Genetic disposition suspected for human bird flu:WHO

GENEVA, Nov 3: Scientists suspect some people have a "genetic disposition" for infection with bird flu, which may explain why some get it and others don’t, and why it remains relatively rare, the World Health Organisation said.

Evidence, mainly from a family cluster of cases last May in North Sumatra, Indonesia-when seven people in an extended family died-showed genetic factors might influence human susceptibility to the H5N1 virus, it said yesterday.

Only blood relatives were infected in the Karo district of North Sumatra, the largest cluster known to date worldwide, "despite multiple opportunities for the virus to spread to spouses or into the general community," it added.

The theory-which it said merited further study-was contained in WHO’s report issued on Thursday, on a closed-door meeting of 35 scientific experts held in late September.

"A genetic predisposition for infection is suspected based on data from rare instances of human-to-human transmission in genetically-related persons," the WHO said.

"This possibility, if more fully explored, might help explain why human cases are comparatively rare and why the virus is not spreading easily from animals to humans or from human to human," it added.

Bird flu remains mainly an animal disease, but has infected 256 people since late 2003, killing 152 of them, according to the United Nations agency. Experts fear the virus could mutate and spark a human influenza pandemic, which could kill millions.

Overall, the H5N1 virus continues to show "inefficient spread", both from animals to humans and among humans, it said.

Much about the disease remains poorly understood, but the present situation is serious and "the risk that a pandemic virus might emerge is not likely to diminish in the near future".

Results from clinical trials of candidate pandemic vaccines had "not been promising" and it may be premature for countries to choose one to stockpile so as to protect their populations.

"CHAMPION VECTORS"

Mallard ducks have been identified as the "champion" spreaders of bird flu, and appear to shed the virus increasingly from the respiratory tract rather than via faeces, the WHO said.

This finding will require modifying disease surveillance strategies so that samples are also taken from birds’ pharynx, as well as faeces, it said.

"In terms of geographical spread of the virus, mallard ducks are now regarded as the ‘champion’ vectors; mute swans are highly susceptible birds that are thought to serve as sentinels, but probably not as vectors of virus transmission," it said in the report, posted on its website www.Who.Int <http://www.Who.Int>.

Recent studies had shown that the virus is now moving both ways in "relay transmission", from poultry to migratory birds and back again, it added.

Culling birds remains the control strategy of first choice, and had proven successful in Japan and South Korea, if costly. High-quality vaccination of poultry was recommended in resource-strapped countries, yet ducks react differently to poultry vaccines which are designed for chickens, it said. (AGENCIES)

Eating out may encourage bingeing

NEW YORK, Nov 3: Women tend to eat more calories and fat when dining out, regardless of what their usual eating habits are, new research suggests.

The study, which included both binge-eaters and dieters, found that both groups of women ate out frequently -- and downed between 200 and 300 extra calories a day in the process.

Moreover, women who were prone to binge-eating problems often overindulged when eating out. One-third of their bingeing ''episodes'' over the two-week study occurred in a restaurant, according to findings published in the Western Journal of Nursing Research.

''Restaurants may present a high-risk environment for bingers and dieters, contributing to loss of control and excess consumption,'' writes study author Dr. Gayle M. Timmerman, an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing.

Many experts have pointed to Americans' love of dining out as a potential reason for the nation's ever-expanding waistline. Fast food, as well as the hefty portion sizes at restaurants in general, catch much of the blame.

In the new study, Timmerman found that women ate only about a quarter of their restaurant meals at fast-food places, and they usually skipped dessert whenever they ate out.

Still, dieters and binge-eaters alike ate 200 to 300 extra calories, as well as 10 to 16 extra grams of fat, on days when they dined out.

These extras are bound to add up, according to Timmerman. On average, she found, study participants ate at a restaurant or got take-out on seven of the 14 days they were followed.

Over a year, she estimates, that could translate into a 12-pound weight gain.

