Health

(CNS): According to officials from Department of Environmental Health (DEH) there are no contaminated eggs in the Cayman Islands. The recalled fresh eggs, which were distributed by Wright County Egg in the United Sates, that are potentially contaminated with salmonella have not been found here. The recall for eggs was issued by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) due to an outbreak of Salmonella Enteritidis (SE) that has sickened hundreds of people in the US.  An FDA investigation revealed Wright County Egg in Iowa as the common shelled egg supplier in these food poisoning cases. The recall was later expanded to include eggs produced from Hillandale Farms in Iowa.

(Healthy Living): Sex is an important part of life and healthy relationships. But diabetes can affect your sex life, a new study claims. The number of people with diabetes is increasing due to population growth, aging, and increasing prevalence of obesity and physical inactivity. According to American Diabetic Association 12.2 million or 23.1% of Americans above 60 have diabetes. Older adults with diabetes were found to be sexually active, but the disease does cause some problems with intimacy. Scientists at the University of Chicago Medical Centre conducted a study of 1,993 people, aged 57 to 85. The research was a part of the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project. The study involves in-home interviews, self-administered questionnaires, blood tests to evaluate diabetes status, and medication audits.

(CNS): Students attending government schools will no longer be allowed to eat fast food on campus. Kids will also be faced with healthier choices on the schools’ own lunch menus as part of government’s goal to improve the health of the country’s young people. The Ministry of Education said it is advancing the fight against childhood obesity and has implemented the Cayman Islands Public Schools: Standards for Food Provision (CISFP) as part of the requirement for canteen contracts, which are publicly tendered. The CISFP document stipulates the healthier meal options that must be offered during lunch and snack breaks in government school canteens and bans junk food deliveries and consumption while children are on campus.

(CNS):  Following the news yesterday that research has found even a short bout of unhealthy binging can have a lasting detrimental impact ten local people are going into battle over the next four months with fat and flab. War on Weight launched last Thursday when the ten contestants from the forty applicants, selected by committee to ensure their commitment, discussed this year’s weight competition, planned exercise regimes and met fellow exercise partners. Now in its third year, the WOW contest is an initiative of the Cayman Heart Fund where participants battle the bulge over 16-weeks. Each contestant will have access to more than $2,000 worth of health and fitness industry advice and expertise. 

(CNS): Clients from the Department of Children and Family Services will be the first patients to be allocated their own personal physician as part of the pilot launch of CayHealth. Government officials said this is an evidence-based health initiative that will give patients better access to healthcare. Patients will be able to schedule all appointments with the same doctor, who will in turn coordinate any specialist visits and overseas care, officials stated. The programme will be officially launched on 1 September but it is slated to become a national initiative, and according to the health minister, forms part of the wider goal of improving the country’s health and health care.

(Independent): One month of "slobbing it" has weight gain effects that can last for years, research has shown. Scientists asked volunteers to gorge on fast food and be less active for four weeks, expecting them to put on weight but then return to their normal size. Instead, after a promising start to their weight loss efforts, the participants kept getting bigger. After two and a half years they were still more than three kilos heavier than when the study began. A comparison "control" group who did not change their lifestyle showed no similar increase in weight. "The long-term difference in body weight in the intervention and control groups suggests that there is an extended effect on fat mass after a short period of large food consumption and minimal exercise," said study leader Asa Enersson, from Linkoping University in Sweden.

(CNS): Government plans to significantly increase fines for firms not providing health insurance as well as improving the cover of basic health insurance under new legislation. The Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill, 2010 is expected to come before the Legislative Assembly next month when the country’s parliament sits again. The law will also provide for the Health Insurance Commission to issue fines directly to employers who don’t get health insurance for their staff. Employers failing to provide mandatory health care benefits could be fined as much $30,000 under the new law, while fines for companies that are not approved insurers who issue policies will be as much $100,000. The law also intends to addresses the problem of the poor coverage provided by the basic package.

