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Age and genetics play a vital role when it comes to combating a brain hemorrhage stroke. However, you cant travel back in time and change your travel history but there are many risk causing factors which you can take under your control. Once you get familiar with those risk factors, you can work on them to avert brain hemorrhage.

Deepesh Bhan, an actor of the popular tv serial Bhabiji Ghar Par Hai expired on 23rd July, 2022 during morning hours. The performer died while he was playing cricket, therefore it was believed that he mightve had a heart attack. Asif Sheikh, co-performer of the show told the media that Deepesh Bhan suffered from a brain hemorrhage stroke. His friends expressed their feelings with sorrow and revealed that he was a fit person with no substance abuse habits like alcoholism or smoking.

Artist Neha Pendse also gave her condolences for the actors demise by saying I was in Pune but now I am heading towards Mumbai now and I am hoping to reach his funeral. I had a long journey with Deepesh because we were together in May I Come In Madam and Bhabhi Ji Ghar Hai both. He was the fittest guy around so honestly, I dont know what went wrong. He was a fitness enthusiast and he would talk about nutrition, he lost his mother in November. I am very numb right now and dont know how to react to this".

To stop such grimful events in future, lets go through some ways to put an end to the possibilities of a brain haemorrhage stroke.

Link:
Precautionary measures you can take against brain haemorrhage - Times of India

When you think of acid reflux (heartburn), you usually think of it as being related to issues between your stomach and esophagus. But can there also be a correlation between acid reflux and liver disease?

This article will take a closer look at the possible link between acid reflux and liver disease, as well as the symptoms, treatment options, and prevention strategies for both conditions.

Acid reflux occurs when stomach acid backs up into the esophagus. This is the tube that carries food from your mouth down to your stomach.

Minor cases of acid reflux, which can occur after an especially spicy meal or taking certain medications, generally dont require medical attention.

A more serious type of acid reflux is called gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Its characterized by:

GERD often requires prescription medications or other treatment, as well as dietary and lifestyle adjustments.

There are several types of liver disease, all of which can affect the functions the liver performs, including:

When the liver is damaged by disease or injury, some serious health complications can ensue.

Its not uncommon for people with serious liver conditions, such as cirrhosis or liver failure, to also have GERD.

In a 2021 study of people with liver cirrhosis, researchers found that 83% of them had GERD. Its thought that a condition called ascites may largely explain the prevalence of GERD among these individuals.

Ascites is often a complication of cirrhosis. It causes fluid buildup in the abdomen, and the pressure of fluid in the abdomen may contribute to GERD-like symptoms, as well as abdominal pain and shortness of breath.

A separate 2020 study of people with liver cirrhosis suggested that this liver condition is associated with several factors that can cause abnormal activity of the muscles of the esophagus, which can trigger acid reflux.

A 2017 study suggested that people with GERD may be at a higher risk for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). While the study didnt demonstrate how GERD may cause NAFLD, the researchers suggest that the two conditions may often coexist because they share similar risk factors, such as obesity.

A more clear-cut example of how GERD may impact liver health was noted in a 2017 study. The researchers found that the use of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) a common acid reflux treatment may raise the risk of alcoholic liver disease among people who use alcohol.

The study suggested that because PPIs reduce the secretion of gastric acid, the medications may inadvertently facilitate the overgrowth of an intestinal bacterium called Enterococcus, which may raise the risk of liver disease.

Its not always clear when acid reflux symptoms could be related to liver disease or vice versa. However, if youve recently been diagnosed with liver disease and you begin to experience acid reflux more often, it could be a complication of liver disease.

An older study found that the following symptoms are also associated with NAFLD:

Liver diseases dont always show symptoms in their early stages, but when they do, they can include:

Schedule an appointment with your doctor if you experience any of these symptoms or if you start experiencing heartburn frequently without a change in your diet or lifestyle.

Acid reflux is usually treated with medications that either reduce stomach acid production or neutralize stomach acid. Over-the-counter options include:

For GERD, your doctor may suggest prescription-strength H-2 receptor blockers in addition to PPIs. But given the association between PPIs and NAFLD, you may be advised to try other medications first, especially if liver disease has been diagnosed or if youre at high risk for liver issues.

Talk with your doctor about having your liver enzymes tested before starting PPIs to determine whether you already have any liver complications.

There are no formal treatments or cures for certain liver conditions, such as cirrhosis and NAFLD. If cirrhosis becomes severe, a liver transplant may be the only treatment option.

Generally, liver conditions are managed by making significant lifestyle changes that focus on weight management and alcohol avoidance.

Liver disease and acid reflux can sometimes be prevented through changes in diet and lifestyle. Some common strategies to manage liver disease symptoms or prevent the onset of liver disease include:

To help prevent acid reflux, consider the lifestyle strategies outlined above as well as the following:

Acid reflux and liver disease can sometimes accompany each other, especially if you have liver cirrhosis, NAFLD, or liver failure. You may also be at risk of developing liver problems if you take PPIs for acid reflux.

If youre overweight and sedentary, you may face an elevated risk for both acid reflux and liver disease.

While maintaining a moderate weight, exercising regularly, and limiting your intake of alcohol are good tips for overall health, they can be especially helpful in preventing or managing both acid reflux and liver disease.

If you experience any symptoms of these conditions, make an appointment to see your doctor. Early diagnosis of your symptoms may help you avoid complications later on.

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Acid Reflux and Liver Disease: Signs, Symptoms and Prevention - Healthline

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Allergic reactions are a serious condition many Americans face due to an abnormal immune response in the body that, in some cases, can result in death.

An allergic reaction occurs when the immune system responds to a foreign allergen that is not commonly believed to be harmful. A mild reaction may have minor symptoms such as inflammation, or more serious cases can result in anaphylactic shock. Allergies to a certain food, such as peanuts, are common allergic reactions that affect a small portion of the population.

Read below to find out the symptoms and treatments for allergic reactions. You should seek a medical expert during serious or life-threatening cases. Anaphylaxis is the most severe result of an allergic reaction and can lead to respiratory failure while causing the skin to swell.

Type I is an immediate reaction to allergens that may occur after a few seconds to minutes resulting from pollen, insect bites, dust mites, or certain foods. It is associated with the common allergic reaction to food and can, in severe cases, lead to anaphylaxis. Type 2 is when the reaction sets in after a few minutes or hours after the antibodies have a damaging effect on the body's cells.

Vomiting is a common symptom of an allergic reaction. (iStock)

Type III starts showing up after several hours with the antibodies reacting to allergens and is often associated with Lupus, Serum sickness, and Arthus reaction. The final and most delayed stage is type IV which may take hours or days to occur and is present in long-term infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and fungal infections.

MANY FIRST REPORT PEANUT ALLERGY SYMPTOMS IN ADULTHOOD, STUDY FINDS

British immunologists Robert Coombs and Philip Gell established these four types of hypersensitive body reactions in 1963.

Symptoms of an allergic reaction vary based on which type it is and the severity it has on the immune system. Generally, many people experience swelling, redness of the skin, sneezing, rashes, hives, vomiting, bloating, pain, itchy nose, and watery eyes. However, anaphylaxis symptoms are more life-threatening and severe on the individual's body, including painful skin rashes, shortness of breath, chest tightness, lips, tongue or throat swelling, and stomach pain. Immediate medical attention is recommended for those suffering from anaphylaxis.

In severe cases of anaphylaxis it is recommended you seek medical attention immediately or call 9-1-1. (iStock)

Some allergic reactions may be triggered by insect bites, mold, pollen, specific foods, and drugs.

POISON IVY VACCINE MAKING PROGRESS: REPORT

To avoid an allergic reaction, an individual must be aware of the harmful allergens and actively avoid them. Many allergens are airborne, so an individual should wash out their nose daily with a nasal saline rinse to limit the effect it may have on the body.

Various medications are made to treat these reactions, including corticosteroids for nasal allergies, corticosteroid cream for itchiness from rashes, and the auto-injector pen device epinephrine for anaphylaxis.

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What to do if you get an allergic reaction: symptoms, causes, and prevention - Fox News

Natalie Metzger is living a life that once seemed impossible. At only 35 years old, she's already an award-winning director, writer and producer. She travels extensively, and her films have premiered at top festivals around the world including Sundance, Cannes and more. Being a filmmaker was an ambitious goal, but it wasn't until Natalie took charge of her life behind the camera and became an advocate for her health that pursuing this Hollywood dream was even an option.

Rare and potentially fatal

Natalie lives with a very rare and potentially life-threatening genetic condition called hereditary angioedema, or HAE. It causes unpredictable episodes of uncontrolled and often severe swelling that can impact areas of the body such as the hands, feet, stomach, face and even the throat, which can be fatal.

Natalie's father has HAE, which meant she had a 50-50 chance of inheriting the disease. When she began having symptoms at the age of 17, her parents' fear was confirmed - she, too, had HAE.

HAE swelling can last for days, and attacks can happen multiple times per month, impacting the ability to participate in everyday activities such as school, work and social events. Natalie's attacks worsened as she went to college, and HAE began taking a significant toll on her life.

"I was having an attack every couple of weeks," said Natalie. "I was in and out of the hospital all of the time."

While HAE episodes can occur for seemingly no reason, common triggers include physical injury, as well as Natalie's most frequent cause of attacks - stress. Since stress comes with filmmaking and extensive travel is also required - often daunting for those with HAE given the need to be near a hospital knowledgeable of and able to treat HAE in case of a severe attack - Natalie thought that she might not be able to pursue it as a career.

But, determined to live the life she wanted to live, Natalie began taking a proactive approach to managing her HAE. And things began to change.

A proactive approach

HAE can be treated in two ways. Acute medication is used to lessen symptoms when an attack is imminent or underway. And preventative medication is taken on an ongoing basis to help prevent HAE attacks and minimize their severity. Because HAE is a lifelong disease, preventing attacks can be a key part of regaining a sense of normalcy.

For Natalie, finding the right prophylactic treatment has made all the difference. Her swelling attacks are now well controlled, and if she has occasional breakthrough swelling, it's generally mild.

"When I was in college and considering what I was going to be doing with my life, I wasn't sure I'd be able to handle the demands of film because of my HAE, but on demand and preventative medications have been life changing," said Natalie. "They've really allowed me to have the career of my dreams - I'm able to make movies and go all around the world for film productions and festivals. I don't think I would be able to be a filmmaker if I didn't have my medication."

Treatment advances for HAE have come a long way in recent years and include medications that are taken in different ways, requiring varying levels of skill and time commitment to administer, giving those with HAE more options for finding the right treatment plan that fits their unique needs and lifestyle.

