The Olympic flame has landed in the UK ready for the London 2012 torch relay after being flown from Athens, Greece.

David Beckham used it to light a cauldron after the plane, also carrying Princess Anne and Locog chair Lord Coe, arrived at a Cornish air base. Flight BA2012, a gold-coloured A319 named The Firefly, was greeted at RNAS Culdrose by cheering crowds. After Friday's welcoming ceremony, the flame flies on Saturday to Land's End for the start of an 8,000 mile relay. The Princess Royal carried the transportation lantern containing the flame from the aircraft and on to the tarmac.

 It was transferred to a London 2012 torch and David Beckham lit a cauldron, to mark the flame's arrival on UK soil. He said: "It's a very proud moment for everybody. "Seb (Coe) and the team have done an incredible job. I'm very proud to be part of this team bringing the flame. As a nation we're going to have an amazing couple of months."

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was at the Royal Naval air station to formally welcome the flame, along with 500 members of the public, armed forces and dignitaries. He said: "Eight thousand people will pass it from hand-to-hand, a human chain that reaches the length and breadth of Britain. "With every step, the excitement will build. Ten weeks from now, the world will watch as the flame arrives at the Olympic Stadium, bringing with it the hopes of a nation." Chairman of Olympic organisers Locog, Lord Coe, who went to Greece for the lighting and handover of the flame, said this next stage in the build-up to the Games was a "magical moment for any host country". He said: "It's just suddenly come home that this is the first time this has happened in this country for 64 years." The flame will spend Friday night under guard at the air base and on Saturday morning be flown the 25 miles to Land's End by a Royal Navy search and rescue helicopters

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Free Anonymous VPN Proxy

SumRando is a company devoted to cybersecurity. The idea pulsing it to life is that people need to educate themselves about how things have changed since the internet became a part of who we are as a civilization. It was conceived for the people who never took a class on internet safety and social media who still just want their cookies to be chocolate chip. That said, it is also for people people who watch Star Trek and can probably code the Enterprise into existence. I have always been into technology and remember sitting around my family PC when I was eight, reading bulletin board posts on Prodigy for hints on a computer game called Monkey Island. My father presented me with a veritable tome of websites out there that I might ever want to visit--it may very well have been comprehensive. I studied computer science briefly but went on to concentrate on psychology and then politics. In US Congress, in addition to helping our systems administrator deal with technical challenges, I managed to sneak cybersecurity into my portfolio. Congress, along with governments, private industry and educational institutions around the world are waking up to a pop quiz in cyber terrorism. At a talk in DC after the China Google attacks a very clever Secretary made a compelling argument to take the fate of the internet into our own hands. I didn’t go on to found the Stewards of the Internet Facebook page, but I did commit to finding a way to participate. SumRando is not the solution to all of the existing and emerging issues that deal with cybercrime. It is a building block amongst many that people need to collect to build their 21st century identity. It is a jumping off point for people who want a tool to secure what is naturally theirs.

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Patients leaving hospital against advice fare worse

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Hospital patients who leave against medical advice may have an increased risk of being readmitted or dying within a month, a study at one New York medical center finds.

In the U.S., about 500,000 hospital patients a year sign themselves out against medical advice.

Studies have suggested that decision can be unwise: patients hospitalized for asthma, HIV or a heart attack, for example, have been found to have an increased risk of readmission when they leave contrary to doctors' recommendations.

But the new study, reported in the American Journal of Medicine, suggests patients are also at increased risk of dying within 30 days of leaving against medical advice.

Researchers found that of 84,000 patients treated at their medical center, those who left against doctors' advice were more likely be readmitted within the next month: one-quarter of them ended up back in the hospital, versus 11 percent of patients who went home after a planned discharge.

They were also twice as likely to die: 1.3 percent died during the month after leaving the hospital, compared with 0.7 percent of patients with a planned discharge.

"That's the really sobering finding," said lead researcher Dr. William N. Southern, of Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

"These patients are not only at greater risk of readmission," he said, "they are also more likely to die in the next 30 days."

The exact reasons are not certain, Southern told Reuters Health.

Patients who signed out against medical advice tended to have a shorter hospital stay than patients with a planned discharge.

"So it may be that they aren't staying long enough to complete a course of treatment," Southern said in an interview. "But it may also be that they are not getting the follow-up care they may need."

The bottom line, according to Southern, is that people should be aware of the risks of leaving the hospital early.

That does not mean they have to follow "doctor's orders."

"Refusal of care is a patient's fundamental right," Southern said.

But, he added, patients do not always sign out because they don't want treatment. Often, it's for a personal obligation like work or caring for a family member.

The findings are based on 84,000 patients treated at Montefiore Medical Center between 2002 and 2008. That included 3,544 patients who signed out against medical advice.

Patients who checked out early were different from their counterparts in other ways too. For example, they were more likely to have a history of substance abuse or psychiatric conditions or to be on Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor.

But even when the researchers accounted for those differences, as well as factors like age and race, patients who left the hospital against advice still had twice the risk of dying.

Of course, the specific risks to any one person would depend on the illness being treated, overall health and other factors. "Our findings suggest that whatever your baseline (death) risk is -- whether it's high or low -- it would be twice as high if you leave the hospital against medical advice," Southern said.

A limitation of the study, though, is that it reflects a single medical center -- one located in a high-poverty area of New York. Southern said it's not known whether the results would be the similar at all hospitals.

But he said the findings do give hospital staff something to communicate to patients. Until now, it had not been clear whether discharge against medical advice was associated with death risk specifically.

"Now we know that it is," Southern said.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/JcvCbG American Journal of Medicine, online April 17, 2012.

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U.S. charges more than 100 for Medicare fraud schemes

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. authorities have charged 107 people, including doctors and nurses, for trying to defraud the federal Medicare healthcare program for the elderly and disabled of about $452 million, the biggest Medicare fraud sweep to date, the Obama administration said on Wednesday.

At least 91 people were arrested in Miami; Houston; Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and four other cities on a variety of charges: from submitting false billing for home healthcare, mental health services, HIV infusions and physical therapy to money laundering and receiving kickbacks.

Justice Department and Health and Human Services Department officials were unable to say how much Medicare actually paid out, but a review of 34 complaints and indictments found that authorities were seeking to recover at least $59.5 million of allegedly ill-gotten gains.

"These fraud schemes were committed by people up and down the chain of healthcare providers - from doctors, nurses, and licensed clinical social workers, to office managers and patient recruiters," said Lanny Breuer, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's criminal division.

President Barack Obama's administration has been pushing to squeeze out fraud from federal programs like Medicare as part of a broader attempt to stem soaring healthcare costs, arguing fraud can contribute to rising prices for services.

Breuer said that it is the single largest Medicare billing fraud sweep by the Justice Department's special task force in its five-year history. In September, the Obama administration charged 91 people in connection with a variety of schemes aimed at bilking Medicare out of $295 million.

The FBI said it is investigating more than 2,600 cases of healthcare fraud with more than 500 agents and analysts. Since March 2007, the Justice Department said, it has charged more than 1,300 people for falsely billing Medicare more than $4 billion.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sought to use the arrests to defend Obama's controversial healthcare law passed in 2010, arguing that additional resources provided under the law helped authorities root out fraud.

"Today's actions are another example of how the Affordable Care Act is helping the Obama administration fight fraud and strengthen the Medicare program," Sebelius said.

Republicans and 26 out of the 50 U.S. states have challenged the law and are seeking to have it invalidated as unconstitutional because it would require Americans to have health insurance coverage or pay a penalty.

SEVEN ARRESTED IN BATON ROUGE

The biggest cases were in Baton Rouge where seven people were arrested and charged with eight counts, including conspiracy and healthcare fraud for billing Medicare for some $225.6 million in unnecessary services and in some cases not providing services billed.

They ran and worked at two community mental health centers in Louisiana where they billed for more group therapy sessions than were provided, including recreational and education psychotherapy, according to court records.

Medicare paid out more than $37.9 million for the services to the two centers in Baton Rouge, identified as Shifa Community Mental Health Center and Serenity Center, according to the records.

U.S. prosecutors sought to have two of the owners of the centers, Hoor Naz Jafri and Roslyn Dogan, held without bond pending trial. Dogan was also accused of stealing evidence from the prosecutors' office in a bid to obstruct the investigation, according to a detention memo.

Four others who worked as therapists at the centers pleaded guilty last month to one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud for purporting to provide group therapy and document patients' attendance, the court documents said.

In one case out of Miami, 10 people were charged with allegedly seeking $63 million in reimbursements from Medicare as some therapists altered their paperwork to try to justify services for patients who did not need them.

In another Florida case, one person was accused of receiving kickbacks to refer patients to a company that offered home health and physical therapy services, submitting $60 million in claims. Medicare reimbursed that group, NANY Home Health Inc, $40 million.

