New Hope in the Fight to Eradicate Polio


http://www.globalpost.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/gp3_slideshow_large/pakistan-polio-vaccine-2013-1-24.jpg

This article heralds the good news that polio has been eradicated in India! It has been three years since the last case of polio in India, which was January 13, 2011 and the only case of polio in India that year. Although they have not yet received their official certification, it will be coming soon: 'Menabde said the WHO would officially declare India as polio-free by the end of March, when the legal process for certification was completed'.

This is an enormous milestone in epidemiological history because it is so hard to eradicate disease in India due to its large and very mobile population, high levels of poverty in areas, and many citizens living in remote regions.

 In recent years the Indian government has made an enormous effort into vaccinating their citizens; immunizing over 170,000 children every year and spending $2.5 billion since 1995. Clearly their efforts have paid off with 741 cases in 2009, 42 in 2010, one in 2011, and none since then.

This article reminded me of the campaign to eradicate smallpox in India because they used similar techniques to target the mobile citizens of India: for example, vaccination booths were set up at bus stations,  just like they were set up at train stations during the campaign to eradicate smallpox.

I am very happy to be able to post an article which sends a message of hope to the world, because so often do we hear negative stories in the mainstream media about various diseases, it is good that we can see progress and success in the field of disease prevention. It is even better to know that fewer people will suffer the horrors of polio, which is fast acting and can cause crippling effects in its victims in under 24 hours. It is good to know that we are one step closer to the global eradication of polio.

Link to original article:

India Soon to be Polio Free, Boosting Global Immunization Efforts, Reuters, Jan. 13th 2013

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/01/13/india-soon-to-be-polio-free-boosting-global-immunization-efforts/

Pertussis: A New Vaccine to Help Stop the Spread in Young Kids.

http://www.ratepublic.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/PRinc_rm_SEM_of_whooping_cough_bacteria_in_cilia1.jpg

Camille Locht, the Director of the Centre for Infection and Immunity of Lille, says that Pertussis is a “wrongly forgotten disease”. This deadly sickness kills nearly 300,000 children a year worldwide and the mortality rate is still increasing. The Child – Innovace European research program is starting the development of a new vaccine that is going to be given out to help protect the young from this disease.

The program is planning on creating a vaccine that will be taken through an intranasal injection. This vaccine will also help to fight off two other respitory pathogens: Bordetella pertussis and respiratory syncytial virus. These three pathogens are mostly found in kids aged from 0-6 months. They have practiced the vaccine on humans, giving them the live bacteria through the nose.

The Phase I trials in humans took place in Sweden. The vaccination was abandoned in the country for several years. These trials main ideas were to record all symptoms that occurred in the patient. A monitoring committee watched them. Three different doses of the vaccines were tested: a low, intermediate and high dose. Results show that the vaccine colonized the nasal mucosa best at the high dose. Experimentation is not yet complete but they are hoping to administer higher volumes to increase colonization of nasal mucus and they also hope to improve stability of the vaccine.

This article made me make a connection with Smallpox and Edward Jenner. Doctors and scientists are pushing for people to get the vaccination against pertussis yet some people don't believe in the works of it and are being ignorant to the fact that it does help prevent the disease. Many young children are prone to catch this illness but if they are protected against it, there is no way that they would attain it. Although you may be wary of the vaccination, getting it is the best thing for your child. The many experiments that have been done like the one above show the positive effects of getting vaccinated.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/271028.php

Friday 10 January 2014

Skipping out on the Flu Shot?

This is a picture showing the percent of Americans getting the Flu shot in 2011-2012

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/01/14/many-us-adults-skipping-flu-shots-reports-cdc/

A Fox News story has been done on the low number of Americans getting the Flu shot this season. As the Flu season begins many doctors recommend that the best way to avoid the flu is to get the preventative shot but a large number of Americans are skipping out this year. The CDC reported how there was a low number of Americans getting the shot just 35.7% have got the shot from last years 45% aged 18-64. This flu season could even be more dangerous than others as the H1N1 is the most prevalent strain, the same strain that cause the 2009 pandemic. Also flu this year is spread out all over the country primarily effecting up to 35 states. The executive director Trust for Americas health stated that "The trend of low vaccination rates among younger adults is particularly troubling this year, when they are more at risk than usual for the effects of the H1N1 strain of flu that's circulating,"

My reaction to this is that I am surprised that so many Americans would put them self at risk to get flu even when the CDC recommends getting the shot. Personally I have got the shot for years and have never got the flu from it as some people think.

The Battle is Over but The War Continues

                              Above is an a picture from the article of corpses being dragged into a mass grave.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/15/world/asia/tacloban-philippines-typhoon-haiyan.html

The battle is over but the war continues.  A horrible typhoon destroyed the Philippines only months ago.  The initial storm killed thousands but the death toll continues to rise as disease breaks out among the destroyed cities.

