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Indonesia sample sharing moves to World Health Assembly

Indonesia has just registered its 76th death and 95th case of bird flu, making it the country with more of each than any other nation. Not that you would know it by looking at the current WHO count of confirmed cases. That's because Indonesia hasn't sent WHO any viral isolates for confirmation since January. We've covered this too often to repeat the details (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here for some background), but the issue is now front and center in this week's World Health Assembly, the official governing body of WHO convened in Geneva: The issue of sharing…

Freethinker Sunday Sermonette: Framing spinning

I don't like getting involved in internecine warfare, least of all amongst my SciBlings. But a recent OpEd in WaPo by two fellow bloggers I admire, Matt Nisbet of Framing Science and Chris Mooney of The Intersection prompts me to set fingers to keyboard. It is Richard Dawkins that provoked it. Good for Dawkins. Once again he is exposing muddled thinking. And he didn't even have to write about it: Leave aside for a moment the validity of Dawkins's arguments against religion. The fact remains: The public cannot be expected to differentiate between his advocacy of evolution and his atheism. More…

Bringing norovirus under cruise control

Most readers probably never gave much thought to tissue culture, the laboratory technique where cells or tissues are grown in flasks or other containers separated from the organism of origin. One of the reasons for doing this is to grow viruses, since a virus needs a host cell to replicate. It can't "live" on its own and doesn't grow in size. It just makes a copy of itself. Dog kidney cancer cells, for example, are used to grow influenza virus in flasks that also contain nutrient medium for the dog cells. Finding the right tissue culture system for a virus is an art in itself. For many…

The good news and the good news in the public health blogosphere

Two kinds of good news for anyone interested in safeguarding the public's health. Let's divide it between the message and the messenger. The message: The National Research Council (one of the four constituent parts of the National Academies of Science) just issued a major smackdown of one of the Bush Administration's pet projects, the assault on any regulation that might harm the corporate status quo. The specific policy given a blunt thumbs down by the NRC was the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) of the White House Office of Management and Budget's bulletin to establish…

Here we go again — Mississippi's turn!

The fine state of Mississippi is about to be led astray by the cretins they've elected to congress. They have introduced yet another textbook disclaimer bill, which will require that all school books that mention "evolution" be slapped with this sticker: The word 'theory' has many meanings, including: systematically organized knowledge; abstract reasoning; a speculative idea or plan; or a systematic statement of principles. Scientific theories are based on both observations of the natural world and assumptions about the natural world. They are always subject to change in view of new and…

Republicans play the social media card (heh, heh)

We're communicating through the marvel of the internet, you and I. Obama figured out how to use it to advantage and McCain didn't. Maybe it's a generational thing. At any rate, at this moment in history, any party that doesn't learn from history is bound to be history. Any Party like the Republican Party. Their preferred mode of communicating is via the Echo Chamber of far right talk radio and websites. Democrats have figured out how to use technology more creatively -- creative in the sense of creating people who agree with their positions. Instead of scaring the living crap out of people or…

Swine flu: isolation and quarantine

As cases continue to accrue in different places we will hear more talk about quarantine and isolation. These are two terms that are frequently confused, which is too bad, because isolation makes sense for influenza and quarantine doesn't. So what do they mean? What quarantine and isolation have in common is they are both designed to interrupt the transmission of a disease that spreads from person to person. Quarantine is the legally enforceable segregation of people who people who have been or may have been exposed but who aren't (yet) sick. Some people talk about "voluntary quarantines," but…

Pandemic model paper is not model behavior

I'm a supporter of mathematical modeling as another way to get a handle on what might happen in an influenza pandemic. But a recent paper by the group at London's Imperial College, published in Nature, shows what can happen when modelers allow their work to bear more weight than it can sustain. When a prestigious scientific journal, Nature, publishes such a paper, it also gets attention it wouldn't get if published in a more appropriate place -- meaning a place where its scientific contribution could be judged in the usual way, not under the glare of global publicity. I'm not blaming the wire…

New and Exciting in PLoS this week

New this morning in PLoS ONE, PLoS Biology and PLoS Medicine. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers: Mandatory Disclosure of Pharmaceutical Industry-Funded Events for Health Professionals: We are in a period of unprecedented scrutiny of the relationships between the pharmaceutical industry and doctors [1]-[4]. Legislators are now considering how they might become involved in the regulation of these practices. This is a telling comment on the perceived failure of the medical profession to regulate itself and of self-…

