Asthma attacks in pregnancy tied to complications for mothers, babies

Asthma attacks during pregnancy are associated with an increased risk of complications for mothers and their babies, a Canadian study suggests.

Researchers examined data on more than 103,000 pregnancies among more than 58,000 women with asthma who had babies in Ontario, Canada, from 2003 to 2012.

Compared to women who didn’t have asthma attacks during pregnancy, those who did were 17% more likely to have pregnancy-induced hypertension and 30% more likely to have dangerously high blood pressure known as preeclampsia, the study found.

Women who had asthma attacks were also 14% more likely to have low-birthweight or preterm babies and 21% more likely to have infants with birth defects.

“Nearly 40% of pregnant women decrease or stop taking asthma medication because they are worried that it could be harmful to their unborn babies,” senior study author Teresa To of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute in Ottawa said in a statement.

“However, our study indicates that severe asthma symptoms present the greater risk to mother and baby,” To said.

While the study wasn’t designed to prove whether or how asthma attacks during pregnancy might cause complications for mothers or babies, it’s possible this happens because flare-ups reduce oxygen supplies for both women and their developing infants, To said.

Asthma is the most common chronic disease encountered in pregnancy, occurring in up to 13% of pregnancies, To and colleagues write in the European Respiratory Journal.

About one in three pregnant women with asthma have exacerbations during pregnancy, previous research has found. These exacerbations have been previously linked to complications like high blood pressure for mothers and early arrivals for babies, but much of the research to date has compared women with and without asthma, making it unclear how much uncontrolled asthma might play a role, the study team notes.

For the current study, researchers followed women through pregnancy then followed their babies for up to five years.

Asthma attacks during pregnancy were rare, even though all of the study participants had asthma. A total of 2,663 women had asthma attacks during a total of 4,455 pregnancies, the study found.

Pregnant women who had asthma attacks were more likely to be older, and more likely to smoke or to have limited income or insecure housing, the study found.

Preeclampsia developed in 5.3% of pregnancies among women who did have asthma attacks, and just 3.8% of pregnancies among other women in the study.

In addition, women developed pregnancy-induced hypertension in 7% of pregnancies involving asthma attacks, compared with 5.4% of other pregnancies.

Low birth weights occurred in 6.8% of pregnancies with asthma attacks, compared with 5.3% of other pregnancies, the study also found. Similarly, preterm births occurred in 8.2% of pregnancies involving asthma attacks compared with 6.7% of other pregnancies.

When women had asthma attacks during pregnancy, their children were also more likely to experience allergies and respiratory infections like pneumonia.

And, 6.2% of babies had birth defects in pregnancies involving asthma attacks, compared with 5% of infants born to mothers who didn’t have asthma attacks during pregnancy.

Children were also 23% more likely to develop asthma in early childhood when mothers had asthma attacks during pregnancy. These children were also 12% more likely to have pneumonia during their first five years of life.

Women were considered to have asthma attacks or severe asthma exacerbations if they visited a doctor at least five times for asthma problems during pregnancy or if they went to a hospital or emergency room for asthma symptoms.

One limitation of the study is that this definition might not always correctly identify women with uncontrolled symptoms, the study authors note. Some women with five or more checkups for asthma symptoms during pregnancy could in fact be controlling their illness well.

Even so, the results underscore the importance of careful asthma management during pregnancy, Professor Jorgen Vestbo, chair of the European Respiratory Society’s Advocacy Council and a researcher at the University of Manchester in the UK, said in a statement.

SOURCE: bit.ly/2P7lzhD European Respiratory Journal, online November 26, 2019.

Johnson & Johnson says recalled baby powder asbestos-free

Johnson & Johnson said Tuesday that it did not find asbestos in multiple tests of a bottle of baby powder that the Food and Drug Administration said contained trace amounts of the carcinogen.

The company had recalled 33,000 bottles of the product earlier this month after the regulator said it discovered evidence of chrysotile asbestos in a bottle bought from an online retailer. Johnson & Johnson said 15 new tests of that very bottle came up clean.

