Hma-Qubec is working with members of Montreal's black community to increase the number of blood and stem cell donors. Qubc's black community is chronically underrepresented in blood banks and on the bone marrow transplant registry, making treatment more challenging for black patients. "A lot of times people suffer from sickle cell anemia, and there are not enough donors from our ethnicity that give, so I think it's just a good way of helping out other people," said Mitchum Burnett, who gave blood for the fifth time on Friday. He discovered all it takes is a cheek swab to register as a stem cell donor. Yet of more than 39,000 Quebecers registered as stem cell donors, only 89 are black Quebecers. Tamu Townsend got involved in drives like the one held on Friday after her brother Emru was diagnosed with leukemia. He died after a long-sought transplant didn't work. "One thing I realized was drives for blood and for stem cells increase a lot of awareness," Townsend said. "In fact, I'm registered as a stem cell donor because of my brother's illness." Naderge Ceneston, a nurse with Hma-Qubec who is also black, said people in the black community need to be … Continue reading →

BACKGROUND: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and autism are both general terms for a group of complex disorders of brain development. These disorders are characterized, in varying degrees, by difficulties in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication, and repetitive behaviors. They include autistic disorder, Rett syndrome, childhood disintegrative disorder, pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) and Asperger syndrome. (SOURCE: http://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism) CAUSES: Autism is a physical condition linked to abnormal biology and chemistry in the brain. The exact causes of these abnormalities remain unknown, but this is a very active area of research. There are probably a combination of factors that lead to autism. A number of other possible causes have been suspected, but not proven. They involve: (SOURCE: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/) SYMPTOMS: Most parents of autistic children suspect that something is wrong by the time the child is 18 months old and seek help by the time the child is age two. Children with autism typically have difficulties in pretend play and social interaction. A number of children with an ASD do not like cuddling or being touched like other children do. ASD symptoms may vary from moderate to severe; the higher the severity of the autism, the more affected are a person's … Continue reading →

Disability Reform Minister Jenny Macklin: Declared the NDIS will cover "most" people with autism. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen The national disability insurance scheme will cover ''most'' people with autism and could pay the full cost of early intervention programs, Disability Reform Minister Jenny Macklin has declared in the latest clue as to what the $22 billion-a-year scheme will cover. Autism affects about one in 100 children in Australia. Diagnoses of the condition more than doubled in Australia from 2003 to 2009 - 64,000 Australians have autism, latest figures show. There were fears that the condition would be excluded from the scheme, or that the support provided by DisabilityCare Australia would be no greater than the current program, which funds only a fraction of the cost of the most effective therapies. Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has demanded the government clarify whether autism will be included in the scheme, but ministers have only pointed to the legislation passed in March, which set broad parameters. Advertisement But in an interview with Fairfax Media, Ms Macklin confirmed the scheme would support ''most'' people with autism but stressed the agency would work with people to identify their individual needs. ''People are very different, they have very … Continue reading →

WASHINGTON (AP) The government has halted a study testing treatments for a brain condition that can cause strokes after early results suggested invasive therapies were riskier than previously thought. The condition involves a kind of tangle in the brain called an arteriovenous malformation, or AVM. Arteries and veins grow knotted together until eventually some of them burst, causing a bleeding stroke. AVM accounts for a small fraction of hemorrhagic strokes. But increasingly, brain scans can spot these tangles well before they're at risk of bleeding raising the question of what to do for patients, if anything. The study aimed to tell if treating them could prevent a stroke later in life. Early results suggest it may be safer to leave the condition alone, said Columbia University neurologist Dr. Jay Mohr, who helped lead the study. Nearly three years into the research, the rate of strokes and death was more than three times higher among participants who had received surgery, radiation or other invasive treatment than among patients given medication for headaches and other symptoms. Mohr couldn't provide precise numbers but said most of the cases were strokes and there were very few deaths. "From what we can see, our current … Continue reading →