Last month, the three operators of NANY Home Health were sentenced to lengthy prison terms for their roles in the scheme and were ordered to pay $40 million in restitution.

(Editing by Jackie Frank and Mohammad.zargham)

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Pfizer's Lyrica falls short in two pain studies

One in 3 young adults with autism have no paid job experience, college or technical schooling nearly seven years after high school graduation, a study finds. That's a poorer showing than those with other disabilities including those who are mentally disabled, the researchers said.

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Study: Gene Therapy for HIV Safe, But Effectiveness Still Unclear

WEDNESDAY, May 2 (HealthDay News) -- New research shows that gene therapy can have long-lasting effects on the immune cells of HIV patients -- a promising sign -- even though the specific treatment being studied did not eradicate the virus.

This approach is one of several gene therapy strategies that are being investigated by scientists as possible ways to keep the AIDS virus from spreading in the blood.

In this case, "people were treated by gene therapy and nothing bad happened. It was safe," said study co-author Frederic Bushman, a professor of microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania.

In addition, he said, the treated immune cells managed to remain around for about a decade. "The general picture that emerges about genetic alterations to human immune cells is that they can persist for a long time if you do it right."

The study appears in the May 2 issue of Science Translational Medicine.

Researchers have long been exploring gene therapy -- in which cells in the body are genetically modified -- as a possible treatment for infection with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The idea is that the therapy would offer a permanent alternative to costly medications that come with potentially disabling side effects.

"Just think about what an HIV patient has to do: take drugs every day for the rest of his life, and the minute he stops taking them, the virus starts coming back," said John Rossi, chair of the department of molecular and cellular biology at the Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, in Duarte, Calif. He was not associated with the new research.

The study looks at 43 HIV-positive patients. Between 1998 and 2002, researchers removed blood from the patients, genetically modified it, and injected it back into them.

The plan was to program immune cells known as T cells to kill HIV cells.

Up to 11 years later, researchers found that all 43 patients are healthy, and 41 still have modified T cells in their bodies. That means the modified cells didn't cause leukemia, as has happened with some similar gene -therapy treatments.

The treatment, however, didn't seem to have had a major impact on the HIV in the patients and "may not have worked at all" on that front, study co-author Bushman said.

Dr. David Looney, director of the Center for AIDS Research at the University of California, San Diego, said the research is still "exciting and promising" since it shows that modified immune cells can last a long time, potentially decades.

Several research projects are continuing to examine gene therapy for HIV patients. There's a caveat, however: If gene therapy treatments become available, they seem likely to be extremely expensive.

But Bushman said that if the gene therapy could someday replace antiretroviral medicines, the cost might still be lower than keeping patients on drugs for rest of their lives.

More information

For more about HIV, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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IUD Use Tied to Modest Weight Loss

TUESDAY, May 8 (HealthDay News) -- Women who use an intrauterine device (IUD) as birth control may not have to worry about gaining weight after the device is implanted, new research suggests.

Researchers compared the medical records of 223 women aged 15 to 44 who were using two different types of IUDs, following them for up to two years later.

About half of the women had a non-hormonal IUD containing copper while others used a hormonal IUD that released low levels of a progestin hormone called levonorgestrel (LNG) every day.

Women in both groups appeared to lose about 1 percent of their body weight in the first and second years of having an IUD.

The study was scheduled to be presented Monday at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists annual meeting in San Diego.

"We really expected to see weight gain, and we didn't even expect that there would be weight loss," said study author Dr. Erika Kwock, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Kaiser Permanente Northern California in Santa Clara.

Although previous research has not found associations between hormonal or non-hormonal IUDs and weight gain, Kwock thought that the women in her study would put on pounds "just because over time people tend to gain weight regardless of contraception," she said.

However, Kwock pointed out that the weight loss among the women in her study is probably not a reliable result. Her study did not include enough women to allow for a statistical analysis to show that the women actually shed pounds.

Still, "the numbers are encouraging that there is not a weight difference for LNG IUDs and copper IUDs," Kwock said.

Dr. Jill Rabin, head of urogynecology at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, N.Y., said, "This study is interesting because it opens the door for more questions and more research."

But there were not enough women in the study to know if the IUDs were associated with weight changes, Rabin added.

"People are always worried about weight gain whenever you mention a hormone, even though weight gain is miniscule in our experience," Rabin said. "But I don't think we've answered the question, certainly not with the LNG, and not even with oral contraceptives."

Many women in the study received Kaiser insurance through work, Kwock said. Otherwise they were diverse and probably representative of the women nationwide, she added.

Kwock and study co-author Dr. Julie Livingston looked at a number of factors in the Kaiser medical records of these women, such as weight, age, race, medical conditions that might cause them to gain weight (such as diabetes and thyroid disease) and whether they were taking an antidepressant.

They found no differences for any of these factors between LNG and copper IUD users.

In addition, weight loss, albeit small, seemed to be similar between the LNG and copper IUD users; however this result might not be real, Kwock again cautioned.

Many women start on an IUD after they have had a baby, so Kwock and Livingston compared the proportion of women in each group who had received their IUD within two months of childbirth but found no differences.

The weight loss that the researchers saw in each group was not just due to the fact that some of the women were losing their "baby fat", Kwock said.

"A lot of the doctors we work with really recommend IUDs for new moms because they are busy and they don't have time to remember to take pills," Kwock said.

"One of my favorite forms of birth control is the LNG because it has so many benefits -- women get lighter periods and have less cramping, while the copper IUD can actually make periods more heavy," Kwock said.

However, some patients prefer copper IUDs and it really depends on the patient, Rabin said.

More than with IUDs, women really worry about gaining weight on the pill, and while this cannot be ruled out, most research does not find this to be the case, said Laureen Lopez, a family planning researcher at FHI 360 in Durham, N.C.

"We've concluded that women need to have more appropriate counseling. A lot of people unfortunately gain weight over time, and you need to look at dietary patterns and exercise and not blame a contraceptive for which there may be little evidence," Lopez said.

Because this study was presented at a medical meeting, the data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

To learn more about IUDs, visit the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

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US urges circumcision for soldiers to fight HIV in Africa

Male circumcision is the best way to prevent new HIV infections in the military, the head of US anti-AIDS efforts told a gathering of top army brass from Africa, Eastern Europe and central Asia.

"We believe male circumcision is a highly significant, lifetime intervention. It is a gift that keeps on giving. It makes a lot of sense to put extraordinary resources into it," US global AIDS coordinator Eric Goosby told the 400 delegates.

The meeting on AIDS and the military gathered officials from 80 countries, including most of Africa but also countries from Surinam to Georgia and Estonia.

Studies show that circumcision can dramatically reduce HIV infections. One study in South Africa last year found new infections fell by 76 percent after a circumcision programme was launched in a township.

In 2006, trials in Kenya, Uganda and South Africa found foreskin removal more than halved men's risk of HIV infection. Longer-term analysis has found the benefit to be even greater than thought, with a risk reduction of around 60 percent.

The United States is sponsoring programmes in several African countries with a goal of circumcising four million men by 2013.

Results so far are patchy. Although Kenya is close to reaching its target of 80 percent of sexually active men, Uganda has achieved less than five percent of its target.

"We need the military to take up some of these circumcisions," said Caroline Ryan of the US Global AIDS Coordinator's Office.

One issue she said, is that the surgery requires soldiers to recuperate for two to four days, meaning time off from the army.

Another concern, raised by South Africa, was how to marry traditional coming-of-age rites with the need for circumcisions to be carried out under surgical conditions.

"Traditional circumcision is part of the path to manhood. For us it is critical to be given strategies to deal with their concerns," South African Brigadier General Snowy Moremi.

Little data exists on HIV rates among soldiers. Few countries are willing to divulge statistics, fearing they will be perceived as weak.

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What killed Lenin? Stress didn't help, poison eyed

BALTIMORE (AP) — Stress, family medical history or possibly even poison led to the death of Vladimir Lenin, contradicting a popular theory that a sexually transmitted disease debilitated the former Soviet Union leader, a UCLA neurologist said Friday.

Dr. Harry Vinters and Russian historian Lev Lurie reviewed Lenin's records Friday for an annual University of Maryland School of Medicine conference that examines the death of famous figures.

The conference is held yearly at the school, where researchers in the past have re-examined the diagnoses of figures including King Tut, Christopher Columbus, Simon Bolivar and Abraham Lincoln.

The 53-year-old Soviet leader suffered several strokes before dying in 1924 and what caused them isn't clear.

An autopsy found blood vessels in his brain were extremely hardened, results that have been difficult to understand, said Dr. Philip Mackowiak, who organizes the yearly event.

"Number one, he's so young and number two, he has none of the important risk factors," Mackowiak said.

