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WHO Will Double the Cholera Vaccine Supply in 2016

January 11, 2016 By Melanie Quintal Leave a Comment

The cholera vaccine supplies will be doubled this year.

WHO will double the cholera vaccine supply in 2016, according to a new report released on Friday. Last year, two manufacturers supplied 3 million doses of vaccine, and this year a third producer will join them, and the cholera vaccine supplies will reach 6 million.

EuBiologics is WHO’s new vaccine producer and was required because the nations continue to face major deadly outbreaks. According to Who, the addition of the South Korean company will help lower the high prices of the vaccines and will meet the high demand that is currently on the market. Last year, the World Health Organization had to turn down the vaccine requests of Haiti and Sudan, because of the high demands.The humanitarian crises will be helped by WHO, according to whom the rainy season brings with it many new cases of cholera. The disease can be found in more than 50 countries around the world. Every year, between 1 million and 4 million cases of cholera are being reported, of which approximately 140,000 lead to death.

Cholera is the infection of the small intestine by the Vibrio cholera bacteria. While some people don’t show any symptoms, others can experience watery diarrhea, vomiting, muscle cramps, and dehydration. When the diarrhea is severe it can lead to the skin turning blue, decreased skin elasticity, cold skin, sunken eyes and wrinkling of the feet and hands. After the exposure, the symptoms can appear varying from a few hours to a few days.

The disease is mostly spread by the water that has been contaminated with feces containing the bacteria. When the seafood is not cooked long enough, the disease can appear. Other factors that increase the risks of cholera are poverty, poor sanitation and the dirty drinking water.

Experts believe that if the sea levels will increase, the rates of cholera will increase as well. The climate changes like drought and flooding brought by El Niño also contribute to the new cases of cholera.

In order to avoid the cholera infections, people are advised to drink water only if it is bottled or after it has been boiled. The food is recommended to be either packaged, either eaten after it has been freshly cooked. Experts advise against eating undercooked meat or seafood. The fruits and vegetables are advised to be eaten only after they have been peeled. People are also advised to wash their hands as frequently as possible. These recommendations go for the people who live in areas that are at high risk of cholera outbreaks. As WHO will double the cholera vaccine supply in 2016, the cholera outbreaks are expected to decrease and to be managed quicker than in the past.

Image Source: www.upload.wikimedia.org

What You Need to Know about Cervical Cancer

January 11, 2016 By Karla Connors Leave a Comment

This month is bringing awareness of the cervical cancer.

Less and less American women are diagnosed with cervical cancer or are diagnosed in the early stages, but cervical cancer still claims too many lives ever year. Because January is the Cervical Cancer Awareness Month, here is what you need to know about cervical cancer.

Every year approximately 13,000 women in the United States are diagnosed with cervical cancer. Most of the cases are diagnosed in the early stages and the women are cured of it entirely. Around the world though, 500,000 women are diagnosed with this type of cancer and half of the cases lead to death.

There are more types of cervical cancer, but all of them attack the glands and the fibrous tissue of the cervix, which is found at the bottom of the uterus. The cervical cancer usually spreads to other parts of the body as well. The more advanced screenings of our times are able to detect the cancer while it is still in the precancerous phase. This is the reason why so many people are cured nowadays of cervical cancer.

One of the biggest issues is that in the early stages, no symptoms appear. Symptoms of a malignancy can include pelvic pain, vaginal bleeding and pain during sexual contact. The bleedings after sexual contact are not always a sign of cancer though. Symptoms of a more advanced cervical cancer include weight loss, loss of appetite, bone fractures, pelvic pain, back pain, swollen legs and heavy vaginal bleeding.

Most of the cases of cervical cancer are caused by the human papillomavirus infection. But there are also a lot of people infected with HPV, who never develop this form of cancer. There are some factors that increase the chances of HPV infections like birth control pills, a high number of sexual partners, weak immune system and sex at a young age.

There are some HPV vaccines that can protect the people against this virus and even against the cervical cancer. In order to prevent the infection, doctors recommend the use of condoms, a small number of sexual partners and regular Pap smears. The cervical cancer can be treated with the help of chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery.

Worldwide, cervical cancer is the fourth cause of death in women. In the poor countries, cervical cancer is the most common death cause for women. In the developed countries, the screenings are more advanced and the cervical cancer cases have decreased considerably.

This is what you need to know about cervical cancer, and if you have experienced any of the symptoms described here make an appointment with your doctor as soon as possible.

Image Source: www.upload.wikimedia.org

Type 2 diabetes 101

November 8, 2015 By Karla Connors Leave a Comment

More than 20 million Americans suffer from type 2 diabetes.

What is diabetes? What can we do to prevent it? These are just a couple of questions that pop into mind when he hear so many warnings about eating foods that contain high levels of sugar. The article will be about diabetes, but spearheading the discussions will be type 2 diabetes. So, basically, this will be a type 2 diabetes 101 attempt.

Again, we ask, what is diabetes? According to the medical literature, diabetes is defined as being a long-term disease triggered by our body’s incapacity of handling glucose, a derivative of sugar found in your blood stream.

According to some statistics, over 28 million Americans suffer from diabetes, specifically, from type 2 diabetes. Numbers role even further, detailing that along those 28 million souls that are incapable of controlling blood sugar, there are almost 89 million who are in what is called prediabetes. What’s the major difference between diabetes and prediabetes? Diabetes is your body’s incapacity of handling glucose. Hence registered glucose levels are very high. In prediabetes, you experience an unusual level of blood glucose, but not enough to be qualified as diabetes.

The cause of diabetes is linked to how your pancreas handles and produces a hormone called insulin. This specific hormone secreted by your pancreas has a vital role because he is capable of turning food into energy. Patient that exhibit the symptoms of type 2 diabetes are capable of secreting insulin but their cells don’t have a clue about what to do with it. AS the disease progress, the incapacity of insulin to trigger glucose metabolisation leads to a buildup of glucose in your body.

Among the leading causes that trigger type 2 diabetes are: genes, obesity and metabolic syndrome (a combo of high blood glucose, extra weight and high levels of cholesterol and triglycerides).

Let’s also introduce something about symptomatology in our type 2 diabetes 101. The typical symptoms associated with diabetes are: polyuria (you tend to urinate more than frequently), polydipsia (excessive drinking) and polyphagia (eating a lot more than usual). On the other hand, type 2 diabetes is associated with polydipsia, polyuria, blurry vision, irritability, a sensation of numbness in your hands or your feet, wounds that won’t close and recurring yeast infections.

What can we do to prevent type 2 diabetes? There are a couple of things that we should keep into mind. First of all, we should exercise more often, because the movement of muscles actually produces insulin. A healthy diet also helps against diabetes (do avoid high carbs, sugary foods and saturated fats). Also, if you are a smoker, than you should think about quitting.

Image source:flickr.com

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