Nearly five million asthmatics worldwide could benefit from antifungal therapy

May 8, 2013 ? An estimated 4,837,000 asthmatics with allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA) could benefit substantially from antifungal treatment, say researchers from the University of Toronto and Manchester University.

Their work, published today in the journal Medical Mycology, has also re-estimated the total number of asthmatics worldwide -- to reveal a staggering 193 million sufferers. Twenty-four million asthma sufferers live in the United States, 20 million each in India and China, and seven million in the United Kingdom.

Clinical studies have shown that oral antifungal drugs significantly improve symptoms and asthma control in asthmatics with ABPA, treatment endorsed by the Cochrane Collaboration. This is the first time that a global estimate of ABPA numbers has been made.

In national league tables of asthma rates in adults, only Australia and Sweden have a higher prevalence than the UK. In global league tables of ABPA occurrence, New Zealand tops the list with a 3.5% rate in new patients attending chest clinics at hospitals. The rates were 2.6% in Cape Town, 2.3% in Saudi Arabia, 2.5% in China and 0.7% in an older study from Ireland. No population-based studies have been done.

In addition to standard asthma therapy, the antifungal therapy used is itraconazole -- now a generic, inexpensive antifungal -- with a response rate of 60%. The researchers also found that antifungal therapy also benefits patients with severe asthma sensitized to fungi, called SAFS.

Alternatives include voriconazole and posaconazole, which have 75-80% response rates. In a recent assessment of voriconazole and posaconazole for both ABPA and SAFS, 75% of patients were able to stop taking oral corticosteroids, a major benefit, and 38% of patients had their asthma severity downgraded on antifungal therapy.

Professor David Denning, professor of medicine and medical mycology at the University of Manchester and Director of the University Hospital of South Manchester's National Aspergillosis Centre, led the study into the total number of asthmatics worldwide. He said the study results implied that asthma admissions and deaths could be avoided with more extensive use of antifungal therapy.

"We were surprised by the number of patients with ABPA, and by the lack of community based studies done," he said. "Our National Aspergillosis Centre treats hundreds of these patients each year, generally with major improvement, and so a conscious program to seek out ABPA from all asthmatics is required."

Professor Donald Cole of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto was the senior author of the study and contributed his expert epidemiological knowledge to the development of the model and provided a 'reality' check of the model's estimates.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/UIjuhqbUxQo/130508114214.htm

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Bay Area Favorite Small Business | 7x7

We love celebrating the Bay Area's entrepreneurial spirit and vibrant economic scene. In the spirit of San Francisco's Small Business Week (May 13 - 18), we present 7x7's third annual Small Business Awards!

We want you to nominate your favorite local small business that you think helps make the Bay Area one of the best places ever to live and work.?

The winner of our Small Business Awards will receive an integrated marketing package from 7x7?including a print ad, sponsored post, online ad impressions,?social media, and presence in our daily e-newsletter (a total value over $5,000!).

Nominee Criteria:

? Less than $5M annual revenue?

? Less than 100 full-time employees?

? In business for more than 2 years

? Place of business is in San Francisco, Marin, Contra Costa, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz or Monterey counties. (For this competition, entrants from other Bay Area counties are not eligible to win).

The voting rounds:

? We're accepting nominations from today, May 6 through Wednesday, May 15.

? Finalist Voting: Thursday, May 16 through 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 28.

? Winner announced Wednesday, May 29!

Teevan?secured last year's win, and Ike's Place won in 2011. Now, get nominating!

Source: http://www.7x7.com/arts-culture/bay-area-favorite-small-business

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Seven matches with extreme(ly unique) rules

All WWE programming, talent names, images, likenesses, slogans, wrestling moves, trademarks, logos and copyrights are the exclusive property of WWE, Inc. and its subsidiaries. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. ? 2013 WWE, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This website is based in the United States. By submitting personal information to this website you consent to your information being maintained in the U.S., subject to applicable U.S. laws. U.S. law may be different than the law of your home country. WrestleMania XXIX (NY/NJ) logo TM & ? 2013 WWE. All Rights Reserved. The Empire State Building design is a registered trademark and used with permission by ESBC.

