October 11, 2022 (New York, NY)—COVID-19 and recent outbreaks of monkeypox and polio have highlighted how vulnerable the world is to infectious diseases. But every day, public health workers stop epidemics before they start. Just last month, Ghana contained its first outbreak of Marburg virus—which is highly contagious and has a fatality rate as high as 88%. This story, like many other prevented epidemics, didn’t make the headlines.

Today, Resolve to Save Lives releases a new “Epidemics that Didn’t Happen” report that shows that investment in preparedness, combined with swift, strategic responses by public health authorities, can stop disease outbreaks, saving lives and preventing suffering. These are the everyday successes that are rarely reported. The latest “Epidemics that Didn’t Happen” celebrates successful outbreak responses around the world and demonstrates the returns—in lives saved—of investing in health systems.

“Successes of front-line public health workers around the world prove that public health works when we invest in and prioritize strengthening health systems—especially at the national and subnational levels,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives and former Director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Our report demonstrates that responses don’t have to be perfect to be effective, but sustained investment in preparedness can mean the difference between an outbreak that’s contained and one that devastates a community, a country, or the world. Epidemic preparedness must not stop when an outbreak does.”

When outbreaks aren’t contained, the results can be economically catastrophic as well as deadly: estimates place the global cost of COVID-19 as high as $20 trillion, with approximately 20 million lives lost. However, research from Resolve to Save Lives found that it would cost approximately $124 billion over five years to make the world much better prepared for disease threats—a bargain that could save countless lives and preserve economies.

The real-life examples presented in the latest report highlight different aspects of effective public health programs, including how:

• Improved systems and skills following deadly epidemics contained Ebola outbreaks in Guinea and DRC
• Learning from experience helped health care workers in India contain a Nipah outbreak to a single case
• Advanced planning, regional awareness and rapid action stopped cholera in Burkina Faso
• A diverse team mobilized and successfully contained a rabies outbreak in Tanzania
• Well-coordinated health offices in Brazil swiftly contained a flu outbreak on a cruise ship
• Community trust enabled early detection of and response to a dengue case in Indonesia

“Outbreaks begin and end locally, so community action is crucial to preventing epidemics. Public health officials’ engagement with communities pays off because it builds trust in the health system,” said Amanda McClelland, Senior Vice President of Resolve to Save Lives. “Another key component is protecting health care workers, who are the frontline of defense against outbreaks. When primary health care centers are safe work environments, patients and health care workers are protected and are better able to detect and respond to health threats before they spiral out of control.”

The case studies were developed with support from health ministries and global health organizations including, Indonesian Red Cross Society, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Vital Strategies and FAME Hospital.

To read the report, visithttps://preventepidemics.org/epidemics-that-didnt-happen/

A complete recording of the Preparedness in Action: Transforming Global Health Security event featuring the report can be found here.

Read recently published JAMA Viewpoint by Dr. Tom Frieden and Amanda McClelland: “Preparing for Pandemics and Other Health Threats: Societal Approaches to Protect and Improve Health”

###

About Resolve to Save Lives

Resolve to Save Lives is a not-for-profit organization partnering with countries, communities and organizations to prevent 100 million deaths from cardiovascular disease and make the world safer from epidemics. To find out more, visit: resolvetosavelives.org or Twitter@ResolveTSL

The post Interactive Report Shows How Countries Prevent Global Epidemics by Stopping Infectious Diseases at the Start appeared first on Medika Life.

How was Salk’s vaccine received? Researchers said it was “junk science” and tended to dismiss it, favoring the live virus from Sabin’s lab. Not only was Salk’s vaccine safer, but it was also quickly manufactured and readily available to the public. But the dueling virus controversy lasted until the 1990s when Sabin’s vaccine was discontinued because it could infect others.

The Salk vaccine was involved in an unprecedented 1.8 million children in a human experiment to test its effectiveness. Salk had already tested the vaccine on himself and his family, and none developed polio.

The problem with the notable presence of the polio virus in NYC wastewater is that other countries worldwide still use the Sabin vaccine. Traveling and being vaccinated abroad means the virus has carriers that, unwittingly, bring the virus back to the US. Once here, it quickly enters the wastewater system and can spread the virus to the unvaccinated.

