Particles of the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus that emerged in 2012 are seen in an undated colorized transmission electron micrograph from the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
CREDIT: REUTERS/NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS

(Reuters) – Lapses in hospital infection control measures exacerbated an outbreak of a deadly new viral disease which has infected more than 60 people and killed at least 10 in the United Arab Emirates, health investigators said on Friday.

Reporting the findings of a five-day mission to the UAE, experts from the World Health Organisation said, however, that they found no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission of new Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV).

“The recent upsurge of cases in Abu Dhabi appears to have been caused by a combination of factors, including a breach in infection prevention and control measures in health care settings, active surveillance and increase in community acquired cases,” they said in a statement.

First reported in humans in 2012, MERS causes severe and often fatal respiratory illness, with symptoms similar to those seen during the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003. Its around 40 percent death rate and reports of clusters of human-to-human transmission have raised concerns it may blow up into a pandemic.

So far, it has infected more than 800 people around the world, killing at least 310 of them. The vast majority of cases have been in Saudi Arabia, but there have also been sporadic cases and clusters across the Middle East and in Europe, Asia and the United States.

At the heart of the outbreak, Saudi Arabia has been criticized for its handling of MERS, which public health experts say could have been under control by now if officials and scientists there had collaborated more on studies into how the virus operates and where it is coming from. [ID:nL6N0OM2VH].

In response, the Saudi health ministry says it has put in place new measures for better data gathering, reporting and transparency, including standardization of testing and improved guidelines for labeling and storing samples.

Reporting on the UAE’s handling of the problem, the WHO praised authorities there, saying they had been “following up diligently” on MERS cases, including conducting repeated tests to check when cases have been cleared of the virus.

“This data will make an important contribution to the risk assessment and to guide the health response internationally,” said Peter Ben Embarek, who led the WHO delegation.

A six-strong team from the WHO and the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network were invited by the UAE to investigate MERS after an upsurge in cases there in April.

The team met experts from Health Authority Abu Dhabi, Dubai Health Authority and the Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority, and visited the hospital to which two-thirds of the country’s cases had been be traced, it said, without giving its name or location.

“We are impressed by the amount of data and information generated during the investigation of MERS cases by UAE to help better understand MERS- CoV,” Ben Embarek said.

“This knowledge is of utmost importance to the rest of the world to better discover the source of the virus and the routes of transmissions from animals to humans.”

The Geneva-based U.N. health agency urged UAE health authorities to continue investigating MERS, including the source of infection, and to share new information as it is available.

“There is an ongoing need to share experiences and knowledge from all countries that have cases of MERS-CoV to better understand this emerging disease, including the role of animals in the spread of the MERS-CoV,” it said.

(Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

CREDIT: REUTERS/JEFF ZELEVANSKY

(Reuters Health) – People with heart problems who were started on cholesterol-lowering statins were more likely to develop diabetes if they were prescribed stronger versions of the drugs, a new study finds.

“This is not about stopping statins,” lead author Colin R. Dormuth, from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, told Reuters Health. “These patients should be on a statin, the question is, should they be on a higher or a lower dose?”

Dormuth and his coauthors analyzed data on 137,000 patients from Canada, the U.S. and the UK. The patients were all prescribed statins after being hospitalized for a stroke, heart attack or other major heart problem between 1997 and 2011. None of them had diabetes.

The researchers considered rosuvastatin (brand name Crestor) prescribed at 10 milligrams or more per day, atorvastatin (Lipitor) at 20 mg or more and simvastatin (Zocor) at 40 mg or more to be higher-potency statins. All other dosages were considered lower potency.

About 3,600 of the patients were diagnosed with diabetes within two years of starting the drugs, according to results published in BMJ.

Those prescribed a higher-potency statin were 15 percent more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes than those given lower dosages.

Previous studies have found that taking higher doses of statins reduces the risk of having another serious heart problem by the same amount – about 15 percent – compared to taking lower doses.

“Physicians need to weigh the small increase in benefit against the increase in diabetes risk,” Dormuth said.

In other trials, rates of death among patients taking low-dose and high-dose statins have been the same. That means higher-dose statins do not extend life more than the low-dose versions, he said.

The higher dose may still be necessary for some patients, for example those with genetic conditions leading to very high cholesterol, he said.

The first major statin trial was published in 1994, but researchers did not suspect a link with diabetes until 2008, said David Preiss. He has studied statins and diabetes at the University of Glasgow in Scotland and was not part of the new study.

After that, two major trials were published which found that taking a statin puts people at slightly higher risk of developing diabetes and taking a stronger statin puts them at slightly higher risk than taking a weaker statin, he said.

“Commonly used statins, such as simvastatin, atorvastatin and rosuvastatin, taken at a lower dose probably puts one at 10 percent higher risk of developing diabetes,” Preiss said. “Taking these same statins at high doses probably pushes this up to about 20 percent.”

However, it’s still not clear what explains the extra risk, researchers said.

The BMJ study is based on a review of the records of patients treated in day-to-day practice by doctors who individualized treatment for each patient, Preiss noted.

“In other words, there were inevitably differences between patients that were treated one way and those treated another way – and this limits the ability of such studies to be able to look at cause and effect,” Preiss told Reuters Health in an email.

Statins have been linked to other health problems beyond diabetes, including kidney injury and rhabdomyolysis, or rapid loss of muscle tissue, Dormuth noted.

“It’s not as simple as comparing a small increase in diabetes to a small increase in heart protection,” he said.

The new findings are important for doctors to consider when prescribing statins, but they shouldn’t change anything patients are doing, he said.

“If patients are worried they should talk to their doctors,” he said.

SOURCE: bit.ly/RQnlnr BMJ, online May 29, 2014.

People take part in an aqua aerobics session in a swimming pool at a resort at Holetown, Barbados March 7, 2014.
CREDIT: REUTERS/PHILIP BROWN

(Reuters) – While older, overweight or injured exercisers have always valued the cushioning effects of water workouts, a new wave of trendy, lively and high intensity group fitness classes is luring the young, the hip and the able-bodied into the pool.

Aqua Zumba, boot camp, and synchronized swimming are among the classes experts say put every muscle through a range of motion even the fittest can’t approach on dry land.

Lori Rose Benson of the YMCA of Greater New York said seniors populate daytime pool classes, but the evening attracts a younger, party-oriented crowd.

Synchronized swimming, a class of elaborate strokes and stunts set to music, has become a favorite among Brooklyn hipsters, she said. Aqua Zumba, also called “pool party,” is popular with the younger crowd throughout the city.

“Really, it depends on the time of day,” Benson said. “Aquatic exercise can have all the benefits of a really tough cardiovascular workout. It’s what you put into it.”

Three times a week at an Equinox fitness center in New York City, swim coach Ellis Peters leads Aqua Boot Camp, an hour-long interval workout he said takes aim at every major muscle group.

“I try to use every inch of the 25-yard (23-meter) pool,” Peters said of the class, which employs flotation devices in a fast-changing sequence of running, jumping jacks and core exercises.

“We usually don’t do any one thing more than a minute,” said Peters.

