The little red heart on your driver’s license now represents more than just vital organs like your heart or liver: it can represent your face.

The first full face transplant in the world was completed in a Barcelona hospital on a Spanish farmer about a month ago. This complex procedure took a surgical team of 30 and 24 hours in the operating room. During the surgery, doctors lifted an entire face, including jaw, nose, cheekbones, muscles, teeth and eyelids, and placed it masklike onto the man, Dr. Joan Pere Barret told The Associated Press on Friday.

The recipient had been involved in a gun accident which destroyed his entire face below the eye sockets. A ventilator did his breathing for him and he ate with a feeding tube. It has been called a success, but the patient will not be released from the Vall d’Hebron Hospital for another few months. His eyesight was unaffected by either the accident or the ten surgeries he has now undergone. Doctors say he will have recovered enough to eat and breathe on his own in a week. This is a step forward in medicine, and the success of a surgery like this could pave the way for more routine transplants. But will plastic surgeons seize this opportunity to market a cure for insecurity?

Plastic surgery addiction is already a problem that Americans face in today’s competitive society. The Associated Press reported that unlike operations involving vital organs like hearts and livers, transplants of faces or hands are done to improve quality of life, not extend it. They make a good point.

Where would we draw the line? How could we separate those seeking out transplanted organs to “improve their quality of life” and those who see transplants, like plastic surgery, as a trend? What about those who claim to have psychological problems who blame their appearance for those problems?

Would Britney Spears be entitled to a hair transplant on the same level as a child with cancer who will never be able to grow hair again?

This is the reality we may be stepping into. With great power comes great responsibility, and we should make sure early on that we put that responsibility in the right hands.

Have you ever loved someone so much, that you would be willing to leave your life behind and walk across the country for him or her? Luke Robinson is doing just that, and all in memory of his beloved pooch Malcolm.

The walk is called “2 Dogs 2,000 Miles,” but Hudson and Murphy will have walked well over 2,000 miles on their journey.

In 2004, at just six years old, Malcolm was diagnosed with bone cancer. The dog received health treatment that slowed the cancer’s progression, but it eventually reached his lungs.

After a two-year battle, Malcolm passed on. Robinson was devastated, but mourned just as the loved ones of many cancer victims do: he decided he wanted to find a cure.

After selling his truck and putting all of his belongings in storage, Robinson set out on the trip of a lifetime. In Mar. 2008, he and his two Great Pyrenees dogs, Hudson and Murphy, began a cross-country walk from Austin to Boston. Their mission is to raise awareness about canine cancer, and show that humans can benefit as well.

The walk is called “2 Dogs 2,000 Miles,” but Hudson and Murphy will have walked well over 2,000 miles on their journey. On Jun. 19, Robinson and his pups will walk the last mile into Boston with friends and supporters, following a memorial service for all those lost to cancer, human or animal.

Celebrations will follow in the Boston Common with the Puppy Up! Festival. There will be vendors, animal welfare booths, music, contests and much more. The crowd will move to the Fairmont Copley Plaza at night for dancing, dinner, and auctions.

Robinson will also launch phase two of “2 Dogs 2,000 Miles” that night. He hopes to get two million dogs to walk just two miles for cancer. This is just one more step toward aiding the study of comparative oncology.

Dogs develop cancer naturally, just like humans. Cancer research can reap the benefits of studying pets with cancer, because those cells are biologically comparable to those of humans, there is a large population of cats and dogs with pre-existing cases of cancer, and it occurs in them within years (rather than humans, who can develop it over decades).

According to 2MillionDogs.org, veterinarian oncologists believe there are between four and eight million cases of cancer in pets, and most never receive adequate treatment. If comparative oncology is increased, more pets will have access to the latest drug candidates. Additionally, grants from private and public sources will help subsidize the costs, and help more families afford treatment for their pets.

Animal testing rates would minimize, as well, because the pets do not have be given the cells to make them sick. Not only does comparative oncology aid in the quest for the cancer cure, it will help your four-legged best friend to enjoy a healthier, happier life.

Robinson, Hudson, and Murphy will be in Connecticut until the end of this week. To follow the rest of their journey, learn more about comparative oncology, and lend your support, visit 2Dogs2000Miles.org.

The Food and Drug Administration is placing restrictions on fat-reducing injections that are administered in spas across the United States. According to an FDA statement last week, the drugs have not yet been cleared by federal scientists, and therefore, are going against the law.

Lipodissolve injections provide overweight individuals with an alternative to liposuction. However, the products have not been proven safe and effective as many spas claim.

