Health News of Wednesday, 9 October 2013 Source: graphic.com.gh The Minister of Health, Ms Sherry Ayittey, has asked Ghanaians to have confidence in the countrys health system and stop travelling abroad for the treatment of illnesses that can be treated locally. She said the governments programme to refurbish and re-equip the three teaching hospitals to enhance healthcare delivery was on course. Already, she said, some modern facilities had been installed at those hospitals, while some of their departments had been refurbished. The three teaching hospitals are the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) in Accra, the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi and the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH). Taking her turn at the meet-the-press series in Accra yesterday, Ms Ayittey said the hospitals were being equipped with modern diagnostic machines which could detect diseases and all kinds of ailments. The re-equipping of the teaching hospitals, she stated, was essential, since they served as referral hospitals for the northern, central and southern parts of the country. Projects Giving details on some ongoing projects in the hospitals, Ms Ayittey said the Dental Department of KBTH has being refitted with eight new dental treatment units. Excerpt from: Have confidence in healthcare system — Sherry … Continue reading →

Angela Mulholland, CTVNews.ca Published Tuesday, October 8, 2013 6:31PM EDT Last Updated Tuesday, October 8, 2013 11:49PM EDT A study published in the British medical journal The Lancet finds that narrowing of the veins leading from the brain -- a condition called CCSVI -- is just as prevalent in patients with Multiple Sclerosis as in people without the disease. The study, funded by the MS Society of Canada and led by Dr. Anthony Traboulsee of the University of British Columbia, calls into question the controversial theory that MS is caused by or associated with CCSVI, or chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency. Four years ago, Italian doctor Paolo Zamboni proposed that MS was linked to constricted veins in the head and neck. He provided research that showed that opening the veins with tiny balloons a procedure he dubbed the liberation treatment --could improve symptoms in patients and reduce the number of attacks. Since then, hundreds of patients have sought the procedure and dozens of studieshave been presented-- all with conflicting results. The Lancet study used ultrasound to examine the veins of 79 people with MS, as well as a procedure called catheter venography. They also looked at the veins of 55 people … Continue reading →

Sheryl Ubelacker, The Canadian Press Published Tuesday, October 8, 2013 5:11PM PDT Last Updated Tuesday, October 8, 2013 7:09PM PDT TORONTO -- A long-awaited Canadian study has found that narrowed neck veins are as common in healthy people as those with multiple sclerosis, sounding what's being called the "death knell" of the theory that blocked blood vessels may cause the debilitating neurological disease. The study, published Tuesday in The Lancet, is the latest to question the validity of a controversial theory put forth in 2009 by Dr. Paolo Zamboni that MS is related to narrowed neck veins, which prevent blood from properly draining from the brain. The Italian vascular surgeon named the condition "chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency," or CCSVI. He suggested iron deposits from backed-up blood cause the lesions in the brain that are the hallmarks of MS. The disease causes inflammation that destroys the myelin sheath around nerves, leading to widespread disability. Zamboni said patients treated with a procedure to open up their neck veins -- called balloon venoplasty -- saw a significant reduction in symptoms. News of Zamboni's "liberation therapy," generated through traditional and social media, sent thousands of MS patients from Canada and elsewhere to private clinics … Continue reading →

Novartis (NVS) multiple sclerosis (MS) drug Gilenya continues to show its efficacy in treating patients in the long run. Gilenya is the first approved once-daily oral therapy for the treatment of relapsing forms of MS. Novartis presented new data on Gilenya from three pivotal studies TRANSFORMS, FREEDOMS and FREEDOMS extension studies. The data indicates that continued treatment with Gilenya can lead to a reduction in brain volume loss in patients suffering from relapsing forms of MS. It was also observed that a higher proportion of patients treated with Gilenya remained free from disability progression. Novartis presented this new data at the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis in Denmark. In addition, Novartis also released data from an international MS registry and a U.S. health claims data base which showed that Gilenya was more effective in reducing risks of relapses compared to standard therapies. Novartis licensed Gilenya from Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation. We note that Gilenya is approved in the U.S. for relapsing forms of MS. In the EU, Gilenya is approved for adult patients with highly active relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS). We are encouraged by the data on Gilenya, which showed the effectiveness of the drug against standard … Continue reading →