Safe Drinking Water in Colombia Tackled By American Chemical Society Global Program

by Rukmani Krishna on? June 24, 2013 at 11:42 PM General Health News A white paper outlining possible solutions for increasing access to safe drinking water in the rural areas of the world was issued by the Global Innovation Imperatives (Gii) program, administered by the American Chemical Society (ACS) Office of International Activities. Although focused on the community of Chocont?, in Colombia, the suggested solutions have broader application.
Chocont? residents rely on rural aqueducts for their water, but supplies are vulnerable to pollution from nearby agriculture and largely go untreated. City officials asked ACS, the world's largest scientific society, to help solve the problem, noting that the solutions likely would apply to other areas of the country and possibly the world.

"The recommendations in this report should solve local problems but could be easily replicated elsewhere," said Francisco Gomez, assistant director of the ACS Office of International Activities. "If other areas in the region have this same problem, there is a good probability that the recommendations will offer solutions."

Gii's mission is to solve global challenges such as increasing access to safe drinking water and ensuring food security, Gomez explained. The approach involves bringing together experts within ACS, as well as other scientific societies and nongovernmental organizations, to share knowledge and expertise and propose innovative solutions ? essentially building a community around a problem.

To produce the Chocont? report, ACS partnered with the Colombian Society of Chemical Sciences (SOCOLQUIM), the Brazilian Chemical Society and the Latin American Federation of Chemical Associations, along with experts from the U.S. Geological Survey and Conservaci?n Internacional. The team conducted field visits to work toward the goal of providing clean water for all residents of the community.

The recommendations in the new report came out of discussions at the International Forum on Sustainable Conservation of Water Sources & Basins & Operation of Sidewalk Aqueducts of Chocont?, which was held in Bogot?, Colombia, in October 2012.

This is the second report issued by Gii. Its first white paper outlined recommendations for sustainable and cost-effective solutions to water quality challenges in India.

Gii's next forum, scheduled to take place later this year, will address water scarcity in a community in the south of Brazil. A white paper with recommendations will follow.

Source-Eurekalert

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Two American Men Found to be Cured of HIV

by Kathy Jones on? July 05, 2013 at 10:59 PM AIDS/HIV News Doctors in the US revealed that two American men have joined the handful number of people who were infected with HIV but have managed to overcome the virus, increasing hopes that a potential cure may not be too far away.
Doctors from the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston announced on Wednesday night that two previously HIV-positive patients no longer had detectable virus levels in their blood or tissue after having bone marrow stem-cell transplants to treat cancer between two and four years ago, the Age reported.

Remarkably, the two men - a young man and another in middle age - have also remained clear of the virus after stopping anti-retroviral therapy eight and 15 weeks ago.

When most HIV-positive people stop taking treatment, the virus becomes active again within four to eight weeks.

The Boston pair look set to join a Mississippi toddler believed to have been cured of HIV by intense treatment 30 hours after birth and Timothy Ray Brown, the "Berlin patient" famously cured of HIV six years ago after having a similar bone marrow transplant to treat cancer in Germany.

However, there is a key difference between the Berlin and Boston patients that could advance research towards a cure for HIV.

Brown received a transplant from a donor with an unusual gene mutation that resists HIV whereas the Boston patients received transplants from donors with no known resistance to the disease.

Timothy Henrich and Daniel Kuritzkes, the doctors managing the Boston patients, told an HIV conference in Malaysia that this suggested the process of stem-cell transplantation was responsible for their suspected remission.

In particular, they believe a common complication of transplantation, graft-versus-host disease, could be at play because it involves newly transplanted donor cells attacking the transplant recipient's body.

The doctors said although it was too early to say whether their patients had been cured permanently, repeated tests of large volumes of cells, plasma and tissue had found no sign of the virus.

Source-ANI

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Legalizing Pot Being Pondered by Latin American States

The report examined an issue that until recently was a taboo topic in the region. Politicians, desperate for measures to control drug-linked violence, are now open to legalization.

The report does not make specific proposals, but looks at different scenarios in which countries could handle the drug trade blamed on scores of deaths.

"Never before has a multilateral organization engaged in such an inclusive and intellectually legitimate analysis of drug policy options," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, the largest US group pushing for reforming drug policies in the United States.

