Category Archives: Drugs

Japan : Scientists find first superbug strain of gonorrhea

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From: Barnabas

By Kate Kelland

LONDON | Mon Jul 11, 2011 9:35am BST

(Reuters) – Scientists have found a “superbug” strain of gonorrhea in Japan that is resistant to all recommended antibiotics and say it could transform a once easily treatable infection into a global public health threat.

The new strain of the sexually transmitted disease — called H041 — cannot be killed by any currently recommended treatments for gonorrhea, leaving doctors with no other option than to try medicines so far untested against the disease.

Magnus Unemo of the Swedish Reference Laboratory for Pathogenic Neisseria, who discovered the strain with colleagues from Japan in samples from Kyoto, described it as both “alarming” and “predictable.”

“Since antibiotics became the standard treatment for gonorrhea in the 1940s, this bacterium has shown a remarkable capacity to develop resistance mechanisms to all drugs introduced to control it,” he said.

In a telephone interview Unemo, who will present details of the finding at a conference of the International Society for Sexually Transmitted Disease Research (ISSTDR) in Quebec, Canada on Monday, said the fact that the strain had been found first in Japan also followed an alarming pattern.

“Japan has historically been the place for the first emergence and subsequent global spread of different types of resistance in gonorrhea,” he said.

The team’s analysis of the strain found it was extremely resistant to all cephalosporin-class antibiotics — the last remaining drugs still effective in treating gonorrhea.

Gonorrhea is a bacterial sexually transmitted infection and if left untreated can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy and infertility in women.

It is one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases in the world and is most prevalent in south and southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. In the United States alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number of cases is estimated at around 700,000 a year.

British scientists said last year that there was a real risk of gonorrhea becoming a superbug — a bacteria that has mutated and become resistant to multiple classes of antibiotics — after increasing reports of gonorrhea drug resistance emerged in Hong Kong, China, Australia and other parts of Asia.

Experts say the best way to reduce the risk of even greater resistance developing — beyond the urgent need to develop effective new drugs — is to treat gonorrhea with combinations of two or more types of antibiotic at the same time.

This technique is used in the treatment of some other diseases like tuberculosis in an attempt to make it more difficult for the bacteria to learn how to conquer the drugs.

Unemo said however that experience from previous degrees of resistance acquired by gonorrhea suggested this new multi-drug resistant strain could spread around the world within decades.

“Based on the historical data … resistance has emerged and spread internationally within 10 to 20 years,” he said.

Asked whether a class of drugs called carbapenems — known as the most powerful antibiotics yet devised — might be a last ditch option for treating this new gonorrhea strain, Unemo said there would first need to be trials to assess their potential.

“Carbapenems have never been used for the treatment of gonorrhea so we cannot interpret the data in any reliable or quality-assured way at the moment,” he said.

The World Health Organization estimates there are at least 340 million new cases of curable sexually transmitted infections — including syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia and trichomoniasis — every year among people aged 15 to 49.

(Editing by Tim Pearce)

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/07/11/us-gonorrhoea-superbug-idUKTRE76A0YO20110711?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews

— Barnabas Mbogo

“Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.”-Helen Keller

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USA: Rethinking Addiction’s Roots, and Its Treatment

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From: Kuria-Mwangi

This is an interesting turn in the treatment of addictions. The treatment of the physical or medical aspect of addiction as opposed to psychiatric or therapeutic approach. There will be need to also focus on the genes because there seem to be a correlation between addiction and genes. Why some people can drink for ever yet they dont get addicted or why addictions seems to run in families which may suggests that it has been passed through genes from mother/father to son/daughter, question of whether medication would be effective tools for the treatment or a combination of medical and therapeutic interventions, the pharmacological and therapeutic approach:

Kuria

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Rethinking Addiction’s Roots, and Its Treatment

There is an age-old debate over alcoholism: is the problem in the sufferer’s head — something that can be overcome through willpower, spirituality or talk therapy, perhaps — or is it a physical disease, one that needs continuing medical treatment in much the same way as, say, diabetes or epilepsy?
Increasingly, the medical establishment is putting its weight behind the physical diagnosis. In the latest evidence, 10 medical institutions have just introduced the first accredited residency programs in addiction medicine, where doctors who have completed medical school and a primary residency will be able to spend a year studying the relationship between addiction and brain chemistry.

“This is a first step toward bringing recognition, respectability and rigor to addiction medicine,” said David Withers, who oversees the new residency program at the Marworth Alcohol and Chemical Dependency Treatment Center in Waverly, Penn.

The goal of the residency programs, which started July 1 with 20 students at the various institutions, is to establish addiction medicine as a standard specialty along the lines of pediatrics, oncology or dermatology. The residents will treat patients with a range of addictions — to alcohol, drugs, prescription medicines, nicotine and more — and study the brain chemistry involved, as well as the role of heredity.

“In the past, the specialty was very much targeted toward psychiatrists,” said Nora D. Volkow, the neuroscientist in charge of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. “It’s a gap in our training program.” She called the lack of substance-abuse education among general practitioners “a very serious problem.”

Institutions offering the one-year residency include St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital in New York, the University of Maryland Medical System, the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Boston University Medical Center. Some, like Marworth, have been offering programs in addiction medicine for years, simply without accreditation.

The new accreditation comes courtesy of the American Board of Addiction Medicine, or ABAM, which was founded in 2007 to help promote the medical treatment of addiction.

The board aims to also get the program accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, a step that requires, among other things, establishing the program at a minimum of 20 institutions. The recognition would mean that the addictions specialty would qualify as a “primary” residency, one that a newly minted doctor could enter right out of school.

Richard Blondell, the chairman of the training committee at ABAM, said the group expected to accredit an additional 10 to 15 institutions this year.

