Warning: You're about to see Ms Marsh in all her glory.
Most people spend their birthday unwrapping presents from others.
However, Jodie has spent her special day unveiling herself.
Jodie Marsh has posed naked in Twitter pics for her birthdayThe TV personality's bodybuilder bod is on show to all of her 55,200 Twitter followers, after she posted the snaps for all to see on her account page.
Jodie, who turns 33 today, started posting the pics, adding a cheeky message with each one, including: "Wooohooo it's my birthday!!! Thanks for all the birthday messages everyone :-) I'm putting the naughty pics back up at 9am ;-) x x x
"Oi oi nakedness. What a way to start my birthday. Haha :-) x x x"
Many happy returns from all at Sky Living Online, JodesShe posted more pictures of her straddling a motorcycle, tweeting: "Me naked on my Harley x x", before announcing, "There. That's my present to all of you. Now what have you got me? Haha ;-) x x x x"
Well really Jodie, we can't imagine what we could buy the girl who has everything. You've got a body you're obviously extremely proud of, a group of pals who will happily strip off to show their support and a truckload of fans who do nothing but spend their days following your every move.
A bottle of Baileys just isn't going to cut it, is it?
While we try to work out what to send Jodie on her special day, have a look at more of her nuddy pics in our gallery below.
By Victoria Joy
Are you a fan of Jodie? Join the discussion on the Sky Living Facebook page, tweet us @SkyLivingOnline or sign up to our daily newsletter.
QB intercepted 4 times as Denver falls into tie with Oakland top AFC West
Gary Wiepert / AP
The Bills' Spencer Johnson (91) celebrates his touchdown after intercepting a pass from Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow.
By JOHN WAWROW
updated 6:52 p.m. ET Dec. 24, 2011
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. - Tim Tebow picked a terrible time to run out of fourth-quarter comebacks.
Rather than inspiring the Denver Broncos to another dramatic rally, the quarterback sealed the most dreadful performance of his two-year career by throwing four interceptions - all in the second half and two returned for touchdowns 18 seconds apart - in a 40-14 loss to the Buffalo Bills on Saturday.
It happened as the Broncos (8-7) had a chance to inch closer to clinching their first playoff berth in six years, and against a Bills team that was coming off seven straight losses and had little to play for.
"My confidence is just fine," Tebow said. "I have to do a better job of not giving them opportunities. I tried to make something happen, and I tried to force it."
Denver coach John Fox hasn't lost faith in Tebow.
"I just think a couple of misreads," Fox said.
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And no, he gave no thought of pulling Tebow at any point during a second half in which four of the Broncos' final six possessions ended with interceptions.
On the bright side, Denver's not done yet, despite falling into a tie with Oakland atop the AFC West. Denver closes its season by hosting the Kansas City Chiefs next week, and still holds the tiebreaker edge over the Raiders.
"Everything is still on the table," Tebow said. "We have to go and execute and play a little better. Hopefully, we can get in the tournament."
Tebow finished 13 of 30 for 185 yards with a 17-yard touchdown pass to Daniel Fells. He added 34 yards rushing, and scored on a 1-yard plunge.
That wasn't nearly good enough for a player who entered the game best known for engineering five fourth-quarter comebacks this season.
The Bills (6-9) made sure he never got in position for a sixth in coming away with a win in their home finale.
Safety Jairus Byrd and linebacker Spencer Johnson scored on interception returns 18 seconds apart midway through the fourth quarter. C.J. Spiller rushed for a career-best 111 yards and a touchdown, and Leodis McKelvin scored on an 80-yard punt return.
"It's special," Johnson said. "We had a monkey on our back for a long time."
Added safety George Wilson: "It's a great reward for the resilience, commitment and dedication."
The Bills' four interceptions were two more than they managed in their previous seven games. They have returned five interceptions for touchdowns to set a single-season franchise record.
If the game wasn't over with 8:03 left when Byrd jumped in front of Tebow's pass intended for Eric Decker up the left hash mark and returned it 37 yards for a touchdown, then it certainly was decided on the Broncos' next play from scrimmage.
Tebow was flushed from the pocket and was scrambling to his left when linebacker Chris Kelsay dived from behind and batted the ball out of the quarterback's hand. The ball flew into the air and landed in the hands of Johnson, who ran it in from 17 yards.
Kelsay, the longest-serving member of the defense, had two sacks and led the team with nine tackles.
"We've lost seven games in a row. It wears on you," Kelsay said. "We got rewarded. We came together and we executed."
After weeks of assertive defense, the Broncos gave up 40 points for a second straight game - though Tebow's giveaways certainly didn't help. And yet Denver allowed 160 yards rushing and 351 yards in all to a banged-up Bills offense that was averaging 14.2 points and 314.7 yards during its seven-game skid.
While Tebow was struggling, Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick enjoyed his most efficient game in two months by going 15 of 27 for 196 yards with no interceptions. Fitzpatrick entered the game taking plenty of heat during the seven-game skid, in which he threw eight touchdowns versus 12 interceptions.
Dave Rayner shook off two missed field-goal attempts - and a booing crowd - to hit his final four, all from within 29 yards.
"I'm glad that Coach stuck with me," Rayner said. "I'm glad that we got opportunities, because I never want to leave a game going oh-fer."
Except for scoring touchdowns on their first possession of each half, nothing went right for the Broncos.
They went nowhere in the first half after Tebow capped a 73-yard opening drive with a 1-yard run. Denver managed just 21 yards and no first downs on its final six possessions, including a kneeldown in the final seconds.
They finished converting just two of 13 third-down chances and Tebow had four of his final six drives end with interceptions.
NOTES: After McKelvin scored, Denver's Eddie Royal returned the ensuing kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown, but it was negated by a block in the back penalty against Dante Rosario. ... Broncos RB Willis McGahee had 64 yards rushing to give him 1,054 this season. He became the second NFL player to reach 1,000 yards rushing with three teams. He previously did it with Buffalo and Baltimore. Ricky Watters rushed for 1,000 yards with San Francisco, Philadelphia and Seattle. ... The Bills finished 5-3 at home (including a win over Washington at Toronto), matching their best record since going 5-3 in 2004.
? 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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For four teams, it's win and get in
PFT: After all the Christmas Eve fun, the Bengals, Broncos, Giants and Cowboys control their own playof destinies heading into the final week of the regular season.
He announced Friday that he's running for a fourth term in office. He was elected Bakersfield's 25th mayor in 2000 and was re-elected in 2004 and 2008.
Hall is CEO of Hall Ambulance Service Inc., which he founded in 1971.
"Being mayor has allowed me the privilege of accomplishing more for the Bakersfield community than I ever dreamed possible," Hall said in prepared remarks Friday.
As mayor, largely a ceremonial position, Hall has presented more than 1,300 proclamations, signed 5,778 certificates of recognition and has welcomed 703 new businesses with ribbon cuttings, he office said.
Fairfax Media has moved to recapture some recently lost real estate advertising revenue in Victoria through a merger with Metro Media Publishing (MMP).