"We talk a lot about the burden of the condition, but the burden of treatment is something we've become more aware of as options have advanced," said Marc A. Riedl, MD, Clinical Director, US HAEA Angioedema Center. "When designing a treatment plan, patients should be open with their medical team about both their treatment goals and how treatment fits into their lifestyle. We're now reaching a point where people with HAE are often able to do the things they want in life without HAE or their treatments interfering."

While many with HAE have learned to tolerate difficult or inconvenient aspects of their treatment or may be afraid to "rock the boat" by trying a new treatment option, Natalie's experience shows that investing the time to find the right approach can be life changing.

"I've tried all of the preventative treatments over the years - intravenous, subcutaneous, and oral," said Natalie. "They're getting easier and easier to use and less invasive on my day-to-day life. It's amazing to think how far I've come personally and how far we've evolved in the HAE space."

Important advice for those facing health challenges

Given all that Natalie has been through, she has a few pieces of advice for anyone navigating the challenges of a condition like HAE:

1. Assess what YOU really want: Think about your goals. Consider your lifestyle, what factors are most important to you, the impact of the disease on your life and how treatment fits into it.

2. Have a plan: Preparation is key, especially when living with a chronic condition. Whether jotting down notes in advance of a doctor's appointment or ensuring you travel with the necessary medication, having a plan is essential to success.

3. Go for it: Be open and honest with your medical team. Have an empowered conversation about your goals in treatment and life. You should have a shared voice in your treatment decision-making process - studies show it leads to better outcomes.

Natalie recently got married and is looking ahead to what life and her busy career have in store for her next.

"Through my work, I'm able to pursue another passion - raising awareness of HAE and highlighting the stories of people impacted by this rare disease, as I did in the documentary 'Special Blood,'" she said. "I will continue to advocate for those with HAE to take charge of their health and pursue their own dreams while I live out mine." -BPT

Read more here:
How one woman took control of her rare disease and achieved her dream - Times of Oman

Billionaire businessman Tilman Fertitta said he has always been a strong believer in the University of Houston medical schools mission to improve health care equity in Texas. Now hes donating $50 million to help make that vision a reality.

Fertitta and his family on Thursday announced what UH leaders say is a transformational donation for the fledgling medical school, which welcomed its first group of students just two years ago. In recognition, the school has been named the Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine, as it prepares to open a state-of-the-art, $80 million building this summer.

Fertitta, the owner of the Landrys Inc. hospitality empire and the Houston Rockets, played a critical role in establishing the medical school as the longtime chairman of the UH systems board of regents. But its the schools mission to improve health and health care in the community that inspired him to make such a large donation, he said.

Everybody should have the same medical treatment that anybody else has, he said. Thats one of the things that I like about this school, and where were trying to fit into the community. We want people to have good primary care, to take care of whatever you need to take care of.

The University of Houston's medical school will be named the Tilman J. Fertitta College of Medicine in recognition of the Fertitta Family Foundation's $50 million donation.

The University of Houston's medical school will be named the Tilman J. Fertitta College of Medicine in recognition of the Fertitta Family Foundation's $50 million donation.

The University of Houston's medical school will be named the Tilman J. Fertitta College of Medicine in recognition of the Fertitta Family Foundation's $50 million donation.

The school was founded in 2019 with a curriculum that emphasizes community health, behavioral and mental health, preventative medicine and social determinants of health the social and economic conditions that influence individual and community health.

The goal is for 50% of graduates to choose careers in primary care specialties, such as pediatrics and general internal medicine, to help address a shortage in Texas. The states Department of State and Human Services has estimated there will a shortage of 3,375 primary care physicians by 2030.

Improving health and health care equity have always been important issues in the medical community, which is why the school has focused on those areas from the outset. But the COVID-19 pandemic and the social justice movement have made them front-burner issues to a larger group of Americans, said Dr. Steven Spann, the medical schools founding dean.

This is something we were thinking about. This is our mission, Spann said. Its wonderful to see society, and health care in particular, beginning to understand the importance of that and embrace it.

The school is also focused on improving the diversity of physicians. Of the 60 students who have been part of the schools first two classes, 67% are from groups that are underrepresented in medicine, and more than half came from a lower socioeconomic background, according to a news release. By comparison, just 13% of students admitted to U.S. medical schools each year are Black or Hispanic.

Training the next generation of primary care physicians and improving health care equity are goals that go hand-in-hand, said Dr. Toi Harris, senior vice president and chief equity, diversity and inclusion officer for Memorial Hermann. If a medical school student has an opportunity to train in a primary care setting, it could help them understand how social determinants, such as socioeconomic status or access to education, affect a patients overall health.

I think its tremendously helpful and will be impactful in terms of how they approach patient care and how they engage with the community, Harris said. Gaining exposure to these types of models during training really can help inform your career pursuits and the way you deliver care.

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In his role as chairman of the UH board of regents, Fertitta has been aligned with the medical schools mission to improve health care access and equity from the start, university President Renu Khator said.

He really believes in its future and what it could do. He has a very clear idea of where it could be in 10 years, or where it could be in 15 years, she said. For him to come forward and give this kind of gift to help the medical school take off and be something better than what it would be without these kinds of transformational gifts, its amazing.

The $50 million donation will go toward efforts to hire top-notch faculty and invest in research at the medical school, Khator said.

Tilman Fertitta, owner of Landry's, Inc., and the Houston Rockets, poses for a portrait at the Post Oak Hotel at Uptown on Tuesday, May 28, 2019, in Houston.

Heres how the gift will be divided:

$10 million will go toward five endowed chairs; the school intends to hire renowned scholars who are focused on health care innovation. This $10 million will be matched as part of the universitys $100 Million Challenge for chairs and professorships.

$10 million will be used to establish an endowed scholarship fund to support endowed graduate research stipends and fellowships for medical students.

$10 million will go toward covering start-up costs for the medical school to enhance research activities.

$20 million will be used to create the Fertitta Deans Endowed Fund to support research-enhancing activities.

Fertittas donation also kicks off a $100 million fundraising campaign for the medical school. The money will be used to support scholarships, recruit faculty and pay for operational needs, such as equipment.

This isnt the first time Fertitta, a UH alum, has given a substantial donation to his alma mater. Back in 2016, he donated $20 million to help fund a $60 million renovation of the universitys basketball arena, now known as the Fertitta Center.

The University of Houston's medical school will be named the Tilman J. Fertitta College of Medicine in recognition of the Fertitta Family Foundation's $50 million donation.

The University of Houston's medical school will be named the Tilman J. Fertitta College of Medicine in recognition of the Fertitta Family Foundation's $50 million donation.

The University of Houston's medical school will be named the Tilman J. Fertitta College of Medicine in recognition of the Fertitta Family Foundation's $50 million donation.

I love Houston. Houstons been very good to me. And the university is the namesake of our city, Fertitta said. Its one of the few large public universities that are in a city the size of Houston, and thats what makes it special.

As chairman of the board of regents, Fertitta led the effort to select a site for the new $80 million College of Medicine building. The board decided in 2018 to build the 130,000 square foot building on a 43-acre tract of previously undeveloped campus land. The building is part of a planned life sciences complex along Martin Luther King Boulevard.

The medical school welcomed its first class of 30 students in 2020. For the past two years, the colleges temporary home has been the Health 2 building on campus.

The new building features a state-of-the-art anatomy suite, a clinical skills lab, patient examination rooms, a simulation center and large team-based learning classrooms.

Fertittas donation is a morale-booster for the medical school as the new building is set to open this summer, Spann said.

We have this beautiful new building, and we now have a great name on our medical school, he said. It just builds momentum and builds enthusiasm. It will foster community support.

Fertitta is also hopeful that his familys donation will inspire others to support the medical school and its mission. He knows that his donation and the work being done at the medical school are just the start; further investments will be needed to improve health care equity in Texas and elsewhere in the U.S.

However, hes hopeful the $50 million donation will help to accomplish that goal. No one should have to spend 10 hours in an emergency room on a Saturday because they dont have a primary care doctor, he said.

This is going to be something thats extremely special, he said. You just have to have the vision to look into the future.

Read more here:
Tilman Fertitta donating $50 million to UH medical school, which will be renamed after him - Houston Chronicle

After 34 years serving Foxboro and the surrounding communities, Dr. Joseph Horan is retiring from family practice on May 25, 2022. A

fter spending his childhood in Readvilleand attending Xaverian Brothers High School, he attended St Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, Canada and then completed medical school at Dalhousie University in 1985. He completed his residency in family practice at UMass family medicine in Fitchburg and in 1988, after moving to the area with his family, he started at the Foxboro Area Health Center. He remains as part of the community now, where three of his grandchildren reside.

Despite the many difficulties that primary care physicians face, Dr. Horan has always remained true to himself -- putting his patients above all else. The role of a family practitioner is really to be a Jack of all Trades for patients from cradle to grave, and this is what Dr. Horan is. They are responsible for preventative care including yearly physicals and vaccines, but are also the first call when someone feels sick or notices something is wrong. They are cardiologists, gastroenterologists, dermatologists, neurologists, psychologists and much more. But maybe most importantly, they are advocates, which is a role Dr Horan has always taken very seriously throughout the years.

From squeezing another patient into his always jam-packed schedule, visiting an elderly patient in the comfort of their own homes, fielding phone consults from friends and family and beyond, or extending his condolences to families who have lost their loved ones who he cared for during his entire career, Dr. Horan always went the extra mile. It is impossible for his family to count the number of stories heard and times they witnessed him going above and beyond for his patients to get the care they need and support them as they navigated some of the scariest times of their lives.

Growing up in the town where he practiced, a week did not pass without his children hearing your dad is my doctor from someone in the community, and often his wifes five-minute grocery run would become a 30-minute conversation with one of his patients. But even though he had so many responsibilities in his practice, he never missed a chance to see his kids play sports, or perform in the band, or spend time skiing with them on the weekends.

Many of his patients had such kind words to share. One family he cared for over 30 years who had two children with intense medical needs described him as a witness to their lives, someone who never tired of helping us, always a phone call away. The many nurses and medical staff that worked with him throughout the years cherished their time working with him and described him as a brilliant and caring man, who never rested until he knew what was wrong with his patient.

Dr. Horan has considered it a great privilege and honor to have cared for so many generations of local families. While he is looking forward to the next chapter of his life, he has been humbled by the many cards, emails and gifts he has received as an expression of appreciation. This community has been touched by a great doctor and his quality care will be greatly missed. They truly dont make doctors like Dr. Horan anymore.

