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Decorations in an employee's cubicle at Planned Parenthood in Overland Park. Celia Llopis-Jepsen / Kansas News Service

By CELIA LLOPIS-JENSENKansas News Service

TOPEKA Kansans will likely vote this August on whether to become the fourth state to enshrine in their constitution that abortion isn't a right.

Anti-abortion activists say Kansas needs the change to protect its current abortion laws against potential court challenges.

Their abortion rights counterparts warn many of those laws already go too far, and the constitutional amendment would pave the way for making abortion illegal.

Where does Kansas law stand on abortion today?

In broad strokes, it doesnt allow a few key abortion methods and women generally cant get abortions after 22 weeks of (or slightly more than halfway through) pregnancy.

Being the victim of rape or incest doesnt get women out of those rules. Kansas makes some exceptions for pregnancies that go very wrong and could kill the mother or do her serious physical harm.

Kansas abortion laws say life begins at fertilization.

(Click here to skip ahead to our summary of the states various laws. )

The ballot measure cleared the Kansas Senate last week. The Kansas House may vote this week.

The constitutional amendment would then go to a public vote in August. It would add a line to the state bill of rights saying abortion isnt constitutionally protected and that lawmakers can pass laws on abortion, including for pregnancies that resulted from rape or incest or threaten a womans life.

How did your senator vote? View voteshere.

Democrats have tried to derail the amendment by suggesting it could lead to an outright abortion ban. Republicans called that fearmongering.

Good lord I cant imagine that passing, Senate President Susan Wagle pushed back. That is a scare tactic.

Voters in Tennessee were the first to change their constitution in 2014 to clarify it contains no right to abortion. Alabamians and West Virginians followed suit in 2018. Alabama has since passed a nearly complete abortion ban and Tennessees governor is pushing to stop abortions at about six weeks pregnancy, before many women may know theyre pregnant.

The Kansas push follows a state supreme court ruling last year that concluded women have control over their own bodies and whether to have children. Abortion, it said, is therefore constitutionally protected.

Anti-abortion groups fear the decision will lead to an avalanche of court rulings that will strike down other laws they got passed over the years. For abortion rights advocates, the ruling was insurance against the U.S. Supreme Court someday striking down Roe v. Wade.

Right now, Roe and other federal legal precedent stop states from banning abortion. (Thats why Alabamas ban is tied up in court.)

But in places like Kansas where state supreme courts have found a right to abortion under state constitutions the procedure would stay legal even without Roe.

Whats on the books in Kansas today?

Kansas has hundreds upon hundreds of lines worth of abortion statutes and regulations. Heres a peek at some. They dont apply to removing a fetus that died naturally within a mother.

Some of these laws arent in force, pending the outcome of lawsuits.

The 22-week cutoff: No abortions of a viable fetus once 22 weeks have passed since the pregnant woman last began a menstrual period. (Some babies born at that very premature age have been able to survive.) Kansas allows an exception to save a mothers life or stop serious and permanent damage to her bodily functions, but only if two doctors without legal or financial affiliation to each other to agree the abortion is needed. Only one such abortion took place in the past five years, state reports show. Other Kansans left the state for the procedure.

Parental permission:Anyone under 18 seeking abortion needs written notarized permission from both of her parents. But there are several exceptions, such as if she is married, her parents are divorced, or she was the victim of incest by her father. Minors can ask a judge to waive the parental permission law. If judges dont rule within 48 hours, the law is automatically waived.

Counseling for minors: Unless its an immediate medical emergency, minors must meet with a counselor and take along a parent or someone over the age of 21 with an interest in their wellbeing and no affiliation with the abortion facility. The conversation should include talking about abortion and alternatives.

Child rape: Kansas law defines sex with someone under the age of 14 as rape. If a child is under 14 years old, the doctor must turn over fetal tissue from her abortion to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, together with the names of her parents.

No D&E: Dilation and evacuation called dismemberment abortion by anti-abortion groups and in state law is the most common procedure after 13 weeks of pregnancy, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. A Kansas law that could soon be struck down because of last years state supreme court ruling bans D&E except to save a mothers life or stop serious and permanent damage to her bodily functions.

The abortion pill: About 60% of abortions in Kansas involve this pill, and at least one of the states four clinics has used doctors in other states to guide women through the process remotely by video while they sit in the clinic. A Kansas law tied up in court bans that.

Mandatory information: Women have to wait 24 hours after requesting an abortion.

A Kansas law called the Womens Right to Know Act kicks in. It sets rules about what clinics have to tell women, in addition to messages they need to hang on their walls and post online, and information that the states health agency puts on this dedicated website.

Above is a sign hanging in an abortion clinic in Overland Park, with information in font. It tells women that Medicaid may help pay for the cost of carrying a child to term, that fathers are on the hook for child support, and other information.

Women receive information about agencies and resources to help with adoption or parenting.

They are told in writing the abortion will end the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being.

They are told how old their embryo or fetus is and what anatomy it has likely developed so far.

Shortly before their abortion, doctors then must offer to let them hear the heartbeat and view the sonogram, and women must sign a sheet of paper indicating they accepted or refused.

The law requires telling women several things that are scientifically disputed, including about breast cancer risks and that fetuses can feel pain by 22 weeks.

Abortion licensure: Abortion clinics in Kansas must get a license from the state each year. That, anti-abortion activists say, keeps patients safe. But clinics argue its meant to make their operations more difficult by piling on extra rules beyond the regular forms of oversight for the medical field. The abortion clinic rules touch on everything from lavatories to staffing to annual equipment checks and surprise inspections.

Public money and abortion: No using the State General Fund and other types of state revenue for abortion, and state employees cant perform abortions. That includes the University of Kansas Medical Center. Faculty cant do abortions on the clock or on university property. The sole exception: To save a womans life.

Private insurance and abortion: Health plans cant cover costs from an abortion unless its to save a womans life. State law allows for purchasing a policy rider to cover abortion, but researchers say thats rarely available. (Separately, the federal Medicaid and CHIP programs pay for abortion in Kansas only to save a mothers life or in cases of rape or incest.)

Celia Llopis-Jepsen reports on consumer health and education for the Kansas News Service. You can follow her on Twitter @Celia_LJ or email her at [emailprotected] The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio focused on the health and well-being of Kansans, their communities and civic life.

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Abortion in Kansas: Here's what the state's laws allow today - hays Post

Dr. Daniel Koller, a veterinarian, attended a court hearing in Hillsboro, Ore., last month. He was arrested in November over the death of a dachshund he was treating.

BEAVERTON, Ore. After his dog Bleu sustained a leg injury over the summer, Andres Figueroa brought the 7-month-old dachshund in for a checkup at a sleek suburban clinic outside Portland, Ore., that was decorated with cutouts of cheerful pets.

But in the exam room, the veterinarian said, Bleu tried to nip at him. He snatched the dog by the mouth and torso with such jarring force that Bleu defecated on the table, Mr. Figueroa said, and then lifted him into the air by the snout until he began to lose consciousness.

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Distraught, Mr. Figueroa recovered his dog and left. Back in the car, Bleu curled on his lap in a daze, his breathing labored. By the next day, the dogs lungs were filled with fluid and he had to be put down.

I was in shock, Mr. Figueroa said. I knew I had to call the police.

After going to the authorities about the veterinarian, Dr. Daniel Koller, Mr. Figueroa discovered that the practitioner had decades of complaints filed against him in two states by regulators, customers and employees.

Across the country, there is less accountability for veterinarians than there is for practitioners who treat people. While courts award multimillion-dollar judgments for negligence in hospitals, states treat companion animals as a form of property, and owners have little opportunity to sue for damages beyond the cost of a replacement.

Unlike the extensive national records kept on doctors and nurses, there is no comparable data repository to track problematic veterinarians, and state review boards rarely put sanctioned practitioners out of business.

Practicing in both California and Oregon off and on for the past 30 years, Dr. Koller first faced a criminal charge of animal cruelty three years after he got his license in 1974; regulators in California said he was seen kicking and beating a German shepherd that employees later found dead. He had his license revoked for that and other abuse allegations in 1979, restored in 1984 and suspended again in 2001.

In the 1980s, he built a network of budget veterinary clinics in Oregon but also faced a new round of complaints. Oregon officials suspended his license in 2008 and revoked it in 2010, but he returned to practice five years later.

In interviews with The New York Times, eight customers detailed a series of concerning encounters at Dr. Kollers clinics in the four years since his license was most recently restored.

One said Dr. Koller snatched her whimpering dog by the scruff of the neck with such force that the dog wet the table. Another said the doctor choked her frightened puppy. Some had concerns after their pets that went in for surgery ended up dying.

Dr. Koller declined an interview request, telling a reporter: I dont talk to anyone. Goodbye.

In a 2015 memo to Oregon officials, he said he maintained high standards for care and cited support from numerous veterinarians, who said he was an excellent practitioner and a caring person who advocated for low-income people.

I am not a danger to my patients, Dr. Koller wrote.

Disciplinary Actions Are Rare

While there is no nationwide database for the public to track veterinary discipline, state records show the rarity of serious enforcement actions. In Oregon in recent years, about 6 percent of complaints handled by the veterinary board resulted in the finding of a violation.

In states that make enforcement reports readily available, including Arizona, Nevada, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, records show cases in which veterinary personnel who had racked up five board actions or more were able to continue practicing.

Lori Makinen, the executive director of the Oregon Veterinary Medical Examining Board, said enforcement in human medicine and veterinary medicine cannot be compared because society does not place as much value on an animals life. Under the law, she said, animals are considered property.

But Linda Rosenthal, a member of the New York State Assembly who has worked on animal issues for years, said states should acknowledge the changing relationships that people have with their pets. Ms. Rosenthal said she had been exploring a plan to establish pets as a special category under tort law, somewhere between people and property, but expected strong resistance.

