Milk poisoning in Ethiopia
Feb 17, 2012 (ILRI) – Staphylococcal poisoning from drinking non-pasteurized or non-homogenized milk was found to affect over 90% of a tested population in Debre Zeit, Ethiopia. The cause? “Staphylococcus aureus, a bacterium that can cause mastitis (udder infection) in dairy cows” according to collaborative research undertaken by scientists from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and Addis Ababa University. The bacteria can then produce enterotoxins in the milk which, when consumed by a person, cause a real risk of food poisoning.
Scientists have been measuring the level of staphylococcal poisoning – also known as food poisoning – found in the fermented milk in Debre Zeit. The research has also shown that traditional milk fermentation can help ensure milk is safe for consumption by reducing “the risk of food poisoning by Staphylococcus aureus by 93.7%.”
During milk souring: “…the organic acids produced during fermentation inhibit the growth of spoilage micro-organisms, thereby prolonging the storage life of the milk.” These traditional techniques are especially useful when industrial milk preparation methods are not available. Read more…
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Starve a Virus, Feed a Cure?
New Findings Show How Some Cells Protect Themselves against HIV
Baek Kim and Waaqo Daddacha in Kim’s laboratory. Their ability to make precise measurements of DNA’s building blocks helped them discover why HIV-1 does not infect certain white blood cells.
February 14, 2012 (University of Rochester) – A protein that protects some of our immune cells from the most common and virulent form of HIV works by starving the virus of the molecular building blocks that it needs to replicate, according to research published online in Nature Immunology.
The finding comes from an international team of researchers including scientists from the University of Rochester Medical Center, NYU Langone Medical Center, several institutions in France – and a graduate student who who is a political refugee from Africa and is now at work in a Rochester laboratory, intent on helping his people who have been devastated by the HIV epidemic.
While researchers hope the work will one day lead to a way to make anti-HIV drugs more effective by increasing their potency against the virus, they’re also excited about its implications for our knowledge of other pathogens, such as herpes viruses, which use the same machinery within our cells that HIV does to replicate. Read more…
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WiFi may damage sperm quality: Study
November 29, 2011 | Argentine scientists found WiFi from a laptop kills or maims the little swimmers
WiFi technology may cause a major handicap for men hoping to build a family: sperm damage.
Man lying on sofa, working on laptop computer
A team of Argentine scientists led by Conrado Avendano of the Nascentis Center for Reproductive Medicine in Cordoba found that placing drops of semen from healthy men under a laptop connected wirelessly to the Internet kills or maims the little swimmers.
The scientists reported their findings this month in the medical journal Fertility and Sterility.
After four hours next to the WiFi-connected computer, 25% of the sperm had stopped moving and nine percent showed DNA damage.
By comparison, semen kept at the same temperature but away from the computer showed just a 14% drop in mobility and only 3% suffered DNA damage. Read more…
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‘Criminal’ cuts to AIDS fund make Africa’s dire situation even worse
This file picture taken on December 1, 2010 shows a person taking a blood test at a roadside AIDS testing table in Langa, a suburb of Cape Town during the International AIDS Day.
November 26, 2011 (The Globe and Mail) - As donors cut back on funds for HIV treatment, new data is revealing how many millions of impoverished Africans have been unable to get life-saving medicine even before the latest cuts.
Donor governments in Europe and elsewhere, suffering from the global economic slowdown and concerned about corruption in some recipient countries, are drastically reducing their support for a crucial health fund: the $22-billion Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which is the biggest source of money for combating the world’s three deadliest infectious diseases. Read more…
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New studies show progress, value in vaccination against deadly pneumonia
Advances lauded as Malawi becomes next developing country to introduce pneumococcal vaccine on Saturday — World Pneumonia Day
GENEVA, November 9, 2011 (eurekalert) – Vaccines against the primary cause of deaths from pneumonia in developing countries could save millions of lives and are highly cost-effective, according to a comprehensive new analysis to be released on Thursday, Nov. 10. Read more…
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AIDS Drugs Offer Hope of Normal Lifespan in Africa
July 18, 2011 (VOA News)- Over the last 30 years life expectancy rates in Africa plummeted, as HIV/AIDS claimed millions of lives. But a new study says antiretroviral drug treatment can dramatically reverse that trend.
Professor Jean Nachega co-authored the study of some 20,000 patients in Uganda. He said, “The overall key finding of our study is that the patient in Africa receiving antiretroviral therapy for HIV can expect to live a near normal lifespan.”
The findings were released at the International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention in Rome – and published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Read more…
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World Bank: Ethiopia’s Investment Plan May Be Unsustainable.
The following is the analysis by the World Bank on Ethiopian economy based on the concepts of fiscal policy, that shows how the economy is influenced through government spending and taxation, and Monetary policy that indicates the attempts by TPLF minority regime to control the economy through interest rates and the money supply. Here is the article.
Ethiopia’s dependence on foreign capital to finance budget deficits and a five-year investment plan is unsustainable, said Ken Ohashi, the World Bank’s country director for the Horn of Africa nation. The government plans to borrow at least 398.4 billion Ethiopian birr ($23.6 billion) from home and abroad to fund the five-year growth plan, with an additional 75.4 billion birr to finance fiscal deficits over the same period. “I can’t see it’s sustainable short of discovering huge oil reserves, essentially an unexpected windfall,” Ohashi said in an interview in the capital, Addis Ababa, yesterday. “I don’t see how they can sustain such an aggressive investment plan without getting into serious problems.” Read more…
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Experts say cellphones are possibly carcinogenic
LONDON (AP) — An international panel of experts says cellphones are possibly carcinogenic to humans after reviewing details from dozens of published studies.
