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New website for Alzheimer's disease launched in Spain
Newsdesk WHO struggles with appeal to prevent meningitis outbreak C, W135, and Y—costs a minimum of $4, well beyond the reach of the affected African countries. David Heymann, head of WHO’s communicable disease division, said the agency hoped to reach
Rights were not granted to include this image in electronic media. Please refer to the printed journal. Girl with malaria in Burkina Faso
an agreement with manufacturers on a trivalent vaccine—dropping the Y strain which is not a risk in Africa—for around $1. The traditional bivalent A–C vaccine costs 25 cents a dose. Heymann said WHO needed the money up front to enable countries at risk to purchase advance stocks of vaccine rather than having to wait until the epidemic has started. “Without this revolving stock, countries hit by a
Marko Kokic, International Federation of the Red Cross
An international appeal for US$ 10 million to prepare stocks of vaccine for the coming menigitis season in Africa has yielded little response, prompting fears that aid agencies will be ill-prepared to prevent a potentially devastating outbreak. WHO, MSF, the international Red Cross, and the UN Children’s Fund made the appeal at an emergency meeting with donors on Nov 7, 2002, warning of the additional dangers posed by the W135 strain that killed 1500 people in Burkina Faso earlier this year. There were 1000 deaths in the rest of the “meningitis belt”—which stretches from Ethiopia to Senegal—and just over 30 000 non-fatal cases, many resulting in permanent disability. W135 was isolated 2 years ago in Saudi Arabia and was subsequently spread to other countries by Muslims returning from their annual pilgrimage to Mecca. Saudi Arabia has insisted that all Hajj visitors be immunised against meningitis. But a course of the existing tetravalent vaccine—against strains A,
meningitis outbreak will be left to deal with it alone—and thousands of people will certainly die unnecessarily as a result”, the agency warned. The most serious epidemics usually occur in cycles of 6–8 years. The largest outbreak in history was in 1996, when 200 000 people, most of them children, were infected and 20 000 died. WHO is concerned that Africa is about to have another mass outbreak. However, WHO officials said no funding pledges were immediately forthcoming because donor governments were preoccupied with the food emergencies in southern Africa and Ethiopia. “We are trying to prevent a crisis and the donors are being faced with existing crises. But the price in terms of lives and dollars in going to be much higher once the meningitis season starts”, said WHO spokesman Iain Simpson. “We are pushing the donors to see that if it’s not at the very top of the priority list, then at least they should fund it at a low level.” Clare Kapp
New website for Alzheimer’s disease launched in Spain On November 28, 2002, the Spanish Alzheimer Foundation (FAE)—a nonprofit organisation comprised of 24 associations for the relatives of patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD)— launched a new initiative, encompassing AD at multiple levels. This pioneering web-based project, called Redafial, aims to develop and update a virtual community that will ultimately support health professionals, care givers, and scientists as well as AD associations and families affected by the disease. The website (http://alzheimer. rediris.es) is hosted by the advanced research and academic broadband “Iris Network”, which is managed by the Spanish Higher Research Council. Speaking at a conference in Madrid, Adolfo Toledano, founder of FAE and a neurologist at the Ramón y Cajal Neurobiology Institute, stressed that AD “is not a medical but indeed a serious sociosanitary problem” and that
THE LANCET Neurology Vol 2 January 2003
health care should be targeted at not only the patient but also the caregiver and family as well. Toledano stated that although the government had encouraged him, it was the philanthropic organisation Fundacion La Caixa that decided to fund the venture. Redafial provides: specialised information on the latest basic, clinical, and therapeutic advances in AD; a list of last month’s papers; a dictionary of over 500 AD-related medical terms and abbreviations; a “Forum” for the exchange of information; an online “Medical Consultation”; and a “Caregiver’s Corner” with practical advice on problems like aggressive behaviour, disorientation, urinary incontinence, and feeding difficulties. In the future, the site will also offer online training courses for caregivers. An interesting feature of the website is a section on “Brain Donation”, which includes formal request e-forms. To advance the understanding of AD via
http://neurology.thelancet.com
research, Toledano says, it is essential to increase the number of brain banks and brain specimens. In Spain, he notes, there are only about 20 brain donations a year while, paradoxically, the country leads the world in organ donation overall. If Redafial succeeds in raising awareness of the need for donations, a brain bank will be created and the data will be made available online. For example, an atlas of the Alzheimer’s brain showing macroscopic and microscopic features is planned. However, Toledano is furious about how “little interest has been demonstrated by the science and health ministries so far”. The project has progressed as a result of a private donation and the voluntary, hard work of his colleagues at the institute. “It’s dismaying to see the iffy reaction of authorities when realising that it’s actually a free health care service for the good of Spanish community”, he states. Xavier Bosch
3
For personal use. Only reproduce with permission from The Lancet Publishing Group.
