Officials are working to find the source of the ground beef that has caused E. coli infections in 12 people in New Hampshire. The people ate beef at more than one location, making it difficult for federal and state officials to find where the infected meat originated.

Marcella Bobinsky, Acting Director of the Division of Public Health Services, said in a statement: “The Division of Public Health Services is working with our federal partners to investigate the source of the ground beef that is causing people in New Hampshire to become ill. Ground beef is a known source of E. coli and it is important for people to avoid eating under-cooked ground beef, whether at home or at a restaurant.”

New Hampshire residents are not at risk, according to officials, as long as they follow food safety practices. This includes cooking ground beef to a temperature of at least 160 degrees Fahrenheit, and preventing cross-contamination of food preparation areas by thoroughly washing hands, cutting boards, counters and utensils after working with raw meat.

For years the government has been telling people not to eat burgers that are not cooked to well done. The E. coli bacteria is found in the intestines of ruminant animals, such as cows. When those animals are slaughtered for food the intestines often burst, which contaminates the meat with pathogenic bacteria. When the meat is ground to make hamburger the bacteria is spread throughout.

E. coli symptoms include severe abdominal and stomach cramps, bloody or watery diarrhea, and a mile fever. Most people recover within a week, but others can develop the complication hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). Antibiotics can increase the chances of developing HUS, which has symptoms of reduced urine output, easy bruising, lethargy, skin rash, and mouth and nose bleeding.

The very young and the elderly are at particular risk of E. coli complications, which can be life threatening.

The condition may be recognized as a ringing, hissing, clicking or buzzing in the ears when no external sound is present, and for those with chronic tinnitus it can be far more than just annoying, having a major impact on the overall quality of life. Tinnitus affects sleep, thought processing and concentration, and may be accompanied by hearing loss. It may exacerbate mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety disorder.

Dr. Harrison Lin, of the UC Irvine Medical Center, recently conducted a study to determine how common tinnitus is in the U.S. His report, which was published July 22 in JAMA Otoloaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, states that approximately one in 10 adults have the condition. One of the goals of the report was to assess the type of care those who suffer from the condition receive, as well as the impact upon their lives.

Lin and his colleagues reviewed survey data from 2007 that included over 75,000 adults nationwide aged 18 and older. People were asked if they had experienced symptoms of tinnitus within the last 12 months. If they answered yes, they were asked to rate the severity and frequency of the problem, and whether or not they had discussed it with their health care provider.

Out of those who reported tinnitus, 27 percent said they had experienced the problem for more than 15 years. Thirty-six percent of those said their symptoms were nearly constant. Seven percent said it was a big problem. Less than half had discussed the issue with their physician.

The typical treatment for tinnitus is medication, even though the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery Foundation (AAOHNSF) advises against using drugs. Hearing aids are the recommended intervention, but were reportedly discussed only 9 percent of the time. Hearing aids, in addition to helping those who are experiencing hearing loss, can be helpful in combating the phantom noise by masking the annoying sounds. “Actually enriching the sound with extra noise can more or less just drown out the tinnitus,” said Dr. Erika Woodson of the Cleveland Clinic.

Many patients just live with the condition, but Woodson says others could greatly benefit from treatment. She recommends a medical evaluation for people experiencing tinnitus for the first time, especially if it is accompanied by hearing loss, if it is only in one ear, or if it is affecting sleep, mood or quality of life.

Tinnitus is thought to be caused by exposure to loud noises. Those who have served in the armed forces are at particular risk. Woodson said she hopes the study will raise awareness of how common the problem is and what can be done about it.

Two new studies conducted in South Africa, which suffers from an HIV epidemic, showed promise for immediate treatment, but highlighted the difficulties in carrying it out. The two studies actually had differing outcomes, which researchers at the International AIDS Conference said suggests that translating promising clinical results into real-world success is tricky.

One of the trials was randomized, offering immediate treatment. It found improvements in the results of individual patients but no differences in the HIV incidence in the HIV-negative population of the study. The other study, which also looked at immediate vs. deferred therapy, found that a 45 percent reduction in HIV incidence among people in the patient’s households could be achieved with early treatment, compared to those household members for whom therapy was delayed.

The randomized trial used home-based visits to find and test people in 22 rural communities near Durban. Those who tested positive for HIV were either offered immediate care or treatment, depending on which area they lived in. The strategy appeared to be feasible and well-accepted by the population. Even though there were some differences in how quickly people were treated, Francois Dabis, MD, PhD, of the Bordeaux School of Public Health, said that by the start of 2016 there was little difference found between the number of people on care and those with a fully suppressed viral load.

