briefs

Website launches student health component

After co-founding America Online close to… Website launches student health component

After co-founding America Online close to 25 years ago, Steve Case has switched his focus from the Internet revolution to the revolution of the health care industry.

With his health website – www.revolutionhealth.com – opening in April to broad appeal, Case decided to launch a separate section of his site dedicated to the needs of college students.

“College Health Center” contains subsections with information concerning mental health, relationships, sexual health and healthy living on a college campus.

“People in college are dealing with new transitions. There are many students that would be uncomfortable walking into a counseling office, but would rather look into it in their own home,” Case said.

The College Health Center is user-friendly and is free with registration. It aims at giving students the clearest and best information available on many sensitive subjects.

For instance, under the sexual health subsection, a how-to guide is available for discussing sexual history with a partner.

And in the mental health sub-section, students can read about depression in young adults and consider whether they themselves show symptoms.

Case sees his company’s role as a means of bettering American healthcare as a whole – an industry he believes must be drastically reorganized.

“I do think [American healthcare] is an industry that’s screwed up, an industry that needs to be centered around the consumer,” Case said.

By using the knowledge and expertise of over 100 medical and healthcare experts, Case has designed a website that does just that.

On the website, users can ask questions anonymously and receive advice from doctors in a short amount of time.

Case said that the idea of starting a healthcare company began during an ordeal with his daughter.

When she became ill during a family vacation, he found it difficult to find a clinic that was open on a Sunday morning.

“It dawned on me that it was so easy to get a cup of coffee [on a Sunday morning] but not get a simple diagnosis for a child,” Case said.

-Henry Clay Webster, Assistant News Editor

Reused plastic water bottles harmful, unsanitary

(MCT) Walnut Creek, CA – Some reports suggest reused plastic bottles may break down and leach chemicals into the water. Tests on reused plastic bottles also have detected nasty bacteria.

The information is confusing and, in some cases, flat-out misleading. And ultimately, striking a balance between convenience, the environment and health hinges on drawing your own conclusions.

The health issue stems from bacteria in reused bottles: Proper cleaning is essential.

“Saliva gets into the bottle, and if there’s enough warmth, it can grow,” Swartzberg said. “Conceivably it can cause disease. To our knowledge, there’s been no outbreak of disease from unclean bottles, but that’s no reason to contaminate yourself.”

Bottles should be cleaned using hot, soapy water. Avoid using dishwashers because high heat can cause degradation, Swartzberg said.

Why not just uncap a new plastic water bottle? Isn’t bottled water better than tap?

Not necessarily.

The Environmental Protection Agency strictly regulates all public water; the Food and Drug Administration oversees the bottled water industry with less stringent regulations. Until recently, few bottled water manufacturers publicly revealed their water sources. Turns out about 40 percent of bottled water is really filtered tap water.

Plastic also takes a toll on the environment, partly because it is a byproduct of petroleum refining.

In 2006, 28.3 billion gallons of bottled water were sold in the United States, according to a report by Beverage Marketing Corp. About 86 percent of those bottles were thrown away instead of recycled – alarming to environmentalists because a buried water bottle takes up to 1,000 years to biodegrade, says the Container Recycling Institute.

– Ann Tatko-Peterson, Contra Costa Times

Young NYC gay men experience HIV resurgence(MCT) NEW YORK – HIV is staging a comeback among young gay men in New York, with new cases increasing by a third in those younger than 30 and doubling among teens in the past six years, health officials said Tuesday.

In 2001, there were 374 new HIV diagnoses among gay men younger than 30; last year, there were 499, a city report said. In gay males ages 13 to 19, cases increased from 41 six years ago to 87 last year.

Although those numbers pale next to the thousands stricken in the 1980’s and 90s, they reflect the virus’ obstinacy in the gay community, Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said.

HIV transmission no longer occurs through blood transfusions, is down among IV drug users and is rarely passed from pregnant women to their babies, he noted.

“A generation of men is growing up having not seen their friends die of AIDS, and maybe having the impression that HIV is not such a terrible infection,” Frieden said.

Unless they practice safer sex, he said, “We will face another wave of suffering and death from HIV and AIDS.”

– Jordan Lite, New York Daily News