Tag Archives: united

Thinking differently: Autism patients in demand by employers

Some call it neurological diversity, others see it as autism's fight back. People diagnosed as “on the spectrum” are suddenly in demand by employers seeking a competitive advantage from autistic workers more used to being considered disabled than special. Expressing a belief that “innovation comes from the edges”, German computer software giant SAP last month launched a recruitment drive to attract people with autism to join it as software testers. A week later, U.S. home financing firm Freddie Mac advertised a second round of paid internships aimed specifically at autistic students or new graduates. The multinationals both say they hope to harness the unique talents of autistic people as well as giving people previously marginalized in the workforce a chance to flourish in a job. “Only by employing people who think differently and spark innovation will SAP be prepared to handle the challenges of the 21st Century,” SAP's board member for human resources, Luisa Delgado, said as she announced the plan. For Ari Ne'eman, president of the Washington DC-based Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) and a member of the U.S. National Council on Disability, the moves are welcome and well overdue. It's high time autism fought back, he told Reuters in a telephone interview. “We need to see neurological diversity in much the same way as we've seen workplace diversity efforts in the past on the basis of race, gender and sexual orientation,” he said. “We're now seeing a growing level of interest in this.” Autistic spectrum disorders, including Asperger's syndrome or high-functioning autism, are thought to affect around 1 percent of the population worldwide. The disorders are caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors and can range from severe mental retardation with a profound inability to communicate, to relatively mild symptoms combined with some high levels of function such as those seen in people with Asperger's. Among the core features of autism are poor communication skills and social difficulties. In high-functioning autism, features such as intense or obsessive focus and unwavering attention to detail are also common. These latter qualities, experts say, as well an ability to approach an issue in a different way - often a creative or counterintuitive one - make autistic people potentially attractive as employees in large corporations. “Historically, there seemed to be a certain perception of this population as being incapable of performing corporate level work,” Freddie' Mac's diversity manager Stephanie Roemer told Reuters. “In reality people on the spectrum offer so much to an organization ... willing to think outside of the box and view this cadre of talent as a 'value add'.” Obsession and success Joshua Kendall, author of “America's Obsessives”, which argues that some of history's greatest American business and political leaders became successful partly because of obsessive personality traits, says the firms that get in first on this trend are likely to reap rewards. “These big companies aren't doing it out of the kindness of their heart; they are doing it because they now realize they've been missing something,” he said in a telephone interview. He said the crucial question if such recruitment drives are to prove successful and sustainable is how much society will seek to accommodate people who think differently, or how much it would seek to “cure” them of their disorder. “These are people who have traditionally been labeled as disabled. So do we want to treat them, or do we want to allow them to be as they are and adapt to them?” SAP says its global autism recruitment drive, which aims to employ 650 autistic people - around 1 percent of its workforce - by 2020, comes after successful pilot projects in India and Ireland. It is a collaborative project with Specialisterne, a Danish consultancy that gets people with autism into jobs where they can shine. Ne'eman says so far most of the firms expressing interest in autistic workers tend to be in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. In future, he says he hopes their success will encourage others to take notice. “Many of us can and do succeed in a wide variety of professions,” he said. “I, for instance, am an autistic person working in politics and public policy, which is certainly not a stereotypical field.” In Britain, only 15 percent of adults with autism are in full-time employment, says Carol Povey, a director at the UK's National Autistic Society - a fraction, she adds, of those who could contribute to the world of work. In the United States, according to Ne'eman, studies of the working lives of autistic people have not been done, so no comparable data is available. “It's great to see organizations not just doing from corporate social responsibility, but actually recognizing there is a good business case behind having more people with autism in the workforce,” Povey said. “These people will contribute to the effectiveness and growth of the business.” Yet autism campaigners, and the firms seeking to recruit people on the spectrum, know there will be problems, too. Povey notes that “the social aspects of being in a workplace or office may pose particular challenges” for autistic recruits. “They may be great at doing the task in hand, but really struggle when it comes to 'water cooler moments' or lunchtime. “In fact they may even make other colleagues feel inadequate or awkward. They are unlikely to get involved in the banter of the workplace, and more likely to just get on with the job.”source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/04/thinking-differently-autism-patients-in-demand-by-employers/