The author of this column, Pam Morrison, is the daughter of Dr. Joseph Horan

Originally posted here:
Dedication, generosity and compassion that had no limit! - The Sun Chronicle

The first time a PC seemed magical to me was when it dozed off and colourful lines twisted across its screen. I'd launch Windows 3.1 just to watch screensavers, marvelling at Mystify and staring at Starfield. How wonderful that our computer needed to dream as preventative medicine! I relived this today with a new collection of customisable 3D screensavers, watching shoals of fish, taking a road trip through a museum of global electricity pylons, watching housing estates rise and fall, and seeing so many swirly colours.

Made by Jean-Paul Software (aka our very own RPS commenter, "Godwhacker"), The Jean-Paul Software Screen Explosion launched this week after a few months in early access. It packs 11 screensavers including a swirling shoal of fish, procedural models of housing estates coming together and breaking apart, a clockwork countdown to your estimated time of death, a vast warehouse run by Father Christmas and his reindeer, and a wild warpspeed starfield. Some have options to customise colours and such, and some even let you add your own custom models (or download others' through the Steam Workshop).

My personal favourite is Pylons Of The World, an endless drive along a colourful road criss-crossed by electricity pylons from around the globe. Yes, it tells you the origin of the pylons you're seeing. And yes, it drives on the left side of the road where appropriate.

I've not used a screensaver in years. They're not needed anymore, and my monitors automatically turn off when idle to save power anyway. Running 3D scenes which make my computer use more power when idle is the opposite of what I want. And yet. While I won't start using a screensaver now, I did enjoy playing with screensavers today.

I enjoyed restarting screensavers to see them with new colours or new patterns. I really enjoyed that drive past international pylons. I enjoyed watching colours. I felt the childhood magic of screensavers again.

The Jean-Paul Software Screen Explosion is out now on Steam for 4/4/$5.

The second time a PC seemed magical to me was the cascade after I won Solitaire for the first time.

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This new 3D screensaver collection includes a driving tour of global pylons - Rock Paper Shotgun

Reestablishing a strong doctor-patient relationship

During Dr. Priester's tenure as internist and cardiologist in New York, he has built enduring relationships with his patient base, many of whom have been loyal to him for several decades. As his practices continued to grow, so did the administrative demands of operating and maintaining a private practice.

Like many other private internal medicine physicians, Dr. Priester has found himself at a crossroads: either continue to practice high-volume medicine, seeing many patients a day, but spending a limited amount of time with each of them or let his practice evolve to deliver highly personalized, preventative care and a chance to empower his patients with greater education and information.

The Priester CCPHP Membership

The concierge (membership-based) model continues to be a rewarding experience for physicians and patients alike. The increased time and flexibility allow concierge physicians, like Dr. Priester, to schedule patients for an hour appointment, if desired.

I've always believed in the importance of the doctor-patient relationship," says Dr. Priester. "This concierge model will not only support that relationship, but allow it to go one step further, by allowing more time with each patient."

Concierge patients of Priester CCPHP receive a host of added amenities as Members, including 24/7 connectivity to Dr. Priester via a direct phone number and a customized telehealth app, same/next day appointments with limited to no wait times regardless of medical necessity, and a robust wellness program called the SENS Solution Wellness Program powered by CCPHP, which focuses on Sleep, Exercise, Nutrition, and Stress Management.

Through the partnership with CCPHP, Dr. Priester also has access to Castle Connolly's Top Doctor Network of nearly 60,000 top recognized physicians nationwide. Being a recognized Top Doctor himself, Dr. Priester can consult with and refer patients to top physicians of similar distinction.

About Dr. Priester

William D. Priester, MD is a board-certified internist and cardiologist serving the community of New York, NY. Dr. Priester earned his Doctor of Medicine from the University of Iowa and completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at Metropolitan Hospital in New York. He completed his fellowship in cardiology at Lenox Hill Hospital, where he continues as an Adjunct Attending Physician.

Learn more about Dr. Priester's concierge program, Priester CCPHP:

About CCPHP

Castle Connolly Private Health Partners (CCPHP) works with exceptional physicians to create and support concierge (membership-based) healthcare programs that enable the optimal practice environment and the physician-patient relationship. Members (patients) pay an affordable fee to take advantage of a wide array of enhancements for a more convenient, comprehensive, collaborative, and personalized approach to support health and wellbeing. For more information, go toccphp.net.

SOURCE Castle Connolly Private Health Partners, LLC

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Manhattan internist and cardiologist, Dr. William Priester collaborates with Castle Connolly Private Health Partners to create a new concierge medical...

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has remained a significant challenge for researchers as there is currently a lack of cure or vaccine for this disorder.

Image Credit:PENpics Studio/Shutterstock.com

While antiretrovirals have improved the types of therapy available for patients, the ineffective requirement of lifetime treatment, as well as the development of resistance, is a major hurdle. However, the emergence and growth of nanotechnology may be a promising solution for a higher level of effective treatment as well as prevention of both HIV and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).

HIV was first identified in 1983 as the causative agent that resulted in AIDS, which was first reported in 1981.

The progression of the virus and the associated disease has been reported to be a global pandemic as one of the global lead causes of mortality in adults. The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated the number of people living with HIV in 2020 was approximately 37.7 million; this can be translated as 0.7% of the global population, with Africa comprising the highest prevalence compared to other continents.

This majorly infectious disease consists of a primary strain, HIV-1, that can be traced to the chimpanzee species. This virus is an enveloped retrovirus that consists of two copies of single-stranded RNA.

There are three distinct stages of HIV, which describe the progression of the virus, including acute HIV infection, chronic HIV infection, and AIDS.

These can be summarized as the multiplying of the HIV virus, including the initial rapid destruction of CD4 T lymphocytes within the host, causing flu-like symptoms. This can then progress into the second asymptomatic stage, where the virus continues to multiply at low levels; within this chronic stage, the infection can progress into AIDS in 10 years or longer without antiretroviral therapy.

The final stage of HIV consists of AIDS, which is the most severe stage of the infection and can be characterized as having a high level of damage to the immune system, where the body is unable to fight against opportunistic infections. A diagnosis of AIDS is made when HIV patients have a CD4 count of 200 cells/mm3.

HIV/AIDS treatments have focused on antiretroviral therapies, with early treatment being only effective to a certain extent; the first drug that was FDA approved was in 1987, and since, approximately 25 drugs have received approval.

The progression of research, which included the release of protease inhibitors as well as the emergence of triple-drug therapy within the mid-1990s was highly promising for the efficacy of HIV/AIDS treatment. Currently, the highest standard of HIV/AIDS treatment consists of highly active antiretroviral therapy, involving three or more drugs provided simultaneously.

With further research into disease prevention strategies, vaccines have been considered the most effective agent for fighting global infections, evidenced by efficient control over infectious diseases such as measles, mumps, and rubella.

The challenges that can be associated with this chronic disease consist of requiring patient compliance for lifetime treatment, which can be difficult to adhere to. A lack of adherence to treatment can increase the probability of treatment failure and increase the likelihood of developing resistant strains of the virus.

Another limitation includes poor aqueous drug solubility, as this can impact the availability of the drug within the body and result in ineffective treatment of HIV.

The advancement in nanotechnology and nanomedicine has provided a promising future for HIV/AIDS therapeutics.

With the advancement of nanomedicine, strategies have been explored to overcome current challenges associated with HIV treatment. This includes oral administration of antiretroviral drugs and improving the water solubility of drugs, such as through solid drug nanoparticles (SDN).

Research into SDN formulations has been produced through a freeze-drying approach, which has been predicted to provide a similar pharmacokinetic standard as a conventional anti-HIV drug. However, this nanomedicine formulation was theorized to allow patients to take a 50% lower dose while experiencing the same effect. This prediction was validated with in vivo experimentation.

The development of SDN formulations has enabled success in superseding conventional oral drug formulations, such asritonavir-boosted lopinavir, which utilizes 42% ethanol and 15% propylene glycol. The use of lopinavir SDN formulations can achieve the production of an effective oral drug without the inclusion of ethanol.

Additionally, the potential inclusion of nanomedicine within this field of therapeutics allows for low-cost production of effective drugs as well as a decrease in required doses for patients.

Other subsets of nanomedicine that can be used for HIV therapeutics include long-acting injectable formulations (LAI), which can provide a solution to patient issues associated with low adherence to lifetime treatments.

An example of a drug that has been re-formulated to carry a nanomedicine component includes the non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor, rilpivirine, which has been available as an oral medication from 2011, before being nanoformulated as a LAI.

This LAI nanomedicine has been proven to be effective, with concentrations being detected in rats up to 2 months after subcutaneous and intramuscular administration as well as detected in dogs for up to 6 months after administration.

New research in this area has included the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine(HWCOM), who have undertaken nanotechnology research into the delivery of anti-HIV drugs across the blood-brain barrier, aiding in targeting HIV reservoirs within the brain. This research has included the development of a revolutionary technique consisting of using tiny magneto-electric nanoparticles as drug carriers.

Nagesh Kolishetti, one of the studys corresponding authors, stated, This delivery system can reduce the viral load, the amount of virus present, which normally contributes to neurological problems.

This type of combination therapy with the nanoparticles could result in a highly effective treatment regimen for the HIV-infected population who are addicted to a substance of abuse.

This is significant as HIV can cause neurological problems and disorders such as dementia and memory loss, which can be further increased by substance abuse

The future of HIV therapeutics can be said to be greatly intertwined with nanomedicine, with research into the use of nanoformulations that attempt to overcome the challenges of current HIV treatments.

With reports from WHO stating that 73% of HIV patients are treated with antiretroviral therapy and 680,000 deaths in 2020, this field requires a revolutionary change to traditional medicine to provide better treatment and even preventative care for this chronic disease.

Curley, P., Liptrott, N. and Owen, A., 2018. Advances in nanomedicine drug delivery applications for HIV therapy.Future Science OA, 4(1), p.FSO230. Available at: 10.4155/fsoa-2017-0069

FIU News. 2022.Researchers advance the use of nanoparticles to deliver HIV/AIDS drugs to the brain. [online] Available at: https://news.fiu.edu/2021/fiu-researchers-advance-the-use-of-nanoparticles-to-deliver-hivaids-drugs-to-the-brain

Hivinfo.nih.gov. 2022.The Stages of HIV Infection | NIH. [online] Available at:https://hivinfo.nih.gov/understanding-hiv/fact-sheets/stages-hiv-infection

Mamo, T., Moseman, E., Kolishetti, N., Salvador-Morales, C., Shi, J., Kuritzkes, D., Langer, R., Andrian, U. and Farokhzad, O., 2010. Emerging nanotechnology approaches for HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention.Nanomedicine, 5(2), pp.269-285. Available at: 10.2217/nnm.10.1

Worldpopulationreview.com. 2022.HIV Rates by Country 2022. [online] Available at: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/hiv-rates-by-country

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the author expressed in their private capacity and do not necessarily represent the views of AZoM.com Limited T/A AZoNetwork the owner and operator of this website. This disclaimer forms part of the Terms and conditions of use of this website.