Lenin didn't smoke — he never let smokers near him. He also didn't have diabetes, wasn't overweight and the autopsy didn't find any evidence of high blood pressure, said Mackowiak, director of the medical care clinical center of the VA Maryland Health Care System, a co-sponsor of the event.

There was "considerable suspicion" among Russians at the time of Lenin's death that syphilis was to blame, Mackowiak said.

However, family history appears to have worked more against Lenin, Vinters said.

Lenin was treated for syphilis using the primitive medications available at the time, and while the sexually transmitted disease can cause strokes, there is no evidence from his symptoms or the autopsy that was the case with Lenin, Vinters said.

The Soviet leader's father died at 54 and both may have been predisposed to hardening of the arteries. Stress also is a risk factor for strokes, and there's no question the communist revolutionary was under plenty of that, the neurologist said.

"People were always trying to assassinate him, for example." Vinters said.

Lurie, a St. Petersburg-based expert in Russian history and politics who also spoke at the conference, said that while Lenin had several strokes, he believes Josef Stalin may finished him off with poison, a theory that Vinters said is a possibility.

Lenin's health had been growing worse over time. In 1921, he forgot the words of a major speech and he had to learn to speak again and write with his left hand after one stroke. A major stroke later left him paralyzed on one side and unable to speak.

However, Lurie said Lenin had recovered enough in early 1924 that he celebrated the new year and went hunting. Lenin, who supported Stalin's rise to power, may have realized he made a mistake and began aligning himself with Leon Trotsky, which caused Stalin to poison Lenin, the historian said.

Poisoning, in fact, eventually became one of Stalin's favorite methods of disposing of enemies, Lurie said.

"The funny thing is that the brain of Lenin still is preserved in Moscow, so we can investigate," Lurie said.

Lenin's embalmed body also still lies on public display in a Red Square mausoleum almost 20 years after the collapse of the communist state he helped bring to life.

Vinters, who reviewed autopsy records and the leader's clinical history, said toxicology tests that might have revealed poisoning were not conducted during the autopsy. Reports from the time also show Lenin was active and talking a few hours before his death.

"And then he experienced a series of really, really bad convulsions which is quite unusual for someone who has a stroke," Vinters said.

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FDA Seems to Back Pill to Help Prevent HIV

WEDNESDAY, May 9 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisers will meet Thursday to decide whether to endorse the use of the drug Truvada as a means to help prevent HIV infection in people at high risk.

Those individuals might include highly sexually active gay or bisexual men, or the partners of people already infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

A report released by the FDA this week ahead of Thursday's meeting suggests that experts do believe the drug is safe and effective for this use.

There are potential drawbacks to using the medication in this way, however. Truvada -- which combines two HIV-fighting drugs, tenofovir (Viread) and emtricitabine (Emtriva) -- is very expensive and may cause side effects. And although doctors can already prescribe it to people trying to avoid HIV infection, critics say it's too early to officially allow it to be promoted for that use.

On the other hand, those who support marketing the drug as a preventive agent say it can help high-risk people avoid the disease, especially if they don't use condoms or if they want an added layer of protection.

"I don't see it as a panacea, but it's an option, and that's important," said Dr. Kenneth Mayer, an AIDS specialist and medical research director of The Fenway Institute at Fenway Health in Boston. "Some people won't use a condom, but will say, 'if you give me another option, I'll use that.'"

Truvada works to prevent HIV from replicating in the body's cells. Mayer explained that in someone who is not yet infected but is exposed to HIV, the drug may prevent the virus from reproducing even if it's already invaded cells. As a result, he said, "the virus cannot start turning the newly exposed person's body into a 'factory' to produce more HIV particles."

A study published in 2010 in the New England Journal of Medicine found that Truvada cut the risk of HIV infection by almost 44 percent in those at highest risk for contracting the virus, namely sexually active gay and bisexual men. The risk reduction climbed to nearly 73 percent among study participants who took the pill 90 percent of the time, the researchers added.

On Thursday, the FDA advisory panel will meet and come up with advice for federal officials about the possible marketing of the drug as a preventive agent by its manufacturer, Gilead Sciences.

The research suggests that people who use Truvada daily along with condoms would gain an added layer of protection, because condoms aren't 100 percent effective. But one organization, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, worries that wider use of the drug could lead to more infections by discouraging people from bothering to use condoms.

"Why would you take this medication if you intended to use condoms?" asked the group's president, Michael Weinstein, in an interview with Bloomberg News. He used a sartorial metaphor to elaborate how unlikely that might be: "You've got to be really paranoid about your pants falling down to wear a belt and suspenders."

A. David Paltiel, a professor at Yale School of Medicine, said his research has shown that the use of preventive drug treatments should reduce the risk of infection overall. Still, he said, it's unknown if "people (would) take more chances because they feel protected by a 'chemical condom.'"

Potential markets for Truvada as a preventive drug, Mayer said, include gay men who have sex with more than one man and any committed couple in which one person is HIV-positive, including some heterosexual couples who want to have children.

Mayer, who has conducted research into the drug, said that allowing the marketing will probably lead to an increase in its usage for prevention. But, "this is not a one-time, end-of-the-problem approach like a shot of penicillin to treat an infection like syphilis," he said. "Also, it involves someone perceiving that he or she is at risk, or a provider being comfortable enough to ask about a person's risk. We know that a lot of health providers don't like to talk to their patients about sex."

Truvada can also cause a long list of side effects, including gastrointestinal problems. And it's costly, with prices in the United States tagged at about $26 a day or $10,000 a year. Still, a study released this year found the drug would be cost-effective if used extensively by gay and bisexual men at high risk of becoming infected.

For his part, Paltiel said his research came to the same conclusion: That widespread usage of the drug in high-risk people would be "as cost-effective as other widely accepted public health and medical interventions."

More information

Find out more about HIV/AIDS at the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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US experts urge approval of first AIDS prevention pill

US health advisers urged regulators to approve Truvada, made by Gilead Sciences, as the first preventive pill against HIV/AIDS instead of just a treatment for infected people.

The favorable vote came after clinical trials showed Truvada could lower the risk of HIV in gay men by 44 to 73 percent, and was hailed by some AIDS advocates as a potent new tool against human immunodeficiency virus.

However, many concerns were raised during a marathon 11-hour panel meeting in which about three dozen health care providers warned that the pill could boost risky behaviors and possibly lead to a drug-resistant strain of HIV.

The Food and Drug Administration is not bound by the recommendations of its expert panel, but usually follows the advice. A final decision by the FDA is expected by June 15.

Mitchell Warren, executive director of HIV prevention group AVAC, said after the vote that pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), or the method of taking a drug ahead of potential exposure to HIV, "while not a panacea, will be an essential additional part to the world's success in ending AIDS."

"For the millions of men and women who remain at risk for HIV worldwide, each new HIV prevention option offers additional hope," he added.

The drug, made by the California-based Gilead Sciences, is currently available as a treatment for people with HIV in combination with other anti-retroviral drugs, and received FDA approval in 2004.

The panel's nod came in response to the pharmaceutical company's request for a supplemental new drug application to market it for prevention purposes.

The Antiviral Drugs Advisory Committee voted for the drug as a preventive measure for three groups: 19-3 in favor for men who have sex with men, 19-2 with one abstention for couples in which a partner is HIV positive and 12-8 with two abstentions for other at-risk groups.

Gay men account for more than half of the 56,000 new HIV cases in the United States each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

But critics noted that the pill is costly -- up to $14,000 per year -- and could offer a false sense of protection, leading to a spike in unsafe sex and a new surge in AIDS cases.

"We need to slow down. I care too much about my community not to speak my concerns," said Joey Terrill, advocacy manager at the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which campaigned against the drug's approval for PrEP.

There also remains some controversy about who would benefit from the treatment, as trials in women have shown feeble results, possibly due to poor adherence to the regimen.

"I am concerned about the potential for development of resistance," said Roxanne Cox-Iyamu, a doctor who spoke at the panel's meeting.

"I am concerned as a black woman that we don't have enough data that this actually works in women."

Nurse Karen Haughey said Truvada will not work because "it is not in our nature to always do as human beings what we are told 100 percent of the time."

She also said Truvada's main side effects -- diarrhea and risk of kidney failure -- were a major deterrent.

The main set of data considered came from the iPrEx HIV Prevention Study, carried out from July 2007 to December 2009 in six countries -- Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, South Africa, Thailand and the United States.

The study was conducted among 2,499 men who were sexually active with other men but were not infected with the virus that causes AIDS.

Participants were selected at random to take a daily dose of Truvada -- a combination of 200 milligrams of emtricitabine and 300 milligrams of tenofovir disoproxil fumarate -- or a placebo.

Those in the study who took the drug regularly had almost 73 percent fewer infections. Across the entire study, including those who had not been as diligent in taking Truvada, there were 44 percent fewer infections than in those who took a placebo.

