Diabetes. Advances in the treatment of diabetes over the years have helped to improve the quality of life for those with Type 1 Diabetes, where the pancreas …
WHY PEOPLE ARE ALIVE TODAY healthcare milestones written for Novartis
Transplants
The advent of immunosuppressants, a class of drugs capable of inhibiting
the bodys immune system, has ushered in a new era for organ transplants,
giving transplant patients hope for longer, more normal lives Thousands of
lives have been saved and survival rates are growing longer for those
receiving organ transplants In fact, liver and heart transplant survival
rates doubled due to Neoral, which inspired doctors worldwide to begin
transplanting the lung, small bowel, and pancreas
During the earliest days of kidney transplants, one-year survival rates
were as low as 30 Currently, the one-year survival rates for kidney,
liver, and pancreas transplants are at least 90 Whats more, long-term
survival rates have increased as well, with many transplant patients
surviving eight to 10 years and longer By the end of 1997, more than
415,000 kidney, 46,000 heart, and 62,000 liver transplants had been carried
out worldwide, leading to longer, healthier lives for transplant patients
In the US alone, more than 25,000 people will receive organ transplants
this year
HIV/AIDS
Recently discovered drug therapies have
begun to turn the tide against one
of the planets greatest scourges, HIV/AIDS Although close to one million
Americans-and more than 40 million people worldwide-are living with HIV,
many of them are enjoying longer, more productive lives thanks to advances
in drug treatments and combination therapies In fact, over the past 10
years, the AIDS death rate in the US has fallen by 70
People diagnosed with AIDS in 1990 had a life expectancy of just over two
years, during which time they would likely have contracted several
opportunistic infections such as pneumonia making their remaining time
unpleasant and painful Moreover, the only treatment available had serious
side effects
Due to the development of powerful new classes of drugs-namely protease
inhibitors and fusion inhibitors-that inhibit the AIDS virus from
duplicating and impede its ability to enter and infect human immune cells,
those with HIV/AIDS face a much brighter future Because HIV can become
resistant to any of these drugs, doctors use combination treatments-known
as highly active antiretroviral therapy HAART-to effectively suppress
the virus HAART can be used to treat people newly infected with HIV as
well as those with
AIDS, and researchers consider it a major factor in
significantly reducing the number of AIDS-related deaths in the US
Starkly contrasting with the reality of the 1990s, the range of treatment
options available to people diagnosed with AIDS today can keep them symptom-
free for many years and enable them to lead a relatively normal life
Cancer
Close to 10 million Americans with a history of cancer are alive today-a
staggering statistic that only the most optimistic could have forecasted
when President Richard Nixon declared war on cancer in 1971 Over the past
few decades, a succession of breakthroughs has driven researchers closer to
finding a cure for cancer, even for the most widespread and lethal forms-
breast cancer and leukemia
Breast cancer kills almost 40,000 women every year in the US alone In
the 1970s, researchers developed a revolutionary class of drugs designed to
attack a form of breast cancer that relies on the female hormones, estrogen
and progesterone, to grow Tamoxifen is the most widely used of this class
of drugs that works by blocking the activity of female hormones and halting
the growth of-and even shrinking-tumors Although these hormone-blocking
drugs have
been a standard line of defense against breast cancer for years,
a new class of drugs developed in the last couple years-aromatase
inhibitors-promises to be even more effective Aromatase inhibitors, which
include the drugs Arimidex and Femara, block an enzyme the body uses to
make estrogen, reducing the bodys production of estrogen in the process
Aromatase inhibitors are often subsequently prescribed to women who have
taken Tamoxifen for two to five years This class of drugs also effectively
reduces cancer recurrence in certain women
On the leukemia front, Gleevec was approved in 2001 to treat several types
of leukemia, as well a rare type of cancer, gastrointestinal stromal tumor
Because of Gleevec, people with leukemia no longer have to undergo risky
bone marrow transplants or daily injections of interferon and the
unpleasant side effects that accompany it
Although a pharmaceutical panacea for breast cancer has yet to surface,
women with the disease are living longer In fact, its now possible to
drive breast cancer into full remission without mastectomies As recently
as 1999, the majority of people diagnosed with leukemia didnt live more
than five years Today, however, thanks to
drugs like Gleevec, those with
leukemia stand a good chance of complete remission with few side effects
Diabetes
Advances in the treatment of diabetes over the years have helped to improve
the quality of life for those with Type 1 Diabetes, where the pancreas
doesnt produce insulin, and Type 2 Diabetes, where either the pancreas
does not produce enough insulin or cells ignore the insulin produced Since
the first successful attempt to treat diabetes with insulin in 1922,
