Nelson Mandela Taken To Hospital, In ‘Serious’ Condition

South Africans on Saturday said their thoughts were with former President Nelson Mandela, who was in “serious but stable” condition after being taken to a hospital to be treated for a recurring lung infection.

Mandela, who is 94 years old, was treated in a hospital several times in recent months, with the last discharge coming on April 6 after doctors diagnosed him with pneumonia and drained fluid from his lung area. He has been particularly vulnerable to respiratory problems since contracting tuberculosis during his 27-year imprisonment under apartheid.A small girl and her father stood outside Mandela’s Johannesburg home with a stone on which was written a get-well message for Mandela, who helped end white racist rule and became the country’s first black president in all-race elections in 1994. A young boy brought a bouquet of flowers that he handed over to guards at the house.

Elsewhere in the city, some worshippers prayed for Mandela during an outdoor gathering.

“If the time comes, we wish for him a good way to go,” said Noel Ngwenya, a security officer who was in the congregation.

“During the past few days, former President Nelson Mandela has had a recurrence of lung infection,” said a statement from the office of President Jacob Zuma. “This morning at about 1:30 a.m., his condition deteriorated and he was transferred to a Pretoria hospital.”

It said Mandela was receiving expert medical care and “doctors are doing everything possible to make him better and comfortable.”

Zuma wished Mandela a quick recovery on behalf of the government and the nation and requested that the media and the public respect the privacy of the former leader and his family, the statement said.

Mandela’s wife, humanitarian activist Graca Machel, canceled an appearance at an international forum on hunger and nutrition in London on Saturday, citing “personal reasons,” said Colleen Harris, a spokeswoman for the meeting.

Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said Machel had canceled her attendance at the London meeting on Thursday, and had accompanied Mandela to the hospital on Saturday morning, the South African Press Association reported.

“We need to hold our thoughts and keep him in our minds,” Maharaj said. “He is a fighter, he has recovered many times from very serious conditions and he will be with us. Let’s pray for him and help him to get better.”

The African National Congress, the ruling party that has dominated politics in South Africa since the end of apartheid, said it hoped Mandela, known affectionately by his clan name Madiba, would get better soon.

“We will keep President Mandela and his family in our thoughts and prayers at this time and call upon South Africans and the peoples of the globe to do the same for our beloved statesman and icon, Madiba,” the party said in a statement.

On April 29, state television broadcast footage of a visit by Zuma and other ANC leaders to Mandela at his Johannesburg home. Zuma said at the time that Mandela was in good shape, but the footage – the first public images of Mandela in nearly a year – showed him silent and unresponsive, even when Zuma tried to hold his hand.

“Nelson Mandela is a father to South Africa and South Africans; every time he is admitted to hospital we feel saddened along with the rest of our country,” the Democratic Alliance, the main political opposition party, said in a statement.

South Africans expressed hope that Mandela would recover from his latest setback.

“He is going to survive,” said Willie Mokoena, a gardener in Johannesburg. “He’s a strong man.”

Another city resident, Martha Mawela, said she thought the former president would recover because: “Everybody loves Mandela.”

Mandela was robust during his decades as a public figure, endowed with charisma, a powerful memory and an extraordinary talent for articulating the aspirations of his people and winning over many of those who opposed him.

In recent years, however, he has become more frail and last made a public appearance at the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament, where he didn’t deliver an address and was bundled against the cold.

In another recent hospitalization, Mandela was treated for a lung infection and had a procedure to remove gallstones in December. In March, he spent a night in a hospital for what authorities said was a scheduled medical test.

HUFFPOST

It’s a threat to the entire world”: Deadly new virus kills 24 people as death toll rises [DETAILS]

AP/JEAN-CHRISTOPHE BOTT

Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization, described the MERS virus as a “threat to the entire world” during a speech in Geneva.

Calling it a “threat to the entire world,” the head of the World Health Organization sounded the alarm over the Middle Eastern virus that has so far killed 24 people.

Speaking on Monday in Geneva at the global health monitor’s annual conference, Dr. Margaret Chan did not mince words about the SARS-like novel coronavirus that researchers call MERS.

“Looking at the overall global situation, my greatest concern right now is the novel coronavirus. We understand too little about this virus when viewed against the magnitude of its potential threat. Any new disease that is emerging faster than our understanding is never under control,” Dr Chan said. “These are alarm bells and we must respond. The novel coronavirus is not a problem that any single affected country can keep to itself or manage all by itself. The novel coronavirus is a threat to the entire world.”

