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Highest-ever HIV diagnoses in gay men

Monday, 03 December 2012 17:09
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The number of gay and bisexual men being diagnosed with HIV in the UK reached an "all-time high" in 2011, according to the Health Protection Agency (HPA).
 
It said there had been a "worrying" trend since 2007, with more and more new cases each year.
 
Nearly half of the 6,280 people diagnosed last year were men who had sex with other men (MSM).
 
Overall, one in 20 MSM are infected with HIV.
 
Of those diagnosed in 2011, nearly two-thirds had not been to a sexual health clinic in the previous three years.
 
The HPA said the figures showed there was "room for improvement" in testing people in at-risk groups.
 
Dr Valerie Delpech, the organisation's head of HIV surveillance, told the BBC: "Obviously this is a serious illness and it is worrying that we're still seeing a lot in men who have sex with men and this is a record year.
 
"Transmission in the UK is largely sexual, so safe sex is the best way to prevent yourself getting HIV."
 
Rising
 
The total number of people living with HIV in the UK rose to 96,000, up from 91,500 the previous year. The issue is most intense in London.
 
Due to advances in drug treatment, having HIV should not affect life-expectancy.
 
However, the data suggests that one in four people with HIV are completely unaware of the infection, meaning they cannot receive treatment and may still be spreading the virus.
 
The chief executive of the National Aids Trust, Deborah Jack, said: "It is vitally important that gay men test at least once a year for STIs [sexually transmitted infections] and HIV, and every three months if they're having unprotected sex with new or casual partners.
 
"HIV-negative gay men diagnosed with an STI should really treat it as a 'wake up call'. You are at serious risk of getting HIV in the near future and need to take steps to prevent that happening - such as consistent condom use and reduction in number of sexual partners."
 
Sir Nick Partridge, the chief executive at the Terrence Higgins Trust, said: "HIV is an entirely preventable condition, yet each year we see thousands more people across the UK receive this life-changing diagnosis.
 
"Reducing undiagnosed HIV by encouraging those in high-risk groups to test more regularly is one way we can put the brakes on the spread of infection."
 
 
HIV 
 
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  • HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus and on its own it does not kill you.
  • The virus can survive and grow only by infecting, and destroying, the immune system.
  • This continual assault on the immune system makes it weaker and weaker until it is no longer able to fight off infections.
  • It is then that "opportunistic infections", ones a healthy immune system could fight off, become deadly.
  • People can die from pneumonias, brain infections, diarrhoeal illnesses as well as certain tumours such as lymphoma and cervical cancer.
 
BBC Health: HIV and Aids

 

 

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How Sleepless Nights Affect Your Body

Sunday, 02 December 2012 23:32
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The second you woke up this morning, your cells started pumping out a sleep-promoting chemical called adenosine. It built up throughout the day and now, along with other substances, it's saturating your brain, making you drowsy.
 
As the sun set, your brain's pineal gland began producing the sleep hormone melatonin, which signals to your body it's time to snooze.
 
A neurochemical called GABA now activates the brain stem's sleep command center. 
 
After a Few Minutes
 
But first, you take a mental inventory of your day, thinking about what you should have said, could have done, still need to do. Big mistake. Though you're lying still, your mind has revved up your fight-or-flight stress response.
 
Your adrenal glands unleash adrenaline, which increases your heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, and breathing rate.
 
Adrenaline recruits a partner, the stress hormone cortisol. Among other things, it raises blood sugar levels and mental alertness.
 
Game on. Your brain's sleep and wake centers are at war with each other.
 
After a Couple Hours
 
You glance at the clock. Grrr. Your frustration triggers another round of that adrenaline-cortisol cocktail. Some deep breathing could calm your agitated mind.
 
After About Three Hours
 
You give up and switch on your laptop. The screen's blue light squashes your melatonin levels and tricks your brain into thinking it's daytime. Also, your mind is likely engaged in whatever you're reading or watching, making you even more awake.
 
After About Five Hours
 
The brain's sleep center finally wins the tug-of-war, and you nod off. But instead of ebbing and flowing, your brain waves are stuck on high frequency, causing a fitful sleep.
 
After About Seven Hours
 
The alarm blares. Chances are, you're waking up when your brain waves are finally sliding into the delta phase associated with deep sleep, which is much harder to quickly snap out of.
 
