HEALTH

Over 45s at greater STI risk

MIDDLE-aged adults face a greater risk of catching sexually transmitted infections than ever before — because society is unwilling to talk about older people having sex, a new study has found.
Negative attitudes toward sexual health and limited knowledge of the needs of over-45s mean some older people are unaware of the dangers of unprotected sex, researchers from the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands have warned.
Experts associated with the Shift sexual health initiative surveyed 800 adults across the south coast of England and northern regions of Belgium and the Netherlands — with some 200 respondents identified as facing socioeconomic disadvantage.
Almost 80 per cent of respondents in the general population group were aged between 45 and 65, while 58 per cent of those considered socioeconomically disadvantaged were aged 45-54.
Researchers said “major changes” in sexual behaviour in recent decades have seen rising numbers of sexually active older people — but many barely consider the possibility of STIs.
The most cited reason for not using contraception was that participants deemed themselves to be monogamous, exclusive to one relationship, experts said, followed by participants believing they were not at risk of pregnancy.
“Over-45s at most risk are generally those entering new relationships after a period of monogamy, often post-menopause, when pregnancy is no longer a consideration, but give little thought to STIs,” Ian Tyndall, senior lecturer at Britain’s University of Chichester, one of the project’s partner organizations, said in a statement.
Researchers found that more than 50 per cent of respondents in both the general population and in the socioeconomically disadvantaged group had never been tested for a sexually transmitted
Stigma and shame were identified as the greatest barriers to adults accessing sexual healthcare services, with many participants indicating that they felt that sexual health was a “dirty” term, discouraging people from seeking regular health checks.
“A big barrier to people accessing services is societal stigma, and assumptions that older people are asexual and that sex is no longer part of their lives. This really limits the awareness of sexual health services among this group,” Tess Hartland, research assistant with the SHIFT project, told CNN.
A “significant number” of survey respondents were also unaware of the risks of sexually transmitted infections, researchers said, while 42 per cent of general respondents in the UK and the Netherlands did not know where their nearest sexual health service was located.
“A lot of services and sexual health promotion is really tailored towards young people,” Hartland told CNN, noting that some people in the over-45 age category may have received limited sexual health education at school, affecting their attitudes today.
Participants also reported that their healthcare professionals, such as doctors and nurses, lacked appropriate sexual health knowledge.
“A lot of respondents preferred to go to their GP or their doctor rather than a specific sexual health service,” Hartland explained. “This means these doctors don’t necessarily have a specialism in sexual health.
“Of course, it’s quite a sensitive subject and it can be quite difficult to raise, as a health professional, to someone who is over 45,” she added.
Researchers found that over-45s living in socially and economically disadvantaged areas were at particular risk of catching sexually transmitted infections, and could have limited awareness of available healthcare services, and limited access to such services.
“It is clear from the numbers reporting fear of being judged by important others who know them and by health professionals that stigma remains a crucial barrier to address in any sexual health promotion intervention,” Ruth Lowry, a researcher on the project from Britain’s University of Essex, said in a statement.
“The findings have also shown that groups with one or more socio-economic disadvantages, such as homeless people, sex workers, non-native language speakers and migrants, are at even greater risk of being unaware of their sexual health and unable to access the appropriate services,” she added. -CNN

First Americans ‘could get vaccine in December’

The first Americans to receive a Covid-19 vaccine could get it as soon as 11 December, according to the head of the US coronavirus vaccine programme.
Dr Moncef Slaoui told US network CNN the plan was to “ship vaccines to the immunisation sites within 24 hours” of a vaccine being approved.
The comments come amid a surge in coronavirus cases across the country.
The US has recorded more than 12m cases and 255,000 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
These are the highest tolls registered anywhere in the world.

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American pharmaceutical company Pfizer and its partner BioNTech submitted an application on Friday for emergency authorisation in the US of their Covid-19 vaccine.
The vaccine, which requires two doses, has been shown by tests to be 95% effective. Pfizer hopes to produce up to 50 million doses by the end of the year.
A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) vaccine advisory committee is set to meet on 10 December to discuss whether to authorise the vaccine.
Dr Slaoui told CNN it could be rolled out “maybe on day two after approval”.
The vaccine is set to be distributed based on each state’s population. Dr Slaoui said individual states will be responsible for deciding who gets the vaccine first, with the recommendation that priority be given to those most at risk, like healthcare workers and the elderly.
Pharmaceutical company Moderna has also reported that its vaccine is nearly 95% effective, according to test data. The company is expected to seek approval for the vaccine in the coming weeks.
Dr Slaoui said that with the level of efficacy shown in the vaccines, the US could achieve “true herd immunity” in May, with 70% of the population vaccinated.
But he added: “I really hope and look forward to seeing that the level of negative perception of the vaccine decreases and people’s acceptance increases. That is going to be critical to help us. Most people need to be immunised before we can go back to a normal life.”
Dr Anthony Fauci, the US’s top infectious disease expert, told BBC partner CBS News that the US could reach herd immunity against Covid-19 “reasonably quickly” next year if enough Americans are vaccinated.
Although the full trial data has yet to be published, the companies involved say there have been no serious safety concerns.
It’s still unclear how long protection from the vaccine lasts and if it stops people transmitting the virus.