Women willing to delay antibiotics for UTIs

More women than previously thought may be willing to delay taking antibiotics to treat a urinary tract infection in order to reduce the potentially unneeded use of antibiotics, a new Dutch study shows. More than one-third of women in the study with UTI symptoms said they were willing to wait a week to see if the infection would improve on its own before starting antibiotics. And more than 70 percent of the women who didn't use antibiotics for a week showed improvements or had their symptoms disappear completely, according to the study published May 30 in the journal BMC Family Practice. UTIs are more common in women than men, and are caused by E. coli bacteria in 80 to 90 percent of cases. The standard treatment for UTIs is a few days of antibiotic treatment, but the increasing emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria has become a serious concern, experts say. “To counteract this increasing resistance, the use of antibiotics should be limited in healthy patients who can also be cured without them,” study researcher Dr. Bart Knottnerus, from the University of Amsterdam said in an email. Studies show that when patients have UTI symptoms, most often, antibiotic treatment is started before the results of urine cultures, which look for the presence of bacteria, are known. “In fact, a culture is seldom done. Instead, the probability of a positive culture is estimated by asking questions and performing urine investigations,” Knottnerus said. “Since no test is perfect, some patients without UTI will get antibiotics, and some patients with UTI will not.” In the study, 137 patients were asked by their doctor to delay antibiotic treatment for one week. Fifty-one women were willing to wait. After one week, 28 of those women had still not used antibiotics and 20 of them reported clinical improvement. None of the participating women developed kidney infection, according to the study. Kidney infection is a serious condition that can occur if a UTI is left untreated, and needs a more aggressive antibiotic treatment. The researchers say that bladder infections seldom progress to the kidneys. “If a kidney infection occurs in a healthy woman, she can be cured by antibiotics,” Knottnerus said. “But to make sure that these antibiotics will still be effective in the future, it is important to limit their use in mild infections (like bladder infections).” It is important that women with UTI symptoms be monitored by a doctor if they choose to delay antibiotics. “If a woman gets ill (fever, shivering, flank pain), the infection may be progressing to the kidney,” Knottnerus said. Previous studies have shown that in somecases, patients recover from UTIs within a week without taking antibiotics. Knottnerus said the reason is that they either didn't have a UTI, or didn't need antibiotics to cure it. The body's defense mechanisms are often strong enough to fend off infections without any help from antibiotics, he said. Dr. Timothy Jenkins, assistant professor at the Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Colorado, said about the new study: “Progressive antibiotic resistance in bacteria is a major problem in the United States and worldwide, so it is very important that we develop novel strategies to reduce antibiotic use, such as the one proposed in this study.” Jenkins noted that antibiotic use in the Netherlands is extremely low, whereas antibiotic use in the United States is quite high. “Therefore, whether this study is applicable to women in the U.S. where the societal expectation for antibiotics is greater is not known,” he said. New guidelines published last week, from the Dutch College of General Practitioners, support the advice to delay antibiotic treatment for uncomplicated urinary tract infections, the researchers said. Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/04/women-willing-to-delay-antibiotics-for-utis/

Michael Douglas’ interview: Can you get throat cancer from oral sex?