Another 48 tests of samples from the recalled lot, conducted by two third-party labs, reached the same conclusion, the company said. Johnson & Johnson is facing lawsuits from more than 15,000 plaintiffs who claim that the company’s baby powder and other talc-based products caused their cancer.

“We stand by the safety of our product,” the company said in a statement. Johnson & Johnson’s shares rose in after-hours trading Tuesday afternoon.

The company said it contacted the two labs after the recall to expedite tests of the baby powder in question. Three samples did initially test positive for asbestos, the company said in Tuesday’s statement, but after an investigation by the lab, the contamination was found to be coming from a portable air conditioner in the room.

“This finding underscores the importance of investigating any positive test result,” the company said, adding that “even when careful safeguards are followed, asbestos contamination may be introduced during sample division, storage, preparation and analysis.”

For decades, Johnson & Johnson has cast doubt on multiple findings of asbestos in its talc products, blaming poorly executed tests, unqualified scientists, similar-looking minerals and other factors. The company said that it “routinely” uses “a rigorous testing standard” to check its talc.


2019 The New York Times Company

source: news.abs-cbn.com

J&J doubles down on baby powder safety message

NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES -- Johnson & Johnson Inc's statement was unequivocal.

"The FDA has tested Johnson's talc since the '70s. Every single time it did not contain asbestos," the company said in a Dec. 19 tweet. It followed by several days the publication of a Reuters investigation that found the healthcare conglomerate knew for decades that the carcinogen lurked in its Baby Powder and other cosmetic talc products.

The tweet, posted under the handle @JNJNews, didn't mention that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found traces of asbestos in the company's Shower to Shower talc in 1973, as revealed in agency documents reviewed by Reuters. And it is only one of dozens of tweets conveying a similar message about talc safety since the Reuters article appeared Dec. 14.

The Reuters article prompted a stock selloff that erased about $40 billion from J&J's market value in one day and created a public relations crisis as the blue-chip healthcare conglomerate faced widespread questions about the possible health effects of one of its most iconic products.

To reassure investors and consumers, J&J has tweeted, posted on Facebook, run a series of full-page newspaper ads across the United States, published a lengthy rebuttal to the Reuters investigation on its website and announced a $5 billion stock buyback. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Alex Gorsky has appeared in a company video and on CNBC's "Mad Money" to reinforce the company's position.

That position has been unwavering. J&J insists that its Baby Powder is safe and has been asbestos-free at least since regular testing began in the 1970s. The message doubles down on the stance the company has taken to defend against lawsuits in which about 11,700 plaintiffs allege that the J&J talc they used in past decades caused their cancer. The company is pursuing this strategy despite the evidence that talc in its raw and finished powders sometimes tested positive for the carcinogen from the 1970s into the early 2000s — test results that the company didn’t disclose to regulators or consumers.

In response to a Reuters request for comment, the company said it was committed to defending the talc litigation, "and that same, long-term view is reflected in our ongoing communications that consistently point to the strong scientific evidence that our talc is and always has been safe."

As for the 1973 Shower to Shower test, J&J noted that the result didn't "reflect FDA's final determination about this sample" in a 1976 table summarizing the agency's early 1970s cosmetic talc testing. However, in that 1976 table, which Reuters examined, the FDA did not indicate any result, positive or negative, for the type of asbestos found in the Shower to Shower sample in 1973.

Given the mass of litigation it faces, J&J has little choice but to zealously dispute findings that its products sometimes contained traces of asbestos, said Eric Dezenhall, a crisis-management consultant in Washington, DC. "If your position in court is that the claims being made are false…you can't just shrug your shoulders," he said.

Soon after the Reuters article appeared, J&J executives consulted crisis-management experts, according to people familiar with the matter. Among the company's reasons for deciding to maintain its stance on absolute talc purity, these people said, was a conviction that a company known for putting health and safety first had the facts on its side, a litigation track record that included victories and mistrials, and the expectation that adverse verdicts will be overturned on appeal.

