Month: June 2014

Innovative new treatment for depression offers hope to patients

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Depression is a serious medical condition that affects millions of Americans — and nearly twice as many women as men.

Symptoms can include persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness and loss of interest in activities that were once pleasurable, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Other symptoms include feelings of guilt or worthlessness, irritability, changes in appetite, increased fatigue, difficulty concentrating — even recurrent thoughts of suicide.

About 12 million American women suffer from depression each year, women like Debi Lee. The pastor and mother of three tells NBC Special Anchor Maria Shriver that she was first diagnosed in high school, but her condition became debilitating after the birth of her children.

“It’s a struggle,” said Lee. “There’s definitely a stigma still. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I should be able to control this.”

Although depression is treatable, most commonly with medications or counseling, many never seek help, often because they are too embarrassed or ashamed.

“Depression is really a physical illness,” said Dr. Andrew Leuchter, a psychiatrist at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at University of California, Los Angeles.

It’s a disorder that even can be seen in brain scans, with images clearly showing the difference between a normal functioning brain and the brain of someone suffering from depression.

“When you show this image to a person who’s struggling with depression and you show them that their brain looks different than the quote so-called healthy person, what’s their reaction?” Shriver asked.

“It’s commonly one of relief,” Leuchter said.

Now, Dr. Leuchter says there’s an innovative new treatment called synchronized transcranial magnetic stimulation, or sTMS, that may have the potential to provide relief. Dr. Leuchter, a consultant and stockholder in the company behind sTMS, says it syncs to each patient’s brain, then stimulates it with low levels of magnetic energy, 30 minutes a day for several weeks.

“And when that happens, normal moods can start to come back,” said Dr. Leuchter.

His unpublished study of 120 patients found the treatment significantly decreased depression in some patients, compared to the placebo. The treatment is currently being studied, but not yet approved for the public.

Dr. Matthew Rudorfer, associate director of treatment research for the National Institute of Mental Health, said sTMS “represents an exciting advance for people who don’t want to take medications, can’t take medications, or who do not respond to medications.”

Currently under FDA review, sTMS treatment is not yet approved for the public but might one day offer hope for patients with depression, such as Lee, who would like to be medication-free.

“It made me feel normal,” she said.

Source: today

Centenarians ‘outliving diseases of old age’

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Centenarians have found a way to beat the common diseases of old age, such as cancer and heart disease, research suggests.

The study by King’s College London found they were more likely to die of infections such as pneumonia, unlike younger groups of elderly people.

Researchers said 28% of 100- to 115-year-olds died of “old age” and a fifth of pneumonia. Cancer claimed the lives of fewer than 5% and heart disease fewer than 9%.

The study was based on an analysis of 36,000 death certificates. By comparison, these diseases were the most common reasons for death among the 80- to 84-year-old age group, with cancer responsible for 25% of deaths and heart disease nearly a fifth.

Boost high quality care
Lead researcher Dr Catherine Evans said the findings raised important questions for health and care services.

“Centenarians have outlived death from chronic illness, but they are a group living with increasing frailty and vulnerability to pneumonia and other poor health outcomes.

“We need to plan for healthcare services that meet the ‘hidden needs’ of this group, who may decline rapidly if they succumb to an infection or pneumonia.

“We need to boost high-quality care-home capacity and responsive primary and community health services to enable people to remain in a comfortable, familiar environment in their last months of life.”

The study, published in the journal PLOS Medicine, said this was going to become even more important as the number of centenarians increased.

According to latest Office for National Statistics data, there are more than 13,000 centenarians living in the UK, but by 2066 that number is expected to increase to more than 500,000.

The researchers pointed out that, in the UK, far fewer very old people ended up dying in care homes compared with other European countries, such as the Netherlands and Finland.

Dr Evans added: “Hospital admission in the last weeks of life accounts for a third of the total cost of end-of-life care per patient.”

Source: BBC news

Birth control pill for males will have to wait

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Much research is underway to find a safe and effective male contraceptive pill. Though it was speculated that a male contraceptive pill is just around the corner but now people will have to wait more. Researchers have found that hormonal male contraception via testosterone does not stop the production of healthy sperm.

Based on the study involving mice it was found out that a previously developed male hormonal oral contraceptive method (via testosterone) is unable to stop the production and/or the release of sperm.