Moving through water is powerful, he added, because the resistance, or drag coefficient, is 12 times what it is in air and works on the body in all directions.

“I can’t imagine a machine on land that would be able to duplicate the omni-dimensional resistance of the water,” he said. “It doesn’t exist.”

Rhode Island-based Karen Kent said she plunged into pool workouts after asthma began to hamper her running style.

“I couldn’t run much in my 20s,” said Kent, an aquatic expert who wrote the water exercise chapter for the American College of Sports Medicine’s group fitness handbook.

She said even the most able-bodied like turning to water to relieve pressure and extend their range of motion.

“Even really strong athletes want to come to water to stretch muscles back out,” she said. “Water offers another piece of fitness you can’t get on the ground.”

The level of exertion feels less in the water, she added, so the right instructor can really ramp it up with deep water running and jogging intervals.

Kent said the pool temperature for water workouts should be around 83 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit (28 to 29 Celsius), with air temperature about two degrees higher. That’s because unlike swimmers, who are comfortable in the high 70s (mid 20s), the exercisers’ heads are above the water line.

“Swimming laps is different from doing exercise,” she said. “Every workout has something else to offer and a well-rounded athlete should do all of it.”

(Editing by Patricia Reaney and Gunna Dickson)

A salmon dish in an undated photo.
CREDIT: REUTERS/FILE

(Reuters Health) – According to a new analysis of past studies, people with the most protein-heavy diets are about 20 percent less likely to have a stroke than those who eat the least protein.

Since the analysis includes studies with different designs, there is a chance that something other than protein intake might explain the results, said co-author Dr. Xinfeng Liu of Nanjing University School of Medicine in China.

“Dietary protein intake tends to be associated with other nutrients that may prevent stroke, such as potassium, magnesium and dietary fiber,” so the findings should be interpreted with caution, Liu told Reuters Health in an email.

Still, the relationship between protein and stroke persisted when the researchers only looked at studies that took those factors into account, he noted.

Close to 800,000 people in the United States have a stroke each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The new review includes seven studies, each of which followed a group of adults for at least 10 years. Participants either periodically filled out diet questionnaires or were asked to recall everything they had eaten over the past 24 hours in order to gauge their protein intake, and researchers recorded which of them had a stroke during the follow-up period.

The studies included a combined total of about 255,000 people.

Four of the studies took place in the U.S., two in Japan and one in Sweden. Most considered any type of stroke, but two focused on fatal strokes.

Six of the studies found that as protein intake increased, stroke risk decreased. But in three of those studies the relationship was weak enough that it could have been due to chance, according to findings published in Neurology.

All together, the review authors found that people who ate the most protein were about 20 percent less likely to have a stroke than those who ate the least. An extra 20 grams of protein per day was linked to a 26 percent lower stroke risk.

Most of the studies accounted for age, sex and diabetes history as factors in stroke risk.

Eating protein may help lower blood pressure, which in turn lowers stroke risk, the authors write. Still, there could be other explanations for the findings.

“The results of this meta analysis should be interpreted carefully,” said Dr. Arturo Tamayo, who studies stroke prevention at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. He co-wrote an editorial accompanying the analysis.

Diet can influence stroke risk, but in many ways, not just through protein intake, he told Reuters Health by email. Genetic predisposition for increased cholesterol, age and other medical conditions like high blood pressure or heart disease can also influence risk, he said.

“The results of this study show us a ‘trend’ of a positive factor in diet that can contribute to decrease the risk of stroke,” he said.

ANIMAL VERSUS PLANT PROTEIN

Animal protein was linked to a greater reduction in stroke risk than other sources of protein in the new report. But another recent analysis published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that vegetarian diets are associated with lower blood pressure than diets that include meat.

In the current analysis, there wasn’t a big range in plant protein intake – those who ate the most ate only 16 more grams per day than those who ate the least – compared to animal protein, where the daily range was 35 grams, Liu said.

Since there wasn’t a big range in plant protein consumption, it was harder to find an association with stroke, he said.

Relatively few people in the included studies got their protein from grains, which could have factored in as well, Tamayo said.

“Among different protein sources, fish consumption has been associated with decreased risk of stroke, whereas red meat consumption has been associated with increased stroke risk,” Liu said.

The saturated fat and cholesterol in red meat may increase stroke risk, so red meat isn’t the best source of protein for people worried about stroke, he said.

“Thus, stroke risk may be reduced by replacing red meat with other protein sources such as fish,” Liu said. “Fish contains omega-3 fatty acids and some other nutritional elements including protein that may protect against stroke.”

“As stroke neurologists we aim to change as much as possible all those factors that can potentially be modified, like cholesterol and hypertension, among others and lifestyle factors such as lack of exercise, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption and diet,” Tamayo said.

It is important that people understand how much diet can influence the advent of multiple diseases, he said.

“Global strategies to prevent stroke should start early in life with an adequate diet education for all people regardless of their risk of stroke,” he said.

The human diet and stroke prevention are both incredibly complex, he said, but current evidence tilts toward a largely vegetarian Cretan Mediterranean diet high in whole grains, olive oil, fish and fruit, and low in red meat as beneficial for stroke reduction.

SOURCE: bit.ly/NwhhyY Neurology, online June 11, 2014.

A man wearing a mask walks outside Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz hospital, in Riyadh in this June 6, 2014 file photograph. When Saudi Arabia announced last week that it had found 113 more cases of the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), it didn’t just force a rethink of the threat the virus poses, it exposed dangerous institutional failings.
CREDIT: REUTERS/FAISAL AL NASSER/FILES

(Reuters) – When Saudi Arabia announced last week it had found 113 more cases of the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), it didn’t just force a rethink of the threat the virus poses, it exposed institutional failings.

Saudi health sources and international virologists said poor communication and a lack of accountability in government departments, inadequate state oversight and a failure to learn from past mistakes have all hindered Saudi Arabia’s battle against the SARS-like virus.

They say it is too soon to tell if reforms introduced by a new acting health minister can overcome what they see as underlying problems.

Some top Saudi health officials say they accept that delays in reporting MERS cases were caused by poor communication between hospitals, laboratories and government departments, but they stress things have improved significantly since the appointment of the new minister in late April.

The health ministry “has put in place measures to ensure best practices of data gathering, reporting (and) transparency are strictly observed”, it says, and “to ensure that from now on, case information will be accurate, reliable and timely”.

Saudi Arabia has been host to the vast majority of cases of MERS – a viral infection which can cause coughing, fever and pneumonia – since it was first found in humans two years ago.

International concerns over Saudi Arabia’s handling of the outbreak grew last week when it said it had under-reported cases by a fifth and revised the case numbers to 688 from 575.

People in the kingdom are still becoming infected with and dying of MERS every day, and sporadic cases have been found outside Saudi Arabia as infected people travel. The worldwide death toll from MERS now stands at more than 313 people.

International scientists have complained of a lukewarm response from Saudi authorities to offers to help with the scientific research needed to get a handle on the outbreak, and have questioned the quality of data collection and distribution that could help reveal how the disease works.