How many know about the 1949 polio epidemic that swept the nation and placed infants in iron lungs? The huge tubes, in short supply, were airlifted from location to location as the virus spread with unprecedented speed, striking the nation’s young. A complete explanation of the virus and how it attacks the body can be viewed here.

From 1916–1919, over two thousand people in New York City, primarily in Brooklyn, died from polio infection, which, thanks to the Industrial Revolution, drove people to cities where they were packed into poor living situations, a lack of nutrition led to disease and sewage quickly carried the virus into homes.

Does that sound familiar? Is wastewater carrying the virus throughout apartment buildings and into homes? Yes, it can last up to one week in those situations. Infection is as close as your sewer system. Other viruses can still live on surfaces, including clothing and towels.

What other virus is being discovered anew in the sewage systems of the US and abroad? Yes, it’s Covid-19, and just like polio, the human waste in the sewage systems carries the virus to distant areas from its origin in someone’s home. As I write, New York state has to combat both polio and Covid-19 in its wastewater.

Up to 30 percent of those infected have no symptoms, and therein lies the main problem. If someone isn’t sick, they don’t think they need to be vaccinated or take steps to protect others by keeping a safe distance or wearing a mask.

The Covid-19 virus has mutated as all viruses do, and the new iterations present new challenges. These mutations have managed to either disguise themselves or, in other ways, avoid the body’s immune system protection and the vaccines that depend on this for our safety.

To ward off the iterations, new innoculations will continue to be needed and, conceivably, into the future. Each fall will bring a new-and-improved vaccine for the still mutating viruses. Viruses don’t stop mutating.

Those who have received misinformation about vaccines and refuse to be vaccinated will continue to present agreeable hosts for the viruses while endangering others.

Politics and business have failed to adequately address this enduring danger in a wish to reassure the general public and get all of us back to business. In my opinion, the CDC’s efforts have been poor, and a shuffling of management has already begun.

The post Polio/Covid Planning, the Poor, Life and Mobility appeared first on Medika Life.

MONKEYPOX HAS ARRIVED AT THE SHORES of the United States. A gentleman has been hospitalized in Massachusetts following recent travel to Canada. Monkeypox is not confined to the USA: More than 100 suspected or confirmed cases of monkeypox have been reported in 12 nations, including the United States.

The World Health Organization (WHO) offers that confirmed cases have been identified in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States — which had between one and five confirmed monkeypox cases mid-May 2022.

“Everybody should be concerned,” offers US President Biden. But how concerned should you and I be? While monkeypox is only occasionally fatal, are we on the verge of another pandemic? Today we explore what you should know about this uncommon illness.

What is monkeypox?

Monkeypox is a virus endemic in parts of West and Central Africa. The condition is a less virulent form of smallpox.

The name “monkeypox” comes from the first documented cases of the illness in animals in 1958, when two outbreaks occurred in monkeys kept for research. However, the virus did not jump from monkeys to humans, nor are monkeys significant carriers of the disease.

The monkeypox virus belongs to a family of viruses: cowpox, smallpox, and vaccinia.

Monkeypox virus causes the condition, with the virus a subset of the Poxviridae family of viruses called Orthopoxvirus. This subset includes smallpox, vaccinia, and cowpox viruses. Scientists suspect that African rodents play a role in transmission, but the natural reservoir of monkeypox is not clear.

Monkeypox transmission and symptoms

Contacting an infected individual or animal (or contaminated surfaces) can lead to virus transmission.

Most commonly, the monkeyvirus enters the body through broken skin, mucous membranes of the eyes, nose, or mouth, or through inhalation. Contaminated clothing can be a vector, too. How and where infections are happening remains under investigation.

Monkeypox creates a rash that starts with flat red marks that become raised and filled with pus. Infected people may also have a fever and body aches. Monkeypox can also cause lymph nodes to swell (in contradistinction, smallpox does not). Other initial symptoms may include:

• Fever or chills
• Headache
• Muscle aches or backache
• Exhaustion

Symptoms usually appear in six to 13 days but can take as long as three weeks after exposure to become noticeable and last for two to four weeks.

