'Bug' could combat dengue fever

Female Aedes aegypti mosquito, which spreads dengue and yellow fever

Humans could be protected from dengue fever by infecting the mosquitoes carrying it with a parasite which halves their lifespan, say researchers.

Australian scientists, writing in the journal Science, found that Wolbachia bacteria spread well through laboratory-bred mosquitoes.

Only older mosquitoes pass on dengue - so killing them could cut disease.

Experts said it remained to be seen how well the bacteria would spread outside the laboratory.

The virus might also adapt to survive, they added.

Determining whether it can remove enough infectious mosquitoes will be a challenge Commentary article Pennsylvania State University researchers

Many thousands of cases of dengue fever occur worldwide each year, mainly in warmer tropical countries.

The virus is passed to humans when mosquitoes carrying it feed on their blood, and while there have been efforts to eradicate them using insecticides, these have been fraught with problems, including the ability of the mosquito to become resistant to the chemicals used.

The potential of Wolbachia as a way of controlling mosquito populations has been suggested for some time, but the latest study offers hope - albeit under laboratory conditions - that it might work.

The researchers from the University of Queensland in Brisbane picked a strain of Wolbachia known to halve the lifespan of its host.

The mosquito which carries the dengue virus is not naturally susceptible to the bacteria, so the researchers adapted it to create a successful infection.

The bacteria can be passed from infected female to offspring, and even though the cost in terms of lifespan should mean that infected insects should die out, Wolbachia has another trick up its sleeve.

It makes subtle changes to infected males which mean they can only produce offspring with infected females.

Older danger

As expected, the infection thrived in the laboratory population of mosquitoes, and halved their lifespan to just a few weeks.

This is potentially significant because, after a mosquito acquires the dengue virus by biting an infected animal or human, there is a period of incubation lasting from a week to three weeks before it can pass on the infection when biting.

This means that only mosquitoes older than this are likely to be dangerous to humans and even these are likely to die swiftly, reducing their ability to infect.

The researchers suggested that the parasite represented a potentially inexpensive way to tackle the problem, particularly in urban areas, where other methods of control were difficult.

Dr Andrew Read and Dr Matthew Thomas, specialists in infectious disease dynamics from the Pennsylvania State University in the US, said "substantial" reductions in disease transmission could occur, but there were still obstacles to success.

"Determining whether it can remove enough infectious mosquitoes will be a challenge," they wrote.

If the bacterial strain chosen was too virulent it would spread very slowly and large numbers of infected mosquitoes might need to be released, they said.

It was also possible that dengue virus strains would adapt to require a shorter incubation period, they said.

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What wouldn't you do in front of your spouse?

By Maureen Salamon

(LifeWire) -- For a couple in their sixties, Cynthia MacGregor and her live-in partner, Grant, have few hang-ups about personal boundaries: In their household, the bathroom door is always open, regardless of what's taking place inside.

Couples can disagree about what is appropriate behavior in front of each other.

But MacGregor has one hard and fast rule -- Grant cannot see her toothless mouth or her mouthless teeth.

The 65-year-old Florida resident has sported a full set of false teeth since her early forties -- a "business decision" made because of chronic dental issues. MacGregor is so disturbed by the thought of Grant seeing her toothless that she even wears them while sleeping.

"I think I look perfectly horrible without my teeth and my teeth look pretty ridiculous without me," says MacGregor, a writer and editor. "We [use the toilet] in front of each other and bathe in front of each other. I don't mind if he sees me giving myself a bikini shave. I just don't think he needs to see my sunken face without teeth."

But not every couple share similar views on personal boundaries.

Doug Lueder and his wife Sam have wildly disparate ideas of what's appropriate to display in front of others, a philosophical difference that literally exploded one night during their courtship: Doug tried to impress Sam by holding a lighter to his backside while passing gas.

The bad news: Sam hated it, along with Doug's other explicit exhibits of certain personal habits. The good news: She married him anyway. The couple now lives with their two small children in Atlanta, Georgia, where Mommy teaches them to pass gas discreetly and Daddy, well, breaks wind blithely and chuckles about it.

"This is something we've had to come to terms with," says the British-born Sam Lueder, 37, a marketing executive who describes herself as "quite prim and proper" and her 43-year-old husband as "loud, gregarious and crass."

"We've met halfway," she adds. "If Harry [their 3-year-old] burps or passes wind, he says, 'Excuse me.' Doug will also say, 'Excuse me' -- but with a laugh. Maybe Harry will just understand there are different kinds of people in the world."

This essential dilemma -- differences between individuals -- underlies every intimate relationship. But conflicting opinions of what's acceptable to do in front of others -- from plucking eyebrows to using the toilet -- are normal among couples and do not usually threaten a relationship, New York psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert says.

"I think these types of things -- burping, [passing gas], blowing your nose -- show comfort and intimacy in front of your partner," Alpert says, "though I'm not suggesting you should do these things to build intimacy."