Water and reckless irresponsibility in Iraq

I've said it before and I'll say it again. If you occupy a country you also assume responsibility for its public health. That's both international law and it's the right thing to do. In Iraq we haven't done that. So while I am about to say it once more, after I've said it I have something else to say, too, something that underscores my point in triplicate. But first the main point:. It is the kind of news that everybody had been dreading. An outbreak of cholera in Iraq, which started in two Northern provinces, has already reached Baghdad and has become Iraq's biggest cholera outbreak in…

Undergraduate Research - some examples

Jake, Chad, Rob, Janet, Chad again and Chad again. have already written everything important about today's Buzz topic - the undergraduate research. What I will do is add a few examples and you draw conclusions why this worked (or not) for each one of them. A Self-Starter Kevin Messenger loved snakes all his life. He did his own research in high school, a standard survey of herps in the Sandhills area of North Carolina. He presented that at a meeting of the Herps society while a high-school senior. He went to college to NCSU because he wanted to work with Hal Heathwole. He got his own…

Potato salad, food poisoning and contortionists

I discovered a stunning Youtube video via Boingboing, so consider this post just an excuse to show it to you. But as long as its title involves potato salad, I thought I'd reiterate some points we've made in the past about potato salad and food poisoning. Potato salad is a frequent vehicle for one of the nastier foodborne illnesses, staphylococcal food poisoning, although it can also do the same favor for salmonellosis, Bacillus cereus, E. coli, campylobacter, Norovirus and Shigella (there is a rundown here). Much of what we say here for staph holds true for the others although it is the…

Study: Job conditions linked to preterm birth risk among Hispanic workers

“There’s a lot we don’t know about preterm birth and we know even less about the disparities in those births.” Those are words from Ondine von Ehrenstein, an assistant professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, who recently examined the links between occupational exposures and preterm birth rates among Hispanic women. Perhaps not surprisingly to those in the public health world, von Ehrenstein and her research colleagues did find that Hispanic women are at particular risk for preterm birth associated with certain occupational…

One Hand in a Goat, the Other on a Conference Call

Yesterday at 3pm EST, I was part of a critical stage of labor negotiations between SEED Media and Science Bloggers, and I'm happy to report that through the sole grace of my diplomatic skills, the strike was resolved. There were some other folks there too, but I cannot tell a lie - it was your Blogiste who saved the day, got Science Blogs back on track and came up with a critical strategy for making us better, faster, more relevant and bionic. Or, I would have, really, if I hadn't had my hand up to my wrist in a goat's vagina. I was totally on the conference call - for the first 15 minutes…

Oops, They Did It Again!

I spent my weekend in Washington DC with folks from the Association for the Study of Peak Oil, talking about the future of peak oil research and advocacy. It was an interesting weekend, but for a farmgirl who spends most of her waking hours during the summer outside and working in the dirt, it was a strange weekend. Two hermetically sealed 8 hour train journeys to Washington and 48 intense hours in a equally hermetically sealed hotel gave you that "I'm in the Matrix" feeling. I admit, I don't sleep well in a room with windows that don't open and such, and even though I could have technically…

The Lights Are Going Out...

When it is darkest, men see the stars. This afternoon I needed to check something urgently, and as is my habit in this day and age, I jumped to a website where I knew the information was available. A few seconds later, with some irritation I went to hit "refresh" as the request failed to go through, and then realized that it was a *.nasa.gov address, at Ames, as it happens, and I was not going to be getting that bit of data this afternoon, not without some old fashioned legwork. A bit later I realized with increasing dismay that a signficant fraction of the illustrations for my class…

"In many instances, we know enough to act": Chemicals and cancer

By Elizabeth Grossman If the recommendations of the just published President's Cancer Panel report, Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk: What We Can Do Now, become part of a comprehensive national policy agenda, the United States will have a remarkable new cancer prevention strategy - one that includes aggressive efforts to reduce and eliminate chemical exposures that can lead to and cause cancer, including those in the workplace. Released on May 6th , the report (which includes over 450 sources) is remarkable for its embrace of environmental health science research that has not yet been…

