At the peak, we could be talking about millions of tests – Meduza

Posted on by

On March 16, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova announced plans to multiply the number of coronavirus tests available in Russia and start free testing throughout the country. So far, however, the only test system in use in Russia is a kit developed by the Novosibirsk state-owned research center Vektor. Conducted in two stages, these tests are not highly sensitive, making them prone to false negatives. The Russian company DNA Technologies, which specializes in medical equipment and producing reagents for analytical tests, has designed its own coronavirus test, but regulations imposed by the Federal Service for Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare (Rospotrebnadzor) have made trial studies impossible. Meduza spoke to DNA Technologies CEO Vladimir Kolin to find out more about testing in Russia, its accuracy, and what to expect as COVID-19 spreads further.

Meduza: How do coronavirus tests in Russia work right now?

Vladimir Kolin: The main testing method for coronavirus is PCR [polymerase chain reaction, a method of amplifying certain pieces of DNA from a sample to detect their presence]. They take a swab from the upper respiratory tract [the nose and throat] or they collect phlegm from the lower respiratory tract after coughing.

I can explain this mechanism in very rough terms its based on the mechanism of cell division and reproduction. The virus is basically encased RNA. We need to destroy the membrane, isolate the RNA, and convert it into cDNA. We get a kind of soup that contains a lot of different DNA: bacteria, viruses, human DNA. Then we need to determine if coronavirus is present among all this variety. The RNA of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has certain characteristic segments. We synthesize a small piece of its DNA the target and look for this same DNA in the soup. If we find it, then we can multiply it using a natural mechanism and thereby see the virus. This process requires reagents [a number of chemical and biological substances that are combined with genetic samples to perform tests] and equipment. Many are now criticizing Russian medicine, but not for our PCR technology, which is highly advanced. We have PCR tests for HIV, hepatitis, chlamydia, and genetic diseases. Roches real-time PCR [RT-PCR] patent limits the use of this method in Japan, Europe, and the U.S., but not in Russia, Asia, and Africa. For that reason, the use of PCR research in Russia and some Asian countries is greater than in Europe, Japan, and the United States. We have a large number of laboratories with well-trained specialists, and high competition means the cost of research [in Russia] is the lowest in the world. There are reagent manufacturers and equipment producers. Whats key is utilizing all these resources.

Why have tests been so unavailable across Russia? You cant find them in hospitals.

At first, the state opted for centralization. Theres Rospotrebnadzor, which is responsible for countering the epidemic nationwide. Because the risk of infection is so high, they instituted strict requirements for laboratories that conduct this research, and theyve limited access to samples of the virus, even for test developers.

To demonstrate that a test is effective, you have to get a sample of the virus somehow. If you dont get it, you cant test the accuracy of your kit. This [getting permission from Rospotrebnadzors leadership] has become a problem. Maybe its because of the high pathogenicity level [the viruss ability to harm the host] maybe there were fears that the situation would get out of control. There might be other considerations as well, including political ones. In any case, we were unable to test our tests quickly within Russia. We started looking into possibilities for getting a sample of the strain from China and held negotiations with our European partners. Some private companies were willing to help us; they said, Send it over we can check how well your test works. We even sent our kits to an infectious disease hospital in Belarus. They checked them and said the tests worked correctly, that they did detect the coronavirus.

How much time did you spend on that process?

Two or three weeks. Collaborating with the Ministry of Industry and Trade really helped us the Ministrys portfolio includes the development of the medical industry. All of those steps taken together did change the situation for the better: We were given access, and we were able to get permission to test our kit in Moscow. If the results are positive, then well be able to register and go to market. Right now, the only registered tests belong to the Vektor state scientific center and the Center for Strategic Planning and Biomedical Health Risk Management (TsSP), which is a federal state budget institution under the Health Ministry. The more registered kits there are, the better for the government. Therell be competition, and well get enough experience to show which choices are best. The fact that we didnt make that move right from the beginning was not optimal given the fact that Russia has good, high-quality manufacturers. The government should be taking advantage of that, but instead, the decision was made to centralize everything.

When will you be able to test the test in Russia?

We have an agreement, but for various reasons, we still havent been able to test it. We hope that will happen very soon.

If there are more tests, will there be more testing, too?

Right now, the number of laboratories that are allowed to conduct tests is quite small. These are labs that have permits to work with particularly dangerous infections, and most of them are under Rospotrebnadzors umbrella. But as the scale of the disaster grows, the demands on these labs will probably start to decrease. Today, it was announced that Invitro will start conducting coronavirus tests as far as I know, theyll be using tests from TsSP in the Health Ministry. How to increase the number of labs that can perform tests is exactly whats under discussion right now. Theres an example to look to with labs that test for HIV and hepatitis, which are also quite infectious and high-risk, but the protection requirements for laboratories are lower. As of now, theyre looking into the possibility of using more state-owned labs for these trials, but there are private labs as well.

In theory, there are a lot of laboratory resources throughout the country, and we just need organizational decisions about where information about sick patients should go and how and how it should be regulated. In France, for example, only the Pasteur Institute was allowed to test at first, but then they started bringing in private labs. On March 9, some of their websites posted a notification saying they had permission to conduct tests.

Another concern is the sensitivity of the tests Vektor is making. Vektor says the is 10. In tests for other viruses, sensitivity is higher 10.

I wouldnt want to criticize anybody. Vektor was one of the first to make a test at all, and they released that initial tension in the market, which is not bad. When they were developing their tests, there still werent any recommendations on how to do the diagnostics or which sections of DNA to sample. We developed our test later on and looked more into what people were doing abroad. Were announcing a sensitivity of 10, but now our test is going to be tested, and we have to check that number using real samples. There is some likelihood that the precision will be higher. The new tests from TsSP at the Health Ministry also have a sensitivity of 10.

Is it possible to compare the Russian tests to the foreign tests in any way?

I dont know. Of course, 10 is a more anticipated number than 10. The higher the sensitivity, the better. But abroad, there are various kinds of kits as well, and not everything is really so rosy. Russian companies are developing kits on a solid, world-class level. Not only that, but all the [Russian] companies, including ours, are exporting reagents. They [other countries] are buying our tests.

A lot of people are frustrated with the fact that weve performed more than 100,000 tests and only found 114 patients. How do you feel about those numbers?

You know, they have me worried, too, but on the other hand, there is a certain percentage of severe cases in the world. Its a known proportion. I dont understand how someone could hide the fact that any given severe case stems from a coronavirus infection there should be some investigation of the causes behind any lethal case. And if a lethal outcome does take place, then the viral count is sufficient [for a positive test result]; its impossible not to find it. And in Russia, not a single lethal outcome or severe case stemming from the coronavirus has yet been found. Thats an indication that our infection rate is still not very high. I think its unrealistic to think that somebody has been hiding [severe cases]: The doctors understand the risk themselves, and they dont want to get infected. Even in China, which is authoritarian and closed off, they couldnt hide this.

That said, 100 cases out of 140 million people is really quite small relative to other countries. There are several possible reasons [for that disparity]. First of all, we have fewer tourists than Italy. Fewer people go abroad. The country is more widely distributed the population density is lower.All of these factors are working. Based on the percentage of severe cases and lethal outcomes, I believe the official statistics here are closer to the truth. On top of that, the speed at which the number of confirmed cases is growing shows that the stats are trustworthy to some degree.

How many coronavirus tests would we need to cover the entire country?

Thats a good question, but I dont have an answer to it yet. We could be talking about millions of tests, especially at the peak of the epidemic. This crisis has also become a litmus test for the situation surrounding import phase-outs in Russia. Even though both journalists and doctors reacted negatively to import substitution in Russia, and people always said imported products are better than Russian ones. What do we have now? Its no secret that some governments are starting to ban exports of medical products. And in Russia, the question will arise of how we can provide our population with the necessary personal protection equipment, masks, single-use clothing, testing equipment, reagents, and so on.

Im not saying one option is better or worse. Thats another question. But we could end up in a situation where nobody is sending us medical products or equipment. We have to understand that its not simple at all to ramp up production and that the production cycle itself is long. Our equipment has a half-year production cycle inertia is high. To increase production by 10 times on short notice is impossible.

Right now, the demand for equipment in Russia is very high, but meeting it quickly is difficult. Its easier [to rapidly increase production of] reagents.

[Our company] can produce research kits for about 100,000 patients per day. That number could be doubled if, say, we work in two shifts. There are other major companies that could produce at least as much: the Central Scientific Research Center and Vektor-Best in Novosibirsk. The situation with equipment is tougher. Theres only one major equipment manufacturer, and thats us.

If the government had just told manufacturers in time that it needed a coronavirus test, then the situation would be less constrained.

Whats the percentage of imported components in your tests?

About 15 or 20 percent. There are concerns about single-use test tubes because those basically arent produced in Russia. But some amount has been accumulated, China is recovering, and we havent felt a deficit so far. Now is when were going to see how well weve substituted for our imports in these past few years.

Interview by Anastasia Yakoreva

Translation by Kevin Rothrock and Hilah Kohen

Originally posted here:
At the peak, we could be talking about millions of tests - Meduza

Infectious diseases and climate change: Is there a connection? – CBC.ca

Posted on by

Hello, people!This is our weekly newsletter on all things environmental, where we highlight trends and solutions that are moving us to a more sustainable world.(Sign up hereto get it in your inbox everyThursday.)

This week:

We still don't know where the 2019 novel coronavirus came from. The leading suspicion is an animal host a bat, likely infected another animal that has more contact with humans.

That's how the 2012 MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak is believed to have played out. A bat, at some point in the past, infected a camel, which may have sneezed on a human.

One of the reasons the human and animal worlds are bumping up against each other is a changing climate. Research suggests that warmer winters and springs are keeping bats, for example, around longer because the insects they feed on also like the warmth. And this may affect the spread of diseases bats carry.

"Climate change, coupled with other human environmental changes like urbanization and habitat destruction, is bringing us closer to wildlife," said Dr. Katie Clow, a professor at the Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph. "So there's this very complex interplay of many different changes happening all at the same time."

Clow's research looks at the epidemiology of vector-borne diseases and a lot of her work involves trawling the woods for ticks. (She also has the pleasure of getting those little buggers in the mail.) The study of these insects provides some of the clearest evidence of the effect of a warming climate on the spread of infectious diseases.

Take the blacklegged tick, for example.

"We know that climate change has had a huge influence on allowing it to expand its range into more temperate areas," Clow said. "The warm period of our summers and springs lasts longer than it used to. And [the blacklegged tick's] reproduction and ability to sustain that reproduction is based on having a climate that's warm enough, for long enough."

This is dangerous because ticks can carry Lyme disease, which can cause rashes, joint pain and even serious neurological issues in humans and pets.

But this seemingly straightforward cause and effect hides complexity. Expanding the range and lifecycle of a tick is one part of a climate equation that may well involve humans spending more time outdoors because of those same warm temperatures. That complexity makes it hard to determine climate change's effect on other pathogens, like the novel coronavirus or influenza.

"Generally, influenza viruses survive better when it's cooler, especially in the tropics," said Dr. Nicholas Ogden, a veterinary epidemiologist at the Public Health Agency of Canada. "Of course, in winter, people [also] tend to be congregated together. So there are some seasonal aspects that are difficult to tease apart."

In essence, one environmental factor may contribute to the decrease of a specific pathogen while another may keep it alive. This complicates the search for clear cause and effect, and shows why other forecasted disease risks of climate change demand further research.