The fact that binge-eaters often lost control at restaurants counters the idea that bingeing is a solely private habit, according to Timmerman. Indeed, she writes, the ''ample delicious food cues'' at restaurants are likely to challenge binge-eaters' control. (AGENCIES)

Kenya launches anti-polio drive in arid north

NAIROBI, Nov 3: Kenya said it would vaccinate about 250,000 children against polio, after it discovered two more cases in a camp mainly for Somali refugees.

The vaccination campaign will target children under five years of age living along Kenya’s long and porous border with Somalia, after the virus was brought in by a 3-year-old refugee girl from the Somali port of Kisamayu.

The girl was among thousands of Somalis who have streamed into Kenyan refugee camps fleeing fighting, the imposition of strict Islamic rule, drought and possible war.

Kenya’s Director of Medical Services James Nyikal yesterday said two other cases had been detected in the vast Dadaab refugee camp, home to about 160,000 refugees from Somalia.

Polio is a viral disease of the brain and spine which attacks mainly children. It causes paralysis, muscular atrophy and deformity and can be fatal.

"The Government also launched a vaccination programme for children under five years of age entering the country from Somalia," Nyikal said at a press conference while announcing measures to deal with the disease which has re-emerged in the east African country after 22 years.

In September, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced that the three Horn of Africa countries of Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia would vaccinate nearly three million children in the region against the malady.

According to the WHO the viral disease returned to Somalia last year and 215 cases have so far been confirmed. Ethiopia has reported 37 cases since polio reappeared there in 2004. (AGENCIES)

ACE inhibitors beneficial in type 2 diabetes

NEW YORK, Nov 3: Results of a study indicate that patients with high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes benefit from taking an angiotensin-converting-enzyme (ACE) inhibitor to lower blood pressure, even if they have no evidence of kidney or heart disease.

Use of ACE inhibitors, and control of hypertension (high blood pressure), appears to have independent and additive protective effects in patients with type 2 diabetes, suggest early data from a large Italian study known as the BENEDICT trial.

In the study of 1180 type 2 diabetic patients with hypertension, treatment with the ACE inhibitor trandolapril, or trandolapril combined with another BP lowering drug called verapamil (Veratran), delayed the onset of ''microalbuminuria'' -- a build-up of the blood protein albumin in the urine that can signal kidney disease. Diabetes is a leading cause of kidney disease.

According to Dr. Piero Ruggenenti and colleagues at ''Mario Negri'' Institute for Pharmacological Research in Bergamo, Italy, ''effective BP reduction has a specific and independent protective effect against the development of microalbuminuria.''

Systolic BP itself was the strongest predictor of microalbuminuria, and its reduction was the most protective factor.

Moreover, the researchers found, ''ACE inhibitor therapy has a further protective effect, in particular when the BP is poorly controlled.''

On the other hand, Veratran was most effective in reducing systolic BP. This agent was less likely to require concomitant treatment with other heart drugs like diuretics and beta blockers.

Ruggenenti's team concludes that BP reduction, and not just less severe baseline hypertension, protects against the development of kidney damage.

SOURCE: Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, December 2006.

(AGENCIES)

TB making "alarming" comeback in Britain

LONDON, Nov 3: Tuberculosis is making an ''alarming'' comeback in Britain, decades after doctors came close to eradicating the disease, public health officials said.

More than 8,000 people were infected last year by the airborne disease, one of the biggest killers in the Victorian era when it was known as White Death due to the pallor which shrouded its victims.

The Health Protection Agency yesterday said the number of TB cases in England, Wales and Northern Ireland jumped more than 10 percent in 2005, with South Asians most at risk.

''An increase of this magnitude over the course of one year is a concern,'' said the HPA's Professor Peter Borriello.

The rise was the largest in a single year since 1999. Thirty-eight percent of those infected were described as Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi.

Dr John Watson, head of the independent agency's respiratory diseases department, said TB levels were steady among people born in Britain. However, the big rise was not down to new arrivals in the country, he added.

Instead, those with TB may have been infected for some time, caught the disease in Britain or while travelling abroad.

Health experts attribute the rise in TB to the growth in air travel between continents and overcrowding in poor areas.

Other factors include the emergence of drug-resistant strains of the disease and the spread of AIDS. The HIV infection makes people more susceptible to infections such as TB.

