‘Beso-beso’ may bring chickenpox The seemingly gentle and caring summer “beso-beso” (cheek kiss) may not be as harmless as it seems – a health official said Wednesday as any physical contact with friends and kin may bring about chickenpox.

MANILA, Philippines – National Epidemiology Center head Dr. Eric Tayag said there is a chance one of the parties in the beso-beso may have contracted chickenpox without showing the disease’s symptoms yet.

“Bago lumabas ang sintomas ng bulutong nakahahawa na iyan. so halimbawa lalabas ang bulutong bukas, ngayon nakipag-besobeso siya, lahat na nabeso-beso niya na hindi pa nagkabulutong mahahawa,” Tayag said in an interview on dwIZ radio.

He said the disease can spread through direct contact with secretions from a rash, and a person having it can infect others up to a week before the rash appears.

“Nakahahawa ang bulutong at hangga’t maari mag-ingat tayo sapagka’t makaraan ang hanggang 10 araw matapos ang [physical contact] maaring magkaroon ng bulutong,” he said.

Even other forms of direct contact like a handshake can cause the spread of the disease, he noted.

“Ang iba magtataka kanino ako nahawa? may kasama kayo na di pa lumabas ang bulutong, nahawa kayo (You may just be left wondering where you got the chickenpox. then it occurs to you it may have come from an infected person who happened to have the disease but had not shown symptoms yet),” he added.

HeatstrokeMeanwhile, Tayag reminded Filipinos to be wary of other summer diseases such as heatstroke, especially in the wake of one of the year’s hottest days, which was last Tuesday.

He said Filipinos must avoid direct sunlight between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., or at least seek shade or protection from an umbrella or a cap.

“Mag-ingat ang kababayan natin sapagka’t kung magpapatuloy ang ganitong antas ng temperatura maaring magkaroon pa rin tayo ng magiging biktima natin ng heatstroke,” he said. (GMA News)

Heart attacks are more serious in the morningPARIS (AFP) – Heart attacks that occur in the morning are likely to be more serious than attacks at other times of the day, a specialist journal reported on Wednesday.

Spanish researchers looked at data from 811 patients who had been admitted to a Madrid clinic with a myocardial infarction between 2003 and 2009.

They used levels of an enzyme in the blood to measure the extent of dead tissue, known as an infarct, which is caused by blocked blood supply to heart muscles.

Those who had had a heart attack between 6 a.m. and noon, during the transition from darkness to light, had a 21-percent larger infarct compared with patients whose attack occurred between 6 p.m. and midnight.

The study, published in the British journal Heart, builds on previous evidence that circadian rhythm – the famous “body clock” – influences the heart in many ways such as blood pressure, heart rate, cardiac output and the function of cells that line cardiac blood vessels.

Of the 811 patients, 269 had their heart attacks in the period from 6 a.m. to noon. More than three-quarters of the patients admitted to the clinic were men. their average age was 62.

The findings should be useful in assessing the effectiveness of drugs against heart disease, the researchers said.