Ilpo Huhtaniemi from the Imperial College of London in Britain said that, “Our research explains why the efficacy of male hormonal contraception is not as effective as expected and it provides clues on how to improve the method”.

Scientists demonstrated that the male contraception approach by testosterone has an inherent problem – spermatogenesis – where production of sperm from the primordial germ cells does not stop.

They found that administering increasing doses of testosterone to infertile mutant mice did allow sexual function to return at a certain dosing threshold which was expected.

What was not expected, however, is that spermatogenesis also returned at that dose. This suggests that it is impossible to give a single dose of testosterone that allows for sexual function and the suppression of pituitary gonadotropin secretion, but also does not initiate sperm production.

Source: zee news

Tart cherry juice good for cyclists

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Researchers have said that cyclists who drank Montmorency tart cherry juice concentrate before a three-day simulated race experienced less inflammation and oxidative stress compared to those who drank another beverage.

A research team led by Dr. Glyn Howatson with PhD student Phillip Bell at Northumbria University gave 16 well-trained, male cyclists about 1 ounce (30 ml) of Montmorency tart cherry juice concentrate mixed with water (equivalent to 90 whole Montmorency tart cherries per serving), or a calorie-matched placebo, twice a day for seven days.

On days five, six and seven, the participants performed prolonged, high-intensity cycling intervals – exercise that was designed to replicate the demands of a three-day race.

The researchers collected blood samples and found that markers of inflammation and oxidative stress were significantly lower in the cyclists who consumed the tart cherry juice concentrate compared to those who did not.

At one point during the trial, oxidative stress was nearly 30 percent lower in the tart cherry group compared to the other group.

Strenuous exercise can cause temporary inflammation and oxidative stress that can lead to muscle damage, muscle soreness and reduced capacity to recover quickly, explains research lead Glyn Howatson, Ph.D., laboratory director at the Department of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation at Northumbria University. He attributes the recovery benefits shown in the study to the natural compounds in Montmorency tart cherries. One of the natural compounds found in Montmorency tart cherries is anthocyanins.

The study has been published in the journal Nutrients.

Source: Times of India

Tanzania: TB Cases Reported On the Rise

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The government has explained its strategies for the envisaged expansion of medical treatment services for tuberculosis (TB) following a reported increase in the number of cases.

Tabling his ministry’s budget estimates for the financial year 2014/2015, the Minister for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Seif Rashid, told the National Assembly that data have it that the number of TB patients is on the increase and people above 45 years of age are highly affected. “For the first time the TB Prevalence Survey was conducted last year.

It showed that the disease remains a threat with 295 people affected out of 100,000. People above 45 years of age are highly affected as compared to youths,” he said.

Dr Rashid noted further that the government will continue with efforts to take TB treatment services to lesser hospitals from the Kibong’oto Hospital which is a specialized medical centre for TB treatment.

He added that TB services will be put up in mining areas as the study indicates that miners are in a risky environment when they contact the disease which is airborne.

Dr Rashid noted that Gene-Xpert machines will be distributed around the country to increase hospitals’ capacity of diagnosing TB patients. In another development, the minister said that the ministry’s efforts in collaboration with its stakeholders have managed to reduce HIV/ AIDS prevalence rate to 5.3 per cent in 2012 from 5.8 in 2008.

“This achievement has been registered following various efforts and campaigns geared at counselling and voluntary tests,” he said.

He noted that by December 2013, the number of people who had tested has increased from 11,640 in 2009 to 20,469,241 which is equal to an average of an increase of 2,000,000 per annum.

“The increase in number is a vivid demonstration that the society is highly motivated and informed on the need to understand their health status,” he said.

Dr Rashid noted that 457,901 HIV/AIDS patients were tested for TB out of which 5,413 patients or 1.2 per cent were discovered to have contracted TB and were put into treatment.

Source: All Africa

Critics Want FDA to OK New Sunscreen Ingredients

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Rigel’s patients can’t buy similar products in the United States because they contain sun-filtering compounds — classified as over-the-counter drugs in the United States and Canada but cosmetics elsewhere. These compounds don’t yet have FDA approval, even though in some cases they’ve been used for decades in other countries.

