News leaked last week that the drug favipiravir worked in some Ebola patients, but even researchers running the study in Guinea said questions remain about its efficacy. Interpreting the data is difficult because there is no control arm that treated patients can be compared with.
This is just one of several confusing twists in the search for a treatment that can stave off death and disease from Ebola virus. Chimerix, the maker of an antiviral called brincidofovir, surprised investigators in Liberia when it suddenly ended a study of its drug after discussions with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Chimerix noted that the study was having trouble enrolling patients because Liberia has seen a steep drop in cases, but the researchers running it said they had hoped to expand the trial to Sierra Leone, where most new infections are happening.
Liberia is also beginning another trial with ZMapp, a cocktail of Ebola antibodies, and study leaders are having difficulty convincing Sierra Leone and Guinea to join because the study uses a placebo control. Finally, a trial of convalescent serum taken from recovered patients is getting under way in Guinea, but there are now questions about whether it should be compared with favipiravir as a control.
*The Ebola Files: Given the current Ebola outbreak, unprecedented in terms of number of people killed and rapid geographic spread, Science and Science Translational Medicinehave made a collection of research and news articles on the viral disease freely available to researchers and the general public.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Even the researchers whose trial of a potential drug for Ebola made headlines last week worked hard to downplay the glimmer of efficacy it showed. “It is a weak signal in a nonrandomized trial,” Yves Levy, director of the French Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) in Paris told Science about the data, which INSERM has not released. Weak or not, the report in The New York Times that favipiravir, a Japanese flu drug, had halved mortality in one group of Ebola patients in Guinea was one more piece of good news that is complicating prospects for trials of other Ebola drugs.
The Guinean government has already announced it wants to make favipiravir available to more people, and if the results hold up to greater scrutiny, they could force a change in the design of other clinical trials going forward. Meanwhile, the decline in new cases has investigators revamping or even canceling trials at a time when manufacturers finally have enough supplies to test some of the most promising experimental drugs. The toll of the outbreak ticked up last week, as Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone—the three most affected countries—counted 124 confirmed cases, up from 99 cases the week before. As the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) Bruce Aylward said at a press conference on 5 February: “The virus has told us this week, loud and clear, ‘I am not going to go away the way you’re expecting me to.’ ” Yet the numbers represent a sharp drop from the height of the epidemic in September when there were more than 700 cases reported in a single week in West Africa.
Just last week, the Wellcome Trust, a charity in the United Kingdom that is funding several Ebola trials, announced that the Liberian trial of brincidofovir, an antiviral developed by Chimerix of Durham, North Carolina, would be canceled because the company withdrew support. “It was rather a surprise to us and a bit of a mystery,” says Peter Horby, an investigator at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom who headed the study. Chimerix said it made the decision after discussions with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), noting that the trial was also having trouble recruiting patients. Horby says his group was planning to open a second trial site in Sierra Leone, where the numbers are far higher. FDA’s Luciana Borio says Chimerix also refused the agency's request to make public its correspondence with the company. Chimerix said it was concentrating on completing trials of the drug to treat other infections: cytomegalovirus and adenovirus.
Although one trial is canceled, others are about to go forward. Horby says his group hopes to start evaluating an RNA inhibitor called TKM-Ebola soon. The drug, made by Tekmira Pharmaceuticals of Burnaby, Canada, worked well in monkeys but has been in short supply.
Testing is also about to begin on the antibody cocktail ZMapp. Seen by many researchers as the best shot at treating Ebola because of promising monkey studies, ZMapp was used on nine patients last summer before the company behind it, Mapp Biopharmaceutical of San Diego, California, announced it had no more supplies. Now, the company says, it has enough doses to start a clinical trial in Liberia as early as this week. But there may be too few patients in that country for the experimental drug to prove its worth, says Clifford Lane, head of clinical research at the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is launching the study in Monrovia with the Liberian Ministry of Health & Social Welfare.
So far, Guinea and Sierra Leone, where Ebola is still infecting dozens of people a week, have refused invitations to join the study. Their main stumbling block is trial design. ZMapp will be the first Ebola treatment that will be tested in a randomized, controlled study. “I think that’s the only way to tell whether these drugs are safe and effective,” Lane says.