The statement was issued in Lyon, France, on Tuesday by the International Agency for Research on Cancer after a weeklong meeting of experts. They reviewed possible links between cancer and the type of electromagnetic radiation found in cellphones, microwaves and radar. Read more…
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Africa: NEPAD sets out to push for science, technology and innovation
Accra, May 23 (Ghana News Agency) – The New Partnership for Africa’s Development Planning and Coordinating Agency (NEPAD Agency) will between the May 23 and May 25 launch the second phase of the African Science Technology and Innovation Indicators (ASTII) Initiative and the African Innovation Outlook Series in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Read more…
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Gene therapy raises hope for a future AIDS cure
In a Feb. 25, 2011 photo, Jay Johnson is seen during an interview with the Associated Press at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Johnson, who works for an AIDS advocacy and service organization in Philadelphia, took part in one of the studies testing gene therapy as a possible new way to treat and perhaps someday to cure infection with HIV. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) (Matt Rourke - AP)
March 1 (Washington Post) – In a bold new approach ultimately aimed at trying to cure AIDS, scientists used genetic engineering in six patients to develop blood cells that are resistant to HIV, the virus that causes the disease.
It’s far too early to know if this scientific first will prove to be a cure, or even a new treatment. The research was only meant to show that, so far, it seems feasible and safe.
The concept was based on the astonishing case of an AIDS patient who seems to be cured after getting blood cells from a donor with natural immunity to HIV nearly four years ago in Berlin. Researchers are seeking a more practical way to achieve similar immunity using patients’ own blood cells.
The results announced Monday at a conference in Boston left experts cautiously excited.
“For the first time, people are beginning to think about a cure” as a real possibility, said Dr. John Zaia, head of the government panel that oversees gene therapy experiments. Even if the new approach doesn’t get rid of HIV completely, it may repair patients’ immune systems enough that they can control the virus and not need AIDS medicines — “what is called a functional cure,” he said.
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The Bridge of the Horns: Linking Yemen and Djibouti
Feb 21 (Allvoices) – This bridge would link the Arabian Peninsula to the Horn of Africa across the Red Sea strait Bab-el Mandeb which leads into the Gulf of Aden. The bridge will be approximately 29 km or 18 miles long
The contractor is Noor City Development Coporation based in Dubai. The notice to proceed has been issued by Middle East Developmen LLC headed by Tarek bin Laden.
Total cost for the project is estimaed to be around 20 billion U.S. Projected opening date is 2020.
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From the Golden State with Love: A Medical Mission Goes To Najo
By Oromsis Adula
January 27 (Opride) – “Where there is a will, there is a way” goes an oft-repeated axiom. California is located more than 8900 miles away from Najo in western Oromia, Ethiopia. A native of Najo, one nurse form the Golden State is going the extra-mile to help a hospital in her childhood town.
The Unites States is one of the few industrialized countries that do not provide a universal healthcare to its citizens. A healthcare reform, enacted in the summer of 2010 and hailed as President Obama’s landmark legislative achievement, was recently repealed in the republican-controlled congress. Even with more than 50 million Americans lacking health insurance, it is a far cry from the situation in Ethiopia.
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Cheap and Easy Ways to Improve Cholesterol Levels and Prevent Heart Disease
By Stella Louise
Savings.com
A recent article in BusinessWeek reported that costs associated with treating heart disease are expected to rise to over $800 billion over the next 20 years. That’s triple what they are today. One tactic for preventing heart disease is improving cholesterol levels. Of course, there are expensive (about $100/month at least!) prescriptions like Zocor and Lipitor that can accomplish that, but there are also easier and cheaper ways to get your cholesterol numbers in line.
Once upon a time, my cholesterol numbers were off the charts due to an undiagnosed case of type 1 diabetes. Now my levels would make most weep with envy. The following are things I have actually incorporated into my lifestyle to keep my cholesterol in line:
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High blood pressure controlled using deep brain stimulation
Press release issued 24 January 2011
Bristol University – Clinical researchers have discovered what may be a surgical alternative to medication in controlling persistent high blood pressure where patients do not respond to drugs.
Reporting this month in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, the team from the University of Bristol and Frenchay Hospital describe the case of a 55-year-old man who had been diagnosed with high blood pressure when he suffered a stroke. His blood pressure had remained high despite attempts to control it using drugs.
Using a surgical implant similar to a cardiac pacemaker, the team were able to control the man’s condition by sending electrical pulses to the brain, in a procedure known as deep brain stimulation.
While the electrical stimulation did not permanently alleviate his pain, researchers did find that it decreased his blood pressure enough for him to be able to stop taking the blood pressure drugs.
“This is an exciting finding as high blood pressure affects millions of people and can lead to heart attack and stroke, but for about one in ten people, high blood pressure can’t be controlled with medication or they cannot tolerate the medication,” said study author Dr Nikunj K. Patel from the Department of Neurosurgery at Bristol’s Frenchay Hospital and Senior Clinical Lecturer at the University of Bristol.
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