Often, the rash develops within one to three days of the fever, with the skin changes beginning on the face and then spreading to other body parts. The skin lesions can begin as flat (macules), become raised (papules), and then transition to vesicles (a thin-walled sac filled with a fluid, usually clear and small).

If progression continues, pustules may form and finally transition to scabs. The overall course is usually around two to four weeks. In Africa, monkeypox is fatal in as many as 10 percent of those who get the disease.

Monkeypox risk reduction and management

The United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) volunteers these risk reduction strategies:

• Avoid contact with animals that may have the virus (including sick or dead animals in endemic areas).
• Avoid contact with any materials (such as bedding) that have been in contact with a sick animal.
• Isolate infected patients from others who could be at risk for infection.
• Practice good hand hygiene after contact with infected animals or humans. For example, wash your hands with soap and water or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
• Use personal protective equipment (PPE) when caring for patients.

An attenuated live virus vaccine for monkeypox is JYNNEOSTM (Imvamune or Imvanex).

The CDC explains there is no proven, safe treatment for monkeypox virus infection. Smallpox vaccine, antivirals, and vaccinia immune globulin (VIG) are options to control a monkeypox outbreak in the United States. Learn more about treatment here:Monkeypox TreatmentClinician Treatment. Monkeypox is a viral disease that occurs mainly in central and western Africa. It is called…www.cdc.gov.

If you have a new skin rash or are concerned about monkeypox, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) urges people to contact their health care provider. The agency has asked doctors to be on the alert for signs of the telltale rash and says potential monkeypox cases should be isolated and flagged to them.

Am I worried? Not particularly, but I will be on guard until we get more clarity on the scope of the problem. It is challenging to estimate how big a problem monkeypox will become. For now, be aware but know that the risk posed by monkeypox is currently remarkably low.

The likelihood of transmission during sexual contact is high. Still, the risk of transmission from other forms of close contact is low, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control explains.

Fortunately, symptoms are usually mild, but in Nigeria, 3.3 percent died (with the most vulnerable including children, young adults, and immunocompromised people. Thank you for joining me today.

The post Monkeypox: What You Need to Know appeared first on Medika Life.

David Sarabia had already sold two startups by age 26 and was sitting on enough money to never have to work another day in his life. He moved from Southern California to New York City and began to indulge in all the luxuries his newly minted millionaire status conveyed. Then it all went sideways, and his life quickly unraveled.

“I became a massive cocaine addict,” Sarabia said. “It started off just casual partying, but that escalated to pretty much anything I could get my hands on.”

At one particularly low point, Sarabia was homeless for three months, sleeping on public transportation to stay warm. Even with plenty of money in the bank, Sarabia said, he’d lost the will to live. “I’d given up,” he said.

He got back on his feet, sort of, and for the next three years lived as a “functional cocaine addict” until his best friend, Jay Greenwald, died after a night of partying. Finally, Sarabia checked himself into a rehab in Southern California — ostensibly a luxurious one, although Sarabia didn’t find it to be so.

Still, the place saved his life. The clinicians really cared, he recalled, although their efforts were hampered by clunky technology and poor management. He had the feeling that the owners were more interested in profits than in helping people recover.

Just days off cocaine, the tech entrepreneur was scribbling designs for his next startup idea: a digital platform that would make clinician paperwork easier, combined with a mobile app to guide patients through recovery. After he left treatment in 2017, Sarabia tapped his remaining wealth — about $400,000 — to fund an addiction tech company he named inRecovery.

With the nation’s opioid overdose epidemic hitting a record high of more than 100,000 deaths in 2021, effective ways to fight addiction and expand treatment access are desperately needed. Sarabia and other entrepreneurs in the realm they call addiction tech see a $42 billion U.S. market for their products and an addiction treatment field that is, in techspeak, ripe for disruption.

It has long been torn by opposing ideologies and approaches: medication-assisted treatment versus cold-turkey detox; residential treatment versus outpatient; abstinence versus harm reduction; peer support versus professional help. And most people who report struggling with substance use never manage to access treatment at all.

Tech is already offering help to some. Those who can pay out-of-pocket, or have treatment covered by an employer or insurer, can access one of a dozen addiction telemedicine startups that allow them to consult with a physician and have a medication like buprenorphine mailed directly to their home. Some of the virtual rehabs provide digital cognitive behavior treatment, with connected devices and even mail-in urine tests to monitor compliance with sobriety.

