Southeast Asia

Double-Dose Tamiflu No Better Than Standard Dose for Severe Flu.

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A double dose of oseltamivir (Tamiflu) offers no advantage over single-dose therapy among children and adults with severe influenza, according to a BMJ study.

Some 325 patients (three-quarters children) hospitalized with severe flu in Southeast Asia were randomized to either double-dose oseltamivir (150 mg twice daily, or pediatric equivalent) or standard treatment (75 mg twice daily, or equivalent). Detected viruses included various subtypes of seasonal influenza, 2009 pandemic flu, and avian flu.

The proportion of patients with no detectable viral RNA on day 5 did not differ between the groups (roughly 70%). In addition, the groups did not differ with respect to clinical failure or in-hospital mortality. Findings generally were consistent regardless of patient age or flu type.

The authors say their results “do not support routine use” of double-dose therapy in severe flu. Editorialists agree, adding that the results “could help to preserve oseltamivir stocks during a future pandemic.”

Source: BMJ

‘Penis-head’ fish discovered in Vietnam.

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A preserved specimen of Phallostethus cuulong, a new species of fish with a penis on its head that has been identified in the Mekong delta in Vietnam. Researchers said Wednesday that Phallostethus cuulong is the newest member of the Phallostethidae family—small fish found in Southeast Asian waters that are distinguished primarily by the positioning of the male sexual organ. A new species of fish with a penis on its head has been identified in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, researchers said on Wednesday. Ads by Google Pregnancy – Everything you wanted to know what to do during pregnancy. – http://www.StartHealthyStayHealthy.in Phallostethus cuulong is the newest member of the Phallostethidae family—small fish found in Southeast Asian waters that are distinguished primarily by the positioning of the male sexual organ. Male phallostethids have a copulatory organ, termed the priapium, under the throat for holding or clasping onto females and fertilising their eggs internally, according to conservationists. “We have scientifically identified a new penis-head fish in Vietnam,” researcher Tran Dac Dinh from Can Tho University told AFP. The fish was known to Vietnamese people in the Mekong Delta but had not been described scientifically before a team identified the species last year, he said. 

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-08-penis-head-fish-vietnam.html#jCp

Source: Physics.org