The rethinking of addiction as a medical disease rather than a strictly psychological one began about 15 years ago, when researchers discovered through high-resonance imaging that drug addiction resulted in actual physical changes to the brain.

Armed with that understanding, “the management of folks with addiction becomes very much like the management of other chronic diseases, such as asthma, hypertension or diabetes,” said Dr. Daniel Alford, who oversees the program at Boston University Medical Center. “It’s hard necessarily to cure people, but you can certainly manage the problem to the point where they are able to function” through a combination of pharmaceuticals and therapy.

Central to the understanding of addiction as a physical ailment is the belief that treatment must be continuing in order to avoid relapse. Just as no one expects a diabetes patient to be cured after six weeks of healthy diet and insulin management, Dr. Alford said, it is unrealistic to expect most drug addicts to be cured after 28 days in a detoxification facility.

“It’s not surprising to us now that when you stop the treatment, people relapse,” Dr. Alford said. “It doesn’t mean that the treatment doesn’t work, it just means that you need to continue treatment.” Those physical changes in the brain could also explain why some smokers will still crave a cigarette 30 years after quitting, Dr. Alford said.

If the idea of addiction as a chronic disease has been slow to take hold in medical circles, it could be because doctors sometime struggle to grasp brain function, Dr. Volkow said. “While it is very simple to understand a disease of the heart — the heart is very simple, it’s just a muscle — it’s much more complex to understand the brain,” she said.

Increasing interest in addiction medicine is a handful of promising new pharmaceuticals, most notably buprenorphine (sold under brand names like Suboxone), which has proved to ease withdrawal symptoms in heroin addicts and subsequently block cravings, though it causes side effects of its own. Other drugs for treating opioid or alcohol dependence have shown promise as well.

Few addiction medicine specialists advocate a path to recovery that depends solely on pharmacology, however. “The more we learn about the treatment of addiction, the more we realize that one size does not fit all,” said Petros Levounis, who is in charge of the residency at the Addiction Institute of New York at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital.

Equally maligned is the idea that psychiatry or 12-step programs are adequate for curing a disease with physical roots in the brain. Many people who abuse drugs or alcohol do not have psychiatric problems, Dr. Alford noted, being quick to add, “I think there’s absolutely a role for addiction psychiatrists.”

While each institution has developed its own curriculum, the basic competencies each seeks to impart are the same. Residents will learn to recognize and diagnose substance abuse in patients, conduct brief interventions that spell out the treatment options and prescribe medications to help with withdrawal and recovery. The doctors will also be expected to understand the legal and practical implications of substance abuse.

Christine Pace, a 31-year-old graduate of Harvard Medical School, is the first addiction resident at Boston University Medical Center. She got interested in the subject as a teenager, when she volunteered at an AIDS organization and overheard heroin addicts complaining about doctors who could not — or would not — help them.

This year, when she became the in-house doctor at a methadone clinic in Boston, she was dismayed to find that the complaints had not changed. “I saw physicians over and over again pushing it aside, just calling a social-work consult to deal with a patient who is struggling with addiction,” Dr. Pace said.

One of her patients is Derek Anderson, 53, who credits Suboxone — as well as a general practitioner who six years ago recognized his signs of addiction — with helping him kick his 35-year heroin habit.

“I used to go to detoxes and go back and forth and back and forth,” he said. But the Suboxone “got me to where I don’t have the dependency every day, consuming you, swallowing you like a fish in water. I’m able to work now, I’m able to take care of my daughter, I’m able to pay rent — all the things I couldn’t do when I was using.”

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Kenya: Police and Drug Rings

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From: Judy Miriga

Folks,

This is Sooo painful my head goes round and round I am not able to put myself together reading this brutal drug baron acts……

Kenya Police with the Government need thorough clean up……any mother or father will be sick reading this heartless and unthinkable brutality metted on your baby, the loved ones……I cant imagine, it doesnt seem to me like a true story…..

All these are happening because of bad compromised leadership……Any responsible leader, a parent or a manager would not let such happen before their very eyes without putting a stop to it.

Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com

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Saturday, 02 July 2011 00:01 BY MIGUNA MIGUNA

I have a confession to make. When I read about the grisly murder of the University of Nairobi student Merci Keino, I cringed and cried so loud those near me might have thought I had gone crazy. I was. I am a proud father of four lovely young girls aged between fifteen and seven. I could only think of my girls when the news about Mercy’s death broke. So, readers should forgive me if I take her death personally. I do.

And for that reason, I am extremely upset with the ever fumbling and incompetent Kenya Police. I have read with more anger Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere’s plea that ‘Mwau aides should be charged.’ Gracious Lord; that’s the institution Kenyans expect to conduct investigations and apprehend Mercy’s killers?

By law, only the police have the mandate to conduct criminal investigations and apprehend criminals. But on that newspaper report Iteere is pleading with God-knows-who to arrest people that had staged a shooting and then lied to the police about it. Hallo? Why has it taken more than one week to lock up those scumbags?

Everyone who saw Harun Mwau’s vehicle after the alleged shooting knows that the damn thing was staged. It was staged so poorly that even the two actors couldn’t perform the skit. Everyone could see the driver’s smirk when questioned how the six bullets could have struck very close to the car handle, with some bullets exiting on the passenger side door without touching either the driver or the body guard. They had no answers on how the driver’s window could be completely shattered with glass falling onto the seat where he sat during the ‘shooting’, yet he emerged unscathed.

Moreover, Iteere himself had declared that the way the shooting was supposed have occurred defies all laws of velocity (or was it ‘the law of munition’?).

The police only need ‘probable and reasonable basis’ to believe that a crime has been committed for them to arrest and charge a suspect. In the Mwau incident, there were a zillion ‘reasonable and probable cause’ to believe that the two actors had manufactured the story and lied to the police. Those are two charges right there. A third charge is the illegal use of firearm. A fourth one is ‘conspiracy to defeat the course of justice.’ Others would naturally follow after their arrests.

