The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and malaria announced the launch of The Global Fund Corporate Champions program, an innovative way for multinational corporations to significantly invest in the fight against the three diseases.

Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) is the program’s inaugural Corporate Champion, making a commitment to invest US$30 million over three years in Global Fund-supported programs in parts of Asia and Africa.

The Global Fund Corporate Champions program has been designed as an integrated platform for public private partnership, giving companies the opportunity to make a substantial commitment to global health. Each Corporate Champion will make a financial contribution to Global Fund-supported programs in countries where it operates, thereby significantly expanding upon its own workplace and community projects and investing in high-quality, rigorously monitored and results-focused, health programs aligned with national needs and strategies.

In addition, Corporate Champions will leverage their people and assets to improve the effectiveness and reach of health programs. Companies can achieve this by lending their management skills and business infrastructure to the development and implementation of national strategies in the fight against AIDS, TB and malaria. Corporate Champions also are required to demonstrate a long-term commitment to fighting these global health issues. Chevron was selected as the inaugural partner as a result of its highly successful community engagement programs tackling AIDS and malaria and its award-winning HIV/AIDS workplace programs.

“Global companies with large, long-term investments in developing countries understand that fighting disease is a necessary part of their strategic investments,” said Rajat Gupta, chairman of the Board of Directors for The Global Fund. “The Global Fund Corporate Champion program provides the opportunity for these companies to make significant, effective, results-driven investments in national health programs. We are extremely pleased with the commitment from Chevron. Its long-standing dedication to combating HIV/AIDS combined with its needs-based partnership approach to community engagement makes Chevron an ideal first Corporate Champion.”

“AIDS, TB and malaria are critical health threats in many of the communities where we operate around the world,” said Dave O’Reilly, Chevron chairman and CEO. “The key to the success of The Global Fund has been the strength of its partnership and collaboration model, which is an approach that Chevron shares. For a company such as ours, it makes clear business sense to join with The Global Fund and leverage resources in the fight against these diseases.”

“Chevron’s strategic investment in The Global Fund sets a standard others should aspire to,” said Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, Global Business Coalition’s president and CEO. “This exceptional new commitment to global health supplements Chevron’s ongoing programming on HIV, TB and malaria, which is already recognized as best in class. The Chevron-Global Fund partnership will enhance-already strong programs in hard-hit regions, strengthen local communities and bring Chevron’s business skills and human resources to bear on some of the most daunting challenges of our time.”

Since its creation in 2002, The Global Fund has become the dominant multilateral financer of programs to fight AIDS, TB and malaria, providing well over 20 percent of all international finance against AIDS and two-thirds of global financing for TB and malaria. So far, programs supported by The Global Fund have averted 2 million deaths by providing AIDS treatment for 1.4 million people and TB treatment for 3.3 million people, and by distributing 46 million insecticide-treated bed nets that help prevent the spread of malaria.

The Global Fund is a unique public/private partnership dedicated to attracting and disbursing additional resources to prevent and treat HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. This partnership between governments, non governmental organizations, the private sector, and affected communities represents a new approach to international health financing. The Global Fund works in close collaboration with other bilateral and multilateral organizations to supplement existing efforts dealing with the three diseases.

Chevron is one of the world’s leading integrated energy companies. We have approximately 58,000 employees, and operate across the entire energy spectrum – producing and transporting crude oil and natural gas; refining, marketing and distributing fuels and other energy products and services; manufacturing and selling petrochemical products; generating power; and developing and commercializing the energy resources of the future, including biofuels and other renewables. Chevron is based in San Ramon, Calif.

Chevron Corporation

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have found that an approved drug for treating rheumatoid arthritis reduces severe illness and death in mice exposed to the Influenza A virus. Their findings suggest that tempering the response of the body’s immune system to influenza infection may alleviate some of the more severe symptoms and even reduce mortality from this virus.

