Archive for category: Disease

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The Millennium Development Goals Results Show Success

The Millennium Development Goals Deadline Has Arrived
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) laid out eight specific targets to reduce extreme poverty and improve the living conditions of billions of people worldwide, from 2000-2015. The anticipated deadline has arrived and the results are positive, with a final report calling this “the most successful anti-poverty movement in history.”

Since 1990, the number of people living in extreme poverty has declined by more than half, falling from 1.9 billion to 836 million. In addition, according to the report the proportion of undernourished people in developing regions fell by almost half, from 23.3 percent in 1990-1992 to 12.9 percent in 2014-2016.

Below are more updated figures of the success of the MDGs:

  • Water: The target was met of halving the proportion of people who lack access to improved sources of water. Since 1990, 2.6 billion people have gained access to better water sources.
  • Mortality Rate: The under-five mortality rate has declined by more than half, from 12.7 million to less than 6 million and maternal mortality is down 45 percent worldwide.
  • Diseases: New HIV infections decreased by about 40 percent, from 2000 to 2013. In the same time period, tuberculosis prevention, treatment, and diagnosis solutions have saved the lives of 37 million. Since 2000, 6.2 million deaths of mostly children under 5 were prevented from malaria.
  • Education: The primary school enrollment rate in the developing regions has reached 91 percent with the number of children out of school dropping from 100 million to an estimated 57 million. There are also many more girls going to school compared to 15 years ago with an estimated two-thirds of developing countries closing the gender gap in education.

Despite significant gains, there are still issues to be addressed. The report indicates that gender equality, maternal health and extreme poverty and hunger remain problems in the effort to improve lives across the world.

Coming up this month, the global community will convene at the United Nations for a summit to establish a new development agenda and to adopt a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that will provide a blueprint for policy and funding for the next 15 years.

– Paula Acevedo

Sources:  United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Foundation Blog,
Photo: Flickr

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Debates Over Deworming

Deworming
Although multiple studies have found that worm infections in developing countries should be treated with deworming pills, there is some debate within health organizations as to who qualifies for treatment. Currently there are 280 million children that are being treated for worms worldwide, but some experts believe that this is excessive.

When people are infected by worms, they suffer multiple ailments, primarily internal bleeding, which can lead to a loss of iron and anemia. Worms also cause diarrhea and malabsorption of nutrients. Compounding the problem, people also suffer a loss of appetite, which means they ingest less food overall. People most at risk are children and women of childbearing age.

Deworming people, especially children of a young age, has shown to be an effective measure to ensure that they stay in school for longer periods of time. A study conducted in Kenya after a deworming program showed that school absenteeism decreased by 25 percent. Even improved attendance in schools in which no children were treated within a three kilometer radius was remarked.

However, diagnosis is relatively expensive in developing countries because it involves a lab analysis of fecal matter, costing four to ten times the price of treatment. Some experts therefore recommend that mass deworming programs be carried out where a large number have been found to be infected.

This is currently the World Health Organization’s policy. Some scientists have challenged this practice, claiming that the available evidence is not enough to assure the safety or necessity of mass treatments. They believe that a lack of teachers, rather than absent children, are the cause of most problems in education in developing countries.

The deworming medication itself is extremely cheap, at just 30 to 40 cents per child. Many studies have suggested that this is a cost effective way of getting kids to go to school. These children also performed better at academic tests eight year later and at cognitive tests ten years later. In the southern United States, a deworming campaign in the early 1900’s had the same effects.

– Radhika Singh

Sources: The Conversation, Harvard University, Voxeu, WHO
Photo: Answers

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Mosquirix: New Malaria Vaccine Approved

Mosquirix: New Malaria Vaccine Approved
Thanks to the efforts of GlaxoSmithKline and the generous support of The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s first malaria vaccine has been approved by regulators at the European Medicine Agency. The drug is called Mosquirix, and although it is likely not the end-all solution to the widespread disease, it is a stepping stone in the right direction.

GSK worked with the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative to create the immunization, which is meant for use in tropical and subtropical areas where the illness is prevalent and largely uncontrolled. Called RTS,S in its experimental stages, Mosquirix is designed for children 6-17 months old whose immune systems are still developing.