MMP was founded by Antony Catalano and publishes The Weekly Review, which successfully took large real estate advertising dollars away from Fairfax's Melbourne Weekly when it launched in 2010.
Industry estimates suggest The Weekly Review took about $20 million in advertising revenue away from Fairfax.
Advertisement: Story continues below
Under the deal, which still requires Australian Competition and Consumer Commission approval, Fairfax would pay $35 million and fold its Fairfax Community Newspapers in Victoria into MMP.
Fairfax said it would own 50 per cent voting and economic interest in MMP after the transaction was completed.
Fairfax's statement on Friday said The Weekly Review was delivered to about 220,000 households.
MMP managing director Antony Catalano, a former senior executive at Fairfax's The Age newspaper in Melbourne, would continue in his current role, Fairfax said.
"This merger provides the opportunity to roll out Fairfax Media's Domain brand across the MMP titles, and to build a stronger internet and app presence for the local real estate industry," he said in a statement.
"Both MMP and Fairfax Media see a bright future for high-quality local print publications working closely with real estate agents, and an improved digital presence will only enhance this offering."
At 1214 AEDT Fairfax was up one cent, or 1.41 per cent, at 72 cents.
University of Manitoba Faculty Union Warns Students Not To Post Videos Of Classes Online
The University of Manitoba Faculty Union has warned the university's students that posting videos from classes to the web violates professors' intellectual property rights. Of particular concern is the website LocAZu, which hosts a number of such videos. More here from the Winnepeg Free Press and here?from the Chronicle of Higher Education.
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Dublin, Ireland ? It should have been Ireland's trial of the century: The elderly leader of a communist breakaway group from the IRA, whose former party comrades are now in government, sat accused by the US State Department of distributing ?superdollars? ? perfect forgeries of US dollars ? printed by the North Korean government to underwrite the dictatorship's failing economy, and, in some of the more thriller-like reports, to undermine the US economy at the same time.
And yet, other than the initial allegations, the long-running extradition battle barely registered in the press in Ireland or abroad. This morning, it drew to a close as Ireland's High Court ruled against extraditing former Irish political party leader Se?n Garland to the United States to face charges of distributing counterfeit dollars allegedly printed by North Korea.
Speaking at a hearing this morning, Justice John Edwards said the court would not grant the application and will furnish the reasons for doing so on Jan. 13. The decision had originally been due in October, after the hearing adjourned in July.
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Mr. Garland was indicted by the US for circulating North Korean forgeries of American $100 bills in the 1990s in cooperation with the Russian Communist Party and British criminal contacts. Garland denies the charges, and claims the American government wants to put him in Guant?namo Bay or, at the very least, a "Supermax" prison from which he will never see daylight again.
Garland was first arrested on the charges in Northern Ireland in 2005, but while awaiting extradition, he jumped bail and fled to the Republic of Ireland, where he lives. He was rearrested by Irish authorities in 2009.
The Rev. Chris Hudson, chair of the Stop the Extradition of Seán Garland campaign, today issued a statement supporting the judgment.
?This has been a horrendous six-year ordeal for Se?n, his family, and friends,? said Mr. Hudson, ?and I am delighted with the progress we have made today. I have always believed that the US extradition demand was a vindictive act by the former Bush administration designed to punish and isolate North Korea and anyone who had connections with that country.?
Speaking to The Christian Science Monitor in July, Mick Finngean, the current president of the Workers' Party, said the allegations against Garland were absurd and politically motivated, and the US justice system was too slanted. ?There?s no way Se?n Garland, given his opposition to [US foreign policy] and political beliefs, would get a fair trial,? he said. ?The most right-wing fanatics have already presumed him guilty.?
In his bid against extradition, the aging and ailing Mr. Garland gathered significant support across Ireland: 74 current and former lawmakers and many other prominent figures, from trade union leaders to entertainers, had stated their opposition to his being handed over to the US authorities.
The charges are rooted in the history of the Workers' Party, which in decades past, like many Soviet-aligned groups, maintained fraternal links with ruling parties in the Eastern bloc. In this case, the Workers' Party made contacts not only with the Soviet Union, but also with the North Korean regime.
A book documenting the party's rise and fall says the links went deeper than holidays paid for by Kim Il-sung, though. "The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers' Party" by Brian Hanley and Scott Millar claims more than a dozen members of its secretive armed wing, the Official IRA, receiving military training while in Korea in the late 1980s.
Mr. Finnegan disputed the idea of shady connections to the Kim regime. ?The connection to North Korea has always been of a humanitarian nature,? he says. ?And to promote trade and peace ? and we also saw it as a country that was partitioned, like Ireland,? he said.
But many people wonder why the US is putting such effort into going after the obscure figure of Se?n Garland, particularly now that his party has shrunk to a shadow of its former self, the Irish conflict has come to an end, and the cold war is a distant memory.
The answer may lie in the Workers? Party?s history as an offshoot of the IRA with Communist ties, says Mr. Millar. The Workers' Party was once the political wing of the Official IRA (OIRA), which "was fairly close to the Eastern bloc intelligence agencies," says Millar.
Millar?s co-author, historian Mr. Hanley, says the case is linked to ongoing US tensions and politicking over Korea. ?The cold war is over but the US is not finished with North Korea,? he says.
A major source of confusion is the alphabet soup of groups in Ireland styling themselves the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Garland?s group is not connected to the mainstream Provisional IRA ? now usually just referred to as the IRA ? from which the modern political party Sinn Fein evolved. In fact, both the PIRA and OIRA originated in a split in Irish republicanism in 1969.
The OIRA declared a ceasefire in 1972 to focus on its political arm, Official Sinn F?in, later renamed the Workers? Party. The Workers' Party saw electoral success in the Republic of Ireland, but by 1992, the party fractured over the end of the cold war and allegations that the OIRA was still active. Some reform-minded members quit to form a new party, Democratic Left, which eventually merged with Labor, leaving the hardline communist rump as a much reduced force that barely registered at the polls.
Ireland's deputy prime minister, Eamon Gilmore, is a former Democratic Left and Workers' Party member, as are several of his Labor party colleagues.
