Information and news about disease category

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Surge: Pioneer of Clean Water Around the World

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Surge is a Chicago-based nonprofit organization that focuses on providing people with clean and safe drinking water. According to Chicagonow.com, Surge has given around 67,000 people access to clean water in countries such as Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, and Cambodia.

In addition, Surge focuses on improving people’s health in countries where fatal waterborne diseases such as cholera are common. In order to fund further projects, the organization has decided to host a nationwide event that focuses on collecting funds for the cause.

In addition, Surge provides other ways people can get involved with clean water initiatives. People as young as eight years old can get involved in Surge’s educational awareness program. According to surgeforwater.org, these educational programs reach up to thousands of people each year. Additionally, the “Just for Kids Initiative partners with local organizations in order to educate and empower youth” involved in the program.

In places such as Bangladesh, Surge has provided new water sanitation systems. In the district of Gazipur, more than half of the households were given access to clean water. Today, more than 56,000 households depend on Surge’s aid.

Additionally, the nonprofit has provided Cambodian people with a new water tank to people living in remote villages near the Mekong river. Due to Surge’s efforts more than 1,000 Cambodian children now have access to clean water.

This year, the Water Falls Gala will raise funds for clean water projects in places such as Haiti and the Dominican Republic. According to the official website, the event will be held at the National Hellenic Museum in Chicago’s West Loop.

All the proceeds will work towards building clean water systems in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The projects in these countries will bring clean water to thousands of people.

– Stephanie Olaya

Sources: Surge of Water, Chicago Now

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Breast Cancer a Threat to the Developing World

According to a new study by GE Healthcare, incidences of fatal breast cancer have risen in developing countries.

Bengt Jönsson, Professor in Health Economics at the Stockholm School of Economics, and co-author of the report has said, “Breast cancer is on the rise across developing nations, mainly due to the increase in life expectancy and lifestyle changes such as women having fewer children, as well as hormonal intervention such as post-menopausal hormonal therapy. In these regions mortality rates are compounded by the later stage at which the disease is diagnosed, as well as limited access to treatment, presenting a ‘ticking time bomb’ which health systems and policymakers in these countries need to work hard to defuse.”

While significant headway is being made in the prevention of communicable diseases such as malaria and HIV/AIDS, many developing countries do not have the resources to provide treatment for cancer.

Ignorance and the stigma of breast cancer is also a contributing factor. “There is little information for the people who need to be helped,” said Dr. Fred Okuku, of the Uganda Cancer Institute in Kampala, “Only a few know how to read and write. Many don’t have TV or radio. There is no word for cancer in most Ugandan languages. A woman finds a lump in her breast, and cancer doesn’t cross her mind. It’s not in her vocabulary.”

In the United States, about 20 percent of breast cancer patients die from it, compared with 40 to 60 percent in developing countries. While prevention and self screening measures are well known in the United States, misinformation in the developing world has led to an increased risk. A recent survey in Mexico City highlights this, indicating that many women feel uncomfortable or worried about having a mammogram.

Claire Goodliffe, Global Oncology Director for GE Healthcare, has said, “It is of great concern that women in newly industrialized countries are reluctant to get checked out until it is too late. This report finds a direct link between survival rates in countries and the stage at which breast cancer is diagnosed. It provides further evidence of the need for early detection and treatment, which we welcome given current controversies about the relative harms, benefits, and cost effectiveness of breast cancer screening.”

– David Smith

Sources: New York Times

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New Tuberculosis Vaccine

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Today, scientists have new hope of controlling and ending tuberculosis. McAster University Researchers have recently come across a vaccine against tuberculosis. According to Dr. Fiona Smalil, professor and chair of the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine at McAster University, the research team is “the first to develop such a vaccine for tuberculosis.”

The McAster University researchers have also explained that the new tuberculosis vaccine would “stop the spread of this highly contagious illness.”

Moreover, the vaccine would provide a more positive response in developing nations. The vaccine could save millions of lives. According to pubmed.gov, tuberculosis is out of control in developing countries. It is killing millions of people every year.

