Categories
Cardiovascular
Diagnostics
Endocrinology
Health Insurance
Medical Devices
Mental Health
Nutrition
Oncology
Public Health
Sexual Health
Popular Articles
Grapefruit Benefits

Maryland County Officials Create State's First Suburban HIV/AIDS Commission
Anne Arundel County, Md., Executive John Leopold recently appointed 20 community leaders, government officials and health workers to serve on the county"s first HIV/AIDS commission, which aims to understand and develop strategies for addressing the disease, the Baltimore Sun reports. The Sun reports the commission is believed to be the first of its kind in a suburban Maryland county and similar to a commission launched in Baltimore City. Council member Daryl Jones in 2008 proposed legislation to create the commission, citing the increasing number of HIV cases in the northern part of the county, likely because of its close proximity to Baltimore. According to Jones, the commission aims to generate funds for testing and outreach services; address stigma associated with the disease; and heighten awareness of the virus among residents. The commission also will produce an annual report on HIV/AIDS-related issues in the county, Jones said. Anne Arundel County had 1,000 recorded HIV/AIDS cases in 2006, with 56 newly reported HIV cases that year, according to the Maryland AIDS Administration. "It"s pretty much what I would classify as having the potential to reach epidemic proportions," Jones said, adding that Baltimore has the second highest AIDS rate among major metropolitan areas in the country. According to Kelly Sipe Russo, a physician clinical specialist with the county health department"s division of public health, the department has identified "hot spots" in the county with high HIV/AIDS rates, including the northern area and Annapolis. Russo noted that while HIV/AIDS rates in the county are not on the rise, they also are not declining, even with programs in place to increase awareness and provide help for those living with the disease. According to the Sun, although res and staffing are limited for many programs, health department officials still believe the programs are slowly having an effect and that more outreach is needed, especially for testing and treatment. Jones said that the economic downturn could lead more people to drug or alcohol use. He also noted that the stigma surrounding the disease is a major factor behind the creation of the commission. "Part of what the commission will address is figuring out ways to take away some of the fear factor" associated with HIV testing, he said. The Sun also profiled Carolyn Massey, an HIV-positive woman appointed to the commission. She said that stigma associated with the virus still is widespread, adding, "I feel we"re doing some of the right things the right way. HIV infection is something that does not have to happen" (Dixon, Baltimore Sun, 5/18).
generic viagra online
Eight To 14 Weekly Units Of Booze Boosts Overall Tally Of Days Spent In Hospital
Downing between eight and 14 units of alcohol a week boosts the total number of days spent in hospital, finds research published ahead of print in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
News of the day
How Mitochondria Get Their Membranes Bent
Mitochondria are the powerhouses of cells. Underneath their smooth surface they harbor an elaborately folded inner membrane. It holds a multitude of bottleneck like invaginations, which expand into elongated cavities (cristae). The narrow shape of the entrance or pore to the cristae ("crista junction") allows separation of the intracristal space and storage of molecules. Cytochrome c, for example, an important signaling protein in programmed cell death (apoptosis), is stored in this compartment. When apoptosis is triggered, the pores enlarge and cytochrome c is released into the cytosol. Thus, understanding of how the pore diameter and the shape of the inner membrane are regulated on a molecular basis is of great relevance to a better understanding of mitochondrial function in general. Recently, in cooperation with other research teams, the group of Prof. Andreas Reichert, who has been appointed as professor for Mitochondrial Biology to the Goethe University within the Cluster of Excellence Macromolecular Complexes in 2007, has identified two proteins linked in an antagonistic manner that are relevant for governing inner membrane structure.
Mental Health

Republicans Scold HELP Democrats Over Reform Bill's Price Tag, Government Control

"It was particularly devastating on Wednesday when [Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah]" - a longtime friend of Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., - "warned Democrats on the panel that they have already made some grave errors in their effort to write legislation overhauling the health care system," reports the New York Times in The Caucus Blog. "Now unfortunately we are beginning a partisan exercise on perhaps the most important legislation of our lives," Hatch said during a meeting of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee yesterday (Herszenhorn, 6/17). Hatch wasn"t the only Republican to offer Democrats rejoinders on health reform. "[J]ust about every other Republican on the committeeò€¦ ripped the bill"s price tag, which exceeds more than $1 trillion because of new subsidies for the poor," the Salt Lake Tribune reports (Canham, 6/17). Also at the HELP Committee"s mark up Wednesday, Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., said, "This is a greased slide to single-payer. It"s not about the issue of care. It"s not about the issue of coverage. It"s more about the issue of controlò€¦ What it is about really is centralizing control right here amongst folks who think they really know how to run something from a central system," reports the NYT"s Caucus in a separate item. Gregg"s comments earned "the most memorable line of [the] proceedings" form Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., who said, "This bill has just been accused of being somehow or another a combination between Rube Goldberg and Karl Marx. However, our current system is a combination of Adam Smith, Darth Vader and the Invasion of the Body Snatchers. So I like our plan the better" (Herszenhorn, 6/17). On the House side, Republicans outlined their own plan for health reform and attacked the cost of the Senate Democrat"s proposals, Politico reports (6/17). This information was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at kaiserhealthnews.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


Add your comment:
Name:
Site address: http://
Your message:
Enter today\\\\'s date, 2 digits
(spam protection):

© Copyright 2009