The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Many cancer survivors struggle with trauma stress: study
- Hurricane Jova hits key Mexican port, kills four
- Eight dead, 1 wounded in California salon shooting
| Many cancer survivors struggle with trauma stress: study Posted: 12 Oct 2011 08:11 PM PDT REUTERS - A cancer diagnosis can leave lasting psychological scars akin to those inflicted by war, with the impact in some cases lasting for years, U.S. researchers found in a study. More than a decade after being told they had the disease, nearly four out of 10 cancer survivors said they were still plagued by symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, said lead researcher Sophia Smith from the Duke Cancer Institute in Durham, North Carolina. Those symptoms included being extra jumpy, having disturbing thoughts about the cancer and its treatment, or feeling emotionally numb towards friends and family. One in 10 patients also said they avoided thinking about their cancer and one in 20 said they steered clear of situations or activities that reminded them of the disease, a situation that could potentially become a medical problem. "You worry if the patient is avoiding medical care, you worry they might not be getting follow-ups," Smith told Reuters Health. "We don't have data to support that, but we worry about it." The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, is based on a survey of 566 patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a relatively common kind of cancer. Smith's team had surveyed these patients for PTSD symptoms once before, estimating that about one in 12 had full-blown PTSD. The diagnosis involved a trio of symptoms, including avoidance, arousal and flashbacks. Many more had one or more PTSD symptoms, however. The newest survey also showed they often persist. Overall, half of the patients had no PTSD symptoms 13 years after their diagnosis. The problems had disappeared in 12 percent, but had remained or worsened in 37 percent. "This study found that people seemed to have worse PTSD later on," said Bonnie Green, a trauma expert at Georgetown University who pioneered the study of PTSD in breast cancer survivors, but was not linked to the latest study. "It's just very stressful for people to be told that they have cancer. You can't just assume that they feel bad now, but it will go away." She stressed that it's only a minority of patients who develop full-blown PTSD, but added that depression is common after a cancer diagnosis. The new survey shows that low-income people are extra vulnerable to the psychological impact of living with cancer. "I am particularly concerned about the patients who are poor or have less resources, said Smith, adding that doctors have to be better at recognizing distress in patients. "Each time they come in you are asking not only if they're having pain, but also if they are having stress." SOURCE: http://bit.ly/n1pJMg (Reporting from New York by Frederik Joelving at Reuters Health; Editing by Elaine Lies and Robert Birsel) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. | ||
| Hurricane Jova hits key Mexican port, kills four Posted: 12 Oct 2011 07:08 PM PDT MANZANILLO/PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico (Reuters) - Hurricane Jova flooded the streets of Mexico's main Pacific port with torrential rain on Wednesday, inundating popular beach resorts and killing at least four people in mudslides.
While Jova ravaged the coast, a tropical depression to the southeast prompted thousands of evacuations in Mexico as well as flooding and mudslides that have killed 18 in Central America since the start of the week. Streets in the port of Manzanillo were underwater, coastal communities flooded and roads blocked due to fallen trees and washouts after Jova, now a tropical depression, hit the coast as a Category 2 hurricane late on Tuesday. Manzanillo, Mexico's busiest port for cargo, remained closed to traffic despite the storm easing. Some streets in the city were under 3 feet (1 metre) of water. "The streets of Manzanillo are impassable, as are the highways connecting Manzanillo with the south of Jalisco," national Red Cross coordinator Isaac Oxenhaut said. Highways leading northwest from Manzanillo along the coast were closed and the beach towns of Cihuatlan, Melaque and Barra de Navidad were swamped with floodwaters, the Red Cross said. Two people died in Cihuatlan in Jalisco state when their house collapsed in a mudslide. In the village of Jose Maria Morelos northwest of the port, a woman and her son died when a deluge of mud hit their home. "I think they asphyxiated," Alfredo Juan de Dios, 65, said of his sister-in-law Marisol and her young son Juan Pablo after the mud brought down a wall of their house, trapping them. "I have never seen rain like this. It's caused mayhem," he added. Outside his shattered home, Marisol's