News (Updated October 14, 2007)
[Home] [Previous news]
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-10-10 19:26
BEIJING -- Infectious diseases claimed 741 lives in
China in September with nearly 486,000 cases recorded, including the first
case of bubonic plague this year, the Chinese Ministry of Health said on
Wednesday.
Infectious diseases in China are
classified into three categories by the country's Law on the Prevention and
Treatment of Infectious Diseases.
Last month, 349,630 cases of
A-Class and B-Class infectious diseases occurred, which claimed 735 lives, and
136,229 cases of C-Class infectious diseases occurred, which claimed six
lives.
In September, the top five
infectious diseases, accounting for 87.45 percent of the total cases of A and
B-Class diseases, were tuberculosis, hepatitis B, diarrhea, syphilis and
gonorrhea.
The top five killers were
rabies, tuberculosis, AIDS, hepatitis B and neonatal tetanus, according to the
ministry.
The single case of bubonic
plague occurred in northwest China's Gansu Province in September, the first
plague case reported so far this year.
Plague, a fatal bacterial
disease transmitted by fleas from infected rats, can be contracted through
inhaling airborne particles and through close contact with infected rodents.
The most common form, the
bubonic plague, results in high fever, delirium and swollen lymph nodes.
According to the Law on the Prevention and Treatment of
Infectious Diseases, A-Class infectious diseases include only two diseases,
namely plague and cholera, B-Class infectious diseases include 25 diseases
such as viral hepatitis and C-Class infectious diseases include ten diseases
such as influenza.
BEIJING, Oct. 13 -- Major infectious diseases, major
chronic diseases, maternal and child health, mental health, environmental
health and behavioral health are all focuses of the Chinese Health/Well-being
Strategy till 2020, the Chinese Health Minister Chen Zhu told the fifth
Sino-US Symposium on Medicine in the 21st Century.
The symposium opened in the city yesterday and
Minister Chen said that the success of the strategy would be seen in life
expectancy, infant mortality and maternal mortality and the control of
communicable diseases and chronic non-communicable diseases.
Improved accessibility to health services and the
development of the biomedicine industry were also key factors.
Plans are already in place to adopt the strategy.
Other keys to improving China's health include the prevention and control of
liver diseases, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and schistosomiasis (snail fever),
metabolic syndrome and cancer.
The strategy also highlights mental health with an
accent on the young and the elderly.
According to the China Psychology Association, 30
million adolescents in China are suffering mental health problems. Among those
with mental disorders, up to 32 percent are students from middle school and
primary school, and up to 25.4 percent are college students.
Surveys in places like Shanghai, Shandong and the
Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region show sometimes up to 30 percent of students
have behavioral problems.
The plans goes on to cover unhealthy life styles
which affect more than 70 percent of the populace in Beijing, Shanghai and
Guangzhou.
Chen discussed China's achievements in health care
including its Internet reporting for communicable diseases.
(Source: Shanghai Daily)
(China Daily)
Updated: 2007-08-29 07:11
The demand for sex education grows larger every day, says an article in
Guangzhou Daily. The following is an excerpt:
With Guangzhou preparing to host the fifth sex culture festival in early
December, a recent announcement at a press conference has attracted some
attention: Sexologists will be present on high school campuses to talk with
students during the event.
More than 300 million teenagers have reached puberty in China, and of that
number, 20 million become sexually mature every year. In today's liberalized
social atmosphere, sex has never been a topic that people shy away from.
Children can get information about sex from a variety of sources - TV
programs, advertisements and the Internet - due to the lack of a ratings
system. If we cannot help them distinguish good sex information from bad, some
teenagers may resort to pornographic novels and websites to start their sexual
enlightenment.
At present, teenagers get most of their information about sex from three
sources: school, family and society. However, most schools lack both
professional textbooks about sex and teachers who are specialized in teaching
the subject. Whenever teachers approach the chapter about "sexual
reproduction", most of them choose to pass over it and let students learn
by themselves after class.
The situation for sex education in the sphere of the family is equally
grim. As one survey showed, 71.6 percent of the parents queried said they
never talked to their children about sex under their own initiative. When
children come to their parents with sex questions, 14.5 percent said they
chided their kids; 27.7 percent lied and only 18.6 percent said they provided
patient explanations.