The Guardian newspaper published an interview with Michael Douglas on Sunday, in which the 68-year-old actor said his throat cancer hadn’t been caused by drinking or smoking – but by having oral sex. “Without wanting to get too specific, this particular cancer is caused by HPV, which actually comes about from cunnilingus,” Douglas told the British newspaper.  Douglas also went on to speculate that the stress of his son Cameron’s incarceration might have helped trigger the cancer as well. While a representative for Douglas maintains the actor did not specifically say oral sex was the cause of his cancer, the conversation still begs the question: Does having oral sex play a role in the development of oral cancer? While a connection between the two may seem bizarre, it is very possible that some oral cancers are the end result of intimate sexual contact. Rates of oral cancer – sometimes referred to as head and neck cancers – have been on the rise over the past decade.  While the main risk factors for oral cancers typically include drinking alcohol and smoking, around 25 percent of mouth and 35 percent of throat cancers are related to human papilloma virus (HPV) infection. “(HPV) is present within the fluids that are part of oral sexual behavior,” Dr. Marshall Posner, director of the head and neck oncology program at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, told FoxNews.com. “The vaginal fluids and semen will contain epithelial cells that have the virus on them and also free viral particles that can cause infection.” HPV cannot be transmitted through blood contact, but Posner said it may be possible to contract the virus from the direct contact of fluids through kissing. This can occur if an individual kisses someone who previously performed oral sex on someone else who had the virus. “If the virus is present in the oral pharynx and if it gets secreted in the saliva, then the saliva will contain potentially dangerous viral particles,” Posner said. There are more than 100 different types of HPV, and nearly everyone contracts some form of the virus in their youth.  Fortunately, the majority of HPV strains do not cause any symptoms, and in 90 percent of cases, the infection is naturally eradicated from the body within two years. However, some HPV types can cause genital warts, while others may lead to certain cancers in rare cases. HPV 16 and HPV 18 – which are sexually transmitted – are most closely associated with HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer. According to Posner, 3 percent of adult males and 1 percent of adult females will have detectable HPV 16 in their saliva at any given moment in time.  However, just because HPV is detected in a sample of someone with oral cancer does not necessarily mean HPV caused the cancer.  According to the National Health Service in Britain, the virus becomes part of the pre-existing cancer cells’ genetic material, fostering the cells to grow. Oropharyngeal cancer symptoms include a lump in the back of the throat or mouth, pain in the ear or back of tongue, and difficulty swallowing. While the prognosis for HPV-negative oropharyngeal cancer is around 40 to 50 percent, the survival outcomes are generally better for HPV-positive cancers, ranging from 80 to 95 percent.  However, that prognosis is affected by drinking and smoking, which may have been a problem for Douglas. In the United States, HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer represents 60 percent of the total number of orapharyngeal cancer cases, which equal to about 15,000 per year.  Posner estimated that those cases will increase to 20,000 a year by the year 2015. While researchers cannot fully explain the rising rates of these cancers, one of the biggest risk factor for contracting HPV-positive oroharyngeal cancer includes having a high number of sexual partners, Posner said. “In smoking cigarettes and cancer, it doesn’t matter what brands you smoked, it matters how many you smoked,” Posner said.  “With HPV, it’s about the number of ‘brands’ you’ve been involved with. If you have numerous partners, you have a much higher risk of developing cancer. So (monogamous) people should go ahead and have the same intimate and personal relationship that they have with their partners and not be worried about it.” For those looking to protect themselves from contracting dangerous forms of HPV, practicing safe sex by using protection such as condoms and dental dams may help to diminish the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.  Posner also called for parents to get their children – including young boys –vaccinated against HPV. “I think people should make every effort to have children vaccinated, so I don’t have to treat this in the future,” Posner said.  I think it’s very important and to cure cancer we have to support research – it’s the best way we have to figure out how to cure this. Click to learn more about HPV from Mount Sinai Hospital.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/03/michael-douglass-reveal-can-get-throat-cancer-from-oral-sex/

Michael Douglas’ reveal: Can you get throat cancer from oral sex?

Michael Douglas made a shocking announcement on Sunday, maintaining that his throat cancer hadn’t been caused by drinking or smoking – but by having oral sex. “Without wanting to get too specific, this particular cancer is caused by HPV, which actually comes about from cunnilingus,” Douglas told The Guardian newspaper.  The 68-year-old actor also went on to speculate that the stress of his son Cameron’s incarceration might have helped trigger the cancer as well. While a connection between oral sex and cancer may seem bizarre, it is very possible that some oral cancers are the end result of intimate sexual contact. Rates of oral cancer – sometimes referred to as head and neck cancers – have been on the rise over the past decade.  While the main risk factors for oral cancers typically include drinking alcohol and smoking, around 25 percent of mouth and 35 percent of throat cancers are related to human papilloma virus (HPV) infection. “(HPV) is present within the fluids that are part of oral sexual behavior,” Dr. Marshall Posner, director of the head and neck oncology program at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, told FoxNews.com. “The vaginal fluids and semen will contain epithelial cells that have the virus on them and also free viral particles that can cause infection.” HPV cannot be transmitted through blood contact, but Posner said it may be possible to contract the virus from the direct contact of fluids through kissing. This can occur if an individual kisses someone who previously performed oral sex on someone else who had the virus. “If the virus is present in the oral pharynx and if it gets secreted in the saliva, then the saliva will contain potentially dangerous viral particles,” Posner said. There are more than 100 different types of HPV, and nearly everyone contracts some form of the virus in their youth.  Fortunately, the majority of HPV strains do not cause any symptoms, and in 90 percent of cases, the infection is naturally eradicated from the body within two years. However, some HPV types can cause genital warts, while others may lead to certain cancers in rare cases. HPV 16 and HPV 18 – which are sexually transmitted – are most closely associated with HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer. According to Posner, 3 percent of adult males and 1 percent of adult females will have detectable HPV 16 in their saliva at any given moment in time.  However, just because HPV is detected in a sample of someone with oral cancer does not necessarily mean HPV caused the cancer.  According to the National Health Service in Britain, the virus becomes part of the pre-existing cancer cells’ genetic material, fostering the cells to grow. Oropharyngeal cancer symptoms include a lump in the back of the throat or mouth, pain in the ear or back of tongue, and difficulty swallowing. While the prognosis for HPV-negative oropharyngeal cancer is around 40 to 50 percent, the survival outcomes are generally better for HPV-positive cancers, ranging from 80 to 95 percent.  However, that prognosis is affected by drinking and smoking, which may have been a problem for Douglas. In the United States, HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer represents 60 percent of the total number of orapharyngeal cancer cases, which equal to about 15,000 per year.  Posner estimated that those cases will increase to 20,000 a year by the year 2015. While researchers cannot fully explain the rising rates of these cancers, one of the biggest risk factor for contracting HPV-positive oroharyngeal cancer includes having a high number of sexual partners, Posner said. “In smoking cigarettes and cancer, it doesn’t matter what brands you smoked, it matters how many you smoked,” Posner said.  “With HPV, it’s about the number of ‘brands’ you’ve been involved with. If you have numerous partners, you have a much higher risk of developing cancer. So (monogamous) people should go ahead and have the same intimate and personal relationship that they have with their partners and not be worried about it.” For those looking to protect themselves from contracting dangerous forms of HPV, practicing safe sex by using protection such as condoms and dental dams may help to diminish the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.  Posner also called for parents to get their children – including young boys –vaccinated against HPV. “I think people should make every effort to have children vaccinated, so I don’t have to treat this in the future,” Posner said.  I think it’s very important and to cure cancer we have to support research – it’s the best way we have to figure out how to cure this. Click to learn more about HPV from Mount Sinai Hospital.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/03/michael-douglass-reveal-can-get-throat-cancer-from-oral-sex/