“There’s no good reason why the FDA hasn’t approved these,” says Rigel, a past president of the American Academy of Dermatology and a clinical professor at NYU Langone Medical Center.
“As a physician, it’s frustrating to me that we can’t seem to get an answer about when the FDA will approve these ingredients that have already been proven safe in Europe.”

The eight sun filters awaiting FDA approval “have the potential to be different and better,” Rigel says. They tend to last longer and lend themselves to more “elegant” formulations than some of the goopy sunscreen products on the U.S. market, he says.
If it seems like there’s no shortage of sunscreen choices on store shelves, you might be surprised to learn the FDA hasn’t approved a new active sunscreen ingredient since before 2002. That year, the agency published regulations aimed at streamlining the review of over-the-counter drugs, such as sun filters, with track records in other countries.

Under a different review process, though, the FDA in 2006 allowed L’Oreal to market Anthelios SX, a daily moisturizer that contains a sun filter used in products sold in Europe and Canada since 1993. The approval only applies to Anthelios SX products sold by L’Oreal brands.
“The FDA remains committed to allowing sunscreens containing additional ingredients to be made available to consumers if there are enough data to show that they are generally recognized as safe and effective for use in over-the-counter sunscreens,” the agency says in a statement to WebMD. “The FDA recognizes the public health importance of sunscreen use and has prioritized reviewing the safety and effectiveness of additional sunscreen ingredients as quickly as possible, given the agency’s resources.”

Waiting Game
Manufacturers of the eight different sun-filtering compounds have applied to the FDA for approval under the 2002 “time and extent” regulations. This is another way to approve over-the-counter drugs sold outside the U.S., says Michael Werner. He’s a Washington, D.C., lawyer who advises the PASS (Public Access to Sunscreen) Coalition.
“Time” refers to having been marketed continuously for at least 5 years in the same country, while “extent” refers to marketing a sufficient quantity.

The time and extent regulations allow applicants, when requesting FDA approval, to use data from other countries to demonstrate safety and effectiveness, Werner says. “That’s why it requires at least 5 years of continuous marketing in other countries.“

Source: web md

Research chemist who ‘discovered’ Ecstasy dies aged 88

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A world-renowned chemist famous for rediscovering a decades old recipe for the psychedelic drug ecstasy has died aged 88.

Alexander Shulgin died at his home in a remote part of northern California on Monday.

His wife, Ann, said that terminal liver cancer was the cause. She announced his death on Facebook, saying that his going “was graceful, with almost no struggle at all.”

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Known to some as the ‘Godfather of Ecstasy’, Shuglin created over 200 chemical compounds for use in psychotherapy – often testing the extremely psychoactive substances on himself and his wife.

He his most widely known, however, for dusting off a decades-old chemical recipe for 3,4-Methylenedioxyamphetamine, or MDMA – the ‘active ingredient’ in the drug ecstasy.

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MDMA been forgotten for almost 65 years since its initial discovery in 1912 and the drug had never been tested on humans until Shuglin began clinical trials on himself.

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His research into the drug and its properties has led some scientists to believe that it could be introduced as a possible treatment for some mental health conditions and terminal cancer patients.

Source: itv

New York doctors reconstruct Kenyan child’s face after flesh-eating bacteria

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A young girl from a remote Kenyan village has regained her confidence and smile after living in the U.S. for a year and undergoing a series of operations to help rebuild her face.

When she younger, Saline Atieno’s face was ravaged by a rare flesh-eating bacteria that made it difficult for her to speak, eat and even breathe.
Last Saturday, a smiling and confident Saline, 12, returned home to Kenya after undergoing ten surgeries to reconstruct her face.

She is the first child to have had her life dramatically changed by the Smile Rescue Fund For Kids, a charity dedicated to helping children with facial deformities deemed virtually ‘untreatable’.
It was setup by Dr. Leon Klempner, an orthodontist on the cleft palate team at Stony Brook University Hospital in Stony Brook, New York.

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After making numerous mission trips to provide free surgeries to repair cleft palates or other facial deformities in children around the world, he wanted to do more to help those children with the most severe deformities.

‘On every mission I’ve gone on there’s always been one or two kids turned away because they are too severe to be able to treat and that’s always bothered me,’ Klempner told

Saline was just 3-years-old when she was diagnosed with Noma. The flesh-eating bacteria develops in the mouth and ravages the faces of its victims by destroying the soft and bone tissues of the face.
‘Noma attacked her face, ate through her skin, through her upper jaw, destroyed her nose and destroyed her palate…That’s the medical part,’ said Klempner.

