Month: July 2018

Since 2011, a year when Kentucky was flooded with 371 million doses of opioid painkillers, state officials have cracked down on pain clinics, sued pharmaceutical companies and limited how many pills doctors can prescribe. The result is nearly 100 million fewer opioid prescriptions in 2017 — and an 11.5 percent increase in drug overdose deaths. That’s the sobering findings of a new report from the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy in a state on the front lines of the nation’s opioid epidemic. The report says 1,565 people died from drug overdoses in 2017, a 40 percent increase in the past five years. Deaths attributed to prescription painkillers and heroin are declining. But other drugs have taken their place. Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, accounted for more than half of all the deaths. And methamphetamine has made a comeback, accounting for 360 deaths. That’s a 57 percent increase in just one year. “We are in a crisis state,” Republican Gov. Matt Bevin said. “While we are putting money at it and while we are drawing attention to it, until we start to truly address this and look at underlying causes of these things and what is leading to this it is not going to be addressed.” ​42,000 deaths in US in 2016  Nationally, opioids accounted for more than 42,000 deaths in 2016. States with the highest rates of drug overdose deaths that year were West Virginia, Ohio, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Kentucky, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. …

One girl between the ages of 15 and 19 is infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, every three minutes of every day, a United Nations report found. The report, released Wednesday at the International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam, said teenage girls are bearing the brunt of the AIDS epidemic, largely due to gender inequality. Henrietta Fore, head of the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF), called it a “crisis of health.” “In most countries, women and girls lack access to information, to services, or even just power to say no to unsafe sex,” she said. “HIV thrives among the most vulnerable and marginalized, leaving teenage girls at the center of the crisis.” The report said while there was significant progress in the battle against AIDS in other age groups, it is notably lacking among adolescents. While AIDS-related deaths among all other age groups have been falling since 2010, those among children aged 15 to 19 have seen no reduction. In 2017, 1.2 million 15- to 19-year-olds were living with HIV, three in five of them were girls, according to UNICEF. Actress and activist Charlize Theron addressed the issue in her speech at the conference. The AIDS epidemic is “not just about sex or sexuality,” she said. It is also about “the second-class status of women and girls worldwide.” The solution, according to Angelique Kidjo, a UNICEF goodwill ambassador who contributed to the report, is education and economic empowerment. “We need to make girls and women secure enough economically that they …

Belgian doctors have euthanized three minors in the past two years, according to a report from the nation’s chief euthanasia regulatory body released earlier this month. The report, produced by Belgium’s Federal Commission for Euthanasia Control and Evaluation, said these three minors were the first to be euthanized since the country’s parliament voted to lift age restrictions on euthanasia in the country, the first such law in the world. Euthanasia for adults has been legal in Belgium since 2002. “There is no age for suffering,” said Professor Wim Distelmans, chairman of the euthanasia committee. “Fortunately, euthanasia among young people remains very exceptional. Even if it were only one, the law would have been very useful. ” The minors were 9, 11 and 17 years old, according to the report. Their conditions ranged from muscular dystrophy to brain tumors to cystic fibrosis. The conditions of all three were determined to be terminal, and euthanasia was approved unanimously by the committee. The report, part of a series released by the committee every two years, examined all euthanasia cases within Belgium from January 2016 to December 2017. The report said 4,337 euthanizations were administered in Belgium during that time. The majority of euthanizations — 2,781 — were for cancer patients. The second leading cause was “poly-pathologies,” ranging from dementia and heart disease to incontinence and hearing loss, with 710 euthanizations listing “poly-pathology” as its primary reason. Euthanasia cases rising Since euthanasia was first legalized in Belgium in 2002, the number of deaths from …

Most pet owners are ready to share stories of how their pets have consoled or responded to them during a time of distress. Most were just cute pet stories, until now — as new research is showing that dogs actually feel empathy for others. Sadie Witkowski has more. …

