Alaska man treated for flesh-eating infection

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A man from Juneau, Alaska, contracted a rare infection from flesh-eating bacteria and was in satisfactory condition in a Seattle hospital after being flown in for emergency treatment, hospital officials said on Thursday.

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Ruben Pereyra was the latest person in the United States to suffer the flesh-eating disease that has also afflicted a Georgia graduate student who has had to undergo multiple amputations and a South Carolina woman who is a new mother of twins.

Pereyra arrived two weeks ago at Seattle's Harborview Medical Center from a Juneau hospital, Harborview spokeswoman Clare LeFond said.

Hospital officials did not give details about the extent, severity or circumstances of the case. But in an interview with the Juneau Empire newspaper, Pereyra's wife, Ana, said her husband apparently got the infection from a splinter in his hand.

She also told the paper that her husband had surgery and that an amputation was possible.

Necrotizing fasciitis, otherwise known as flesh-eating disease, can be caused when a wound is infected with group-A streptococci or by staphylococci, common bacteria that live on people's skin and in their noses.

Jim Strader, director of community relations for Juneau's Bartlett Regional Hospital, said he and other hospital officials in the Alaska capital had been assuring the public the disease was not communicable, he said.

"It's not an epidemic. It's not a reason to panic," he said, adding: "It's fortunately very rare. But it has a really high mortality rate."

The infection progresses rapidly and can quickly destroy muscles, skin and other tissues. "The wound sometimes looks like it's healed over, and then it comes back very, very quickly," Strader said.

Related:
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Aimee Copeland's new woe: Phantom limb pain
Dr. Nancy Snyderman: Flesh-eating infection 'hard to stop' (on this page)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Check for restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp

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Addicted while pregnant (a) ' "monstrous tidal wave '

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By Catherine Olian
Rock Center

They are the youngest victims of the prescription drug epidemic, tiny babies born already addicted to the drugs their mothers were taking when they were pregnant. More than13, 000 babies a year are born in America addicted to prescription painkillers like OxyContin, hydrocodone and other narcotic drugs, according to a recent study released by the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Rock Center visited three hospitals and two doctors spoke to many more. These babies may seem normal to birth, but within days they start having symptoms like severe shaking, tremors and more.

"They vomit. They have diarrhea. They'll often have fever, sweating ... extreme irritability, "said Dr. Mary Newport, the director of the neonatal unit at the Spring Hill Regional Hospital north of Tampa, Fla., in an interview airing Thursday to 07 pm/9 c on NBC.

The newborns also have trouble sleeping, feeding and they often wrote shriek in pain, their bodies craving the medication they're addicted to. The number of babies born this way has increased dramatically over the past five years, Dr. Newport said. This year she expects two treat nearly 20 times the number of infants going through withdrawal than she did in 2007.

"It's terrible," Newport said. "We sometimes feel that we have a neonatal drug rehabilitation unit."

A baby experiencing withdrawal from painkillers

Annabella was just a few weeks old and she couldn't stop crying. The only way the nurses could treat here symptoms was two give here morphine, a narcotic similar to the drug here mother took. As shocking as it may seem to give a baby the multiple doses of morphine a day, Dr. Newport said, "if we don't treat the baby ... the baby will develop seizures and the baby can die." Death can result from violent seizures, Dr. Newport said, that cause the baby to stop breathing, cutting off oxygen to the baby's heart and other vital body.

Many women become addicted to painkillers after they've been prescribed them by their doctors. Others, like Annabella's mother, 20-year-old Katelynn Yost, start taking painkillers recreationally, never thinking they'll become addicts.

"I thought I was going to stay in school and go to college," Yost said. "I didn't think I would end up doing drugs and being addicted to them."

When she unexpectedly got pregnant, Yost decided to get drug treatment for the sake of this child.

