Doctors should consider hepatitis C testing: panel

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A government-backed panel advises doctors to “consider offering screening” for hepatitis C to adults born between 1945 and 1965, in a draft statement released today.

The recommendations, from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), are an update to the group’s 2004 statement, which recommended against screening people at average risk of hepatitis C. At the time, it also said there wasn’t enough evidence for or against screening high-risk adults, such as injection drug users.

“There were a lot of uncertainties in 2004,” said Dr. Albert Siu from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, who is co-vice chair of the task force.

“The evidence has increased over the years. The tests haven’t really changed, but there is more certainty in terms of the overall net benefit here,” he told Reuters Health.

Earlier this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called for hepatitis C testing for all baby boomers, who make up three-quarters of people in the United States with the infection.

The USPSTF now also recommends screening all high-risk adults, regardless of when they were born.

Hepatitis C is passed through blood. Along with drug users who share needles, people who had a blood transfusion or received an organ transplant before mandatory viral testing began in 1992 are also at increased risk of hepatitis C.

Between 1 and 2 percent of people in the U.S. have hepatitis C, which can cause cirrhosis and liver failure over many years. Among the baby boomer generation, that rate is between 3 and 4 percent.

In the new draft recommendations, the task force says there is enough evidence showing blood tests used to detect hepatitis C are accurate. However, there is no direct, long-term proof that screening ultimately reduces liver disease and death – in part because the harmful effects of hepatitis C progress slowly and it takes many years to see such results.

Siu said the screening process is safer than it used to be because fewer people are getting invasive liver biopsies to confirm positive blood tests. That helps tip the scale in favor of screening.

In addition, for many people with hepatitis C, treatment with anti-viral drugs – especially three-drug combinations including medications recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration – can decrease the amount of virus in the blood to an undetectable level, the USPSTF found.

Side effects of the newest drugs, known as boceprevir (Victrelis) and telaprevir (Incivek), include anemia and rashes. Those medications are added to a combination regimen of ribavirin and peginterferon alfa (also commonly known as Pegasys and Peg-Intron), which has been the standard of treatment since the early 2000s.

“In general, when we are talking about infectious diseases screening, (question) one is prevalence rate in the population and two is, are there any effective treatments?” said Dr. Lu-Yu Hwang, who has studied hepatitis C infection and transmission at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

“Today… people are more optimistic for hepatitis C treatment than for hepatitis B or HIV. People believe there’s a good way you can get rid of the virus, and we do have a good number of people recovering from chronic infection,” Hwang, who is not part of the USPSTF, told Reuters Health.

Evidence reviews completed for the task force also suggest that for pregnant women with hepatitis C, delivering a baby via cesarean section or avoiding breastfeeding does not cut down on virus transmission. That suggests transmission may occur while a fetus is still in utero, Dr. Roger Chou and colleagues from Oregon Health & Science University in Portland said.

Hwang suggested screening could be useful for women who are considering becoming pregnant. Then if they are positive for hepatitis C, women can be treated and reduce their viral levels before there’s a risk of passing the virus on to the baby.

The reviews used by the USPSTF are published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The draft recommendations will be on the task force website (http://bit.ly/9e1DhW) and available for public comment between November 27 and December 24.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/N0G6LY Annals of Internal Medicine, online November 26, 2012.

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Euro zone, IMF reach deal on long-term Greek debt

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Euro zone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund clinched agreement on a new debt target for Greece on Monday in a breakthrough towards releasing an urgently needed tranche of loans to the near-bankrupt economy, officials said.

After nearly 10 hours of talks at their third meeting on the issue in as many weeks, Greece’s international lenders agreed to reduce Greek debt by 40 billion euros, cutting it to 124 percent of gross domestic product by 2020, via a package of steps.

The deal should open the way for a major aid installment needed to recapitalize Greece’s teetering banks and enable the government to pay wages, pensions and suppliers in December.

However, discussions were continuing on the methods to be used to lower Athens‘ debt burden, including a possible debt buyback and a lowering of interest rates on loans to Greece.