Dr. Jeff Young, a Colorado-based veterinarian who has a show on Animal Planet, helped develop a model law a few years ago that would expand potential veterinary damages to $10,000 for pets.

But industry advocates quickly moved to quash it, arguing that it would make the cost of veterinary care prohibitively expensive, Dr. Young said, in part because of insurance rates. Meanwhile, he noted, clinics were offering operations that cost thousands of dollars to keep pets alive.

It seemed like total hypocrisy to me, he said.

Beatings and Death

Much of the case against Dr. Koller prepared by California regulators in the 1970s concerned his treatment of the German shepherd at a pet hospital outside Monterey.

An administrative law judge wrote that a woman had brought in the stray animal for treatment of a leg injury. The judge found that on two occasions in July 1975, Dr. Koller hung the dog off the ground, beating it with his hand and foot until it lost consciousness. The dog lost three teeth.

Employees later found the dog in the freezer used to store dead animals, according to the veterinary board documents.

A jury convicted Dr. Koller of animal cruelty in that case, and he was sentenced to 100 days in jail.

The veterinary board in California was looking at a range of other concerns. In October 1974, regulators said, Dr. Koller pounded the head of a Lhasa apso dog named Tammy until both eyes were hemorrhaged, according to documents. In 1975, officials found evidence that he beat a dog named Coco for several minutes when the dog would not stop barking; bit and pounded a dog being prepared for surgery; used a slip lead to suspend a dachshund by the neck for at least 30 seconds; and violently slammed a cat on the sides and floor of its cage.

In 1979, the board revoked his license. Five years later, it reinstated it.

Dr. Koller expanded his work to Oregon in the 1980s and franchised a series of Companion Pet Clinics, offering lower-cost services than competitors.

Gretchen Kaehler, who briefly worked with him during that period, said the focus on a high-volume, low-cost model called for cost-saving measures like reusing needles with sterilization to the point that they would be difficult to insert into the animal.

Ms. Kaehler said she never saw Dr. Koller abuse animals, noting that he had a dog of his own, and that she recalled him being friendly and smart. But he was so focused on the business, Ms. Kaehler said, that he fired her for spending too much time comforting the animals.

He wasnt going to spend a lot of time petting them, Ms. Kaehler said. He didnt have that nurturing side. It was very much just business.

Im a Litigator

Dr. Koller, who had apparently been studying the law when he was barred from veterinary practice, began aggressively defending himself against critics in court.

After a customer complained in 1987 that Dr. Koller had hurt her cats leg by handling it roughly, Dr. Koller filed a defamation lawsuit against the customer and several others who had criticized him. Court records indicate that the case was settled.

Im a litigator, Dr. Koller once said, according to a 2004 article in The Oregonian. I like the courtroom battle.

By the early 2000s, Dr. Koller was facing another legal problem. In 2001, his daughter called 911 to their home in California, where paramedics found Dr. Kollers wife unconscious and him semiconscious with a fresh puncture wound in his arm, according to regulatory records. He later admitted to using Telazol, a veterinary anesthetic.

California officials suspended his license but later held off on full revocation by imposing a four-year probationary period in 2004.

In Oregon, regulators scrutinized Dr. Koller after he pleaded no contest in 2007 in a driving-under-the-influence case in which he tested positive for morphine. They also looked at reports that staff members had seen him practicing medicine while impaired once reportedly falling asleep during surgery.

At the time, he was also battling one of his former employees, Maureena Schmaing. A receptionist at his clinic in the early 2000s, Ms. Schmaing said she watched Dr. Koller throw a cat onto the ground and step on its head to inject it with a sedative. In another case, she said, she saw him beat a husky.

Ms. Schmaing said that after witnessing such conduct one day, she was in tears and began compiling a dossier on her boss with the help of Tessa Sage, a former veterinary technician at another clinic who had talked with some of Dr. Kollers clients.

In 2004, the women filed a 79-page complaint to the Oregon veterinary board, detailing what they described as abusive treatment of animals, a lack of supervision of an intern and mistakes that led to pets dying.

I thought for sure it was going to have an impact, Ms. Schmaing said. All I wanted was for him to be stopped.

Dr. Koller disputed Ms. Schmaings complaint, citing contrary testimony offered by other employees and noting that Ms. Schmaing had repeatedly brought her own pet in for care. The board in the end said it was unable to substantiate the abuse allegations. Two years later, in 2008, it suspended Dr. Kollers license, in part citing his history of illegal drug use, and then revoked it in 2010.

Dr. Koller continued to manage veterinary facilities, though he did not act as a veterinarian, and in 2015, he was able to get his license reinstated.

I understand the gravity of what has transpired, he wrote to Oregon officials, and I believe that I have met the requirements to reinstate my license to responsibly practice the profession that I so love.

His problems continued. In 2018, the board fined him $1,500 for trying to spay a male cat. Customers continued to come forward with complaints about rough handling of their pets and unexpected deaths during surgery.

Mr. Figueroa said he was shocked at Dr. Kollers treatment of his dachshund during his visit in September.

I started yelling and saying something like, Why he did that? And he just told me to leave, Mr. Figueroa said.

Mr. Figueroa went outside and called his parents, who drove to the clinic to confront Dr. Koller.

Dr. Koller blamed Mr. Figueroa for not warning him that his dog bites, and then turned to Mr. Figueroas father, who was clearly angry. Do you want to go outside or do it here? Dr. Koller said before starting to walk around the counter. Others intervened to de-escalate the situation.

Bleu was euthanized the next day on the advice of another veterinarian.

In November, the district attorney in Washington County filed criminal charges of animal abuse stemming from Mr. Figueroas case. Dr. Koller has pleaded not guilty and remains in good standing with the veterinary board.

Since the case was publicized, Mr. Figueroa and his family have become acquainted with other former clients of Dr. Koller. They often gather outside the clinic in Beaverton, Ore., with protest signs; No Excuse for Animal Abuse, read one during a recent demonstration.

They urge people to think twice before taking their pet inside.

More:
Abusing Pets and Drugs, One Vet Has Left Decades of Despair in His Wake - msnNOW

Groups work together at the Cornell Animal Health Hackathon, held in the Cornell Vet School on Sunday and the two previous days. Participants, whose backgrounds span from engineering, veterinary medicine to business, solved animal health challenges over the course of the Hackathon. (Nandita Mohan/Sun Staff Photographer)

Professor Michael Dorf, law, and Professor Sarah Kreps, government, on Wednesday night debated the legal and political concerns surrounding the third-ever impeachment. The talk was moderated by Prof. David Bateman, government. (Michelle Zhiqing Yang/Sun Staff Photographer)

Senior forward Paige Lewis advances the puck at the womens hockey game against Clarkson on Friday. (Boris Tsang/Sun Photography Editor)

Freshman forward Izzy Daniel moves the puck at the womens hockey game against Clarkson on Friday. After five minutes of overtime, the game ended in a 1-1 tie. (Boris Tsang/Sun Photography Editor)

This Sunday, Barton Hall was filled with booths from clubs and organizations at ClubFest. (Michael Wenye Li/Sun Senior Photographer)

Students meet club members and learn about different organizations at ClubFest in Barton Hall this Sunday. (Michael Wenye Li/Sun Senior Photographer)

At Barton Hall, Students visit club booths at ClubFest this Sunday. Hosting over 1000 clubs and organizations, ClubFest provides students with the opportunity to check out on-campus groups. (Michael Wenye Li/Sun Senior Photographer)

Groups work together at the Cornell Animal Health Hackathon, held in the Cornell Vet School on Sunday and the two previous days. Participants, whose backgrounds span from engineering, veterinary medicine to business, solved animal health challenges over the course of the Hackathon. (Nandita Mohan/Sun Staff Photographer)

Professor Michael Dorf, law, and Professor Sarah Kreps, government, on Wednesday night debated the legal and political concerns surrounding the third-ever impeachment. The talk was moderated by Prof. David Bateman, government. (Michelle Zhiqing Yang/Sun Staff Photographer)

Senior forward Paige Lewis advances the puck at the womens hockey game against Clarkson on Friday. (Boris Tsang/Sun Photography Editor)

Freshman forward Izzy Daniel moves the puck at the womens hockey game against Clarkson on Friday. After five minutes of overtime, the game ended in a 1-1 tie. (Boris Tsang/Sun Photography Editor)

This Sunday, Barton Hall was filled with booths from clubs and organizations at ClubFest. (Michael Wenye Li/Sun Senior Photographer)

Students meet club members and learn about different organizations at ClubFest in Barton Hall this Sunday. (Michael Wenye Li/Sun Senior Photographer)

At Barton Hall, Students visit club booths at ClubFest this Sunday. Hosting over 1000 clubs and organizations, ClubFest provides students with the opportunity to check out on-campus groups. (Michael Wenye Li/Sun Senior Photographer)

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THIS WEEK IN PHOTOS | February 2nd, 2020 - Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun

Many men take the erectile dysfunction drug sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra, without problems. But in rare cases, they may experience an odd side effect: changes in eyesight, including blue-tinted vision, that last for several weeks, according to a new report.

The report, published Friday (Feb. 7) in the journal Frontiers in Neurology, describes the cases of 17 men who visited a hospital in Turkey with vision problems that persisted for more than 24 hours after they'd taken sildenafil.

The problems reported included blurred vision, sensitivity to light, reduced eyesight and changes to color perception, including "intensely blue-colored vision," a side effect known as cyanopsia. Those with cyanopsia also reported "red-green colorblindness," in which red and green hues appear to be brownish, the report said. None of the patients had a history of eye disease or colorblindness.

While it's known that sildenafil can cause temporary vision changes, including blurred vision and cyanopsia, these side effects typically disappear within 3 to 5 hours. Persistent vision changes, like those seen in this report, are much rarer. Fortunately, the vision problems for all of the men described in this report went away after 21 days.

