Fit for God
Common Drug Treats Both HIV and Malaria
Voice of America News October 21, 2005
Millions of people in Africa could be helped by using an old drug in a new way. A drug that’s normally used to protect people with HIV/AIDS from bacterial infections can also be used to protect them from malaria.
One of the researchers taking part in studying the drug is Dr. Christopher Plowe, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. Dr. Plowe spoke to English to Africa reporter Joe De Capua about the dual treatment.
He says, “Cotrimoxizole or Bacterim are common names for trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, the drug we’re talking about here. And it’s an anti-biotic that’s been around for a long time. More...
Study Finds Poorest Children Not Benefiting from Health Campaigns
VOA News October 20, 2005
Millions of the world's poorest children die each year, because international efforts designed to improve their health never reach them. That is the finding in a report in this week's issue of The Lancet.
Researchers at Federal University in Brazil looked at the distribution of supplies such as safe water, Vitamin A supplements, and vaccines to mothers and children under the age of five in nine mostly low-income countries.
Vitamin A is used to combat blindness; safe drinking water is crucial to prevent diarrheal diseases, a leading cause of death among young children; and vaccines guard against a host of deadly diseases that are prevalent in poor nations. More...
Experts Discuss Making Medicine Available to Poor
VOA News October 20, 2005
International experts say a way must be found to balance the need of the world's population for lifesaving medicine and the massive investments made by pharmaceutical companies.
Whether the concern is HIV/AIDS or bird flu, health experts say the international patent system that protects intellectual property is not flexible enough to make drugs widely available in the case of major public health threats.
Study Shows Cancer Drug Effective Against Early Breast Cancer
VOA News October 20, 2005
Scientists are hailing the results of a new study that shows a drug already used to treat advanced cancer has proven extremely effective against an aggressive form of early breast cancer.
In an article published Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found the drug Herceptin can prevent 50 percent of all breast tumors from recurring in patients with early stages of the disease.