Drugs in the Water: Who Knows and Who's Telling

The Associated Press has another following up on yesterdayâs investigative report about pharmaceuticals found in drinking-water supplies. They delve into the issue of whoâs studying water supplies, and whether theyâre revealing their findings. Accompanying the article is an alphabetical list of cities, so you can see whether your areaâs water has been tested, and whether traces of drugs have been found; here in Washington, DC, for instance, tests have turned up carbamazepine, caffeine, ibuprofen, monensin, naproxen and sulfamethoxazole. Itâs nice that AP is supplying this list, because water…

OMB Seeks Public Input on Regulatory Process

Updated below (3/17/09) OMB Director Peter Orszag announced in a Federal Register notice last week that his office is interested in hearing your views on the federal regulatory process.  The Request for Comments on new Executive Order on Federal Regulatory Review comes 4-weeks after President Obama's January 30 memorandum to department and agency heads (previous post here) announcing his plan to issue a new E.O., noting "...the principles governing regulation in generalâshould be revisited.â  You better hurry if you want to share your views with OMB on a new E.O.; the comment…

A Look into Obesity and Gut Microbiota

Student guest post by Liz Stepniak In the United States, the obesity epidemic is rapidly spreading. Since 1980 the prevalence of obesity has increased over 75%. Currently, over half the population is overweight, and nearly 1 in every 3 adults is clinically obese. Research has also been proliferating, exploring a plethora of possibilities to better understand and treat this growing epidemic. One of the recent trends in obesity research has been investigating the role of the microbiota in the gut and differences in the composition of these bacteria between obese and non-obese individuals.…

Smallmindedness in small towns

I rarely talk politics here, but I received this email from a cousin the other day: According to the Book of Revelations the anti-christ is: The anti-christ will be a man, in his 40s, of MUSLIM descent, who will deceive the nations with persuassive language, and have a MASSIVE Christ-like appeal.... the prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power, will destory everything. Is it OBAMA?? The email itself, unfortunately, isn't out of the ordinary; many of my family members believe we're in the End Times. What made this one…

FDA Scientists and the Right to Publish

By Kristen Perosino Congress is currently considering important legislation to improve drug and medical device safety and strengthen scientific integrity at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).  Both the House (H.R. 2900) and Senate (S. 1082) versions contain provisions that should be adopted in the final bill to better protect public health.  One such provision is Title V Section 501 of the Senate bill regarding the right of FDA scientists to publish their research.  This language, which amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, adds the following wording to the policy on the…

Pads and notches in the necks of tube-crested hadrosaurs... SAY WHAT?

I've just been doing - if you will - Parasaurolophus for the day job. As in, writing about the history of its discovery and interpretation. William Parks first described Parasaurolophus walkeri (the first of several species to be named) in 1922, and noted in his paper that the skeleton was odd in possessing a weird roughened pad on the neural spine of one of the dorsal vertebrae. He proposed that this structure might have been connected to the tip of the bizarre tube-like crest: it was already thought by this time (thanks to Barnum Brown's Corythosaurus of 1914 and other specimens) that the…

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

tags: ethics, collective action, Science Bloggers Union, ScienceBlogs, Seed Media Group, Adam Bly Migration #2 (1995) Fine art quilt by Caryl Bryer Fallert. [Hand dyed, machine pieced, appliqued, and quilted 100% cotton fabric, 80/20 cotton/poly batting] Collection of The National Quilt Museum of the United States. I have been trying to write this blog entry for several days now. I've actually written it a couple dozen times but I have deleted every one so far. But even though it's difficult to write, this is something I need to tell you, dear readers, even if my attempt at an explanation…

Marc Hauser— where do morals come from? NOT religion.

Whoa. This was a data-rich talk, and my ability to transcribe it was over-whelmed by all the stuff Hauser was tossing out. Unfortunately, I think the talk also suffered from excess and a lack of a good overview of the material. But it was thought-provoking anyway. One of the themes was how people resolve moral dilemmas. He began with a real world example, the story of an overweight woman in South Africa who insisted on joining a tour exploring a cave, and got stuck in the exit tunnel, trapping 22 people behind her. Do you sacrifice one to save many? One of the trapped people was a diabetic…

Ω: my favorite strange number

Ω is my own personal favorite transcendental number. Ω isn't really a specific number, but rather a family of related numbers with bizzare properties. It's the one real transcendental number that I know of that comes from the theory of computation, that is important, and that expresses meaningful fundamental mathematical properties. It's also deeply non-computable; meaning that not only is it non-computable, but even computing meta-information about it is non-computable. And yet, it's *almost* computable. It's just all around awfully cool. So. What is it Ω? It's sometimes called the *halting…

Why am I doing this Pi-Calculus Language Thing?