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ISLAMABAD - Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani has submitted his rejoinder to the Supreme Court, insisting that the ?memo is a reality? and an attempt to lower the morale of Pakistan?s armed forces. PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, who also submitted his reply along with Ishaq Dar, Ghaus Ali Shah and other petitioners, marinated that whatever he had stated and presented in the court was ?all correct?. He said that he supports Gen Kayani?s statement and Mansoor Ijaz?s reply but rejects Haqqani?s statement. ISI DG Lt-Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, who filed his reply late night, also stood by his earlier statement that their was undeniable evidence of a conspiracy against the army and the country and the matter should be probed thoroughly. The federal government, in their rejoinder, repeated that the President and the PM have no link with the memo issue, while challenging again the Supreme Court?s authority to hear the case. The defence ministry said in its rejoinder that in the memo case, the court should not involve or include Husain Haqqani, the main accused in the case, and Mansoor Ijaz, the man who stocked the whole controversy. The apex court had asked all the petitioners and respondents including, President, PM, COAS, ISI DG and others, to submit their rejoinders along with affidavits for the hearing of the memo case. Almost all have submitted their replies, but President Zardari has so far failed to comply with the court order. In the last hearing, the chief justice told the AGP that no reply in a civil case means acceptance of guilt. Sources said that President Zardari would not file his statement on memo case and the government would stick to its previous stance that it had submitted reply on behalf of the president. Talking to media, Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP) Maulvi Anwarul Haq said that Gen Kayani?s rejoinder had been submitted to the court. The AGP said that COAS stood firm on his previous stance in the rejoinder. In an affidavit submitted in the court, Kayani said that all his earlier statements were based on facts and nothing had been kept hidden from the court. In his rejoinder the army chief said that memo issue was about the national security and it was an attempt to lower the morale of army. The COAS also held that the reports regarding the memogate are correct and evidence is available of the contacts made in the context of the conspiracy. ?There is nothing denying the fact that the memo exists and it is also admitted to have been delivered and received by the US authorities. Therefore, there may be a need to fully examine the facts and circumstances leading to the conception and issuance of the Memo,? he writes. The COAS further stated the memo episode ?has an impact on national security and lowers the morale of Pakistan Army whose young officers and soldiers are laying down their lives for the security and defence of territorial integrity and political independence and sovereignty of Pakistan?. The federation, in its rejoinder, repeated that the President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani have nothing to do with the memo issue, ruling out that President Zardari was the originator of this memo. It again objected the Supreme Court jurisdiction to hear the memo scandal case under Article 184 (3) of the Constitution. According to the sources, President Zardari will not file his concise statement on memo scandal case and the government would take stand on its previous stance that it had submitted reply on behalf of the president. Nawaz Sharif in his rejoinder said that he had not sought stoppage of an inquiry being held by the parliament or administration, adding that in the same way parliament and administration could also not stop the court to play its constitutional role. He said that his petition was maintainable under article 184 of the constitution. Sharif, in his affidavit, wrote that the issue should be investigated because whatever said and written on the issue was ?all correct?. The PML-N chief further said that he did not file the petition in SC under any political agenda. Nawaz Sharif?s rejoinder says the reluctance on part of all the governmental functionaries concerned to seek resolution of an issue which has struck at the very roots of our state is rather enigmatic and the reaction of the respondent 1 and 2 to the said issue is no exception. It was reiterated that the petitioner never prayed that the Parliament or the executive be restrained from doing their bit in the matter in question nor the honourable court restrained them from exercising the authority resting in them vis-?-vis the said matter. The PML-N chief re-emphasised that the Parliament or the executive having, allegedly, taken cognisance of the said issue creates no bar on the court of law in the matter of discharging their constitutional or legal obligations. It was denied that the petition under Article 184(3) of the constitution was not maintainable. PML-N leaders also supported the reply of Mansoor Ijaz. Talking to media men at Supreme Court building, AGP Maulvi Anwarul mentioned that parliament and executive could not stop the proceedings of the Supreme Court on the memogate case. Barrister Zafarullah in his rejoinder to the affidavit of James Logan Jones said that his affidavit requires to be proved through cross-examination of James Jones and Husain Haqqani in the court to determine his affidavit?s veracity. He emphasised that his petition is based on fundamental rights and maintainable in the court. The court will take up the memo case today (Thursday). Asma Jahangir will appear on behalf of the main respondent Husain Haqqani and will also argue his miscellaneous application seeking recalling of the court?s Dec 1 order in ?memo? case. For the proper court decorum and smooth functioning, security measures have been taken at the premises of the Supreme Court. Entry of irrelevant persons shall not be allowed and no cellphone shall be allowed to be carried inside the courtroom.
FILE - In a Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011 file photo, Dan Johnson uses a hands-free device to talk on a cellphone while driving, in San Diego. The National Transportation Safety Board declared Tuesday, Dec. 13, that texting, emailing or chatting while driving is simply too dangerous to be allowed anywhere in the United States. But if lawmakers follow the advice of the federal board, police officers could be faced with decoding whether someone is using their cell phone or simply singing along to the radio, pleading with backseat children to stop fighting or reciting an important sales pitch. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)
FILE - In a Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011 file photo, Dan Johnson uses a hands-free device to talk on a cellphone while driving, in San Diego. The National Transportation Safety Board declared Tuesday, Dec. 13, that texting, emailing or chatting while driving is simply too dangerous to be allowed anywhere in the United States. But if lawmakers follow the advice of the federal board, police officers could be faced with decoding whether someone is using their cell phone or simply singing along to the radio, pleading with backseat children to stop fighting or reciting an important sales pitch. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)
FILE - In a Tuesday, June 24, 2008 file photo, a sign warning drivers that hands-free technology will be required starting July 1, displays its message over a highway in San Francisco. While most states have banned texting among drivers and a number have also prohibited hand-held phones, the Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011 recommendation from the National Transportation Safety Board is to outlaw all behind-the-wheel cell phone use, wireless or not. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
A driver uses a cellphone while driving Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011, in Los Angeles. The National Transportation Safety Board declared Tuesday that texting, emailing or chatting on a cellphone while driving is just too dangerous to be allowed anywhere in the United States and is urging all states to impose total bans except for emergencies. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
A motorist uses a cellphone while holding the steering wheel and a cigarette in her other hand while passing through an intersection Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011, in Houston. The National Transportation Safety Board declared Tuesday that texting, emailing or chatting on a cellphone while driving is just too dangerous to be allowed anywhere in the United States and is urging all states to impose total bans except for emergencies. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Dan Johnson uses a hands-free device to talk on a cellphone while driving Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011, in San Diego. Johnson, an operations manager, uses his cellphone while driving frequently for business. The National Transportation Safety Board declared Tuesday that texting, emailing or chatting while driving is simply too dangerous to be allowed anywhere in the United States. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) ? A driver in the next lane is moving his lips. Is he on a hands-free cellphone? Talking to someone in the car? To himself? Singing along to the radio?
If lawmakers follow the advice of a federal board, police officers will have to start figuring that out ? somehow.
The National Transportation Safety Board said this week that drivers should not only be barred from using hand-held cellphones, as they are in several states, but also from using hands-free devices. No more "Sorry, I'm stuck in traffic" calls, or virtually any other cellphone chatter behind the wheel.
Though no state has yet implemented such restrictive rules, the NTSB's recommendations carry weight that could place such language into future laws, or motivate the federal government to cut funding to states that don't follow suit.
Many of the men and women patrolling the nation's streets and highways wonder how they would sort the criminally chatty from the legally chatty.
"It would be almost impossible to determine if someone was talking on a phone or exercising their vocal cords," said Capt. Donald Melanson of the West Hartford, Conn., police department, which took part in a national pilot program aimed at cracking down on drivers' cellphone use. "That would be much more difficult to enforce, almost to the point where it would be impossible."
Officer Tom Nichols of the Port St. Lucie, Fla., police said a law written like the NTSB suggests would be difficult to enforce because so many variables would be at play.
"If you identify someone who has a hands-free set hooked up to their ear that doesn't mean they are talking on the phone," he said. "They could be talking to a passenger. They could be talking to a child in the back. They could be singing."
