Blog #12 Disease linked to Sand Flies 11/16/12

Leishmania siamensis is a disease that can develop from sand flies. Scientists say that this is nothing to be worried about, but it has drawn quite an interest to whether or not it will eventually become a need to worry. The University of Florida is studying this specific case because of a recently diagnosed horse with the disease. Sand flies can be found in the Middle East, Central America and the Caribbean. All of these of which have a warm climate and sandy areas. This disease gets spread from the sand flies to dogs, horses, or humans. 3,000 people have been reported to have the disease in the U.S. alone, many of whom were returning military from Iraq and Afghanistan. In some cases, it can be lethal because it can spread into the bone marrow, liver and spleen. Bodies that are most susceptible to the disease are ones that are under stress and have a weakened immune system. Pregnant horses are more vulnerable than those who are not pregnant. Signed of an infected sand fly bite is a red bump and rash that grows very large.

The number of infected people many seem low in the U.S., however it is the second leading parasitic-induced death in humans, after malaria. Why horses and dogs seem to get this disease and not other animals is still a question that scientists are trying to find the answer to. This shows us that there are so many mysterious things about the body. Research is constantly growing and evolving, but we never seem to catch up with all of the questions we find along the way. Science seems to be the game of two steps forward and one step back. A point was made that global warming might eventually play a very negative role in this Leishmania siamensis problem. As places on earth get warmer, the more prevalent the flies will be and humans will have to be outside during these times more often.

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20121116/ARTICLES/121119624/-1/news?p=2&tc=pg

Blog #11 TB in India 11-10-12

     India is the country who deals with more than a quarter of the world’s new tuberculosis cases. Foundations and scientists are working together to try and put together many different solutions to this problem that will work together in hopes of treating and preventing new TB cases. Strains of tuberculosis that are found in India are mutating to the point of treatment no longer working on them. This is happening because those with TB often miss their scheduled treatment times and because TB is largely being mistreated. A Mumbai doctor, Zarir Udwadia is very doubtful that these mutated strains of TB can be treated. He says that will the amount of mistreatment such as unqualified doctors diagnosing and prescribing patients and pharmacist giving out medicines without prescriptions, it is impossible. 

     There is a lot of corruption in the medical field with counselor reporting to the government that their patients finished out their complete treatments. A lot of the time this is not the case because these counselors only get paid when a patient completes the treatment. Many patients drop out of treatment once they start to feel better or when side effects get to uncomfortable. TB will not be totally cured without the full treatment time. A new method of fingerprinting is being used to track TB patient’s progress and to keep doctors and counselors honest. Even this method however has its drawbacks. The patient has to be willing to show up for their treatment in order for anything to work. One missed treatment can triple the time it takes to be healed. They say that the “fool proof method” is absolutely necessary to tacking this problem in India. This effort is one that need total commitment from every single person involved. The impossible is only impossible if a person makes it so.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/10/india-tuberculosis_n_2109219.html

Blog #10 Malaria 11-1-12

       Malaria is and has always been a great threat all over the world. According to Australian news, today especially, Australia is worried about its future with this deadly disease. Roll Back Malaria is a partnership made by the World Trade Organization to fight against this impending problem. The partnership studies the effects malaria has/had on areas outside of its most common home, Africa. A lot of money is being put into the effort. It will all be very much worth it however because it is estimated that 70,000 lives will potentially be saved by 2015. Mosquito nets, malaria test and drug treatments are just a few of the things being bought and provided with the money. Scientists warn of drug resistance which is caused by “wrong treatments, patients not completing their treatments and the use of sub-standard and counterfeit drugs”. If a lot of drug resistant malaria reached Africa from Asia, death tolls are predicted to spike at about 25%.