Here are some other potential risks that scientists have highlighted:

Severe flooding and heavy rainfall events may lead to water-borne illnesses such as cholera and leptospirosis.

Hotter temperatures can cause food-borne illnesses from a higher risk of food spoiling.

Human migration (because of climate, economic and sociopolitical factors) can cause non-native pathogens to be carried to new places in big numbers.

Scientists say there is a connection between climate change and the spread of disease, and figuring it out is the only way to develop better public health strategies.

"There is increasing evidence that climate change is having an impact on health," Ogden said, adding that disease is "part of the impact that we need to identify, predict and be prepared to adapt to."

Anand Ram

Last week, we published a story on microgrids in which we cited one built in Sendai, Japan, a decade ago as an "older" example. This prompted reader Mitch Wright to point out that the concept has existed for quite a while. "Many small towns in Ontario that were built on rivers installed their generation plants long before the towns were connected to an Ontario grid. This is because the grid did not exist yet. In Wingham, Ont., where I currently live, [power] generation was installed between 1900 and 1910 and ran for 20 to 30 years before the Ontario grid was extended to Wingham."

Many of our modern devices are reliant on electricity, and a lot of us are quite content to leave them plugged in all day long. But these appliances draw electricity even when they're not in use so-called phantom power. According to the Ontario utility Hydro One, the average Canadian home contains more than 20 devices that draw phantom or "standby" power, which can account for up to 10 per cent of home energy use. Fixing the problem is as simple (or complicated) as unplugging every appliance you own when it's not in use or deploying advanced power bars that can time out or sense when devices are idle. Here's a look at the energy use of some typical electronic devices.

Every year, tens of billions of single-use pads and tampons go into landfills material that takes hundreds of years to decompose. The average user goes through between 5,000 and 15,000 pads and/or tampons in a lifetime.

Amanda Laird, author of Heavy Flow: Breaking the Curse of Menstruation, believes our society's reliance on disposable menstrual products began in the 1920s. "As a way to market the products, [advertisers] had to position periods as something that was dirty, gross and unsanitary," she said.

Reusable menstrual products have been around for a while, but they're becoming increasingly mainstream. Dr. Yolanda Kirkham, a gynecologist at Women's College Hospital and Unity Health Toronto, said a lot of her patients have been using reusable products for several years, indicating those who make the switch end up sticking with it.

The main players on the reusable market right now are menstrual cups and period panties or pads.

Menstrual cups (to the left in the photo above) are bell-shaped and typically made of silicon or latex rubber. To insert, users fold them tightly and push them through the vaginal canal like a tampon without an applicator. There are different sizes, depending on factors like flow and whether or not the user has given birth. Once released, the cup springs out to suction against the cervix, resting on the vaginal walls to catch fluid.

The other option is period panties or pads, made with layers of absorbent, moisture-wicking materials like organic cotton and polyester. Some choose to use them as a backup for cups or tampons, while others use them solo.

For cup care, Kirkham recommends rinsing it out every four to six hours, boiling it between cycles and replacing it if there's damage. Manufacturers recommend replacing it every one to two years, but it can be used for up to 10 years, according to a 2019 study on menstrual cup safety.

External reusables like pads and panties should be rinsed and washed in warm water between use, said Kirkham. Most companies say to hang dry.

One rare risk associated with period products is toxic shock syndrome, a severe bacterial infection that can cause dizziness or faintness, vomiting, diarrhea and a rash on the palms, said Kirkham.

Infections can happen "any time there is a break in the barrier to our body system," she said. "So anytime there's a bit of friction, there's a possibility for a micro tear and that's how bacteria can get in."

There's no consensus among users about whether reusables or disposables are healthier. Some argue reusables are less hygienic, while others believe the chemicals in tampons and pads are harmful.

Menstrual cups and washable pads are "just as safe" as disposable products, while the latter contain smaller amounts of chemicals than many foods, said Kirkham. She advises avoiding products that aren't well-recognized or medically regulated, such as crochet tampons and sea sponges, which are often marketed as natural and eco-friendly options.

While Laird believes reusable products are a great option for the environment, "we have to recognize that they aren't right for everybody."

"Not everybody can get up close and personal with their menstrual blood," she said.

Isabel Terrell

Are there issues you'd like us to cover? Questions you want answered? Do you just want to share a kind word? We'd love to hear from you. Email us atwhatonearth@cbc.ca.

Sign up hereto getWhat on Earth?in yourinbox every Thursday.

Editor: Andre Mayer | Logo design: Skdt McNalty

Read the original post:
Infectious diseases and climate change: Is there a connection? - CBC.ca

Researchers May Have Found A Genetic Cause Of Infertility – mindbodygreen.com

Posted on by

The mechanism that controls the switch to meiosis has been a topic of scientific investigation for some time, and this breakthrough offers a unique look at a gene trigger that only sometimes becomes active. An important issue for reproductive medicine, researchers are excited for what this discovery could mean.

Knowledge of this process and the gene will be useful in providing a potential answer, but more answers could also mean more treatment options for people struggling with infertility.

"If it eventually becomes possible to control meiosis," said Ishiguro, "the benefits would be far-reaching for reproductive medicine, agricultural production, and even assisting rare species reproduction."

This research is still in early stages, with the announcement of the genetic discovery only being published this week. But it does provide a starting point for a whole new area of research in reproductive medicine going forward, that could result in even more new breakthroughs. Further studies will need to investigate the process of Meiosin in human subjects.

While we may not see this breakthrough being used in medicine anytime soon, it's exciting to know that it may help people in the future. If you're hoping to start a family and are worried about fertility, there's plenty of expert advice for boosting fertility that can be easily adopted.

Visit link:
Researchers May Have Found A Genetic Cause Of Infertility - mindbodygreen.com

R0: How scientists quantify the intensity of an outbreak like coronavirus and its pandemic potential – The Conversation US

Posted on by

If you saw the 2011 movie Contagion, about a worldwide pandemic of a new virus, then youve heard the term R0.

Pronounced R naught, this isnt just jargon made up in Hollywood. It represents an important concept in epidemiology and is a crucial part of public health planning during an outbreak, like the current coronavirus epidemic spreading outward from China.

Scientists use R0 the reproduction number to describe the intensity of an infectious disease outbreak. R0 estimates have been an important part of characterizing pandemics or large publicized outbreaks, including the 2003 SARS pandemic, the 2009 H1N1 Influenza pandemic and the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

The formal definition of a diseases R0 is the number of cases, on average, an infected person will cause during their infectious period.

The term is used in two different ways.

The basic reproduction number represents the maximum epidemic potential of a pathogen. It describes what would happen if an infectious person were to enter a fully susceptible community, and therefore is an estimate based on an idealized scenario.

The effective reproduction number depends on the populations current susceptibility. This measure of transmission potential is likely lower than the basic reproduction number, based on factors like whether some of the people are vaccinated against the disease, or whether some people have immunity due to prior exposure with the pathogen. Therefore, the effective R0 changes over time and is an estimate based on a more realistic situation within the population.

Its important to realize that both the basic and effective R0 are situation-dependent. Its affected by the properties of the pathogen, such as how infectious it is. Its affected by the host population for instance, how susceptible people are due to nutritional status or other illnesses that may compromise ones immune system. And its affected by the environment, including things like demographics, socioeconomic and climatic factors.

For example, R0 for measles ranges from 12 to 18, depending on factors like population density and life expectancy. This is a large R0, mainly because the measles virus is highly infectious.

On the other hand, the influenza virus is less infectious, with its R0 ranging from 2 to 3. Influenza, therefore, does not cause the same explosive outbreaks as measles, but it persists due to its ability to mutate and evade the human immune system.

Demographer Alfred Lotka proposed the reproduction number in the 1920s, as a measure of the rate of reproduction in a given population.

In the 1950s, epidemiologist George MacDonald suggested using it to describe the transmission potential of malaria. He proposed that, if R0 is less than 1, the disease will die out in a population, because on average an infectious person will transmit to fewer than one other susceptible person. On the other hand, if R0 is greater than 1, the disease will spread.

When public health agencies are figuring out how to deal with an outbreak, they are trying to bring R0 down to less than 1. This is tough for diseases like measles that have a high R0. It is especially challenging for measles in densely populated regions like India and China, where R0 is higher, compared to places where people are more spread out.

For the SARS pandemic in 2003, scientists estimated the original R0 to be around 2.75. A month or two later, the effective R0 dropped below 1, thanks to the tremendous effort that went into intervention strategies, including isolation and quarantine activities.

However, the pandemic continued. While on average, an infectious person transmitted to fewer than one susceptible individual, occasionally one person transmitted to tens or even hundreds of other cases. This phenomenon is called super spreading. Officials documented super spreader events a number of times during the SARS epidemic in Singapore, Hong Kong and Beijing.

A number of groups have estimated R0 for this new coronavirus. The Imperial College group has estimated R0 to be somewhere between 1.5 and 3.5. Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Automation and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences have estimated R0 to be much higher, at 4.08.

These differences are not surprising; theres uncertainty about many of the factors go into estimating R0, such as in estimating the number of cases, especially early on in an outbreak.

Based on these current estimates, projections of the future number of cases of coronavirus are fraught with high levels of uncertainty and will likely be somewhat inaccurate.

The difficulties arise for a number of reasons.

First, the basic properties of this viral pathogen like the infectious period are as yet unknown.

Second, researchers dont know how many mild cases or infections that dont result in symptoms have been missed by surveillance but nevertheless are spreading the disease.

Third, the majority of people who come down with this new coronavirus do recover, and are likely then immune to coming down with it again. Its unclear how the changing susceptibility of the population will affect the future spread of infection. This is especially important in Wuhan, the origin of the epidemic.

Finally, and likely the most important reason, no one knows the future impacts of current disease control measures. Epidemiologists current estimates of R0 say nothing about how measures such as isolation or quarantine efforts will influence the virus future spread.

[ Youre smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversations authors and editors. You can get our highlights each weekend. ]

View post:
R0: How scientists quantify the intensity of an outbreak like coronavirus and its pandemic potential - The Conversation US

Sleepy animals, hunters and lizards that can (possibly) change sex: the Wildlife Research and Conservation 2019 conference – BMC Series blog – BMC…

Posted on by

BMC Zoology recently attended the Wildlife Research and Conservation 2019 (WRC2019) conference in Berlin. organized by the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW), the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) and WWF Germany. Here are the editor's personal highlights.

Alison Cuff 7 Jan 2020

Back in October, I had the pleasure, as editor of BMC Zoology, to attend the Wildlife Research and Conservation 2019 (WRC2019) conference in Berlin, Germany.

Organized by the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW), the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) and WWF Germany, the conference was attended by delegates from more than 40 different countries. It took place in certainly the most unusual conference venue I had been to, the Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin.

It was a full and varied schedule, with 2 parallel sessions being held over much of the conference. Each session was introduced via one of a series of excellent plenary talks including:

The sessions themselves were packed with an exciting programme of fascinating research, covering various aspects of wildlife research and conservation. It was difficult to choose which of those to highlight but here are a couple of my favorites.

