01-15 March 2020 The Asian Independent

www.theasianindependent.co.uk
HEALTH
CORONAVIRUS cases
surge to 100 in France
Paris : The number of coronavirus
cases in Italy has jumped to 400 as French
Health General Director Jerome Salomon
announced 43 new cases of the disease on
Saturday. “This tally is due to an important
cluster in l’Oise which has 36 cases,”
Salomon said, adding that “it’s necessary
to curb the virus’ evolution, slow its spread
and protect areas with little or no infection”.
The infected people had either interacted
with already known patients or travelled
recently to zones of risk, Xinhua
reported. Earlier in the day, Health
Minister Olivier Veran said “all gatherings
of more than 5,000 people in confined
spaces will be cancelled as well as “events
in an open environment where people can
mix with others from areas where the virus
is possibly circulating.”
As a result, a Paris half-marathon that
was due to be held on Sunday with more
than 40,000 runners has been canceled, and
the annual farm show will close a day early
on Saturday.
In l’Oise, north France and the southeastern
region of Haute-Savoie, where the
largest two clusters had been detected, all
gatherings will be banned and residents are
advised to limit their journeys and switch
to working from home if possible. In the
country’s northern department, some
26,123 students had been recommended to
stay at home as about 100 schools
remained closed until further notice.
As the second stage in the epidemic has
been reached with the virus circulating
across French regions, French Prime
Minister Edouard Philippe stressed “our
health system is solid and we have all
weapons to cope (with the virus)”. He
added that border closures would be “useless”
and placing cities into lockdown
“does not meet the expected objectives”.
France, the first in Europe to detect the
COVID-19 on January 24, has reported
two coronavirus deaths. 86 patients are in
hospital, including 9 cases in critical situation,
and 12 have been cured.
01-03-2020 to 15-03-2020
15
Childhood physical abuse leads
to heavy CIGARETTE use
New York : Researchers have found that children who have
been abused, mistreated or neglected
at home are more likely to start
smoking cigarettes and other substances.
The study, published in the
journal Substance Use & Misuse,
showed that physical abuse of children
in high-risk homes, especially
when they're toddlers or teens, dramatically
increases the odds that
their adolescent experimentation
with cigarettes will lead to a heavy
smoking habit. For the findings, the study examined data on children
who were at high risk for abuse and neglect -- either because
they had been referred to a child protective service or lived in conditions
associated with the likelihood of maltreatment or both. "I
wanted to look at different types of maltreatment and whether they
have an impact on cigarette smoking," said study lead author Susan
Yoon, Assistant Professor at Ohio State University in the US.
"Adolescent cigarette smoking is a really serious social problem
and public health concern. Brain development is not complete until
late adolescence or during young adulthood, and cigarette smoking
is associated with damage in brain development," Yoon said.
"We also know that those who start smoking cigarettes during
adolescence are more likely to continue smoking into adulthood,"
Yoon added. For the results, the research team used data on 903
adolescents, who were assessed at age 12, 16 and 18.
A breakdown of different types of abuse and neglect experienced
by the sample population during three different time periods
(early childhood, school age and adolescence) confirmed how vulnerable
these kids were. The researchers used their responses
about smoking between the ages of 12 and 18 to identify three patterns
of cigarette use: stable low/no use (61 per cent of respondents),
gradually increasing use (30 per cent) and sharply increasing
cigarette use (nine per cent). "It was almost shocking how the
pattern of cigarette use over time went up so drastically in the
sharply increasing use class," Yoon said. "They were pretty similar
to the others at age 12 -- almost 80 percent didn't smoke. At age
16, we saw that almost 60 per cent had used cigarettes more than
20 days in the past year and by 18, every single kid in this group
reported heavy use of cigarettes," Yoon added.
Wine glass size may influence
how much you DRINK
Simple blood test can help
reduce heart disease deaths
London : Researchers have revealed how a simple blood test
could be used to help identify cardiovascular ageing and the risk of
heart disease. The study, published in the Journal of the American
College of Cardiology, reported that higher levels of amyloid-beta
in the blood may be a key indicator of cardiovascular disease.
Amyloid-beta is known to be involved in the development of
Alzheimer's disease, yet researchers have now concluded that it
may have a key role to play in vascular stiffening, thickening of the
arteries, heart failure and heart disease progression. It is hoped that
this research will one day lead to the development of a simple
blood test that could be used as a clinical biomarker to identify
patients who are most at risk, so that preventative measures can be
put in place and death rates reduced. "Our work has created and put
all the pieces of the puzzle together. For the first time, we have
provided evidence of the involvement of amyloid-beta in early and
later stages of cardiovascular disease," said study researcher
Konstantinos Stellos from Newcastle University in the UK.
For the findings, the research team analysed blood samples
from more than 6,600 patients from multiple cohort studies in
nine countries, and found that patients could be divided into
high and low risk categories of heart disease based on their amyloid-beta
levels. "What is really exciting is that we were able to
reproduce these unexpected, clinically meaningful findings in
patients from around the world. In all cases, we observed that
amyloid-beta is a biomarker of cardiovascular ageing and of cardiovascular
disease prognosis," Stellos added. The study proposed
the existence of a common link between both conditions,
which has not been acknowledged before, and could lead to better
patient care.
London : The size of glass
used for serving wine can influence
the amount of wine drunk,
say researchers, adding that
when restaurants served wine
in 370ml rather than 300ml
glasses they sold more wine,
and tended to sell less when
they used 250ml glasses. The
preliminary study, published in
the journal Addiction, suggested
that serving wine in larger
wine glasses -- while keeping
the same measure -- led to a
significant increase in the
amount of wine sold.
"Pouring wine from a bottle
or a carafe, as happens for most
wine sold in restaurants, allows
people to pour more than a
standard serving size, and this
effect may increase with the
size of the glass and the bottle,"
said study first author Mark
Pilling from University of
Cambridge in the UK. "If these
larger portions are still perceived
to be 'a glass', then we
would expect people to buy and
consume more wine with larger
glasses," Pilling added.
To provide a robust estimate
of the effect of the wine glass
size on sales -- a proxy for consumption
-- the research team
did a 'mega-analysis' that
brought together all of their
previously published datasets
from studies carried out
between 2015 and 2018 at bars
and restaurants in Cambridge.
The team used 300ml glasses
as the reference level against
which to compare the differences
in consumption. In
restaurants, when glass size
was increased to 370ml, wine
sales increased by 7.3 per cent,
the study said. Reducing the
glass size to 250ml led to a
drop of 9.6 per cent, although
confidence intervals (the range
of values within which the
researchers can be fairly certain
their true value lies) make this
figure uncertain.
Curiously, increasing the
glass size further to 450ml
made no difference compared
to using 300ml glasses, the
researchers said.
"When smaller glass sizes of
250ml are available, they may
also appear similar to 300ml
glasses, but result in a smaller
amount of wine being poured,"
Pilling said. "In contrast, very
large glasses, such as the 450ml
glasses, are more obviously
larger, so drinkers may have
taken conscious measures to
reduce how much they drink,
such as drinking more slowly
or pouring with greater caution,"
Pilling added.
The researchers also found
similar internal patterns to
those reported in previous studies,
namely lower sales of wine
on warmer days and much
higher sales on Fridays and
Saturdays than on Mondays.
The researchers found no
significant differences in wine
sales by glass size in bars -- in
contrast to the team's earlier
study. This shows the importance
of replicating research to
increase our ability to detect the
effects of wine glass size.
According to the study,
when combined with data from
other experiments, the apparent
effect in bars disappeared.