"I want to be there for my baby now and help here to have a good life," she said. But first, Annabella had to go through the painful stages of withdrawal. "I know it's all my fault," Yost said. "I'm the one that did it two here. It really hurts. "

There are no easy answers for pregnant addicts. Even if they want to get off the drugs quickly, doctors advise them not to.  Going cold turkey could cause them to miscarry. Instead, the women are switched from the painkillers they are on to methadone or buprenorphine, drugs that keep them stable and help curb their cravings. Right click, these drugs can also cause severe withdrawal symptoms in newborns.

Treating pregnant women addicted to prescription Med

"You're the customs either you can take the methadone and your child could be born addicted, or you detox, stop taking everything and your baby could die," one pregnant addict tariff us. Either way, "I'm deathly scared."

The sheer volume of babies born addicted is putting a strain on the healthcare system.  Healthy newborns typically stay in the hospital for a few days, but these babies stay weeks and sometimes months, at an average cost of more than $ 50,000 per child, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association. Doctors at the Cabell Huntington Hospital in Huntington, West Virginia customs us that sometimes the neonatal unit is so full of babies going through withdrawal that newborns with other problems like prematurity have to be turned away due to lack of space.

Dr. David Chaffin, a maternal fetal medicine specialist to the Marshall University Medical Center participated in a multi-hospital study that had a stunning result: at least 10 percent of all babies in West Virginia are born with prescription anti-narcotics in their systems. He calls painkiller addiction among pregnant women "a" monstrous tidal wave "with no end in sight.

As for little Annabella Yost, she finished going through withdrawal. She's off all drugs and her mother says she's doing well. The outlook for these babies is guardedly optimistic, but until large scale, long-term studies of these kids have been completed, no one really knows if they'll have problems later in life.

All that the doctors can say for sure is that as long as women keep abusing prescription pain pills and doctors overprescribing the keep them, expect to see more and more babies suffer the consequences.

"They are the innocent victims," Dr. Newport customs us. "They had no control over it and yet they suffer tremendously for it."

Click here to watch Kate Snow's report, ' Born That Way, ' from NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams.

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After fighting for his life, holds mom finally newborn

Tommy Scott was not worried when his pregnant wife called to tell him she thought she was on the road with a migraine. But when he came home from work, Tommy found amber, 38 weeks pregnant, laying in their bedroom do not react with one eye open and the other closed, Moaning and vomiting.

"Rush of course everything through your head," Tommy told today's Natalie Morales. "I phoned 911 right away and the ambulance was there within 10 minutes and we were at the hospital right away. But it was crazy. "

Doctors determined that the 29-year-old Amber had a ruptured blood vessel in his brain — a condition that occurs in approximately six out of every 100,000 pregnancies.

Surgeons elected to deliver her baby by C-section, and then to operate on Amber's brain.

Initially, everything seemed fine as Amber started to come out of the anesthesia.  But then things took a frightening turn and she was once again responding. Realizing that the Ambers brain had started to swell rapidly, doctors removed part of her skull to protect her brain from being crushed against the bone.

A month later, Amber woke up, but was not well enough to talk himself. All the while watching her family visited regularly, showing Amber photos of baby, Adeline, she had yet to hold or even.

"We wanted to let her know the baby was okay," Tommy told today.  "Since day one we have shows her images."She started to smile a little.  She always smiles now. "

On Sunday, for the first time got Amber to keep her baby and begin to care for her.

"She kept the bottle and fed her," Tommy told today.  "She needs a little assistance, but the most important part, she grabbed the bottle and went right into the mouth. She knows what is going on. For the first time, smiled Adeline also. "

Amber is still got a long way to go. Doctors predict she will be in intensive rehab for weeks working to regain speech and motor skills.

But they say are positive signs.

"She now communicates with us," said Dr. Andrea Toomer, a doctor at West Jefferson Medical Center, just outside New Orleans, today. "She can tell us what she needs and what she wants, what Bothers her. She is able to ask questions about what is going on. "

It is enough for a start to Amber's mom.