millions of people around the world have benefited from what was then
considered a miracle Virtually overnight, what was once an incurable,
fatal disease was, although not cured, brought under control For the first
time, the development of insulin enabled people living with the disease to
lead relatively normal, productive lives Advances continued, including the
development of a standard insulin syringe, blood glucose meters, and
insulin pumps In 1983, biosynthetic human insulin was introduced, making
it possible for people with diabetes to manage their disease with man-made
insulin chemically identical to human insulin In the near future,
implantable insulin pumps, insulin pills, oral insulin spray, and
inhaled
insulin promise to make living with Type 1 Diabetes even more manageable
Several classes of oral medications have been developed that enable those
with Type 2 Diabetes who are unable to control their disease via diet and
exercise alone to manage it without daily insulin injections Insulin
Sensitizers decrease cells resistance to insulin, allowing more sugar to
enter them, which reduces sugar and insulin levels in the bloodstream and
leads to lower blood glucose levels Sulfonylureas lower blood sugar levels
by making the pancreas release more insulin Insulin Secretagogues, such as
Starlix, cause the pancreas to release more insulin Biguanides decrease
the livers production of sugar Lastly, Alpha-Glucosidase Inhibitors slow
the breakdown of food into sugar, causing sugar to enter the blood more
slowly These classes of oral medications have significantly eased the
burden of living with Type 2 Diabetes and have paved the way for the
development of new medication classes that will likely make life even
easier for those living with the disease
In addition to the millions of people with diabetes who have successfully
managed the disease with the help of insulin in the decades
since its
discovery, its estimated that more than 15 million people with diabetes
alive today would have died at an early age were it not for insulin
Infectious Disease
Few, if any, types of drug treatment can be credited with saving more lives
than antibiotics What now seem like simple infections, treatable with one
of the many antibiotics available now, were often lethal agents prior to
1940, confounding doctors who would complete successful surgeries only to
lose patients to vexing bacterial infections The first antibiotic
developed was penicillin Introduced to the world during World War II, this
life-saving drug was used almost exclusively on injured soldiers In time,
one illness after another caused by bacterial infections-including
pneumonia, tuberculosis, strep throat, scarlet fever, diphtheria, syphilis,
gonorrhea, meningitis, tonsillitis, and rheumatic fever-was cured by
penicillin, which saved the lives of millions of people around the world
and was dubbed a wonder drug
Other types of antibiotics have been developed since penicillin, classified
as narrow spectrum when effective against a few types of bacteria and
broad spectrum when used to treat a wider range of bacteria
Tetracycline,
the most widely used broad-spectrum antibiotic, is used to treat skin
disorders such as acne, rosacea, and perioral dermatitis Quinolones and
Fluoroquinolones are another variety of broad-spectrum antibiotics used to
treat mild urinary tract and sinus infections Cephalosporins are also used
to treat urinary and sinus infections, as well as tonsillitis and middle
ear infections Polymixins are narrow-spectrum antibiotics used to treat
ailments such as intestinal and pulmonary infections Although bacteria can
adapt and become resistant to antibiotics, these drugs will continue to be
a powerful remedy against bacterial infections if used correctly
Vaccines
Much like the success of antibiotics, vaccines have also saved millions of
lives worldwide Since the first vaccine was developed to treat smallpox in
1798, many other vaccines have emerged-especially since World War 2-to
combat a wide range of illnesses American vaccination rates are at an all-
time high, and deaths from diseases like diphtheria, measles, mumps, and
polio are at all-time lows Moreover, immunizations are playing an
increasingly important role in maintaining the health of billions of people
worldwide To
appreciate how far weve come, its vital to understand where
things stood before individual vaccines were developed
In 1974, when the World Health Organization WHO commenced its Expanded
Program on Immunization, measles was the worlds single biggest killer of
children, claiming more than 7 million lives each year Since then, the
number of fatalities from measles has dropped ten-fold to less than 800,000
annually Its estimated that the number of lives saved by WHOs
vaccination program is equivalent to the number of lives lost in all 20th
century wars combined During the first half of the 20th century, polio
killed tens of thousands of people in the US alone, and crippled tens of
thousands more Since the development of polio vaccines in the 1950s and
1960s, polio has been totally eradicated from the US and is close to
elimination in the rest of the world In addition to saving lives, vaccines
also save valuable healthcare dollars More than 6 are saved for every 1
spent on polio vaccines, and more than 21 are saved for every 1 spent on
measles/mumps/rubella vaccines
Source:familycaregiversonline.com
