West African leaders decided to take strong measures in order to get control over the worst outbreak of Eloba. They contrived to carve up the rural areas which are touched by the disease.

The World Health Organization and medical charity Medicins Sans Frontieres stated that this disease has affected several countries. According to a rough data it has  killed almost 729 people in some of West African countries. Guinea, Liberia and Sierra are the countries which are greatly affected.

 

Presently, the authorities are unable to control this disease and requested other countries for some urgent resources to deal with it. WHO head Margaret Chan warned in a meeting that this disease can make enormous economic destruction if immediate precautions would not be considered to restrain it from diffusing into other fields.

Furthermore, the presidents of the affected countries are willing to take extraordinary measures to control Eloba. They have called security forces to assist the affected people and called for all the international airports to directly ban the entrance of anyone who suffers from this disease. This action is taken when a death of a person is reported in Nigeria who flew from Liberia.

These leaders are ready to provide anything to the Health workers who are trying to cope up with this deadly disease. According to a report, more than 60 workers died with this disease since they became infected while treating other patients.

A new research has shown men who eat tomatoes over 10 portions a week are likely to have 18 percent lower risk of developing prostate cancer.

A data shows 35,000 of new cases arising every year in UK, and a toll of 10,000 deaths due to this takes place. Prostate cancer ranks second most common among men worldwide.

It is seen that the rates are higher in developed countries which is considered linked to the diet pattern and lifestyle.

A study was conducted by the researchers at the Universities of Bristol, Cambridge and Oxford who observed the diets and lifestyle of 1,806 men aged between 50 and 69 with prostate cancer and compared with 12,005 cancer-free men.

The NIHR-funded study, published in the medical journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, is the first study of its kind to develop a prostate cancer ‘dietary index’ which consists of dietary components — selenium, calcium and foods rich in lycopene — that have been linked to prostate cancer.

Men who had lower intake of these three were less likely to get prostate cancer.

Tomato juice and baked beans were found to be advantageous, with an 18 per cent reduction in risk found in men eating over 10 portions a week.

This is thought to be due to lycopene, an antioxidant which fights off toxins that can cause DNA and cell damage. Vanessa Er, from the School of Social and Community Medicine at the University of Bristol and Bristol Nutrition BRU, led the research.Studies suggest that tomatoes may be important in curbing prostate cancer; however some extensive studies are required to confirm it. Men should still maintain a healthy diet of vegetables and fruits to stay active and healthy.

Fruits, vegetables and dietary fibre are associated with reduced risk of prostate cancer.

A novel study demonstrates that electronic cigarettes don’t help people  give up or reduce smoking. This report has been published against a T.V advertisement which declared that electronic cigarettes will serve as a smoking termination tool.

The e-cigarette smoker breathe nicotine instead of tobacco. Dr. Pamela Ling, an associate professor at the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education stated that researchers executed an experiment on nearly 1,000 smokers under  “the-real world” situation. The outcome of that experiment demonstrated that e-cigarette did not drastically raise the possibilities of successful relinquishment of smoking.

Ling said that the advertisement proposed that e-cigarette are useful for the process of smoking cessation. The Government should ban this sort of advertisement unless the brand does not have any supporting scientific proof. Expert examined the data of 494 smokers among which 88 used e-cigarette and after one year merely 14 percent smokers quit smoking.

This result verified that there is no distinction between the people who used e-cigarette and who did not.  There is no direct relation between the usage of e-cigarette and quitting smoking. Researchers also considered the quantity of cigarette taken every day.

Furthermore, the study revealed that the people who are less educated is most expected to use e-cigarette.

On the other hand, Dr. Michael Siegel a professor of community health sciences at Boston University School of Public Health stated that there is a defect in a study and people should not take it seriously.

The report is printed in the March’s issue of JAMA Internal Medicine.

Scientist revealed that they have found Schistosmiasis parasite eggs in a 6200 year old grave in Syria. It is being considered as the earliest evidence that the agricultural irrigation system in the Middle East is a factor behind the spread of disease.

