Breakthroughs and setbacks
A round-up of notable health and medical headlines of the year 2003.
Effeminate men
MEN who eat foods rich in phytoestrogen, a compound that increases the level of the female hormone estrogen, could develop “effeminate characteristics”, believes a researcher at the University Malaya Medical Centre. Dr Mustafa Ali Mohd announced in October that men who ate legumes such as soya bean and lady’s finger had higher than normal levels of estrogen, causing them to display feminine traits. He did not elaborate on what these traits were.
Ebola vaccine
AN experimental vaccine American scientists believe can protect primates from the Ebola virus has sparked renewed hope of developing a vaccine targeted towards humans, they announced in September.
Conducted by the US National Institutes of Health in Maryland, the fast-acting vaccine was successfully tested on eight macaque monkeys and may one day allow scientists to contain Ebola outbreaks.
AIDS vaccine trial failure
AN experimental AIDS vaccine trial by California-based biotechnology company VaxGen Inc on 2,500 drug users in Thailand was declared a failure in November. The company had also announced months earlier that a larger vaccine trial in North America had failed to prevent AIDS infections.
Drug-coated stent
A NEW drug-coated stent is making angioplasty a more effective and long-lasting treatment of coronary artery disease. Angioplasty clears blocked arteries, which are then propped open with a metal mesh stent. This often induces restenosis, the development of scar tissue in approximately 40% of angioplasty patients, resulting in re-clogged arteries and forcing them to undergo repeat angioplasties or bypass surgery. The Cypher stent, developed by Johnson & Johnson, is coated with a drug called Sirolimus, which helps to prevent the build-up of scar tissue that may eventually obstruct blood flow. Cypher was introduced in Malaysia in March this year.
Weekend pill for men
MEN suffering from erectile dysfunction can have erections for up to 36 hours by taking Cialis, a new impotence drug that the Europeans have nicknamed Le Weekender, or the weekend pill. Manufactured by Eli Lilly and Co, Cialis remains in the body much longer than Viagra and Levitra, and offers a much longer window of opportunity for sexual activity. The effects of Viagra lasts between one and four hours, and 15 minutes to five hours for Levitra. Cialis was approved by our Health Ministry in October, reported the AFP news agency.
Flu nasal spray
THOSE wary of needles but want protection from the flu now have an alternative – FluMist, the first Influenza vaccine nasal spray. Developed by Dr Hunein Maassab, researcher at the University of Michigan, United States, and manufactured by MedImmune Vaccines Inc in Gaithersburg, Maryland, the vaccine contains live, weakened influenza viruses and works the same way as the traditional flu shot, but is administered as a nasal mist.
Infrared fever screening system
THE SARS outbreak has inspired the Infrared Fever Screening System, a computerised screening device which can detect people with fever, one of the symptoms of SARS. Manufactured in Singapore – one of the countries hardest hit by SARS – by Singapore Technologies Electronics, the machine works much like an infrared imaging device. Used at airports, hotels, hospitals and other public places, it produces colour-coded thermographs of individuals (red is hot, green indicates normal temperature) and is able to screen large groups of people in a matter of seconds.
Heart attack gene
SCIENTISTS in the United States announced in November that they have identified the first gene they say is directly linked to heart attacks. Dr Eric Topol, head of the Cleveland Clinic team that discovered the gene, called MEF2A, said it plays an important role in protecting artery walls from plaque build-up that can obstruct blood flow and lead to heart attacks.
Korean twins separated
A PAIR of infant Korean sisters connected at the lower back were successfully separated at Singapore’s Raffles Hospital in July – just two weeks after the hospital failed to separate a pair of conjoined Iranian twins. Four-month-old Sa Rang and Ji Hye who were fused at the pelvis, the lower end of their spine and the lower end of their intestinal tract, were separated in a 50-hour operation.
Cancer an old-age disease by 2015
THE National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, United States, predicted in October that pain and death from cancer would be eliminated by the year 2015, rendering it a chronic, old-age disease like asthma and diabetes. He said a new class of cancer drugs, often called “smart” drugs, are able to stop cancer in its tracks by killing only cancer cells, unlike older treatments which often destroyed healthy and cancerous cells, causing miserable side effects and offering few benefits.
Stem cell therapy
CARDIOLOGISTS have begun injecting heart transplant patients with their own stem cells to stimulate the growth of heart cells, avoiding the need for drugs to suppress the immune system and eliminating the risk of organ rejection. Researchers remove bone marrow or stem cells from an arm or thigh in a patient’s body, grow them in a laboratory dish to increase their numbers from a few million to a billion or more, then inject them into a heart. Dr Francis Pagani of the University of Michigan injected cells into the hearts of five of his patients and found that these cells subsequently formed heart muscle fibres and blood vessels.
Cheap malaria cure
AN ANCIENT herbal remedy adapted by Chinese scientists to help Vietnamese communists defeat the Americans in the 1960s is the key ingredient in a cheap malaria cure that is being backed by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Already available in China, Artekin is now being mass-produced for its international launch next month and will go on sale in South-East Asia first. WHO hopes that the drug may be priced as low as RM4.50 per course.
– and efficacy will finally provide an affordable cure to a disease that claims more than one million lives a year around the world.
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