Supporters of the initiatives say these new services allow students to get good information about sex anonymously. But there are also those who oppose these initiatives, writes Hoffman.

…proponents of abstinence-based sexual education argue that these digital services presume that sexual activity among teenagers is the norm, and do not spend enough time on alternatives.

“They are only focusing on the risk-reduction model,” said Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association, which hopes to kick off its online service for teenagers next year.

Those who run digital programs say they simply want teens to have accurate information, to help them make good decisions. Even though popular culture is saturated with sex, facts and advice can be hard to find.

To learn more:

• Read Hoffman’s article Sex Education Gets Directly to Youths, via Text.

Some of the services discussed:

• ICYC – In Case You’re Curious

• Chicago’s The Sex-Ed Loop

• California’s The Hookup.

• SexEtc: www.sexetc.org

• National Abstinence Education Association: www.abstinenceassociation.org

The Atlantic: Resistance Is Futile

We won’t stop the rising tide of infections until we develop a new business model to fight them. We are not quite on the brink of some dystopian Victorian future. But every year, the prognosis for infectious-disease patients gets a bit grimmer. … And more-powerful drugs tend to cost more than the old drugs. … Even in the rich world, death from infection still looms; MRSA alone kills thousands every year. And firms are not developing antibiotics as fast as they used to. According to the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), between 1983 and 1987, the FDA approved 16 new antibacterial drugs for use in humans; from 2003 to 2007, it approved six. Whom to blame for all of this depends on whom you ask. Patients, physicians, hospitals, drug companies, and even regulators have all taken their turn in the dock. But to an economist, when it’s everyone’s fault, it’s really no one’s fault: what we’re witnessing is not a personal failure, but a market failure

(Megan McArdle, October 2011 edition).

Marketplace: The Amazing Health Care Arms Race

At the crossroads of our national debate about jobs and our national debate about health care debt …is the (fictional) city of Hobbs. Its mayor has a big problem: How will he implement his scheme to bring in good clean health care jobs when every other American city is trying to do the same? How far will he go to nab those fabled ‘medical tourists’?

See the “Cost of Medical Meccas” video in the right sidebar

And what will the ensuing medical arms race mean for insurance premiums and taxes? In this animated short illustrated by Adam Cole and rhymed by me, you’ll hear the story of this amazing health care arms race that’s unfolding in cities across America (Gregory Warner, 9/13).

The Economist: One Step Closer To Nowhere

A recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 49% of respondents did not know the legal status of Obamacare. They would be forgiven for being confused. The administration got a small boost today, when an appeals court in Virginia threw out two suits brought against the new health law. It was the latest chapter in the continuing legal saga, and not exactly a nail-biter. All three of the appellate judges were appointed by Democrats and two were appointed by Barack Obama himself. …Eventually the battle will be settled by the Supreme Court, though it is unclear when. … Today’s ruling was less a step forward than a reminder of how long it will be before the fight over health insurance is settled—if it ever is (9/8).

The Atlantic: The Dark Side of the Placebo Effect: When Intense Belief Kills

They died in their sleep one by one, thousands of miles from home. Their median age was 33. All but one — 116 of the 117 — were healthy men. … Something was killing Hmong men in their sleep, and no one could figure out what it was. There was no obvious cause of death. None of them had been sick, physically. The men weren’t clustered all that tightly, geographically speaking. They were united by dislocation from Laos and a shared culture, but little else. Even (TV’s fictional Dr.) House would have been stumped. Doctors gave the problem a name, the kind that reeks of defeat, a dragon label on the edge of the known medical world: Sudden Unexpected Nocturnal Death Syndrome. SUNDS. … Twenty-five years later, Shelley Adler’s new book pieces together what happened, drawing on interviews with the Hmong population and analyzing the extant scientific literature. Sleep Paralysis: Night-mares, Nocebos, and the Mind Body Connection is a mind-bending exploration of how what you believe interacts with how your body works. Adler, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco, comes to a stunning conclusion: In a sense, the Hmong were killed by their beliefs in the spirit world, even if the mechanism of their deaths was likely an obscure genetic cardiac arrhythmia that is prevalent in southeast Asia (Alexis Madrigal, 9/14).

