Infrastructure damage hampers relief efforts in flood-hit Solomon Islands, thousands of people in need

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ABC Aftermath of Solomon Islands flash flooding as locals inspect the damage and house that was carried downstream along lower Koa Hill into China Town.

Emergency officials in Solomon Islands are working hard to provide food and shelter for thousands of flood victims, with damage to infrastructure hampering response efforts.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has confirmed 17 dead in the disaster, with the toll expected to rise.

Flash flooding has swept away entire residential districts and at least 23 people are missing.

OCHA has estimated that 12,000 people have been affected by the flooding in the capital, Honiara, and 37,000 affected in Guadalcanal Province.

Several days of heavy rain caused the Mataniko River to burst its banks, washing people and buildings out to sea.

Solomon Islands was also hit by a magnitude 6.0 earthquake late on Friday night.

The National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) says there are no immediate reports of damage from the quake within Honiara, however it says communications with other parts of the country are poor and the situation is unclear.

Graham Kenna from Save the Children in Solomon Islands says the weather is clearing, but the risk of a cyclone developing remains.

"We have been able to get further afield from Honiara city to do some assessments from the outlying areas," he said.

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Infrastructure damage hampers relief efforts in flood-hit Solomon Islands, thousands of people in need

Letter: Silence on Health Care Funding

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Silence on Health-Care Funding

To the Editor:

I am in full agreement about the merits and need for health-care reform. But I dont understand why an agrarian state and the second least populated with a somewhat dismal business reputation had to go down the road to universal single-payer health care. Gov. Shumlin, in this matter I fear you have fallen victim to what I call the Selfish Leader Syndrome. Thinking entirely of your career, you remain completely silent about how you are funding Green Mountain Care. You are putting your personal hopes of winning the next election ahead of informing the public.

Many commend you on your State of the State address regarding heroine abuse and acknowledging that we have a school budget crisis. Vermont has one of the highest debt burdens in the country, and yet Vermonters deserve an honest economic explanation for how you propose to pay for universal health care. The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan organization, in its 2014 State Business Tax Climate Index, ranks Vermont 45th (50 being least favorable). Now add to this that old adage that business does not like uncertainty.

Your silence is helping to promote uncertainty and continues to make the state less appealing for new business. I dont think a lot of employers and individuals balk at paying a little more to strengthen the coverage pool, but your ongoing silence and avoidance of talking about the larger details is creating fears of huge tax augmentation for the post-November season. Your secrecy is reminiscent of ideologues intent on holding onto power in order to enhance their departing legacy, and in your case, leaving Vermonters in expensive dust.

Please speak up and explain this system to us and give us some credit. You were directly asked at a Woodstock Town Meeting about funding, and you answered that you did not wish to talk about it. I gather this is a favorite phrase of yours. Your silence is slowly seeping through our Green Mountain paradise and gently tarnishing it from within.

Alixandra Klingenstein

South Pomfret

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Letter: Silence on Health Care Funding

Genetic testing to predict menopause

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April 5, 2014, 3 a.m.

A genetic test to predict the start of menopause is likely to be available within five years, allowing women to make more informed decisions about their health and fertility, a leading expert says.

A genetic test to predict the start of menopause is likely to be available within five years, allowing women to make more informed decisions about their health and fertility, a leading expert says.

Professor of Reproductive Medicine and Gynaecology at University Medical Centre in the Netherlands, Bart Fauser, said given menopause could begin at very different ages, including before 40 years for about one in 100 women, a test to more precisely predict the timing would be extremely useful, especially for women wanting children.

''The mean age of menopause is 51 but the normal range is between 40 and 60, which is quite considerable 20 years from minimum to maximum means that for some women, ovarian function lasts 50 per cent longer than for others,'' he said.

''Women often postpone having children until their career is well established, but many find it difficult to become pregnant because of declining fertility after the age of 30. Therefore, it would be very useful for women to know well in advance the age gap in which they can expect to remain fertile. This will allow them to try to conceive naturally or to consider egg freezing or IVF treatment at a later date.''

Professor Fauser said a meta-analysis of 22 genetic studies involving almost 39,000 European women found 13 gene variants associated with the age of natural menopause that could be used in testing. The research, published in Nature Genetics in 2012, followed the discovery of four other gene variants that seem to be common among women who experience early or late menopause.

Professor Fauser, who presented his research at the Congress of the Asia Pacific Initiative on Reproduction in Brisbane on Friday, said previous studies had also found that mothers and daughters often experienced menopause at a similar age. While research will continue into the genetics of menopause, he believed a genetic test would be available for women of all ages within five years.

At the moment, women wanting to know more about their fertility can have an ''egg timer'' blood test to measure their levels of Anti-Mullerian Hormone (AMH), a hormone secreted by cells in developing eggs, which are also known as follicles.

Some IVF clinics say the level of AMH in a woman's blood is generally a good indicator of how many fertile years she has left, but some specialists say the test is unreliable.

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Genetic testing to predict menopause

Genetic Screening For Endometriosis-Associated Ovarian Cancer

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April 5, 2014

April Flowers for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

Endometriosis is a chronic inflammatory disease that affects more than 176 million women and girls worldwide, according to the Endometriosis Foundation of America. Despite being one of the most common gynecological disorders, there is no definitive consensus on the cause of endometriosis. To add insult to injury, some women who have endometriosis are also predisposed to ovarian cancer.

A new study from the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) and Magee-Womens Research Institute (MWRI) reveals that genetic screening could someday help clinicians to know which women are most at risk.

The research team will present their results on the first comprehensive immune gene profile exploring endometriosis and cancer on Monday at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2014.

A small subset of women with endometriosis go on to develop ovarian cancer, but doctors have no clinical way to predict which women, said Anda Vlad, MD, PhD, assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at MWRI. If further studies show that the genetic pathway we uncovered is indicative of future cancer development, then doctors will know to more closely monitor certain women and perhaps take active preventative measures, such as immune therapy.

Endometriosis is a painful condition that is often misdiagnosed for years before some form of correct treatment is attempted. As redOrbit reported in February, it is called a disease of theories, because so little is known about how it works, or who it will strike.

We know there is a genetic component, we know there is an environmental component, and we know there is an inflammatory component. But its very difficult to say for individual patients what particular sequence of events led to particular symptoms, Michael Beste, a postdoc in MITs Department of Biological Engineering, said.

It is the genetic component, and its association to cancer, that Vlad and her team are focused on finding.

Vlad and her team screened tissue samples from women with benign endometriosis, women with precancerous lesions and women with endometriosis-associated ovarian cancer. This allowed the researchers to identify the complement pathway, which refers to a series of protein interactions that trigger an amplified immune response, as the most prominent immune pathway that is activated in both endometriosis and endometriosis-associated ovarian cancer.

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Genetic Screening For Endometriosis-Associated Ovarian Cancer