Globally, TB infects an estimated 8.7 million people a year and kills 2 million a year despite widespread control efforts.

The disease is spread by airborne bacteria that settle into the lungs and cause long-term infection.

Once known as consumption and rife among the urban poor, its threat receded with the advent of antibiotics and vaccinations.

Dr John Moore-Gillon, chairman of the British Thoracic Society Joint TB Committee and president of the British Lung Foundation, said its comeback was worrying.

''These figures are alarming and the situation is now very urgent,'' he said. ''This 19th century disease is a rapidly increasing threat in 21st century Britain.''

The government said it had an action plan to tackle the disease, but stressed that countries must work together.

Conservative Shadow Health Minister Andrew Murrison said the Government had ''failed to get a grip'' on the problem. (AGENCIES)

US shuts Web site said to reveal nuclear guide:NYT

WASHINGTON, Nov 3: The US Government has shut down a Web site it set up in March containing documents captured during the Iraq war after arms experts and officials raised concerns it offered a guide to building a nuclear bomb, The New York Times reported.

The newspaper yesterday said the Bush administration started the site under pressure from congressional Republicans who had hoped to use the Internet to find new evidence of the dangers posed by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein before the US-led invasion in 2003.

In recent weeks, according to the Times, the site posted documents that weapons experts said contained detailed accounts of Iraq's secret nuclear research before the 1991 Gulf War that one diplomat called ''a cookbook'' for building an atom bomb.

On Wednesday night, after the Times informed the government about the concerns, it said the government suspended the site. A spokesman for the director of national intelligence said the site was suspended ''pending a review to ensure its content is appropriate for public viewing.''

The paper quoted European diplomats as saying that officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency nuclear watchdog made a private protest to the U.S. Ambassador to the agency, voicing concern the information could help countries like Iran develop nuclear weapons.

The site, known as ''Operation Iraqi Freedom Document Portal,'' contained about a dozen documents with charts, diagrams, equations and long narratives about bomb building that nuclear experts told the Times went beyond what was available on the Internet and other public forums.

The Times said the documents provided information on building nuclear firing circuits and triggering explosives as the radioactive cores of atom bombs.

''For the US to toss a match into this flammable area is very irresponsible,'' A Bryan Siebert, a former official at the Energy Department, which runs the nation's nuclear arms programme, told the paper.

National intelligence director John Negroponte resisted setting up the Web site, the Times said, but President George W Bush approved the site after congressional Republicans proposed a bill to require the documents' release.

According to the Times, conservative politicians and publications hoped analysis of the some 48,000 boxes of documents seized in the Iraq invasion would reinvigorate the search for proof Saddam had unconventional arms programs.

President Bush cited concerns about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction as a major cause for the Iraq invasion. No such weapons have been found.

(AGENCIES)

Killer of boy, 11, may face longer jail term

LONDON, Nov 3: The Crown Prosecution Service has asked the Attorney General to consider referring the case of child killer Michael Hamer to the appeal court following concerns his sentence was too lenient.

Hamer, 15, was jailed for life last month for what police called the ''cold, premeditated and chilling'' murder of 11-year-old cystic fibrosis sufferer Joe Geeling.

The minimum term he must serve was set at 12 years, prompting police to ask the CPS to consider whether the sentence was ''unduly lenient''.

The victim's family was also widely reported to be concerned about the minimum term.

A CPS spokeswoman said the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith would decide whether to send the case to the appeal court.

Hamer hit Geeling about the head with a frying pan until it broke before stabbing him 16 times.

He put Geeling's body in a wheelie bin and took it to a nearby park where he dumped the corpse in a wooded gully and covered it with debris.

Hamer, who had been bullied at school, was described in court as a loner who found it hard to make friends.

He selected Geeling because he perceived him to be weak, but maintained he did not know about his illness. (AGENCIES)

Army colonel named head of Nigerian Muslims

SOKOTO, NIGERIA, Nov 3: A 53-year-old retired army colonel was named as the new Sultan of Sokoto, the spiritual head of Nigeria's estimated 70 million Muslims, to succeed his half-brother who died in a plane crash on Sunday.