One day after Chan’s speech, health officials in France announced the death of a 65-year-old man who had apparently contracted the MERS virus after traveling to Dubai.

So far, the WHO says that more than half of the people who have been diagnosed with MERS have died. The organization said that 24 of 44 confirmed MERS cases have ended in death.

In a move that might complicate finding a vaccine, Dutch scientists have taken the unusual step of patenting the killer virus.

Erasmus Medical Center researchers Albert Osterhaus and Ron Fouchier received a sample of the virus from a Saudi doctor who was stumped by the first known case. The virologists then patented it, angering the World Health Organization and Saudi officials, who say that doing so is impeding the search for treatment.

 

AP PHOTO/HEALTH PROTECTION AGENCY

While the cronovirus causes the common cold, the novel conovirus, or MERS, has killed more than half of those who have been diagnosed with it.

“Making deals between scientists because they want to take out IP and be the first to publish in scientific journals, we cannot allow that. No intellectual property should stand in the way of you protecting your people,” Chan said during her speech on Monday.

The Dutch researchers said that they patented the virus in order to spark drug companies’ interest in developing a vaccine and denied that they had kept the virus from anyone.

“We’re still sharing this virus with everyone who wants to do public health research,” Osterhaus told Bloomberg.

Cases have so far been confirmed in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Tunisia, Germany, France and the United Kingdom. The hospital roommate of the French man who died Tuesday has now also been diagnosed with the virus.

“A novel coronavirus was identified in 2012 as the cause of respiratory illness in people,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says on its website. “Their symptoms included fever, cough, and shortness of breath.”

Still, there is much that the medical community has yet to discover about MERS.

“We do not know where the virus hides in nature,” Chan said in Geneva. We do not know how people are getting infected. Until we answer these questions, we are empty-handed when it comes to prevention.”

 

Read more: DailyNews

How the World’s Fattest Man ate himself to death (PICTURED)

Ricky Naputi, thought to be one of the world’s fattest men, died in November of last year, but had been filmed during his final days for a TV special.

 The tragic final days of one of the world’s fattest men were spent desperately hoping to lose the weight that kept him bedridden for five years.

Ricky Naputi, who weighed nearly 900 pounds, died in November 2012, but before he passed, the 39-year-old opened up his home to reality TV cameras from TLC. The cable network aired his story Wednesday night in a special called “900 Pound Man: Race Against Time.”

Naputi, who lived in the U.S. island territory Guam, was bedridden and confined to his home, unable to walk or to bathe himself.

 

Naputi, who lived in Guam, was working on losing enough weight to be able to fly to the U.S. for weight loss surgery.

“The last time I got out and enjoyed myself must have been years. I miss feeling the sun on my face. Miss showering, feeling water run down my body,” he said at one point.

But Naputi had also vowed to turn his life around. He was working on losing enough weight to be able to fly to the continental U.S. for weight loss surgery.

“I’m willing to try my best,” he said. “My one goal and my one goal only is to get my life back.”

 

 

Naputi’s wife Cheryl, who had been with him for 10 years, gave her husband sponge baths and helped him to use the restroom.

The show also revealed Naputi’s loving relationship with his wife, Cheryl, his primary caretaker.

Cheryl acted as Ricky’s nurse, cooking for him, giving him sponge baths and helping him go to the bathroom, which she likened to “taking care of an overgrown baby.”

 

At the time of his death, Ricky Naputi weighed almost 900 pounds.

The two met 10 years ago, and at first communicated only over the phone. Naputi was already obese, but still far from his heaviest.

“He asked me for my number so he could call me up, so we could talk,” a smiling Cheryl told the cameras.

“When I went to Ricky’s apartment … he only cracked [the door] about an inch.”

Three and a half weeks later, she moved in. The pair remained together until his death.

 

 

Read more: Daily News

Pfizer To Sell Popular Erectile Dysfunction Pill (Viagra) Directly To Patients On Its Website

Men who are bashful about needing help in the bedroom no longer have to go to the drugstore to buy that little blue pill.

In a first for the drug industry, Pfizer Inc. told The Associated Press that the drugmaker will begin selling its popular erectile dysfunction pill Viagra directly to patients on its website.

Men still will need a prescription to buy the blue, diamond-shaped pill on viagra.com, but they no longer have to face a pharmacist to get it filled. And for those who are bothered by Viagra’s steep $25-a-pill price, Pfizer is offering three free pills with the first order and 30 percent off the second one.