You're up, but you haven't burned through enough of that adenosine, so your head feels foggy. Reaching for a java infusion might help--caffeine negates adenosine's effects.
 
Throughout the Morning
 
The lack of rest could make the amygdala, your brain's emotional center, more active than usual. You may feel grouchy or the opposite, unusually giddy.
 
Meanwhile, your brain's prefrontal cortex -- your reasoning and concentration center -- is dragging. You may feel like an unfocused, irritable hot mess. But if you hit the hay at your usual time tonight and do that relaxing deep breathing, you should be able to score a solid night's sleep.
 
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Ex-first lady Bruni backs gay marriage, models for Vogue

Thursday, 29 November 2012 15:23
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Former French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy backed controversial plans for France to legalise gay marriage in an interview with Vogue that sees the 44-year-old return to her supermodel roots, AFP reported.
 
In an interview appearing in the magazine's December issue with a 20-page photo shoot reminiscent of Bruni-Sarkozy's time as a top model in the 1990s, she admitted she disagreed with her husband on the question of gay marriage and adoption.
 
"I am rather in favour of gay marriage and adoption, I have a lot of friends -- women and men -- who are in this situation and I see nothing unstable or perverse in families with homosexual parents," she said.
 
French President Francois Hollande, who defeated Sarkozy in a May presidential election, is pushing plans to legalise same-sex marriage and adoption despite fierce opposition from Catholics and rightwing groups, including most of Sarkozy's UMP party.
 
Bruni-Sarkozy refused to answer questions about her husband's future political career, saying only: "It was a beautiful adventure, but today I just want to go back to being a citizen like any other." Bruni-Sarkozy, a model and singer whose fourth album will be released next spring, married the divorced Sarkozy in 2008.
 
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Meditation could slash the risk of heart attack and stroke

Wednesday, 28 November 2012 03:07
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Meditation helps reduce the risk of suffering a heart attack or a stroke, according to a new study.
 
Researchers found that Transcendental Meditation, made popular by the Beatles during the flower power era of the 1960s, could cut heart attack rates by half.
 
This type of meditation, which involves making a sound repeatedly, lowers death rates from heart attack and strokes.
 
In the new study, researchers found that people with heart disease who practised transcendental meditation for 20 minutes twice a day were 48 per cent less likely to have a heart attack, stroke or die from all causes compared with those who attended a health education class over more than five years. 
 
Those practicing meditation also lowered their blood pressure and reported less stress and anger.
 
And the more regularly patients meditated, the greater their survival, said researchers who conducted the study at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
 
Lead researcher Dr Robert Schneider, director of the Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention in Iowa, said: 'We hypothesised that reducing stress by managing the mind-body connection would help improve rates of this epidemic disease.
 
'It appears that transcendental meditation is a technique that turns on the body’s own pharmacy - to repair and maintain itself.' 
 
For the study, researchers randomly assigned 201 people - with an average age of 59 - to participate in a transcendental meditation stress-reducing programme or a health education class about lifestyle modification for diet and exercise.
 
The average BMI of the people involved was 32 - classed as obese. 
 
Both groups showed beneficial changes in exercise and alcohol consumption, and the meditation group showed a trend towards reduced smoking. 
 
Although there were no significant differences between the groups in weight, exercise or diet, regular meditation was correlated with reduced death, heart attack and stroke. 
 
Dr Schneider added: 'Transcendental meditation may reduce heart disease risks for both healthy people and those with diagnosed heart conditions. 
 
'The research on transcendental meditation and cardiovascular disease is established well enough that doctors may safely and routinely prescribe stress reduction for their patients with this easy to implement, standardised and practical programme.'
 
The findings were published in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.
 
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End of AIDS in sight says UN report as new HIV infections continue to fall

Sunday, 25 November 2012 16:30
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With the number of people being diagnosed with HIV falling, AIDS could one day be eradicated, experts claim.
 
A report from the United Nations said this was thanks to better access to drugs that can both treat and prevent the incurable human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS.
 
This meant the aim of ending the AIDS epidemic was not 'merely visionary' but 'entirely feasible.'
 
Some 34 million people had HIV at the end of 2011. Worldwide, the number of people newly infected with the disease, which can be transmitted via blood and by semen during sex, is falling. 
 