The influence of society at large is even worse. No TV programs about sex
are aimed at teenagers, and few public places offer sex education for kids.
(China Daily 08/29/2007 page10)
MAPUTO, Oct 12 (Reuters) - AIDS has left a generation of pupils in Mozambique
without teachers as the pandemic is killing more than 1,000 teachers each year,
Education Minister Aires Aly said on Friday.
Aly said at least 100 teachers in each of the southern African country's 11
provinces died from HIV/AIDS every year.
This is the first time the government has given details of teacher deaths as
a result of HIV/AIDS. Previously, authorities only gave broad indications of how
the disease affected the civil service.
The Education Ministry estimates that about 19,200 teachers and more than 100
senior education officials will die of AIDS this decade.
"AIDS has left a whole generation of pupils without teachers," the
minister told Reuters.
Rural areas were most affected with one teacher often having to educate more
than 100 pupils in a class, far from the government aim of 35 pupils per class.
About 16 percent of Mozambique's 19 million people are infected with HIV, the
virus that causes AIDS. Each day about 500 people, mostly between 14 and 29 are
infected.
The government, which is presiding over an economic boom, has put in place
HIV-prevention programmes in schools and hospitals and has embarked on a
literacy programme.
But critics say those efforts remain sporadic and confined to the capital
Maputo.
Aly said the disease is the single biggest threat to the development of the
education sector.
"HIV/AIDS is our priority battle, it is the biggest enemy that we have
in the education sector. We are talking of over 100 teachers in each of the 11
provinces who die due to AIDS and this is a huge number given our shortage of
human resources", Aly said.
The government plans to recruit 9,000 additional teachers by 2010 and
establish additional education training programmes.
Aly said HIV/AIDS has caused Mozambique's life-expectancy rate to plunge to
35 -- among the lowest in the world.
by Lydia GeorgiSun Oct 14, 11:21 AM
ET
A New York anti-AIDS
campaigner said on Sunday he plans to make a second attempt to row across
the Atlantic starting on World AIDS Day on December 1 to raise global
awareness about the killer disease.
"I have so far collected close to 10,000 dollars in America" of
the 100,000 dollars needed for the 12,900-kilometre (8,000-mile) voyage from
Senegal's Goree Island to New York, Victor Mooney, 42, said in the United
Arab Emirates.
His first attempt to complete the feat in May 2006 failed when his
hand-made boat sank.
Mooney, executive director of New York-based non-profit organisation
South African Arts International, told AFP one of his brothers died of AIDS
and that another has the HIV virus.
His trip, which is expected to take between six and eight months, is
meant to "raise awareness of AIDS and support the UN Millennium Goals
to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015," Mooney said.
"I'm hoping that the royal family of Abu Dhabi will help out in this
project," he added.
The ocean-going vessel in which Mooney will make his new attempt to row
the Atlantic will be named "Spirit of Zayed" after the late ruler
of oil-rich Abu Dhabi and UAE founding president, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan
al-Nahayan.
The choice was made because of Zayed's "humble nature and humanity,
not only with his countrymen but with people all over the world,"
Mooney said.
Mooney, a devout Roman Catholic, said he had fasted during the just-ended
Muslim holy month of Ramadan "in solidarity with Arabs and Muslims
worldwide."
On Sunday Muslims continued to celebrate the festival of Eid al-Fitr that
follows Ramadan when they fast from dawn to dusk.
Mooney was flying back to New York on Sunday after his second visit to
the UAE in as many months to raise money for his venture.
If he succeeds in rowing from Goree Island to New York, his boat will
then be airlifted to Djibouti from where he plans to row to the UAE.
Mooney, who has set up a website at www.goreechallenge.com to publicise
his campaign, said he will buy the 24-foot (7.3-metre) boat in England.
Logistics for the journey will be handled by the US State Department, he
added.
At the end of 2005, around 40 million people lived with AIDS or HIV,
nearly two-thirds of them in sub-Saharan Africa, according to UN figures.
Two million people died of AIDS in 2006.
