The often-undiagnosed virus is transmitted through contaminated blood. While infection rates have dropped dramatically since the early 1990s – due in part to the introduction of blood and organ screening – many older adults are still at risk, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which released the draft guidelines.

According to the CDC, one in 30 baby boomers – the generation born from 1945 through 1965 – has been infected with hepatitis C, and most do not know it.

A one-time, cost-effective blood test would “identify hundreds of thousands of hidden infections,” said Dr John Ward, director of CDC’s division of viral hepatitis.

He likened the proposal to existing age-related guidelines on screening for diseases including breast cancer, cervical cancer and high cholesterol.

Hepatitis C causes serious liver diseases, including liver cancer – the fastest-rising cause of cancer-related deaths – and is the leading cause of liver transplants in the United States.

The CDC said it believes routine blood tests will address the largely preventable consequences of the disease, especially in light of newly available therapies that can cure around 75 percent of infections.

The field has attracted broad interest with two new hepatitis C drugs – Incivek from Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc and Merck Co’s Victrelis – reaching the U.S. market in the past year.

Companies including Gilead Sciences Inc and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co aim to improve on those medicines with pills that do not need to be combined with injections of immune system boosters, which have side effects that can deter patients.

More than 15,000 Americans, most of them baby boomers, die each year from hepatitis C-related illness, such as cirrhosis and liver cancer.

Current U.S. guidelines call for testing only individuals with certain known risk factors for hepatitis C infection.

The CDC said it will accept public comment on the draft recommendations from May 22 to June 8.

Final recommendations will be issued later this year.

(Reporting By Deena Beasley in Los Angeles; editing by John Wallace and Matthew Lewis)

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/baby-boomers-hepatitis-c-test-cdc-160730952--finance.html

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The CDC is recommending a one-time blood test to check for the virus

US baby boomers have been advised by health officials for the first time to get tested for the liver-destroying virus hepatitis C.

Those born between 1945-1965 are most likely to be infected but it is thought only a quarter of this generation has been tested for the virus.

The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) believes its campaign could save more than 120,000 lives.

The CDC estimates some 17,000 hepatitis C infections currently occur each year.

Health officials believe hundreds of thousands of infections occurred each year in the 1970s and ’80s, when baby boomers would have been young adults.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

The CDC views hepatitis C as an unrecognised health crisis for the country”

End Quote
Dr John Ward
CDC hepatitis chief

The disease, which was first identified in 1989, can take decades to cause liver damage. Many of those infected may not even be aware of their condition.

One reason for the CDC advice is that from 1999-2007 the number of Americans dying from hepatitis C-related diseases nearly doubled.

Two million of the 3.2 million Americans known to be infected with the blood-borne virus are baby boomers.

CDC officials believe new testing could lead to 800,000 more baby boomers seeking treatment.

Many infections of hepatitis C come from sharing needles to inject drugs. Before widespread screening began in 1992, it was also transmitted through blood transfusions.

“The CDC views hepatitis C as an unrecognised health crisis for the country, and we believe the time is now for a bold response,” said Dr John Ward, the CDC’s hepatitis chief.

Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18127654

The newborn baby’s body was found at the waste management site on Valley Road, Shipley

A new appeal has been made to the mother of a baby girl found dead at a West Yorkshire waste site a year ago.

The body of a girl was found in Shipley on 19 May, 2011 and West Yorkshire Police hopes to identify the baby who was about three days old.

Her remains were discovered by staff at the Associated Waste Management depot last year.

The appeal comes as police talk with the coroner about the the infant’s remains being released for a funeral.

Officers have sent 37,000 letters to homes in Bradford and Leeds to appeal for information in the past year.

DNA profile

Scientific work has now provided officers with a DNA profile of the child, although a matching profile of her mother is not on record.

It is believed the baby’s delivery did not take place in a hospital and a post-mortem test failed to ascertain a cause of death.

Det Supt Sukhbir Singh, who is leading the investigation, said: “I would again urge the child’s mother and family to come forward and help us identify her baby girl as she is laid to rest.”

Police believe the mother of the baby is from the West Yorkshire area.

Staff at the waste management depot have taken an interest in supporting the funeral of the baby according to the police.