In a new warning, the U.N.’s World Meteorological Organization said the world is becoming increasingly vulnerable to the impact of climate change. It said this phenomenon is due to many factors and is not occurring at the same rate or degree around the globe. Parts of the world are feeling the strain of record-breaking heatwaves, drought, devastating floods and raging wildfires. They are having a widespread impact on human health, agriculture, ecosystems and infrastructure. The World Meteorological Organization reports climate change is influencing this trend in varying degrees. The chief of the WMO’s World Weather Research Program, Paulo Ruti, said there is no discernible global pattern of climate change, but, its impact is increasingly visible in certain areas, such as the Arctic. “We have seen wildfires in the Arctic,” he said. “So, there are favoring conditions related to the fact that climate change is acting. So, you are melting the Permafrost, you have much more vegetation that is available. Sometimes you have stronger winds. So, you have several factors.” Another interesting factor, he said, is a discernible increase in storms and lightning, events which also can trigger fires in the Arctic. He said climate change in some places is happening faster than previously predicted. “It depends on what is your target because if it is the Arctic, the answer is yes,” he told VOA. “So, you see an acceleration of the melting in the recent five, six years.” WMO scientist Ruti notes this question needs to be put into context. …

Scientists announced Wednesday they had discovered what appears to be a body of salty, liquid water beneath the surface of Mars, raising the possibility of detecting life on the Red Planet. The reservoir, spanning about 20 kilometers in diameter under ice on the planet’s southern pole, was found through a radar instrument on the Mars Express Orbiter, which was launched in 2003. Researchers previously discovered signs that water once flowed on Mars. “It’s tempting to think that this is the first candidate place where life could persist [on Mars],” said Roberto Orosei, a professor with the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics. He led the research published in the journal Science. He also said Mars may contain hidden bodies of water that have yet to be discovered. Orosei said the size of the reservoir “really qualifies this as a body of water,” like a lake, and not like “some kind of melt water filling some space between rock and ice.” The scientists say the discovery gives them a roadmap to potentially finding life under the surface. “We are not closer to actually detecting life,” said Dr. Manish Patel, an astrobiologist at Britain’s Open University, in comments published by the BBC. “What this finding does is give us the location of where to look on Mars. It is like a treasure map – except in this case, there will be lots of ‘X’s marking the spots.” Mars is cold, barren and dry, but used to be warm and wet. The researchers say …

Aggressively lowering blood pressure significantly reduced the risk of mild cognitive impairment and dementia among hypertension patients in a large government-backed clinical trial, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday. The results, presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Chicago, offer some of the first tangible steps individuals can take to reduce their risk for dementia, experts said. The results come from a landmark 2015 trial dubbed SPRINT involving of more than 9,300 hypertension patients which showed significant cardiovascular benefits in people whose systolic blood pressure – the top number in a blood pressure reading – was lowered aggressively to below 120, compared to a higher target of under 140. The Sprint MIND study looked specifically at the implications of aggressive blood pressure lowering on symptoms of dementia from any cause, and mild cognitive impairment, or MCI, a precursor to dementia. It found that people whose blood pressure was lowered to below 120 had a 19 percent lower rate of new cases of mild cognitive impairment and a 15 percent reduction in MCI and dementia combined. The takeaway of the study, said Dr. Keith Fargo, director of scientific and outreach programs at the Alzheimer’s Association, is “see your doctor and know your numbers,” and if individuals have hypertension, get it treated. “Not only do we already know that it reduces the risk for death due to stroke and heart attacks but we now know it supports healthy brain aging,” he said in an interview. Although the study showed effects on MCI …

At least 15 officials at a Chinese drug manufacturer have been detained as part of an investigation that it produced false records involving its rabies vaccine. The detained executives include the chair of Changsheng Biotechnology, which was ordered last week to stop production and recall the vaccine after the China Food and Drug Administration discovered it had been falsifying production and inspection records. Premier Li Keqiang issued a statement Sunday denouncing Changsheng for crossing a moral line, and promised to “resolutely crack down” on any actions that endangers public safety. There have no reports of injuries from the vaccine, but the news led to a wave of criticism on social media. Changsheng Biotechnology was forced to stop production of a vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis last year after regulators found the vaccine to be defective. China has been working to restore confidence in its food and drug industries, both at home and abroad, after a series of scandals over the last decade over shoddy and tainted products, the most notorious in 2008, when 300,000 children were sickened when they were given milk powder contaminated with the chemical melamine. Six of the children died.   …