Researchers have emphasized that “In these areas, the present vaccine–Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG)–is failing.” As a result, the McAster University team hopes to create a better quality vaccine in order to reduce the number of deaths caused by tuberculosis each year.

The new vaccine was developed to act as a booster to BCG. BCG is the only TB vaccine available. Developed in the 1920s BCG has been used worldwide. Currently, the BCG vaccine is part of the World Health Organization’s immunization program in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, South America, and Nunavut. In order to create a better vaccine, McAster researchers decided to hold a 10 year test program.

According to Dr. Smalil, McMaster researchers began the first human clinical trial in 2009, which included 24 healthy human volunteers and 12 who were previously BCG-immunized. Researchers have found that the trials have been widely successful.

By 2012 they established that the vaccine was safe, and observed a strong immune response in most trial participants. As a result, Tuberculosis could be controlled and eliminated by 2020.

– Stephanie Olaya

Sources: Science Daily, Inquisitr
Photo: The Guardian

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Malaria Deaths are Decreasing in Africa

Malaria Decline Africa Mosquito Bed Nets
Africa faces the world’s most dramatic public health crisis. Although polio is close to eradication, and more than half of African children have received the measles immunization, key public health issues continue throughout Africa.

Malaria is preventable and curable, yet it kills about 655,000 people worldwide every year. Malaria is transmitted through mosquitos infected with parasites, and it can also be passed to a growing fetus from an infected mother. Malaria causes fever, chills, muscle pain, and if not treated can result in death.

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), 91 percent of malaria-caused deaths occur in Africa. Moreover, 86 percent of malaria deaths globally are children. Malaria is a disease of poverty. The most vulnerable are children under five and pregnant women living in rural areas.

Malaria deaths decreased by 25 percent globally from 2000 to 2010. How was this achieved?

 

1. World Health Organization (WHO)

According to the WHO, 33 African countries have adopted artemisinin-based combination therapy as malaria treatment, which is the most effective antimalarial medicine. Other treatments include insecticide-treated nets, indoor residual spraying, and intermittent preventive treatment during pregnancy. In the WHO African region, malaria cases decreased by 50 percent between 2000 and 2008 due to these measures.

 

2. United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)

From 2000 to 2012, UNICEF provided over 120 million Insecticide-Treated Nets (ITNs). During this time, children sleeping under ITNs increased from 2 percent to 39 percent. As malaria-infected mosquitos bite at night, the regular use of ITNs can reduce child mortality by 20 percent.

 

3. The Global Fund

Through funding from the Global Fund, 310 million mosquito nets and 181 million cutting-edge antimalarial treatments have been distributed.

 

4.  The President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI)

PMI is led by USAID under a U.S. Global Malaria Coordinator and jointly implemented with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). PMI is one of the largest donors for malaria. Its goal is to half malaria for 70 percent of the at risk sub-Saharan population. PMI has chosen 19 focus countries. In Tanzania, PMI efforts, through the malaria control scale-up, have reduced all-cause child mortality (ACCM) by 10 deaths per 1,000 live births.

Through all these efforts over a million lives have been saved. Still a child dies every minute from malaria.

Widespread malaria is an obstacle to the development and growth of affected African countries and communities. For every $1 invested in malaria commodities, a $40 return can be expected in the form of productivity from healthier, better educated more productive working communities.

 – Caressa Kruth

Sources: WHO, CDC About, WebMD, UNICEF, Forbes John Lechleiter, Forbes, CDC Resources
Photo: 

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Is McGill University Doing “Asbestos” it Can?

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Asbestos, which has been mined for more than 4,000 years, was not largely distributed until the end of the 19th century. Today, armed with the knowledge about the dangers to human health that asbestos poses, production in the modern world has been brought to a halt. However, in many developing countries, particularly in Asia, many are surprised to hear that the use of asbestos has been increasing.

The world’s largest asbestos mine was the Jeffrey mine in the town of Asbestos, Quebec. Because of the preciousness of asbestos to the Quebecois economy, when results began to show the toxicity of asbestos, the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association (QAC) needed to find a solution preventing the stoppage of asbestos use. They turned to McGill University.