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Nanomedicine and HIV Therapeutics - AZoNano

Whether youre planning summer activities at home or abroad, it is important to think about ways to avoid seasonal mosquitos if you want to ensure your recreational activities remain enjoyable. Besides the itchy and painful bites mosquitos leave behind, they can carry diseases that are easily transmitted to humans.

While the bites and infections they spread can often be treated, the best course of action is to prevent the bites altogether. If you have control of the environment and can think ahead, there are several ways you can sidestep the pests.

A good place to start is to make sure you have screens to block mosquitos from coming indoors and to be sure to eliminate standing water, where they can lay eggs. When evaluating for standing water, dont forget to check flower pots, rain gutters, plastic furniture covers, and toys.

If you are out and about, wearing long pants and sleeves can help cover bare skin, which gives mosquitoes easy access. In areas of high mosquito concentrations, treating clothing with permethrin, an anti-parasite cream, adds additional protection. While there are a number of different topical products on the market that claim to repel mosquitos, the validity of these claims is not always the same across brands. When looking for safe and effective ways to prevent mosquito bites, there are some products that demonstrate both safety and efficacy.

DEET is most strongly recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Some recommended alternatives to DEET are Picaridin and IR3535. While there are many natural mosquito repelling products, unfortunately, most have not been shown to be effective. The exception to this is oil of lemon eucalyptus, which has an efficacy comparable to DEET.

To be sure the product you would like to use is appropriate, the EPA has a free search tool that allows you to find specific products that will repel mosquitos, ticks, or both. When evaluating products, use caution with treated wristbands. Even though these may contain mosquito-repelling agents, they dont provide a wide enough protection zone to provide adequate coverage for the whole body.

And if your plans include international travel, scheduling an appointment with your physician is important to discuss ways to avoid mosquitos, as well as to obtain preventative medications for mosquito-borne illnesses. While mosquitos are certainly an unpleasant addition to outdoor plans, taking steps to avoid them contributes to having a safe and healthy summer.

Jessica Mayer, DO Program Director Suburban Family Medicine ResidencyVice-Chair Family Medicine Department

Suburban Family Medicine at Norristown2705 DeKalb Street, Suite 202Norristown, PA 19401610-275-7240

Dr. Mayer sees patients of all ages and is dedicated to providing compassionate care for the whole person. She is board certified in Family Medicine and director of Suburban Family Medicine Residency program and vice-chair of Family Medicine Department at Suburban Community Hospital.

Dr. Mayer completed her medical education at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (Pennsylvania) in 2008, internship at Crozer-Chester Medical Center (Pennsylvania) in 2009, and Residency at Mercy Suburban Hospital in 2011.

See the article here:
Tips on avoiding mosquitos this summer - morethanthecurve.com

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With all of the incredible medical advancements made, the HIV virus still escapes the grasp of the worlds top medical researchers and scientists, as the HIV vaccine is still in the works. The medical community managed to find a number of successful COVID-19 vaccine within a year of the viruss existence. Meanwhile, its been forty years since the first reports of people dying from a pneumonia-like virus. That virus was HIV.

Historically, HIV has plagued the Black community at a much higher rate than other races, says the CDC, tragically robbing millions of Black people of full lives, and leaving their loved ones with inconsolable heartbreak. There are a number of reasons for this, including a pervasive lack of access to health care such as preventative drugs and prophylaxis. The CDC also reports that Black people are at a biological disadvantage as theyve been shown to have lower levels of viral suppression against HIV.

Now, with Moderna launching clinical trials for a vaccine, theres new hope of conquering this disease that has taken the lives of 36.3 million people. Heres what we know about the HIV vaccine to date.

Source: BSIP / Getty

To date, there is no approved vaccine for HIV. Its estimated that over 100 HIV vaccines have been tested around the world since the virus was first discovered. However, to date, the only proven method for fighting HIV is antiviral treatments that can reduce the chances of death in individuals who are already infected with the virus. These drugs can be used to prevent the spread of HIV in three ways, says the National Library of Medicine. When taken daily, they can reduce the chances of transmission before exposure as well as after exposure. They can additionally be taken by infected individuals to prolong their lifespan.

Source: gilaxia / Getty

In 2021, Johnson & Johnson conducted what was known as the Imbokodo trials in sub-Saharan Africa. The company enlisted 2,600 women to participate in the trials and receive the vaccine. The vaccine was based on something called mosaic immunogens, says the National Institute of Health, which induce an immune response. Johnson & Johnson had hoped to see at least a fifty percent reduction rate of infection following the vaccine, but only saw a 25 percent reduction and canceled the trials in late 2021.

Source: Ignatiev / Getty

Medical researchers have been fascinated by two individuals who have evidently beat back the virus, without any medical assistance, says Science News. Analysts looked at over 1.5 billion cells from a patient known as EC2 and found zero functional copies of HIV in them. The patient did show nonfunctional copies of HIV, but those do not pose a known threat. These numbers were found after the patient had been infected for a long period of time, so experts believe the chances that the active virus is still simply hiding in the body are low. Another patient had active copies of HIV, but they had landed in a very specific gene that prevented them from spreading. Doctors describe the gene as being Wrapped in the molecular equivalent of razor wire. The immune systems of these two individuals are still being studied and could provide the blueprint for a future vaccine.

Source: Douglas Sacha / Getty

As of 2022, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in collaboration with Moderna has started early trials of three HIV vaccines that are of the same nature as the successful COVID-19 one an mRNA vaccine. The National Institute of Health explains that an mRNA vaccine works by Delivering a piece of genetic material that instructs the body to make a protein fragment of a target pathogen (such as a virus), which the immune system recognizes and remembers, so it can mount a substantial response if later exposed to that pathogen. This is the first study to examine an mRNA vaccine for the prevention of HIV. Participants in the trial will be evaluated at two and six months after injection, at which time samples from their blood and lymph nodes will be assessed. Its important to note that this HIV vaccine cannot cause infection.

RELATED CONTENT:Scientists May Have Successfully Cured HIV In The First Female Patient

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The HIV Vaccine: What We Know, And What We Don't - MadameNoire

Experts across the UAE have warned of the health impacts from the dusty conditions caused by sandstorms which have blanketed large parts of the country this week.

This week, forecasters issued a countrywide alert of hazardous weather due to sandstorm-related dust conditions.

For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.

In recent days, the dusty weather has descended over almost all of the UAE.

As winds blow dust and sand into the atmosphere - affecting not only visibility - it also acerbates existing health conditions among residents, say doctors.

Dr Rakesh Kumar Gupta, deputy medical director and specialist pulmonologist of Lifecare Hospital, Musaffah, told Al Arabiya English: In this dusty weather, a higher number of patients seek medical attention for respiratory issues.

Exposure to sandstorms can cause health problems in people in the high-risk category like patients with pre-existing respiratory conditions, pregnant women, children, the elderly, and those who work outdoors.

While the larger dust particles can irritate the eyes, nose and throat, the finer particles can irritate the lungs and lead to allergic reactions.

Sandstorm exposure may worsen conditions like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, and cardiovascular diseases. It may also trigger an acute attack of asthma in previously stable asthmatics, so these patients must take extra care.

The doctor said is necessary to take adequate precautions during a sandstorm.

Avoid going outside, especially when there is low visibility and high winds. Carry water with you to stay hydrated. Keep your mouth and nose covered with a mask or respirator. Wear protective eyewear and rinse your eyes with water if your eyes are irritated.

People with bad allergies can continue taking prescribed medications like antihistamines. If you experience symptoms like coughing, wheezing, breathing difficulty, chest pain or chest discomfort, seek medical help immediately.

Dr Muhammed Aslam, a specialist in pulmonology at the International Modern Hospital in Dubai, told Al Arabiya English that sandstorms can be detrimental to peoples health.

Nowadays we are seeing a lot of sandstorm episodes in the country; this is harmful to our health.

It affects our lungs, our respiratory system, our nose, our eyes. Also, those who already have allergies such as asthma are more prone to develop more systems such as runny nose, sneezing, throat discomfort, coughing and difficulty breathing, wheezing, and chest tightness.

It happens because of dust particles, while other virus particles can also be spread due to the sandstorm.

So the preventative measures is to stay indoors dont go outside if the sandstorm is heavy and watch the local weather forecast so you can monitor your activities.

Also, use air conditioning so that outside air will not come inside, and use allergy medicine if you are already allergies. You may need to up the dosage of your medicines as well but consult your doctor before doing so.

Ahmed El Mansoury, a consultant in pulmonology at NMC Royal Hospital in Sharjah, also said sandstorms can cause an increase in respiratory problems such as asthma and some infectious diseases such as pneumonia due to circulated dust particles, causing wheezing and coughing,

The best precaution is to stay at home; if you have to go outside then wear a mask or some protective device like you see with COVID-19 such as protection of eyes and hand washing and normal other precautions for respiratory illnesses.

Forecasters at the National Center of Meteorology said much of the same weather is expected over the course of the next few days, with a high likelihood of dust and sand affecting visibility up until at least Sunday.

A sandstorm has also engulfed Saudi Arabias capital and other regions of the Kingdom this week, hampering visibility and slowing road traffic.

