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Weekly News Roundup
November 16, 2015
Dennis J. Barbour, JD, Editor

The state's integrated public health system tracks childhood immunization and has sent out regular notices to parents encouraging the benefits of HPV vaccinations since 2012. The Indiana Department of Health dispatched one such letter to 305,000 Hoosiers in September, restating the implied civic duty to vaccinate children from preventable diseases such as HPV. That sent the religious guardians of sexual propriety into orbit. A hot-letter campaign from religious-right cover group American Family Association of Indiana landed on Gov. Mike Pence's desk and, as any straight-thinking modern leader would do, he capitulated immediately and had the letter rewritten.
Chicago Tribune, November 13, 2015

"What this means from a public health perspective is that service providers need to be aware that many men are meeting their intimacy and sexual needs from a range of different types of partners. Clinicians and health promotion professionals engaging with gay and bisexual men about their 'relationships' need to be aware of the different meanings that terms such as 'partner', 'regular partner', 'boyfriend', ' f buddy', 'casual partner', and 'in a relationship' carry."
Gay News Network, November 13, 2015
Parental Death in Childhood Ups Suicide Risk
 
Losing a parent in childhood, regardless of cause, is associated with an increased risk for suicide for the bereaved for at least 25 years after the traumatic experience, new research shows. The highest risk seems to be among children who had a parent die by suicide (especially boys who had a mother die by suicide), first-born children, and children who had a parent who died before the child's sixth birthday. The risk was also "markedly" increased for children who had a parent die from other causes.
Medscape, November 13, 2015
Gay Men's Health Summit 2015: How health deteriorates under homophobic legislation

While most people are now aware of how homophobia affects the wellbeing of someone psychologically or socially thanks to research on those topics, there have been less studies on how homophobic legislation, policies, and more impacts the health of queer men and men who have sex with men (MSM). Columbia University's Dr. Mark Hatzenbuehler talked about what researchers have found about the latter at the 2015 Gay Men's Health Summit on November 5 at SFU Harbour Centre. Hatzenbuehler's keynote address was the launchpad for the theme of this year's conference: undoing stigma.
straight.com, November 13, 2015
CDC notes growing concern of meningococcal disease in MSM

Three US outbreaks of meningococcal disease in men who have sex with men (MSM) in recent years prompted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to request reports from states on the disease in this population, and they noted at least 74 cases since 2012 concentrated in large cities, according to a report today in   Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report  (MMWR).
Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, November 12, 2015
California Vaccine Refusers Cluster in Rich, White Areas
But changes are coming to that state's 'personal belief' exemption law

California's anti-vaccine sentiment tends to concentrate in wealthier, largely white areas of the state -- a pattern that has left certain communities with childhood vaccination rates as low as 50 percent, a new study finds. The study, published online Nov. 12 in the  American Journal of Public Health,   is the latest to delve into the issue of personal belief exemptions for vaccines. Right now, 20 U.S. states permit the exemptions, which allow parents to opt out of routine childhood vaccinations based on philosophical objections.
Health Day, November 12, 2015
Stanford creates new Center for Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing Center
looks to open new health clinics to serve 12- to 25-year-olds

"I've been particularly concerned, not only locally but nationally, about the need for us to create in this country a public mental health model for adolescent and young adults where one doesn't really exist," said Steven Adelsheim, a Stanford child psychiatrist who is serving as director of the Center for Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing. "Half of all mental health issues start by (age) 14 and three-quarters by the age of 24, but we really don't have great systems that are comfortable for people to get early mental health care. I've become more and more convinced thorough my career ... that we still don't have great systems in place to provide that early support."
Palo Alto Online, November 9, 2015
First-of-its-kind study of puberty timing in males
New study reveals strong genetic correlation between male and female puberty timing

"Our study shows that although there are obvious physical differences in pubertal development between boys and girls, many of the underlying biological processes governing it are the same. It also shows that the age when men's voices break, even when recalled decades after the event, is an informative measure of puberty timing," says co-author Dr. Felix Day from the MRC Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge. "Until now, most of our understanding of the biological regulation of puberty timing has come from large studies of healthy women, in whom the stages of puberty are usually easier to remember, or studies of patients affected by rare disorders. Research has been scarce in men, largely because investigators have disregarded the accuracy that men can recall pubertal events," explains study lead Dr. John Perry (also from the MRC Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge).
American Association for the Advancement of Science, November 9, 2015

When people hear about vaccine deniers - anti-vaxxers, to some - they most often think about parents who are refusing to vaccinate their children. But there's another type of vaccine refusal, and it's important that we not ignore that. Doctors sometimes promote the use of some vaccines with less enthusiasm than others. Sometimes, they don't talk about them at all. This occurs most often with the  human papillomavirus, or HPV, vaccine. The low  immunization rates with this vaccine, and the behaviors of the physicians who might be contributing to that, have consequences.
New York Times, November 9, 2015
Research finds risk of suicide and mental illness increases among young men during recession

David Gunnell, professor of epidemiology at the University of Bristol said: "Prior to the recession, rates of suicide in the UK were declining. Around the time of the recession, this decline reversed, and similar patterns were seen in other European countries and in North America. The greatest rise in the incidence of suicide appeared to be in young men.
Medical Xpress, November 6, 2015
UK: Two fifths of younger men have thought about suicide

The biggest ever campaign to raise awareness of mental health issues will be launched today backed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, former Olympians, military officers and senior business figures. More than two fifths of adult men under the age of 45 have considered taking their own lives, a YouGov poll has revealed.
The Times UK, November 2, 2015
AUSTRALIA: Comment - We are failing our young men by not having rites of passage

Research collected by Deakin  University  shows that for males in Australia 11 and 12-years-old is when they are happiest. In my 15 years working as a general practitioner I was constantly amazed and in fact distressed at how these happy go lucky young boys could turn so rapidly into sullen, shut down, trouble seeking and openly angry teenagers. In my 20 years working in emergency departments I have also seen way too many of the tragic results when young men self destructed with either drugs, alcohol, cars or violence. I sold my medical practice in 2000 to devote my time to research and developing programs to support our young men.
SBS, October 28, 2015
Men with 10 times greater risk of testicular cancer to benefit from new genetic test
Testicular cancer could be easier to predict with a new genetic test set to identify men at a 10-fold increased risk of the disease.

It's the most common cancer in young men 15 to 35, with around 2,300 men diagnosed aged 15 to 49 a year. One in 20 - or 70 annually - will die from testicular cancer, with white men five times more at risk than black men. The Institute of Cancer Research in London has uncovered four new genetic variants associated with increased cancer risk, adding to the 21 previously identified.
Mirror UK, October 27, 2015
The Weekly News Roundup is produced by The Partnership for Male Youth and is released every Monday. 
For more information contact Dennis J. Barbour, JD. News Roundup editor and President/CEO of the Partnership, at dbarbour@partnershipformaleyouth.org.

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The  Partnership for Male Youth is a collaboration among 23 national organizations and representation from six federal agencies. It is led by a multidisciplinary and multispecialty steering committee and advisory council. The Partnerships's flagship effort, released in January 2014, is  The Health Provider Toolkit for Adolescent and Young Adult Males.
Dennis J. Barbour, Esq.
Executive Director

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