Police could end up turning to technology for help. They might even end up with the cellphone equivalent of a radar speed gun.
Fred Mannering, a Purdue University civil engineering professor who is associate director of the Center for Road Safety, said that since all cellphones emit signals, a simple Bluetooth detection device could spot them.
Computers are already common in patrol cars, and Mannering said a relatively cheap add-on could fit them to track cellphone signals.
"It would be really easy for police to have a computer on board and pick up those signals," Mannering said, "but it is sort of Big Brother."
The NTSB's proposal, announced Tuesday as a unanimous recommendation of its five-member board, urges all states to impose total bans except for emergencies. It cited deadly crashes caused by distracted drivers across the country, and noted that many studies have shown that hands-free cellphones are often as unsafe as hand-held devices.
The recommendation poses an astounding number of questions. What about chauffeurs and traveling salesmen who spend their entire day on the road? And roadside Amber Alert and Silver Alert notifications that implore drivers to call in if they spot a specific vehicle? What comes of phone lines dedicated to those "How's My Driving?" signs on trucks? How will you let someone know you're stuck in traffic?
Joe Schwieterman, a DePaul University professor who studies people's use of technology while traveling, said he can't envision a law so restrictive ever hitting the books because phone use has become commonplace for drivers. He called such an approach "draconian" and said that if such a law were passed, the public would despise it as "imperial overreach," then ignore it.
"It's a little like speeding laws where it will become just culturally acceptable to violate," he said. He said a no-call law would be followed only if violations carried stiff penalties like those for drunken driving.
Lewis Katz, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University, said a nationwide ban on using cellphones while driving would be wildly unpopular, and likely the target of legal challenges. But he believed such a law, and the methods police might use to enforce it, ultimately would be deemed as constitutional as seatbelt enforcement.
"I'm sure that it would be challenged on all sorts of constitutional grounds, including free speech," he said in a phone call from his car. "But it seems to me that it doesn't in any way infringe on any constitutional rights. It's a simple safety issue."
Whether the NTSB's recommendations will motivate decision-makers remains to be seen, but they have certainly caught their attention.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who has made combating distracted driving the signature issue of his tenure, stopped short of an endorsement. His department is separate from the NTSB.
"My focus is going to be on preaching to people: Take personal responsibility. Put your cellphone and your texting device in the glove compartment when you get behind the wheel of a car," LaHood told reporters at a news conference in Chicago. "You can't drive safely when you have your hand on a cellphone and are trying to drive a 4,000- 5,000 pound vehicle."
Florida House Speaker Dean Cannon, a Republican, said he was wary. His state is among those that have resisted passing laws restricting drivers' cellphone use.
Cannon said future technological advances may prove more effective than legislation at addressing driver distraction issues. As an example, he cited his new iPhone, which can make phone calls and send text messages via voice command.
"In these attempts to try and prevent every bad thing from happening," he said, "it's all too easy to overly restrict personal freedoms and individual rights and responsibilities."
Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, the top law enforcement official in Palm Beach County, Fla., said that if lawmakers take the NTSB's suggestions to heart, they should address all manner of distracted driving.
"I see women putting makeup on. I see a guy with an electric shaver. I see one woman with a newspaper. I see a guy with a dog in his hands. All of those are worse than texting," he said.
Monique Bond, a spokeswoman for the Illinois State Police, said training would be key to enforcing any ban. Officers are already looking for unbuckled seat belts and swerving drivers; they'd have to add to their mental checklists.
"It's something that is not insurmountable," Bond said. "How you're going to spot it, or how you're going to look for it ? you have to acclimate the troops and acclimate the operations as to how to do this."
Chief Walter McNeil of Quincy, Fla., president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, said enforcement of a total ban would be difficult, but that distracted driving needs to be addressed.
"We certainly need to deal with the overall problem with distracted drivers, and getting some level of uniformity in how we enforce that would be helpful," he said.
___
Associated Press writer Dave Collins in Hartford, Conn., contributed to this report.
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Aalto University researchers demonstrate an almost noiseless nanomechanical microwave amplifierPublic release date: 15-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Tero Heikkila Tero.Heikkila@aalto.fi 358-947-022-396 Aalto University
Physicists in Aalto University, Finland, have shown how a nanomechanical oscillator can be used for detection and amplification of feeble radio waves or microwaves. A measurement using such a tiny device, resembling a miniaturized guitar string, can be performed with the least possible disturbance. The results were recently published in the most prestigious scientific arena, the British journal Nature.
The researchers cooled the nanomechanical oscillator, thousand times thinner than a human hair, down to a low temperature near the absolute zero at -273 centigrade. Under such extreme conditions, even nearly macroscopic sized objects follow the laws of quantum physics which often contradict common sense. In the Low Temperature Laboratory experiments, the nearly billion atoms comprising the nanomechanical resonator were oscillating in pace in their shared quantum state.
The scientists had fabricated the device in contact with a superconducting cavity resonator, which exchanges energy with the nanomechanical resonator. This allowed amplification of their resonant motion. This is very similar to what happens in a guitar, where the string and the echo chamber resonate at the same frequency. Instead of the musician playing the guitar string, the energy source was provided by a microwave laser.
Microwaves get amplified by interaction of quantum oscillations
Researchers from the Low Temperature Laboratory, Aalto University, have shown how to detect and amplify electromagnetic signals almost noiselessly using a guitar-string like mechanical vibrating wire. In the ideal case the method adds only the minimum amount of noise required by quantum mechanics.
The presently used semiconductor transistor amplifiers are complicated and noisy devices, and operate far away from a fundamental disturbance limit set by quantum physics. The Low Temperature Laboratory scientists showed that by taking advantage of the quantum resonant motion, injected microwave radiation can be amplified with little disturbance. The principle hence allows for detecting much weaker signals than usually.
Any measurement method or device always adds some disturbance. Ideally, all the noise is due vacuum fluctuations predicted by quantum mechanics. In theory, our principle reaches this fundamental limit. In the experiment, we got very close to this limit, says Dr. Francesco Massel.
The discovery was actually quite unexpected. We were aiming to cool the nanomechanical resonator down to its quantum ground state. The cooling should manifest as a weakening of a probing signal, which we observed. But when we slightly changed the frequency of the microwave laser, we saw the probing signal to strengthen enormously. We had created a nearly quantum limited microwave amplifier, says Academy Research Fellow Mika Sillanp who planned the project and made the measurements.
Certain real-life applications will benefit from the better amplifier based on the new Aalto method, but reaching this stage requires more research effort. Most likely, the mechanical microwave amplifier will be first applied in related basic research, which will further expand our knowledge of the borderline between the everyday world and the quantum realm.
According to Academy Research Fellow Tero Heikkil, the beauty of the amplifier is in its simplicity: it consists of two coupled oscillators. Therefore, the same method can be realized in basically any media. By using a different structure of the cavity, one could detect terahertz radiation which would also be a major application.