The Nation: Untangling The HPV Vaccine Debate

Should schoolchildren be required to receive the three-course vaccination against HPV, the sexually-transmitted infection that causes 12,000 cases of cervical cancer each year? Michele Bachmann has made the issue a major line of attack against Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who signed a 2007 executive order requiring female public school students to receive the vaccine before they enter the sixth grade. … In the wake of the debate, Bachmann has given several TV interviews in which she makes the claim–totally contrary to medical evidence–that the HPV vaccine causes mental retardation. This type of misinformation is dangerous. … So Rick Perry was absolutely right on Monday when he said, “What was driving me was, obviously, making a difference about young people’s lives. Cervical cancer is a horrible way to die.” It’s important to point out, however, that as uninformed as Bachmann’s critique of Perry has been, there is no broad consensus on whether HPV vaccination should be mandatory (Dana Goldstein, 9/14).

Modern Healthcare: Fee For All

“It’s the prices, stupid,” might be how political strategist James Carville would characterize the findings of a new study on healthcare costs. The researchers concluded that the higher fees—rather than higher practice costs, volume of services or tuition expenses—were the “main drivers” of higher spending in the U.S., especially in orthopedics. Published in the September issue of the journal Health Affairs, the study by Columbia University professors Miriam Laugesen and Sherry Glied compared physicians’ fees paid by public and private payers for primary-care office visits and hip replacements in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the U.S. The study also examined physicians’ incomes (net of practice expenses), differences in paying for the costs of medical education, and the relative contribution of payments per physician and of physician supply in the countries’ national spending on physician services (Jessica Zigmond, 9/12).

This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

While there is a tendency to think of infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS when we think about global health, said Dr. Lawrence Corey, president and director of the Hutchinson Center and a leading HIV expert, cancer takes far more lives in the developing world than HIV.

In fact, of the 7.6 million cancer deaths estimated to occur worldwide each year, 65 percent occur in middle- and low-income countries, Dr. Corey noted.

Indeed, the risk of developing cancer for a person living in the developing world is roughly the same as that of someone living in the developed world, Dr. Corey said. “Just like in the U.S., it is unlikely that a family (in the developing world) is untouched by cancer.”

Many of the leading cancers are the same as those seen in the developed world, lung cancer, particularly among men, and breast cancer among women, Corey said.

But, in addition, there is a high rate of cancer due to infectious agents: liver cancer, due to hepatitis B and C infections; stomach cancer, due to infection by the bacteria Helicobacter pylori; and cervical cancer due to infection with the human papilloma virus (HPV), Dr. Corey said.

HIV infection, too, is a major factor behind the rising cancer rates seen among young people in countries like South Africa, Dr. Corey said. These HIV-related cancers include: cervical, anal and liver cancer; Kaposi’s sarcoma; and lymphomas.

So in addition to tackling issues like smoking and promoting screening for breast and cervical cancers, addressing these infectious agents with vaccines and treatment is needed to reduce cancer rates in the developing world, Dr. Corey said.

Two panelists, Amal Khaleef, a care nurse specialist on the West Bank, and Dr. Saud Al Kharusi, an oncologist and acting head of the National Oncology Center at the Royal Hospital in Oman, agreed that too often patients in their countries do not seek care until their diseases is far advanced.

Part of the problem is the stigma associated with cancer, they said. Cancer is not discussed, so public awareness about the benefits of screening and treatment is low, Khaleef said. “They call it ‘that’ disease; they can’t even say its name,” she said.

The fourth panelist, Dr. Yermek Akhmetov, head of the Nuclear Medicine and Radiology Center at the Republican Diagnostic Center in Kazakhstan said his country had made some progress in raising cancer awareness using public education programs developed by international organizations. Still, it is hard to reach people in his largely rural country, he said.

Despite the challenges, the world’s experience with fighting HIV/AIDS, shows that difficult diseases like cancer can be tackled even in resource-poor nations in the developing world, Dr. Corey said.

HIV/AIDS treatment regimens, which require screening, frequent monitoring and daily medications, are just as demanding as the treatment regimens for many cancers, he noted.

“HIV has shown you can treat chronic diseases in the developing world,” Dr. Corey said.

To learn more:

• American Cancer Society’s Global Cancer report.

• Read the article the Hutchinson Center’s Quest magazine about an effort to tackle infection-related cancers in Uganda.

• Visit the World Affairs Council’s website.

The club’s services are free and include support and networking groups, lectures, workshops and social events in a nonresidential, homelike setting.

The club is named in honor of Gilda Susan Radner was an American comedienne and actress, best known for her years as a cast member of Saturday Night Live.

