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BREAKTHROUGH: Safe Breastfeeding Possible for Mothers with HIV! 

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United States: A leading US pediatricians’ group said that people with HIV can breastfeed their babies if they are regularly taking medicines to prevent the AIDS virus from spreading. 

What more have the experts to say? 

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) who has overturned the older recommendations, that were in place since the beginning of the HIV epidemic in the 1980s. 

Dr. Lisa Abuogi, who is a pediatric HIV expert working at the University of Colorado and also a lead author of the report, explained that the regular intake of prescribed medication successfully reduces the risk of spreading HIV while breastfeeding a child to less than one percent. 

Abuogi added, “The medications are so good now, and the benefits for mom and baby are so important that we are at a point where it is important to engage in shared decision-making,” as AP News reported. 

Safe Breastfeeding Possible for Mothers with HIV. Credit | Reuters
Safe Breastfeeding Possible for Mothers with HIV. Credit | Reuters

Abuogi included treatment through a therapy called ‘antiretroviral therapy’ that doesn’t remove the danger of the possible spread of HIV through milk from the mother’s breasts. Therefore, not breastfeeding if the person is infected with the virus is the only remaining option. 

Importance of breastfeeding to babies 

Further, at present, experts recommend that parents breastfeed only the babies for the initial six months since birth. The reason cited is that switching to formula milk might cause a disruption in several ways inside the gut of an infant, thereby raising the risk of HIV infection. 

In the US, every year, around 5,000 people with HIV give birth, and almost every one of them takes drugs to prevent the virus from spreading, decreasing its presence to a very low level. Moreover, as per experts, if the drug intake is stopped, then the virus levels are likely to increase, as AP News reported. 

According to Dr. Lynne Mofenson, an adviser to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, about a decade ago, when the medications were not widely known and available, in more than 30 percent of breastfeeding cases, HIV infection gets transmitted from moms to babies. 

More about the AAP policy 

The AAP policy takes place weeks after the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about-face on the issue of people with HIV breastfeeding. The guidance noted individuals who generate consistent viral suppression should be advised on their choices. 

It also highlights that healthcare professionals should not try to contact the authorities of child protective services if the parent wants to breastfeed if he/she has HIV. 

The aim cited was to listen to patients “and not blame or shame them,” said Dr. Lynn Yee, a Northwestern University professor of obstetrics and gynecology who helped draft the NIH guidance. 

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Marburg Outbreak Claims 11 Lives – Is a Global Crisis Looming? 

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Marburg Outbreak Claims 11 Lives - Is a Global Crisis Looming? Credit | USNews

United States: In East African countries, health authorities said on Thursday that 11 people had died from Marburg hemorrhagic fever, a disease first found in patients using health facilities. 

The latest Rwandan government update indicates 36 cases of disease that looks like Ebola, with 25 of them in isolation. 

More about the news 

On September 27, Rwanda declared an outbreak and on the next day reported six deaths, US News reported. 

The first cases were found among patients in health facilities and authorities said an investigation was being carried out “to determine the origin of the infection.” 

However, it’s unclear where the source of the outbreak is, causing fears that the virus is spreading through a small central African nation.  

Stopping the spread of viral hemorrhagic fevers like Marburg depends upon the isolation of patients and their contacts. 

Cases in Kigali, the Rwandan capital, would be risky to international spread since the city has an international airport and is connected by road to other cities in East Africa, the World Health Organization has warned. 

What more are the experts stating?  

According to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a regular briefing on Thursday while referring to the Marburg outbreak in Rwanda, “WHO assesses the risk of this outbreak as very high at the national level, high at the regional level and low at the global level,” US News reported.  

The news is testimony to growing international concern over the outbreak, with two people in the northern German city of Hamburg isolated after returning from Rwanda, where they’d been in a medical facility alongside patients with Marburg virus, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control said in a statement Thursday. 

The ECDC statement said both tested negative for the virus. 

Concern about the virus led authorities to cordon off two tracks of a railway station at which two people had arrived, German media reports said. 

The other was a young medical student who had suffered symptoms of the disease and contacted doctors from the train. 

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Abortion Rights Fundraising Blitz: Will It Secure Victory? 

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Abortion Rights Fundraising Blitz: Will It Secure Victory? Credit | US News

United States: Supporters of the abortion rights ballot measures across the country have raised nearly eight times what opponents are spending to try to halt the amendments on the November ballots.  

