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Washington, D.C., Officials Expand STI Testing Program To All Public High Schools
Washington, D.C., officials are planning to make testing for sexually transmitted infections available at all public high schools in the coming school year, adding D.C. to a growing list of cities that test students for STIs, the Washington Post reports. All 50 states and the district allow minors older than age 12 to be tested for STIs without parental consent.The new program requires all students to attend a lecture about STIs, after which they are escorted into restroom areas in groups of 15 to 20. They are then given paper bags with urine collection cups and go into the stalls, at which point they can decide whether to provide a sample. All students return the paper bags, regardless of whether they provided samples. Students give a password and can call a week later to receive their confidential results and, if necessary, treatment at the school or an STI clinic, which is paid for by the city. The district first offered the program two years ago at two charter schools, and eight high schools were included during the past school year.A 2007 study by the D.C. public school system found that 60% of high school students and 30% of middle school students reported having sex. According to the study, 20% of high school students reported having sex with four or more partners and 12% of middle school students reported having three or more partners.According to the D.C. Department of Health, the program at eight high schools last year found that 13% of 3,000 students tested positive for an STI, most commonly chlamydia or gonorrhea. Fifty percent of the chlamydia and gonorrhea cases in the district are among teenagers.According to the D.C. Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, the new program is an important step toward curbing the district"s HIV/AIDS rate, which is among the highest in the U.S. Walter Smith, executive director of D.C. Appleseed, said, "If 13% of these students are testing positive for [STIs], those same kids could get HIV," adding, "A lot needs to be done to get the message out to the schools, ... and this very high [STI] rate is an indication that what we"ve been doing is not effective" (Fears/Hernandez, Washington Post, 8/5).
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Clinipace To Manage Two Phase II Clinical Trials For Inspire Pharmaceuticals
Clinipace, a digital clinical research organization, announced that Inspire Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has selected the company to manage and deploy two phase II studies for the ophthalmic prescription medicine, AzaSite®.
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Canadians Watch U.S. Reform Effort Closely
American health care reform has become a "hot topic north of the border," the Washington Times reports. "If Mr. Obama succeeds, the U.S. could draw even more Canadian doctors and nurses to the U.S., exacerbating a shortage of medical professionals, said Dr. Brian Day, a Canadian health care critic and former head of the Canadian Medical Association. If Mr. Obama fails, perhaps Canada could open its system to "medical tourism" from the U.S., Dr. Day said." Under the Canadian system, everyone is insured and has "access to basic health care without ever seeing a doctor or hospital bill." But 70% of Canadians also have "some form of supplemental health insurance," in part because of long wait times for tests and treatments under the government plan. For Canadian citizens who become ill in the U.S., it is often cheaper to "ride on a private Lear jet back to Canada" than to be treated in a U.S. hospital.
Cardiovascular

Brain Changes Observed In Unimpaired Older Humans Could Be Early Warning Of Alzheimer's

New research has uncovered an early disruption in the process of memory formation in older humans who exhibit some early brain changes associated with Alzheimer"s disease (AD) but show little or no memory impairment. The work, published by Cell Press in the July 30th issue of the journal Neuron, sheds light on the role of amyloid protein in memory impairment and may lead to development of strategies for predicting and treating cognitive decline in individuals who are at-risk for AD. Amyloid-protein plays a major pathogenic role in AD, a devastating neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive cognitive impairment and memory loss. In fact, one of the primary characteristics of AD is the accumulation and deposition of neuron-damaging clumps of amyloid protein. Previous studies have led to the suggestion that amyloid deposition begins many years prior to the onset of clinical symptoms. However, the exact link between amyloid deposition and memory impairment has not been clearly demonstrated in humans. "Two recent advances in neuroimaging now allow us to explore the early, asymptomatic phase of AD, the ability to measure amyloid distribution in living humans and the identification of sensitive markers of brain dysfunction in AD," explains lead study author, Dr. Reisa Sperling from the Center for Alzheimer"s Research and Treatment at Brigham and Women"s Hospital in Boston. In addition to amyloid accumulation, AD has been associated with functional alterations in a specific network of brain regions that are intimately linked with memory formation. Dr. Sperling and colleagues combined amyloid imaging with an associative memory functional brain imaging paradigm to study older humans who did not exhibit significant memory impairment. Importantly, the researchers found that a significant number of nondemented older individuals exhibited amyloid deposition and abnormal neural activity in key areas of the brain network thought to be involved in successful memory function. These results demonstrate for the first time that amyloid pathology in asymptomatic older humans is linked with aberrant neural responses during the process of memory formation. "Longitudinal studies are certainly needed, but our findings are consistent with the premise that cognitively intact older individuals with amyloid pathology may already be in the early stages of AD," explains Dr. Sperling. "The combination of molecular and functional imaging techniques may prove useful in monitoring disease progression prior to significant clinical symptoms, as well as the response to amyloid-modifying therapeutic agents in subjects at-risk for developing AD." The researchers include Reisa A. Sperling, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Boston, MA; Peter S. LaViolette, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Boston, MA; Kelly O"Keefe, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; Jacqueline O"Brien, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; Dorene M. Rentz, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; Maija Pihlajamaki, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; Gad Marshall, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; Bradley T. Hyman, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; Dennis J. Selkoe, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; Trey Hedden, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Boston, MA; Randy L. Buckner, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Boston, MA, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; J. Alex Becker, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; and Keith A. Johnson, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. Cathleen Genova Cell Press


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