Medical innovations to expect in 2014

expectations in 2014, BUKOLA ADEBAYO writes
Many breakthroughs in medicine occurred across
the world in 2013. It is therefore not out of place to
expect more in 2014. Indeed, scientists look
forward to providing more cures to the numerous
diseases and health challenges facing humanity.
The world is not just hopeful, it is also expectant.
As if to affirm this, already 2014 has been dubbed
the year of ‘discoveries’.
In fact, in 2013, scientists worked tirelessly to
seek cures to such diseases as cancer, HIV/AIDS,
malaria, diabetes, sickle cell anaemia and
tuberculosis.
While some clinical trials failed, many recorded
successes and progress. For example, last June
the world, especially Africans, jubilated when a
team of scientists at the Vaccine Research Centre,
National Institutes of Health, Maryland, United
States, found a vaccine, PfSPZ, to be effective in
preventing malaria – a disease that is endemic in
Africa.
According to the scientists, the vaccine could
protect 12 out of every 15 persons from getting
infected with malaria. The larger clinical trial for
this vaccine will begin this year.
No doubt, this finding is good news for Nigerians.
Should this vaccine see the light as promised, it
will result in the saving of more than 400,000 lives
in Nigeria. Statistics indicate that malaria affects
more than 3.3 million Nigerians and kills more than
300,000 children under the age of five yearly.
Again, no fewer than 7,000 pregnant Nigerian
women are at the mercy of the scourge annually.
Besides, other researchers have developed over
20 vaccines, which are still undergoing trial.
They are working hard to find a solution to this
disease that is ravaging Africans —the world is
waiting patiently for a malaria vaccine.
A cure for Leukemia (blood cancer)
Cancer is one killer disease that many people wish
never existed. However, the disease is here with
us. It is not a respecter of persons or age, having
killed and still killing thousands of people annually.
The December 2013 report by the World Health
Organisation states that the number of people
diagnosed with cancer each year has leaped to
more than 14 million.
The global body, which notes that the number of
people dying from cancer has increased from 7.6
million to 8.2 million, also predicts that cancer
cases will soar to more than 19 million by 2025.
Just as this record sent shivers down the spines
of many people, it also fired up scientists to
declare war against this disease that has evaded
cure and even management in many cases.
The report states, “There is an ‘urgent need’ for
progress to be made in the detection, diagnoses
and treatment of cancer to save many from dying,
especially those in developing nations.”
Blazing the trail this year, according to the New
England Journal of Medicine , are professors at the
University of Pennsylvania, who are at present
exploring a clinical trial for cure of leukaemia
(cancer of the blood).
The scientists say their findings may change the
treatment of cancer forever. They call the
treatment gene therapy. It allows a patient to turn
his/her blood cells into assassins that track and
destroy cancer cells in the body.
Although the treatment has been tested in three
patients, the study author and professor of
Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the
University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Carl June, says the
treatment is highly effective.
June says, “We were surprised it worked as well
as it did. Two patients that were given the
treatment appeared to be cancer-free a year after
treatment, and the third patient still has some
cancer but is improved more than 80 per cent. It
worked great. We hope it will be effective as we
try on more cancer patients this year.”
June and his colleagues are taking the treatment
beyond three patients this year. For now, the only
treatment for leukemia is still bone marrow or
stem cell transplants. This treatment, when
approved, will bring succour to all who are at
present battling cancer of the blood or other forms
of this disease.
HIV/AIDS: Infant cure
Last year, a Nigerian scientist, Prof. Isaiah Ibeh,
and a team of Chinese scientists announced
controversial cures for Human Immunodeficiency
Virus infection / Acquired Immunodeficiency
Syndrome, infections that have evaded cure in the
last three decades.
The Dean, School of Basic Medical Sciences,
University of Benin, who initially claimed that he
had found herbal cure for the virus later, recanted
his claims after much pressure from both the
university and other regulatory bodies in the
country.
However, doctors at the University of Mississippi
Medical Centre made history when they found a
functional cure for infant HIV in a three-year-old
baby last year.
The doctors gave the baby born from an affected
mother aggressive treatment to ensure that the
virus was cured.
Till date, the child popularly called Mississippi baby
is still HIV free.
This treatment, according to scientists at the clinic,
is going to be replicated in many infected mothers
and babies across the globe this year. The
researchers hope that the duplication of the clinical
trial in many countries, including Nigeria, will put
an end to infant HIV.
The outcome of the trial is of greater importance to
the country, as Nigeria leads the world in the
number of children contracting HIV.
The bionic eye
Also, scientists are working on a robotic
replacement for the eyes. They are exploring the
use of a retinal implant called bionic eyes in the
treatment of Retinitis pigmentosa, a group of
inherited eye diseases, that affects more than one
million people. The disease often results in
blindness by the age of 40.
Though the testing has been ongoing for 20 years,
the Food and Drugs Administration agency has
approved this surgical cure as an optional
treatment for the disease.
The treatment will help to restore partial vision to
people previously declared blind.
Many clinical trials on drugs and other treatments
that can cure or improve the management of
diseases, including sickle cell anaemia, diabetes,
hypertension, tuberculosis and infertility, which
were in the offing last year, are expected to
become successes this year.
However, whether some of these breakthroughs
will come from Africa or Nigeria is what remains to
be seen.
Stakeholders are calling on the Federal
Government to increase funding of its research
institutions to ensure that Nigerian scientists join
the train of medical breakthroughs this year.