After publication in 2010 in the New England Journal of Medicine, some experts hailed the results as game-changing and the first demonstration that an already-approved oral drug could decrease the likelihood of HIV infections.

Joseph McGowan, medical director of the Center for AIDS Research and Treatment at North Shore University Hospital in New York, said the CDC was expected to soon issue guidance for health professionals who may prescribe the drug.

"I don't see it as something that would be useful to the general public but to certain people who are particularly high risk, there may be some benefit," he said.

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HIV Drug Tenofovir Safe During Pregnancy, Study Suggests

THURSDAY, May 3 (HealthDay News) -- The use of the anti-HIV drug tenofovir during pregnancy appears to be safe for infants, new research suggests.

In combination with other anti-HIV drugs, tenofovir (Viread) is the first line of treatment for adults with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. These findings should reassure pregnant women who are taking tenofovir, the researchers said.

The study was conducted by the U.S. National Institutes of Health network because previous studies showed that laboratory animals exposed to tenofovir in the womb were smaller at birth than those that were not exposed to the drug.

The new study included 2,000 infants born to HIV-positive mothers between 2003 and 2010 in the United States. Infants born to mothers who took tenofovir during pregnancy did not weigh less at birth and did not have shorter length than those born to women who did not take the drug.

At 1 year of age, however, children born to mothers who took tenofovir during pregnancy were slightly shorter and had slightly smaller head circumference (an average of about 1 centimeter) than children whose mothers did not take the drug, the investigators found.

The researchers said further studies should be conducted to follow the children as they grow and develop in order to identify any potential long-term effects of taking tenofovir during pregnancy.

The study was released online April 26 in advance of publication in an upcoming print issue of the journal AIDS.

"This study produced reassuring information regarding the use of tenofovir," first author Dr. George Siberry, of the Pediatric, Adolescent and Maternal AIDS Branch of the U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, said in a National Institutes of Health news release.

"Although further research is needed ... our findings favor the use of tenofovir in pregnancy to ensure good outcomes in the mother and prevent transmission of HIV to the infant," Siberry added.

More information

The New Mexico AIDS Education and Training Center has more about HIV and pregnancy.

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When working on a new web project, during the HTML coding process, using Lorem Ipsum as filler content is a common approach (yet, there great Lorem Ipsum alternatives). Fixie.js is a simple JavaScript library (with no JS framework dependencies) that automatically analyzes your semantic HTML5 tags and adds the right type of content inside the [...]]]>

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FDA staff: Gilead's Truvada may help reduce HIV risk

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Gilead Sciences Inc's Truvada tablets appear safe and effective for reducing the risk of HIV infection, U.S. regulators said on Tuesday. But they recommended a cautious approach for using the drug in efforts to prevent the virus that causes AIDS.

Food and Drug Administration staff said Truvada, which is already being used by patients with the human immunodeficiency virus, is well tolerated overall by uninfected people and may prevent infection in high-risk individuals when used in combination with other strategies.

FDA staff also acknowledged a strong correlation between the drug's efficacy at reducing HIV infection and the willingness of those taking it to adhere to the treatment.

Their 47-page review document said preventive use of the drug -- a combination of Gilead's HIV drugs Emtriva, also known as emtricitabine, and Viread, or tenofovir -- should be weighed carefully against an individual's risk for infection, readiness to adhere to the treatment and potential for kidney problems.

"The individual at risk may be spared infection with a serious and life-threatening illness that requires lifelong treatment," the report said.

Truvada represents a potential milestone in the evolution of the worldwide AIDS epidemic by offering a tablet capable of preventing infection. An estimated 1.2 million Americans have HIV, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

An outside panel of experts is scheduled to examine the FDA review documents on Thursday and make recommendations that U.S. health regulators will consider in deciding whether the drug should be used as a preventive treatment.

Some experts warn that the drug is only partly effective against HIV and that using it to prevent infection could cause protection from the virus to falter if patients fail to adhere to treatment.

Shares in Gilead Sciences were off 1.5 percent at $49.17 after the FDA released the review document.

CONCERNS OVER DRUG RESISTANCE

UBS analyst Matthew Rodin told investors that the review should have only limited impact on the company because Truvada, which has FDA approval to treat people infected with HIV, is already being used off-label as a prophylactic.

He said a Friday advisory committee meeting on Gilead Sciences' Quad HIV pill for controlling the HIV virus could have bigger implications for the company. Quad is seen as key to Gilead's continued dominance of the market for HIV drugs.

Meanwhile, FDA staff acknowledged that resistance is likely to occur among people who become infected while taking the drug. "The frequency of resistance might be minimized by limiting the duration of drug exposure after infection occurs," the review document said.

The Boston-based Fenway Health Institute, which advocates for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities, issued a statement calling on the FDA to approve the drug as a means of reducing the risk of HIV infection.

"If the FDA approves the additional indication of the use of tenofovir-emtricitabine ... health programs and individuals will have improved choices," the group said.

In a 2010 landmark study in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that giving a daily dose of Truvada to men who have sex with men can reduce HIV infection rates 44 percent.

But other research shows that Truvada's high price makes it too costly to provide it to all homosexual and bisexual men, who account for more than half of the estimated 56,000 new infections annually in the United States.

A team of researchers at Stanford University had estimated that giving a daily preventive dose of the drug to all U.S. men who have sex with men would cost $495 billion over 20 years in terms of the cost of drugs and healthcare visits.

The strategy would be far more effective if it targeted men who are at high risk of developing HIV because they have five or more sexual partners a year, they said.

If just 20 percent of these high-risk individuals took the drug, the research team found, it could prevent 41,000 new infections over a period of 20 years at a cost of about $16.6 billion.

(Reporting By David Morgan, editing by Dave Zimmerman, Maureen Bavdek and Gunna Dickson)

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More Teen Girls Using Contraceptives: CDC

THURSDAY, May 3 (HealthDay News) -- More teenage girls are using contraceptives, which may explain part of the dramatic drop in the U.S. teen pregnancy rate, federal health officials reported Thursday.

The teen birth rate has dropped 44 percent since 1990, to 34 births for every 1,000 females. In 2010, about 368,000 infants were born to teen mothers, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"We know there have been declines in teen pregnancy, which is wonderful, and increases in abstinence among teens, which is really wonderful also," said report author Crystal Pirtle Tyler, a CDC health scientist. "There has also been increases in contraceptive use."

Tyler noted that there has been a 16 percent decline in teens who say they are sexually active. "The majority of teens report never having had sex," she said.

To keep teen pregnancy rates declining, teens and their doctors need to have talks about delaying having sex, Tyler said. "It would be great if teens know that the majority of teens have never had sex," she added.

Even teens who are sexually active can be counseled to stop having sex, Tyler noted.

Tyler also said she thinks doctors have become less adverse to offering contraceptive advice to teens. "They are more comfortable providing contraceptive information than they were before," she said.

The new findings were published in the May 4 issue of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Using data from the National Survey of Family Growth, the researchers found that about 60 percent of sexually active teens said they used effective contraceptive methods. Contraceptives included intrauterine devices, implants, pills, patches, rings or injectable contraceptives.

That represents a 47 percent increase in contraceptive use since 1995, the researchers said.

Contraceptive use varied by race and ethnic group, the researchers found. More white teens (66 percent) than black (46 percent) or Hispanic teens (54 percent) used contraceptives.

Although these findings are seen as progress in reducing teen pregnancy rates, meeting the Healthy People 2020 goal of reducing teen pregnancy rates by 10 percent will require "a comprehensive approach to sexual and reproductive health that includes continued promotion of delayed sexual debut and increased use of highly effective contraception among sexually experienced teens," the CDC said.

However, "we are on target to meet that goal," Tyler added.

Dr. Lawrence Friedman, director of adolescent medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, said that, "It's good news that young people are using more contraceptives when they are sexually active, and that there are more young people that are delaying the onset of sexual activity."

However, Friedman doesn't think that the apparent decrease in sexual activity means that teens are having less sex, just that they may be having less intercourse. "So, it does not indicate that teenagers are really less sexually active, maybe they are not choosing intercourse," he explained.

The fact that the pregnancy rate is down could mean that fewer teens are having intercourse, but perhaps more teens are choosing oral sex or mutual masturbation instead of intercourse, Friedman added.

More information

For more information on contraception, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Should you use condoms in an exclusive relationship?

Many have told me that once they have sex with someone they're dating, they consider themselves exclusive and they don't sleep with anyone else; if the other person doesn't agree, they move on. Part of the decision has to do with not using condoms. I can count the times on one hand that I've had sex without using a condom, but many others seem to prefer forgoing condoms entirely once they're in an exclusive relationship.