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The research was carried out in the Low Temperature Laboratory, which belongs to the Aalto University School of Science, and is part of the Centre of Excellence in Low Temperature Quantum Phenomena and Devices of the Finnish Academy. The devices used in the measurements were fabricated by VTT Nanotechnologies and microsystems. The research was funded by the Finnish Academy, European Research Council ERC, and the European Union.
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Aalto University researchers demonstrate an almost noiseless nanomechanical microwave amplifierPublic release date: 15-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Tero Heikkila Tero.Heikkila@aalto.fi 358-947-022-396 Aalto University
Physicists in Aalto University, Finland, have shown how a nanomechanical oscillator can be used for detection and amplification of feeble radio waves or microwaves. A measurement using such a tiny device, resembling a miniaturized guitar string, can be performed with the least possible disturbance. The results were recently published in the most prestigious scientific arena, the British journal Nature.
The researchers cooled the nanomechanical oscillator, thousand times thinner than a human hair, down to a low temperature near the absolute zero at -273 centigrade. Under such extreme conditions, even nearly macroscopic sized objects follow the laws of quantum physics which often contradict common sense. In the Low Temperature Laboratory experiments, the nearly billion atoms comprising the nanomechanical resonator were oscillating in pace in their shared quantum state.
The scientists had fabricated the device in contact with a superconducting cavity resonator, which exchanges energy with the nanomechanical resonator. This allowed amplification of their resonant motion. This is very similar to what happens in a guitar, where the string and the echo chamber resonate at the same frequency. Instead of the musician playing the guitar string, the energy source was provided by a microwave laser.
Microwaves get amplified by interaction of quantum oscillations
Researchers from the Low Temperature Laboratory, Aalto University, have shown how to detect and amplify electromagnetic signals almost noiselessly using a guitar-string like mechanical vibrating wire. In the ideal case the method adds only the minimum amount of noise required by quantum mechanics.
The presently used semiconductor transistor amplifiers are complicated and noisy devices, and operate far away from a fundamental disturbance limit set by quantum physics. The Low Temperature Laboratory scientists showed that by taking advantage of the quantum resonant motion, injected microwave radiation can be amplified with little disturbance. The principle hence allows for detecting much weaker signals than usually.
Any measurement method or device always adds some disturbance. Ideally, all the noise is due vacuum fluctuations predicted by quantum mechanics. In theory, our principle reaches this fundamental limit. In the experiment, we got very close to this limit, says Dr. Francesco Massel.
The discovery was actually quite unexpected. We were aiming to cool the nanomechanical resonator down to its quantum ground state. The cooling should manifest as a weakening of a probing signal, which we observed. But when we slightly changed the frequency of the microwave laser, we saw the probing signal to strengthen enormously. We had created a nearly quantum limited microwave amplifier, says Academy Research Fellow Mika Sillanp who planned the project and made the measurements.
Certain real-life applications will benefit from the better amplifier based on the new Aalto method, but reaching this stage requires more research effort. Most likely, the mechanical microwave amplifier will be first applied in related basic research, which will further expand our knowledge of the borderline between the everyday world and the quantum realm.
According to Academy Research Fellow Tero Heikkil, the beauty of the amplifier is in its simplicity: it consists of two coupled oscillators. Therefore, the same method can be realized in basically any media. By using a different structure of the cavity, one could detect terahertz radiation which would also be a major application.
###
The research was carried out in the Low Temperature Laboratory, which belongs to the Aalto University School of Science, and is part of the Centre of Excellence in Low Temperature Quantum Phenomena and Devices of the Finnish Academy. The devices used in the measurements were fabricated by VTT Nanotechnologies and microsystems. The research was funded by the Finnish Academy, European Research Council ERC, and the European Union.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
LA Times featured an op-ed yesterday that is a must-read:
I want to apologize to President Obama. But first, some background.
I found out three weeks ago I have cancer. I?m 49 years old, have been married for almost 20 years and have two kids. My husband has his own small computer business, and I run a small nonprofit in the San Fernando Valley. I am also an artist. Money is tight, and we don?t spend it frivolously. We?re just ordinary, middle-class people, making an honest living, raising great kids and participating in our community, the kids? schools and church.
We?re good people, and we work hard. But we haven?t been able to afford health insurance for more than two years. And now I have third-stage breast cancer and am facing months of expensive treatment.
To understand how such a thing could happen to a family like ours, I need to take you back nine years to when my husband got laid off from the entertainment company where he?d worked for 10 years. Until then, we had been insured through his work, with a first-rate plan. After he got laid off, we got to keep that health insurance for 18 months through COBRA, by paying $1,300 a month, which was a huge burden on an unemployed father and his family.
By the time the COBRA ran out, my husband had decided to go into business for himself, so we had to purchase our own insurance. That was fine for a while. Every year his business grew. But insurance premiums were steadily rising too. More than once, we switched carriers for a lower rate, only to have them raise rates significantly after a few months.
snip
Fortunately for me, I?ve been saved by the federal government?s Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan, something I had never heard of before needing it. It?s part of President Obama?s healthcare plan, one of the things that has already kicked in, and it guarantees access to insurance for U.S. citizens with preexisting conditions who have been uninsured for at least six months. The application was short, the premiums are affordable, and I have found the people who work in the administration office to be quite compassionate (nothing like the people I have dealt with over the years at other insurance companies.) It?s not perfect, of course, and it still leaves many people in need out in the cold. But it?s a start, and for me it?s been a lifesaver ? perhaps literally.
Which brings me to my apology. I was pretty mad at Obama before I learned about this new insurance plan. I had changed my registration from Democrat to Independent, and I had blacked out the top of the ?h? on my Obama bumper sticker, so that it read, ?Got nope? instead of ?got hope.? I felt like he had let down the struggling middle class. My son and I had campaigned for him, but since he took office, we felt he had let us down.
So this is my public apology. I?m sorry I didn?t do enough of my own research to find out what promises the president has made good on. I?m sorry I didn?t realize that he really has stood up for me and my family, and for so many others like us. I?m getting a new bumper sticker to cover the one that says ?Got nope.? It will say ?ObamaCares.?
(read the rest)
As more and more people find out about the benefits of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Republicans are going to find it difficult to continue the ?Repeal Obaaaaahmaacare? siren song. And the fact that health insurers are cutting their lobbying costs because the Department of Health and Human Services has stated that such lobbying costs cannot be counted as providing healthcare is just icing on the cake.
From The People?s View,
Their lobbying scheme didn?t work. They know it and are finally resigning to the fact that health reform is the law of the land and that they are going to have to comply with it. And since they can?t count lobbying costs as providing you with health care, lobbying costs are now in direct competition with shareholder gain. If the insurance companies want to make more money but can?t do it by kicking people off their insurance or counting everything and its mother as a ?health care cost,? there are only a few ways of doing it: cut administrative costs (hello, industry lobbyists, hi! Waving atcha!), and raise revenue by attracting more customers in a level playing field.
As many of you know, I have a microprolactinoma (a pituitary tumor). Navigating the health insurance industry over the past 6 years has been a pain in the ass. I?ve wrangled with Blue Shield and I?ve been horrified by Kaiser Permanente, and the experience has left me disheartened, frustrated, and often in tears. I have found myself calculating how much time I will allow for the drugs to work and shrink the damn thing in my brain before I decide to have it surgically removed just so the procedure will be covered by insurance. It?s insane.