Pfizer’s bold move blows up the drug industry’s distribution model. Drugmakers don’t sell medicines directly to patients. Instead, they sell in bulk to wholesalers, who then distribute the drugs to pharmacies, hospitals and doctors’ offices.

But the world’s second-largest drugmaker is trying a new strategy to tackle a problem that plagues the industry. Unscrupulous online pharmacies increasingly offer patients counterfeit versions of Viagra and other brand-name drugs for up to 95 percent off with no prescription needed. Patients don’t realize the drugs are fake or that legitimate pharmacies require a prescription.

Other major drugmakers likely will watch Pfizer’s move closely. If it works, drugmakers could begin selling other medicines that are rampantly counterfeited and sold online, particularly treatments for non-urgent conditions seen as embarrassing. Think: diet drugs, medicines for baldness and birth control pills.

“If it works, everybody will hop on the train,” says Les Funtleyder, a health care strategist at private equity fund Poliwogg who believes Pfizer’s site will attract “fence-sitters” who are nervous about buying online.

The online Viagra sales are Pfizer’s latest effort to combat a problem that has grown with the popularity of the Internet.

In recent years, Americans have become more comfortable with online shopping, with many even buying prescription drugs online. That’s particularly true for those who don’t have insurance, are bargain hunters or want to keep their medicine purchases private.

Few realize that the vast majority of online pharmacies don’t follow the rules.

The Internet is filled with illegitimate websites that lure customers with spam emails and professional-looking websites that run 24-hour call centers. A January study by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, which accredits online pharmacies, found that only 257 of 10,275 online pharmacy sites it examined appeared legitimate.

Experts say the fake drugs such websites sell can be dangerous. That’s because they don’t include the right amount of the active ingredient, if any, or contain toxic substances such as heavy metals, lead paint and printer ink. They’re generally made in filthy warehouses and garages in Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America.

Online buyers are “playing Russian roulette,” says Matthew Bassiur, vice president of global security at New York-based Pfizer.

“The factories are deplorable. I’ve seen photographs of these places,” he says. “You wouldn’t even want to walk in them, let alone ingest anything made in them.”

Pfizer, which invented the term “erectile dysfunction,” has long been aggressive in fighting counterfeiters. It conducts undercover investigations and works with authorities around the globe, with good reason.

Counterfeit versions of Viagra and dozens of other Pfizer medicines rob the company of billions in annual sales.

Viagra is one of its top drugs, with $2 billion in worldwide revenue last year. And it’s the most counterfeited drug in the U.S., according to the company.

A 2011 study, in which Pfizer bought “Viagra” from 22 popular Internet pharmacies and tested the pills, found 77 percent were counterfeit. Most had half or less of the promised level of the active ingredient.

Viagra is appealing to counterfeiters because it carries a double whammy: It’s expensive and it treats a condition with an “embarrassment” factor.

Crooks running the illegal online pharmacies brazenly explain their ultra-low Viagra prices — often $1 to $3 a pill — by claiming they sell generic Viagra.

Generics are copycat versions of brand-name prescription drugs. They can legally be made after a drugmaker’s patent, or exclusive right to sell a drug, ends. Generic drugmakers don’t have to spend $1 billion or so on testing to get a new drug approved, so their copycat versions often cost up to 90 percent less than the original drug.

But there is no such thing as generic Viagra. Pfizer has patents giving it the exclusive right to sell Viagra until 2020 in the U.S. and for many years in other countries.

Many patients are unaware of that.

Dr. David Dershewitz, an assistant urology professor at New Jersey Medical School who treats patients at Newark’s University Hospital, says erectile dysfunction is common in men with enlarged prostates, diabetes and other conditions, but most men are too embarrassed to discuss it.

He says well over half of his patients who do broach the issue complain about Viagra’s price. Some tell Dershewitz that they go online looking for bargains because they can’t afford Viagra.

“The few that do admit to it have said that the results have been fairly dismal,” but none has suffered serious harm, he says.

For Pfizer, that’s a big problem. People who buy fake drugs online that don’t work, or worse, harm them, may blame the company’s product. That’s because it’s virtually impossible to distinguish fakes from real Viagra.

“The vast majority of patients do believe that they’re getting Viagra,” said Vic Cavelli, head of marketing for primary care medicines at Pfizer, which plans to have drugstore chain CVS Caremark Corp. fill the orders placed on viagra.com.

