a doctor pursues eradication of a disfiguring disease
Canada Goose Outlet LIHIR ISLAND In a small village 15,000 kilometers from home, Oriol Mitj jumped out of a white van one early May afternoon and started to look at people legs. Canada Goose Outlet
cheap Canada Goose «Any children with ulcers here?» he asked in Tok Pisin. «Can we see them?» cheap Canada Goose
Soon, a young woman pushed a crying boy about five years old toward Mitj. The boy was barefoot; he had a mop of blond curly hair, like most kids here, and was dressed only in dirty blue shorts.
A group of villagers, mostly women and children, had gathered to watch. «What his name?» Mitj asked as he sat down on a low wooden bench, pulled on disposable gloves, and gestured to the sobbing kid to come sit on his right leg. «Jeremiah,» his mother said.
canada goose store Mitj, 38, a physician scientist from Canada Goose Coats On Sale Spain with earnest eyes and a friendly smile, has a way of putting kids at ease. As Jeremiah calmed down and began canada goose clearance sale to wipe the tears from his eyes, Mitj took a close look at his legs. canada goose store
canada goose clearance On each, the canada goose clearance boy had a glistening pink ulcer the size of a coin, with slightly raised edges. Nearby were whitish, warty splotches. Mitj also checked Jeremiah arms, hands, and the soles of his feet; they looked fine. canada goose clearance
Jeremiah mother didn seem overly concerned. The ulcers were common, and she said she hadn taken the child cheap Canada Goose to a clinic. «Does Jeremiah play with the canada goose uk black friday other kids?» Mitj asked. She nodded. «Does he canada goose store go to school?» No, she said not yet.
Canada Goose Jackets The ulcers and canada goose coats on sale splotches, or papilloma, are symptoms of a tropical Canada Goose sale skin disease called yaws, Mitj professional and personal obsession. Canada Goose Jackets
Yaws affects people in hot, humid areas in PNG and at least 13 other countries in the western Pacific, canada goose coats Southeast Asia, and Africa. The Canada Goose Jackets disease is caused by the bacterium Treponema pallidum subspecies pertenue, a close relative of the organism that causes syphilis, and it spreads primarily through skin contact, often between children.
buy canada goose jacket Yaws isn fatal, but if left untreated it can canada goose factory sale disfigure the skin and Canada Goose Outlet bones, canada goose uk shop causing lifelong pain and disability. buy canada goose jacket
Canada Goose online When Mitj arrived in PNG in 2010 to work at a local clinic, he had no idea what yaws was; the disease was so neglected that it didn appear on many lists of neglected tropical diseases. Canada Goose online
And yet eradicating it was once cheap canada goose uk a major global public health goal. In the first half of the 20th century, colonial health administrators recorded staggering numbers of cases an estimated 50 million worldwide in 1952 in 90 countries girdling the equator.
canada goose black friday sale Then, in 1948, scientists discovered that a single injection of penicillin Canada Goose Online cured yaws, and in 1952, the World Health Organisation in Geneva, Switzerland founded four years earlier and brimming with optimism embarked on an audacious plan to wipe it out. canada goose black friday sale
canada goose coats on sale But the campaign fizzled out in the 1970s and Penicillin had its drawbacks. The Canada Goose Outlet injections in the buttock, with a thick, hollow needle are painful and can introduce bloodborne pathogens if not done safely; penicillin allergy is a problem as well. canada goose coats on sale
Canada Goose Parka After cases had been slashed by some 95%, canada goose uk outlet the campaign became a victim of its own success. Yaws faded from a global priority to a forgotten disease. Canada Goose Parka
canada goose clearance sale That is now changing, thanks largely to Mitj, an assistant professor at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health in Spain. canada goose clearance sale
buy canada goose jacket cheap In 2012, he published a paper in The Lancet showing that yaws can be cured with a Canada Goose Parka single dose of the oral antibiotic azithromycin. That much canadian goose jacket safer and easier treatment can be given not only to infected people, but also to entire at risk populations. buy canada goose jacket cheap
The study «perhaps the most important [paper] on yaws in the past 50 years,» as buy canada goose jacket David Mabey of the London School of Hygiene Tropical Medicine wrote revived the dream of eradication. WHO is now spearheading a new global attack plan.
canada goose If it succeeds, it would be a major feat, because only one human disease has been eradicated: smallpox, in 1980. (Campaigns to end polio and Guinea worm disease are in their final stages.) Yaws would also be the first bacterial disease to be wiped out. canada goose
canada goose coats But success isn guaranteed. The scale of the challenge is uncertain because no one knows how many yaws cases remain or just how many countries are still afflicted. Global health usual benefactors, having picked other priorities, have refused to open their wallets. canada goose coats
canada goose deals And some scientists say Mitj and WHO ignore an inconvenient fact: Unlike other agents marked for eradication, the yaws bacterium or a close relative buy canada goose jacket cheap also infects monkeys and apes, suggesting the disease could jump back into the human population at any time. canada goose deals
canadian goose jacket Those questions haven deterred Mitj, whose tireless campaign mixing science, medicine, and advocacy has made him a celebrity in Catalonia, his native region of Spain. canadian goose jacket
This year, together with PNG health officials and with modest funding from a group of donors, he launched https://www.getcanadagooseoutlet.ca the first of Canada Goose online three mass treatments with azithromycin, each six months apart, to test the feasibility of eradication.
Canada Goose sale Jeremiah village on the island of New Ireland is part of the study area. «Tomorrow, a team will come with yaws medicine. Everybody will get the drug,» Mitj said after the boy, now smiling canada goose faintly, had hopped off his lap. «Jeremiah ulcers will be gone within a few weeks,» he promised the boy mother. Canada Goose sale
In 2010, a medical centre on Lihir advertised a temporary position for a doctor. Lihir has 18,000 inhabitants and one of the world biggest gold mines, operated by an Australian company, Newcrest Mining Limited, which also supports the clinic. Mitj, who had finished his residency and taken a course in tropical medicine, answered the ad.
Yaws often starts with a single ulcer, which can last canada goose black friday sale for months if not treated; in the second stage, lesions can turn up elsewhere on the body, as they had uk canada goose outlet in Jeremiah. In the long term, the bacterium can infect joints and the outer layer of bones, causing them to swell. It also can cause painful hardening of the skin on the palms uk canada goose and soles of the feet, as well as eruptions on the face.