The governments of Guinea and Sierra Leone, as well as Doctors Without Borders, which runs Ebola centers in those countries, have for ethical reasons been reluctant to participate in treatment trials that use a randomized, controlled design. Jeremy Farrar, head of the Wellcome Trust, also objects to the randomized, controlled trial design for Ebola drugs, given the high mortality rate of the disease. “Given the data we have from animals and individual patients, I would not feel comfortable being randomized,” he says.
Lane notes that the trial may not need many participants: If the drug is 100% effective and Ebola kills 50% of the people it infects, he says, as few as 30 people will need to receive ZMapp to determine whether it works. And even if there are not enough patients to provide a clear answer on efficacy, Lane says scientists might still get valuable data by looking at parameters like the blood levels of Ebola virus in those treated with the drug and those in the control arm.
The favipiravir study in Guinea illustrates the complexity of discerning clear answers without a robust control and the difficulties of communicating them. The trial data are reviewed every 20 patients by an independent monitoring board. On 26 January they evaluated the data from 80 patients. Because they detected a signal of efficacy, they asked the researchers to share the information with regulatory agencies in Guinea and France, Levy says. The INSERM researchers won’t make their data public until 25 February, at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Seattle, Washington. “It is important to have a scientific debate about what these results really mean,” says Levy, noting that the meeting organizers insisted the data be embargoed. A researcher who had seen the data and asked not to be identified told Science that favipiravir did not help all of the patients treated with it at two trial sites in Guinea. In a subset of trial participants who had low levels of Ebola virus in the blood, however, the mortality was just 15%. In similar patients who entered the centers earlier and did not receive favipiravir, mortality was 30%. Marie-Paule Kieny, an assistant director-general at WHO, says it is difficult to make sense of the data at this point. “You can say it doesn’t mean anything or you can say it is promising. More research is needed to find out what really happened.”
Meanwhile, the study in Guinea is continuing and has now enrolled more than 100 patients. “The final result may still be different,” Levy says. But the preliminary data have already led Guinean authorities to expand the numbers of sites where favipiravir is to be used.
Other trials could prove harder to organize and interpret if favipiravir is distributed widely. A study testing the use of convalescent serum started in Guinea this week. “If there is a decision now to use favipiravir everywhere, what happens with that trial?” Kieny asks. The ZMapp trial may also be affected. That trial is designed to compare ZMapp with the standard of care. “If the standard of care changes, so does the control used in the trial,” Lane says. But he has not seen any results, he says. “The only data I have seen from that study are what was in TheNew York Times.”
*The Ebola Files: Given the current Ebola outbreak, unprecedented in terms of number of people killed and rapid geographic spread, Science and Science Translational Medicinehave made a collection of research and news articles on the viral diseasefreely available to researchers and the general public.
*Correction, 13 February, 11:05 a.m.: This story incorrectly referred to a trial of ZMapp, an Ebola antibody cocktail, as being a placebo-controlled trial. As the story reports, ZMapp will be tested in a trial that, for the first time, uses a randomized, control group. But the control group will not receive a placebo. People in the control arm will receive the current standard of care, which includes providing intravenous fluids, balancing electrolytes, maintaining oxygen status and blood pressure, and treating other infections if they occur.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Get the measles vaccine, and you won’t get the measles—or give it to anyone else. Right? Well, not always. A person fully vaccinated against measles has contracted the disease and passed it on to others. The startling case study contradicts received wisdom about the vaccine and suggests that a recent swell of measles outbreaks in developed nations could mean more illnesses even among the vaccinated.
When it comes to the measles vaccine, two shots are better than one. Most people in the United States are initially vaccinated against the virus shortly after their first birthday and return for a booster shot as a toddler. Less than 1% of people who get both shots will contract the potentially lethal skin and respiratory infection. And even if a fully vaccinated person does become infected—a rare situation known as “vaccine failure”—they weren’t thought to be contagious.
That’s why a fully vaccinated 22-year-old theater employee in New York City who developed the measles in 2011 was released without hospitalization or quarantine. But like Typhoid Mary, this patient turned out to be unwittingly contagious. Ultimately, she transmitted the measles to four other people, according to a recent report in Clinical Infectious Diseases that tracked symptoms in the 88 people with whom “Measles Mary” interacted while she was sick. Surprisingly, two of the secondary patients had been fully vaccinated. And although the other two had no record of receiving the vaccine, they both showed signs of previous measles exposure that should have conferred immunity.
