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A
lift for their sex life
SOUTHFIELD, MI
— The latest in age-defying surgeries may
be a little tougher to spot than your average facelift.
Laser vaginal rejuvenation (LVR) — which costs
between $6,000-$11,000 — aims to enhance a woman's
nether regions. With more and more women looking for
a heightened sexual experience, LVR could become as
popular as the feted Brazilian wax. American surgeon
Dr Joseph Bernholz is one of those cashing in on the
buzz. His high-tech clinic offers LVR and a variety
of other surgeries, including designer laser vaginoplasty
(DLV), an aesthetic procedure; labioplasty; hymenoplasty
and more.
Kids
have no fear of rejection
TORONTO —
Finding a match for an organ transplant can be
extremely tricky, but it may be much easier in infants
under one year of age, according to research in Nature
Medicine. Apparently children that young have yet
to develop antibodies that will lead to the rejection
of non-compatible organs, which explains why a heart
from a blood type A donor was successfully transplanted
into a baby with type O blood. This discovery challenges
all our current knowledge on matching blood type to
prevent organ rejection for infants and should allow
for more efficient use of donor organs in wee ones.
Waterlogged
sprinters
BOSTON —
Most endurance runners are well aware that their hobby
puts them at risk of dehydration. To counter this, they
usually chug lots of water while working out. But a
new US study says that it's possible that some runners
are drinking too much for their own good. The study
results, published in the April 14 issue of NEJM,
found that hyponatremia occurs in a substantial percentage
of non-elite marathon runners and it can be severe.
They looked at 766 runners who participated in the 2002
Boston Marathon and found 13% had hyponatremia and 0.6%
had severe cases.
Another
sort of computer bug
LOS ANGELES —
Something horrible could be lurking in the crevices
of your keyboard, and it's not just dust and cookie
crumbs, but bacteria, sometimes even the antibiotic-resistant
variety. A team of researchers contaminated keyboards
with three types of bacteria — vancomycin-resistant
Enterococcus, methicillin-resistant Staph and
Pseudomonas aeruginosa. They found that the bugs
could survive up to 24 hours on the plastic surface,
making it easy to transmit the pathogens. The purpose
of their study was to see if moving to electronic health
records posed any infection control threat. The study
was presented at the annual meeting of the Society for
Healthcare Epidemiology earlier this month.
How
genes conquered the world
WASHINGTON —
Blue jeans conquered the sartorial world thanks to 19th
century Bavarian immigrant entrepreneur Levi Strauss
and the trousers' subsequent adoption by Hollywood icons
James Dean and Marlon Brando. The global spread of human
genes, however, can't be traced so easily. Now the National
Geographic Society and IBM have launched a joint project
to study the DNA of the world's indigenous in the hope
of understanding the early history of humanity. Among
the unexplained mysteries the researchers hope to solve
is the obscure origins of human settlement in Australia
and the Americas. Reseachers want to collect cheek swabs
from at least 100,000 indigenous people for this massive
five-year project.
Rogue
flu samples on the loose
GENEVA —
A major gaffe in a routine test has flu labs in 18 countries,
including Canada, on high alert. Sending out unmarked
samples of flu viruses is standard practice, a key way
of testing a lab's ability to detect strains. However,
a US company mistakenly sent out a highly virulent strain
from 1957 that hasn't been seen in the human population
since 1968. The mix-up was discovered by a lab in BC,
which alerted public health officials. People born after
that date have no immunity to the strain, prompting
fears that if the samples are mishandled it could potentially
lead to a pandemic.
New
Staph puts staff on the offensive
MINNEAPOLIS —
A new deadly illness called Staphylococcal purpura
fulminans is making the rounds in Minnesota hospitals.
Researchers have so far isolated five cases of the disease,
which first attacks the respiratory tract and then invites
Staphylococcus aureus infection to the party
in the host. The researchers found that once pathogens
have entered the body the infection moves to the lungs,
making superantigens, which can lead to high blood pressure,
shock and even death. They published their findings
in the April 1 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases.
25
years on, we've grown snifflier
LONDON —
While it's well-established that allergic diseases have
gone up considerably in the past generation, the reasons
remain elusive. A new study seeks to shed light on this
sneezy mystery. Researchers at the Wolfson Institute
of Preventive Medicine tested blood samples from middle-aged
men for sensitivity to Phadiatop — a stew of common
allergens — and then for inhaled allergens, with
samples drawn from three periods: 1975-6, 1981-2 and
1996-8. Researchers found the number of men with sensitivity
to Phadiatop grew by about 4.5% each decade. They're
still not sure why, but rule out declining childhood
infections. The study was published on BMJ Online First.
No
refuge from bad dreams
OXFORD —
Safely reaching the haven of a western country like
Canada may not signal the end of a refugee's troubles.
According to a report in the April 9 issue of The Lancet,
refugees living in countries like Canada, the US, Australia
and New Zealand are about 10 times more likely to suffer
from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than the
general population. Surveys found that 9% of 6,743 adult
refugees and 11% of 260 refugee children had been diagnosed
with PTSD after fleeing oppression in their homelands.
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