Many breakthroughs in medicine occurred across the world in 2013. It is therefore not out of place to expect more in 2014. Indeed, scientists look forward to providing more cures to the numerous diseases and health challenges facing humanity. The world is not just hopeful, it is also expectant. As if to affirm this, already 2014 has been dubbed the year of ‘discoveries’.
In fact, in 2013, scientists worked tirelessly to seek cures to such diseases as cancer, HIV/AIDS, malaria, diabetes, sickle cell anaemia and tuberculosis.
While some clinical trials failed, many recorded successes and progress. For example, last June the world, especially Africans, jubilated when a team of scientists at the Vaccine Research Centre, National Institutes of Health, Maryland, United States, found a vaccine, PfSPZ, to be effective in preventing malaria – a disease that is endemic in Africa.
According to the scientists, the vaccine could protect 12 out of every 15 persons from getting infected with malaria. The larger clinical trial for this vaccine will begin this year.
No doubt, this finding is good news for Nigerians. Should this vaccine see the light as promised, it will result in the saving of more than 400,000 lives in Nigeria. Statistics indicate that malaria affects more than 3.3 million Nigerians and kills more than 300,000 children under the age of five yearly. Again, no fewer than 7,000 pregnant Nigerian women are at the mercy of the scourge annually.
Besides, other researchers have developed over 20 vaccines, which are still undergoing trial.
They are working hard to find a solution to this disease that is ravaging Africans —the world is waiting patiently for a malaria vaccine.
A cure for Leukemia (blood cancer )
Cancer is one killer disease that many people wish never existed. However, the disease is here with us. It is not a respecter of persons or age, having killed and still killing thousands of people annually.
The December 2013 report by the World Health Organisation states that the number of people diagnosed with cancer each year has leaped to more than 14 million.
The global body, which notes that the number of people dying from cancer has increased from 7.6 million to 8.2 million, also predicts that cancer cases will soar to more than 19 million by 2025.
Just as this record sent shivers down the spines of many people, it also fired up scientists to declare war against this disease that has evaded cure and even management in many cases.
The report states, “There is an ‘urgent need’ for progress to be made in the detection, diagnoses and treatment of cancer to save many from dying, especially those in developing nations.”
Blazing the trail this year, according to the New England Journal of Medicine, are professors at the University of Pennsylvania, who are at present exploring a clinical trial for cure of leukaemia (cancer of the blood).
The scientists say their findings may change the treatment of cancer forever. They call the treatment gene therapy. It allows a patient to turn his/her blood cells into assassins that track and destroy cancer cells in the body.
Although the treatment has been tested in three patients, the study author and professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Carl June, says the treatment is highly effective.
June says, “We were surprised it worked as well as it did. Two patients that were given the treatment appeared to be cancer-free a year after treatment, and the third patient still has some cancer but is improved more than 80 per cent. It worked great. We hope it will be effective as we try on more cancer patients this year.”
June and his colleagues are taking the treatment beyond three patients this year. For now, the only treatment for leukemia is still bone marrow or stem cell transplants. This treatment, when approved, will bring succour to all who are at present battling cancer of the blood or other forms of this disease.
HIV/AIDS: Infant cure
Last year, a Nigerian scientist, Prof. Isaiah Ibeh, and a team of Chinese scientists announced controversial cures for Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection / Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, infections that have evaded cure in the last three decades.
The Dean, School of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Benin, who initially claimed that he had found herbal cure for the virus later, recanted his claims after much pressure from both the university and other regulatory bodies in the country.
However, doctors at the University of Mississippi Medical Centre made history when they found a functional cure for infant HIV in a three-year-old baby last year.
The doctors gave the baby born from an affected mother aggressive treatment to ensure that the virus was cured.
Till date, the child popularly called Mississippi baby is still HIV free.
This treatment, according to scientists at the clinic, is going to be replicated in many infected mothers and babies across the globe this year. The researchers hope that the duplication of the clinical trial in many countries, including Nigeria, will put an end to infant HIV.
The outcome of the trial is of greater importance to the country, as Nigeria leads the world in the number of children contracting HIV.
The bionic eye
Also, scientists are working on a robotic replacement for the eyes. They are exploring the use of a retinal implant called bionic eyes in the treatment of Retinitis pigmentosa, a group of inherited eye diseases, that affects more than one million people. The disease often results in blindness by the age of 40.
Though the testing has been ongoing for 20 years, the Food and Drugs Administration agency has approved this surgical cure as an optional treatment for the disease.
The treatment will help to restore partial vision to people previously declared blind.
Many clinical trials on drugs and other treatments that can cure or improve the management of diseases, including sickle cell anaemia, diabetes, hypertension, tuberculosis and infertility, which were in the offing last year, are expected to become successes this year.
However, whether some of these breakthroughs will come from Africa or Nigeria is what remains to be seen.
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