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Beijing (AFP) Sept 26, 2010 China issued a health alert in its southwestern region of Tibet Sunday after five people were diagnosed with the plague, an often fatal infectious disease. One of the five has already died from a severe lung infection attributed to the pneumonic plague, while one other patient was in a critical condition, the Tibet health department said in a statement on its website. The outbreak was first detected on Thursday last week in Latok village in Tibet's Nyingchi Prefecture, the department said. The four patients, all of whom had contact with the deceased, have been quarantined, it said. Disease control experts have been dispatched to the area in an effort to control the further spread of the disease, it said. The department also issued a warning to anyone who has visited the region near the outbreak to seek immediate medical attention should they develop fever, cough or other flu-like symptoms common to the plague. Pneumonic plague is spread by rodents like marmots, which are numerous in Tibet. An outbreak of the disease last year killed three people in Ziketan, a town in a Tibetan area in neighbouring Qinghai province. The World Health Organization says pneumonic plague is the most virulent but least common form of plague. The mortality rate can be high, but prompt antibiotic treatment is effective.
earlier related report The CDC said that from 2005 to 2008 HIV infection among gays increased 17 percent. Nineteen percent of "men who have sex with men" are HIV positive and 44 percent of those men are unaware of their infection, said the CDC study of more than 8,000 gays published Thursday in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. "This study's message is clear: HIV exacts a devastating toll on men who have sex with men in America's major cities... We need to increase access to HIV testing so that more ... know their status," said CDC National Center for HIV/AIDS director Kevin Fenton. While gays of all ethnicities are affected by AIDS, blacks were more heavily impacted (28 percent), followed by Hispanics (18 percent) and whites (16 percent), the study found. Among those unaware they are HIV positive, the ethnic disparity was the similar: 59 percent of blacks, 46 percent of Hispanics and 26 percent of whites, it added. The study also found "a strong link" between socioeconomic status and HIV among men who have sex with men. It said the prevalence increased as education and income decreased, and awareness of HIV status was higher among gay men with greater education and income.
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AIDS virus in monkeys much older than thought: studyWashington (AFP) Sept 16, 2010 An HIV-like virus that infects monkeys is thousands of years older than previously thought and its slow evolution could have disturbing implications for humans, according to a new study. Scientists said the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) - the ancestor to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS - is probably between 32,000 and 75,000 years old and may even date back a ... read more |
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