DRUG REISISTANT TUBERCULOSIS EPIDEMIC SPREADING NEWS HEADLINES STORY

DRUG RESISTANT TUBERCULOSIS SPREADING FAST - WHO NEWS HEADLINES STORY

TUBERCULOSIS SPREADING FAST: -

WHO LONDON TUBERCULOSIS NEWS HEADLINES Drug-resistant tuberculosis is spreading even faster than medical experts had feared, the World Health Organization warned in report issued Tuesday. The rate of Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB patients infected with the Drug-resistant tuberculosis strain topped 20 percent in some countries, the highest ever recorded, the U.N. agency said. Though the report is the largest survey of Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB, based on information collected between 2002 and 2006, there are still major gaps: Data were only available from about half of the world's countries.


MISTAKES IN DRUG RESISTANT TUBERCULOSIS TREATMENT

"Ten years ago, it would have been unthinkable to see rates like this," said Dr. Mario Raviglione, director of WHO's "Stop Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB" department. "This demonstrates what happens when you keep making mistakes in Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB treatment." In Africa, where experts are particularly worried about a lethal collision between Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB and AIDS, only six countries provided information.


DRUG RESISTANT TUBERCULOSIS OUTBREAK UNPRECEDENTED

"We really don't know what the situation is in Africa," Raviglione said. "If multi-Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB has penetrated Africa and coincides with AIDS, there's bound to be a disaster." Raviglione said it was likely that patients — and even entire outbreaks of Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB — were being missed.


DRUG RESISTANT TUBERCULOSIS VIRTUALLY UNTREATABLE IN POOR COUNTRIES

Experts also worry about the spread of XDR-TB, or extensively Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB, a strain virtually untreatable in poor countries. When an XDR-TB Drug-resistant tuberculosis outbreak was identified in AIDS patients in South Africa in 2006, it killed nearly every patient within weeks. WHO's report said XDR-TB Drug-resistant tuberculosis has now been found in 45 countries.


HALF A MILLION DRUG RESISTANT TUBERCULOSIS CASES EVERY YEAR

Globally, there are about 500,000 new cases of Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB every year, about 5 percent of the 9 million new Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB cases. In the United States, 1.2 percent of Drug-resistant tuberculosisTB cases were multi-drug resistant. Of those, 1.9 percent were extensively drug-resistant. High rates of Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB were also found in China and India, the world's two most populous nations that together are home to half the world's cases.


HIGHEST RATE OF DRUG RESISTANT TUBERCULOSIS IS IN EASTERN EUROPE

The highest rates of drug-resistant TB were in eastern Europe. Nearly a quarter of all tuberculosis TB cases in Baku, Azerbaijan, were drug-resistant, followed by about 20 percent in Moldova and 16 percent in Donetsk, Ukraine, WHO said. That is not the case in China, however, where the government says 94 percent of Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB patients complete their first TB treatment. Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB arises when primary tuberculosis TB treatment is poor. Countries with strong treatment programs, like the U.S. and other Western nations, should theoretically have very little Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB.


DRUG RESISTANT TUBERCULOSIS COULD BECOME AN EPIDEMIC

"There's a huge, gross discrepancy there if they are then reporting 25 percent of the world's multi-Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB cases," said Mark Harrington, executive director of Treatment Action Group, a public health think tank. "They are clearly nurturing a multi-Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB epidemic and failing to report XDR-TB at all." "We are totally off track right now," said Dr. Tido von Schoen-Angerer, executive director of Medecins Sans Frontiere's Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines. He said only 30,000 multi-drug TB resistant patients were treated last year. With growing numbers of Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB patients, there is concern some national health systems will soon be overwhelmed.


DRUG RESISTANT TUBERCULOSIS COULD BECOME A THREAT TO EVERYONE ON EARTH

Experts said new drugs are needed if the outbreak is to be curbed, along with new diagnostic tests to identify Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB strains faster — current tests take about a month for results. "Multi-Drug-resistant tuberculosist TB is a threat to every person on the planet," Harrington said. "It's not like HIV, where you are only infected through specific actions. TB is a threat to every person who takes a train or a plane." WHO said a new diagnostic test able to provide results within a day is being tried in South Africa and Lesotho. If successful, the test could be introduced across Africa in a few months, though new labs would be needed to run the tests.

KRILL IN ANTARTICA WATERS

KRILL FOUND IN ANTARTICA WATERS NEWS HEADLINES STORIES

SHRIMP KRILL DISCOVERED IN ANTARTICA WATERS

Shrimp-like krill can thrive in icy waters 3,000 meters (9,800 ft) deep off Antarctica as well as near the surface, according to a study on Monday that shows krill stocks can survive far deeper than previously thought. "Scientists have found Antarctic krill living and feeding down to depths of 3,000 meters in waters around the Antarctic peninsula," the British Antarctic Survey said of a study by a robot submarine to the sea floor.


SHRIMP KRILL DISCOVERED IN ANTARTICA WATERS CHANGE SCIENTISTS UNDERSTANDING

The British researchers said, however, that the discovery of krill in the depths does not mean that stocks of the crustaceans sometimes called "pink gold" are far bigger than previously expected nor that trawlers can expect bigger quotas. Krill, which spawn near the surface, were previously thought to live only in waters down to about 150 meters. Traveling down to 3,000 meters deep means exposure to crushing pressure shifts. "The discovery completely changes scientists' understanding of the major food source for fish, squid, penguins, seals and whales," it said in a report with the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton.