This article "Ravaged by Typhoon, Philippines Faces Threat of Serious Diseases" was published online in The New York Times this past November.  It talks about the tragedy the country has faced and the death that still lies ahead.  Though the storm was devastating at first it also killed for months later and continues to kill. “The lack of both fresh water and solid-waste disposal systems had created a potent incubator for fecal contaminants,” because of this the Philippines is facing major outbreaks of disease.  There have been many cases of cholera, hepatitis, malaria, dengue fever, typhoid fever, and bacterial dysentery.  There are also worries that there could be a return of polio, which the Philippines has been free of for nearly 14 years.

When we studied cholera in class we learned that it was spread by ingesting fecal bacteria from an infected person.  Because of this cholera and many other bacterial disease are spread easily when drinking water is exposed to human waste.  The most devastating aspect of this story is that the citizens may very well know that their drinking water is contaminated however they have little to no other choice for drinking water.  It is also very unfortunate that many diarrheal diseases can be easily cured with fluids and electrolytes.

A simple solution to limiting the spread of disease would be to implement a solid waste removal system.  Unfortunately it is not that easy.  These piping systems cost a lot of money and so does transporting thousands of gallons of fresh water to the Philippines.  However recently I heard about LifeStraws.  They are straws that can filter out almost all pathogens to provide a family with thousands of liters of clean water in its lifetime.  Below I have attached a link to an article about LifeStraws from September of 2011. 

  

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/27/health/27straw.html        

  

Recent outbreak of Meningitis at Princeton University

      Meningitis, is it serious? Recently meningitis broke out at Princeton University making the campus unsafe and unsanitary. Seven kids were found infected and more were to come. They ordered many vaccines which every faculty member, student, and professors were required to get. Meningitis can be spread many different ways but the most common ways you can get it is kissing and coughing. In this article I found called “Princeton University Meningitis infections prompt CDC to import emergency vaccines for use on campus” was a very informational article reinforcing what to do about the outbreak of this disease. A connection I have to this Meningitis outbreak is my sister’s friend goes to Princeton University.

Epidemiologists: More Important Than You May Think

http://www.realclearscience.com/articles/2013/11/15/the_haunting_world_of_the_disease_detectives_108358.html

This article was published on the "Real Clear Science" website on November 15th, 2013 by David Burke; a man who studies microbiology to make a living. David is one of the countless epidemiologists in the world and in this article he provides a first hand account to show readers what it is like to be in his shoes.

In his article "The Haunting World of the Disease Detectives", Burke tells about an outbreak of neurological problems among workers at a pig slaughter house. His description of the way the epidemiologists went about finding where the problem stemmed from was very similar to how John Snow attempted to find where the outbreaks of cholera were originating.

Burke writes, "By examining a map of worker stations in the slaughterhouse, epidemiologists determined that everyone who became ill was located in the vicinity of a brain processing machine. The one exception was a woman whose best friend worked at the brain harvesting station, and she would spend her breaks conversing with her friend near that station." When I read that, I instantly thought of the parallels between Snow and these epidemiologists, even down to cracking the code of the exceptions. 

This article really shows how inquisitive and logical epidemiologists must be, and shows how they continue to do their detective work until they are completely satisfied. Burke also points out that thanks to the work of epidemiologists, people in the medical field who are accused of medication errors can be proved innocent. I found it intriguing to get to see that there are several ways these people contribute to society, in addition to understanding and preventing the most infectious diseases on the planet. 

Burke makes it obvious that being an epidemiologists is no happy-go-lucky career, but rather it is a career that requires intelligence, bravery and mental toughness. These men and women put themselves at risk constantly, in order to protect all of us. They also have to be conscious that more and more innocent people's lives can be taken if they don't solve the problem quickly. They are always trying to find a cure, test new experiments, and track diseases. Epidemiologists have an incredibly important job in society, and this article helped me realize that they deserve much more credit.

Stephanie Cohen 

Picture from:  http://www.bls.gov/ooh/images/p08-to-p09/p096-4-jpg.jpg

The Cure to Tuberculosis May Be in the Palm of Your Hand

     A recent news article was posted on FoxNews.com titled “How Smartphones Have Become a Powerful Tuberculosis Treatment Tool.” This article was written by Rose Stuckey Kirk on January 1, 2014. A study was done by The University of California San Diego on the effectiveness cost effectiveness of using videos from smartphones to document patients taking their medication for Tuberculosis. The idea is that instead of using the costly DOT (directly observed therapy) method to ensure that patients are taking their medication that, instead, patients can take a video on their smartphone of them taking it and send it in to health departments. This new method will be called VDOT (video directly observed therapy). These new observations methods were created because patients found it too difficult to comply with the multi-drug treatment so they would stop taking their medication too early in treatment. This created a more resistant form of Tuberculosis called MDR-TB. The article described new method as a, “21st century solution to an age old disease that is among the deadliest of pandemics, we can catalyze greater interest within health care systems for exploring new and powerful ways that mobile technology can improve care, reduce costs and save lives.” By using this new, modern, method of monitoring patients it can cure and prevent further spread of Tuberculosis. 