"The fact that she witness Adeline now that she recognizes her, that makes me feel better," said Laura Rabalais today.

For Tommy, who had been looking forward to the day when he and his wife would be parents, it has been "bittersweet."

"Of course you satisfied," he told Morales. "I am happy that I am a father now. But of course I will be with yellow all the time, too.

"Amber was so excited for the last nine months. Her whole life, everything revolved around making sure everything was prepared for Adeline. It is so sad. But we try to include Amber in everything we can. We always tell her daily activities. We do our best to keep her informed. "

Tommy takes hope from the speed of Ambers progress so far.

"I never would have thought that we would be this much sooner, compared to where we were we first started," he told today. "She has motivation to get better, and I believe she will definitively".

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Love really can grow from lust, study says

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Questions about sexual desire and love have plagued humans for eons. While poets, musicians, and artists believe love lives in the heart, scientists know it exists in the brain. And sex? Apparently, that urge resides in the "little brain" or the bed or maybe a barn. It gets a little confusing what with those tired old adages about cows and free milk (or pigs and free sausage).

34873.000000 / Getty Images stock

He wants you, but does he love you? A new study finds love and sexual desire are controlled by the same part of the brain.

Now a new study has found that the same regions of the brain that control love also control sex -- indicating that sexual desire can actually morph into love. That's right. If a woman has sex with a man, he might not only buy the cow but love the cow, as well.

“Love and sex are clearly overlapping and they are different,” says Jim Pfaus, a professor of psychology at Concordia University in Montreal who's been studying love and libidos for more than a decade. “You can have desire for sex without love.”

But sex can also be the start of a beautiful relationship.

How does all of this work?

The brain's insular cortex (or insula) and the striatum play a role in both sexual desire and love. The insula is nestled deep within the cerebral cortex and influences emotions. While the striatum resides in the forebrain and receives messages from the cortex.

In order to map out the location of sexual desire and love, researchers reviewed 20 studies that used fMRI technology. First, they looked at the regions of the brain that lit up when sparked by love. They then compared the findings of all the papers to see what regions were activated when someone felt aroused or amorous.  

What they discovered was a bit surprising -- love and sexual desire both activate the striatum, showing a continuum from sexual desire to love. Each feeling impacts a different area of the striatum.

Sexual desire activates the ventral striatum, the brain’s reward system. When someone enjoys a great dessert or an orgasm, it’s the ventral striatum that flickers with life. Love sparks activity in the dorsal striatum, which is associated with drug addiction.

“You don’t make a connection that love is a drug; it acts just like drug addiction," says Pfaus. "Anyone who has had someone break up with them feels like a drug addict in withdrawal. You end up getting cravings.”

But it doesn't stop there. The researchers also saw an overlap between sexual desire and love in the insula.

“[The insula] translates emotional feelings into meaning,” explains Pfaus. “You take the internal state and give it external meaning.”

The areas of overlap indicate that sexual desire transitions into love in many cases, and the feelings aren’t separate.

“Even love at first sight, can it happen? Of course it can happen," says Pfaus. "And when it does happen, do you want to play Scrabble with each other? When it happens, you normally want to consummate it.”

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FDA approves first ever home HIV test

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The Federal Food and Drug Administration has approved the OraQuick In-Home HIV Test, the first at-home, quick test for HIV antibodies.

Federal health officials have approved the first at-home test for antibodies against HIV, a step that aims to identify and treat the estimated 20 percent of infected people in the United States, who do not know they have the virus that causes AIDS.

Food and Drug Administration officials on Tuesday approved the OraQuick In-Home HIV Test, the first over-the-counter, self-administered test that quickly detects possible HIV infection. Despite worries about learning serious diagnosis at home an FDA panel unanimously agreed that the benefits outweigh risks. home test

"It is very exciting," said Carl Schmid, Deputy Executive Director of the AIDS Institute, a non-profit that focuses on issues surrounding the disease. "It could be a potential game-changer for HIV."