Mosquirix works to prevent malaria by attacking Plasmodium falciparum parasites. These parasites multiply in the livers of people affected by malaria and head into the bloodstream where they cause more severe symptoms. This approach to preventing malaria is different than those of other vaccines, which seek to take down viruses and bacteria.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation contributed over $200 million to the drug’s research and development, and GSK is optimistic that it will be effective in reducing incidences of malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa where cases of malaria caused by the parasite are most common. Of the nearly 600,000 deaths related to malaria in 2013, 90 percent of these occurred in Sub-Saharan Africa; 83 percent in children under the age of five in the same region.

Studies show that Mosquirix reduces malaria cases by only a third and that its protection decreases in the long term. However, experts agree that some results are better than no results. In conjunction with other protective measures like insecticide-treated bed-nets, Mosquirix may become an important part of the malaria fight.

The main road bump for Mosquirix? Distribution. The vaccine may exist, but to the young children in Africa who need it, it may as well be a fantasy.

The question is whether the distribution of the vaccination to areas where it is needed is worth the time and the money. The World Health Organization is skeptical of the feasibility of Mosquirix’s implementation and has not yet issued a recommendation for its use. Officials at the WHO are worried that financing for the vaccine may “draw away from scaling up bed nets, effective drugs and rapid diagnostic tests for malaria.”

There is a reason that most vaccines are not made against parasites – unlike bacteria or a virus, a parasite has a complicated life cycle that transports it around the body. Parasites like those that cause malaria can remain living in the body for years.

However, the news that it is possible for a malaria vaccine to be developed and approved is promising. Whether or not Mosquirix achieves outstanding success, discussion surrounding it is undoubtedly paving the way for future malaria-related drug research.

– Katie Pickle

Sources: NBC News, Tech Times
Photo: Press Herald

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No Over-the-Counter Aspirin in Delhi Spotlights Government Action

No Over the Counter Aspirin in Delhi Spotlights Government Action

The Delhi government has banned the sale of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) without a prescription. The restriction is set to last from August 15 until November 30, which is peak dengue fever season. For patients with dengue fever, NSAIDs can increase the risk of hemorrhage or death. Other precautions taken include increasing the number of beds available and keeping extra NS1 Antigen detection kits, blood and supplies in hospitals.

Additionally, all government buildings, including hospitals, have been asked to procure the National Center for Disease designed mosquito-proof air coolers (MPCs). Mosquito nets will also be provided to sentinel surveillance hospitals. The government has also made moves to reward or penalize those areas where breeding is or is not found, respectively. New warnings are expected to be drafted featuring more correct and simplified information so that the public can be better informed of the change and why it is being implemented.

Because dengue fever plagues nearly the entire developing world, it can be considered a developing country disease. The people that are most affected rely on correct information and government action to protect themselves. The cooperation of the Delhi government in response to an impending potential for a health crisis showcases how both health officials and government officials can work together to bring about a more efficient action. The ban will likely be successful in decreasing dengue-related deaths and could perhaps serve as a model for other places where dengue fever claims the lives of many. The emphasis on encouraging correct public knowledge of risks and preventing the spread of misinformation is a huge step towards public transparency and again can serve as a model.

The cross-sectional cooperation and move to enact such a ban before peak dengue season is also noteworthy, as the government was able to act quickly enough that they should see drastic results with the ban in regards to dengue-related deaths. Cooperation and a prevention-based movement are both good indicators of the success of a public health initiative. Results pending, the Delhi restriction can serve as a model prevention program for not only other countries plagued with dengue fever but for other illnesses with known risky associations.

– Emma Dowd

Sources: Financial Express, India Times, Merinews
Photo: One Healthcare Worldwide

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Fight Against Malaria in Myanmar

Myanmar
In the global fight against Malaria, the drug, artemisinin, has been a common theme. However, with the ongoing rise of resistance to the drug, new approaches are needed. As the resistance spreads, it threatens to enter Myanmar by India, which then puts the entire African continent at risk.