"For the vast majority of men, any side effects [of sildenafil] will be temporary and mild," study author Dr. Cneyt Karaarslan, of the Dnyagz Adana hospital in Turkey, said in a statement. "However, I wanted to highlight that persistent eye and vision problems may be encountered for a small number of users."

Last year, researchers in Massachusetts reported the case of a man who developed vision loss, including "doughnut-shaped" spots in his vision, which lasted for at least two months after he'd consumed an entire bottle of liquid sildenafil.

Related: Viagra goes generic: 5 interesting facts about the 'little blue pill'

Sildenafil treats erectile dysfunction by inhibiting an enzyme called phosphodiesterase 5 (PDE5), which plays a role in regulating blood flow to the penis. But sildenafil also inhibits a related enzyme called phosphodiesterase type 6 (PDE6), which is found in retinal cells, the light-sensitive cells at the back of the eye. It's thought that, in high doses, this inhibition leads to the buildup of a molecule that is toxic to retinal cells, Live Science previously reported.

All of the men in the current report were first-time sildenafil users, and all of them took the highest recommended dose of the drug, 100 milligrams. What's more, none of the men had a prescription for the medication.

It's unclear why some people are more prone than others to persistent side effects from sildenafil. But it may be that their bodies do not break down the drug very efficiently, which could lead to high concentrations of the medication in their blood, much higher than what's seen in average users, Karaarslan said.

Because it's unclear who will experience such side effects, Karaarslan said men should start on lower doses of the drug. Indeed, it's recommended that patients start with a 50-mg dose and increase or decrease the amount depending on their reaction, according to Pfizer, the maker of Viagra. What's more, patients should take the drug under medical supervision, meaning they should get a prescription for it, Karaarslan added.

"Although these drugs, when used under the control of physicians and at the recommended doses, provide very important sexual and mental support, uncontrolled and inappropriate doses should not be used or repeated," said Karaarslan.

Originally published on Live Science.

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Men who took erectile-dysfunction drug had blue-tinted vision for days. - Livescience.com

Prevent Blindness has declared February as Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD)/Low Vision Awareness Month to help educate the public on AMD types, treatment options, low vision services and more.According to estimates from thePrevent Blindnessreport Future of Vision: Forecasting the Prevalence and Costs of Vision Problems, more than 2.2 million Americans, including 88,546 Ohioans, ages 50 and over have AMD in the year 2020.AMD is an eye disease that affects central vision and may occur in one or both eyes. Symptoms usually appear gradually over time, and may include difficulty seeing in the center of vision, straight lines appearing wavy or missing, and trouble seeing in dim light.

Risk factors for AMD include:

Family history of AMD;

Aging - those over 60 years old;

Race - Caucasians have a higher rate of AMD;

Sex - females have a higher rate of AMD (may be because they live longer);

Light-colored eyes;

Smoking;

Heart disease;

High blood pressure (hypertension);

High cholesterol;

Obesity;

High sun exposure; and

Poor diet - with low intake of antioxidants.

The Vision Councilstates that one in 28 Americans age 40 and above have low vision.According to theAmerican Academy of Ophthalmology, low vision refers tovisionloss that cannot be corrected by medical or surgical treatments or conventionaleyeglasses. AMD, and other eye diseases such as cataract, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and retinitis pigmentosa, can cause low vision.

The Ohio Affiliate of Prevent Blindness offers educational materials at no cost through its dedicated web pages and its toll-free number. Resources include:Prevent Blindness AMD Learning Center-The AMD Learning Center, found atpreventblindness.org/amd, provides a variety of educational tools including fact sheets, a free downloadable Amsler grid and more.Living Well with Low Vision -This online resource,lowvision.preventblindness.org, includes a self-help guide to non-visual skills, a visual skills workbook for people with age-related macular degeneration, a guide to caring for the visually impaired and a range of resource directories, including a searchable database of more than 1,500 paratransit services around the country.Through early detection and effective management, the effects of AMD, one of the leading causes of vision loss, can be lessened, said Sherry Williams, President & CEO of the Ohio Affiliate of Prevent Blindness.We encourage everyone to work with their eye care professional to create and adhere to an effective treatment plan to help save sight for years to come.

For more information on AMD, low vision and other eye disease, please contact Prevent Blindness at (800) 301-2020 or visitpbohio.org.

About Prevent Blindness, Ohio Affiliate:

Founded in 1908, Prevent Blindness is the nation's leading volunteer eye health and safety organization dedicated to fighting blindness and saving sight. The Ohio Affiliate of Prevent Blindness serves all 88 Ohio counties, providing direct services to more than 1,000,000 Ohioans annually and educating millions of consumers about what they can do to protect and preserve their precious gift of sight. For more information or to make a contribution, call 800-301-2020.Visit Prevent Blindness on the web atpbohio.org, Facebook atfacebook.com/pbohio/ or Twitter attwitter.com/PB_Ohio.

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highlandcountypress.com - The Highland County Press

Good nutrition and good health go hand in hand. But did you know that a healthy diet can also protect your eyes? Its true: what we eat can affect how we see!

Why is caring for our eye health some important? As we get older, the risk for certain eye diseases such as age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and cataracts increases. Many surveys have shown that sight is the most important of the five senses to maintain. Clearly, vision loss is a major concern.

Studies have shown that eating foods that are rich in certain vitamins, minerals and antioxidants can slow down or even help prevent most eye diseases.

Are you wondering how to get more eye-friendly nutrients in your familys diet? Keep your eyes on these foods:

Lutein and zeaxanthin: These are found in kale, spinach, Romaine lettuce, collard greens, broccoli and eggs.

Beta-carotene: Found in carrots, pumpkins, winter squash, sweet potatoes, red bell peppers and cantaloupe.

Vitamin C: Found in oranges, grapefruit, strawberries, Brussel sprouts and green bell peppers.

Vitamin E: Found in sunflower seeds, wheat germ, almonds, hazelnuts and vegetable oils.

Omega 3 fatty acids: Found in salmon, tuna, sardines, herring mackerel and fortified dairy.

Zinc: Found in oysters, red meat, eggs, turkey, wheat germ, black-eyed peas and mixed nuts.

Challenge yourself to add more of these foods to your diet this year to help keep you seeing with 2020 vision well into the future.

Prevention is the key when it comes to eye health, and a lifetime of good sight starts early. Building healthy eating habits in childhood that include eye-friendly foods is a perfect way to start. Here are some ideas to encourage your kids to try something new.

Come up with a list of eye-healthy foods that you would like to add to your familys meals and ask your child to pick one or two to try. Find a recipe that includes those foods and then involve your child in helping you to prepare the ingredients. Younger children can help scrub produce, mix ingredients and pour liquids while older kids can help with measuring or even cutting different foods up. The more hands-on time that kids get with new foods, the more likely they are to eat them.

Roasted Salmon with Mango Sauce

4 wild Alaskan salmon fillets (fresh or frozen)

1 tablespoon olive oil

Salt and pepper

Mango Salsa

1 cup mango, cut into inch cubes

red bell pepper, diced into inch pieces

1 green onion or red onion thinly sliced

1 tablespoon cilantro, chopped

Salt and pepper

Zest and juice of 1 lime

1 tablespoon olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil

Place fish on the cooking sheet and brush with olive oil. Sprinkle each fillet with a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook in oven for 5 to 10 minutes, until each fillet is brown on top and cooked throughout.

While the salmon is cooking, mix the mango, red bell pepper, onion and cilantro in a medium bowl. Whisk together the olive oil, lime zest and lime juice in a small bowl. Pour dressing over salsa and mix to combine. When the salmon is done, spoon of the salsa over each prepared salmon fillet. Serve with brown rice and a green salad for an extra boost of eye-health nutrients.

Kathy Smith is a Texas A&M AgriLife extension agent.

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Eating well to help you see with 2020 vision - Weatherford Democrat

All, says Bernardeta Gmez in her native Spanish, pointing to a large black line running across a white sheet of cardboard propped at arms length in front of her. There.

It isnt exactly an impressive feat for a 57-year-old womanexcept that Gmez is blind. And shes been that way for over a decade. When she was 42, toxic optic neuropathy destroyed the bundles of nerves that connect Gmezs eyes to her brain, rendering her totally without sight. Shes unable even to detect light.

But after 16 years of darkness, Gmez was given a six-month window during which she could see a very low-resolution semblance of the world represented by glowing white-yellow dots and shapes. This was possible thanks to a modified pair of glasses, blacked out and fitted with a tiny camera. The contraption is hooked up to a computer that processes a live video feed, turning it into electronic signals. A cable suspended from the ceiling links the system to a port embedded in the back of Gmezs skull that is wired to a 100-electrode implant in the visual cortex in the rear of her brain.

Russ Juskalian

Using this, Gmez identified ceiling lights, letters, basic shapes printed on paper, and people. She even played a simple Pac-Manlike computer game piped directly into her brain. Four days a week for the duration of the experiment, Gmez was led to a lab by her sighted husband and hooked into the system.

Gmezs first moment of sight, at the end of 2018, was the culmination of decades of research by Eduardo Fernandez, director of neuroengineering at the University of Miguel Hernandez, in Elche, Spain. His goal: to return sight to as many as possible of the 36 million blind people worldwide who wish to see again. Fernandezs approach is particularly exciting because it bypasses the eye and optical nerves.

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Much earlier research attempted to restore vision by creating an artificial eye or retina. It worked, but the vast majority of blind people, like Gmez, have damage to the nerve system connecting the retina to the back of the brain. An artificial eye wont solve their blindness. Thats why in 2015, the company Second Sight, which received approval to sell an artificial retina in Europe in 2011and in the US in 2013for a rare disease called retinitis pigmentosa, switched two decades of work away from the retina to the cortex. (Second Sight says slightly more than 350 people are using its Argus II retinal implant.)

