Category Archives: healthcare

Avian Flu Diary: WHO SitRep : Zika, Microcephaly and Guillain-Barré syndrome – March 31st

Zika virus, Microcephaly and Guillain-Barré syndrome Read the full situation report Summary From 1 January 2007 to 30 March 2016, Zika virus transmission was documented in a total of 61 countries and territories. Four of these (Cook Islands, French Polynesia, ISLA DE PASCUA – Chile, and New Caledonia) reported a Zika virus outbreak that is now over. Six countries have now reported locally acquired infection in the absence of any known mosquito vectors, probably through sexual transmission (Argentina, Chile, France, Italy, New Zealand and the United States of America). In the Region of the Americas, the geographical distribution of Zika virus has steadily widened since the presence of the virus was confirmed in 2015. Mosquito-borne Zika virus transmission has been reported in 33 countries and territories of this region. In the Western Pacific Region, mosquito-borne Zika virus cases have been reported in 16 countries and areas. Microcephaly and other fetal malformations have been reported in Brazil (944 cases), Cabo Verde (two cases), Colombia (32 cases), French Polynesia (eight cases), Martinique (one case) and Panama (one case). Two additional cases, linked to a stay in Brazil, were detected in the United States of America and Slovenia. In the context of Zika virus circulation, 13 countries or territories have reported an increased incidence of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) and/or laboratory confirmation of a Zika virus infection among GBS cases. Based on observational, cohort and case-control studies there is strong scientific consensus that Zika virus is a cause of GBS, microcephaly and other neurological disorders. The global prevention and control strategy launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a Strategic Response Framework encompasses surveillance, response activities and research. This situation report is organized under those headings.

Source: Avian Flu Diary: WHO SitRep : Zika, Microcephaly and Guillain-Barré syndrome – March 31st

Long-term vegetarian diet changes human DNA raising risk of cancer and heart disease – Telegraph – {Talking about diets thousands of years old – not your dad’s diet and brought to you by research funded by???}

“Those whose ancestry derives from vegetarians are more likely to carry genetics that more rapidly metabolise plant fatty acids,” said Tom Brenna, Professor of Human Nutrition at Cornell.

Source: Long term vegetarian diet changes human DNA raising risk of cancer and heart disease – Telegraph

Ebola no longer poses global risk, says WHO | News | DW.COM | 29.03.2016

{The very non-health related desire to say everything is OK now, is the same reaction that caused WHO and its member nations to urge calm and under-react to Ebola – which gave Ebola all the time it needed to outstrip several nation’s ability to fight it. Immediate “economic” concerns that drive this behavior may well be the leading cause of the pandemic that kills millions!}

Chan stressed that the three worst affected countries – Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone – remain vulnerable to Ebola flare-ups, including an ongoing cluster of cases in Guinea, which has left five people dead.But the UN’s health agency said all original chains of virus transmission have now ended.Chan said the “risk of international spread is now low, and…countries currently have the capacity to respond rapidly to new virus emergences.”Her statement brings to an end a nearly 20-month emergency that started in Guinea in late 2013, saw 28,638 cases emerge and 11,300 deaths.

Source: Ebola no longer poses global risk, says WHO | News | DW.COM | 29.03.2016

Tick saliva discovery could be key to treating blood and immune disorders – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

The discovery of how the proteins in a tick’s saliva stop a human’s immune system from running amok could be the answer to treating life-threatening blood disorders, researchers say.

Source: Tick saliva discovery could be key to treating blood and immune disorders – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Curcumin may help fight drug-resistant tuberculosis | Vaccine News

Asians have long used turmeric to treat a variety of health conditions. Turmeric also has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and potentially anticancer properties. The health investigators discovered that provoking macrophages, which are human immune cells, can fight off experimentally infected cells within cultures. The infected cells have Mycobacterium TB, which causes TB bacteria to grow and spread through humans. Curcumin is able to stimulate these macrophages to fight the disease. This process was able to activate a cellular molecule, nuclear factor-kappa B. Curcumin can modulate the immune system against Mycobacterium TB, which suggests that it could be used as a new TB treatment that wouldn’t cause as much drug-resistance as traditional methods. “Our study has provided basic evidence that curcumin protects against Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in human cells,” Dr. Xiyuan Bai, lead author of the study that appears in Respirology, said. “The protective role of curcumin to fight drug-resistant tuberculosis still needs confirmation, but if validated, curcumin may become a novel treatment to modulate the host immune response to overcome drug-resistant tuberculosis.”