Source: http://www.wwe.com/shows/extremerules/matches-with-unique-rules

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Somalia asks for more funds at London conference

LONDON (AP) ? Somalia's president urged donors at an international conference Tuesday to provide "considerable investment and support" for his beleaguered government, arguing that the fate of his country and the region hangs in the balance.

Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and British Prime Minister David Cameron were co-hosting the conference in London that aimed to bolster Mohamud's government in Mogadishu.

"There is a huge amount at stake right now," Mohamud told the delegates. "The future of our country, the security of the region, and the wider world, and the removal of the piracy stranglehold on the Gulf of Aden."

Somalia was expected to detail its plans to develop the country's security forces, justice sector and financial management systems in hopes of getting more international aid.

The British prime minister praised the gains made in Somalia over the past year, saying that extremism is in retreat, piracy attacks are down and the government is moving ahead.

"After two decades of bloodshed and some of the worst poverty on earth, hope is alive in Somalia," Cameron said. "Now it is time to fulfill the hope for the people of Somalia. That is what they have been living and waiting for, and we must not let them down."

Cameron acknowledged that the east African nation still faces huge challenges from poverty, malnourishment and extremism.

"These challenges are not just issues for Somalia," Cameron told the conference. "When young minds are poisoned by radicalism, and they go on to export terrorism and extremism, the security of the whole world, including people here in Britain, is at stake. "

He said support for Somalia must include humanitarian relief and helping the Somali government provide security ? which includes protecting women from sexual attacks ? as well as stability and services.

Donors should help Somalia develop a transparent government so it can access the funding it needs, Cameron said, adding that Britain will commit 10 million pounds ($15.5 million) to help develop Somalia's armed forces and 14.5 million pounds ($22.5 million) toward increasing the number of police officers and training judges and lawyers.

Delegates at the conference included a number of African heads of state and representatives from the IMF and the World Bank.

The meeting came under harsh criticism from Al-Shabab, an al-Qaida affiliate that seeks to overthrow the Mogadishu-based government and install an Islamic one.

Al-Shabab, which counts several hundred foreign fighters among its ranks, controlled Mogadishu from roughly 2006 to 2011 until African Union troops forced it out of the capital. The group still controls wide swaths of south-central Somalia.

Al-Shabab leader Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr released an audiotape over the weekend in which he called Tuesday's meeting a plot to "plunder" Somalia's mineral wealth "under the guise of international trade relations and fighting corruption." He said the international community wanted to discard Islamic law in Somalia and replace it with Western laws and constitutions.

Zubeyr also urged his followers to increase suicide attacks to "permanently cripple" Mohamud's government. The next day a suicide car bomb attack in the Somali capital killed at least seven people.

Zubeyr blames the area's tensions over land and ethnicity on Britain's colonial-era partitioning of Somalia between Kenya and Ethiopia.

Mohamud, the president, was inaugurated in September at the end of an eight-year U.N.-backed transitional government.

___

Jason Straziuso in Kenya contributed to this report.

Cassandra Vinograd can be reached at http://twitter.com/CassVinograd

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/somalia-asks-more-funds-london-conference-134020177.html

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Limo fire kills 5, including bride-to-be

>> a limo was taking new bride and group of friends out for celebration. the driver who managed to escape is opening up about what happened. newlywed innarisa fojas was celebrating. the limousine caught fire.

>> this has to be one of the worst fatalities i've witnessed in the years i've been with the office.

>> the driver, orville brown , stopped after one of the passengers yelled smoke. those who survived climbed through the petition of the front of the vehicle.