THROUGH LAWYERS

Many of J&J's subsequent messages have mirrored the company's written responses to questions and findings Reuters presented to the company during its investigation: They deny that the company kept information from regulators and point to the many studies finding that talc is safe and doesn't cause cancer.

Those earlier responses were composed by J&J's outside litigators, led by Peter Bicks at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, and conveyed to Reuters by lawyers at a crisis-management firm co-founded by Lanny Davis, a lawyer who represented US President Bill Clinton in the 1990s and Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former attorney who has pleaded guilty to multiple criminal charges.

Gorsky, in his appearance on "Mad Money," invoked J&J's now legendary response to the Tylenol crisis as evidence that the company can be trusted to address any safety problems linked to its products. In 1982, J&J moved decisively to pull all Tylenol from store shelves after 7 people died from taking cyanide-laced pills.

"I can't believe the company that took that dramatic of an action would allow a product that they felt in any way could be harmful to stay on the market," Gorsky told "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer. "We unequivocally believe that our talc, our Baby Powder, does not contain asbestos."

Citing the Tylenol recall provides "some reputational buffer," said Stephen A. Greyser, the Harvard Business School professor who wrote the first study of the company's handling of that crisis. "But it is not a total protection" because it won't shield the company from a loss of trust if consumers or investors conclude the company hasn't been fully forthcoming in this case, he said. J&J needs to guard against "reputational contagion," the risk that a loss of confidence in Baby Powder could bleed over into how consumers, shareholders and others view the company more broadly, Greyser added.

The key difference between the two crises is that poisoned Tylenol presented a threat to consumers at the time, while the documented asbestos contamination of J&J talc that Reuters investigated spanned from 1971 to the early 2000s. J&J says that if it believed that Baby Powder today presented safety risks, it wouldn't hesitate to remove it from store shelves, given that the product accounts for less than 0.5 percent of annual revenue.

The company joined its talc supplier, Imerys Talc America, a unit of Paris-based Imerys SA, in requesting that a trial scheduled for January in St. Louis be delayed for, among other things, what they called "negative national and local news coverage" resulting from the Reuters investigation that would inevitably taint prospective jurors.

The judge denied the motion. The same judge recently upheld a $4.69 billion jury award in a separate ovarian cancer case, which J&J says it expects to be overturned on appeal. The judge said J&J's promotion of a product that the evidence showed was contaminated with a known carcinogen was "particularly reprehensible."

In an emailed statement, Imerys Talc America said it "is committed to the quality and safety of its products," and that rigorous research "overwhelmingly confirms that talc is safe, and no agency has asserted that talc causes cancer."

UNDERMINED BY EVIDENCE

Some of J&J's messages in its recent campaign omit key details regarding findings on talc and, in certain instances, are undermined by other evidence, according to a Reuters review of the company's statements.

The Dec. 19 tweet claiming that the FDA’s own tests never found asbestos in J&J talc, for example, ignores an agency scientist's 1973 finding that a Shower to Shower sample contained asbestos fibers, according to a copy of an FDA report titled "Asbestos and Other Contaminants in Talc" and a deposition of a former J&J head toxicologist. The FDA did not respond to questions for this article, citing a partial government shutdown.

On CNBC, Gorsky said: "We also not only used the best testing methodologies that were available, but we continued to improve them through the years."

J&J's testing methods do exceed the industry standard. But even so, as a geologist and frequent J&J expert witness acknowledged in court this year, only a tiny fraction of the company's talc sold over the past 40 years has been tested using what is widely recognized as the best method to detect asbestos fibers, known as transmission electron microscopy.

Plaintiffs' lawyers are already homing in on inconsistencies between J&J's statements and other evidence regarding its talc, and they are planning to depose Gorsky in coming weeks.

"There is no flexibility in what they're saying," said Leigh O'Dell, one of the lead lawyers representing plaintiffs in thousands of lawsuits against J&J consolidated in a New Jersey federal court. "Taking these statements on behalf of the company and pointing out to juries and judges the misrepresentations contained in those statements — I think you're going to see that in every case going forward, whether it's an ovarian cancer case or a mesothelioma case."