Anyone with information should contact West Yorkshire Police.

Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-18129483

Anyone born from 1945 to 1965 should get a one-time blood test to see if they have the liver-destroying virus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in draft recommendations issued Friday.

Baby boomers account for more than 2 million of the 3.2 million Americans infected with the blood-borne virus. It can take decades to cause liver damage, and many people don’t know they’re infected.

CDC officials believe the new measure could lead 800,000 more baby boomers to get treatment and could save more than 120,000 lives.

“The CDC views hepatitis C as an unrecognized health crisis for the country, and we believe the time is now for a bold response,” said Dr. John W. Ward, the CDC’s hepatitis chief.

Several developments drove the CDC’s push for wider testing, he said.

Recent data has shown that from 1999 to 2007, the number of Americans dying from hepatitis C-related diseases nearly doubled. Also, two drugs hit the market last year that promise to cure many more people than was previously possible.

The virus can gradually scar the liver and lead to cirrhosis or liver cancer, and is the leading cause of liver transplant. It can trigger damage in other parts of the body as well. All told, more than 15,000 Americans die each year from hepatitis C-related illnesses, according to the CDC.

The hepatitis C virus is most commonly spread today through sharing needles to inject drugs. Before widespread screening of blood donations began in 1992, it was also spread through blood transfusions.

Health officials believe hundreds of thousands of new hepatitis C infections were occurring each year in the 1970s and 1980s, most of them in the younger adults of the era — the baby boomers. The hepatitis C virus was first identified in 1989.

Today, about 17,000 infections occur annually, according to CDC estimates.

About 3 percent of baby boomers test positive for the virus, the CDC estimates.

Of those, some manage to clear the infection from their bodies without treatment, but still have lingering antibodies that give a positive initial test result. That’s why confirmatory tests are needed.

Still, only a quarter of infected people are that lucky. Most have active and dangerous infections, Ward said.

The agency’s current guidelines recommend testing people known to be at high risk, including current and past injection drug users.

But as many as a quarter of infected baby boomers say they don’t recall engaging in a risky behavior.

It’s possible some people were infected in ways other than injection drug use or long-ago blood transfusions. Some experts say tattoos, piercings, shared razor blades and toothbrushes, manicures and sniffed cocaine may have caused the virus to spread in some cases.

Those kinds of experiences might not raise flags in the minds of many patients or their physicians, experts said.

A recent Harris Interactive survey of 1,000 baby boomers found other forms of ignorance about hepatitis C. Fewer than 20 percent knew they belonged to the generation most likely to be infected, and only a similar percent were aware it can be cured in many patients.

Also, only about 25 percent said they had been tested, according to the survey, done on behalf of the American Gastroenterological Association and Vertex Pharmaceuticals, which makes one of the hepatitis C medications.

Currently, many baby boomers learn of their infection almost by accident, like when they donate blood or get a physical exam for a life insurance policy, said Dr. Ryan Ford, an Emory University physician specializing in hepatitis care.

He and other physicians celebrated the CDC’s announcement.

“It’s a long awaited and very much hoped for development that I believe will save lives,” said Dr. Ira Jacobson, a hepatitis expert at New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center

The new testing recommendation is expected to become final later this year.

___

Online:

CDC’s hepatitis page: http://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/C/index.htm

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/cdc-baby-boomers-tested-hepatitis-c-160522730.html

By Vanessa Barford
BBC News Magazine

Baby time-lapses – which see parents take daily images of their child, and run them together – are becoming increasingly common. So are they now the ultimate way of documenting a child’s development?

Parents have always been fond of storing sentimental keepsakes – a first tooth or lock of hair – as their child grows up.

And pictures marking significant milestones – birthdays or their first day of school – are a mainstay of mantelpieces.

But there is now a much more ambitious trend in cataloguing a child’s growth. And rather than being something typically kept within the privacy of the home, it prides itself on going public.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

I will hopefully have given my children a gift which they can pass it on to their children”

End Quote
Munish Bansal

Take the time-lapse of Natalie, who grows from birth to 10 years old in one minute and 25 seconds. It has racked up seven million hits since it emerged on YouTube in 2008.