Professor J.C. McDonald, working for McGill’s Department of Epidemiology, was funded by a front organization set up by the QAC to research the effects of asbestos. His findings, using outdated and inaccurate techniques, demonstrated that exposure to chrysotile asbestos could give protection against cancer.

Despite the fact that no other scientist has been able to replicate McDonald’s data – even McDonald himself refuting his own findings, going so far as to admit that some of the data taken was thrown away until specific results were found – many companies continue to use his research to support the use of asbestos.

As such, every year, two million tons of asbestos are being put into homes and schools, ultimately causing a public health catastrophe to come.

Kathleen Ruff, founder of the human rights website RightonCanada.ca, and senior advisor on Human Rights of Rideau Institute was joined by Professor David Egilman of Brown University, who is the President of Global Health through Education, Training and Service (GHETS), a NGO dedicated to improving health in under-served communities around the world, at a conference on October 1st at McGill.

Here, Egilman and Ruff addressed McGill’s “internal review” on McDonald’s study, which Abraham Fuks, McGill’s research integrity officer, concluded Professor McDonald to be “a pioneer in the demonstration of health hazards of asbestos.”

Fuks states that while it is true that McDonald’s project was funded by the asbestos industry, there was no collusion between the university and the asbestos industry.

Egilman contends noting, “[McDonald’s team] threw data out because it gave them wrong results.” And when they finally had data that matched up to what they wanted to prove, Ruff points out that “the industry [then] went on a mission to developing countries to get them to use chrysotile asbestos.”

The problems associated with asbestos-related risks are manifold. The previous installation and further dismantling of asbestos abroad lacks proper regulation and legislation, with many companies not respecting safety and proper execution. Consequently, exposure increases the risk of lung cancer, mesothelioma, and nonmalignant lung and pleural disorders.

Countries with economic ties to asbestos, such as Russia, India and Brazil continue to use McDonald’s information to lobby for increased use. Without an independent review of the research conducted and a final nay-say of McDonald’s results, it will prove difficult to put a stop to these organizations.

What started as a good PR strategy back in the 1960s has now exploded into one of the main justifications of continued global asbestos use.

GHETS, founded in 2002, places emphasis on “grassroot partnerships, sustainability and the development of primary healthcare infrastructure.” In association with many major institutions, GHETS funds training of local doctors and distribution of seed grants to for local business start-ups.

RightonCanada, an advocacy campaign to put human rights back on Canada’s political agenda, believes that Canada, when refusing to recognize the human right to water, aid in sabotaging a U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and block action to control export to developing countries of asbestos, among other things, has consequently become “a human rights saboteur.”

– Chloe Nevitt
Feature Writer

Sources: Rabble, McGill Daily,McGill Daily, Global Labour University, CDC, Right on Canada, GHETS
Photo: Wikimedia

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Low Blood Oxygen? Phone Oximeter is the App

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With over a million apps in the Google Play store and nearly that many in the App store, there’s an app for nearly everything–from locking your car doors, finding the perfect recipe for dinner, creating digital watercolor paintings, to monitoring your diet. Now there’s an app for measuring pulse oximetry, or the amount of oxygen in the blood. According to experts, over two-thirds of the six billion cell phone users in the world live in developing nations. The app, called Phone Oximeter, can aid health workers trying to diagnose pneumonia – particularly in children – and pre-eclampsia.

The Phone Oximeter was among ten innovations chosen by the UN and PATH to aid against deaths amongst women and children worldwide, especially deaths related to childbirth. Developed by Dr. Mark Ansermino and colleagues at the University of British Columbia, the device can be attached to a cellphone or tablet in order to measure pulse oximetry. The device can be attached either to the fingertip or earlobe. Reading the results of the Phone Oximeter is simple, according to Ansermino: “When you have got oxygen in your blood, it goes red and when you have not got oxygen in your blood, it goes blue. And that is why we get this tinge around our lips when it is cold because we do not have enough oxygen in the blood around your lips. But also when children get sick … we see the same blue color. So, what we do really is look at this light shining through the tissue and determine the bounds of this red to blue light, and from that we can tell how much of your blood has oxygen in it and how much does not.”