No one should be forced to make a significant health decision that includes life-threatening surgery simply because they don?t have the time to let non-surgical options run their course, and they won?t be able to pay for surgery should they need it. So I am very grateful to President Obama for the government?s pre-existing condition insurance plan because when my COBRA runs out, I?m going to need it.
[cross-posted at Angry Black Lady Chronicles]
December 6, 2011 1:29 pm
Posted?in:?World's Best Healthcare (If You Can Afford It)
?41 Comments
LONDON (Reuters) ? Britain's Turner Prize, one of the world's top contemporary art honors, is awarded later on Monday, and for only the second time in its 27-year history the ceremony will be held outside London.
The host in 2011 is the BALTIC gallery in Gateshead, northern England, where celebrity photographer Mario Testino will present the prize.
The move outside the capital has been welcomed, both for underlining that it is a national, not London honor and for the quality of the space dedicated to the Turner show.
"The Baltic in Gateshead has had its ups and downs, but the Turner looks happier there than it ever has in the tomb-like Tate Britain," said Charles Darwent, writing in the Independent on Sunday newspaper.
"Of course, the Tate is still behind the prize, but you wouldn't necessarily guess it. I can't recall a stronger show over the past 27 years, better chosen, better displayed, more poised or grown-up."
The four nominees for the award, which comes with a 25,000 pound cheque and contemporary art celebrity status in Britain and beyond, are Karla Black, Martin Boyce, Hilary Lloyd and George Shaw.
Glasgow-based Boyce, whose sculptural installation combines the outside feel of a park with interior design and high modernism, is the bookmakers' favorite.
He is closely followed by Shaw, the only painter among the nominees, who evokes bleak urban landscapes of crumbling buildings and wasteland in small, detailed images.
A long way behind in terms of betting odds, but popular among the critics, is Black, whose fragile installations involve see-through cellophane "curtains" and huge mounds of paper colored in powdered paint.
Finally, Lloyd's room of video works deliberately draws the viewer's gaze to the technology she uses as well as the images they project.
Whoever wins the prize, some in the art world feel 2011 has helped put the Turner Prize back on the cultural map.
In the past it has been dismissed as "emperor's new clothes," and previous winners include Martin Creed, whose exhibit in 2001 was an empty room with lights going on and off.
Three years earlier Chris Ofili triumphed with paintings propped up on elephant dung.
But it has also helped launch the careers of some of Britain's leading contemporary artists, including Damien Hirst, who won in 1995, Steve McQueen (1999) and Antony Gormley (1994).
Richard Dorment of the Telegraph wrote of this year's show: "Here's a turn up. Just when I thought the Turner Prize couldn't get more irrelevant if it tried, bingo, along comes a first-class shortlist and an exhibition as good as any I've seen in two decades of reviewing the event."
(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)
According to a recent Gallup poll, three out of four Americans believe U.S. health care coverage has major problems or is in crisis. When asked what the most urgent health problem facing the country is, most Americans name access and costs, far ahead of both cancer and obesity. Others, however, believe the greatest problems facing health care are actually government interference and the size of the government's health care budget.
For these reasons, the candidates seeking the Republican presidential nomination were asked what about their views of U.S. health care coverage.
Here is what they said, according to the CNN-Tea Party debate transcript:
* Mitt Romney: "I'd reform Medicare and reform Medicaid and reform Social Security to get them on a sustainable basis, not for current retirees, but for those in their 20s and 30s and early 50s. But the key to balancing the budget -- and we talk about all the waste in government and the inefficiency. And having spent 25 years in business, I know something about taking waste out of enterprises. I'd love to do that to the federal government. And there is massive waste. But we're not going to balance the budget just by pretending that all we have to do is take out the waste. We're going to have to cut spending. And I'm in favor of cutting spending, capping federal spending as a percentage of GDP, at 20 percent or less, and having a balanced budget amendment. That's essential to rein in the scale of the federal government. ... The right answer for America is to stop the growth of the federal government and to start the growth of the private sector."
* Newt Gingrich: "Anybody who knows anything about the federal government knows that there's such an enormous volume of waste, that if you simply had a serious all-out effort to modernize the federal government, you would have hundreds of billions of dollars of savings falling off. ? The federal government is such a bad manager of money, that somewhere between $70 billion and $120 billion a year in Medicare and Medicaid is paid to crooks. We wrote a book several years ago called "Stop Paying the Crooks." I thought it was pretty obvious even for Washington. So I would start to balance the budget by stop paying the crooks, not by cheating honest Americans."
* Rick Santorum: "The idea that unless we have a government-run, one-size-fits-all Medicare program, that that's throwing grandma off a cliff, is Washington think -- is people who think in Washington this president, who believes that they know better than you how to run your life and how to purchase your health care. I trust you, I trust the American people. That is the greatness of our country."
*Ron Paul: "In a society that you accept welfarism and socialism, he (a young person with no health insurance) expects the government to take care of him. ? But what he should do is whatever he wants to do, and assume responsibility for himself. My advice to him would be to have a major medical policy."
CNN debate moderator Wolf Blitzer then asked Paul a follow-up question: Should society just allow a person with no health insurance to die?
* Paul: "That's what freedom is all about, taking your own risks. This whole idea that you have to prepare and take care of everybody."
It's Cyber Monday all month long, at least according to Amazon, which announced its new holiday deals vertical this morning, residing at www.amazon.com/flurrydeals. The site currently features decently discounted items as an extension of the Cyber Monday promotion. But starting this Sunday, Amazon will begin offering category-specific daily deals. It's even providing an email sign-up form so shoppers won't miss the sales.
New child-adapted Chagas disease treatment approved for registrationPublic release date: 2-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Oliver Yun oyun@dndi.org 646-266-5216 Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative
This release is available in Portuguese and Spanish.
Rio de Janeiro and Recife, Brazil, and Geneva, Switzerland 2 December 2011 -- Today, at the occasion of the 4th DNDi Partners' Meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Dr Carlos Gadelha, Secretary of Science, Technology and Strategic Products, Brazilian Ministry of Health, announced that Brazil's National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA) granted registration of a new paediatric dosage form of benznidazole, developed through a partnership between the Pernambuco State Pharmaceutical Laboratory (LAFEPE) of Brazil and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi). Registration of this child-adapted formulation of benznidazole will be published on 12 December 2011.
This new tablet means easier-to-administer and safer treatment of Chagas disease in infants and young children under the age of two, as they will receive accurate dosage.
Until today, benznidazole was available only as a 100-mg tablet for adults. Treatment for young children required cutting adult pills into tiny slivers up to 12 pieces depending on the child's weight and crushing and mixing them with water or juice, to be administered twice a day for 60 days. This difficult and inefficient method often results in improper dosing, risks of increased side-effects or ineffective treatment, and treatment stoppages.
