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Swine Flu Confirmed Human Cases 8,480 In 39 Countries, Including 71 Deaths
The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that globally a total of 8,840 swine flu A(H1N1) cases of human infection have been confirmed, including 71 deaths (all of them in Mexico, the USA and Canada). The death rate for this novel influenza strain appears to be no different from that of seasonal human influenza. Several countries have now lifted travel restrictions on non-essential visits to Mexico.
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Opposition To Abortion Rights Declining Among Black Voters, Opinion Pieces States
"In recent years, conservative political strategists have painted African Americans as being more opposed to abortion than the white population," but experts believe that there actually "is a declining black support for conservative social policies like abortion," Tracie Powell, a former congressional fellow with the American Political Science Association, writes in a CQ Politics opinion piece. According to Powell, a recent Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life survey found that 49% of black U.S. residents -- who generally are considered more religious than the entire U.S. population -- are in favor of keeping abortion legal in most or all cases.Powell continues that experts vary in their explanations of the declining opposition to abortion rights among blacks. She writes that Christopher Metzler, an associate dean at Georgetown University, said that economic concerns, such as the high unemployment rate for black workers, have become more important than abortion for the group. According to Powell, Metzler said that black U.S. residents also have started questioning the antiabortion-rights agenda because they received little support from conservatives in return.Powell writes that some experts believe the feelings of black U.S. residents regarding abortion might go "deeper than current economic and social realities." Powell adds that Salamishah Tillet, founder of the organization A Long Walk Home, said that reproductive injustice for black women dates to times of slavery, when they had no reproductive rights. According to Tillet, black women face reproductive injustice in modern times through underfunding of family planning programs, lack of access to contraception and legislation like the Hyde Amendment, which restricts access to abortion for low-income women, who are disproportionately black and Hispanic.Powell writes, "I doubt most Americans, including those who are black, consider abortion a civil rights issue, and I"m not arguing that it should be." However, "I do know that while black Americans remain one of the most religious demographics in the country, this isn"t the 1960s and African Americans no longer march lock-step behind the church," she writes (Powell, CQ Politics, 6/10).
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University Of Hawaii At Manoa Professor Co-Authors Article About Weight And Relationships
Dr. Janet D. Latner, an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Hawai"i at Manoa, has co-authored an article in the July 2009 edition of the Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy on "Weight Stigma in Existing Relationships."
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Peptic Ulcer Bacterium Alters The Body's Defence System

Helicobacter pylori survives in the body by manipulating important immune system cells. This is shown in a thesis from the Sahlgrenska Academy. The discovery may lead to new treatments against the common peptic ulcer bacterium. About half of the world"s population carries Helicobacter pylori, mainly in the stomach. Most infected individuals never experience any symptoms, but around 10% get peptic ulcers and around 1% develop stomach cancer. "Carriers were often infected as children and if not treated with antibiotics, the bacterium remains in the body for life. The immune system alone is unable to eliminate the bacterium, and now we understand better why", says biologist Bert Kindlund, the author of the thesis. The study shows that a type of cells in the immune system called regulatory T cells down-regulate the body"s defence against Helicobacter pylori and thereby enable the bacterium to develop a chronic infection. "If we could control the regulatory T cells, we could strengthen the immune system and help the body eliminate the bacterium. This could be a new treatment strategy against Helicobacter pylori", Kindlund continues. In addition, the bacterium makes the immune system increase the number of regulatory T cells in the lining of the stomach. This also occurs with stomach cancer. "An important question is where the increased number of regulatory T cells in the stomach lining come from. Knowing the answer to this question could help us develop a treatment for stomach cancer. What we have found so far is that the regulatory T cells are actively recruited from the bloodstream into the tumour, and once there they start multiplying faster", says Kindlund. Elin Lindstrç¶m Claessen University of Gothenburg


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