Month: February 2019

Researchers and doctors are using incredibly tiny particles — fluorescent nanoparticles — in a quest for new ways to fight cancer. Some nanoparticles, just billionths of a meter across, are engineered to carry special dye that glows when it hits cancer cells. Oregon State University scientists say this makes it easier for surgeons to find and remove tumors. Iryna Matviichuk visited Portland and learned the new procedure is closer to testing in human patients. Anna Rice narrates her report. …

In advance of World Cancer Day (February 4), the World Health Organization is issuing new cancer pain control guidelines aimed at ending the needless suffering experienced by millions of people afflicted with this illness.  Cancer is a leading cause of death globally.  The World Health Organization reports there are more than 18 million new cases every year and 9.6 million deaths, most in low-or middle-income countries. Great advances have been made in the treatment of cancer, but measures to relieve the horrific pain experienced by patients lag woefully behind.  WHO hopes to remedy this with its new guidance on pain management. Director of WHO’s Department for the Management of Noncommunicable Diseases, Etienne Krug, says controlling pain should be an essential part of cancer treatment.  Yet, he says pain is very often neglected as part of that treatment, a situation he considers unacceptable. “Nobody, cancer patients or not cancer patients should live or die in pain in the 21st century.  We have the knowledge of how to treat pain,” said Krug. “We have the medicines of how to address it.  It is a question of making sure everybody has that knowledge and everybody has access to the necessary treatment.”  Krug says the situation is most acute in the poorer countries because pain management systems tend not to be in place.  But he notes even in the rich countries people are still living and dying in pain. WHO says opioid painkillers like oral morphine are an essential treatment for moderate to severe …

The Trump administration’s top health official asked Congress on Friday to pass its new prescription drug discount plan and provide it to all patients, not just those covered by government programs like Medicare. The plan would take now-hidden rebates among industry players like drug companies and insurers and channel them directly to consumers when they go to pay for their medications.  Patients with high drug copays stand to benefit from the proposal, while people who take no prescription drugs, or who rely on generics mainly, would probably pay somewhat more, since premiums are expected to rise. A day after unveiling the plan as a proposed regulation, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar raised the stakes by calling on Congress to make it law and broaden it to include people covered by employer health insurance, not just Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. “Congress has an opportunity to follow through on their calls for transparency … by passing our proposal into law immediately and extending it into the commercial drug market,” Azar said in a speech at the Bipartisan Policy Center think tank. Trump under pressure Ahead of next week’s State of the Union speech, President Donald Trump is under political pressure to show results for his promise to slash prescription drug costs. Data show that prices for brand-name drugs have continued to rise, though at a somewhat slower pace. Polls show consumers across the political spectrum want government action. Democrats say the administration’s plan doesn’t go far enough because it still …

Six months after the outbreak of Ebola was declared in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s North Kivu province, the World Health Organization is expressing cautious optimism that it is making headway in controlling the spread of the deadly virus.   Latest figures reported by the WHO show 752 cases of Ebola, including 465 deaths. WHO Regional Director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, says progress in containing the spread of the virus is due to a number of public health measures, including the training of health workers on infection prevention and control, closer engagement with communities, case investigation and contact tracing.   She says the use of a vaccine and promising new drugs have been a boon to these efforts. “I feel optimistic,” Moeti said. “I am very clear that we need to continue this work. We need to make sure that in the places where we have made progress, we build on this progress and we do not go back. And, we are being very, very conscious of the fact that we need to invest to improve the preparedness both in the DRC areas that are highest at risk and, most importantly, in the surrounding countries that are at risk.”   The risk of the virus spreading to countries like Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan is very high because of the heavy cross-border traffic among the countries, Moeti said. However, she added, surveillance and preparedness activities have been enhanced on both sides of the border. She says there is extensive monitoring at border …

South Sudan is vaccinating health workers against Ebola in case the virus crosses the border from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ebola has stricken more than 700 people in the DRC and killed more than 400. The World Health Organization said the death rate is 59 percent.  Half a world away in Ohio, U.S. researchers are racing to develop a new, long-lasting vaccine against Ebola. At Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Dr. Paul Spearman is leading a clinical trial that tests two experimental Ebola vaccines. “Researchers are looking for new ways to stop these outbreaks and to treat people who become infected and develop Ebola virus disease. The development of preventive vaccines for Ebola is a top global public health priority,” said Spearman, director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Cincinnati Children’s and the lead investigator in the trial. Volunteers first receive one of the vaccines. A week later, they get the other one. Spearman said this one-two shot is promising and could provide rapid protection against Ebola. These are weakened live-vector vaccines that cannot grow in human cells, but they produce strong immune responses to Ebola virus proteins. Karnail Singh, Ph.D., also at Cincinnati Children’s, heads the program that tests volunteers’ blood samples. The researchers test the samples collected before the volunteers are injected with the experimental vaccines and again afterward. Singh said that way, researchers can compare the samples and see if the vaccines provide immunity. The researchers also plan to take blood samples six months after …

One of the important aspects of gauging the damage being done to the world’s ecosystems by climate change is knowing the current status of those systems. So a Britain-based charity is about to embark on a seven-week expedition to gauge the health of one of the world’s few remaining pristine reefs. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency added eight members on Thursday to its scientific advisory board tasked with providing independent input for agency policy, a list that includes at least one vocal climate-change doubter. The EPA said John Christy, an atmospheric science professor at the University of Alabama, was among the new appointees to the advisory body, which now numbers 45 people and includes several appointees from past administrations. Christy has downplayed the threat of climate change in congressional hearings and media appearances, arguing that scientific models overestimate warming, and that major steps to cut greenhouse gas emissions are not warranted. Those views place him outside the mainstream scientific consensus, including from U.S. federal agencies, that global warming will have devastating consequences if not urgently addressed. But they dovetail with President Donald Trump’s policy of rolling back Obama-era climate-change regulations to free up more drilling and mining. Christy did not immediately return a call seeking comment. New appointees Other new appointees include Hugh Barton, a toxicology and risk assessment consultant who formerly worked for pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc, and Richard Williams, an economics and benefit-cost analysis consultant who previously worked for the Food and Drug Administration. “In a fair, open, and transparent fashion, EPA reviewed hundreds of qualified applicants nominated for this committee,” acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a statement. They “include experts from a wide variety of scientific disciplines who reflect the geographic diversity needed to represent all 10 EPA regions.” Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist, has …

The pet parents do yoga poses, like downward-facing dog, as their pups walk around the room and socialize, sniffing each other and the people on their yoga mats. This is doga, a fun, relaxing way to connect with your pet while getting some exercise. At EMMAvet in Alexandria, Va., owner and veterinarian Veronica Jarvinin decided to begin doga classes a few months ago. She does a bending pose as she pets Emma, her beloved dog whose name is on the sign at the emergency pet care practice. “Everybody giggles the whole time, and dogs roam from person to person,” she said. “I think it just brings everybody a lot of joy.” Doga was started by an American fitness coach more than 15 years ago. Some of the poses the dogs do naturally take time for the humans to learn. “You can do puppy pose where your hips stay up and everything else kind of stays the same,” instructor Ashley Stewart told the group. She is a yoga teacher and dog lover who decided to give teaching doga a try. “It’s definitely less focused on the human yoga practitioner and more focused on the human and the dog connecting,” she explained. The dogs start to emulate what the humans are doing,” she said, as a black Labrador rested next to its owner who was doing a yoga pose flat on the floor.  But the class also expects unusual distractions, Stewart said with a laugh. “We often have accidents that we are …