The decision about using condoms isn't so cut and dry. There's a variety of factors to consider and every couple is different. Even when condoms are used correctly there's still a 2% failure rate; when not used correctly the rate jumps to 18%. Does sex feel better without them? Yes, but is it the best decision to skip them? Maybe not. So what should you ask yourself before telling your guy to go without?

Do you want to go on birth control?

I'm one of those women who has a problem handling birth control (hormonal or not); my body doesn't react well to it at all. If I were to forgo using condoms, there's basically no defense at all against getting pregnant. If you're not already on birth control, ask yourself if it's something you would consider? Keep in mind that even using the pill perfectly isn't 100% effective. For example, Planned Parenthood states, "Less than 1 out of 100 women will get pregnant each year if they always take the pill each day as directed. About 9 out of 100 women will get pregnant each year if they don't always take the pill each day as directed." However, there are a variety of types of birth control to consider, so consult with your gynecologist about which one is right for you.

Also, make sure to tell your guy if you're not on birth control. He may be willing to go without a condom if he thinks you're on it, but insist on wrapping it up if he finds out you're not. Before you have sex, let him know so the two of you can make the decision about what to do.

Do you use the pull out method?

Several people explained to me that they use the "pull out" method rather than using condoms. A few others said they thought the withdrawal method was basically fail-safe - until they got pregnant. Sure it's better than nothing, but just barely and it's more risky than some realize. When done perfectly, the failure rate is 4%; not done correctly and it jumps to 27%. It's essentially like playing Russian Roulette. The surprising thing is how many guys don't realize that there's a chance a woman can get pregnant from pre-ejaculation fluid, which is probably one of the biggest reasons they'll have no problem promising to pull out first.

Are you ready for a child?

The scary truth is that even with using condoms, pregnancy could happen, but the odds are obviously higher when you go without. Whenever you have sex without a condom, you're taking a chance with getting pregnant. Just because you're exclusive with your guy doesn't mean you're ready to have a kid with him; keep that in mind before you tell him to leave the condom in the drawer.

Are both of you STD-free?

You may already know you're STD-free, but it's a good idea to make sure your guy is as well. You may feel odd talking to him about it, but if you can be exclusive with him, you surely can have the conversation with him about it.

Are both of you only having sex with just each other?

You may be in the mindset that you're exclusive because you've had sex, but your guy may not be on the same page. Before you assume that the two of you are only having sex with each other, talk to him about it. You may not like the answer, but at least you know where you stand. A guy I was dating last year actually brought it up to me first and it made me feel better to know that we were both able to discuss things and put it all out there.

Why do you want to stop using condoms?

I've heard several women say they weren't thrilled about forgoing condoms but stopped using them because their guy wanted to. If you're not 100% comfortable with not using them, then make sure your guy knows this and uses one. Don't let him give you excuses about how it doesn't feel good or he'll leave if he has to use one. If that's the case, let him walk. A true man will respect you and your body without judgment or ultimatums. Sex is about the two of you, and while both of you would likely love to pass up on the condoms, they're often a necessity for your health.

Even if you're exclusive with someone, using condoms shouldn't come down to "Sex feels better without them so let's just not use them." No one can tell you and your guy whether or not you should use them, but both of you should be able to have an open discussion with each other about the topic and make the decision together.

More from Lauren R:

Hanging out vs. a date: How to know the difference

How to get over the bad boy

Keeping a dating spreadsheet: Yay or nay?

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EU Cookie Law: 2 jQuery Plugins To Not Break It

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Many of us probably heard the EU Cookie Law already and thinking about "what to do" and many others should be saying: "cookie what?". What is it? It is a European Union e-Privacy Directive that will become active on 26th May 2012 and "requires website owners to take the permission of the user before placing anything (cookies, [...]]]>

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Clot Risk Higher in Some Contraceptives

Women who use non-oral hormonal contraceptives, like patches and vaginal rings, may be at higher risk of blood clots than those who take oral forms of birth control, according to a new Danish study published in the journal BMJ.

Researchers from the University of Copenhagen analyzed national data from more than 1.6 million healthy women ages 15 to 49 who took various forms of birth control. They found that women who took birth control pills were at three times the risk of blood clots than those who did not use any type of hormonal birth control, but those who used other types of non-oral hormonal contraceptives were at higher risk. Women who used skin patches were at eight times an increased risk of blood clots and those who used vaginal rings had a 6.5 percent increased risk.

Patches and vaginal rings continuously releases hormones into the body to prevent pregnancy. The study suggests that some women talk with their doctor about switching from non-oral hormone contraceptives if they are already at high risk for blood clots.

People who are overweight, inactive, those who smoke and have a family history of blood clots are all at increased risk. Certain medical conditions also increase a person's risk.

"The important thing is that women are informed about the risk of VT for different product types," said Øjvind Lidegaard of the University of Copenhagen and lead author of the study. "Then I think they can decide themselves whether they want to continue of switch to another product. For young women, the most obvious alternative is a low-dose second-generation pill with levonorgestrel."

Almost half of all pregnancies in the U.S. are unintended, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 10.7 million women in the U.S. use birth control pills.

But experts noted the limitations of the study, pointing out that the research did not account for excess fat and smoking habits, both recognized risk factors of blood clots.

Dr. Paula Hillard, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Stanford University School of Medicine, noted that the risk of venous thrombosis during pregnancy can be much higher than the numbers tallied in the study.

"The combined hormonal contraceptives, even those that the authors found to have an increased risk of venous thrombosis compared to other specific combination oral contraceptives, are associated with a higher risk than an individual would experience if she were pregnant," said Hillard. "Thus, preventing unintended pregnancy is health promoting."

While non-oral hormonal contraceptives did indeed show a higher risk of blood clots, Hillard said individuals must consider which option is best and most effective.

"The patch and the ring are methods that may be more effective at preventing pregnancy compared to methods that require daily use of a pill, which is difficult to take correctly and consistently day in- and day out," said Hillard.

Of note, authors found that intrauterine devices, or IUDs, a T-shaped plastic or copper device that is placed in a woman's uterus to prevent pregnancy, was not associated with blood clots. In fact, researchers said they were associated with a reduced risk and may have a protective effect against blood clots.

"Thus when discussing contraceptive options with women who might consider switching, the option of an IUD offers not only a method that is as effective as sterilization at preventing unintended pregnancy, and which lasts five or 10 years, but that also has a lower risk of venous thrombosis," said Hillard.

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Terrence Howard Leaves Threatening Voicemail

Note to self: do not call up Terrence Howard‘s wife, Michelle Ghent, because he will leave you a voicemail threatening to kill you. This is exactly what he did to some woman who left a message on his wife’s phone.

A source says that the woman got drunk one night and got Terrence’s phone number from another friend so she decided to prank call him and express her love for him.

“But apparently the call was made to his wife’s phone, not his. I’m assuming she got the voicemail of my friend gushing about Terrence and questioned him about it,” says a source.

This didn’t settle well with the actor because he called the number back and left a lovely voicemail saying “Nigga, you been calling my wife… If you call my wife again I’m going to come to your house and I’m going to cut your fucking throat. Understand that. I’m gonna tell you this one time. You call my wife again, I’m going to kill you.”

Terrence must have had a change of heart though because just last week he decided to call up the person again and left another voicemail, but this time he was apologizing.

“I’m so sorry for calling you and speaking that way. I thought you were somebody that’s been harassing my wife. Please forgive me. My wife told me that she was receiving obscene text from you and that she was being harassed. Therefore I responded with the protective nature that a husband has for his wife. Forgive me for the anger, but as you are watching over your girlfriend, I too am devoted to my love.” He said in the second voicemail.

I guess Terrence and Michelle are trying to get back together if he is getting all protective of her because she filed for divorce back in February.

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FDA reviews first rapid, take-home test for HIV

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration is considering approval of the first over-the-counter HIV test that would allow consumers to quickly test themselves for the virus at home, without medical supervision.

FDA reviewers said Friday the OraQuick In-Home HIV test could play a significant role in slowing the spread of HIV, according to briefing documents posted online. But they also raised concerns about the accuracy of the test, a mouth swab that returns results in about 20 minutes.

The review comes one day after an FDA advisory panel endorsed the HIV pill Truvada for preventive use. If FDA follows the group's advice, the daily medication would become the first drug approved to prevent healthy people from becoming infected with the virus that causes AIDS.

Public health experts estimate one-fifth, or about 240,000 people, of the 1.2 million HIV carriers in the U.S. are not aware they are infected. Testing is one of the chief means of slowing new infections, which have held steady at about 50,000 per year for two decades.

In a trial conducted by the company OraSure Technologies Inc., the test correctly detected HIV in those carrying the virus 93 percent of the time. That rate is below the FDA-recommended 95 percent threshold for accuracy.