Taking the risk? Effects of aging on timing of hibernation and reproductive investment (presented by Claudia Bieber)

When small animals hibernate, they greatly reduce the risk of being killed by predators. As the risk of being killed by predators during the active season is far greater, this results in a contrast which makes the life history theory of these small hibernators interesting to explore. Beiber et al hypothesized that as these animals get older and therefore become less able to reproduce, they accept that they are more likely to fall victim to predators during the active season; they reduce the amount of time they hibernate to maximize their chances of reproduction. Indeed their research showed that older edible dormice are not only more likely to reproduce (delaying hibernation) but are likely to wake up from their hibernation earlier than younger dormice. This suggests that hibernation is used in two different ways first to save energy during harsh environmental conditions and second as a life-history trait used to maximize fitness of the species.

An edible dormouse sleeping

Analysis of conflict reduction strategies in Iran; Case study: Kharvana district, East Azerbaijan province (presented by Nader Habibzadeh)

With human population growth comes greater human activity that encroaches wildlife habitats and increases the risk of human-wildlife conflicts. This is particularly the case with carnivores. One such example is the wolf; herders in the Kharvana district, East Azerbaijan province have complained increasingly about wolves killing their livestock (goat and sheep). Habibzadeh described a study their group conducted that aimed to discover how these herders felt about the wolves and how possible it may be to use nonlethal methods of preventing the animal killing their animals. To this end, a number of herdsman in the area were interviewed.

Wolves often hunt and kill livestock

Most were concerned about their livestock not being adequately protected but although they did express a desire to kill the wolves, they were also open to the possibility of employing non-lethal strategies as well; the most popular was using herd dogs to protect the goats and sheep in their care.

In addition, students were encouraged to submit a poster for the conference poster competition. There were 121 posters in total, covering topics as varied as parasite infections in carnivores, social monogamy in monkeys, prediction models for suitable habitats for Persian leopards and more practical subjects such as smart and efficient box traps for capturing wildlife.

Poster Competition

BMC Zoology provided some sponsorship for the event and I was delighted to present the first prize for a poster entitled Sensitive window for sex determination in a lizard with environmental sex determination by Barbora Strakov, Luk Kubika and Luk Kratochvl. The poster introduces preliminary work on the effect of the environment (predominately temperature in this case) on the sex determination in leopard geckos.

Can leopard geckos change their sex?

And to end

The conference was closed with a banquet at the beautiful Zoological Garden Berlin.

The IZW provides a number of conferences throughout the year, the next one being the 6th International Berlin Bat Meeting (IBBM2020), also taking place in Berlin, on the 23rd-25th March 2020.

I look forward to attending another of their conferences soon.

Read more from the original source:
Sleepy animals, hunters and lizards that can (possibly) change sex: the Wildlife Research and Conservation 2019 conference - BMC Series blog - BMC...

Probe into legal status of children born to same-sex couple through surrogacy – Law Society of Ireland Gazette

Posted on by

A child-law expert is to review the legal position of children born through surrogacy to same-sex parents.

Special rapporteur on child protection Dr Conor OMahony will make his recommendations to health minister Simon Harris.

Child-law experts have pointed out the critical importance of accuracy in State certificates, since a birth certificate is the gateway to all other rights as a citizen.

Childrens ombudsman Niall Muldoon has saidthat every child born through assisted reproduction should have full, accurate information on the reality of their lineage and birth this would necessarily include the identity of any gamete donors or surrogates.

Part nine of the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015 amends the Civil Registration Act of 2004 -- the legal framework for registration of birth. The new law will commence on 5 May.

The words mother and father are expected to be replaced, as appropriate, with parent one and parent two.

No provision has yet been introduced to permit same-sex parents to be registered on the birth certificate of a child born through surrogacy.

But, under the new law, the registrar of births will hold additional information on donor-conceived children.

Under the new law, a donor-conceived child can access this genetic information on their biological origins when they reach the age of 18.

In tandem, the General Scheme of the Assisted Human Reproduction Bill provides for the formation of a National Donor-Conceived Persons Register (NDCPR) -- a move that was first mooted in section 33 of the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015.

Use of anonymous gamete donation is also banned, and donors must now sign an active legal consent for the use of their genetic material to conceive a child.

However, there is no legal responsibility, or suggested timescale, for parents to inform children about the truth of their biological origins.

See the original post:
Probe into legal status of children born to same-sex couple through surrogacy - Law Society of Ireland Gazette

Drug-Resistant ‘Superbug Gonorrhoea’ Is Emerging, WHO Warns – Healthy Magazine

Posted on by

By Dr. Dominic Rowley, Medical Director, LetsGetChecked

Untreatable strains of gonorrhoea are rapidly on the rise, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned. At least three people worldwide are infected with an untreatable superbug strain of gonorrhoea, fuelling fears that last-resort treatment will be useless.

Gonorrhoea is the second most common bacterial sexually transmitted disease (STD) in the US after chlamydia, with almost 400,000 confirmed cases reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2015, representing a 13% increase from 2014. Last year, the WHO estimated that over 78 million people worldwide contracted gonorrhoea last year, with men and women under 25 being the most affected.

Gonorrhoea is an incredibly virulent infection and it spreads through unprotected vaginal, oral or anal sex, along with the sharing of sex toys that have not been washed properly or covered with a new condom. Troublingly, many of those who contract the disease experience no symptoms, but if left untreated can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy and infertility, as well as increasing the risk of getting HIV.

Gonorrhoea is a very smart bug. Every time you introduce a new type of antibiotic to treat it, this bug develops resistance to it, Teodora Wi, a human reproduction specialist at the WHO.

Antibiotic Resistance simply refers to when a bacterium can resist the effects of an antibiotic drug that was previously successfully in treating it.

Between 2009 and 2014, the WHO discovered widespread resistance to first-line antibiotics for gonorrhoea, along with increasing resistance to other antibiotic drugs, such as azithromycin, and worryingly, the emergence of resistance to last-resort treatments known as extended-spectrum cephalosporins (ESCs).

In most countries, it said, ESCs are now the only antibiotics that remain effective for treating gonorrhoea. Yet resistance to them has already been reported in 50 countries. There is a pressing need for new medicines. However, the pipeline is very thin and with reports of only potential new gonorrhoea drugs in development, there is no guarantee any will prove effective.

To control gonorrhoea, we need new tools and systems for better prevention, treatment, earlier diagnosis, and more complete tracking and reporting of new infections, antibiotic use, resistance and treatment failures, said Marc Sprenger, director of antimicrobial resistance at the WHO.

Since the introduction of antibiotics in 1930s, gonorrhoea has shown a remarkable ability to always stay ahead of our most effective antibiotics.

As gonorrhoea becomes more and more difficult to treat, this is having significant impacts on the healthcare system due many patients being asymptomatic. A big part of the problem is that many STDs do not show symptoms, so people may not know that they have gonorrhoea and are infecting others.

With there being no guarantee that there is an effective treatment close to being made available, our focus must shift to what we can do to stay protected.

As always, it is important to practice safe sex with condoms, open communication with partners, and regular sexual testing, especially when entering into new relationships. Sexual health testing can be accessed through your local physician or clinic, or you can visit LetsGetChecked.com for a convenient and confidential test delivered directly to your location.

Symptoms in men:

Symptoms in women:

About LetsGetChecked

LetsGetChecked provides convenient and confidential at-home diagnostic tests enabling you to manage your health from the comfort of home. Our revolutionary service, allows you to order specialized or routine tests and then monitor, track and improve your personal health from a secure online portal. You will receive the same level of clinical care, only through a secure personalized dashboard. LetsGetChecked customers can order tests online, by visiting LetsGetChecked.com

LetsGetChecked partners with leading international laboratories for testing who are CLIA, CPA, INAB approved and CAP accredited, the highest levels of accreditation, to provide customers with convenient and accurate, personal health testing.

Watch Dr. Rowley explain antibiotic resistant gonorrhoea:

Follow this link:
Drug-Resistant 'Superbug Gonorrhoea' Is Emerging, WHO Warns - Healthy Magazine

Universities prepare for new equity guidelines for Canada Research Chairs – University Affairs

Posted on by

Institutions are required to submit action plans by years end and are expected to meet their diversity targets by December 2019.

A student examines a lab experiment at Ryerson University. Photo by Kevin Vanpassen.

While checking Twitter one day this past July, Danika Goosney came across a story that reminded her why equity policies exist in academia. A Toronto-based health researcher had reached out to the organizers of a large international conference to ask about bringing her breastfeeding newborn to the event. Their response: Sorry, no kids under 18 allowed.

Thats a very basic thing that she should be allowed to do, Dr. Goosney said. Ironically, the conference was on human reproduction and fertility.

For Dr. Goosney, the slight against the researcher reflects a wider bias against women in the workplace and serves as an example of the barriers to advancement women and other historically marginalized groups in academia experience throughout their careers. Its because of these persistent challenges that the Canada Research Chairs program one of the most important faculty recruiting tools for Canadas university sector introduced an equity, diversity and inclusion action plan in May. It is the programs biggest move yet in its push for better representation of four designated groups women, Indigenous people, visible minorities and people with disabilities at the highest levels of Canadian research.

There are many excellent, meritorious candidates that face biases unconscious, conscious, systematic across the board and were trying to take measures to ensure that all of our excellent candidates have the same opportunityto be nominated for and receive these awards, said Dr. Goosney, who is executive director of the Tri-Agency Institutional Programs Secretariat, the body responsible for administering the CRC program.

Under the new measures, universities with five or more chairholders are expected by October 27 to have posted to their websites a statement of commitment to equity and inclusion, a plan on how equity concerns will be handled and reported within the institution, and other details aimed at improving awareness and public accountability. By December, they will have to submit an action plan to the secretariat outlining how they will counter the low numbers of chairholders from the four designated groups at their institutions.

Dr. Goosney said the exercise will require senior university leaders to reflect on possible problems with their recruitment and appointment practices, and how these can be corrected. The institutions will report back to the secretariat annually on their equity target results and will now have to post this information to their websites. The secretariat wont process any newchair nominations for an institution until it has met these requirements. All institutions with CRC chairholders are expected to meet their diversity targets by December 2019.

For Malinda Smith, a professor of political science at the University of Alberta, the action plan is a sign that, at the very least, universities havent taken equity seriously at that level. She noted that it has been 30 years since the federal Employment Equity Act required employers to be proactive in their hiring from the four designated groups. Im not persuaded that we would be so stalled [in meeting equity targets] if in fact we had leaders who were actually, in their daily work and performance committed to equity and diversity, she said.

In researching her latest co-authored book, The Equity Myth: Racialization and Indigeneity at Canadian Universities, Dr. Smith looked at the practices and policies for equitable hiring and promotion at several Canadian institutions. She found that most universities have handed down this work to just one or two diversity workers responsible for offices that are understaffed and so low down the institutional ranksthat they dont have access to senior leaders. This distance between staff members doing the diversity groundwork and administrators who make the hiring decisions is a problem, said Dr. Smith. My sense is that universities have failed to grapple with why diversity matters among the professoriate and why the institutions excellence requires them to draw on this diverse talent.

The University of Toronto, with 252 chairholders, is home to the highest number of CRCs. According to Vivek Goel, vice-president of research and innovation at U of T, many of the things that are being required as part of the CRC equity action plan weve already had within our recruitment process at the university for many years. Nevertheless, the plan is quite appropriate for the way it prompts universities to adopt best practices, he said. If they dont adopt those best practices, theyll lose their ability to make nominations.

