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Report Looks At HIV Prevalence Among Chicago Gay Men
In Chicago, 17.4 percent of gay men are estimated to be HIV-positive, compared with 1.2 percent of the general male population, according to a new report by the Chicago Public Health Department, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. The report is based on data collected from 570 Chicago men through the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance system, and found that half of the men with HIV were unaware they were infected (Thomas, 7/25). "Health officials said Friday, information in the report on HIV infection mark the first time Chicago health officials have used blood-testing to determine infection rates among men," the AP/Chicago Tribune reports. In the past, estimates have relied on interviews with gay and bisexual men, according to Christopher Brown, the Public Health Department assistant commissioner. The report also found that "black men who have sex with other men have double the HIV infection rates of white and Hispanic men," the AP/Tribune reports (7/24).
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Asian Pneumonia Prevention Organization Calls For Required Pneumonia Vaccine In India
The Asian Strategic Alliance for Pneumococcal Disease Prevention (ASAP) is calling for the pneumonia vaccine to become an official part of India"s required list of immunizations, the Times of India reports. According to the newspaper, Nithin Shah, chairman of ASAP India chapter, said there is an "immediate need to take steps to control and prevent pneumonia morbidity and mortality," which is the leading cause of death among children younger than age five in India, according to international child health experts (7/26).
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Northamptonshire Animal Feed Company Fined After Worker Falls From Height
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is reminding employers of their duties to the safety of staff following an incident in Kettering where an employee fell six foot and suffered serious injury.
Medical Devices

Human Milk And Blood Serum SRMs For Contaminant Measurements Issued By National Institute Of Standards And Technology

Responding to scientists" need to measure organic contaminants in human body fluids, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has recently made four new Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) available for purchase. Developed in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the human milk and serum SRMs have certified levels of contaminants, including flame retardants and pesticides, commonly found in the U.S. population. Scientists at the CDC and other laboratories will use the SRMs as controls in their experiments to ensure their methods are providing trustworthy results. NIST first released its first serum-based SRM (SRM 1589 Polychlorinated Biphenyls in Human Serum) in 1985 to aid with the detection of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a toxic mixture of compounds used in transformer oils that was banned in the U.S. in the 1970s. Since NIST researchers last updated the SRM in 2000, the levels of PCBs, pesticides, dioxins/furans and other contaminants have decreased by 50 percent while the levels of brominated flame retardants, chemicals found in carpeting and upholstery, have been on the rise. NIST researchers created the new SRMs to reflect these changes. The first of their kind, the milk SRMs contain similar contaminants as the serum materials. To prepare these SRMs, scientists collected 200 liters of blood serum and 100 liters of milk from banks across the United States and divided the sample pools in half. (Note that the milk that was used to prepare the SRM was not suitable for feeding babies because the donors may have taken medications such as acetaminophen or the milk had reached its expiration date.) Researchers packaged half of each material as received, containing the natural (unfortified) level of contaminants, and treated (fortified) the other halves with a solution containing 172 selected contaminants. The fortified samples contain a concentration of those contaminants at levels five to 10 times higher than the median concentrations found in the U.S. population. NIST SRMs have been rigorously tested and certified as having specific properties that researchers can trust as accurate within stated levels of uncertainty. The values stated on the certificates for these SRMs were measured by NIST and the CDC using a number of different methods including gas and liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry detection. Mark Esser National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)


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