Manufactured by OraSure Technologies Inc. of Bethlehem, PA., user test swabs of oral fluids from the upper and lower gums, which are then tested for the presence of antibodies to human immunodeficiency virus type 1 and type 2, HIV-1, HIV-2.

Test results are available within 20 to 40 minutes.

A positive result does not mean that the person who is definitely infected with HIV, but rather to further should the test be performed by medical professionals to confirm the result. A negative result does not mean that a person is absolutely clear of the virus, especially if exposure may have occurred in the previous three months.

OraSure expects the at-home HIV test should be available in October starting at more than 30,000 retail stores across the United States and online, according to a company press release. A spokeswoman said would set fixed prices for the test closer to distribution.

The test has the potential to identify large numbers of previously undiagnosed HIV infections. An estimated 1.2 million people in the United States are living with HIV infection. About one of every five do not know they are infected. About 50,000 new HIV infections are diagnosed each year.

The test is about 92 percent accurate correctly identify positive results, a measure known as sensitivity, clinical trials showed. This means that one false negative results could be expected from all 12 tests.

It was also around 99,98 per cent accurate correctly identify negative results, a measure known as specificity. This means a false positive would be expected of every 5,000 test results in uninfected individuals.

OraQuick plans to offer consumers access to toll-free 24-hour support center to help consumers to understand the results of the tests.

Doug Michels, OraSure CEO, discusses the benefits of the first FDA-approved home HIV test. It will begin to sell to retailers in October for less than $ 60 per kit.

Related stories:

The FDA has approved the first over-the-counter HIV test kit. NBC's Brian Mooar reports.

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Broiling? Why tempers flare when it's so hot

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Eric Thayer /Reuters

A man wipes his forehead while sitting in Central Park in New York July 5, 2012. Six days after violent storms hit the eastern United States, parts of the east coast and midwest sweltered in the fourth day of a heat wave.

By Rachael Rettner
MyHealthNewsDaily

Hot days certainly take a toll on our bodies, but they can also test our tempers, experts say.

Many people feel a little hotheaded when the mercury rises, said Nancy Molitor, an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry and behavioral science at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

In fact, hot and especially humid weather is known to be associated with increases in aggression and violence, as well as a lower general mood, Molitor said.

That's because trouble sleeping, dehydration and restrictions on our daily actives — such as being cooped up inside all day to avoid the sweltering heat — may all contribute to a worsening mood in warm weather, Molitor said. And a lack of control over the situation may further irritate some people, she said.

If the summer heat has you feeling snappish, Molitor advised avoiding making any important life decisions, because you might make a choice you later regret.

And whether you're at the office or on the road, recognize that people you deal with may also be a bit testy.

"Everyone's fuse is going to be a little bit shorter," Molitor said.

Summer SAD

While it's common to feel a little depressed or grouchy in the summer heat, a small percentage (about 1 or 2 percent) of people experience a summer version of seasonal affect disorder (SAD).

On top of feeling uncomfortable and depressed, people with this condition feel enormously anxious in the summertime, and can even become suicidal, Molitor said. For them, the heat and sunshine are "almost impossible to endure," she said.

Molitor said she suspects that prolonged periods of heat and humidity, as many regions have experienced this summer, may lead to an increase in cases of summer SAD seen by doctors.

Coping with the heat

Molitor urged that people practice common sense in the heat: stay hydrated, and listen to your body. If you're healthy and want to exercise, try to get in your workout in the morning or evening, rather than the middle of the day.

If you take mediations that are diuretics, such as blood pressure medications, you will need to drink even more that usual to stay hydrated, Molitor said.

In addition, focus on aspects of your life you can control, Molitor said, and realize that eventually, it will cool down.

"The average person can withstand this, if they listen to their body," Molitor said.

