Malaria warnings still not heeded by travellers
Friday April 25th, 2008
British travellers remain at a substantial risk of catching malaria when travelling to certain countries, experts warned today.
The Health Protection Agency (HPA) says that this preventable yet deadly disease was contracted by 1,548 UK travellers in 2007 - five of whom died. Most of these infections involved the parasite Plasmodium falciparum, which is transmitted by the Anopheles mosquito.
This parasite is a major international health risk, say the HPA, killing more than a million people in Africa each year. It is also a serious health issue in South and Central America, Asia, Oceania and the Middle East.
Professor Peter Chiodini of the HPA said: "It is really important that anyone travelling to an area where malaria is a risk seeks medical advice before their trip. This is particularly true for people travelling to visit friends and relatives.
"It seems likely that travellers visiting friends and relatives are either not seeking or unable to access good medical advice on preventing malaria before they travel, or they don't perceive their risk to be as great as the holidaying public.
"The common misconception that people born in malaria-affected countries but now living in the UK continue to have a natural immunity to malaria is very dangerous."
Figures suggest that 83 per cent of UK patients had not taken the appropriate malaria drugs, if any.
"It is clear that some groups are at particular risk of acquiring malaria and are not being reached by health messages about the importance of antimalarial prophylaxis," Professor Chiodini said. He added that applying insect repellent, wearing cover-up clothing and sleeping under an insecticide-treated bed net are also crucial.
Vaccines save lives - report
Thursday April 24th, 2008
Vaccination against meningitis is proving successful in saving lives, according to new figures.
Last year not a single teenager or child died from the meningitis C strain of the disease following the introduction of immunisation.
The disease had claimed up to 78 lives a year.
And infections with the meningococcal C bacteria have also fallen dramatically - by 95 per cent in the last decade.
The figures were reported by NHS director of immunisation, Professor David Salisbury.
He said that confidence in the MMR vaccine among parents is also recovering. Some 73 per cent now feel it is safe - compared with 63 per cent in 2003.
Professor Salisbury said: "This is published during the World Health Organization European Immunisation Week as our work links in with the international efforts to protect our children from vaccine preventable diseases.
"However, it is imperative that we continue to do all we can to encourage take up of vaccines - particularly MMR."
Public health minister Dawn Primarolo said: "The childhood immunisation programme continues to be a cornerstone of public health protection in this country. Parents can be confident that making sure their children have their routine jabs is the best way to protect them."
New mothers aware of diet-health link
Wednesday April 23rd, 2008
Most new mothers believe that the way they feed their babies is important for long-term health, a survey has found.
Results come from approximately 2,000 first-time mothers with healthy babies in five European countries - England, Finland, Germany, Hungary and Spain. It was carried out by Dr Heather Gage of Surrey University, UK, and colleagues.
Of the mothers, 85 to 90 per cent agreed that the way they fed their babies was important for their babies' long term health. An even higher percentage, 95 per cent, believed that the way they fed their babies was important in their first year of life.
The team were pleasantly surprised by their results. "The number of new mothers who thought that the way they fed their babies had long term health implications was quite high considering this is a new and developing area of science," said Dr Gage. "Especially as we have shown previously that it is not yet reflected in official advice to parents."
Preliminary analysis suggests that mothers are not so clear about how early diet might affect specific long-term health conditions such as obesity, high blood pressure and cancer.
Dr Gage continued: "Once we have looked at our results in more detail, we hope we will be able to identify gaps in new mothers' understanding of the importance of early diet in different countries and recommend guidance on what sort of advice should be given in each country."
Survey findings were presented today (April 23) at the International Symposium on Early Nutrition Programming held in Granada, Spain.
Raats, M. et al. Early diet, later health: what do new mothers think?
Hope for simpler rabies vaccination
Wednesday April 23rd, 2008
Researchers have found an easier method of giving the rabies vaccine, which they say is just as effective as the current technique.
It takes less time, is more practical and may be safer, say Dr Mary Warrell of Oxford University, UK, and colleagues. They explain that effective prophylaxis is vital for preventing death after a bite from a rabid animal. The anti-rabies antibody (immunoglobulin) is central to treatment.
However, it is very rarely available in developing countries, where prevention efforts rely on vaccination. Current vaccines are prohibitively expensive, say the team in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.
They tested a new simplified regimen on 254 healthy volunteers. It involves giving four skin (intradermal) injections, rather than muscle (intramuscular) injections - the current international "gold standard". The resulting anti-rabies antibody levels were comparable between the two groups.
"The need for economical rabies post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) is increasing in developing countries," say the researchers. "We therefore compared a simplified four-site economical PEP regimen with standard methods."
"All regimens showed similar immunogenicity", they report, and "the four-site PEP regimen has the advantages of requiring fewer clinic visits, being more practicable, and having a wider margin of safety, especially in inexperienced hands". It "now meets all requirements of immunogenicity for PEP and can be introduced without further studies", they add.