The equity targets came out of a 2006 settlement with eight women who brought a discrimination complaint against the CRC program to the Canadian Human Rights Commission. The settlement meant that any university participating in the chairs program would have to comply with the Employment Equity Act. Around 2010, the secretariat set actual targets for each equity-seeking group identified under the law. These targets are reviewed and revised every three years. To enforce and promote the policy, the secretariat began randomly monitoring institutions nomination processes and introduced an annual recognition program for institutions that have exemplary equity and inclusion practices.

Despite these efforts, most universities still fall short of their equity targets. (Of the 1,615 chairs filled as of May 2017, for example, only 30 percent are held by women.) In 2014, the secretariat began including clear guidelines on how to counter unconscious bias, especially towards women, when writing letters of reference. Two years later, Ted Hewitt, president of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, published an open letter calling for university presidents to sustain and intensify efforts, in order to address, as soon as possible, the under-representation of individuals from the four designated groups in their chair nominations.

The secretariat also posted to its website specific targets and results for each institution participating in the CRC program a move that the secretariat says improves transparency and accountability, and that others in the university sector have called a name and shame approach. Publishing that data served as a prelude to an external assessment of the CRCs for the programs 15th anniversary in 2015. That report, published in 2016, recommended that institutions be more transparent in how they allocate their chairs to ensure that they meet their targets. The equity action plan released this spring was largely developed out of this recommendation.

While most researchers and university administrators support stronger equity policies and practices within the CRC program, Dr. Goel suggested that the way at least one of the targets has been calculated makes it difficult to comply. He said the disability target is particularly challenging in part because it is based on data from the 2006 Participation and Activity Limitation Survey by Statistics Canada. The survey generally defines disability as any condition that impacts daily activities, a much more liberal interpretation of disability than most people tend to have, he said. To give a simple example: using a cane for mobility would correspond to the StatsCan definition of being disabled, but a faculty member who feels theyre able to get around and do their work may not necessarily think that theyre disabled for the purposes of declaring for the CRC competition, he said.

Dr. Goel also takes issue with how the targets are applied. Because the numbers involved for some of the designated groups are quite low, smaller institutions might be given a target of zero. When youre working with such small numbers, this kind of exercise starts to lose credibility very quickly, he said. It may make more sense to look at national targets, regional targets, or targets for clustered groups of universities.

The CRC program is currently reviewing the method it uses to calculate equity targets, in part to integrate new data from the recently reinstated University and College Academic Staff System survey, said the secretariats Dr. Goosney. Over the summer, the secretariat also initiated public consultations with CRC stakeholdersthrough meetings and an online feedback form. Any changes to the program that come out of these reviews will be implemented in 2018, she said.

The rest is here:
Universities prepare for new equity guidelines for Canada Research Chairs - University Affairs

Human Reproduction – ResearchGate

Posted on by

Study question: Is there a reduced live-birth rate (LBR) after IVF/ICSI treatment in women with a previous unilateral oophorectomy (UO)?Summary answer: A significantly reduced LBR after IVF/ICSI was found in women with previous UO when compared with women with intact ovaries in this large multicentre cohort, both crudely and after adjustment for age, BMI, fertility centre and calendar period and regardless of whether the analysis was based on transfer of embryos in the fresh cycle only or on cumulative results including transfers using frozen-thawed embryos.What is known already: Similar pregnancy rates after IVF/ICSI have been previously reported in case-control studies and small cohort studies of women with previous UO versus women without ovarian surgery. In all previous studies multiple embryos were transferred. No study has previously evaluated LBR in a large cohort of women with a history of UO.Study design, size, duration: This research was a multicentre cohort study, including five reproductive medicine centres in Sweden: Carl von Linn Clinic (A), Karolinska University Hospital (B), Uppsala University Hospital (C), Linkping University Hospital (D) and rebro University Hospital (E). The women underwent IVF/ICSI between January 1999 and November 2015. Single embryo transfer (SET) was performed in approximately 70% of all treatments, without any significant difference between UO exposed women versus controls (68% versus 71%), respectively (P = 0.32), and a maximum of two embryos were transferred in the remaining cases. The dataset included all consecutive treatments and fresh and frozen-thawed cycles.Participants/materials, setting, methods: The exposed cohort included 154 women with UO who underwent 301 IVF/ICSI cycles and the unexposed control cohort consisted of 22 693 women who underwent 41 545 IVF/ICSI cycles. Overall, at the five centres (A-E), the exposed cohort underwent 151, 34, 35, 41 and 40 treatments, respectively, and they were compared with controls of the same centre (18 484, 8371, 5575, 4670 and 4445, respectively). The primary outcome was LBR, which was analysed per started cycle, per ovum pick-up (OPU) and per embryo transfer (ET). Secondary outcomes included the numbers of oocytes retrieved and supernumerary embryos obtained, the Ovarian Sensitivity Index (OSI), embryo quality scores and cumulative pregnancy rates. We used a Generalized Estimating Equation (GEE) model for statistical analysis in order to account for repeated treatments.Main results and the role of chance: The exposed (UO) and control women's groups were comparable with regard to age and performance of IVF or ICSI. Significant differences in LBR, both crude and age-adjusted, were observed between the UO and control groups: LBR per started cycle (18.6% versus 25.4%, P = 0.007 and P = 0.014, respectively), LBR/OPU (20.3% versus 27.1%, P = 0.012 and P = 0.015, respectively) and LBR/ET (23.0% versus 29.7%, P = 0.022 and P = 0.025, respectively). The differences in LBR remained significant after inclusion of both fresh and frozen-thawed transfers (both crude and age-adjusted data): LBR/OPU (26.1% versus 34.4%, P = 0.005 and P = 0.006, respectively) and LBR/ET (28.3% versus 37.1%, P = 0.006 and P = 0.006, respectively). The crude cancellation rate was significantly higher among women with a history of UO than in controls (18.9% versus 14.5%, P = 0.034 and age-adjusted, P = 0.178). In a multivariate GEE model, the cumulative odds ratios for LBR (fresh and frozen-thawed)/OPU (OR 0.70, 95% CI 0.52-0.94, P = 0.016) and LBR (fresh and frozen-thawed)/ET (OR 0.68, 95% CI 0.51-0.92, P = 0.012) were approximately 30% lower in the group of women with UO when adjusted for age, BMI, reproductive centre, calendar period and number of embryos transferred when appropriate. The OSI was significantly lower in women with a history of UO than in controls (3.6 versus 6.0) and the difference was significant for both crude and age-adjusted data (P = <0.001 for both). Significantly fewer oocytes were retrieved in treatments of women with UO than in controls (7.2 versus 9.9, P = <0.001, respectively).Limitations, reasons for caution: Due to the nature of the topic, this is a retrospective analysis, with all its inherent limitations. Furthermore, the cause for UO was not possible to obtain in all cases. A diagnosis of endometriosis was also more common in the UO group, i.e. a selection bias in terms of poorer patient characteristics in the UO group cannot be completely ruled out. However, adjustment for all known confounders did not affect the general results.Wider implications of the findings: To date, this is the largest cohort investigated and the first study indicating an association of achieving reduced live birth after IVF/ICSI in women with previous UO. These findings are novel and contradict the earlier notion that IVF/ICSI treatment is not affected, or is only marginally affected by previous UO.Study funding/competing interest(s): None.Trial registration number: Not applicable.

Go here to see the original:
Human Reproduction - ResearchGate

Does a Declining Sperm Count Spell the End of Humanity? – Newsweek

Posted on by

This article first appeared on the Cato Institute site.

The BBC headline blares, " Sperm count drop 'could make humans extinct.

The story is based on a new systematic review and meta-regression analysis of recent trends in both sperm concentration and total sperm count.

Daily Emails and Alerts - Get the best of Newsweek delivered to your inbox

The study, published in Human Reproduction Update , reports "a significant decline in sperm counts...between 1973 and 2011, driven by a 5060 percent decline among men unselected by fertility from North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand."

By "unselected," the authors basically mean young men who are screened for military service or college who are unlikely to be aware of their fertility status. (For example, the Danish military subjects its recruits to a compulsory medical examination that apparently includes measuring their sperm count and testes sizes.)

The meta-analysis encompassed the results of 185 studies involving 42,935 men from 50 countries on six continents who provided semen samples from 1973 to 2011. The researchers claim that their analysis tried to take into account confounding factors that lower sperm counts, including obesity, smoking, alcohol use, and stress.

They report that sperm counts among unselected men living in rich developed countries fell from 99 million spermatozoa per milliliter in 1973 to 47 million per milliliter in 2011. Total sperm counts fell from 337.5 million to 137.5 milliona decline of nearly 60 percent.

Men dressed in sperm outfits working for condom maker Durex, show condom samples during a campaign in Seoul on June 24, 2008 to mark the first sale of its products in South Korea. JUNG YEON-JE/AFP/Getty

On the other hand, the researchers found no decline in sperm counts among men living in South America, Asia, or Africa.

This not the first time a spermapocalypse has been declared. The claim was first made in 1992 article by Scandinavian researchers, who reported there had been a decline of nearly 50 percent in 50 years.

Ever ready to fan the flames of panic, the publicists at Greenpeace quickly initiated a clever campaign of advertisements declaring, "You're not half the man your father was."

As the researchers acknowledge, their study tells us nothing about what caused the declines it identifies. Nevertheless, they speculate that it could be result of endocrine disruption from lifestyle changes and exposures to pesticides and synthetic chemicals.

Endocrine disruption is the particular focus of one of the researchers, Shanna Swan, who teaches environmental medicine and public health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. This study will doubtlessly be cited in grant proposals for more funding for research on the toxicologically questionable endocrine disruption paradigm.

So the extinction of humanity due to falling sperm counts near at hand?

Perhaps not.

In a 2013 comprehensive review of 35 sperm quality studies published after 1992, New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical College fertility specialist Harry Fisch and a colleague looked into the trend data on sperm counts.

The researchers reported that eight studies involving a total of 18,109 men suggest a decline in semen quality; 21 studies encompassing 112,386 men show either no change or an increase in semen quality; and six studies involving 26,007 men show ambiguous or conflicting results.

The upshot, Fisch says, is that "allegations for a worldwide decline in semen parameter values have not withstood scientific scrutiny." Asked if he stood by those findings, he replies, "Absolutely."

Fisch suggests that despite their efforts to consider confounding effects, the researchers may have failed to adequately take into account the more or less reversible effects on sperm production associated with rising obesity, marijuana use, sedentary lifestyles, and testicular temperature.

Given that the World Health Organization finds that 15 million sperm per milliliter is considered normal and adequate for fertilization, headlines suggesting the imminent extinction of humanity seem a bit overwrought.

Ronald Bailey is a science correspondent at Reason magazine and author of The End of Doom (July 2015).

Follow this link:
Does a Declining Sperm Count Spell the End of Humanity? - Newsweek

Period of change: the women fighting to break Hong Kong’s menstruation taboo – The Guardian

Posted on by

In a sex-toy shop nestled in the hustle and bustle of Hong Kongs Causeway Bay, a quiet revolution is taking place.

Amid the usual paraphernalia you might expect on the shelves of Sallys Toys is a stack of menstrual cups, a clue to the outlets second life. Once a week, the shop hosts education sessions for women on a taboo subject: periods.

Miki So, 24, is the brains behind the menstruation information sessions at Sallys.

After spending hours educating women one-on-one about menstruation, their bodies and the menstrual cup in the store, So decided that developing a workshop would make more sense.