The euro strengthened against the dollar after news of a deal was reported by Reuters.

“It’s going very slow, but we have financing and a Debt Sustainability Analysis. We’ve filled the financing gap until the end of program in 2014,” one official engaged with the talks said. A second official confirmed the figures.

Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras said earlier that Athens had fulfilled its part of the deal by enacting tough austerity measures and economic reforms, and it was now up to the lenders to do their part.

“I’m certain we will find a mutually beneficial solution today,” he said on arrival for the marathon talks.

Greece, where the euro zone’s debt crisis erupted in late 2009, is the currency area’s most heavily indebted country, despite a big “haircut” this year on privately-held bonds. Its economy has shrunk by nearly 25 percent in five years.

Negotiations had been stalled over how Greece’s debt, forecast to peak at 190-200 percent of GDP in the coming two years, could be cut to a more sustainable 120 percent by 2020.

The agreed figure fell slightly short of that goal, and the IMF was still insisting that euro zone ministers should make a firm commitment to further steps to reduce the debt stock if Athens implements its adjustment program faithfully.

The key question remained whether Greek debt can become sustainable without euro zone governments having to write off some of the loans they have made to Athens.

A source familiar with IMF thinking said the global lender was demanding immediate measures to cut Greece’s debt by 20 percentage points of GDP, with a commitment to do more to reduce the debt stock in a few years if Greece fulfills its program.

To reduce the debt to 124 percent by 2020, the ministers were putting together a package of steps including a debt buyback funded by a euro zone rescue fund, reducing the interest rate on loans and returning euro zone central bank ‘profits’ to Greece.

Germany and its northern European allies have so far rejected any idea of forgiving official loans to Athens.

DEBT RELIEF “NOT ON TABLE”

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told reporters that a debt cut was legally impossible, not just for Germany but for other euro zone countries, if it was linked to a new guarantee of loans.

“You cannot guarantee something if you’re cutting debt at the same time,” he said. That did not preclude possible debt relief at a later stage if Greece completed its adjustment program and no longer needs new loans.

The source familiar with IMF thinking said a loan write-off once Greece has established a track record of compliance would be the simplest way to make its debt viable, but other methods such as foregoing interest payments, or lending at below market rates and extending maturities could all help.

The German banking association (BDB) said a fresh “haircut” or forced reduction in the value of Greek sovereign debt, must only happen as a last resort.

Two European Central Bank policymakers, vice-president Vitor Constancio and executive board member Joerg Asmussen, said debt forgiveness was not on the agenda for now.

The options under consideration included reducing interest on already extended bilateral loans to Greece from the current 150 basis points above financing costs.

How much lower was still being debated — France and Italy wanted to reduce the rate to 30 basis points (bps), while Germany and some other countries sought a 90 bps margin.

Another option, which could cut Greek debt by almost 17 percent of GDP, was to defer interest payments on loans to Greece from the EFSF, a temporary bailout fund, by 10 years.

The European Central Bank could forego profits on its Greek bond portfolio, bought at a deep discount, cutting the debt pile by a further 4.6 percent by 2020, a document prepared for the ministers’ talks last week showed.

Not all euro zone central banks are willing to forego their profits, however, the German Bundesbank among them.

Greece could also buy back its privately-held bonds on the market at a deep discount, with gains from the operation depending on the scope and price. Officials have spoken of a 10 billion euro buy-back at around 30 cents on the euro, that would retire around 30 billion euros of debt, although since the idea was raised the potential gain has fallen as prices have risen.

FORGIVING OFFICIAL LOANS?

German central bank governor Jens Weidmann has suggested that Greece could “earn” a reduction in debt it owes to euro zone governments in a few years if it diligently implements all the agreed reforms. The European Commission backs that view.

An opinion poll published on Monday showed Greece’s anti-bailout SYRIZA party with a four-percent lead over the Conservatives who won election in June, adding to uncertainty over the future of reforms.

German paper Welt am Sonntag said on Sunday that euro zone ministers were considering a write-down of official loans for Greece from 2015, but gave no sources, and a euro zone official said such an option was never seriously discussed.