A closer look at the blood samples taken during her treatment revealed how the immune defenses of Measles Mary broke down. As a first line of defense against the measles and other microbes, humans rely on a natural buttress of IgM antibodies. Like a wooden shield, they offer some protection from microbial assaults but aren’t impenetrable. The vaccine (or a case of the measles) prompts the body to supplement this primary buffer with a stronger armor of IgG antibodies, some of which are able to neutralize the measles virus so it can’t invade cells or spread to other patients. This secondary immune response was presumed to last for decades.
By analyzing her blood, the researchers found that Measles Mary mounted an IgM defense, as if she had never been vaccinated. Her blood also contained a potent arsenal of IgG antibodies, but a closer look revealed that none of these IgG antibodies were actually capable of neutralizing the measles virus. It seemed that her vaccine-given immunity had waned.
Although public health officials have assumed that measles immunity lasts forever, the case of Measles Mary highlights the reality that “the actual duration [of immunity] following infection or vaccination is unclear,” says Jennifer Rosen, who led the investigation as director of epidemiology and surveillance at the New York City Bureau of Immunization. The possibility of waning immunity is particularly worrisome as the virus surfaces in major U.S. hubs like Boston, Seattle, New York, and the Los Angeles area. Rosen doesn’t believe this single case merits a change in vaccination strategy—for example, giving adults booster shots—but she says that more regular surveillance to assess the strength of people’s measles immunity is warranted.
If it turns out that vaccinated people lose their immunity as they get older, that could leave them vulnerable to measles outbreaks seeded by unvaccinated people—which are increasingly common in the United States and other developed countries. Even a vaccine failure rate of 3% to 5% could devastate a high school with a few thousand students, says Robert Jacobson, director of clinical studies for the Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group in Rochester, Minnesota, who wasn’t involved with the study. Still, he says, “The most important ‘vaccine failure’ with measles happens when people refuse the vaccine in the first place.”
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Precisely 14 years ago, Alfred Ohiami, a Pastor of the Fountain of Life Church Ilupeju, had a personal encounter with cancer when his 33-year- old wife died of the disease as a result of late detection.
Ohiami, who is currently the Deputy Director, Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, Lagos, said he learned a hard lesson from the experience.
In an encounter with Features Health & Living during a forum held by the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy, CECP-Nigeria ,to raise awareness about cancer and to encourage its prevention, detection and treatment, he told a heart-rending tale of his travails.
He recalled that the delay in seeking a doctor’s consultation caused his wife’s situation to go from bad to worse and by the time she went for consultation and obtained diagnosis of cancer of the oral cavity, it was too late.
“I lost my wife in 2000 to cancer and 10 years later I almost lost my life as well. If not for early detection, it would have been a different story today. In my wife’s case, initially she complained of pain in her wisdom tooth. She kept postponing going to the hospital. We thought it was just normal pain that she would only need to remove the affected teeth, but when we decided to a visit hospital it was already late.
“The doctor observed that the affected tooth was beyond pain and recommended biopsy. The result of that test revealed to us that it was cancer. We travelled to the United Kingdom to seek medical help but by the time they removed the tumour, it had got into the blood stream. Despite series of chemotherapy, she died at the age of 33.”
Alas, 10 years after the death of his wife, Ohiami began to notice strange signs in his own body. It was also cancer. But he had learned his lesson that early detection is key. He wasted no time getting a consultation and today is alive to tell
“My own case would have been the same, I noticed that I was visiting the toilet frequently to the extent that within an hour, I usually visited the toilet two or three times.
I went for test and discovered that my PS was high and when they carried out biopsy they observed that certain levels of cancerous cells had been developing. Luckily for me because it was early stage I was flown to India where the cancer was removed.
Further, Ohiaeri recalled that it was early detection that saved him. “Many people out there are yet to know their status. It is not as if we have no doctors that are knowledgeable about cancer in the country, it is just that the facilities are not always there.
“Since I came back from India, I have discovered the right equipment here are not relatively
available, even the boost scan is only available at the University College Hospital, Ibadan and some few places. One is bound to ask why Nigeria does not have all this equipment.”
With cancer being the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, and the likelihood to worsen in developing countries such as Nigeria over the next two decades, experts worry over the need to early diagnosis and treatment.
