The crippling viral disease usually strikes children under five years of age, making the acute, fast-spreading outbreak abnormal, the U.N. agency said. "Most of the cases have concerned young adults aged between 15 and 29. This illustrates that populations are at risk because they have not been exposed to a full vaccination," it said. It marks the newest setback to a global campaign begun more than 20 years ago to wipe out polio, for which there is no cure, only defensive vaccines. The death toll in the central African state is 97 with a further 226 people paralyzed, and the majority victims are in the port city of Pointe Noire. The mortality rate is advanced than normal for the disease, which attacks the nervous system.
The virus is now confirmed as having reach Congo from Angola after it also extend to the Democratic Republic of Congo earlier this year, WHO spokesman Oliver Rosenbauer said. It comes from damage from India, one of four residual endemic countries where the virus survives and its spread has never been interrupted along with Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan. A first wave of mass polio immunization campaigns, targeting 3 million people of all ages, is put to begin on Friday in Congo and part of Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. "This way we can be certain that everybody is reached, including young adults, whose protection may be low," said Luis Sambo, WHO's regional director for Africa.
The WHO warned final month that a persistent outbreak of polio that began in Angola in 2007 could spread globally due to poorly managed vaccination campaigns. An epidemic this year in Tajikistan, a Central Asian state, accounts for 458 of 767 cases definite so far in 19 countries, Rosenbauer said. There were 1,604 cases worldwide in 2009. Pakistan is the only endemic country to have advanced numbers of cases this year, with 111 beside 76 at this time last year, he said. Record floods and poor sanitation are blamed. Namibia had a polio outbreak among adults in 2006 but direct to stop it’s extending within 50 days.
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The international pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline publicize October 14 that it will donate 400 million more tablets for the treatment of intestinal worms in children. This comes as the World Health Organization is calling on drug companies to donate more tablets to help to eradicate tropical diseases. The WHO says in a latest report that one billion people in the world's poorest countries are chronically ill from tropical diseases that receive little notice from drug manufacturers and health organizations.
The diseases leishmanaisis, chagas, dengue and 14 others are unknown to several people in developed countries, or are thought to have been eradicated long ago. But the World Health Organization says they cause massive, hidden affliction that keeps millions of people in poverty. And the WHO is calling on governments, donors and pharmaceutical companies to help decrease those numbers significantly. Dr. Peter Hotez is a specialist in tropical diseases. He says that these parasitic diseases are rampant even though they are simply treatable.
"The neglected tropical disease program of USAID, which is also funded through global health initiative, in some cases can lead to the removal of some very important neglected tropical diseases such as lymphatic filariasis, perhaps river blindness and leprosy," he said. Dr. Hotez says that these diseases can often be treating with a single pill. But there is often is no funding for proven and cheap treatments. "Out of 10 billion exhausted annually, only 65 million, less than one percent, is spent on deserted tropical diseases. We have to begin bringing that up because these conditions are just as significant and we can do something about them through mass drug administration."
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Smallpox is an acute, infectious and sometimes fatal disease caused by the variola virus and noticeable by fever and a distinctive progressive skin rash. The last naturally happening case of smallpox occurred in Somalia in 1977 and the World Health Organization has measured the disease eradicated since 1979. The previous occurrence of the disease in the United States was in 1949. However, given the threat of bioterrorism since September 11, 2001, it is measured a disease that could be intentionally released during a bioterrorist. Smallpox spreads from make contact with infected persons. Generally, direct and fairly extended face to face contact is necessary to spread smallpox from one person to another.
Smallpox also can be extend through direct contact with infected bodily fluids or impure objects such as bedding or clothing. The indications of smallpox begin with high fever, head and body aches, and sometimes vomiting. A rash follows that spreads and progresses to raised bumps and pus filled wound that crust, scab and fall off after about three weeks, leaving a pitted scar. After exposure, it take between seven and 17 days for symptoms of smallpox to show (average incubation time is 12 to 14 days). During this time, the dirty person feels fine and is not contagious.
After exposure, it takes between seven and 17 days for symptoms of smallpox to appear (average incubation time is 12 to 14 days). During this time, the infected person feels fine and is not contagious. Vaccine administered up to four days after publicity to the virus, and before the rash appears, provides defensive immunity and can prevent infection or lessen the severity of the disease. No effective treatment, other than the management of symptoms, is at present available. A number of compounds are under study as chemotherapeutic agents. If the virus was to present itself again it could be prohibited by vaccination of close contacts of those who have been infected.
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Lagos — Since the discovery of the Human Immuno Deficiency Virus (HIV) which causes Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) 27 years ago, the world has been confronted with the penalty posed by the reality that no cure has been found against the disease.Again, no vaccine approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO) has been invented, thereby extending the hope for stable eradication of the virus.
Even the ARV drugs used in the management of People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) is in short supply in poor countries, as some giver nations to developing countries have soft-pedaled in their funding activities, partly due to the global financial recession, and distraction of funds meant for HIV/AIDS medication into private pockets of some corrupt government officials.
Whereas the developed nations have what it takes to provide for their PLWHAS, the poor countries still depend on drugs from outside donors to take care of theirs.In the quest to limit the spread of the virus, scientists in advanced countries are busy struggling to discover reliable vaccines, while traditional and orthodox healers in some developing nations like Nigeria are parading range of medications which they claim to be potent for HIV cure, even AIDS.
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