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Soaring rates of Hepatitis B have been fuelled by a new wave of immigration, specialists claim.

The Hepatitis B Foundation UK estimates the number of cases of the condition has almost doubled in six years to 326,000, due partly to the arrival of infected people.

The virus is transmitted through contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person, such as via unprotected sex or sharing contaminated needles. Mothers can also pass it on to their children during childbirth. It is 100 times more infectious than HIV.

The problem is that Hepatitis B has few symptoms and if untreated it can lead to serious liver disease, liver cancer and death, years after infection.

Many people who have hepatitis B as adults will clear the infection and become immune. However the disease is said to be chronic when you have been infected for longer than six months.

The UK is one of few countries in the world which offers selective rather than universal immunisation due to its low infection rate, although the World Health Organisation advises all infants be vaccinated.

The Foundation’s report said: “Much more needs to be done.

“There is a serious risk that in the future, while chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection declines in countries which have implemented universal vaccination, the UK - that great pioneer of public health - will continue to harbour an ever-increasing pool of chronic HBV infection.”

The Hepatitis B Foundation UK now estimates that there are some 326,000 cases, compared to 180,000 in 2002. However, it acknowledges these figures are of necessity conjecture, as they are not collected.

The Department of Health responded to the report saying Britain had one of the lowest prevalence rates of hepatitis B in the world and a range of measures was in place to control it. Share this article: «www.dailymail.co.uk»

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British children are among the worst in a Europe-wide obesity league table, with around a third weighing more than they should.

A couch potato lifestyle and a growing appetite for fast food is blamed for our boys and girls weighing in near the top of a 27-country fat league.

The findings come as a leading doctor warned that surgery such as stomach stapling will have to be used on children soon to tackle the obesity crisis.

Scroll down for more…

Our little heavyweights: Too much time in front of the TV eating junk food has led to British children being amongst the fattest in Europe

Scottish girls take second place in the female rankings, with almost 33 per cent overweight. English girls are fourth, with 29.3 per cent too heavy for their height.

The heaviest girls are in Portugal (34.3 per cent), while the slimmest are in Latvia and Lithuania (3.5 per cent overweight).

Among the boys, Scotland was again second, with almost 35 per cent too heavy for their height. Only Spanish boys are heavier.

English boys are in sixth place at 29 per cent - compared to the lean lads of Lithuania, where only 8 per cent are overweight.

Obesity experts said the results could be partly explained by a couch potato lifestyle, in which TV dinners have replaced family meals and computer games are preferred to outdoor play.

Dr Tim Lobstein, of the International Association for the Study of Obesity, said: “There is a big industry selling us more TV to watch, more computer games to play, more DVDs to sit and watch.

“There is a big industry promoting screen watching which is a sedentary behaviour and you just get fatter while you do it.”

The figures, which were compiled by the IASO from government and scientific studies, come as British doctors warn they are treating children as young as two for obesity.

Drastic stomach surgery, including gastric banding, is being carried out on children as a last resort.

Type 2 diabetes, which was once a problem for overweight middle aged adults, is being diagnosed in teenagers, and chubby children are being equipped with masks to ensure they do not suffocate in their sleep.

Dr Steve Ryan, medical director of Alder Hey children’s hospital in Liverpool, said: “There are more and more of these children and significant numbers are obese from two or three years old.

“When I was a paediatrician starting out in 1991, there were very few children overweight but that has changed and we are starting to see complications resulting from this.

“It is here and we are having to deal with it.”

But while British youngsters totter near the top of the heavyweight league, children in other countries are starting to lose weight.

New data shows rates of childhood obesity are stabilising in France and falling in Switzerland.

Restrictions on the advertising of junk food to children, the banning of vending machines in schools and national healthy eating drives may all have played a role in the change, the European Congress on Obesity heard yesterday.

Obesity experts welcomed the figures but warned the situation is still bleak - particularly in the UK, where rates of child obesity have quadrupled since 1984.

Dr Lobstein, director of the IASO’s childhood obesity programme, said: “It is encouraging that there may be some signs this tidal wave of obesity is easing but it is not really subsiding, it is only stopping at a high level.

“The tide has come in but it is not going out. And in Britain, it is still coming in and is rising. The old picture of a jolly fat person couldn’t be further from the truth.

“Although some fat people might indeed be jolly, the majority don’t enjoy their condition and wish they were slim.”

Dr Ian Campbell, medical director of the charity Weight Concern, said childhood obesity could only be tackled by parents, schools and government working together.

