Globe Health Tours News

According to the US Census Bureau, by 2010 sub Saharan Africa will have suffered 71mn deaths due to AIDS. By comparison, the bubonic plague of the Middle Ages killed some 30mn people. These are staggering figures, particularly if one considers that deaths from AIDS are only part of the problems affecting African women and children.

Experts at the UN warn that most of the sub-Saharan countries will be unable to reach the Millennium goals related to health for 2015, particularly those related to improving the health of mothers and children. In fact, many diseases affecting children and adults can be addressed with minimum resources —if they are used strategically.

Childhood malnutrition is a critical issue. Almost 60% of deaths of children under five in developing countries are due to malnutrition and its effects –such as greater mortality from infectious diseases. It is estimated that African women are 10 to 100 times more likely to die during pregnancy and childbirth than women in the industrialised countries. Most of these deaths and disabilities are caused by delays in recognizing complications, difficulties in reaching a medical facility and lack of adequate medical care. Skilled health workers are vital in addressing these challenges but their numbers are pitifully low.

Malaria, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis continue to be major threats facing both children and adults. Recent studies have shown that HIV treatment is “failing” in many African countries. The rates of failure vary depending on the programme and the country under consideration. Treatment failure in many patients is due to their starting to take medication too late in the course of the infection. Other patients have problems in accessing the drugs, either because they are too poor or live too far away from the health center providing the medication. Throughout Africa, the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS is one of the main barriers in dealing successfully with that infection, both in terms of prevention and treatment. Education, public health campaigns and the active participation of members of the clergy have contributed in many areas to overcoming the stigma but much remains to be done and progress is slow.

Solving the problem of poverty and the resulting malnutrition and disease it engenders requires three distinct steps: first, the development of efficient and effective healthcare systems; second, increasing access of the poor to adequate healthcare; and third, redirecting resources from acute care hospitals using high-tech equipment to investment in low-tech, but effective, community-based primary and preventive care.

Health problems in Africa cannot be considered in isolation — and are not only the responsibility of Africans themselves. Foreign technical and financial assistance is required. Aid can strengthen civil society and community-based organisations which are the basis of a democratic society. To bring hope to a continent ravaged by poverty and disease, effective and urgent action is required. It is available and it can be done.

Black women who undergo a lumpectomy followed by radiation therapy for early stage breast cancer are significantly more likely to see a return of their cancer 10 years later than white women who have similar treatment

That’s the key finding from Yale University researchers who followed nearly 2,400 breast cancer patients over a 30 year period. Overall, 17 percent of Black women had a relapse of their cancer compared to 13 percent of white women.

Black women who were younger at the time of the original diagnosis were also found to have larger and more advanced tumors than white women.

“This study confirms the aggressive nature of breast cancer in African-American women and emphasizes how important it is for all African-American women to see their healthcare providers regularly and to go for screening mammograms to try to catch any abnormalities early,” study author Meena S. Moran, M.D., was quoted as saying.

She believes the results underscore the need for more study into why black women appear to be more adversely affected by breast cancer as well. “This study also points out the need for further research in evaluating the underlying molecular, genetic and biological differences in breast cancers in African-American women so that we can develop better strategies for helping these women beat their cancer.”

German physicians, for the first time, have successfully performed surgery in the womb of a woman who suffered premature rupture of her fetal membrane. When the patient’s fetal membrane burst during her 20th week of pregnancy, the fetus had a very slim chance of surviving, the physicians said. 

 Along with a high risk of infection, the fetus’s lungs stopped growing, meaning she would have probably suffocated after birth. Surgeons at Bonn University Clinic conducted a surgical procedure that stimulated lung growth — the first time such a procedure has been used after premature rupture of the fetal membrane. The baby is now 1 year old and healthy. The surgeons detailed their achievement in the journal Fetal Diagnosis and Therapy.

The advancements in medical field gets fascinating each day, from transplants, to sequencing DNA, clinical trials, stem cell research, just to remind us, that there is a hope of survival for every disease, syndrome, or maybe we will reach someday where every cell can be cloned, and there is an alternative available.