Read more:

Sandstorm blankets Saudi Arabias capital Riyadh

Iraq sandstorm sends more than 1,000 to hospital

Originally posted here:
Experts warn of health effects from dusty conditions as sandstorm blankets UAE - Al Arabiya English

North Korea's first-reported COVID-19 outbreak is the "greatest turmoil" to befall the country since its founding more than 70 years ago, according to its leader Kim Jong Un, as the isolated and impoverished nation scrambles to curb the spread of a highly transmissible virus that risks causing a major humanitarian crisis.North Korea reported 21 more deaths and 174,440 new "fever cases" Friday, according to state media KCNA, though it did not specify how many of the deaths and cases were linked to COVID, likely due to the country's extremely limited testing capacity.The climbing death toll and surging "fever cases" come after North Korea said Thursday it had identified its first ever case of COVID-19 an alarming development for a country with one of the world's most fragile public health systems and a largely unvaccinated population.But given the opaque nature of the regime and the country's isolation from the world a trend that has only exacerbated since the pandemic it is extremely difficult to assess the real situation on the ground.Foreign diplomats and aid workers had fled North Korea en masse in 2021 due to shortages of goods and "unprecedented" restrictions on daily life, making it all the more impossible to obtain information from the country other than through official state media.But North Korean state media reports have been vague, and many important questions remain unanswered, including the country's vaccine coverage and the lockdown's impact on the livelihood of its 25 million people.Here is what we know, and what we don't know about the outbreak:How did the outbreak emerge?North Korean authorities have not announced the cause of the outbreak.North Korea's borders have been tightly sealed since January 2020 to keep the virus at bay, making the so-called "hermit nation" even more isolated from the world. It even declined invitations to send teams to compete at the Tokyo and Beijing Olympics, citing the threat of COVID-19.And as new variants began to emerge, it stepped-up those efforts, cutting off nearly all trade with China the country's biggest trading partner and economic lifeline for the Kim regime with imports from Beijing dropping 99% from September to October 2020.It remains unclear how the virus slipped through the country's tightly-sealed borders.When KCNA reported on the first identification of COVID-19 in the country on Thursday, it did not even specify how many infections had been defected. It simply said samples collected from a group of people experiencing fevers on May 8 had tested positive for the highly contagious omicron variant.By Friday, KCNA was reporting that 18,000 new "fever cases" and six deaths were recorded on Thursday, including one who tested positive for the BA.2 sub-variant of omicron."A fever whose cause couldn't be identified explosively spread nationwide since late April," the newspaper said. "As of now up to 187,800 people are being isolated."On Saturday, KCNA said a total of 524,440 people had reported "fever" symptoms between late April and May 13. Among them, 280,810 people were still being treated in quarantine, while the rest had recovered.Can North Korea cope with a large-scale outbreak?An outbreak of COVID-19 could prove disastrous for North Korea. The country's dilapidated health care infrastructure and lack of testing equipment is unlikely to be up to the task of treating a large number of patients with a highly infectious disease.North Korea's lack of transparency and unwillingness to share information also poses a challenge.North Korea has never formally acknowledged how many died during a devastating famine in the 1990s that experts suggest killed as many as 2 million. Those who fled the country at the time shared horrific stories of death and survival, and a country in chaos."North Korea has such a limited supply of basic medicine that public health officials need to focus on preventative medicine. They would be ill-equipped to deal with any kind of epidemic," Jean Lee, director off the Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center, told CNN at the outset of the pandemic.Doctors who have defected in recent years often speak of poor working conditions and shortages of everything from medicine to basic healthcare supplies.Choi Jung-hun, a former physician in North Korea who fled the country in 2011, said when he was helping to combat a measles outbreak in 2006 to 2007, North Korea did not have the resources to operate round-the-clock quarantine and isolation facilities.He recalled that after identifying suspicious cases, manuals for doctors said patients were supposed to be transferred to a hospital or a quarantine facility for monitoring."The problem in North Korea is that manuals are not followed. When there wasn't enough food provided for the people at hospitals and quarantine facilities, people escaped to look for food," Choi said during an interview with CNN in 2020.How is North Korea responding so far?North Korean state media declared the situation a "major national emergency" upon admitting the first officially reported COVID infection.On Thursday, Kim placed all cities into lockdown and ordered "people with fever or abnormal symptoms" into quarantine; he also directed the distribution of medical supplies the government had reportedly stocked in case of a COVID emergency, according to KCNA.Kim later chaired a meeting of the country's powerful politburo, which agreed to implement "maximum" emergency anti-epidemic measures. The measures include isolating work units and pro-actively conducting medical checkups to find and isolate people with "fever and abnormal symptoms," the KCNA reported Friday."Practical measures are being taken to keep the production going at a high rate in the major sectors of the national economy and to stabilize the life of the people to the maximum," KCNA said.According to KCNA, the politburo criticized the country's anti-epidemic sector for "carelessness, laxity, irresponsibility and incompetence," saying it "failed to respond sensitively" to increasing COVID-19 cases across the world, including in neighboring regions.A reporter for Chinese state media CGTN released a rare video from Pyongyang on Friday, recounting his experience on the ground."As far as we know, not many people in Pyongyang have been vaccinated, and the medical and epidemic prevention facilities are in short supply," reporter Zang Qing said in a Weibo post."Because the capital is in lockdown, the food I have at home is only enough for a week. We are still awaiting what policy the government will announce next."At a meeting Saturday, Kim inspected the country's emergency epidemic measures and medical supplies. He also urged North Korean officials to learn from China's "advanced and rich quarantine results and experience they have already achieved in their fight against the malicious infectious disease," according to KCNA.What about North Korea's vaccine coverage?North Korea is not known to have imported any coronavirus vaccines despite being eligible for the global COVID-19 vaccine sharing program, Covax.Assuming most North Koreans are unvaccinated, an outbreak in the country which has limited testing capabilities, inadequate medical infrastructure and which has isolated itself from the outside world could quickly become deadly.Calls are mounting on the country's leadership to provide access to vaccines."There is no evidence to show that North Korea has access to enough vaccines to protect its population from COVID-19. Yet, it has rejected millions of doses of AstraZeneca and Sinovac vaccines offered by the WHO-led Covax program," said Amnesty International's East Asia researcher Boram Jang, in a statement."With the first official news of a COVID-19 outbreak in the country, continuing on this path could cost many lives and would be an unconscionable dereliction of upholding the right to health."In February, Covax reportedly scaled back the number of doses allocated to North Korea because the country failed to arrange for any shipments, according to Reuters.A spokesperson for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, said Covax has moved to "needs-based vaccine allocations" and "has currently not committed any volume" for North Korea."In case the country decides to start a COVID-19 immunization program, vaccines could be made available based on criteria of Covax objectives and technical considerations to enable the country to catch up with international immunization targets," the spokesperson said.

North Korea's first-reported COVID-19 outbreak is the "greatest turmoil" to befall the country since its founding more than 70 years ago, according to its leader Kim Jong Un, as the isolated and impoverished nation scrambles to curb the spread of a highly transmissible virus that risks causing a major humanitarian crisis.

North Korea reported 21 more deaths and 174,440 new "fever cases" Friday, according to state media KCNA, though it did not specify how many of the deaths and cases were linked to COVID, likely due to the country's extremely limited testing capacity.

The climbing death toll and surging "fever cases" come after North Korea said Thursday it had identified its first ever case of COVID-19 an alarming development for a country with one of the world's most fragile public health systems and a largely unvaccinated population.

But given the opaque nature of the regime and the country's isolation from the world a trend that has only exacerbated since the pandemic it is extremely difficult to assess the real situation on the ground.

Foreign diplomats and aid workers had fled North Korea en masse in 2021 due to shortages of goods and "unprecedented" restrictions on daily life, making it all the more impossible to obtain information from the country other than through official state media.

But North Korean state media reports have been vague, and many important questions remain unanswered, including the country's vaccine coverage and the lockdown's impact on the livelihood of its 25 million people.

Here is what we know, and what we don't know about the outbreak:

North Korean authorities have not announced the cause of the outbreak.

North Korea's borders have been tightly sealed since January 2020 to keep the virus at bay, making the so-called "hermit nation" even more isolated from the world. It even declined invitations to send teams to compete at the Tokyo and Beijing Olympics, citing the threat of COVID-19.

And as new variants began to emerge, it stepped-up those efforts, cutting off nearly all trade with China the country's biggest trading partner and economic lifeline for the Kim regime with imports from Beijing dropping 99% from September to October 2020.

It remains unclear how the virus slipped through the country's tightly-sealed borders.

When KCNA reported on the first identification of COVID-19 in the country on Thursday, it did not even specify how many infections had been defected. It simply said samples collected from a group of people experiencing fevers on May 8 had tested positive for the highly contagious omicron variant.

By Friday, KCNA was reporting that 18,000 new "fever cases" and six deaths were recorded on Thursday, including one who tested positive for the BA.2 sub-variant of omicron.

"A fever whose cause couldn't be identified explosively spread nationwide since late April," the newspaper said. "As of now up to 187,800 people are being isolated."

On Saturday, KCNA said a total of 524,440 people had reported "fever" symptoms between late April and May 13. Among them, 280,810 people were still being treated in quarantine, while the rest had recovered.

An outbreak of COVID-19 could prove disastrous for North Korea. The country's dilapidated health care infrastructure and lack of testing equipment is unlikely to be up to the task of treating a large number of patients with a highly infectious disease.

North Korea's lack of transparency and unwillingness to share information also poses a challenge.

North Korea has never formally acknowledged how many died during a devastating famine in the 1990s that experts suggest killed as many as 2 million. Those who fled the country at the time shared horrific stories of death and survival, and a country in chaos.

"North Korea has such a limited supply of basic medicine that public health officials need to focus on preventative medicine. They would be ill-equipped to deal with any kind of epidemic," Jean Lee, director off the Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center, told CNN at the outset of the pandemic.

Doctors who have defected in recent years often speak of poor working conditions and shortages of everything from medicine to basic healthcare supplies.

Choi Jung-hun, a former physician in North Korea who fled the country in 2011, said when he was helping to combat a measles outbreak in 2006 to 2007, North Korea did not have the resources to operate round-the-clock quarantine and isolation facilities.

He recalled that after identifying suspicious cases, manuals for doctors said patients were supposed to be transferred to a hospital or a quarantine facility for monitoring.

"The problem in North Korea is that manuals are not followed. When there wasn't enough food provided for the people at hospitals and quarantine facilities, people escaped to look for food," Choi said during an interview with CNN in 2020.

North Korean state media declared the situation a "major national emergency" upon admitting the first officially reported COVID infection.

On Thursday, Kim placed all cities into lockdown and ordered "people with fever or abnormal symptoms" into quarantine; he also directed the distribution of medical supplies the government had reportedly stocked in case of a COVID emergency, according to KCNA.

Kim later chaired a meeting of the country's powerful politburo, which agreed to implement "maximum" emergency anti-epidemic measures. The measures include isolating work units and pro-actively conducting medical checkups to find and isolate people with "fever and abnormal symptoms," the KCNA reported Friday.

"Practical measures are being taken to keep the production going at a high rate in the major sectors of the national economy and to stabilize the life of the people to the maximum," KCNA said.

According to KCNA, the politburo criticized the country's anti-epidemic sector for "carelessness, laxity, irresponsibility and incompetence," saying it "failed to respond sensitively" to increasing COVID-19 cases across the world, including in neighboring regions.

A reporter for Chinese state media CGTN released a rare video from Pyongyang on Friday, recounting his experience on the ground.

"As far as we know, not many people in Pyongyang have been vaccinated, and the medical and epidemic prevention facilities are in short supply," reporter Zang Qing said in a Weibo post.