One of J&J's recent tweets criticized plaintiffs' lawyers: "Far from a new theory or insight, plaintiffs' lawyers have resurrected a disproven argument about asbestos in our talc that dates to the 1970s."

The Reuters investigation found that tests by J&J's own contract labs and others periodically found small amounts of asbestos in talc from mines that supplied the mineral for Baby Powder as recently as the early 2000s.

Some J&J tweets and newspaper ads have adopted a question-and-answer format. "What about the allegation you withheld safety information?" the company said in a full-page ad in USA Today the day after Christmas.

"It is false,” the company said. “All safety concerns are taken seriously, and we share all relevant information with regulators."

Some Twitter users have responded to J&J's tweets with praise and support. Others have referenced their relatives' longtime use of J&J talc products and subsequent deaths from ovarian cancer. "We're very sorry to hear this," J&J responded to several Twitter users, expressing a desire to speak with them and offering a phone number to call.

In response to another recent tweet in which J&J said its talc doesn't contain asbestos, one Twitter user asked: "Did it USED to?"

"No," J&J responded. "For decades, J&J's baby powder has repeatedly been tested for asbestos and found not to contain asbestos."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

California judge tosses baby powder cancer verdict vs J&J

A California judge on Friday threw out a $417 million verdict against Johnson & Johnson in a lawsuit by a woman who claimed she developed ovarian cancer after using its talc-based products like Johnson's Baby Powder for feminine hygiene.

The ruling by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Maren Nelson marked the latest setback facing women and family members who accuse J&J of not adequately warning consumers about the cancer risks of its talc-based products.

The decision followed a jury's decision in August to hit J&J with the largest verdict to date in the litigation, awarding California resident Eva Echeverria $70 million in compensatory damages and $347 million in punitive damages.

Nelson on Friday reversed the jury verdict and granted J&J's request for a new trial. Nelson said the August trial was underpinned by errors and insufficient evidence on both sides, culminating in excessive damages.

Mark Robinson, who represented the woman in her lawsuit, in a statement said he would file an appeal immediately.

"We will continue to fight on behalf of all women who have been impacted by this dangerous product," he said.

J&J in a statement said it was pleased with the verdict, adding that it will continue to defend itself in additional trials.

The judge added that there also had been misconduct of the jury during the trial.

J&J said declarations by two jurors after the trial showed that three members of the 12-person jury who voted against finding the company liable were improperly excluded from determining damages.

J&J says it faces lawsuits by 4,800 plaintiffs nationally asserting talc-related claims. Many of those cases are in California, where Echeverria's case was the first to go to trial, and in Missouri, where J&J has faced five trials.

The Missouri litigation led to four verdicts against J&J in which juries issued verdicts totaling $307 million. The company has only won one trial.

But the Missouri cases, which have largely been brought by out-of-state plaintiffs, have faced jurisdictional questions after the Supreme Court issued a ruling in June that limited where personal injury lawsuits could be filed.

On Tuesday, a Missouri appellate court threw out a $72 million verdict by a jury in February 2016 to the family of a deceased Alabama woman after ruling the case should not have been tried in St. Louis.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

New personal care products, services to try

MANILA – Looking for a product to help stop stubborn breakouts, a skin care line gentle enough for babies, an effective treatment for falling hair, or even a procedure to enhance your assets? We’ve got you covered.

These are not endorsed by ABS-CBNnews.com.

Rejuvehair Herbal Solutions

Here’s a new place that your tresses will love. Rejuvehair promises to provide natural solutions to various hair concerns – from dry, thinning, gray or chemically damaged hair to itchy scalp and receding hairlines.




Rejuvehair has services such as the Oxy-vedic hair and scalp booster, which adds life to damaged hair; natural and organic dyes; and signature treatments that target problem spots in one go.

It also offers products that customers can use at home or while traveling.

Rejuvehair is located at the second floor of Sekai Center at 368 Ortigas Avenue corner Madison Street in North Greenhills, San Juan City. For inquiries, call (02) 625-0284 or (0905) 3000-000 or visit their Facebook page.

