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Probability Of Developing Precursor Of Heart Failure Increased By 4 Risk Factors
Four well-known risk factors for heart attack significantly increased the size of the heart"s left ventricle, a key precursor of heart failure, according to a study in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Shanghai To Relax One-Child Policy As China Faces Aging Population, Shrinking Work Force
Nearly three decades after China implemented its one-child policy, the city of Shanghai is planning to encourage young couples to have a second child in an effort to address the country"s aging population and shrinking work force, the New York Times reports. The city"s plan is the most public effort made by the government to counteract a program that is "considered both a tremendous success and a terrible failure," the Times reports. The policy has managed to keep population growth under control but also has led to forced abortions, according to the Times.The country is not abandoning the one-child policy, which applies mostly to residents in urban areas. Rather, the government is allowing more exceptions to the rule, with Shanghai -- where about 22% of its 20 million residents are older than age 60 -- leading the effort. China as a whole faces a similar problem seen in Shanghai, the Times reports. About 8% of the country"s population was older than age 65 in 2006. That figure is expected to increase threefold by 2050 to about 322 million people, or nearly 25% of the population, according to the United Nations.In Friday"s issue of China Daily, Xie Lingli, director of the Shanghai Population and Family Planning Commission, was quoted as saying, "We advocate eligible couples to have two kids because it can help reduce the proportion of the aging people and alleviate a work force shortage in the future." City officials plan to visit homes, pass out leaflets, and offer counseling and financial incentives, the Times reports. Current exceptions to the one-child policy are in place for ethnic minorities and rural residents, who can have a second child if the first child is a girl. Couples made up of two parents who have no siblings have always been allowed to have a second child and are now being encouraged to do so (Barboza, New York Times, 7/24).
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Legislation Needed To Boost HIV/AIDS Efforts In Solomon Islands, Health Official Says
Isaac Muliloa -- national coordinator of the HIV and sexually transmitted infections unit at the Solomon Islands" Ministry of Health -- recently said that a lack of national HIV/AIDS laws is hindering efforts to address the disease, the Solomon Times reports. Recent World Health Organization estimates said that the number of HIV cases in the Solomon Islands could reach 350 by 2010. Muliloa said that legislation is needed to address continued discrimination against HIV-positive employees in the workplace. He added that the HIV/AIDS and STI unit is relatively new in the health ministry, as is the Solomon Islands" National AIDS Council. According to Muliloa, officials are continuing to work toward implementing policies. The Times reports that the Solomon Islands does not have laws in place criminalizing the intentional transmission of HIV (Solomon Times, 5/27).
Medical Devices

Varying Reductions In Breast Cancer Suggest Hormone Therapy To Blame

The recent decline in invasive breast cancer in the US was significantly less pronounced in the poor and those who live in rural areas. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Medicine suggest this may be due to varying reductions in the numbers of women taking hormone therapy (HT). Christina Clarke, Ph.D., led a team of researchers from the Northern California Cancer Center who studied breast cancer incidence data from the largest cancer database available in the US for the years 1997-2004, comparing poor areas against rich and urban areas against rural. She said, "Between 2001 and 2004, incidence rates of invasive breast cancer declined more than 8% in the United States. "One possible explanation for this is widespread discontinuation of and/or failure to initiate HT. Because this cessation of HT use was more pronounced in rich/urban areas, we wanted to see if there was a corresponding difference in breast cancer incidence between these areas and poor/rural parts of the country". The researchers found that overall invasive breast cancer incidence fell 13.2%, with greater reductions among women living in urban (-13.8%) versus rural (-7.5%) and low- (-13.0%) or middle- (-13.8%) versus high- (-9.6%) poverty counties. Breast cancer incidence trends for rural counties, which peaked in 1999 and then declined steadily, differed from those observed in urban counties, where rates fell dramatically after 2002. The researchers speculate that this may be due to variations in exposure to the news that HT was associated with breast cancer, they cite a 2007 report that found that the number of newspaper articles about the harmful effects of HT found in the 2002 Women"s Health Initiative (WHI) trial correlated with urban residence and likelihood of HT cessation/non-initiation; women in urban areas were potentially exposed to more newspaper articles and had a larger decline in the prevalence of HT use. Dr. Clarke added that "Understanding what specific populations were involved in the breast cancer declines helps us to better plan prevention efforts for the future, especially with the aging of the baby boomer population into prime breast cancer age." Recent trends in breast cancer incidence in US white women by urban/rural and poverty status Amelia K Hausauer, Theresa HM Keegan, Ellen T Chang, Sally L Glaser, Holly Howe and Christina A Clarke BMC Medicine (in press) Article. All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed Central"s open access policy. Graeme Baldwin BioMed Central


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