"Because the capital is in lockdown, the food I have at home is only enough for a week. We are still awaiting what policy the government will announce next."

At a meeting Saturday, Kim inspected the country's emergency epidemic measures and medical supplies. He also urged North Korean officials to learn from China's "advanced and rich quarantine results and experience they have already achieved in their fight against the malicious infectious disease," according to KCNA.

North Korea is not known to have imported any coronavirus vaccines despite being eligible for the global COVID-19 vaccine sharing program, Covax.

Assuming most North Koreans are unvaccinated, an outbreak in the country which has limited testing capabilities, inadequate medical infrastructure and which has isolated itself from the outside world could quickly become deadly.

Calls are mounting on the country's leadership to provide access to vaccines.

"There is no evidence to show that North Korea has access to enough vaccines to protect its population from COVID-19. Yet, it has rejected millions of doses of AstraZeneca and Sinovac vaccines offered by the WHO-led Covax program," said Amnesty International's East Asia researcher Boram Jang, in a statement.

"With the first official news of a COVID-19 outbreak in the country, continuing on this path could cost many lives and would be an unconscionable dereliction of upholding the right to health."

In February, Covax reportedly scaled back the number of doses allocated to North Korea because the country failed to arrange for any shipments, according to Reuters.

A spokesperson for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, said Covax has moved to "needs-based vaccine allocations" and "has currently not committed any volume" for North Korea.

"In case the country decides to start a COVID-19 immunization program, vaccines could be made available based on criteria of Covax objectives and technical considerations to enable the country to catch up with international immunization targets," the spokesperson said.

Read more from the original source:
What we know (and don't know) about North Korea's COVID-19 outbreak - WCVB Boston

Between 25% and 30% of older adults in theUnited StatesandEuropetake statins to treat or prevent atherosclerosis cardiovascular disease (ACVD) the buildup of cholesterol plaque in artery walls that stops blood flow.

Although effective in decreasing ACVD-related deaths, their effects differ between people. While pharmacological and genetic factors are known to contribute to statin response, personalized approaches remain limited.

Recentstudieshave suggested a link between the gut microbiome and statin use and the gut microbiome andACVD risk. Otherstudieshave found that gut bacteria metabolize statins into secondary compounds.

Knowing whether and how gut microbiome composition affects peoples response to statins could help researchers and clinicians personalize statin-based treatments.

In a recent study, researchers investigated whether and how the gut microbiome composition affects a persons response to statins and metabolic health.

They found that differences in gut microbiome composition influenced peoples response to statins as well as metabolic health parameters, including insulin resistance and blood glucose levels.

The authors present very compelling work linking the microbiome with the efficacy and toxicity of statin medications,Dr. Sony Tuteja, Research Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, not involved in the study, toldMedical News Today.

This adds to the already large amount of work pointing to the microbiome in explaining the variation in drug response that cannot be explained by host genetics, she added.

The new study was published in the journalMed.

For the study, the researchers built statistical models with data from 1,848 participants from the Arivale cohort study.

Data included microbiome composition from stool samples and plasma metabolite levels from blood samples. The researchers also made use of genomics and demographics data.

They also used data from 991 individuals from the European MetaCardis cohort to validate their model.

Statins work byinhibitinga rate-limiting enzyme involved in cholesterol synthesis, known as HMG-CoA reductase.

The researchers first sought to see whether HMG levels could be linked with statin use. They found that HMG levels positively correlate with statin use and inversely correlate with LDL cholesterol.

This, they wrote, means that HMG levels may indicate the extent to which statins inhibit their target enzyme. So, they used levels of HMG in the blood to represent statin use.

In their analysis, the researchers found that people with more diverse microbiomes exhibited lower HMG levels, indicating a decreased statin response.

Further analysis showed that individuals with a Bacteroides-dominated gut microbiome had the strongest on-target effects including high plasma HMG and low LDL cholesterol levels.

However, they also had the greatest metabolic disruption as measured by glucose levels and insulin resistance.

Meanwhile, people with Ruminococcaceae-dominated gut microbiomes demonstrated a clear LDL-lowering response without metabolic disruption.

The researchers suggest that this microbiome composition type may thus benefit from statin therapy without metabolic complications.

To explain the results, the researchers noted that Rum. bacteria is enriched in bacterial species that may serve as a buffer against off-target metabolic effects.

They also note that bacterial species in Rum. microbiomes metabolize statins and other prescription drugs at a lower rate than other microbiome compositions, which may explain their resistance to metabolic issues from statin use.

By contrast, Bacteriodes bacteria metabolize statins, potentially explaining the metabolic effects of statin use in Bacteriodes-dominated microbiomes.

Adding to this,Dr. Sean Gibbons, Washington Research Foundation Distinguished Investigator and Assistant Professor at the Institute for Systems Biology, one of the studys authors, told MNT:

We also saw an association between statin responses and mucus degrading genes in the metagenomes i.e. greater mucus degradation capacity was associated with more intense statin responses, which is in line with arecent preprint.

Finally, there is evidence that bacterial bile acid metabolism influences cholesterol levels in the body, with a recentstudyshowing how certain secondary bile acids produced by microbes were associated with lowering LDL cholesterol in blood, he added.

Dr. Tuteja also noted: Microbially derived metabolites, such as bile acids, may be competing with host drug uptake transporters which will limit the amount of statin medication reaching the liver.

Statins alter the microbiome composition and, in particular, those bacteria with the ability to metabolize bile acids, altering the bile acid pool, which impacts cholesterol biosynthesis, she continued.

Dr. Oluf Pedersen, professor of human metabolism at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, added that the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unknown.

However, he noted that interindividual variation in statin response might arise as different microbiome compositions influence glucose and cholesterol synthesis by the liver differently.

The researchers concluded that microbiome composition influences peoples response to statins independently of genetic markers. They add that further research monitoring the gut microbiome may help inform precision statin treatment.

When asked about the studys limitations, Dr. Tuteja explained:

The major limitation is the cross-sectional design. Prospective, interventional studies will be required to determine the directionality of the effect.

The authors present data from two descriptive observational studies and cannot tell if there are any causal relationships. To address this, long-term intervention studies are needed, [including detailed analysis of the gut microbiome] before and after a period of statin intake [alongside] careful measurements of carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, added Dr. Pedersen.

Read the original here:
Statin therapy: Does the gut microbiome affect outcomes? - Medical News Today

By HCO Staff

NEW YORK CITYWare Malcomb, an award-winning international design firm, recently announced construction is complete on Princeton Longevity Center, a preventive medicine facility located at 1 World Trade Center. Ware Malcomb provided the interior architecture and design services for the project.

The 10,000-square-foot facility is a new build-out that includes a 2,000-square foot-imaging-diagnostic licensing suite, including advanced technology imaging rooms and a CT scan room. The space also includes a reception area, a lounge, individual patient rooms, exam rooms, offices, and a fitness room. The design is hospitality-focused and mirrors the aesthetic established at their Princeton, New Jersey location.

Princeton Longevity Center is extremely patient-centric in all of their decisions, said Marlyn Zucosky, Regional Director, Interior Architecture & Design for Ware Malcomb. We were pleased to work closely with them to design a facility to enhance their patients experience and wellness. The result is a highly-functional, relaxing and beautiful space in one of the worlds highest-profile buildings.

At the entrance to the suite, a virtual receptionist assists guests with check-in. The inviting lounge offers spectacular views from the 71st floor of the 1 World Trade Center and incorporates wood-look luxury vinyl tile flooring, as well as a curved reception desk with backlit features. A custom hand-woven rug, a unique light fixture and a custom millwork coffee bar add a hospitality vibe to the spacious waiting area.

Individual patient rooms provide guests with a private space while they spend the day at Princeton Longevity Center and include computers, showers and a relaxing lounge atmosphere. The exam rooms and doctor offices, which also provide views of the city, incorporate calming colors. The rich tones of the design color palette are a dramatic contrast to the natural light provided by floor-to-ceiling windows.

The general contractor was Icon Interiors, Inc. The project achieved LEED Gold certification, a requirement of all 1 World Trade Center tenants. This is Ware Malcombs second project for Princeton Longevity Center; the first was their Princeton, NJ location, completed four years ago. Princeton Longevity Center is a leader in the preventive medicine market, offering the most advanced technology services and serving C-suite clientele with comprehensive medical evaluations.

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New Preventative Medicine Facility Wraps Work in NYC - Healthcare Construction and Operations News

MEMPHIS, Tenn. Across Memphis, there have been at least 270 homicides compared to 263 at the same time last year. With less than two months left in the year, the city is on pace to shatter last years record.

In an effort to slow things down, MPD is working on getting to the source of violent crime.

Faith-based leaders have partnered with law enforcement to offer resources. The goal is for officers not just to respond to crimes but also to stop them before they start.

Preventative medicine is the best form of medicine, said Pastor Ricky Floyd with Pursuit of God Church.

To cure a city plagued by violent crime, the Memphis Police Department has partnered with faith-based leaders to get to the root of the problem.

Couples counseling, trauma response, gang talk, domestic violence, conflict resolution. Those are some of the things problematic in our community, said Memphis Deputy Police Chief PaulWright.

Faith-based leaders, MPD, and the U.S. Attorneys Office are hosting the Better Community Summit Saturday. The aim is to connect attendees with experts who specialize in areas Wright described.

Young people have seen things happen in their community now that they dont quite understand.If they dont get that fixed, it may be a problem in the future, Wright said.

Floyd said this summit is vital to lift the community.

Sometimes people think no one is out there to help me. Theres a lot of help available, said Floyd.

The summit isSaturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.at Pursuit of God Transformation Center in Frayser.

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If there is one piece of advice that 87-year-old Dr. T. Colin Campbell would give to those looking to age well and stay healthier longer, it would be to change your diet to a plant based, whole food approach.

The idea of plant based eating has gained popularity in recent years, but it was first coined by Campbell back in 1978. The bestselling coauthor of The China Study (published in 2006) said it has been exciting to see it gain traction in the last several years.

Its interesting because the idea of a plant based diet possibly being the best and the way of the future is just beginning to take hold in the mainstream public, Campbell said.

His recommendation that most everyone can adopt a plant based diet and have it benefit their lives hinges on a discovery he made early in his career: that people do not need to eat animal protein in order for their bodies to get the protein they need.

For the son of a dairy farmer, this flew in the face of what he had believed growing up but the evidence that a plant based diet can prevent and, in the vast majority of cases, even reverse common American ailments like diabetes, high cholesterol and heart disease was so strong that he dedicated his career to researching it and publicly sharing his findings. He has also worked to shape public policy around health and nutrition and was the liaison to Congress for the medical research community in 1980 and 1981.