More from MyHealthNewsDaily:
7 Common Summer Health Concerns

11 Tips to Lower Stress

Are You SAD? How to Tell if it's Seasonal Affective Disorder

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Diseases from animals hit 2 billion people a year

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LONDON — A global study mapping human diseases that come from animals like tuberculosis, AIDS, bird flu or Rift Valley fever has found that just 13 such diseases are responsible for 2.4 billion cases of human illness and 2.2 million deaths a year.

Don't miss these Health stories After fighting for her life, mom finally gets to hold new baby After suffering a burst blood vessel in her brain while 38 weeks pregnant, Amber Scott was rushed to the hospital for an emergency C-section followed by brain surgery. After weeks of drifting in and out of consciousness, the new mom finally held her baby for the first time.

Love really can grow from lust, study says Something not so tasty in your barbecue -- brush debris The strange reason diet soda makes you fat Science cracks the code of what makes us cool

The vast majority of infections and deaths from so-called zoonotic diseases are in poor or middle-income countries, but "hotspots" are also cropping up in the United States and Europe where diseases are newly infecting humans, becoming particularly virulent, or are developing drug resistance.

And exploding global demand for livestock products means the problem is likely to get worse, researchers said.

"From cyst-causing tapeworms to avian flu, zoonoses present a major threat to human and animal health," said Delia Grace, a veterinary epidemiologist and food safety expert with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Kenya and lead author of the study.

She said targeting these diseases in the hardest hit countries is crucial to protecting global health, and failing to tackle them would allow demand for meat products to "fuel the spread of a wide range of human-animal infectious diseases."

The study, conducted by the ILRI, the Institute of Zoology in Britain and the Hanoi School of Public Health in Vietnam, mapped livestock-keeping and diseases humans get from animals, and drew up a list of the top 20 geographical hotspots.

It found that Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Tanzania, as well as India have the highest zoonotic disease burdens, with widespread illness and death.

It also found the United States and Europe - especially Britain - Brazil and parts of Southeast Asia may be becoming hotspots of "emerging zoonoses", which are infecting humans for the first time, are especially virulent or are becoming drug resistant.

The report studied so-called endemic zoonoses which cause the vast majority of illness and death in poor countries.

One such disease is brucellosis, also known as Bang's diseases or Mediterranean fever, which is a highly contagious zoonosis people catch by consuming unsterilized milk or meat from infected animals.

The researchers estimated that about one in eight livestock in poor countries are affected by brucellosis. As well as threatening people with disease, this also reduces milk and meat production in cattle by around 8 percent.

The study also looked at epidemic zoonoses, which typically occur as outbreaks - such as anthrax and Rift Valley fever - and at the relatively rarer emerging zoonoses like bird flu. A few of these, like HIV/AIDS and H1N1 swine flu, have shown the ability to spread to cause pandemics.

While zoonoses can be transmitted to people by either wild or domesticated animals, most human infections are acquired from the world's 24 billion livestock, including pigs, poultry, cattle, goats, sheep and camels.

The study initially looked at 56 zoonoses that together are responsible for around 2.5 billion cases of human illness and 2.7 million human deaths per year.

It then zoomed in on the 13 most important, and found high levels of infection with these in livestock in poor countries.

Some 27 percent of livestock in developing countries showed signs of current or past infection with bacterial food-borne disease - a source of food contamination and widespread illness.

The researchers estimated at least a third of the world's cases of diarrhoeal disease are caused by animal-human diseases and said this was the biggest zoonotic threat to public health.

John McDermott, director of the CGIAR research program on agriculture for nutrition and health led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), said that in booming livestock sectors in developing nations the fastest growing areas are poultry and pigs - putting the potential disease risk emphasis on flu.

"Historically, high-density pig and poultry populations have been important in maintaining and mixing influenza populations," he said in a statement accompanying the study.

"A major concern is that as new livestock systems intensify, particularly small- and medium-sized pig production ... more intensive systems will allow the maintenance and transmission of pathogens. A number of new zoonoses ... have emerged in that way."

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Check for restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp

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