During a recent visit I made to palm-studded Elche, Fernandez told me that advances in implant technology, and a more refined understanding of the human visual system, have given him the confidence to go straight to the brain. The information in the nervous system is the same information thats in an electrical device, he says

Restoring sight by feeding signals directly to the brain is ambitious. But the underlying principles have been used in human-electronic implants in mainstream medicine for decades. Right now, Fernandez explains, we have many electric devices interacting with the human body. One of them is the pacemaker. And in the sensory system we have the cochlear implant.

Russ Juskalian

This latter device is the hearing version of the prosthesis Fernandez built for Gmez: an external microphone and processing system that transmits a digital signal to an implant in the inner ear. The implants electrodes send pulses of current into nearby nerves that the brain interprets as sound. The cochlear implant, which was first installed in a patient in 1961, lets over half a million people around the globe have conversations as a normal part of everyday life.

Berna was our first patient, but over the next couple of years we will install implants in five more blind people, says Fernandez, who calls Gmez by her first name. We had done similar experiments in animals, but a cat or a monkey cant explain what its seeing.

Berna could.

Her experiment took courage. It required brain surgery on an otherwise healthy bodyalways a risky procedureto install the implant. And then again to remove it six months later, since the prosthesis isnt approved for longer-term use.

Seizures and phosphenes

I hear Gmez before I see her. Hers is the voice of a woman about a decade younger than her age. Her words are measured, her cadence is perfectly smooth, and her tone is warm, confident, and steady.

When I finally see her in the lab, I notice Gmez knows the layout of the space so well she barely needs help navigating the small hallway and its attached rooms. When I walk over to greet her, Gmezs face is initially pointing in the wrong direction until I say hi. When I reach out to shake her hand, her husband guides her hand into mine.

Gmez is here for a brain MRI to see how things look half a year after having her implant removed (they look good). Shes also here to meet a potential second patient who is in town, and in the room during my visit. At one point during this meeting, as Fernandez explains how the hardware connects to the skull, Gmez interrupts the discussion, tilts forward, and places the prospects hand on the back of her head, where a metal outlet used to be. Today theres virtually no evidence of the port. The implant surgery was so uneventful, she says, that she came to the lab the very next day to get plugged in and start the experiments. Shes had no problems or pain since.

Gmez was lucky. The long history of experiments leading to her successful implant has a checkered past. In 1929, a German neurologist named Otfrid Foerster discovered that he could elicit a white dot in the vision of a patient if he stuck an electrode into the visual cortex of the brain while doing surgery. He dubbed the phenomenon a phosphene. Scientists and sci-fi authors have since imagined the potential for a camera-to-computer-to-brain visual prosthesis. Some researchers even built rudimentary systems.

In the early 2000s, the hypothetical became a reality when an eccentric biomedical researcher named William Dobelle installed such a prosthesis in the head of an experimental patient.

In 2002, the writer Steven Kotler recalled with horror watching Dobelle crank up the electricity and a patient fall to the floor writhing in a seizure. The cause was too much stimulation with too much currentsomething, it turns out, brains dont like. Dobelles patients also had problems with infections. Yet Dobelle marketed his bulky device as nearly ready for day-to-day use, complete with a promotional video of a blind man driving slowly and unsteadily in a closed parking lot. When Dobelle died in 2004, so did his prosthesis.

Unlike Dobelle, who proclaimed a cure for the blind, Fernandez almost constantly says things like, I dont want to get any hopes up, and We hope to have a system people can use, but right now were just conducting early experiments.

But Gmez did in fact see.

Bed of nails

If the basic idea behind Gmezs sightplug a camera into a video cable into the brainis simple, the details are not. Fernandez and his team first had to figure out the camera part. What kind of signal does a human retina produce? To try to answer this question, Fernandez takes human retinas from people who have recently died, hooks the retinas up to electrodes, exposes them to light, and measures what hits the electrodes. (His lab has a close relationship with the local hospital, which sometimes calls in the middle of the night when an organ donor dies. A human retina can be kept alive for only about seven hours.) His team also uses machine learning to match the retinas electrical output to simple visual inputs, which helps them write software to mimic the process automatically.

The next step is taking this signal and delivering it to the brain. In the prosthesis Fernandez built for Gmez, a cabled connection runs to a common neuro-implant known as a Utah array, which is just smaller than the raised tip on the positive end of a AAA battery. Protruding from the implant are 100 tiny electrode spikes, each about a millimeter talltogether they look like a miniature bed of nails. Each electrode can deliver a current to between one and four neurons. When the implant is inserted, the electrodes pierce the surface of the brain; when its removed, 100 tiny droplets of blood form in the holes.

Fernandez

Fernandez had to calibrate one electrode at a time, sending it increasingly strong currents until Gmez noted when and where she saw a phosphene. Getting all 100 electrodes dialed in took more than a month.

The advantage to our approach is that the arrays electrodes protrude into the brain and sit close to the neurons, Fernandez says. This lets the implant produce sight with a much lower electrical current than was needed in Dobelles system, which sharply reduces the risk of seizures.

The big downside to the prosthesisand the primary reason Gmez couldnt keep hers beyond six monthsis that nobody knows how long the electrodes can last without degrading either the implant or the users brain. The bodys immune system starts to break down the electrodes and surround them with scar tissue, which eventually weakens the signal, Fernandez says. Theres also the problem of the electrodes flexing as someone moves around. Judging from research in animals and an early look at the array Gmez used, he supposes the current setup could last two to three years, and perhaps up to 10 before it fails. Fernandez hopes a few minor tweaks will extend that to a few decadesa critical prerequisite for a piece of medical hardware that requires invasive brain surgery.

Eventually, the prosthesis, like a cochlear implant, will need to transmit its signal and power wirelessly through the skull to reach the electrodes. But for now, his team has so far left the prosthesis cabled for experimentsproviding the most flexibility to keep updating the hardware before settling on a design.

At 10 pixels by 10 pixels, which is roughly the maximum potential resolution Gmezs implant could render, one may perceive basic shapes like letters, a door frame, or a sidewalk. But the contours of a face, let alone a person, are far more complicated. Thats why Fernandez augmented his system with image recognition software to identify a person in a room and beam a pattern of phosphenes to Gmezs brain that she learned to recognize.

At 25 by 25 pixels, Fernandez writes in a slide he likes to present, vision is possible. And because the Utah array in its current form is so small and requires so little power to run, Fernandez says theres no technical reason his team couldnt install four to six on each side of the brain, offering vision at 60 x 60 pixels or higher. Still, nobody knows how much input the human brain can take from such devices without being overwhelmed and displaying the equivalent of TV snow.

What it looks like

Russ Juskalian

Gmez told me she would have kept the implant installed if she had been given the choice and that shell be first in line if an updated version is available. When Fernandez is done analyzing her array, Gmez plans to have it framed and hang it on her living room wall.

Back in Fernandezs lab, he offers to hook me up to a noninvasive device he uses to screen patients.

Sitting in the same leather chair Gmez occupied during last years breakthrough experiment, I wait as a neurologist holds a wand with two rings against the side of my head. The device, called a butterfly coil, is connected to a box that excites neurons in the brain with a powerful electromagnetic pulsea phenomenon called transcranial magnetic stimulation. The first blast feels as if someone is shocking my scalp. My fingers involuntarily curl into my palms. Look, it worked! Fernandez says, chuckling. That was your motor cortex. Now we will try to give you some phosphenes.

The neurologist repositions the wand and sets the machine for a rapid series of pulses. This time when she fires, I feel an intense zzp-zzp-zzp, as if someone were using the back of my skull as a door knocker. Then, even though my eyes are wide open, I see something: a bright horizontal line flashes across the center of my field of vision, along with two shimmering triangles filled with what looks like TV snow. The vision fades as quickly as it arrived, leaving a brief afterglow.

This is like what Berna could see, Fernandez says. Except her sight of the world was stable as long as the signal was being transmitted to her brain. She could also turn her head and, with her glasses on, look around the room. What I had seen were merely internal phantoms of an electrically excited brain. Gmez could actually reach out and touch the world she was looking at for the first time in 16 years.

Read the original here:
A new implant for blind people jacks directly into the brain - MIT Technology Review

Many know Daniela Ruah as Field Agent Kensi Blye on NCIS: Los Angeles. The Portuguese actress has played the character since its 2009 creation. Fans likely noticed one of Ruahs unique eyes while watching. Heres what the star wants viewers to know about a condition she embraces.

If you look close enough at Daniela Ruahs eyes, youll notice one is darker than the other. The condition is relative to a blemish on the eye.

It happened when I was a kid. You know how Barbies have the little plastic hands? One of them stuck in my eye when I was sleeping, she joked to Esquire in 2011. She eventually came clean.

Its a birthmark called nevus of Ota. It covers the whole white of my eye and darkens it. The square of the eye, the white part, is completely dark on my right eye, not just the iris, she said.

Its very common in Asian people but quite rare in Caucasians. It doesnt affect my vision or anything like that.

Those affected by nevus of Ota are clinically described as having,increased amounts of melanin (pigment) and melanin-producing cells (melanocytes) in and around their eyes, according to the New York Eye Cancer Center.

Those with the condition are at a greater risk of developing an eye cancer and it affects more women than men. However, the birthmark doesnt seem to affect Ruahs eyesight.

The short answer is no. Ruah was born in America but moved to Portugal when she was five. She landed her first acting role at 16 and moved to London, England at 18 where she attended the Performing Arts at the London Metropolitan University. She graduated with honors, according to IMDb.

By 2007 two years shy of becoming a part of the NCIS franchise Ruah made the move to New York City where she studied at the Lee StrasbergTheatre and Film Institute.

From there, the roles came along. From Guiding Light to Red Tails, Ruah is one of the only actors to appear as the same character in two different NCIS iterations and also in Hawaii Five-0.

The actress even competed in Portugals 2006-2007 version of Americas Dancing With the Stars. The show is Danca Comigo, and Ruah won proving nevus of Ota cant hold her back.