This simpler method would be "suitable for use anywhere in the world where there are financial constraints, and especially where two or more patients are likely to be treated on the same day", they conclude.
Warrell, M. J. et al. A Simplified 4-Site Economical Intradermal Post-Exposure Rabies Vaccine Regimen: A Randomised Controlled Comparison with Standard Methods. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol. 2(4): e224.
Ovary grafts need thorough testing - researchers
Tuesday April 22nd, 2008
A procedure that has helped young women have children after cancer treatment may be jeopardising their future health, experts warned today.
Women can successfully freeze ovarian tissue - and men can have reproductive tissue stored also - to prevent it from damage by cancer treatment.
But tissue storage and implantation will usually be done by a fertility centre - and it may not have the expertise to test the tissue for cancer, according to an article in the journal Human Reproduction.
The warning comes after doctors in Israel conducted an analysis on 56 young women with cancer who wanted to store ovarian tissue. The women suffered from leukaemia and lymphoma.
Tests showed 55 women to have provided tissue that was free of cancer. But in the 56th case, it took a sophisticated modern-test, real-time polymerase chain reaction, to detect cancer present in the ovarian tissue.
Researcher Dr Dror Meirow, of the Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, said: "We think it's vitally important to raise awareness amongst cancer patients, fertility specialists, oncologists and haematologists.
"There are few fertility centres in the world with the expertise and the technology to run the types of tests on tissue that are needed to detect residual cancer.
"However, not every reproductive service that has surgical skills and freezing facilities can be safely responsible for ovarian tissue cryopreservation. We suggest that these centres should store tissue for future investigation, and samples can be shipped to specialist centres for analysis."
Human Reproduction Vol.23, Issue 5. doi:10.1093/humrep/den055.
Arsenic's cancer paradox explained
Monday April 21st, 2008
British researchers have discovered why arsenic can successfully treat acute promyelocytic leukemia, Nature Cell Biology reports.
Using animal cells, researchers from Cancer Research UK at the University of Dundee modified some cells to remove certain proteins and found the drug had different effects.
They found arsenic helped molecules called SUMO stick on to proteins involved in leukemia.
An enzyme called RNF4 hunts down SUMO and breaks down the cancer-causing proteins.
Dr Lesley Walker from Cancer Research UK said the discovery was an exciting step forward in understanding the complex paradox of how a chemical that causes cancer also can cure it.
"It is a great piece of science that will hopefully lead to the development of drugs that home in on specific cancer-causing proteins to beat the disease," Dr Walker said.
Until now, scientists knew of the success of using arsenic, but did not understand how the process worked.
Researcher Professor Ronald Hay based at the University of Dundee, said: “Our discovery is key to understanding how we can enhance the anti-cancer properties of this poison.
"Knowing the specific molecules involved allows us to now work on creating more targeted and effective cancer drugs with fewer side effects."
About 60 cases of acute promyelocytic leukemia are diagnosed each year in Britain. Arsenic trioxide is used in patients who have relapsed or are resistant to other drugs.
Nature Cell Biology, April 13, 2008. doi:10.1038/ncb1716
Anti-cancer action of mushroom extract revealed
Monday April 21st, 2008
New research has uncovered one reason why extracts of mushroom may be beneficial in the treatment of breast cancer.
Extracts of the mushroom Phellinus linteus halt the growth of breast cancer cells, according to Dr Daniel Sliva of the Methodist Research Institute in Indianapolis, USA, and colleagues.
The mushroom has been used for centuries in Eastern Asian medicine, and could form a new therapeutic tool to stop breast cancer cells from growing and spreading, they believe. The team found that Phellinus linteus has a marked anti-cancer effect in laboratory tests using human breast cancer cells.
It appears to do so by blocking an enzyme called AKT, which is known to control signals that lead to cell growth. Blocking it curbs the rapid spread of cancer cells and holds back the formation new tumour-feeding blood vessels.
Dr Sliva said: "We saw a number of positive results from our investigation on aggressive human breast cancer cells, including a lower rate of uncontrolled growth of new cancer cells, suppression of their aggressive behaviour and the formation of fewer blood vessels that feed cancer cells essential nutrients.
"We're not yet able to apply this knowledge to modern medicine, but we hope our study will encourage more researchers to explore the use of medicinal mushrooms for the treatment of cancer."
The findings were reported in the British Journal of Cancer. Previous studies have shown that this type of mushroom can slow the growth of skin, lung and prostate cancer cells and improve the effects of anticancer drugs. Its effects may be enhanced by use alongside the anti-cancer drug doxorubicin.
Sliva, D. et al. Phellinus linteus suppresses growth and invasive behaviour of breast cancer cells through the inhibition of AKT signalling. The British Journal of Cancer, Vol. 98, April 22, 2008, pp. 1348-56.
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