Radner, who died at 42 of ovarian cancer, helped raise the public’s awareness of the disease and the need for improved detection and treatment.

Lectures are held on Thursday evenings at Gilda’s Club, 1400 Broadway, Seattle.

All lectures are open to the public. There is no cost to attend the lectures.

Refreshments served 6:45-7:00 pm

Lecture begins 7:00-8:30 pm

Please RSVP to attend.

(Please RSVP 24+ hours in advance to attend and pre-register for Noogieland childcare a minimum of 72 hours in advance.)

1/13/2011

Reduce your cancer risk — Dr. Julie Gralow, member of Gilda’s Club Medical Board, will review steps YOU can take in 2011 to reduce your cancer risk.  Learn about important cancer risk reduction strategies – including reducing risk of cancer returning after cancer treatment.  Find out about community resources to motivate you to action on your 2011 resolutions.

1/20/2011

ASK THE DOCTOR: Gynecologic Cancer – Come hear from Dr. Kathryn McGonigle, named Top Doc by Seattle and Seattle Metropolitan Magazines. Learn about the HPV vaccine and how it prevents cervical cancer.  Learn what type of symptoms women should be aware of that might be associated with uterine, cervical or ovarian cancer.  When should you alert your physician about a symptom? Get a general overview on management of gynecological cancers.

1/27/2011

NOTE: THIS LECTURE IS NOT AT GILDA’S CLUB – TO BE HELD AT SCCA HOUSE at 207 Pontius Ave N 2^nd Floor

Breast Cancer Screening – Why One Size Doesn’t Fit All

This presentation is part of Seattle Cancer Care Alliance’s series Discovering Hope: A Decade of Cancer Advances—celebrating SCCA’s 10th anniversary

What’s the most effective way to screen for breast cancer? And how should screening guidelines impact women in our community? Should women wait until 50 to start mammography, or start earlier? Does it make a difference if you are high-risk or have already had a diagnosis? Join Dr. Connie Lehman, an expert in the field of breast imaging and intervention, as she explains her research in the area of early detection.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR LECTURES

The Asian-American community of Hmong women in California carries a stunning burden of cervical cancer and resulting mortality four times as high as non-Hispanic white women in California do.

In possibly the first study to document a baseline in the Hmong community for women undergoing screening for cervical cancer, researchers found that “only 74 percent have had a Pap test and only 61 percent have had this test within the past three years,” said lead author Dao Moua Fang.

“When you compare this with California women overall — at 91 percent and 86 percent respectively — there is great disparity,” said Fang, program manager at the Hmong Women’s Heritage Association in Sacramento.

Single, often American-born, educated, English-speaking Hmong women were least likely to get a Pap test.

“Some are in denial, wanting the Pap test for their mothers — but not themselves.” Fang said. “Others are just unaware that they need a Pap test, because they were never advised to get one from their mothers or primary care physicians.”

Many Hmong women avoid screening and even treatment for cervical cancer for numerous reasons, among them cultural barriers and stigma, said Fang, who is herself Hmong.

“Older women are shy and find physical exams and invasive therapies embarrassing. But they also are afraid that their spouse might leave them if they are diagnosed with human papillomavirus, an abnormal Pap smear, cervical cancer or anything that suggests they might have been unfaithful. And if women are not unfaithful, then they suspect that their spouse might be.”

Because of this study, Fang and her colleagues developed a patient navigator program to make appointments, translate and provide one-on-one education about cervical cancer.

This is an important study, because there is a serious lack of data on Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander health, said Roxanna Bautista, chronic diseases program director at the Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum.

“The data that do exist usually lump us all together as Asians,” Bautista said. “This study demonstrates that keeping America’s women and families healthy starts with outreach and education programs that take into account differences in language and culture.”

According to the latest U.S. Census bureau report, about 206,000 Hmong live in the United States at this time.

To learn more:

• Read Dao Moua Fang’s paper Factors associated with Pap testing among Hmong women in the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved (subscription or fee required).
• Visit the Hmong Women’s Heritage Association’s website.

Local Resources:

• International Community Health Services: www.ichs.com

Health Behavior News Service is part of the Center for Advancing Health

The Health Behavior News Service disseminates news stories on the latest findings from peer-reviewed research journals. HBNS covers both new studies and systematic reviews of studies on (1) the effects of behavior on health, (2) health disparities data and (3) patient engagement research. The goal of HBNS stories is to present the facts for readers to understand and use for themselves to make informed choices about health and health care.