Healthy Living
VOICE OF ASIA 19
Section 2
FRIDAY, January 19, 2018
Email: voiceasia@aol.com
Ingestible ‘mini pill box’ releases weekly dose of HIV meds
Tel: 713-774-5140
Breast cancer gene does not boost risk of death: study
by Mariëtte Le Roux
Twelve percent of the women had a BRCA mutation.
P
ARIS, France | AFP | 1/9/2018 - An ingestible “mini pill box” which releases a cocktail of HIV drugs in the stomach over several days is a potential step towards reducing the burden of daily pill-taking, scientists reported on Tuesday. Tested only in pigs so far, the tiny device is the latest attempt to make it easier for people on medication for chronic illnesses, including those infected with the AIDS-causing virus, to stick to their dosage plans.
The team tracked the women’s medical records for an average period of just over eight years, and found that 651 of 678 total deaths were due to breast cancer. “The study found that there was no difference in overall survival two, five or ten years after diagnosis for women with and without a BRCA mutation,” a press statement said.
Drug adherence is a major challenge for people who have to take multiple drugs daily, or even twice-daily, for the rest of their lives. Average adherence is estimated at about 70 percent for antiretroviral treatment (ART), which keeps human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) under control, but does not kill it. People who forget to take their medication run the risk of falling ill if the virus rebounds, or developing resistance to the drugs they were using -which could require a more expensive, and more onerous, replacement. Skipping pills can also lead to the failure of ART taken by infected people as a means of preventing the virus spreading to uninfected sexual partners. The new dosage system comes in the form of a capsule which, once its shell is dissolved in the stomach, unfolds into a star-shaped gadget about four centimetres (1.6 inches) wide. Unfolded, it has six arms, and can hold several different drugs at a time -- a “cocktail” of AIDS medicines, for example.
In 2013, Hollywood star Angelina Jolie announced she had had both breasts surgically removed as a preventative measure after tests revealed she carried the BRCA gene mutation, despite not having been diagnosed with cancer (AFP Photo/Valerie Macon) Average adherence is estimated at about 70 percent for antiretroviral treatment (ART), which keeps human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) under control, but does not kill it. (Photo: AFP) in the stomach, being too large to pass through the pylorus, a valve between the stomach and the small intestine, but without inhibiting food passing through the digestive system.
Based on computer modelling, the new delivery system could prevent 200,000 to 800,000 new infections over the next 20 years, the research team estimated.
The team loaded a three-drug HIV cocktail into the device and tested it in pigs, animals with a stomach anatomy similar to humans.
But long before that, more tests are needed in primates and eventually in humans.
In the trial, “these slow release dosage systems perform equal or better than the current daily doses for HIV treatment,” said study co-author Giovanni Traverso of the Harvard Medical School. Once it has done its work, the system breaks up and is excreted from the body in pieces.
According to UNAIDS, 1.8 million people were newly infected with HIV in 2016, and 36.7 million people were living with the virus. Of those, more than 20 million were on ART. Thirty-five years of research has yet to yield a cure or vaccine for the virus which has infected more than 70 million people since the early 1980s, and killed about 35 million.
Young women with the BRCA gene mutation that prompted actress Angelina Jolie’s pre-emptive and muchpublicised double mastectomy are not more likely to die after a breast cancer diagnosis, scientists said Friday. In fact, they may have a “survival advantage” over non-carriers if diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer, a form that is particularly hard to treat, a team wrote in the journal The Lancet Oncology. “Women diagnosed with early breast cancer who carry a BRCA mutation are often offered double mastectomies soon after their diagnosis or chemotherapy treatment” compared to non-mutation carriers, study co-author Diana Eccles of the University of Southampton said in a statement.
“Our findings suggest that this surgery does not have to be immediately undertaken along with the other treatment.” According to the American Cancer Society, women with a mutation in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes have a sevenin-10 chance of getting breast cancer by the age of 80. They are also more likely to get it at a younger age than other women. In 2013, Hollywood star Angelina Jolie announced she had had both breasts surgically removed as a preventative measure after tests revealed she carried the mutation, despite not having been diagnosed with cancer. For the new study, Eccles and a team recruited 2,733 British women aged 18-40 who had been diagnosed with breast cancer between 2000 and 2008.
In a subgroup of women with triple-negative breast cancer, those with a BRCA mutation had slightly higher survival rates for the first two years after diagnosis. “In light of their findings the authors suggest that women with triple-negative breast cancer and a BRCA mutation who choose to delay additional surgery for 1-2 years to recover from their initial treatment should be reassured that this is unlikely to affect their longterm survival,” the statement said. “However, risk-reducing surgery will still likely be beneficial for BRCA mutation carriers to prevent another new breast or ovarian cancer from developing in the longer term.” While only about five percent of breast cancers are diagnosed in women younger than 40, a high proportion of deaths fall in this age category. AFP
Trump allows US states work rules for Medicaid enrollees
- Saving thousands of lives The device is designed to stay
Panel suggestions on driving drunk
T
he National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine panel recommations for addressing the problem: —States should pass laws lowering their drunken driving thresholds from a bloodalcohol concentration of 0.08 to 0.05. —Congress passed a law last month increasing federal alcohol excise taxes by about 16 percent. —State and local governments should take steps to limit or reduce alcohol availability, including reducing the hours and days that stores, bars and restaurants can sell alcohol. —Federal, state and local governments should curb alcohol advertising and marketing, and fund advertising designed to counter alcohol marketing. —Police sobriety checkpoints should be conducted more frequently and in conjunction with widespread publicity about the programs. (www.nationalacademies.org)
W
ASHINGTON, | AFP | 1/15/2018 - Donald Trump’s administration moved Thursday to let states require that able-bodied adults work in order to receive health care benefits through Medicaid, a pillar of the US social safety net. The policy change would mark the first time the publicly funded program, which has insured the health needs of the poor and disabled since its creation in the 1960s, has been allowed to require work for benefits. The Health and Human Services Department outlined how states could reshape the program in a directive. “Medicaid needs to be more flexible so that states can best address the needs of this population,” Seema Verma, administrator of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said in a statement. “Our fundamental goal is to make a positive and lasting difference in the health and wellness of our beneficiaries, and today’s announcement is a step in that direction.” The directive spells out who is excluded from the new work requirements, including children and the elderly, people with disabilities, pregnant women, and people being treat-
ed for opioid abuse. But it makes suggestions for states as to what counts as work, including state work programs, job training, volunteering, or caring for a relative. Several Republican lawmakers have supported work requirements as a condition for Medicaid coverage for able-bodied people, but such changes were not allowed until Thursday’s memo. At least 10 states, led by Republicans, were awaiting federal permission to enforce the new work rules, according to the Washington Post. Nearly 20 percent of the population received Medicaid benefits in 2015, according to the US census. Health insurance reforms initiated during Barack Obama’s presidency raised the income cap for access to Medicaid, allowing millions of low-income earners to join the Medicaid rolls. But many conservatives believe able-bodied adults should not be permitted to benefit from the coverage without either working, training or actively seeking a job. The Obama administration opposed the demands by the
US moves to limit Medicare, the publicly funded health insurance program for the poor and disabled, have been the subject of protests like this one in New York City (Photo/Drew Angerer) states. The could
shift under Trump draw legal chal-
lenges from health care, rights or seniors’ groups. House Democrat Eliot Engel
called the decision “a cruel attempt to sabotage Americans’ safety net.”