Elephant at Oregon Zoo diagnosed with tuberculosis

The Oregon Zoo has quarantined an elephant that tested positive for tuberculosis. “Rama,” an Asian elephant that was born at the Portland-based zoo in 1983, tested positive on Friday. He shows no symptoms of the disease, poses no threat to visitors and is expected to make a complete recovery, zoo staff said. “We're confident Rama is going to be fine,” zoo director Kim Smith told The Oregonian newspaper. “It's a very treatable disease. We've caught it early with Rama. We feel very good about this.” Treatment with drugs, however, is expensive, costing more than $50,000, the newspaper reported. None of the other elephants in the zoo's heard of eight Asian elephants are showing signs of tuberculosis, but they will be retested. The zoo tested some staff members Friday and will continue this week. It's unknown how Rama contracted the disease. Tuberculosis spreads among people and between people and animals through airborne bacteria carried in droplets. To become infected, you must be directly exposed to the bacteria while it's airborne. “In order to contact TB, you have to be in really close contact for hours at a stretch,” Smith said. The zoo has tested the herd annually for TB since 1999, based on guidelines developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Those guidelines stemmed from the 1996 deaths of two circus elephants touring in California. An estimated 3 percent of the elephants in the United States have the disease, according to a 2000 study published in the journal Zoo Biology. The zoo gets 1.6 million visitors a year and the elephant herd is a popular attraction. Rama is the smallest of its adult bull elephants, weighing 9,000 pounds.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/03/elephant-at-portland-zoo-has-tuberculosis/

Costco recalls frozen berries linked to hepatitis outbreak

The Food and Drug Administration is investigating an outbreak of hepatitis A linked to a frozen organic berry mix sold by an Oregon company. The FDA and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that 30 illnesses are linked to Townsend Farms Organic Anti-Oxidant Blend, which contains pomegranate seed mix. Illnesses were reported in Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona and California. Several of those who fell ill reported buying the berry mix at Costco, according to CDC. A Costco spokesman said Friday that the company has removed the product from stores and is attempting to contact members who purchased the product since late February. Hepatitis A is a contagious liver disease that can last from a few weeks to several months. People often contract it when an infected food handler prepares food without appropriate hand hygiene. Food already contaminated with the virus can also cause outbreaks. The government has not announced a recall, but the CDC recommended that retailers and other food service operators should not sell or serve Townsend Farms Organic Anti-Oxidant Blend. Nine of the people who have been sickened were hospitalized, according to the CDC. Preliminary tests from two cases suggest this is a hepatitis A strain rarely seen in North America, but is found in the North Africa and Middle East regions. The FDA said it is inspecting the processing facilities of Townsend Farms of Fairview, Ore., which sold the mix. Bill Gaar, a lawyer for Townsend Farms, said the frozen organic blend bag includes pomegranate seeds from Turkey, and are only used in the product associated with the outbreak. “We do have very good records, we know where the (pomegranate seeds) came from, we're looking into who the broker is and we're sourcing it back up the food chain to get to it,” Gaar said. He said Townsend Farms believes Costco is the only customer who bought the product, though they are checking to see if any other retailers may have sold it. Hepatitis A illnesses occur within 15 to 50 days of exposure to the virus. Symptoms include fatigue, abdominal pain, jaundice, abnormal liver tests, dark urine and pale stool. Vaccination can prevent illness if given within two weeks of exposure, and those who have already been vaccinated are unlikely to become ill, according to CDC. CDC said all of the victims are older than 18, ranging from 25 to 71 years old. The first illnesses were reported at the end of April. The same genotype of hepatitis A was identified in an outbreak in Europe linked to frozen berries this year, the CDC said, as well as a 2012 outbreak in British Columbia related to a frozen berry blend with pomegranate seeds from Egypt. In addition to the United States and Turkey, the agency said the Townsend Farms berries also included products from Argentina and Chile.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/03/costco-recalls-berries-linked-to-hepatitis-outbreak/