It starts the conversation, if anything. But I dont think its ever gotten me a job or lost me a job, she said.

However, there have been times adjustments have to be made on set to get the right shot.

When were shooting, sometimes they need to light my eye in a slightly different way, she explained. Otherwise, it looks like theres a big shadow over it.

If you want to stay on Ruahs good side, theres one thing to never, ever do, and its in regards to her distinctive eye. Dont use Photoshop to edit out the dark of her eye.

It drives me crazy. This is my eye, my little trademark, she said, owning who she is with zero apologies. Were here for it.

Read more:
'NCIS: Los Angeles': The 1 Thing Daniela Ruah Wants You to Know About Her Eye Condition - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

When someone asks where you plan on traveling this year, odds are good Guatemala is not on the itinerary. But for nearly three decades, thats exactly what two local doctors have been doing, using their skills to help restore vision to people in need.

Dr. Christopher Wallyn and Dr. Michael Merck are ophthalmologists at Regional Eye Center in Hutchinson. They met while in training together at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Lukes Medical Center in Chicago. Both were married with young families, and both were Catholic, so pairing them together as residents was a natural fit.

Our faith really, they could tell, motivated much of how we looked at our lives, Wallyn said.

It was also the doctors faith that led them to accept an offer that would change their lives. In the early 1990s, the Rev. Greg Schaffer, a priest for the Diocese of New Ulm, invited Wallyn and Merck to visit Guatemala, where Schaffer had worked at the mission parish in San Lucas Toliman since 1963.

He invited us to come and see because both of us had said that we would like to do mission work, Wallyn said. That was one of our goals.

It was the personal invitation of the late Father Greg Schaffer that led to my commitment to begin the work of bringing surgical eye care to the area, Merck said about the two doctors first trip to Guatemala. He so generously offered to host me and my family. And he extended the kind of hospitality that made it impossible for us to refuse to make that initial trip.

On their first visit, Wallyn and Merck quickly realized how difficult the living situation was for the people of Guatemala. Most families lived in one-room homes with dirt floors and tin roofs. Malnutrition is also a serious threat for young children. With so many concerns, eye care was often neglected.

People went blind and that was part of life, Wallyn said.

But while life is tough in Guatemala, Wallyn and Merck were inspired by the culture and reverence for elderly people. Grandparents are an important part of a family and often live together with multiple generations. And while the older generations want to contribute to the family with tasks such as collecting fire wood, cooking and cleaning, they cant do that if they cant see.

Coming from North America, coming from this country that has so much, learning what people lived under and trying to help where we could, which was really trying to help people with their eyes, from that point we decided that we were gonna try to address the needs of the people in this area, Wallyn said.

From then on, Wallyn and Merck became regulars in Guatemala. Their trips started in 1992 and usually last 7-10 days. On average the doctors said they see about 120 patients per day, many often with cases of neglected cataracts requiring surgery.

Some we can help by just giving them explanations, Wallyn said, some people by just giving them eye drops, some people by giving them the opportunity to have surgery.

Now almost 30 years later, the doctors continue their trips, sometimes as many as two to three times per year. In 2000, the doctors established a nonprofit organization to help their mission called The Foundation For Saving Sight.

While the need for eye care remains, the conditions have somewhat improved. The doctors now have a full operating room with equipment that allows them to complete cataract and glaucoma surgery. Theyve also earned the trust of the locals.

We've gone from people being very superstitious about eye surgery and superstitious about what we're all about to trusting us and understanding who we are and what we are there to do, Wallyn said.

Their work has also attracted other eye care groups from St. Louis, Texas and Seattle that help with the mission.

Here we are trying to address mature cataracts with modern-day surgery, Wallyn said. The end result is, a person goes from blindness to being able to see, which is dramatic, life changing.

Just as dramatic as restoring a persons vision, however, is giving patients the knowledge and understanding of an issue with which theyve had to live.

I've found it can be equally moving to be able help a patient who is plagued with the uncertainty and lack of understanding they have of their disabling eye condition, Merck said. to be able to answer for them the haunting questions that they and their loved ones have lived with for too long, not knowing whether they are neglecting or have neglected a treatable problem or not, and then witness their gracious acceptance of their difficult circumstances when they learn it is permanent and untreatable.

On Thursday, Wallyn departs for his latest trip to Guatemala and is scheduled to return Feb. 16. Mercks next trip is scheduled for the fall.

While the two plan to continue their mission, theyve inspired others to join them. Mercks son, Joseph, started attending the trips with his father as a child. He is also a certified ophthalmologist now and helps perform surgeries and other procedures. Merck's three daughters, all nurses, also accompany the group to Guatemala and assist with the work.

Katie Wallyn also started her own project called LEAST, which stands for Loving the Elderly and Satisfying His Thirst and helps feed elderly people in San Lucas.

There are also plans to develop a mentorship program with the University of Minnesota to bring residents in training along to Guatemala so they may experience life on a mission trip.

If others are looking to donate either through money or service, they can visit through foundation.regeycenter.com for more information about the organization.

It's wonderful to have people able to participate and be part of that process, Wallyn said, because we couldn't do it just by ourselves.

Its been 28 years since their first trip, and although the Rev. Greg Schaffer is gone he died in 2012 his work and love for Guatemala live on in Wallyn and Merck, and continues to spread down to new generations of missionaries.

Part of my life, and Dr. Merck's the same way, is for us to never just consider that working in a medical practice in central Minnesota would be a sufficient answer to the gifts that we were given, Wallyn said, that there would be more to it than that.

Read this article:
Two Hutchinson doctors are on a mission to save sight and change lives in Guatemala - Crow River Media

A Polish man, who was blind for over two decades, isreportedly able to see again after he was hit by a car.

Local media said that Janusz Goraj from Gorzw Wielkopolskiin Poland was able to see properly two weeks after being involved in anaccident.

Janusz suffered from an allergic reaction that damaged theretina in his right eye. His left eye could only register shapes and light.

During an interview with Polsat News, Janusz said that hissight has been perfect after he was hit by a car while crossing the road in2018.

I fell on the car bonnet, hit my head and then I slippedand fell on the road, Janusz said.

Following the accident Janusz was taken to the IndependentPublic Provincial Hospital for hip surgery.

At a certain age such fractures dont heal so quickly, sohe had to be hospitalised, hospital spokesperson Agnieszka Wisniewska said.

At that time, doctors werent concerned about his visionbecause of his injuries.

Within two weeks his injuries had mostly mended with theadded bonus of his eyesight miraculously returning.

Janusz vision has been restored to such an extent that hedoesnt even need to wear his old glasses anymore.

Doctors were stunned by the incident, but they can now onlyspeculate as to what the reason behind his recovery is as Janusz declined totake part in further tests.

We dont quite know what caused it. Maybe it was the mixof drugs he was getting during that time, Wisniewska said.

One theory is that the large doses of anticoagulants (medicinethat helps prevent blood clots) mixed with his other medicine couldve helpedwith the patients unexpected eyesight return.

Incredibly Janusz is now able to live an independent lifeagain. He even got a job as a security guard at the same hospital where hissight came back.

We dont know if he specifically asked for the job or ifits just a coincidence, but he is working here with us, Wisniewska confirmed.

Source: Magazine Features

Read more here:
Blind man's sight restored after being hit by car - News24

The first step to protecting your eyes is by paying attention to your diet. Those issues you're having with your eyes might be because of the nutrients that are missing in your diet. This article will show you the foods that would help you improve your eyesight.

It's no news that age, genetics and your electronic gadget has a way of affecting your eyesight. This is why you need to eat right especially if your eye defect is genetic. You don't have to worry about breaking the bank to keep up with this diet.

The foods can be found in the market. Below are the foods that would help protect and maintain your eyesight.

Fatty fish like salmon, sardines, and tuna contain nutrients that can help protect and maintain your eyesight. These fishes are rich in omega-3-fatty acid prevents macular degeneration, dry eyes, and cataracts. One of the ways you can enjoy this fish is by grilling it. You can avoid frying them so as not to reduce their nutritional value.

The benefits of consuming green leafy vegetables can never be overemphasized. Leafy green vegetables like spinach, kale, broccoli contain nutrients that delay the development of cataract and macular degeneration. These vegetables are also a great source of vitamin A which is healthy for the eyesight.

Britannica

For you to maintain your eyesight, you need some carotenoid in your body and carrot is the right food to get you that. It's loaded with beta-carotene which is antioxidant that's also a precursor for vitamin A, which strengthens the eyes. Your night vision will improve if you add carrots to your diet.

The Picture Pantry

The vitamins and nutrients present in egg protect the eyes against night blindness. The best way to get all the nutrients is by boiling it rather than frying.

ALSO READ: Stay healthy by having these nutritious foods for breakfast

This pepper is quite common in the market. Red bell pepper is a good source of vitamin A, C and other nutrients needed to maintain good eyesight. The nutrients keep your retina in good health as well as protecting your eyes from macular degeneration.

Read this article:
5 foods that will help you protect and improve your eyes - Pulse Nigeria

The 80 year old was operated on by Sir Harold Ridley in 1956 when he was 16.

Jeffrey, a retired electrical engineer, said: Initially I was told by my local hospital that Id never be able to see with my right eye but my mum refused to accept that. We were eventually referred to Sir Harold Ridley at St Thomas Hospital. What he was doing wasnt widely known about then but he said he could help me.

By then the lens in my eye had gone opaque and my vision had started to get worse. Once my lens had been removed and the new one was inserted my vision was brilliant and it stayed that way for 30 years.

Jeffrey had accidentally pierced his right eye while playing darts. As a result he developed cataracts, a clouding of the lens in the eye which leads to a decrease in vision.

And as part of the 70th anniversary of the first successful lens implant operation - which was developed by Sir Harold, Jeffrey wanted to publicly thank the ophthalmologist, whose breakthrough has saved the sight of millions worldwide.