The sales lost to counterfeits threaten Pfizer at a time when Viagra’s share of the $5 billion-a-year global market for legitimate erectile dysfunction drugs has slipped, falling from 46 percent in 2007 to 39 percent last year, according to health data firm IMS Health.

The reason? Competition from rival products, mainly Eli Lilly and Co.’s Cialis — the pill touted in those ubiquitous commercials featuring couples in his-and-hers bathtubs in bizarre places.

Judson Clark, an Edward Jones analyst, forecasts that Viagra sales will decline even further, about 5 percent each year for the next five years, unusual “for a drug in its prime.”

Clark says he thinks Pfizer’s strategy will prevent sales from declining, but he’s unsure how well it will work.

“It’s a very interesting and novel approach,” he says. “Whether it returns Viagra to growth is hard to say.

 

 

huffingtonpost

Worse than AIDS: Scientists discover STD more infectious than HIV

Health officials are warning that two cases of a so-called ‘sex superbug’ have been confirmed in Hawaii.

Hawaii News Now reports that the ‘sex superbug’ is a resistant strain of gonorrhea.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has asked Congress for $50 million to find a new antibiotic to treat the drug-resistant strain of the disease. The first case in the nation was identified in a young woman in Hawaii in May 2011.

Health officials are warning that two cases of a so-called ‘sex superbug’ have been confirmed in Hawaii

The ‘sex superbug’ called H041 was first discovered in Japan in 2011. It spread to Hawaii, and has now surfaced in California and Norway.

Peter Whiticir with the State Department of Health says advisories have been sent to physicians and health care providers around Hawaii to be on the lookout for the resistant strain of gonorrhea.

Doctors are warning that an antibiotic-resistant strain of gonorrhoea, now considered a superbug, has the potential to be as deadly as the AIDS virus.

Gonorrhea is the second most commonly reported sexually transmitted infection in North America.

‘This might be a lot worse than AIDS in the short run because the bacteria is more aggressive and will affect more people quickly,’ Alan Christianson, a doctor of naturopathic medicine told CNBC.

Nearly 30 million people have died from AIDS related causes worldwide, but Christianson believes the effect of the gonorrhea bacteria is more direct.

‘Getting gonorrhea from this strain might put someone into septic shock and death in a matter of days,’ Christianson said. ‘This is very dangerous.’

In a briefing on Capitol Hill last week, William Smith, executive director of the National Coalition for STD Directors, urged Congress to target nearly $54 million in immediate funding to help find an antibiotic for HO41 and to conduct an education and public awareness campaign.

The ‘superbug’ was first discovered in Japan and some health officials have said it could rival AIDS

Although no deaths from HO41 have been reported as yet, experts say avoiding the disease completely is the best course of action.

‘People need to practice safe sex, like always,’ Christianson said. ‘Anyone beginning a new relationship should get tested along with their partner.

‘The way gonorrhea works, not everyone knows they have it. And with this new strain it’s even more important than ever to find out.’

Gonorrhea is a sexually transmitted disease that has been known since medieval times. Sometimes known as ‘the clap,’ the infection can result in painful sores and genital discharge, and is associated with ectopic pregnancies and sterility in both men and women.

Left untreated, gonorrhea can lead to a host of complications including pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility, and blood stream infections.

It also raises the risk for HIV because the lesions permit the AIDS-causing virus easier access to the bloodstream.

Gonorrhea is especially common among people between the ages of 15 and 24.

The disease became curable in the 1940s when penicillin and other antibiotics were introduced. Since then, the medical world has created more new drugs that killed the ever-mutating gonorrhea bacteria.

Health officials said there is the very real prospect that all types of gonorrhea will soon become untreatable

On a state-by-state basis, pockets of the U.S. are seeing giant spikes in the disease. Utah saw a 74 percent rise in gonorrhea cases in 2012, with the trend continuing into the first few months of this year.

In Minnesota, cases rose 35 percent in 2012, according to the state’s department of health, and according to the latest statistics from the CDC, ‘During 2010–2011, 61% (31/51) of states, plus the District of Columbia, reported an increase in gonorrhea rates.’

Cephalosporin, the last available class of antibiotics recommended for the treatment of gonorrhea, has been failing worldwide and there is the very real prospect that all types of gonorrhea will soon become untreatable.

Professor Cathy Ison, head of the National Reference Laboratory for Gonorrhoea in the U.K. told the BBC last week: ‘There is a possibility that if we don’t do something then it could become untreatable by 2015.’

Read more: Daily Mail