Management of cancer remains largely conservative and with little or no funding for high-quality research and facilities for treatment, millions of those affected in Nigeria continually remain at risk.
The Executive Secretary, CECP-Nigeria, Dr Abia Nzelu, calls for commitment of resources towards the acquisition of Mobile Cancer Centres, MCCs across the country to facilitate cancer prevention through screening and early treatment at the grassroots.
Nzelu notes that thousands of Nigerians do not survive cancer as a result of late detection.
“At CECP our focus is to take cancer prevention to the grass roots through the acquisition of 37 Mobile Cancer Centres, MCCs at the cost of N95 million each for all states in the country including FCT.
According to the WHO, over 100,000 Nigerians are diagnosed with cancer annually, and about 80,000 die from the disease; this comes to 240 Nigerians every day or 10 Nigerians every hour, dying from cancer.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
A South African doctor that rose to infamy during the period of apartheid for his production of chemical weapons and drugs was found guilty this week of unprofessional conduct. Wouter Basson, who headed a controversial chemical and biological weapons program in the 1980s and 1990s, saw an end to a six-year inquiry by The Health Professions Council of South Africa after the group made their verdict.
Basson, a cardiologist by trade, was made the head of Project Coast in 1983. Under the orders of then-President PW Botha, Basson secretly created large batches of toxins and bio-toxins under the guise of research laboratories. The chemicals were made as a last resort against enemy forces, and Basson created various covert ways to administer the weapons.
Basson also created drugs such as Mandrax and cocaine, which amazingly the South African government wanted to use to quell dissent among soldiers. Weaponized tear gas was also produced and sold to Angola’s National Union for the Total Independence of Angola leader Jonas Savimbi. Basson also created drugs that made kidnappings possible and capsules of cyanide for field agents to commit suicide if captured.
Watch This Report About Wouter Basson’s Project Coast Below:
Project Coast also reportedly created a hidden contraceptive the government wanted to distribute among the Black population of the country, especially the men. The contraceptive agent would have been delivered through the country’s water lines.
Although Dr. Basson was not present at the trial, the families of some of the victims of Project Coast’s drugs and chemicals were present. Basson claimed in court documents that he was only acting as a soldier, carrying out military orders and did not know where the chemicals were heading. The HPCSA contended that Basson remained a member of the Council, which binds him to the rules of ethics and the like.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
There are numerous ways you can get worms invading your brain including eating pork (especially undercooked) as the article explains.
Brain Worms frome eating certain Dangerous Food
From the article:
There are many forms of tapeworm, three of which can readily infect the brain. From a public health perspective, there’s one in particular to watch out for. “It’s mainly the pork tapeworm that’s the main brain one,” says Helena Helmby from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
The pork species, known as Taenia Solium, can infect humans in two forms. The first is by eating undercooked pork from infected pigs, resulting in taeniasis — an adult worm residing in the intestine. The second, in the larval form, through contact with the feces of an infected pig or human, which can go on to infect many tissues. If the larval worm enters the nervous system, including the brain, it can result in a condition known as neurocysticercosis.
If you’ve seen some of the recent videos of the awful factory pig farms (it even made many carnivores squeamish) then you might not be surprised.
We get many people writing every day asking for diet recommendations and one of the first things I learned getting my certification was that pork and shellfish take the longest to digest. Not a big fan of either.
Scary though to think you could eat the pork and it actually has worms in it that can invade your brain, but we appreciate CNN bringing this to the public’s attention. Surprising to see it as headline breaking news.
Instead of a bacon lettuce and tomato sandwich I prefer a good avocado wrap but that’s just good for me (and if you’ve seen a few of our posts lately you know how good avocados are for the brain!) Really. One a day might just keep the doctor away!
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
John was diagnosed diabetic at 40, but instead of focusing on the disease, he ignored it. After all, he didn’t feel sick. But gradually, his health was failing.
Today, John, now 60, is a shadow of his old self. Over the last 20 years, he has watched his body slowly disintegrate. A host of circulatory problems arising from his diabetic condition has cost him his vision, as well as nerve and bony damage to his left foot. Worse still, he is concerned about his heart. He has reason to because more than two thirds of people with diabetes die of stroke and other heart-related problems.