Sir Harold was a pioneer now so many people have the operation each day thanks to what he discovered.

He was a brilliant surgeon. I would have completely lost my vision in my right eye without him. It was great my mum pushed for treatment because my life could have been very different without vision in one eye."

It was only by 1986, that Jeffreys artificial lens had started to rub against his cornea so it was removed at St Thomas and he was given contact lenses and a corneal graft. He said: The team was amazed that the lens Sir Harold Ridley put in was still there. Ive done very well with my sight for so long."

Sir Harold made his medical breakthrough after treating a Spitfire pilot who had Perspex in his eye. He noticed that, unlike most foreign bodies, the eye did not reject Perspex. He used this discovery to create an artificial lens made of Perspex to replace those in eyes which became clouded by cataracts.

Previously people with cataracts had the cloudy lens of the eye surgically removed and then needed to wear powerful thick glasses. At the time Sir Harolds invention was a radical concept, which was initially resisted by much of the medical profession. By the 1980s it had become a routine procedure but involved a 1cm incision, stitches and a two-week recovery.

Today it is the most common eye operation in the world. It has evolved and now only requires an incision of just 2mm to insert a lens which unfolds within the eye, no stitches and a same-day discharge. Some patients may even have no need to wear glasses afterwards.

Excerpt from:
Milton Keynes grandfather thanks the pioneer who saved his sight in medical first - Milton Keynes Citizen

In what must be the most unusual media buy of Super Bowl LIV, Zenni, an online eyewear retailer, is airing spots only in Fox affiliate markets that have some tie-in to eyesight.

Zennis first Super Bowl commercial, featuring George Kittle, a tight end on the San Francisco 49ers, will appear in GlenVIEW, Ill., Mountain VIEW, Calif., ChEYEnne, Wyo., TallahasSEE, Fla, Jackson and Memphis TennesSEE and so forth.

"We wanted to get as creative as we could while finding the appropriate level of investment but with some level of scale," explained Sean Pate, Zennis brand communication officer. "We thought the vision centric markets made for a nice pun, while we primarily focus on the Bay Area and Chicago markets."

Pate estimated a media buy of less than $1 million.

Zenni, based in Novato, Calif., is the official eyewear of the San Francisco 49ers and the Chicago Bulls.

"While the 49ers are our hometown football team, we dont have any corporate connections to Chicago, however, both franchises are legacies of their sports and carry many millions of devoted fans not only in market, but across the country and internationally," said Pate. "As an e-commerce business with no retail in either location, the partnership with both teams gives us significance across the country."

The 30-second Kittle spot, created in conjunction with Beasley Media Group, Naples, Fla., and Scheme Engine, Los Angeles, features the stylish player in a range of Zenni eyewear. The spot shows him on the field, walking into the stadium and reviewing plays on an iPadSuper Bowl spot.

In a voiceover monologue, Kittle says: "Vision is critical to an athletes performance and protecting it is just as important as correcting it."

Zenni Optical, founded in 2003, is a pioneer in the online prescription eyewear niche, disrupting the category with eyewear averaging $40 a pair. Rashida Jones is another endorser who will appear in outdoor and print ads for Zenni through 2020.

"Youll see additional sports marketing investments and likely more celebrity engagement and other collaborations," said Pate. "We are in a major brand building and education mode right now."

More here:
The 'eyes' have it for Zenni Optical's first Super Bowl spot - Campaign US

UPMChas implanted the first patient in the United States with a new wireless retinal device as part of a clinical trial aimed atrestoring partial sightto patients with advanced age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a disease that leads to permanent blindness.

Vision research has advanced dramatically in the recent past and UPMC is at the forefront of this revolution. This is the first of many such breakthroughs led by UPMC and Pitt that will benefit patients with vision loss in our community and around the world, saidJos-Alain Sahel, director of theUPMC Eye Center, Eye and Ear Foundation chair of ophthalmology and distinguished professor at theUniversity of Pittsburgh School of Medicinewho initiated the trial at UPMC. We are proud to be the first center in the United States to test this next generation retinal implant that could help treat an incurable disease like AMD.

The system, called PRIMA, is designed to restore sight in patients blinded by retinal degeneration. It consists of a two-millimeter-by-two-millimeter, 30-micron thick miniaturized wireless photovoltaic chip, placed under the damaged retina and works in tandem with augmented reality glasses that have a built-in miniaturized camera and infrared projector.

The chip acts like a tiny artificial retina, made up of 378 tiny electrodes that convert infrared light from the glasses to electrical signals that are carried by the optic nerve to the brain. After receiving the implant, patients undergo an intensive rehabilitation program that trains their brains to understand and interpret the signals from the implant in combination with their remaining natural vision. Compared to earlier-generation implants, PRIMA is wireless and has significantly more electrodes, which allows for the transmission of more visual information.

This is an incredibly exciting first for us at UPMC and Im honored to be a part of it, saidJoseph Martel,the implanting surgeon at the UPMC Eye Center and the Pitt School of Medicine, and the principal investigator of the trial at UPMC. Im grateful to our patients who have volunteered to participate in this trial, without whom this would not be possible.AMD is the leading cause of vision loss in people older than 50. Today, it affects approximately 14 million people in the United States, and the prevalence is expected to rise as the baby boomers age. As AMD progresses, the center of vision becomes increasingly blurry. Atrophic AMD, which accounts for a large proportion of advanced cases, has no curative treatment available.

The UPMC feasibility trial is running in parallel with the first-in-human trial in France, which involves five patients with advanced AMD, who now have been followed for more than a year. The 12-month results from the French study demonstrated the ability of most patients to identify sequences of letters and there were nodevice-related serious adverse effects.

We are working with a great sense of urgency because the aging population of the United States, especially the western Pennsylvania region we live in, will see a significant rise in the number of patients at risk for vision loss through diseases like age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma and vascular eye disease, as well as earlier onset genetic conditions such as retinitis pigmentosa, said Sahel. This is why our physicians and researchers at UPMC and Pitt, in collaboration with our U.S. and international colleaguesespecially at the Paris Vision Institute at Sorbonne Universityare taking a multi-pronged effort to treat and rehabilitate patients with vision impairments.

In March 2019, UPMC broke ground on theUPMC Vision and Rehabilitation Tower at UPMC Mercy, which when completed, will provide advanced specialty clinical care and innovative programs for visually impaired patients. It also will be the home for the vision research program at Pitt and UPMC.

The PRIMA implant was invented by Daniel Palanker,professor of ophthalmology atStanford University, and licensed and developed byPixium Vision, a spin-off from the Paris Vision Institute. Sahel is a co-founder of Pixium and holds shares in the company.

More here:
First in the U.S. Wireless Retinal Device for Advanced Age-related Macular... - ScienceBlog.com

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Forecast information will drive strategic,innovative and profitable business plans and SWOT analysis of players will pavethe way for growth opportunities, risk analysis, investment feasibility andrecommendations

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GetEnquiry About This Comprehensive Report @: https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/inquire-before-buying/?dbmr=global-bone-marrow-market&SR

StrategicPoints Covered in Table of Content of Bone Marrow Market:

Chapter 1:Introduction,market driving force product Objective of Study and Research Scope the BoneMarrow market

Chapter 2:ExclusiveSummary the basic information of the Bone Marrow Market.

Chapter 3:Displayingthe Market Dynamics- Drivers, Trends and Challenges of the Bone Marrow market

Chapter 4:Presentingthe Bone Marrow Market Factor Analysis Porters Five Forces, Supply/Value Chain,PESTEL analysis, Market Entropy, Patent/Trademark Analysis.

Chapter 5:Displayingthe by Type, End User and Region 2013-2019

Chapter 6:Evaluatingthe leading manufacturers of the Bone Marrow market which consists of itsCompetitive Landscape, Peer Group Analysis, BCG Matrix & Company Profile

Chapter 7:Toevaluate the Bone Marrow market by segments, by countries and by manufacturerswith revenue share and sales by key countries in these various regions.

Chapter 8 & 9:Displayingthe Appendix, Methodology and Data Source finally, Bone Marrow Market is a valuablesource of guidance for individuals and companies.

Table of Contents Continuous.

*If you have anyspecial requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report asyou want. Thanksfor reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section orregion wise report version like North America, Europe, MEA or Asia Pacific.

Data Bridge set forth itself as an unconventional and neotericMarket research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience andintegrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best marketopportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive inthe market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to thecomplex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-makingprocess.

Data Bridge is an aftermath of sheer wisdom and experience whichwas formulated and framed in the year 2015 in Pune. We ponder into theheterogeneous markets in accord with our clients needs and scoop out the bestpossible solutions and detailed information about the market trends. DataBridge delve into the markets across Asia, North America, South America, Africato name few.

Data Bridge adepts in creating satisfied clients who reckon uponour services and rely on our hard work with certitude. We are content with ourglorious 99.9 % client satisfying rate.

Contact:

Data Bridge Market Research

US: +1 888 387 2818

UK: +44 208 089 1725

Hong Kong: +852 8192 7475

Email:[emailprotected]

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Bone Marrow Market Analysis, Growth by Top Companies, Trends by Types and Application, Forecast Analysis to 2026 - Jewish Life News

The Global Bone Marrow Market study with 100+ market data Tables, Pie Chat, Graphs & Figures is now released by Data Bridge Market Research. Market definition covered in this business report studies the market drivers and market restraints with which businesses can get idea of whether to increase or decrease the production of a particular product. With the studies, insights and analysis mentioned in the report, get comprehensible idea about the marketplace with which business decisions can be made quickly and easily. The research and analysis conducted in this report helps clients to predict investment in an emerging market, expansion of market share or success of a new product with the help of Global market research analysismarket size and share of Major Players like Abbott; QIAGEN; Diazyme Laboratories, Inc.; Sanofi; CSL; STEMCELL Technologies Inc.; Lonza; HemaCare; PromoCell GmbH; Mesoblast Ltd; Lifeline Cell Technology, an International Stem Cell Company; Cellular Dynamics International, Inc.; ReachBio LLC; ATCC; Merck KGaA; Discovery Life Sciences; AllCells; ReeLabs Pvt. Ltd. and Gamida Cell.