This brings me to the unforgivable cold-blooded murder of Mercy Keino. Why do I insist it was a cold-blooded murder? The story, as narrated by the local media, is pretty straight forward. A beautiful young female university student is invited out by her cousin. They arrive in Westlands late evening and are ‘welcomed’ by two studs who, by all accounts are either pimps or drug enforcers. They meticulously interview the two young women, taking their personal details and identity documents. That’s clue number one.

At that point, a cautious, streets smarts girl would have started being suspicious. But Mercy is a rambunctious, naïve beauty who is eager to have a good time on a Friday evening. So, the two pimps or enforcers flag a taxi (a second clue) and take the girls to a ‘private’ party.

The party is warming up when they arrive. Curiously, the women outnumber men one to three. That’s clue number three. Clue number four is the age-bracket of the ‘girls’; all range between nineteen and twenty five.

But there is ‘business’ to discuss with the middle-aged to elderly ‘business suits’ already seated and others arriving (clue number five). Alcohol is flowing like the great Nile. Clue number six. The only wrinkle is that Mercy is a teetotaler, yet alcohol is integral to the execution of the ‘business’ at hand. Clue seven.

Although the women outnumber men, the place is clearly swarming with heavily built security; armed and unarmed. This is the eighth clue.

Discussions veer towards the delicate and murky details of ‘transatlantic shipments of precious cargo.’ Whispers and codes used. Mercy is completely lost and starts getting restless. She wants to leave, NOW! That is the ninth clue.

But there is a problem; the ‘boss’, who has just arrived, cannot allow Mercy to leave. He thinks Mercy is dangerous. She has seen and heard too much. She is a risk the ‘business’ cannot take. He commands her to resume her seat and politely reminds her that she has two choices: ‘you either cooperate or you will become past tense.’ Mercy – naïve and boisterous – dares the ‘boss’ and attempts to leave. A scuffle ensues and Mercy is forcibly confined. She pretends to relax and engages in small talk. A few minutes later, she suddenly runs towards the exit.

The muscle men quickly grab her and force her back inside. Mercy has become a captive. By this time, she has resolved not to cooperate. Flashing before her is her fiancé and the wedding they had planned for December this year. ‘I can’t do this!’ she kept screaming. She took furtive glances at her cousin who was herself too scared to come to Mercy’s aid. Mercy is all alone now. The ‘bss’ has had enough. He orders his men to ‘feed her.’ She is forced to drink a cocktail of alcohol and other substances. This is clue number ten.

The effect was instant. The ‘boss’ gives a secret signal to his men. The exit suddenly opens for Mercy and she lunges at it. On reaching outside, the men tell her that they will call a taxi and ‘escort’ her home. She refuses but at this point, she has no options.

A sleek Mercedes ‘taxi’ dutifully arrives within minutes and Mercy is forced inside. What follows after this is well known to the underworld: rape, torture, strangulation and death. A few minutes later, the body is dumped on the busy Waiyaki Way. Clue number eleven.

Shortly thereafter, the ‘taxi’ is slowly driven into a hidden warehouse and its number plate removed. It is thoroughly vacuumed inside out and repainted. The number plate is transferred to another sleek Mercedes. Clue twelve.

A cover-up story is quickly manufactured and disseminated to senior editors in various media houses. Senior police officers are quickly roped in. Mercy is depicted as having been drunk, rowdy and reckless. A motor vehicle accident story has been carefully circulated. The media frenzy sets in. ‘It was an accident!’ they scream. The pathologist can’t tell the cause of death. That’s predictable. The story is latched onto by the inept and corrupt police and press. The police officer that witnessed the autopsy has been transferred. Clue thirteen.

This was supposed to be an open and shut case. Yet the police haven’t arrested anybody for aggravated assault, forcible confinement, unlawful detention, battery and torture. These are crimes disclosed by various newspaper reports. Additionally, the police should charge somebody with murder. But the witnesses are scared shitless. They are only repeating the cover-up stories they were fed by the agents of the ‘boss’.

Why haven’t the police searched and examined all homes, offices, apartments, rooms, hotels, motels, vehicles, warehouses, depots – anything connected with everyone who was at the party? What about the Nyoyo Stadium where that Okello guy supposedly delivered a ‘bag’ after midnight on the day Mercy was murdered? Has it been combed? If not, why? With their criminal negligence of the Samuel Kamau Wanjiru murder case, the Police Commissioner is proving to Kenyans that he cannot deliver. Let truth be told: Mercy refused to be a drug mule and for that she had to die. It’s as simple as that. There you are: I’ve done it for my girls!

From: Cosmos Omondi
Subject: NOSE BLEEDING & Death, kenyan detective??

Date: Saturday, June 25, 2011, 5:37 PM

Oduor,

Presently, to be sincere, the war on drugs can only be successfully won in a few democracies like the US soil. But in places like Kenya the drug network is so complex that if we genuinely commence fighting it today it will take us a generation. 99% of the current crop of leaders will have go out of the scene.

Why do I say this? Remember when Sonko threatened to spill the beans in parliament, everyone in the house shivered – that could only happen where the high and mighty are touched.

Drug affair is so bloody so that for us to successfully manage it (near the stage where the US is) then we’ll have to agree as a country on many issues. If not then many of those trying to unearth anything related to it will continue dropping dead mysteriously!

Omosh.

On Sat, Jun 25, 2011 at 11:08 PM, maurice oduor wrote:

Cosmos,

Heheheheheeee !!!!

You don’t want us bringing up the Wanjiru case? I understand your vested interests here. Good luck pursuing Njeri. Have you even made an initial contact? That’s the most difficult part right now.
Talk to people like Mheshimiwa to help you out.