>> it happened so fast, within maybe two minutes from us stopping, maybe 90 seconds, it was engulfed in flames, we were all just in shock, scared, crying, frustrated and i just reach out to the families, you know, wish that we could have done more.

>> fojas was a registered medical nurse. the other four victims have not been identified. investigators will try to determine what caused the fire. witnesses say the 1999 model limousine did not appear to collide with anything before going up in flames.

>> we'll be looking at the safety of the vehicle depending on where the fire started, the fire department will be looking into something that happened in the vehicle.

>> reporter: the california highway patrol says brown was not charged or cited. the company released a statement "ly knowstop inc. will do everything possible to investigate and assist authorities in determining the cause of this fire."

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2b91fb6a/l/0Lvideo0Btoday0Bmsnbc0Bmsn0N0Cid0C5178650A7/story01.htm

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Could Sucking Your Baby's Pacifier Cut Allergy Risk?

May 6, 2013 6:00am

(Credit: Getty Images)

We?ve all seen it. A pacifier tumbles out of a crying baby?s mouth and hits the floor with a wet thump.

Maybe it bounces once or twice.

Some parents throw it right in the trash. Others boil it. Some just give it a rinse in the sink.

But some moms pick up the pacifier, put it in their mouth and hand it right back to baby, and a new study says the practice is associated with fewer allergies later on.

RELATED:?Weird Food Allergy Stresses Moms, Baffles Doctors

?It?s really an interesting study, because it supports the theory of the hygiene hypothesis,? said Dr. Samuel Friedlander, an allergy specialist at University Hospitals in Cleveland. ?It?s a theory that states that our world is too clean. ?The immune system is like an army, and if the army doesn?t have anything to fight ? like germs ? it fights allergens.?

Researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy of G?teborg University?in Sweden followed 174 babies and their parents for several years and tested them for allergies, eczema and asthma. They also asked parents how they cleaned off pacifiers, and found that nearly half of them used their mouths on occasion.

By the time babies were 18 months old, those whose parents sucked their pacifiers were less likely to have allergies, asthma and eczema, and the researchers concluded that this was because parents exposed their babies to bacteria in their saliva, stimulating babies? immune systems. But by the time babies reached 36 months old, they only had an added protection against eczema.

RELATED:?Immigrant Kids Less Likely To Have Allergies

Friedlander said parents reading about the study should keep in mind that the research doesn?t show causation. It only shows association.

Dr. Erick Forno, a pediatrician at the Children?s Hospital of Pittsburgh of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said that the study was interesting but said he didn?t think parents should start sucking their baby?s pacifiers more often.? He noted that the study was small, and added that the long-term effects of this bacteria exposure are not clear.

Forno also noted that children may be exposed to the bacteria without their parents sucking on their pacifiers.

?Not only will they kiss kids? mouths, but they?ll also share utensils,? he said, adding that the pacifier could still have different bacteria because it sits in the mouth for a longer period of time than a spoon.

For some parents, exposing children to bacteria this way might even be detrimental. ?For instance, parents with herpes or cold sores could pass a virus to their children.

Dr. Jennifer Kim, a pediatric immunologist and allergist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, said parents shouldn?t change behavior based on this study.

?Generally, what I tell families is don?t change what you normally do based on the results of one study,? she said.

SHOWS: Good Morning America

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2013/05/06/could-sucking-your-babys-pacifier-cut-allergy-risk/

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Shaws Estate Agents (West Kensington, London, by concerneduser)

Review of Shaws Estate Agents from 30 April 2013

Absolutely appalling.
I rent a property through them and they manage to get everything wrong even though they arent even managing the property.
They dont check reference.
They say they will collect months rent in advance to make up for this, they dont.
They have a million hidden charges - I mean who heard of an estate agent who doesnt do their own contracts but uses another company to do this and charges you a great deal for it??
There is nothing positive I can say about their help, their behaviour, their staff, or their service.
Stay well clear!!

Source: http://www.qype.co.uk/review/3757136

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