Global bone marrow market is expected to register a substantial CAGR of 6.05% in the forecast period of 2019-2026. The report contains data from the base year of 2018 and the historic year of 2017. This rise in market value can be attributed to the rising levels of success rates with these procedures which are expected to result in higher adoption rates along with the rising levels of commercialization by the various research companies regarding their products & services.

Avail 20% Discount on Buying This Report:Get a Free Sample Copy of the Report @ (Use Corporate email ID to Get Higher Priority) @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=global-bone-marrow-market&SR

Unlock new opportunities in Bone Marrow Market; the latest release from Data Bridge Market Research highlights the key market trends significant to the growth prospects, Let us know if any specific players or list of players needs to consider gaining better insights.

The study given in this section offers details of key market players. It likewise clarifies the marketing strategies adopted by these players as well as portrays their shareholdings in the global market.

How will the report help new companies to plan their investments in the market?

The market research report classifies the competitive spectrum of this industry in elaborate detail. The study claims that the competitive reach spans the companies

The report also mentions about the details such as the overall remuneration, product sales figures, pricing trends, gross margins, etc.

Information about the sales & distribution area alongside the details of the company, such as company overview, buyer portfolio, product specifications, etc., are provided in the study.

Market Drivers

Market Restraints

And More..Get Detailed TOC @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/toc/?dbmr=global-bone-marrow-market&SR

Why Is Data TriangulationImportantIn Qualitative Research?

This involves data mining, analysis of the impact of data variables on the market, and primary (industry expert) validation. Apart from this, other data models include Vendor Positioning Grid, Market Time Line Analysis, Market Overview and Guide, Company Positioning Grid, Company Market Share Analysis, Standards of Measurement, Top to Bottom Analysis and Vendor Share Analysis. Triangulation is one method used while reviewing, synthesizing and interpreting field data. Data triangulation has been advocated as a methodological technique not only to enhance the validity of the research findings but also to achieve completeness and confirmation of data using multiple methods

Key Insights that Study is going to provide:

The 360-degree overview based on a global and regional level

Market Share & Sales Revenue by Key Players & Emerging Regional Players

Competitors In this section, various industry leading players are studied with respect to their company profile, product portfolio, capacity, price, cost, and revenue.

A separate chapter on Market Entropy to gain insights on Leaders aggressiveness towards market [Merger & Acquisition / Recent Investment and Key Developments]

Patent Analysis** No of patents / Trademark filed in recent years.

A complete and useful guide for new market aspirants

Forecast information will drive strategic, innovative and profitable business plans and SWOT analysis of players will pave the way for growth opportunities, risk analysis, investment feasibility and recommendations

This study will address some of the most critical questions which are listed below:

Get Enquiry About This Comprehensive Report @: https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/inquire-before-buying/?dbmr=global-bone-marrow-market&SR

Strategic Points Covered in Table of Content of Bone Marrow Market:

Chapter 1:Introduction, market driving force product Objective of Study and Research Scope the Bone Marrow market

Chapter 2:Exclusive Summary the basic information of the Bone Marrow Market.

Chapter 3:Displaying the Market Dynamics- Drivers, Trends and Challenges of the Bone Marrow market

Chapter 4:Presenting the Bone Marrow Market Factor Analysis Porters Five Forces, Supply/Value Chain, PESTEL analysis, Market Entropy, Patent/Trademark Analysis.

Chapter 5:Displaying the by Type, End User and Region 2013-2019

Chapter 6:Evaluating the leading manufacturers of the Bone Marrow market which consists of its Competitive Landscape, Peer Group Analysis, BCG Matrix & Company Profile

Chapter 7:To evaluate the Bone Marrow market by segments, by countries and by manufacturers with revenue share and sales by key countries in these various regions.

Chapter 8 & 9:Displaying the Appendix, Methodology and Data Source finally, Bone Marrow Market is a valuable source of guidance for individuals and companies.

Table of Contents Continuous.

*If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want. Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe, MEA or Asia Pacific.

Data Bridge set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.

Data Bridge is an aftermath of sheer wisdom and experience which was formulated and framed in the year 2015 in Pune. We ponder into the heterogeneous markets in accord with our clients needs and scoop out the best possible solutions and detailed information about the market trends. Data Bridge delve into the markets across Asia, North America, South America, Africa to name few.

Data Bridge adepts in creating satisfied clients who reckon upon our services and rely on our hard work with certitude. We are content with our glorious 99.9 % client satisfying rate.

Contact:

Data Bridge Market Research

US: +1 888 387 2818

UK: +44 208 089 1725

Hong Kong: +852 8192 7475

Email:[emailprotected]

Tags: Bone Marrow MarketBone Marrow Market ApplicationsBone Marrow Market GrowthBone Marrow Market InsightsBone Marrow Market OutlookBone Marrow Market OverviewBone Marrow Market SizeBone Marrow Market TrendsBone Marrow Market AnalysisBone Marrow Market Types

Originally posted here:
Bone Marrow Market Growth Analysis, Share, Demand by Regions, Types and Analysis of Key Players- Research Forecasts to 2026 - TechNews.mobi

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. (February 4, 2020)Researchers led by biologists at Tufts University have discovered that the brains of developing embryos provide signals to a nascent immune system that help it ward off infections and significantly improve the embryos ability to survive a bacterial challenge. Using frog embryos, which continue to develop with their brains removed, the researchers found that embryos without a brain are not able to marshall the forces of immune cells to an injury or infection site, leading the embryo to succumb to an infection more quickly. By contrast, the presence of a brain crucially helps direct immune cells to the site of injury to overcome the bacterial threat. The study was published today in NPJ Regenerative Medicine.

In a developing embryo, both brain and immune system are not fully formed. The immune system, for its part, consists mostly of an innate system of cells that respond immediately to infection and do not require training or produce antibodies. Nevertheless, these cells require signals that prompt them to move toward an infection site and trigger a response.

The research team found that the brain appears to contribute to the signals that guide the nascent immune system. When brainless frog embryos were infected with E. coli, only about 16% of embryos survived, while the presence of a brain protected more than 50% from the infection. By following markers of immune cells, researchers confirmed that the effect is not due to the missing brain somehow hampering immune system development because the composition of the immune cells remained the same with or without a brain. Instead, they found that the effect was due to the brain sending signals to the immune cells to move toward the site of an infection.

We found that macrophages innate immune system cells that can swallow up bacteria and destroy them to reduce the burden of an infection do not migrate appropriately without the presence of the brain said Michael Levin, Vannevar Bush Professor of Biology at Tufts Universitys School or Arts and Sciences and Associate Faculty at Harvards Wyss Institute, director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts and corresponding author of the study. Without the brain and its neurotransmitter signals, gene expression and innate immune system activity go awry, resulting in increased susceptibility to bacterial pathogens.

Other roles for the embryonic brain signaling during infection may include inducing cellular responses, for example preventing cell death or reducing inflammation, that help protect against the harmful effects of the infection.

Immune system abberations were also observed in brainless embryos that were further developed. When the researchers tracked myeloid cells, a class of immune cells that includes macrophages, neutrophils and others, after an injury, they found that the myeloid cells in brainless embryos gathered in locations far from the injury site. By contrast, myeloid cells in normal embryos with intact brains would pile up at the injury site to assist in healing. In fact, in the brainless embryo, the myeloid cells tended to cluster around abnormal, disorganized peripheral nerve networks, also a by-product of brain absence, as demonstrated in earlier studies.

An examination of aberrations in genetic expression in brainless embryos also pointed to the reduction of the neurotransmitter dopamine (a signaling chemical used in the brain for learning and motivation), and that dopamine may play a role in activating immune cells to migrate in the early stages of an infection. The absence of an immune cell quorum at the infection site leads the brainless embryos to become more susectible to its lethal effects.

Our results demonstrate the deep interconnections within the bacteria-brain-body axis: the early brain is able to sense the pathogenic bacteria and to elaborate a response targeted to fight against the cellular and molecular consequences of the infection, said Celia Herrera Rincon, Research Scientist II at the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts, and first author of the study.

Other authors of this study include: Jean-Francois Par, Christina Harrison, Alina Fischer, and Sophia Jannetty at the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts; Christopher Martyniuk, associate professor in the Department of Physiological Sciences at University of Florida; and Alexandre Dinis and Vishal Keshari, graduate students, and Richard Novak, senior staff engineer at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard Universiy.

This research was supported by the Templeton World Charity Foundation Independent Research Fellowship (TWCF0241) and the Allen Discovery Center program through The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group (12171), as well as The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency(DARPA, W911NF-16-C-0050), and the National Institutes of Health (AR055993, AR061988). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Herrera-Rincon, C., Par, J-F, Martyniuk, C.J., Jannetty, S.K., Harrison, C., Fischer, A., Dinis, A., Keshari, V., Novak, R., and Levin, M. An in vivo brainbacteria interface:

the developing brain as a key regulator of innate immunity. NPJ Regenerative Medicine (31 Jan 2020) DOI: 10.1038/s41536-020-0087-2

###

About Tufts University

Tufts University, located on campuses in Boston, Medford/Somerville and Grafton, Massachusetts, and in Talloires, France, is recognized among the premier research universities in the United States. Tufts enjoys a global reputation for academic excellence and for the preparation of students as leaders in a wide range of professions. A growing number of innovative teaching and research initiatives span all Tufts campuses, and collaboration among the faculty and students in the undergraduate, graduate and professional programs across the university's schools is widely encouraged.

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Brain links to embryonic immunity, guiding response of the troops that battle infections - Tufts Now

How hard the flu hits us has a lot to do with our first experience of the disease, a new paper reports.

Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Arizona may finally have an explanation as to why different people seem to have such different reactions to the flu. And, to a large extent, they report, it has to do with your childhood.

Our immune system often struggles to recognize and defend against closely related strains of seasonal flu, even though these are essentially the genetic sisters and brothers of strains that circulated just a few years ago, said lead author Katelyn Gostic, currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago.

This is perplexing because our research on bird flu shows that deep in our immune memory, we have some ability to recognize and defend against the distantly related, genetic third cousins of the strains we saw as children.

An individuals ability to fight off the flu is related to the number of different flu strains they contracted during their lifetime and the order in which they did so. Prior exposure to a pathogen, be it in the wild or controlled (in a vaccine) is known as immunological imprinting.

For the study, the team set out to determine whether immunological imprinting could explain differences in how people respond to the flu. They used health records from the rizona Department of Health Services to track how different varieties of the virus affect people at various ages, focusing on the H3N2 and H1N1 strains. These strains were selected as both have led to seasonal outbreaks over the past few decades, so there was enough data on them to work from.

In very broad lines, H3N2 is more closely associated with severe flu cases in elderly people and causes the majority of flu-related deaths. H1N1 seems more partial to children and young adults and is far less deadly.

The data showed that people who were first exposed to H1N1 during childhood were less likely to require hospitalization if they re-encountered the strain later on in life compared to those who were first infected with H3N2. Similarly, this latter group would be more resistant to subsequent reinfections of H3N2.

The team looked at the evolutionary relationship between the two strains and report that they belong to two different branches of the influenza family. Further research revealed that while infection with any of the strains does somewhat boost resistance against any other, the best effects are seen with strains from the same family that an individual has battled before. Furthermore, your first exposure seems to grant you extra protection against related strains in the future: people who had their first run-in with flu as children in 1955 (N1H1 strain) were significantly more likely to be hospitalized with an H3N2 infection than an H1N1 infection when both strains were circulating.

However, the team also found that people whose first childhood exposure was to H2N2 did not have better protection when they later encountered H1N1 (although the two strains are closely related). They are still unsure as to why this is.

We hope that by studying differences in immunity against bird flus where our immune system shows a natural ability to deploy broadly effective protection and against seasonal flus where our immune system seems to have bigger blind spots we can uncover clues useful to universal influenza vaccine development.

The paper Childhood immune imprinting to influenza A shapes birth year-specific risk during seasonal H1N1 and H3N2 epidemics has been published in the journal PLOS Pathogens.

See original here:
Your resistance to flu is shaped by previous flus, and their type - ZME Science

HOUSTON, Texas Angely Roman Ithier came to Houston from Puerto Rico for cancer treatment.

She's been cooped up for months so when her brother came to visit, she was excited about their road trip to San Antonio.

But a gas station pit stop along the way cast a shadow on the rest of the trip.

It was very hurtful," Angely said.

At first glance, you'd never guess anything is wrong with Angely. But if you take time to know her, you'd learn her backpack is feeding her medication and her pixie cut is a wig.

The only thing that sets her apart is the mask she wears as a precaution because the cancer treatment lowers her immune system.

RELATED: Japan finds 41 more coronavirus cases on cruise ship as death toll rises in China

RELATED: Chinese doctor who raised alarm on coronavirus dies from the illness

They recommend me, anytime I go outside where theres a lot of public, I wear a face mask because I can not get any flu or symptoms," Angely explained.

A couple inside the gas station assumed Angely was wearing the mask because of fear over the coronavirus. She overheard them laughing and making fun of her.

Right at that moment, he passed by and he went 'achew,' and he sneezes and I was like, 'what?' Angely said.

She said the couple pretended to sneeze on her.

Just ignorant that they just think she was trying to avoid the coronavirus, without actually knowing why she was wearing a face mask," Angely's brother Ricardo Roman Ithier said.

"Then I just went to her and I said, 'You know what? You know why I wear a face mask? Because I have cancer,'" Angely said.

And they just left. They didnt want to, like, get into a confrontation so they just like avoided the whole thing," Ricardo said.

Then, the anger turned to pain.

Every day, we struggle with our mind and how we feel and to go outside, and to be exposed to that kind of jokes, it's not funny. Nobody deserves that," Angely said. I felt ashamed of going out because you feel different, and I do all the time."

To me, it really got me frustrated, just seeing her cry," Ricardo said.

Angely said even if she she didn't have cancer and was worried about getting Coronavirus, the jokes and judgment were unkind.

Treat people with respect but also be kind to people. You dont know how that person woke up that morning," Angely said. "You dont know what a person is going through."

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RELATED: Professor: Coronavirus to impact Houston's economy

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Woman mocked for wearing face mask amid fears of coronavirus. She has cancer. - KHOU.com

A panel of Yale experts did their best to explain the current threat and future direction of the novel coronavirus epidemic during a forum Thursday hosted by the Yale School of Public Health. But they frequently cautioned the standing-room-only crowd that there is much about the mysterious illness that simply remains unknown.

Preliminary indications are that the virus is not as contagious as measles, is comparable in many ways to SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome that resulted in 774 deaths worldwide in 2003) and is worse than the flu. But even these assessments could change as new data emerges, said moderator Saad Omer, director of the Yale Institute for Global Health and Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health.

You shouldnt be walking around in a spacesuit on College Street, its reasonable to say that, Omer told the gathering of some 120 students and faculty in Winslow Auditorium. On the other hand, we dont know the future risks of this outbreak.

More than 30,000 people have been sickened since the virus first appeared last December and more than 600 people have died. The respiratory illness has appeared in 28 countries but is most prevalent in China. While patients with the virus have been reported in the United States, there have been no reported infections in Connecticut.

In response to the outbreak, stockpiles of protective masks have sold out in parts of China. Panelist Lisa Sanders, an associate professor at the Yale School of Medicine, said there is no evidence that wearing a face mask offers protection.

The best way to prevent getting the virus, Sanders said, is to adopt the same precautions used for avoiding the flucough into your elbow, avoid people who have an obvious infection, self-quarantine if you have symptoms, and wash your handsthoroughly and often.

If people just washed their hands a little bit more that would go a long way, said Sanders, who is also an Emmy-award winning television producer and writes the Diagnosis column for the New York Times.

Given the similarity of coronavirus to the flu, some have questioned why this particular respiratory illness is raising so much concern. Ellen Foxman, assistant professor at the Yale School of Medicine, explained that it is new to humans.

When our body fights a virus, it activates an immune response to block it and that response can be called on again should the virus return, Foxman said. Without that pre-existing defense, it is easier for a new virus to spread from person to person.

Thats why a new virus is always cause to be alert, to be vigilant, Foxman said. Just because its new doesnt mean its worse than other viruses, but there is that potential and thats why there is reason to be vigilant about it.

With so many uncertainties surrounding the virus, the panelists said it is vital for officials to be clear about what is known and unknown when publicly sharing information. Scientists have been quick to share information about the virus as it becomes available to aid in the international response. But that process can be problematic, particularly when findings are released before vetting.

When you have an emerging outbreak there is uncertainty and we should acknowledge that uncertainty, said Omer. We certainly know a lot more about this outbreak than before, but we owe it to the public to convey what we dont know.

In order to avoid misinformation during an outbreak, Omer said a rapid peer review system needs to be created so that other scientists can quickly evaluate information before it is released publicly. He said universities could play an important role.

One thing that is certain is that the virus was not released from a Chinese laboratory, despite such rumors circulating on social media, said Nathan Grubaugh, an assistant professor at the Yale School of Public Health. Coronavirus most likely originated in bats. While the virus also appears to be mutating over time, that is part of its natural evolution and does not necessarily mean it is becoming more deadly, he said.

Whether this is going to be SARS or the common old, we just cant look at the virus genome and determine that, said Grubaugh. We dont have enough data right now to say how bad it is going to be.

Uncertainties surrounding transmission of the virus have led to drastic action in some areas. It was reported Thursday that a Chinese health official had ordered the city of Wuhan, where the virus first appeared, to place all infected residents in mass quarantine camps.

Yale Nursing Professor David Vlahov, who has a joint appointment in epidemiology and public health, voiced his concern that such quarantines could hinder public health efforts and have a stigmatizing effect, forcing people underground.

Gregg Gonsalves, an assistant professor at the Yale School of Public Health and co-director of Yales Global Health Justice Partnership, said he is particularly concerned about human rights issues as the virus spreads.

When considering quarantines, officials must use the least restrictive measures possible and not overreact, said Gonsalves, an adjunct associate professor at Yale Law School. Gonsalves is part of a legal team that is suing Connecticut for quarantines during the 2014 Ebola outbreak.

Were thinking about risks to the United States, but think about the thousands of Chinese patients with coronavirus whose health status is going to be put into a precarious position if they are isolated into these facilities, said Gonsalves.

Should the virus establish a stronger foothold in the United States, Omer said he hopes the greater Yale community will respond appropriately.

Outbreaks can bring out the best and the worst in people, Omer said. It is extremely important that we treat each other with dignity, respect and compassion.

When asked what the latest scientific estimates were for the virus to peak and eventually end, the panelists said it is simply still too early to tell. Professor Albert Ko, chair of the Yale School of Public Healths Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, said the epidemic is still growing in its exponential phase. Ko said he is concerned about vulnerable populations in countries that dont have significant health care resources.

On a more positive note, Vlahov said the current crisis could be an impetus for more public health funding. But Yale School of Public Health Dean Sten Vermund said funding support for public health is always a challenge.

Its hard to convince policymakers to pay you to do something to prevent something from happening, Vermund said. Its much more intuitive to invest in hospitals to care for the ill, then it is to invest in public health infrastructure to prevent the illness to begin with.

A recording of Thursdays forum can be viewed here.

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Communication, Caution Urged in Response to Coronavirus at YSPH Forum - Yale News