The scientists report in the June 1 edition of The Journal of Immunology, which is now available online, that mice infected with the Influenza A virus responded favorably to a drug called Abatacept, which is commonly used to treat people with rheumatoid arthritis. The mice had been given “memory” T-cells, or white blood cells that have been primed to fight the invading virus as the result of previous exposure to Influenza A.

“We found that treating the mice with Abatacept minimized tissue damage caused by the immune response, but still enabled the body to rid itself of the virus. The mice didn’t become as sick, recovered much faster and had much less damage to the lungs, compared to mice that weren’t given the drug,” says Donna L. Farber, Ph.D., a professor of surgery and microbiology and immunology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the study’s senior author.

“Moreover, treatment with Abatacept significantly improved survival for mice infected with a lethal dose of influenza virus,” Dr. Farber says. “The survival rate for the treated mice was 80 percent, compared to 50 percent for the mice that weren’t treated.”

She explains that the drug does not interrupt the immune system’s early, rapid attack in the lungs, which helps to kill the virus, but it prevents “memory” T-cells from overreacting, which produces multiple negative effects. “It’s this overactive immune response that can make you feel sick – and can also lead to pneumonia,” she says.

The study’s lead author, John R. Teijaro, a researcher in Dr. Farber’s lab, notes that tissue damage caused by this vigorous immune response – often most prevalent in young, healthy people – is thought to be the leading cause of death from pandemic strains of flu, such as the avian flu and the 1918 Spanish flu. It is also thought to be true of the early cases of H1N1 “swine” flu.

Dr. Farber says, “We believe that our findings are very significant because they provide a potential new treatment for infection by the influenza virus – one that would dampen the immune response, yet still preserve its protective effects.”

The researchers are now testing Abatacept in mice that have not previously been exposed to the flu virus, trying to determine how well they respond to the drug once they have become very sick. Instead of having “memory” T-cells, these mice have what are known as “naГЇve” T-cells, which have never been activated by being exposed to influenza previously. Depending on the results, Dr. Farber hopes to one day bring this promising new immunotherapy to the clinic for the benefit of patients.

E. Albert Reece, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., vice president for medical affairs, University of Maryland, and dean of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, says, “The results of this study are very promising. Influenza is a significant public health problem, affecting millions around the world each year. We hope that this study – and Dr. Farber’s continuing research – will pave the way for identifying an effective treatment,” Dr. Reece says.

Abatacept, which is manufactured by Bristol-Myers Squibb and marketed under the name Orencia, is already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. The drug is not approved for treating influenza.

The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health and Bristol-Myers Squibb, is available online at jimmunol/cgi/content/full/182/11/6834. The Journal of Immunology is a peer-reviewed publication of the American Association of Immunologists.

There are three types of seasonal influenza, A, B and C, and a number of subtypes of Influenza A, including a new strain of the H1N1 virus, also known as the “swine flu,” which has recently emerged and caused illness and a number of deaths this year in Mexico, the United States and other countries around the world.

Vaccination is the most effective way to prevent someone from getting the flu or having a serious case of the disease. An antiviral drug, Tamiflu, can help to prevent the flu virus from spreading within the body if it is taken within 48 hours of the first symptoms.

Dr. Farber points out that an immunotherapy with a drug such as Abatacept would be effective against different strains of the virus because the target of the drug would be the immune system, not the virus itself. “We’re very excited about the potential of developing a new therapy, which possibly could be given to people even after they are very sick,” she says.

Source:
Karen Warmkessel

University of Maryland Medical Center

View drug information on Orencia; Tamiflu capsule.

New research in an Article published Online First and in the May edition of The Lancet Oncology shows that surgeons who operate on patients with prostate cancer find it harder to learn the skills needed to do the surgery with a laparoscope compared with traditional techniques. The result is that patients are at increased risk of cancer recurrence if they are treated by surgeons who have anything less than the very highest levels of experience.