(Telegraph): More than 700 children in the UK are born with genetic diseases every year as a result of cousin marriages, an investigation has found. The problem is worst among children born in Britain's Pakistani community, where more than half of marriages are between first cousins, and children are 10 times more likely than the general population to suffer genetic disorders. As adults, the children born from first cousin marriages are at increased risk of miscarriage or infertility. A third of children affected die before their fifth birthday. The medical risks of first cousin marriages include higher rates of infant mortality, birth defects, learning difficulties, blindness, hearing problems and metabolic disorders.

(CNN): India has rejected findings of British scientists about a new form of drug-resistant "superbug" infecting patients who have traveled to the South Asian nation for treatment. The Indian health ministry insisted in a written statement Thursday that such organisms were present universally. "[T]his is a phenomenon which occurs in nature -- in the environment, may be intestines of humans and animals universally. There might be billions of such happenings at any moment," the ministry said. The medical journal, The Lancet, said this week that tourists seeking treatment in Asia are bringing home a dangerous type of bacterial infection that's resistant to nearly all known antibiotics.

(BBC): A new superbug that is resistant to even the most powerful antibiotics has entered UK hospitals, experts warn. They say bacteria that make an enzyme called NDM-1 have travelled back with NHS patients who went abroad to countries like India and Pakistan for treatments such as cosmetic surgery. Although there have only been about 50 cases identified in the UK so far, scientists fear it will go global. Tight surveillance and new drugs are needed says Lancet Infectious Diseases.NDM-1 can exist inside different bacteria, like E.coli, and it makes them resistant to one of the most powerful groups of antibiotics - carbapenems. These are generally reserved for use in emergencies and to combat hard-to-treat infections caused by other multi-resistant bacteria.

(The Scotsman): Last week a group of three British soldiers, two of them amputees, joined four US marines similarly wounded for an extraordinary diving trip in Grand Cayman, spearheaded by a Scottish diver who has experienced at first hand the despair of the newly disabled. Fraser Bathgate, the pioneer of Deptherapy, as the rehabilitation programme is called, explains: "It is impossible to imagine the emotion of being with these wounded soldiers when they experience for the first time the freedom of being in warm, clear waters and the stunning underwater marine world. I have seen men who were shadows of their former selves become alive again." It is a journey Bathgate was forced to embark upon aged 23 when he slipped off a training wall in London while preparing for a Himalayan climbing expedition.

(The Sun) The UK’s most senior doctor has attacked the nation's reckless attitude to smoking, boozing and overeating. Professor Steve Field, chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said it leads to early deaths for parents and their children. He warned adults that they even risk outliving their own kids if they continue to neglect both generations' health. The leading doctor said adults smoking in cars carrying youngsters are guilty of a form of "child abuse". Professor Field, who represents 42,000 British GPs, added: "I suppose the same people also smoke at home in front of their children.  Evidence from the US indicates that more young children are killed by parental smoking than by all other unintentional injuries combined."

(BBC): Keeping your heart fit and strong can slow down the ageing of your brain, US researchers say. A Boston University team found healthy people with sluggish hearts that pumped out less blood had "older" brains on scans than others. Out of the 1,500 people studied, the team observed that the brain shrinks as it ages. A poor cardiac output aged the brain by nearly two years on average, Circulation journal says. The link was seen in younger people in their 30s who did not have heart disease, as well as elderly people who did. The participants with smaller brain volumes on magnetic resonance imaging did not show obvious clinical signs of reduced brain function.

(CNS): By turning its first ever profit, the Cayman Islands Hospital will not receive a subsidy this year from the public purse, officials say. The board and management said last week that although the hospital receives money from the public purse, it is not a subsidy but payment to cover the cost of services requested by government. Currently the hospital costs around $80 million to run, and around $30 million of that comes directly from the budget in output payments for things such as health care for children, the operation of district clinics and the ambulance service. The rest of the revenue for running the country’s government health facility comes from insurance payments and direct fees from paying patients.

(CNS): With rates of seriously overweight children increasing locally the government is continuing in the fight against childhood obesity. The Ministry of Health has partnered with Cayman based non-governmental organisation, AMF Partners, to air a television programme that examines the problem of overweight kids. The programme focuses on how parents can get kids excited about family exercise time and how schools can be part of the solution by banishing unhealthy snack options and offering fun physical activities. This is the second show in a two part series which will air on Monday evening at 8pm (2 August) on Cayman27.