But there is also a saying, an apple a day keeps the doctor away. So lets practice healthy living, by taking care of ourselves with our lifestyle.

GHT - WE CARE

 A simple blood test may accurately detect thoracic aortic aneurysm, which gives little warning and is almost always fatal if untreated, U.S. researchers say.

Dr. John Elefteriades, of Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn., says thoracic aortic aneurysm disease occurs  in the part of the aorta that passes through the chest and only one in 20 patients has symptoms before internal rupture occurs — once the aneurysm ruptures, a person can go into shock and die from internal bleeding.

Elefteriades and his colleagues at Yale School of Medicine, Applied Biosystems and Celera Diagnostics took blood samples from 58 persons diagnosed with thoracic aortic aneurysm disease and 36 spouses who did not have the disease.

The study, published in Public Library of Science, found that by using a gene expression profiling technology, the researchers identified a 41-gene signature in blood cells that distinguishes thoracic aortic aneurysm patients from those without the disease.

“It has become increasingly evident that the immune system plays a pivotal role in the development of aortic aneurysms,” Elefteriades said in a statement. “We thus hypothesized that gene expression patterns in peripheral blood cells may reflect thoracic aortic aneurysm disease status.”

Surgical correction of vascular defects is safe and effective for many patients in whom less invasive procedures are not adequate. The common conditions that need surgical interventions are Aneurysms & Varicose Veins.

The other less common vascular diseases which need surgical intervention are:
 Arteriosclerosis obliterans
 Aortoiliac occlusive disease
 Superficial femoral occlusive disease
 Tibial artery disease
 Deep venous thrombosis

We at Globe Health Tours, are associated with the best cardiologists in the world, well experienced and well specialised in complete cardiac care. 

News Daily, Globe Health Tours

U.S. scientists have developed an infrared imaging technology to diagnose remotely sleep apnea in a laboratory setting.
Sleep apnea is commonly diagnosed using sensors to measure airflow through nasal pressure, temperature and carbon dioxide levels. However, the method can be uncomfortable and has the potential to disturb sleep.
The new technique developed at the University of Texas Health Science Center uses remote infrared imaging to detect abnormalities during sleep — all without coming into contact with the patient.
“Polysomnography is a diagnostic test which establishes the presence or absence of sleep disorders,” said lead researcher Dr. Jayasimha Murthy. “But standard methods have the potential to significantly disturb a patient’s sleep pattern, so what we see in the lab may not be a true representation of the patient’s sleep habits.
“However, remote infrared imaging is a non-contact method, so there is minimal interference with the patient. In fact, this system can be designed to where the patient isn’t even aware that monitoring is taking place.”
Study results indicated the new technology was in nearly perfect agreement with conventional methods.
The findings were presented this week in Chicago during the 73rd annual international scientific assembly of the American College of Chest Physicians.

News Daily

We at Globe Health Tours, help in treating OSA problems. Obstructive Sleep Apnoea is a disorder that is characterised by repetitiv collapse of the airway, resulting in low oxygen levels and an elevated blod pressure. Apnoea is defined as an absence or stoppage of breathing . Patients with severe OSA , may stop breathing as often as once every minute, over the entire nights rest.

Contact us for treatment details.

People with backpain live in their own world a lot of the time. Waiting and hoping for some relief. The American College of Physicians have published guidelines for the management of their case:

1. Physical exam and focused history, including assessment of psychosocial risk factors for chronic disabling back pain, to categorize patients as having nonspecific back pain, radiculopathy or spinal stenosis, or pain with another specific spinal cause

2. No routine imaging or other diagnostic tests for patients with nonspecific back pain

3. Imaging and other relevant diagnostic testing for patients with severe or progressive neurologic deficits or when serious underlying conditions are suspected

4. Imaging (preferably magnetic resonance) for evaluation of persistent pain, radiculopathy, or spinal stenosis only when patients are being considered for surgery or epidural steroid injection

5. Providing patients with prognostic information and self-care options (written information, remain active, superficial heat)

6. Use of acetaminophen or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs as first-line medication, depending on pain severity and physical dysfunction while considering lack of long-term efficacy

7. Nonpharmacologic therapy for patients who do not improve with self-care alone: spinal manipulation for acute pain; intensive interdisciplinary rehabilitation, exercise therapy, yoga, cognitive behavioral therapy, or progressive relaxation for chronic pain.

