead to changes in employment policies to eliminate disparities among different groups of the working population of cancer survivors.

She hopes it will also spur researchers to look more closely at factors influencing screening rates so as to design better workplace interventions and encourage more workers in all occupations to take up screening.

She and her colleagues speculate that ongoing disputes over screening guidelines among bodies like the United States Preventive Services Task Force, American Cancer Society and others, plus reductions in rates of workers covered by insurance that have occurred in the past decade, may lie behind the trend.