About that cop: he was ailing? Did they say what ailment? In North America his body would have been treated as a radioactive substance, for example. His family and people who had come in contact with him would have been quarantined. Remember Ebola?

Courage

From: Cosmos Omondi
Date: Sat, 25 Jun 2011 22:50:59 +0300

Nyandoto,

Report according to 7.00pm news are that the police officer was ailing.

Oduor,

When bringing in Wanjiru’s case as an example be careful coz am watching you.

On Sat, Jun 25, 2011 at 8:32 PM, maurice oduor wrote:

Daktari,

You are very right. There’s almost no care at all in the way crime is investigated in Kenya. Investigators don’t wear gloves or masks; the crime scene is not secured and evidence is contaminated left and right.

From what I’ve seen of Kenya’s investigative techniques, they’re still where Canada and the US were in the 40s and 50s. Take the Wanjiru case. There are rumours that he might have been killed in the house and then the body thrown out over the balcony. If that rumour is true and someone cleaned all the blood droplets in the house, Luminol, a chemical used by the FBI and Police in the US, would have detected this in seconds. Luminol will detect blood even if you clean it off with bleach/Jik.

Our investigative skills are pathetic and that’s why a lot of crimes and murders go unsolved.

Courage,
Oduor Maurice

From: paul nyandoto
Date: Sat, 25 Jun 2011 17:13:57 +0000

Humans,

This detective`s death in Kenya is a mystery. Have the press been told all the symptoms or the press has just released outline they collected from relatives, but not doctors. If this samaritan was healthy and never was sick then he must have been killed: So if he was killed then how?. Where did he eat that day, has he been sick. Kenyan policemen are also known to be doing work without gloves, neither do they put on mask etc.

Biological war fare substances like smallpox, plague, tularemia have been cultivated and even modified in laboratories to kill very fast if needed. The three I have mentioned can be aerosolized and through respiratory droplets can easily enter your breathing system and cause death. But according to the daily nation reporter today the symptoms given and the time it took to death I personally do rule out smallpox and tularemia, it is impossible for them cause such a quick reaction unless modified.

BUT; BUT: PLAGUE (septic plague) fits the symptoms almost 100%, unless all are not told on the report by the daily nation or some highly virulent virus (ebola). Other alternatives are radioactive substances. I think much will be released later incase they do a good investigation on his life, path and finally on his body. Some kenyans have also been extraordinary rich within a very short limited time that nobody can account for their wealth. They must have been involved in some extra activity business which have very high risk if not drugs. I hear some have been probed for drug trafficking but nothing found. Then we are left with: illegal biological cultivation, transporting illegal radioactive materials to Iran etc. There are evidences that some radioactive substances are being taken to Iran through Kenya etc.

Paul Nyandoto

World Drug Report 2011

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from Yona Maro

The World Drug Report documents developments in global drug markets and tries to explain the factors that drive them. Its analysis of trends and emerging challenges informs national and international drug and crime priorities and policies, and provides a solid foundation of evidence for counternarcotics interventions. Drug markets and drug use patterns change rapidly, so measures to stop them must also be quick to adapt. Thus the more comprehensive the drug data we collect and the stronger our capacity to analyse the problem, the better prepared the international community will be to respond to new challenges.
http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/WDR2011/World_Drug_Report_2011_ebook.pdf

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Government and Societal Effort To Address Vulnerability Leading To Risks Related To Drug And Substance Abuse Among Female Youth in Kenya

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From: Yona Maro

The objective of the study was to investigate what is the government of Kenya and Makindu society are doing about the problem of female youth’s indulgence in drugs and substance abuse. The major finding of the study was that the government was working against vulnerability to drug and substance abuse through it agents such as the police, probation and after care services department, the courts, the ministry of youth affairs and sports.

http://www.ijhssnet.com/journals/Vol._1_No._7_%5BSpecial_Issue_June_2011%5D/24.pdf

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Kenya: VETS Taking livestock industry for a ride.

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From: pius abori

Kenyon’s livestock industry were it not for Livestock production department and veterinary technicians would be a dead sector.The vets are actually happy when its not functional as this gives them space to import and manufacture substandard drugs and salt licks.They are notorious for employing technicians at low very low salaries and arrogating themselves on how they know about diseases.Others don,t know even how to write a simple technical report.there must be something wrong with there training or what gives

KENYA: HIV DRUG TRIAL FAILS IN KENYA AND THREE OTHER AFRICAN NATIONS

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By Dickens Wasonga.

A large HIV prevention study involving over 3000 women in Kenya and three other African other has suffered a huge set back after it was ordered stopped by an independent body which review trial data to ensure that participants are not being adversely affected by a daily dose of the study pill.

The revelation that has surprised the scientists involved in the trials was taken by the Independent Data Monitoring Committee which directed the researchers to bring to an early closure, the clinical trials of Truvada, an ARV which was under investigation to see whether it could be given to prevent HIV infections on HIV negative women who are at higher risk of getting virus.

scientists showing journalists around the clinical trial site offices in Bondo

According to the scientists, the trials had to end prematurely after preliminary review indicated the study pill was unlikely to prevent HIV infections amongst women as earlier expected even though huge amounts of money could have gone to waste.

The Female pre-exposure prophylaxis study whose preparation began in 2007 in Bondo district, the only study site in Kenya was scheduled to end in June next year and was designed to study whether HIV negative women of between the ages of 18 to 35 and at the higher risk of infection by the virus could safely use a daily dose of the pill called Truvada to prevent infection.

The study was underway in two other African countries namely Tanzania and South Africa. In Harare Zimbabwe, a site was to be established in collaboration with the University of Zimbabwe and it was scheduled to begin FEM-PrEP trials in mid 2011 but the site could not be initiated due to the premature closure and no participant was enrolled.