 UNREPORTED CASES

Tariq Madani, head of the scientific advisory board at the health ministry, said 58 of the 113 cases added last week had been confirmed as positive in government hospitals and laboratories, but the results had simply not been passed by those institutions to the ministry.

Another 22 cases tested positive at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Jeddah, but duplicate samples were not sent to government laboratories and the institution did not communicate the results to the health ministry, he said.

A spokesman for King Faisal Specialist Hospital declined to comment further and referred all queries back to the health ministry.

The remaining 33 cases had tested positive in private laboratories but showed as negative in government ones, Madani said.

Madani said he did not believe the under-reporting had been deliberate and he thought a 20 percent shortfall in reported cases was not unusual in a disease outbreak.

“This can happen anywhere in the world, that 20 percent of patients may not be reported. This is within the limit. It’s actually less than 20 percent,” he said.

However, Ian MacKay, an associate professor of clinical virology at Australia’s University of Queensland who has been tracking the MERS outbreak since the virus was first identified in 2012, is skeptical about the notion that it is normal for 20 percent of cases to go unreported.

“I know of no global scientific norms that define a threshold below which it is normal to under-report cases of any viral cluster, outbreak or epidemic,” he said.

Madani said in some cases patients intermittently shed the virus, so it is not caught in a test. The ministry’s policy, he said, had been to say that if there was a discrepancy between test results, only government laboratory results should stand.

The new acting health minister Adel Fakieh has changed that policy, Madani said, and from now on positive tests from any laboratory accredited by the health ministry will count as confirmed cases.

The appointment of Fakieh has also led to other changes, he said. Authorities have brought in tighter infection procedures in hospitals and are trying to be more transparent about how they are tackling MERS.

“After the change of minister they involved people more in preventative methods. There were text messages on hand washing, the public has been more involved,” said a Saudi public health expert who was critical of the ministry earlier this year. He, like some others interviewed for this article, spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment.

But some international scientists still complain that data published online by Saudi authorities, which includes daily updates on confirmed new infections and deaths in different cities, is not comprehensive enough to allow them to research the disease. [ID:nL6N0OM2VH]

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), for example, said it was not clear whether the new cases listed by Saudi authorities met the World Health Organisation’s definition of confirmed cases. The ECDC also noted the absence of detail such as age, gender, residence, probable place of infection and other information.

 Madani said the ministry only published information it considered immediately relevant to the public. He said more detailed data, collected on all patients since the first confirmed case in June 2012, could be made available to scientists who wanted it and had already been given to the World Health Organization.

 A spokesman for the WHO confirmed the organization had received detailed information which it was now verifying with Saudi authorities to ensure there was no double counting of cases in the WHO’s global tally.

 “We collect extensive data on demographics, location of the patient, their nationality. Then we collect…data in terms of clinical manifestations, complications that happened to the patients while they are in hospital, and the outcome,” Madani said. Officials also follow up contacts of known MERS cases daily for 14 days, he added, asking them to stay home in isolation and admitting them to hospital if they show symptoms.

Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said Saudi authorities should be congratulated on their pledge to be more open. “From talking to people inside the Kingdom right now, I’d say there is a very new sense of transparency in the last few weeks,” he said.

DOCTORS NOT INFORMED

However, challenges remain. The problems are evident in the case of one kidney patient who fell ill in Jeddah in April, a main location of the outbreak.

The man was transferred from another hospital to the King Faisal Specialist Hospital (KFSH), but doctors there were not officially informed by medical staff who had previously cared for him that they suspected he might have contracted MERS, said a city health source.

As a result, King Faisal Specialist Hospital staff took no extra precautions and within a week the head of the intensive care unit and other staff, including a pregnant nurse, fell ill. Both the nurse and ICU head have now recovered.

The problem was that suspicions of MERS were only communicated verbally, rather than being put on paper in a patient’s file, said Sabah Abuzinadah, a former head of nursing for a government commission on healthcare workers.

The King Faisal spokesman declined to comment.

Such problems were familiar to people inside Saudi Arabia who had been involved in cases of MERS over the previous two years.

“At first the government would only accept that those patients already in intensive care had MERS. Even when cases were coming to the emergency room with severe respiratory symptoms they were told to go home and not investigated,” said the head of a private hospital where some MERS cases occurred last year.

He denied that there was any deliberate attempt to hide MERS cases, but said officials – and sometimes emergency room doctors – found it hard to accept that a new disease had raised its head in their hospital. The hospital declined to comment.

He said the extent of the outbreak in Jeddah in April and May showed that complacency had set in after the rate of infection slowed throughout last summer, autumn and winter, and when there were no confirmed cases during last year’s pilgrimage season. “We did not learn from the outbreak last year. The Health Ministry did not get the severity of the issue. But it was not just them who underestimated it. Even in the best private hospitals there were cases,” he said.

COMPLEX SYSTEMS

Abuzinadah said nursing groups in the kingdom had warned the health ministry about systemic problems in hospitals and poor government oversight.

She said they had called for better enforcement of infection control procedures – something Madani says is now being implemented – and independent regulators for hospitals and healthcare professionals.

The only official body now overseeing healthcare workers is the Saudi Commission for Health Specialities, whose board is chaired by the minister. According to its website, it is responsible only for training and setting standards, not for regulating or evaluating performance.

Hospital regulation is run by the health ministry, which also manages many of the country’s hospitals.

Other hospitals are run by private healthcare companies and by other state bodies, adding to the complexity of the system.

“It’s a complicated country. Even people like Memish (the deputy minister sacked last week) don’t really have access to everything (in terms of patient data and information),” said Christian Drosten, a University of Bonn virologist who has worked on MERS with Saudi scientists.

Many of the people who spoke to Reuters for this story said the creation of a new control and command center should help coordinate the response to MERS.

The new center, announced by Fakieh on June 1, aims to bring together public health, research, infection control, clinical operations and data analysis into a new unit.

“Before, our issue was with communication – other ministries only knew what was going on by reading the newspapers,” said the private hospital head who had dealt with MERS last year. “Now, everyone is involved.”

(Editing by Janet McBride)

From the Department of Health

Free digital rectal examination (DRE) will be offered to all males aged 40 years and above on June 14 in 27 DOH – retained hospitals and in 37 private hospitals in the country in conjunction with the worldwide celebration of Father’s Day dubbed as “National PaDRE and Men’s Health Day.”

DRE is one of the main screening procedures in assessing the prostate. Most Filipinos are still uninformed about prostate cancer and that majority of cases are detected already in advanced stage. Screening among men is needed to detect the disease in its early stage.

DOH records reveal that prostate cancer is now ranked as the 4th most common cancer among males. According to the 2010 Cancer Facts and Figures, about 2,712 new cases are diagnosed yearly in the Philippines with an estimated 1, 410 deaths. The incidence rate starts to increase sharply starting at age 55.

“Increasing age is most important risk and the number of Filipino males aged 40 years and older is the main reason for the significant increase and the expected continuing increase in cases,” Health Secretary Enrique Ona declared, adding that a substantial number of prostate cancer is very slow growing and may initially have no clinical impact.