(Additional reporting by Robert-Jan Bartunek, Ethan Bilby, Luke Baker in Brussels, Reinhardt Becker in Berlin,; Writing by Paul Taylor; Editing by Luke Baker)

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Dog days in Cuba: from shih tzus to schnauzers

HAVANA (AP) — The Cuban capital has played host to political summits and art festivals, ballet tributes and international baseball competitions. Now dog lovers are getting their chance to take center stage.

Hundreds of people from all over Cuba and several other countries came to a scruffy field near Revolution Plaza this past week to preen and fuss over the shih tzus, beagles, schnauzers and cocker spaniels that are the annual Fall Canine Expo’s star attractions. There were even about a dozen bichon habaneros, a mid-sized dog bred on the island since the 17th century.

As dog lovers talked shop, the merely curious strolled the field, checking out the more than 50 breeds on display while carefully dodging the prodigious output of so many dogs.

The four-day competition, which ended Sunday, included competitions in several breeding categories, and judges were flown in from Nicaragua, Colombia and Mexico.

“This is a small, poor country, but Cubans love dogs,” said Miguel Calvo, the president of Cuba’s dog federation, which organized the show. “We make a great effort to breed purebred animals of quality.”

Winners don’t receive any trophy or prize money, but that doesn’t mean the competition is any less fierce.

Anabel Perez, owner of a cocker spaniel named Lisamineli after the U.S. actress, spent more than half an hour coifing the dog’s hair in preparation for the competition, while the owner of a shih tzu named Tiguer meticulously brushed his coat nearby.

“I’m a hairdresser for humans,” explained Tiguer’s owner, Miguel Lopez. “So it’s easy for me. I like shih tzus because they are a lot of work to keep well groomed.”

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HP hit with civil securities lawsuit over Autonomy deal

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Hewlett-Packard Co was sued on Monday by an investor who claimed the company knew statements about its Autonomy acquisition were misleading and led the stock to fall, according to lawyers representing the plaintiff.

The proposed class action lawsuit was filed in a San Francisco federal court.

HP dropped a bombshell last Tuesday with an $ 8.8 billion write-down on its acquisition of British software firm Autonomy, saying the company inflated sales with improper accounting. Autonomy co-founder Mike Lynch has denied any wrongdoing.

HP bought Autonomy for a hefty $ 11.1 billion last year. HP has said it alerted regulators on both sides of the Atlantic.

The lawsuit, one of the first to be filed by investors on the Autonomy mess, said HP hid the fact it gained control of Autonomy based on financial statements that could not be relied upon. It also said that HP had not revealed to investors that it tried to undo the Autonomy agreement before it closed because of the accounting issues.

(Reporting By Dan Levine and Poornima Gupta; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Andre Grenon)

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Singer Bjork’s vocal cord surgery successful

LONDON (AP) — Icelandic singer Bjork says she has had successful surgery to remove a vocal cord polyp.

The eccentric 47-year-old singer says on her official website that she had been trying to tackle the problem with exercises and diets since doctors first discovered the polyp, a benign growth on either one or both of the vocal cords, several years ago.

Bjork said that she decided to undergo laser surgery and it has worked, though she had to stay quiet for three weeks.

She wrote: “Surgery rocks! … It’s been very satisfying to sing all them clear notes again.”

The singer apologized for cancelling various shows earlier this year, and that she looked forward to singing for her fans next year.

Last year Adele had minor surgery to remove a benign polyp.

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Detecting Cancer…With a Cellphone?

Smartphone technology is often seen as much of nuisance as it is a convenience, but having that kind of communicative power at our fingertips has a surprising advantage; it’s serving as a bridge, bringing  healthcare to third world countries that had previously been too remote and too costly to reach.

The Kilimanjaro Cervical Screening Project is spearheading one use of smartphone technology in a way that’s surprisingly simple, but could end up saving thousands of women’s lives.

