SCIENTISTS DEVELOP ARTIFICIAL BLOOD FOR MOSQUITOES

Dealing with mosquitoes can be one hell of a process. It can mean slapping yourself hard in the middle of the night when you try to hit it against your skin. Fumigating your house with tonnes of insecticides, leaving you breathless would be another option or simply sleeping under a treated mosquito net. All this we do just to deny it a sip of our blood. This is also because mosquitoes have been called the deadliest animal on the planet, because of the diseases they spread. As this reality stands an artificial buffet for them would be appropriate, isn’t it?

Welcome to Stephen Dobson’s finding. The professor of medicine and Vetinary entomology believes his mosquito food may lead to fewer mosquitoes. But how exactly?

Through a press release he explains that, the artificial blood he developed will allow people in remote areas around the world to sustain colonies of mosquitoes, even in those areas with limited resources and difficult logistics. Colonies that will later be used in studying the blood sucker.

“Multiple, new approaches to control mosquito populations require the ability to rear mosquitoes,” Dobson said. “The artificial blood technology will help us to better fight disease-transmitting mosquitoes in resource-limited areas.”

In one approach patented by the University of Kentucky, mosquitoes are essentially sterilized by a naturally occurring bacterium, called Wolbachia. With an ability to rear large mosquito numbers, the approach can be used as an organic pesticide, to overwhelm and sterilize mosquito populations that transmit diseases like malaria, flilaria, dengue and yellow fever. Once sterilized, the mosquito population declines and can be eliminated.

Dobson’s research on developing artificial blood for mosquitoes has made him a Grand Challenges Explorations winner, in an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Mosquitoes spread deadly diseases like malaria, Yellow fever, West Nile, Chikungunya and many others.

HYPERTENSION COULD BE THE NEW EPIDEMIC IN AFRICA

Non-communicable diseases like hypertension have always been regarded as a disease of the rich – but this has changed drastically in the last two decades. Numbers of high blood pressure patients are now higher in Africa than in Europe and USA, more alarming is that the disease is most common among Africa’s poorest.

In a recent exercise, Community Health Workers checked blood pressure of slum residents in their home. Out of over 4000 screened by door to door visits, about 1000 were found with raised blood pressure and were referred to receive treatment at Cardiovascular disease clinic set up by the SCALE UP project.

Hypertension is commonly known as having high blood pressure and it is the number one risk factor for strokes and heart attacks otherwise known as cardiovascular diseases (CVD), in Africa.

“CVDs have become one of the leading causes of death in Africa and the total numbers will further increase in the next decades reflecting on the growing urbanization and related lifestyle changes of Africans.” Says Dr. Samuel Oti, a lead researcher at African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC).

Traditionally in Africa, communicable diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as well as maternal and nutritional illnesses, accounted for the greatest numbers of preventable deaths. However, this burden is shifting fast towards chronic non- communicable diseases, including CVDs.

According to Dr.Samuel this phenomenon is what is being termed as the “double burden of disease”. Whereas high blood pressure was almost non-existent in African societies in the first half of the twentieth century, estimates now show that in some settings in Africa, more than 40 percent of adults have hypertension.

The new epidemic of hypertension and CVD not only has an impact on the health of a nation – but has an economic impact as well. A significant proportion of the working age population can become chronically ill or die, leaving their families in poverty.

Like many other non-communicable diseases, hypertension is a silent killer that in general has no specific symptoms or physical complaints. It can only be detected by having one’s blood pressure measured on a regular basis.

“At this stage of the African epidemic of hypertension and CVD, the most important thing will be to raise awareness about the importance and urgency of knowing one’s blood pressure among the population, patients, doctors and policy makers.” Says Dr Isabella Aboderin a researcher in charge of aging at APHRC.

The medics further suggest the following strategies terming them as key in controlling the hypertension epidemic.

Prevention of CVDs through standardized guidelines for hypertension management in primary health care settings, this is much more effective in health and financial terms than treatment of complications in hospitals. Developing and sharing best practices for affordable and effective community based programs in screening and treatment of hypertension.

