The Health News USA September 2 2017

Overview

• Southern Illinois University’s standing as an accredited research institution could be at risk after the developers of a herpes vaccine, including a professor, bypassed U.S. safety standards to test the shot on Americans flown to a Caribbean island.
• According to a new study from the North Carolina State University, about 21% of new mothers experiencing postpartum mood disorders like depression and anxiety don’t tell their doctors about their symptoms.
• According to the Bureau of Prisons, federal prisons are now required to provide female inmates with a range of feminine hygiene products free of charge.

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 2nd of  September 2017. Read by Tabetha Moreto. Health News

http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/health-med-fit/health/herpes-vaccine-developed-at-siu-creates-stir-for-testing-outside/article_f24d7c53-7563-59f6-9e74-26b0758d15c0.html

Southern Illinois University’s standing as an accredited research institution could be at risk after the developers of a herpes vaccine, including a professor, bypassed U.S. safety standards to test the shot on Americans flown to a Caribbean island. The complicated saga involves the U.S. drug approval process, a wealthy Donald Trump supporter and William Halford, an SIU biology professor who spent his career trying to find a cure for herpes before dying of cancer in June.
Kaiser Health News reports that Peter Thiel, a tech billionaire and Trump adviser, invested seven million dollars in Halford’s company, Springfield, IllInois. The university promoted Rational Vaccines’ work to produce a vaccine to treat herpes viruses, which infect half the world’s population and can cause outbreaks of sores around the genitals, mouth and eyes. The university holds a patent on the vaccine. Last year, the company flew twenty U.S. and British citizens to the Caribbean island of Saint Kitts to test out Theravax, a herpes vaccine. Experts said the offshore trial was dangerous because it wasn’t monitored under U.S. drug safety rules.
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The university said in a promotional story that “the trial was designed for convenience, speed and efficiency” and produced one hundred percent improvement in the participants’ herpes symptoms. A spokeswoman said the university was not involved in the clinical trial that involved one of its professors and its patented vaccine. The lack of oversight for the trial could put the university’s federal funding at risk. Most research institutions, including SIU, file agreements with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to follow safety rules and have an ethical review board to oversee any research involving people.

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/postpartum-disorder-sufferers-symptoms-quiet-article-1.3449791

About twenty one percent of new mothers experiencing postpartum mood disorders like depression and anxiety don’t tell their doctors about their symptoms, according to a new study out of North Carolina State University. In a survey of recent moms, conducted by the school, researchers asked women if they were feeling any signs or symptoms of premenstrual dysphoric disorder or PPMD and if they were telling their doctor about them.

“Our study finds that many women who would benefit from treatment are not receiving it, because they don’t tell anyone that they’re dealing with any challenges,” lead author of the study Betty-Shannon Prevatt told Science Daily. “We know that ten to twenty percent of women experience significant mood disorders after childbirth, and those disorders can adversely affect the physical and emotional well-being of both mothers and children.”

The survey showed that out of the two hundred eleven women polled, fifty one percent of them met the PPMD criteria but only slightly more than one in five of those mothers were telling their healthcare providers — someone like a nurse or a doctor — how they were feeling. Fortunately, the study saw that women who reported having exceedingly severe PPMD symptoms, as well as women with strong friendships and relationships, were more likely to tell someone.

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/08/29/health/federal-prisons-free-tampons-pads/index.html

According to the Bureau of Prisons, federal prisons are now required to provide female inmates with a range of feminine hygiene products free of charge.  A memo, issued by the bureau this month, requires all federal facilities that house female inmates to make two sizes of tampons and maxi pads available, in addition to panty liners.”Wardens have the responsibility to ensure female hygiene products such as tampons or pads are made available for free in sufficient frequency and number,” Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesman Justin Long wrote in an email.For Andrea James, fifty two, a former attorney and founder of the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, the memo was welcome news.

James served eighteen months in federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, in two thousand ten and two thousand eleven. She recalled that during her time in prison, she and her fellow inmates had limited options. The bureau’s policy memo comes a month after Democratic Senators Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren, Dick Durbin and Kamala Harris introduced the Dignity for Incarcerated Women Act. If passed, the law will require several reform measures in federal prisons, including an overhaul of visitation policies, a ban on shackling pregnant inmates or keeping them in solitary confinement, and a ban on charging inmates for phone calls. It would also require that multiple sizes of tampons, pads and liners be made available to female inmates for free.