Plentiful apps offer peer support and coaching, and entrepreneurs are developing software for treatment centers that handle patient records, personalize the client’s time in rehab, and connect them to a network of peers.

But while the founders of for-profit companies may want to end suffering, said Fred Muench, clinical psychologist and president of the nonprofit Partnership to End Addiction, it all comes down to revenue.

Startup experts and clinicians working on the front lines of the drug and overdose epidemic doubt the flashy Silicon Valley technology will ever reach people in the throes of addiction who are unstably housed, financially challenged, and on the wrong side of the digital divide.

“The people who are really struggling, who really need access to substance use treatment, don’t have 5G and a smartphone,” said Dr. Aimee Moulin, a professor and behavioral health director for the Emergency Medicine Department at UC Davis Health. “I just worry that as we start to rely on these tech-heavy therapy options, we’re just creating a structure where we really leave behind the people who actually need the most help.”

The investors willing to feed millions of dollars on startups generally aren’t investing in efforts to expand treatment to the less privileged, Moulin said.

Besides, making money in the addiction tech business is tough, because addiction is a stubborn beast.

Conducting clinical trials to validate digital treatments is challenging because of users’ frequent lapses in medication adherence and follow-up, said Richard Hanbury, founder and CEO of Sana Health, a startup that uses audiovisual stimulation to relax the mind as an alternative to opioids.

There are thousands of private, nonprofit, and government-run programs and drug rehabilitation centers across the country. With so many bit players and disparate programs, startups face an uphill battle to land enough customers to generate significant revenue, he added.

After conducting a small study to ease anxiety for people detoxing off opioids, Hanbury postponed the next step, a larger study. To sell his product to the country’s sprawling array of addiction treatment providers, Hanbury decided, he would need to hire a much larger sales team than his budding company could afford.

Still, the immense need is feeding enthusiasm for addiction tech.

In San Francisco alone, more than twice as many people died from drug overdoses as from covid over the past two years. Employers, insurers, providers, families, and those suffering addiction themselves are all demanding better and affordable access to treatment, said Unity Stoakes, president and managing partner of StartUp Health.

The investment firm has launched a portfolio of seed-stage startups that aim to use technology to end addiction and the opioid epidemic. Stoakes hopes the wave of new treatment options will reduce the stigma of addiction and increase awareness and education. The emerging tools aren’t trying to remove human care for addiction, but rather “supercharge the doctor or the clinician,” he said.

While acknowledging that underserved populations are hard to reach, Stoakes said tech can expand access and enhance targeted efforts to help them. With enough startups experimenting with different types of treatment and delivery methods, hopefully one or more will succeed, he said.

Addiction telehealth startups have gained the most traction. Quit Genius, a virtual addiction treatment provider for alcohol, opioid, and nicotine dependence, raised $64 million from investors last summer, and in October, $118 million went to Workit Health, a virtual prescriber of medication-assisted treatment. Several other startups — Boulder Care, Groups Recover Together, Ophelia, Bicycle Health, and Wayspring, most of which have nearly identical telehealth and prescribing models — have landed sizable funding since the pandemic started.

Some of the startups already sell to self-insured employers, providers, and payers. Some market directly to consumers, while others are conducting clinical trials to get FDA approval they hope to parlay into steadier reimbursement. But that route involves a lot of competition, regulatory hurdles, and the need to convince payers that adding another treatment will drive down costs.

Sarabia’s in Recovery plans to use its software to help treatment centers run more efficiently and improve their patient outcomes. The startup is piloting an aftercare program, aimed at keeping patients connected to prevent relapse after treatment, with Caron Treatment Centers, a high-end nonprofit treatment provider based in Pennsylvania.

His long-term goal is to drive down costs enough to offer his service to county-run treatment centers in hopes of expanding care to the neediest. But for now, implementing the tech doesn’t come cheap, with treatment providers paying anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000 a year to license the software.

“Bottom line, for the treatment centers that don’t have consistent revenue, those on the lower end, they will probably not be able to afford something like this,” he said.

The post Money Flows Into Addiction Tech, But Will It Curb Soaring Opioid Overdose Deaths? appeared first on Medika Life.