But the trials were on going in Bondo and Rarieda of Nyanza province where screening for the would be eligible participants started in 2009. A total of 1495 women in the targeted group were screened and 739 of them were enrolled into the clinical trial that had initially given hope to the researchers involved.

Out of the number that was screened 992 failed the tests and were excluded from the study. By the end of last month, 331 women enrolled had been in the study taking the trial pills for one year.

The study whose fate now appears to hang in the balance at least until the committee that monitors similar trials all over the world gives its verdict was being implemented by the Family Health Internationla in partnership with the Impact Research and Development Organization and other research centers in Africa and had intended to enroll 3900 women in all the study sites in the four African nations when completed..

It was being funded by the United States Agency for International Development [USAID], with early funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and if it proceeded to its logical conclusion , the Kenyan site alone would have gobbled an estimated 4 million US dollars.

So what went wrong?

Dr. Kawango Agot, the director of Impact-RDO and FEM-PrEP site investigator for the Bondo study area said this preliminary result from the study does not eliminate Truvada as a potential HIV prevention method for women.” what we can say is that, at this time, it cannot be determined whether this drug works to prevent HIV infection in women in the FEM-PrEP trial.Other ongoing HIV prevention studies may be able to shed further light on the effectiveness of Truvada among women” she said.

HIV scientists in Kenya and other countries were surprised and disappointed by the interim results, especially because another recent study called iPrEx, found that the same drug, Truvada, could prevent HIV infections among men who have sex men at risk of the virus.

According to the Kenyan team, the reason for the surprising findings among women in the FEM-PrEP study is not clear at this time. They believe it could be the women who were on the study were not taking the study pill consistently very day and that the drug works differently in men and women.

The scientists have not yet finished analyzing all the FEM-PrEP data and they are currently investigating a number of possibilities. But Dr. Agot said the study will now be closed over the next few months as study participants complete their final study visits to the Bondo clinic. She said the preliminary results have already been shared with most of the participants ,the local communities are also being informed at this i moment . ”Once the final results are known, they will be shared with everyone” She added.

Is it possible then that the participants may have failed to adhere to the drug?

According to the researchers, socio behavioral information plays an important complementary role in HIV prevention clinical trials. The behavior of the participants , such as their regular attendance at the scheduled clinic visits and their adherence to the study pill is fundamental to success of clinical trials.

As part of FEM-PrEP, the study team said they developed and monitored procedures for reaching women who were at higher risk , implemented strategies to promote adherence to the study pill, examined aspects of clinical trial that were difficult for participants to understand and promoted community engagement in research. Data were also gathered on adherence to the study pill and on participants sexual behaviors while taking the study pill.

So who did not do what and why ?

Documents relating to the study confirms that during trial implementation , the study teams monitored and provided on going feedback about recruitment strategies, comprehension of the informed consent process, and counseling to improve adherence to the study pill, risk reduction and contraceptive counseling , as well as community education and outreach.

Data was also gathered to understand general issues of adherence and sexual behavior in the context of the clinical trial and they systematically engaged community stakeholders in the research process.

The claim therefore that participants failure to adhere to the drug stand very slim chances of raising a debate amongst observers. This is because in their own findings, 90 per cent of the participants in all the study sites in the participating countries made a come back for the follow up visits every month and were retained in the trials.

As at the 18th of February this year, preliminary findings indicated that 95 per cent of the study participants had adhere to the study product. 5 per cent of new HIV infections were noticed on participants although the scientists at the Bondo site had expected 4 per cent and 56 new infections occurred in all the sites.

The primary goal of the study in addition to assessing the effectiveness of Truvada in preventing HIV infection in women is to evaluate its safety when used daily by women who are not infected with the virus.

It is licensed as an HIV treatment by the drug regulatory agencies in a number of countries , including Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Zimbabwe and the United States. It has shown to be safe if taken by HIV positive people for the treatment of HIV.

Because the drug had not been assessed as a drug to prevent HIV, a primary goal of PrEP clinical trial is to evaluate its safety amongst its HIV negative people. The iPrEx clinical trial, which released its results in November 2010, found no substantial safety concerns when Truvada was taken by men who have sex with men to prevent HIV.

But following a scheduled interim review of the FEM-PrEP study data, the Independent Data monitoring Committee advised that the study will be highly unlikely to be able to demonstrate the drug’s effectiveness in preventing the HIV in the study population even if it continued to its originally planned conclusion.

And with that verdict of the committee the entire team in the trials were thrown into abrupt halt of the project that has gobbled millions of shillings from the sponsoring organizations.

ENDS.

USA & Kenya: Kibaki is protecting ministers (cabinet) on Narcotics

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People,

The narcotic case in Kenya is now pathetic. Those drugs are spoiling and ruining a lot of Kenyans while the government is just sleeping. Why is the government now waking up only when the USA ambassador gave evidence on visa ban to the United States? Narcotics have been selling in Kenya and business is booming at the coast, was our government aware of this before the USA ambassador blew the whistle? Does Kibaki and his cabinet want to tell us that if USA ambassador did not blow the whistle Kenyan government would be still sleeping.

Please read what the president said Quote:

In a dispatch to newsrooms, the President, however, said no member of his Cabinet had been linked to the business so far.

“As of now, the Government is not aware of any Cabinet minister who has been mentioned in connection with the illicit drug trafficking,” said the statement from the Presidential Press Service.

Kibaki is ordering investigation on narcotics trade at the same time compromising with his cabinet, that they are not linked to the trade; How does he know?. Or this is away of indirectly telling the police to leave the cabinet out of investigations on narcotics. Ordinary Kenyans know that this narcotic trade is well connected and very much protected that those goons could not have managed it without a senior government official involved, they have protection and they eliminated a policeman investigating them and no trial,. So who is protecting them? Are these the money they will use to finance their 2012 presidential bids or what?

