The New York Times on Thursday examined how thousands of women have posted videos on YouTube showing themselves giving birth. According to the Times, the women believe the videos help "demystify" childbirth by candidly presenting the process in a manner that pregnant women and their partners otherwise might not see. Along with YouTube, Web sites like Internet chat rooms and pregnancy blogs are helping to shift dynamics between pregnant women and their care providers, the Times reports. Eileen Ehudin Beard, an adviser for the American College of Nurse-Midwives, said, "The more information you have, the more s you have, the more informed you are, the better questions you ask." However, she added that the videos could have negative effects, particularly if they make women more fearful of childbirth. The childbirth videos are relatively controversial because of their graphic nature, which has challenged some of YouTube"s rules and raised issues of propriety. Victoria Grand, the head of policy for YouTube, said that nudity generally is banned from YouTube but that the site "make[s] exceptions for videos that are educational, documentary or scientific." Most childbirth videos on YouTube are age restricted to ages 18 and older. A majority of them show home births because most U.S. hospitals prohibit patients from recording births due to liability concerns, the Times reports. Although childbirth education classes have shown edited videos of births since the 1970s, the Internet and YouTube could change the way such classes are taught, according to Jeanette Schwartz, president of the International Childbirth Education Association. She noted that most videos currently used in childbirth classes are heavily edited and out of date, adding that the YouTube videos "create a wonderful opportunity to show free, real life, candid videos in a classroom setting." Eugene Declercq, a professor at the Boston University School of Public Health, said, "A hundred and fifty years ago, women viewed birth on a pretty regular basis -- they saw their sisters of neighbors give birth." He said that changed with a trend toward hospital births beginning in the late 19th century. "But now, with YouTube, we"ve come back around and women have this opportunity to view births again," Declercq said (Wollan, New York Times, 6/11).
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A low cellular level of a tiny fragment of RNA appears to increase the spread of breast cancer in mouse models of the disease, according to researchers at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.
Doctors at the University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center-Markey Cancer Center compared symptom analysis to ultrasound in predicting ovarian cancer. They selected 272 women participating in annual trans-vaginal screening (TVS) from 31,748 women enrolled in a free screening project at the university, comparing symptom results to ultrasound and surgical pathology findings. They found TVS performed better than symptoms analysis for detecting malignancies (73.3% versus 20%
sensitivity). While symptoms analysis performed better for distinguishing benign tumors (91.3% versus 74.4% specificity), adding symptom analysis to TVS actually resulted in poorer identification of malignancy (sensitivity = 16.7%), even as it improved the ability to distinguish benign tumors (specificity = 97.9%). The authors say the data indicates that while symptoms do identify ovarian malignancies, they are not as accurate as TVS. They add that informative symptoms can be expected to be absent in 80 percent
of ovarian malignancies.
Summer is the peak time for people to be bitten by ticks and mosquitoes, which may carry diseases that can infect humans. The Department of Health tracks cases of these diseases and has noted a recent increase in human cases of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and ehrlichiosis, both of which are transmitted through tick bites. TDOH urges Tennesseans to follow commonsense precautions to protect themselves and help reduce the risk of illness. Statistics from the TDOH Communicable
and Environmental Diseases Services show a moderate increase of 65 confirmed cases of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever statewide for this year, compared to 46 for the same period last year. CEDS also reports 17 confirmed cases of ehrlichiosis statewide so far this year, compared to 14 for this time in 2008. "Increases in these illnesses typically occur during the summer months. Oscillation and Tri-planar exercise machines
El Salvador and Benin have marked World Asthma Day by placing orders with the Asthma Drug Facility (ADF). Through the ADF these and other low- and middle-income countries will be able to obtain quality-assured essential asthma medicines at affordable prices for the first time. El Salvador and Benin become first countries to order from Asthma Drug Facility In late April El Salvador became the first country to order from The Union"s Asthma Drug Facility (ADF). The El Salvador
Ministry of Public Health placed an order for asthma inhalers for its Asthma Management Project, which aims to improve and expand the standardised management of asthma in the country"s general health services. Benin will be the second country to benefit from the ADF"s services. Its National Tuberculosis Programme placed its order on 4 May. A number of other countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America have expressed their interest after consulting ADF"s website for the prices of the HFA (non-CFC)
medicines it has recently approved.
