Popular Articles

About 20% Of Surveyed Sex Workers Who Use Drugs In Irish Capital Living With HIV, Report Finds
About one-fifth of commercial sex workers surveyed in Dublin, Ireland, are HIV-positive, while 78% of the surveyed group is living with hepatitis C, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Advisory Committee on Drugs, the Irish Times reports. The report surveyed 35 drug users in the city who are or had been involved in the sex industry. The participants had an average age of 29. The report found that a majority of the sex workers surveyed, or 88%, were receiving methadone treatment but also using other drugs simultaneously. In addition, the report included surveys of health workers, who said that it is becoming increasingly difficult to reach sex workers as they are becoming less visible in the city due to the increased use of mobile technology, such as the Internet and cellular phones, to contact clients (Gartland, Irish Times, 5/13). The researchers made several recommendations to address issues surrounding sex workers, including that the government should continue funding services for the population, the PA/Google.com reports. Teresa Whitaker, a researcher who worked on the report, said, "A dominant theme to emerge from the field work was that drug-using sex workers are vulnerable people with complex and multiple needs that span health, social and legal issues." She added, "For the most part, participants grew up in communities associated with social and economic marginalization and high levels of unemployment. They move more or less continually through drug and alcohol services, homeless hostels, the judicial system and other social care agencies" (PA/Google.com, 5/12).

To Raise Children In Foreign Lands, Immigrants Overcome Great Odds
A recent surge in immigration rates has led psychologists to study how these families are coping and thriving in their adopted countries. In a special June issue of the Journal of Family Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association, researchers report that close family ties are crucial for immigrants" successful transition to their new country.
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Funding For Research On The H1N1 Flu Virus Announced By Government Of Canada
The Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health, is pleased to announce another measure to address the H1N1 flu virus. The Government of Canada will fund a national influenza research network focused on pandemic vaccine evaluation. The network will strengthen Canada"s capacity to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of a pandemic influenza vaccine and vaccination programs.
Medical Devices

Varying Reductions In Breast Cancer Suggest Hormone Therapy To Blame

The recent decline in invasive breast cancer in the US was significantly less pronounced in the poor and those who live in rural areas. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Medicine suggest this may be due to varying reductions in the numbers of women taking hormone therapy (HT). Christina Clarke, Ph.D., led a team of researchers from the Northern California Cancer Center who studied breast cancer incidence data from the largest cancer database available in the US for the years 1997-2004, comparing poor areas against rich and urban areas against rural. She said, "Between 2001 and 2004, incidence rates of invasive breast cancer declined more than 8% in the United States. "One possible explanation for this is widespread discontinuation of and/or failure to initiate HT. Because this cessation of HT use was more pronounced in rich/urban areas, we wanted to see if there was a corresponding difference in breast cancer incidence between these areas and poor/rural parts of the country". The researchers found that overall invasive breast cancer incidence fell 13.2%, with greater reductions among women living in urban (-13.8%) versus rural (-7.5%) and low- (-13.0%) or middle- (-13.8%) versus high- (-9.6%) poverty counties. Breast cancer incidence trends for rural counties, which peaked in 1999 and then declined steadily, differed from those observed in urban counties, where rates fell dramatically after 2002. The researchers speculate that this may be due to variations in exposure to the news that HT was associated with breast cancer, they cite a 2007 report that found that the number of newspaper articles about the harmful effects of HT found in the 2002 Women"s Health Initiative (WHI) trial correlated with urban residence and likelihood of HT cessation/non-initiation; women in urban areas were potentially exposed to more newspaper articles and had a larger decline in the prevalence of HT use. Dr. Clarke added that "Understanding what specific populations were involved in the breast cancer declines helps us to better plan prevention efforts for the future, especially with the aging of the baby boomer population into prime breast cancer age." Recent trends in breast cancer incidence in US white women by urban/rural and poverty status Amelia K Hausauer, Theresa HM Keegan, Ellen T Chang, Sally L Glaser, Holly Howe and Christina A Clarke BMC Medicine (in press) Article. All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed Central"s open access policy. Graeme Baldwin BioMed Central


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