U.S. man tries to remove his hernia with a butter knife..

The wife of the 63-year-old Glendale man called emergency services when she discovered his attempt at self-surgery to remove the protruding hernia, police said.

"She said he had impaled himself with a knife," Sergeant Lorenz said, Associated Press reports.

Officers found the man naked on a patio lounge chair outside his apartment with a 15-centimeter butter knife sticking out of his stomach, AP says.

He was upset by the hernia and wanted to get it out, his wife told police.

iPhone Case Helps Diabetics Get Blood Glucose Readings

If you're diabetic, you'll know how frustrating it can be to check your blood glucose levels (even before you get your reading!). Plus, the method of pricking your finger for a reading can lead to other nasty side effects, like possible infections. 

Fortunately, your iPhone's camera could be your way out of the finger-pricking mess, with a gadget developed by a team of university researchers. researchers at Northwestern University created an iPhone case that reads nanosensors used to measure ion and molecule concentrations. The sensors are made out of fluorescent polymer beads that take only seconds to make.

The sensor is then "tattooed" to an area of a patient's skin. With this in mind, a patient would be injected in the tattoo area with the nanomolecules-they would then attach themselves to glucose in the patient and start releasing ions. Using a special reading case strapped to the iPhone, the patient's arm is simply scanned by the phone's camera, and it gives a blood glucose measurement. 

The higher the glucose level, the more fluorescent the tattoo will appear on the skin-remember the sensors on the tattoo are fluorescent so will be visable under certain light. 

The iPhone case contains a 9-volt battery, a filter that fits over the phone's camera, and three different colored LEDs that produce the different levels of fluorescent light. The LEDs and filter react to outside light and can fade the colors, so the gadget is placed onto the patient's skin at first to prouce a more accurate reading. So, there may not be an app for that yet, but your iPhone certainly can be used for just about every aspect of your life.

Source: itsanews.com

Researchers create vaccine against heroin high

Researchers at the Scripps Research Institute have created a vaccine that stops the high one gets from from heroin. Designed as a therapeutic option for those trying to break their addiction, the vaccine produces antibodies that stop heroin as well as other psychoactive compounds metabolized from heroin from reaching the brain to produce euphoric effects.

Previous efforts to create a clinically viable heroin vaccine have struggled because heroin is metabolized into multiple substances that each produce psychoactive effects. To overcome this problem the researchers, led by the study's principal investigator, Kim D. Janda, targeted not just the heroin itself, but also the chemical it quickly degrades into, 6-acetylmorphine (6AM), and morphine.

Daily Dose of Antiretroviral Pills Prevent HIV

Healthy HIV-free people could reduce HIV transmission risks if they take a daily dose of antiretroviral drugs used to treat it, two groundbreaking studies have found.

A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, called the TDF2 Study, gives evidence that a daily oral dose of antiretroviral drugs can reduce the risk of uninfected people getting the virus through heterosexual sex.

The CDC conducted the study with the Botswana Ministry of health. In the study they found that a once-daily tablet containing Truvada can lower the risk of getting the HIV infection by about 63 percent.

Similarly, in a Partners PrEP study, the University of Washington has found that daily pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, also reduces HIV transmission among heterosexual couples in Kenya and Uganda. PrEP is the strategy of providing daily oral antiretroviral drugs to uninfected people prior to the being exposed to HIV.

The PrEP study provided evidence that two separate antiretroviral regimens namely tenofovir, commonly called Viread, and Truvada, significantly reduced HIV transmission among couples where one partner is infected with HIV and the other is not.

These discoveries could change the approach to HIV prevention.

"These are exciting results for global HIV prevention. We now have findings from two studies showing that PrEP can work for heterosexuals, the population hardest hit by HIV worldwide," said Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of CDC's National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, in a press release. "Taken together, these studies provide strong evidence of the power of this prevention strategy."

The CDC study included 1,219 HIV-uninfected heterosexual participants, both men and women between ages 18 and 39, in Botswana. They were enrolled in the trial and were randomly assigned to take a daily dose containing Truvada or a placebo pill.

The CDC said all the participants were given comprehensive HIV prevention services to include male and female condoms. The also got intensive risk-reduction behavioral counseling and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections.

Three participants were determined to be HIV-infected at the time of enrollment. Sixteen randomized participants began study medication, and were excluded from the analysis. The CDC said the analysis only included data on the remaining 1,200 participants who were HIV-negative at the time of enrollment and began study medication, which were 54.7 percent male and 45.3 percent female.

Among the 601 participants who received Truvada, nine became infected with HIV during the study.  As for the 599 people who got a placebo, 24 became infected with HIV during the study, the CDC found.

"Given the severity of the HIV epidemic among heterosexual men and women globally - and the critical need for female-controlled prevention methods - this study provides exciting and welcome news," said Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of CDC's Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention.  "The next important step is to fully review the data and assess when and how PrEP should best be used for HIV prevention among heterosexuals."

The University of Washington's study was led by International Clinical Research Center and was funded by the Bill & Melinda gates Foundation.

It involved 4,758 HIV couples where one partner has HIV and the other does not from nine research sites in Kenya and Uganda.

"This study is the largest study to date looking at the effectiveness of PrEP," said Dr. Connie Celum, a university of Washington professor of global health and medicine and the principal investigator of the study. "This study demonstrates that antiretrovirals are a highly potent and fundamental cornerstone for HIV prevention and should become an integral part of global efforts for HIV prevention."

Of the 4,758 couples enrolled in that study, a third of the HIV uninfected partners were randomly allocated to be given tenofovir; another third was given tenofovir combined with emtricitabine; and the other third was given matching placebo.

Participants in this study also got comprehensive HIV prevention services.

The study found that those who received tenofovir had an average of 62 percent fewer HIV infections; those who got tenofovir combined with emtricitabine had 73 percent fewer HIV infections than those who got placebo.

"This is an extremely exciting finding for the field of HIV prevention. Now, more than ever, the priority for HIV prevention research must be on how to deliver successful prevention strategies, like PrEP, to populations in greatest need," said Dr. Jared Baeten, co-chair of the study and a University of Washington associate professor of global health and medicine in a statement.

Source: www.ibtimes.com