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Two years ago, in February 2011, we released NCCAM’s Third Strategic Plan. The plan articulated our Center’s goals and objectives and presented a structure for determining priorities for future research. As we greet this anniversary, I’m pleased to report that we are successfully putting the plan into action.

Fiscal year 2012 (which began October 1, 2011) was the first full funding year in which we had our plan in place. I welcome you to review the list of FY 2012 New and Competing Awards, as they truly represent our efforts to invest in the most promising and impactful research related to our overall goals, objectives, and factors for priority setting.

Looking back, we are pleased to see alignment with our strategic plan. In the future, we will continue to fund rigorous research that will help us to fulfill our mission.

In addition to the 2012 New and Competing Awards, you can search RePORTER for all NCCAM awards, past and present.

A Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot in the head by the Taliban has been discharged from hospital after making a good recovery following surgery.

Malala Yousafzai, 15, was attacked in October after campaigning for girls' rights to education.

A bullet was removed from her head by surgeons in Pakistan, before she was flown to the UK for further treatment.

She had a titanium plate and cochlear implant fitted at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital on Saturday.

The hospital's medical team said it had been "very pleased" with the progress Malala had made after two operations, lasting more than five hours, at the weekend.

Hospital officials said Malala would continue her rehabilitation at her family's temporary home.

They added she would continue to visit the hospital for outpatient appointments.

On Monday, doctors said they did not expect Malala to have to undergo any further surgery.

She was initially discharged from the hospital last month as an outpatient, ahead of her latest operations.

Malala was returning home from school in the north-western Swat district on 9 October when gunmen stopped her bus and shot her in the head and the chest.

She received immediate treatment in Pakistan, where surgeons removed a bullet which entered just above her left eye and ran along her jaw, grazing her brain.

The teenager was then flown to the UK and admitted to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital on 15 October for specialist treatment.

The Taliban said it shot Malala, a campaigner for girls' education, for "promoting secularism".

The shooting sparked domestic and international outrage.

She is now expected to secure permanent residence in the UK after her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, was given a job with the Pakistani consulate in Birmingham for the next three years.

Earlier this week, it was announced a fund, set up in Malala's name, will be used to help provide education for all young people.

The first grant being provided by the Malala Fund will go towards urging families in her home area of the Swat Valley to keep their daughters in education.

Nine female polio vaccinators have been killed in two shootings at health centres in northern Nigeria, police have told the BBC.

In the first attack in Kano the polio vaccinators were shot dead by gunmen who drove up on a motor tricycle.

Thirty minutes later gunmen targeted a clinic outside Kano city as the vaccinators prepared to start work.

Some Nigerian Muslim leaders have previously opposed polio vaccinations, claiming they could cause infertility.

On Thursday, a controversial Islamic cleric spoke out against the polio vaccination campaign, telling people that new cases of polio were caused by contaminated medicine.

Such opposition is a major reason why Nigeria is one of just three countries where polio is still endemic.

But this is believed to be the first time polio vaccinators have been attacked in the country.

Some Kano residents told the BBC's Yusuf Yakasai in the city that other people injured in the first attack had been taken to hospital.

A health official confirmed to the BBC that those killed in the second attack in Hotoro were female health workers - there were earlier reports that people waiting at the clinic may have been among those shot.

Witnesses in Hotoro told the BBC gunmen also approached the health centre using a motor tricycle.

Kano banned motorbikes from carrying passengers after a recent attack on the prominent Muslim leader, the emir of Kano.

Analysts believe the attacks may have been the work of the militant Islamist group Boko Haram but it has not yet commented and no group has said it carried out the attack.

The group - whose name translates as "Western education is forbidden" - says it is fighting to overthrow the government and impose Sharia.

It has been blamed for the deaths of some 1,400 people in central and northern Nigeria since 2010.

According to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, there were 121 cases of polio in Nigeria last year, compared to 58 in Pakistan and 37 in Afghanistan.

In the past month, polio workers have also been targeted and killed in Pakistan, where the Taliban have threatened anti-polio efforts - accusing health workers of working as US spies and alleging that the vaccine makes children sterile.

Measles cases in England and Wales have risen to 2,016 in 2012, the highest annual total for 18 years, says the Health Protection Agency.

The measles cases during 2012 have been associated with prolonged outbreaks in Merseyside, Surrey and Sussex.

There were also several smaller outbreaks in travelling communities.

The HPA said parents should ensure their children are fully protected against the disease with the MMR vaccine.

Dr Mary Ramsay, head of immunisation at the Health Protection Agency, said coverage of the MMR vaccine is now at historically high levels.

"But measles is highly infectious and can spread easily among communities that are poorly vaccinated, and can affect anyone who is susceptible, including toddlers in whom vaccination has been delayed."