The “National PaDRE” program started in 1996 as a project of the DOH and the Philippine Urological Association (PUA). The program was conceptualized in order to catch the attention of the Filipino male population and to increase awareness on prostate diseases, particularly prostate cancer.

Last year, there were already 64 DRE centers all over the country with more than a thousand patients examined and screened by urologist in a day. This year, activities include distribution of posters, a Facebook poster and slogan contest, press conference, fun run, and technical updates.

This year, all the 64 DRE centers will participate again in the said program. Urology residents, as well a staff, will provide the necessary manpower to identify and screen patients. This activity will be conducted at the respective out-patient departments (OPDs) of the different hospitals from 8am to 4pm. All urologist members of the PUA will provide free Men’s Health check and DRE in their private clinics on June 14.

Ona explained that patients who avail of the free DRE and need additional laboratory exams, such as the prostate specific antigen (PSA), the prostate ultrasound, and biopsies will be given requests for such examination. If such examinations are not available in participating hospitals, the patients will be referred to a diagnostic laboratory where they might be tested for discounted rates. Patients needing further treatment and check – up will be attended to at designated hospital and clinics. Eventual result of the treatment or management will be recorded and reported to the PUA.

Google apps are shown on an Apple iphone 5 in this photo illustration in Encinitas, California, April 16, 2013.
CREDIT: REUTERS/MIKE BLAKE

(Reuters) - Google Inc is developing a service that will combine information from health apps and personal fitness devices, in another competitive move against Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co, Forbes reported.

The new service, to be called Google Fit, will make its debut at the Internet company’s developer conference later this month, Forbes said on Thursday, citing anonymous sources.

It is not clear if Google Fit will be integrated into Android, Google’s mobile operating system, or offered as a standalone app, the report said.

Google declined to comment on the report.

Health data could become the next big battleground among tech companies as a new generation of wearable electronic gadgets allow users to measure heart rates, sleep patterns and exercise activities.

Last week Apple announced “Healthkit,” which will pull together data such as blood pressure and weight now collected by a growing number of healthcare apps on the iPhone or iPad. In May, Samsung launched a health platform for third-party app developers.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

Ang pagsusuri na isinagawa ng BFAR kung saan nakita na positive sa red tide ang kinuhaan ng tubig tulad sa Irong-irong at Cambatutay Bay sa Samar (UNTV News)

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines– Nagbigay ng babala ang Bureau Of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources o BFAR kaugnay ng kumakalat na microorganism na red tide toxin sa Irong-Irong at Cambatutay Bay sa Samar.

Sakop ng Irong-Irong Bay ang Catbalogan City habang ang Cambatutay Bay naman ay mula sa Catbalogan hanggang sa Tarangnan, Samar.

Base sa pag-aaral ng BFAR sa sample ng tubig sa Irong-Irong Bay, nasa 1,200 cells per liter ang nakita nilang toxin habang nasa 600 cells naman sa Cambatutay Bay; lubhang mas mataas ito kumpara sa normal na sampung 10 cells sa kada litro ng tubig.

Umaabot rin sa 60 toxic microorganism ang laman ng bawat sinuring shellfish kaya’t ipinagbawal muna sa publiko ang pagkain nito.

”Right now, Irong-Irong Bay and Cambatutay are already positive for the red tide. Since last Thursday that we got some sample, starting with 20 cells lang per liter sa water but overnight lang, sa Irong-Irong Bay, it goes to a thousand cells na. Then about 60 micrograms ng toxins  already present sa meat”, saad ni BFAR Director Juan Albaladejo.

Mas hinigpitan ng BFAR ang pagbabantay sa bilihan at pagnghuhuli ng shellfish upang huwag nang maulit ang nangyari noong nakaraang taon kung saan anim katao ang namatay matapos makakain ng lamang-dagat na kontaminado ng red tide toxins.

Ayon sa BFAR, bawal rin muna manguha ng mga shellfish sa kalapit-bayan ng Catbalogan kagaya ng Villa Real, Jiabong, San Sebastian, Pinabacdao, Talarura at sa Daram.

Nilawakan na rin ng BFAR ang monitoring nito hanggang sa Calbayog water upang masiguro ang kaligtasan ng mga kababayan nating nakatira sa coastal barangays.

“I-extend narin natin yung ban na dapat wala narin mangunguha sa Maqueda Bay, even walang apektado. Usually we put that as a precautionary measure. Baka may bagong–we don’t know what happened during the Yolanda. Baka nagbago ang current sa San Juanico Strait so will see to it na hindi aabot sa Maqueda Bay ang ating problema.” (Jenelyn Gaquit, UNTV News)

Photo : REUTERS/Rick Wilking

(Reuters Health) – Children with food allergies have a tough time getting all the nutrients they need, but a small study suggests that working with a dietician could help parents provide their kids with a balanced diet.

After their parents were given six months of dietary counseling, children with food allergies began getting more key nutrients and eating as many calories as their peers without any food restrictions.

Food allergies cause the body’s immune system to have an abnormal reaction like vomiting, diarrhea, eczema or asthma to certain foods. But avoiding these foods means sacrificing the energy and nutrients they provide.

Researchers estimate that certain nutrient-rich foods such as cow’s milk, hen’s eggs, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, fish and shellfish are responsible for 90 percent of childhood food allergies.

“A wide variety of foods are needed for normal growth,” said Lynn Christie, a dietician at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, who was not involved in the study.

Christie explained that children grow very fast during the first three or four years of life and being unable to eat these foods could keep them from getting enough calories and nutrients. That might have permanent consequences such as stunted growth, a reduced IQ and poor math skills.

For the new study, researchers recruited 157 children between six months and three years of age from two health centers in Italy. All of the children were generally healthy.

Ninety-one of the kids had food allergies and were being kept away from the foods that caused their allergic reactions. Parents of these children had never received counseling for their child’s dietary needs.

The other 66 children did not have a food allergy and were used as a comparison group.

At the beginning of the experiment, researchers used blood and other laboratory tests to evaluate what nutrients the children were getting from their current diets. They also had all parents keep a food diary and record everything their child consumed for three days.

Initially, the children without a food allergy had higher levels of nutrients like zinc and calcium and ate more calories per day than the children who had allergies. Protein consumption was about twice as high among children without a food allergy, on average.

The food diaries were evaluated by a dietician and parents of children in the food allergy group received personalized counseling.

Counselors used the child’s weight, dietary history and energy requirements to determine what kinds of changes to the diet could be feasibly made.

For instance, the parents of a child allergic to cow’s milk might be advised on the appropriate amount of a substitute formula to provide.

Parents of the children in the food allergy group met with the dietician to receive further counseling two and four months into the experiment.

Finally, at six months, the researchers ran all of the initial tests on the children with food allergies again and found there was a significant increase in their total calorie intake as well as carbohydrate, protein, iron, fiber, calcium and zinc levels.

There were no children with food allergies who did not get help from a dietician and this makes it difficult for the researchers, led by Dr. Roberto Canani of the University of Naples “Federico II” in Italy, to prove that the counseling itself led to the changes. But the report is supported by previous research that monitored differences in the growth of children with food allergies.