Empire Centre for Regenerative Medicine

Want to have a proportionally voluptuous derriere? This clinic offers a fat-grafting technique to restore a more natural look to any part of the body, specifically the face, breasts and butt.

Empire Centre for Regenerative Medicine has the Brazilian Butt Lift via fat-grafting procedure, which uses fat harvested from a person’s problem areas (such as the lower abdomen or inner thigh) to augment his or her behind.

“Since the harvested fat is extracted via liposuction then purified before being used to augment or re-shape the butt and no incision is made, this procedure is much safer and effective than butt implants,” said Empire’s Dr. Alfredo Callanta.

Empire is located at Unit 8A of Il Terrazzo in 305 Tomas Morato corner Scout Madrinan Street in South Triangle, Quezon City. For inquiries, visit http://EMPIREregencentre.com.

pH Care Naturals Papaya, Guava

Feminine wash brand pH Care uses papaya and guava to come up with its new “Naturals” line.

The pH Care Naturals Papaya has papaya extract and promises to keep a woman’s intimate area fresh and fair, while the Guava variant has improved cleansing and anti-bacterial properties.

Each is priced at P49.50 for 50 ml and P104 for P150 ml at leading supermarkets, drug stores and beauty stores nationwide. For more details, visit pH Care’s Facebook page.

Cetaphil Baby

Cetaphil recently introduced a skin care line specifically developed for babies.

The brand’s Cetaphil Baby line includes a Gentle Wash and Shampoo, Ultra-moisturizing Bath & Wash, Daily Lotion, Shampoo and Baby Wipes which are all free from parabens and minerals.

For more details, visit Cetaphil Philippines on Facebook.

Benzac AC Gel

Benzac is offering a new product that promises to stop the acne cycle.

Called the Benzac AC gel, it contains Benzoyl Peroxide which is clinically proven to kill more than 94% of acne-causing bacteria in 48 hours to significantly reduce redness and inflammation of pimples, and loosen whiteheads and blackheads.

Aside from gel, Benzac also has daily facial cleansers and facial scrubs. For more details, visit www.benzac.ph or the brand’s Facebook page.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

World's first: Woman uses frozen ovary, gives birth

In a world first, a woman has given birth after surgeons implanted ovarian tissue that had been removed when she was a child, doctors reported Wednesday.

The girl was coming up for her fourteenth birthday when she was diagnosed with acute anemia, needing powerful, ovary-damaging treatment.

Before the therapy, her right ovary was removed and frozen in fragments in the hope that it could be used if she ever wanted to become a mother.

A decade later, surgeons in Belgium thawed some of the fragments and reimplanted them. A healthy son was born last November.

Several babies have been born from tissue taken from adult women, but this is the first success with tissue removed before puberty, doctors reported in the journal Human Reproduction.

"This is an important breakthrough in the field because children are the patients who are most likely to benefit from the procedure in the future," said Isabelle Demeestere at Erasmus Hospital at Brussels Free University, whose team carried out the transplant.

"When they are diagnosed with diseases that require treatment that can destroy ovarian function, freezing ovarian tissue is the only available option for preserving their fertility."

The patient, born in the Republic of Congo, was diagnosed with sickle-cell anemia, a genetic blood disorder, when she was five.

After she emigrated to Belgium at the age of 11, doctors found the disease was so severe that she needed a bone marrow transplant.

The procedure requires chemotherapy or radiotherapy to disable the immune system so that it does not to reject the marrow.

The transplant succeeded, although the girl had to continue with immuno-suppressive drugs for a further 18 months, and her left ovary failed.

Ten years later, the woman -- who wishes to remain anonymous -- wanted to have a family.

At this point, Demeestere's team offered their help.

They grafted four ovarian fragments to the remaining left ovary and 11 fragments at other sites.

The patient started menstruating regularly five months later but then hopes were dashed by another problem.

Her partner turned out to be infertile, the couple tried unsuccessfully for an in-vitro pregnancy, and then their relationship failed.