Hundreds of wellwishers yesterday stormed the Sultan's palace to congratulate Mohammed Sada Abubakar on his appointment as the leader of the Sokoto Caliphate, which spread Islam across Africa's most populous nation in the 19th century.

''May he continue where the late Sultan stopped,'' said Muhammadu Bello, a trader in Sokoto's central market. ''I want to congratulate the state government for choosing a consensus Sultan.''

The appointment was made by the Governor of Sokoto from a shortlist drawn up by clan chiefs from around the state, located in the far north of Nigeria on the arid Niger border.

The previous Sultan, Ibrahim Muhammadu Maccido, was one of 99 people killed on Sunday when a Boeing 737 operated by domestic carrier ADC slammed into a cornfield minutes after takeoff from the capital Abuja. Nine people survived.

Abubakar is expected to be escorted by horsemen today from the Sultan's palace to the central Sokoto mosque where he will lead a prayer session.

Observers said the transition would be made smoother by the fact that the title would stay in the family, which is descended from Uthman dan Fodio, an Islamic scholar who launched a jihad in 1804 to spread Islam to most of northern Nigeria.

Abubakar is the younger half-brother of the late Sultan, sharing the same father. His army career has included a peacekeeping mission in Sierra Leone, presidential security and a posting as defence attache on the Middle East based in Pakistan. He retired in February this year.

The Sultan's largely ceremonial role includes declaring the timing of Muslim holidays, such as Ramadan. He also acts as the foremost traditional ruler in northern Nigeria.

Maccido was a quiet, conservative leader who used his position to promote calm whenever religious violence occurred, such as during riots over the staging of the 2002 Miss World pageant and when religious bloodshed broke out in the central state of Plateau in 2004.

He also helped to persuade some northern Nigerian states to end a boycott of polio vaccines in 2004. Some governors banned the vaccine arguing it was part of a western plot to spread infertility and AIDS among Muslims. It caused an epidemic of the crippling disease among children across Nigeria and Africa which authorities are still struggling to contain.

Nigeria is split about evenly between a predominantly Muslim north and a mainly Christian south, although large religious minorities exist in both regions.(AGENCIES)

Europe faces obesity epidemic by decade end-experts

LONDON, Nov 3: Europe is facing an obesity epidemic by the end of the decade which will increase health costs and hamper economic development, health experts said.

Up to 23 percent of men and as many as 36 percent of women in Europe are obese and one third of children are overweight.

"If we do not act now, we expect to have 150 million adults and 15 million obese children by 2010. That means between 2002 and 2010 we will have 20 percent more obese people compared to about 10 years ago," Dr Francesco Branca, of the World Health Organisation (WHO), told a news conference yesterday.

"This really is the description of an epidemic," he added.

Obesity is taking up to 1 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in some countries in Europe, according to the WHO which considers it one of the greatest public health challenges of the 21^{st century. It accounts for about 6 percent of health costs.}

^{To tackle the soaring rates, Health Ministers and policymakers from 53 countries will meet in Istanbul this month to map out a strategy and adopt a charter on countering obesity.}

^{Branca said although most countries in Europe acknowledge that obesity, which increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease, certain cancers and other complications, is a public health problem and are taking action, none has been able to deal with it effectively.}

^{"The WHO is convening the ministerial conference to spread the message and spread good practice across the region," he said. "All countries should move together. Only with this integration of action will we achieve goals."}

^{High fat, energy dense diets and sedentary lifestyles over the last 20 to 30 years, along with economic growth, urbanisation and the globalisation of food markets have contributed to expanding waistlines around the globe.}

^{The November 15-17 meeting in Turkey, which will include ministers of transport, environment, education and finance, will look at measures to improve the consumption of healthy foods, to increase exercise in schools and the work place and to involve health systems in dealing with the epidemic.}

^{It will culminate in the adoption of a European Charter on Counteracting Obesity which will propose action plans and includes calls for political commitment.}

^{"This is the first region of the world that is tackling this one in a major way," said Professor Philip James, the chairman of the International Obesity Taskforce (IOTF). (AGENCIES)}

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