‘The social part is she was basically a recluse, she had no friends, she didn’t go to school.’

She first came to the attention of Dr. Klempner in 2010, but it took three years of fundraising and navigating bureaucratic barriers before Saline finally arrived in the U.S. for treatment last June.
At first she was shy and afraid, and unwilling to show her face in public or look people in the eye.

‘We had to reconstruct a nose, an upper lip and a palate – and that was one big cavity, one big hole,’ Dr. Alexander Dagum, chief of the plastic and reconstructive surgery division at Stony Brook, told Fox.

Saline’s appearance began to improve, her doctors and host family noticed a marked improvement in both her health and self-esteem. She even grew six inches and learned to speak English.

‘Here everyone is welcoming her, telling her she is beautiful, I think that all really played a part of getting her to come out of her shell,’ said Jennifer Crean, who hosted Saline in her home for three months.
Saline had her tenth major surgery – to create a nose – in April and then on May 31 she flew back to Kenya. She is now able to breathe normally, speak more clearly and eat without spilling food and drink from her mouth.

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Her risk for future infections has also decreased significantly now that the open cavity in her face has been closed. She may need a few corrective procedures to minimize scarring in the future.
‘No words can adequately express how I feel. You have not only taught me your language, and fixed my face, you have taught me how it feels to be taken care of and unconditionally loved. I never expected that. Goodbye- for now,’ she told Dr. Klempner before leaving.

Saline will be enrolled in a private boarding school in Kenya, where she will receive an education, a bed to sleep in and three meals per day – all funded by the Smile Rescue Fund.
‘She’s touched our lives and exposed us to what exists elsewhere and instilled this sense of gratitude in those of us that have been involved with her,’ said Dr. Klempner.
‘She’s been an inspiration to us and really a gift, she’s enriched our lives.’

With Saline’s journey almost at an end, Dr. Klempner is in the process of screening more children to bring to the U.S. for similar reconstructive surgeries.

Source: daily mail

 

Cameroon Steps Up War On Malaria Amid Worsening Floods

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Cameroon is seeking ways to mobilise its citizens to support a government-led campaign against soaring malaria deaths, as worsening floods aggravate health risks.

Government officials in the central-west African country say regular flooding due to erratic rains is partly responsible for the recent spike in deaths from vector-borne diseases, because standing water encourages malaria-carrying mosquitoes to breed.

“The increase in the death rate from malaria in Cameroon is disturbing indeed, especially at a time when efforts to combat the disease in African were yielding positive results. The Cameroon government, however, is sparing no efforts to reverse the trend,” Alim Hayatou, secretary of state in charge of epidemics and pandemics, told the launch of a nationwide campaign against vector-borne diseases in March.

Hayatou said the 2014 campaign aims to step up official efforts to reduce the death rate from malaria by at least 75 percent before 2018, and to alleviate its heavy social and economic burden on the population.

The annual death toll from malaria in Cameroon jumped from less than 2,000 in 2011 and 2012 to over 3,200 in 2013, according to statistics from Malaria No More, an international NGO fighting the disease in Africa.

Government officials, health experts and environmentalists are unanimous on the need for a joint push to keep malaria at bay.

Against this backdrop, the government – alongside partners including UNICEF, Plan Cameroon and Malaria No More – announced a boost to the anti-malaria campaign K.O. PALU (Kick Out Malaria) with a door-to-door distribution of treated mosquito nets to families, especially with pregnant women and children, accompanied by environmental education.

PLASTIC BAG BAN

According to Cameroon’s minister of public health, André Mama Fouda, Cameroon saw the distribution of free treated mosquito nets rise from 33 percent of the population in 2011 to 66 percent in 2013. But the death rate has paradoxically increased, indicating the need to accompany net handouts with messages about the environment and good hygiene practices.

“Exerting unprecedented control over the unfriendly behaviour of people towards the environment is key to succeeding in the fight against malaria and other vector-borne diseases,” the minister said.

In 2013, the government banned the production, sale and use of non-biodegradable plastic bags – which health and environment experts say have clogged up drains and gutters, contributing to floods.