The president should not have made a statement on how clean is his cabinet at the same time ordering an investigation. No one is guilty or Innocent unless proved so. Sorry Mr. Kibaki the USA is already laughing at your statement. What if the USA ambassador gave all the names and Kibaki finds that there is a cabinet member will he cry or it will just show how an African can not rule himself. By the way is it USA responsibility to tell us every time that something is wrong in our own country? Is that not already an indirect ruling Kenya? Or a show that we do not know what is going on in our country.

Paul Nyandoto

Uganda: Cost of treatment for Ugandan living with HIV/Aids too expensive to meet

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Reports Leo Odera Omolo

UGANDA will find it increasingly difficult to provide antiretroviral treatment to people living with HIV/AIDS, the Director General of the Uganda AIDS Commission, Dr. Kihumuro Apuuli, has said.

He said Uganda was getting new HIV infections yet the people on the ARVs live longer and continue to be many.

He said by the end of 2009, a total of 1.2 million Ugandans were living with HIV, with 124,000 new infections reported.

“In terms of halting new infections, we are not doing enough.

I think the availability of drugs has changed people’s perception and their (sexual) behaviour becomes worse and worse,” Kihumuro said.

He said Uganda’s HIV prevalence had stagnated among adults aged between 15 and 49 years.

Kihumuro noted that 540,000 adults and children in Uganda are in need of ARVs, but only 237,800 have access to them.

“The lifetime cost of someone on ARVs in Uganda today is sh25 million, while to monitor people on ARVs today for life costs over sh5 trillion. Sustainability is going to be a problem,” Kihumuro added.

He was addressing journalists yesterday ahead of World AIDS Day today.

In Uganda, the national commemoration of the day will take place at Kitebi Primary School playground in Kampala. The celebrations will begin with a parade from Katwe, a Kampala suburb.

Dr. Stephen Watiti of Mildmay Centre, which provides paediatric HIV services, said many people living with HIV in Uganda were not able to access treatment.

“It is a black mark on our country,” he said in a telephone interview.

Many of the HIV-infected Ugandans, he added were not sick-looking. However, they contribute to the infections because they are sexually active. People, he said, should be encouraged to go for testing to know their sero-status.

He said in rural areas, most health centre IVs are not well-equipped to operate as ART centres.

A guardian to an HIV-positive orphan from Masindi said drugs were available at The AIDS Support Organisation (TASO) only on appointment. Otherwise the patients are referred to the major hospitals.

“When there are no drugs in the hospital, we are advised to buy, yet sometimes money is not readily available,” Birungi said.

Watiti said at Mildmay, it costs sh70,000 to treat a child admitted at the centre, with sh30,000 going towards the purchase of ARVs.

Kihumuro’s concerns are echoed by the American Institute of Health on Africa, which released a report on Monday.

The report showed that the number of people infected with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa is projected to outstrip available resources for treatment by 2020.

This will force African nations to make difficult choices about how to allocate inadequate supplies of lifesaving antiretroviral drugs, the report read.

It called for renewed emphasis on reducing the rate of new infections, promoting more efficient models of care, and encouraging shared responsibility between African nations and the US for treatment and prevention efforts, which could greatly improve prospects for 2020 and beyond.

Prof. David Serwadda, the co-chairman of the US-Africa committee on Envisioning a Strategy to Prepare for the Long-Term Burden of HIV/AIDS, said: “Already in Uganda and a few other nations, we don’t have enough health care workers or ARVs to meet demand. Health centres are increasingly turning away patients who need drugs to survive.”

Serwadda added that there was an urgent need for African countries and the US to share responsibility and initiate systematic planning for the future.

“If we don’t act to prevent new infections, we will witness an exponential increase in deaths and orphaned children in sub-Saharan Africa in just a couple of decades,” he said.

Ends

KENYA: PRESS STATEMENT-THE EXTENT OF THE DRUG MENACE IN KENYA-25TH NOVEMBER 2010

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From: olpha bosibori

The extent of the drugs menace in Kenya as exposed yesterday by MP Gitobu Imanyara, and the acknowledgement by none other than the Prime Minister that drug cartels are operation with the help and protection of our security forces is something that cannot be taken lightly.

That police officers brave enough trying to investigate such are either executed, transferred threatened with death and have to go into hiding shows the lack of will to deal with this menace. This is the case of one officer, Senior Superintendent of Police Mohammed Jarissa Godana on whose investigations Imanyara presented the report to Parliament. Kenya begins to sound like Mexico and some of our towns, especially at the Coast are beginning to sound like areas ruled by mobsters and mafias in the early years of drug wars in the US and Mexico. This is a situation that MUST be brought under control immediately.

This is why VVM demands the immediate re-organization of the Anti-Narcotics Police Unit which seems to have been fatally infiltrated by drug barons. The rot in this police unit cannot ensure it fights drugs effectively hence the need to replacement of all officers in the unit, with full independent investigations into the involvement of law enforcement officers into this criminal activities. Those culpable should face the full force of the law, including jail terms that will be a deterrent to any such officers who may be tempted to traffic with criminals in the course of discharging their duties.

The government must not only acknowledge such gravity of the situation, Kenyans needs to see a structured, focused and determined action towards wiping out this menace. That the American Government has given names to KACC regarding 5 prominent public servants, among them serving Cabinet Ministers involved in drug trade is not only a grave situation but an affront on the Kenyan people for such people to continue serving in Cabinet at the pleasure of the President and Prime Minister. It is an indictment on our investigative arms such as NSIS and CID concerned with gathering information which we prop expensively on our taxes to be snoring on the job while drugs are awash in Kenya, killing and rendering our youth, the future of this country, impotent.