Myanmar has a longstanding history of rigid ethnic division and an overall lack of cooperation in both domestic and international politics. However, the imminent danger posed by the potential for the spread of artemisinin-resistant Malaria could be bringing about a new era of cooperation. Since Malaria is a problem that everyone in the country is facing, the structure encouraged by conflict and the history of segregation is being weakened by necessity. People are beginning to realize that the risks posed by the resistance are so imminent and dramatic that there is no time to waste in upholding such strict separations.

With an election coming up in November, these discussions held between the opposing political parties are important. As the public sees that the government as a whole is making serious efforts to combat Malaria, there will likely be less distrust and suspicion, which could encourage participation in the elections. It is widely understood by both sides that the fight against malaria should not and cannot be subject to the ups and downs of political turmoil in the country.

Additionally, because most deaths from malaria are occurring in marginalized ethnic communities that have long battled the government, which has affected the access to and quality of medical care in those areas, the new view on and cooperation in the fight against Malaria will have to address the issue in order to reach the goal of eliminating Malaria by 2025. Myanmar has made an effort to prove to the U.S. that they are taking Malaria seriously so as to encourage foreign aid by inviting members of various ethnic groups and central government departments to convene in a meeting in Washington D.C. this past week, the timid first step towards collaboration to eradicate Malaria in Myanmar and to prevent the spread of the artemisinin-resistance to larger, vulnerable populations.

– Emma Dowd

Sources: Bangkok Post 1, Bangkok Post 2
Photo: Bangkok Post

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Medical Microchips and Their Life-Saving Potential

medical_microchips
The ongoing Ebola epidemic in Western Africa has shown the dangers of late, or improper, diagnosis of disease. A late diagnosis can lead to a patient further spreading a pathogen and the wrong treatment usually does more harm than good. In developing countries and rural parts of the world, medical care is grossly underdeveloped, and as a consequence, diagnoses of illness are often inadequate. Millions die each year due to the fact that doctors cannot identify their ailment or treat it properly. However, with recent advances in microchip technology, diagnoses are becoming more accurate and timely for a cheaper price than ever before with medical microchips.

There are many different kinds of chips and devices being developed in both the public and private sectors. One such device is the “paper microchip” currently being tested at Florida Atlantic University. The chip is made of a polyester film that can detect pathogens in a blood sample.

An author of the university study, Waseem Asghar, said, “[t]here is a dire need for robust, portable, disposable and inexpensive bio-sensing platforms for clinical care, especially in developing countries with limited resources,” A large problem that doctors face in developing regions is the lack of laboratories and skilled testing personnel. With microchip technology, samples do not need to be sent to a lab, rather results can be generated instantly on the spot.

Microchips prove to be a major innovation in the medical world as they have the potential to take human error out of the equation. Computers do not need to go to medical school or study the exact signs and symptoms of any given disease. Researchers have tested the “paper microchip” for HIV and E. Coli diagnosis, but also state that the device could be used for many other infectious diseases. As the name suggests, microchips are small and thus portable. With increasing App and interconnected technology, they would require less training and knowledge to operate. Microchips have the potential to diagnose millions who were, in the past, untreatable due to their economic or geographical situations.

– Joe Kitaj

Sources: Wired, The New York Times, Wsnewspublishers
Photo: Wired

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The Color Blue Puts an End to Sleeping Sickness in Africa

sleeping_sickness
For rural Sub-Saharan Africans, a walk to the riverbank to wash clothes, gather firewood or collect water is a risky business. About 1 in 1,000 Tsetse flies, which swarm by the river’s edge, are carriers of a parasitic disease called sleeping sickness, which eventually infects the victim’s brains, driving them mad before killing them. In 2013, at least 7,000 cases of this rabies-like disease were reported.

Due to vague early symptoms such as headache, joint pain and bouts of fever, the disease is difficult to diagnose in the beginning. Although it is curable with drugs, patients are often experiencing its later stages before they realize they have been infected. True to its name, patients find it impossible to sleep during the night and impossible to remain awake during the daylight in its later stages.