       NPR makes a counter argument to the previous article stating that some drug treatments that are being made available in several African countries can create more harm than good. It is said that these programs put drugs into the hand of incompetent people who can damage themselves or over treat the disease. At the Clinton Health Access Initiative, researchers have discovered that pharmacies are aiding in the over treatment problem. People how walk in and complain of just a head ache can be handed the drug treatment for malaria without being tested for the parasite first. This tell us that a lot of money spent in making the drug available has been wasted and that many illnesses that are not malaria are being improperly treated. As we can see from these two articles, a lot is still to be done with the issue of malaria and its plan for treatment. It does not seem enough to simply raise money for drug treatment and to send it off to countries in need. That is only half the battle. We still need the other half of proper patient care and drug administration.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/malarial-disease-threat-on-our-doorstep/story-e6frg6nf-1226508914072

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/11/01/164052069/researchers-say-drug-subsidies-led-to-overtreatment-of-malaria-in-africa

Blog #9 Meningitis Outbreak Update 10/26/12

With the recent Meningitis outbreak still being studied and doctors and scientists researching new ways to treat the outbreak, the New York Times has given us an update. Thus far, 317 people have been infected out of the 14,000 injected, and 24 have died. Doctors have stated that the more recent a patient was injected, the higher their risk of infection. As time goes by and the patient who has had an injection does not have any symptoms or come down with the disease, the more and more their chances of getting meningitis goes down. The risk of getting the disease however is still highly unlikely. Doctors advise against using any anti-fungal drugs as preventative measures. These drugs can result in terrible side effects. Doctors’ advice for those people who have been injected is to do nothing unless the symptoms of headaches, sensitivity to light, dizziness, stiff neck, and fever present themselves. If these symptoms do occur, the first step doctors would take is a spinal tap to check the count of white blood cells. Advisement against preventative measure before symptoms occur such as the spinal tap is very serious. Spinal taps can possibly advance the disease by sending fungus already in the patient directly into the spinal fluid via the needle, advancing the spread of meningitis.

This outbreak all started with spinal patients receiving injections into their spinet that contained a steroid to help them recover. When word of the meningitis outbreak from this injection got out, the injections were first recalled on September 26th 2012. This horrible realization that such a harmful disease broke out because of something else that was intended to help spinal patients is upsetting. This outbreak was unexpected by was caught very quickly thanks to our advanced medical and scientific expertise. The United States has been able to very efficiently warn the country of this outbreak and send a plan of attack out immediately. Even though this country does not encounter this sort of devastation often, we are always ready. Other countries are not so fortunate however. Some places are just trying to provide clean water for its citizen let alone worry about a disease outbreak that occurred in result of advanced spinal treatments.

 http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/24/recent-spinal-shots-may-pose-greatest-meningitis-risk/?ref=health

Blog #8 Taliban Shooting Victim on the Road to Recovery 10/19/12

        A fifteen year old Pakistani girl who was shot by the Taliban last week is on the road to a hopeful recovery. Suffering from brain damage because of the bullet fired, doctors say Malala might not make a complete recovery. The shot was fired because she was speaking out about women’s rights to education on the way home from her school in Pakistan. Malala was quickly moved to a hospital in the UK to receive top care that was not accessible in Pakistan. Even though she is now able to stand and communicate through writing, it is too soon to tell whether or not she will gain complete brain function again. The Taliban shot Malala as a demonstration and because Malala was standing up for “Western thinking”. Now as a symbol for women's rights, Malala has become a key example for the need of better protection and care for those people living in situations as dangerous as hers. 

        This incident says a lot about the terrible situation that Middle Eastern countries are still facing because of the Taliban. As we can see, the health care that is available in Pakistan is minimal. Malala, with a serious head/brain injury, had to be transported thousands of miles to the UK for treatment. With so much violence going on in countries such as Pakistan, who is trying to find their way as a country, it is devastating that they cannot care for their own people properly. We can see that the Taliban got what they wanted, a silencing of an outburst against their regime. Little did they predict however, Malala has become a symbol for the women’s fight for basic rights to education. Even with these cries for education, people such as Malala have even louder cries for their own safety, protection, and care. Many are concerned with so many things that health care gets over looked. However, when situations like this one for example arise in result of other problems, health care always becomes number one priority and reveals how much it need to be prioritize. 