- Baby boy -

More than two years after the transplantation, the woman became pregnant naturally with a new partner at the age of 27. The boy was born last November, weighing 3.1 kilograms (6.8 pounds).

The patient's ovary continues to function normally, and she has the remaining fragments in storage.

Demeestere, in a press release, said the procedure was not without controversy, given that it entailed very young girls.

"For instance, because it is an invasive procedure and because the lifespan of the graft is limited, should it be used to induce puberty and menstruation, rather than to restore fertility, when hormone replacement therapy is an efficient, standard, and non-invasive alternative for inducing puberty?," Demeestere asked.

"Should the procedure only be proposed for patients with a high risk of ovarian failure or for those at low risk as well?"

Independent commentators hailed the feat as an important step in overcoming infertility, but agreed that ethical hurdles remained.

"We have to remember that many children who require chemotherapy are very ill and the surgery to remove ovarian tissue is no small undertaking," Professor Adam Balen, head of the British Fertility Society, told the Science Media Centre (SMC) in London.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

4 Financial Steps to Take as You Prepare for a Baby

So, you’ve decided you want to have a baby.  For sure, this is an exciting and overwhelming decision.  There’s nothing more exciting than seeing your new baby for the first time.  However, before you get ahead of yourself, taking care of some financial matters before you even conceive can make the entire pregnancy and the months after go much more smoothly.


Consider these issues:


1.  Paid leave.

Does your employer offer paid leave?  If so, how long?  Is there anything you can do to bulk up that leave?  For instance, when I was employed as a college teacher, my employer didn’t offer paid leave.  However, each semester you could teach an extra class and “bank” that class.  Instead of getting paid upfront, I put that class aside, so to speak.  I didn’t have enough classes put aside for leave when I had my son, but when I had my daughter, I had already taught 4 classes that I was not paid for, so I “unbanked” those classes and got a paid semester leave in return.  This required a lot of advanced planning but was well worth it.


Also consider whether or not your spouse will get paid leave.

2.  Insurance. 


Some employers are wonderful about walking you through the process of adding your new child to your insurance policy.  Others may leave you in the dark, with terrible consequences.  Even though I had talked to my human resources department several times, no one told me that I had to “register” my newborn for insurance within 30 days of birth.  I found this out on my baby’s 32nd day of life, and my employer refused to insure him.  I had to wait for the open enrollment period 9 long months later to finally get him on my insurance.

3.  Day care. 


Will you or your spouse stay home to care for the baby?  If not, what will you do for day care?  Keep in mind that some urban areas have day cares wait lists of longer than a year.  In these areas, signing up to get on the wait list as soon as you confirm that you’re pregnant is not too soon.


If you don’t get off the wait list on time, what are your other options?

4.  Budget. 


Take a good look at your budget before you conceive.  I believe the reports that say that it takes over $200k to raise a child to age 18 are overblown, but still, there are a lot of expenses with a newborn.  If you decide not to nurse or can’t, formula alone is very expensive.  Add in diapers and day care, clothes and baby equipment, and you can drop quite a bit in the first year.  Your budget doesn’t have to be perfect, but you should have some extra money available to cover these expenses.



If you want to revel in the joy of your newborn baby, take these steps before you conceive.  Then, when the baby comes, you won’t need to worry about finances or insurance.


What other financial considerations would you add?

source: everythingfinanceblog.com

Shakira, Gerard Pique Launch Charity Baby Shower with Unicef

Shakira, whose first child is due this week, and her boyfriend -- FC Barcelona soccer star Gerard Piqué -- have joined UNICEF to host a virtual baby shower to benefit underprivileged babies.



The virtual shower invites both Shakira and Piqué fans to visit a virtual room where they can learn about infant survival and purchase an "inspirational gift" to help babies around the World. These "gifts" are actually real products that can save lives and will be distributed to the neediest children and communities via UNICEF Networks. Gift prices range from $5 for a mosquito net and $10 for a polio vaccine for 17 children to $37 for an infant scale. The most expensive gift, at $110, buys special food for malnourished children.