The FDA issued formal warning letters to 12 spas that offer these lipodissolve injections. In the warnings, the spas were cited for making “false and misleading” claims that were “not supported by substantial evidence or substantial clinical experience.” The facilities were instructed to contact the FDA within 15 business days to report what steps they are taking to correct the issue.

Cases of permanent scarring and skin deformations have been reported following the use of these injections.

Dr. Jennifer Walden, a plastic surgeon at Lenox Hill Hospital, claimed that although the chemicals in the injections occur naturally in the human body, they still may not be safe.

“They are used in the metabolic process of our bodies to break down fat, but they were never intended to be extracted, mixed with other ingredients and reinjected to break down fat,” Walden said.

Doctors who are using the drugs cosmetically have been asked to submit an approval application to be reviewed by the FDA.

Since 1981, the HIV and AIDS viruses have plagued the world. Considered to be incurable, the HIV virus mutates at an indiscernible rate into the AIDS virus, moving quickly in some and slowly in others. Once fully developed, the HIV virus turns into the AIDS virus, an immune system destroyer. However, research has been done that suggests a cure could be on the way: if special, hiding portions of the virus can be destroyed.

Up until now, it had been assumed that the HIV virus and AIDS virus worked in specific, determined ways. HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) rapid viral replication and infection of specific types of white cells leads to the infiltration of HIV. As white counts drop, HIV transitions into the AIDS virus. There are periods of latency, both before and during this transition, that have been questioned by doctors for years. Where does the HIV virus go when patients are experiencing “remission” symptoms? When does the HIV  virus start to replicate?

According to new research, Dr. Kathleen Collins of the University of Michigan has found evidence that the virus that causes AIDS can hide in a patient’s bone marrow.

Practically undetectable, HIV in the bone marrow can grow without any consequence. This slow growing HIV can become the AIDS virus and mutate into the body very quickly, making it nearly unstoppable by medications and causing quick illnesses.

Dr. Collins also says this “dormant” HIV virus can cause problems for already recovering patients. It is well known throughout the scientific community that, if stopped in time, the HIV virus can be halted from becoming AIDS. A long regiment of lifetime drugs can aid a patient in staying healthier for longer, even potentially forever. This new, dormant style of HIV can live in the bone marrow long after “recovery” has occurred and can strike patients who slowly start taking less medication.

While this new discovery does little to set back research on the battle against AIDS, it also does little to take a step forward. Doctors and researchers have hoped for years that a cure for the AIDS/HIV epidemic would come soon. This new bone marrow hidden HIV evidence suggests that long term cures are still a long way off. Dr. Collins however, has hope, “If we are ever going to find a way to get rid of the cells, the first step is to understand.”

By Brent Higgins
Guest Contributor

Overwhelming is an understatement, especially when acknowledging the deluge of variables that could have an effect on Ms. Bell’s data sets. On the overhead was a long string of what looked like frat house graffiti gone wrong- later determined to be a Baysian Hierarchical Model that accounted for a barrage of real world variable statistics. The model included information such as time of day, day of the week, temperature, and levels of different sizes of air particulate. Just the title of the lecture alone: “Air Pollution and Human Health” committed itself to a plethora of what ifs and if and only ifs.

Michelle C. Bell represents an army of scholarly elites expanding our understanding of the world through Sisyphusian endeavours neither wholly inglorious nor murmured in the streets. Her historical research began with the “Great Smog of 1952” when London air was trapped under a dense natural fog. The effect was so severe that visibility for a pedestrian was reduced to less than an arm’s length. Even pictures taken in broad daylight looked nightly. A correlation between exposure to sulphur dioxide and the number of health consequences and deaths was acknowledged with the Clean Air Acts of both the United States and the United Kingdom in the 70s.

As a result of the Clean Air Acts today’s scientists researching air pollution are “looking at a much smaller signal.” This decrease in larger, coarser particulate has been met with an increase in finer, combustion related particulate. This finer particulate is denoted PM2.5 for an aerodynamic diameter under 2.5 micrometers or about 30 times smaller than that of a human hair. The larger coarse dirt or dust particulate around PM10 is more common in developing cities with a lot of construction like those of China and India. Depending on weather conditions PM10 can settle to the ground within a couple of hours but PM2.5 is capable of remaining airborne for weeks and is only really removed when it rains. An interesting remark made about the federal stipulations was that they shortcut by only accounting for particulate size and avoid more intensive characteristics like chemical structure, acidity, water content and shape.

