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Boston To Unveil New Teen Sex Awareness Program After Spike In STI Cases
Boston"s health agency on Tuesday is scheduled to launch a safer-sex campaign that reaches out to teenagers through Web sites such as Facebook and YouTube, the Boston Globe reports. The campaign was created in response to rising rates of sexually transmitted infections among young people in the city, according to the Globe. The $100,000 campaign originally was intended to address communicable diseases in general. However, experts noticed the increase in STI cases among teenagers and decided to spend all the funding on the campaign targeting STIs.The increase in chlamydia cases in particular demonstrates the "scope of the challenge," as 1,383 Boston youths between ages 15 and 19 were diagnosed with the STI in 2007, a 70% increase since 1999, the Globe reports. The overall rate of chlamydia in Boston is more than twice the national average, and chlamydia and gonorrhea are more common among adolescents than any other age group in Boston. According to the Globe, a city study released in early 2009 found that 56% of Boston public high school students have had sex, and 24% of the sexually active students said they have had more than six partners.For the campaign, "teenagers will do much of the talking" in a video that offers information on STIs, the Globe reports. The video will air on cable channels that are popular with teenagers, such as MTV, FX and BET. It shows teenagers in a classroom receiving information on safer sex, including details about condoms and STI screening. The video does not discuss sexual abstinence.The campaign also includes advertisements on mass transit and the radio, as well as a team of teenagers that will travel around Boston performing street theater addressing the risks associated with STIs. Through the social networking Web site Facebook, teenagers can post questions anonymously regarding sexual health that will be answered by a disease specialist. Videos related to the campaign also will be posted on YouTube.Margaux Joffe, multimedia coordinator at the Public Health Commission, said teenagers "told us, "We don"t want some 40-year-old woman telling us about sex and STIs."" Joffe added that it "makes sense" because a teenager "may not trust the advice of an adult as much as you would someone in your peer group." Mark Schuster, the chief of general pediatrics at Children"s Hospital Boston who was not involved in the design of the campaign, said that using a "multilevel approach" to address the issue is a "great strategy." He added that young people "can be interested and learn from" a sex education curriculum in school, but "they need it in other settings too."Specialists speculate that the rise in STIs may reflect teenagers" casual attitudes about sex and parents" shifting attention to other children"s health concerns, the Globe reports. Experts also have said that the increase in STIs could reflect increased screening efforts by physicians, who have been "pressed for many years to screen much more carefully kids at younger and younger ages," Stephen Boswell, president of Fenway Health, said. The Globe reports that teenagers do not view HIV/AIDS in the same way previous generations have because of advancements in treatment, so preventing the virus "no longer seems quite as important." Experts are concerned that the spread of other STIs could be a forewarning of a rise in HIV/AIDS cases among teenagers. Anita Barry, a top disease specialist at BPHC, said the gonorrhea and chlamydia cases are "our future HIV cases unless we intervene" (Smith, Boston Globe, 8/4).
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Research Into Genetic Neurological Disorders Will Benefit From New Mouse Model
Neurosensory diseases are difficult to model in mice because their symptoms are complex and diverse. The genetic causes identified are often lethal when transferred to a mouse. The lack of animal models slows progress in understanding and treating the diseases. By strategically altering a protein-making molecule, a mouse was made to help understand nervous system diseases that impair feeling and cause paralysis of the arms and legs in humans.
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U.S. To Commit Additional $1B To H1N1 Vaccine Development
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Sunday the U.S. has agreed to put an addition $1 billion towards ingredients for the production of a vaccine that offers protection against the H1N1 (swine flu) virus, Reuters reports. "There"ll be another $1 billion worth of orders placed to get the bulk ingredients for an H1N1 vaccination. Congress has agreed with the president that this is the number one priority, keeping Americans safe and secure," Sebelius said (7/12).