Kenyans demand action, and we demand it now. It is not the time to try and give excuses why such enemies of society cannot be publicly NAMED AND SHAMED unless the government wants to protect identities for political reasons. It is also time wealth declarations become a must for public officers. Kenya is awash with suddenly rich paupers of yesterday gearing to take up the highest offices in the land.

Olpha Bosibori-VVM Secretary General.

For Communications and Media Committee-VVM

Email: secretary@vuguvugumashinani.or.ke

Tel: 0208080937

—
“Dont walk infront of me, i may not follow, Dont walk behind me, i may not lead, Walk beside me and be my friend”

“Remember where you have been and know where you are going. Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored each step of the way.”

“Happiness is not getting what you want, it’s wanting what you’ve got.”

Uganda: Candidate claims Museveni had snatched his son and sent him overseas for treatment

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Reports Leo Odera Omolo

THE People’s Progressive Party (PPP) presidential candidate Jaberi Bidandi Ssali has accused President Yoweri Museveni for trapping his son Bebe Cool by giving him money for treatment abroad.

Bidandi Ssali said the offer was aimed at preventing Bebe Cool from accompanying him on his campaign trail.
Bebe Cool was shot by a Police officer in January.

Museveni recently gave him sh150m for medical treatment in the US.

“Museveni and his NRM party thought I could use Bebe in my campaigns to solicit votes. So, to prevent him from taking part in my campaigns, he tactically decided to take him abroad,” Bidandi said.

Bidandi was answering questions at a campaign trail in Buikwe district on Wednesday.

He was asked why he decided to stand against Museveni who had given his son money for treatment abroad.

But Tamale Mirundi, the presidential press secretary, argued that Bidandi Ssali should distinguish between his political activities and those of his son.

Mirundi said Bebe Cool was old enough to decide what was good for him.

“The President is not snatching anybody’s son. We should appreciate what the President has done for his son and other young people,” Mirundi stressed.

Mirundi added that when the President visited Bebe Cool at Nsambya Hospital, people said he was too ‘big’ to do such a thing.

“People should appreciate that the President is down to earth,” Mirundi said.

He said it was common for family member not to support relatives, citing Julius Nyerere’s son, whom he said was in the opposition when his father was the president of Tanzania.

“It would not be surprising if Bebe Cool did not support his father,” Mirundi said.

Ends

Kenya: The triple tragedy murder that shocked the residents of the lakeside city of Kisumu

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Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City.

[{Photos at the courtseyof the STADARD} ]

The sins of a brazen father now on the run; a love turned sour; and four wasted lives – three of them children too young to defend themselves against the person they all looked up to before hell broke loose.

Outside the house, the heavy rain battering the roof muted their final cries, including that of a helpless girl who was raped before being killed by her own father.

There was blood all over the beds in two different rooms. All four lay motionless — a mother and her three children gone in a flash, because of the murderous rage of a man who passed himself along as a caring father to the young ones, and a loving husband to Pamela Achieng, 38.

Nyalenda residents in Kisumu, Kenya, could hardly contain their tears after catching a glimpse of the scene where a man killed his wife and their three children, on Sunday.

He slit their throats in a grisly incident and ran away. Tears flowed as stunned and petrified residents of the grisly killings.

Speechless and numbed by the sheer horror of the crime, they just looked at the bodies —found more than six hours after the macabre killings. Some just wept uncontrollably.

The horror unfolded in Kisumu’s Nyalenda on Saturday night — and Kenyans came to know about it as they trooped to church on Sunday buoyed by the talk in town that this August would be as jinxed as all the others have been.

It was a chilling trail left by the bicycle operator said to have gone berserk, something his former neighbours cannot comprehend, especially when they look at the old family pictures from which the innocent children radiate a charming smile.

Defiled daughter

Signs of the feeble struggle Pamela and her children – Winnie Anyango (13) Michael Obwago (9) and Bryan Otieno, (6) put up were discernible from the panga cuts on their necks and heads, and the mess that was their once rented house.

The father reportedly also defiled his first-born, Winnie, in the incident believed to have taken place around 10pm. In one room, the bodies of the children lay on one bed in a pool of blood.

In another lay the mutilated remains of their mother.

The beds and sections of a wall bore blood. There were cooking utensils, water containers and a bicycle next to the bodies of the children, in what doubled up as kitchen and bedroom.

There were cries from children, women and men as the bodies were loaded into a police Land Cruiser.

Michael obwago, 9, Brian Otieno, 6, and Winnie Anyango who were killed in Nyalenda slums, in an earlier photo.

“Mungu wangu, mbona wameuliwa? Huu ni ukatili (My God, why have they been killed? This is inhuman),” wailed an elderly woman.

The women screamed and wailed as the bodies were removed to Nyanza Provincial Hospital and police gathered evidence.

The suspect, who ‘inherited’ Pamela six years ago under customary rites, disappeared to an unknown place, leaving the neighbours to speculate on what drove him into such barbarity.

Whatever differences he had with his wife, only he knows why he let the children bear the brunt of his anger.

Anyango was a Standard Seven pupil at Lutheran Church Primary School, less than 200 metres from their home, while her brothers were both attending Pandpieri Primary School, about a kilometre away.

When schools reopen next week, their desks will be empty, and their classmates traumatised and confused.

Pictures of the young ones taken about a year ago, and obtained by The Standard, show the children’s innocent faces, looking with hope into the future.

Police say they have launched investigations to apprehend the suspect.

Beastly act

“This is inhuman. It is difficult to comprehend why he killed them. We will arrest him, and he will face murder charges,” promised Kisumu police chief Mr John Mwinzi, at the scene.

Mr Mwinzi said the eldest child was defiled before being hacked to death.