"Every couple that's expecting a baby shares our same dreams and hopes for their children," Shakira, who is a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, said. "However, many don't have the same opportunities we do to give them a happy childhood free of preventable and easily cured illnesses. Together we can change that."

Shakira and Piqué's virtual baby shower can be accessed at http://uni.cf/baby.

source:  billboard.com

Babies who stay longer inside mom's womb are smarter - study

Researchers have known that babies born prematurely are at risk for slowed brain development, but a couple of extra weeks in the womb might make a difference even among those considered "normal term" - between 37 and 41 weeks, according to a U.S. study.

Children born on the shorter end of that range scored lower on math and reading tests as 8-year-olds than those born later, researchers wrote in the journal Pediatrics, but they added that the differences were small.

"Certainly the vast majority of 37-weekers and 41-weekers would end up developing typically," said Kimberly Noble, the lead author on the study from Columbia University Medical Center and New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

Still, until more research is done, she said, "we would urge caution to both parents and physicians when considering early elective delivery."

Noble and her colleagues compared birth records and third-grade standardized test scores for 128,000 children born in New York City in the late 1980s and early 1990s who went to citywide public schools. All of them had been born between 37 and 41 weeks' gestation.

On both reading and math exams, where a score of 50 was considered average, kids born at 41 weeks scored about one point higher, in general, than those born at 37 weeks.

That's equivalent to about a 1.5 point difference on an IQ test, Noble said.

"That would not be a difference that would likely be noticeable from one child to the next," she told Reuters Health. "Where it is more noticeable is on the lower end of the (test score) distribution."

For example, children born at 37 weeks were 23 percent more likely to have at least moderate reading impairment, and 19 percent more likely to have moderate math impairment, than those born on the late end of the term range.

Noble said the finding doesn't prove that being born early-term can slow kids' brain development and hurt their academic achievement, since it's possible that other factors are related both to early births and academic difficulties.

Marie McCormick, a maternal and child health researcher from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, agreed that was one limitation of the study.

"Even if it's an early term delivery, there may have been something going on that led to that child being born earlier in the process than later," she said.

Still, the findings are consistent with some previous research suggesting that babies born at 37 or 38 weeks may be different from those born slightly later, she added.

The researchers agreed that although the findings shouldn't be too concerning, they are something to consider for women who have some control over when their babies will be born, such as those scheduling a cesarean section.

"The main thing is ... when you're coming to the discussion about delivery and if you have a decision about the timing of that delivery, to really make sure that you're as far along in pregnancy as you can get without getting out of the range of normal," McCormick said.

source: interaksyon.com

Fewer antibiotics prescribed for children

The number of antibiotic prescriptions for kids declined 14% from 2002 to 2010, but antibiotics remain the most frequently prescribed drugs for pediatric patients, a federal analysis finds.

Antibiotics accounted for about a quarter of all pediatric prescriptions; amoxicillin leads the list.

Overall, 263.6 million prescriptions were written for patients 17 and under in 2010, down 7% from 2002, finds the analysis of prescription claims databases by Food and Drug Administration researchers, published today in the journal Pediatrics. By comparison, 3.3 billion were dispensed for ages 18 and up, 22% more than in 2002.

The medical community has made "an enormous effort to decrease antibiotic use" for kids in the past decade "by educating parents about the futility of treating viral infections with antibiotics" and about antibiotic resistance, the FDA study says.

Those efforts "are succeeding to some extent," but this study and others show antibiotic overuse "is still a big problem," says Adam Hersh, assistant professor of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Utah. He says overuse of azithromycin and other broad-spectrum antibiotics "is contributing to the epidemic of antibiotic-resistant infections."

Other drug categories down from 2002-2010 were allergy medications (61%); pain (14%); and cough/cold without expectorant (42%). But prescriptions increasing include corticosteroids for asthma (14%); contraceptives (up 93%, possibly because of secondary uses, such as acne) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (46%).