The findings suggest that as inexperienced surgeons have lower rates of cancer cure, patients should be advised to seek care from specialist cancer centers, where the surgeons specialise in the treatment of just one or two cancers.

The study also showed that the skills needed for laparoscopy (also known as keyhole or minimally invasive surgery) were even harder to pick up for surgeons who already had previous experience of traditional prostate surgery; prompting the authors to comment that, if the results were replicated, “surgeons should not switch between open [traditional] and laparoscopic procedures without a compelling reason.”

Surgery using a laparoscope is done through a much smaller surgical incision than traditional surgery, and compared with traditional surgery it has been shown to reduce recovery time, hospital stay, infection rates, and postoperative pain.

Dr Andrew Vickers (Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, NY, USA) and colleagues previously calculated the learning curve for surgeons doing traditional prostate surgery, and found that the probability that a patient would have a recurrence of prostate cancer after surgery dropped quickly as the surgeons gained experience, levelling off after around 250 surgeries.

In the present study, Vickers and his team calculated the learning curve for surgeons who did prostate surgery using a laparoscope, and found that these surgeons had to do around 750 operations with a laparoscope before they achieved the same low level of disease recurrence as other surgeons achieved after 250 traditional operations.

The researchers also found that surgeons who already had experience of traditional prostate surgery had substantially worse results in terms of cancer recurrence when they first switched to doing surgery using a laparoscope than surgeons whose first experience of prostate surgery was using a laparoscope.

“Improvements in outcome [after surgery for prostate cancer using a laparoscope] seem to accrue more slowly in comparison with open [traditional] surgery,” the authors write, adding that “laparoscopic radical prostatectomy appears to involve skills that do not translate well from open experience.”

The researchers conclude: “Clinical, educational and research initiatives are required in order to moderate the negative effects of the learning curve on clinical care.”

The Lancet Oncology, Early Online Publication, 1 April 2009
doi:10.1016/S1470-2045(09)70079-8

Source
The Lancet Oncology

UroToday – In this online publication by Dr. Alberto Briganti and associates that appears in European Urology, the authors hypothesized that surgical volume (SV) is related to the detection rate of lymph node invasion (LNI) in a single-institution cohort of men treated with radical prostatectomy (RP) and extended pelvic lymph node dissection (ePLND).

Between 2002 and 2007, 1,020 men undergoing RP with ePLND for clinically localized CaP had their complete clinical and pathologic data analyzed. All patients were treated by one of 6 surgeons, the eldest of whom had the highest SV and the other 5 surgeons who were trained by the senior surgeon. All surgeries were performed using the same surgical approach and ePLND boundaries of dissection. The cumulative number of performed ePLNDs throughout the time range was used to test SV. The association between SV and positive lymph node status was assessed in logistic regression models.

The mean PSA level of the 1,020 patients was 11.4ng/ml, and clinical stages were T1c in 54%, T2 in 38.5% and T3 in 7.5%. Gleason score on biopsy was >6 in 64%, 7 in 25.6%, and 8-10 in 10.1%. Clinical and pathological variables did not differ among patients treated by the 6 different surgeons. Despite the use of the same ePLND template, the most senior surgeon had a statistically higher detection rate of LNI and a significantly higher mean number of total lymph nodes and number of positive nodes removed compared to the other surgeons. SV either continuously coded or categorized according to the most informative cut-off (144 procedures) maintained its significant multivariate association with LNI even after accounting for either preoperative or postoperative variables. In all models established, SV was a statistically significant multivariate predictor of LNI. Yet when the number of nodes removed was included in multivariable analysis, no significant association between SV and LNI was found.

Patients treated by high-volume surgeons were more likely to have LNI than those treated by low volume surgeons. However, after accounting for the extent of nodal dissection, the effect of SV on LNI was lost. Therefore, SV was a strong predictor of LNI without nodal counts, but not when the variable coding of the number of lymph nodes removed was included in multivariate analysis.