Those living in rural areas may not make it to hospitals because of the far distance, but thankfully today, researchers have found that the number of individuals suffering from sleeping disease in the region of Uganda has been cut by 90 percent. The reason? Scientists have discovered a weakness for these insects with a lethal bite: the color blue. Because these flies search for something to bite which contrasts with green vegetation, bright colors, especially bright blue, drives them crazy.

With this newfound knowledge, along the riverbanks in the West Nile region in Uganda, handkerchief-sized blue squares attached to wooden stakes netted with insecticide are staked about every 50 yards. It only takes 3 minutes before these flies will drop dead. These life-saving fly traps are relatively cheap and have significantly contributed to a decrease in the number of people being affected by the disease. Last year, fewer than 10,000 cases were reported versus about 300,000 cases reported by the World Health Organization (WHO) during the height of its epidemic in the late 1990s.

WHO hopes to eliminate flies carrying the disease within five to six years. Ministry of Health worker Dr. Charles Wamboga has seen fewer cases and believes that a future free from this deadly disease is possible for a people whose very lifeline flows within their rivers.

– Nikki Schaffer

Sources: NPR, WHO
Photo: Flickr

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The Poor Find Haven In Monrovia’s Cemeteries

monrovia
Liberia has had a trying past couple of decades. Most recently, it was plagued by the Ebola virus, which killed thousands of people. Before this, it had suffered through a 14-year-long civil war, which had taken place just a few years after yet another civil war ended. Both wars killed hundreds of thousands of people, leaving many homeless and destitute. Lacking housing or money, many poverty-stricken Liberians have turned to living in cemeteries, many of which are in Monrovia, its capital.

Most go to the Palm Grove Cemetery. Many of these dwellers arrived when they were just children and after their parents had been killed. Some had been child soldiers. They were taken there by friends from the street who used the relative peace and security of the cemetery to indulge in marijuana, cocaine and heroin. They used tombs for shelter after smashing them open and throwing out their long-dead inhabitants.

Monrovians look upon the cemetery dwellers with distaste and fear. They are viewed as criminals and drug addicts who disrespect the graves of their families and are deprecatorily called “friends of the dead.” On Decoration Day, a public holiday when Liberians paint and adorn tombs, conflict always erupts between the tomb dwellers and the families of the tombs’ rightful owners.

Rather than provide an area for the homeless to live in, President Johnson Sirleaf simply put up walls around the cemetery in 2007 to keep them out. Just a few months later, however, people had already breached the walls to live in the cemetery once again. Now the walls serve to better hide the dwellers and their activities rather than keep them out.

Prostitution has also become commonplace behind the cemetery’s walls. Some women and girls are only able to survive through sex work. They are afforded no protection from the police, who often rape them themselves. Unwanted births are commonplace.

Many diseases also run rampant. Ebola was just another problem to add to a list of illnesses that included ones such as tuberculosis and diarrhea.

Hope may yet be around the corner for these cemetery residents. Last year, the British charity organization, Street Child, began to work with them, setting up counseling sessions, schools and rehab centers. However, many roadblocks stand in the way of their progress. It is extremely difficult for many residents to even consider weaning themselves off their dependency on drugs. Sometimes, drugs make them aggressive and hostile, which makes it hard for people from Street Child to engage with them.

The outbreak of Ebola also set back efforts. Schools were banned, as were public gatherings. Street Children also started redirecting efforts to the 2,000 children orphaned because of Ebola. Officials have been hostile to Street Children’s efforts in cemeteries, calling their residents a “lost cause.”

Now that Ebola has largely disappeared in Liberia, Street Children is ready to make a renewed effort to help the cemetery dwellers. To the charity organization, small successes have boosted their belief that these people can be saved from a lifetime of poverty and dependency.

– Radhika Singh

Sources: Independent, BBC 1, BBC 2
Photo: Independent

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Potential to Cure Parkinson’s Disease Found in Existing Drug

Potential to Cure Parkinson’s Disease Found in Existing Drug

In a recent report, researchers found that the current drugs Chloroquine and Amodiaquine, two common anti-malaria drugs, could also provide treatment for Parkinson’s disease.