Or a pregnant mother and her partner’s take on the trend, which encapsulates the nine-month pregnancy cycle in just 90 seconds.

Clearly, for some snap-happy parents, posting a couple of hundred pictures on Flickr is not enough. They are posting them every day. Others are creating video montages to capture the process.

So what motivates parents to create baby time-lapses – and are they becoming the ultimate way of recording a child’s development?

Munish Bansal, 39, a bookkeeper from Gillingham, Kent, has been recording every day in his children’s lives from the day they were born. He has now amassed more than 10,000 photos of Suman, 16, and Jay, 13, which are displayed on a dedicated website.

Continue reading the main story

Munish Bansal has taken photographs of his daughter Suman Bansal every day since her birth on 16 May 1996 (left). The following images are taken on her birthday every year since then.

Suman on 16 May 1998 (left) and 16 May 1999 (right)

Suman Bansal on 16 May 2000 (left) and 16 May 2001 (right)

Suman Bansal on 16 May 2002 (left) and 16 May 2003 (right)

Suman Bansal on 16 May 2004 (left) and 16 May 2005 (right)

Suman Bansal on 16 May 2006 (left) and 16 May 2007 (right)

Suman Bansal on 16 May 2008 (left) and 16 May 2009 (right)

Suman Bansal on 16 May 2010 (left) and 16 May 2011 (right)

Suman Bansal on her birthday in 2012

Continue reading the main story

“I decided it was something I wanted to do before Suman was born – I wanted to see the daily changes, and it was also for family in India.

“I thought I’d only do it for a few years, but then it seemed a shame to stop. When you look at the photos, it’s like fast forwarding a movie, you can see how she used to laugh, smile, and look – it’s wonderful,” he says.

Bansal says he “has to be strict” with himself to keep up the practice. And on one occasion, when his daughter went to France, he had to get friends and teachers to take the pictures in his place.

In an ideal world, he says he would like to carry on taking photos until his children are 18 years old, but it depends on how they feel when they go to college. At the moment, they love the attention, he says.

“Either way I feel as if I have achieved a goal – and I will hopefully have given my children a gift which they can pass it onto their children.”

Frans Hofmeester documented his daughter Lotte’s progression through childhood, pictured above from infancy to age 12

For Dutch filmmaker Frans Hofmeester, who has been filming his daughter Lotte, 12, every week since she was born, a time-lapse was never something he set out to achieve.

“She was changing at such a rapid pace, I felt like I needed to document the way she looked, the sounds she made, to keep my memory intact.

“I developed a rhythm of filming every week, and editing a film every birthday. When my son Vince came along, I started doing the same thing,” he says.

Hofmeester also captured his son

Hofmeester says the process became “more intense, more powerful” as time passed, until he realised he had “something special in his hands, which he had to do something with”.

However he says he was “overwhelmed” by the reaction to the result – the Lotte time-lapse video from birth to 12 in two minutes 45 seconds – which went viral and clocked up 3.7m views on Vimeo in one week.

Hofmeester puts the appeal down to the “soul feeling” of the live images, which “touches people”, as well as the natural draw of children.

“It is also the most essential example of what life is – there are so many emotions in just three minutes,” he says.

It is easy to understand how the creators of baby time-lapses get captivated by them, but their wider appeal is perhaps more surprising.

Especially in light of a recent poll of Facebook users, which puts baby photos as the second most irritating picture annoyance on the website.

So how popular are baby time-lapses, and why do other people like viewing them?

Continue reading the main story

The bump chronicler

Jen Jardim, 28, a body piercer from north London, is 17 weeks pregnant and documenting her pregnancy through an app.

“I take a picture every Sunday, standing against the same wall, with my partner sitting in the same spot, so I can see how my bump changes. It’s quite a good app, it tells me how big the baby is by fruit or vegetable size, starting off as a poppy seed, then grape, lemon etc, so we can visualise it. Now I’m a sweet potato.

“Part of the reason we’re doing it is we really wanted to get pregnant, so after trying for a while when it finally happened, it was really special. But it is also going so fast it is a way of remembering it. When I was in the middle of morning sickness it was hard to savour the moment, and once the baby arrives I might forget what it was like to be pregnant.