    This evolution in observing treatment is just another example of the treatment of a disease changing with the modernization of the world around and changing treatment to become more effective. This is true of any treatment of a disease, with time, and more technological advances the treatment will change and evolve. One (more extreme) specific example of the treatment of a disease’s treatment is the evolution of the treatment of the bubonic plague. In the 1300’s if someone had the plague they would be quarantined in their home to prevent the spread. But now, in the 21^st century, we have made tremendous strides in the treatment of the bubonic plague due to the modernization of medicine. We now know that it can be treated simply with an antibiotic. This is a more extreme example but it does show that over time treatments and methods are bound to change, and for the better.

   This article was very interesting to me and showed me a different part of medical treatment that I never really considered. I had honestly never thought that patients would withdraw from treatment before it should be over, thus creating a more resistant form of it. I think that monitoring their treatment and making sure that patients are taking it is a great way of keeping them on track with their treatment. I know, from person experience, that sometimes patients must have help with taking their medication. My great grandparents have lots of medication that they have to take throughout the day but if they were on their own they wouldn’t take it or take the wrong amount. Because of this they have professionals there to help administer them their medication. I like the idea of monitoring patients through their smartphones but I question the reliability of it. Patients could send the same video twice, they could forget to take the video altogether, or they may be in public and not want to videotape themselves taking medicine. But, just like all things. I’m sure that over time the kinks will be worked out of this new method.

Article: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/01/01/how-smartphones-have-become-surprising-tuberculosis-treatment-tool/

Potential Plans to Combat Deadly Disease

The most deadly parasitic disease after malaria afflicts hundreds of thousands of the world's poorest people.  This disease is called Kala-azar, and is prevalent in tropical countries such as India, Brazil and Sudan.  This horrible disease is spread by sandfly bites, but there are treatments for it.  However, these treatments are very expensive, inconvenient and has a chance of giving off toxic side effects.  The disease is spreading rapidly due to the poverty in these countries, so expensive treatments are out of the question.

http://nvbdcp.gov.in/kal10.html

Groups have tried to create new treatments for this disease, but they had to abandon their work.  This is because the customers could not pay the high prices needed to develop a new drug.  It was said that,  "the measures will do little, they say, to solve a broader problem: the disparity in spending on research and development for diseases of the rich and those of the poor."  This shows that people a reluctant to pay money for disease research when the diseases don't effect them.  With Kala-azar, for example, people would be paying thousands of dollars to benefit people who can't afford to help themselves, when they could be during diseases that affect the people paying. There is a new proposal to fight this deadly disease.  This proposal includes a non-profit plan that the World Health Organization (WHO) will consider at the organization headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland on January 20-25.

I think it is important to know that there are still many diseases that effect people around the world.  Many of these people effected cannot afford to help themselves, so it is important that people keep that in mind.  In poorer countries, people are victims to these horrible diseases and can't do anything about it.  If hundreds of thousands of people are living with diseases such as Kala-azar and need our help.  We are lucky enough to live in a country where medical treatment is readily available, but other people are not so lucky. 

I chose this article to show the importance of giving back and knowing what is going around in the world around us.  

http://www.nature.com/news/projects-set-to-tackle-neglected-diseases-1.14474

"'Rocket-like launch' of this year's flu season makes vaccination a must"

Since 2009 when H1N1 swept the world flu vaccinations have become an essential part of the fall. Despite the abundance of locations to receive the vaccinations and the relatively low cost many people haven't been vaccinated. While the flu is most fatal in infants and people over the age of 65 it can easily be carried by people in their 20s and 30s. Its the younger people who don't get vaccinated that are the best carriers for the disease. With a strong immune system they often don't show symptoms the way that children or the elderly do. Because of this they often aren't treated and can infect people around them. Thats why its so important for everyone to be vaccinated and with the flu there really is no excuse not to. H1N1 is constantly reemerging every year with a slightly varied strand and while the flu vaccine is not guaranteed to protect everyone from the flu but this year's vaccine is on track to protect against the 2013-2014 strand of the virus. This year is also on the track to become as widely infectious as the 2009 strand. Hospitals in the South are already seeing a strand with strong symptoms and an increase in patients. This years H1N1 strand already is responsible for 90 percent of flu related hospital cases.