The FDA estimates the test would miss about 3,800 HIV-positive people per year, if approved for U.S. consumers.

The test was more accurate at correctly clearing patients who do not have the disease. In company studies, OraQuick correctly identified HIV-negative users 99 percent of the time.

In their briefing documents, FDA scientists noted both the benefits and risks of expanding HIV testing with the take-home diagnostic kit.

"There is considerable personal and public health value in informing infected, but otherwise untested, persons of their true positive HIV status," the reviewers state. "However, this benefit is offset in some measure by HIV-positive individuals who receive an incorrect message that they are not infected."

The lukewarm endorsement apparently spooked investors. OraSure's stock tumbled $1.32, or 11.8 percent, to close at $9.85 in trading Friday.

On Tuesday, the FDA will ask a panel of outside experts whether the test should be approved for over-the-counter sales in U.S. The agency is not required to follow the group's advice, though it usually does.

Based in Bethlehem, Pa., OraSure has marketed a version of OraQuick to doctors, nurses and other health care practitioners since 2004. The test sells for $17.50, though OraSure declined to discuss how it would price the consumer version. When used by professionals, the test is shown to accurately identify both carriers and non-carriers 99 percent of the time.

While it's not clear why the test was less accurate in consumer trials, CEO Doug Michels said company researchers anticipated that its "performance in the hands of a consumer would be different from that observed in hands of a professional."

OraSure tried the new version of the test in a study of 5,800 people of various sexual orientation, race and income levels. The trial identified about 100 HIV carriers who were previously undiagnosed.

The FDA has already approved HIV test kits that people take home. However, those kits, which require a blood sample, must be sent to a laboratory for development. But OraSure argues that a test that can be done at home will appeal to a much broader group of people.

According to the company's study, 41 percent of people who discovered they were HIV-positive using OraQuick had never been tested previously. In its own briefing documents, the company estimates that 9,000 new HIV carriers would be identified for every 1 million people who use the test.

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Advocates: HIV prevention pill could save lives

CHICAGO (AP) — A pill to prevent HIV infection is already being given to some healthy people, but without government approval, it remains out of reach and too costly for many who need it.

Doctors, patients and advocates say that would change if the Food and Drug Administration takes a landmark step and allows the pill, Truvada, to be marketed for prevention. The drug has been used for some time as a treatment for those already infected with the AIDS virus.

"This is a pretty radical step, but I think it's a necessary step," said Dr. Lisa Sterman of San Francisco, who prescribes the drug for already infected patients and those who are healthy but at risk of getting the virus from their partners or through risky sex.

"We've come as far as we can with condom use and safe sex strategies," Sterman said.

A panel of advisers to the Food and Drug Administration late Thursday endorsed using Truvada as a preventive.

In the 30-year battle against AIDS, "it's the first time we have talked about a medication for prevention of HIV," Sterman said.

Doctors are allowed to prescribe Truvada "off-label" for prevention, but FDA approval would formally allow the pill's maker Gilead Sciences to market it for that use. It would probably lead many more insurance companies to pay for the costly drug. The FDA usually follows advisers' recommendations and a decision is expected by June 15.

The panel's action "is a huge step forward," said Nick Literski, a federal worker in Seattle who has been taking Truvada for HIV prevention for more than a year. His partner has the AIDS virus. Literski's insurance covers his preventive treatment. The pill's annual cost ranges from just under $11,000 up to $14,000.

Using the drug for prevention "is really allowing people to make educated choices about their health," Literski said.

An estimated 1.2 million Americans have HIV and many more worldwide. AIDS can develop unless the virus is treated with antiviral drugs. The success of such medicines has helped make the disease more manageable and allows patients to live much longer than when the epidemic began 30 years ago.

About 50,000 new HIV infections are diagnosed in the U.S. each year — a number that has held steady for about 15 years.

"We're going to have to take some radical steps in order to stop this epidemic," Sterman said.

Truvada is marketed by Gilead Sciences Inc. of Foster City, Calif. Studies have shown daily use is highly effective at preventing HIV infections.

Some Truvada prevention studies took place in Africa, and the drug is available as an HIV treatment there and in poor nations elsewhere, but Gilead is seeking approval for using it for prevention in the United States only, a company spokeswoman said.

A September editorial in the medical journal Lancet raised concerns about using HIV treatments for prevention when many HIV infected people globally lack access to effective treatments.

James Loduca, a spokesman for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, praised the advisory panel's action.

"With this recommendation, we're nearing a watershed moment in our fight against HIV," Loduca said. "We know this isn't a magic bullet, and it's not going to be the right prevention strategy for everyone, but it could save thousands of lives in the United States and potentially millions around the world."

Not everyone in the HIV community is so gung-ho about using Truvada for prevention.

Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, is among the most vocal opponents. His Los Angeles-based group bills itself as the nation's largest provider of medical care for HIV and AIDS, and Weinstein's main concern is that patients won't take the drug as directed — a pill a day plus the use of condoms. Misuse could create drug-resistant HIV strains, and lead to more infections.

The FDA panelists acknowledged that concern, and said people should be tested to make sure they don't have HIV before starting Truvada. Patients who already have the virus and begin taking Truvada could develop a resistance to the drug, making their disease even more difficult to treat.

Justin Terry-Smith, a Washington-area writer with HIV, has different concerns. He took Truvada for four years to suppress his infection. He said he has friends with the AIDS virus in other cities who can't find the drug, and he worries that making it widely available for prevention could result in shortages and pose problems for patients who need it for treatment.

"There has to much more production of this drug for this to actually go forward," he said.

His doctor recently put him on another drug regimen — switching medicines is a common tactic in HIV treatment. But unlike his other HIV medicines, Truvada had no side effects, and he said it needs to remain available for already infected patients.

Sterman said approval of Truvada for prevention would be unlikely to lead to shortages because the drug would be recommended only for people at high risk for getting the virus.

"I don't think demand for it is going to be that high," she said.

Truvada's costs are another concern. But supporters of the drug note that the lifetime cost of treating one person diagnosed with the AIDS virus has been estimated at more than $600,000.

"It's much more cost-effective to prevent a new infection than it is to treat someone for their lifetime," Loduca said. "Of course the ultimate goal is a vaccine and a cure but we're many years away from that."

Jim Pickett, director of prevention advocacy and gay men's health at the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, has had the AIDS virus since 1995. He says his medical costs, mostly covered by health insurance, have continually increased since then; his HIV medicines alone cost $30,000 a year.

He took Truvada for a while for HIV treatment and had no complications. Side effects from long-term use are unclear, but some of the more serious complications linked with Truvada include kidney and liver problems.

The potential for those problems shouldn't be dismissed, but it's not a reason to reject using the drug for prevention, said Pickett, whose group is not affiliated with the San Francisco foundation.

For some people, the risk of kidney problems "10 years down the line may be less than the risk for acquiring HIV, which is significantly more problematic and can be fatal," Pickett said.

"We need options for people. This is one option. It wouldn't be an option for everybody. It's not meant for everybody," Pickett said.

___

AP Health Writer Matthew Perrone contributed to this story from Washington.

___

Online:

FDA: http://www.fda.gov

AIDS: http://www.aids.gov

___

AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

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CSS Browser-Compatibility Search Engine: Browser Support

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Ok, right now, we can't stop ourselves from using the exciting CSS3 features. But, what about their compatibility? In which browsers they work ok?  Browser Support is a simple search engine to find out which CSS properties are supported in which browsers. With an auto-complete-powered search, it displays you all possible properties while typing and [...]]]>

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Madonna Tells Volunteers Not To Look Her In The Eye

Madonna must definitely be going through lifes changes because fresh up from her being a bitch to a fan after he gave her flowers that she hated she has now told volunteers not to make eye contact with her.

Madonna was at the Toronto International Film Festival on Monday to promote her new film, W.E., and she was all smiles during a press conference but behind the scenes was a differewnt story.

The Globe and Mail report that Madonna had asked eight volunteers who were working at the festival to turn around and face a wall so that they could not look at the Material Girl as she made her way to the press conference.

One of the volunteers says they they all “dutifully stood with their backs to her as she passed” after Madonna requested they not look at her.

This just takes her self-importance to a whole other level, I can’t believe the people even followed her orders.

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Yeeeah! linked with Quickies: Firing Squad Allie is Wired linked with Johnny Depp’s Wonky Makeup & The Hot Links! NOTE: My spam filter automatically deletes any TrackBacks that do not actually link and refer to this post. Those doing it manually should ensure they have linked the post before sending the TrackBack ping.

A crazy UGLY old WOMAN Which WE have been given TOO much attention to … NOTHING … IN THE LAST 20 YEARS!! SICKNESS!!!

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I am sure they were okay with it. They were probably thinking “thank goodness”, we don’t have to risk accidentally looking at Medusa.