Having very few parents drop out of the study signified that the counseling was well received, the team reports in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

The first step toward making dietary counseling useful in the U.S. is making sure children with allergies are properly diagnosed, Christie said.

According to the nonprofit organization Food Allergy Research and Education, food allergies affect one in every 13 children and the number of children with food allergies is growing, though researchers aren’t sure why.

Christie said registered dietitians that specialize in pediatrics are the best choice for diet counseling because they can identify where the problems are and provide safe, inexpensive alternatives that work for an individual household.

“Health insurance in the U.S. needs to cover counseling by a registered dietician any time changing the diet is part of a medical treatment,” she said.

She said nutrition interventions may require several appointments to ensure dietary recommendations are acceptable and address any new problems.

“Changing how one eats requires stepwise intervention,” she said.

SOURCE: bit.ly/1kEsMx7 Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, online June 5, 2014.

A dealer eats his lunch as he monitors his screens on the trading floor of IG Index in London May 6, 2010.
CREDIT: REUTERS/KEVIN COOMBS

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Office workers who spend long hours looking at computer screens have changes in their tear fluid similar to people with the disease known as dry eye, according to a study from Japan.

The protein MUC5AC, secreted by cells in the upper eyelid, makes up part of the normally occurring mucus layer, or “tear film,” that keeps the eye moist. But study participants with the most screen time had MUC5AC levels nearing those of people with diagnosed dry eye.

“To understand patients’ eye strain, which is one of major symptoms of dry eye disease, it is important that ophthalmologist pay attention to MUC5AC concentration in tears,” said Dr. Yuichi Uchino, an author of the new study.

Uchino is an ophthalmologist at the School of Medicine at Keio University in Tokyo.

“When we stare at computers, our blinking times decreased compared to reading a book at the table,” he told Reuters Health by email.

People staring at screens also tend to open their eyelids wider than while doing other tasks, and the extra exposed surface area in addition to infrequent blinking can accelerate tear evaporation and is associated with dry eye disease, he said.

Dry eye may be chronic for some but can be managed with over the counter or prescription eye drops.

Past research suggests that up to 5 million men and women over age 50 in the United States suffer from dry eye disease, the researchers write in their report. In Japan, tens of millions of people report some dry eye symptoms, often associated with computer work, they add.

The study team tested the tears from both eyes of 96 Japanese office workers, about two-thirds of them men, and measured how much of the total protein content of the tears was MUC5AC.

Workers employed in jobs involving computer screens filled out questionnaires about their working hours and symptoms of any eye problems.

Seven percent of men and 14 percent of women were diagnosed with ‘dry eye disease,’ meaning they reported symptoms of eye problems like irritation, burning or blurred vision and had poor quality or quantity of tear film, according to the tests.

Overall, participants looked at screens for work for just over eight hours a day and had an average of about 6.8 nanograms of MUC5AC per milligram of protein in each eye.

However, people who worked with computer screens for more than seven hours per day had an average of 5.9 ng/mg of MUC5AC, compared to 9.6 ng/mg for people who spent fewer than five hours daily with screens.

Similarly, people with definite dry eye disease had an average of 3.5 ng/mg of MUC5AC compared to 8.2 ng/mg for people without the disease.

“Mucin is one of the most important components of the tear film,” said Dr. Yuichi Hori, who was not a part of the new study. “Mucins (like MUC5AC) function to hold water on the ocular surface of the epithelia that synthesize them, hence, they are major players in maintenance of the tear film on the ocular surface,” Hori told Reuters Health by email.

He is chair of the department of Ophthalmology at Toho University Omori Medical Center in Tokyo.

Concentration of the protein was also lower for people with symptoms of eye strain than for people without symptoms, according to the results published in JAMA Ophthalmology.

People with dry eyes at work tend to be less productive and are more likely to be depressed, according to previous studies, Uchino said.

Office workers who are worried about dry eye can make some simple changes to decrease their risk, Uchino said.

“The exposed ocular surface area can be decreased by placing the terminal at a lower height, with the screen tilted upward,” Uchino said.

Doctors also recommend using a humidifier at the office and avoiding being in the direct path of the wind from an air conditioner, he said.

“We advise the office workers suffering from ocular fatigue and dry eye symptoms that they should blink more frequently in an intended manner during (screen use), and that they should use artificial tears,” Hori said.

“And they should ask an eye care doctor if their symptoms still remain.”

SOURCE: bit.ly/1oTQ4ov JAMA Ophthalmology, June 5, 2014.

CREDIT : REUTERS/David Moir

(Reuters) – A Chinese official has suggested the biting of pencils as a possible explanation for excessive levels of lead found in children in a town in the south of the country located next to a chemical plant, state media reported on Monday.

The plant, in Dapu in the southern province of Hunan, has been shut down after tests found that more than 300 children had excessive levels of lead in their blood, the Global Times, published by the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily, said.

Su Genlin, head of the Dapu government, said the children could have been made sick by “biting pencils”, the newspaper reported, despite the fact that the “lead” in pencils is graphite.

The government has now announced a probe into both the owner of the chemical plant and local environmental protection agency, the report added.

Chinese media frequently report on similar cases in a country where breakneck economic growth has come at a terrible price for the natural environment in many places.

In 2009, a smelter was closed after it was blamed for the lead poisoning of almost 1,000 children in the northern province of Shaanxi.

Despite repeated pledges to get tough, the government faces an uphill struggle in poorer parts of the country where local authorities often rely on tax receipts from heavily polluting industry.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Nick Macfie)

CREDIT: REUTERS/ERIC THAYER/FILES

(Reuters Health) – Men who report eating lots of sausages and cold cuts are more likely to wind up in the hospital for heart failure, according to a large study from Sweden.

Eating large amounts of red meat has been linked to a greater risk of heart disease and stroke, but there is less research on heart failure, the authors write.

“Processed meat besides having quite a lot of salt may include also nitrites and phosphate-containing additives,” said Alicja Wolk, who worked on the study at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm.

“Moreover, smoked processed meat products and grilled meat are sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons,” Wolk told Reuters Health in an email. “Each one of these chemicals has been shown to have some adverse health effects.”

Heart failure affects more than 5 million people in the United States, half of whom die within five years of diagnosis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The condition occurs when the heart cannot pump enough blood to all areas of the body but does not stop beating altogether.

People with heart failure often experience shortness of breath and general tiredness. Heart failure is usually progressive and long term, but can be managed with medications, exercise and a reduced-sodium diet.

For the new study, the researchers used data from roughly 37,000 Swedish men who had no known heart problems when they were first assessed in 1997, between age 45 and 79. That year, they filled out a questionnaire about their diet.

The men noted how often they ate unprocessed meats, including pork, beef and minced meat and how often they ate processed meats like sausages, cold cuts, blood pudding or pate.

Over the next 12 years, almost 3,000 of the men experienced heart failure and 266 died from the condition.

Men who ate at least 75 grams per day of processed red meat, according to the 1997 questionnaire, had a 28 percent greater risk of heart failure and were more than twice as likely to die from heart failure compared to men who ate less than 25 grams per day, the researchers reported in Circulation: Heart Failure.