11 Oct 2007 21:38:18 GMT
(New York, October 11, 2007) – As Ugandan officials and the Ugandan
media intensify attacks on the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender
(LGBT) people, the US government should condemn these threats, and clarify that
it does not support using its HIV/AIDS funding to promote homophobia, Human
Rights Watch said today in a letter to US officials "When the US funds
abstinence-only programs in Uganda, it tells people that LGBT people's
sexualities are dangerous and must be denied," said Scott Long, director of
the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights
Watch. "Supporting prejudice with cash is an approach with deadly
consequences for all."
An August 16 press conference by a coalition of LGBT groups in Uganda that
launched a campaign called "Let Us Live in Peace," has led to a
month-long backlash in the country. Most recently, on September 9, the tabloid
paper Red Pepper published a list of first names, workplaces and other
identifying information of 39 alleged homosexuals, all men. Headlined "Homo
Terror," the article promised to "name and shame top gays in the
city."
Previously, Pastor Martin Ssempa, a prominent campaigner against both condom
usage and homosexuality, had listed Ugandan LGBT rights activists by name on a
website,posting pictures and contact information and calling them
"homosexual promoters." Ssempa was the key organizer of an August 21
rally in Kampala, at which hundreds of demonstrators demanded government actions
to punish LGBT people, calling homosexual conduct "a criminal act against
the laws of nature."
According to the US State Department, Ssempa's Makerere Community Church
received US funding as a 2004 sub-partner of the President's Emergency Plan for
AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). This $15 billion program, heavily promoted by the Bush
administration, earmarks one-third of spending on prevention of sexual
transmission of HIV for "abstinence and fidelity programs," some of
which are based on so-called abstinence-only curricula developed in the United
States. In a March 2005 report, Human Rights Watch documented how
abstinence-only programs in Uganda suppress lifesaving information about condoms
and safer sex, and convey that LGBT people's sexualities are immoral and that
there is no "safer" way for them to have sex.
The US Congress Committee on International Relations, chaired at the time by
Congressman Henry J. Hyde, brought Ssempa to testify in 2005 as an expert in the
fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa, and as a Special Representative to the First
Lady of Uganda's Task Force on AIDS. Ssempa has also acted as representative and
adviser of the office of First Lady Janet Museveni, another PEPFAR grantee.
"US politicians and pocketbooks underwrite hatred in Uganda," Long
said. "The US has no business lending an aura of respectability to policies
that undermine human rights and public health."
Meanwhile, Ugandan officials continued to threaten new persecution of LGBT
people. On August 21, Radio One in Uganda announced that Deputy Attorney General
Fred Ruhindi had called for criminal prosecutions of lesbians and gays in
Uganda. In an interview with the Ugandan newspaper Sunday Vision, Buturo said
they were "considering changing the laws so that promotion [of homosexual
conduct] itself becomes a crime" and to have "catalogues of people we
think are involved in perpetuating the vice of homosexuality." He added,
"homosexuality is totally unhealthy." Ugandan law punishes homosexual
conduct with imprisonment up to life.
The government has censored attempts by LGBT people to speak in their own
behalf. In late August, the Uganda Broadcasting Council – a state censorship
board – suspended Gaetano Kaggwa, the presenter of Capital FM radio station,
for interviewing a lesbian activist on air. The council alleged a violation of
"minimum broadcasting standards" because the sexual-rights activist
allegedly used "unacceptable language."
In October 2004 the Broadcasting Council had fined a radio station 1.8
million shillings (more than US$1000) for hosting a lesbian and two gay men on a
talk show, where they protested against discrimination and called for repeal of
sodomy laws. At the time newspaper pointed out that the council "is now in
effect saying that ... [a]nyone arguing on FM radios that society should develop
a more tolerant attitude towards homosexuality is committing an offence."
Meanwhile, the Red Pepper threatened to name more lesbians and gays. In 2006,
the paper had published a similar list with 45 names. Several men were
threatened as a result. In 2002, the tabloid ran banner headlines and
photographs about an alleged wedding between two women. Kampala police promptly
arrested the women in question. Although they were freed when an attorney
intervened, they were jailed again and held for several days, allegedly for
their own safety, after a mob threatened them. A Ugandan pastor who had
counseled them was later forced to leave the country.
