🤱🩺🩹 Botswana was named the first high-HIV country to end mother-to-child HIV transmission earlier this year! The achievement is a remarkable shift from the start of the century, when one in eight infants were infected at birth and transmission either through pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding ranged between 20 and 40% – a situation so severe the country’s then-president declared the nation in danger of “extinction.” However, through sustained political campaigns in investing in scientific infrastructure, testing and antiretroviral treatments, and public health education programs, mother-to-child transmission rates now lie below 1%, effectively eliminating the public health threat!
The pioneering African country is lauded for slashing rates of mother-to-child transmission to just 1.2% and is holding trials that may now
By Pat Anson, PNN Editor Over the years there’s been a lot of speculation about what causes fibromyalgia – everything from gluten and ge
Over the years there’s been a lot of speculation about what causes fibromyalgia – everything from gluten and genetics to childhood trauma, spinal fractures and a weakened immune system.
About 5 million Americans suffer from fibromyalgia, a poorly understood disorder characterized by deep tissue pain, fatigue, mood swings and insomnia. It often takes years for a patient to be diagnosed and treatments are often ineffective – in part because of uncertainty about what actually causes fibromyalgia.
For the first time, researchers at McGill University Health Centre in Montreal have found an association between gut bacteria and fibromyalgia. It’s not clear whether the microbes cause fibromyalgia or if they are a symptom, but the discovery opens to door to new forms of treatment and diagnosis.
"We found that fibromyalgia and the symptoms of fibromyalgia - pain, fatigue and cognitive difficulties - contribute more than any of the other factors to the variations we see in the microbiomes of those with the disease,” said lead author Amir Minerbi, MD, of the Alan Edwards Pain Management Unit at McGill University Health Centre.
“We also saw that the severity of a patient's symptoms was directly correlated with an increased presence or a more pronounced absence of certain bacteria - something which has never been reported before."
Minerbi and his colleagues enrolled 156 women in their study – about half of whom suffer from fibromyalgia. Participants were interviewed and gave stool, blood, saliva and urine samples, which were then compared.
Researchers found that the two groups had strikingly different types and amounts of gut bacteria. Nineteen different species of bacteria were found in either greater or lesser quantities in the microbiomes of fibromyalgia patients than in the healthy control group.
For example, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, one of the most abundant and well-studied bacteria in the human gut, was found to be depleted in fibromyalgia patients. It is believed to block pain and inflammation in the intestines.
Other bacteria associated with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and interstitial cystitis (IC) were found to be abundant in the fibromyalgia patients, but not in the healthy control group.
The bacterial differences don’t appear to be related to different diets or lifestyles, since some of the healthy participants lived in the same house as the fibromyalgia patients or were their parents, offspring or siblings. (Read more at link)
This doesn’t surprise me, it seems most fibro patients I talked to had IBS or similar stomach issues. Also it doesn’t seem to be saying probiotics will help, but that the information can be used as a diagnostic tool. Being able to diagnose fibromyalgia with a test would be a huge step in the right direction.
Did November fly by for anyone else? I guess FALL good things have to come to an end… 😉 (A good pun never hurt anybody!) Let’s wrap up last month (and my puns) with five good news stories from November! 🍂☕️
1. 🏳️🌈 A historic court win in the Dominican Republic struck down an old anti-gay law! The court ruled that the law, which criminalized consensual same-sex conduct by officers in the country’s police and armed forces, was “not in accordance with the constitution,” and ordered the removal of the penalties! The ruling has been celebrated as a step forward for LGBTQ people in the Dominican Republic to live freely without fear of discrimination and state-sanctioned punishment.
References to sodomy are “not in accordance with the Constitution,” the country's high court ruled.
2. 🥜 Peanut allergies in children are declining rapidly in the U.S.! Originally, medical advice recommended delaying introducing children to allergenic foods like peanuts — however, after trials revealed that early exposure led to lower risks of developing allergies, medical guidelines were revised, leading to a sharp drop in diagnoses. Researchers estimate the shift has prevented around 40,000 peanut allergies and about 60,000 total food allergies since 2015!
How doctors learned to stop childhood food allergies.