“It’s just for our own personal use. I’d like to make a time lapse out of all the pictures at the end, as a gift, but I doubt it will end up on YouTube.

We’d quite like to carry on when our child is born, but we’ll see. Even now I love looking back at photos, it’s interesting to see how I’ve changed.”

Kathryn Blundell, the editor of Mother Baby Magazine, says whereas parents are often drawn to time-lapses because of an awareness of how fleeting childhood is, their wider appeal is, in part, because of the “hypnotic and memorising” element of the medium.

“It’s like when you watch the David Attenborough flower opening – there is a fascination, it pulls you in,” she says.

According to Blundell, baby time-lapses are part of a growing trend that has developed alongside technology.

“Whether it’s photo albums, videos, or babies that now have their own Facebook pages and Twitter pages with updates like ‘I’ve pooped my pants’, to mums writing their own blogs, Mumsnet and Pinterest, the culture is already out there.

“In a way, baby time-lapses are the modern scrapbook,” she says.

Ellis Cashmore, professor of culture, media and sport at Staffordshire University, agrees technology has simply given parents another means of documenting their child’s development – but he believes baby time-lapses also reflect a much broader shift in society.

“We have a different concept of the private life than we used to, even 20 years ago. The concept of shielding something away from public attention has virtually been abandoned – we share practically everything nowadays, not just in social media, but in day-to-day interactions.

“So whereas in the mid 20th Century sharing photos of your children may have been a cause of embarrassment, the advances in media, which started with the introduction of television, have incrementally changed the notion of what is private,” he says.

Of course some parents are uncomfortable with baby photos being put online, or fear they may be open to abuse or manipulation. Critics also argue a child should have a right to decide whether it has a digital footprint, not parents.

But a study by internet security company AVG, which found that 92% of children in the US had an online presence by the time they were two years old, with countries such as the UK and France not far behind at 81%, suggests the majority of parents are more relaxed.

However those that think baby time-lapses are set to be the norm are misguided, according to Greg Hobson, curator of photographs at the National Media Museum.

“It is an interesting phenomenon and I think people tend to connect with these time-lapses as they are human beings, and there are intonations of death and the passing of time – in a similar way to time-lapses of fruit or flowers decaying – which make us aware of our own mortality.

“But these are essentially family shots, so while it is interesting to see new something on the internet, the attention span for these things is relatively short,” he says.

Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18075986

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ORANGE, Calif., May 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — The main objective of a baby shower celebration is to welcome the new baby to the world. My Paper Shop.Com is excited to introduce a wide selection of Discount Baby Shower Party Supplies. Our newest baby shower supplies can be found exclusively online at mypapershop.com in bulk quantities and wholesale prices.

New Baby Shower themed ensembles include Owl, an adorable design inspired by the current woodland trend in baby celebrations. This party ensemble is mostly gender-neutral; however, features select items tailored for girls and boys. The sets include all the party goods needed to decorate for a successful baby welcoming celebration—paper napkins, plates and cups, party invitations and thank you cards, decorations and favor bags.

“Baby showers are the perfect time for family and friends to gather and support the parents-to-be, since they are just as excited to meet the new family member,” comments national sales coordinator, Claudia Rojas.

The interesting thing about baby showers is that they are celebrated differently around the world, but they all celebrate a new life. In Brazil, these celebrations are women-only, include food and music and are called “cha de bebe,” (“baby tea”). In China, baby showers are put together a month after the baby has been born. In the UK, baby showers are often viewed as a materialistic American custom so instead, girlfriends like to surprise new mommies with flowers once she is home.

Our Baby Shower Decorations feature adorable jungle animals, sailboats, whales and other modern designs in delicate pastel shades that are sure to make any baby welcoming party a memorable event.

Invitations and Thank You Cards for the special day are available in a wide variety of designs and styles to match every ensemble.

Prices for baby shower themed party supplies range from 12.95 USD to 51.95 USD for case quantities of 96-216. Party supply blogs customized for My Paper Shop.Com feature helpful tips for decorating.

My Paper Shop also offers Super Saver Discounts, under which qualifying orders may be eligible to receive up to 20 percent off the subtotal.