What else is happening with Covid in the US?
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has warned that coronavirus cases are “rapidly rising” across the country.
The daily death toll has reached its highest level since May.
Several states have imposed new mask mandates and restrictions to try to combat the rise, and in Texas the National Guard has been deployed in the city of El Paso to help with morgue operations amid a surge in coronavirus deaths.
California has begun a night-time curfew, in an attempt to curb the spread of the virus. It reported a total of one million cases last week, making it the second state to do so after Texas.
The new daily curfew, from 22:00 local time on Saturday (06:00 GMT Sunday) until 05:00, will carry on until 21 December, with a possible extension if needed, according to authorities.
Restaurants are able to offer takeout and delivery outside these hours.
Other places, including New York City, are also operating a night-time curfew. Bars, restaurants and gyms are allowed to open until 22:00, but schools have been closed.
The CDC has urged Americans to avoid travelling for the Thanksgiving holiday on 26 November to prevent increased transmissions.
Thanksgiving typically heralds the busiest week for travel in the US. Last year, an estimated 26 million people passed through the country’s airports in the week surrounding the holiday.
President Donald Trump and President-elect Joe Biden have both said they are against imposing a national lockdown, and favour letting states come up with their own rules. –BBC

Poor nutrition may have created height gap

A new global analysis led by Imperial College London, and published in journal The Lancet, has assessed the height and weight of school-aged children and adolescents across the world.
The study, which used data from 65 million children aged five to 19 years old in 193 countries, revealed that school-aged children’s height and weight, which are indicators of their health and quality of their diet, vary enormously around the world.
There was a 20 cm difference between 19-year-olds in the tallest and shortest nations — this represented an eight-year growth gap for girls, and a six-year growth gap for boys. For instance, the study revealed that the average 19-year-old girl in Bangladesh and Guatemala (the nations with the world’s shortest girls) is the same height as an average 11-year-old girl in the Netherlands, the nation with the tallest boys and girls.
The international team behind the study warn that highly variable childhood nutrition, especially a lack of quality food, may lead to stunted growth and a rise in childhood obesity — affecting a child’s health and wellbeing for their entire life.
The research, which reported data from 1985 to 2019, revealed that the nations with the tallest 19-year-olds in 2019 were in northwest and central Europe, and included the Netherlands, Montenegro, Denmark and Iceland.
These nations with the shortest 19-year-olds in 2019 were mostly in south and southeast Asia, Latin America and East Africa, including Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea, Guatemala and Bangladesh.
The largest improvements in average height of children over the 35-year period were seen in emerging economies such as China, South Korea and some parts of southeast Asia. For example, 19-year old boys in China in 2019 were 8 cm taller than in 1985, with their global rank changing from 150th tallest in 1985 to 65th in 2019. In contrast the height of children, especially boys, in many Sub-Saharan African nations has stagnated or reduced over these decades.
Global height ranking for UK has worsened over past 35 years, with 19-year-old boys falling from 28th tallest in 1985 (176.3 cm) to 39th in 2019 (178.2 cm), and 19-year-old girls from 42nd (162.7 cm) to 49th (163.9 cm).
The study also assessed children’s Body Mass Index (BMI) — a measure of height to weight ratio, which gives an indication of whether a person has a healthy weight for their height. The analysis found that 19-year-olds with the largest BMI were found in the Pacific islands, Middle East, USA and New Zealand. The BMI of 19-year-olds was lowest in south Asian countries such as India and Bangladesh. The difference between the lightest and the heaviest BMIs in the study was around 9 units of BMI (equivalent to around 25 kg of weight).
The research team explain the analysis also revealed that, in many nations, children at age five had a height and weight in the healthy range defined by the World Health Organization (WHO). However, after this age, children in some countries have experienced too small an increase in height, and gained too much weight, compared to the potential for healthy growth.
The team say the most important reason for this is the lack of adequate and healthy nutrition and living environment in the school years, as both height and weight gains are closely linked to the quality of a child’s diet.
Professor Majid Ezzati, senior author of the study from Imperial’s School of Public Health said: “Children in some countries grow healthily to five years, but fall behind in school years. This shows that there is an imbalance between investment in improving nutrition in pre-schoolers, and in school-aged children and adolescents. This issue is especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic when schools are closed throughout the world, and many poor families are unable to provide adequate nutrition for their children.”
Dr Andrea Rodriguez Martinez, the lead author of the study from Imperial’s School of Public Health, added: “Our findings should motivate policies that increase the availability and reduce the cost of nutritious foods, as this will help children grow taller without gaining excessive weight for their height. These initiatives include food vouchers towards nutritious foods for low-income families, and free healthy school meal programmes which are particularly under threat during the pandemic. These actions would enable children to grow taller without gaining excessive weight, with lifelong benefits for their health and wellbeing.”
The study was funded by the Wellcome Trust, AstraZeneca Young Health Programme, European Union. – Science Daily