Although John is finally getting treatment, his prospects could have been much better if medical intervention had come much earlier. Diabetes is a chronic disease that quietly consumes the human body, to the extent that you cannot walk, you cannot stand, you cannot function and ultimately you cannot live.
There are millions of people like John in Nigeria. Six million Nigerians have diabetes. About half of this number of persons have their cases diagnosed and even less are under treatment. This makes Nigeria the country with the highest number of diabetic patients in Africa. In fact diabetes is the most common chronic illness that is being managed all over the country.
Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs when the pancreas is no longer able to produce insulin, or when the body cannot make good use of the insulin it produces. Insulin is a hormone made by the pancreas, that acts like a key to let glucose from the food we eat pass from the blood stream into the cells in the body to produce energy.
The disease may remain undetected for many years and the diagnosis is often made when a complication appears or a routine blood or urine glucose test is done. It is often, but not always, associated with overweight or obesity, which itself can cause insulin resistance and lead to high blood glucose levels. People with type 2 diabetes can often initially manage their condition through exercise and diet. However, over time most people will require oral drugs and or insulin.
In Nigeria, an estimated five million people are suffering from diabetes. If this sounds bad, experts warn that the scenario is likely to get even worse as the number of diabetics is expected to double within the next 20 years, to the extent that 63 percent of undiagnosed and many that are diagnosed are not being correctly controlled. As much as 76 percent of deaths due to diabetes occur in people under the age of 60 in Africa. The bad news continues.
That the cost of diabetes management is prohibitive and gradually increasing is equally worrisome. Already, most patients seen at Federal and state teaching and specialist hospitals are often at the late stage when effective treatment is too late and only palliative measures can be administered.
What is the community doing about diabetes? What is it doing to subsidise some of the drugs for its treatment? What about the availability, and education of the public and at community level?
Just last week, some medical experts expressed concern over the burden of diabetic disorders and the rising cost of its management in the country.
Consultant Physician/Endocrinologist, Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, Ile Ife, Osun State, Prof. Babatope Kolawole, said the magnitude of diabetes in the country is too alarming to be ignored. He noted that according to statistics, the prevalence of diabetes varies. It is a disease of urbanisation and from previous studies, the highest burden is in Lagos which has a prevalence of over 7 percent per population.
Kolawole blamed urbanisation and lifestyle factors as well as physical exercise as factors driving the epidemic and recommends that reliable preventive measures must target these. “Diabetes is a risk factor for so many other problems, and also contributes a lot to disorders such as kidney disease, blindness and amputation of the foot in Nigeria. It can precipitate emergencies that can lead to death and these are the issues related to poorly treated or untreated diabetes and no effort should be spared in instituting preventive measures at all levels of healthcare delivery in the country.”
On his own, the Chief Medical Director, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, Prof. Adewale Oke, said most diabetes cases seen at the hospital are in the late stage. “The commonest complications I see involve the blood vessels and the heart. It is a common cause of myocardial infarction and can affect the heart muscles. There can be heart failure, and renal failure. When you are passing too much water without any explanation, you should investigate,” he urged.
Oke, an experienced cardiologist noted that Lagos State is thinking of starting a health insurance scheme to cover diabetes. “It has been read at the state House of Reps. but is yet to be passed, and once that is happening there will be better for management of diabetes especially in the area of drugs for management.”
One of the big worries about diabetes, according to Dr. Dorothy Esangbedo, an experienced paediatrician and renowned endocrinologist, is the increasing burden of diabetes in infants and children. Esangbedo, who is also President, Union of National African Paediatric Societies and Associations, UNAPSA, regretted that even infants and children are not spared the burden of diabetes.
“There is increase in diabetes in children. Taking a situation report today, you will find that diabetes in children is lower in Africa than Europe and the Americas, but in terms of trends over time, the rate of increase is even more in sub-Sahara Africa so much so that they are saying to us that in decades to come, diabetes would be one of the major problems we will be facing.”
The signs and symptoms of diabetes in a child are actually the same as in the adult. The only difference is that the child cannot complain so the mother has to be the one to notice these symptoms, so just like the adult will have problem of excessive passing of water so will the child. “The mother can then notice that the child is passing urine too frequently, and she can also notice that the child is too thirsty and babies tend to present with infections as skin lesions and that is when you see frequent occurrence of skin infections in the child or certain effects of pigmentation of the skin.