My Paper Shop.Com is an established discount party supply vendor since 2000 and supplies to individuals and businesses worldwide.

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Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/baby-shower-party-supplies-celebrate-140000394.html

helloblueivycarter.tumblr.com

Beyonce with daughter Blue Ivy Carter

Baby names. When did it all get so cutthroat and complicated?  In the good old days, you just sat down with a piece of paper, and possibly a baby book, and made a list of choices. Nobody worried about a friend stealing their baby name or how to lay claim to it on the Internet.

Welcome to 2012, where naming baby in the digital age isn’t quite so cut and dry. These days, a savvy parent gets online as soon as they’ve narrowed down their options. The first step: Do a simple Google search to make sure you aren’t setting your unborn child up for a lifetime of confusion — with a porn star or a criminal.

After all, we all know our kid is going to have plenty of people doing the exact same thing — searching for him or her online, for the rest of their lives — and no one wants to make their kid’s teenage years any more awkward than they need to be. Or worse, potentially hurt their chances of getting a job one day because their name brings up a list of felonies.

Kate Flewelling, an attorney in Chicago, turned to Google to help her and her husband pick the right spelling for their son’s name. They wanted to know exactly what they were signing on for before they filled out that birth certificate.

“We were trying to decide between Myles and Miles, with a y or an i,” she explains. “So we Googled stuff like ‘is Myles a hipster or jock name?’ And I admit, I almost Facebooked the one guy I found who does share the name Myles Flewelling to see what he was actually like.”

Fast forward to after a baby is born, and it’s becoming more and more popular to reserve a child’s email, domain name and maybe even Twitter handle, so they don’t have to be something like, “Sophie Miller 582” or “Oscar Sheppard 4”” when they grow up and want their own Internet identity. 

“When our son was a month old, we got him a Gmail account,” says Joanna Goldstein, a first time mother in New York City.  “For now, I send emails out to our family every week, attaching pictures and sharing his latest triumphs. I hope somebody it will be nice for him to have this journal of his early adventures in his email.”

And then, there’s Jay Z and Beyonce, who took the whole laying claim to a baby name to the next level. They made headlines last winter when they filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to protect their daughter’s name — Blue Ivy Carter . 

Some parents found the whole thing downright crazy. Trademarking a baby name — only in tinsel town, right? But other people were left wondering whether, in fact, you can register your child’s name so nobody else can steal it in real life or online.

Brett Frischmann is an expert in intellectual property and internet law at Cardozo School of Law. He says that “99.9 percent of the time, it doesn’t make sense for parents to trademark their baby’s name.”

As he explains, a trademark serves a very particular function in commerce, creating a connection between the name of a company and the goods or services it sells. For instance, you can’t open up another fast food-type restaurant named McDonald’s. That could create confusion for customers.

But you also just can’t just lock up a word (or group of words) from the English language — much less a name for your kids. Professor Frischmann points outs, “You could always name your child Delta and the airline couldn’t sue you.”

So what exactly do Beyonce and Jay Z have up their sleeve? Most likely, they’re trying to reserve it for a future line of baby clothing or kiddie items with the label Blue Ivy Carter on it. The trademark puts a lock on anyone trying to sell products using their daughter’s name.

The bad news: You can’t capitalize on their kid’s fame and open up your own Blue Ivy boutique. The good news: You can absolutely name your next kid Blue Ivy if you’d like — even if your last name is Carter.

Jacoba Urist is a lawyer, writer, and mom in Manhattan. She has a JD and LLM in Taxation from NYU School of Law. Her writing has appeared on MSN Money and The Atlantic. Follow her on twitter: @Thehappiestpare

More stories about baby names from TODAY Moms:

The list is out for top baby names of 2011

Moms’ picks for best and worst celebrity baby names

What do you do if someone steals your baby name?

Flashback: Top baby names of 2010 announced

TODAY’s Kathie Lee Gifford chats about celebrating Mother’s Day weekend at her son’s graduation from the University of Southern California.

Looking for a little baby name inspiration? Commissioner of Social Security Michael Astrue reveals the most popular names of 2011.