Hong Kong females, they dont tend to share their personal experiences with others, which is [typical] in Asian society they always cover what they feel or what they want to say, she says.

In the workshop you can feel they have many questions they want to ask, but they dont have the platform for them to voice these, so at the workshop they can talk about the things they cant in daily life.

For women in Hong Kong who have periods, the options are slim. Most pharmacies, department stores and supermarkets offer a great wall of sanitary pads, while tampons and other options are typically unavailable or less visible.

Although tampons are available online, they remain uncommon. Also barely visible is any discussion around menstruation. But growing numbers of young women are attempting to change this.

With women in Hong Kong typically working long hours (Hong Kong has the longest working week of any country in the world), the fear of toxic shock syndrome can be a deterrent from using tampons, So says. This has resulted in women seeking alternative sanitary products, such as the menstrual cup.

The workshops, which are held in Cantonese, sometimes see self-conscious women donning disguises such as large hats and medical-style face masks as they make their way to the sessions. Nevertheless, the number of attendees, aged between 18 and 50, has been increasing.

So is acutely aware of the stigma that exists around menstruation both through the women she encounters and her own experiences.

When I had my first period, I thought I was going to die, she recalls.

Because my mother didnt teach me then my first period was a very light flow so I thought it was like a disease or something. I put tissue paper into my panties then my mum found out there was blood on my trousers and she said that is your period and here is a pad, and then nothing.

So is not alone in her quest to normalise menstruation in Hong Kong. Two sociology graduates from the the University of Hong Kong, Jessie Leung and Joyce Fung, both 22, are the founders of a Facebook page called MenstruAction. The sites mission states: Join us to challenge the menstrual status quo of shame, silence and secrecy. Love it and embrace it.

The page is a result of the womens research project. While classmates were studying more traditional topics such as minorities within Hong Kong, Fung and Leung saw the project as an opportunity to encourage cultural change.

MenstruActions message is that women in Hong Kong should be aware of all the options and ought to have the freedom to explore them. They also want to challenge the stigma that surrounds this topic.

Both graduates say menstruation in Hong Kong remains taboo. According to Chinese traditions, women are not able to visit temples when they have their periods. They also cannot burn incense. Leung says traditionalists often think menstruation is dirty.

For young women who grow up within traditional families, the lack of openness about periods produces a sense of shame.

If a mother does not talk about menstruation to her daughters, it becomes a taboo, Fung says. She has challenged this dynamic by bringing the conversation into her home, and discussing it openly with both her parents.

I tried to educate my dad and we can actually talk about it; when Ive got menstro pain, he can actually help me, Fung says.

Its very important in the sense that men can also understand how we feel and they can also understand what it is. Its something that leads to reproduction. Its nothing to be ashamed of.

Currently, sex education is not mandatory in schools in Hong Kong. When Fung was at school, as a form of sex education, she and her classmates received a visit from a sanitary pad company.

The discussion about menstruation was by the menstro pad company. They went to our schools and then they gave out menstro pads. The boys and girls were separated.

They would say OK, youve started bleeding, this is what you should use. It was kind of a dictatorship, Fung says.

So had a similar experience. After a brief school discussion about contraception and sexually transmitted diseases, girls and boys were separated before lining up in the fitting room to receive sanitary pads.

Seventeen or eighteen that was my first time knowing tampons, she says.

So says quality sex education and a normalised view of human reproduction and menstruation is something she wants to see. In her spare time, she also works for NGO Sticky Rice Love, an online sex education platform that promotes educational resources for young people.

Fung and Leung say talking openly has already helped enlighten some of their friends and allay concerns about insertion-based methods, such as the menstrual cup.

Still a lot of people dont know about it and have many misconceptions towards the cup, they say its not very hygienic A lot of our friends even questioned how do you pee when you use the menstro cup? They dont know your vagina and urinary tract are two different organs, Fung says.

So we start from these types of questions, we clear these misconceptions, and thats how these kinds of ideas get more and more accepted.

See more here:
Period of change: the women fighting to break Hong Kong's menstruation taboo - The Guardian

Educated women are freezing their eggs because of ‘missing men’ – New York Post

Posted on by

Women with masters degrees and doctorates are freezing their eggs because there are not enough educated men in the world, according to a new study.

Researchers interviewed 150 women who were having their eggs frozen at eight clinics in the US and Israel between June 2014 and August 2016. More than 80 percent of participants had college degrees.

Of the 114 US participants, 47 percent had a masters degree and 34 percent had an MD, PhD or the equivalent. The findings were recently presented at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology conference in Geneva. They have not yet been submitted to an academic journal.

There is a major gap they are literally missing men, Marcia Inhorn, lead author of the study and a professor at Yale, said at the conference. There are not enough college graduates for them. In simple terms, this is about an oversupply of educated women.

The term missing men was adopted from Chinas leftover women single women over the age of 27 who are considered by Chinese society to have missed their shot at marriage. Except that missing men refers to the lack of men with a college or higher degree.

Inhorn said their findings challenge the idea that women are freezing their eggs merely to prioritize their careers. Many of the women told researchers that the men theyd met were too intimidated by their success, uneducated or were not interested in starting a family.

The study also found that there are 38 percent more educated women than men in New York City. The gender disparity increases to 81 percent in Miami and 49 percent in Washington, DC.

As of fall 2014, 55 percent of all US undergraduates enrolled in a four-year college were women, according to data from the federal Education Department.

It wasnt their education and careers that had stood in the way, Inhorn said in an email to The Post. It was their inability to find an educated partner along the way.

See the article here:
Educated women are freezing their eggs because of 'missing men' - New York Post

Swapping pizza and pasta for fish and chicken ‘will boost your … – The Sun

Posted on by

The Sun

Go here to see the original:
Swapping pizza and pasta for fish and chicken 'will boost your ... - The Sun

Sex For Reproduction May Be Obsolete Within 30 Years Thanks To New Technology, Professor Predicts – Medical Daily

Posted on by

Sure, the main purpose of sex isprocreation, but according to one researcher, in as little as 30 years, we may have more efficient and cheaper ways of making babiesthangood ole fashioned intercourse. According to Hank Greely, the director of StanfordLaw Schools Center for Law and Biosciences, human reproductionmay become automated faster than you realize.

Greely believes that within three decades, people will no longer have sex as a way to reproduce, and instead relyongenetically edited embryos grown from skin-derived stem cells, not the combination of an egg or sperm, The Independent reported. According to Greely, this processensures that the embryo is free from any devastating genetic diseases, and wouldalso be cheaper in the long run because of the money it would save in healthcare over the years. Whats more, Greely predicts that couples would be able to choose other genetic traits in their children, such as physical features and intelligence.

Read: What Is A Three Parent IVF Technique? Worlds First Baby Born Using DNA From Three Parents, But How?

I dont think were going to be able to say this embryo will get a 1550 on its two-part SAT, Greely said this week at Aspen Ideas Festival, Quartz reported, But, this embryo has a 60% chance of being in the top half, this embryo has a 13% chance of being in the top 10%I think thats really possible.

The idea may soundfar-out, but according to Quartz, it already happens on a much smaller and limited scale as a way to prevent certain diseases. Although extremely expensive at the moment, advances in stem cell technology willhelp to drive down the cost. In addition, the amount that the government would save on not having to take care of sick babies would also make this more cost-efficient.

Making babies from skin cellsrather than a traditional egg fertilized with spermmaysound like its straight out of Hollywood, butthetechnology is quickly advancing. The skin cells, one from the mother and the other from the father, are coaxed into becoming an egg or sperm cell, The New York Times reported. This also means that one day same-sex couples may be able to have biologically related children. So far, vitro gametogenesis (IVG), or making sex cells from stem cells, has only worked on mice.

Theres also the worry that being able to genetically manipulate your offspring may lead to a eugenicssituation where less favorable traits get written out of the human genome forever. However, Greely also believes this is not the case.

This is not designer babies or super babies, said Greely, Quartz reported. This is selecting embryos. You take two people, all you can get out of a baby is what those two people have.

Just because well no longer need sex for procreation doesnt mean the activity is going out of fashion anytime soon. It's agreat way to createfuture generations, and sexis also good for your physical and mental health, as well as keeping couples together.

See Also:

Designer Babies: The Truth Behind Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis

Scientists Edit Human Embryo Genes For First Time Ever: A Step Toward Disease-Free Future?

See the rest here:
Sex For Reproduction May Be Obsolete Within 30 Years Thanks To New Technology, Professor Predicts - Medical Daily

Dad’s age affects IVF results as much as mum’s: study – Hindustan Times

Posted on by

Increasing age in men affects their chances of becoming a father as much as it affects a womans chances of getting pregnant , a new study has found.

Since men do not undergo a predictable and detectable decline in their fertility like women, female age was been considered the dominant indicator of a couples chance of conception, whether natural or assisted.

A new study of IVF couples at the Harvard Medical School shows quite clearly that live-birth outcome are clearly affected by the age of the male partner.

Also, in certain younger women where the effect of age is less potent, the chances of a live birth can be lowered if the man is much older.

Our study found an independent effect of male age on the cumulative incidence of live birth, said investigator Dr Laura Dodge from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, who presented the study on Tuesday at the Annual Meeting of European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) in Geneva.

The study was an analysis of all IVF cycles performed at a large IVF centre in the Boston region between 2000 and 2014, a total of almost 19,000 cycles performed in 7753 couples.

The female partners in these cycles were stratified according to four age bands: under 30, 30-35 years, 35-40 years, and 40-42. Men were stratified into these same four age bands, with an additional band of 42 and over.

As expected, the cumulative live birth rate (measured from up to six cycles of treatment) was lowest in those couples where the female partner was in the 40-42 age band, and in this group the age of the male partner had no impact, demonstrating the dominant detrimental effect of female age.

However, within the other bands of female age, the cumulative incidence of live birth was significantly affected by male partner age and was found to decline as the man grew older.

For example, in couples with a female partner aged under 30, a male partner aged 40-42 was associated with a significantly lower cumulative birth rate (46%) than a male partner aged 30-35 (73%). Similarly, in couples with a female partner aged 35-40 years live birth rates were higher with a younger than with an older male partner.

In natural conception, increasing male age is associated with a decreased incidence of pregnancy, increased time to pregnancy, and increased risk of miscarriage.

The mechanisms though unclear, may include impaired semen parameters, increased DNA damage in sperm, and epigenetic alterations in sperm that affect fertilisation, implantation, or embryo development.

Most preconception advice for men focuses on semen quality, though studies suggest that this likely cannot fully ameliorate the effects of male reproductive ageing. So in the absence of clear evidence of the mechanisms, the best preconception advice we can offer is to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Follow this link:
Dad's age affects IVF results as much as mum's: study - Hindustan Times

Endocrine disrupters: potentially harmful chemicals for human hormones – Medical Xpress

Posted on by

July 5, 2017

Potentially harmful chemicals which can interfere with the normal functioning of human hormones are known as endocrine disruptors (EDs).

These mostly manmade substances can cause a range of health problems.

EU member states Tuesday approved a European Commission list of criteria to help identify endocrine disruptors in products used to protect farm animals and plants from disease and insectsa move seen as a step toward a regulatory system on EDs.

Following is some background:

What is the endocrine system?

The body's endocrine tissuesin the ovaries and testes, as well as the adrenal, pituitary and thyroid glandsproduce hormones that are secreted into the bloodstream to control and coordinate a range of critical body functions.