The measles virus can spread through droplets in the air that come out of the nose and mouth when an infected person coughs or sneezes.

The initial symptoms include cold-like symptoms, red eyes which are sensitive to light, a fever and greyish white spots in the mouth and throat.

These become a red-brown spotty rash after a few days.

Dr Ramsay said older children who were not vaccinated at the routine age, who were now teenagers, were at particular risk of becoming exposed while at school.

The only way to prevent outbreaks of measles is to ensure children are being vaccinated, Dr Ramsay said.

"Measles is often associated with being a disease of the past and as a result people may be unaware that it is dangerous infection that can lead to death in severe cases.

"Parents should ensure their children are fully protected against measles, mumps and rubella with two doses of the MMR vaccine.

"Parents of unvaccinated children, as well as older teenagers and adults who may have missed MMR vaccination, should make an appointment with their GP to get vaccinated.

Professor Ian Jones, from the University of Reading's School of biological sciences, said that "the current rate of infection, which is inversely related to the level of immunisation in the population, is unacceptably high".

"The numbers have been swollen by very localised pockets of infection (eg. an epidemic in Liverpool) and for most counties rates of immunisation of over 90% are the norm, the highest in 13 years."

He said the MMR vaccine offered lifelong protection from measles, mumps and rubella.

"If the immunisation record is uncertain, for example for travellers, assume it is incomplete and have a booster - you cannot over immunise."

Measles continues to circulate in several European countries, popular with holidaymakers.

The UK along with France, Italy, Spain and Romania accounted for 87% of the total 7,392 measles cases reported throughout the European Union countries up to the end of November 2012.

It may be possible to use a patient's own skin to repair the damage caused by multiple sclerosis (MS), which is currently incurable, say researchers.

Nerves struggle to communicate in MS as their insulating covering is attacked by the immune system - causing fatigue and damaging movement.

Animal tests, described in the journal Cell Stem Cell, have now used modified skin cells to repair the insulation.

Experts said there was an "urgent need" for such therapies.

Just like electrical wires, nerves have insulation - but instead of plastic, the body uses a protein called myelin.

However, diseases that result in damage to the myelin, including MS, leave the nerves exposed and electrical signals struggle to travel round the body.

A team of scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center, in the US, used advances in stem-cell research to attempt to repair the myelin.

They took a sample of human skin cells and converted it into stem cells, which are capable of becoming any other type of cell in the body.

The next step was to transform the stem cells into immature versions of cells in the brain that produce myelin.

When these cells had been injected into mice born without any myelin it had had a significant effect, said researchers.

Dr Steven Goldman told the BBC that "myelin was produced throughout the nervous system" and some mice had achieved "normal life spans".

He said: "In MS the underlying nerves fibres are still there, the objective is to re-myelinate them."

However, MS patients would still have the problem of their immune system attacking their myelin.

Any treatment would need to be used alongside other therapies to tame the immune system - or would need to be repeatedly performed.

Dr Goldman said he could see "no reason to be pessimistic" although further safety tests would be needed and the technique still needed to be refined before being used in people. He expects to begin trials within a couple of years.

Dr Emma Gray, from the MS Society, said: "Myelin repair therapies are urgently needed in MS and we're pleased to see researchers have been able to generate myelin making cells from human stem cells.

"This is still very early stage research, but with more development could one day be used to repair damage to myelin in people with MS. We look forward to seeing more research in this promising area."

Deaths from paracetamol overdoses fell by 43% in England and Wales in the 11 years after the law on pack sizes was changed, according to a study.

But the number of people taking paracetamol overdoses had not declined, says the Oxford University study published in the BMJ.

In 1998, the government restricted pack sizes in the UK to 32 tablets in pharmacies and 16 in other shops.

Researchers say the figures should not lead to "complacency".

Paracetamol overdoses are a common method of suicide and a frequent cause of liver damage.

Previous studies suggested the decision to restrict the size of packs of paracetamol sold over the counter showed initial benefits in both these areas, but there was no data on the long-term impact.

Using figures from the Office for National Statistics, the Oxford researchers looked at deaths involving paracetamol in people aged 10 years and over between 1993 and 2009.

They found there were 765 fewer deaths after the legislation was introduced in 1998 than would have been predicted based on trends dating back to 1993.

This equated to an average of 17 fewer deaths every three months after 1998.

The study also found that patients registered for a liver transplant because of a paracetamol overdose had reduced by 61% following the legislation. This was equivalent to 482 fewer registrations over 11 years.

Prof Keith Hawton, lead researcher from the University of Oxford Centre for Suicide Research, said lives had been saved since the change in the law.

