If your work takes you well into the midnight hours and beyond, you might want to take a little more care of how you treat your body. In a recent study conducted by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), working at the graveyard shift was listed as a "probable" cause of cancer.

Read more about this after the full article!

Another pertinent solution to greenhouse fumes has been discovered, and this time it looks like it's a viable proposition to the greenhouse gas problems that plague and threaten our little green planet.

Three fishing buddies were able to develop the Greenbox. It's a box which can be installed underneath an automobile in lieu of an exhaust pipe to trap the troublesome fumes which are blamed for global warming and then emit water vapor.

The best part about this invention is that the captured fumes can be converted into biofuel by using genetically modified algae. "We've managed to develop a way to successfully capture a majority of the emission from the dirtiest motor we could find," said Derek Palmer, an organic chemist who created the Greenbox along with his fishing buddies Ian Houston and John Jones, both engineers.

Palmer said that they have consulted major organizations about their invention, including World Health Organization (WHO), and GlaxoSmithKline, among others. The three friends have stumbled upon this discovery while they were working on a way to boost algae growth for fish farming.

The box that the men came up with is about the size of a barstool, but they said that the size can actually be modified to fit other vehicles. The most important thing is that the carbon dioxide should be captured securely. Ian Houston explained one of the benefits of their invention:

The carbon dioxide, held in its safe, inert state, can be handled, transported and released into a controlled environment with ease and a minimal amount of energy required

Having done a total of 130 tests in capturing carbon dioxide, the three friends were able to get a greenhouse gas capture rate of about 85 to 95 percent. "Based on the information, there is a clear reduction in emissions," said David Hansen, a Labour MP from North Wales who supported the invention. "As a result, I'm facilitating meetings with the appropriate UK government agencies, as we want to ensure that British ownership and manufacturing is maintained."

Should the system be adapted, car owners who use the Greenbox will have theirs replaced once they fill up their cars, and the captured emissions will go directly to the bioreactor, where the gases are fed  to algae and turned into bio-oil. 

The bio-oil produced can be used in a diesel engine, where the cycle starts all over again.

About 10 facilities are needed across the UK to successfully handle the carbon dioxide emitted from 30 million cars. The three reported that they have spent about 170,000 pounds (US$ 348,000) to develop the technology, which they have closely guarded, even from their wives.

A 20-year old male patient has died of the H5N1 strain of the avian influenza virus in the northern Vietnam province of Ha Tay. This is the first confirmed death due to the disease in the nation since 2005.

Health authorities warn of a possible pandemic due to the fact that the virus is highly contagious and spreads through poultry at a rapid pace. The national death toll has now hit a total of 43 in the Southeast Asian country.

Sources say that the man raised game cocks and ducks, which made him susceptible to the feared flu strain. There are currently five reported cases of the disease where two people have recovered and two are still under treatment.

Around a hundred fatalities have been confirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO) since 2003. Experts fear that things may worsen if the virus mutates and becomes transmissible from human to human rather than just being a bird to man infection cycle.

With AIDS still rampant in poorly-developed third-world countries and not enough awareness about the killer disease spread around, it's no surprise that the World Health Organization (WHO) has ordered routine HIV testing to be performed for health center attendees - unless, of course, said attendees refuse to take the test themselves.

This comes as a direct response to the all-too-real scenario of AIDS carriers unwittingly spreading the virus around - specifically because they never knew they had AIDS in the first place.

This is a welcome change in the battle against the immune system-destroying disease, as testing has always been on a per-request basis - the exact reason why too many opportunities to diagnose the actual infection are missed.

With the WHO turning things around, HIV tests will now be carried out on all patients in a routine fashion, regardless of the reason they came into the health center in the first place and whether or not they have visible symptoms of HIV. This isn't something the patients have no say in, however.

People must be fully informed before the testing can even take place, and they can easily veto the test for whatever reason they may have. Support will also be provided to patients from the very real danger of one's HIV results leaking out to the public, discrimination, and outright violence included.

And it's not just starting out - already the program has made incredible progress on areas such as Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Uganda and Zambia. Canada, Thailand, UK, and the US have also joined in, offering tests in high-risk settings.

It's also to note that the collaborative efforts have been met with significant approval from organizations also combating the dreaded disease. Lisa Power of the UK HIV charity Terrence Higgins Trust is but one of the many supporting the change, saying:

We fully support these recommendations In the UK, this means that sexual health clinics and health services for those at particular risk of HIV should be recommending HIV testing - something which we've been advocating for some time. A third of people with HIV don't know they have it and many of them may never have considered testing. We need this proactive approach to help these people as early as possible.