Briganti A, Capitanio U, Chun FK, Gallina A, Suardi N, Salonia A, Da Pozzo LF, Colombo R, Di Girolamo V, Bertini R, Guazzoni G, Karakiewicz PI, Montorsi F, Rigatti P
Eur Urol 2008;epub

UroToday Contributing Editor Christopher P. Evans, MD, FACS

UroToday – the only urology website with original content global urology key opinion leaders actively engaged in clinical practice.

To access the latest urology news releases from UroToday, go to:
www.urotoday

Copyright © 2008 – UroToday

Increased global attention and research needs to be given to stroke prevention and the social and economic effects of the condition in developing countries, according to an academic at the University of East Anglia (UEA).

In a paper published in the current issue of the journal Development Policy Review, Prof Peter Lloyd-Sherlock of the School of International Development argues that policy-makers have been slow to recognise the growing scale of the challenge and impacts of stroke in developing countries. He calls for them to prioritise preventative screening and drug treatment and suggests that reducing the incidence of stroke could make a substantial contribution to global poverty reduction.

The focus of health programmes in developing countries is often on infectious diseases, such as HIV/AIDS and TB, whereas stroke and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are viewed as something which can wait until the infectious diseases have been ‘controlled’, despite the heavy burden they place on those affected.

Last month’s UN summit on the 2015 Millennium Development Goals included the announcement of major new commitments for initiatives against poverty, hunger and disease. However, stroke and other NCDs are not specifically identified as Millennium Development Goals targets and rarely feature in Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers.

“Stroke is no longer a disease of the rich developed world,” said Prof Lloyd-Sherlock, professor of social policy and international development. “The burden of stroke and other NCDs has risen sharply in developing countries in recent years. Despite the urgency and the apparent affordability of stroke prevention, there is little sign that this agenda is being pursued either globally or, with rare exceptions, nationally. A wholesale upgrading of the debate is needed.

“No initiatives comparable to the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria have been established for chronic disease, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation does not include chronic disease. The World Bank admits that it does not have a comprehensive chronic disease strategy and that this area has been under-prioritised. Likewise, it is claimed that NGOs have not made a significant contribution to furthering this agenda and the same can be said of bilateral aid agencies such as the UK Department for International Development, where the term ‘killer diseases’ is usually applied to infectious illnesses, ignoring the heavy burden of mortality from NCDs.”

In ‘Stroke in Developing Countries: Epidemiology, Impact and Policy Implications’, Prof Lloyd-Sherlock reviews existing research on the issue and discusses the social and economic effects of stroke and the scope for interventions to reduce its prevalence and mitigate impacts.

Globally, stroke accounts for around 10% of all deaths. Improved prevention in developed countries has led to a reduction in the risk of dying as a result of stroke, while stroke rates across the developed world fell 42% between 1970 and 2008. Over the same period rates rose 100% for developing countries, which also report substantially higher fatality rates. Most regions will see an increase in deaths caused by stroke and NCDs between 2002 and 2030, with the most notable rise in South Asia. For those who survive, the health consequences include disability, paralysis and cognitive impairment, which can lead to high treatment and care costs, reduced earning capacity, and the risk of impoverishment.

Despite the low cost of preventative drug treatments, a high proportion of the key risk-factors for stroke, such as hypertension, diabetes and raised cholesterol, continue to be untreated in most developing countries and are increasing. While old age is another significant risk factor, because developing countries contain fewer people at the oldest ages, a higher share of stroke occurs among people at younger ages – on average 15 years younger than in developed countries.

In many developing countries the availability of emergency treatment remains extremely limited, especially in rural areas, and the cost prohibitive. However, Prof Lloyd-Sherlock suggests that screening for and treating pre-disposing conditions – for example medication to lower blood pressure or cholesterol levels – could bring immediate benefits. It is claimed that rolling out multi-drug treatments could save 18 million deaths between 2005 and 2015.