Indeed, some believe there's such a thing as being too close, which colors their views on what behaviors to exhibit and what's better done behind closed doors. Kim Wilder-Lee has a long list of things she won't do in front of her husband of 14 years -- including weighing herself and taking off makeup -- and makes no bones about what she doesn't want to witness him doing, either.

If her spouse is using the toilet with the door open, Wilder-Lee, 43, will close it for him.

"I don't want to be part of that. ... It isn't a part of his life that I want to see," says the Temecula, California, freelance public relations consultant, who advocates retaining a bit of "feminine mystique" in marriage. "He thinks it's ridiculous that he can't know my weight, but that's just the way it is. He knows I'm not at all uptight in most areas of my life."

And while certain gender stereotypes hold -- women tend to keep certain habits private while men veer toward openness -- some behaviors are purely personality-driven. Take bachelor David Seaman, who won't clip his toenails or even shave in front of his new girlfriend, Lindsay.

"I'm probably not the typical male," says the New York author and blogger, 23. "I personally don't mind when someone likes a little privacy. I'm probably like this because it's still early on in our relationship, but I tend to be somewhat guarded."

Ditto for Jessica Odenbach, 27, of Chicago, who thinks her boyfriend's upbringing in a large family explains why he'll pop pimples, blow "snot rockets" and discuss bowel movements in front of her despite her obvious discomfort.

"Even if we're out with friends, I'll go to the bathroom to blow my nose," says Odenbach, a media specialist. "If he does that in front of us, I give him a dirty look and say, 'Don't you need to go to the bathroom?' "

"We do occasionally have a tiff about these things. No brawls," she adds. "But he doesn't necessarily know what will bother me."

What if your personal boundaries are totally different from your partner's? Cherry Hill, New Jersey, relationship coach Jo Anne White offers these tips to keep the peace:

• Communicate: "After we get over how disgusting their habit is, what can we do about it? We can negotiate about this."

• Compromise: "If it's a little habit we can adjust or alter to get more satisfaction into the relationship, why not?"

• Support: "Our partner needs us to be a friend, someone who's really in their corner rather than always being critical or finding flaws."

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Looking for Sleep in All the Wrong Places

By Coco Ballantyne

ALCOHOL AS A SNOOZE AID: Insomniacs spend more on booze than sleeping pills.

Desperately seeking a good night's sleep, insomniacs spend more money on alcohol than medical help and sleep aids combined, according to a study published today in the journal Sleep. But experts say turning to the bottle is the last thing you should do if you can't fall asleep at night.

The study, led by Meagan Daley, a professor of psychology and business at Laval University in Quebec, found that insomniacs in that Canadian province spend an annual $275 million ($340 million Canadian) on alcohol to lull them to sleep at night compared with $14.7 million on over-the-counter and prescription sleep meds and $69.4 million on insomnia-related health care consultations. Simply put, the sleepless in Quebec spend over three times more on alcoholic "sleeping aids" than on medical interventions specifically designed to promote z's—even though alcohol is more expensive.

"Generic versions of sleep medications are a few cents a pill," Daley says. "Even the regular main brand sleep medications are cheaper than taking a drink or two."

What's more, alcohol doesn't help you snooze. Quite the contrary. It actually exacerbates symptoms of insomnia, says Maher Karam-Hage, an addiction psychiatrist at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. For most people, drinking a glass of wine with dinner will not compromise a good night's sleep, but three to four drinks before bed can cause you to wake up in the middle of the night, he says.

"Drinking on a long-term basis can lead to suppression of deep sleep," says Karam-Hage, noting that type of sleep is responsible for the "refreshing effect" that a good night's rest has on the mind and body. "The net effect is that you feel tired all the time." In contrast, most of the newer Rx sleeping pills on the market, such as Ambien and Sonata, do not appear to cause late-night sleep interruptions, according to Karam-Hage. These meds induce sleep and may help a person get seven to eight hours of shut-eye, but generally should not be taken longer than seven to 10 days and may have side effects. Karam-Hage says that people who have mild sleep issues and shun meds might try getting up at the same time daily. He says they might also try to hit the hay at the same time nightly but that doing so is not as critical as waking at a consistent hour.

Do you like to power naps? Keep them under 10 minutes, Karam-Hage suggests, noting that longer naps can keep you up at night. About 10 percent of people in the developing world suffer from chronic insomnia, a condition in which a person's life is negatively impacted because he or she sleeps less than six hours for at least three nights a week for a minimum of one month, Daley says. This could result from difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep or waking prematurely. "A third of the population [has] sleeping problems," she says. "Sleep problems are huge."

Daley's study was designed to examine the economic toll of insomnia. The researchers estimated that the total cost of this condition in Quebec is a whopping $5.4 billion ($6.6 billion Canadian)—about 1 percent of the country's gross domestic product. The largest proportion – 76 percent -- of costs ($4 billion) stemmed from lost productivity hours.

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