At 2.5 million, the number of new infections in 2011 was 20 per cent lower than in 2001.
Deaths from AIDS also fell to 1.7 million in 2011, down from a peak of 2.3 million in 2005 and from 1.8 million in 2010.
 
The report said this allowed the 'foundation to be laid for the eventual end of AIDS.'
In 2012, over 100,000 people are living with HIV in the UK. Of these, a quarter do not know they are carrying the virus.
 
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However, sub-Saharan Africa is the most severely affected region with almost one in every 20 adults infected, nearly 25 times the rate in Asia. There are also almost five million people with HIV in South, South-East and East Asia combined.
 
'Although AIDS remains one of the world's most serious health challenges, global solidarity in the AIDS response during the past decade continues to generate extraordinary health gains,' the report said.
 
It said this was due to 'historic success' in bringing HIV programmes to scale, combined with the emergence of new combination drugs to prevent people from becoming HIV infected and from dying from AIDS.
 
Since 1995, AIDS drug treatment - known as antiretroviral therapy - has saved 14 million life-years in poorer countries, including 9 million in sub-Saharan Africa, the report said.
 
Some eight million people were being treated with AIDS drugs by the end of 2011, a 20-fold increase since 2003. The U.N. has set a target to raise that to 15 million people by 2015.
 
Scientific studies published in recent years have shown that getting timely treatment to those with HIV can also cut the number of people who become newly infected with the virus.
 
UNAIDS said the sharpest declines in new HIV infections since 2001 were in the Caribbean and in sub-Saharan Africa - where new infections were down 25 per cent in a decade.
 
Despite this, sub-Saharan Africa still accounted for 71 per cent of people newly infected in 2011, underscoring the need to boost HIV prevention efforts in the region, UNAIDS said.
 
HIV trends are also a concern in other regions.
 
Since 2001, the number of new HIV infections in the Middle East and North Africa was up more than 35 percent from 27,000 to 37,000, it said, and evidence suggests HIV infections in Eastern
Europe and Central Asia began increasing in the late 2000s after being relatively stable for several years. 
 
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Paris Hilton’s new Mecca store causes controversy

Thursday, 22 November 2012 22:10
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U.S. celebrity and hotel heiress Paris Hilton expanded her handbags and accessories franchise to the Holy city of Mecca, prompting growing criticism on social networking sites.
 
Hilton announced the news on her Twitter account Thursday. “Loving my beautiful new store that just opened at Mecca Mall in Saudi Arabia!,” she tweeted.
 
But not everyone joined her in the excitement, as some people took to the social networking website to voice their displeasure with the debut.
 
One person replied to her tweet saying, “R u kidding?” Another comment, “Saudi claim there are other ways to allow for pilgrims, & if religiosity is of such importance, why is @ParisHilton being allowed a store in Makkah?”
 
Another tweep questioned Hilton’s style of products and remarked, “that’s it? That’s why ppl are not buying it? Not coz she is a porn star who happens to be rich enough to have her own brand and open it in Mecca?”
 
Meanwhile, Hilton boasted the opening of her store in Mecca, tweeting “This is the 5th store in Saudi Arabia, and store number 42 in total! So proud to keep growing my brand!” 
 
Makkah Mall posted an image of Hilton’s store on its Facebook page, but not all comments were spiteful, with some users pointing out the store’s opening from a capitalist point of view rather than a socio-religious angle.
 
One user stated, “Why the attack? This is a global brand found everywhere, whether it was in an Arab country or a European one.”
 
Another user said “Simply put, those who see this is a Western invasion of the Arab world shouldn’t be buying nor marketing their products. But to reject this concept and at the same time, buy all European and Western products is completely hypocritical.”
 
Hilton followed in her hotelier grandfather’s footsteps by adding entrepreneurship to her resume, but remains notorious for her wayward lifestyle, including brief stints in prison and a leaked intimate home movie. 
 
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Chanel will not appeal fine in copy case

Wednesday, 21 November 2012 19:16
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French fashion giant Chanel said Wednesday it was not appealing a 200,000-euro fine slapped by a court for stealing a design from a knitwear supplier, bringing to an end a David versus Goliath case.
 
"The house of Chanel has taken a decision not to lodge an appeal. It is of the view that this ...very complex and specific case must end," a terse statement said.
 
A Paris court in September overturned a 2009 ruling clearing Chanel and slapped the fine, saying the house had designed a vest that was a "slavish copy" of a crochet design by the local knitwear company.
 