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FDA Advisers Back Pill to Help Prevent HIV Infection

THURSDAY, May 10 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisers on Thursday endorsed the use of the drug Truvada as a means to help prevent HIV infection in healthy people at high risk of contracting the AIDS-causing virus.

In a series of votes that could lead to a major new weapon in the fight against AIDS, the FDA advisers recommended approval of the daily pill for healthy, at-risk individuals, including gay and bisexual men and heterosexual couples with one HIV-infected person, the Associated Press reported.

The FDA is not bound to follow the recommendations of its advisory panels, but it typically does so. A final decision is expected by mid-June.

A report released earlier this week by the FDA suggested that scientists believe the drug is safe and effective. It has been available since 2004 to treat people already infected with HIV.

But there are potential drawbacks to using the medication as a way to try to prevent HIV infection. Truvada -- which combines two HIV-fighting drugs, tenofovir (Viread) and emtricitabine (Emtriva) -- is very expensive and may cause side effects. And although doctors can already prescribe it to people trying to avoid HIV infection, critics contend it's too early to officially allow it to be promoted for that use.

On the other hand, those who support marketing the drug as a preventive agent say it can help high-risk people avoid the disease, especially if they don't use condoms or if they want an added layer of protection.

"I don't see it as a panacea, but it's an option, and that's important," said Dr. Kenneth Mayer, an AIDS specialist and medical research director of The Fenway Institute at Fenway Health in Boston. "Some people won't use a condom, but will say, 'if you give me another option, I'll use that.'"

Truvada works to combat HIV from replicating in the body's cells. Mayer explained that in someone who is not yet infected but is exposed to HIV, the drug may prevent the virus from reproducing even if it has already invaded cells. As a result, he said, "the virus cannot start turning the newly exposed person's body into a 'factory' to produce more HIV particles."

A study published in 2010 in the New England Journal of Medicine found that Truvada cut the risk of HIV infection by almost 44 percent in those at highest risk for contracting the virus, namely sexually active gay and bisexual men. The risk reduction climbed to nearly 73 percent among study participants who took the pill 90 percent of the time, the researchers added.

Research suggests that people who use Truvada daily along with condoms would gain an added layer of protection, because condoms aren't 100 percent effective. But one organization, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, worries that wider use of the drug could lead to more infections by discouraging people from bothering to use condoms.

"Why would you take this medication if you intended to use condoms?" asked the group's president, Michael Weinstein, in an interview with Bloomberg News. He used a sartorial metaphor to elaborate how unlikely that might be: "You've got to be really paranoid about your pants falling down to wear a belt and suspenders."

A. David Paltiel, a professor at Yale University School of Medicine, said his research has shown that the use of preventive drug treatments should reduce the risk of infection overall. Still, he said, it's unknown if "people (would) take more chances because they feel protected by a 'chemical condom.'"

Potential markets for Truvada as a preventive drug, Mayer said, include gay men who have sex with more than one man and any committed couple in which one person is HIV-positive, including some heterosexual couples who want to have children.

Mayer, who has conducted research into the drug, said that allowing the marketing will probably lead to an increase in its usage for prevention. But, "this is not a one-time, end-of-the-problem approach like a shot of penicillin to treat an infection like syphilis," he said. "Also, it involves someone perceiving that he or she is at risk, or a provider being comfortable enough to ask about a person's risk. We know that a lot of health providers don't like to talk to their patients about sex."

Truvada, which is manufactured by Gilead Sciences, can also cause a long list of side effects, including gastrointestinal problems. And it's costly, with prices in the United States tagged at about $26 a day or $10,000 a year. Still, a study released this year found the drug would be cost-effective if used extensively by gay and bisexual men at high risk of becoming infected.

For his part, Paltiel said his research came to the same conclusion: That widespread use of the drug in high-risk people would be "as cost-effective as other widely accepted public health and medical interventions."

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Jennifer Lopez & Bradley Cooper Went On A Date

It looks like Jennifer Lopez has moved on from her ex-husband Marc Anthony because she has reportedly gone on a date with Hollywood’s latest womanizer, Bradley Cooper.

Lopez was spotted out having dinner with the ‘Hangover’ star in Per Se, a restaurant in New York City, over the weekend and sources tell TMZ that it was a “romantic” dinner with just the two of them.

A staff member who works in the restaurant, where it cost’s $295-per-person for a price fixe menu, tells Us Weekly that the pair were there “for a while.”

Cooper has recently been spotted out on dates with both Olivia Wilde and Charlize Theron so it’s not known if this is anything serious or just a dinner date.

If sources who talk to People are to believed then this dinner was nothing but business and there was nothing romantic to it at all.

What do you think? I have a feeling that this is nothing but a publicity stunt.

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FDA panel recommends Gilead's Quad for HIV

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel of outside experts on Friday recommended the use of Gilead Sciences Inc's Quad pill for untreated HIV patients.

The FDA advisory committee voted 13-1 to endorse the four-drugs-in-one treatment, but members said there should be effective monitoring for potential kidney problems among patients and urged further research to determine the drug's safety profile for women, who have been under-represented in clinical research.

The panel's recommendation will now be taken into account by agency regulators, who are expected to decide on final approval for Quad by August 27.

An overwhelming number of the experts said they were satisfied with Gilead's demonstration of safety and efficacy.

But Dr. Michelle Estrella of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the panel's lone 'no' vote, said data on potential renal problems and women's health was too limited to justify her approval.

"There are plenty of alternatives to Quad," she said. "There's no huge hurry in approving this drug before the outstanding studies are completed."

Gilead shares closed 1.2 percent higher at $51.84 after the committee voted.

Wall Street analysts said the panel's action was expected and predicted more good news for Gilead on the FDA front.

"Approval of the Quad is likely with renal monitoring. Renal monitoring is not a particular concern," J.P. Morgan analysts said in a note to investment clients. "We believe the Quad will further strengthen Gilead's market leading HIV business."

In fact, the new drug is seen as key to Gilead's continued dominance of the market for HIV drugs. Most of the company's current drug sales, which totaled $8.1 billion last year, come from Atripla, a once-daily pill that combines Truvada with Bristol-Myers Squibb's Sustiva. Truvada consists of Gilead's older HIV drugs Emtriva and Viread.

On Thursday, the panel also recommended Gilead's Truvada pill as the first-ever drug for use in preventing HIV infections.

Nearly 1.2 Americans are infected with the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS and the HIV epidemic grows by 50,000 new cases each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Company research shows Quad to be 88 percent effective at suppressing HIV infection, surpassing 84 percent efficacy for Atripla. But data also indicated a disproportionate number of kidney problems among the hundreds of patients who participated in clinical trials.

It combines the experimental integrase inhibitor elvitegravir with the boosting agent cobicistat and two older nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors - emtricitabine and tenofovir.

If approved by the FDA, Gilead executives said Quad would provide HIV suffers with the first ever once-daily integrase inhibitor, a class of drug designed to block the spread of HIV by preventing the virus from binding with the DNA of host cells.

Advocates said the one-a-day regimen would encourage patients to adhere to the treatment with Quad, boosting the likelihood of high efficacy outside the clinical atmosphere.

But HIV activists who provided public testimony warned policymakers to be wary of new HIV drugs that provide only marginal improvements over current treatments but allow drug makers to charge significantly higher prices at a time when public assistance can be restricted by government budget constraints.

"Reduced access here in America is compelling AIDS activists to rethink the rules on drug pricing," said James Driscoll of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit group that provides care for nearly 170,000 HIV and AIDS patients.

Gilead said it has yet to establish a price for Quad. Atripla currently costs about $20,000 a year.

(Reporting By David Morgan; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, M.D. Golan, Gary Hill)

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Social Sharing Buttons Under Control: Socialite.js

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Socialite.js is a JavaScript library for having more control over social sharing buttons. The library is lightweight (2kb minified-gzipped), standalone and helps the social widgets to load when you want them or only when needed/requested to speed up web pages. It has support for the major players: Twitter, Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Spotify. There is [...]]]>

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AIDS fight enters new phase with prevention pill

CHICAGO (AP) — Condoms and other safe-sex practices have accomplished only so much. Now the 30-year battle against AIDS is on the verge of a radical new phase, with the government expected to endorse a once-a-day pill to prevent infection with the virus.

Some doctors are already giving patients the drug, Truvada, to ward off infection. But Food and Drug Administration approval would expand that practice and could make the highly expensive medicine more affordable. Truvada costs around $11,000 to $14,000 a year.

Approval seems likely after an FDA advisory panel Thursday endorsed the use of Truvada for prevention.

In the generation-long fight against AIDS, "it's the first time we have talked about a medication for prevention of HIV," said Dr. Lisa Sterman of Francisco, who treats HIV-positive patients.

