Day: November 27, 2020

Categories : HospitalsTags :

Chinese Doctors Imprisoned for Illicit Organ Trade

On By ModernMedia

In China, doctors were among six people jailed for illegally harvesting organs in the country’s Anhui province. 

The liver and kidneys of 11 people were removed, after tricking the families of the deceased into thinking they were performing approved organ donations. Organs for transplant in China are in extremely short supply, especially after the practice of harvesting organs from executed prisoners was ended following global criticism and concerted effort in 2015.

Shi Xianglin, son of one the deceased whose organs had been removed, became suspicious when examining the paperwork and local records. He alerted the authorities, and the six were sentenced in July. The case only came to light when Mr Shi spoke to the media about it.

Source: BBC News

Categories : Cancer Lab Tests and ImagingTags :

New Multi-cancer Blood Test Offered by NHS

On By ModernMedia

A new blood test developed by the California-based Grail company tests for DNA methylation, and is supposedly able to screen for over 50 cancer types this way.

The NHS is to offer the test to 165 000 people from the middle of next year, with 140 000 screened through their medical records and the remaining 25 000 through referrals from suspected symptoms. It is hoped that widespread screening and early detection will drastically improve cancer survival rates, consequently easing pressure on healthcare services.

Lawrence Young, a professor of molecular oncology, at Warwick University, said the Galleri test was one of several novel blood tests being developed to spot cancer early on. “A publication from the Circulating Cell-free Genome Atlas consortium examining the Galleri test in 6 689 participants has generated very encouraging results in more than 50 different cancers at different stages of development.”

However, there was disagreement from some cancer experts regarding Galleri’s  potential effectiveness. Paul Pharoah, a professor of cancer epidemiology, at Cambridge University, said that it was premature for the NHS to embrace an unproven test. He said, “The Galleri blood test is a test that might be able to detect cancer in the blood in individuals with early cancer, though the evidence that it does this effectively is weak,” Pharoah said. According to him, only a single published paper on the tests was available, wherein they detected a mere 25% of early-stage cancers and under half of late-stage cases.

Source: The Guardian

Categories : COVIDTags :

No Lockdown May Worsen Economies

On By ModernMedia

In an article for The Conversation, Michael Smithson of the Australian National University argues that far from there being a toss-up between saving lives with a lockdown, and protecting the economy by keeping a country open, lockdown may in fact protect the economy.

Some arguments even leaned towards Indeed, US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in June, “I think we’ve learned that if you shut down the economy, you’re going to create more damage.”

The choice of whether to implement lockdown has been a particularly difficult choice to make for South Africa, beset by deep inequality. Its lockdown caused its economy to shrink by 51% in the second quarter.

Economic and COVID data from 45 countries was sourced for analysis. The data has two outliers; namely China, which implemented a very effective early lockdown, and India, which implemented a strict lockdown that became very ineffective as time went by.

Consumer expenditure, an important indicator of economic activity, was negatively correlated with COVID cases, indicating that the economy fared better with attempts to suppress the virus (at least temporarily).

In European countries, GDP was positively correlated with COVID cases, indicating that economic activity itself drove up the rate of COVID cases. 

The article’s conclusions do have some limitations. The economic data were drawn from the second quarter, and COVID cases were taken as of June 30, but the pandemic hit different countries at different times. 

Categories : COVIDTags :

Gauteng to Brace for Second COVID Wave in January

On By ModernMedia

Speaking at a memorial for healthcare workers who have died from COVID, acting MEC of Health Jacob Mamabolo says that the Gauteng health department is expecting a second wave of the virus in January.

Gauteng, which represents 30.1% of all cumulative COVID cases nationwide, is expected to see a resurgence on the back of holiday festivities and travel, based on modelling information supplied to the provincial command council.

“We need to be reminded that the battle with Covid-19 is not yet over. We are still in the outbreak stage and not in the post-Covid-19 period yet. Here in Tshwane we still have hotspots and areas that are of great worry such as Atteridgeville, Sunnyside, Ga-Rankuwa and Mamelodi,” said Mamabolo.

He further added that alcohol consumption would lead to people being discouraged in following the COVID health and safety rules, and that staff were already exhausted from a long year of fighting the disease. He added that it was necessary that extra staff were approved for the fight in the coming year.    Source: Rekord East