HEALTH BULLETIN

Registration for GOJ Health Card off to a good start

Registration for the new Government of Jamaica (GOJ) Health Card is off to a good start, with most facilities reporting members of the public began signing up on Monday. The card was launched last Friday and registration began early this week in all public health facilities, the Ministry of Health's head office and the National Health Fund (NHF).

In order to register, persons will be required to provide their name, address, phone number, Tax Registration Number (TRN) and, in the case of Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) beneficiaries, their PATH numbers. Once filled out, the card can be left at any public health facility, the Ministry of Health's head office, any office of the regional health authorities, any NHF help desk and the NHF head office. Persons should ensure the address given is correct as the card will be mailed.

Minister of Health Dr Fenton Ferguson said the card will be the primary means by which persons access the public health sector.

"The card should be presented at registration in health facilities and at public pharmacies," he said.

He added that steps have been taken to protect the security of person's information in the same way as the NHF card.

Persons who have NHF cards will not be required to sign up for the GOJ card. However, persons with only JADEP cards need to apply for the GOJ card. The GOJ card can only be used in public facilities and cannot be used in place of the NHF card at private pharmacies.

The use of the card will begin in all public health facilities on March 3.

Oral immunotherapy helps children with peanut allergy

In what is being hailed as a peanut allergy-treatment breakthrough, British researchers have found that giving peanut protein every day to children who are allergic to the food helps them to become desensitised.

Desensitisation means that a child will have no reaction when he or she eats peanuts - such as itching, hives or any other serious symptoms such as lip or tongue swelling.

The trial was carried out with 99 children, consisted of giving the subjects a tiny dose of peanut protein daily. The amount of protein was increased gradually. The team found that 84 per cent of the allergic children could eat the equivalent of five peanuts a day after six months.

This type of therapy, dubbed oral immunotherapy, is not yet suitable for mainstream clinical use. More research needs to be done on the "mechanism of action, including short-and long-term effects of the therapy, outcomes, as well as larger-scale testing of such protocols."

Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, whose aim was to train the children's bodies to get used to the peanut protein, conducted the research.

Peanuts are one of the most common causes of fatal allergic reactions to food.

US abortion rate at lowest since 1973

The United States abortion rate declined to its lowest level since 1973, and the number of abortions fell by 13 per cent between 2008 and 2011, according to the latest national survey of abortion providers conducted by a prominent research institute.

The Guttmacher Institute, which supports legal access to abortion, said in a report being issued today that there were about 1.06 million abortions in 2011 - down from about 1.2 million in 2008. Guttmacher's figures are of interest on both sides of the abortion debate because they are more up-to-date and in some ways more comprehensive than abortion statistics compiled by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

According to the report, the abortion rate dropped to 16.9 abortions per 1,000 women ages 15-44 in 2011, well below the peak of 29.3 in 1981 and the lowest since a rate of 16.3 in 1973.

The highest abortion rates were in New York, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Delaware and New Jersey; the lowest were in Wyoming, Mississippi, South Dakota, Kentucky and Missouri. However, Guttmacher said many women in Wyoming and Mississippi, where providers are scarce, go out of state to get abortions.

The lead author, Rachel Jones, also said there appeared to be no link to a decline in the number of abortion providers. According to the report, the total number of providers dropped by four per cent, to 1,720, between 2008 and 2011, and the number of abortion clinics declined by just one per cent to 839.

Smartphone owners are happier with the world

Owning a smartphone can make you feel better about the world. At least, that's what a recent poll from Microsoft has found. A global Microsoft poll, released at the Davos World Economic Forum, found smartphone owners around the globe see the world as more "cooperative and harmonious" than non-smartphone owners.

They're also more likely to think social values are improving than eroding — 51 per cent of smartphone owners held that positive view, versus 33 per cent of non-smartphone owners.

The result is just one of several effects of technology that Microsoft measured as part of a wide-ranging poll to determine how personal tech has changed everything from how Internet users in 10 countries view the arts to how it alters their parenting techniques.

Cancer cases worldwide likely to rise to 22 million in 20 years

The World Health Organization's (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) said cancer was growing "at an alarming pace" worldwide and new strategies were needed to curb the sometimes fatal and often costly disease.

The World Cancer Report, which is only produced roughly once every five years, involved a collaboration of around 250 scientists from more than 40 countries.

The report said that in 2012 - the latest year for which data are available - new cancer cases rose to an estimated 14 million a year, a figure expected to grow to 22 million within the next two decades.

Over the same period, cancer deaths are predicted to rise from an estimated 8.2 million a year to 13 million per year.

The data mean that at current rates, one in five men and one in six women worldwide will develop cancer before they reach 75 years old, while one in eight men and one in 12 women will die from the disease.

It said access to effective and relatively inexpensive cancer drugs would significantly cut death rates, even in places where health-care services are less well developed.

The spiralling costs of cancer are hurting the economies of even the richest countries and are often way beyond the reach of poorer nations. In 2010, the total annual economic cost of cancer was estimated at around $1.16 trillion.

Gay teen boys more likely to use muscle-building steroids - survey

Gay and bisexual teen boys in the United States are much more likely to have used muscle-building steroids - and to have used them heavily - than their heterosexual counterparts, a new study suggests.

In the study, researchers examined the results of surveys of more than 17,000 boys aged 14 to 18. The surveys were conducted in 2005 and 2007 in 14 cities and small states, including Boston, Chicago, New York City, San Diego, San Francisco and Vermont. Statistics by individual city or state weren't available. Of participants, about four percent said they were gay or bisexual.

Of the heterosexual adolescents in the survey, four per cent said they'd ever used steroids, and less than one per cent reported using them more than 40 times.

The numbers were much higher for those who said they're gay or bisexual: 21 per cent said they had used steroids, and four per cent reported using them 40 or more times.

It's not clear whether gay and bisexual young men face a higher risk of health problems from the use of these anabolic steroids. Nor do researchers know why they report using steroids more, although there's speculation it's related to trying to look more attractive or to become stronger in case they're physically intimidated.

Whatever the case, "steroid use is very dangerous," said study author Aaron Blashill, a staff psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. It adds to a "growing list" of risks like substance abuse and depression that plague gay and bisexual boys in particular, he said.

New wave of heroin claims actor, others

Heroin was supposed to be an obsolete evil, a blurry memory of a dangerous drug that dwelled in some dark recess of American culture.

But smack never really disappeared. It comes in waves, and one such swell is cresting across the United States, sparking widespread worry among government officials and driving up overdose deaths - including, it appears, that of Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Fuelled by a crackdown on prescription painkillers and an abundant supply of cheap heroin that's more potent than ever, the drug that has killed famous rock stars and everyday Americans alike is making headlines again.

"Heroin has this sort of dark allure to it that's part of its mystique," said Eric Schneider, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who wrote the book Smack: Heroin in the City, a historical account of the drug. "What I've heard from heroin users is that flirting with addiction is part of the allure: to sort of see how close to that edge you can get and still pull back."

Medical examiners have not made an official determination of the cause of the 46-year-old actor's death, but police have been investigating it as an overdose. Hoffman was found in a bathroom with a syringe in his arm.