Prof Lloyd-Sherlock said: “This form of prevention may offer a relatively cheap and low-tech alternative that has the capacity to generate substantial short-term gains in population health. The process of screening is relatively cheap, only requiring basic equipment and limited staff training, while multi-drug treatment therapies are affordable when compared with drug regimes for TB or HIV/AIDS. Despite this, the scale of these challenges, particularly in low-income settings, should not be down-played.”

Notes:
‘Stroke in Developing Countries: Epidemiology, Impact and Policy Implications’ is published in the November issue of Development Policy Review, volume 28, issue 6, pages 693-709.

Source:
Cat Bartman

University of East Anglia

UC Irvine cardiologists have found a pouchlike structure inside the heart’s left atrial chamber that may be a potent source of stroke-causing blood clots.

About 80 percent of the 700,000-plus strokes that occur annually in the U.S. are due to blood clots blocking a brain artery. In up to a third of these cases, the clots’ origin cannot be determined. Study co-author Dr. Subramaniam Krishnan said the discovery of this left atrial pouch could provide answers and inform neurologists’ efforts to prevent stroke recurrences.

Krishnan and Dr. Miguel Salazar of UCI first spotted the pouch during autopsy research. Subsequent ultrasound and CT scans of patients’ hearts confirmed the finding. The researchers estimate that the anatomical feature, which Krishnan likened to a kangaroo pouch, is present in 30 percent to 35 percent of individuals. Study results appear in the January issue of Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Interventions.

“The cul-de-sac nature of the heart pouch can promote stagnation of the blood, forming clots that can travel into the brain and cause a stroke,” Krishnan said. “It was thought that the body of the left atrium was largely smooth and unlikely to be a source of blood clots, but we have found that not to be true for roughly one in three people.”

Krishnan and UCI neurologist Dr. Mark Fisher are currently studying the prevalence of the left atrial pouch in patients who have already had strokes. “This finding points to a potentially important cause of strokes,” Fisher said. “The presence of this pouch could change how neurologists treat these patients and lead to new therapeutic strategies for preventing strokes.”

Source: Tom Vasich

University of California – Irvine

UroToday- In 2004 a meta-analysis reported that patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) had a statistically significant decrease in risk (9%) of developing prostate cancer (CaP). This has now been validated in a larger meta-analysis reported by Drs. Kasper and Giovannunucci from Harvard Medical School. Their report appears in the November 2006 issue of Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention.

The goal of the new meta-analysis was to increase the number of articles included in the analysis from 14 to 19 and thereby the number of cases from 9,000 to >20,000 for enhanced statistical analysis. The authors also sought to determine if differences existed in patients in the pre-PSA compared to PSA era. The selection of published studies identified 325 articles of which 19 were chosen for extraction and analysis. While most publications did not specify whether patients had type I or type II DM, the age of participants suggested that most had type II DM. A variety of subset analyses were performed to address particular questions.

To determine the amount of heterogeneity that existed between the 19 studies a Cochran’s Q test was performed. Then using a random-effects model, the authors found that DM was associated with a lower risk for CaP (RR, 0.84). Both cohort and case-control studies demonstrated heterogeneity. When analyzed by publication year, less heterogeneity existed as a group for the studies published prior to 2002 or after 2002 compared to all the studies combined.

To determine any difference in risk in the pre- and post-PSA eras, another subgroup analysis was done. The RR for pre-PSA was 0.94 and the RR for PSA era was 0.73. Separating studies that corrected for BMI from those that did not correct for BMI showed RRs of 0.82 and 0.87, respectively. Overall, the study showed that diabetic men have a statistically significant 16% decreased risk of developing CAP. The authors cite several possible explanations. DM and CaP may share additional factors that affect the risk of both diseases independently. This could include decreased insulin and IGF-I levels, or decreased testosterone levels.

This larger, robust meta-analysis strongly validates that men with DM are at decreased risk for development of CaP.