Since my post on datatypes for my π-calculus language, I've gotten a bunch of questions from people who (I guess) picked up on the series after the original post where I said that the idea of the series was to see if I could create a programming language based on it. The questions are all variations on "Why design another programming language? Do you really think anyone will ever use it?" I'll answer the second question first. Of course I realize that the chances that anyone but me, and maybe a couple of readers, will ever use it are close to zero. But that's not the point. Which brings us…

Intuitionistic Logic (partial rerun)

I'm incredibly busy right now adjusting to my new job and my new commute, which is leaving me less time than usual for blogging. So I'm going to raid the archives, and bring back some interesting things that appeared on the old Blogger blog, but were never posted here. As usual, that will involve some cleanups and rewrites, so this won't be identical to the original posts. I've written about logic before, and mentioned intuitionistic logic at least in passing. Intuitionistic logic is an interesting subject. Intuitionistic logic is a variation of predicate logic which is built on the idea…

An Experiment with π-calculus and Programming Language Design

I feel like a bit of a change of pace, and trying a bit of an experiment. Re-reading Backus's old FP work reminds me of what I was doing the last time I read it, which was back in grad school. At the time, I was working on some stuff involving parallel computation, and I discovered Robin Milner's π-calculus as a tool for describing parallel computation. You can think of π-calculus as being a sort of parallel (pun intended) for the λ-calculus: in sequential, single-threaded computation, λ-calculus can be a great tool for describing what things mean. But λ-calculus has absolutely no way of…

Everything Important Cycles

Microarrays have been used in the study of circadian expression of mammalian genes since 2002 and the consensus was built from those studies that approximately 15% of all the genes expressed in a cell are expressed in a circadian manner. I always felt it was more, much more. I am no molecular biologist, but I have run a few gels in my life. The biggest problem was to find a control gene - one that does not cycle - to make the comparisons to. Actin, which is often used in such studies as control, cycled in our samples. In the end, we settled on one of the subunits of the ribosome as we…

New and Exciting in PLoS ONE

There are 23 new articles in PLoS ONE today. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. You can now also easily place articles on various social services (CiteULike, Mendeley, Connotea, Stumbleupon, Facebook and Digg) with just one click. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites: Direct and Indirect Effects of Climate Change on a Prairie Plant Community: Climate change directly affects species by altering their physical environment and indirectly affects species by altering…

Everything Important Cycles

Microarrays have been used in the study of circadian expression of mammalian genes since 2002 and the consensus was built from those studies that approximately 15% of all the genes expressed in a cell are expressed in a circadian manner. I always felt it was more, much more. I am no molecular biologist, but I have run a few gels in my life. The biggest problem was to find a control gene - one that does not cycle - to make the comparisons to. Actin, which is often used in such studies as control, cycled in our samples. In the end, we settled on one of the subunits of the ribosome as we…

Uncommon hypocrisy

I thought that silly Intelligent Design blog, Uncommon Descent, was going to have a new and enlightened comment policy, in which people would be allowed to criticize ID without risk of deletion. That's what they said, at least. You knew it couldn't be true: they're already sharpening the knives to get rid of a persistent critic. Someone by the name of skeech is cluttering up UD with impervious sophistry and wasting a lot of our time. His/her latest thesis is that "according to biologists…" there is a "credible possibility that small incremental changes could have developed massive increases…

Everything Important Cycles

Microarrays have been used in the study of circadian expression of mammalian genes since 2002 and the consensus was built from those studies that approximately 15% of all the genes expressed in a cell are expressed in a circadian manner. I always felt it was more, much more. I am no molecular biologist, but I have run a few gels in my life. The biggest problem was to find a control gene - one that does not cycle - to make the comparisons to. Actin, which is often used in such studies as control, cycled in our samples. In the end, we settled on one of the subunits of the ribosome as we…

Everything Important Cycles

Microarrays have been used in the study of circadian expression of mammalian genes since 2002 and the consensus was built from those studies that approximately 15% of all the genes expressed in a cell are expressed in a circadian manner. I always felt it was more, much more. I am no molecular biologist, but I have run a few gels in my life. The biggest problem was to find a control gene - one that does not cycle - to make the comparisons to. Actin, which is often used in such studies as control, cycled in our samples. In the end, we settled on one of the subunits of the ribosome as we…

I may not be perfectly rational, but my magic invisible monkeys are!

