(Credit:AP Graphics Bank) (CBS News) On August 5, 2011, 50 passengers and three person flight crew on an Atlanta-bound flight were in for a shock, when an unexpected passenger joined them on board: a potentially rabid bat.

Vampire bat rabies death prompts warning from health officialsRabies miracle? California girl survives dread disease without vaccine

A bat on a plane? Samuel L. Jackson jokes aside, the Centers for Disease Control took the case seriously, and released a new report on the incident in the April 13 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. According to the report, the bat flew from the rear of the plane several times shortly after takeoff, before being trapped in a lavatory.

Reuters reports the flight in question was a Delta Airlines plane that took off from Madison, Wis.

Once the bat broke loose, the pilot returned to Madison where the plane was met by a maintenance crew who sought to remove the wayward guest. The elusive bat thwarted the crew’s attempts, escaping throw the cabin door – and eventually through the entire airport terminal, where it was seen exiting the building through automatic doors.

Without the bat being captured, its rabies status remained unknown. The crew searched the plane for more bats but couldn’t find any so the flight resumed. fifteen passengers re-boarded the flight while 35 chose alternate arrangements (Can you blame them?).

Three days following the incident, the Wisconsin Division of Public Health asked the CDC for help in performing a risk assessment to see if the passengers and in-flight and ground crew were exposed to rabies.

Rabies is a preventable but potentially deadly viral disease that’s spread through the bite of an infected animal. The virus attacks the central nervous system, ultimately spreading the disease through the brain and causing death. Early symptoms are similar to other illnesses and include fever, headache and discomfort but as the disease progresses, specific symptoms such as agitation, insomnia, confusion, paralysis, hallucinations, hydrophobia (a fear of water), an increase in saliva and difficulty swallowing. Death typically occurs within days of those symptoms. there is a preventive rabies vaccine and also a “postexposure” vaccination for people who have bitten.

After obtaining the names of all the passengers, the CDC conducted interviews and found no one on the plane or in the ground crew had any physical contact with the bat or its saliva. The CDC also inspected the airport terminal, gates, and baggage handling areas looking for signs of bat droppings to test, but found no evidence.

“I would say there is no evidence (of rabies exposure),” CDC veterinarian Dr. Danielle Buttke told Reuters. But she said, “I don’t think we can be certain.” she commended everyone involved for remaining calm, since airports aren’t exactly stress-free places to begin with.

According to the CDC, there have been a few bat sightings at the Dane County Regional Airport in Madison, and the agency recommends preventive safety measures such as adding netting to cover crevices where bats might roost. no bat sightings have been reported since last summer’s incident.

Rabies outbreaks in the U.S. are rare: there have been 42 reported cases of human rabies from 1995 to 2010, with only 21 reported cases over the past 10 years. of those recent cases, 15 or – 71 percent – were caused by bats. Approximately 6 percent of bats captured for testing in 2010 were infected with rabies, the CDC says. more than 2.5 billion passengers fly commercial airlines every year.

The CDC has more on rabies.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of U.S. teenagers and young adults who say they are abstaining from sex is on the rise, even as more young women report having sexual contact with each other, U.S. government researchers said on Thursday.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in 2006-2008, 29 percent of women and 27 percent of men ages 15 to 24 reported not having any sexual contact compared with 22 percent in 2002.

At the same time, the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics found a growing number of young women who said they have had some form of sex with another woman, rising to 13 percent in the latest survey, from about 12 percent in the 2002 survey.

The number of young men reporting same-sex encounters fell from 5 percent to 4 percent over the same time period.

It also showed an overall increase in reports of the sexually transmitted disease Chlamydia, especially among 15 to 19-year-olds. The bacterial infection is the most common STD in the United States and can lead to complications if untreated. Some people have no symptoms, making it easier to spread.

The CDC report aims to provide data to help health officials prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and unplanned pregnancies nationwide.

