My eCorner

 GENEVA: The World Health Organisation on Tuesday declared the swine flu pandemic over, more than a year after the new virus spread around the world, sparking panic and killing thousands before fizzling out.

"The world is no longer in phase six of the pandemic alert. We are now moving into the post-pandemic period," WHO Director General Margaret Chan said in a telephone news conference.

"The new H1N1 virus has largely run its course," she added, saying an international public health emergency "no longer applies."

The top phase of the WHO's six tier pandemic alert scale corresponds to a pandemic, or global spread of a disease.

 CAPE COAST: About 21,202 children have tested positive to the HIV/AIDS disease nationwide, the Central Regional Coordinator on HIV/AIDS Mr. Ebenezer Koomson, said on Tuesday.

He painted a dismal picture of the HIV/AIDS situation in the country and described as a "worrying trend" the high rates of deaths of its victims, which was 17, 058 annually.

Mr Koomson expressed these concerns at the second quarter review on HIV/AIDS Control activities in the various districts in the region at Cape Coast.

He said the HIV/AIDS population in the country was 240,802 nationwide of which 219,600 are adults.

He pointed out that epidemiologically, when the prevalence of a chronic disease goes above one per cent it becomes a major problem that needs to be tackled by health personnel, with urgency.

The GHS, particularly, at the district level, should, therefore, collaborate with other stakeholders and health related NGOs to address all health issues in their areas to ensure quality health care delivery, he declared.

Mr. Koomson announced that as part of strategies to deal with the pandemic, his outfit embarked on Sentinel Survey, which provided a primary data for estimation and projection of HIV and AIDS impact on the general population at the regional level.

Other measures were the "Know Your Status Campaign" (KYSC), a strategy to create greater access for the population to access care and treatment if one is infected with the disease.

He advised that pregnant women should not be excluded from KYSC but be involved for them to be linked to care and further treatment if tested positive to prevent mother to child transmission.

He expressed regret that some infected persons were neglected, ex-communicated, shunned or ejected in some communities, noting those practices were still common and pointed out that the discrimination often left victims in a state of insecurity and hopelessness, resulting in their early death.

Mr. Koomson said an HIV positive person with a little care from friends and relatives could live longer and asked Ghanaians to treat relatives and friends with the disease with respect and utmost care.

On the National Health Insurance Scheme, (NHIS) he told the public to disabuse their minds of the notion that it was a positive reinforcement for the records of numerous pregnancies in the various communities.

He noted that this was a challenge for the NHIS to partner the health directorates in their districts to provide quality health care services and evolve means to meet the needs of the public.

Presenting reports on HIV/AIDS in the districts, Abura-Asebu-Kwamankese district health directorate recorded five positive of the 30 people who went in for voluntary counselling and testing during the second quarter of this year.

It said of the 855 expectant mothers screened on the prevention from mother to child (PMTC) services, 16 tested positive adding that, currently 17 people were on treatment while 13 babies are also HIV positive.

In the Assin North district, eight HIV/AIDS deaths were recorded during the first quarter and one in the second quarter of this year.

He mentioned the frequent shortage of Anti-Retroviral Drugs, as s a major challenge in managing the disease at the district level.

The other districts appealed for regular supply of drugs as well as funds to enable them to manage the disease effectively.

 LONDON: It will not make you popular with the neighbours.

But if your hearing is not what it was and you do not always hear your mobile ring, it could be the phone for you.

With a ring tone that can reach 100 decibels, the same as a pneumatic drill, there is no chance that you'll miss it going off - and nor will anyone in your street.

And for the hard of hearing, the earpiece can be set to an even higher volume - 110dB, the equivalent of a South African vuvuzela horn being blown at full blast beside your head.

Designed with large, clear buttons and a lack of complicated features, the makers of the Amplicom M6000 say it is the ideal phone for the elderly or anyone with hearing loss.

While it is compatible with hearing aids, product manager David Youngs, who has hearing difficulties himself, says many people like to be able to make calls without wearing theirs.

'I can make a call and even if I haven't got my hearing aid on I can just push the volume up and hear the conversation perfectly,' he said.

'The ring tone is also extremely loud - put it this way, if it went off in a restaurant on the highest setting, you'd probably get thrown out!'

The phone was designed for those with hearing difficulties, but the simple, uncluttered design is expected to prove popular with anyone who feels the range of often unnecessary functions on modern phones is just too much.

'To those who want simplicity, talk of megapixel cameras, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and music files is extremely off-putting,' added Youngs.

The standard earpiece volume of the M6000 goes up to 30dB, but a 'boost' function enables it to be increased right up to 110dB - louder than a motorbike or the average thunderclap, and almost as noisy as being at a rock concert.

In addition to its ear-splitting volume, the phone features a large, clear keypad and a screen with displays text messages in extra-large type.

And while it has no camera, there are extra functions - including an SOS button on the back which can be set to ring a relative in an emergency.