Parkinson’s disease itself is a disease caused by a loss of cells in a part of the brain called the subtantia nigra. This loss of cells causes the reduction of the neurotransmitter called dopamine, or the chemical in the brain that regulates movement and mood.

One of the study’s authors, Dr. Yoon Ho Sup, stated, “Our discovery brings hope for the millions of people suffering from Parkinson’s disease, as the drugs that we have found to have worked in the laboratory tests have already been used to treat malaria in patients for decades.”

Dr. Sup continued, “Our research also shows that existing drugs can be repurposed to treat other diseases and once several potential drugs are found, we can redesign them to be more effective in combating their targeted diseases while reducing the side effects.”

This monumental breakthrough could lead to an inexpensive alternative treatment to many individuals who suffer from Parkinson’s on a daily basis. Creating the new treatment would be beneficial not only from a financial standpoint but also because many of the current treatments involve a varied concoction of many drugs and surgery.

Another of the study’s authors, Professor Kwang-Soo Kim stated, “…[existing] pharmacological and surgical treatments address the patient’s symptoms, such as to improve mobility functions in the early stages of the disease, but the treatments cannot slow down or stop the disease process.”

With the current research and backing of scientific evidence, these drugs are seen to be a potential drug target to treat Parkinson’s itself.

The researchers hope that the drugs can be further modified to continue to better treat Parkinson’s and hopefully slow and stop the process.

– Alysha Biemolt

Sources: Spring, WHO, PNAS
Photo: Medical Press

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Deworming Rwanda

Deworming campaign Improving School Attendance in Rwanda
Unquestionably, one of the most effective weapons fighting global poverty today is education, and in Rwanda, a small country in central eastern Africa, it’s essential. Absence is commonplace however, with children suffering from abdominal pain, diarrhea and nausea. Attendance in school is difficult for children with soil-transmitted helminth infections.

In collaboration with Ministries of Health, a campaign to combat the disease was launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) and has shown success in getting students back in school.

According to WHO, soil-transmitted helminth infections are among the most common infections worldwide and affect the poorest and most deprived communities. They are transmitted by eggs present in human feces, which contaminate soil in areas where sanitation is poor. The disease is easily contracted by walking barefoot on contaminated soil or eating contaminated food.

The main species that infect people are the roundworm (Ascaris lumbricoides), the whipworm (Trichuris trichiura) and the hookworms (Necator americanus and Ancylostoma duodenale).

Soil-transmitted helminth causes a spectrum of health problems, from the indiscernible to the severe, which can includ abdominal pain, diarrhea, blood and protein loss, rectal prolapse and physical and mental retardation. The severity of infection is directly related to the worm burden.

The disease, one of the most common parasitic ailments in the world, affects approximately 2 billion people, nearly two thirds of the world’s population, and it is estimated that 4 billion others are at risk.

In Rwanda, illnesses can be extraordinarily bad. According to WHO, ninety-five percent of school aged children living in the Musanze District were suffering in 2007, one of the highest rates in the country.

There, soil-transmitted helminth is contracted mainly from dirty water, fetched from nearby Lake Ruhondo and those who use the stagnant water from the former banks of the Mukungwa River. Open defecation is still practiced in the area and sanitation is almost non-existent.

In 2007, whole families were getting sick. Parents stayed home caring for sick children, which prevented them from being able to work, and children were too sick to go to school or earn a menial income raising livestock or growing vegetables.

Worldwide, the WHO has been working tirelessly to control the spread of soil-transmitted helminth by facilitating wider access to preventive medicine such as albendazole and mebendazole. According to Dr. Antonio Montresor, Medical Officer for WHO in the Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases, the deworming campaign reached more than 395 million children in 2014, making it one of the largest global public health interventions.

In the Musanze District of Rwanda, the WHO provides the necessary medications to local schools, which are then disseminated to the population. Since the program started, the rate of children with intestinal worms has been reduced by nearly 20 percent.

Education is essential in alleviating global poverty. Every day a child is absent from class, the likelihood they can break the endless cycle disappears a little more. The WHO is striving to keep students in school and families healthy, making a chance to prosper a reality.

– Jason Zimmerman

Sources: WHO 1, WHO 2
Photo: TheGuardian