Armed with screening kits, treatment tools and cellphones, teams of non-physician medical workers will visit remote locations in rural Tanzania to screen women for cervical cancer. Instead of the swab method used in the typical Pap smear, workers will use their cellphones to photograph a patient’s cervix, text the image to a physician and then receive back a diagnosis and treatment recommendation.

But can it really be that simple? Dr. Karen Yeates of Queen’s University, who is the lead investigator of the project, told CNN, “That’s the beauty of it — for early grade cancers, those will be able to be treated right in the field, right in the rural area.”

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), rates of cervical cancer in Africa are up to ten times those in developed countries, and among those diagnosed, about 50,000 women die from it annually.

Though cervical cancer has very low mortality rates in developed countries like the U.S., that’s generally due to regular screenings which catch the disease in its earliest and most treatable incarnations. However, in countries like Tanzania, women in remote villages obviously don’t have access to those types of preventative measures. Subsequently, the WHO estimates that by the time most African women are diagnosed with the disease, they’ve already advanced into its latest fatal stages. But regular screenings could put a stop to that. 

In addition to addressing reproductive healthcare, cellphones are as of late becoming facilitators of cardiac care in developing countries as well. Earlier this year, high school student Catherine Wong discovered how to turn her cellphone into a portable ECG machine, bringing heart monitoring capabilities to the most remote locations with results that could be beamed to doctors no matter how far away.

The Kilimanjaro Cervical Screening Project is gaining some notoriety because it’s recently become one of the 68 finalists in Canada’s Grand Challenges, a fund awarded to medical innovators who’ve invented new systems or products to bring healthcare to the poorest parts of the world. As a finalist, the Kilimanjaro Project has been granted $ 100,000, allowing it to begin its initial trials.

So much of good healthcare rests on the early detection of illness and now that geography and cost aren’t the impediments they once were, patients in developing countries have real opportunities to survive illnesses once believed to be fatal. 

Do you expect that “mobile healthcare” may eventually become the standard method of care in countries like the U.S. as well? Let us know what you think about it in the Comments.

Related Stories on TakePart:

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• Cardiac Arrest? An iPhone App Might Save Your Life

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A Bay Area native, Andri Antoniades previously worked as a fashion industry journalist and medical writer.  In addition to reporting the weekend news on TakePart, she volunteers as a web editor for locally-based nonprofits and works as a freelance feature writer for TimeOutLA.com. Email Andri | @andritweets | TakePart.com

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Aston Martin firm denies bid talk

25 November 2012 Last updated at 07:38 ET

The owner of Aston Martin, Kuwait’s Investment Dar, has denied reports it has received competing bids for a 50% stake in the luxury British car brand.

Italian private equity fund Investindustrial is widely reported to have made an offer of nearly £250m ($ 400m) for Aston Martin.

India’s Mahindra and Mahindra is understood to have made a higher offer.

But in an interview with Kuwait’s Al Watan newspaper Investment Dar chairman Adnan Al Musallam denied the story.

Continue reading the main story

Aston Martin is a world famous brand, largely due to its long association with James Bond, as well as its exploits in motor racing. Yet it remains a relatively small company operating in a niche market, selling just a few thousand cars every year.

When the current owners bought the business from Ford five years ago, they promised to take Aston Martin to “even greater heights”, and outlined ambitious plans to build up sales in Asia, especially in China. To a certain extent they have succeeded. China is now the company’s fifth largest market. But sales in the UK and North America have been badly affected by the after-effects of the financial crisis, and are yet to recover.

The biggest challenge for the company remains its ability to develop new products which are capable of competing with the likes of Ferrari and Porsche, both of which have the financial and engineering muscle of major companies behind them. Its new Vanquish, for example, is largely based on an engine and chassis which have been around for the best part of a decade.

Earlier this month, Investment Dar dismissed a Bloomberg story which said it was looking to sell its stake in the British car maker as having “no truth to it”.

At the time, the investment house said it had “a long-term plan and commitment with Aston Martin and has no plans to sell its stake in Aston Martin in the short term”.