A proactive approach in helping individuals stricken with HIV, especially in parts of the world such as sub-Sahara Africa where only a small percentage of the population actually bother with testing - this new policy has a potential to make a difference in the ongoing fight against AIDS. You can check out more about this policy by clicking on the read link below.

The retrovirus Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has already negatively affected a lot of human lives. Although still incurable, HIV and AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) can be prevented. The World Health Organization (WHO) names a comprehensive HIV prevention package, which includes:

• male circumcision
  
• the provision of HIV testing and counselling services;
• treatment for sexually transmitted infections;
• the promotion of safer sex practices; and
• the provision of male and female condoms and promotion of their correct and consistent use.

Currently, only 30 percent of the male population are circumcised. There have been lots of issues about circumcision. Advocacy groups question the ethics of circumcising infants. In certain cultures, people believe that circumcision, particularly of infants, is a human rights violation or a sexual assault.

The WHO warns, however, that mere circumcision does not completely prevent AIDS, hence the prevention package mentioned above. Dr. Kevin De Cock, HIV/AIDS Department Director in WHO says,

Scaling up male circumcision in such countries will result in immediate benefit to individuals. However, it will be a number of years before we can expect to see an impact on the epidemic from such investment.

AIDS results from damage to the immune system caused by HIV. It is sexually transmittable, and late stages of the condition leaves individuals prone to most life-threatening infections and tumors.

Scientists have found conclusive evidence that male circumcision actually lowers the chance of getting infected with the HIV virus by 51 to 60 percent after a study conducted in Kenya.

Two separate studies were conducted. The first was held in Uganda with 4.966 men. 2,474 were circumcised while 2,522 were not. The other study was in Kenya where 1,391 circumcised men were compared to 1,393 uncircumcised men. The subjects were then tracked for two years and the results that followed were amazing.

World Health Organization (WHO) AIDS Department director Dr. Kevin de Cock remarked "This is an extraordinary development. Circumcision is the most potent intervention in HIV prevention that has been described."

The news gives renewed hope that over 2 million AIDS cases could be prevented in the next 10 years. More importantly, 300,000 lives can be saved.

However, this landmark discovery isn't without a hitch. Male circumcision will not be easy to apply on a massive scale in Africa because of two problems. First, religious and ethnic gridlocks will have to be dissolved in order for circumcision to be implemented. The practice of cutting off the foreskin of the male reproductive organ is primarily a Jewish/ Christian-originated practice and may very well be shunned by ethnic groups. Second, health services in Africa are already overworked and will need heavy planning, financial aid and manpower.

Dr. Catherine Hankins, scientific advisor for the United Nations AIDS agency (UNAIDS) describes the situation is "a tricky one" and explains "Male circumcision is such a sensitive religious and cultural issue that we need to be careful."

UNAIDS and WHO officials will meet in Switzerland next month with African leaders to discuss possible measures on how to best apply the new knowledge.

With HIV being so prevalent nowadays, you'd want to take all necessary precautions, and then some, just to make sure you won't get infected for engaging in the sexual act. Well, if you're not the type who enjoys wearing rubber, then maybe circumcision could work for you.

But before you separate ways with your foreskins, and then going on an all-out rampage thinking you'd be immune from HIV forever, you better sit down and read the rest of this post. Getting circumcised don't give you an all-encompassing power that makes you untouchable by the disease. It does, however, cut down the risk by about 50%. That's still a big chunk, actually.

This was the finding of two studies conducted in Africa, the leading victimized continent. At the end of 2005, an estimated 24.5 million people were living there with HIV, and by the end of the year, approximately 2.7 million new infections were recorded. Just last year, the African statistics of people who died of the disease rose to two million people. More than 12 million children have been orphaned in the region because of AIDS.

Now, back to the circumcision trial. The Kenya trial gave out the result that there was a 53% reduction on new HIV infections in circumcised heterosexual men, while there was a 48% drop in Uganda. It was said that the findings are so striking, the US National Institutes of Health decided to put an early halt to the study as they deemed it unethical to not offer circumcision in the men who were acting as controls.

Yeah, we guess they wouldn't really be happy to be infected with HIV because they were part of some study, eh.