“The reckless littering of…plastics on streets and waterways are some of the barriers to efforts to fight floods, because they block drainage facilities,” Tansi Laban of the ministry of environment and nature protection told Thomson Reuters Foundation in Yaounde.

“Worse still, many households and companies dispose of plastic bags by burning them, which emits toxic gases that harm the atmosphere and increase the level of dioxins and carbon dioxide in the air, resulting in ozone layer depletion. This leads to global warming and climate change,” the official added.

The government delegate to Douala City Council, Fritz Ntone Ntone, said at the malaria campaign launch that the council had completed a drainage project to channel run-off water during heavy rains into the River Wouri, in response to persistent flooding and pollution of some areas. The project, which began in January 2013 and ended this March, cost the council some 785 million FCFA ($1.57 million).

The cities of Douala in the Littoral Region and Mokolo in the Far North Region, which suffered heavy floods in 2012 and 2013, accounted for over 40 percent of malaria deaths last year, pointing to the negative effects of weather extremes for public health, experts say.

The problems of regular flooding and poor drainage need to be addressed to prevent mosquitoes breeding, said Olivia Ngou, Cameroon country director of Malaria No More.

Environmentalists have blamed Douala’s tendency to flooding on the exploitation of mangrove forests near the coast by fishermen who cut down trees to smoke fish, leaving the shore bare of vegetation and removing protection against storm surges and sea-level rise.

NETS NOT USED

Statistics from the public health ministry show that children younger than five and pregnant women are the groups most vulnerable to malaria, registering over 40 percent of deaths in 2013. More than 1.6 million Cameroonians are affected by the disease each year.

The government is concerned that the population is not collaborating sufficiently with the anti-malaria drive. Last June, on World Environment Day, environment minister Pierre Hélé expressed regret that climate change was playing out in people’s lives,  yet few paid attention to ways of averting the potential risks.

Some climate change projects have either failed to take off, or have been poorly or partially implemented due to corruption and administrative bottlenecks, he said. The minister cited the planned construction of a canal to stop flooding in Douala, which was announced by the government in 2012 but has yet to begin amid allegations over mismanagement of funds.

Health workers say many people have malaria nets but do not use them because of excessive heat in the city due to overcrowding and rising temperatures linked to greenhouse gas emissions from local industry in
the country’s commercial capital.

Isaac Ebong, a doctor at Laquantini hospital in Douala, told Thomson Reuters Foundation that patients complain the nets are too warm to sleep under.

WHO SUPPORT

The World Health Organization (WHO) country representative in Cameroon, Charlotte Faty Ndiaye, said at the anti-malaria campaign launch her agency stood poised to help the government, as in previous years.

“WHO is always ready to work with government and civil society organisations to improve the health of the population. Thanks to efforts by WHO, some 337 million cases of malaria were prevented between 2001 and 2012,” she said.

Malaria is an entirely preventable and treatable mosquito-borne illness, according to the WHO.An estimated 3.4 billion people are at risk of malaria worldwide, according to a 2013 WHO report. Of these, 1.2 billion are at high risk, in areas where more than 1 malaria case occurs per 1,000 people.

Globally, there were an estimated 207 million cases of malaria in 2012,  and an estimated 627,000 deaths. The report said 90 percent of all malaria deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa

Source: Thomson reuters foundation

Zimbabwe: Diarrhoea Outbreak Hits Chinhoyi

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A diarrhoea outbreak has hit Chinhoyi with about 1 000 cases recorded in the last three weeks, amid fears that the bug could result in fatalities.

The outbreak, which is being blamed on the rota virus, started about three weeks ago.

About 309 cases were recorded last week, with 202 of them being children under the age of five.

The seriously affected have been admitted at Chinhoyi Provincial Hospital, while others are being given the oral rehydration solution.

Makonde district medical officer Dr Paradzai Mudzengerere confirmed the outbreak and said a comprehensive awareness campaign was underway.

“We have seen an increase in the number of diarrhoeal cases in recent weeks and we attribute that to the onset of the winter season where the rota virus is very active,” he said.

Government has come up with an immunisation programme to deal with the rota virus which thrives in low temperatures.

The programme was carried out about two months ago and more than 60 percent coverage was recorded in Chinhoyi.

Source: All Africa