Chagas disease infects an estimated 8 to 10 million people, mostly in Latin America, and kills some 12,000 people each year, making it the leading parasitic killer in the Americas, where it causes more deaths than malaria. The Chagas parasite is primarily transmitted via the bite of the blood-sucking triatome bug, widely known as the 'kissing bug', which is often found in poor housing conditions. In addition to blood transfusion, organ transplant, or ingesting infected food, the parasite is also transmitted during pregnancy from mother to child.
This new dosage form for children represents real progress for several reasons. Children are at especially high risk of infection, with a majority of them born from infected mothers. It is known that early treatment using benznidazole in the first year of life can eliminate the parasite in more than 90% of infected newborns. Thus, babies infected with Chagas disease will benefit the most from this new paediatric tablet.
'Thousands of mothers with Chagas disease-infected babies will welcome this as more than just a pill', says Manuel Gutirrez, President of the International Federation of Chagas Patients. 'Their voices have finally been heard.'
The new 12.5-mg tablet is easily dispersible (disintegrated) and adapted for babies and children up to two years of age (20 kg body weight). Treatment is designed to use one, two, or three tablets, depending on weight (recommended dosage, 5-10 mg/kg bodyweight/day).
'The presentation of this paediatric dosage form of benznidazole, as a final result of the collaborative project between DNDi and LAFEPE, opens possibilities for effective treatment [] for thousands of children', says Dr Mirta Roses Periago, Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). 'From now on, hope of an early cure for infection of the parasite that causes Chagas disease is a wonderful reality.'
Tools to facilitate implementation of and access to the new treatment include a Demand Forecast, a Procurement Guide, and a Tool Box providing training and educational materials for doctors, other health professionals, mothers, and caregivers regarding appropriate use of the treatment.
In 2008, DNDi and LAFEPE entered a joint development agreement for this dosage form. The new tablet will be produced by LAFEPE, a public pharmaceutical manufacturer run by the State of Pernambuco in Brazil and the sole global producer of benznidazole.
'We will exert all efforts, regarding commercial aspects, towards rapid patient access of this drug', says Luciano Vasquez, President of LAFEPE. 'It will be offered at cost to all public health institutions, including the Ministry of Health of Brazil.' Indeed, the paediatric dosage form will also be made available at cost to non-governmental organizations and philanthropic institutions.
The new paediatric dosage form has been granted registration from Brazil's National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA), and DNDi is collaborating with LAFEPE to make the drug widely available, notably by working to register the drug in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, and Paraguay priority countries where Chagas disease prevalence is high and treatment is urgently needed.
'At a time when efforts are being made to secure production of benznidazole, we must ensure that this new product is made available in all endemic areas and that treatment of children is rapidly expanded, in addition to the treatment of adults', says Dr Bernard Pcoul, Executive Director of DNDi. 'With this new tablet, we can reach a turning point for the treatment of children infected with Chagas disease and we have to move rapidly to get the drug to them.'
###
The project received funding support from the Department for International Development (DFID), UK; the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DGIS), The Netherlands; Mdecins Sans Frontires/Doctors without Borders (International, Italy, Brazil); the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), Spain; the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Switzerland; the United States Agency for International Development, via the 4th Sector Health Project implemented by Abt Associates, Inc.; Swiss private foundations and individual donors.
About Chagas Disease
Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis) infects an estimated 8 to 10 million people, mostly in Latin America, where it is endemic in 21 countries. It kills some 12,000 people each year, making it the leading parasitic killer in the Americas. The people most affected by the disease are very poor and live in inadequate housing conditions and often have little access to healthcare. Cases are also rising in North America, Europe, Japan, and Australia. Caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, Chagas disease starts with an early, acute stage lasting about two months, and is followed by a late, chronic stage lasting through lifetime, in which up to 30% of patients develop heart damage and up to 10% may have severe damage to their digestive system. In early adulthood, patients with these symptoms ultimately die, usually from heart damage. The Chagas parasite is primarily transmitted via the bite of the blood-sucking triatome bug, sometimes called the 'kissing bug'. Chagas is also transmitted by blood transfusion, organ transplantation, oral ingestion, or during pregnancy from mother to newborn. The latter, congenital Chagas disease, is considered to represent the most important mode of transmission of the coming years, and it is estimated that over 14,000 new such cases occur annually.
About LAFEPE
Pernambuco State Pharmaceutical Laboratory (Laboratrio Farmacutico do Estado de Pernambuco; LAFEPE) is the second largest public laboratory in Brazil. LAFEPE was created in 1966 to produce medicines at low cost for people with limited purchasing power. Based in Recife, the capital of the state of Pernambuco in northeastern Brazil, LAFEPE focuses on developing, producing, and marketing drugs to support the needs of public health policy. For example, in 1994, it became the first official laboratory in Brazil to produce the antiretroviral zidovudine (AZT). The Pernambuco laboratory invests in the modernization of its facilities, with high-tech industrial equipment. Its pioneering programme, 'Popular Pharmacy', set up in popular market areas in different regions of the state, serves as a model for the federal government. www.lafepe.pe.gov.br
About DNDi
The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) is a not-for-profit research and development organization working to deliver new treatments for neglected diseases, in particular sleeping sickness (human African trypanosomiasis), Chagas disease, leishmaniasis, specific helminth infections, and paediatric HIV. DNDi was established in 2003 by Mdecins Sans Frontires/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ) from Brazil, Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), Ministry of Health of Malaysia, and Pasteur Institute of France. The Special Programme for Tropical Disease Research (TDR) serves as a permanent observer. Since 2003, DNDi has delivered five new treatments for neglected patients: two fixed-dose antimalarials (ASAQ and ASMQ), nifurtimox-eflornithine combination therapy (NECT) for late-stage sleeping sickness, sodium stibogluconate and paromomycin (SSG&PM) combination therapy for visceral leishmaniasis in Africa, and a set of combination therapies for visceral leishmaniasis in Asia. The new paediatric dosage form of benznidazole is now the sixth treatment delivered by DNDi since its inception eight years ago. www.dndi.org
Media contacts:
DNDi Latin America, Rio de Janeiro (Spanish, Portuguese, English): Flavio Pontes (on site)
office: +55 21 2215 2941 / mobile: +55 21 8123 4133 / email: press@dndi.org.br
DNDi North America, New York (English): Oliver Yun
office: +1-646-616-8681 / mobile: +1-646-266-5216 / email: oyun@dndi.org
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
New child-adapted Chagas disease treatment approved for registrationPublic release date: 2-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Oliver Yun oyun@dndi.org 646-266-5216 Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative
This release is available in Portuguese and Spanish.
Rio de Janeiro and Recife, Brazil, and Geneva, Switzerland 2 December 2011 -- Today, at the occasion of the 4th DNDi Partners' Meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Dr Carlos Gadelha, Secretary of Science, Technology and Strategic Products, Brazilian Ministry of Health, announced that Brazil's National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA) granted registration of a new paediatric dosage form of benznidazole, developed through a partnership between the Pernambuco State Pharmaceutical Laboratory (LAFEPE) of Brazil and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi). Registration of this child-adapted formulation of benznidazole will be published on 12 December 2011.
This new tablet means easier-to-administer and safer treatment of Chagas disease in infants and young children under the age of two, as they will receive accurate dosage.