More so Africa needs policies developed and implemented through a multi-sectoral approach involving the Ministries of Health and other sectors including education, agriculture, transport, finance among others.

And in order to address and monitor this epidemic appropriately more research on prevalence of hypertension and risk factors needs to be done in different settings in the region.

The resource people in this article are senior researchers affiliated with the African Population and Health Research Center. Their research focuses on Non Communicable Diseases and Aging issues in Africa.

TOBACCO CLAIMS 6 MILLION LIVES ANNUALY

As I stare at the smoke raising to the ceiling, I slowly move my focus to the person who has just exhaled it. He is bearly 20 years and it is not the first time he is taking a smoke, as a matter of fact he is a chain smoker. What will he become in the next ten years? Perhaps he will be a chimney or relic covered by six feet layer of soil. I am not wishing my friend an early death but he has earned it anyway.

Let me break it down to make you understand what I mean. Imagine losing a loved one after every six seconds. It can be your parents, children, or that person you want to exchange vows with at the altar and live happily ever after. It sounds impossible right? But that is the shocking reality when it comes to tobacco –linked diseases.

According to WHO almost 6 million people die from tobacco related diseases, this translates to one person in every six seconds. That’s forecast to rise to more than 8 million a year by 2030.  

Disturbing enough is that 80% of these preventable deaths occur among people living in low-and middle income countries. This has been attributed to illegal tobacco trade. The illicit dealing in tobacco has resulted to cheaper harmful products, primarily by avoiding government taxes through smuggling, illegal manufacturing and counterfeiting.

Cheaper tobacco has encourages younger tobacco users (who generally have lower incomes) and cuts government revenues, reducing the resources available for socioeconomic development, especially in low-income countries that depend heavily on consumption taxes. This money might otherwise be spent on the provision of public services, including health care.

As the world celebrates World No Tobacco Day WHO has urged member states to sign the “Protocol to Eliminate the illicit Trade in Tobacco Products”.

“The Protocol offers the world a unique legal instrument to counter and eventually eliminate a sophisticated criminal activity,” says Dr Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General. “Fully implemented, it will replenish government revenues and allow more spending on health.”

The global adult tobacco survey indicates that 19.1 per cent of men and 4.5 per cent of women currently use tobacco in Kenya.

Overall, 41.3 per cent of current smokers started using tobacco aged 20-24 while 32.3 per cent started at age 17-19.

Health ministry estimates that non-communicable diseases contribute nearly 50 per cent of all admissions in public hospitals in Kenya.

So far, 8 countries have ratified the Protocol, short of the target of 40 needed for it to become international law.

However the Protocol requires a wide range of measures relating to the tobacco supply chain, including the licensing of imports, exports and manufacture of tobacco products; the establishment of tracking and tracing systems and the imposition of penal sanctions on those responsible for illicit trade. It would also criminalise illicit production and cross border smuggling.

“The Protocol faces overt and covert resistance from the tobacco industry,” says Dr Vera da Costa e Silva, Head of the WHO FCTC Secretariat. “Manufacturers know that once implemented, it will become much harder to hook young people and the poor into tobacco addiction.”

While publicly stating its support for action against the illicit trade, the tobacco industry’s behind closed doors behaviour has been very different. Internal industry documents released as a result of court cases demonstrate that the tobacco industry has actively fostered the illicit trade globally. It also works to block implementation of tobacco control measures, like tax increases and pictorial health warnings, by arguing they will fuel the illicit trade. This has resulted to a bigger population that is hooked to tobacco usage and a rainy season for the companies.

“Public health is engaged in a pitched battle against a ruthless industry,” says Dr Douglas Bettcher, Director of the WHO’s Department for the Prevention of Noncommunicable Diseases. “On this World No Tobacco Day, WHO and its partners are showing the ends that the tobacco industry goes to in the search for profits, including on the black market, and by ensnaring new targets, including young children, to expand its deadly trade.”

Policy makers should recognize that the illicit tobacco trade exacerbates the global health epidemic and has serious security implications. Ratification of the Protocol to Eliminate the Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products is a necessary step to combat these twin evils.