3. 🎨 Volunteers are cleaning trash from a river in Johannesburg, South Africa — and artists are turning it into artwork! A group of local artists, known as the Alexandra River Collective, take waste pulled from the Jukskei River — tires, bricks, and other debris – and use it to create art resembling animals found in the river’s ecosystem. As part of a larger river cleaning and flood resilience project, SUNCASA, volunteers and artists are working together to make the area beautiful in more ways than one!
Waste cleared from a Johannesburg river is being transformed into art as part of a new river rejuvenation project. About 150 kilometres of t
4. 🏜️ Five Native tribes are uniting to protect a sacred cultural landscape in California! Spanning more than 600,000 acres in the California desert, tribal members have come together to form an intertribal commission to co-manage the Chuckwalla National Monument, one of the U.S.’s newest protected public lands. In light of recent federal threats to public lands, the commission represents an advocate for the local environment, the conservation of Native history and culture, and a historic step towards tribal sovereignty!
A coalition of five California desert tribes will co-manage the 624,000-acre Chuckwalla National Monument.
5. 💉 Angola has launched a historic HPV vaccination effort, the first-ever of its kind in the country! Mobilizing across urban and rural areas and combating misinformation, the two-phase campaign seeks to vaccinate 2.2 million girls across the country, starting with 1.3 million in the first phase. As the efforts of 16 years of preparation and collaboration, the campaign has seen "unprecedented" results, bringing the country closer to preventing cervical cancer for future generations!
In the ten-day first phase of the game-changing campaign, Angola aimed to protect at least 1.3 million of the country’s eligible girls.
Are there any good news stories from November that you’d like to share? Feel free to share it! 🩵
👩🍼🍼❤️🩹 Global maternal mortality rates have declined by almost 60% over 40 years! Rates temporarily reversed during the COVID-19 pandemic, but they have since resumed falling. That means there are about 365,000 fewer maternal deaths each year than in 1985 — if we continue to close the maternal health equity gaps across the globe, an additional 275,000 mothers could be saved annually.
One of the most tragic beginnings in life for a child is to lose their mother during childbirth.
🦠🩺🧪 A scientific breakthrough for HIV is hinting towards progress in longer-lasting treatments and, potentially, a cure! A study found that, when given immune system-boosting therapies, most of its participants maintained low virus levels for several months to even more than a year without their usual medication! Through coordinated “immune-boosting” strategies rather than a single “silver bullet,” researchers say the study, along with other current research, is a huge step in understanding how to fight HIV, offering hope for achieving lasting remission!
In the small study, seven out of ten participants maintained low levels of HIV for several months after receiving the experimental treatment
Posts have been a little lighter recently! Things have been hectic, but still back to sharing good news! 🩵🫶🏽
💪🩺❤️🩹 Burundi and Senegal have just eliminated trachoma as a public health issue! Trachoma, a bacterial infection and the leading preventable cause of blindness worldwide, was combatted through various strategies -- surgery treatments for late stages, antibiotics, facial cleanliness campaigns, and improvements in water and sanitation access. Both countries have joined a growing list of nations that have eliminated the neglected tropical disease (NTD), becoming the eighth and ninth countries in the WHO’s African Region to do so!
The World Health Organization (WHO) has validated Burundi as having eliminated trachoma as a public health problem, making it the eighth cou
WHO has validated Senegal as having eliminated trachoma as a public health problem. Senegal becomes the ninth country in WHO’s African Regio
💉💪 Malaria elimination progress has prevented more than 2 billion cases and 13 million deaths since 2000! WHO has certified 45 countries and 1 territory as malaria-free to date, with 25 malaria-endemic countries reporting fewer than 10 cases in 2023. Years of global collaboration, vaccine programs, and developing tools like insecticide-treated nets have played vital roles in these gains.
On World Malaria Day, the World Health Organization (WHO) is calling for revitalized efforts at all levels, from global policy to community
So I got my letter of medical necessity which might open up me being able to get Botox for my night time teeth grinding and if I can get that this could really change a lot for me for sleep, migraines, visual snow, and chronic pain. This could change my life drastically 🥹