This is also a sign that the mother needs to complain about that child. They also tend to be weak, they will not grow, will have weight loss and most importantly, the doctor will want to know if there is family history of diabetes because that is a major pointer that diabetes is possible and tests should be done.”
If there is gestational diabetes, Esangbedo notes that it could affect the child in future and it is an indication that both the mother and the child should be closely watched for diabetes. “In the future, It is usually a good pointer because even though the mother recovers from pregnancy, she should still be closely monitored so that she can quickly put in place the lifestyle strategies that would prevent the onset of the disease.”
With the recent introduction of its brand of insulin, Sanofi, a global healthcare leader, describes this as commitment to improving access and ensuring availability to high-quality, efficacious solutions to improve the management of diabetes for patients. In addition to better support patients in the management of the disease, Sanofi is supporting opening of 12 dedicated diabetes and hypertension clinics in partnership with health authorities. The first clinic was recently inaugurated, at LASUTH.
“We believe in Public-Private partnership, that is why we are standing by the State government to fight NCDs as a whole and diabetes in particular,” said Head of Medical and Regulatory, Sanofi, Dr. Inoussa Fiffen. “By doing so, we believe that the management of diabetes should be decentralised and for the meantime, we need to focus on the rural areas so that the journey of the diabetic is smooth.”
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
THE annual World Cancer Day – February 4 – is set aside by the World Health Organisation, WHO, to raise awareness on cancer, encourage its prevention, detection, and treatment, passed quietly with appropriate speeches that have been recycled over the years.
This year, political campaigns seized the spaces, taking the global event lower in our national attention notches. Cancer is a global epidemic, becoming the number one killer of mankind in 2010. One-third of the world’s population would be diagnosed with cancer in its lifetime. It is projected that by 2030, one in every two persons will be diagnosed of cancer in their lifetime.
According to the WHO, over 100,000 Nigerians are diagnosed with cancer annually, and about 80,000 die – 240 Nigerians daily or 10 Nigerians hourly. The Nigerian cancer death ratio of 4:5 is one of the worst globally. Cervical cancer which is 100 per cent preventable kills a Nigerian woman every hour. Breast cancer kills 40 Nigerians daily (30 daily in 2008). Prostate cancer kills 26 Nigerian men daily (14 daily in 2008). These three common cancers alone kill 90 Nigerians daily, due mainly to poor infrastructure. Nigeria has no Mobile Cancer Centres and no single Comprehensive Cancer Centre; most Nigerians have no access to optimal cancer treatment. A Comprehensive Cancer Centre costs about $63 million, while a Mobile Cancer Centre costs about $600,000. Nigerians spend $200 million annually on treatment abroad, enough to establish three Comprehensive Cancer Centres or to acquire 300 Mobile Cancer Centres. The outcome for Nigerians who seek treatment abroad is often poor because of late detection. Cervical cancer underscores the fact that cancer is preventable. Cervical screening is painless and takes only about five minutes.
Pre-cancer changes are easy to treat by an outpatient procedure lasting 15 minutes. Cervical cancer is disappearing in the West but remains the number one cancer killer of African women. The National Cervical Cancer Prevention Programme, a non-governmental initiative, pioneered community-based, mass cervical cancer screening campaign in Nigeria. With limited resources, over 100,000 Nigerians were screened and treated and awareness created since 2007. Its effort significantly contributed to 15 per cent reduction in cervical cancer deaths in Nigeria, from 26 women daily to 22 daily, between 2008 and 2012, WHO said, a significant improvement, given that WHO projected 25 per cent increase in cervical cancer deaths in 10 years.
Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP-Nigeria), a private initiative has a short-term goal of deploying 37 Mobile Cancer Centres, one for each state and FCT Abuja; for cancer prevention and early treatment in rural Nigeria. The defeat of cancer is not beyond us, if private and public resources are polled to tackle it.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Japanese police have arrested a man for allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting more than 100 women who believed they were taking part in a medical study, detectives and local media said Tuesday.
Detectives say scores of women responded to adverts seeking volunteers for “clinical research measuring blood pressure during sleep” over two years to November 2013.
They believe Hideyuki Noguchi, 54, gave the women sedatives after luring them to hotels and hot spring resorts.
