FYI: The term obesity comes from the Latin word obesus, which roughly translated means intensive eating.

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Warm weather and an unusually early rainy season that led to an explosion in mosquito populations are being blamed for the situation, which is straining the capacity of hospitals in some countries, the Associated Press reported.

There have been 27 deaths reported in the Dominican Republic and at least five have died and another 6,300 cases have been reported in Puerto Rico, which faces what may be its worst dengue outbreak in more than a decade, according to officials.

"We are having a really large epidemic," Kay Tomashek, epidemiology section chief of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s dengue branch in Puerto Rico, told the AP

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq announced that the Research and Development Alliance – a plan to harness the expertise of researchers, private industry, social scientists and international organizations – will become the revamped design of the Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative.

The initiative is a $139-million joint venture between Canada and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

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Photograph by: Sebastian Derungs, Reuters

One day your annual flu shot could come in the mail.

At least that’s the hope of researchers developing a new method of vaccine  delivery that people could even use at home: a patch with microneedles.

Microneedles?

That’s right, tiny little needles so small you don’t even feel them. Attached to a patch like a Band-Aid, the little needles barely penetrate the skin before they dissolve and release their vaccine.

Researchers led by Mark Prausnitz of Georgia Institute of Technology reported their research on microneedles in Sunday’s edition of Nature Medicine.

The business side of the patch feels like fine sandpaper, he said. In tests of microneedles without vaccine, people rated the discomfort at one-tenth to one-twentieth that of getting a standard injection, he said. Nearly everyone said it was painless.

Some medications are already delivered by patches, such as nicotine patches for people trying to quit smoking. That’s simply absorbed through the skin. But attempts to develop patches with the flu vaccine absorbed through the skin have not been successful so far.

In the Georgia Tech work, the vaccine is still injected. But the needles are so small that they don’t hurt and it doesn’t take any special training to use this kind of patch.

So two problems are solved right away – fear of needles, and disposal of leftover hypodermic needles.

“The goal has been a means to administer the vaccine that is patient friendly,” Mark R. Prausnitz of Georgia Tech said in a telephone interview.

That means “not only not hurting or looking scary, but that patients could self-administer,” he said, and people would be more likely to get the flu vaccine.

By developing needles that dissolve, there are no leftover sharp needles, especially important for people who might give themselves the vaccine at home, he said.

The patch, which has been tested on mice, was developed in collaboration by researchers at Georgia Tech and Emory University, Prausnitz said. The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health. The researchers are now seeking funds to begin tests in people and, if all goes well, the patch could be in use in five years, he said.

Flu vaccination is recommended for nearly everyone, every year, and that’s a big burden on the public health network, Prausnitz noted. Many people don’t get the shot because it’s inconvenient, but if they could get in mail or at the pharmacy they might do so, he said.

The patch is placed on the skin and left for 5 minutes to 15 minutes, he said. It can remain longer without doing any damage, he said. In tests on mice, the miocroneedles delivered a correct dose of the flu vaccine.

The little needles are 650 microns (three-hundredths of an inch) in length and there are 100 on the patch used in the mouse study.

Asked if the term “microneedle” might still frighten some folks averse to shots, Prausnitz said he was confident that marketers would come up with a better term before any sales began.”

Online:

Nature Medicine: http://nature.com/naturemedicine

Georgia Tech lab: http://www.che.gatech.edu/drugdelivery/

In brief, death rate, care-related factors, and patient safety added up to slightly more than two-thirds of each hospital’s score. The reputation portion of the score used responses from nearly 10,000 physicians, who were surveyed in 2008, 2009, and 2010 and asked to name five hospitals they consider among the best in their specialty for difficult cases, ignoring cost or location.

The Honor Roll requirements were so stiff that 99.7 percent of all centers in the nation were excluded. A hospital had to be ranked in at least six specialties, but ranking alone was insufficient for inclusion. It also had to have an extremely high score (in statisticians’ terms, at least 3 standard deviations above the mean). That earned 1 point per specialty. Reaching the top of the Honor Roll called for even higher scores (4 or more standard deviations above the mean), earning 2 points, in far more specialties. The highest-ranked hospitals on the Honor Roll, which is ordered by points, had high scores in 15 of the 16 specialty rankings. Johns Hopkins stands at No. 1—as it has for the last 20 years.