Researchers from the US and Japan studying the new H1N1 pandemic flu virus suggest that it is more virulent than previously thought. They found the virus seizes hold in cells deep inside the lungs, leading to pneumonia and in more severe cases, death, whereas seasonal flu viruses only infect cells in the upper respiratory tract. University of Wisconsin-Madison virologist and leading authority on influenza, Dr Yoshihiro Kawaoka led the international team of researchers in
a detailed investigation of the pandemic H1N1 virus and its pathogenic properties and wrote about their findings in a fast-track report published online on 13 July in the journal Nature. The researchers wrote that the spread of the new strain of influenza A virus that the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic on 11 June is probably due to the fact there are many humans with little or no pre-existing immunity.
Doctors at the University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center-Markey Cancer Center compared symptom analysis to ultrasound in predicting ovarian cancer. They selected 272 women participating in annual trans-vaginal screening (TVS) from 31,748 women enrolled in a free screening project at the university, comparing symptom results to ultrasound and surgical pathology findings. They found TVS performed better than symptoms analysis for detecting malignancies (73.3% versus 20%
sensitivity). While symptoms analysis performed better for distinguishing benign tumors (91.3% versus 74.4% specificity), adding symptom analysis to TVS actually resulted in poorer identification of malignancy (sensitivity = 16.7%), even as it improved the ability to distinguish benign tumors (specificity = 97.9%). The authors say the data indicates that while symptoms do identify ovarian malignancies, they are not as accurate as TVS. They add that informative symptoms can be expected to be absent in 80 percent
of ovarian malignancies.
Summer is the peak time for people to be bitten by ticks and mosquitoes, which may carry diseases that can infect humans. The Department of Health tracks cases of these diseases and has noted a recent increase in human cases of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and ehrlichiosis, both of which are transmitted through tick bites. TDOH urges Tennesseans to follow commonsense precautions to protect themselves and help reduce the risk of illness. Statistics from the TDOH Communicable
and Environmental Diseases Services show a moderate increase of 65 confirmed cases of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever statewide for this year, compared to 46 for the same period last year. CEDS also reports 17 confirmed cases of ehrlichiosis statewide so far this year, compared to 14 for this time in 2008. "Increases in these illnesses typically occur during the summer months. 
El Salvador and Benin have marked World Asthma Day by placing orders with the Asthma Drug Facility (ADF). Through the ADF these and other low- and middle-income countries will be able to obtain quality-assured essential asthma medicines at affordable prices for the first time. El Salvador and Benin become first countries to order from Asthma Drug Facility In late April El Salvador became the first country to order from The Union"s Asthma Drug Facility (ADF). The El Salvador
Ministry of Public Health placed an order for asthma inhalers for its Asthma Management Project, which aims to improve and expand the standardised management of asthma in the country"s general health services. Benin will be the second country to benefit from the ADF"s services. Its National Tuberculosis Programme placed its order on 4 May. A number of other countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America have expressed their interest after consulting ADF"s website for the prices of the HFA (non-CFC)
medicines it has recently approved.
Researchers from the US and Japan studying the new H1N1 pandemic flu virus suggest that it is more virulent than previously thought. They found the virus seizes hold in cells deep inside the lungs, leading to pneumonia and in more severe cases, death, whereas seasonal flu viruses only infect cells in the upper respiratory tract. University of Wisconsin-Madison virologist and leading authority on influenza, Dr Yoshihiro Kawaoka led the international team of researchers in
a detailed investigation of the pandemic H1N1 virus and its pathogenic properties and wrote about their findings in a fast-track report published online on 13 July in the journal Nature. The researchers wrote that the spread of the new strain of influenza A virus that the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic on 11 June is probably due to the fact there are many humans with little or no pre-existing immunity.