#Disease Eradication

[familythings]

The Impact of Conflict on Polio Eradication: Gaza and Global Challenges

As Tuesday is the week day dedicated to Health and Beauty issues to FAMILY+ Blog, we will continue with another health article. This time we will talk about a very dangerous disease that unfortunately is coming back in zones of conflict. I’m talking about Poliomyelitis, commonly known as polio. This is a highly infectious viral disease that primarily affects children under the age of five. The…

[thewellnesscenterpharmacy]

In the realm of public health, few interventions have had as profound an impact as immunizations. Vaccines stand as a stalwart defense against a myriad of infectious diseases, safeguarding individuals and communities alike.

[bookpiofficial]

The Seroprevalence and Eradication Success of Helicobacter pylori in Indigenous People of Seletar in Southern Malaysia | Chapter 14 | New Insights into Disease and Pathogen Research Vol. 3

Background: Helicobacter pylori prevalence rate varies widely from one geographical area to another and marked differences have been noted among different ethnic groups. While several studies have been carried out to review the prevalence of H. pylori among the major races in Malaysia, only one is available to study the indigenous Penan community in East Malaysia.

Aims: The aims of this study are to determine the seroprevalence of H. pylori in the indigenous Seletar community in Southern Malaysia and the effectiveness of the eradication program.

Methods: A seroepidemiological study was done to determine H. pylori infection by serological assay of H. pylori antibodies and the demographic pattern. Serological assay was carried out using the Visual H. pylori Quickpac Test. All serological positive patients were then subjected to an endoscopic study and the Campylobacter-Like Organism-test (CLO-test). Positive patients were then offered for eradication using triple therapy of Omeprazole 20mg, Amoxycillin 1gm and Metronidazole 400mg twice daily for one week. Subjects will be required to perform a Urea Breath Test (UBT) four weeks after therapy to determine the success of eradication. When attending for UBT, the medication diary will be assessed. UBT was conducted using a 13C IRIS (Infra Red Isotope Analyzer) breath test kit.

Results: We studied a total of 298 subjects with a mean age of 34.9 years. The seroprevalence was 37.9% and CLO-test positivity on Oesophago-gastro-duodenoscopy (OGDS) was 98.9%. Histopathological examination showed evidence of gastritis in 97% of the positive patients. Majority of subjects (96%) showed evidence of acute or on chronic inflammation. The follow-up of patients that came back for the UBT after completing the eradication process was 73.5%. Out of these, 63.9% showed negative UBT. However, only 48.6% complied with medication based on medication diary. Since only two subjects out of 35 who complied remains positive, the eradication success rate was 94.3%.

Conclusion: Previous studies have shown that the prevalence of H. pylori in a Malaysian cohort ranges from 26.4% to 55% with the highest in Indians of about 35.6% out of the three major races, followed by Chinese (28.6%) and Malays (28.5%). The indigenous people of Penan in East Malaysia showed 37.7% positivity, which is almost similar to our study that showed 37.9%. The prevalence is supported by the CLO-test that proved that the sensitivity of the serological assay was 98.9%. However, our study also proved that the eradication process was very efficient if subjects were compliant on medication. This study shows that despite the very low socio-economic status of the indigenous community, this is not the sole factor in determining H. pylori infection. This may also be due to genetic factors and probably a recent arrival of H. pylori in this isolated and remote community.

Author(s) Details

Dr. Ahmad Farouk Musa

Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Monash University Malaysia, Malaysia.

Dr. Mohd Naguib Mohd Yunos

Flinders Medical Centre, Bedford Park, South Australia, Australia.

Prof. Sabariah Abdul Rahman

Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.

Prof. Rusli Bin Nordin

School of Medicine, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Taylor’s University, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.

View Books: http://bp.bookpi.org/index.php/bpi/catalog/book/112

[maureenlycaon]

Good news, everyone!

[technewsdirectory]

Why It’s So Hard to Tell If a Country Is Really Rid of Polio

http://dlvr.it/M2wSPK

[wonderofscience-blog]

We're Close To Completely Eradicating A Human Disease

We’re Close To Completely Eradicating A Human Disease

In 1986, Guinea worm was found in 21 countries across Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, and was thought to affect 3.5 million people annually. As of last month, through the immense efforts of the Carter Center, there were just 22 cases of the disease reported globally in 2015, and it’s now on the edge of becoming only the second humandisease ever to be eradicated, after smallpox. This astonishing…

[sciencehound]

Guinea worm was historically found in a significant portion of African countries. It is a frightening long, incredibly painful parasitic worm with a rather interesting lifestyle. Larvae infest copepods (small crustaceans) that are found readily in local water sources. When contaminated water is ingested, the copepods die and the worm larvae escape into the human host, where they can mature and reproduce. For the life cycle to continue, the worms need to get back into the water. So, gravid females migrate to the skin’s surface, usually on the lower extremities, and form a blister that burns. As one might expect, in an attempt to stop the burning, people would plunge the blister into water. The worm’s larvae can then escape and return to those copepod vectors. 

The most common treatment for an infected person is to grab the worm and slowly wind it around something (often a matchstick or bit of gauze) until the entire worm is removed. Pulling it too hard causes breakage, which often leads to very serious complications after the worm dies. No medication has yet been found that is an effective treatment. 

Annual infection rates used to be in the millions, estimated at 3.5 million in 1986. Since eradication efforts began in the 1980s, including the use of simple water filters and preventing those infected from heading to water sources, that number has dropped to less than 100, with only about 25 last year. And a surprising hurdle has emerged: while people have been fairly easy to convince to follow eradication protocols, dogs have been shown to pick up larvae and return them to water supplies. Considering how well efforts have gone so far, this is a fairly small bump in the road. 

When successful, those eradication efforts will make Guinea worm the first ever parasite to be eradicated. And it will join the incredibly short list of eradicated diseases, which currently consists of only smallpox and rinderpest. 

[algeroth]

For the past 30 years, Jimmy Carter has waged war on the Guinea worm, a parasite that infects people who drink water contaminated with its larvae. Carter’s first encounter with the worm was in the late 1980s during a trip to a small village in Ghana, where more than two-thirds of inhabitants were infected. “I saw a young woman holding a baby in her arms … But it was not a baby—It was her right breast,” he said to a group of reporters. “It was [swollen to] about a foot long. And coming out of the nipple of her breast was a Guinea worm.” Carter would later discover that the woman had 11 worms in her body. This event, which he called one of the most unforgettable scenes of human suffering he had ever seen, inspired him to create a new mission for his Carter Center foundation: The complete eradication of Guinea worm disease. In 1986, cases of Guinea worm disease numbered more than 3.5 million worldwide. Now, globally, there are only 126 cases left, Carter announced this week during the unveiling of a new exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, called Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease. The exhibit showcases “neglected tropical diseases” such as Guinea worm, river blindness, and polio, which have disappeared from wealthy nations but still plague the developing world. Though most of the Western world has averted its attention from the scourges, Carter said that these diseases are prime for eradication, and his foundation is on track to make Guinea worm the second human disease after smallpox to be entirely eliminated worldwide.

Jimmy Carter is helping to eradicate a whole animal specie. And what have you done today for reducing biodiversity?

[pulitzerfieldnotes]

Follow Your Passion

"How do you do your job and not get emotional?" these girls wanted to know of Esha Chhabra and her work on disease eradication. 

Image and caption by education director Mark Schulte via Instagram. Mark and Esha are currently visiting schools in London.

[descrier]

Smart Science in the Fight Against Malaria

A female Anopheles mosquito. Photograph courtesy of Wikipedia

Malaria continues to be one of the…

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