May 17th, 2012
posted by Paul Rega, MD, FACEP May 17, 2012 @ 6:13 am
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http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1003833?query=TOC
Azithromycin and the Risk of Cardiovascular Death
Wayne A. Ray, Ph.D., Katherine T. Murray, M.D., Kathi Hall, B.S., Patrick G. Arbogast, Ph.D., and C. Michael Stein, M.B., Ch.B.
N Engl J Med 2012; 366:1881-1890 May 17, 2012
During 5 days of azithromycin therapy, there was a small absolute increase in cardiovascular deaths, which was most pronounced among patients with a high baseline risk of cardiovascular disease.
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http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1112010?query=TOC
Association of Coffee Drinking with Total and Cause-Specific Mortality
Neal D. Freedman, Ph.D., Yikyung Park, Sc.D., Christian C. Abnet, Ph.D., Albert R. Hollenbeck, Ph.D., and Rashmi Sinha, Ph.D.
N Engl J Med 2012; 366:1891-1904 May 17, 2012
During 5,148,760 person-years of follow-up between 1995 and 2008, a total of 33,731 men and 18,784 women died. In age-adjusted models, the risk of death was increased among coffee drinkers. However, coffee drinkers were also more likely to smoke, and, after adjustment for tobacco-smoking status and other potential confounders, there was a significant inverse association between coffee consumption and mortality. Adjusted hazard ratios for death among men who drank coffee as compared with those who did not were as follows: 0.99 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.95 to 1.04) for drinking less than 1 cup per day, 0.94 (95% CI, 0.90 to 0.99) for 1 cup, 0.90 (95% CI, 0.86 to 0.93) for 2 or 3 cups, 0.88 (95% CI, 0.84 to 0.93) for 4 or 5 cups, and 0.90 (95% CI, 0.85 to 0.96) for 6 or more cups of coffee per day (P<0.001 for trend); the respective hazard ratios among women were 1.01 (95% CI, 0.96 to 1.07), 0.95 (95% CI, 0.90 to 1.01), 0.87 (95% CI, 0.83 to 0.92), 0.84 (95% CI, 0.79 to 0.90), and 0.85 (95% CI, 0.78 to 0.93) (P<0.001 for trend).
Inverse associations were observed for deaths due to heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke, injuries and accidents, diabetes, and infections, but not for deaths due to cancer. Results were similar in subgroups, including persons who had never smoked and persons who reported very good to excellent health at baseline.
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GAITHERSBURG, Md. — “An FDA advisory committee has voted 17-0 to recommend approval for the OraQuick In-Home HIV Test. If approved, it will be the first over-the-counter home HIV test……The review projected that the home-use test would lead to 45,000 new positive test results and could avert more than 4,000 HIV transmissions in a year……In addition, the test could be expected to deliver one false positive test for every 3,750 true negative results, or approximately 1,100 false positive test results per year….”
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Credit: FEMA
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This was recorded 5/16/11.
Halstad, Minn., March 29, 2009 — Flooded farms and rural communities in Norman County adjacent to the Red River of the North. Andrea Booher/FEMA
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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Tom Inglesby testifies on the risk of dual use research and biosecurity
(4/26/2012) .
Imami M, Watanabe T, Hatta M, et al. Experimental adaptation of an influenza H5
HA confers respiratory droplet transmission to a reassortant H5 HA/H1N1 virus in
ferrets. Nature 2012.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature10831.html.
E-Book PDF: Open in New Window | Download
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http://www.fcc.gov/guides/commercial-mobile-alert-system-cmas
Have you ever thought that, for emergency alerts to be distributed as quickly as possible, they should be sent to cell phones? The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), along with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the wireless industry, is working to make that possible.
CMAS (also known as Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) or Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN)) is a new public safety system that allows customers who own an enabled mobile device to receive geographically-targeted, text-like messages alerting them of imminent threats to safety in their area. The new technology ensures that emergency alerts will not get stuck in highly congested user areas, which can happen with standard mobile voice and texting services. CMAS was established pursuant to the Warning, Alert and Response Network (WARN) Act.