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2012/10/19/doctors-say-shot-pakistani-girl-improving

Blog #7 Clean Water Crisis in Haiti 9/12/12

        Two very devoted professional water operators living in Haiti are fighting and working extremely hard to fix the terrible water situation that Haitians live with every day. These two men have to have a full time job to accompany their efforts in Haiti because working on the water system provides no pay.  They both feel that they would rather suffer from the great amount of work they are doing every day than to know nothing is being done to make clean water available to those in need. In the past half-century, conditions of water cleanliness got significantly better when foreign donations were made to install water system. What could be the problem then? It is said that after this initial generous donation, the donors do not keep up with sending money to run the systems in the years to come. In result of these abandoned water systems, 50% of them have stopped working, leaving many villagers once again with unsanitary water. Engineers are making great effort to create a private enterprise of these water systems so that they will run, be maintained, and hopefully make profit.  

        In reference to the donations made to install water systems, these donors are very generous because $50 billion dollars had been spent in one decade.  However, as generous as these donations are, they are just money down the drain. Without maintaining water systems for the years after they are installed, the efforts are pointless in helping the quality of Haitians health. We need people like the two men referenced in the article, Antoine Jean Narol and Marc Antoine Castel, who are truly devoted to helping the quality of lives and not just out to look they have done a good deed in the eyes of the world.  The World Bank his recognized these efforts and has given a grant of 10 million dollars to help the hopeful enterprise. With more efforts like these, Haiti’s, and many other suffering country’s water could be as clean as yours and mine. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/in-rural-haiti-looking-for-a-way-to-make-clean-water-sustainable/2012/10/09/33582536-b4e0-11e1-9e4c-5a6a137d65e1_story.html

Blog #6 Haiti Fighting Against Lymphatic Filariasis 10/5/12

        Officials in Haiti are desperately trying to find a way to cure an infection that in present in 80% of its population. Lymphatic Filariasis is an infection that is spread by mosquitoes that can develop into the more well-known condition of elephantiasis. This infection can cause extreme swelling in limbs that can eventually be life threatening. Currently, officials in Haiti are administering drugs in elementary schools where it is easy to administer to a large amount of people because they are in a confined area. Haiti’s goal, however, is to treat the entire 10 million population. This idea is so daunting because the infection is known as a “neglected tropical disease”. The global health community does not acknowledge this health problem in Haiti because it is “overshadowed by higher-profile campaigns”.  484 million people in 2010 took drugs against Lymphatic Filariasis.

        With this many people being exposed to and harmed by this infection; it seems more efforts would be made worldwide to fight against it. As stated in the article, AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria are high profile health disasters in the world. Most all of the attention by doctors to help flight world health problems is directed at these high profile campaigns. This neglect of Haiti’s health is shocking. 80% of a countries population is in danger from this infection and it constantly gets overlooked by perfectly able doctors and organizations that are designated to help struggling countries. These neglected tropical diseases can usually be cured at the beginning stages of infection, but Haiti does not have the resources for this. The Obama administration does give a significant amount of money towards neglected tropical diseases, however, there is many diseases that get overlooked that need more attention than is given. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/haiti-takes-on-dreaded-disease-elephantiasis-one-mouth-at-a-time/2012/09/30/53c5e5b0-afef-11e1-80eb-46875d0c7789_story.html

Blog #5 New Virus Linked to SARS 9/27/12

     A virus strain (quite like SARS) that is carried by bats has scientists stumped and hard at work. A man from Saudi Arabia was killed from this virus and now a man from Qatar has his life in the line because of this strain. This virus is specifically a coronavirus, which as stated above, is the family that contains SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome). Usually humans cannot contract this virus from bats, so the fact that a man has already died from the virus has caused a big scramble to find the answers. The goal is to as quickly as possible find out whether or not this virus can become and outbreak epidemic or if it is just a one-case scenario. The Qatar and Saudi Arabian men both had tissues tested and it is confirmed that the virus came from the same strain. It takes about 10 days for effects to noticeably take place on the body. To further test to see exactly what is going on with the virus, testing in monkeys and ferrets will take place.