"With this recommendation, we're nearing a watershed moment in our fight against HIV," said James Loduca, a spokesman for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. "We know this isn't a magic bullet, and it's not going to be the right prevention strategy for everyone, but it could save thousands of lives in the United States and potentially millions around the world."

Truvada has been FDA-approved since 2004 for treating people infected with the AIDS virus. Once a drug is on the market, doctors are free to prescribe it for off-label, or unapproved, uses, and that's what some have been doing in giving Truvada to patients who are healthy but in danger of getting the virus from their partners or through risky sex.

Official FDA backing of the practice would allow Truvada's maker, Gilead Sciences Inc. of Foster City, Calif., to market it for prevention. Approval would also probably lead many more insurance companies to pay for the drug. And by widening the market for Truvada, it could prompt Gilead to lower the price.

An FDA decision is expected by June 15.

The FDA is also considering approving the first over-the-counter HIV test for use at home. Experts said it could help slow the spread of HIV.

An estimated 1.2 million Americans and millions more around the world have HIV. Unless the virus is treated with antiviral drugs, it can turn into full-blown AIDS. Antivirals have made the disease more manageable and allowed patients to live much longer than when the epidemic began in the early 1980s.

Nevertheless, about 50,000 new infections are diagnosed in the U.S. each year, a number that has held steady for about 15 years.

Truvada represents "a pretty radical step, but I think it's a necessary step," said Sterman, who prescribes it to infected patients and those who are healthy but at risk. "We've come as far as we can with condom use and safe-sex strategies."

The drug would be recommended for people at high risk of getting the virus, such as gay men with multiple sex partners, prostitutes and people whose partners are infected.

In one U.S. government study of more than 1,200 men and women in Botswana, Truvada lowered the HIV infection risk by about 78 percent. Another larger study in Africa found a slightly lower rate of effectiveness, but researchers say that if used as directed, the pill can be 90 percent effective or higher.

It is available as an HIV treatment in Africa and other poor regions, but Gilead is seeking approval for prevention in the U.S. only, a company spokeswoman said. Some experts have expressed concern that the use of Truvada for prevention could cause shortages in poor countries that desperately need the drug to treat infected people.

Not everyone in the HIV community is gung-ho about the drug.

Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a Los Angeles-based group that calls itself the nation's largest provider of medical care for HIV, said his main concern is that patients won't take the drug as directed — once a day, while also using condoms. Misuse could create drug-resistant HIV strains and lead to more infections.

The FDA panelists acknowledged that concern and said people should be tested to make sure they don't have HIV before starting Truvada. Patients who already have the virus could develop resistance to the drug.

As for the drug's high cost, generic Truvada for HIV treatment is available in poor countries for as little as $9 per month, a Gilead spokeswoman said. But generic versions are not available in the United States and won't be until after Truvada's U.S. patent expires in 2021. Sterman said she hopes FDA approval leads Gilead to lower the price.

The lifetime cost of treating one person diagnosed with the AIDS virus has been estimated at more than $600,000.

"It's much more cost-effective to prevent a new infection than it is to treat someone for their lifetime," Loduca said. "Of course, the ultimate goal is a vaccine and a cure, but we're many years away from that."

Some of the more serious complications linked to Truvada include kidney and liver problems. But for some people, the risk of kidney problems "10 years down the line may be less than the risk for acquiring HIV, which is significantly more problematic and can be fatal," said Jim Pickett, director of prevention advocacy at the AIDS Foundation of Chicago.

Nick Literski, a government employee in Seattle, has been taking Truvada for HIV prevention for more than a year because his partner is infected. He said the drug has helped prevent the breakup of relationships like his.

"Many HIV-positive men end up ending their relationships with HIV-negative men out of fear of infecting their partner," Literski said.

___

AP Health Writer Matthew Perrone contributed to this story from Washington.

___

Online:

FDA: http://www.fda.gov

AIDS: http://www.aids.gov

___

AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

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Michaele Salahi Has Been Kidnapped

“Real Housewives of D.C.” star Tareq Salahi believes his wife Michaele Salahi was abducted in Virginia yesterday, but he’s afraid the cops aren’t taking the situation seriously, TMZ has learned.

TMZ just spoke with Tareq, who tells us he last saw Michaele at their home around 11 a.m. EST yesterday, right before he left to go to their winery. Tareq says Michaele told him she was going to get her hair done, but she never went to the appointment. She’s been missing ever since.

Tareq claims he got a phone call from Michaele late last night from an unfamiliar Oregon cell phone number and she told him she was going to her mother’s house, located minutes away from the Salahi home.

Tareq says he was suspicious,so he called Michaele’s mother, who told him she hadn’t spoken with Michaele and was unaware of her plans. That’s when Tareq — fearing Michaele had been abducted — called the Warren County Sheriff’s Dept. for help.

But Tareq claims deputies told him she had already called them, informing them she was OK and just dealing with some “family issues.”

Tareq tells TMZ that he believes Michaele had been forced to make the phone calls by her abductor and believes she is in very real danger, especially because the Salahis have received death threats in the past.

Tareq says he’s considering going to other law enforcement for help because he feels the Warren County Sheriffs are not taking proper action.
Tareq has issued a statement saying, “We are reaching to the public pleading [sic] desperately for your help.”

He continues, “It is our belief as of last night, that Michaele Salahi may have been kidnapped or abducted and being held under duress and forced to tell persons, including authorities she is okay.”

“We are asking the public to please be on the look out for her, and if found please contact the authorities and please approach her and contact the authorities to intervene and that she may be forced to say she is okay, when in fact she is not and being held under possible abduction.”
A rep for the WCSD tells TMZ cops are not releasing any info about the situation at this time.

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Tennessee governor signs controversial "gateway sexual activity" bill

NASHVILLE, Tenn (Reuters) - Tennessee teachers can no longer condone so-called "gateway sexual activity" such as touching genitals under a new law that critics say is too vague and could hamper discussion about safe sexual behavior.

Governor Bill Haslam's office Friday confirmed that he had signed the bill, which stirred up controversy nationwide and even was lampooned by comedian Stephen Colbert.

"Kissing and hugging are the last stop before reaching Groin Central Station, so it's important to ban all the things that lead to the things that lead to sex," he said on the "Colbert Report" television show.

But proponents say the new law helps define the existing abstinence-only sex-education policy.

Under the law, Tennessee teachers could be disciplined and speakers from outside groups like Planned Parenthood could face fines of up to $500 for promoting or condoning "gateway sexual activities."

David Fowler, president of the Family Action Council of Tennessee, which pushed the bill, said it does not ban kissing or holding hands from discussion in sex education classes. But he said it addresses the touching of certain "gateway body parts," including genitals, buttocks, breasts and the inner thigh.

It is unclear from the bill's wording whether Tennessee teachers could promote masturbation.

The bill sailed through the legislative session, passing the Senate 28-1 and the House 68-23.

Opponents, which include Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee and the state teachers' union, say that before they can begin fighting the new law, they have to be able to figure it out. They worry that discussion of sexual behavior could be interpreted as condoning it.

"The very ambiguous language in this bill certainly puts teachers in a very difficult situation" when it comes to knowing what to teach, said Jerry Winters, spokesman for the Tennessee Education Association.

Fowler said the new law was authored in part because of incidents in which teachers were instructing about alternate sexual practices as ways to have gratification without risking pregnancy, according to Fowler.

He said one such incident involved a Nashville high school teacher who was encouraging girls to give boys oral sex in order to get a condom on them.

Fowler also pointed to a Planned Parenthood-organized program at a school in Knoxville, where students were directed to a web site "that actually lists as possible methods of birth control things like oral sex and anal sex play that I think most Tennesseans would find inappropriate."

Lyndsey Godwin, manager of education and training for Planned Parenthood, said the idea that her group was encouraging such behavior was "utterly false." She said that while Planned Parenthood educators may answer a student's question by agreeing that anal and oral sex don't lead to pregnancy, they also emphasize the disease risks.

Godwin said Planned Parenthood supports the state's abstinence-centered policy, but the reality is not everyone can be abstinent. She said that being able to address issues of condom use, contraception and answer questions about sexual behaviors to educate students are essential to her group's role.

Winters of the Tennessee Education Association said that already existing sex education policy was "quite adequate."

"It does focus on abstinence, but in this modern world to say that ‘just say no' is the answer to teenage pregnancy is putting your head in the sand," Winters said.

(Reporting By Tim Ghianni; Editing by Mary Wisniewski and Lisa Shumaker)

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Create Desktop Apps With HTML-CSS-JS: AppJS

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Desktop apps definitely have their own advantages over web apps like speed, ability to reach the filesystem, working in the background, notifications, etc. However, for us (the web developers), it is a challenge to create one as they need  to be coded in a non-web programming language (yes, there are exceptions). AppJS is an exciting resource [...]]]>

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