Dabis told MedPage Today that the researchers thought that the outreach would be good, which it was in the aspect that several thousand people learned their HIV status, and that many who were HIV-positive began treatment. However, by the start of 2016 there was little difference between the proportion of people with a fully suppressed viral load and those on care. There was also no significant difference in the rate of new HIV cases in the study population: 2.13 cases per 100 person-years in the treatment arm, 2.27 cases in the control arm.

Dabis said the lack of impact on the incidence of HIV cases suggests that a single approach, although good, is not sufficient. He said that one of the issues is that as much as 25 percent of the residents were not reached, mainly due to the migratory nature of the population.

Anton Pozniak, MD, PhD, of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London, said finding the people to test-and-treat can be very difficult. Often the people who are high-risk transmitters are not reached, so more people continue to be infected.

The second study included household members who had had at least two HIV tests and were HIV-negative when the treatment for the index patient was begun. The primary endpoint of the analysis was how many household members acquired HIV, but the researchers also analyzed the outcomes of the HIV-positive index patients.

The immediate-treatment patients had a 35 percent lower risk of death and a persistently better improvement in their CD4 cell count. In addition, the early treatment was associated with a 45 percent reduction of the risk of a household member acquiring HIV. Guy Harling, PhD, of the Harvard School of Public Health, said this is likely because of the benefit to sexual partners which is seen in clinical trials, during which the suppression of HIV nearly eliminates transmission to HIV-negative persons.

As in Dabis’ study, Harling’s group of researchers was unable to find a sizable portion of official residents in the region. However, both said that an important part of the response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic will be test-and-treat strategies, but acknowledged that other strategies are also needed.

A new study from the University of Toronto has found that women who suffer from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders (ADHD) are much more likely to have a wide variety of mental and physical illness when compared to women without ADHD. Fully one-third have anxiety disorders. Almost half have considered suicide.

According to Esme Fuller-Thomson of the University of Toronto, “The prevalence of mental illness among women with ADHD was disturbingly high with 46 percent having seriously considered suicide, 36 percent having generalized anxiety disorder, 31 percent having major depressive disorder and 39 percent having substance abuse problems at some point in their life.”

Women with ADHD were found to have suicidal thoughts and anxiety disorders more than four times as often as women without the disorder, and twice the amount of substance abuse and major depressive disorders, Fuller-Thomson said.

The study examined 3,908 Canadian women aged 20 to 39. 107 of the women reported that they had been diagnosed with ADHD.. Co-author of the study Danielle A. Lewis said the researchers were surprised at the high levels of physical health problems the women experienced, as well as the mental issues. More than 25 percent said physical pain prohibited at least some of their activities, which was much higher than the 9 percent reported by the participants without ADHD.

Insomnia was also significantly more prevalent in the women with ADHD, 43.9 percent compared to 12.2 percent. Smoking was also higher, 41 percent versus 22 percent.

Fuller-Thomson said that the study unfortunately does not provide information as to why the women with ADHD were so much more vulnerable to physical and mental health issues. “It is possible that some of the mental health problems may be caused by and/or contributing to financial stress,” she said.

ADHD is often thought of as a disorder affecting young boys, with little relevance for women or girls. The study shows that it is important that health care providers be vigilant in monitoring and treating female patients.

A fixed-dose, once-daily HIV drug regimen has significantly out-performed an older treatment in a South African trial limited to women. The open-label ARIA study, which is a combination of abacavir, dolutegravir and lamivudine (Trimeq), showed superior results when compared to the older combination of ritonavir-boosted atazanavir (Reyataz) and tenofovir/emtricitabine (Truvada). The new single-pill, fixed-dose combination also had better tolerability, according to Kimberly Smith, MD, of ViiV Healthcare, which is developing the new regimen.

Smith said that the findings are important because women are “often under-represented in clinical trials of HIV drugs, despite the fact that they bear much of the burden of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.”

The study enrolled 495 “treatment-naive” women from 12 countries. The largest group of participants came from South Africa and the U.S. All were randomly assigned to one of the two treatment regimens. The goal was to determine the number of patients in each group who had a plasma viral load of less than 50 copies per milliliter of HIV RNA after receiving treatment for 48 weeks.

According to Smith, the fixed-dose regimen was statistically superior to those in the atazanavir group, with 82 percent versus 71 percent reaching the primary endpoint. She said two things were responsible for the 10.5 percent difference in the two groups. One reason is that more people in the atazanavir group stopped therapy because of adverse affects. Also, those in the dolutegravir group had fewer virologic failures.

Only 33 percent of patients in the fixed-dose group reported drug-related adverse events, compared with 49 percent in the atazanavir group. Drug-related reactions included diarrhea, nausea, dyspepsia, headache, ocular icterus and jaundice.