By Reuters
Tuesday October 9, 08:00 PM
By Michael Georgy
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa is neglecting most of the 100,000
children born there every year with HIV/AIDS and half of them are likely to
die before the age of 2, a senior U.N. official said on Tuesday.
"This is unacceptable," Ann Veneman, executive director of the
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), told Reuters in an interview.
"The child really has been in some ways forgotten."
Although the country faces one of world's heaviest HIV caseloads, AIDS
activists accuse the government of dragging its feet while the disease
ravages millions of South Africans.
Veneman called on both the government and community leaders to end what
she called a state of denial and to recognise the magnitude of the problem.
Despite being amongst the most vulnerable of those infected, only a small
proportion of children get adequate treatment -- 10 to 15 percent. That,
said Veneman, is a slight improvement on 5 percent two years ago, when
UNICEF launched an initiative to "put the missing face of the child on
the AIDS pandemic".
"They are missing so much. They are missing their parents because so
many are orphans. They are missing teachers because so many are
infected," she added.
"They are missing health-care workers. There are so many people that
are impacted by this disease that children really have been the ones that
are left out."
ALARMING DEATH RATES
Veneman noted some progress on her four-day visit to South Africa, during
which she discussed efforts to alleviate suffering with Nelson Mandela, who
has his own AIDS charity. She also met pregnant women and mothers infected
with HIV/AIDS.
She said death statistics were nevertheless still astonishing. An
estimated 12 percent of South Africa's 47 million population have HIV.
"There are 500,000 new infections every year," including
100,000 children, said Veneman, adding, "There are 400,000 people who
die every year."
South African officials, including President Thabo Mbeki, have infuriated
AIDS activists by questioning accepted AIDS science and endorsing unproven
treatments.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has been dubbed "Dr.
Beetroot" for her promotion of beetroot, garlic and other foods as a
treatment for HIV/AIDS.
Veneman agreed the government should take a stronger, more vocal stand.
But she said the problem cannot be tackled by the authorities alone. A new
mindset was needed across South Africa, where HIV/AIDS is still a taboo
subject.
"I think it's very difficult if people don't stand up and speak
about it. And I think that has to be done at every level of society, from
local and community organisations to the top levels of government," she
said.
The South African government was originally a reluctant convert to
anti-retroviral medications (ARVs), which are credited with drastically
reducing AIDS deaths. But Mbeki's government has since changed course,
making ARVs a pillar of its plan to fight HIV/AIDS.
It envisions a targeted five-fold increase in the number of HIV-positive
people accessing ARVs by 2011 -- but some 700,000 needy South Africans
currently cannot get the medication.
"There is a ray of hope. But there are great challenges in terms of
implementing plans and much needs to be done," said Veneman.
By Reuters
Tuesday October 9, 02:40 PM
By Rupam Jain Nair
RAJPIPLA, India (Reuters Life!) - Pumping the bellows of his harmonium,
Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil performs with a purpose at the festival he puts
on every year to celebrate homosexuality in India, where it is illegal.
"Gays are talented, creative, imagine a world without us," said
the flamboyant 42-year-old at the event that promotes gay and bisexual
artists and raises awareness about HIV and AIDS.
"I was born gay with some talent and skills, this festival is for
people like me," he added as guests filled the hall of his pink palace
with classical Indian songs.
Oprah Winfrey, the American talk show host, has invited Gohil to appear
on her show later this month, where he will discuss his work as a gay rights
activist in a country where homosexuality is a crime, punishable by up to 10
years in jail under a vaguely worded law that bans sex "against the
order of nature".
Outside the more liberal enclaves of wealthy middle-class Delhi and
Mumbai, gays are often scorned and persecuted in a country where sculptures
in ancient temples, murals and other arts graphically depict gay sex.
India's flourishing film industry has often used gays as characters of
humour and ridicule.
Gohil, who descends from the royal rulers of Rajpipla, a small town in
Gujarat, was publicly disowned by his family after talking about his
sexuality with the media.
India abolished princely kingdoms after independence from Britain in
1947, but many formerly royal families continue to lead lavish lives in
sprawling palaces and use their old titles.