Its findings for 2006 to 2008 are based on interviews with about 13,500 men and women ages 15 to 44. overall, it found few changes in the nation's sexual patterns compared to CDC's last survey in 2002.

Among teens, however, the center this time tried to take a closer look at certain, specific sexual behaviors that youth may not typically report as sex because it is not traditional vaginal intercourse.

"This focused look at oral and anal sex among teens and young adults is prompted by concerns that some young people may engage in other types of sexual contact before they have vaginal intercourse, to avoid the risk of pregnancy," researchers said.

"in addition to placing themselves at risk of STIs (sexually transmitted infections), some studies have documented that engaging in these other types of sexual contact may hasten young people's initiation of vaginal intercourse," they added.

Of youth aged 15 to 24 who said they have had sex, nearly 63 percent of women and 64 percent of men had oral sex compared to nearly 69 percent in 2002.

About 21 percent of young men said they have had anal sex, compared to nearly 22 percent in 2002, while the number of young women having anal sex was unchanged at about 20 percent.

Novartis International AG /Novartis gains positive CHMP opinion for Gilenya®, first oral multiple sclerosis treatment recommended for approval in the European Union Processed and transmitted by Thomson Reuters.the issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

* Gilenya recommended in the EU for people with highly active relapsing- remitting MS despite treatment with beta interferon, or in patients with rapidly evolving severe relapsing-remitting MS

* Gilenya showed superior efficacy to interferon beta-1a IM, a commonly prescribed treatment, reducing relapses by 52% (p

Source: reuters // Reuters

* Jobs has given no details of current health

* Jobs also releases few details on original cancer type

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON, Jan 17 (Reuters) – once again, Apple inc <AAPL.O> Chief Executive Steve Jobs is taking medical leave — the third time since 2004 — and once again, the company’s stock price is plunging as Jobs declines to share details about his condition.

Whatever is forcing Jobs to take time off, it is likely linked to a rare form of cancer called a pancreatic islet cell neuroendocrine tumor. [ID:nSGE70G0AY]

although the cancer is broadly lumped in with pancreatic cancer, neuroendocrine tumors have a different nature from most pancreatic tumors, which are highly lethal and which kill 95 percent of patients within five years.

Pancreatic cancer is diagnosed in nearly 37,000 people a year in the United States and kills more than 34,000, according to the American Cancer Society.

but most of these cases are a type of tumor called adenocarcinoma. Neuroendocrine tumors are more easily treated and less aggressive. according to the National Cancer Institute, there are only 200 to 1,000 new cases a year.

Jobs had a neuroendocrine tumor removed in 2004 and said afterwards all the cancer was gone, and he did not require chemotherapy or radiation treatment.

Chemo or radiation is used to kill off any stray tumor cells that could spread and take up residence elsewhere in the body, seeding a new tumor.

Jobs remained noticeably thin, even gaunt, however, and took time off in 2009 to deal with what he termed a hormone imbalance, again giving few details.

Hormone effects can be caused by neuroendocrine tumors.

there are at least five different sub-types of neuroendocrine tumors, and one, called a glucagonoma, affects the hormone glucagon which in turn helps the body handle glucose.

One of the many symptoms these tumors can cause is unexplained weight loss, as well as a skin rash. two other types of neuroendocrine tumors, one called a VIPoma and another called a somatostatinomas, can also cause weight loss.

These tumors may spread to the liver, and an experimental treatment is a liver transplant. Jobs had a liver transplant in 2009 but never said if it was related to his cancer.

according to the University of California San Francisco, as many as 80 percent of patients who get liver transplants to treat this kind of cancer live for at least five years.

much depends on how badly the liver is affected.

Some experts said Jobs most likely got the liver transplant because the tumor had spread but Jobs has never given these details.

Liver transplants themselves carry complications.

in December, a team of experts from Germany and Greece reviewed 20 studies involving 89 patients who got liver transplants to treat pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors.