KRILL IS PHYSIOLOGICALLY FLEXIBLE

"There aren't many organisms that will travel over that depth range. Krill is a lot more flexible physiologically and a lot more flexible behaviorally than we ever imagined," said Andrew Clarke of the British Antarctic Survey. Clarke, who co-authored the paper in the journal Current Biology, speculated that krill travel mainly to the sea floor to feed on algae falling from surface waters at the end of the Antarctic summer. "Maybe that's why it's so successful," he told.


KRILL FOUND IN ANTARTICA IS USED FOR HEART MEDICINES

If so, that would mean there was probably not a vast hidden stock of krill permanently in the depths. Krill, which grow up to about 6 cms (2.4 inches), would probably take about four hours to swim up to the surface again. Krill is used for everything from heart medicines to fish feed. Catches total about 120,000 tonnes a year -- led by Norway's Aker BioMarine. And krill in the depths would be too costly to catch. "Whether this has any practical significance in terms of fisheries, the honest answer is that we don't know but our suspicion is that it is no big deal," he said.


KRILL POPULATION DROPPED IN ANTARTICA

The British Antarctic Survey said that the total weight of Antarctic krill is calculated between 50-150 million tonnes but stocks seem to have dropped sharply since the 1970s, apparently because of a decline in winter sea ice. "The effort involved for the return would not balance out," he said. "It's like looking for oil (in the Arctic) -- you don't look there first. But as the price goes up you do things in tougher environments." Krill grow under the ice, partly because algae also grow there and because it offers protection from predators. Other estimates put the total krill stock at up to 500 million tonnes.

HIGH HEELS BOOST WOMEN SEX LIFE

HIGH HEELS CAN IMPROVE SEXY LOOKS AND BOOST WOMEN'S SEX LIFE


HIGH HEELS BOOST SEX LIFE OF WOMEN

Wearing high heels not only makes a woman look sexy, but also improve her sex life, says a new study. The study found that wearing a pair of moderately high heels could tone the body, condition muscles, and even improve a woman's sex life without the need for onerous exercise sessions. Lead researcher Maria Cerruto, a urologist at the University of Verona, said that she conducted her tests because she wished to tackle "bizarre" non-scientific theories blaming high heels for a range of ills, including schizophrenia.

During the study, the researcher studied 66 volunteers aged under 50 and measured the electrical activity in the pelvic muscles of the women. "As a woman who loves heeled shoes, I tried to find something healthy in them. In the end I achieved my goal. Heels affect pelvic floor activity, reducing pain and improving your health. We now hope to prove that wearing heels during daily activity may reduce the need for pelvic exercises," Times Online quoted her as saying.

The results suggest the muscles are more relaxed when women wear higher heels, increasing their strength and ability to contract. She discovered that women who held their feet at a 15-degree angle to the ground, the equivalent of a 7cm heel, showed up to 15 per cent less electrical activity in their pelvic muscles. "Women often find it difficult to complete their exercises. This may prove a solution," Cerruto said.

Matt Roberts, a personal trainer whose clients have included Madonna, Naomi Camp-bell, Natalie Imbruglia, Mel C and John Galliano, said: "A woman wearing high heels will hold the muscles tight to compensate. When you are standing on tiptoes you have to clench the buttocks, the inner thighs and the pelvic floor muscles. It would potentially give them a short-term tension and toning. But the negative effects can outweigh the positive." He added: "The knees and metatarsals are put under strain, the hips are out of position. It can lead to long-term health risks."

The study is published in the journal European Urology.

Rwanda Earth Quake Kills 39 News Headlines

MAJOR EARTH QUAKE IN RWANDA CONGO ON SUNDAY NEWS HEADLINES

RWANDA CONGO EARTH QUAKE KILLS 39 PEOPLE NEWS HEADLINES STORY

Two earthquakes struck hours apart in Rwanda and neighboring Congo on Sunday, killing at least 39 people and injuring hundreds of others, officials said. Some of the victims died when the church they were attending collapsed. Thirty-four people were killed and 231 wounded in Rwanda Earth quake, according to a Ministry of Health hot line. Frank Mugambage, an official in the president's office, said some of the victims died when a church collapsed in the Rwanda Earth quake. Rescuers were searching for more victims, he said.


Rwanda Earth Quake Measures 6.0 on Richter Scale

The first, 6.0-magnitude Earth quake struck Congo early Sunday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The second quake, which registered 5.0, hit a few hours later near the countries' border, in Rwanda's rural Rusizi district. Across the border in the lakeside city of Bukavu, Mayor Raisi Kunda said five people were killed and 149 wounded there. Kunda said many homes, as well as schools and churches, were damaged in Rwanda Earth quake in the city but the extent was not immediately clear.

The area where the Rwanda Earth quake hit is part of Africa's Great Rift Valley, which includes a seismically active fault line. The Rwanda Earth quake temblor rattled the capital, Kigali, some 125 miles away.