     This article stated that “Coronaviruses are one cause of the common cold. It’s possible the new virus could be another one of them” (David Brown). It is interesting that this scary of an article is published when the deaths could have been nothing but a virus like the common cold. It seems as though researchers can sometimes be overly worried about these kinds of illnesses from a virus. Testing and possibly killing of animals will take place in order to confirm or deny the possibility that two deaths out of everyone in the world is threat to mass amounts of people. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/scientists-scramble-to-understand-a-new-virus-similar-to-the-one-that-caused-sars/2012/09/27/00af9842-08bb-11e2-a10c-fa5a255a9258_story.html?hpid=z3

Blog #4 The Czech Republic’s Prohibition 9/19/12

     The New York Times announced that due to recent deaths from methanol-contaminated alcohol, the Czech Republic has begun a prohibition. All alcohol that is 20% or higher in alcohol content is banned from being sold for the time being. 20 deaths have resulted from this contamination in the last two, which has shocked and frightened the country. All of the alcohol that was contaminated came from the black market. The un-approved alcohol had been marked down to a special price and had fake labels on the bottles. The methanol laced liquor was being sold at kiosks and other lower income bars and establishments. Czech’s government had always turned a blind eye to the alcohol’s black market, that is until now. The people who are not apart of the 20 who have died thus far have suffered from nausea, blurred vision resulting in blindness, and brain damage. Currently a Norwegian drug is being used on the ill victims to rid their bodies of methanol. It has yet to be officially determined when this prohibition will let up. Until then, however, The Czech Republic will be suffering from great financial loss, and a reevaluation of the government control of alcohol.

     The Czech Republic is the second ranked country on the list of most hard alcohol consumed worldwide. It would seem that they would have a rather efficient system of controlling and supervising the alcohol market, but the do not. The country did have four decades of communist rule which would set up some rocky beginning with the new found freedom. However the government knew full and well of the alcohol black market and only cared about it until these recent deaths. Alcohol is something that has been around and enjoyed nearly forever. It is not something that can just be taken away or limited too much. According to the Huffington Post, alcohol kills more people then AIDS, tuberculosis and violence. 4% of death worldwide is caused from alcohol. This seems to be something that no one can afford to ignore. This devastating incident will hopefully stand for a wake up call to the Czech government to monitor this dangerous but ever loved substance more closely.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/18/world/europe/czechs-ban-hard-liquor-sales-after-methanol-poisonings.html?ref=health&moc.semityn.www

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/11/alcohol-related-deaths-_n_821900.html

Blog #3 Ebola Spreading in the Congo 9/14/12

The U.S. News covered the ever growing concern about the Ebola breakout in the Congo. The death toll from this concerning outbreak has reached 31 people. Just in this past week the casualties had doubled, making many health experts and the UN health agency start declaring that “this situation is serious”. The initial cause of the outbreak of this disease has yet to be determined. However, facts on how Ebola gets spread are fairly certain. It can be transferred easily through human contact. Traditional funeral practices in the region are the primary speculation as to how this disease is getting spread. The diseased bodies are washed and then put on display before burial to show respect. Doctors Without Borders are actively trying to spread the warning and educate the people in the region how to insure that Ebola does not become a part of their lives. Quarantine centers are being put into effect and a strong effort is being put into action to contain, fight, and lay this outbreak to rest.

Ebola is a disease that has been around since 1976. It seems as though the traditions of the Congo are very strong and don’t seem to be budging because of disease outbreaks like this one. In an article from NPR, the Congo has had 8 outbreaks of Ebola since 1976. Even with this many deaths, the Congo still puts themselves at risk with their traditional funerals. This outbreak could be easily spread, and if it gets out hand it could spread to other countries and devastate even larger populations. A situation like this cannot be taken lightly or be attacked slowly. A relatively small amount of infected people can grow to be something beyond controllable. In NPR’s article, a WHO spokesman described his worse fears “the outbreak was ‘out of control’ and ‘if nothing is done now, the disease will reach other places, and even major towns will be threatened.’”