Jocelyn S. Kasper and Edward Giovannucci
Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2006 15: 2056-2062.

Reviewed by UroToday Contributing Editor Christopher P. Evans, M.D.
UroToday – the only urology website with original content global urology key opinion leaders actively engaged in clinical practice.

To access the latest urology news releases from UroToday, go to:
www.urotoday

Copyright © 2006 – UroToday

Details of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) new global strategy to tackle tuberculosis (TB) are published as part of a special TB Essay Focus in this week’s issue of The Lancet.

There are around 8.8 million new cases of TB per year. DOTS (directly-observed treatment short-courses)–the current WHO recommended TB control strategy–has contributed to the successful treatment of nearly 22 million patients worldwide over the last decade. However, global statistics suggest that DOTS alone is not sufficient to achieve the 2015 targets set by the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and Stop TB Partnership.

The new strategy therefore builds on, and goes beyond, DOTS, and provides the basis and the context to the recently launched second Global Plan to Stop TB: 2006-2015. The strategy has six components, which include addressing the spread of TB and HIV co-infections and multi-drug resistant TB.

“With a strategy and related plan, the framework to succeed is in place. However, the financing gap of 30 billion dollars requires substantial increases in domestic and international commitment,” states Dr Mario Raviglione (Director, Stop TB Department, WHO). “Focussing on endemic countries, WHO and all Stop TB partners will intensify their efforts to help achieve the 2015 Partnership’s targets and step towards eliminating this ancient scourge of humanity,” he adds.

The launch of the strategy in The Lancet is accompanied by a series of short essays experts from around the world and comes just ahead of World TB Day on March 24.

In a Comment to introduce the essays, Professor Alimuddin Zumla (Director, Centre for Infectious Diseases and International Health, University College London) and Zoe Mullan (Senior Editor, The Lancet), state: “The tuberculosis fraternity has unified in stating its strategy. Now it is up to developing country governments to fully commit resources to tuberculosis control, and for donors to provide catalytic financial aid. Indeed, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has already pledged US $900 million by 2015. European governments and funding agencies should follow suit.”

###

Contact: The Lancet press office +44 (0) 207 424 4949/4249 pressofficelancet

Notes to editors
A press conference to launch the strategy is taking place on Thursday March 16 at 10:30am at The Lancet’s London offices. For more details contact Glenn Thomas, Communications Officer, WHO Stop TB T) +41 79 509 0677 (mobile) thomasgwho.int or Udani Samarasekera, Press Officer, The Lancet T) +44 (0) 207 424 4949 or +44 (0) 7798 882 308 (mobile) pressofficelancet

Contact: Joe Santangelo
j.santangeloelsevier
Lancet

The duration of a child’s sleep can vary, depending on the time of day, week and year. Further, children who don’t get enough nightly sleep are more likely to be overweight and have behavioral problems, according to a study published in the January 1 issue of the journal SLEEP.

The study, authored by Professor Ed Mitchell, of the University of Auckland in New Zealand, focused on 591 seven-year-old children whose sleep duration was assessed by actigraphy (a non-invasive method used to study sleep-wake patterns and circadian rhythms by assessing movement) at four different stages of their young lives: at birth, at one year, at three-and-a-half years and at seven years.

According to the results, the average time spent in bed was 10.1 hours. Sleep duration was shorter:

* On weekends than on weekdays.

* In the summer, compared with spring, autumn and winter.

* In those with no younger siblings.

* When bedtime was after 9:00 p.m.

Children who slept less than nine hours were more likely to be overweight or obese and to have a 3.34 percent increase in body fat than those who slept for more than nine hours. Short sleep duration was also associated with higher emotional liability scores.