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Green Tea Compounds Reduced Prostate Cancer Markers, Study

US researchers found that men with prostate cancer who consumed a mix of polyphenols found in green tea experienced a significant reduction in serum markers such as PSA, VGF and VEGF that predict the progression of prostate cancer. The study was the work of Dr James A Cardelli, professor and director of basic and translational research in the Feist-Weiller Cancer Center, LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, Louisiana, and colleagues and is published in the 19 June issue of Cancer Prevention Research. Some studies have shown that green tea, the second most popular drink in the world, has many health benefits, and can reduce the incidence of prostate cancer, but trials in humans have been contradictory, said Cardelli, explaining that the few trials done so far have evaluated green tea"s clinical efficacy but not its effect on biomarkers of prostate cancer, which indicate cancer progression. He told the press that: "The investigational agent used in the trial, Polyphenon E (provided by Polyphenon Pharma) may have the potential to lower the incidence and slow the progression of prostate cancer." "There is reasonably good evidence that many cancers are preventable, and our studies using plant-derived substances support the idea that plant compounds found in a healthy diet can play a role in preventing cancer development and progression," he added. For the trial, Cardelli and colleagues recruited 26 men aged 41 to 72 who had been diagnosed with prostate cancer (their biopsies had proved positive) and were scheduled to have a radical prostatectomy. The patients consumed four capsules of Polyphenon E a day for an average of just over a month (ranging from about 12 to 73 days) until their operation. Each capsule contained 1.3 g of tea polyphenols, comprising 800 mg of (--)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) and lesser amounts of (--)- epicatechin, (--)-epigallocatechin, and (--)-epicatechin-3-gallate. Each patient gave a blood sample the day before they started the drug trial and then on the day of their operation. The researchers looked at changes in 5 biomarkers, including: hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), insulin- like growth factor (IGF)-I, IGF binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3), and prostate-specific antigen (PSA). The results showed that over the period of the study, levels of HGF, VEGF, PSA, IGF-I, IGFBP-3, and the IGF-I/IGFBP-3 ratio decreased significantly, as did 5 of the liver function tests, such as total protein, albumin, aspartate aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, and amylase. Other liver function tests also decreased, but not significantly. Thus liver function remained normal. Some patients showed more than a 30 per cent reduction in HGF, VEGF and PSA levels. Cardelli and colleagues concluded that: "Our results show a significant reduction in serum levels of PSA, HGF, and VEGF in men with prostate cancer after brief treatment with EGCG (Polyphenon E), with no elevation of liver enzymes." This suggests there might be a place for Polyphenon E in the treatment or prevention of prostate cancer, they said. Researchers in Italy studying the effects of green tea polyphenols found they reduced the risk of developing prostate cancer in men with high-grade prostate intraepithelial neoplasia (HGPIN), said the researchers in a separate statement. Cardelli said: "These studies are just the beginning and a lot of work remains to be done, however, we think that the use of tea polyphenols alone or in combination with other compounds currently used for cancer therapy should be explored as an approach to prevent cancer progression and recurrence." Unfortunately the study was not a randomized trial so we can"t rule the possibility that some other factor, such as changes to lifestyle, taking other supplements, improved diet, and so on, may be responsible for the lowering of biomarkers, commented Dr William G Nelson, professor of oncology, urology and pharmacology at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. However, he added that: "This trial is provocative enough to consider a more substantial randomized trial." Cardelli and his team are doing a similar trail with breast cancer patients and plan to carry out further investigations to determine why Polyphenon E had a dramatic effect in some patients and not others. Cardelli said that controlled clinical trials to see if other combinations of plant phenols might be even more effective than Polyphenon E. "Tea Polyphenols Decrease Serum Levels of Prostate-Specific Antigen, Hepatocyte Growth Factor, and Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor in Prostate Cancer Patients and Inhibit Production of Hepatocyte Growth Factor and Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor In vitro." McLarty, Jerry, Bigelow, Rebecca L.H., Smith, Mylinh, Elmajian, Don, Ankem, Murali, Cardelli, James A. Cancer Prevention Research, Published Online First on June 19, 2009. DOI: 10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-08-0167 Additional s: American Association for Cancer Research. Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD Copyright: Medical News Today Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today


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