Health Care and Pharmacy News

Archive for the ‘HIV / AIDS’ Category

Many disabled people often feel that some, if not all of their independence has been taken away from them. Fortunately, there are some fantastic disability aids available that can help people to regain both their independence and confidence.

Due to the huge variety of disability aids available, it is important to decide which areas of living that you need the most assistance with. Perhaps you struggle to eat and drink food without spilling it; there are some great aids available to help with this. Or maybe your arms and hands are painful to use, there is lots of hands-free equipment such as telephones and also lightweight appliances that you can use instead.

The following is a list of ailments that disabled people may have and the correct aids that could help.

People who only have the use of one hand:

• ‘Knorks’ (a knife and a fork in one utensil) are an easy way for people with the use of only one hand to eat independently.
• Clamps, suction pads and Velcro can all be used to secure equipment to a surface so that it doesn’t need to be held.
• Dressing sticks are a useful aid to help the person dress independently.

People with painful hands:

• Large, soft handled cutlery makes it less painful for weak hands to grip. Any other larger handles are a great addition to the home.
• Opening stubborn bottles and jars can be painful for some people, jar openers can be purchased which will make it easier.

People who find it difficult to bend:

• Raised toilet seats, bath and shower seats and other chairs that are higher can provide relief from having to lower themselves down.
• Equipment can be placed above waist height such as electric socket extenders.
• A perching stool can be helpful for times when the person has to bend down. The stool provides a safe way to bend down.

Wheelchair users:

• A smooth flooring surface will make it easier to move the wheelchair around.
• Appliances will have to be positioned so that from a wheelchair the person will be able to operate the controls i.e. controls on a cooker should be at the front.
• Adequate room needs to be made so that the wheelchair user can get close to sinks and tables etc.
People who get tired easily:

• Electric wheelchairs are ideal to as they reduce the exertion compared with a self-propelled wheelchair.
• Equipment that helps to provide support whilst walking or standing such as walking sticks or a walking frame are useful.

These are just a few of the disability aids available for only a small number of ailments that can affect a disabled person. To view more disability aids, take a look at aid4u.co.uk .

Transfusions may be a means of transmission of viruses that cause serious diseases, so that while hospitals and clinics perform strict controls on blood donors, science seeks to provide increasingly effective methods to detect pathogens.

Researchers at the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology of Rosario (IBR) CONICET working to prevent the spread of two of the most feared virus, hepatitis C and HIV.

Are designing a new diagnostic system for blood banks to detect these viruses even when the immune system of the infected person has not yet developed antibodies to counteract them.

The time lag between infection and the appearance of antibodies called serological window period and varies depending on the sensitivity of the equipment used to detect them. In the case of Hepatitis C can take up to 69 days to 22 days for HIV.

“It follows that the hepatitis C virus is the highest risk of infection by transfusion as well as presenting the greatest serological window period, no clinical symptoms usually during the first days of infection,” said Dr. Adriana Geri , director of the research group.

Geri explained diagnostic systems typically used antibodies to identify viruses in the blood to determine if a patient is infected. Instead, the method of molecular analysis research group is developing detects viral genetic material.

“This shows whether a person is infected, even during the serological window period, or when there is still no antibodies to avoid false negative results that are,” said the researcher.

It is during this period that the virus’s genetic material is found in greater concentration in the blood and has not yet been offset by the antibodies.

Molecular analysis makes transfusions safer and more people are potential donors.

When someone responds to donate blood on a detailed questionnaire that shows if you have risk behavior or whether there situations in recent times in which the donor may have been exposed to a virus.

Based on the information provided, decide whether the person is eligible to donate and do tests to check that your blood is safe. The new diagnostic system would increase transfusion safety and to detect the virus earlier and thus shorten the serological window period.

The research group is conducting a pilot test of the test for hepatitis C in the Provincial Hospital Centennial Rosario.

“Our idea is to make a prototype test that can be transferred en masse to the effectors of health,” said Dr Geri. This research project is funded by the Federal Council for Science and Technology and the National Agency for Promotion of Science and Technology.

Another advantage of the molecular test is that it offers the possibility of releasing what the strains of hepatitis C and HIV in the region, which allows detection and appropriate treatment.

“Many of the molecular diagnostic systems using kits made in the U.S. and Europe and can not contemplate the strains circulating in our country leading to inaccuracies in the diagnosis of these infections,” said Dr. Geri.

Earlier this month, but in 1981, the first cases of AIDS in the world in Los Angeles, USA and so this year marks 30 years since the onset of the disease.

The diagnosis was younger patients who an unusual pneumonia had caused their death. The picture was produced by a microorganism called Pneumocystis, now known as Pneumocystis jiroveci, and occurred in people who had an unexplained alteration of immunity.

In that first moment, “The New York Times ran a cover story under the title” A strange disease that alters immunity could become a threat. “At that point, just know that patients with this disorder have in common that they were young men who had sex with other men.