Other potential uses being explored for the Phone Oximeter include monitoring anesthesia in developing countries. Use of pulse oximetry in developed nations leads to significant decreases in the death rate. It detects low blood oxygen levels at the earliest symptoms and allows for a rapid response to the problems that arise thereafter. This can prevent brain damage and death. In the developing world, the death rate from anesthesia is still 100 to 1000 times higher than the rest of the world. As it continues to develop, the hope for the Phone Oximeter is that it would “demonstrate the potential for enhanced delivery of information from a pulse oximeter to enhance the safety of anesthesia care throughout the developing world.”

Designed to be easy to read and to aid healthcare workers at all levels, regardless of specialty, the Phone Oximeter is relatively inexpensive, expected to cost between $10 to $40.

– The Borgen Project

Sources: The Jewish Voice, Medical Daily
Photo: Engadget

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Michael J. Fox: Race to Find Parkinson’s Disease Cure

Michael J Fox Back To The Future Marty McFly Parkinson's Disease Cure
Parkinson’s disease is a progressive degenerative disease of the central nervous system. The disease commonly affects the brain and motor functions. It causes difficulty and rigidity in simple motor functions and activities such as walking, sitting, thinking, and balancing. Often it occurs in older people, but some cases include people in their early forties. If the disease is left untreated, it can lead to more severe maladies such as dementia and immobility.

The disease often develops slowly and can go unnoticed. Initial symptoms include a noticeable tremor in just one hand, stiffness of the body, and slow movements. According to Mayo Clinic, during the early stages of the disease, patients may notice that the face shows little to no expression, and that their arms may not swing when walking. Other symptoms include impaired balance, speech changes, blurred vision, writing changes and an impaired sense of smell.  These symptoms can worsen over time. Although the disease can’t be cured, there is a wide array of medications that can help treat it.

Michael J. Fox, a world renowned actor, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease when he was just 37 years old. Since then, he has been advocating nationally and internationally for a cure. He predicted that he would find a cure by the time he was 50 years old. However, he is still far from his goal.

He is often praised for his advocacy towards a cure for the disease, and often helps report symptoms and side effects related to the disease. According to WebMD, the actor first reported a “rolling pin tremor on his right hand,” which was later followed by stiffness in his limbs and face. Today, Fox reports that the disease now affects the left hemisphere of his body. Michael J. Fox said he is in the “late-mild” stage of the disease.

Fox wanted to go public about his condition to raise public awareness and funding for Parkinson’s disease, WebMD reports. He has raised awareness via his foundation Web site, which is dedicated to fundraising and finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease. Fox’s foundation is also dedicated to finding innovative research for Parkinson’s Disease patients. Fox’s advocacy can be summarized with his powerful motto, “The cures we want aren’t going to fall from the sky. We have to get ladders and climb up and get them.”

– Stephanie Olaya

Sources: Michael J. Fox Foundation, Mayo Clinic, Medicine Net, USA Today
Photo: Blastr

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Could Aspirin be the Solution for Colon Cancer?

Aspirin Potential Cure for Colon Cancer
Aspirin is a synthetic compound used medicinally to relieve mild or chronic pain and to reduce fever and inflammation. Many people use it when they feel ill, feverish, nauseous, or all of the above. However, researchers have also found another crucial use for the common over-the-counter pill. According to Nancy R. Cook, Associate Biostatistician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and professor at Harvard Medical School, a low dose of aspirin may serve as protection against colon cancer.

Cook’s study was based on “a long-term trial in a large group of women, who have been underrepresented in studies on this topic.” According to official reports, “The study included nearly 40,000 women, 45 and older, who were part of the Women’s Health Study.” About 34,000 participated in a follow-up study. Researchers followed the women for up to 18 years from the start of the study. The research has also found that aspirin has preventative properties against other diseases, such as melanoma. Each of the study’s participants was required to take a 100mg dose of aspirin every other day.

During the first ten years, researchers failed to link aspirin to a cancer cure – let alone to a colon cancer cure. However, when researchers passed the 10 year mark, aspirin was highly associated to colon cancer treatments. According to official reports, “study participants who reported aspirin use after being diagnosed with colorectal cancer had a 29% lower risk of colorectal cancer death and a 21% lower risk of overall death, compared to non-aspirin users.”