“Like” TODAY Moms on Facebook, and follow us @TodayMoms

Article source: http://moms.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/17/11735652-is-trademarking-a-baby-name-going-too-far?lite

helloblueivycarter.tumblr.com

Beyonce with daughter Blue Ivy Carter

Baby names. When did it all get so cutthroat and complicated?  In the good old days, you just sat down with a piece of paper, and possibly a baby book, and made a list of choices. Nobody worried about a friend stealing their baby name or how to lay claim to it on the Internet.

Welcome to 2012, where naming baby in the digital age isn’t quite so cut and dry. These days, a savvy parent gets online as soon as they’ve narrowed down their options. The first step: Do a simple Google search to make sure you aren’t setting your unborn child up for a lifetime of confusion — with a porn star or a criminal.

After all, we all know our kid is going to have plenty of people doing the exact same thing — searching for him or her online, for the rest of their lives — and no one wants to make their kid’s teenage years any more awkward than they need to be. Or worse, potentially hurt their chances of getting a job one day because their name brings up a list of felonies.

Kate Flewelling, an attorney in Chicago, turned to Google to help her and her husband pick the right spelling for their son’s name. They wanted to know exactly what they were signing on for before they filled out that birth certificate.

“We were trying to decide between Myles and Miles, with a y or an i,” she explains. “So we Googled stuff like ‘is Myles a hipster or jock name?’ And I admit, I almost Facebooked the one guy I found who does share the name Myles Flewelling to see what he was actually like.”

Fast forward to after a baby is born, and it’s becoming more and more popular to reserve a child’s email, domain name and maybe even Twitter handle, so they don’t have to be something like, “Sophie Miller 582” or “Oscar Sheppard 4”” when they grow up and want their own Internet identity. 

“When our son was a month old, we got him a Gmail account,” says Joanna Goldstein, a first time mother in New York City.  “For now, I send emails out to our family every week, attaching pictures and sharing his latest triumphs. I hope somebody it will be nice for him to have this journal of his early adventures in his email.”

And then, there’s Jay Z and Beyonce, who took the whole laying claim to a baby name to the next level. They made headlines last winter when they filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to protect their daughter’s name — Blue Ivy Carter . 

Some parents found the whole thing downright crazy. Trademarking a baby name — only in tinsel town, right? But other people were left wondering whether, in fact, you can register your child’s name so nobody else can steal it in real life or online.

Brett Frischmann is an expert in intellectual property and internet law at Cardozo School of Law. He says that “99.9 percent of the time, it doesn’t make sense for parents to trademark their baby’s name.”

As he explains, a trademark serves a very particular function in commerce, creating a connection between the name of a company and the goods or services it sells. For instance, you can’t open up another fast food-type restaurant named McDonald’s. That could create confusion for customers.

But you also just can’t just lock up a word (or group of words) from the English language — much less a name for your kids. Professor Frischmann points outs, “You could always name your child Delta and the airline couldn’t sue you.”

So what exactly do Beyonce and Jay Z have up their sleeve? Most likely, they’re trying to reserve it for a future line of baby clothing or kiddie items with the label Blue Ivy Carter on it. The trademark puts a lock on anyone trying to sell products using their daughter’s name.

The bad news: You can’t capitalize on their kid’s fame and open up your own Blue Ivy boutique. The good news: You can absolutely name your next kid Blue Ivy if you’d like — even if your last name is Carter.

Jacoba Urist is a lawyer, writer, and mom in Manhattan. She has a JD and LLM in Taxation from NYU School of Law. Her writing has appeared on MSN Money and The Atlantic. Follow her on twitter: @Thehappiestpare

More stories about baby names from TODAY Moms:

The list is out for top baby names of 2011

Moms’ picks for best and worst celebrity baby names

What do you do if someone steals your baby name?

Flashback: Top baby names of 2010 announced

TODAY’s Kathie Lee Gifford chats about celebrating Mother’s Day weekend at her son’s graduation from the University of Southern California.

Looking for a little baby name inspiration? Commissioner of Social Security Michael Astrue reveals the most popular names of 2011.