"It would have been inconceivable just two years ago that the OAS -- or any multilateral organization -- would publish a document that considers legalization, decriminalization and other alternatives to prohibitionist policies on an equal footing with status quo policies."

According to Nadelmann, "political pressures by the US and other governments would have made that impossible."

The new focus on alternatives to prohibition reflects the "unhappiness" of Latin Americans toward a US policy that continues to focus on crop eradication and militarized crackdowns, said Peter Hakim at the Inter-American Dialogue, a leading Washington think tank.

"Legalization is one alternative. I don't think it's going to really be widely adopted, but is a way of getting the debate started," he said.

OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza traveled to Bogota to personally hand the report to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.

Santos, a key US ally in Latin America, is also one of the leading voices in calling for a fresh look at counter-narcotics policies.

According to the report, the regulation of some drugs would allow governments to reassign resources to the prevention and treatment of addicts.

Source-AFP

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American Idol Sources Confirm All Four Judges Are Gone—No More Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj, Keith Urban or Randy Jackson

by Kristin Dos Santos Fri., May. 10, 2013 8:15 PM PDT

Michael Becker / FOX

Seacrest in. Everyone else out.

Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj, Keith Urban and (as previously reported) Randy Jackson are "definitely gone" from American Idol, sources close to the show confirm to E! News.

Reps for Fox and Fremantle declined to comment.

NEWS: Randy Jackson exclusitely revealed to us that he's leaving Idol

The panel-scrapping shakeup, which was first reported by The Wrap, follows on the heels of record low ratings, which have left Fox execs scrambling for a bold, show-saving maneuver.

Fox will present its new fall lineup to advertisers on Monday in New York, and we are told the network is expected to announce the departure of all four judges.

"After 12 years of judging on American Idol I have decided it is time to leave after this season," Randy Jackson told E! News exclusively on Thursday.

Will you miss them?

Stand by for much more Idol and upfronts scoop!

PHOTOS: Idol's biggest contestants and winners

View the original article here

American Idol Sources Confirm All Four Judges Are Gone—No More Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj, Keith Urban or Randy Jackson

by Kristin Dos Santos Fri., May. 10, 2013 8:15 PM PDT

Michael Becker / FOX

Seacrest in. Everyone else out.

Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj, Keith Urban and (as previously reported) Randy Jackson are "definitely gone" from American Idol, sources close to the show confirm to E! News.

Reps for Fox and Fremantle declined to comment.

NEWS: Randy Jackson exclusitely revealed to us that he's leaving Idol

The panel-scrapping shakeup, which was first reported by The Wrap, follows on the heels of record low ratings, which have left Fox execs scrambling for a bold, show-saving maneuver.

Fox will present its new fall lineup to advertisers on Monday in New York, and we are told the network is expected to announce the departure of all four judges.

"After 12 years of judging on American Idol I have decided it is time to leave after this season," Randy Jackson told E! News exclusively on Thursday.

Will you miss them?

Stand by for much more Idol and upfronts scoop!

PHOTOS: Idol's biggest contestants and winners

View the original article here

American Idol Sources Confirm All Four Judges Are Gone—No More Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj, Keith Urban or Randy Jackson

by Kristin Dos Santos Fri., May. 10, 2013 8:15 PM PDT

Michael Becker / FOX

Seacrest in. Everyone else out.

Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj, Keith Urban and (as previously reported) Randy Jackson are "definitely gone" from American Idol, sources close to the show confirm to E! News.

Reps for Fox and Fremantle declined to comment.

NEWS: Randy Jackson exclusitely revealed to us that he's leaving Idol

The panel-scrapping shakeup, which was first reported by The Wrap, follows on the heels of record low ratings, which have left Fox execs scrambling for a bold, show-saving maneuver.

Fox will present its new fall lineup to advertisers on Monday in New York, and we are told the network is expected to announce the departure of all four judges.

"After 12 years of judging on American Idol I have decided it is time to leave after this season," Randy Jackson told E! News exclusively on Thursday.

Will you miss them?

Stand by for much more Idol and upfronts scoop!

PHOTOS: Idol's biggest contestants and winners

View the original article here