If you are a patient: check this list and make sure they think in the same way.

With the IT city fast emerging as a global health destination, Tanzania is looking at tie-ups with two Bangalore-based hospitals for tele-medicine.

“Lions Club of Dar Es Salaam is seriously contemplating tie-ups with Narayana Hrudayalaya and Manipal Hospital in Bangalore in the sphere of telemedicine in the coming years,” says Lion’s Club President Hyderali Gangji. Gangji is part of the club’s “Heart Babies Project” wherein 41 poor patients from Tanzania, including 28 children, underwent surgery for congenital and rheumatic heart diseases at Narayana Hrudayalaya. As said by Mr. Gangji “The cost of surgery at Narayana Hrudayalaya was much lower compared to South Africa, UK and the US while the quality matched global standards”.

India is a preferred destination for surgeries because of cost effectiveness and high success rates.

Over 1,300 surgeries have been facilitated through this initiative which was heralded by Dr Rajni Kanabar way back in 1979. One in every 150 children in Tanzania is born with congenital heart defect and over 7,000 children with congenital heart diseases await open heart surgeries which cannot be taken up due to lack of sophisticated surgery centre in the country and they lack the means to go abroad for treatment.

Whilst most discussions of medical tourism focus on US and UK citizens travelling to Eastern Europes and Asia hospitals, a growing number of African citizens are beginning to travel for surgery as well.

Whilst UK patient travel to avoid waiting lists, and US patients travel to avoid cost, Africans generally travel to access facilities and skills not available to them in their home countries. This key driver makes African medical tourism different to its northern hemisphere counterpart.

For a long time charities have provided foreign surgery whereby indigentare flown to London or USA for surgery. However what is emerging more strongly is a flow of middle class Africans who can now afford the latest surgical approaches by travelling to India and Thailand. Interestingly, it is enabling Africans to reject South Africa in which many have limited faith for the skills of Indian doctors.

Scotsman newspaper reports that deaths from Clostridium difficile have risen by 64% in a single year in Scotland. Some of this may relate to changes in the requirement to report statistics, but it is also a damning inditement of the service and culture of the nationalised health system in the UK and the breakdown on standard issues of hygeine and cleanliness.

As a previous post reported, drug resistant bacteria are increasingly a feature of non-healthcare situations, but there is no doubt that we are not winning the battle, let alone the way against drug resistant germs.

We associate MRSA strongly with hospitals, but studies are beginning to show that MRSA infetions are becoming increasingly community originated, which also means that they are increasingly prevalent in community based settings such as school or community centres which poses a major health risk but also suggests that combatting these bacteria will become more difficult where they can no longer be isolated in hospital settings where higher standards of hygeine can disrupt them.

As has been pointed out: deaths attributed to MRSA in 2005 is higher than for HIV/AIDS in the USA. In effect MRSA is becoming an epidemic and these studies suggesting that MRSA and its cohorts have escaped from health settings to the outside world is ominous for policy makers as well as for joe public

More information:

Klevens RM et al. Invasive methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections in the United States. JAMA 2007 Oct 17; 298:1763.

• Original article (Subscription may be required)
• Medline abstract (Free)

Pichichero ME and Casey JR. Emergence of a multiresistant serotype 19A pneumococcal strain not included in the 7-valent conjugate vaccine as an otopathogen in children. JAMA 2007 Oct 17; 298:1772.

• Original article (Subscription may be required)
• Medline abstract (Free)

Bancroft EA. Antimicrobial resistance: It’s not just for hospitals. JAMA 2007 Oct 17; 298:1803.

• Original article (Subscription may be required)
• Medline abstract (Free)