               

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2012/09/14/un-health-agency-says-ebola-toll-at-31-in-congo

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/09/13/161062996/death-toll-climbs-in-congo-ebola-outbreak

Blog #2 Agent Orange Victims Trying Detoxification 9/7/2012

          During the Vietnam War, the United States military dropped Herbicide Orange and Agent LNX, later known as Agent Orange, over Vietnamese forests and rural land. The goal of these very destructive chemicals was to destroy the guerrilla’s cover from aerial view. The after effects of the chemicals to the Vietnamese in the surrounding areas were horrible. The New York times articles explains that the Vietnamese government to trying to treat the victims using a method that Scientologists are helping to support. Methods of detoxification are taking vitamins, and the use of exercise and sauna sessions to “sweat out” the dioxin. The downside to this great effort is that many doctors don’t believe that detoxification would help the victims at all; they say it is a wasted effort. There has yet to be any proven way to cure Agent Orange dioxin victims.

          This article shows us the many harmful and unnecessary results that come of war. During war, most people do not stop to think about the long term affects tactics might have on other human beings. Just to try and get a better angle at the opposing side, the United States dropped a harmful chemical that is still taking and ruining lives of Vietnamese to this day. In the article, J. David Goodman notes that the Unites states has done noting to support this trial for detoxification. It seems odd that the country who caused such a horrible condition in the lives of many people, would not support an effort to try and better their lives. In an article from the Huffington Post, a Vietnamese man was quoted about his fears of the dioxin being passed on to future generation in his family. “‘I hope my wife and I will fully recover completely and will not suffer after-effects to pass on to my descendants,’ prospective patient Nguyen Dai Sang.” It seems that more efforts are desperately needed in trying to find ways to improve the lives of not only the Agent Orange victims, but all people suffering of strange and unfamiliar exposure to chemicals. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/06/world/asia/agent-orange-victims-in-vietnam-get-scientology-treatment.html?ref=health

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/06/vietnam-agent-orange-scientology-_n_1860830.html

Blog #1 Does Eating Less Mean Longer Lifespan? 8/30/12 9:15pm

The results of a study about lifespan that started in 1987 are finally in. For 25 years, a research project conducted on monkeys has been in progress to find out if a very low calorie diet over a rhesus monkey’s life would result in longer life span. The findings were disappointing for the researchers. The life span of the monkey’s on the restricted diet of 30% less calories was not any longer than the control group of monkeys who were on a regular diet. Researchers had anxiously awaited the results only to discover an outcome that was not predicted. Even things like a reduced cancer or other heath diseases percentage was not proved in the results. There is some controversy and confusion to these findings because another study similar to this one that finished in 2009 in Wisconsin had differing results. Even though this one study had a negative result, researches disagree and want to continue to study this topic and do repeat studies to make the findings more accurate.

We can see from the confusion of the researchers that this study is still underway to produce a concrete result.  Mark Mattson shows us a contrasting viewpoint to the study’s findings, “He believes there is merit to caloric restriction. It can help the brain, he said, as well as make people healthier and probably make them live longer.” This goes to show that science in terms of studying human health is a very long process that takes many trials and adjustments. This study in itself is very interesting and, when the results are finally found, can be quite beneficial in understanding the human body and its functions. However, we come across an issue of science in the human health world. Many advancements are being made in the medical field and groundbreaking findings are constantly being added to medical treatment. With all of these advancements, humans are going to start to live longer and longer. How long is too long and when does such advanced medicine become too unnatural and become harmful to the human body? Where do we draw the line with medical advancements? 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/30/science/low-calorie-diet-doesnt-prolong-life-study-of-monkeys-finds.html?pagewanted=1&ref=health