Anyhow, there are said to be a variety of reasons why circumcision may provide protection against HIV infection. Supposedly, there are specific cells in the foreskin that may be potential targets for HIV infection. Also, with circumcision, the skin under the foreskin becomes less sensitive and is less likely to bleed, thus reducing the risk of infection.

But as mentioned earlier, this should not be taken as the ultimate preventive solution against infection. Says Dr. Kevin De Cock, director of the World Health Organization's HIV/Aids department, "This is an intervention that must be embedded with all the other interventions and precautions we have. Men must not consider themselves protected. It's a very important intervention to add to our prevention armamentarium."

Exactly. So, while we may deem the results to be a "significant scientific advance", it most definitely is far from being the ultimate protection, and most certainly would never replace existing prevention strategies. 

Right. Precautions should remain guys. ALL necessary precautions.

The World Health Organization (WHO) painted a grim picture of the future by predicting more deaths and diseases in 2030. While WHO's reputation may not be at par with that of Nostradamus, it serves as a warning to people who'd take the brunt of the fearless forecast: smokers.

The saying "Smoking Kills" has never stopped cigarette-loving individuals from inhaling nicotine. And if they don't kick the habit, the smokers' population will eventually drop. If the WHO's prediction is accurate,  1/10 of all deaths worldwide will be due to smoking.

The next 25 years will also see the increase of AIDS-related deaths. The number will soar to 6.5 million come 2030.  Smoking and AIDS will be joined by heart attack, stroke, pneumonia, HIV and pulmonary diseases to round out the list of deadly killers of 2030.

It's a grim scenario but it's something that can be prevented as countries become prosperous. In general, as countries begin to prosper, they can afford to set up a better health system (e.g. better hygiene and vaccination measures). But if you think about it, as people get richer, they have more money to spend on cigarettes...

The philosopher Aristotle said in his teachings that too much of anything was unhealthy, and that for man to flourish, a degree of balance had to be maintained.

Enter Professor Mark Griffiths, Director of the International Gaming Research Unit at Nottingham Trent University, U.K., who in a recently concluded survey of 7000 gamers, found that 12% of them were suffering from the classic signs of addiction found in smokers, and druggies.

Proff..... Griffiths said that the survey, done with help from German colleagues Sabine Grüsser and Ralf Thalemann, was conducted as means of studying the addictive potential of online games. The study was conducted on a sample population of 7069 online gamers, 94% of whom were males in the 21-year age group.

The participants were then asked to fill out two questionnaires. The questionnaire results showed that 840 people withing the group were showing at least three classic symptoms of addiction as stated by the World Health Organization, which included craving, tolerance, withdrawal symptoms, loss of control, neglect of other activities, and other negative consequences.

Professor Griffiths then compared the behavior of this group experiencing at least three addiction symptoms with that of the other gamers, and found that the former group suffered from noticeably longer play time, and were more likely to report symptoms of withdrawal and cravings. As the good doctor says regarding the  results:

Although these gamers show some signs of addiction normally found in other more traditional addictions, our results do not conclusively show that the gamers are genuinely addicted. Many gamers play excessively and display few negative consequences. However, the 24-hour a day never-ending online games may provide a potentially addictive medium for those with a predisposition for excessive game playing.

If it's any good news, Proff. Griffiths also adds that while this may seem to be all negative, this survey only shows the more apparent signs of addiction, and that aside from gaming, the addiction will need to be put in clearer perspective as compared to the gamer's overall lifestyle, and that outside factors may have brought out these symptoms.

The study will be published in the U.S. journal CyberPsychology and Behaviour, and is part of a series of British Science Museum's 'Game On' lecture series, at which Prof. Griffith will be present to discuss his findings, which includes not only this study, but some of the more positive benefits from gaming - it's not all bad.

In this day and age, one would wonder why an ancient disease such as polio still exists. That's not to say there have been no developments in the field of vaccine formulation and immunization. In fact, polio has been eliminated in developed nations. The sad part is that polio still persists in India, Nigeria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan - all emerging countries (read: poor countries). The infectious disease continues to cripple populations with overcrowded living conditions and poor sanitation.

The World Health Organization (WHO) will have none of that... in the next decade, that is. Experts have identified new vaccine strategies that could get rid of polio, for good. The solution is in the form of "monovalent vaccine against the strain in India from the standard trivalent vaccine that protects against three types of polio virus". 

It's been almost 19 years since WHO launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. If the new vaccine strategy works, we can all say goodbye to the debilitating disease. Sayonara. Au revoir. Arrivederci. Hasta la vista...