“It seems that even at a low level of consumption the risk starts to increase,” Wolk said.

A single serving of deli ham is usually two ounces, or 57 grams. Each 50-gram increase in daily processed meat intake was associated with an eight percent higher risk of heart failure and a 38 percent higher risk of death from heart failure.

The study can’t prove eating processed meat caused heart failure. But heart failure is common already, and it leads to death so often that these increases in risk are very troubling, Wolk said.

Processed meat, and salt consumption in general, is a significant public health problem in Sweden, she said. Ham sandwiches are very popular there, she added.

Americans are among the top per capita meat consumers in the world, and nearly a quarter of that meat is processed, according to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.

In the Swedish study, unprocessed red meat was not linked to heart failure.

“However, one has to be cautious about these results, which focus on the risk of heart failure associated with processed meat and not extrapolate and assume that unprocessed red meat in safe regardless of how much it is consumed,” said Dr. Javed Butler, from Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.

Butler, who studies heart failure, was not part of the new research.

Other data have tied unprocessed red meat to heart diseases and cancer, he told Reuters Health by email.

Men with high blood pressure or diabetes as well as smokers are at particularly high risk of heart failure, Butler said.

“However, even if you do not have these or other risk factors, that does not mean the dietary behaviors are not of health consequence,” he said.

The findings should be applicable to women as well, Wolk said.

“In our previous studies of processed meat and stroke we have observed similar associations both in men and women,” she said.

SOURCE: bit.ly/1lyX09h Circulation: Heart Failure, online June 12, 2014.

The Lower Manhattan skyline is seen in the distance during a weekly evening yoga class in a park along the Hudson River in Hoboken, New Jersey June 11, 2013.
CREDIT: REUTERS/GARY HERSHORN/FILES (UNITED STATES – TAGS: CITYSCAPE SOCIETY)

(Reuters Health) – A new study confirms that people who maintain a healthy weight, exercise, eat well and abstain from smoking and heavy drinking have a reduced risk of stroke.

Previous studies have identified individual risk factors for stroke. The authors of the new report used a model based on data from almost 24,000 people to determine how having an overall healthy lifestyle might affect the risk of a first-time stroke.

“Our combined risk factor analysis indicated that about 38 percent of primary stroke occurrences could have been prevented in our study population if all study participants had maintained the healthiest risk profile,” Kaja Tikk from the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg and colleagues write.

That was defined by the authors as never smoking, maintaining an optimal weight and waist circumference, exercising, consuming a moderate amount of alcohol and following a healthy diet.

Close to 800,000 people in the United States have a stroke each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Tikk’s team analyzed data from a large European study that began in 1994. The 23,927 participants filled out questionnaires about their health and lifestyle and the researchers tracked them for approximately 13 years. During that time, 551 had a first stroke.

By analyzing each person’s stroke-related risk factors, the researchers estimated that following an overall healthy lifestyle would reduce the number of strokes from 153 to 94 per 100,000 women between age 60 and 65 and from 261 to 161 per 100,000 men during the same period.

Not all risk factors appeared to have an equal impact on stroke prevention, based on a model built by the authors.

They said the two strongest lifestyle-related risk factors were smoking and excess body weight.

“Being a former smoker was not associated with stroke risk, showing that cessation of smoking is effective in stroke prevention,” the researchers write in the journal Stroke.

They also found that heavy drinking was linked to a higher risk of stroke among men, but not necessarily among women. No protection appeared to be associated with light drinking, contrary to the results of previous studies.

The findings can’t prove certain health and lifestyle factors were responsible for increasing stroke risk. They just show strokes were more common among people with those habits and characteristics.

Dr. Daniel Labovitz believes this is still a strong study because the authors were able to look at multiple risk factors at once.

“This pulled together lots of healthy lifestyle behaviors and looked at them all at the same time in a way which we haven’t been able to do before,” Labovitz told Reuters Health.

He directs the Stern Stroke Center at Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx, New York and was not part of the new study.

“I especially liked it because there was no pill involved here, it’s just about doing what your mom would say was good for you: get your exercise, eat properly, don’t get too fat,” he said. “That’s essentially what it added up to and boy did it ever pay off. That’s a bigger difference than we can generate with any single pill that I can give for stroke prevention.”

Labovitz said most people don’t realize that a stroke is a blood vessel problem just like a heart attack, so the risk factors and preventive measures are essentially the same.

“Basically what we’re talking about here is stroke that is caused by blockage or bursting of a blood vessel, and that’s exactly what the heart doctors have been talking about all these years,” he said. During a heart attack, “blood vessels don’t burst but they certainly do get blocked.”

Labovitz added that exercising, following a Mediterranean-style or DASH-style diet – which is rich in nutrients and protein but lower in saturated fat and salt – and not smoking all help prevent both heart attacks and strokes.

SOURCE: bit.ly/UzkEJi Stroke, online May 29, 2014.

Health workers carry the body of an Ebola virus victim in Kenema, Sierra Leone, June 25, 2014. CREDIT: REUTERS/UMARU FOFANA

(Reuters) - West African states lack the resources to battle the world’s worst outbreak of Ebola and deep cultural suspicions about the disease remain a big obstacle to halting its spread, ministers said on Wednesday.

The outbreak has killed 467 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since February, making it the largest and deadliest ever, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

West African health ministers meeting in Ghana to draw up a regional response mixed appeals for cash with warnings of the practices that have allowed the disease to spread across borders and into cities.

Abubakarr Fofanah, deputy health minister for Sierra Leone, a country with one of the world’s weakest health systems, said cash was needed for drugs, basic protective gear and staff pay.

Sierra Leone announced on Wednesday that President Ernest Bai Koroma, his vice president and all cabinet ministers would donate half of their salaries to help fight the outbreak, though the total amount of the donations was not disclosed.

“In Liberia, our biggest challenge is denial, fear and panic. Our people are very much afraid of the disease,” Bernice Dahn, Liberia’s deputy health minister, told Reuters on the sidelines of the Accra meeting.

“People are afraid but do not believe that the disease exists and because of that people get sick and the community members hide them and bury them, against all the norms we have put in place,” she said.

Authorities are trying to stop relatives of Ebola victims from giving them traditional funerals, which often involve the manual washing of the body, out of fear of spreading the infection. The dead are instead meant to be buried by health staff wearing protective gear.

Neighboring Sierra Leone faces many of the same problems, with dozens of those infected evading treatment, complicating efforts to trace cases.

RED CROSS STAFF THREATENED

The Red Cross in Guinea said it had been forced to temporarily suspend some operations in the country’s southeast after staff working on Ebola were threatened.

“Locals wielding knives surrounded a marked Red Cross vehicle,” a Red Cross official said, asking not to be named. The official said operations had been halted for safety reasons. The Red Cross later said only international staff were removed.

A Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) center in Guinea was attacked by youths in April after staff were accused of bringing the disease into the country.

<For a map of the region affected by Ebola, please click on link.reuters.com/fyj32w>

Ebola causes fever, vomiting, bleeding and diarrhea and kills up to 90 percent of those it infects. Highly contagious, it is transmitted through contact with blood or other fluids.