Campbell wasnt always interested in studying nutrition. He was completing his first year of veterinary school when he received a telegram from a well known Cornell Professor offering him a scholarship and research opportunity, which led him to complete his education at Cornell University and MIT in the field of nutrition, biochemistry and toxicology. During his time at Cornell, around 1965, he was tasked with coordinating an effort to aid malnourished children in the Philippines. It was believed at the time that the children needed more animal protein to be healthy, but what Campbell found instead was that the few children who came from families who were able to consume more animal protein had a higher rate of liver cancer than their peers.

I couldt quite believe what I was seeing, Campbell said. I had many students work in the lab on this question and over the years found that there is no need to consume animal food to get that protein. That is totally false.

Campbell spent a decade on the faculty of Virginia Techs Department of Biochemistry and Nutrition, then returned to Cornell in 1975, where he currently holds his endowed chair as a professor emeritus of nutritional biochemistry in the Division of Nutritional Sciences.

In recent years Campbell founded a non-profit organization on online learning in nutrition which recently developed, under the direction of Campbells daughter LeAnne Campbell, the program Plant Forward, which holds online workshops.

The workshops teach a simple philosophy that can be difficult to put into practice at first but pays great dividends if the individual can stick with it for a month or two, Campbell said.

The people who stay with it are often people who have a serious health problem or have a motivation, he said. Sometimes the effects are almost immediate.

People can see their blood sugar drop precipitously in one day, he said. Its amazing.

The key is to go all-in on the new diet. He likened it to quitting smoking just cutting down to one or two cigarettes per day or smoking on some days but not on others is not likely to lead to success in the longterm. But soon, Campbell said, this new kind of eating will become second nature and even enjoyable.

Youll all of a sudden discover you crave a salad, he said. Just eat vegetables, grains, nuts, and avocados for the oil and fat.

As much as possible, stay away from added oils and refined carbs, he added.

The effects of adopting a whole plant-based diet are striking, he said.

We can turn experimental liver cancer genes on with animal based protein and turn it off by eating a plant based diet, he said.

Campbells own father died of a heart attack when he was 70, and his wifes mother died of colon cancer when she was just 51. That motivated us to think about changing our diet, so we did, he said. His wife is 80 years old, and both are largely medication free other than a short period Campbell spent on medication to control his blood pressure.

Campbells first book, The China Study, came out of a partnership in the 1980s with researchers at Oxford University and the Chinese Academy of Preventative Medicine and sold nearly four million copies worldwide. Campbell followed that up with his second book, Whole, in 2013, which is focused on the science behind plant based eating.

In 2020 he published The Future of Nutrition: An Insiders Look at the Science, Why We Keep Getting it Wrong, and How to Start Getting It Right.

He still gives lectures and is involved with the online Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate in Partnership with eCornell. His research is the cornerstone of the 2011 documentary film Forks Over Knives, and his oldest son, Nelson Campbell, made another popular documentary on the topic called Plant Pure Nation.

Some advice that he received from his father that has guided him throughout his life: Tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. It is a philosophy that allowed him to question his original assumption that eating animals must be good for health.

The key is to be honest with yourself and check your own biases, he said. Thats really critical.

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Cornell grad and lecturer touts benefits of plant-based diet - ithaca.com

Karen ODonoghue has a goal: to cure everyone in Ireland of IBS. And, paradoxically, shes aiming to use bread to do it.

Already you can see the bands of gastroenterologists around the country tut-tutting at such a tall order.

Yet, ODonoghue should know a thing or two. In 2018 she was named Gut Specialist of the Year in the UK and she is currently a judge for the World Bread Awards.

Actress Goldie Hawn rates her anti-inflammatory bread so highly that she took ten loaves with her back to the US and claimed it cured both her and her sons Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).

Ears perk.

Every system and organ in the body is dependent on the health of the gut microbiome so when you nourish the microbiome, it automatically nourishes the brain, says ODonoghue from her new bakery in Mayo.

Youll make better decisions in your life, have more energy, and youll enjoy better sex, she adds, with a twinkle.

Eyebrows raise.

Bread activism it kind of has a ring to it.

And this is the business ODonoghue is in, swapping prescriptive medicine for a food-led approach to managing and healing ones own body.

As the founder of the Happy Tummy Company in London in 2014, she is responsible for single-handedly pioneering a scientifically-developed range of breads aimed at alleviating IBS (her UK customers coined the term magic poo bread for how much it helped them), mental health issues, period and menopause pain, and, what she describes as functional rehab for both physical injury and trauma from illness.

The Happy Tummy Company was born out of a deep desire to help others, and in turn, out of illness.

Growing up in Cork where her parents ran a horticulture company, when ODonoghue was 10 years old her mother was diagnosed with cancer.

She vividly remembers the lightning bolt moment that would dictate the course of her future.

Growing up with a mother who had cancer and who ultimately died from it, I was very aware of the part food had to play in our overall wellbeing.

During the time of my mums cancer treatments I remember digging the soil with my dad, planting beech saplings, and I had this epiphany: when Im older Im going to create a brand thats all about food as preventative medicine.

Fast forward to 24-year-old Karen living in London.

Having spent most of her life battling with IBS, she found herself depressed and anxious.

The older I got and the more my IBS became an issue, I knew I needed to go back to that ambition I had as a little girl. Intuitively I always knew that food is medicine.

She started poring over scientific research papers to learn about the gut microbiome and discovered that our gut bacteria works to a specific mathematical equation: we should be eating 66% dietary fibre to 33% dietary protein and five grams of prebiotic fibre every day.

Based on this, she created her own formula (her father was a maths teacher they regularly discussed theorems at the dinner table) and applied it to the bread making process.

It was during this time that she discovered a gluten-free grain from Africa.

The star ingredient is teff, grown in Ethiopias highlands, which is high in protein, calcium and iron, along with prebiotic fibres and antioxidants, all of which stimulate the growth of good gut bacteria, reduce inflammation and nourish the lungs, brain, skin, and nervous system. Teff relieves bloating and constipation and also helps to balance hormone levels, stimulate digestion and strengthen bones.

After 18 months of a mad scientist-like existence in her London flat she developed a loaf of bread that would completely rid her of her IBS.

From having one bowel movement every three weeks, within a week she was doing two poos a day.

The shape of her tummy changed, her depression and anxiety disappeared and she started to feel alive again.

That loaf is now her best-selling Chia Teff Loaf, aka the magic poo bread

In 2014 she established her London bakery, The Happy Tummy Company (cue Goldie Hawn and many more high-profile followers) in Hackney and a school where she taught students how to use food both as preventative and prescriptive medicine.

The bread-making process started as a means to cure her own IBS but once the word got out, loaves were flying off the shelves like IBS-crusading hotcakes.

Last year, after 13 years in the UK, she decided to relocate the business headquarters to Westport in Mayo.

ODonoghue walks the talk. She beams of health and is genuinely positive, which is infectious to be around.

ODonoghue believes we need to pare back how we look at bread and start viewing our consumption of it primarily from a health perspective, and flavour as a secondary issue.

The reason bread has a branding problem, she believes, is because bakers are obsessed with the aesthetics of what they are making over nourishment, creating white, fluffy sourdough breads using commercial wheat.

Consumers, particularly those who have issues with gluten or coeliac disease, eat these breads and all of a sudden feel bloated, lethargic, and agitated. And thats not surprising.

You are eating a wheat that is not very natural.

The Chia Teff Loaf takes about three days to make and is packed with organic teff (so no herbicides or pesticides), sprouted buckwheat, walnuts, Brazil nuts, almonds, linseed, and chia seeds all expensive ingredients.

It costs 25 per loaf.

As a bakery we are not yet making money and Ive had to fight an industry that has brainwashed people into thinking that food can be cheap.

I know its generally not politically correct to go so hard on this organic way of eating because people will argue that it is elitist, privileged and only a certain percentage can afford organic food.

But when I had the bakery in Hackney we had loads of customers who were on the breadline buying our bread because they fundamentally understood the importance of organic, wholegrain food in their diet.

This month ODonoghue launches her 48-hour soaked wholegrain Chia Teff Loaf, aka the magic poo bread, to the Irish market on a nationwide delivery service.

She also runs baking classes at her school house, Teach Scoile, in Westport to educate people on the benefits of teff.

As a baker, she separates bread makers into two camps.

There are those who nourish, and there are those who feed, she says.

And Ive always wanted to nourish.

When I had that epiphany at 10 years of age I knew that this brand will be more of a vocation than a business.

What Im doing here is a vocation about preventative medicine to give every single person suffering with IBS access to food and education that works.

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Meet the Cork-born bread activist who has Goldie Hawn buying her loaves - Irish Examiner

A trial of Pfizer's experimental antiviral pill for Covid-19 was stopped early after the drug was shown to cut by 89% the chances of hospitalisation or death for adults at risk of developing severe disease, the company said.

The results appear to surpass those seen with Merck's pill molnupiravir, which was shown last month to halve the likelihood of dying or being hospitalised for Covid-19 patients also at high risk of serious illness.

Full trial data is not yet available from either company.

Professor Luke O'Neill said the new drug is "very significant" because the manufacturer got 89% efficacy in their trial.

The Trinity immunologist added: "What that means is 9 out of 10 people wouldn't end up in hospital with Covid. If that turns out to be true once it's launched that would be remarkable.

He said this disease is an emergency and Pfizer is applying for emergency use in the United States with the FDA and also with the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

"Those agencies will look very closely at the data and the safety and they will be really under pressure now approve these drugs because an antiviral is a great extra weapon to use against this virus," Prof O'Neill said.

Separately, the Tnaiste has said a new antiviral oral pill for Covid will be a "very valuable weapon" and he hopes it can be approved by the EMA "quite soon".

Yesterday, the UK medicines regulator became the first to approve the drug 'Molnupiravir', for people who have had a positive Covid test and have at least one risk factor for developing severe illness, such as obesity, being over the age of 60, diabetes or heart disease, something Leo Varadkar said was "really encouraging".

Mr Varadkar said: "Once you are diagnosed you can take this tablet and it reduces by up to half the chances of you needing to be hospitalised, so that can really make a big difference.

"I hope the EMA will approve that quite soon, because you can never deal with a virus through vaccination alone, you need therapeutics too and you need preventative medicine.

"This is going to give us an extra weapon in our armoury and a very valuable weapon too," he added.

Pfizer will now submit interim trial results for its pill, which is given in combination with an older antiviral called ritonavir, to the US Food and Drug Administration as part of the emergency use application it opened in October.

The combination treatment, which will have the brand name Paxlovid, consists of three pills given twice daily.

