Category Archives: healthcare

Ireland denies suicidal rape survivor an abortion and forces her to undergo a C-section

As Jessica notes, the horrific ordeal shows how inadequate even this small exemption to the country’s strict anti-choice law really is. A member of Ireland’s Doctors for Choice said, “We predicted it would be a bad law, that it was going to be trouble and quickly that’s been proven.” Part of the problem is that the law requires examination of the pregnant person’s mental state by up to seven different doctors, a process which will “not only be overly invasive, confusing and distressing emotionally, it will also be time-consuming.”

It’s also probably no coincidence that this young women, like Halappanavar, is an immigrant. While middle-class Irish citizens can often go to England to end their pregnancies, poor women — who lack the funds — and immigrant women — who lack the papers to easily travel — are often out of luck. The young woman might have been able to get authorization to travel to England under the law and advocates are demanding to know if she was informed of her rights.

As Sarah McCarthy, a spokesperson for Galway Pro-Choice, says, the case “illustrates quite clearly that women are treated as little more than incubators under Irish law.”

via Ireland denies suicidal rape survivor an abortion and forces her to undergo a C-section.

WHO: Full Report Of Ethics Committee On Experimental Drugs For Ebola

{Unintended consequences abound after use of experimental drugs on Ebola given ethical OK by WHO}

The intent was to allow a handful drugs and vaccines currently under investigation for the treatment of Ebola – those with at least some reasonable expectation of being effective – to be given a “compassionate use” waiver so they could be used outside of a clinical trial.

 

On Friday, in an attempt to dial back some of the excessive media hype over what are unproven and untested drugs, we saw the WHO Warn Of `Unrealistic Expectations’ Over Experimental Ebola Drugs.

Proving that no good deed goes unpunished, almost immediately we began to see reports of everything from herbal remedies to homeopathic `cures’ to `Nano Silver’ ( even holy water)  being offered as potential treatments or preventatives for Ebola.

 

Last week the FDA warned consumers about fraudulent Ebola treatment products and the WHO began to aggressively discount these `cures’ on their twitter account.

via Avian Flu Diary: WHO: Full Report Of Ethics Committee On Experimental Drugs For Ebola.

Transplant Brokers in Israel Lure Desperate Kidney Patients to Costa Rica – NYTimes.com

A broker who trades in human organs might seem a difficult thing to find. But Ms. Dorin’s mother began making inquiries around the hospital where she worked, and in short order the family came up with three names: Avigad Sandler, a former insurance agent long suspected of trafficking; Boris Volfman, a young Ukrainian émigré and Sandler protégé; and Yaacov Dayan, a wily businessman with interests in real estate and marketing.

The men were, The New York Times learned during an investigation of the global organ trade, among the central operators in Israel’s irrepressible underground kidney market. For years, they have pocketed enormous sums for arranging overseas transplants for patients who are paired with foreign donors, court filings and government documents show.

via Transplant Brokers in Israel Lure Desperate Kidney Patients to Costa Rica – NYTimes.com.

VDU’s blog: Ebola virus may be spread by droplets, but not by an airborne route: what that means

Included in guidelines issued by the WHO (7) and CDC (5) is the need for droplet precautions (Figure). This is very important for healthcare workers, family and other caregivers who stay close and are frequently exposed for lengthy periods of time with severely ill, highly virulent cases of EVD. These cases may actively propel infectious droplets containing vomit and blood across the short distances separating them from caregivers. But this is a form of direct transmission, and is not airborne transmission.

Messaging the masses.

Leaving aside other issues around acquiring a rare disease like Ebola when outside of the current outbreak region, the case definitions and risk assessments have raised confusion. There are questions around how otherwise apparently well-protected healthcare workers in West Africa are acquiring an EBOV. For a virus described as spreading only through direct contact, recommendations for the use of masks, implying airborne spread to many, fuel such questions.  In fact, face protection is recommended to prevent infectious droplets landing on vulnerable membranes (mouth and eyes).