No increased risk of infection for long-term sex partners of people with HPV-related oral cancers, study suggests

“While we can’t guarantee that the partners of patients will not develop oral HPV infections or cancers, we can reassure them that our study found they had no increased prevalence of oral infections, which suggests their risk of HPV-related oral cancer remains low,” says Gypsyamber D’Souza, Ph.D., M.P.H., associate professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is expected to present the results of her study June 1 at the 2013 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting…

New therapy shown to improve progression-free survival and shrink tumors in rare cancer for the first time

The findings are potentially practice-changing for a historically "untreatable disease." Though uveal melanoma is rare — there are only 2,500 cases diagnosed in the United States each year — about half of patients will develop metastatic disease, and survival for patients with advanced disease has held steady at nine months to a year for decades. Researchers found that progression-free survival (PFS) in patients receiving selumetinib was nearly 16 weeks and 50 percent of these patients experienced tumor shrinkage, with 15 percent achieving major shrinkage. Patients receiving temozolomide, the current standard chemotherapy, had seven weeks of PFS and no tumor shrinkage. …

France to ban electronic cigarettes in public

France will ban electronic cigarette smoking in public places by imposing the same curbs enforced since 2007 to combat tobacco smoking, Health Minister Marisol Touraine said on Friday. Amid mounting global concern over the public health implications of so-called e-cigarettes, Touraine said they faced the same fate as traditional ones: a ban on smoking in public spaces and sales to minors and a blackout on media advertising. In a country where the pungent waft of Gaulloises and Gitanes once seemed an unassailable part of cafe culture, smokers have long been banished to outdoor terrace seats. The near-odorless electronic alternative - battery-driven devices that allow users inhale odorless nicotine-laced vapor rather than smoke - are gaining ground in no-go zones such as bars, cafes, trains, waiting rooms and offices. A government-commissioned report said this week that around 500,000 people in France had turned to e-cigarettes, which are designed to look like cigarettes although some come in different colors, and recommended a crackdown on public use. Health officials in many countries say the impact of electronic cigarettes on health needs further study. Another worry they cite is that the electronic alternative will increase the general temptation to smoke, including enticing those who have quit to start again, or that smokers may use them alongside rather than instead of regular cigarettes. “This is no ordinary product because it encourages mimicking and could promote taking up smoking,” said Touraine, who announced her plans at a news conference. In the United States, the number of smokers who have tried out e-cigarettes doubled to one in five in 2011 and the number of all adults trying it doubled too, to 6 percent, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In France, a country of 66 million, the government says tobacco smoking kills some 66,000 people a year and another 5,000 are killed through passive exposure to smoke. The expert in charge of the French report advised against an outright ban on e-cigarettes, however, saying they still seemed safer than tar-laden tobacco. Electronic cigarettes, whose invention is widely credited to a Chinese pharmacist a decade ago, usually comprise disposable cartridges of liquid such as propylene glycol that is easily turned to vapor and can contain artificial flavors alongside concentrated liquid nicotine.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/31/france-to-ban-electronic-cigarettes-in-public/

New weapon in fight against cervical cancer

The E7 protein is produced early in the lifecycle of the human papillomavirus (HPV) and blocks the body’s natural defences against the uncontrolled division of cells that can lead to cancer. Researchers at the University of Leeds’ School of Molecular and Cellular Biology have synthesised a molecule, called an RNA aptamer, that latches onto the carcinogenic protein and targets it for destruction, significantly reducing its presence in cells in the laboratory derived from cervical cancers…