John Wilkins has tried to make some arguments for accommodationism. I am unimpressed. He makes six points that I briefly summarize here, with my reply. It's the job of the religious to reconcile their beliefs with science, and atheists don't get to "insist that nobody else can make the claim that their religious belief is consistent with science." The first part is obvious — we aren't going to compromise science with superstition, nor are we going to make excuses for them. The second part makes no sense. Nobody has been making that demand…but we will point out how silly the excused people…

New and Exciting in PLoS ONE

There are 29 new articles in PLoS ONE today. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. You can now also easily place articles on various social services (CiteULike, Mendeley, Connotea, Stumbleupon, Facebook and Digg) with just one click. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites: Deathly Drool: Evolutionary and Ecological Basis of Septic Bacteria in Komodo Dragon Mouths: Komodo dragons, the world's largest lizard, dispatch their large ungulate prey by biting and tearing flesh. If a…

Open Laboratory 2010 - submissions so far

The Submission form is here so you can get started. Under the fold are entries so far, as well as buttons and the bookmarklet. The instructions for submitting are here. ============================ A Blog Around The Clock: What does it mean that a nation is 'Unscientific'? A Blog Around The Clock: My latest scientific paper: Extended Laying Interval of Ultimate Eggs of the Eastern Bluebird A Blog Around The Clock: Evolutionary Medicine: Does reindeer have a circadian stop-watch instead of a clock? A Meandering Scholar: Back to basics: The Evolution of a Postdoc Anna's Bones: The Ape That…

Someone's Fantasy World

When a story by Money magazine first appeared that ranked the best jobs to hold in America, I was distracted with trying to figure out if my taxes had been accepted by the IRS and by the state of NY (electronic submission). But I ran across this piece again and I have been scratching my head ever since regarding their assertion that being a college professor is the second best job that one could have in America. [image: Money magazine] Don't get me wrong; I wish to be a university biology professor because, despite everything, I still think it is the best job for me, but I never have engaged…

Stoopid Aliens

There is a trope in classic science fiction, where humans are "special". We get out there, into the galaxy, and there's a bunch of aliens, and they're all Really Dumb. So the clean cut heroic square jawed human takes charge and saves the day. Fini. What if it is true? Ok, I've been reading too much Alastair Reynolds recently, trying to catch up on the Conjoiner/Inhibitor series, but there is a serious issue here in looking to resolve the Fermi Paradox. The basic issue is simple: there are a lot of planets; we think a significant fraction of these are habitable (in the narrow sense of…

Uses and Abuses of Nobel Causes

Nobel Prize in Physics, in case you hadn't heard, went to Kao for Fiber Optics and Boyle and Smith for developing the fundamental CCD technology. Some people, naming no names, seem a little unhappy about this. Well, ol' Alfred had his purpose when he endowed the Nobel Foundation with his ill gotten gains, and such things are somewhat binding. Further, pushing the Swedish Academy on these things, to do the "right thing" and give the Prize to one of your pet subfields, however more "fundamental" it may be, tends to backfire. Think of the Academy as a very proper and very small club, about…

More about the Recurve-billed Bushbird Rediscovery

tags: recurve-billed bushbird, Clytoctantes alixii, ornithology, birds, avian, endangered species Female Recurve-billed Bushbird, Clytoctantes alixii. More images below the fold. Image: Chris Sharpe 2004 [larger]. [listen to this species' song] Chris Sharpe emailed me this following statement about the Recurve-billed Bushbird rediscovery, which I quote in full. I also present Chris's original 2004 images here, although some of the images will re-appear on this site soon (one will be the featured image for the next issue of Birds in the News, for example). The Recurve-billed Bushbird,…