"I had to deal with opposition from my family and locals of Rajpipla
who felt I was involved in activities that are unsuitable in society,"
he said. Rajpipla is a very conservative, sleepy town, where women cover
their heads and lower their gaze before men.
India's anti-homosexuality law, which harks back to the British
colonial-era law, is rarely enforced but activists say police use it to
harass gays for bribes. Those that don't pay have been detained, brutally
beaten and humiliated.
In May, hundreds of gays and lesbians came out at a New Delhi festival
they hoped would build on a campaign against the anti-gay law. But the
government has so far said that society is not ready to legalise
homosexuality.
At Gohil's palace, gays mingled freely with socialites, flirted with
potential partners and put on lighthearted shows under the gaze of scores of
curious villagers who were invited to the party.
"The festival gave us a break from our lives where everyday we fight
people and ourselves to understand our own sexuality," said a gay
artist who declined to be named.
"For us it is a war on the inside and the outside."
08 Oct 2007 12:54:10 GMT
JOHANNESBURG, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Jeanette is seeking the ideal man. Someone
sensitive. Funny. Sexy. And, most of all, HIV-positive.
That's why she turned to The Positive Connection, an online dating agency
that offers HIV-positive South Africans looking for love a way to get around the
stigma of the disease.
"Everything goes well until a guy learns about my problem and dumps
me," said Jeanette, who asked that her real name not be used.
"I just want to meet someone like me who can talk about it."
AIDS is still a taboo subject for millions of South Africans, despite its
staggering toll: each day, about 1,000 people die of AIDS and related
conditions.
Few people openly admit they have the disease -- fearful of losing partners,
friends and jobs -- and this environment of shame has undermined the battle
against the disease.
Ben Sassman, founder of The Positive Connection, says he offers HIV sufferers
who fear the normal dating scene will only lead to more rejection a unique
channel to build up their confidence, and maybe meet the right partner one day.
"We don't want people to cry on our shoulders and feel sorry for
themselves. They must realise that managing the problem is possible. There are
ordinary people like you and me," he said.
The fight against AIDS is a daunting task in South Africa. AIDS activists
accuse the government of dragging its feet, leaving more and more people
vulnerable to AIDS and HIV, the virus which causes it.
South African officials, including President Thabo Mbeki, have infuriated
AIDS activists by questioning accepted AIDS science, pushing unproven treatments
and failing to make anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs, now accepted as the frontline
treatment for HIV/AIDS, readily available to all those in need.
"DOCTOR BEETROOT"
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, has been dubbed "Dr.
Beetroot" for her promotion of beetroot, garlic and other foods as a
treatment of HIV/AIDS.
"How can you fight a devastating problem when the leadership of the
country has these crazy ideas?," asked Sassman.
It's a tough fight against a culture of denial.
Some infected husbands and wives hide the problem from each other, increasing
the chance of their children being born HIV-positive.
To try and bring down social barriers, The Positive Connection pushes the
motto "AIDS is not a death sentence" in a tag that runs across its Web
site.
A question and answer section tries to end common misconceptions: "We
don't need a condom for Sex." "HIV only affects gay men and drug
users." "People over 50 do not get HIV."
Smooth-talking HIV-positive Clement charmed two smiling women as a jovial
crowd sipped wine and soft drinks. It could have been a scene at any
Johannesburg bar or nightclub.
In fact, it was a breakthrough for Sassman. Some users of his Web site let
down their guard and agreed to meet face to face. It was the first time he had
met some of them.
Most did not give their real names, but appeared comfortable. Perhaps a bit
of progress in a country where an estimated 12 percent of the 47 million
population are infected with HIV.
"When I found out I had AIDS I just wanted to walk to the railroad track
and end it all. How could I tell my family? But in the end I decided not to so I
could support my child," said Yantumba, standing beside her sister-in-law,
also HIV-positive.
Today she is lighthearted, although the former health-care worker saw first
hand how the disease ravages people. She and her sister-in-law joked about
partying and meeting guys.
South Africa's government has unveiled a new HIV/AIDS plan to reduce
infections and tackle anti-discrimination.
That may not happen for a long time. But it didn't stop Clement and his new
friends having a good time, dancing to the rhythm as music blared. Clement
dismisses ARV medications. His answer to fighting the disease is sheer
willpower.