WHO has flagged three main factors driving its spread: the burial of victims in accordance with tradition, the dense populations around the capital cities of Guinea and Liberia and the bustling cross-border trade across the region.

Health experts say the top priority must be containing Ebola with basic infection control measures such as vigilant handwashing and hygiene, and isolation of infected patients.

Jeremy Farrar, a professor of tropical medicine and director of The Wellcome Trust, an influential global health charity, said people at high risk should also be offered experimental medicines, despite the drugs not having been fully tested.

“We have more than 450 deaths so far, and not a single individual has been offered anything beyond tepid sponging and ‘we’ll bury you nicely’,” Farrar told Reuters in an interview. “It’s just unacceptable.”

(Additional reporting by Misha Hussain in Dakar and Umaru Fofana in Freetown; Writing by David Lewis; Editing by Joe Bavier, Toni Reinhold)

POEA halts deployment of newly hired OFWs to Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone due to Ebola outbreak. (Image credits: Google)

From the Department of Labor and Employment

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) Governing Board declared yesterday a suspension on the processing and deployment of newly hired overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) bound for Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, after the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) raised the crisis alert level in these countries following the spread of an extremely contagious disease, the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).

“Under such circumstance, we will only allow the deployment of returning OFWs with existing employment contracts or a group of OFWs under special circumstances to go back to their host country,” Secretary of Labor and Employment Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz, who chairs the POEA, explained. The declaration was made by virtue of Governing Board Resolution No. 14, Series of 2014.

POEA records show that from January 2012 to May 2014, there are 880 OFWs in Guinea, 632 in Liberia, and 1,979 in Sierra Leone.

To date, no Filipino has been afflicted with the disease.

Meanwhile, International Manpower Corp., a local recruitment agency notified the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) that its foreign principal, ISU Engineering and Construction Co. Ltd, has imposed an immediate repatriation of its employees working in a jobsite in Sierra Leone for the workers’ safety and as a precautionary measure. There are 20 OFWs who are employed at the said jobsite.

“OWWA has already provided the Department of Health’s (DOH) Bureau of Quarantine of the names and the flight details of the 20 OFWs from Sierra Leone so they could be subjected to the quarantine protocols,” Baldoz said.

In his letter to Secretary Baldoz, Secretary of Foreign Affairs Albert F. del Rosario said that as of June 30, 2014, total reported cases of the disease reached 600 including 400 deaths bringing the mortality rate to about 66.6 percent across Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia.

He added that an official of the Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) announced on June 2o, 2014 that the EVD outbreak in West Africa is “out of control.”

“This is the biggest outbreak of the Ebola virus, both in terms of numbers and geographic coverage since the virus was first identified in 1976, so much so that the World Health Organization (WHO) called for drastic action to contain the spread of deadly Ebola in South Africa,” Secretary del Rosario said in his letter.

The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases in the Philippines has been tapped to immediately activate systems and measures to mitigate the risk of exposure of Filipinos in the affected areas, and prevent and minimize the spread of the disease in the country, as specified in Executive Order No. 168, Series of 2014.

EVD is an extremely contagious disease which can be spread from close contact with the bodily fluids of an infected organism—both human and animal. There is no known available cure for the disease.

The incubation period for EVD is 2-21 days and the virus becomes contagious when the affected person already exhibits symptoms.

“I urged OFWs in the said countries to limit their non-essential movements, avoid public places to prevent their exposure to the disease. It will also be wise for them to prepare for the eventuality of evacuation. The DOLE is working closely with the DFA in ensuring the safety and well-being of OFWs in those countries,” Baldoz said.

dole.gov.ph

Part of DOH Advisory for Hajj pilgrims regarding MERS-CoV.

The Department of Health (DOH) advised Filipinos who intend to perform the Hajj or Umrah pilgrimages in the Arabian Peninsula to postpone or delay their trips or risk getting infected with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome – Coronavirus, or MERSCoV.

“Persons who are 60 years old and above, pregnant women, children below five years old, those who have diabetes, kidney disease, chronic lung disease, weak immunity—they are all at high risk of contracting MERSCoV,” Secretary of Health Enrique Ona declared.

These high-risk groups are advised to delay their trips to the Arabian Peninsula, where according to the World Health Organization (WHO), “699 laboratory-confirmed cases of human infection with MERS-CoV have been reported, including at least 209 deaths.”

Overall, 63.5% of cases are male and the ages ranged from 9 months to 94 years old.

According to WHO, the affected countries in the Arabian Peninsula include Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia (KSA), United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Yemen.

Muslim pilgrims gather in Mecca to perform rituals based on those conducted by the Prophet Muhammad during his last visit to the city. Performing these rituals, known as the Hajj, is the fifth pillar of Islam and the most significant manifestation of Islamic faith and unity. Undertaking the Hajj at least once in his lifetime is a duty for Muslims who are physically and financially able to make the journey to Mecca.

Hajj is expected to fall between October 2-7, 2014.

Umrah is also known as the “lesser pilgrimage,” in comparison to the annual Hajj pilgrimage of Islam. It is a visit one makes to the Grand Mosque in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, outside of the designated Hajj pilgrimage dates. The word “umrah” means to visit an important place.

The exact dates of Islamic holidays cannot be determined in advance, due to the nature of the Islamic lunar calendar. Estimates are based on expected visibility of the hilal (waxing crescent moon following a new moon) and may vary according to location.

“Filipino pilgrims to Mecca are advised to consult a doctor before travelling to review the risk and assess whether making the pilgrimage is advisable,” the health chief concluded.

doh.gov.ph

Maguindanao Province Governor Esmael ‘Toto’ Mangudadatu (UNTV News)

DAVAO CITY, Philippines — Umaasa si Maguindanao Governor Esmael Mangudadatu na susundin ng karamihan ng mga Muslim sa lalawigan ang panawagan ng Department of Health (DOH) na huwag munang bumiyahe patungo sa Mecca sa Middle East upang makiisa sa taunang pilgrimage doon.

Una nang nanawagan ang health department na kung maaari ay ipagpaliban ang biyahe ng mga Hajj pilgrim upang maiwasan ang posibildad na mahawaan ng Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus (MERS-CoV).

Ang Hajj season ay magsisimula sa buwan ng Setyembre.

Ayon sa gobernador, mahalagang sundin ang panawagan ng Department of Health para na rin sa kaligtasan ng mga kababayan nitong Muslim.

Gayunpaman, aminado itong wala ring magagawa kung magpipilit pa rin ang mga pilgrims na bumiyahe.

Nakatakda namang magpadala ng mga tauhan mula sa provincial health office ng Maguindanao si Governor Mangudadatu upang pangalagaan ang kalusugan ng mga kababayang magtutungo sa Middle East.

Base sa website ng National Commission on Muslim Filipinos, mula August 1 hanggang August 20 naka-schedule ang pagbibigay ng vaccination ng menigococcal at anti-flu para sa mga Hajj pilgrims na isasagawa naman ng Bureau of Quarantine and International Health Surveillance. (Louell Requilman / Ruth Navales, UNTV News)

Isang bata ang naka-confine sa ospital dahil sa dengue (UNTV News)

MANILA, Philippines — Posibleng ilabas na sa Hulyo 2015 ng Department of Health (DOH) ang bakuna laban sa nakamamatay na sakit na dengue.

