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HIV Study Could Change Treatment For The Disease

May 30, 2015 By Deborah Nielsen Leave a Comment

1

People with HIV must start taking drugs to fight the virus which causes AIDS immediately after they’re diagnosed, a new international research finds.

Scientists who carried out the trial were very excited by the health benefits of immediate use of HIV medicine that they closed the study early so they could give out the drugs to all participants.

This discovery could change World Health Organization guidelines on the best method to treat people with HIV, experts explain. Currently, WHO is recommending that HIV patients not begin treatment before their immune system is starting to be affected.

“We now have clear-cut proof that it is of significantly greater health benefit to an HIV-infected person to start antiretroviral therapy sooner rather than later. “Moreover, early therapy conveys a double benefit, not only improving the health of individuals but at the same time, by lowering their viral load, reducing the risk they will transmit HIV to others. These findings have global implications for the treatment of HIV,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, mentioned in a statement.

The study begun back in 2011. Around 4,700 HIV-infected women and men took participated at 215 sites in 35 countries. Around half were randomly designated to start drug treatment right away, while the other half didn’t receive the drugs until their immune systems showed signs of problems.

As of March, scientists found 41 cases of severe health problems, like death or progression to AIDS, in some of those who started the treatment immediately, to 86 in those who started taking the medications later. Patients who were on the drugs earlier also progressed better regardless to where they lived and the wealth of their countries.

While Fauci explained the results have “global implications,” their impact will be less important in advanced nations where HIV-infected people are usually diagnosed early and start taking the medications immediately after that.

Even in the United States, where official guidelines advise that newly diagnosed patients start taking the medications right away, some patients who suffer of a less advanced disease opt not to take the drugs right away.

They have a variety of reasons for doing this, explained Dr. Tanya Ellman, an HIV specialist and instructor at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City. Ellman added the new report is supporting the existing federal recommendation and could lead to an expansion of WHO guidelines.

Image Source: Medical News Today

Filed Under: Health Tagged With: AIDS, drugs, guidelines, HIV, recommendation, treatment, WHO

Ebola does not penetrate Mali, Fanta Kone’s Family ends Quarantine

November 12, 2014 By Brian Galloway Leave a Comment

ebola-mali

Mali is taking all the right measures against the spread of Ebola and so far have somewhat succeeded in their attempt as well. Mali has not registered any new cases since a toddler traveling from Guinea became the country’s first case last month.

The child’s death on Oct. 24 is Mali’s only known Ebola case, while nearly 5,000 others have succumbed to the virus across West Africa.

Nearly 30 members of a family that was visited by the two-year-old girl, who later died of Ebola, have now been released from 21-day quarantine after they showed no symptoms of the disease, Malian health officials said Tuesday. The family is now free to move about, Markatie Daou, said a spokesman for the Malian Health Department.

People with Ebola are only contagious when they are showing symptoms, and health officials have said that the little girl was bleeding from her nose when she passed through the capital en route to the western city of Kayes where she died.

Mali is not completely clear yet as about 50 others who had possible contact with the girl remain under observation in Kayes. They will be released from quarantine on Nov. 16 if they do not show symptoms, Daou said.

Mali, which shares a porous land border with Guinea, has long been seen as vulnerable to Ebola because of the large number of people moving back and forth between the two countries.

Mali’s persistent use of “contact tracing, isolation and monitoring” helped to prevent the spread of Ebola, said WHO praising the country’s health officials.

Filed Under: Health Tagged With: Ebola epidemic, ebola virus, Guinea, Mali, Malian Health Department, Malian health officials have taken strict measures to curtail Ebola, WHO

Fatal Fungal Infection Threatening Salamanders Might Spreading Through Pet Trade

October 30, 2014 By Germaine Hicks 1 Comment

Newts at risk as infection spreads

The scientists revealed Thursday, a rising infection, which is similar to the one that has caused the extinction of hundreds of frog and toad species worldwide is now killing salamanders in Europe and spreading towards the United States, with catastrophic effects.

The study is published in the ‘Science’ journal. An international team of 27 researchers said, “globalization and a lack of biosecurity” along with the importation of the fire-bellied newt in the pet trade with Asia are the major causes of the disease.

Dr. An Martel of Ghent University in Belgium and a lead researcher said, “Both Europe and the United States needed to start screening amphibians in the pet trade. When animals are traded they should be screened. It should involve the world.”

Vance T. Vredenburg of San Francisco State University, one of the scientists who has sounded the alarm about the extinction of hundreds of frog and toad species worldwide over the last four decades said, “Other scientists agreed. We need to pay attention to this study.”

“We need to think about biosecurity not just in terms of humans and food that we eat and crops that we grow, but about functioning ecosystems,” he added.

The co-author of the 2008 study was Dr. Vredenburg, who described the extinction of frog species as a prime example of what some scientists call the 6th extinction, a mass death of species going on now and caused by humans.

The culprit, in the case of the frog disappearance is a fungus known as Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, and it was not identified, until decades, even after the extinctions had begun. The researchers are still unaware that from where it was originated.

Dr. Vredenburg said, the effects of that fungus, symbolize “the worst case in recorded history of a single pathogen affecting vertebrates,” causing an “extinction rate 40,000 times higher than in the last 350 million years for amphibians.”

Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans, the fungus killing salamanders and newts, is of the same genus, and also kills animals by infecting the skin. However, this time, “We found it early enough to have a chance. The Titanic knows there’s an iceberg out there,” Dr. Vredenburg said.

The researchers revealed that the United States, having the greatest biodiversity of salamanders in the world, is still intact by the infection, and many of the species are already threatened or endangered. The animals are seldom noticed, but are an integral part of forest and aquatic ecosystems, as predators and prey.

The decline in the salamanders species could eventually affect climate change as the proliferation of some of the creatures that they used to eat could cause the greater release of carbon into the atmosphere.

Dr. Martel and his fellow colleagues first identified the fungus a year ago, and described its role in the deaths of fire salamanders in Europe. In the recent study, they investigated its origin, presence around the world and the vulnerability of different species to it.

The researchers experimentally infected 44 species of salamanders and newts (salamanders live on land, newts in the water) in the laboratory,. They wrote, “41 of them rapidly died.” It did not affect frogs and toads.

Moreover, numerous Asian species were defiant, and molecular biology studies of DNA suggested that there may be a reservoir of the fungus in Asian newts popular in the aquarium trade.

The evidence of the fungus was found in amphibians in Vietnam, Thailand and Japan, where the animals were not affected, and in the Netherlands and Belgium, where it killed numerous populations. Dr. Martel identified the shipping of live newts for the aquarium trade as the way the fungus spread.

Further investigation of the study was needed to prove that the pet trade was the culprit in the disease’s spread, since it was possible that the fungus was wind-borne, or spread by migrating birds, James Collins, at Arizona State University, who has studied the spread of fungal disease in frogs said.

Although, it was apparent that the fungus and the lack of screening in the shipping of live animals posed a major threat to salamanders in the United States and Europe, Dr. Collins said. Disease screening exists for threats to agriculture, he said, but not for animals in the pet or aquarium trade.

He further added, “International and federal agencies such as the World Health Organization or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can act, when something like Ebola emerges. We need similar efforts here too.”

The University of Maryland’s Karen R. Lips, one of the co-authors of the Science paper met Thursday with Fish and Wildlife Officials to talk about the new fungus. She said that there were now bills in Congress that could enable the Fish and Wildlife Service to screen for infected wildlife. “If Congress wanted to, they could take action,” she said.

Filed Under: Tech & Science Tagged With: 2008, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans, CDC, Dr. Collins, Dr. Martel, Dr. Vredenburg, ebola, Europe, frogs, James Collins, Japan, Salamanders, San Francisco State University, Science journal, Thailand, Toad, United States, Vietnam, WHO

Global Burden Of Tuberculosis Increased Than Thought

October 22, 2014 By Rebecca McGhee Leave a Comment

Global-burden-of-TB-increased

The World Health Organization (WHO) said today, the intensive efforts in the recent years in order to improve the collection and reporting of Tuberculosis (TB) data are ratcheting up the concern over the epidemic, exposing there are at least half a million more cases diagnosed than previously estimated.

As per the WHO’s ‘Global Tuberculosis Report 2014’around 9 million people were diagnosed TB in 2013 and 1.5 million died.

The report also revealed, the morality rate of the Tuberculosis is declining and has dropped by 45% since 1990, while the number of people developing TB has decreased by an average of 1.5% per year. WHO stated that around 37 million lives have been saved with the timely diagnosis and effective treatment.

According the World Health Organizations statistic, an estimated 1.1 million, which is 13% of 9 million who diagnosed TB in 2013 were HIV positive. Moreover, the number of deaths among TB HIV positive people declining from 540,000 in 2004 to 360,000 in 2013.

Multidrug-Resistant TB Crisis Continues

Mario Raviglione, Managing director of the Global TB Programme, WHO stated, “With the concerted efforts by WHO, by countries and multiple partners who invested in national surveys and regular surveillance efforts helped us in providing authentic data and bringing us nearer to understanding the true burden of TB.”

As per the findings of the report, the global health community has made “considerable” efforts responding to multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), yet it remains “far from sufficient.”

World Health Organization noted that the MDR-TB “crisis” still continues. Globally, around 3.5% of all people who developed TB in 2013 had MDR-TB. Some countries have “severe epidemics” of MDR-TB and “alarmingly low” treatment success rates, the report notes.

In addition, extensively drug-resistant TB has now been reported in 100 countries.

Way back in 2009, WHO called for a global access for the diagnosis and treatment of MDR-TB, which eventually contributed to a huge increase in cases diagnosed and treated. 136,000 MDR-TB cases were detected in 2013, up from 52,825 in 2009, and 97,000 people were started on treatment, up from 30,500 in 2009.

WHO stated, “though the number of patients treated has increased three-fold since 2009, at least 39,000 patients, diagnosed with this form of TB, were not being treated last year and globally only 48% of patients were cured.”

Karin Weyer, PhD, WHO coordinator for laboratories, diagnostics, and drug resistance stated, “The efforts that has been made in overcoming MDR-TB has been hard won and must be strengthened. Containing and reversing the epidemic requires immediate and sustained efforts by all stakeholders.”

Filed Under: Health Tagged With: 1.5 milllion died, 1990, 2013, 9 million, Global Tuberculosis Report 2014, HIV Positive, MDR-TB, Multidrug-Resistant TB, TB, tuberculosis, WHO, World Health Organization

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