In addition, researchers also found that patients taking aspirin after their first diagnosis as positive colon cancer patients had a greater chance of survival. According to WebMD, patients with colon cancer who began regular aspirin use for the first time after diagnosis had a “47% lower risk of colorectal cancer death and 32% lower risk of overall death than nonusers of aspirin.” Moreover, researchers have found that some colorectal cancer tumors may be resistant to aspirin’s effects, while others may be especially susceptible. The researchers found that colon cancers related to Cox-2 positive tumors are more susceptible to aspirin’s cancer-eliminating effects. Today, more research is being planned in regards to cancers dealing with other type of tumors.

– Stephanie Olaya

Sources: WebMD, CNN Health
Photo: Extreme Longevity

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Chlorhexidine: Behind a Simple Solution

Chlorhexidine Maternal Health Infant Mortality Happy African Child
Despite declining mortality rates for children under five, deaths that occur within the first month of life are on the rise. Infections caught through the cutting of umbilical cords are a factor in nearly 13 percent of neonatal deaths worldwide and more than 50 percent in developing nations. A simple, affordable solution is presented by the antiseptic solution chlorhexidine.

Chlorhexidine has already been around for more than 50 years, and can be found in a variety of products, like hand sanitizers and mouth washes, both of which are available in the United States and Europe. The type of chlorhexidine that would be used specifically to treat and prevent umbilical cord infections is 7.1 percent chlorhexidine digluconate. It would potentially prevent over 200,000 deaths a year in South Asia alone. Up to 75 percent of serious umbilical cord infections are eliminated through its use as well. According to PATH, the cost of providing chlorhexidine would be less than fifty or even thirty cents a dose.

In July, the World Health Organization (WHO) listed 7.1 percent chlorhexidine digluconate on its Essential Medicines for Children. More instructions on how chlorhexidine will be used are coming later this year. Despite chlorhexidine’s supposed effectiveness, progress is slow to distribute it. At the moment, there are only two sources for purchasing 7.1 percent chlorhexidine digluconate for umbilical cord use: Lomus Pharmaceuticals in Nepal and UNICEF Supply Division.

PATH, the secretariat of the Chlorhexidine Working Group, is working to spread the word about the low cost and high effectiveness of 7.1 percent chlorhexidine in order to see it used in more locations and countries where it is needed most, particularly in African countries.

– The Borgen Project

Sources: Huffington Post, PATH, Healthy Newborn Network, Trust
Photo: The Script Lab

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Chaga Mushroom Might Be The Cure for HIV

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Could there be a cure for HIV? According to Russian researchers, the Chaga mushroom can “cure the Human Immunodeficiency Virus or HIV.” The Chaga mushroom is a small mushroom usually found in birch and other hardwood trees. It contains betulinic acid, which is considered a toxic substance to cancerous cells. It also has antiviral properties that are essential in the search for an HIV/AIDS cure.

The Chaga mushroom (or Inonutus obliquis) can be found in several regions around the world, most commonly Siberia and other regions in Eurasia. The Chaga mushroom is often characterized by its porous, dark appearance: often black-blue or purple. According to researchers, “strains of these mushrooms demonstrated low toxicity and strong antiviral effects against influenza, smallpox and HIV.” In addition, Siberian researchers at the Vector Institute have compared the Chaga mushroom to a variety of fungi growing in Siberia: 82 strains of 33 fungi and have determined that the Chaga mushroom has the strongest antiviral capacity.

Moreover, the Chaga mushroom usually grows in cool regions such as Russia, Korea, as well as other Eastern and Western European states. Scientists have found that the Chaga mushroom also grows in select parts of the United States and Canada.

The antiviral mushroom has been a constant subject in Russian folk medicine. The folk remedies use the mushroom to cure diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes.

Despite its positive appeal as a potential cure for cancer and HIV/AIDS, the mushroom has not undergone official testing. However, it presents newfound hope for researchers and people diagnosed with these diseases. Research plans to investigate the mushroom’s potential benefits will be held sometime in 2015.

– Stephanie Olaya

Sources: Medical Daily, International Business Times
Photo: Wikipedia