They found that 44 percent of the patients were alive five years later. much depended on the age of the patient — Jobs at 55 just makes the cutoff — and which particular subtype of tumor they originally had, the researchers reported in the journal Transplantation.

those with VIPomas fared the best, they said.

but any reporting on Jobs’s health is speculative unless he allows more details of his condition to be released.

(Editing by Richard Chang)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Researchers say they have developed a cream that might prevent herpes infection for as long as a week — a potentially big step in protecting women from the sexually transmitted infection.

The cream uses a new kind of therapy called RNA interference to turn off genes that the virus uses to invade cells, the researchers reported on Wednesday.

The cream, being developed by Massachusetts-based Alnylam Pharmaceuticals inc, protected mice from herpes simplex 2, the virus that causes genital herpes, Deborah Palliser of Harvard Medical School in Boston and Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and colleagues reported.

"a vaginal microbicide able to protect against HSV-2 transmission could contribute significantly to controlling sexually transmitted diseases," Palliser’s team wrote in the journal Cell Host & Microbe.

The World Health Organization estimates that 536 million people worldwide are infected with genital herpes, a painful and incurable virus which is highly infectious and can kill newborns.

Herpes viruses head straight to nerve cells, where they stay latent for the life of an animal or person, often causing periodic outbreaks.

Related viruses are herpes simplex 1, which causes cold sores, and varicella, which causes chicken pox and returns in middle or old age as herpes zoster to cause shingles.

Acyclovir and related drugs can suppress symptoms and are available as both creams or pills but have not been shown to prevent infection.

An estimated one in five Americans have genital herpes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while 100 million have HSV-1.

As a new route to making better drugs, several companies have locked onto technology using small, interfering RNAs or siRNAs. these are molecules that can silence microRNAs — tiny strands of RNA, or ribonucleic acid, that help turn genes into proteins.

The Alnylam drug targets a gene called nectin-1. Mice genetically engineered to lack this gene are less likely to be infected with HSV-2.

But the cream "silencing" nectin-1 took a day or so to become effective. Attacking a second gene called UL29, found in the virus itself, provided immediate protection, they wrote.

Using both provided about a week of protection, they said. they used a type of cholesterol to help carry the siRNAs and the resulting cream did not irritate the vaginas of the mice, they said.

"Topically applied siRNAs might be useful to treat and prevent reactivation and sexual transmission of clinically latent HSV-2 infection," they wrote.

More work is needed, they stressed, but the approach might work for other sexually transmitted infections — notably the AIDS virus.

(Reporting by Maggie Fox; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

© Copyright (c) Reuters

Vaccines are important tools to prevent diseases before they break out.

AS parents, we never want to see our children sick, no matter how minor the illness may be. According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention in the US, vaccinations play a major role in the prevention of disease, ensuring that your child lives a safe, happy, and healthy childhood.

Polio once affected 20,000 Americans every year in the 1950s. However, since the introduction of the polio vaccine, there have been no reports of polio.

Diphtheria, one of the most dreaded childhood diseases up through the 1920s, killed over 10,000 people every year. After vaccination started in the 1930s and 40s, the number of cases dwindled drastically.

Cases of vaccine preventable diseases have dropped significantly since the introduction of the National Immunisation Programme. ? Reuters

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that up to 552,000 diarrhoeal diseases can be prevented through vaccinations.

Thanks to vaccines, smallpox is now completely eradicated.

Reducing childhood risk

The Government introduced the National Immunisation Programme in the early 1950s and the Expanded Programme for Immunisation in 1989. Cases of vaccine preventable diseases have dropped significantly since the introduction of the programme.

To ensure the continued success of the National Immunisation Programme, it is important that parents take the appropriate steps of following through with the schedule accordingly.

Prevention is better than cure

In addition to the mandatory vaccines under the National Immunisation Programme, there are other vaccine-preventable diseases from which you can protect your child.

Rotavirus causes severe diarrhoea, which is the leading cause of preventable deaths among children under five in developing countries. Rotavirus is also the most common cause of diarrhoea among infants.