Answers in Genesis is proudly Bible-based

If you've been following the comment threads lately, you already know that we've had a new arrival who has been inspiring much hilarity, Pastor Tom Estes. He seems to be much dismayed at us atheists, and is promising to meet us at the Creation "Museum" on Friday, to discuss matters. He also has a blog where he has been fulminating about the event and wallowing in his own incomprehension. It's funny stuff — he doesn't understand why we would care about the Creation "Museum", and at the same time claims that the myth of Genesis is supported by science. Now if only he would realize that those…

Easter mourning

People all around the world are celebrating Easter today. I am not. Easter is a vile little holiday wrapped up in a façade of pretty dresses and chocolate eggs and happy children playing games on the lawn, but at its putrescent core lies 20 centuries of exploitation and dishonesty. Here is a hard-core atheist's perspective on this awful holy day. I. The fact. This is the season when our culture commemorates torture. A particularly callous sort of torture, too: a lazy and evil form of punishment that could be carried out en masse. Nail people up in intolerable postures and they inevitably and…

Industry influence and White House obstacles hamper rules to protect health, safety and environment

A new report by the Center for Progressive Reform (CPR) confirms what some of us have suspected: there's not much difference between the Obama Admininstration's and GW Bush Administration's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) when it comes to meetings with industry lobbyists and giving lip-service to transparency. In "Behind Closed Doors at the White House," CPR offers a 10-year analysis of the 6,194 draft regulatory actions reviewed by OIRA, a step in the rulemaking process dictated by Executive Order (EO) 12866 for rules of particular significance. Their assessment examined…

Occupational Health News Roundup

At In These Times, Elizabeth Grossman writes about whether workplace safety will survive a Trump presidency, noting that “Trump’s transition team has said he will introduce a moratorium on new regulations and cancel executive orders and regulations ‘that kill jobs and bloat government.’” In interviewing labor, health and safety advocates, Grossman writes that a number of federal protections could land on the chopping block, including the new overtime rule, proposed beryllium rule and fall protections. Grossman writes: How does Trump’s promise to reduce and eliminate regulations square with…

Occupational Health News Roundup

At The New York Times, Dan Barry reports on the Hispanic hotel workers who are becoming a powerful political force in Las Vegas. In particular, the story focuses on the 56,000-member Culinary Union, whose membership is more than half Hispanic. The story is told through the eyes of Celia Vargas, 57, a guest room attendant at a hotel along the famous Vegas Strip — Barry writes: Despite their name tags, guest room attendants are anonymous. They go unnoticed by many as they push their 300-pound carts to the next room, and the next. A glimpse of what is expected of these attendants can be found at…

“Hazards of the gig economy” – Temp workers at greater risk for workplace injury but poorly protected, say labor advocates

On a typical week, about 3 million people are on the job in the United States as temp workers, this according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In September 2016, just shy of 3 million people were working as temps – an all-time high. Numbers can vary depending on how temp work is defined, but according to the BLS, temp jobs now account for about 2.4 percent of all U.S. private sector jobs. Yet, said National Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) co-executive director Jessica Martinez on a call with reporters, “Temp workers represent almost 17 percent – or one out of…

Study: Medicaid, CHIP score higher than private insurance on access to kids’ preventive care

Public health insurance programs often get a bad rap, despite a growing positive evidence base on their patient care, quality and outcomes. Earlier this month, another study emerged that found Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program not only outperform private insurance when it comes to children’s preventive care, they can serve as a model of comprehensive children’s coverage. Published in JAMA Pediatrics, the study is based on data from the U.S. National Surveys of Children’s Health between 2003 and 2012 — a sample of more than 80,000 children up to age 17 living in households…

Study: HPV vaccine does not lead to higher rates of sexually transmitted diseases

When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first vaccine to protect against cancers caused by certain strains of the human papillomavirus, or HPV, public health advocates cheered its arrival and life-saving potential. Unfortunately, the new vaccine quickly became embroiled in a debate over whether immunizing young girls against HPV, a sexually transmitted disease, would lead to risky sexual behavior. A new study, however, finds that the vaccine is not associated with an uptick in STDs — an indicator that HPV immunization does not promote unsafe sex. To conduct the study, which…