OPENING A CAN OF WORMS
PARIS
Fancy a change from orange juice for breakfast? How about a yummy glass of... worms?
The concoction will soon be on sale in Europe, after researchers found that tiny parasites called pig whipworms appear to have an astonishing effect on symptoms for a crippling form of bowel disease, New Scientist says.
The idea for this comes from American gastroenterologist Joel Weinstock of the University of Iowa, who believes modern man's bowel system is over-sanitized.
He noticed that Western countries have experienced a sharp rise in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in the past 50 years. That increase has coincided with a sharp fall in infections by classic intestinal parasites such as roundworm and human whipworms.
In developing countries, on the other hand, these parasites are common but IBD is very rare. Weinstock believes that our immune systems have evolved over millions of years to cope with the presence of such parasites, and without them our bowels can become overactive. This is where the pig whipworm (Trichuris suis) comes in. Weinstock recruited 100 volunteers with ulcerative colitis, and 100 with Crohn's disease.
By regularly drinking a concoction of thousands of pig whipworm eggs, many of them saw symptoms such as abdominal pain, bleeding, and diarrhea disappear. Fifty percent of the volunteers in the ulcerative colitis had remission, and the rate among the Crohn's disease group was a remarkable 70 percent.
"A lot of researchers couldn't believe this treatment was effective, but people are always skeptical when confronted with new ideas," Weinstock said. He chose pig whipworms as a friendly gut-stabilizing parasite because the eggs, after developing, do not survive very long in the human body. Human whipworms, however, are a different proposition-half a billion people carry this parasite, which can cause problems such as anemia.
The European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products has now approved sales of the drink for public consumption. The first product, intended for twice-a-month treatment, is likely to go on sale in May. The manufacturers are a new German company called BioCure, whose sister company, BioMonde, sells leeches and maggots for treating wounds.
It will be sold under the name of "TSO" (for Trichuris Suis Ova), presumably because "Drinkable Pig Whipworms" may not be a smart branding strategy.
AFP
COOL COFFIN
JOHANNESBURG
South Africa's daunting AIDS toll has prompted a new invention: a refrigerated coffin in which a body can be stored up to a month. The designer, Pieter van Rensberg, said his invention could slash the costs of preserving bodies of people in poor rural communities whose families might take days to turn up for the funeral or those of migrant workers who die far from home.
Van Rensberg said his invention, the Porta-morgue, was basically an insulated coffin with a cooling unit.
"[It] has good insulation and is relatively cheap to operate," he said, adding that a body could be preserved for up to a month at a temperature of four degrees Celsius. While being transported, the coffin can be switched off for 12 hours without the body spoiling, he said. The invention won a design award from the South African Bureau of Standards.
AFP
10 million Number of people diagnosed with cancer yearly
15 million Number of new cancer cases projected to be detected every year beginning 2020
6 million Number of people who die of cancer every year
12 Percentage of worldwide deaths attributed to cancer
23 Percentage of cancers in developing countries caused by infectious agents, including hepatitis B and C virus, (liver cancer), human papillomaviruses (cervical and ano-genital cancers), and Helicobacter pylori (stomach cancer)
100 million
Number of people who died of tobacco-related diseases in the 20th century
20 to 30
Number of times the risk is higher for a smoker to develop lung cancer versus a nonsmoker
500 grams
Amount of fruits people must consume daily to reduce the incidence stomach cancers by 25 percent
80
Percentage of cancer victims in developing countries who already have late-stage incurable tumors when diagnosed
Source
World Cancer Report, World Health Organization/International Agency for
Research on Cancer |
