Generics deal cuts cost of AIDS drugs further
The cost of AIDS medicines in poor countries is to come down further, following a new bulk purchase arrangement negotiated with a group of generic drug manufacturers. The Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative and the international drug-purchasing consortium Unitaid said Friday they had struck deals offering steeper discounts on a range of life-saving treatments. Read more
It all adds up teens and sex
Too much television, low self-esteem, low grades and poor family relationships can add up to early teenage sex, according to a new study. “If you add up all the factors, you get a much more powerful predictor of who has sex and who doesn’t,” said Dr. Janet Hyde, of the University of Wisconsin, who headed the research team. Read more
HIV may be increasing in virulence
These findings agree with those of other researchers, who have reported that patients starting treatment for HIV infection in recent years may have lower CD4+ cell counts at diagnosis and require antiretroviral therapy earlier in the course of disease, Dr. Nancy Crum-Cianflone, from the Naval Medical Center, San Diego, California, and colleagues report. Read more
Birth control touted as part of Earth Day
So, what to do to celebrate Earth Day today? For a start, no sex without birth control, suggests Hans Tammermagi, author and adjunct professor in the School of Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria. While people try to step more lightly on the Earth by using compact fluorescent bulbs, turning down the thermostat and using public transit, they should also be thinking about the dramatic impact of overpopulation, Tammermagi suggested. Read more
Fewer than half of U.S. women screened for chlamydia
Fewer than half of vulnerable U.S. women are being screened for chlamydia, a common sexually transmitted disease that often causes few symptoms but can lead to infertility, researchers reported on Thursday. Screening rates have spiked up from 25 percent in 2000 to nearly 42 percent in 2007, but that is still far too few women being screened, the team at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. Read more
Spray helps men with frustrating sexual problem
Premature ejaculation – defined by the International Society for Sexual Medicine as orgasm that occurs within about one minute of vaginal penetration in the majority of encounters – can be a “very distressing” condition for men, one that can cause frustration and make them avoid sexual intimacy, Dr. W. Wallace Dinsmore from the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, UK, noted in a prepared statement. Read more
FDA eases access to morning-after pill
Seventeen-year-olds will soon have access to emergency contraception without a prescription, U.S. health regulators said on Wednesday, complying with a court order to ease restrictions on over-the-counter sales of the so-called “morning-after” pill. Last month, a U.S. court ruled the Food and Drug Administration under the Bush administration had allowed politics to cloud its decision-making process regarding availability of the Plan B drug which had been restricted to those 18 and older. Read more
Recession linked to more abortions, vasectomies
The pregnancy was unexpected, and for one 32-year-old single mother in Syracuse, New York, the ailing economy became a factor in her decision to have an abortion. “More so now that we are in a recession … I felt I had to go through with the procedure because I cannot afford another child,” said the woman, a registered nurse who spoke on condition of anonymity. Read more
The sex of your surgeon may matter
Whether a woman receives radiation treatment after breast cancer surgery may be influenced by the gender of her surgeon, according to a new report from The Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The study, from researchers at Columbia University, set out to determine why breast cancer treatment still varies among similar patients. Read more