Showing posts with label spread. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spread. Show all posts
Saturday, October 11, 2014
Sunday, October 5, 2014
To limit Chik-V spread, infected are asked to avoid mosquito bite
Saturday, October 04, 2014 | 5:28 PM
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Marion Bullock DuCasse is urging people infected with the chikungunya virus to protect themselves from mosquito bites while the virus is still active in their bodies.
“Persons remain infectious for seven days after the onset of fever. This means if a mosquito bites these persons they will be able to spread the virus to others,” Bullock DuCasse said in a release today.
“We therefore appeal to them to reduce the chances of being bitten to assist in stemming the spread of the virus,” she added.
Infected persons are being encouraged to limit their movements from place to place and avoid mosquito bites wherever they go during the seven day period.?
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To limit Chik-V spread, infected are asked to avoid mosquito bite
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Soy could speed up spread of breast cancer – study
NEW YORK, United States, Wednesday September 10, 2014 – Experts have cautioned that eating soy, in the form of tofu or milk, could speed up the rate at which breast cancer cells spread in women already diagnosed with the disease.
The warning came after scientists at the Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York studied 140 women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer.
Between seven and 30 days before the women had surgery to remove their tumours, half of them were given soy protein powder containing genistein, while the other half received a placebo.
The researchers compared tumour tissues from before and after the operation. In the women who had taken the soy supplement, changes were found in the expressions of certain genes that are known to promote cell growth.
These findings suggested that soy protein could potentially accelerate the progression of the disease.
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In the words of the study, which was published in the September 4 edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute: “These data raise concern that soy may exert a stimulating effect on breast cancer in a sub set of women.”
Participants in the study had recently had breast biopsies, were diagnosed with stage one or two breast cancer, and were scheduled to have a mastectomy or lumpectomy in two to three weeks.
According to co-author of the study Jacqueline Bromberg: “Although the genes were being expressed, it is not clear that this will translate into actual tumour growth. But the concern is that there may be the potential.
“Only 20 percent of those patients who took the soy had really high levels of the genistein metabolite.”
Dr Bromberg said the reasons behind the disparity are unclear, adding that there is no way to predict who would have this reaction after consuming soy.
She went on to explain that of the women with high genistein levels, a few of them experienced changes in a specified set of genes that are known to affect breast cancer cell growth, death, or some aspect of breast cancer pathology.
Women who consumed around 51.6 grams of soy, the equivalent of about four cups of soy milk a day, exhibited the changes.
It was thought likely that those who eat soy regularly could “reasonably consume that amount” daily, particularly vegetarians and those who do not eat dairy products.
The scientists cautioned that women living in Asian countries could be especially at risk, due to the high levels of soy and tofu in traditional diets.
The research did not address the question of whether soy would have any effect on women who have not already been diagnosed with breast cancer.
View the original article here
Soy could speed up spread of breast cancer – study
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Sierra Leone’s “lockdown” could lead to further spread of Ebola, says medical group
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone, Monday September 8, 2014 – In a bid to stop the relentless spread of the deadly Ebola virus, the government of Sierra Leone plans to order every man, woman and child in the country not to leave the areas immediately surrounding their homes for a period of three days starting September 19.
According to the country’s deputy information minister Theo Nichol, the three-day shutdown would also make it easier for medical workers to trace suspected cases of the disease.
Nichol added that the period may be extended if needed, echoing the words of a presidential official who had previously indicated that the “lockdown” would last for four days.
International medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) nevertheless begs to differ over the proposed countrywide quarantine, which it claims will not help control an Ebola outbreak and could lead to the disease spreading further as cases are concealed.
“It has been our experience that lockdowns and quarantines do not help control Ebola as they end up driving people underground and jeopardising the trust between people and health providers,” said MSF.
“This leads to the concealment of potential cases and ends up spreading the disease further,” added the medical charity, which has been helping battle the world’s biggest ever outbreak of the disease across West Africa.
MSF added that door-to-door screening required high levels of expertise and, even when cases were detected, there were insufficient treatment centres and other essential facilities for patient care.
The international medical charity reiterated its calls for nations with civilian and military biological-disaster response capacities to send equipment and teams to West Africa.
“This remains our best hope of bringing this deadly outbreak under control as quickly as possible,” it said.
The outbreak was first identified in Guinea in March and has since spread across much of Liberia and Sierra Leone. Cases have also been recorded in Nigeria and Senegal, while a different strain of the virus has surfaced in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Late last week, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that more than 2,100 people have died.
The WHO went on to say that it will take months to bring Ebola under control and forecast as many as 20,000 cases.
Following a trip to the region, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr Tom Frieden warned that the Ebola outbreak is much worse than official figures show and is “spiralling out of control.”
View the original article here
Sierra Leone’s “lockdown” could lead to further spread of Ebola, says medical group
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