Until today, benznidazole was available only as a 100-mg tablet for adults. Treatment for young children required cutting adult pills into tiny slivers up to 12 pieces depending on the child's weight and crushing and mixing them with water or juice, to be administered twice a day for 60 days. This difficult and inefficient method often results in improper dosing, risks of increased side-effects or ineffective treatment, and treatment stoppages.
Chagas disease infects an estimated 8 to 10 million people, mostly in Latin America, and kills some 12,000 people each year, making it the leading parasitic killer in the Americas, where it causes more deaths than malaria. The Chagas parasite is primarily transmitted via the bite of the blood-sucking triatome bug, widely known as the 'kissing bug', which is often found in poor housing conditions. In addition to blood transfusion, organ transplant, or ingesting infected food, the parasite is also transmitted during pregnancy from mother to child.
This new dosage form for children represents real progress for several reasons. Children are at especially high risk of infection, with a majority of them born from infected mothers. It is known that early treatment using benznidazole in the first year of life can eliminate the parasite in more than 90% of infected newborns. Thus, babies infected with Chagas disease will benefit the most from this new paediatric tablet.
'Thousands of mothers with Chagas disease-infected babies will welcome this as more than just a pill', says Manuel Gutirrez, President of the International Federation of Chagas Patients. 'Their voices have finally been heard.'
The new 12.5-mg tablet is easily dispersible (disintegrated) and adapted for babies and children up to two years of age (20 kg body weight). Treatment is designed to use one, two, or three tablets, depending on weight (recommended dosage, 5-10 mg/kg bodyweight/day).
'The presentation of this paediatric dosage form of benznidazole, as a final result of the collaborative project between DNDi and LAFEPE, opens possibilities for effective treatment [] for thousands of children', says Dr Mirta Roses Periago, Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). 'From now on, hope of an early cure for infection of the parasite that causes Chagas disease is a wonderful reality.'
Tools to facilitate implementation of and access to the new treatment include a Demand Forecast, a Procurement Guide, and a Tool Box providing training and educational materials for doctors, other health professionals, mothers, and caregivers regarding appropriate use of the treatment.
In 2008, DNDi and LAFEPE entered a joint development agreement for this dosage form. The new tablet will be produced by LAFEPE, a public pharmaceutical manufacturer run by the State of Pernambuco in Brazil and the sole global producer of benznidazole.
'We will exert all efforts, regarding commercial aspects, towards rapid patient access of this drug', says Luciano Vasquez, President of LAFEPE. 'It will be offered at cost to all public health institutions, including the Ministry of Health of Brazil.' Indeed, the paediatric dosage form will also be made available at cost to non-governmental organizations and philanthropic institutions.
The new paediatric dosage form has been granted registration from Brazil's National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA), and DNDi is collaborating with LAFEPE to make the drug widely available, notably by working to register the drug in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, and Paraguay priority countries where Chagas disease prevalence is high and treatment is urgently needed.
'At a time when efforts are being made to secure production of benznidazole, we must ensure that this new product is made available in all endemic areas and that treatment of children is rapidly expanded, in addition to the treatment of adults', says Dr Bernard Pcoul, Executive Director of DNDi. 'With this new tablet, we can reach a turning point for the treatment of children infected with Chagas disease and we have to move rapidly to get the drug to them.'
###
The project received funding support from the Department for International Development (DFID), UK; the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DGIS), The Netherlands; Mdecins Sans Frontires/Doctors without Borders (International, Italy, Brazil); the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), Spain; the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Switzerland; the United States Agency for International Development, via the 4th Sector Health Project implemented by Abt Associates, Inc.; Swiss private foundations and individual donors.
About Chagas Disease
Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis) infects an estimated 8 to 10 million people, mostly in Latin America, where it is endemic in 21 countries. It kills some 12,000 people each year, making it the leading parasitic killer in the Americas. The people most affected by the disease are very poor and live in inadequate housing conditions and often have little access to healthcare. Cases are also rising in North America, Europe, Japan, and Australia. Caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, Chagas disease starts with an early, acute stage lasting about two months, and is followed by a late, chronic stage lasting through lifetime, in which up to 30% of patients develop heart damage and up to 10% may have severe damage to their digestive system. In early adulthood, patients with these symptoms ultimately die, usually from heart damage. The Chagas parasite is primarily transmitted via the bite of the blood-sucking triatome bug, sometimes called the 'kissing bug'. Chagas is also transmitted by blood transfusion, organ transplantation, oral ingestion, or during pregnancy from mother to newborn. The latter, congenital Chagas disease, is considered to represent the most important mode of transmission of the coming years, and it is estimated that over 14,000 new such cases occur annually.
About LAFEPE
Pernambuco State Pharmaceutical Laboratory (Laboratrio Farmacutico do Estado de Pernambuco; LAFEPE) is the second largest public laboratory in Brazil. LAFEPE was created in 1966 to produce medicines at low cost for people with limited purchasing power. Based in Recife, the capital of the state of Pernambuco in northeastern Brazil, LAFEPE focuses on developing, producing, and marketing drugs to support the needs of public health policy. For example, in 1994, it became the first official laboratory in Brazil to produce the antiretroviral zidovudine (AZT). The Pernambuco laboratory invests in the modernization of its facilities, with high-tech industrial equipment. Its pioneering programme, 'Popular Pharmacy', set up in popular market areas in different regions of the state, serves as a model for the federal government. www.lafepe.pe.gov.br
About DNDi
The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) is a not-for-profit research and development organization working to deliver new treatments for neglected diseases, in particular sleeping sickness (human African trypanosomiasis), Chagas disease, leishmaniasis, specific helminth infections, and paediatric HIV. DNDi was established in 2003 by Mdecins Sans Frontires/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ) from Brazil, Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), Ministry of Health of Malaysia, and Pasteur Institute of France. The Special Programme for Tropical Disease Research (TDR) serves as a permanent observer. Since 2003, DNDi has delivered five new treatments for neglected patients: two fixed-dose antimalarials (ASAQ and ASMQ), nifurtimox-eflornithine combination therapy (NECT) for late-stage sleeping sickness, sodium stibogluconate and paromomycin (SSG&PM) combination therapy for visceral leishmaniasis in Africa, and a set of combination therapies for visceral leishmaniasis in Asia. The new paediatric dosage form of benznidazole is now the sixth treatment delivered by DNDi since its inception eight years ago. www.dndi.org
Media contacts:
DNDi Latin America, Rio de Janeiro (Spanish, Portuguese, English): Flavio Pontes (on site)
office: +55 21 2215 2941 / mobile: +55 21 8123 4133 / email: press@dndi.org.br
DNDi North America, New York (English): Oliver Yun
office: +1-646-616-8681 / mobile: +1-646-266-5216 / email: oyun@dndi.org
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Public release date: 15-Dec-2011
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December 6, 2011 1:29 pm
Posted?in:?World's Best Healthcare (If You Can Afford It)
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41 Comments
It's Cyber Monday all month long, at least according to Amazon, which announced its new holiday deals vertical this morning, residing at