husband wept as rescue workers covered his son's body with a white sheet. The force of the winds flipped metal roofs off homes and cut power supplies to 107,000 users in the area. In Melaque, musician Roberto Orozco said he was forced to abandon his home for higher ground. "I got back to find my stove and my fridge swimming," said Orozco, 52. "We're really sad. We lost everything." With winds that reached 35 mph (55 kph), Jova was about 20 miles (35 km) east-south east of Tepic at 2 p.m. PDT (2100 GMT), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. The Miami-based hurricane center aid the center of Jova hit the coast near the town of Chamela in the state of Jalisco, on a stretch dotted with beaches south of tourist resort Puerto Vallarta. Mexico has no major oil installations in the Pacific. PUERTO VALLARTA SPARED Puerto Vallarta, which suffered flooding when Hurricane Kenna hit in 2002, was spared from the storm overnight. On Tuesday, workers filled and stacked sandbags to protect the professional beach volleyball courts on Puerto Vallarta's coast, where events from the Pan American Games are scheduled to be staged this week. The hurricane center downgraded Jova to a tropical depression and Mexico lifted bad weather warnings south of Manzanillo. The storm will likely dissipate entirely by Friday, but could still cause life-threatening mudslides and floods, the hurricane center said. Jova could produce up to 12 inches (30.5 cm) of rainfall over four western Mexican states, with isolated rainfall of up to 20 inches (51 cm), forecasters said. Manzanillo has been closed since late on Sunday and about 13 container ships are stuck in the port. The port handles about 750 containers of cargo a month and ships goods including cars, car parts, cattle, minerals and tequila to Asian and North American markets. Farther south, tropical depression Twelve E struck southwest Mexico and Central America, causing flooding and mudslides that have killed 13 people in Guatemala, four in Nicaragua and one in El Salvador since Monday. Rising river levels in the southern Mexican state of Tabasco prompted the evacuation of 75,000 people. (Additional reporting by Alberto Fajardo; Writing by Krista Hughes and Dave Graham; Editing by Will Dunham and Peter Cooney) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. | ||
| Eight dead, 1 wounded in California salon shooting Posted: 12 Oct 2011 07:08 PM PDT SEAL BEACH, Calif. (Reuters) - A gunman opened fire at a busy hair salon in the Southern California coastal town of Seal Beach on Wednesday, killing eight people and critically wounding another, police said.
The suspect, who was not immediately identified, fled the scene in a vehicle and was arrested moments later about a half mile away, Seal Beach police Sergeant Steve Bowles told reporters nearly two hours after the shooting. "We feel very confident at this point that we do have the single and only suspect in custody," Bowles said. "He appeared cooperative and did not resist our officers at all when he was detained." "For the city of Seal Beach, this could be one of our greatest tragedies," Bowles said of the town about 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Los Angeles. Circumstances of the shooting remained murky, and Bowles said detectives were trying to establish a motive for the violence and any link between the gunman and the establishment, called the Salon Meritage. He said the type of weapon or weapons used by the gunman was not immediately known. Former salon employee Lidia Sosa, who went to the crime scene when she heard the news, told reporters the gunman shot and killed his ex-wife, with whom he was embroiled in a custody dispute. The owner of the shopping center, Henry Morales, said he was told by salon employees that the gunman was the former husband of a hair stylist there. A longtime customer who identified herself only as Karen said she heard about the shooting and called her stylist, who answered the phone in a state of panic. "He was screaming, and the phone went dead. He was hysterical," she said. Of the nine people struck by gunfire, six were declared dead at the scene and three others were taken to Long Beach Memorial Hospital with critical injuries, Bowles said. Two of those hospitalized died later of their wounds, he said. Bowles said he did not know how many of the victims were employees or patrons. Most of the victims were believed to have been shot inside the salon. One man initially listed as wounded was found in the parking lot, but it was not clear where he was shot, he said. "There are survivors from inside the salon that escaped without harm," Bowles said. (Additional reporting Mary Slosson; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Peter Cooney and Sandra Maler) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
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