The first articles published on the subject, realized that perhaps it was a virus that altered immunity and could be transmitted sexually, by contaminated blood and vertical transmission (from mother to child).

Later, these findings were confirmed, i.e. establishing the three routes of HIV acquisition, until in 1983 it was able to identify the virus causing the disease: a retrovirus that causes immunodeficiency, leading to the disease Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, AIDS. This first phase ends when between 1984 and 1985 shows the Elisa test, which identifies early as those infected with HIV.

People living with HIV would be three times more likely to suffer a stroke (CVA) than those without the AIDS virus, according to a study by U.S. researchers.

According to a study conducted in the United States, although stroke rates in that country declined by 7.2% in 2006 compared to 1997, during the same period increased 67% among persons infected with human immunodeficiency virus HIV and concluded that most of the increase occurred in strokes caused by a blood clot in the brain, known as ischemic strokes, which are the most common.

“In general, strokes in patients with HIV are not common, so the increase is remarkable,” said Dr. Bruce Obviate, University of California at San Diego Healthcare System Veterans Affairs San Diego, whose study was published in the journal Neurology.

According to reports, the team analyzed information on hospital discharge of patients from a nationally representative sample that included people between 1997 and 2006.

Anyway, it was reported that the study does not indicate why stroke rates are increasing among people with HIV / AIDS, but experts said the research period coincides with the expanded use of drugs to treat HIV infection.

As strokes occur more frequently with advanced age, could be influencing that patients with HIV who are taking medication live longer.

However, suffered a stroke during the study tended to have between 50 and 60, an age younger than the one usually associated with strokes. “Therefore, strong cocktail of drugs against HIV would be playing an important role,” said Obviate.

Some studies showed that drugs to treat this virus affect the levels of fat and blood sugar, both of which are closely linked to the stroke, he said.

The scientist said that people with HIV need to take medication against the virus the rest of their lives, so physicians should be aware of the possible risk of stroke and age. In this context, the research team now wants to study more about the relationship between the drugs for this virus and strokes.

Conductions you are distributed in the most popular places for young people, as the field of games and popcorn.

“Love is not taken or assumed smoke …” is the slogan that carried the boxes containing miniature condoms yesterday began to share with young people in Alsatian Fair as part of the campaign of sexual health information and reproductive Association for the Prevention of Unwanted Pregnancies (Appended).

To raise awareness, guide and educate young people and break the barrier of a conservative society, the institution thought this activity so that people know about condoms and their proper use, as Teresa Gonzales, who oversees national organization. Clear that within the boxes were placed tiny balloons for children, such as those used in Carnival.

Gonzales said that apart from giving young people the “conduction”, they also deliver a “manualcito” of information with basic questions and answers and useful at the time of having sex and prevent sexually transmitted infections and HIV / AIDS . Gives also a pocket calendar.

The campaign will visit the Fair’s strategic points, such as popcorn or field of gaming, “where there are many adolescents and youth,” said the supervisor. The check the box and its contents, tore a smile more than a teenager.

For its part, Cristina Mejia, releasing of the organization, added that this idea of conductions only one of many ways of education and advice regarding the subject of Sties / HIV / Aids.

This campaign is the place every day of the Fair to its conclusion and will intensify further in Carnival, the supervisor concluded Gonzales.

While the Health Sector of our country promotes the importance of using condoms during sex to prevent HIV / AIDS and the Ministry of Health in Ithacan takes actions to distribute condoms and educate health sector operating tables and support to civil society organizations to promote actions for the prevention of Sexually Transmitted Infections, Sties, HIV and AIDS and discrimination, stigma and homophobia, Deputy Paz Gutierrez Corrine Fraction PAN legislators, promotes changes to the General Health Law, which violate the sexual freedom of the people, arguing that fidelity are the best ways to stop STI thus discrediting the use of condoms as a preventive measure, scientifically proven .

Again, the condom is of a mess in the lower house of the LXI Legislature of the Congress and the Peace Rep. Gutierrez Corrine, presented the initiative to amend sections 309 and 310 of the General Health Act in order to tell people that condoms do not protect against Sties, 100 percent, to skip advertising phrases such as safe sex, that is not directed to children under 14 years, and its dissemination in electronic media is made only after 22 hours.

This situation worries us and we must take, any time you are undermining the reproductive rights of children and adolescents and Mexico, violating their rights and creating discrimination and denying them the right to be informed about Sties and ways to prevention. Also, where is the coordination work of the Ministers of Education and Health in Latin America and the Caribbean, signed by the 2008 Ministerial Declaration “Education for Prevention”?, Which includes just these issues about the culture of prevention.

Looking to the position of Deputy Paz Gutierrez Corrine even the Church, it is important that health authorities in Mexico maintain the level of information to the public on issues of reproductive rights and sexuality, as well as to everything with measures of attention, control, prevention and fight against homophobia, discrimination and stigma against people living with HIV / AIDS, and to continue the distribution of condoms.