N Nitrogen

Cheaper treatment for HIV-infected infants could also be more effective

Scientific American Topic - Epidemics & Pandemics — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 22:40:00 +0000

Babies born to mothers with HIV have a much smaller risk of getting the virus themselves if medical personnel administer preventive drugs, such as nevirapine, at birth to the moms and their newborns. Nevertheless, a small percentage of those infants will end up getting the disease anyway. And without treatment, some 62 percent of HIV-positive children die before the age of two. [More]

HIV - Health - Conditions and Diseases - Child - AIDS

You Must Remember This: What Makes Something Memorable?

Scientific American Topic - Epilepsy — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 14:00:00 +0000

One of the signature discoveries of cognitive neuroscience is that a structure called the hippocampus, deep within the brain, is intimately involved in creating memories. This fact was dramatically illustrated by a singular patient, Henry Molaison, who experienced severe epileptic seizures. In 1953, when Molaison was 27, doctors removed his hippocampus and nearby areas on both sides of his brain. The operation controlled his epilepsy, but at a price--from that time on, he was unable to remember the things that happened to him. He could learn skills, such as mirror writing, but would be puzzled by his expertise, because he could not recall having acquired it.

H.M., as he was known during his lifetime to protect his privacy, taught scientists three lessons. First, certain brain structures--the hippocampus and the amygdala, the brain’s emotion center--specialize in remembering. Second, there are different kinds of memory--the ability to recall facts, or personal experiences, or physical skills like riding a bike--each with its own properties. Third, memory is distinct from the brain’s intellectual and perceptual abilities.

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Hippocampus - Brain - Epilepsy - Memory - Amygdala

Pox Swap: 30 Years After the End of Smallpox, Monkeypox Cases Are on the Rise

Scientific American Topic - Epidemics & Pandemics — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:00:00 +0000

The ancient scourge smallpox was relegated to biowaste bin of history more than 30 years ago, the result of the world's first and only successful disease eradication programs. Since then, however, cases of monkeypox--a serious, although less severe smallpoxlike illness--have substantially increased in central Africa, according to a study published August 30 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . The authors stress that better surveillance and a thorough assessment of the public health threat posed by this once-rare viral infection are needed.

"I'm concerned about monkeypox," says Don Burke director of the Center for Vaccine Research at the University of Pittsburgh, who wasn't involved in the study. "It isn't going to emerge as pandemic tomorrow, but could at any time start to increase its transmission. It's worrisome. This is the type of warning siren we need to take very seriously."

[More]

Africa - University of Pittsburgh - Smallpox - Central Africa - Public health

Pox Swap: 30 Years After the End of Small Pox, Monkey Pox Cases Are on the Rise

Scientific American Topic - Epidemics & Pandemics — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:00:00 +0000

The ancient scourge small pox was relegated to biowaste bin of history more than 30 years ago, the result of the world's first and only successful disease eradication programs. Since then, however, cases of monkey pox--a serious, although less severe small pox–like illness--have substantially increased in central Africa, according to a study published August 30 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . The authors stress that better surveillance and a thorough assessment of the public health threat posed by this once-rare viral infection are needed.

"I'm concerned about monkey pox," says Don Burke director of the Center for Vaccine Research at the University of Pittsburgh, who wasn't involved in the study. "It isn't going to emerge as pandemic tomorrow, but could at any time start to increase its transmission. It's worrisome. This is the type of warning siren we need to take very seriously."

[More]

Africa - University of Pittsburgh - Smallpox - Central Africa - Public health

Attractive Therapy: Magnetic Brain Stimulation Gaining Favor as Treatment for Depression

Scientific American Topic - Epilepsy — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:38:00 +0000

Treatment of severe depression with magnetic stimulation is moving beyond large mental health centers and into private practices nationwide, following more than two decades of research on the treatment. Yet even as concern about its efficacy fades, one potential side effect--seizures--continues to shadow the technology. [More]

Mental health - Depression - Major depressive disorder - Health - Disorders

Cancer-Zapping Precision Radiation Beams Could Soon Target Other Diseases

Scientific American Topic - Epilepsy — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 21:05:00 +0000

Targeted beams of high-intensity radiation can shrink early-stage tumors with limited collateral damage to surrounding healthy tissue. The addition of robotics and image guidance systems in recent years has made these stereotactic, or directed beam, radiosurgery systems an even more versatile weapon against cancer, attacking not only brain tumors (for which they were originally designed) but also other diseases virtually anywhere in the body. [More]

Cancer - Health - Brain tumor - Radiosurgery - Medicine

What Comes Next: Experts Predict the Future (preview)

Scientific American Topic - Epidemics & Pandemics — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:00:00 +0000

The Age of Digital Entanglement By Danny Hillis

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Hosting - Free - Web Design and Development - Sports Related - Business

Closeted Calamity: The Hidden HIV Epidemic of Men Who Have Sex with Men

Scientific American Topic - Epidemics & Pandemics — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 16:00:00 +0000

The HIV pandemic has historically been thought of as either concentrated in specific populations--such as gay men, injection drug–users, sex workers--or generalized across the entire population in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean. But as more and better epidemiological data has become available, the evidence is clear: men who have sex with men (MSM), regardless of whether or not they identify as gay, also are at the core of those generalized epidemics.

MSM in developing countries are 19 times more likely to be infected with HIV than the general population, according to a 2007 literature review.

[More]

sub-Saharan Africa - HIV - AIDS pandemic - Men who have sex with men - Developing country

A Failed “War on Drugs” Prompts Rethinking on HIV Infections among Injection-Drug Users

Scientific American Topic - Epidemics & Pandemics — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 15:00:00 +0000

The "War on Drugs" has failed, particularly with regard to the spread of HIV in middle-income nations and some developing nations in Asia. The disease is now starting to bleed into Africa as well. [More]

drug war - Drugs - HIV - Health - Africa

Staying Negative: How an Unexpected Antiretroviral Result Is Reshaping the Battle Against AIDS

Scientific American Topic - Epidemics & Pandemics — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 15:00:00 +0000

When the first positive results of a research trial for an antiretroviral-based vaginal microbicide gel were announced at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna this July, it marked a significant thinning of the line between HIV treatment and prevention. The same agents that had been designed and developed to slow the virus's proliferation within the human body now had the potential to be used to help bar it from successfully setting up shop in the first place. [More]

HIV - Vienna - Antiretroviral drug - Health - Conditions and Diseases