Schistosmiasis is a disease cause by flatworm parasites which lives inside the blood vessels of the bladder and intestine. There are several other names of this disease like snail fever, bilharzia or Katayama fever. The severity of this infection can also lead to kidney failure, bladder cancer and anemia

The study is printed in the Lancet Infection Disease journal. In this report researchers stated that in ancient Mesopotamia this  disease has been spread because of crop irrigation. Mesopotamia is the area along the Tigris- Euphrates river system that corresponds to Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Syria and Turkey.

In this infection, parasite digs through the skin of people swimming in the waters. It has turned into a common disease with time since it  lives in fresh water snails. Presently it is like a enormous burden disease in the entire world.

As per the reports of the World Health Organization this disease affected approximately 240 million people around the globe and around 700 million people live in endemic regions.

The egg was discovered in the pelvic area of the interment grave, where the intestine and bladder of the person would have been.

The egg was found in the pelvic area of the burial grave, where the intestines and bladder of the person would have been.

Genentech’s bevacizumab, known as Avastin on the market, has procured validation use in combination chemotherapy for late-stage cervical cancer. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration shows “thumps up” to the approval and permits the medication of repetitive, endless metastatic cervical cancer with Avastin in conjointment with other chemotherapy drugs  paclitaxel and cisplatin or in conjunction with topotecan.and paclitaxel.

“After the approval of cisplatin and topotecan in 2006, Avastin is the first drug validated for the last-stage cervical cancer patients”, said Richard Pazdur , M.D ., of the FDA’s Center for drug Evaluation and Research. Due to the potency and safety exhibited by Avastin over other band of therapies, the FDA rewarded the drug with an accelerated review process, and validates it under the priority review process.

The task of Avastin is to lowers a tumor’s ability to develop by targeting its formation and maintenance of blood vessels, a process known as angiogenesis and hence it is called angiogenesis inhibitor.

 

Genentech carried on several clinical trials on the preceding submission for review. The company carried on some studies involving up to 450 patients with repetitive, persistent and late-stage cervical cancer. The studies saw a steady progress in overall survival to 16.8 months with treatment of Avastin combined with chemotherapy, as compared to 12.9 months with chemotherapy alone.

Some side effects include fatigue, headaches, elevated blood pressure, appetite loss and weight loss. The company recommends women who are pregnant or are supposed to get pregnant to have a detailed conversation with their healthcare practitioners about the risks associated with the fetus in the usage of Avastin.

“The approval proved beneficial to the women with advanced cervical cancer who can now go for Avastin plus chemotherapy to help them live longer than with chemotherapy alone,” said Genentech’s chief medical officer Sandra Horning, M.D.

A new drug has been found which restored the hair of three patients within five months. Scientists think they may have discovered a cure for the autoimmune disease alopecia areata.

Alopecia areata is particularly identified with bald patches rather than complete baldness. Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) identified the immune cells responsible for destroying hair follicles in people with alopecia areata. Initial results were reported from an ongoing clinical trial of an FDA approved drug which has produced complete re-growth of hair in patients with moderate to severe alopecia areata: Three participants experienced total regrowth withing five month of the start of the treatment.

 

“We’ve only begun testing the drug in patients, but if the drug continues to be successful and safe, it will have a dramatic positive impact on the lives of people with this disease,” said Raphael Clynes, who led the research, along with Angela M Christiano, professor in the Departments of Dermatology and of Genetics and Development at CUMC. The disease can occur at any age and affects men and women equally. Hair loss in alopecia areata occurs when cells from the immune system confuse the hair follicles as foreign bodies and starts attacking them . This causes the hair in that region to fall off and enter a dormant state. Initially, in the study mice were used. The study suggests that a danger signal in the hair follicles of patients attracts the immune cells to the follicle and fuels an attack. The study used the mice to trace the danger signal backwards to identify the T-cells responsible for attacking the follicles. Further investigation revealed how the T-cells were instructed to attack and identified a pathway that the new class of drug called, JAK inhibitors could target. The two JAK inhibitors tested by the researchers were ruxolitinib and tofacitnib. These drugs blocked these pathways and managed to stop the attack on the hair follicles.

These effects seem to be quite promising, for a disease which could be devastating, especially for young people. If the drugs work and have no problematic short term or long term side effects, this seems to be a great breakthrough in drug therapy. Not just because of the apparent recovery, but also because of the identification of the pathways with which the disease is linked, this may shed some further light on the etiology of the disease in general.