“Like” TODAY Moms on Facebook, and follow us @TodayMoms

Article source: http://moms.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/17/11735652-is-trademarking-a-baby-name-going-too-far?lite

The crabs are blanketing roads, scurrying across yards and scratching their way up homes and buildings in a process that scientists say will last about a month.

“People living in the coast will have them everywhere,” said Tim Austin, deputy director of the Cayman Islands’ Environment Department, on Wednesday. “They get in houses, into your AC system. Anywhere there’s a gap, they’ll find it. They’re trying to get somewhere where they’ll live happily.”

The baby crabs, which are smaller than a thumbnail, were born in the ocean a few weeks ago and are emerging along rocky shores, seeking forests and wetlands near the coast where they will remain until they reproduce and head back to sea to deposit their eggs, Austin said. While the babies are red, the species is known as the black land crab because of the dark purple color it takes on as it ages.

It is likely that the recent “supermoon” and low tides have made it easier for the baby crabs to reach land, which could help explain the increase this year, he said. Most of them are overrunning Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, two of three islands that make up the archipelago.

The baby crabs do not migrate every year, in part because of ocean currents, tides and wind conditions, but adult crabs migrate every year to the ocean during the start of the rainy season, usually in May. Their migration has already occurred.

The government urges people to try to avoid the crabs as they drive, but it is nearly impossible not to hit them.

“It’s a minefield of flattened crabs. You’ll just see hundreds of splats,” said Jim Andrews, 48, who lives with his family in the southeast end of Grand Cayman.

His house has been invaded by crabs as well.

“This year, we just saw tons of the tiny little newborns,” he said. “You can hear them crawling on the windowsills.”

Andrews said his two young boys know better than to play with the adult crabs. His dog, not as much.

“The dog likes to grab them and twirl them around and throw them around,” he said. “She knows she might get bit. Not bit, clawed.”

The migration of the adult crabs occurs at night, and the crabs, which grow up to 1 foot (0.3 meters) long, have been blamed for causing flat tires.

“Crabs will see the cars coming. They’ll hunker down and put their claws up,” said James Gibb, research officer with the Environment Department. “A colleague of mine went through four tires five years ago.”

Adult crabs also can move up to six feet (two meters) per second, Austin said.

“This is why they are hard to miss on the roads,” he said. “You line your car up to miss them, and then they suddenly dart back into your path.”

The adult crabs also lead to another yearly problem: the theft of garbage bins.

People will hunt the crabs at night with flashlights and place them in stolen garbage bins where they’ll feed them mangos and vegetables to clean their system before cooking them, Gibb said.

“My dad will get upset,” he said, referring to the yearly theft. “I have to go to the hardware store and buy new garbage bins.”

But Gibb said he doesn’t mind living in the middle of what he calls the “red tide”.

“You’re closer to nature,” he said. “When stuff like this happens it’s interesting. I feel bad for living in a house that’s in their way.”

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/baby-red-crabs-invade-cayman-islands-163238363.html

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Kuron Hunt was delivered after his pregnant mother was stabbed in the stomach at her home in the 4200 block of 9th Street SE on March 22. While his mother survived, the baby died due to injuries sustained in the attack.

The surveillance video shows a person walking outside the victim’s apartment building about 2:30 a.m. the morning of the attack.

One of the victim’s neighbors, Chris Copeland, told the Post in March that the victim described the attack to him. Copeland said the woman, who was eight months pregnant at the time of the stabbing, told him that she had been sleeping when she woke up to find someone standing over her.

The intruder stabbed her one time, police said.

The woman was taken to a local hospital, where the baby was delivered. The mother survived the attack, but the boy died. An autopsy showed that the cause of death was a stab wound to the baby’s torso.

Investigators said they have been searching for a male suspect, but have not released a description of the attacker.

The video shows a person who appears to be a man, wearing jeans and a black hooded sweatshirt or jacket, approaching and entering the building. The person’s face is not visible.

Anyone with information about the attack or the suspect can call 202-727-9099 or text message 50411.

This item has been updated.

Article source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/crime-scene/post/babys-stabbing-death-in-dc-person-of-interest-appears-in-video/2012/05/15/gIQAUYZ3QU_blog.html?wprss=rss_local