"It's good news that cough and cold prescriptions are down, given that they don't work and can have serious side effects," says Danny Benjamin, a professor of pediatric medicine at Duke University. In 2008, the FDA advised against them for the youngest children. But he says the rise in prescriptions for ADHD and off-label use of proton pump inhibitors for certain gastrointestinal disorders is worrisome. Safety of long-term ADHD drugs is unknown, he says. The study cites 358,000 outpatient prescriptions for lansoprazole (Prevacid) for infants, despite labeling that it is not effective in babies under 1 year.

source: USA TODAY

India's quest to end Polio

MANILA, Philippines — Later this month, India will be removed from a dwindling list of countries where polio is considered endemic, a huge achievement made possible by people like Madara, a 76-year-old street hawker.

At a temporary immunization camp in a slum in the northern district of Ghaziabad, 23 kilometers (14 miles) from New Delhi, he is busy at work shepherding boisterous children into queues.

All around, social workers break open tiny bottles containing a polio vaccine, selecting children from the thronging crowd of toddlers and babies and squirting two drops into their mouths.

Madara, a stick-thin resident from a nearby slum, says he began volunteering to help with the vaccination efforts six years ago when he realized he could use his authority as an elderly figure to encourage participation.

"I decided to get involved because I wanted to do something for the future of our children here," Madara told AFP.

Most of the youngsters, whose parents are often rag-pickers or hawkers, live in the nearby tarpaulin-covered homes, a cramped zone of shanties where sanitation and awareness about hygiene is poor.

Polio, which can be deadly and also causes deformed limbs, spreads via the fecal matter of victims, making slums particularly high-risk areas.

Lured by the offer of bright plastic whistles and paper masks, children were keen to leave their homes, forming a disorderly crowd around the vaccinators as they dispensed the drops to infants and under-fives.

India last reported a fresh polio case more than 12 months ago after monumental efforts by millions of social workers and volunteers who have administered 900 million doses of the vaccine in the last year alone.

If all pending lab tests for the virus return negative as expected, the World Health Organization will remove India from its list of "polio endemic" countries this month, leaving just Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria in this category.

As well as polio camps like this one in Ghaziabad, teams have travelled door-to-door, educating families about the illness and delivering the vaccine.

They have set up makeshift booths in crowded public areas such as train stations, bus stands and markets, and in other locations, including construction sites where they can catch migrant workers and their children.

A "vaccination on wheels" service was rolled out across the north Indian state of Bihar in which social workers jumped on trains and vaccinated all the children onboard.

In 2008, when floods devastated the state, vaccinators were even sent out in boats.

"We had to make a very detailed, dynamic map of the area and send workers in boats to try and get across to stranded families," Lieven Desomer, head of the polio unit at UN children's agency UNICEF in India, told AFP.

As well as the problems of access, the government and international agencies behind the immunization drive faced problems of ignorance and prejudice.

Vaccinators were attacked, anxious parents would hide their babies from social workers, and there was particular resistance from the Muslim communities in the north of the country.

"There was a general perception that the vaccine was not clean or safe because it came from the West, and that somehow, taking it would make their women and children infertile," UNICEF's Desomer said.

India's crushing summer heat also caused difficulties because vaccines have to be kept at a low temperature to prevent them expiring.

Five years ago, campaigners decided to ensure that vials were only carried in special carriers equipped with ice packs.

Desomer credited "the dogged persistence" of the Indian government for the fall in infections, and said that in 2011 alone, the state contributed 80 percent of the $264 million committed to the fight against polio.

The results of years of innovation, human endeavour, as well as planning and spending, are reflected in the number of infections.

In 2009, India accounted for half of all cases in the world, but infections plummeted to 42 in 2010 and none in the last 12 months.

"It is an amazing achievement. I sometimes feel like I have to pinch myself to make sure I am not dreaming it," Desomer said, while cautioning against premature celebrations.

"We have to remain vigilant and continue immunisations. Complacency at this stage would be a huge mistake," he said.

India will only be judged to have eradicated the disease if it stays polio-free for another two years.

source: mb.com.ph