CMAS enables government officials to target emergency alerts to specific geographic areas through cell towers (e.g. lower Manhattan), which pushes the information to dedicated receivers in CMAS-enabled mobile devices.
CMAS complements the existing Emergency Alert System (EAS) which is implemented by the FCC and FEMA at the federal level through broadcasters and other media service providers.
Wireless companies volunteer to participate in CMAS. CMAS is the result of a unique public/private partnership between the FCC, FEMA and the wireless industry with the singular objective of enhanced public safety.
Participating wireless carriers were required to deploy CMAS by April 7, 2012.
Authorized national, state or local government officials send alerts regarding public safety emergencies, such as a tornado or a terrorist threat to CMAS.
CMAS authenticates the alert, verifies that the sender is authorized and sends it to participating wireless carriers.
Participating wireless carriers push the alerts from cell towers to mobile devices in the affected area. The alerts appear like text messages on mobile devices.
Alerts are geographically targeted, so a customer living in New York would not receive a threat if they happen to be in Chicago when the alert is sent. Similarly, someone visiting New York from Chicago on that same day would receive the alert. This requires a CMAS enabled mobile device and participation by the wireless provider in CMAS.
Alerts are free. Customers do not pay to receive CMAS alerts.
Customers of participating carriers are automatically signed up. CMAS allows government officials to send emergency alerts to all subscribers with CMAS-capable devices if their wireless carrier participates in the program. Consumers do not need to sign up for this service.
Alerts from CMAS cover only critical emergency alerts. Consumers will receive only three types of alerts:
Participating carriers may allow subscribers to block all but Presidential alerts.
A CMAS alert will be accompanied by a unique attention signal and vibration, which is particularly helpful to people with hearing or vision-related disabilities.
Yes. Consumers with prepaid phones can receive CMAS alerts as long as their provider has decided to participate in CMAS and the customer has a CMAS-enabled device. Such consumers will receive CMAS alerts just as customers with postpaid, monthly service will.
No. CMAS is not designed to – and does not – track the location of anyone receiving a CMAS alert.
No. CMAS alerts are transmitted using a new technology that is separate and different from voice calls and SMS text messages. This new technology ensures that emergency alerts will not get stuck in highly congested user areas, which can happen with standard mobile voice and texting services.
Some phones may require only software upgrades to receive alerts, while in other cases a subscriber may need to purchase a new CMAS-capable device. Consumers should check with their wireless carrier regarding the availability of CMAS-capable handsets.
Participation in CMAS by wireless carriers is voluntary. Some carriers will offer CMAS over all or parts of their service areas or over all or only some of their wireless devices. Other carriers may not offer CMAS at all. Consumers should check with their wireless carriers to determine the extent to which they are offering CMAS.
Partially. Participating wireless carriers may offer subscribers with CMAS-capable handsets the ability to block alerts involving imminent threats to safety of life and/or AMBER Alerts; however, consumers cannot block emergency alerts issued by the President.
In passing the WARN Act, Congress allowed participating carriers to offer subscribers the capability to block all CMAS alerts except those issued by the President.
The FCC requires all wireless carriers that do not participate in CMAS to notify customers. Consumers should check with their wireless carriers to determine the extent to which they are offering CMAS.
Some participating carriers are offering CMAS on some, but not all, of their mobile devices. Consumers should check with their wireless carriers to find out if their cell phone in CMAS-capable.
Information about CMAS-capable handsets can also be found at CTIA.org.
Participating wireless carriers are required under FCC rules to conduct periodic testing of their CMAS infrastructure. As part of their test, some participating carriers may choose (but are not required) to send test alerts to CMAS-enabled handsets. Consumers with questions about these test messages should contact their wireless carriers.
For information about other telecommunications issues, visit the FCC’s Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau website, or contact the FCC’s Consumer Center by calling 1-888-CALL-FCC (1-888-225-5322) voice or 1-888-TELL-FCC (1-888-835-5322) TTY; faxing 1-866-418-0232; or writing to:
Federal Communications Commission
Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau
Consumer Inquiries and Complaints Division
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20554.
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