Plos One
-
Although being an important source of science news information to the public, print news media have often been criticized in their credibility. Health-related content of press media articles has been examined by many studies underlining that information about benefits, risks and costs are often incomplete or inadequate and financial conflicts of interest are rarely reported. However, these studies have focused their analysis on very selected science articles. The present research aimed at adopting a wider explorative approach, by analysing all types of health science information appearing on the Italian national press in one-week period. Moreover, we attempted to score the balance of the articles. ⋯ Consistent with prior research on health science communication in other countries, we report undisclosed costs and risks, emphasized benefits, unrevealed financial conflicts of interest and exaggerated claims in Italian print media. In addition, we show that the risk for a story about a new medical approach to be unbalanced is almost 9 times higher with respect to stories about any other kind of health science-related topics. These findings raise again the fundamental issue whether popular media is detrimental rather than useful to public health.
-
Nitric oxide generated by neuronal (NOS1), inducible (NOS2) or endothelial (NOS3) nitric oxide synthases contributes to pain processing, but the exact role of NOS1 and NOS2 in the maintenance of chronic peripheral neuropathic pain as well as the possible compensatory changes in their expression in the spinal cord of wild type (WT) and NOS knockout (KO) mice at 21 days after total sciatic nerve ligation remains unknown. ⋯ These data suggest that the increased spinal cord expression of NOS1, regulated by NOS2, might be responsible for the maintenance of chronic peripheral neuropathic pain in mice and propose these enzymes as interesting therapeutic targets for their treatment.
-
Pandemic influenza A (H1N1) virus emerged during 2009. To help clinicians triage adults with acute respiratory illness, a scoring system for influenza-like illness (ILI) was implemented at Hospital Civil de Guadalajara, Mexico. ⋯ The triaging system that used an ILI-score complimented clinicians' judgment of who needed oseltamivir and inpatient care and helped hospital staff manage a surge in demand for services.
-
There is consensus that experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) can be mediated by myelin specific T cells of Th1 as well as of Th17 phenotype, but the contribution of either subset to the pathogenic process has remained controversial. In this report, we compare functional differences and pathogenic potential of "monoclonal" T cell lines that recognize myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) with the same transgenic TCR but are distinguished by an IFN-γ producing Th1-like and IL-17 producing Th17-like cytokine signature. ⋯ Our data demonstrate that both Th1 and Th17 lineages possess the ability to induce CNS autoimmunity but can function with complementary as well as differential pathogenic mechanisms. We propose that Th17-like cells producing IL-17 are required for the generation of atypical EAE whereas IFN-γ producing Th1 cells induce classical EAE.
-
On June 11, 2009, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of novel influenza A (H1N1) a pandemic. With limited supplies of antivirals and vaccines, countries and individuals are looking at other ways to reduce the spread of pandemic (H1N1) 2009, particularly options that are cost effective and relatively easy to implement. Recent experiences with the 2003 SARS and 2009 H1N1 epidemics have shown that people are willing to wear facemasks to protect themselves against infection; however, little research has been done to quantify the impact of using facemasks in reducing the spread of disease. ⋯ To estimate the parameter values used for the effectiveness of facemasks, we used available data from studies on N95 respirators and surgical facemasks. The results show that if N95 respirators are only 20% effective in reducing susceptibility and infectivity, only 10% of the population would have to wear them to reduce the number of influenza A (H1N1) cases by 20%. We can conclude from our model that, if worn properly, facemasks are an effective intervention strategy in reducing the spread of pandemic (H1N1) 2009.