Despite that statement on 12 November though, reports of a bidding war between Investindustrial and Mahindra and Mahindra have become more widespread.

Mahindra and Mahindra declined to comment, while Investindustrial could not be reached.

Aston Martin, based in Gaydon, Warwickshire, will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year.

Its cars have been immortalised in James Bond films over the last few decades.

The company was sold in 2007 by Ford for £479m to a consortium of Investment Dar and another Kuwaiti investment fund, Adeem Investment.

The consortium was fronted by Dave Richards, former Formula One Benetton and BAR boss, who remains as chairman of Aston Martin.

The new owners targeted higher sales in China, but sales in the UK and North America have been hit in the financial crisis.

BBC News – Business

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Israel successfully tests missile defense system

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel successfully tested its newest missile defense system Sunday, the military said, a step toward making the third leg of what Israel calls its “multilayer missile defense” operational.

The “David’s Sling” system is designed to stop mid-range missiles. It successfully passed its test, shooting down its first missile in a drill Sunday in southern Israel, the military said.

The system is designed to intercept projectiles with ranges of up to 300 kilometers (180 miles).

Israel has also deployed Arrow systems for longer-range threats from Iran. The Iron Dome protects against short-range rockets fired by militants in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon. Iron Dome shot down hundreds of rockets from Gaza in this month’s round of fighting.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the success of Iron Dome highlighted the “immense importance” of such systems.

“David’s Sling,” also known “Magic Wand,” is developed by Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and U.S.-based Raytheon Co. and is primarily designed to counter the large arsenal of Hezbollah rockets in Lebanon.

The military said the program, which is on schedule for deployment in 2014, would “provide an additional layer of defense against ballistic missiles.”

The next generation of the Arrow, now in the development stage, is set to be deployed in 2016. Called the Arrow 3, it is designed to strike its target outside the atmosphere, intercepting missiles closer to their launch sites. Together, the two Arrow systems would provide two chances to strike down incoming missiles.

Israel also uses U.S.-made Patriot missile defense batteries against mid-range missiles, though these failed to hit any of the 39 Scud missiles fired at Israel from Iraq In the first Gulf War 20 years ago. Manufacturers say the Patriot system has been improved since then.

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Nokia imaging chief to quit

HELSINKI (Reuters) – Nokia‘s long-time imaging chief Damian Dinning has decided to leave the loss-making cellphone maker at the end of this month, the company said in a statement.

The strong imaging capabilities of the new Lumia smartphone models are a key sales argument for the former market leader, which has been burning through cash while losing share in both high-end smartphones and cheaper handsets.

Nokia’s Chief Executive Stephen Elop has replaced most of the top management since he joined in late 2010 and Dinnig is the latest of several executives to leave.

Dinning did not want to move to Finland as part of the phonemakers’ effort to concentrate operations and will join Jaguar Land Rover to head innovations in the field of connected cars, he said on Nokia’s imaging fan site PureViewclub.com.

(Reporting By Tarmo Virki, editing by William Hardy)

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“Big Bang Theory” star Mayim Bialik tweets pre-Thanksgiving divorce plans

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Things are bound to be a little tense around the dinner table at Mayim Bialik‘s house this Thanksgiving.

Bialik is divorcing her husband of nine years, Mike Stone, the “Big Bang Theory” star announced via her twitter account Wednesday.

The actress, 36, tweeted a link to a blog post about the split with the message, “I’m beating the tabloids to it and posting this Divorce Statement.”

The post itself says that the pair decided to divorce “after much consideration and soul-searching,” and cites irreconcilable differences as the reason for the breakup.

Bialik and Stone have two sons, 7-year-old Miles and 4-year-old Frederick, together.

“Divorce is terribly sad, painful and incomprehensible for children. It is not something we have decided lightly,” Bialik wrote in her blog post. “The hands-on style of parenting we practice played no role in the changes that led to this decision; relationships are complicated no matter what style of parenting you choose.”

The actress added, “Our sons deserve parents committed to their growth and health and that’s what we are focusing on.”

Bialik’s post concludes, “We will be ok.”

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