These hormones help regulate energy levels, reproduction, growth, development, as well as our response to stress and injury.

What are endocrine disrupters?

The term endocrine disrupter comes from a 1992 study by US epidemiologist Theo Colborn on the effects of chemical products on hormones.

According to the World Health Organization, an endocrine disruptor is a substance (or a mixture of substances) which disrupts the functions of the hormonal system and consequently is harmful to human health and reproduction, including at very weak levels of exposure.

How do EDs work?

From animal studies, researchers have learned that endocrine disruptors can mimic naturally occurring hormones such as the female sex hormone oestrogen, and the male hormone androgen.

They bind to a receptor within a human cell and block the natural hormone from binding to it. This blocks normal signalling, causing malfunctions within the body.

Disruptors can also influence the way natural hormones and their receptors are made and controlled, for example, altering the metabolism of the liver.

Where are EDs found?

Everywhere. People are exposed to hormone-disrupting chemicals through everyday products including food and drink, medications, pesticides, cosmetics, plastics, detergents, flame retardants, and toysto name a few.

They can even be found in air and dust and can enter our bodies via the skin, breathing, drinking or eating. These chemicals can also be transferred from a woman to her child via the placenta or breast milk.

There are thousands of chemicals that canalone or in combination with otherspotentially disturb our hormonal and immune systems.

What are the impacts?

The suspect compounds have been linked to altered reproductive function in males and females, increased incidence of breast cancer, disturbance of the nervous and immune systems, abnormal growth, and stunted development in children.

The endocrine disrupting capacity of some chemicalsthe pesticide DDT, dioxins and toxic compounds called PCBsare well known, but for thousands of others the impacts are still unproven. While many molecules have been individually tested for safety, few studies have examined how they interact with others.

Impactsincluding spontaneous sex changeshave also been observed in amphibians exposed to synthetic hormones, such as oestrogen, in their water.

Concrete examples?

Bisphenol A (BPA) is used in large quantities to produce polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins. The US National Toxicology Program (NTP) has expressed "some concern" for impacts at current levels of exposure on the brain, behaviour, and prostate glands of foetuses, infants and children.

Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) is a mass-produced chemical widely used in consumer food packaging, some children's products, and some PVC medical devices. The NTP has said it might pose a risk to human development, especially in critically ill male infants.

Sources: US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, World Health Organization.

Explore further: EU closes in on hormone-disrupting chemicals

2017 AFP

The European Union set broad criteria Wednesday for identifying potentially harmful chemicals which can interfere with the normal functioning of human hormones and cause a range of health problems.

Please sign in to add a comment. Registration is free, and takes less than a minute. Read more

Read the rest here:
Endocrine disrupters: potentially harmful chemicals for human hormones - Medical Xpress

Aytu BioScience Presents Clinical Findings for its MiOXSYS System at 33rd Annual Meeting of the European Society … – PR Newswire (press release)

Posted on by

Josh Disbrow, Chief Executive Officer of Aytu BioScience, stated, "These latest research findings continue to add to the clinical and scientific evidence supporting use of our MiOXSYS System, which we've already demonstrated to be a useful clinical tool for assessing oxidative stress levels in semen as it relates to male infertility. These seven presentations at ESHRE, presented by leading andrologists and urologists from infertility centers around the world, demonstrate the broad interest and significant potential for clinical use of the MiOXSYS System as an aid in the diagnosis of male factor infertility."

The poster presentations were as follows:

Title: ORP: A Reliable and Reproducible Method of Evaluating Oxidative Stress - A Multicenter Study Poster Number: G17-0526 Session: 36 Presenter: Ashok Agarwal, Ph.D., Director of the Andrology Center and Director of the American Center for Reproductive Medicine at the Glickman Urological & Kidney Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH Conclusion: Although other semen parameters showed significant differences between the two centers, sORP remained consistent in both data sets individually or in combined data. This proves its reproducibility and reliability. sORP is a measure of semen quality which adds more weight to semen testing in identifying fertile from infertile semen samples.

Title: Effect of Seminal ORP Value on Embryo Quality and Clinical Pregnancy Rate Poster Number: G17-1357 Session: Andrology Presenter: B. Balaban, VKF American Hospital Assisted Reproduction Unit stanbul, Turkey Conclusion: These findings may have important diagnostic and prognostic implications for couples experiencing male factor infertility and undergoing assisted reproductive technique (ART). Further studies are warranted to explore the mechanism of increased ORP in a subset of couples (male factor, no female factor) undergoing ART to corroborate the significance of these findings.

Title: Oxidation-Reduction Potential and Sperm DNA Fragmentation Levels in Sperm Morphologic Anomalies Poster Number: G17-0075 Session: 36 Presenter: A. Majzoub, Urology Department Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar; Conclusion: Results were obtained from semen samples of patients presenting with primary or secondary infertility and hence were not compared with a control group or with men of proven fertility. Studying the correlation between sperm morphology indices and advanced sperm function tests is important as this would help in resting the controversy surrounding its clinical implication on fertility potential. It may also provide insights for developing novel sperm selection techniques that can be utilized during assisted reproduction.

Title: Oxidation-Reduction Potential: A Valuable Tool for Male Fertility Evaluation. Poster Number: G17-0182 Session: 4 Presenter: A. Majzoub, Urology Department Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar; Conclusion: ORP measurement with the MiOXSYS System is a simple, quick and user friendly method that can reliably measure OS in biologic samples. The significant correlation between ORP and total motile sperm count allows its use as a predictor of fertility potential.

Title: High Levels of Seminal Oxidation-Reduction Potential (ORP) in Infertile Men with Clinical Varicocele Poster Number: G17-0995 Session: Andrology Presenter: R. Saleh, Director, Ajyal Hospital, Sohag, Egypt Conclusion: These findings may have important diagnostic and therapeutic implications. Further studies are warranted to explore the mechanism of increased ORP in a subset of infertile men with clinical varicocele. In addition, future studies may help determine those patients who would benefit from antioxidant therapy and/or surgical repair of varicocele.

Title: Oxidation-Reduction Potential Can Help Distinguish Semen Samples Under Oxidative Stress Poster Number: G17-0954 Session: Andrology Presenter: S. Roychoudhury, Assam University, Silchar, India Conclusion: Measuring sORP can help a clinician understand if comparatively one semen sample is under higher state of oxidative stress than another.

Title: Correlation of Sperm DNA fragmentation and Seminal Oxidation Reduction Potential in Infertile Men Poster Number: G17-0055 Session: Andrology Presenter: H. Elbardisi, Urology Department Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar; Conclusion: Sperm DNA fragmentation and seminal oxidation reduction potential should be included in assessment of male infertility. Using ORP testing can help in detecting the target patients for antioxidant therapy.

Selection of the abstracts for publication in the press program does not imply endorsement of the MiOXSYS System by ESHRE.

About Aytu BioScience, Inc.

Aytu BioScience is a commercial-stage specialty pharmaceutical company focused on global commercialization of novel products in the field of urology, with a focus on products addressing vitality, sexual wellness, and reproductive health. The company currently markets two prescription products in the U.S.: Natesto, the first and only FDA-approved nasal formulation of testosterone for men with hypogonadism (low testosterone, or "Low T") and ProstaScint (capromab pendetide), the only FDA-approved imaging agent specific to prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA) for prostate cancer detection and staging. Additionally, Aytu is developing MiOXSYS, a novel, rapid semen analysis system with the potential to become a standard of care for the diagnosis and management of male infertility caused by oxidative stress. MiOXSYS is commercialized outside the U.S. where it is a CE Marked, Health Canada cleared product, and Aytu is planning U.S.-based clinical trials in pursuit of 510k medical device clearance by the FDA. Aytu's strategy is to continue building its portfolio of revenue-generating products, leveraging its focused commercial team and expertise to build leading brands within growing markets. For more information visit aytubio.com. Aytu also now owns wholly-owned subsidiary Aytu Women's Health (formerly Nuelle, Inc.), a personal health and wellness company focused on women's sexual wellbeing and intimacy that markets Fiera, a personal care device for women that is scientifically proven to enhance physical arousal and sexual desire. Fiera is a consumer device and is not intended to treat, mitigate, or cure any disease or medical condition. For more information about the Fiera personal care device visit fiera.com.

Forward Looking Statement

This press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, or the Exchange Act. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this presentation, including statements regarding our anticipated future clinical and regulatory events, future financial position, business strategy and plans and objectives of management for future operations, are forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements are generally written in the future tense and/or are preceded by words such as "may," "will," "should," "forecast," "could," "expect," "suggest," "believe," "estimate," "continue," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," or similar words, or the negatives of such terms or other variations on such terms or comparable terminology. These statements are just predictions and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual events or results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include, among others: risks relating to gaining market acceptance of our products, obtaining reimbursement by third-party payors, the potential future commercialization of our product candidates, the anticipated start dates, durations and completion dates, as well as the potential future results, of our ongoing and future clinical trials, the anticipated designs of our future clinical trials, anticipated future regulatory submissions and events, our anticipated future cash position and future events under our current and potential future collaborations. We also refer you to the risks described in "Risk Factors" in Part I, Item 1A of Aytu BioScience, Inc.'s Annual Report on Form 10-K and in the other reports and documents we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time.

Investor contact:

Amato and Partners, LLC

Investor Relations Counsel

admin@amatoandpartners.com

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/aytu-bioscience-presents-clinical-findings-for-its-mioxsys-system-at-33rd-annual-meeting-of-the-european-society-of-human-reproduction-and-embryology-300482828.html

SOURCE Aytu BioScience, Inc.

Home

Read more here:
Aytu BioScience Presents Clinical Findings for its MiOXSYS System at 33rd Annual Meeting of the European Society ... - PR Newswire (press release)

Saving an iconic herd of bighorn sheep on the brink of extinction – Buckrail

Posted on by

JACKSON, Wyo. A public meeting last week discussing bighorn sheep will be followed up with another this Thursday as game management officials are hoping to craft solutionsfor the struggling species moving forward.

Teton Range Bighorn Sheep Working Group, in partnership with the University of Wyomings Ruckelshaus Institute, is engaging in a learning process to explore ways to balance the winter habitat needs of Teton Range bighorn sheep and backcountry winter recreation.

Last week, organizers discussed the history and importance of winter backcountry recreation in the Tetons, and how that might sometimes be at odds with bighorn sheep mortality and loss of habitat.

A meeting scheduled for Thursday, February 20 will dive deeper into bighorn sheep ecology, the perspective of recreationists, and hopefully begin coming up with some conceptual solutions. Further meetings are scheduled for March 5 and April 9.

Urgent help for the bighorn is needed

Better than any other animals the bighorns typify the Tetons, mountaineering legend Fritiof Fryxell has been quoted as saying. The iconic species has often become synonymous with the Mountain West. But in Jackson Hole, and nearly everywhere else, sheep are dying off in alarming numbers.

One such small, isolated herd of native bighorn sheep resides in the Teton Range. This Teton Range herd has seen its numbers cut in half in just the past 5-10 years, from about 125 animals to, maybe, 60-80.

They are really on the edge of going extinct, says Aly Courtemanch, wildlife biologist with Game and Fish and one of six members of the working group. A number of factors have gone into why they are so at risk. The biggest is human development and pressures have cut off this herd from traditional low-elevation winter range and from other bighorn sheep herds. Long-term fire suppression has also affected habitat quality and blocked access to some low elevation winter ranges.