“Sleep is important for health and well-being throughout life,” said Professor Mitchell. “Few studies have objectively measured sleep duration. In this large study of sleep in seven-year-olds, there was considerable variation in duration of sleep. Sleep duration was 40 minutes longer in winter than summer and was 31 minutes longer on weekdays than on the weekend. Short sleep duration was associated with a three-fold increased risk of the child being overweight or obese. This effect was independent of physical activity or television watching. Attention to sleep in childhood may be an important strategy to reduce the obesity epidemic.”

It is recommended that children in pre-school sleep between 11-13 hours a night and school-aged children between 10-11 hours of sleep a night.

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) offers some tips to help your child sleep better:

* Follow a consistent bedtime routine. Set aside 10 to 30 minutes to get your child ready to go to sleep each night.

* Establish a relaxing setting at bedtime.

* Interact with your child at bedtime. Don’t let the TV, computer or video games take your place.

* Keep your children from TV programs, movies, and video games that are not right for their age.

* Do not let your child fall asleep while being held, rocked, fed a bottle, or while nursing.

* At bedtime, do not allow your child to have foods or drinks that contain caffeine. This includes chocolate and sodas. Try not to give him or her any medicine that has a stimulant at bedtime. This includes cough medicines and decongestants.

It is important to make sure that your child gets enough sleep and sleeps well. The value of sleep can be measured by your child’s smiling face, happy nature and natural energy. A tired child may have development or behavior problems. A child’s sleep problems can also cause unnecessary stress for you and the other members of your family.

Parents who suspect that their child might be suffering from a sleep disorder are encouraged to consult with their child’s pediatrician or a sleep specialist.

###

SLEEP is the official journal of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, LLC, a joint venture of the AASM and the Sleep Research Society.

Click here for more information on “children and sleep” from the AASM.

SleepEducation, a patient education Web site created by the AASM, provides information about various sleep disorders, the forms of treatment available, recent news on the topic of sleep, sleep studies that have been conducted and a listing of sleep facilities.

Article, entitled, “Short Sleep Duration in Middle Childhood: Risk Factors and Consequences.”

Source: Jim Arcuri

American Academy of Sleep Medicine

UroToday – Human papillomavirus is the most commonly sexually transmitted infection in the United States. The American Cancer Society estimates that about 11,000 women in the United States will be diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer annually and almost 4,000 will die from this disease. This study done by Dr. Bertran Auvert et al. investigated the association between male circumcision and the prevalence of human papillomavirus among young men.

This study utilized data from a trial conducted in Orange Farm, South Africa among men between the ages of 18-24 years. Urethral swabs were collected from participants in the intervention who were circumcised and the controls who were uncircumcised and were coming in for scheduled follow-up visits. Polymerase chain reactions were performed for analysis of human papillomavirus.

The prevalence of human papillomavirus was 14.8% in those that were circumcised and 22.3% in those who were uncircumcised. Controlling for other confounding variables such as ethnic group, age, education, sexual behavior [including condom use], marital status, and HIV showed no effect on the results.

The group concluded that this was the first randomized controlled trial to show a reduction in the prevalence of urethral human papillomavirus infection after circumcision. It correlates with the finding that women with a circumcised partner are at a lower risk of cervical cancer than women with uncircumcised partners.

Since human papillomavirus is a virus, HPV vaccines are being investigated. Currently, Gardasil is currently being administered for helping HPV prevention. Currently, only women are being treated with the HPV vaccine, but since both men and women are carriers of human papillomavirus, the possible benefits and efficacy of vaccinating men are currently being studied.

Auvert B, Sobngwi-Tambekou J, Cutler E, Nieuwoudt M, Lissouba P, Puren A, Taljaard D
J Infect Dis. 2009 Jan 1;199(1):14-9.
doi:10.1086/595566

UroToday Medical Editor Pasquale Casale, MD

UroToday – the only urology website with original content global urology key opinion leaders actively engaged in clinical practice.

To access the latest urology news releases from UroToday, go to:
www.urotoday

Copyright © 2008 – UroToday

View drug information on Gardasil.