The advantage could be small, however, and it may not give Florida an edge down the stretch in the most expensive of the nine statewide campaigns to ensure abortion rights are written into state constitutions.  

More about the news  

So far, campaign finance data compiled by the watchdog group Open Secrets and analyzed by The Associated Press tells a similar story in most of those states: As of reports aggregated Tuesday, backers of the amendment brought in nearly USD 108 million, compared with USD 14 million for their opponents, and also raised multiples of as much money and had multiples more donors. 

However, in the final weeks before the November 5 elections, it’s not certain that this will result in further spending to push the measures in every state. 

According to Kelly Hall, who is an executive director of The Fairness Project, which is providing money and other support for abortion rights groups in several of the campaigns, “The apparent differential on campaign finance reports does nothing to reassure me that we will not see large, late spending on these campaigns,” US News reported. 

Abortion Rights Fundraising Blitz: Will It Secure Victory? Credit | AP

Abortion Rights Fundraising Blitz: Will It Secure Victory? Credit | AP

What are the impact of measures? 

The measures would roll back restrictions in some states and provide protections in others in a few others’ constitutions, post SC’s 2022 ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. 

After the ruling, most of the GOP-controlled states banned or restricted most of their rights. 

Some of the most Democratic-controlled ones provided at least some protections for abortion access. 

The ballot measures could also encourage turnout in the elections. The money would then go to ads and elsewhere. 

This puts campaigns with more money ahead on ads on TV, radio, and websites, by mailers and yard signs, and so forth, as well as in terms of other organizing power in things like door knocking. 

Data collected by the media tracking firm AdImpact showed that big funding advantages so far have translated into far more ad buys in Missouri and Montana, US News reported. 

The Open Secrets data also show abortion rights groups have raised more than USD 5 million in Missouri, and state filing shows millions in more contributions, including USD 1 million from former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. 

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Is Cancer Getting Younger? Alarming Data Raises Concerns

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Is Cancer Getting Younger? Alarming Data Raises Concerns. Credit | Getty Images

United States: According to the scientists at the American Cancer Society, Gen-x and Millenials in the US have higher chances of developing seventeen of the thirty-four cancer types as compared to older generations. 

More about the news

The report suggests that almost 80,000 young adults whose ages lie between 20 to 39 are diagnosed with cancer in the US. 

The researchers stated, “Although we have identified cancer trends associated with birth years, we don’t yet have a clear explanation for why these rates are rising,” CBS News reported. 

Therefore, the findings raise a major question about whether cancer is becoming common in the younger generation. 

What more are the experts stating?

According to Dr. Jason Molitoris, an oncologist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, “There is clear evidence that’s been published in the literature showing an increase in incidence in the number of cancers in younger people.” 

Is Cancer Getting Younger? Alarming Data Raises Concerns. Credit | Getty Images

Is Cancer Getting Younger? Alarming Data Raises Concerns. Credit | Getty Images

Molitoris also urged individuals to have regular checkups of health and to get them done regularly. 

“What is next?” – Experts

According to a case study, in which a patient, Tiffany Walker-Jones, a Maryland mother of four, was shocked to be diagnosed with cancer.  

Tifanny, who is 38 years old, was diagnosed with bile duct cancer. 

She said, “I went through all the emotions of what’s going on. What’s going to happen? Am I going to survive this?,” reported CBS News. 

Moreover, weeks earlier, when Tifanny woke up with a left flank and made herself go for an immediate check up, she said, “Even the nurses thought it was just a kidney stone, and then they did the CT scan, and they found the mass on my liver, then they did an MRI, and they found a lesion on my spine.” 

Is Cancer Getting Younger? Alarming Data Raises Concerns. Credit | iStock

Is Cancer Getting Younger? Alarming Data Raises Concerns. Credit | iStock

Diagnosis is hard to accept 

According to Dr. Jason Molitoris, “In my day-to-day practice, it’s also very noticeable,” and “I see a lot of patients who are younger coming in with cancers that we typically associate with patients who are of older ages.”  

However, it is unfortunate that Tiffany’s cancer is identified as one of the early-onset cancers in the study, where it is shared by a large number of young adults. 

Tiffany said, “I just asked, do I have an expiration date?” and “I think that is the first thing that comes to anybody’s mind when they hear ‘You have cancer.'” 

“What I try to do is give the patients a sense of what we’re going to be going through, and I try to give everybody a sense of hope,” Molitoris answered. 

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