The rotavirus disease starts with fever and vomiting, followed by diarrhoea. Frequent bowel movements lead to dehydration, which may result in shock, kidney failure, and possible brain damage. Large amounts of rotavirus are shed in the stools of infected persons and are easily spread through contaminated objects and hands.

However, the disease can be prevented through vaccination, often given between the ages of six and 24 weeks, before a child?s first encounter with the virus.

Pneumococcal disease affects up to 841,000 children annually worldwide and is caused by a type of bacteria known as Streptococcus pneumoniae. this bacterium can cause otitis media (infection of the middle ear), sinusitis, septicaemia (blood infection), meningitis (inflammation of the brain lining), as well as pneumonia (inflammation of the lungs). Delayed treatment of the pneumococcal disease can cause hearing loss, paralysis, brain damage, and even death.

The best way to protect against this disease is through vaccinations, which are available to protect against the most common pneumococcal serotypes that cause severe invasive disease.

Chickenpox is a common childhood disease, which can be quite serious in infants and even adults. It causes unnecessary discomfort, missed days at school or work, and often results in expensive medical bills.

Chickenpox is highly contagious among children and is spread through the air, or by contact with fluids from the blisters. although usually a mild disease, complications such as encephalitis, bacterial infections to lesions, and scarring, may arise.

Children should receive the chickenpox vaccine when they are around 12 to 15 months old and a booster is required. this vaccine is more than 95% effective in preventing moderate to severe forms of the infection.

Hepatitis a is an inflammation of the liver that is commonly caused by viral infection. although it does not cause long-term illness, in some rare cases, death does occur. The hepatitis a virus is found in the stools of those infected and is transmitted through contaminated hands, objects, or even water. Therefore, children who go to day care centres or kindergarten, are at a higher risk of contracting hepatitis a.

There are vaccines available to prevent hepatitis a, and all children above the age of two years can be vaccinated with two doses, given six months apart.

Influenza, also known as ?the flu?, is a very contagious viral infection of the respiratory tract. Symptoms of the flu are usually more severe than the typical cold, with fever, chills, headaches, muscle aches, cough, sore throat, and even nausea or vomiting.

Toddlers and younger children are usually more vulnerable to the flu as their immune systems are still developing. some complications that may arise from influenza include ear infections, pneumonia, and myocarditis. Healthcare experts recommend influenza vaccinations every year as the virus is constantly changing, leading to new vaccines being produced every year.

A boost for health

Boosters may be required for some vaccines. an example is the tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine (Tdap) that is given after the basic DTP vaccine in early childhood. Tdap booster vaccines are used to prevent the spread of whooping cough from infected adults to young infants before their DTP vaccination.

Tetanus toxoid is currently given whenever one has a serious injury to prevent tetanus. this needs to be replaced by Tdap to ensure that the pertussis booster is also obtained.

These are just some of the diseases in which you can protect your child from through vaccinations. The key to good public health is disease prevention as it is always better to prevent a disease, rather than treat it.

Vaccines not only help to prevent diseases, they are also responsible for the control of many infectious diseases once common in the world.

This article is courtesy of the Malaysian Paediatric Association?s Positive Parenting Childhood Immunisation Campaign that is supported by an educational grant from GlaxoSmithKline. The opinions expressed in the article are the view of the author. For further information, please visit mypositiveparenting.org

WELLINGTON (Reuters Life!) – The use of paracetamol for infants may be linked to the development of allergies and asthma later on, according to a report.

But more research is needed to clarify this and the benefits of paracetamol use for fever control still outweigh the potential of later allergy development, said Julian Crane, a professor at Otago University in Wellington and author of the report.

"The problem is that paracetamol is given quite liberally to young children," he told Reuters.

"There's a lot of evidence suggesting that something is going on here. It's not completely clear-cut, that's the problem."