Ito ay matapos na maging matagumpay ang pagsusuri ng kauna-unahang Asian dengue vaccine efficacy trial sa nakalipas na dalawang taon.

“There is a vaccine that has been developed and found to be effective in preventing cases in dengue,” pahayag ni DOH Secretary Enrique Ona.

Sa isinagawang pagsusuri, lumalabas na 56.7% ang bisa ng nasabing bakuna.

Batay din sa isinagawang pagaaral, bumaba ng 88.5% ang posibilidad na ma-develop sa hemmoragic fever ang dengue ayon sa criteria ng World Health Organization (WHO), habang bumaba din ng 67% ang posibilidad na maospital ang isang tao sa pamamagitan ng naturang bakuna.

Isinagawa ang pagsusuri sa mahigit 10-libong mga bata sa Asya na may edad 2 hanggang 14 anyos kung saan 3,500 mula sa mga ito ay nagmula sa Pilipinas.

Samantala, bumaba naman ang kaso ng dengue sa bansa ngayong taon.

Batay sa datos ng DOH, bumaba ng halos animnapung porsiyento ang kaso ng dengue kumpara noong nakaraang taon.

Karamihan sa mga ito ay naitala sa Eastern Visayas na may mahigit sa 3-libong kaso gayundin sa SOCSARGEN Region.

Habang nasa mahigit 2-libo naman sa Northern Mindanao, CALABARZON at Davao Region.

Samantala sa Metro Manila, ang lungsod ng Maynila ang nakapagtala ng may pinakamataas na kaso na umabot sa mahigit apat na raan.

Muli namang nagpaalala ang kagawaran na kahit mayroong bakuna, nararapat pa rin ang ibayong pagiingat upang makaiwas sa dengue.

“Mayron ng vaccine kakalimutan na natin ang program,” ani Secretary Ona.

“Very important pa rin yung ating ginagawa na social mobilization to make sure that na ang mga kababayan natin ay well aware anong oras nakikita itong mga lamok na lumalabas,” dagdag pa nito. (Joan Nano / Ruth Navales, UNTV News)

Nagtipon ang ilang health advocates para sa isang State of the Nation Health Address na pinangunahan ni dating Health Secretary Dr. Esperanza Cabral kaninang umaga, Hulyo 22, 2014 (UNTV News)

MANILA, Philippines — Ilang araw bago ang ika-limang State Of the Nation Address (SONA) ni Pangulong Benigno Aquino III, nagtipon-tipon kaninang umaga  ang  mga  health advocate para sa isang State Of the Nation Health Address na pinangunahan ni dating Health Secretary Dr. Esperanza Cabral.

Kabilang sa mga tinalakay ang mga pangunahing suliranin sa sistema ng kalusugan sa bansa.

Una na rito ang kakulangan ng mga health worker, partikular na sa mga pampublikong pagamutan.

Ayon kay Dr.Cabral, sa ngayon ay nasa halos anim na pu’t anim na libong doktor, limang daan libong nurse at pitumpu’t pitong libong midwife ang nagpraktis ng kanilang propesyon at rehistrado sa Philippine Regulatory Commission.

Ngunit sa kabila nito, nasa halos tatlong libong doktor, limang libong nurse at labing pitong libong midwife ang kasalukyang nagbibigay ng serbisyo sa mga pampublikong pagamutan.

“Kung pagsasamahin wala pa sa tatlong mangagawang pangkalusugan ang nangangalaga sa bawat sampung libong Pilipino, kakarampot kung ikukumpara sa rekomendasyon ng WHO na 24 mangagawang pangkalusugan ang kailangan sa bawat sampung libong tao.”

Dagdag pa ni Cabral,hindi lamang mga doktor,nurse at midwife ang kulang sa bansa, kundi maging mga dentista, medical technologist, pharmacist, barangay health workers at iba pa na nasa larangan ng kalusugan.

Sinabi pa nito na may posibilidad na hindi maabot ng bansa ang millenium development goals sa susunod na taon dahil hindi naman sa nadadagdagan ang dami ng mga mangagawang pangkalusugan na dapat sanang magtataguyod ng mga programang kinakailangan upang makamit ito.

Mas lumalala din aniya ang kakulangan ng serbisyo sa mahihirap, dahil mas higit pang nagagamit ang PhilHealth ng mayayaman kaysa sa mga mahihirap.

“Noong taong 2013, makalipas ang isa pang dekada mas lumala pa ang sitwasyon. Bagaman sa pangkalahatan, marami na ang gumagamit ng PhilHealth. Higit na lumaki ang bilang ng mga mayayaman na nakikinabang dito kumpara sa mga mahihirap.”

Sa datos ng Coalition for Primary Care, 47.6 percent ng mga Pilipino namamatay ang hindi nakikita ng doktor o ng kahit sinong health worker.

Panawagan ng mga health advocate sa pamahalaan, sana ay matugunan na ang krisis pangkalusugan sa bansa. (Joan Nano, UNTV News)

Target ng Philippine Blood Disease and Transfusion Center na makalikom ng halos 7,000 blood bags kada buwan para sa 20,000 libong indibidwal na nangangailangan ng dugo (UNTV News)

MANILA, Philippines — 2,000 bags ng dugo ang kailangan araw-araw sa buong bansa.

Upang masapatan ito, target ng Philippine Blood Disease and Transfusion Center o PBDTC na makakolekta ng 7,000 blood units buwan–buwan para sa 20-libong indibiduwal.

Ang PBDTC ay isang sangay ng Department of Health na nasa ilalim ng pamamahala ng East Avenue Medical Center.

“Its primary goal is to provide adequate good and safe blood for all the Filipinos”, pahayag ni PBDTC OIC Executive Director Dra. Ma. Victoria Abesamis.

Dahil dito hinihikayat ng PBDTC ang publiko na mag-donate ng dugo.

Magsasagawa ng mobile blood donation activity ang ahensya at makikipag ugnayan ito sa iba’t ibang grupo

“In our center, individual can walk in. One individual or group of friends can come here mon to friday 8-5 and they will be tested and blood can be drawn from them.”

Ayon kay Dra. Abesamis, bukod sa nakakatulong sa kapwa ay may benepisyo pang nakukuha ang isang blood donor dahil napapalitan ng bagong blood cells ang nawalang dugo.

Sa pamamagitan din ng pagdo-donate ng dugo, nalalaman kung may karamdaman ang isang blood donor.

“5 exam routinely. Hepa B, Hepa C, HIV, malaria, syphilis. Itong routine ginagawa, safe and quality.”

Maari ding dumulog sa kanila ang mga nangangailangan ng dugo. Dalhin lamang ang blood request mula sa blood bank ng ospital sa  at magdala ng styrofoam bag na may yelo.

1,200 pesos ang babayarang processing fee kada bag ng dugo. (Victor Cosare, UNTV News)