African and South Asian nations could miss national targets to curb greenhouse gas emissions unless rich countries stop using them as dumping grounds for millions of polluting old cars, a study has warned. The report by the Center for Science and Environment (CSE) said the United States, Japan and European Union countries had for years been exporting old, used cars — or clunkers — to nations such as Nigeria and Bangladesh. The secondhand vehicles, which should have been scrapped under domestic regulations, are instead being used by poorer nations where they are contributing to carbon emissions, said CSE, a New Delhi think tank. Weak environmental regulations in poorer economies and stronger emissions regulations in exporting countries are among the factors “inciting this unregulated global trade in clunkers,” Anumita Roychowdhury of CSE said this week. “If this continues unchecked, without the exporting countries sharing the responsibility of addressing this problem, the poorer countries will not be able to meet their clean air and climate mitigation goals,” she said during a news conference on Facebook Live. There are about 2 billion vehicles globally, of which 2 percent, or 40 million, are deemed unworthy for road use in developed nations annually, according to the report. Many of them end up in countries such as Kenya, Nigeria and Ethiopia. Ninety percent of Nigeria’s 3.5 million cars are imported secondhand vehicles, according to data from the management consultancy firm Deloitte. ​Growing source of pollution These old, poorly maintained and often malfunctioning vehicles become energy guzzlers and emit …

New research shows more promise for using AIDS treatment drugs as a prevention tool, to help keep uninfected people from catching HIV during sex with a partner who has the virus. There were no infections among gay men who used a two-drug combo pill either daily or just before and after sex with someone with HIV, one study found. In a second study, no uninfected men caught the virus if they had sex only with a partner whose HIV was well suppressed by medicines. Both studies were discussed Tuesday at the International AIDS conference in Amsterdam. The United States’ top AIDS scientist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, called the results “very impressive” and “really striking.” About 36 million people worldwide have HIV and 1.8 million new infections occur each year, said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “The only way you’re going to end the epidemic is by preventing additional cases of transmission,” he said. The treatment drugs are “tools that, if widely implemented, theoretically could end the epidemic.” Expanding access to them is not only humanitarian but also smart policy, Fauci added. “You get a twofer: You save the life of the person who’s infected … and you’re making it virtually impossible for that person to transmit that infection to their sexual partner.” Until there’s a vaccine, condoms are the best way to prevent HIV infection, but not everyone uses them or does so all the time, so other options are needed.  A two-drug combo used …

Now’s the time to catch Mars in the night sky.   Next week, the red planet is making its closest approach to Earth in 15 years.   The two planets will be just 35.8 million miles (57.6 million kilometers) apart next Tuesday. And on Friday, Mars will be in opposition. That means Mars and the sun will be on exact opposite sides of Earth. That same day, parts of the world will see a total lunar eclipse.   Mars is already brighter than usual and will shine even more — and appear bigger — as Tuesday nears. Astronomers expect good viewing through early August.   A massive dust storm presently engulfing Mars, however, is obscuring surface details normally visible through telescopes. The Martian atmosphere is so full of dust that NASA’s Opportunity rover can’t recharge — not enough sunlight can reach its solar panels — and so it’s been silent since June 10. Flight controllers don’t expect to hear from 14-year-old Opportunity until the storm subsides, and maybe not even then.   The good news about all the Martian dust is that it reflects sunlight, which makes for an even brighter red planet, said Widener University astronomer Harry Augensen.   “It’s magnificent. It’s as bright as an airplane landing light,” Augensen said. “Not quite as bright as Venus, but still because of the reddish, orange-ish-red color, you really can’t miss it in the sky.”   In 2003, Mars and Earth were the closest in nearly 60,000 years — 34.6 million …