It’s important to pass a message that is correct, but also to ensure distrust does not result from a public reading apparently contradictory literature. Such distrust and real concern have been rampant among a hyperactive social media. Simple, clear phrases like “ebolaviruses cannot be caught from around a corner”, may help uncomplicate the communication lines. And it works on Twitter.

via VDU’s blog: Ebola virus may be spread by droplets, but not by an airborne route: what that means.

WHO | Ethical considerations for use of unregistered interventions for Ebola viral disease (EVD)

{Nothing in the guidelines says patients/victims/stricken people must give informed consent to use of experimental drugs on them, or informed consent of their family – lots to be sure that medical community and drug firms get information. I smell a rat here and it seems that WHO has caved to both governments and companies. Governments have to appear to be doing something or look bad. Drug firms want to look compassionate, get a get out of jail free card for doing good deeds while still charging billions for drugs that in many cases were financed with public funds for initial research. Me cynical – well yes, Wellcome Foundation made billions from Burroughs Wellcome first HIV/AIDS drug before they made it a bit more affordable. No more drugs available now but everyone looks good and has permission to experiment on West Africans.}

Ethical criteria must guide the provision of such interventions. These include transparency about all aspects of care, informed consent, freedom of choice, confidentiality, respect for the person, preservation of dignity and involvement of the community.

In order to understand the safety and efficacy of these interventions, the group advised that, if and when they are used to treat patients, there is a moral obligation to collect and share all data generated, including from treatments provided for ‘compassionate use’ (access to an unapproved drug outside of a clinical trial).

The group explored how the use of these interventions can be evaluated scientifically to ensure timely and accurate information about the safety and efficacy of these investigational interventions. There was unanimous agreement that there is a moral duty to also evaluate these interventions (for treatment or prevention) in the best possible clinical trials under the circumstances in order to definitively prove their safety and efficacy or provide evidence to stop their utilization. Ongoing evaluation should guide future interventions.

In addition to this advice, the panel identified areas that need more detailed analysis and discussion, such as:

ethical ways to gather data while striving to provide optimal care under the prevailing circumstances;

ethical criteria to prioritize the use of unregistered experimental therapies and vaccines;

ethical criteria for achieving fair distribution in communities and among countries, in the face of a growing number of possible new interventions, none of which is likely to meet demand in the short term.

via WHO | Ethical considerations for use of unregistered interventions for Ebola viral disease (EVD).

WHO | WHO Statement on the Meeting of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee Regarding the 2014 Ebola Outbreak in West Africa

< Me: The nut of the problem is still that in responding to pressure from many governments is that no one wants to close borders to trade and travel because of economic worries and that health is still not number one! >

But read the whole announcement – don’t rely on what others, say they said.

 

There should be no general ban on international travel or trade; restrictions outlined in these recommendations regarding the travel of EVD cases and contacts should be implemented.

States should provide travelers to Ebola affected and at-risk areas with relevant information on risks, measures to minimize those risks, and advice for managing a potential exposure.

States should be prepared to detect, investigate, and manage Ebola cases; this should include assured access to a qualified diagnostic laboratory for EVD and, where appropriate, the capacity to manage travelers originating from known Ebola-infected areas who arrive at international airports or major land crossing points with unexplained febrile illness.

The general public should be provided with accurate and relevant information on the Ebola outbreak and measures to reduce the risk of exposure.

States should be prepared to facilitate the evacuation and repatriation of nationals (e.g. health workers) who have been exposed to Ebola.

via WHO | WHO Statement on the Meeting of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee Regarding the 2014 Ebola Outbreak in West Africa.

Avian Flu Diary: The New Normal: The Age Of Emerging Disease Threats

Over the past three decades, dozens of new – mostly zoonotic – diseases have been identified.   Some of these new, or re-emerging disease threats, include:

 

HIV

SARS

The re-emergence and spread of H5N1 bird flu in 2003

An H1N1 `Swine Flu’  pandemic in 2009

Swine Variant Influenza viruses (H1N1v, H1N2v, H3N2v)

MERS-CoV and other `bat borne’ viruses like Nipah and Hendra

H7N9, H10N8, H5N2 and other emerging avian flu viruses

Lyme Disease, CCHF, Heartland Virus, SFTS, and other tickborne diseases

The global spread of MRSA, along with the recent arrival of of NDM-1 and other Carbapenemases that threaten the viability of our antibiotic arsenal.

