Hello, and welcome back to The Friday Kable. We have news about maternal deaths and infant mortality and light-based wound treatments and a new way to forecast malaria outbreaks, and much more.
 
Earlier this month, the US FDA added eye drops made by India's Global Pharma and distributed by Delsam Pharma to a do-not-purchase list. Now, the agency has expanded that warning to add Delsam Pharma’s Artificial Eye Ointment to the list due to possible bacterial contamination.

Reuters has an interesting report on bird flu vaccination policies by country. Very timely as Cambodia has just reported the first human bird flu death lately.

A case of mad cow disease in Brazil is affecting the country's beef exports to China.

And finally, the cholera outbreak in Africa continues unabated, with South Africa recording its first cholera death in over a decade, and Mozambique recording over 1300 cases as the outbreak gathers steam there.  

Newsworthy

Trends in Maternal Mortality. It’s 2023, but you wouldn’t think that if you saw the UN’s latest report on maternal mortality. It’s 2023, and still, giving birth is life-threatening to hundreds of thousands of women around the world. One woman dies of pregnancy or childbirth every two minutes, according to UN estimates.

In 2020, global maternal deaths stood at 287,000, just slightly lower than 2016’s 309,000 deaths. Maternal deaths reduced from 2000 to 2015, but ever since, progress hasn’t been so linear. Add to that the Covid pandemic (which occurred after the current data series, which ends in 2020), and maternal deaths are likely to worsen in recent years since Covid infections can increase pregnancy-associated risks.

About a third of women fall far short of the recommended 8 antenatal checks and the required postnatal care. Around 270 million women can’t access modern family planning methods. Maternal deaths in such situations are caused by excessive bleeding, high blood pressure, infections and complications. The most disheartening part is that these are all mostly preventable and treatable, but most of these women simply don’t have access to the quality of care they so desperately need. Unfortunately, we might be looking at another global target that we’re going to fail miserably to meet.
(UNICEF)

Like mother, like child. Infant mortality rates don’t look very promising either. The UN released a report on infant and child mortality earlier this year, and now, a team of researchers have found that counterintuitively, these high death rates amongst babies are leading to a consistent rise in the human population. The more babies a woman loses, the more children she is likely to have, in what the researchers describe as an “insurance” effect. What might help to reduce fertility, according to the researchers, is greater access to family planning, including access to contraception, as well as just keeping the kids already around alive and healthy.
(PLOS ONE)

Faking science. We really love our data and peer-reviewed studies when it comes to expanding our knowledge about the world, no? But this piece in The Economist reveals a disturbing trend in the falsification of research, especially medical research, which can potentially have life-threatening implications for people. Motivation for faking the science tends to be career-related, as advancement is usually linked to the length of an academician’s publication list. The offences range from copying, omitting or making up data to making questionable changes to research methodology post facto or just outsourcing the work entirely to a paper mill. What’s worse is that many involved are happy to look the other way. And such acts may entirely erode people’s faith in evidence-based science, which we desperately need.
(The Economist)

R&D

Light it up. Move over ointments and sutures. These researchers from South Korea are using light to close wounds, evading side effects like secondary inflammation and needle puncturing while overcoming the weak bonding power of other bio-binding agents. This new technique, called photochemical tissue bonding (PTB), uses a photosensitizer to set off a series of steps which create covalent bonding between collagen molecules. In time, this technique could be expanded to the brain and other body tissue treatments.
(Light: Science and Applications)

Keep it simple, stupid! First-line HIV treatment is ineffective in millions of patients around the world, but researchers now have evidence for a number of treatment options. An international study has shown that two simplified second-line treatment options – which require fewer pills and consequently lower costs – are at least as effective as the standard of care in achieving viral suppression in HIV patients. And given their simplicity, they could revolutionise access to HIV treatment in low- and middle-income countries.
(UNSW The Kirby Institute)

Food or sex? You can only pursue one of those wants at a time, so which of the two is more rewarding? The answer might depend on how much leptin is stimulating your brain. Researchers used light and chemical signals to stimulate the leptin receptor-bearing neurons in mice, observing that this made them prioritise socialising with potential mates even when they were acutely hungry. These neural mechanisms – including leptin and neurotensin receptors – might explain why diets don’t work in the long run and may even help treat obesity and eating disorders.
(Cell Metabolism)

Quit playing games with my heart. Instead, use these engineers’ new procedure to 3D print custom heart replicas which model the real deal in form and function. These replicas can be used to test different valve implants to assess which works best for a particular patient. In labs and in the medical device industry, they could be used to try out different therapies for heart diseases.
(Science Robotics)

Hitting a new target. Venetoclax – recently granted marketing authorisation in Finland – is a new targeted therapy for patients of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). Still, it is not useful against two rare subtypes of AML: erythroid and megakaryoblastic leukaemias. Fortunately, researchers have also now discovered a targeted drug, BCL-XL inhibitors, which may prove effective against these two subtypes in future clinical trials.
(Blood)

Conspiracy theories, not just theories. Remember that Bill Gates microchip-in-your-brain conspiracy theory? It seems to have inspired these researchers to create a gel which turns into an electrode on injection into living beings. They’ve used it to disrupt zebrafish’s swimming ability, to exercise puppeteer-like control over the muscles of dead leeches. The plan is to eventually get it into human brains to treat neurological conditions without the tissue-damaging process of implanting electrodes.
(Science)

The Kibble

Forewarned is forearmed. While new anti-malarial vaccines and treatments are rolling off the shelves fairly regularly now, malaria will continue to remain a deadly killer for the foreseeable future. One of the public health challenges with malaria is predicting when and where an outbreak will happen. In a new study, researchers have integrated socioeconomic data with land use and climate patterns to accurately predict malaria outbreaks, boosting the ability to respond and mitigate.
(PLOS Global Public Health)

Hey look, a rabbit! What unites us humans as a species more than anything else is how easily we can be/get distracted. Writing a newsletter when someone plays a music video and suddenly it is shipping time. Prepping for an interview when you spy a bunch of freshly-made muffins. So many distractions, so little time. A new study, however, indicates there are some who live and walk among us who are able to prevent distractions from gaining hold of them. Thanks to training their brains to suppress these distractions. Of course, the study was in monkeys, but hey, we aren't that far removed from our ancestors yet.
(PNAS)

Don't bag that breakfast. There has not been a single study we can recollect that talks about the benefits of skipping breakfast. And that is because there are no benefits to skipping breakfast. A new study, in fact, says skipping breakfast is a surefire way to mess with your immune system. Say yes to breakfast. Always.
(Immunity)

Breathe bilge, die depressed. A new study from the US makes a disturbing connection between air pollution and later life. Apparently, breathing in polluted air over a long period translates into late-stage depression in elders. Puts paid to the idea of city living, we guess.
(JAMA)

Bottom line

Dustblasters dissemble. Say bye-bye to your feather dusters and your hand-held minivacs. New tech is here that will ensure surfaces clean themselves instead of needing you to slave over them. And the secret ingredient is gravity.
(ACS Applied Materials & Interface)

A better, greener air filter. One of the drawbacks of conventional air filters is that they are made using petroleum products. So, while they clean the air quite well, we still have to contend with the fact that they cause environmental damage in their creation and, later, disposal. To solve this conundrum, scientists have come up with a new type of air filter, using corn protein, which not only captures particulate pollution, it also traps toxic chemicals that current air filters can't.
(Separation and Purification Technology)

Oh, and Gopal Nair doesn't want you to see this.