healthcare

The Only Person with Immortal Cells – Henrietta Lacks

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In 1951 a young black woman by the name of Henrietta Lacks died of cancer. Her cancer was unlike any seen before, or since, and has transformed modern medicine – her cells are immortal!

Henrietta’s miraculous cancer cells reproduce outside of the body – in a culture dish cells typically only divide a few times before they die, but hers have been alive for almost 60 years! Scientists found the incredibly fast growth rate of her cancer grew just as fast indefinitely in a test tube. They believed her cells held the key to curing cancer and even making humans immortal – unfortunately these have yet to happen.

Her cells, called the HeLa cell line, have been sent all over the world for testing, and even out of this world (as in outer space). Never before was it possible to do long term tests on human cells without testing on an actual human – the cell line would die after a couple days outside of the body. With the HeLa line this was suddenly possible. It has been used for testing the first Polio vaccine, as well as research into cancer, AIDS, radiation effects, sensitivity to toxic substances, gene mapping, and many other medical causes.

Today over 20 tons of her cells exist in petri dishes scattered across the globe. It’s amazing that after all this time, doctors still have not discovered why the HeLa cells behave unlike any others. In the last 60 years Henrietta Lack’s cells have been instrumental in advancing modern medicine – potentially in the next 60 years they will even help find a cure for cancer.

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Genetic Inherited Trait Mapping – Would You Want to Know?

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Photo: Horia Varlan

Here’s a common quandary for you – if you could know exactly when you are going to die, would you want to find out?  For me the answer is pretty easy – no way Jose!  I don’t want to live my life neurotically counting down to my death.  But what if you draw the line a little farther back?  What if you could know the likelihood that you will have a certain disease in your lifetime?  Or even the trivial: would you like to be told some of your insignificant traits that you may otherwise never even know?

Is this even in the realm of possibility?
If you recall from the pea pod example in junior high, each gene is made up of two alleles – with each allele either being dominant or recessive. To show the recessive trait both alleles must be recessive.  But for humans it is rarely this simple.  These genes combine in incredibly complex ways to make you who you are – most characteristics are determined by more than one gene.  Even though it is incredibly complex, I think it just a matter of time until every conceivable human trait is identified – it should be possible with enough data and large enough computers crunching the numbers. (geek tangent)

Affecting your lifestyle
What would I like to know?  Areas where I could potentially take action to prevent a calamity before it strikes, rather than just worrying for worrying’s sake.  The obvious example are lifestyle diseases such as lung cancer, skin cancer, heart disease, and stroke.  Am I in the top 1% of the population for genetic risk of heart disease?  If so you better believe I would be extra careful to watch what I eat and make sure I exercise.

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The Concept of Infectious Disease Eradication

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Photo: Sari Dennise

There is a big difference between eradication and elimination when it comes to diseases. Disease eradication is when the global number of cases reaches zero. Even if there is a vaccine available for a specific disease, eradication means no one will ever be in need of using that vaccine again. Elimination is not as stringently defined – it can refer getting rid of the disease in specific regions or diminishing the cases to a negligible number of unlucky and impoverished people.

There have been a total of seven global attempts to eradicate human diseases. 4 failed (hookworm, malaria, yaws, and yellow fever), 2 are ongoing (polio and guinea worm), and only 1 was successful (smallpox).

Smallpox
In the early 1950s roughly 50 million people a year contracted smallpox with a mortality rate north of 10%. Shockingly, only 30 years later the disease was declared completely eradicated.

The first vaccine for smallpox was discovered in 1796. By giving someone the similar cowpox virus, they were then immune from contracting smallpox (fun fact: the word vaccine has the Latin root vaccinus meaning of or from cows). Unfortunately this was before the advent of FedEx so a timely delivery of the vaccine all over the world was not possible. Thus, the disease persisted for another 170 years.

In the 1950s and 60s a global initiative to eradicate smallpox began. Any outbreaks were immediately quarantined and everyone who lived close by received a vaccination (I imagine it was just like the movie “Outbreak”). Why did it take over 170 years from known vaccination to complete eradication? It was as much a communication and education initiative as a medical one. Any outbreaks of smallpox had to be immediately identified and a quick response was necessary to keep it from spreading. This was simply not possible in the 1800s.

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Eye Opening Abortion Statistics

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Photo: Matt Smith

Abortion is a hot button issue in the United States and nearly everyone has an unwavering opinion – there is no argument that can be made here that will instantly change your belief. Instead I will share with you some eye opening statistics regarding abortion and let you draw your own conclusions.

I am not one to wholeheartedly believe in statistics as a statistic can be dug up (or created) to support any viewpoint. My main issue with taking statistics at face value is that there can be numerous errors in the study which are reflected in the final data. Is it truly a random sample? Is it a big enough sample to draw any conclusions? Was the study funded by an organization that had an interest in the results coming out a certain way? Fortunately, abortion is not a difficult activity to track as nearly all abortions take place in a hospital or abortion clinic. The healthcare industry accurately tracks everything – in a 2008 sample of 100 hospitals there were 4 injuries relating to slicing zucchini, including one for trying to slice it with a mandolin …

In the case of abortion the margin of error is largely irrelevant — are you even able to come up with a ballpark answer? How common are abortions? 5% of all pregnancies? 10%? 20%? 40%? Higher?

In the United States 20% of all pregnancies result in an abortion. What’s interesting is that this number varies greatly across the country and the world. The District of Columbia and New York are close to 40% while many rural states are under 10%.

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