Safe, accessible exercise facilities and nourishing and affordable meals should be a priority, he said.

• Cash is the most effective way to get children to lose weight, according to a study.

More than 100 families were given either a low carbohydrate diet, a low energy diet or support in the form of a weekly motivational letter.

The final option was giving children a cash bonus each time they improved their body mass index. The congress heard that cash was the best motivator for children.

For adults it was a combination of all four methods. Share this article: «www.dailymail.co.uk»

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BEIJING (AP) Chinese inspectors found excessive amounts of additives and preservatives in dozens of children’s snacks and seized hundreds of bottles of fake human blood protein from hospitals, officials said Tuesday.

China’s dismal health and safety record Д both within and outside its borders Д has increasingly come under the spotlight as its goods make their way to global markets. Major buyers like the United States, Japan, and the European Union have pushed Beijing to improve inspections.

THE QUESTION: «www.usatoday.com»

China accused the media of hyping the problems.

“I think it would be better if the media would stop playing up this issue,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters.

“China has taken measures and enacted relevant legislation regarding inspection and monitoring of its food export process. China has been very responsible in this regard to ensure the good quality and safety of its exports,” he said.

Inspectors in southwest China’s Guangxi region found excessive additives and preservatives in nearly 40% of 100 children’s snacks sampled during the second quarter, according to a report on China’s central government website.

The snacks Д including soft drinks, candied fruits, gelatin desserts and some types of crackers Д were taken from 70 supermarkets, department stores and wholesale markets in seven cities in the region, it said.

Only 35% of gelatin desserts sampled met food standards, the report said, while two types of candied fruit contained 63 times the permitted amount of artificial sweetener.

The report did not say whether any snacks were recalled or if any manufacturers faced discipline. Calls to the Guangxi Industrial and Commercial bureau rang unanswered Tuesday.

About 420 bottles of fake blood protein, albumin, were found at hospitals in Hubei province, but none had been used to treat patients, Liu Jinai, an official with the inspection division of the provincial food and drug administration, said in a telephone interview. No deaths or illnesses were reported.

A shortage of albumin triggered a nationwide investigation in March into whether fakes were being sold.

A state media report last month centered on an inquiry in the northeastern province of Jilin, where 59 hospitals and pharmacies sold more than 2,000 bottles of counterfeit blood protein. One person died from use of the fakes, state media said.

Albumin is a primary protein in human plasma that is important in maintaining blood volume. It is used to treat conditions including shock, burns, liver failure and pancreatitis, and is needed by patients undergoing heart surgery.

Chinese authorities have struggled with recalls following the widespread sale of fake polio vaccines, vitamins and baby formula. Such incidents threaten both public health and faith in the government’s ability to control crime and corruption and ensure safety of food and drug supplies.

In May, the country’s former top drug regulator was sentenced to death for taking bribes to approve substandard medicines, including an antibiotic blamed for at least 10 deaths.

Fears that China’s chronic food safety problems were going global surfaced earlier this year with the deaths of dogs and cats in North America blamed on Chinese wheat gluten tainted with the chemical melamine.

U.S. authorities have also turned away or recalled toxic fish, juice containing unsafe color additives and popular toy trains decorated with leaded paint. Chinese-made toothpaste has also been banned by numerous countries in North and South America and Asia for containing diethylene glycol, or DEG, a toxic ingredient more commonly found in antifreeze.

Beijing has striven to appear active in cleaning up problem areas. Inspectors recently announced they had closed 180 food factories in China in the first half of this year and seized tons of candy, pickles, crackers and seafood tainted with formaldehyde, illegal dyes and industrial wax.

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While millions take medication every day, few of us pay much attention to the time of day we pop our pills.

Yet new research shows that timing is key to how well certain drugs work, including some used to treat osteoarthritis, cancer and asthma.

More than 60 drugs were found to be more effective at certain times of the day.

For instance, when used to treat symptoms of osteoarthritis, ibuprofen is most effective when taken between noon and 3pm; but if you have rheumatoid arthritis it’s probably better to take it after an evening meal.

Some cancer therapies are up to four times more effective when given in the morning compared to the evening, while some cholesterol-lowering statins are best taken at night. .

best taken at night. The researchers from New York University says this is all down to our circadian clock. This is the 24-hour internal body clock driven by the hypothalamus gland in the brain which determines when we feel tired.

It also controls more than a hundred other functions, including body temperature, hormone production, blood pressure, bowel movements, alertness and the immune system. The peak time for each varies over the 24-hours.