Rights were not granted to include this image in electronic media. Please refer to the printed journal. Girl with malaria in Burkina Faso
an agreement with manufacturers on a trivalent vaccine—dropping the Y strain which is not a risk in Africa—for around $1. The traditional bivalent A–C vaccine costs 25 cents a dose. Heymann said WHO needed the money up front to enable countries at risk to purchase advance stocks of vaccine rather than having to wait until the epidemic has started. “Without this revolving stock, countries hit by a
Marko Kokic, International Federation of the Red Cross
An international appeal for US$ 10 million to prepare stocks of vaccine for the coming menigitis season in Africa has yielded little response, prompting fears that aid agencies will be ill-prepared to prevent a potentially devastating outbreak. WHO, MSF, the international Red Cross, and the UN Children’s Fund made the appeal at an emergency meeting with donors on Nov 7, 2002, warning of the additional dangers posed by the W135 strain that killed 1500 people in Burkina Faso earlier this year. There were 1000 deaths in the rest of the “meningitis belt”—which stretches from Ethiopia to Senegal—and just over 30 000 non-fatal cases, many resulting in permanent disability. W135 was isolated 2 years ago in Saudi Arabia and was subsequently spread to other countries by Muslims returning from their annual pilgrimage to Mecca. Saudi Arabia has insisted that all Hajj visitors be immunised against meningitis. But a course of the existing tetravalent vaccine—against strains A,
meningitis outbreak will be left to deal with it alone—and thousands of people will certainly die unnecessarily as a result”, the agency warned. The most serious epidemics usually occur in cycles of 6–8 years. The largest outbreak in history was in 1996, when 200 000 people, most of them children, were infected and 20 000 died. WHO is concerned that Africa is about to have another mass outbreak. However, WHO officials said no funding pledges were immediately forthcoming because donor governments were preoccupied with the food emergencies in southern Africa and Ethiopia. “We are trying to prevent a crisis and the donors are being faced with existing crises. But the price in terms of lives and dollars in going to be much higher once the meningitis season starts”, said WHO spokesman Iain Simpson. “We are pushing the donors to see that if it’s not at the very top of the priority list, then at least they should fund it at a low level.” Clare Kapp
New website for Alzheimer’s disease launched in Spain On November 28, 2002, the Spanish Alzheimer Foundation (FAE)—a nonprofit organisation comprised of 24 associations for the relatives of patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD)— launched a new initiative, encompassing AD at multiple levels. This pioneering web-based project, called Redafial, aims to develop and update a virtual community that will ultimately support health professionals, care givers, and scientists as well as AD associations and families affected by the disease. The website (http://alzheimer. rediris.es) is hosted by the advanced research and academic broadband “Iris Network”, which is managed by the Spanish Higher Research Council. Speaking at a conference in Madrid, Adolfo Toledano, founder of FAE and a neurologist at the Ramón y Cajal Neurobiology Institute, stressed that AD “is not a medical but indeed a serious sociosanitary problem” and that
THE LANCET Neurology Vol 2 January 2003
health care should be targeted at not only the patient but also the caregiver and family as well. Toledano stated that although the government had encouraged him, it was the philanthropic organisation Fundacion La Caixa that decided to fund the venture. Redafial provides: specialised information on the latest basic, clinical, and therapeutic advances in AD; a list of last month’s papers; a dictionary of over 500 AD-related medical terms and abbreviations; a “Forum” for the exchange of information; an online “Medical Consultation”; and a “Caregiver’s Corner” with practical advice on problems like aggressive behaviour, disorientation, urinary incontinence, and feeding difficulties. In the future, the site will also offer online training courses for caregivers. An interesting feature of the website is a section on “Brain Donation”, which includes formal request e-forms. To advance the understanding of AD via
http://neurology.thelancet.com
research, Toledano says, it is essential to increase the number of brain banks and brain specimens. In Spain, he notes, there are only about 20 brain donations a year while, paradoxically, the country leads the world in organ donation overall. If Redafial succeeds in raising awareness of the need for donations, a brain bank will be created and the data will be made available online. For example, an atlas of the Alzheimer’s brain showing macroscopic and microscopic features is planned. However, Toledano is furious about how “little interest has been demonstrated by the science and health ministries so far”. The project has progressed as a result of a private donation and the voluntary, hard work of his colleagues at the institute. “It’s dismaying to see the iffy reaction of authorities when realising that it’s actually a free health care service for the good of Spanish community”, he states. Xavier Bosch
3
For personal use. Only reproduce with permission from The Lancet Publishing Group.