“There are signs that the assailant defiled her daughter before hacking her. I have never seen such a beastly act,” conceded the crime buster.

He too explained the suspect could have taken advantage of the heavy rains that pounded Kisumu on Saturday night to murder his family.

Some neighbours reported they last saw the assailant at around 8pm, as he ventured out to take a bath.

Government officers carry bodies of the four family members hacked to death in Nyalenda slums, Kisumu.

Pamela, known to her friends as ‘Mama Winnie’ sold porridge at Oile Market. Those who knew her said she was friendly. Samson Odhiambo, a brother in-law, said she was ‘inherited’ by her killer six years ago.

“They have been (the deceased and suspect) living together for all this period. I got to know about the incident today at around 8am,” said Mr Odhiambo.

Judith Akinyi, an employee of Achieng, who is also her neighbour, said she only learnt of the bizarre killings in the morning.

“We woke up to find blood marks on their doorsteps. Upon entering their house, we found the bodies on the beds,” said a sobbing Akinyi. She revealed Pamela quarreled with her husband on Friday night

KENYA: TOBACCO COMPANIES, BAT AND SUPER MATCH, RESPONSIBLE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION, GROWERS IN URIRI, NYATIKE, & KURIA DISTRICT COMPLAIN

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Tobacco was first introduced in Uriri Constituency in early 70s, and at that time, Uriri constituency (the former Kanyamkago location) was a virgin land with population of averagely 100,000 people.

The constituency was prone to heavy rainfall with thunderstorms in the afternoon. The constituency was receiving rains virtually four to five times every week. It had beautiful and spectacular scenery, with canopies along the riverbanks, and on the slopes as well as on top of several hills in the constituency, which influenced the convectional rainfall around the Lake basin region.

Some of the hills which potentially influenced the weather pattern in the constituency include, Sigawa and Got Jope hills (Oyani Masai) on the eastern side boardering Transmara District, God Olima on South East , God Rombee in Kanyamkago, God Amoso and Akonjo in Kanyamkago, and God Ting’na, God Sibuoche, and God jaoko in West Kanyamkago.

Frequent heavy thunderstorms, with hailstones experienced in the afternoons were frequent, influenced by overheating in Lake Victoria, which is hardly twenty (20) Kilometres away.

The constituency is highly cosmopolitan, perhaps the highest in Kenya, with different clans and tribes. Among many others are Kanyamkago, Luhyas, Gem, Kakremba, Kamreri, Kamgungho, Karachuanyo, ALego, Kisii, Kuria, Masai etc.

The modest rainfall during summer period enhanced alot of soil nutrients, followed with continuous heavy rains during winter period, and as a result, it created naturally fertile Agricultural land which could could grow any kind of cash crop.

Three decades ago, residents of Uriri constituency were hardly using fertilizers to motivate crop development in their farms. Nevertheless the produce from their farms were overwhelming because of natural fertility.

With the advent of BAT in early 70s, in the constituency, resident of Uriri constituency got attracted to the economic benefit derived from the proceeds of sale on smoked tobacco product. Since the process of developing tobacco upto the final stage, ready for sale, involves alot of smoking the matured product.

This necessitated the need to do deforestation, in order to obtain logs for use as firewood for smoking the harvested product. This, as a result, interfered with naturaly green environment. Little did the locals know that in the process of looking for economic benefit, they were doing harm than good to their natural green environment.

Currently, canopies along the river banks, on the slopes and on top of hills, which were highly responsive for convention rainfall, have since disappeared, and what is left are dry shrubs which have little influence on weather pattern.

The residents Uriri, Rongo, Nyatike, Kuria and Transmara, feel that BAT and SUPER MATCH should be held responsible for climate degradation on the aforesaid districts.

They are appealing to the two companies to allocate sufficient funds to finance afforestation on the above Districts in order to bring back the ever green environment that was there before.

Farmers in the above districts are also complaining about delays in settlement of the proceeds of the delivered product to the two companies. They want the companies to ensure that farmers are paid promptly in order to assist them meet their basic needs.

BOB AWITI OTANGE – URIRI CONSTITUENCY

INFORMATION THAT SHALL SAVE YOUR LIFE

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Fellow Kenyans,

I want to take this opportunity to inform all our citizens to take care. On the 27th. January, 2010, an article was written about Kenyan Citizens who were to be executed in China.

They were apparently lured into carrying drugs into China, by Nigerian con men! What we should all know is that, the Nigerians are the worst of the Africans, In Corruption and in conning. They also think that they are more intelligent than the rest of African people! So be aware!

I was lucky to meet them in Uganda, and they solicited me to carry for them a luggage to London and to Montreal Canada. I almost took it. They were to pay me 5000.00 Dollars! It was only that I met a nice Ugandan who is a minister now that she demanded that I take nothing for any one!

The Nigerians are good at their deceit, so please ask your self, why do they not take it themselves? Stay away from them. If you are deceived, you are going to be dead if you are caught!

China does not play games, you are going to be executed if you are caught! Singapore, Iran and Saudi Arabia are the same. If you are caught with drugs you are going to die!

England is much better, you will not hung, so is Canada. And some States in USA!. Please do not try. No matter how good it sounds. You can get money from many other sources, but your life, when it is gone it is for ever!

There are also many opportunities to migrate to Canada and Australia or even New Zealand. Try those routes. If you want to leave Kenya you can. You do not need to do drastic things that can cost you your life!

Canada needs so many people, and you can get a chance to be here if you have some basic Education.
( Read and write. ) For more information, Email: canadacentre@aol.com

Please do not Die for Nigerians. Remember your own family who shall be left with misery and sorrow! If you love them and care for them, do not be coned by those Nigerians! West Africans are the characters that you must try to stay away from!

Dr. KIPRONOH RUTTOH
Victoria, BC, Canada
January 28, 2010