Due to the small size of fine particulate and its dependency on a daunting number of external factors that are difficult to quantify, the exact nature of PM2.5 with regards to bodily absorption rates and health effects remains elusive. Ms. Bell stated a better understanding of the nature of these chemicals present in the air can be achieved provided the time needed for more data collection. Of course it would also help to have more innovative but yet precise instruments capable of dissecting the air into quantifiable datasets. “…Come see me in four more years.” Michelle C. Bell concluded with a slight humour. More data is exactly what she intends to acquire.

From The Associated Press

BEIJING – The answer may be at hand to a crucial question about vaccination for the advancing swine flu — one shot or two? Chinese officials approved a vaccine Thursday that they say prevents the new flu in a single dose.

If they’re right, it would be good news. Many health researchers fear it will take two shots to protect people, vastly complicating efforts to stem the spread of the illness.

The World Health Organization says it is encouraged after reviewing the test details from the vaccine by Beijing-based drug maker Sinovac Biotech Ltd. — one of several being developed in China. However, experts said more results are needed from other vaccine makers to determine if one dose would be potent enough.

Australia-based CSL should know within days whether one dose of its vaccine, administered to volunteers in that country in late July, was enough. CSL to date has been mum.

In about two weeks, the U.S. expects to announce initial test results from its vaccine, which is the same type as one of the Chinese versions, said Dr. Anthony Fauci of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

“From what I’ve seen and heard of the data, it looks encouraging,” Fauci said of the clinical trials of Sinovac vaccine. “This is very good news. Let’s hope the material that we’re using has similar results.”

Most experts agreed.

“Everybody is desperately hoping that one (shot) will do because then that’s much easier to administer,” said Jodie McVernon, a vaccine expert at the University of Melbourne who is involved in Australian trials of swine flu vaccines for young children. She had not seen the Chinese trial results.

However, James McGlothlin, a member of Purdue University’s pandemic planning committee, was cautious about the Chinese report.

“They’ve got some very good scientists over there, but anything that sounds too good to be true ought to be scrutinized,” he said in a telephone interview.

“I’d like to look at some of the clinical trials,” that led to the one-dose conclusion, he said. “In China, the rules are a little bit different in terms of human subjects,” and it’s not clear what safety factors were in place, he said.

China’s State Food and Drug Administration said Thursday it approved the vaccine by Sinovac, which completed testing last month.

The vaccine is the first to be approved by the Chinese regulator and is set to be followed by at least one other vaccine this week, made by Hualan Biological Engineering Inc. Another four vaccines were being reviewed, the regulator has said.

Both companies say their studies show one shot of vaccine is effective on people ages 3 to 60. More than 3,000 participated in the trials.

Sinovac says it has the capacity to produce up to 30 million doses of swine flu vaccine in a year, while Hualan said it can make 160 million doses.

Stockpiling vaccines is China’s latest move in its aggressive approach to contain the spread of swine flu in the country of 1.3 billion people and relatively limited medical resources. It has quarantined travelers on suspicion of contact with infected people and ordered schools to test students’ temperatures.

The Health Ministry says nearly 4,000 cases of swine flu have been confirmed on the mainland — none fatal.

China aims to have enough swine flu vaccine for 5 percent of the public by the end of the year, and although health officials have not released detailed vaccination plans, they have said health workers, public service workers and students are priority groups.

Should China export vaccines, however, quality concerns could arise.

Though China is a worldwide manufacturing center for pharmaceuticals, suppliers have been known to substitute cheaper and sometimes lethal ingredients. Tainted cough syrup was linked to several deaths in Central America and blood thinners made with contaminated products are suspected in dozens of deaths in the U.S. in recent years.

Last week, Mexico‘s health secretary, Jose Angel Cordova, said Mexico is considering buying vaccines from China, which would be more than 40 percent cheaper than other vaccines being offered to the government. But Mexico would want a guarantee that China’s vaccine is safe and effective, he said.

The World Health Organization said information provided by Sinovac showed that in studies, the vaccines were tested in three formulations of 15 micrograms per dose, and all gave antibody responses that satisfied regulatory criteria. That vaccine dose is the same amount the U.S. government is testing.

“We have no reason to doubt what Sinovac is reporting,” said Melinda Henry, a WHO spokeswoman in Geneva. “Certainly if one dose proves sufficient to produce the desired immune response, this would be very encouraging in terms of augmenting the global supply of vaccine in the near future.”

International health experts say swine flu has not been as severe as initially feared. At least 2,185 people have died, but most cases are mild and require no treatment. Worries remain that a rash of new infections could overwhelm hospitals and health authorities, particularly in poorer countries.

White House advisers have estimated that in a worst case scenario, half the U.S. population could become infected and the World Health Organization predicts that within two years nearly one-third of the world’s population will have caught it.