The case pitted World Tricot, a now-bankrupt small firm that manufactured high-end knits, against Chanel and was seen as a test of the rights enjoyed by skilled artisans toiling in a luxury industry dominated by the big players.
 
World Tricot founder Carmel Colle was seeking 2.5 million euros (3.7 million dollars) from Chanel for alleged counterfeit after she spotted in a shop window a Chanel vest with a crochet design that she claimed was hers.
 
The simple cable design with black edging had been previously submitted to Chanel's studio and rejected, Colle claims.
 
In 2009, the Paris commercial tribunal ruled that Chanel had not stolen the design although it did order it to pay 400,000 euros in damages to World Tricot for breaking the contract.
 
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Moderate drinking in pregnancy 'harms IQ'

Monday, 19 November 2012 03:36
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Drinking one or two glasses of wine a week during pregnancy can have an impact on a child's IQ, a study says.
 
Researchers from Oxford and Bristol universities looked at the IQ scores of 4,000 children as well as recording the alcohol intake of their mothers.
 
They found "moderate" alcohol intake of one to six units a week during pregnancy affected IQ.
 
Experts said the effect was small, but reinforced the need to avoid alcohol in pregnancy.
 
Previous studies have produced inconsistent and confusing evidence on whether low to moderate levels of alcohol are harmful in pregnancy, largely because it is difficult to separate out other factors that may have an effect such as the mother's age and education.
 
But this research, published in the PLOS One journal, ruled that out by looking at changes in the genes that are not connected to social or lifestyle effects.
 
'Why take the risk?'
The study found that four genetic variants in alcohol-metabolising genes in children and their mothers were strongly related to lower IQ at age eight.
 
On average, the child's IQ was almost two points lower per genetic modification they possessed.
 
But this effect was only seen among the children of women who drank between one and six drinks a week during pregnancy and not among women who abstained when they were pregnant.
 
The researchers said although a causal effect could not be proven, the way they had done the study strongly suggested that it was exposure to alcohol in the womb that was responsible for the differences in child IQ.
 
Dr Ron Gray, from Oxford University, who led the research added that although the differences appeared small, they may well be significant and that lower IQ had been shown to be associated with being socially disadvantaged, having poorer health and even dying younger.
 
"It is for individual women to decide whether or not to drink during pregnancy, we just want to provide the evidence.
 
"But I would recommend avoiding alcohol. Why take the risk?"
 
A Department of Health spokesman said that since 2007 their advice had been that women who are trying to conceive or are pregnant should avoid alcohol.
 
But Dr Clare Tower, consultant in obstetrics and fetal maternal medicine, at St Mary's Hospital, Manchester, stressed that women who have had the occasional alcoholic drink in pregnancy should not be overly alarmed by the findings.
 
"Current UK advice is that the safest course of action is abstinence during pregnancy.
 
"The finding of this study would concur that this is undoubtedly the safest advice."
 
But she pointed out that another recent study had found no effect on IQ at five years.
 
"It is likely therefore, that any impact is likely small and not seen in all women."
 
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In Pictures: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

Friday, 16 November 2012 19:53
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 Justin Bieber proved his status as a teenage heartthrob is well deserved at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show last night.

The 18-year-old sent the hearts of "Beliebers" racing as he worked the stage at the Lexington Avenue Armory in New York City.

For his appearance on the glamorous pink carpet, Justin went edgy in an all-leather ensemble.

The singer posed for the cameras in a blue-black jacket, teamed with baggy leather pants.

With his hair styled in a cute quiff, Justin looked every inch the perfect pop star.

Later he opted for all-white to perform a couple of his hits for the crowd.

The singer wore a texture waistcoat, teamed with baggy white trousers and a shiny top as he belted out As Long As You Love Me and latest single Beauty and a Beat.

The singer was joined on stage by gorgeous models dressed in an array of cute outfits, including an Alice in Wonderland-inspired dress.

Backstage the star got more attention from the Victoria's Secret models, as he posed with the likes of Candice Swanepoel and Lindsay Ellingson.

Also performing at the show was Rihanna, who rocked the crowd with her sexy signature style.

The singer stunned in a cropped top, teamed with an on-trend midi-length skirt.

Also joining the party was Bruno Mars, who performed his hits Locked Out Of Heaven and Lost during the fashion show.

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