A spokesperson from Pfizer in Ireland said that the company's plant in Ringaskiddy "will support the global manufacturing and supply" of the drug, if it is given approval.

He said: "Pfizer has begun investing prior to regulatory authorisation in the manufacture of our potential Covid-19 oral antiviral candidate to help bring this potential treatment to patients as soon as possible.

"Pfizer's site in Ringaskiddy has a successful history of contributing to our manufacturing efforts."

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The planned analysis of 1,219 patients in Pfizer's study looked at hospitalisations or deaths among people diagnosed with mild to moderate Covid-19 with at least one risk factor for developing severe disease, such as obesity or older age.

It found that 0.8% of those given Pfizer's drug within three days of symptom onset were hospitalised and none had died by 28 days after treatment.

That compared with a hospitalisation rate of 7% for placebo patients. There were also seven deaths in the placebo group.

Rates were similar for patients treated within five days of symptoms - 1% of the treatment group was hospitalised, compared with 6.7% for the placebo group, which included ten deaths.

Antivirals need to be given as early as possible, before an infection takes hold, in order to be most effective. Merck tested its drug within five days of symptom onset.

"We saw that we did have high efficacy, even if it was five days after a patient has been treated ... people might wait a couple of days before getting a test or something, and this means that we have time to treat people and really provide a benefit from a public health perspective," said Annaliesa Anderson, head of the Pfizer programme.

The company did not detail side effects of the treatment, but said adverse events happened in about 20% of both treatment and placebo patients.

"These data suggest that our oral antiviral candidate, if approved by regulatory authorities, has the potential to save patients' lives, reduce the severity of Covid-19 infections, and eliminate up to nine out of ten hospitalisations," said Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla.

Infectious disease experts stress that preventing Covid-19 through wide use of vaccines remains the best way to control the pandemic, but only 58% of Americans are fully vaccinated and access in many parts of the world is limited.

Pfizer's drug, part of a class known as protease inhibitors, is designed to block an enzyme the coronavirus needs in order to multiply.

Merck's molnupiravir has a different mechanism of action designed to introduce errors into the genetic code of the virus.

Merck has already sold millions of courses of the treatment, which was approved this week by UK regulators, to the US, the UK and others.

Britain said earlier this month it had secured 250,000 courses of Pfizer's antiviral.

Pfizer is also studying whether its pill could be used by people without risk factors for serious Covid-19 as well as to prevent coronavirus infection in people exposed to the virus.

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Pfizer says pill cuts risk of severe Covid by 89% - RTE.ie

A supporter of President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro waves a box of ivermectin at a pro-government demonstration in Brasilia in May 2021. Andressa Anholete/Getty Images

The popularity of unproven anti-parasitic drug ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment is surging.

Its use has roots in South America, where it was hyped by populist leaders citing debunked research.

"Nobody paid attention... now we see the same" in the US, a Peruvian official told Insider.

In May 2020, when the coronavirus was sweeping the South American nation of Peru, Dr. Patricia Garcia of the country's health ministry began receiving disturbing reports from the country's hospitals.

They detailed injuries not caused by COVID-19, but a drug people thought would help them: the anti-parasitic substance ivermectin.

"The kind of things they were telling was people that were coming with severe gastritis [stomach inflammation], and also pancreatitis, because they were taking the ivermectin in desperation," Garcia told Insider.

As the coronavirus continued to spread, people's faith in ivermectin as a way out of the crisis grew more fervent, said Garcia.

It would be almost a year before ivermectin would become widely discussed in the US, as a subset of Americans began to insist on receiving it.

The US demand for ivermectin surged as vaccination - the most effective COVID countermeasure - became increasingly politicized. Doctors strongly advise against taking it but, as of October 16, more than two-dozen lawsuits had been filed around the US from people demanding access to it.

"History is repeating," said Garcia. "Nobody paid attention about what was happening in Latin America and now we see the same situation."

A municipal worker sprays disinfectant past a street vendor at a market in Puno, Peru, near the border with Bolivia, on June 10, 2020. CARLOS MAMANI/AFP via Getty Images

In the Peru of May 2020, there were no vaccines, and ivermectin's rise was being driven by hope and desperation.

Pharmacies fast ran out of pills as thousands sought to obtain it, and a lucrative ivermectin black market emerged, as local media reported at the time.

Adherents recommended both that healthy people take ivermectin as a preventative, and that it be used to treat COVID-19 after infection.

Story continues

Many resorted to a stronger version of the drug, normally used to deworm horses. That form is taken by injection, and people who took it were left with serious skin lesions, said Garcia.

As the fervor spread, evangelical groups based in southern Peru injected 5,000 people from indigenous communities with the drug.

In some cities, including the capital, Lima, public health officials distributed the stronger, dangerous form of the drug to whole neighborhoods.

The belief that ivermectin could work against COVID-19 is almost as old as the pandemic, predating vaccines and even proper testing.

Almost two years later, there is still no conclusive evidence that ivermectin is effective against COVID-19, and it has been repeatedly debunked, including by the FDA in September.

It said that taking large doses of any kind of ivermectin is dangerous, and that humans should never take drugs intended for treating animals.

Carlos Chaccour, a researcher at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, pointed to an obscure research paper in early 2020 which appeared to answer the desperate desire for a workable treatment.

The paper drew on data from Surgisphere Corporation, a small research group in Chicago, which published it in April 2020 seeing to establish a link between taking ivermectin and surviving COVID-19.

A pharmacist in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, with doses of ivermectin. Rodrigo Urzagasti/picture alliance via Getty Images

The researchers, who also touted hydroxychloroquine, said the paper's basis was data from thousands of hospitals around the world. Their research was published by top-tier medical journals including The Lancet and The New England Medical Journal.

But doubts soon emerged the authenticity of Surgisphere's data, the credentials of its team, and the methodology they used.

The Lancet and The New England Medical Journal retracted the study after a backlash from the scientific community and an investigation by The Guardian. But by then, said Chaccour, the damage was done.

In summer 2020, government officials in Peru, Bolivia, and Guatemala made ivermectin part of their COVID-19 strategies, often citing the retracted study as evidence.

Chaccour told Insider that the drug was embraced so readily because it seemed to present a simple solution, was relatively cheap, and was already widely used in the region.

He noted that a danger of the drug - perhaps worse than its adverse effects - was that people who believed it to be effective against COVID-19 were more likely to ignore actions that actually work.

"One of the risks of ivermectin is not just the safety, but the hazard of people not using masks or not getting vaccines or not doing social distancing because they think they are protected," he said.

As a second wave of the coronavirus hit South America in the latter half of 2020, ivermectin became more popular still. The city of Cali in Colombia handed it out to all of its COVID patients in late July. Weeks later the state of Chiapas in Mexico followed suit.

In Brazil, South America's most-populous country, the drug was endorsed by the country's populist president, Jair Bolsonaro, and by his allies at a regional and national level.

But it wasn't just politicians. They were riding a wave of social-media misinformation that was still spreading. In groups on Facebook and WhatsApp, misinformation about ivermectin was being shared by millions, experts told Insider.

Among its influential promoters was COMUSAV, a group of renegade medics based in Bolivia, whose core product was a kind of industrial bleach promoted as a miracle cure for a vast array of ailments that included COVID-19.

They pushed ivermectin to their followers across the continent on their Facebook pages, which had tens of thousands of followers.

(Many of the group's pages were removed following an investigation by Insider in March 2021.)

A data analyst, Juan Chamie, was among those who helped to bring the enthusiasm for ivermectin from the populists of South America to their equivalents in the US, experts told Insider.

Chamie claimed to have data showing lower COVID-19 mortality in parts of South America where public health authorities approved ivermectin.

But Chaccour and data scientist Joe Brew have said his analyses are misleading, and ignore other factors that could explain the differences.

"Just because things are associated does not necessarily mean that one thing causes the other," they said.

That hasn't stopped Chamie's analyses being shared widely, until his account was suspended by Twitter.

Among those taking note was Laura Ingraham, primetime host of Fox News' show "The Ingraham Angle."

In December 2020 Ingraham posted a graph of data attributed to Chamie to her 3.8 million followers.

It purported to show a reduction in COVID-19 cases, comparing areas of Chiapas, Mexico, where officials did and did not distribute ivermectin.

Chaccour said that, as with Chamie's other claims, the decrease could be coincidental or due to other factors.

Ingraham already had a history of promoting ivermectin. As far back as March 2020, Ingraham had tweeted about the Surgisphere research that was later debunked.

Chaccour believes that Ingraham's advocacy was a tipping point for ivermectin in the US.

Progressive campaign group Media Matters noted that Ingraham's enthusiasm extended to her widely-viewed Fox News show.

In two episodes in December 2020, Ingraham claimed that medical authorities were conspiring to suppress the substance and ignoring evidence of its effectiveness. Andrew Lawrence, a Media Matters staffer, told Insider that Ingraham was "definitely the leader" among network hosts promoting the substance.

A Fox News spokesperson said in Ingraham's defense that she never explicitly told viewers to take the drug.

In comments to The Washington Post, Ingraham criticized attempts to "silence" scientists with unorthodox messages. "Just like the scientific consensus, the medical consensus is evolving. It changes," she sad.

Chamie also formed contacts with the Front Line Critical Care Alliance (FLCCA), a group of US medics who were influential in pushing ivermectin in the US, as detailed in a September investigation by Insider's Hilary Brueck.

Chamie describes himself as a senior data analyst for FLCCA on his LinkedIn page, and the group cites his research on its website.

The group has been instrumental in brokering ties between the pro-ivermectin movement and Republican lawmakers who promoted the drug.

Last December, Dr Pierre Kory, a member of the group, testified before the US Senate about ivermectin in what one critic, Brown University dean Dr. Ashish Jha, described in The New York Times as a "misinformation super-spreader event."

In a statement to Insider, the FLCCC defended its position on ivermectin, forwarding Insider a list of studies based on anecdotal evidence suggesting that ivermectin may be effective in reducing COVID-19 deaths. These studies are not considered conclusive by experts.

The group did not respond to questions regarding Chamie's research, and Chamie himself did not respond to requests for comment from Insider.

As proponents in the US clamored for wider use of ivermectin, in South America disillusioned officials were reversing their position.

In February Peru removed ivermectin from its COVID treatment protocol altogether because of the absence of evidence that it worked.

"It's incredible for me that we, a whole region, already went through this terrible situation in which lots of people have died," Garcia, the Peruvian official, told Insider.

"They were taking ivermectin because it was known to us, so it was easy for us. And it didn't work."

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The roots of ivermectin mania: How South America incubated a fake-medicine craze that took the US by storm - Yahoo News