See America’s best hospitals or search for one near you.

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The announcement from the Miami-Dade Health Department follows word earlier this week of what was described as a small outbreak of the exotic, mosquito-borne disease in Key West.

That prompted a warning from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that the disease, which can be serious and even fatal on rare occasions, could spread.

Candy Sims, a spokeswoman for the Broward County Health Department, said no suspected cases have been reported locally. "But we are on high alert and monitoring the situation," she said.

Earlier this week, Harold Margolis, chief of CDC’s dengue branch, issued a report in which he said, "We’re concerned that if dengue gains a foothold in Key West, it will travel to other southern cities where the mosquito that transmits dengue is present, like Miami.”

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The following lot numbers are included in this recall: Physician Sample Blister Packs: Lot# 9A48931A, 9A48931B, 9A48931C, expiration January 2012; HUD Blister Pack: Lot# 8F34006B, 8K44272A, 8K46168A, 9F44437A and 9K58012B with expiry dates between June 2011 and November 2012.

The recall is a precautionary measure based upon the company’s determination that some of the tablets, over time, may not meet specification for isopropanol. Isopropanol is used to maintain the active ingredient, Coumadin, in the crystalline state, and could affect the therapeutic levels of the active ingredient.

The New York company said the amount of isopropanol in the tablets could change over time. Isopropanol, or isopropyl alcohol, is used to keep the drug’s active ingredient in a crystalline state. The changing levels of isopropanol could increase or reduce the amount of the active ingredient in the tablets.

Coumadin, also called warfarin, is a common blood thinner that is used to treat or prevent blood clots after surgery. Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) said the risk of clots could increase if the level of active ingredient decreases, and if there is too much of the ingredient, patients face a greater risk of bleeding.

Any adverse reactions may also be reported to the FDA’s MedWatch Program by fax at 1-800-FDA-0178, by mail at MedWatch, HF-2, FDA, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20852-9787, or on the MedWatch website at www.fda.gov.

Source- FDA

"If you’re a woman who is overweight or obese, you can substantially improve your hot flashes by losing weight through diet and exercise," says Alison Huang, M.D., the lead author of the study and a professor of internal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

Previous research has shown that women with higher body-mass indexes tend to experience worse hot flashes. Until now, however, few studies have tried to measure the immediate effect that weight loss has on symptoms.

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  In a report published in the journal Pediatrics, they call for screening of all children, expanding one set of current recommendations that target only those whose parents or grandparents have heart disease or high cholesterol. Another existing set of guidelines doesn’t call for screening in any children.

Screening all children would "identify a number of children who are of very significant risk of premature heart disease," said Dr. William Neal of West Virginia University in Morgantown, who led the new study.

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Zucchini Boats Stuffed with Turkey

from the
American Institute for Cancer Research

    * Olive oil cooking spray
    * 1 small onion, chopped very fine
    * 1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
    * 1 tsp. dried Italian seasoning (or 1/2 tsp. each basil and oregano)
    * 1 egg
    * 3 Tbsp. freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese, divided
    * 4 cloves garlic, minced
    * 1 tsp. salt
    * 1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
    * 1 1/2 cup reduced sodium marina sauce, divided
    * 1 lb. ground dark turkey
    * 2 Tbsp. whole-wheat bread crumbs
    * 4 medium zucchinis, halved lengthwise

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Spray 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking dish. In large mixing bowl, mix onion, parsley, Italian seasoning, egg, 2 tbsp. cheese, garlic, salt, pepper and 2 tbsp. marinara and combine well. Mix in turkey and bread crumbs. Cover and refrigerate the mixture.

Use a spoon and scrape out seeds and inner pulp from zucchini, leaving about ¼ inch, being careful not to puncture skin. Fill zucchini halves with turkey mixture, dividing equally and mounding slightly. Place stuffed zucchinis in baking dish, being careful not to overlap. Drizzle ½ cup marina sauce over stuffed zucchini. Top with remaining cheese.

Bake uncovered until zucchini is tender and a thermometer in meat mixture reads 165 degrees F, about 45 minutes. Transfer zucchinis to platter and serve with remaining marinara sauce on the side.

Makes 4 servings

Per serving: 210 calories, 9 g total fat (3 g saturated fat), 16 g carbohydrate,
18 g protein, 3 g dietary fiber, 440 mg sodium.