So what is the best time for taking pills for your condition? Here, we reveal what researchers have found. (Always make sure that you consult your doctor before making any changes to the way you take prescribed medication.)

7am: High blood pressure BECAUSE blood pressure peaks in the morning, patients may benefit from early morning therapy.

A Chinese study found that taking a calcium channel-blocker drug, amlodipine, had a better effect when given at 7am than at 7pm.

Noon: Osteoarthritis PATIENTS with osteoarthritis may experience more pain at night and less during the day.

According to a Texas Tech University report, therapy with ibuprofen and similar drugs should be timed to ensure the highest blood levels of the drug coincide with peak pain.

For osteoarthritis sufferers, the optimal time for a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug such as ibuprofen would be around noon or mid-afternoon. That would make it active as symptoms begin to build-up.

3-4pm: Asthma

Night-time worsening of asthma is common, and the drop in lung functioning can be as much as 50 per cent.

This is because the circadian rhythm causes natural hormones to be at lower levels at night, which results in a reduction in the width of the airways.

‘A single dose of inhaled steroid in the afternoon has a protective effect against asthma worsening that same night,’ say researchers at the University of Sao Paulo.

Other research shows that a 3pm dose of prednisone, an asthma drug, was superior to the same drug given at 8am for improving overnight lung functioning and reducing airway inflammation.

4pm: Colds and flu

Fever and other symptoms of the common cold peak around this time, according to a study at Quebec University, so it is best to take any medication now or just before.

6-7pm: Heartburn

Researchers at Kansas University compared morning and evening use of rabeprazole, a proton pump inhibitor for gastrooesophageal reflux (GORD).

Symptoms were eased in 71 per cent of patients who had it in the afternoon and evening compared to 42 per cent of those who were given it in the morning.

8pm: Rheumatoid arthritis

Research has shown that rheumatoid arthritis patients experience the greatest pain in the mornings.

Taking ibuprofen just after the evening meal may be the most effective way to prevent pain developing overnight, say University of Texas-Tech researchers.

7-9pm: High cholesterol

Studies at the University of Sunderland and other centres show that evenings may be the best time to take simvastatin, one of the most widely used statins for lowering cholesterol.

When patients switched taking the drug from evening to morning, there was a significant increase in ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol.

7-9pm: Hay fever

According to a University of Colorado report, hay fever symptoms, including sneezing and nasal congestion, peak in the early morning.

This means evening therapy may be best, so that symptoms are treated overnight before they build-up.

10pm: Ulcers

Anti-ulcer drugs may be more effective at this time. Stomach acid levels vary during the day, and ulcer symptoms can peak in the evening and early morning.

Drugs called H2-receptor antagonists have been used as a treatment, and research by pharmacists at the University of Texas suggests bedtime dosing may be most effective.. Share this article: «www.dailymail.co.uk»

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WASHINGTON - An ad campaign that suggested milk can help people lose weight is ending, the Federal Trade Commission told a doctors group that had complained.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine contended the weight loss claims were false and misleading. The group, in a 2005 petition, asked the commission to order a halt to the dairy advertisements.

The agency did not take that step, but said in a letter to the committee that the groups behind the ads planned to end them.

It is obvious that the industry did not have a leg to stand on, Neal Barnard, president of the Washington-based doctors committee, said Thursday. His group advocates a vegan diet, which typically includes no animal products.

The two marketing campaigns at issue involve the Milk your diet. Lose Weight! ads on television, Internet and in magazines, and the 3-A-Day. Burn More Fat, Lose Weight ads, which are now mostly Web-based.

The FTC, in a letter May 3 to the committee, said the agency met with Agriculture Department officials and representatives for the two campaigns, which decided to discontinue all advertising and other marketing activities involving weight loss claims until further research provides stronger, more conclusive evidence.

Susan Ruland, a spokeswoman for the Milk your Diet campaign, said there was nothing misleading about the ads.

We absolutely stand behind our weight loss campaign and the science supporting our messages, said Ruland, who represents the National Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Board. Theres a strong body of scientific evidence that demonstrates a connection between dairy and weight loss.

Still, she said, the board plans to phase out the milk ads and focus the campaign instead on how dairy can help promote a healthy diet.

The National Dairy Promotion and Research Board said it has already changed its 3-A-Day campaign.

The Agriculture Department, which has oversight of the two boards, had approved the ads. A spokesman said the agency supports the decision to pull back from the campaigns.

2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.