So why did I choose this article? I'm not the biggest fan of shots being that needles scare me to death but its impossible to turn on the news without hearing about the flu outbreak. The outbreak is so large and widespread even in a medically advanced country like the United States. Each year the strain is different and doctors must constantly be working on advancements that will counter that of the disease. Also its very interesting that the disease has come in a stronger wave this year as apposed to the last few years. The symptoms are getting worse and more people are being hospitalized. However this article is encouraging to nervous teens like me. Its worth it to get vaccinated for the sake of others. Its easy to forget that getting vaccinated not only protects you but it also can prevent transmitting this deadly disease to people around me. Getting vaccinated keeps people in school, at work, and out of the hospital; which during flu season is the last place you want to be.

Image: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Article: http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/blog/health-care-inc/2014/01/hey-you---yeah-you---get-your-flu.html

A Drug You Can Take While Pregnant!

Alexandra Legge is a student at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Her and her colleagues used data from the Nova Scotia Perinatal Database to examine maternal vaccination rates and the outcome in women who gave birth in Nova Scotia. This all took place between November 1, 2010 and March 31, 2012. Canadian researchers then reported that women who had used the influenza vaccination during pregnancy were associated with improved neonatal outcomes. This includes lower risk for preterm birth and also low birth weight. “Our findings add to the existing body of evidence showing that seasonal influenza vaccination during pregnancy not only offers maternal benefits, but may also provide both prenatal benefits to the fetus and postnatal protection to the infant through transplacental antibodies,” researchers wrote in CMAJ.During their examination, Alex and her colleagues noticed that only 16% of the women were vaccinated against influenza during pregnancy which the researchers described as "disappointingly low." The women that were more likely to receive the influenza vaccine during pregnancy were women that were living in rural areas. On the other hand, women who smoked were less likely to receive the vaccination. Researchers said "by averting maternal infection, the vaccine may exert and protective effect on the fetus by avoiding the associated inflammatory response that may trigger premature labor."

This article surprised me because were always taught that taking medicines/drugs while pregnant can harm/danger the baby. We always see "if you are pregnant do not..." and while we are also shown things to also help you have a healthy pregnancy, its astounding and interesting to know that there are some drugs/vaccines/medicines out there that can help you and you're baby out.

If you were NOT a regular flu vaccinator, would this change your mind at all if you were pregnant? Carol J. Baker, MD Professor of molecular virology and microbiology Baylor College of Medicine Houston "Influenza vaccination during pregnancy may lead to improved birth outcomes." Infectious Disease News. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Jan. 2014. .

What's Living Among Your Children's Toys?

A recent study conducted by researchers from the University at Buffalo in New York found two bacteria that cause many common infections prevalent in children and the elderly.  Bacteria that cause strep throat and ear infections can survive outside the human body for long periods of time on objects that children often come in contact with including books, cribs and toys.  Evidence shows that Streptococcus pneumoniae and Streptococcus pyogenes remain on many common household surfaces longer than previously thought.  Many previous studies had suggested that bacteria quickly die after leaving the human body.

Surfaces including baby cribs tested positive for S. pyogenes, while four out of five stuffed toys tested positive for S. pneumoniae.  S. pyogenes is a common cause of strep throat and skin conditions in school children, but the bacteria can also cause severe infections in adults.  S. pneumoniae is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality from respiratory tract infections in children and the elderly, and it is also a leading cause of ear infections. 

 

S. pyogenes

 

http://www.proprofs.com/flashcards/story.php?title=medical-bugs_1

 

 

While children around the world will be busy playing with all their new Christmas toys, they and their parents are unaware of the potential risks to their health from the bacteria that cling to the toys.  Especially in the winter months, strep throat and ear infections are prevalent among school age children.  New antibacterial precautions need to be mandated in hospitals and public facilities to try and inhibit the growth of these common bacteria.

 

http://greatdealzdirect.com/index.php/toys.html

 

Anders Hakansson, Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the University at Buffalo and senior author of the study, says: "In all of these cases, we found that these pathogens can survive for long periods outside a human host.  Commonly handled objects that are contaminated with these biofilm bacteria could act as reservoirs of bacteria for hours, weeks or months, spreading potential infections to individuals who come in contact with them". This quote was alarming to me because I believed bacteria could not survive and quickly died after leaving a human host.  This study interested me because I babysit often and am in regular contact with bacteria reservoirs.  People who work with children and in health care facilities need to implement the same protocols that are used for preventing the spread of other bacteria.

 

This article reminded me of the Herbal Medicine lab performed in class.  In my group, we tested ginger's antibacterial properties against Staphylococcus epidermidis.  Other herbs could be tested against the bacteria prevalent on common surface to see if they inhibit the growth.  I thought this article was very informative.  The only controversial piece was whether the previous study stating that bacteria quickly died after leaving the human host is completely accurate or the new study stating that bacteria can remain after leaving the host.

 

Original article: "Some bacteria 'live for long periods' on toys, books and cribs" Published on December 29th, 2013 by Honor Whiteman for Medical News Today

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/270670.php