"While some of this effect could have been due to improved hospital management of paracetamol overdoses, we believe that this has in large part been due to the introduction of the legislation.

"We are extremely pleased that this measure has had such benefits, but think that more needs to be done to reduce the toll of deaths from this cause."

Despite the reduction in deaths from paracetamol, the study found there had been no decline in overdose cases after 1998.

The study added that additional measures would be needed to reduce the death toll, such as further lowering the limit on tablets in packs, reducing the paracetamol content of the tablets and enforcing the legislation more effectively.

Catherine Johnstone, chief executive of Samaritans said: "When a person is in suicidal crisis, they will often think of a method that is easily available to them.

"It is during this time, we need to make sure that there are no barriers to seeking help aiming to widen the gap between thought and action in the hope that the crisis period will pass before a suicide attempt is made.

"This is the basic reasoning behind the reduction in the numbers of paracetamol pills sold in a pack and it's encouraging to see that legislation can have an effect on reducing suicides.

"The very act of calling an organisation like Samaritans can be sufficient to get a person through a difficult period and the experience of having another human being listen to your problems, in absolute confidence, can give someone the strength to see other choices."

Ged Flynn - from the suicide prevention charity, Papyrus - said the findings support the point that people are less likely to end their lives, if access to harmful things is made harder.

"An example would be, from our point of view, reducing access to information online, which is dangerous to young, vulnerable people."

Paul Farmer, from mental health charity Mind, said that despite the significant impact of paracetamol packaging, there was a bigger issue at stake. The latest statistics showed an overall increase in the number of people taking their own lives since the start of the recession.

"Now more than ever there is urgent need for support, to prevent people with mental health problems ever reaching crisis point.

"We need to see suicide training for GPs, better access to a range of therapies and, crucially, inadequacies in crisis care services must be addressed. People must be able to get the help they need when they need it the most."

A Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority spokesperson said: "We welcome the findings of the study and the positive changes that resulted from the pack size restrictions implemented in 1998.

"The MHRA continuously monitors the safety of all marketed medicines and takes action as necessary. For paracetamol, this has included updating warnings to ensure they are well understood and improving the way paracetamol is given to children.

"The benefits associated with using paracetamol far outweigh the risk of serious side effects and we will closely review all options to manage the risks and benefits of medicines."

Following today's protest by actor James Cromwell at the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, Eric Sandgren, director of the UW–Madison Research Animal Resource Center released the following statement.

"Today's events are just another attempt by outside activists to draw attention to a cause. They have attacked and distorted this research -- which has very real benefits for people who are deaf -- from every angle imaginable. Exhaustive independent investigation by the USDA, which regulates the use of animals in research, concluded that PETA's allegations are baseless."

For more information about UW-Madison's animal research program, visit http://animalresearch.wisc.edu/.

Recall -- Firm Press Release

FDA posts press releases and other notices of recalls and market withdrawals from the firms involved as a service to consumers, the media, and other interested parties. FDA does not endorse either the product or the company.

UPDATED--Sprouters Northwest Expands Voluntary Recall to All Varieties of Sprouts Products, Wheatgrass, and Pea Shoots Because of Possible Health Risk

Contact
Consumers
Joe Campbell
(253)872-0577
 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - February 6, 2013 - Sprouters Northwest is voluntarily recalling all varieties of sprouts products, wheatgrass and pea shoots due to the potential contamination with Listeria monocytogenes, an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Although healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, listeria infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women. There have been no illnesses reported to date.

All varieties of sprouts products including 3-Bean Munchie, Alfalfa, Bean, Broccoli, Brocco Sandwich sprouts, Clover, Deli, Spicy; Wheatgrass and Pea Shoots that were distributed through 1/30/2013 in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, Canada through retail stores and food service distribution chain.

The affected products are sold under the Sprouters Northwest, LifeForce and Brassica brand names and are packaged in plastic clamshell containers, plastic cups, plastic trays in 3 oz., 4 oz., 5 oz., and in plastic 1 lb. 2lb, or 5lb. bags. The Best by Dates are including all and up to 2/17/2013. Trader Joe's Organic Pea Shoots (SKU 92756), packaged in a 4 oz. clamshell offered only in Oregon and Washington state are also affected. The Best by Dates are through 02/16/13. The Best by Date sticker is located in the top right hand corner, front of the package.

The problem was identified through surveillance finished products samples collected at retail locations and at the firm by the Washington State Department of Agriculture. Sprouters Northwest is working with WSDA and the Food & Drug Administration on this recall.

Consumers who have purchased a specific lot of items mentioned above are urged to return it to the place of purchase for a full refund or dispose of it. Consumers with questions may contact the Sprouters Northwest at 1-253-872-0577 from 7AM to 2PM PST.

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