"I am going to live my life," said Clement, whose ex-partner and
child are HIV-positive. "I will not give up."
Married people accounted for more than 40 percent of all new cases of
HIV/AIDS in Thailand last year, the country's health ministry said Thursday,
despite an overall decrease in infections.
About 7,000 married people reported that they had HIV/AIDS in 2006, from
a total of 17,000 new cases, according to the latest survey by the
ministry's disease control department.
Forty percent of new infections in married couples were reported by wives
who said they got the disease from their husbands, the survey said, while 10
percent of the cases were husbands who were infected by their wives.
Extra-marital affairs and men having sex with prostitutes accounted for
the rest of the infections.
The survey also said that condom use among couples in 2005 was at a very
low level of around 44 to 52 percent.
But overall new infections reported in 2006 were down from 18,000 in
2005.
"Despite the decrease of overall new infections, there are some
signs that the AIDS problem in Thailand might get worse again," said
Thawat Suntrajarn, the department's director-general.
He called the spike in infections among married couples
"worrisome".
Thawat said the ministry hoped to see the number of infections this year
drop to 14,000 -- just 10 percent of the 140,000 reported in 1987.
HIV/AIDS is one of Thailand's top causes of death, with some 500,000
Thais living with the disease, according to health ministry figures.
Thailand's universal HIV/AIDS treatment programme has been hailed as a
success in the fight against the disease, largely because of the country's
ability to provide antiretroviral drugs to patients.
By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical WriterTue
Oct 9, 8:01 PM ET
More than 30 states have laws barring doctors from heeding a call by U.S.
health officials to routinely test Americans for the AIDS virus, researchers
report. And states don't seem to be in any rush to change that.
None have chosen to remove all barriers since the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention announced new testing guidelines last year, the
researchers said in a new study Tuesday.
"I think if they were going to change, they would have done so by
now," said Lawrence Gostin, a public health law expert at Georgetown
University. He was not involved in the research but agreed with its
findings.
But CDC officials disagreed. They cited more than a half-dozen states
that have made some kind of law change to simplify HIV testing. Other
changes appear to be pending in California and other states, they said.
"I don't think it's a done deal," said Dr. Bernard Branson in
CDC's HIV and AIDS prevention division.
The agency's recommendation that all teens and adults under age 65 be
tested for HIV when they visit doctor's offices, emergency rooms and other
health care centers was hailed by some HIV patient advocates and health
policy experts. Supporters said the guidelines could help end the stigma of
HIV testing and lead to needed care for an estimated 250,000 Americans who
don't yet know they have the disease.
CDC officials said they believed the guidelines would make testing
simpler by sparing primary care doctors from having to counsel patients
before the test and from getting specific consent to test for HIV. They
acknowledged, however, that some state laws might pose an obstacle.
The new study, released Tuesday in the online journal PLoS One, provides
new information about the extent of state legal barriers.
The researchers used legal databases to search state laws and look for
recent amendments. Their results were current through July. They did not
count proposed legislation.
They found that 33 states require informed consent for an HIV test. And
24 states require disclosure of information about the testing and disease,
either in pretest counseling or in a consent process.
Both requirements are barriers to the CDC guidelines as currently
written, said Leslie Wolf, an associate professor of law at Georgia State
University who is the study's lead author.
They found only two states — Rhode Island and Illinois — that took
action with the stated intent of trying to better comply with the CDC
recommendations. But both states left some form of informed consent or
pre-test counseling provision in place, Wolf said.
It's unlikely there will be much additional legislation, now that the
news splash about the new guidelines has ended, Gostin said.
"The political impetus was then, and they're on to other
things," Gostin said of state legislators.
The CDC doesn't know how many states have some form of legal barrier,
partly because laws are subject to multiple interpretations, Branson said.
"It depends how you classify 'barriers.' I can't comment
specifically on this study and how they came to their conclusions," he
said.
He listed seven states that he said recently modified their informed
consent laws in a way that better conforms with CDC recommendations —
Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire and New Mexico.
California's legislature passed such a bill last month, and that state
will make eight if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signs it, Branson said.
Branson said there is no national data yet to indicate what impact the
CDC guidelines have had.
[Home] [Previous news]