Once the women were unconscious, he raped them and filmed each assault, police said.
Footage of the attacks was posted on the Internet or sold to producers of porn films, allegedly netting Noguchi more than 10 million yen ($85,000), TBS and other broadcasters said.
Noguchi is not know to have any medical training or expertise.
A spokesman for police in Chiba, east of Tokyo, said officers had confirmed at least 39 victims, aged from their teens to their 40s in Tokyo, Chiba, Osaka, Tochigi and Shizuoka.
Detectives believe they are just a fraction of the total number of women whom Noguchi attacked, thought to number well over 100, media reports said
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
In estimated 20,000 breast cancer cases are recorded in Nigeria annually. Only annual screening guarantees prevention of untimely death. Today, more Nigerian women are aware of their breast health and breast cancer; however, some damaging myths exist that misinform on the benefits of early detection and seeking prompt care. In commemoration of the World Cancer Day, Sebbeccly Cancer Care is dispelling common myths around the disease by promoting breast awareness, and helping people understand the benefits of early detection and treatment.
It is a death sentence
Truth: Being diagnosed with breast cancer is not a death sentence. With the scientific and social progress in breast cancer care, more women are surviving breast cancer in Nigeria and worldwide. A lot of Nigerian women after treatment are able to resume work and normal activities, get pregnant, have children and live a happy life. Mortality rate in Nigeria is high because of the late stage at presentation, survivorship barriers (affordability, accessibility and availability of cancer care) and the aggressive biology of breast cancer. When breast cancer is detected early, the chance of surviving the disease is high.
It is contagious
Truth: No way, breast cancer is not contagious; it doesn’t spread from one person to person. You can hold hands, hug, sit and talk together with someone living with breast cancer.
No one in my family has breast cancer therefore I’m not at risk
Truth: Every woman has some risk of developing breast cancer. Majority (70-80 percent) of women who have breast cancer do not have a known family history or an identifiable risk factor. Even if no one in your family has ever been diagnosed, that’s no excuse to skip your yearly mammogram. It’s important all women over 40 years old be screened for breast cancer. A few women have a family history where at least two relatives such as a mother, aunt or male relative have been diagnosed with breast cancer: such women have an increased risk of breast cancer and they should visit their doctors to discuss risk reduction and intervention.
There is nothing I can do about breast cancer control
Truth: There is a lot that you can do at an individual, community and policy level to help women be breast aware and support access to cancer care. As an individual, being informed, avoiding tobacco, maintaining a healthy body weight, eating right, getting enough exercise, and getting appropriate cancer screening tests can all make a significant difference.
I don’t have the right to cancer care
Truth: All people have the right to access proven and effective cancer treatments and services on equal terms, and without suffering hardship as a consequence. Before starting treatment, do your research, ensure your hospital is equipped and you have the right health care professionals (breast surgeon, surgical and radiation oncologists). Sebeccly Cancer Care is committed to improving cancer care.
Breast cancer surgery could cause death and makes the cancer to spread
Truth: This myth may have started many decades ago when patients with cancer already had advanced stages of the disease by the time they sought medical care. Doctors who operated to diagnose the illness may have found advanced cancer that could not be treated successfully, so when patients died a short time later, observers claimed surgery caused the spread of cancer cells, ultimately killing the patient.
Breast surgeons/surgical oncologists are doctors highly trained in the intricacies of cancer surgery and anatomy. Patients and their loved ones should not delay or refuse surgery, which is an effective treatment.
Government hospitals are not equipped to treat cancer, most patients die there
Truth: While the Government hospitals have their challenges, currently they are amongst the best places for patients to receive care because of the specialists and facilities available there. It is common for patients who have received care in various places with no success to present to the Government hospitals as a last resort and in these situations; the option of treating with intent to cure is low.
Painful breast lumps are not breast cancer
Truth: Generally breast cancer lumps are painless, but pain alone cannot rule out cancer. Some women also believe that a painless lump must not be cancer. This is not true. There’s no correlation between whether the lump is painful and whether it’s cancerous. There is a popular saying amongst cancer specialists ‘All lumps are guilty, until proven otherwise’ therefore it doesn’t matter if the lump is painful or not or that you are in your 20’s; if you notice a breast lump, visit your doctor immediately.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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