The report, which has appeared in "Clinical and Experimental Allergy" journal, is based on the new Zealand Asthma and Allergy Cohort Study, which investigated use of paracetamol for 505 infants in Christchurch and 914 five and six-year-olds in Christchurch to see if they developed signs of asthma or allergic sensitivity.

"The major finding is that children who used paracetamol before the age of 15 months (90 percent) were more than three times as likely to become sensitized to allergens and twice as likely to develop symptoms of asthma at six years old than children not using paracetamol," Crane said in a statement.

"However, at present we don't know why this might be so. we need clinical trials to see whether these associations are causal or not, and to clarify the use of this common medication."

The research found that by six years of age, 95 percent of the study sample was using paracetamol and there was a significant increased risk for asthma and wheezing.

But the findings depended on how much paracetamol was being used, with the risk greater for those with severe asthma symptoms.

Crane said there were few other options for fever control in young children, noting that aspirin has dropped out of favor over about the last 30 years due to links between aspirin use and the potentially fatal illness Reye's syndrome in children.

"That timing fits quite well with the rise in the prevalence of allergies, but that may just be coincidence," Crane said.

He said that in the absence of other options and studies establishing a firm causal link, paracetamol should still be used for now.

"if I had a child with a fever, I'd give them paracetamol," he added.

(Reporting by Elaine Lies, Editing by Miral Fahmy)

By Maggie Fox

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scientists reported on Tuesday they have some of the best evidence yet to support long-held theories that repeated blows to the head may cause nerve-degenerative diseases like Lou Gehrig's disease and Alzheimer's.

Autopsies of 12 athletes who died with brain or neurological disease showed a distinctive pattern of nerve damage – and fingered some potential culprits.

All had repeated concussions during their careers. Three of the men had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease, the star baseball player who died of it.

Experts in brain injury said the study, published in the Journal of Neuropathology & Experimental Neurology, pointed to new areas of research and possible ways to prevent long-term damage from concussions.

"if you could somehow give a person a drug, you could potentially prevent an illness like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis," Dr. Jeffrey Bazarian of the University of Rochester Medical Center in new York said in a telephone interview.

The findings also point to an urgent need to watch veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, many of whom suffer brain injuries from explosions, accidents and blows to the head from other causes, the experts said.

"this is the first pathological evidence that repetitive head trauma experienced in collision sports might be associated with the development of a motor neuron disease," Dr. Ann McKee of Boston University School of Medicine and colleagues wrote in the report, available at link.reuters.com/fab65n.

McKee's team studied the donated brain and spinal cords of 11 professional football players or boxers and one hockey player. all had a newly characterized disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, in which dementia set in years after repeated concussions.

PROTEIN CULPRIT

Three of the men also were diagnosed with ALS, a member of a family of diseases called motor neuron disease, which cause progressively worse paralysis.

The researchers looked specifically for a protein called TDP-43. they found it in the brain and in the spinal cords of the men – which could explain the ALS-like symptoms.

Scientists know that damaging one nerve can sometimes set off a cascade of other nerves dying, for reasons that remain poorly understood. TDP-43 could be involved.

Bazarian, who was on an Institute of Medicine Committee that released a report in 2008 linking concussions to later-life neurologic diseases, said the finding could help explain studies that show Iraq war veterans have a higher-than-normal rate of ALS, for example.

Drugs including the hormone progesterone, monoclonal antibodies and the antibiotic minocycline are being studied to see if they can stop the process of nerve destruction that follows injuries such as a blow to the head or stroke.

The findings will be difficult to substantiate because ALS is so rare, said ALS expert Martina Wiedau-Pazos of the University of California Los Angeles.

"We think there already are different forms of ALS," she said – potentially with different causes.

David Hovda, director of the UCLA Traumatic Brain Injury Research Center, said brain injury is very common with 1.5 million cases in the United States alone each year.

"Whether by itself in isolation it causes ALS, I do not think that this paper proves that. What I think it does is raise worries that individuals who had a career of exposure to repeat concussions … have a greater likelihood of developing motor neuron disease," he said.