Fil-Am led health center gets $6M NY state grant

NEW YORK—A Filipino-American led community center is one of 37 recipients of funding from the New York State Department of Health’s safety net program.

The Department of Health’s Vital Access Provider/Safety Net Program, Phase II, awarded APICHA Community Health Center more than $6 million last month. The department recognized as an essential institution that fulfills the healthcare needs of underserved populations throughout the city.

The program is aimed at transforming the state’s healthcare system and increasing the availability of better health services for New Yorkers.

Safety net funds were awarded to hospitals, nursing homes, free standing clinics and home health establishments that have financial difficulties but are critical in the delivery of quality healthcare to communities across the state.

“We applaud the New York State Department of Health for acknowledging the essential role of organizations like APICHA have in addressing the need of healthcare access of New York’s most vulnerable communities,” says APICHA CEO Therese Rodriguez.

“Our decades of experience providing HIV prevention and care services have prepared us to be part of the solution to achieve the goals set by the New York State Department of Health of providing quality, cost-efficient healthcare,” Rodriguez adds.

For the past 23 years, APICHA has promoted awareness of and care for people living with HIV/AIDS in New York City. The center has grown from an HIV/AIDS coalition for Asians and Pacific Islanders (APIs) to a health home that opened a Trans Health clinic in 2011.

As a Federally Qualified Health Center Look-Alike, APICHA provides general and HIV-specialty primary care, mental health and support services to underserved communities including those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, APIs and other people of color.

The safety net funding will be used over the next three years for enhanced financial and operational capacity, including hiring of additional primary care and mental health providers, support services staff and other essential administrative staff. The staff enhancement will enable to serve more people.

For more information about APICHA Community Health Center, log on to www.apicha.org.

source: globalnation.inquirer.net

Cranberry juice may beat kids' bladder infections

NEW YORK - Cranberry juice rich in certain antibacterial substances may help prevent repeat urinary tract infections in kids, a small study suggests.

Researchers found that cranberry juice made with high concentrations of proanthocyanidins (PACs) cut kids' risk of repeat urinary tract infections by two-thirds, versus a comparison juice.

Since the juice on your supermarket's shelves may not have that PAC level, the researchers say their findings are not an endorsement of any product.

But the results, published in the Journal of Urology, do give support to cranberry as a UTI fighter, according to a pediatric urologist not connected to the study.

PACs are the compounds thought to give cranberries their bacteria-fighting potential. Women have long turned to cranberry juice and supplements to help prevent recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs) - though studies have been mixed on whether they work.

There has been little research on kids, even though UTIs are relatively common in children. Girls have about an 8 percent chance of contracting the infection at some point in childhood; boys have a 2 percent chance.

Besides being uncomfortable, recurrent UTIs can eventually damage the kidneys in some children. So doctors may prescribe antibiotics to help prevent them.

But antibiotics can have side effects, and using them long-term can breed drug-resistant bacteria. So researchers are looking at whether cranberry products can be a good alternative.

For the new study, doctors at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, recruited 40 children who'd had at least two UTIs in the past year. They randomly assigned the kids to drink one of two juices made for the study: a cranberry juice rich in PACs or a juice free of all "cranberry products."

Over the next year, kids who drank cranberry juice had UTIs at a rate of 0.4 per child, compared with 1.15 in the comparison group.

The power of cranberries against UTIs "was initially regarded as an old wives' tale," said Dr. Hiep Nguyen of Boston Children's Hospital, who was not involved in the study.

But Nguyen said he now often recommends cranberry - either juice or supplements - when kids have recurrent UTIs.

"It can be a great alternative to prophylactic (preventive) antibiotics," Nguyen said.

That doesn't mean cranberry is the cure-all. If a child has frequent UTIs, Nguyen said, antibiotics may be necessary to "break the cycle." On top of that, many children's UTIs are related to less-than-ideal bathroom habits - like "holding it in," rather than going when they need to.

Drinking enough fluids, going to the bathroom regularly, and - if needed - tackling constipation problems are all considered important in warding off kids' UTIs.

So Nguyen cautioned parents against simply running to the grocery store for cranberry juice. "They still should see a doctor, so they can try to address the underlying problem," Nguyen said.

What's more, there's no guarantee that the cranberry juice you buy would have the PAC content that the juice in this study did.

"The findings of this study should not be construed as an endorsement of any commercially available cranberry products," write the researchers, led by Dr. Kourosh Afshar. (Afshar could not be reached for comment.)

Nguyen agreed that juice can be tricky. "Pure cranberry juice often doesn't taste so good," he noted. So manufacturers often mix it with something more palatable, like apple juice, or add a lot of sugar.

Cranberry juice mixed with other juices would likely have lower PAC levels. If there's added sugar, that means calories; drinking a lot of sugary juice can also cause diarrhea in kids.

"We do worry about the sugar content," Nguyen said.

So it would be important, he noted, not to overdo cranberry juice. In this study, the daily dose prescribed to each child was based on body weight.

Cranberry tablets are the other option. But no one knows the exact dose needed to prevent any one child's UTIs. Right now, it's basically a matter of following the product's labeling, according to Nguyen.