These Teton Range sheep now resort to eking out a winter existence in rugged high country, enduring severe conditions on windswept ridges.

But wait, isnt that where bighorn sheep like to hang out anyway? Not in the old days. Sure, they like have a cliff face nearby for security, but lets face it, there aint much to eat when upper elevations are covered in snow.

In the early 1900s, human development in Jackson Hole and Teton Valley, Idaho cut off historic migration routes for the sheep. They used to spend winter in the valleys. By 1950, those routes were completely cut off, Courtemanch says. Bighorns now spend winter way up high in mountains where they are extremely vulnerable to mortality and disturbance, and there is really limited habitat at 10,000 feet.

How can the sheep be saved?

This Teton Range herd is broken up fairly evenly into two distinct sub-herdsthe northern group and a southern group. Genetic testing of the sheep shows the two groups do not interbreed, so they are, in essence, both dangerously low in population for genetic diversity or even existence for another decade or two.

These sheep are not part of the Jackson herd that includes those often seen on the Elk Refuge or in the Gros Ventre or down by Camp Creek.

Scientists have documented that Teton bighorn sheep avoid areas frequented by winter recreationists. In some cases, sheep have effectively lost up to 30% of the good winter habitat in the high country because of this displacement. Bighorn sheep that share winter habitat with humans frequently move to avoid them, burning energy, which can result in poor reproduction and starvation.

The Teton Range Bighorn Sheep Working Group is a public-private group of biologists working together since the early 1990sto conserve bighorn sheep.

This winter the groups goal is to create awareness with the public in particular, about the plight of bighorn sheep in the Tetons. Based on their conversations with interested parties, members of the working group may gather ideas on how to moderate winter pressure on bighorn sheep.

Other factors threaten the bighorn sheep in general including pressure from non-native mountain goats and diseasemost notably pneumonia. But the Teton herd has never had an outbreak of pneumonia. Its one of the reasons biologists are very reluctant to introduce outside sheep to bolster the population. They cant risk contamination.

The working group recently brought in eight bighorn sheep experts from around the West. They reviewed everything known to date, and were asked a hard question: Do we have any chance of recovering this population?

The experts agree the herd is on the edge but all is not lost, Courtemanch says.

Its that hope that keeps the group going. So far, backcountry users have been very sympathetic to the plight of the bighorns and have made some gestures about surrendering or sharing habitat in the winter.

It will take a community effort, but the iconic bighorn sheep herd of the Teton Range can be saved. What can you do to help? Find out Thursday, February 20from 6-9 p.m. in the GrandTeton Ballroom at the Snow King Resort

Teton Range Bighorn Sheep Working Group

Read the original:
Saving an iconic herd of bighorn sheep on the brink of extinction - Buckrail

Is Hydroxychloroquine the Answer to the Coronavirus Pandemic? Inside the Race to Find A COVID-19 Cure – Newsweek

Posted on by

Long before the coronavirus began to spread beyond China, infectious disease experts around the world knew there was ample reason to fear it. Not only was the pathogen highly contagious and lethal, it was also newscientists had written no medical papers on it, doctors had no vaccines or pills to give their patients. The most effective tools we have, at the moment, are public health measures out of the 19th century such as quarantines and social distancing.

The emergence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2019, or SARS CoV-2, has made plain our vulnerability to a novel pathogen. An estimated 160 million to 214 million people in the United States could be infected over the course of the epidemic, by some estimates. Fatalities could run from 200,000 to 1.7 million people, according to the CDC, and into the tens of millions worldwide.

The lack of treatments is a startling contrast to the sophistication of current medical science, which is in something of a golden age of genomics, machine learning and big data. The coronavirus has caught us flat-footed. Yet, at the same time, it has underscored how far the tools of medicine have evolved in recent years. Just days after local infectious disease experts sent virus samples taken from two patients infected with a suspicious form or pneumonia to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a world-renowned research laboratory, for analysis, scientists had sequenced the newly emergent pathogen's RNA and uploaded its entire 30,000-nucleotide genetic code to the cloud.

Across the globe, scientists downloaded it and began to isolate antibodies. Virologists and computational biologists used machine learning tools to analyze its structure and search for existing drugs that might work against it. Pathologists applied the tools of molecular biology to search for vulnerabilities in the virus' armor of protein. "The pace of the scientific research has been really at a breathtaking speed," says Angela Rasmussen, a virologist and research scientist at Columbia University. "It's unprecedented."

As the caseload continues to rise exponentially in the U.S. and other parts of the world, scientists are racing to find antiviral drugs that are effective in alleviating the worst ravages of the disease, a devastating pneumonia that affects an alarmingly high number of patients. The goal is to give doctors a broader range of weapons in the weeks and months ahead, and save lives.

Rapid response

In recent years, technologies that allow rapid sequencing of genetic material have become standard equipment in most top research laboratories. Because of these tools, scientists were able to state with relative confidence that the current virus is closely related to the SARS coronavirus that hit in 2003, as well as very closely related to a bat coronavirus found in a cave in Yunnan, China, back in 2017. With this knowledge, scientists dusted off the files from that outbreak and picked up where other scientists left off.

Rapid genome sequencing didn't merely allow researchers to publish the full SARS-CoV-2 sequence in days, as opposed to months in the case of the SARS genome in 2003. It also allowed scientists to sequence strains of the virus in Washington State, New York City, Italy and other parts of the world, which they are using to piece together a kind of SARS-CoV-2 ancestry registrya detailed map of how the virus spread and mutated.

Scientists used this information to trace the progress of the virus and estimate how many people have been exposed in any given area, which informed the public health response. "We know from sequencing some of the more recent Seattle viruses, that those viruses were probably derived from the first patient who came to the U.S. with coronavirus in mid-January," says Rasmussen, who noted at the time that the Seattle area had an estimated 6,500 cases.

Tracking the virus in this way helped public health workers conclude early on that the virus was unusually contagious, which informed emergency planning in China, Italy and elsewhere. The most urgent task, of course, is to keep intensive-care wards from being overwhelmed by patients in respiratory distress. For the most critically ill patients, COVID-19 attacks the lungs, triggering the immune system to create a thick soup of white blood cells and other immune agents that flood the lungs. In the most severe cases, this immune response clogs up air cavities critical for transferring oxygen from the air to the body, greatly reducing lung capacity.

To survive, these patients require mechanical ventilators, which can force higher concentrations of oxygen into the parts of the lungs that are still functioning, allowing them to rest, recover and preserve precious energy needed to outlast the viral attack. But ventilators are in dangerously short supply. For instance, fewer than one-tenth of the 925,000 hospital beds in the U.S. are equipped for critically ill patients, who could number between 2.4 million to 21 million people in the United States, say estimates.

Antiviral medication could shorten the time patients need to be on ventilatorsand perhaps prevent many of them from needing one in the first place. One of the most promising ideas is to develop new drugs that can attenuate the immune response to keep the lungs functioning adequately. Doctors in the First Affiliated Hospital of University of Science and Technology of China (Anhui Provincial Hospital) and Anhui Fuyang Second People's Hospital In China used , a drug developed by Chugai, a Japanese company, originally to treat rheumatoid arthritis, on 21 critically ill patients.

Within a few days, the fever returned to normal and all other symptoms improved "remarkably," according to a paper on the study published soon after. Fifteen of the 21 patients had lowered their oxygen intake and one patient needed no oxygen therapy. CT scans revealed that the lung function improved in 19 patients of the 21 patients, and the abnormal percentage of white blood cells found in 17 of the 21 patients before treatment returned to normal in 10 within five days. Nineteen of those treated had been released within two weeks, and the other two were reported to be "recovering well."

Read more

Read more

Regeneron Pharmaceutical, a firm based in Tarrytown, New York, believes its rheumatoid arthritis drug kevzara would be similarly effective in treating critically ill patients. The drug consists of antibodies that bind to and inactivate the tiny protein molecules on the surface of the body's immune cells known as interleukin 6 that play a role in amplifying an immune response.

"People are dying because they are losing the ability to breathebecause their lungs are filling with inflammation," says George D. Yancopoulos, Regeneron's President and Chief Scientific Officer. "That's what's happening. That's a fact. The question is, what's causing the inflammation? If you shut that off, basically the lungs calm down, the cells leave the lung and they are also not making all this bad stuff."

Regeneron is currently talking with the FDA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services about fast-tracking clinical trials. It is enrolling 400 patients hospitalized for COVID-19. If all goes well, it could reach a verdict on the treatment in the next month or two. The company already has produced enough of the medicine to treat tens of thousands of severely affected patients, says Yancopoulos. Sanofi, which has the license to distribute the drug outside the U.S., is initiating similar trials in Europe.

Regeneron is also looking into using novel monoclonal antibodies as a potential weapon against COVID-19. These are custom-made proteins designed by the immune system specifically to bind to and neutralize the virus. Regeneron is using mice that have been genetically engineered to produce antibodies that could be used in the human body. The company has already exposed these "VelociMice" to the COVID-19 virus and extracted thousands of antibodies, and is now screening them for potential effectiveness against COVID-19, and identified a few of the most potent antibodies. It will then mass-produce them by growing them inside cell lines incubated in huge "bioreactors," engineered to promote maximum reproduction.

Christos Kyratsous, Regeneron's vice president for research, says it will take about four months to go from picking the most potent antibodies to producing enough cells to provide the tens of thousands of liters of medicine needed to make the drug widely available to those suffering from COVID-19 in the U.S., leading to hopes by some on the front lines that a new custom-made medication could be in place by the end of August.

Other experimental efforts are aimed at helping patients fight off the infection itself. In mid-March, immunologists and medical professionals at Johns Hopkins University submitted plans to the university's institutional review board and the FDA to extract antibodies from the blood of patients who have already recovered from COVID-19, says Arturo Casadevall, an immunologist and infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. The idea is to infuse new patients with antibodies filtered out of the blood of patients who have already successfully fought off the infection.

Doctors facing pandemics have used a similar strategy to combat infectious diseases for more than a century, including the 1918 flu. But this time, the approach has a modern twist. Casadevall and his colleagues plan to rely on methods and equipment that hospitals already have in place in blood banks, such as machines that currently remove antibodies from the blood of patients with autoimmune diseases, to prevent their bodies from attacking their own cells. (The blood is usually reinfused into their bodies to prevent anemia). These same machines could be used instead to extract antibodies from COVID-19 survivors. Scientists would test the antibodies to find the most potent ones and then administer them to sick patients or medical personnel in need of protection. This method could be deployed in cities around the nation, or around the globeanywhere where blood baking facilities exist. And Casadevall says he has been in contact with health officials at the Mayo Clinic, in New York City and elsewhere, who are considering taking similar measures.

Although the approach would not immediately yield a drug that could be mass produced, it could serve as a stop-gap treatment, he says, until new drugs, like those being developed by Regeneron, come online. "We can put this in place and we can provide people something more than a respirator to provide oxygen," says Casadevall.

A team that included Hopkins infectious disease experts, blood-banking officials and regulatory personnel has been holding regular conference calls. The team is now testing blood samples and developing a plan to deploy the approach throughout Baltimore. He expects that the first filtered antibodies could be fielded by the beginning of April, in time for a "second wave" of patients to hit the hospitals. The approach, already in use in China, could become widespread in the U.S.