There is also a motion sensor which can be set to automatically ring 999 or an emergency contact if the user falls over.

The handset, which sells at £119.99 and according to the manufacturers is compatible with all UK operators except the 3 network, could prove a hit with the estimated 4.5million UK pensioners who don't own a mobile.

While there are almost 77 million mobile subscriptions in the UK, more than half of voice calls still originate from landlines rather than mobiles.

But by last year, four in five households had both a mobile phone and a landline phone.
Amplicom are also targeting the 165,000 people registered as being hard of hearing in England. Out of these, 65 per cent are over the age of 75.

 NEW YORK: Low-fat and low-carbohydrate diets can be equally effective at helping obese adults shed weight over the longer term, but cutting carbs may have an advantage when it comes to some heart risk factors, a study published Monday suggests.

Researchers say the findings offer reassurance that low-carb diets -- which tend to be relatively high in fat -- are not a threat to heart health.

Instead, the study found that over two years, people on the low-carb plan had a greater increase in "good" HDL cholesterol than those on the low-fat regimen. They also had a more significant dip in diastolic blood pressure, the bottom number in a blood pressure reading.

Still, that does not mean that everyone hoping to lose weight should go low-carb, according to lead researcher Dr. Gary D. Foster of Temple University in Philadelphia.

Both diets, he said in an interview, helped people shed pounds and improve their risk factors for heart disease. So the bottom line is that individuals should choose the diet changes that they can live with for the long haul, according to Foster.

"With either diet, you're looking pretty good," he said.

The caveat, though, is that everyone in the study adopted their diets as part of an overall program focused on lifestyle change.

They were instructed to start exercising regularly -- mostly brisk walking -- and learned tactics for weight management, such as writing down what they ate every day and setting reasonable short-term goals (if you normally eat 10 candy bars a week, for instance, first try cutting out a couple rather than going cold-turkey.)

And that behavioral shift may be key in helping people keep the weight off in the long run. Foster cautioned against "becoming myopically focused on what you should or shouldn't eat."

The study findings, which appear in the Annals of Internal Medicine, are based on 307 middle-aged obese adults who were randomly assigned to either a low-fat or low-carb diet, plus the lifestyle program.

People in the low-carb group followed an Atkins-style plan, strictly limiting carbohydrates for the first 12 weeks to 20 grams, or about 80 calories' worth of carbs, per day -- with vegetables as the only source. After that phase, they gradually added small amounts of carbs from certain fruits, grains and dairy. They were allowed unlimited amounts of fat and protein.

People in the low-fat group cut their calories to between 1,200 and 1,800 per day, depending on their sex and initial body weight, and aimed to get 55 percent of their calories from carbs, 15 percent from protein and 30 percent from fat.

Over the first year, the whole study group averaged a weight loss of about 22 pounds; after the second year, they'd managed to keep off about 15 pounds, on average. There was no significant difference between the low-fat and low-carb groups, Foster's team found.

In the first six months of the study, the low-fat group had the edge when it came to "bad" LDL cholesterol. On average, their LDL fell by about 10 mg/dL, from a starting point of 124 mg/dL; LDL levels below 100 mg/dL are considered "optimal."

In the low-carb group, LDL initially rose during the first three months -- probably, according to Foster, because of participants' newfound freedom to eat unlimited fat. But by year two, both diet groups had LDL levels that were several points lower than their starting numbers, with no significant difference between the groups.

Similarly, triglycerides (another type of blood fat) and systolic blood pressure (the top number in the reading) declined to a comparable degree in both groups.

When it came to HDL, the average for the low-carb group rose by nearly 8 mg/dL, from a starting point of 46 mg/dL; HDL levels below 40 mg/dL are considered a risk factor for heart disease, and ideally, levels should be at least 60 mg/dL.

HDL levels in the low-fat group rose by almost 5 mg/dL, on average, from a starting point of 45 mg/dL.

The low-carb group also had a modest advantage when it came to diastolic blood pressure, showing a three-point decline at year two, versus a half-point dip in the low-fat group.

Some side effects were more common among low-carb eaters. At the six-month mark, 45 percent reported hair loss, versus 21 percent of the low-fat group. After three months, nearly two-thirds said they had problems with bad breath, compared with 37 percent of the low-fat group.

The only persistent side effect, however, was constipation. After two years, 39 percent of the low-carb group reported constipation, versus 17 percent of the low-fat eaters.

It's not yet clear why the low-carb diet created a greater increase in HDL cholesterol, according to Foster. But the findings suggest that increased fat intake, itself, may be responsible.

However, whether that HDL advantage actually translates into greater heart-health benefits is unclear.

For now, Foster said, the message is that either a low-fat or low-carb diet can work in the longer term. He also noted that people do not necessarily have to join a formal program to learn the behavioral changes that can help them succeed, as the same type of information is available online and in books.