Recent+Advances+in+Cures

Science Has Come a Long Way, My Friends

Scientists and doctors have finally prevailed after centuries and centuries of work on curing these diseases.

Invasive H. Flu- Invasive H. Flu is an infection caused by //Haemophilus influenzae// type b (Hib) bacteria. This infection spreads when a person coughs, sneezes, speaks or laughs. It's airborne. Invasive H. Flu can cause bacterial meningitis, or the inflammation of membranes covering the brain, pneumonia, and epiglottitis, or the inflammation of the trachea (windpipe). Epiglottitis and bacterial meningitis are life-threatening diseases. Now, the disease is cured by vaccination. Sadly, not everyone in the world has access to vaccinations and proper medical care, so Invasive H. Flu still kills about 450,000 children a year.

Measles- Measles is a highly contagious infection of the respiratory system. It spreads through the air, just like Invasive H. Flu. Symptoms starts as a simple cold, but the infected soon develop rashes and a fever. In the past, most people got measles before age 20. But now, measles is cured by a simple vaccination that most everyone in the U.S. have access to. The infection rate of this disease is down 99%, and the only outbreaks that occur are in countries without access to vaccinations.

Polio- The victory over Polio is one that many people can recognize. The disease is caused by a virus entered through the mouth. It can cause upper respiratory infection, meningitis related infection or paralytic polio. Today, however, Polio is controlled in countries like the U.S.A. and we're working on getting cures out to those in underdeveloped countries. There are two kinds of vaccinations for Polio: OPV (Oral Polio Vaccination) and IPV (Inactivated Polio Vaccination). Children in America usually get vaccinated with IPV, but those in underdeveloped countries are treated with OPV because OPV is cheaper. Sadly, this isn't a total fix. OPV can actually cause Polio in some rare cases, and it has happened before.

Tetanus- Everyone knows about Tetanus shots, they're extremely painful, right? But it's better than the real disease. Tetanus is caused by a virus found in the soil that enters the body through a wound. Once the spores in the virus develop into a bacteria, it produces neurotoxins that can cause muscle spasms. It typically affects the muscles that control the jaw (hence the nickname Lockjaw). Now, however, you receive vaccinations against this disease and since the 1970's there have only been about 50-100 reported cases of this disease, and those are in people who have never received the vaccination against Tetanus.

An Interview on How You Devise a Cure for Diseases With Doctor Charles Debrauvner

1) How would a scientist go about finding a cure for a disease?

Things have gotten fancier, of course, but one of the greatest tools scientists use is animal experimentation. Long before you get to the point of using a human being for testing, you have to use an animal. You need one that's going to be compatible with the infection or disease. For example, if it's pneumonia, you need an animal with similar lungs to a human. Then, you need an idea. Sometimes, you're not totally sure if your idea of a cure is going to work, but you may try it on 30 or 50 animals anyway. You infect them with the bacteria, then give the drug or antibiotic to only half the animals. So, if you were using 40 mice, 20 would get the drug, and 20 would nt. If the same number of mice die in each group, then you know your cure didn't work. If it works, then you have to see if it will harm the animals long term. Sure, it cures the lung infection, but does it hurt the kidneys? Once it doesn't hurt or harm an animal, you can either go onto a bigger animal or try it on a human being. If you try it on human beings, you may just take a small group of patients first and divide them in half. Like the animals, half get the cure, and half don't. The patient, however, doesn't know if they have the drug or not, in case that knowledge will influence their emotions. If half of them get better and half of them don't, then you take it into a larger trial with more patients. This will let you see if there are other side effects that didn't show up before. So you ask, are these side effects too serious? Or are they just nausea or a rash? And you keep trying until you get a drug that works. The main problem with this method, though, is the fact that bacteria can adapt. Say a medication works 5 years ago on the bacteria, but now, it doesn't work. Then, you have to go back and make a change in the formula.

2) Have there been any recent breakthroughs in curing diseases? <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;">They come all the time. There are also different kinds of breakthroughs. One breakthrough that came recently was pretty big and it was about diabetes. Let's say a patient has diabetes. One of the things they're working on is to take cells from the patient's body (called stem cells) and play with them in the lab and make those stem cells develop into pancreas cells that produce insulin. So now, you can take someone with diabetes and take some of their cells from, say, their fat, and manipulate them into pancreas cells. One obstacle we've had in the past was how to do this. If I took your healthy pancreas cells and put them into my body, my body would reject the cells and they'd be fought off and killed. But now, we've figured out that I an take my own cells, make them healthy pancreas cells, and put them back in my body. Stem cells are one of the most exciting things we've recently found out.

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Check out some really cool facts!

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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">How do diseases become epidemics?

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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; line-height: 21px;">Bibliography:

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Arial,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: left;">Editors of Publication International, Ltd. "12 Deadly Diseases Cured in the 20th <span style="font-family: Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;"> Century". //Discovery Health.// Discovery Communications, n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. <http://health.howstuffworks.com/diseases-conditions/rare/ 12-deadly-diseases-cured-in-the-20th-century1.htm>.

//Clostridium Tetani Infaction//. 2011. //Health//. Wordpress, 2011. Web. 17 May 2012. <http://www.human-healths.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/ Clostridium-tetani11.jpg>.

//Invasive H. Flu//. 8 Mar. 2011. //Haemophilius Influenzae//. N.p., 8 Mar. 2011. Web. 17 May 2012. <http://www.haemophilusinfluenzae.net/wp-content/uploads/ 2011/02/Haemophilus-Influenzae-More-on-Type-B-Hib.jpg>.

//Measles' Virus//. 2011. //Say People//. Say People, 2011. Web. 17 May 2012. <http://saypeople.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Measles_virus.jpg>.

Tinder, Paul. //Polio Virus//. 30 July 2010. //Vaccine News Daily//. Vaccine News Daily, 30 July 2010. Web. 17 May 2012. <http://c0365781.cdn2.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/datas/3947/original/ polio.jpg>.