The kitchen sink

Doctors on the front lines of the battle in China, Italy and elsewhere have identified other potential treatments by taking a "kitchen sink" approach that uses every available tool to defeat the virus. Because the outbreak is so recent, solid data isn't available on these kinds of measures, but doctors have given favorable anecdotal reports and have administered scores of ad-hoc trials.

The most promising and widely discussed is remdesivir, a broad-spectrum antiviral drug produced by Gilead. Developed originally to treat Ebola patients, remdesivir works by blocking an enzyme that is crucial for the ability of the viruses to reproduce. The drug did not prove effective for Ebola, but trials demonstrated that it did not have serious side effects. Subsequent studies on non-human primates suggest that the drug is effective against coronavirusesspecifically, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERswhich has given some public health officials cause for optimism.

"There's only one drug right now that we think may have real efficacy, and that's remdesivir," said Bruce Aylward, a senior advisor and international leader of the World Health Organization's joint mission to China, at a Feb. 24 press conference.

Clinical trials to test the drug are already underway in the U.S. and in China's Hubai province. Preliminary results from the first of those studies are expected as soon as April, says Gilead. Gilead is also in the process of enrolling about 1,000 patients, mostly in counties that have already had high numbers of diagnosed cases, in a trial to evaluate the drug given intravenously.So-called protease inhibitors have also emerged as potential candidates to treat COVID-19. These antiviral drugs, developed during the HIV/AIDS crisis, act on the enzyme protease, which plays a vital role in the ability of HIV to replicate inside the cells that it infects (it chops up big protein molecules into smaller ones). By inhibiting the action of protease, the drugs prevent the progress of an HIV infection, keeping AIDS from developing. Since then, researchers have also developed modified protease inhibitors to fight hepatitis C and other viruses.Coronaviruses like SARS-CoV-2 also use a type of protease during replication, but the virus is different enough that HIV antivirals may not be effective. Research is ongoing to find out.

The antimalarial drug chloroquine, and its derivative, hydroxychloroquine, are also candidates for COVID-19 treatments. Researchers first began testing their ability to halt the spread of viruses during the battle against AIDS. The drugs are designed to interfere with "endocytosis," the process by which a virus or other microbe enters a cell. They have since been shown to have some success in the lab against a wide range of viral diseases including the common cold and the SARS virus. On March 16, Chinese public health officials announced that a clinical trial at 10 hospitals in Beijing, Guangdong and Hunan Provinces involving more than 100 patients showed a positive effectpatients who took chloroquine were more likely to show a reduction in fever, showed clearer lungs on CT scans and reduced the amount of time to recover.More treatments will emerge as doctors and scientists on the front lines continue to try new drugs. For instance, in March, a Chinese official said that the drug favipiravir, developed by Fujifilm Toyama Chemical as an influenza drug, showed positive results for COVID-19 patients in trials in Wuhan and Shenzen.

Scaling up

There are many obstacles to getting a treatment out of the lab and into the hospital. First, clinical trials must show that the drugs work safely, and many drugs typically fail this test. A cocktail of the HIV drugs lopinavir and ritonavir, which were being tested in China, was reported to have no benefit to patients. The effectiveness of HIV drugs against COVID-19 remains largely anecdotal and unproven. And choloquine in high doses can prove toxic.

Once a drug is proved safe and effective, getting it to millions of patients around the world requires a massive manufacturing capacity. Ramping up can take months, says Prashant Yadav, a visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development and an expert on healthcare supply chains. For instance, he estimates it would likely take six months to a year to sufficiently ramp up production to meet the potential global demand for remdesivir, should it prove effective and safe.Given the urgent need for new drugs around the world, some public health officials have called for new protocols to determine who will decide how to allocate limited supply. There would have to be a way of coordinating the supply of drugs, with clear roles and responsibilities for fast-tracking treatments. This would involve an unprecedented level of coordination among the World Health Organization, organizations that finance global health measures, supply-chain experts in the pharmaceutical companies and governments. Once a country has obtained a drug, the government together with private health care organizations and drug companies have to fast-track distribution of the drugs.

"Can governments and global agencies make extremely fast decisions in the complex and somewhat uncertain environment?" asks Yadav. "How do we run a supply system so that every hospital that orders it can get sufficient supply? It's a capacity rationing problem: someone has to decide how much of demand will we need for existing supply. And as we know, rationing decisions bring out the worst in terms of global coordination and local and national politics. And if a company has never sold much in Africa then they will have to start from scratch."

Long-term fix

Anti-viral treatments can hopefully keep people from dying from COVID-19, but the best long-term hope to control the disease is a vaccine. The typical timeline for vaccine development is 12 to 18 months. The most promising and advanced is mRNA1273, which is being developed by Moderna, a Boston company. In mid-March, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute began a safety and dosing trial in which 45 young, healthy volunteers will receive different doses of the vaccine.

Other efforts include INO-4800, a vaccine being developed by Pennsylvania-based Inovio Pharmaceuticals; a vaccine based on previous work against the Avian coronavirus from MIGAL Research Institute in Israel; a company called Heat Biologics, which already has a cancer vaccine in clinical trials, as well as efforts in early stages from Johnson and Johnson, Pfizer and GSK.Few doubt that at least some of these efforts, and many others like them, will eventually result in effective treatments. How long that will take depends on a lot of hard work and some luck. "Against all odds, we figured out to mass produce penicillin, we beat polio and smallpox," Dr. Peter Jay Hotez professor and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. "It's unfortunate we have to wait until things got so dire to focus on the needs of the world, but I think we are there now."

Correction, 3/20/2020, 10:34 am: This story was changed to reflect the fact that Regeneron trials for Kevzara are starting with 400 patients, not a few as previously reported.

Correction, 3/20/2020, 1:35 pm: The drug chloroquine works by interfering with endocytosis, the process by which a virus enters a cell, not exocytosis as previously reported; the story has been modified to correct the error.

Correction, 3/20/2020, 2:32 pm: The COVID-19 virus has 30,000 nucleotides of RNA, not 3 billion of DNA as previously reported; this has been corrected in the story.

The rest is here:
Is Hydroxychloroquine the Answer to the Coronavirus Pandemic? Inside the Race to Find A COVID-19 Cure - Newsweek

Eugenics on the Farm: Ray Lyman Wilbur – The Stanford Daily

Posted on by

Columnist Ben Maldonado traces the eugenicist history of Ray Lyman Wilbur. (Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

On Jan. 22, 1916, Ray Lyman Wilbur became the third president of Stanford University. In his inaugural speech, Wilbur promised that Stanford would aim for control of those unnecessary diseases that devour the very marrow of the [human] race and would lead in the fight against oppression, evil, ignorance, filth. These words would have perhaps been less ominous if Wilbur was not a eugenicist.

Between 1916 and 1929 and between 1933 and 1943, Ray Lyman Wilbur served as Stanfords president, leading the same university where he received his bachelors and masters degrees. A physician by training, Wilbur was influential in the development of Stanfords School of Medicine, first as dean then as university president. Wilburs key academic focus was public health: studying the health of America and methods of bettering it. This interest showed clearly in both his work at Stanford and in the Hoover Administration, where he served as Secretary of the Interior.

Wilburs interest in public health, however, also inspired his support of eugenics, the science of human improvement through selective breeding. As historian Martin S. Pernick has argued, public health and eugenics often historically went hand-in-hand what better way could there be of creating an ideal population than controlling who could reproduce and who could be born? Besides being a member of many health associations, Wilbur was also a prominent figure in eugenic organizations, such as the American Eugenics Society and the Eugenics Research Association, and often combined these two pursuits. As he put it in his 1937 article on the health of Black people, a pair of healthy grandfathers and of healthy grandmothers is the greatest personal asset a human being can have. In the name of public health, eugenic policies were therefore a necessity to Wilbur: We would not dream of treating a strain of race horses, he argued before Stanford alumni in 1935, the way we treat ourselves.

This emphasis on eugenics as a form of public health advocacy manifested in Wilburs work in the Hoover Administration as well. As historian Wendy Klein recounts, Wilbur served as conference chair at the 1930 White House Conference on Child Health and Protection, a massive convention attended by thousands of experts on child health, development and education. In his opening speech, Wilbur used eugenic language to emphasize the importance of fit future citizenry, encouraging the United States to become a fitter country in which to bring up children. Wilbur was not just supporting the health of children; he was supporting the goal of breeding eugenically fit children. As he put it in a 1913 speech, Wilbur believed that the products of the marriage of the weak and the unfit, of the criminal, of the syphilis and of the alcohol that fill many of our most splendid governmental buildings must largely disappear.

One of Wilburs greatest contributions to Stanford University as president was the development of the Stanford University School of Medicine, turning it into an organization at the forefront of medical education as well as eugenic education. Wilbur believed that all medical students should be taught the science of eugenics. He encouraged medical universities to study both the health and economic impact of the physically and mentally handicapped, promoting extensive research on eugenics. He presented before the Medical Society of the State of California in 1922, and argued that physicians must be educated to understand the importance of eugenically fit genetic material, for if it deteriorates a family or a race soon dies out. This genetic material must therefore be protected through eugenic means such as the sterilization or segregation of the unfit. With his development of the medical school, Wilbur aimed to emphasize the necessity of racial health in the name of eugenics.

Wilbur was also deeply concerned with race relations and the role of the United States in international affairs. In a 1926 speech, he expressed fear that white women were degenerating and becoming incapable of producing breast milk due to a reliance on dairy milk when nursing. For Wilbur, this was exceptionally frightening as the Chinese, who were immigrating to the American West (to the displeasure of many eugenicists) continued to use breast milk with their babies. Wilbur saw this as a eugenic threat to white dominance. If dairy production were to be halted, Chinese populations would overtake white populations a eugenicists nightmare.

Wilburs concerns with Chinese immigration led him to chair a 1923 survey looking into the potential dangers of Asian immigration into the American West. This Survey of Race Relations, as it was called, was led by many Stanford affiliates, and its findings were presented at a conference on Stanfords campus. Looking at both Chinese and Japanese immigration, this study chaired by Wilbur sought to objectively determine the value of allowing Asian immigrants to travel, stay, and reproduce in the United States. In the end, the survey concluded that Asian immigration was, for the time being, acceptable due to the cheap labor immigrants provided, but interracial marriages and reproduction were deeply discouraged. These attempts to objectively determine the value of immigrants to society was emblematic of a larger eugenic trend to quantify the value of human existence.

Wilburs belief in public health and the objective research of racial health inspired his promotion of eugenic thought. His legacy shows clearly the interconnections of medicine, public health and eugenic thought, and how many projects in the name of human health with noble intent were shaped by racist and ableist assumptions. Though he was less explicitly racist than some of his peers at Stanford, Wilbur still promoted the sterilization of unwanted people and still studied the potential dangers of non-white immigration. Today, Wilbur Hall bears his name, honoring his presidency and contributions to the University. I cannot help but wonder how many residents of that hall would be deemed unwelcome by its namesake.

Contact Ben Maldonado at bmaldona at stanford.edu.

We're a student-run organization committed to providing hands-on experience in journalism, digital media and business for the next generation of reporters.Your support makes a difference in helping give staff members from all backgrounds the opportunity to develop important professional skills and conduct meaningful reporting. All contributions are tax-deductible.

Visit link:
Eugenics on the Farm: Ray Lyman Wilbur - The Stanford Daily