Source: Curcumin may help fight drug-resistant tuberculosis | Vaccine News

Water crisis in Marathwada worsens as 7 dams dry up – Times of India

{A shift of 5% of total water for agriculture in India can mean famine conditions and will pull down India’s resources significantly – do not know at present how drop in this state will affect overall needs}

A top bureaucrat said, “Last year, only one dam had reached zero level. This time, there are seven of them, so we are forced to lift water from the dead stock, which will not last long.” Marathwada has 11 big dams in all. The Jaikwadi one is the largest, with an irrigation potential of 2.37 lakh hectares and storage capacity of 2,171 million cubic litres. The other dams at zero level are Majalgaon, Manjara, Lower Terna, Manar, Siddheshwar and Sina-Kolegaon.

Source: Water crisis in Marathwada worsens as 7 dams dry up – Times of India

Iain Duncan Smith resigns as Britain’s welfare minister over cuts to disability benefits – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Resignation ‘threatened to throw the Government into disarray’ The Financial Times said the resignation was “a huge blow” for Mr Cameron that would inflict “serious damage” on Mr Osborne. The Daily Telegraph said the move “threatened to throw the Government into disarray”. Mr Cameron replaced Mr Duncan Smith with Stephen Crabb who supports Britain’s membership of the European Union. Will Britain leave the EU? Radio National looks at the background to the referendum and Britain’s unravelling from the EU. Several Conservative MPs, along with the main opposition Labour Party, had criticised the disability benefits cuts announced by Mr Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the plan was “appalling”, claiming that 200,000 of the 640,000 people affected by the proposed changes would lose out altogether as a result. Mr Osborne said the plan would cut around $2.5 billion a year off the bill for so-called Personal Independence Payments (PIP), a weekly allowance covering extra costs for people with long-term ill health or disabilities. A government source earlier on Friday said they would be “kicked into the long grass”.

Source: Iain Duncan Smith resigns as Britain’s welfare minister over cuts to disability benefits – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Puerto Rico Braces for Its Own Zika Epidemic – The New York Times

A quarter of the island’s 3.5 million people will probably get the Zika virus within a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and eventually 80 percent or more may be infected. “I’m very concerned,” Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the C.D.C. director, said in an interview after a recent three-day visit to Puerto Rico. “There could be thousands of infections of pregnant women this year.” The epidemic is unfolding in one of the country’s most popular vacation destinations, where planes and cruise ships disembark thousands of tourists daily. Anyone could carry the virus back home, seeding a mosquito-borne outbreak or transmitting it sexually. Health officials here have begun intensive efforts to stop the virus, which has been linked to abnormally small heads and brain damage in babies born to infected mothers, and to paralysis in adults.

Source: Puerto Rico Braces for Its Own Zika Epidemic – The New York Times

Chile lawmakers move towards authorizing abortion in limited cases | News | DW.COM | 18.03.2016

Abortion had been legal in Chile before 1989 in cases of risk to the mother or an unviable fetus before the practice became outlawed. Ever since, Chile has remained one of the few countries in the world not to allow abortion under any circumstances – a measure introduced by ex-dictator General Augusto Pinochet shortly before his departure from power in 1990. The prohibition remained unchanged for more than twenty-five years because of pressure from the Roman Catholic Church and other conservative groups. A touchy subject on many levels An estimated 160,000 clandestine abortions are nevertheless carried out each year in Chile – sometimes under risky circumstances. Polls indicate that 70 percent of Chileans say they support the new bill. Illegal abortions remained accessible mainly to wealthy Chileans only; making the issue both a moral question and an economic one.

Source: Chile lawmakers move towards authorizing abortion in limited cases | News | DW.COM | 18.03.2016