An explosion and spread of mosquito-borne diseases like  dengue, chikungunya & malaria

Even old scourges, once thought on the way out, are showing new signs of life . . . like Pertussis, measles, and polio.

Perhaps most troubling of all has been the emergence of increasingly drug resistant strains of tuberculosis.

And the one that has everyone’s attention right now;  Ebola.

via Avian Flu Diary: The New Normal: The Age Of Emerging Disease Threats.

Q & A On Experimental Treatments and Vaccines for Ebola | Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever | CDC

What is ZMapp?

ZMapp, being developed by Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc., is an experimental treatment, for use with individuals infected with Ebola virus. It has not yet been tested in humans for safety or effectiveness. The product is a combination of three different monoclonal antibodies that bind to the protein of the Ebola virus.

How effective is the experimental treatment?

It is too early to know whether ZMapp is effective, since it is still in an experimental stage and has not yet been tested in humans for safety or effectiveness. Some patients infected with Ebola virus do get better spontaneously or with supportive care. It’s important to note that the standard treatment for Ebola remains supportive therapy.

This consists of the following measures:

balancing the patients’ fluids and electrolytes;

maintaining their oxygen status and blood pressure; and

treating them for any complicating infections.

Why aren’t more people getting ZMapp?

At this time, very few courses of this experimental treatment have been manufactured. Since the product is still in an experimental stage, it is too early to know whether ZMapp is effective. The manufacturer of this experimental treatment continues to research and evaluate the product’s safety and effectiveness. It has not yet been tested in humans for safety or effectiveness and much more study is needed.

Did the NIH play a role in getting the experimental therapy to the two U.S. patients in Liberia?

This experimental treatment was arranged privately by Samaritan’s Purse, the private humanitarian organization, which employed one of the Americans who contracted the virus in Liberia. Samaritan’s Purse contacted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who referred them to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NIH was able to provide the organization with the appropriate contacts at the private company developing this treatment. The NIH was not involved with procuring, transporting, approving, or administering the experimental treatments. {But they did not stop the drug from being transmitted and given – aka: turned away and is not enforcing its own regulations to protect the public – there is a procedure to ask for and quickly get emergency experimental treatment|

via Q & A On Experimental Treatments and Vaccines for Ebola | Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever | CDC.

“Forget Media – getting too hyped” – read: WHO | Ebola virus disease update – West Africa

“WHO=World Health Organization”

Between 2 and 4 August 2014, a total of 108 new cases of Ebola virus disease (laboratory-confirmed, probable, and suspect cases) as well as 45 deaths were reported from Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone.

via WHO | Ebola virus disease update – West Africa.

Argentina imprisons woman for getting an abortion, along with the friends who helped her

This is a total violation of women’s rights, an injustice that has been committed by the state and all of its institutions from the public health system to criminal justice system.

This woman is the expression of the necessity of the legalization of abortion in Argentina. Today there is still no legal justification for incarcerating these women, it’s a totally illegal situation, since they are holding them in what is called “preventative prison” because of the possibility that they will flee and let’s remember that there isn’t a single rapist or murderer in Argentina being held in in “preventative prison,” so the real criminals are always free, but women aren’t.

In the above video, Verónica Cruz, director of the Center of Las Libres, Manuela Castañeira, director of the women’s group “Las Rojas,” and Marianne Møllmann from the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission demand the release of Susana D., María G. y María C. Castañeira says, “We are launching this campaign with the release of this video which invites everyone to join and help spread the message so that the authorities in Jujuy free these three women.”

Support the campaign by using these hashtags: #SusanaLibertadYa (#FreeSusanaNow) #MaríasLibertadYa (#FreeMariaNow) #Jujuy

Also, make sure you see the movie Las Libres, about the fight to free women incarcerated for having abortions in Argentina and Mexico.

via Argentina imprisons woman for getting an abortion, along with the friends who helped her.