BREAKING THE SILENCE, 2014 Breaking The Silence | Page 10

ROBOT SURGEONS AND
MINIMALLY INVASIVE SURGERY
NEAR ERADICATION
OF GUINEA WORM
From 3.5 million cases in
1986 to only 3,000 in 2009,
Guinea Worm has been 99%
eradicated from the globe.
Nigeria, once the worst
affected country, has not
had a case in 12 months.
The Guinea worm is
ingested as larvae in
contaminated drinking
water and within a year can
grow to be three feet long
before slowly burrowing out
of the skin and causing
excruciating pain for
months. Humans are the
only host for the parasite,
and with the last case of
human infection the worm
will have lost its parasitic
life cycle “habitat.” The
introduction of mesh filters
for drinking water, and pipe
filters that can be worn
around the neck by nomadic
peoples, has Guinea Worm
disease poised to be the
first disease eradicated
without vaccines or
medications, and the next
since smallpox to vanish
from the Earth.
BLOOD TESTS FOR DOWN
SYNDROME DETECTION
Ten years ago a patient
would typically be left with
a 10-inch scar when a
doctor removed a kidney.
Since 2007; however,
doctors have been
removing kidneys through
a single incision in the
patient's navel
using a technique called
Natural Orifice
Translumenal Endoscopic
Surgery or NOTES. This is
not a stunt from a star trek
movie scene, its real and it
is earth shattering. The
greatest benefit of tiny
openings into the body
rather than large incisions
made by traditional
surgery are shorter and
less painful recovery time.
While amniocentesis
represents a reliable method
to detect the Down
syndrome in an unborn
fetus, this particular
procedure does carry some
risks. In 2008, scientists
developed a less invasive
test that can identify the
syndrome simply by
drawing blood from the
mother.
ENZYMES MAKE ALL
BLOOD UNIVERSAL
STEM CELL RESEARCH
Probably the most
controversial area of
medical research, it is the
future of regenerative
medicine and the hope for
repairing damaged
specialized tissues like the
brain. For example,
European researchers
genetically manipulated
AMSUL Digest 2014
bone marrow cells taken
from two 7-year-old boys
and then transplanted the
altered cells back into the
boys and apparently
arrested the progress of a
fatal brain disease called
adrenoleukodystropy or
ALD.
Researchers have now found
a way to convert any blood
type to type O. They have
discovered two enzymes
that remove the A and B
antigens from blood, while
keeping the blood safe and
usable. An enzyme from the
bacterium Bacteroides
fragilis strips the B antigen
from blood, while another
enzyme, from the bacterium
Elizabethkingia
meningosepticum, removes
the A antigen.