Six kids in each group of the study dropped out before they had completed it. The top reasons were the parents' belief that the juice wasn't working, and kids just refusing to drink it.

Getting children to drink cranberry juice can be a challenge, Nguyen noted - especially the pure variety without a ton of sugar.

Ocean Spray provided both juices used in the study. The work was funded by the Lions Gate Healthcare Research Foundation. - Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com

DOH distributes anti-leptospirosis medicines in NCR evacuation centers

Health officials in Metro Manila distributed to local government units Friday doxycycline capsules to prevent the spread of leptospirosis among residents affected by the recent heavy rain and floods.

Department of Health Metro Manila director Eduardo Janairo said the capsules may help prevent the spread of the disease in evacuation centers.

“We have to avert the possible increase of leptospirosis cases not only in evacuation centers but also to flooded communities in Metro Manila. Because we cannot prevent people from wading in floodwaters, we are providing prophylaxis for them so that they will not be affected by leptospirosis,” Janairo said in a news release on the DOH website.

The DOH allocated 11 boxes of doxycycline capsules to each of the 17 LGUs in Metro Manila. Each box contains 1,000 100-mg capsules.

According to the World Health Organization, leptospirosis is a bacterial disease that affects both humans and animals. "Humans become infected through direct contact with the urine of infected animals or with a urine-contaminated environment," WHO said.

"In the early stages of the disease, symptoms include high fever, severe headache, muscle pain, chills, redness of the eyes, abdominal pain, jaundice, haemorrhages in the skin and mucous membranes, vomiting, diarrhoea, and rash," it added.

Local governments that previously received their allotment will be given additional stocks to augment their supply.

High fever

Janairo also advised hospitals to immediately provide Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) to treat patients with high fever.

As for those who cannot avoid wading in floodwaters, he said they should make sure to wear protective gear.

"(I)f you have any cuts and bruises, it is best not to go into the water anymore to avoid contracting the disease,” he said.

100 mg weekly

Janairo said each person will be given one 100mg doxycycline capsule weekly for protection against leptospirosis.

Two capsules will be given to rescuers and those who are directly exposed to flood waters.

Earlier, Health Secretary Enrique Ona said that there is enough supply of doxycycline for those in the evacuation centers and people in the flooded communities all over the region.

Meanwhile, other medicines were also provided to affected LGUs like paracetamol, amoxicillin, cotrimoxazole, lagundi and other essential drugs to help in the treatment of patients in evacuation centers.

Rubber boots and raincoats were also provided.

Community Health Teams (CHTs) were deployed to various evacuation centers to provide medical assistance.


“For our safety and that of our family, let us avoid wading in the flood. If unavoidable, always practice proper personal hygiene and wash your feet and hands with soap and clean water immediately after. It is sufficient enough in preventing and controlling the spread of microorganisms that cause diseases,” Janairo said. — RSJ, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com

Syphilis tests could save a million babies: experts

The lives of almost a million newborn babies could be saved every year if simple, cheap and rapid tests for syphilis were offered to pregnant women in poorer countries, global health experts said on Thursday.

The Global Congenital Syphilis Partnership, a group set up to help tackle the sexually transmitted disease, said testing women in early pregnancy would cost less than 1 pound ($1.58) per woman, and those who tested positive could be treated with a single dose of the cheap antibiotic penicillin.

"Screening and treating pregnant women for syphilis is one of the most cost-effective ways to save lives. New rapid tests are easy to use, ... affordable and give a result in just 15 minutes," said Peter Piot, chair of the partnership and director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).

He said if screening were carried out routinely and women who needed treatment got it before 28 weeks' gestation, "no stillbirths or neonatal deaths would be due to syphilis."

"It's as simple as that," he told a briefing in London.

Experts estimate around 2 million pregnant women are infected with syphilis every year and more than half of those pass it on to their unborn children. According to the World Health Organization, between 3 and 15 percent of women of child-bearing age in developing countries have the disease.

If untreated during pregnancy, syphilis can lead to miscarriage, stillbirth, premature delivery, low birth weight and in some cases death of newborns. In Africa alone, syphilis causes almost 400,000 stillbirths and newborn deaths each year.

A team of researchers led by Rosanna Peeling and David Mabey at the LSHTM found in a study due to be published soon that introducing rapid tests to increase access to syphilis screening was both feasible and cost effective.

"This ... research has shown that new simple tests for syphilis can be effectively introduced all over the world, from urban areas in China and Peru to remote villages in East Africa and even more remote indigenous populations deep in the Amazon rain forest," Piot said.

The syphilis partnership includes several global health and development groups, among them the Gates Foundation, Save the Children, the World Health Organization, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the LSHTM.

Justin Forsyth, chief executive of Save the Children, said that while international efforts were succeeding in reducing the number of deaths in older children in the under five-year-old bracket, death rates of babies in their first month of life had not fallen.

With less than three years to go to reach the millennium development goals set in 2000 by the international community to improve health and reduce poverty by 2015, the partnership said it wanted a new three-year push help countries fight syphilis.

"By failing to ensure that all pregnant women are screened for syphilis and provided with timely treatment we are missing a huge opportunity to save lives," Forsyth said. –Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com